Sabine's Own Team

"I feel like I fed him to the wolves," Sabine said. "I don't know why we had to let it happen that way."

"Is that how you see us, darling? Wollllves?" Said another feminine voice in the office. Sabine squirmed in her chair a little, smiling as she leaned back. A casual observer in the room might be red-faced over the way Sabine rocked against her office chair--if they weren't distracted by her keyboard busying itself typing email responses without her input. "If we're going that route with the analogies, why not foxes? Vixens, maybe?" Sabine swallowed and breathed in sharply, tilting her neck to one side as little impressions could be seen on the other. She lifted just slightly out of the office chair and made a pleased little sound, closing her eyes as she squeezed her legs together, pressing her hands against her knees.

"S-someone's going to see..." Sabine said.

"No one we don't want to see," Said the voice. "Mmm...those nipples get hard on a dime, don't they?"

"Stop it!" Sabine cried out. "How am I going to get any work done?" Laughter from the room now, and not just one voice.

"Like you've had to do anything other than 'manage' us for the last six weeks." The emulated lips against her neck ceased now, and the fabric in her blazer began creasing and indenting at her shoulders. She sighed now, letting the invisible hands massage her. "Are you afraid we're not doing your job well enough? You've been caught up and answering every email within 15 minutes since a week after we started, boss." Sabine finally laughed.

"It's funny that you're calling me boss even though you're clearly the ones in charge." She said, closing her eyes again. She was still slightly hovering out of her chair as she watched a stack of mail rise from her box. Her letter opener lifted out of her stationery, tearing each one of them open. "What am I going to tell him? He's going to say something when he comes back, you know. He probably felt absolutely blindsided."

"Oh, the poor baby. Russell will get used to it," The voice said.

"It's Randall...and you don't know him like I do. He's going to have questions, and I might be able to omit things and feign ignorance, but when he actually confronts me--"

"Darling, he'll be sorry if he so much as raises his voice at you."

"That's not--no!" Sabine shrugged her shoulders, trying to escape the . "Not what I mean." She settled slowly back into her chair, and her invisible masseuse retreated. "If you're all so smart and so absolutely certain of yourselves, how is it that you don't understand anything about social connection? About loyalty?" A sneer from below her now.

"Is loyalty when you let half the season go by without wearing me?" The voice seemed to come from her blouse.

"Now, that is NOT fair," Sabine said. "I have been nothing but accommodating and cooperative ever since you guys all...you know...started this whole thing around me. I'm trying my best."

"You are, darling," Said the voice from behind her again, "And you're doing fantastic, so please don't be so tense." Sabine took a deep breath, and the hands slowly returned. "Maybe we'd just like to know why so much of your best has to go into pleasing Randolph?"

"Because Randall has been a good boss. And..." She shrugged.

"Annnnd?" The voice asked.

"And she would really, really like to have his..." Sabine gently slapped at her blouse, feeling stupid when she realized she was only rapping on her own tits.

"Shut up, shut UP!" Sabine said. "You're just making shit up now." The voice below her laughed.

"I can feel your heart rate, you slippery mammal," The blouse said. Sabine scowled at the comment, but held herself back from slapping at the garment again. "The little tremble when you first talk to him in the morning?" It continued, lifting Sabine's tits almost imperceptibly before it (and the bra) began playing with her nipples. "The way your little--"

"Come on, stop!" Sabine whined, crossing her arms to grab her breasts. "I have been really, really...generous, but we can't do this here."

"You're not denying it, though, are you?" Her clothing said, finally relenting.

"Leave the poor girl alone and let her explain herself," The other voice said. "Is it him, Sabine? Is that really the reason? Because it means shifting our strategy if you really, truly consider him a..." Sabine wondered if she heard a scoff here. "...an equal partner."

"It's...silly and stereotypical. I know it is. A secretary pining for the boss. I feel like...I feel like an idiot around all of you even saying it, especially after what you explained to me, but--"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Her blouse said, performing something like an embrace all around her--this time without the special attention to her erogenous zones. "I didn't mean to stress you out about it, honey. If you want him that way...we can account for that too."

"Well, maybe," The voice behind her said. Sabine looked over her shoulder even though she knew she wouldn't see anything.

"Maybe?" She asked.

"There's...some buzz that a VP-level from our side named Sky is interested in him," The voice said, massaging Sabine's shoulders again. Her hair-tie pulled itself out, and Sabine sighed again as her hair was gathered in strands, stroked and gently pulled back by invisible fingers. "Now, that's not fatal for you...as far as most of us are concerned...but Sky has some sense of a semi-permanent form."

"Which means...?"

"Which means there's a greater chance--though not necessarily a certainty--that she's looking for something along the lines of one of your more-typical traditional relationships." Sabine shrugged.

"I mean, it's just as well. I have a lot of other opportunities open to me now, right?"

"Listen. If you want him--we can do our best to help," The voice behind her said. Her hair wound itself into a ponytail again, and her tie bound it up once more. "And speak of the devil..."

Randall came into the office just as Sabine was settled back in her chair. He did a double take with her at first, which she pretended not to notice.

"How did the, uh, meeting go?" Sabine asked. Randall smiled at her.

"It was...very interesting," He said. "And it's funny--there were apparently a *lot* of details about this merger I should have known, but didn't." Sabine shifted in her seat.

"Relax," a voice whispered to her, barely audible. Randall didn't react, so she assumed he didn't hear.

"Like what?" Sabine asked. Randall laughed.

"Like the fact that I was responding to emails that I'd never seen?" Randall pulled aside a chair and placed it on the opposite end of Sabine's desk. "Like the fact that we went into a merger with a company apparently run by…I can't believe I'm saying this...women I can't see? Women apparently made of glass? Women who look like a dominatrix model of the Terminator?"

"He'd better watch himself…" The voice said to Sabine again, still barely audible in her ear.

"Responding to emails?" Sabine asked. Randall sneered and shook his head.

"You're kidding, right?" Randall asked. "Listen, if somebody got you do all this, or at least got you to look the other way — I'm not going to take it out on you if you just tell me the truth. I just want to know what the fuck is going on around here." Suddenly Randall felt something uncomfortable right behind him, and it made him shift in his seat.

Sabine stayed quiet for a second as Randall adjusted himself. It felt like his briefs were riding up on him. He was noticeably red-faced when he continued.

"You have my email account on there, right?" Randall asked. "When you respond to things for me, you sign as yourself — correct?"

"Um, of course," she squeaked, taking hold of her mouse and navigating. Her computer, however, didn't react to a thing she was doing. Instead, it opened up a word processor file, and words began appearing in it on their own.

Tell him he's not the boss anymore, the message read.

"Then I want you to open up my email account and show me the last two weeks," Randall said, "and account for the fact that you don't seem to know what's going on here either." Sabine's computer was still doing its own thing.

Tell him now, or we will, the next message in her document file read. Sabine couldn't bring herself to do it, and the next time Randall spoke, Sabine's companions made good on their threat.

"So, what do you see?" Randall leaned forward to grab her flat screen and spin it toward him when his underwear suddenly pulled straight up behind him and yanked him backward.

"I see a flustered little boy who needs to calm himself down before he gets into trouble," the voice in the room with Sabine said. Randall audibly gasped, looking around the room for some kind of clue as to who he was dealing with.

"Suh-Sabine?" Randall asked, looking at his assistant. She looked visibly worried as she shook her head. The flatscreen monitor suddenly rotated itself toward Randall, and a disembodied pair of lips against black was all that he saw.

"No, but we have been working very closely with her for the last few weeks," the voice said. Randall watched the screen and noticed that the lips matched the voice he was hearing, but the voice didn't seem to come out of the monitor's speakers. "We answered your emails, we glad-handed some happy new accounts, and we did it all better than you could have." Randall could feel his wedgie getting worse as he reached behind himself, trying to think of how he would respond.

"Ugh — ouch...are you?"

"Doing this?" Randall gasped as he was practically pulled out of the chair. He could hear the stitching on his briefs popping as they supported his weight almost entirely. Sabine finally stood up.

"No, come on! Put him down!" Sabine was pushed back in her chair by her blouse, and despite his position, Randall took notice of parts of Sabine's blouse apparently moving on their own. She shuddered a little as her body was manipulated by her clothing.

"Honey, we gave you a chance to tell him…but now, you have to let us do it," her blouse said back. "We promise we won't hurt him...unless he decides to do something dumber."

"You have a new position here," the lips said to Randall. "Paul always considered you the more charismatic part of the company, the pretty face that got the paperwork signed." Randall was slowly set back down in the chair. He could feel his underwear shifting back into place, and he just looked at Sabine in utter confusion as the voice continued. "Well…now that's all you have to do: be a pretty face. Operational decisions, management directives…we'll handle all of that now."

"Y-you and Sabine?" Randall asked cautiously. His eyes went wide, and he looked down at his crotch as he felt something gently squeeze him. Sabine's eyes followed his gaze, and they both watched his trousers shifting on him.

"The details aren't your concern anymore," the voice said. "From now on, you show up and look pretty." Just then, he got a text from Sky. Before he could even reach for his phone, it pulled itself out of his pocket and hovered in front of him. "And before you go running off to the new leadership to discuss our new arrangement — just keep in mind that we'll always be listening." Randall made a little noise as the grip around his most sensitive part became a friendly little tug. "You understand, don't you, sweetie?"

"Uh...uh-huh," Randall said. The invisible grip retreated, and the monitor turned itself back around to face Sabine. He looked up at her with worry in his eyes as his phone continued hovering in front of him. "I'm, uh — sorry for the accusatory tone," Randall said. Sabine nodded.

"I'm...sorry too," she said, blushing red. Randall looked at his phone to read his message from his new colleague. She wanted to meet.

"I'm gonna — I've got to meet with somebody. Not sure how long I'll be gone...if that's okay," Randall added, looking around the room.

"Sure thing," the voice responded. "Don't worry, we know how to reach you when we need you." Randall swallowed hard as he stood up, nodding at Sabine.

"I'm just gonna grab some things, and I'll suh-see you later," Randall said, heading into his office. As soon as he was through the next door, the voice spoke to Sabine again.

"See how easy this can be?" The voice said excitedly. Sabine huffed as the fingers returned to massage her shoulders.

"You guys didn't exactly help me there," Sabine whispered, sure that her companions would hear her even at the most minuscule volume.

"We absolutely did," the voice said back. "You get to play the good guy, and leave all the hard training to us."

"Unless you drive him toward her instead," Sabine replied. She could hear barely-audible laughter in response.

"Oh, you have so much to learn from the way we do things..."