Timothy walks slowly back to the secretary pool. He meets Prescott on his way, "Sir, is everything alright?" Other than earlier that day it had been years since Timothy had been to the secretary department.

"No, I need to have a talk with all your workers. What I have to say can't wait." Nor could it be just told over an impersonal email. If he's correct, many if not all of the secretaries admire and like or rather admired and liked, Pimpernel. They deserve to hear the news in  person.

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" Prescott says and immediately the sounds of typing stop and Timothy can see every one looking towards Prescott.

"Mr. McGavity has an announcement to make." Prescott then motions for Timothy to step forward.

Timothy fights down the feeling of panic that wants to overcome him. Something he hasn't felt since he was turned more than five centuries earlier. "As many of you know, Miss Lancaster was sent home early due to being sick. Some of you might even have heard that she collapsed on her way out." At the sound of gasps and murmuring he guesses that the rumor mill hadn't gotten to them yet.

"I was there when it happened and although we were able to get her heart started once more," more gasps and he could hear a few sobs as some of them figured out what he was going to say next. He looks at the friend that had helped her earlier when he stood in front of Miss Lancaster's desk. 

The girl was white faced and looked herself to be about to pass out and she was shaking her head and mouthing the word no.

Not wanting to leave them in suspense he continues. "She had fallen into a coma. After running some tests and scans it was determined that she had brain cancer. She woke up briefly and we were able to talk.

"She was very thankful to have worked here and was praising her colleagues. She told me that she thought you were all wonderful and had a great deal of potential." He had actually read that from her file on one of her performance reviews.

"When she was told that she has very little time left, she was sad that she might not get the chance to say goodbye.

"The doctor's weren't even sure that she would wake up and so were happy that she had, but they then gave her the news and left.

"Shortly after that, Miss Lancaster once more closed her eyes and fell asleep. After trying to revive her once more they pronounced her dead." At these words there were a great many sobs heard.

"I will be organizing a memorial for her, since she didn't have any family, for Monday. You are all invited, but in order to attend you must have your work caught up and all projects turned in on time. There will be a company email listing details.

"I know many of you were friends or at least friendly with her, I only met her this morning and so I don't know her well, but I know that she was a kind and generous person. She will be missed. I am sorry for your loss."

Since he feels awkward he doesn't stay for long, but before he leaves he goes to Marjorie. "I would like for you to write an obituary for the paper. I know that she considered you a friend. I will email you the information we have, but it isn't much. Please, do your best to make it nice."

"I would be honored to do it, sir." Marjorie says even as she's dabbing tears from her eyes with a tissue. "I'm glad you were there when she passed, I knew that she didn't have any family and so at least she wasn't alone when she died."

Timothy says something that he hopes is sympathetic and leaves as quickly as he can. He really doesn't like these kinds of situations.

Now he needs to move fast to keep her lawyer from putting her will into probate or there is no doubt that she will hate him forever for what he did.

He had no idea that she even had any money to worry about a will, but his investigator uncovered that she has quite a bit, including those all important voting stocks. When he found that out he was more than a little impressed that she didn't force her way into a better job with in the company.

Timothy has her file sent to Marjorie then heads out to the lawyer's office. It will be rather tricky dealing with him, since he isn't one of the lawyers he uses to hide being a supernatural being that lives for centuries.

Coming to the lawyer's office he is impressed. This is the best lawyer in the state for estate planning. He's known to only take on large estates and let's his associates handle anything lesser. He checks again to verify the correct name. Giving a soft huff he heads to the man's office.

The secretary tries to stop him but when she hears his name she is more than willing to announce him.

"Sir, Mr. McGavity is here to see you." She then steps out of the way and Timothy walks in. He waits to make sure that the secretary completely closes the door.

The lawyer had stood up upon hearing Timothy's name and comes out from behind his desk. He holds out his hand for a handshake. "Sir, it is an honor to meet you. How might I help you?"

Timothy takes the man's hand then the seat that is offered to him. "You are the lawyer to Pimpernel Lancaster are you not?" Timothy doesn't have time to beat around the bush and so compels the man to answer him.

"Yes, sir." The man then goes to a file cabinet and pulls out the file and hands it to Timothy. Timothy is pleased he didn't have to ask for it.

He opens it up and has a hard time hiding his shock. He reads over every thing and realizes that Pimpernel was not only under appreciated as a secretary but had no right even being a secretary. Damn, she should have been a vice president with what she had done.

For the last three years there are changes to the will showing the growth she has in her estate. He notices that her apartment, that she had listed on her file at work was in a building that she actually owned. A building that had increased in value a great deal since she took over ownership and made repairs and upgrades on it.

He also noted that two other lawyers were listed. He questions the lawyer about that. "They are to be notified as soon as I place her will into probate, one is just for the accounts she has strictly for charities. The second is her mother's estate that she left with her original lawyer."

If the estate is anything like this one, he can't understand just why the hell she was working in the first place. But that is neither here nor there. "I need you to hold off on placing her will in probate. Her family found out that she was here. She had been sent to the hospital earlier and they were called." The lawyer turns white, so Timothy knows that he screwed up royally by calling them.

He does his best in making up for it now. "She is too ill to deal with things just now, so has asked me to talk to you. She is arranging it to make it look like she died. She will need you to have papers drawn up to change her name and change everything over to that new name. It will take her a while to be able to get in to sign those papers. At this time I don't have the new name, but hopefully she'll be able to give it to you within a week or two."

"Is she alright?" The lawyer asks anxiously. He rather likes Pimpernel Lancaster. Not only that but she's one of his biggest clients.

"She collapsed at work and is very ill. Hopefully she will get better soon." Some people don't make the turn, especially when they haven't been prepared beforehand. Hell, she hadn't even believed that he was a vampire. It wasn't until he showed her his fangs that she accepted his words. But even then, she never said a word, except that she didn't want to be one.

Now he just hopes that he'll be able to get her to forgive him turning her without permission.

The lawyer assures him that he'll hold off on sending the will to probate. But he leaves Timothy with a word of warning. "I don't know how much you know about her family, but if they know where she is, they will be here as soon as it is humanly possible to steal all they can from her."

Timothy clenches his jaw so tight that a tic appears. "Thank you, for telling me. I'll make sure that her things are secured.

"I need to know what she wanted done for a funeral?"

"She didn't. She has no family that she wants near her and she didn't think any one else would be wanting to come to one. She wanted her body cremated and the ashes buried with her father."

"I have requested her body be released to me, at least the hospital thinks that she is dead."

"I understand, go ahead and do what you wish. When is the funeral? I would like to make an appearance to see if she was correct."

Timothy gives a small smile, "I will email you the information if you give me your email?"

The lawyer gives him a business card that also has his email. Timothy takes his leave.

Once more he heads back to the office. Just an hour before the work day ends. Perhaps enough time for the last thing he needs to do.

As Timothy goes into the building he is stopped by his team that was making the sales pitch that he ended up missing. "Sir!"

Timothy can tell by how excited they are that things went well. He can definitely use some good news after the day he's had. "How did the meeting go?" He had expected them to have finished and perhaps even left for the day early. It is well known that he lets the sales teams leave after pitching the company to other companies.

"We got the account, but even better," Timothy smiles pleased at the enthusiasm the executive is showing. 

"How is it better?"

"Another company that they work with had heard that they were listening to our pitch today. They had been thinking about having us come to them, but asked if they could sit in on the meeting.

"They listened quietly and if they asked a question I couldn't answer one of the other team members was able to answer it. They were so impressed that they too signed on, the same contract as the company we were originally going to see. They could have gotten an even better contract but wanted that one."

Timothy smiles broadly, he thinks he knows which company signed on. "Very good! Why don't you and your team go celebrate somewhere. Invite your significant others if you have one," Timothy says as he gets out a company credit card.

"Thank you, sir!" He takes the card then hesitates. "I passed on your message and they hope that all is well. How is Miss Lancaster?"

"You know her?" Timothy is shocked, Powell is in line to take over as CEO when Timothy gets to be suspiciously young.

"More like know of her. My secretary has nothing but good to say about her. She was one of the secretaries short listed to take my old secretary's place. My current secretary was hired and says that Miss Lancaster was far more qualified and better and should have received the promotion." 

"So why didn't you hire her?"

"I was swamped at that time, my secretary held the interviews. He is the one that choose my current secretary. I was later told that Miss Lancaster not only was denied the promotion due to her birth mark, but because she wouldn't suck up to my previous secretary."

Timothy gives a small smile. Then with his next words he loses the smile, "Miss Lancaster passed away at the hospital earlier. She has no family and so I'm organizing a memorial for her. I have already informed the pool about it. But perhaps others would like to attend. Would you send out an email letting every one know and make sure that they need to let us know as soon as possible if they would like to attend. Let them know that in order to attend they will need to be able to clear their schedules and any meeting either rescheduled, or have some one take it if they can't reschedule. They will need to let you know before the end of work today. Once I have an idea of how many to expect I will send out details."

"I would be honored, sir. Might I ask what happened?"

"Undiagnosed brain cancer," Timothy says smoothly. Although it was in reality his draining her blood and then biting her to turn her. She was very close to death any way.

Timothy notices that Powell slyly wipes a lone tear off his face. He pretends he didn't see Powell do that. "I will get right on it. Thank you sir. I'm sure that if she was here that Miss Lancaster would be thanking you as well."

Timothy isn't so sure about that. The more he learns about her the more sure he is that she'll be furious with him once she wakes up, if she does.