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𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

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"We're going for PGM. Pierce."

Cora felt a sudden shift in the room. It was morning, and Logan had called for a board meeting at the start of the day. She was hovering by Roman's side and trying to ignore the stray glares that she was copping from Kendall, who had refused to speak to her since the Vaulter incident.

She'd felt guilt about it, of course, but under the surface she couldn't help feeling resentful of Kendall's behaviour. Maybe she should have expected this reaction, it wasn't as if their relationship had been built on solid ground in the first place, but she couldn't help noting his hypocrisy. He'd spoken to Roman since, in fact he'd continued to be somewhat cordial towards him, whatever that looked like, and Cora couldn't help feeling like he was blaming the entire Vaulter thing on her. She'd tried to say as much to him on the day they went to the Vaulter offices to announce the termination, and Kendall had completely ignored her. Cora had stopped trying, but it wasn't lost on her that Kendall seemed intent on staring her down every time they were stuck in a room with one another.

The board meeting had been called to discuss a possible acquisition, but it had remained a mystery until that moment what company Logan intended to buy out. Cora felt her ears perk up at the mention of the Pierces. Frank was a personal friend of Nan Pierce, and she had known Naomi Pierce since she had been a teenager. The two couldn't exactly be called friends, but there was a bond that tended to develop from being involved in a highly public car accident that resulted in the death of one's mother. Where Naomi had retreated inward from the sudden public pressure exerted by the high profile nature of her mother's death, Cora had done the opposite.

An uneasiness had settled in the boardroom, and Cora found herself scanning the faces of the other board members. To say they looked displeased was an understatement. Gerri awkwardly stuttered from her seated position, her eyebrows raised.

"Gr-great." She managed finally, panic glinting in her eyes.

"That's chunky." Tom, who was standing across the room from Cora, said whilst nodding, his eyes opened wide like a deer in headlights.

"It could be a great move." Gerri replied, her voice wavering as she shot a barely veiled glare towards Tom.

Cora glanced towards Roman who was wearing his best poker face. She attempted to subtly mouth the words "what do you think?" but he didn't seem to notice, his eyes remaining trained on Gerri as she continued to speak to the rest of the room. Cora sighed to herself, shifting her hips as she let her eyes wander. As they drifted around the room, she once again caught Kendall's inhospitable gaze. She found herself staring him down, frowning as she did so. He raised his eyebrows, before rolling his eyes. Under her breath, Cora scoffed. She couldn't fathom how she had managed to get under his skin so quickly, especially when days ago, he'd been more than happy to take her under his wing.

" ... gonna fuckin' eat them up." Logan announced suddenly.

"Yeah, ok, let's do it." Kendall said suddenly, breaking eye contact to address his father. Beside her, Roman let out a sound of incredulity.

"Oh fuck off." He said.

"What?" Kendall replied. "I like it."

"Yeah, alright Ken. We get it, gotta get your Employee of the Month award for sucking ass." Roman retorted. "I mean, personally I love the idea but that's at least my honest opinion."

"Good!" Barked Logan. "And the rest of you?"

The room erupted into nods and words of affirmation. Logan smiled stiffly, raising a hand to quiet them down. He turned suddenly to Cora, pointing a wrinkled finger towards her.

"You. Frank knew Nan Pierce well, so with his condition, it's certainly a loss but you know her as well, is that right?"

Cordelia nodded, suddenly aware of the fact that everyone was looking at her expectantly. "Uh ... Yes. Yeah actually. Close family friend, liked my mother a lot. Likes me a lot too."

"Good. It'll give you something to show me your chops." Logan said. Cora couldn't help feeling a strange bubbly feeling in her chest, as though she had managed to accomplish something. A smile spread across her cheeks as she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, giving Logan a quick nod. The meeting was quickly adjourned afterwards, and Cora filed out of the room, following behind Roman. To her surprise, Kendall was loitering nearby, leaning against a wall, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.

"Good job in there." Roman commented as they approached Kendall. "You're a real boy scout."

Kendall ignored Roman, glancing towards at Cora. "Hey, Cora, I just needed to grab Naomi Pierce's number."

She almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. She let out a harsh scoff, her eyebrows flying upwards in surprise. "Really? You need Naomi's number?"

"Yeah, kind of a dick move to ask a girl for another girl's number." Roman said, his lip curling into a smirk.

"It's important. I need to do something for dad. Just soften the landing a little." Kendall said, once again ignoring Roman. "I think you kind of owe me."

"Yeah, uh, no offense Kendall but I don't owe you shit." Cora replied, trying her best to bolster the words with a confident tone. The result was that she spoke as though her words were bumping into one another. "I'm the last person you should be making demands of."

"Yeah, right, so I see he's brainwashed you against me now." Kendall replied sharply.

"I haven't been brainwashed by anyone." Cora said quickly, her annoyance rising. She was sick of being spoken down to until someone needed something from her, that much she was beginning to realise. The Vaulter thing had felt bad, but when the pain of Kendall's frustration had melted away, Cora had been more upset that it had taken so little for him to denounce her. "I think it's best if you and I are just keep our distances."

Kendall didn't say anything then, though his mouth opened, words faltering as he nodded slowly.

"Yeah ... Ok. Right. Cool. Well, don't come crying to me when you've been stripped of your dignity, again, alright?" He said, nodding towards her. Her turned and headed away from the two of them, leaving Cora to gawk at his back, turning to Roman in shock.

"Gosh, he gets so sassy when he's upset, huh?" Roman commented, nodding. He seemed utterly unfazed by what had transpired in front of him and Cora couldn't help feeling a pang of annoyance that he hadn't bothered to voice her any support.

"Yeah, I guess." Cora replied, shrugging.

"Mm ... " Silence settled for a moment, before Roman spoke again. "Look, you couldn't get me that number, could you?"

Cora turned to him, raising one eyebrow as she studied him. She almost couldn't believe he'd had the nerve to ask so quickly after Kendall had, but this was Roman after all.

"Uh, yeah, I mean maybe." Cora replied, running a hand through her hair. "Like ... I mean, I don't have it on my phone, it's on my old one I think. I'll have to go through it tonight."

"Uh huh." Roman replied, his tone bored. He was looking down the hallway where Kendall and Gerri were speaking, his eyes unfocused. "Well, have a look around and let me know soon, yeah? Tabitha's ... was ... I don't know, Tabitha knows her as well but it's probably better if you do it because they've got history and I don't want it to be weird."

"Oh." Cora replied, her cheeks flushing. "Yeah, of course. Uh, well I'll look."

"Awesome, that'd be very cool of you Cordelia." Roman said, smiling tightly at her. He patted her shoulder, before glancing back down the hallway. "Listen, I gotta run, but I'll talk to you when you send that number."

With that he was gone, and Cora found herself frozen in place, wondering why she felt like she'd been slapped in the face.

________

When Cora arrived at Greg's new apartment, visible confusion passed over her features.

The building itself had been a bit of a shock, she'd been under the impression that Greg was attempting to remain frugal on his current Waystar salary. It was surprisingly contemporary, and Cora was sure that it could have only been built in the past few years, or indeed had been a considerable overhaul of whatever its foundation had been. When she stepped out onto the hallway from the elevator, she could already hear the thrum of music sounding from the apartment door. As she approached number 25, she the swell of voices began to grow louder.

Suddenly, she felt self-conscious of the bottle of Moet she had in hand. She'd assumed it was a smaller affair, at least that'd been the assumption when Greg had texted her an invite in the afternoon, that she'd mostly just be dropping in as a courtesy and handing off the bottle before leaving. Little did she know that she'd be walking into a house party.

When she knocked on the door, she was surprised to see that Greg had answered. With the door open, the blare of music hit her full force. It felt like entering a time capsule, her old life of partying and late nights coloured by smoke of mixed origins swimming up to meet her. Past Greg, the apartment was mostly dark, a strobing light flashing through the crowd of bodies in time with the music. Confused, she met his eye, too stunned to speak.

"Hey! Thanks for coming!" Greg said as Cora moved through the open door.

"Yeah!" She said, her voice fighting the music as she glanced over her shoulder. She held up the bottle of champagne. "I bought you this bu-"

"What?"

"I bought you some Moet! To christen the place! But it looks like you don't need help with that!"

Greg nodded, taking the bottle. He inspected the front of it and smiled. "Oh nice! I'll, um, I bet the guests might like it!"

"I didn't know this was meant to be a house party!" Cora said, letting Greg move past her in the hallway to take the lead.

"Oh, uh, yeah! Kinda ... Kinda Kendall's thing, not mine!"

Her eyebrows raised as she followed after him. The hallway opened out into the living space and an open plan kitchen, which was just as packed as the makeshift dancefloor. It appeared as though Greg had next to no furniture, save for a very large stereo and a tv that was playing a music video. A cursory glance around conjured no familiar faces, a surprise given that Cora had assumed Greg would have at least invited Tom.

"I'll put this in the ... the kitchen?!"

"Sounds good!" Greg nodded.

Cora moved into the kitchen, pushing her way past a small crowd gathered around the mess of drinks on the bench. She placed the bottle down to a six pack of beer, balanced precariously on the edge of the bench.

As she glanced upwards, looking to survey the living space in full, she froze. Sitting on a couch that she hadn't seen from the hallway on the far end of the room was Kendall. He was seated between two unfamiliar women, a holding a mirror compact in one hand and a rolled up bill in the other. His head was turned as he spoke to one of the girls, a redhead whose cheeks were dotted with blush and freckles, his face unambiguously disengaged. Slowly, he turned his head, locking eyes with Cora.

Her eyes flickered away from his, falling on the compact in his hand and the small line of white on the glass surface. A chill ran through her body as he dipped his head, pushing the rolled money across the mirror.

Cora turned away, almost bumping directly into Greg. She hadn't noticed that he was still hovering nearby, wearing a nervous look on his boyish features. She forced a smile to her face, but it looked closer to a grimace. In his chest, her heart hammered against her ribcage, her stomach twisting and turning with nausea.

"I-I'm gonna get going! Sorry! It's not really my scene anymore!"

"Yeah, uh, me neither!" Greg chuckled, shrugging a shoulder. "Um, do you wanna go for a walk or something?!"

Cora blinked, surprised that he was proposing ditching his own party. Too stunned to think through the decision, she nodded hastily.

"Cool! I'll meet you outside, I'll get my coat!"

Outside on the pavement in front of the building, Cora could still hear the blare of music, albeit far fainter now. It didn't take Greg too long before he emerged, wearing a windbreaker that looked to be a size too big, his hands stuffed in its generous pockets.

"Hey! Sorry about all that, uh, yeah." He muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"No, it's fine ... Uh, just didn't really think that was what you were aiming for when you said housewarming party."

"Yeah, that'd be right. Um, Kendall honestly just said he was going to throw one for me as a surprise." Greg shrugged. "But I didn't know any of those people and it didn't seem like he did either but he didn't really care. I couldn't exactly tell him he couldn't either, like throw the party. He's letting me live there as a favour, he just gets to what he wants there when he wants to."

"Oh." Cora replied, nodding.

The two quickly fell into step with one another, walking south along the street. For a while Cora didn't say anything, letting herself process Greg's words. She couldn't help but feeling partially at fault for the seemingly sudden descent into madness that Kendall was taking. She knew it was a foolish thought, maybe even a selfish one, assuming that her actions had all that big of an impact when really, the culprit was more than likely Logan. Kendall's father had had a chokehold over his life, and Cora had seen him like this once before, a long time ago, the last time they had spoken before Frank had gone into hospital.

Greg broke her from her thoughts as he continued. "Yeah Kendall's, like, been a pretty good guy to me. He's welcomed me in and looks out for me ... The apartment was really cool of him, 'cause my roommate was a bit of a psycho and stuff. Like he'd get mad if I chewed too loud, so obviously normal living stuff became ... Y'know, kinda hard to do."

"Yeah, of course." Cora said, nodding.

"And I think he's kinda going through a rough time since coming back. Like, you know about the takeover attempt right? They tried to throw out Logan, him and Stewy." Greg smoothed a hand through his hair. "And now Stewy's gunning for the company and it's all his fault. Kendall's I mean."

"Well snorting coke at your place is not going to solve anything."

"No, no of course." Greg said with a nod. "But I'm guessing it makes things a lot easier for him to deal with and all. It can't be easy."

"Nothing's easy with them." Cora muttered under her breath with a sigh.

"Yeah. You're right. But whaddaya gonna do? We all have our reasons. I'd probably be, like, dead in a ditch without Logan giving me a job and Kendall giving me a place." Greg replied, shrugging his shoulders half-heartedly. "Which kinda makes me feel bad because I've kinda ... kinda fucked up."

Cora frowned, turning to look at him. "Wait, fucked up how?"

For a moment Greg was silent, as though he were considering his next few words. Cora looked at him expectantly as he let out a series of stammers, followed by a nervous laugh. He audibly swallowed before sighing loudly.

"I ... You can't tell anyone, alright? Please? I'm only telling you this because, like, we're in the same position. Or, a similar position. And I kind of think that if shit hits the fan, that you might get interrogated along with the rest of the board."

"Wait, what?" She said, unable to stop herself from sounding incredulous.

"Obviously, like, only if you want to know."

"I kind of ... I kind of need to know now, Greg." Cora said, frowning. "You can't just drop a bomb on me and then walk away."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drop any bombs. I just don't have anyone to talk to and I don't really know, uh, what to do. Like, I don't even know how fucked I'm gonna be." Greg replied. He had begun to fiddle with the drawstrings of his windbreaker, seemingly unable to meet her eye. "You're, y'know, not inner circle. Which is fine, because neither am I, right? So we should probably keep each other close."

Cora opened her mouth to speak, but stopped short. She couldn't exactly argue against what he was saying, it was entirely true, and the speed at which Kendall had shut her out was evidence of that. If she wanted to solidify her position, she would have to start acting for herself, and the first step of that would be making an ally. Greg might not have been the wisest one, but he was harmless, or at least appeared to be, and that was arguably a positive trait.

She bit her bottom lip as she nodded slowly in response to him. "Yeah, look, you're probably right."

Greg grinned in response, before seemingly remembering himself, clearing his throat as he straightened his features. They had walked to a crosswalk now, the pavement cutting off at the road ahead and turning right. Greg scanned the sidewalk, pointing towards a hotdog cart further along.

"You hungry?"

"Hungry for you to spill this fuck up." Cora said. "But yeah, I could eat."

"Cool." Greg said as they steered their path towards the cart. "Ok, so ... There was this lady, uh, a writer or editor, I can't really remember. She emailed me about how she was writing a book on Logan an-"

"Wait, don't tell me you spoke to her?"

Greg nodded. "Um, yeah kinda. I thought it was something he'd okayed, like it was a PR thing, I dunno."

"Fuck." Cora muttered. This was bad. She'd heard of writers and journalists sniffing around Waystar before from her father, years ago, digging for information and it hadn't ended well. She hadn't expected his bomb drop to be nearly as loaded, more than aware that the knowledge alone could potentially make her poison. Greg's bushy eyebrows knitted together as he shot her an apologetic look.

"Sorry, I probably shouldn't hav-"

"No, it's fine. It's fine as long as you haven't said anything and don't plan to."

"Oh yeah!" Greg replied, nodding. "I, uh, told her to take everything off the record. But she said it was already on the record. So ... "

"So you have no idea how fucked you are?" She replied, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yup. That'd be right."

They stopped in front of the hotdog cart as Cora let out a sigh. There was a line outside of it, and the pair slid in behind a couple who were studying the menu board hand in hand.

"Well ... Do you have a plan? Like, to save your ass."

"Um, not really." Greg replied sheepishly. "I know Logan has that hunting trip thing. I'm thinking maybe I'll have a chat with him then."

"That's ballsy." Cora replied. "Having a conversation while Logan Roy handles a loaded firearm."

"Oh, right." Greg muttered. "Should probably have thought about it."

"Listen," Cora murmured. "Maybe I can try to help. If we get Roman on board, we might be able to try and run some interference if this thing comes out. It might be nothing, but it's at least worth a shot."

"That might work." Greg nodded. "But what reason does he even have to help? Roman's ... I mean, he's kind of, like, not exactly the good samaritan type."

"Don't worry about that." Cora replied. "I've got a reason he might consider it."