Super: Origins by Palladian

her to was even legal. Shaking her head, she looked at the clock and realized it was nearing noon. This is going to take a lot longer than I thought , she realized, looking at the stacks of papers with a sigh.
    Then, thinking about the time again, she smiled. Kurt’s lunch break started at noon, so she could call him to talk over the few things that she wanted to ask him about. If he really has a problem with any of the conditions , Lex thought, I can cut my considerations short here and just tell the M Agency no . The thought of not having to read the rest of the paperwork made her smile again, so she began mentally going through what she would need to cover with him.
    After some thought, Lex figured that the only items that would potentially impact Kurt would be the probationary period rules, the transfer clause, the on-call expectations, and the confidentiality stuff. She got together the information she knew and dialed Kurt’s cell phone.
    After a few rings, she heard his voice. “Hello?”
    “Hey, sweetie. How are you doing?”
    “Lex! What’s up?”
    “Do you have a couple of minutes? I wanted to talk about some things.”
    “Sure. I’m just sitting at my desk eating pizza. Someone ordered for the office today, so I don’t have to go out for lunch. Fire away, just don’t mind the chewing in the background,” Kurt replied.
    Lex laughed. “OK, you’ll only have to listen for a while, so eat away. I got the offer from the M Agency—”
    “Hey, that’s great news,” Kurt interrupted, his voice suspiciously muffled. “So you’re going to take it, right?”
    Lex now almost felt she could smell the pizza, and her stomach growled in response. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Lex scolded playfully, “I don’t want you choking over the phone!” After a pause, she continued more seriously, “I don’t know if I’m going to take the job, though. There are a few things about it that I wanted to go over with you before I decide.”
    “OK, shoot,” Kurt replied, the evidence of pizza talking gone.
    “First, in order to get hired on permanently,” Lex began, “I need to go through a probationary period of six months. One of the things about that is that I'd need to live in their facilities that whole time, except for every other weekend. What that boils down to is that if I take the job, for the next twenty six weeks I’ll probably only be able to see you every other weekend, thirteen weekends out of that twenty six.”
    Lex paused for a moment and then continued. “Since that's the most immediate thing that’ll impact the two of us, I wanted to mention it first. Please let me know what you think, because I want to be sure that you’re OK with the downsides of this job before I really consider it. If you’re not, I’ll just tell them no and keep looking for something else.”
    “Don’t say that, sweetheart,” Kurt broke in. “I know you’ve been looking really hard for a good job, and it would be wrong for me to stand in your way. What’s six months when we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together? It’s not like we’re not going to be able to see each other at all, right?”
    “That’s true,” Lex agreed, smiling.
    “OK, what else?”
    “Well, if I do get the job, there will probably be a lot of it that I can’t tell you about. They have a pretty strict confidentiality clause, so it would be like having some sort of top secret spy job or something. Does that bother you?”
    She thought she heard him swallow before he answered. “Not really. I think people talk too much about their work in this town already. Not a big deal. I mean, I don’t mind talking about work things with you, but if you can’t discuss it, that’s fine too. Anything else?”
    “A couple more things. There is a possibility that after three years with the team I could be asked to transfer. A number of people would need to agree, but if they do, they could transfer me against my will, I think.