Getting down to business --Gillian (19)

"Down to business" said the woman in the black suit.
Finally, I thought. I really didn't think I could last much longer with all this uncertainty. I like to know whets going on. Don't get me wrong -- I love surprises. But not when someone drags them out for too long. Then I get annoyed.
"You have all been selected for a top secret mission," the woman began. I suddenly realized I didn't know what her name was. Scarlett had the same idea.
"Excuse me?" she interrupted. Everyone suddenly looked at her. "Um, could I please know your name? I don't think we should trust someone whose name I don't know."The woman paused for a moment and snuck a look in the direction of the man who had recruited me. He looked at her reproachfully. Quickly she looked away.
"My name is Ellen," she said, "I won't give you my last name; that's top secret."Maybe we should all give our names," suggested Scarlett. She tossed her long red hair as she said this, causing young guy to inhale quickly. Ex-boyfriend, I guessed immediately. "I'm Scarlett," she said, looking over at me.
"Gillian," I shot back, returning her gaze with what I hoped was a sophisticated look. I debated tossing my hair, but decided that that would be overdoing it.
Scarlett looked past me at the young guy behind me. As soon as she did, he looked the other way. "Ian." he told the non-descript laminate flooring. He looked as though he was afraid he was going to mess up and say the wrong name.
Scarlett, oblivious as usual, turned to the other guy, the one who had recruited me. He was wearing a black sweater with hairs of some kind clinging to it. "Greg." he said shortly, and glanced over at Ellen. Scarlett looked them both over incredulously. She was about to say something when Ellen tactfully cleared her throat. I knew I was going to like Ellen.
"Alright," Ellen said to the group, "As you know, you have been chosen for a secret mission. This mission may, and probably will, take a substantial amount of time. It's not going to be over by the end of next week, but it varies with every mission," Ellen was looking directly at Scarlett, who obviously wanted to interrupt. "You may also be in a position to risk your life at some point during the mission," she continued."This is your last chance to back out. After this, you will not be allowed to leave the mission. I strongly recommend you really think this through. I know you have had a day, but we're really down to it now. This is it. If you decide to return to your normal lives, you may exit through the door you entered. If you are absolutely sure of your decision to join this mission, please come over here to sign your contracts." She gestured to the desk on her right, and walked over to it.
Greg followed her immediately and signed the paper Ellen handed him. Once he had handed it back, he sat down on a chair nearby and busied himself with picking the hairs off his sweater.
That left Scarlett, Ian, and me. We looked around at each other; Scarlett was nervously playing with her hair. She looked over at Ian, who became extremely interested in the coat rack in the corner.Realizing Scarlett was about to look over at me, I turned and saw Ellen reading a black file. She turned over a page and I recognized a Matt Leblanc 'Got Milk?' ad.
Smiling, I looked back at Scarlett and saw her taking a hesitant step toward the desk, still fiddling with her hair.Seeing this, Ian looked like he was panicking. He obviously wanted to appear 'manly' to Scarlett, but he didn't know what was coming. None of us did. And we were all scared.
For some reason, I felt bad for Ian, and I wanted to help him. I guess that is what made me do something spontaneous. You have to understand, I am not an out-of-the-blue kind of girl. I don't have a spontaneous bone in my body. I like everything (and everyone) to be predictable. Which is why I almost gave myself a heart-attack when I felt my feet walking up to the desk, to the uncertainty of the secret mission. I walked past Ian (who was looking confused) and Scarlett (who was suddenly looked small and child-like). I gave Ian a reassuring smile, and wished someone would do the same for me.
Ellen looked up at me, put down her "file", and handed me a page. She did not look at all surprised that I was the first one to come up to the desk. Then again, she could have just been hiding it behind her scary mask-face. You really can't trust a recruiter to show how they really feel.
On the page was various annoying legal terms that basically said I should understand that couldn't tell anyone about my mission and that I could potentially die at some point during said mission.
Yeah, I was really excited to sign that.But you know what? There was no way I was going to walk away now. I knew the mission was my ticket to a new life, where I did more than shred paper and pour coffee all day. And I was ready for it. Man, was I ever ready.
So I took the pen Ellen offered me, signed the paper, and handed them back to her. She took the paper and put it in a file, then went back to her magazine.I took this as my cue to go sot down with Greg.
When I sat down, he was still picking at the hairs on his sweater. I looked at the desk and saw Ian signing a paper, with Scarlett close behind him. I turned to Greg and said jokingly "What are we really signing up for?"
Greg turned to me, his face serious. "You can't even imagine." he told me.

Things start to get weird -Ian (18)

I never thought a dark alley in the middle of nowhere would be a welcome sight. But when you've actually been nowhere, well, anywhere seems good. I don't think anythings ever seemed as real as that brick. It felt good to be on solid ground.
I was relieved I'd gotten out ok. I was more scared than ever of what was coming up. I was a little ashamed of how I'd freaked out in there. I hoped Scarlett hadn't been in the other room. But I'm proud to say that none of these things were foremost in my mind. The main thought going through my mind is what I asked the man in the black suit when he appeared.
"How does it work?"
I have a very analytical mind, in a way. When I see something of interest, my first thought is usually whether or not I can dismantle it successfully. After the shock had worn down, this was no exception. Marcus, unfortunately, totally missed the point.
"You see whatever you least want to see," he answered matter-of-factly.
"I guessed that much," I said, a little irritated, "But how does it work? Does it read brainwave patterns? Did you use some kind of profiling to figure out what would be most effective against me? And for that matter, how do you generate the image? Holograms?"
"I haven't the faintest idea. Come on; we have a lot to do and we're late getting started"
"I've never seen anything like it," I said, all but ignoring him. I get like that when I see a new gadget; I think I was getting into it a little more than usual to cover up for how scared I was. "Why isn't that technology available anywhere else? Some kind of government cover-up or something?"
Marcus stopped and turned to look at me. "Kid, the reason you've never seen anything like it before," he paused a minute, as if trying to decide how much to tell me. Then he continued, "Is because it hasn't been invented yet. You'll find out more in a few minutes."
Well, that answer shut me up for a little while. Time travel has always fascinated me, mostly cause I liked paradoxes. And if what he'd just said was true, it went a ways toward solving one of my favorites.
"So your from the future?" I asked when he started moving again.
"Me?" he answered, "No. I was born in 1966, and I'm 38 years old. No more questions. You'll find out what you need to know at the meeting."
I little disappointed, I shut my mouth till we got to the right door. We opened it and walked into the meeting room.
"Welcome," said the woman sitting at the head of the table. I recognized her voice as the one that had led me out of the nothing. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Chip has just informed me that the final member of our team will not be joining us at this time. Luckily, we have a replacement," She motioned to Scarlett.
"Now," she said, "Down to business,"

Nothing at all, really -Virgil(17)

Interesting. Very interesting. Well, I suppose nothing is pretty boring, but when you think about how the room is supposed to work, it's very interesting. It almost makes me wonder what I would see if I went through the "other" door. Ellen should have left him alone, see what he did on his own. Nothingness, complete oblivion is what they risk on this mission anyway. Best for them to get through that sort of thing, see what they're up against.strange the kind of training you don't get for this, and probably need. It amazes me that I got through alive. And what would the last dozen recruits done without my help? And the kids before me? They certainly pick the lucky ones. They never seem that way, though. Everything always goes wrong in just the right way.

Oh, Bugger - Ellen (16)

I'd never seen Greg flip out like that before. Well, actually I had. Once. But that was a long time ago. The point is, I'd certainly never expected to see Greg flip out like that again. I could see that the whole recruitment thing was really getting to him. Under the circumstances, there were two things I could have done. Option one was to pat Greg on the shoulder and say something supportive, to the effect of, "There, there, Greg. It's okay." But I decided to go with option two, which consisted of crossing my arms, glaring at him, and saying, "Are you finished?"
He said nothing, so I marched up to him, grabbed the microphone, and spoke into it.
"Ian?"
After a moment, a frightened, hesitant voice answered, "Yeah?"
"Hi, my name's Ellen. I'm going to get you out of this, okay?"
"Okay."
Greg was giving me a look which clearly said, okay, hotshot. Let's see what you have in mind. When you fall on your face, I'll try not to laugh.
"Where'd the guy from the mall go?" Ian asked.
"He's right here. I'm the person who talked to your parents."
"Oh. Hi." Poor kid.
"Listen, Ian. You've gone through what we call 'the Other Door.' I'm going to guide you back to that door. You have to listen very carefully and believe what I say. All right?"
"Yes."
"Does it feel like there is a floor under your feet?"
"No."
Greg sighed in exasperation. "For God's sake, Ellen, he said he's in nothing!"
I silenced him with a look.
"What you're feeling, Ian, is an illusion of floorlessness," I lied. "There is a floor. I want you to reach down, and touch the floor with your hand, okay? Let me know when you feel the floor."
I held my breath in the tense silence that followed. Finally, Ian said, "Okay. Here it is."
Greg's eyes widened in disbelief.
The thing about the Other Room is that it's meant to make people go away. Normally, seeing the empty hallway that Ian saw upon opening it would convince most people that they had no business there. If that didn't work, however, and a person entered the hallway... something more persuasive was needed.
Beyond the hallway is the worst thing in the world. And it varies from person to person. Some people see fire, or disease, or disaster. Indiana Jones would see snakes. Superman would see kryptonite. Lady Macbeth would see blood. Some people do see darkness. Ian saw nothingness. That one, I had to admit, was pretty terrifying. Absolute nothingness.
It's not exactly real, whatever is in the Other Room. The problem is in convincing the person in there that this is so.
The people responsible for the Other Room had taken into account that their victims would often become paralyzed with terror and unable to leave. That's why the maze room was built. From there, agents and recruiters can help the people inside the Room to move through their fear, usually by repositioning it ("Oh, look, Mr. Jones! The snakes are all moving that way! Run!"), and get to the door. In Ian's case, there was nothing to work with. So I'd reverted to the slightly harder task of making him believe he was imagining things. It did help that he really, really wanted to believe that he was just imagining it.
"Now, move along the floor to your right, and in about six inches you should hit a wall."
A pause.
"Ow."
"What is it, Ian?"
"I hit the wall with my head."
I smiled in relief. "Now, stand up facing the wall and movie along it to the right. About..." I mentally grappled for a number, "five feet in front of you, there is a door."
"Okay. I found it." The poor boy sounded like he wanted to cry with happiness and gratitude.
"Great. I'm going to send Marcus out to get you. You'll recognize him from the mall."
"Thanks, Ellen."
"No problem, kid."
I put down the microphone, stuck my head out the door to give Marcus his instructions, and turned back. Greg was staring at me in frank admiration. "How did you know that would work?" he asked.
I sighed and let my head fall back against the wall. "I didn't," I groaned. In fact I'd never been so sure of disaster in my life as in those few minutes of guiding Ian out of the Other Room. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry. So I lunged at Greg, shouting, "What the hell is the matter with you?"
"What?" he asked.
"I've already got that irritating extra girl who won't shut up, Gillian disabled the ninjas, Ian went through the Other Door, for Pete's sake, and you-- you just have to make it worse by having your little freak-out and undermining my authority in front of the recruits. My recruits, Greg, on my mission. And I'm sorry that you're one of them, but life's tough sometimes, so get used to it!"
I stood in front of him, panting. I'm not sure if Greg had ever seen me flip out before. From his expression, however, it was easy to judge that he hadn't been expecting to see it today. I looked down at my shoes, feeling embarrassed. "Geez, I'm sorry about that. I... don't know what happened."
"Sorry," Greg said, sounding equally uncomfortable.
"Oh, no, forget it." I cleared my throat and managed to look back up. "You're not just a recruit, Greg. You know that."
"Yeah," he mumbled.
"Well, uh... better go back out and talk about business."
"Yeah." Greg said more brightly, now that the awkward moment was over. "What's taking that other one so long, anyway?"
"I don't know, but we'd better post Steve out there to intercept him."
"Yeah." A puzzled look crossed Greg's face. "What I don't get is... Ian said there was a voice on the other side of the door. What could that have been?"
"Don't know. Could be just his imagination. Could be that someone's messing with us." This possibility was not a nice one to consider, and we both knew it. "Don't let on to the others. You'll have to help me keep an eye out."
"Sure," Greg agreed, and turned for the door.
"Oh, and Greg." I stopped him. "Before you go back out there I want you to know..." I raised an eyebrow teasingly. "You look good without the suit."

You can't take the suit out of the recruiter - Greg (15)

I didn't have to go. No one gets forced to be recruited, and you're always allowed to turn down the mission. Of course, I've never seen it happen since I started. Y'know why? Cause we pick 'em with care. We don't just take any Tom, Dick, or Harry who seems unhappy. We pick the ones who need us, and the ones we need. And they always say yes.
Well, I was gonna show em. I was about to call Marcus and say, "I'm not going." But as it went through my head, I knew that wasn't an option. I was too proud of the system to be the first breakdown of it. My victory this once would be a failure of my last seven years. So I figured I'd do it. How hard could it be?
Well, for one, I didn't figure on Gillian recognizing me. I hadn't even worked out what to say. I figured, as we'd always been taught, that my whole identity disappeared when I put on the suit. Sweater-greg would be a totally different guy. But I guess I had done this so long that I was suit-Greg even in a sweater. And then when she asked me if I was one of those guys, I should have said no. Should have said "Of course not!" But something made me tell her the truth. After all, they'd all find out sooner or later. The only way to turn this insult into a victory was to wear it with pride. I decided then and there that I wasn't gonna let Ellen laugh at me again. I'm here because I want to be, I thought, and I'm no worse for not being in a suit. A heck of a lot more comfortable. So that's why, when we heard the slam, I said
"I'll take care of it, Ellen, keep briefing them."
I figured she'd nod me on, I'd get the kid out, and we'd be fine. But everyone was being difficult. First off, the tagalong (You know who I mean) starts yelling "What's going on? Where's Ian? What happened to him? Is he ok?" And Ellen says to me at the same time, "Greg, you're just a recruit now let me -" Well, I wasn't gonna take that.
"Just a recruit?" I says, "JUST A RECRUIT? I get one lousy note and you can forget seven years? I'm not Greg anymore, I'm just a recruit? Well it doesn't work that way! You can take the recruiter out of the suit, but you can't take the suit out of the recruiter!" And then I just left. Well, Scarlett's still yelling, Gillian's just standing there confused, Ellen's chasing after me, Marcus and Steve show up and start trying to explain things, and all hell's basically broken loose already. Well, I wasn't gonna let it stop me. I went to the maze room like we always do when- well let me back up.
The door Ian went in is a funny kind of door. It only shows up when the time for the meeting has expired, and it's mainly for unwanted visitors. Well, the ninjas are for unwanted visitors, the real door is for wanted visitors, and this one is for everyone else. They open it, see whatever it is that will make them leave,and then leave. For most it's an empty room. For some it's rats. Now normally, someone just a little late like Ian, would end up at the regular door, but getting him there was the ninja's responsibility, and they were somehow incapacitated. So he'd strayed into the wrong door, only since he knew he should be here, he didn't dream up something to make him go away, he dreamed up something to bring him in. And where he was now, no one else could get into or out of. But I could talk him through it from the maze room, and I'd done it a couple of times before.
I got there, and said into the microphone, "Ian?"
"Who said that?" said the voice, terrified. Poor kid.
"It's okay, it's me, Greg, you met me at the mall remember?"
A beat. "Yeah, hi."
"Hi. Listen kid, what do you see? Tell me exactly."
"Nothing."
"Nothing? Like an empty room?" I asked.
"No, Nothing like nothing."
"Like black?"
"Like black," he said, "Only without the black. It's nothing. I've never really seen nothing before, and it's scary."
Well it sounded scary. This kid had a heck of an imagination.
"Listen up, Ian. Whatever you're seeing, it's in your head. For some reason, the minute you walked through that door, the room became this. What were you thinking about?"
"About this meeting," he stopped, he was thinking, "About what was gonna happen to me if I was late. And then there was a voice on the other side of the door, but there was nobody there, just a long hallway. I started to worry if there was anything out here at all, or if it had all somehow disappeared cause I was late, and then I was here, in all this nothing."
"Is the hallway still there?"
"No, it disappeared."
Well, I was stumped. Most of the things folks dreamed up were hard to get out of, but it just took creative thinking. This kid was giving me, well, nothing. It was just then that I noticed Ellen standing in the doorway.

The waiting game--Gillian (14)

I had been waiting for ten minutes, trying to convince myself to leave, when someone finally showed up. Two someones, in fact.
One was a woman was dressed completely in black, so I guessed she was with the guys that had talked to me. She smelled vaguely of smoke. She looked like she was in a hurry. She paused for a moment in the doorway to collect herself before entering. As she drew in a breath, it was like her face disappeared and was replaced by a mask. Very spooky. "I'm sorry I'm late," she told me, "I had to deal with technical difficulties concerning our mission."
As she spoke, the man standing next to her started shaking. Suddenly I recognized him. It took me a moment since he wasn't wearing black. "Are you one of the black suit guys?" I asked him.
He stopped laughing, his face suddenly smooth like the woman's. Again, very spooky. But cool too.
"Um, yes," he said hesitantly, "yes, I am."
I wanted to ask more questions, but before I could, another person arrived. The moment I saw her, I knew I would hate her.
She was the exact opposite of me. First, of all, she commanded attention the second she walked into the room. How could someone with right red hair down to their butt not attract attention? Plus, she was gorgeous. Like, supermodel gorgeous. I bet her life is perfect. I bet she doesn't spend Friday night sitting at home and watching Stargate on Sci-Fi. Oh no. She probably had a different date for every day of the week. Her Fridays were probably spent with Dave, the hunky football captain, seeing a movie. A horror movie, so that he could put her arm around her when the plot started to darken...
I was shaken out of my teen dreamworld by a hand being shoved into mine. I looked up and saw that it belonged to the red-headed girl. "Hi!" she said, in an entirely too upbeat voice, "My name is Scarlett! What's yours?"
I just stared at her thinking, 'Don't you have better things to do? You have the whole world in the palm of your hand, why do you have to come and shove it in my face?'
The woman in the black suit came to my rescue. "This is Gillian Tailor. She will be joining us on the mission."
When the woman mentioned the mission, Scarlett was suddenly very alert. "So," she said, turning on the woman and using a voice she probably stole from CSI, "What's this mission all about anyways? Why wouldn't you tell us before?"
The woman in black looked very uncomfortable behind her mask. "W-well... You see..." She tried again, "You will be told when you need to know."
"What if I need to know now?" Scarlett asked.
"The you wait." the woman told her.
"Listen," Scarlett told her, I think tha-"
Slam.
We all looked around to see where the noise had come from. "Oh shit," said the woman, dropping her mask, "Ian came in the wrong door."

Late Arrival - Ian (13)

After I left the mall, things had started looking up. All the way home I'd been worried sick about what to tell my parents, so you can imagine my relief when I found the agents had dealt with it. It was a little weird they'd told them more than me, though. FBI? CIA? To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed. I'd been expecting.... I don't know what I'd been expecting. The Matrix, or maybe Men in Black. Instead, it was turning out closer to Alias - you know, still cool, but not the same kind of cool. Oh well. At least I didn't have to go behind their backs. No one was certain on whether or not we were allowed to tell my brother, so it was just as well he was in Belgium. That's starting off on a tangent though; I won't go there.
Anyway, by the time I got there, there was nowhere to park, so I drove around for about ten minutes and ended up having to walk about as far. So, twenty minutes late, I finally found the alley, and ran down it, and found the door.
"You're late, Mr. Wallace" said a voice as I tugged on the door. It wouldn't open. Great, I thought to myself, I'm late, and now they're not gonna let me in.
"I know", I said, not in a great mood, "I couldn't find a place to park. Let me in,"
"You have a car?" inquired the voice. It's tone was steady, and somewhat androgynous. It made me feel very uneasy.
"Not technically," I answered, "I borrowed it from my brother. He's in Belguim studying -"
"How unfortunate" the voice said, cutting me off. Then it changed the subject, "You certainly seem to have packed light,"
Shoot, I thought. " I left my bag in the car," I said. "Look, it's like a ten miute walk, I'm already late-"
"Very well," said the voice. The door swung open, revealing a long hallway.
The strange thing was, there was no one on the other side of the door.

New Game, New Rules- Virgil(11)

Where did they get this Gillian? Certainly was full of herself, thinking she could take out a bunch of ninja's with a swift kick in the balls. These guy's were experienced. They've had deadlier things aimed at their genitals than discount shoes; they knew to wear protection. Still, couldn't let her fall before she even gets the details of her mission. Several feet of string put to good use took care of the ninjas and kept me out of sight. Gillian's feeling all the better for herself, and I Can relax in my hiding place until whatsisname comes along with whatserface. Ah, Ian, here he comes now. Wait, Greg? Greg out of uniform? What is this? Then who is.... Ellen. I haven't seen Ellen since... What is she doing here? Both of my old... Have They figured out my game? No, they're trying to catch me off guard. Well, I suppose they have, but I'll not fall for this. I just have to stay hidden longer than expected for this one. I suppose this will be different. Perhaps I've rewritten their rules. Hopefully they won't do the same to mine.

An Interesting Turn of Events - Ellen (11)

I was not happy about Scarlett. And I was not happy with Greg for introducing Scarlett into the equation. But, for better or for worse-- for, as the agency would say "an indeterminate amount of time"-- Scarlett was going to be in my life. I was not particularly happy with my life at that moment, either.
It's not all that often that we recruit someone as young as Ian Wallace or this Scarlett, but when we do, the parents have to be dealt with. Because I'm good with people-- charismatic enough that I usually get my way-- I am frequently chosen for this particular task. I hate it. I hate dealing with the parents. I hate lying to them.
I hate lying to my parents, too. Or rather, lying to my dad, since I haven't seen my mom since I was thirteen. But it's a part of the job, and I love the job. All but that one part. Dad thinks I sell scarves internationally.
Anyway, it took me about two hours to come up with a story to tell Scarlett's folks and steal the proper documentation from headquarters so that I wouldn't get chewed out. An exciting travel-study opportunity. Her friend Ian was going, too. Yay.
I'll be honest, I do have a hard time keeping a straight face during the lying. I always have to practice beforehand on the serious-recruiter voice and the serious-recruiter face. The whole situation strikes me as funny because it's so very Men In Black, or something of the sort. If any of those parents ever saw me out of serious-recruiter mode, they probably wouldn't even recognize me. So I want to laugh, but afterwards I always feel bad.
After getting Scarlett's parents to sign on, which wasn't all that easy might I add, I had to make Mustang Sally speed to get to the play I had tickets for on time. I toyed with the idea of telling Greg I'd missed it and making him pay, anyway. Instead I decided to simply let him sit on the edge of his seat all night waiting for word on Scarlett. When I left the play there were already five messages on my cell phone. It was fun.
The last thing I did that night before going to bed was check out my list of recruits, and that was when I noticed the last-minute addition. The next evening I was still so distracted by wondering what the agency had in mind with this that I was several blocks away from home before I realized I'd forgotten to unplug my hair straightener.
Greg and I arrived at the end of Dunhill Street at the same time. At first I almost didn't recognize him. He wasn't dressed like a recruiter. He was dressed like a... guy. A normal guy. It was slightly disconcerting. I guess I must have been staring, because he looked at me like a normal guy who's just realized you're staring at him.
"Ellen."
"Greg."
Now he looked at me like a normal guy who is irritated because you're smiling in a slightly amused way and he's embarrassed.
"I've been recruited," he said in an emotionless voice. "Again."
"I saw. And I just laughed and laughed and laughed."
He was not entertained by my teasing. "Did you have anything to do with this?"
"What? Why would I want you recruited?"
"I don't know! To get even with me for the Scarlett thing. Or because you thought it'd be funny. Or something."
"No, Greg, I swear, I had nothing to do with it. I'm not that high up. I'm just as surprised as you are, believe me." I paused. "Although it is kind of funny."
We started to walk down the street to the alley.
"Hey. Aren't you leading this mission?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied. "First time. First mission since being recruited. And then being made a recruiter." I thought he might want to talk about our first mission, and how long ago it seemed, and how it was his second mission too, and the irony of me being promoted and him being recruited again. But he was going a different direction.
"And aren't the leaders supposed to arrive at the rendezvous early?"
"Ye-es..."
"So how come you're just getting here?"
"I was... I encountered... technical difficulties. Concerning the mission."
"And the real reason is...?"
"My bathroom was on fire."
"Again?"
"Gee, Greg, I just hope Fluffy isn't too lonely while you're gone."
He stopped and turned to me.
"How do you know about..."
"Data, Greg. We know everything," I answered in my very best recruiter voice. I could see him turning red.
It was then that we reached the alley leading to 1437 Dunhill, and stopped.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
This probably had something to do with the ninjas being unconscious on the ground.
"Oh, crap," I muttered. "Gillian's already here."