Sitting in a booth in the back of the Corner Coffee Shop, Helen Anderson sipped quietly on her sole addiction - a steaming mug of hazelnut mocha. Leaning back in the booth, she shut her cornflower blue eyes and leaned her head back against the booth. In the grand scheme of things it was not a bad vice to love mocha coffee, and the staff here knew how she liked it. They should. This shop had been hers for the past year and a half.
She had started working there as a waitress, telling herself that it was temporary - a fill in job till she found something better. What she hadn't counted on was Angus. Angus Little was in his sixties when she met him for the first time. He'd tried most sorts of jobs at some point in his life, everything from firefighter to bank teller. His passions had always been food and travel. When he retired - which apparently had lasted for all of three months - he decided that what he really wanted to do was open a coffee shop and interact with his customers on a daily basis. So he did.
The sly old goat had welcomed her into his 'family' and within days she never wanted to leave. Angus wasn't a boss; he was a friend. That was the way that he treated his staff and that was the way that he wanted them to treat him. It had to have been the happiest workplace in all of Washington DC.
She'd been at work the day the world learned of the arrival of the Taelons. Staring at the TV screen she hadn't realised that she was still pouring powdered chocolate on top of a forgotten mug of coffee. Words had been redundant. Angus had simply put his arms around her and said that, "Everything will turn out all right in the long run. Just wait and see."
She hadn't been that much different from the rest of the planet, acknowledged Helen ruefully. She'd been bewitched and fascinated by the Companions. Well... in her defence, when you happen to work in a bit of Washington that suddenly grew a new embassy, you tended to pay a bit more attention to the new neighbours.
Under Angus' quiet encouragement, she'd plucked up her courage and decided to give college another try. At twenty-eight, she'd gone back to complete the last year of her business degree. It had seemed only fitting that she invite him to her graduation. They'd both taken a day off from working in the coffee shop and Angus had beamed throughout the entire graduation ceremony, his pride in her clearly evident.
Eyes still closed, Helen reached up to finger her long blonde hair - a nervous habit that she'd had since childhood - as she remembered that day. Had she known then, that Angus was dying of an incurable blood disease and would be gone from their lives within the month, she doubted that she would have made it through the ceremony without breaking down in tears.
It had come as a complete surprise to her that he had left her the shop. The letter he had left for her simply said that his own family was gone, and, of his 'adopted' family she was the one he trusted with his dream. She would do right by her friends and the shop; her business degree was an added bonus. Tears had come then... he'd written the letter three months before her graduation. His faith in her had been that strong.
So, from being a waitress in a place she didn't want to work, she'd become the boss and the de facto head of Angus' family. The other staff had welcomed the choice. While a few might be older, Helen was a small town girl with her head on straight. She'd been a bit rough around the edges, but, with Angus' support, she'd developed into a kind and generous woman that radiated serenity.
As for the shop, she'd taken that from strength to strength. It served good food and great coffee. The atmosphere was relaxed and the staff was friendly. They had an eclectic clientele, everything from the local offices, to the cops that walked the beat in that area. Surprisingly, they were also very popular among the Volunteer Corps. One day, not long after she had taken over, Agent Sandoval had stopped in with two of the Volunteers.
They were apparently on their way to a meeting somewhere and, by the looks of things they had been awake for hours. Tired smiles had appeared at the steaming mugs of coffee that she had produced. Apparently, they had gone down a storm. Word had spread quickly and soon off-duty Volunteers were dropping by more and more often.
Their location was a mixed blessing. With the Taelon Embassy less than half a mile away, the shop was now located in the middle of some prime real estate, but it did have its down side. When Paul Chandler had tried his kamikaze assault on the Embassy, its resultant defensive measures had rattled more than a few windows and dropped more than a few mugs and plates from their storage shelves. Any time there was a security alert; there was a one-mile blockade around the Embassy - which was more than a little awkward when a person was trying to get home.
Lisa's voice roused Helen from her musings and she heard the young girl say, "See you tomorrow, Major Kincaid. Have a nice day."
Kincaid replied in his distinctive voice, "Thanks, Lisa. With my daily allotment of your fabulous mocha how could I have anything else but a good day?
"See you tomorrow."
Helen smiled where she sat. Major Kincaid liked mocha, which showed remarkably good taste as far as she was concerned - she liked him. Today was going to be a good day.
And it was. In spite of the fact that there was a minor little incident with an anti-Taelon extremist and a bomb at the Volunteer Center just up the block. The bomb squad and the Volunteers came, saw and conquered, and then, when their business was out of the way, they got down to the really important matters. They came in for coffee and marshmallows.
Just another day in the life of the Corner Coffee Shop of Washington DC - at least, it was a normal day since the arrival of the Taelons.