...there's apparently a tag limit - who knew?
But op. Op op op op op! Hit me up because I have been THINKING about this exact thing for the past two to three months and even have a basic fic outline about polyarchives and how it would change with Not-Sasha introduced.
Because Jon? By nature, by hearing that his predecessor had not only died but had been murdered on job, and because of the added effects of the Not-Them, is still his paranoid, season 2 self. That wouldn't change - he would pull away from the assistants and they would try to help (like the intervention) but it wouldn't fix anything. That paranoia runs too deep.
But Martin and Tim would still act normal with Sasha - or, Not-Sasha but the boys don't know that fact.
And so there's a lot of touches, fleeting and quick - an arm around her shoulders there, a brush of hands when they're exchanging items, maybe Tim leaning up against her at one point in exhaustion, Martin offering hugs. In fact! I think they would be even More touchy after Jane, because, hey, it sucked, but at least they made it through! All intact! At least they are still together! And they can help each other - talk about what happened, even if Sasha is a bit cagey, even if Martin still turns green around the edges whenever he thinks about worms, even if Tim sometimes can't stop scratching the little holes that are slowly turning into scars until they're red and bleeding. They can make it through because they're Together.
But I'm getting off track. There's a lot of touching, a lot of jokes, a lot of actions (Martin bringing tea, Tim offering to let Sasha stay home because (a date she should know like her mother's death, her father's birthday, something) he knows what the day is to her and Martin and he can split the work), a lot of invites to do things outside of work.
And to the Not-Them? This is all so confusing. But confusion is what they strive in, right? Confusion is what keeps them going - the pieces of the people that don't seem exactly right.
And one of three things can happen and they're all DEVASTATING.
Because the Not-Sasha can pull away. She can pull away from their affection, cause fear in that way, that an event as big as Prentiss can't keep the four of them together - Martin and Tim figure that Jon already pulled away, what's one more? And it hurts, sure. Sasha doesn't even really look at them anymore, just focuses on her work. She claims she has a new boyfriend with not a look at either of them - and when Jon figures that out, you can bet he is also staring blankly, wondering what happened, even if he was the one to pull away first.
However, the Archival Crew, since they know each other's quirks, could also notice something was wrong. Because once you know someone so well as to enter a relationship with them - especially Three someones - well, it'll be hard to change. Sure, a lot of that could be explained away with the trauma caused by Jane Prentiss, but not everything. It's in the way she takes her tea without sugar now, or the fact she stops wearing her mother's wedding ring on a chain around her neck. It's the fact she cut her hair when she once said she hated dealing with short hair cause it stuck up everywhere. It's the blank look when Tim tells her to tell her sister happy birthday for him - a look of someone having no idea what you're talking about.
It's the little things they'd notice that they would find wrong. And maybe they bring it to Jon on a day Sasha is gone, and Jon just stares at them, a faint recognition in his eyes warring with distrust, before he springs around his office, a ball of energy as he starts digging through the files ranting about Amy Patel and Graham and the Not-Graham. How Amy was the only one to remember and -
And that plotline would just spiral from there. Maybe the three of them decide to destroy the table? Maybe Leitner doesn't die (or he still does but Jon isn't framed). And then the PolyArchives would turn into Jon/Tim/Martin.
But the third option? The Not-Them plays into it. The Not-Them starts flirting back, they start suggesting going to this new restaurant that opened down the way, they attempt to make tea and laugh in self-deprecation but agreement as Tim just nicely tells them to leave the teamaking to Martin - it's one of the reasons they have him around, right? (And Tim would say it with a wink, a smile in Martin's direction to show that he is kidding, and Martin would know.)
And the Not-Them would defend him, saying he also gave great hugs and was nice - and would start listing off these qualities because they Knew that was what you did when interacting with partners. You were supposed to Like them, and the Not-Them could certainly give off the idea that they did.
There are movie nights that they were sometimes able to drag Jon (despite mountains of protest from Tim because "if that prick wanted to come to our movie night, he wouldn't be stalking us right now.") and picnics in the park.
Teasing around the archives, lunch dates.
Not-Sasha would just blink at the affection shown - cause generally they would pick someone more isolated, less people around in case they slipped up with something - and then make themself fit in seamlessly, only doing something Wrong every now and then to keep the group on their toes. And the Not-Them would laugh it off, say "Sorry, I have had Such a long day." And the boys would accept it, but it would still play in the back of their minds.
