Marcus smiled. "You've given me an honest trial. That's all I asked for." Peter leaned back in his chair and looked at the younger man he had once treated with suspicion beside an open control cabinet.
"You asked for a lot less than you should have," he said. Marcus shook his head. "Maybe at first. But I know what I'm worth now. That's why I asked HR to put the pay range in writing."
Peter grinned. "Good. Finally." Then he held out his hand, and Marcus shook it, both of them aware that whatever the committee decided, the relationship between them had changed. Peter had become a better supervisor by learning to make room for questions he did not expect. Marcus had become a stronger technician by finding people willing to explain the things he did not yet know.
Upstairs, the board committee reviewed a proposal with little of the drama that had surrounded the first repair. Ruth Bennett presented the staffing costs, the reduction in repeated vendor calls, and the improvement in documented fault resolution times. Olivia presented the independent evaluation, including its limitations and training needs. Peter's department had made the case that the additional position was justified by ongoing work, not by the public appeal of hiring a man whose talent had once gone unnoticed.
Adrian remained skeptical. He argued that the department could absorb the workload if its existing staff were organized efficiently enough, and that making permanent positions from temporary assignments could weaken budget discipline. Ruth asked him which specific tasks he proposed removing, postponing, or assigning elsewhere. Adrian had no complete answer, and for once the silence was permitted to remain long enough for everyone to notice.
Natalie spoke only after the other committee members had finished. "We created the temporary assignment because our system had failed to recognize relevant experience," she said. "That did not entitle Mr. Reed to a permanent job. His assessment, his work, and the staffing need are what entitle us to consider hiring him now. If we reject the position, we should do it because the evidence does not support it, not because we are embarrassed by the route he took to get here."
Ruth closed the financial summary and recommended approval. The other voting members agreed, subject to the standard employment conditions already specified by HR. The position would include continued safety training, a mentor assignment, and the predictable schedule Marcus had negotiated at the beginning. The committee also approved another technical apprenticeship slot for the following quarter, though Natalie insisted that the selection be open, transparent, and based on an assessment rather than personal recommendation alone.
When the meeting ended, Natalie asked Adrian to remain. She had been reviewing his handling of the facilities program and had found a pattern of discouraging inconvenient reports, pressing for premature sign-off, and treating budget appearance as more important than documented risk. She did not accuse him of causing every technical failure or turn him into a villain responsible for the building's weaknesses. She told him he would no longer oversee safety escalation decisions while the company reorganized reporting authority and completed a formal management review.