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Post by skybright on Sept 28, 2006 22:32:24 GMT -5
The morning after Tara's birthday party dawned clear and somewhat cool; there was the faintest hint of oncoming Fall in the air as Daws unlocked the front door of Grimalkin, Inc. and pulled open the shades of the front windows.
Time marches on, she thought wryly. The hectic events of her life recently sometimes seemed like they'd lasted for several years rather than several months.
The weather made her think of the upcoming election -- November wasn't all that far away -- and she wondered briefly how James Marcus Cole was faring as the mayoral campaign heated up.
Guess he'd contact us if he had anything interesting to report. She shrugged to herself, slipped out of her coat and fedora, and unlocked the inner office door.
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 28, 2006 22:38:58 GMT -5
Joey was in a good mood as he made his way to Daws' office. In spite of his lingering trepidation about being in the same room with Major Vance, he had thoroughly enjoyed the party the night before--particularly the company of Tara Rosenstein. He hoped he would have the chance to meet her again.
Reaching Grimalkin, he noted that the window shades were up, so Daws must already have been there. He took out his own key and let himself in.
"Morning, Daws," he called toward the inner office.
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Post by skybright on Sept 28, 2006 22:48:17 GMT -5
Daws stuck her head out of the doorway of the inner office and grinned. "Morning, kid. I've got coffee brewing if you want any."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 28, 2006 23:01:05 GMT -5
Joey chuckled. "I don't drink it. You seriously think I need coffee?" He bounced on his heels slightly to demonstrate his point, grinning.
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Post by skybright on Sept 28, 2006 23:07:34 GMT -5
Daws laughed. "You do have an extremely good point, there."
She disappeared briefly back into the inner office, then re-emerged a moment later with a cup of coffee, and perched on the arm of one of the waiting-room chairs. "So," she said, tail twitching slightly, "You have a good time last night?"
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 28, 2006 23:13:58 GMT -5
Joey grinned. "You bet I did. It was fun to see some of the team from Our Lady off the court. And..." He blushed. "Well, I liked Miss Rosenstein."
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Post by skybright on Sept 28, 2006 23:20:25 GMT -5
"Ah-ha." Daws grinned teasingly and raised an eyebrow. "First Alex and Miriam, then Handy and Grace -- don't tell me you're gonna join the club now, too."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 28, 2006 23:25:46 GMT -5
Joey's blush darkened, and he ducked his head. "Ah, I dunno if I'll ever even see her again." He shyly raised his eyes with a shrug, and admitted, "But I'd like to."
Then he grinned deviously. "Anyway, you can't count yourself outta that 'club' either. Not with Major Vance around!"
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Post by skybright on Sept 28, 2006 23:31:43 GMT -5
Daws cleared her throat and suddenly developed a keen interest in her coffee. "I'm sure I don't have any idea what you're talkin' about."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 28, 2006 23:40:22 GMT -5
Joey chuckled. "C'mon, everybody's saying it--that you like Major Vance." His expression became slightly more serious. "Seriously... is there really no reason for everybody to think that? I mean, I know how things look sometimes--but if you say everybody's just reading it wrong, I'd believe ya."
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Post by skybright on Sept 28, 2006 23:49:19 GMT -5
"Well . . ." Daws half-shrugged and fell silent for a moment before finally glancing back up at Joey, looking sheepish. "I dunno. I suppose I do. Like him, I mean." She rolled her eyes. "Jeeze, if that didn't make me sound like a high schooler."
Then she smiled faintly and shrugged one shoulder. "Then again, the last time I 'liked' anybody, I wasn't all that much older than you are."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 29, 2006 0:05:03 GMT -5
Joey laughed. "Don't worry, I won't razz you on it anymore. I know you're gettin' enough of that from everybody else."
He shook his head. "I'm still glad I've got you between me and Major Vance, though. He hasn't been as scary the last couple of times I've seen him, but I don't think he'll ever like me." He grinned. "And I don't mean that kinda liking."
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Post by skybright on Sept 29, 2006 0:16:15 GMT -5
Daws smiled. "Oh, I don't know. You're an awful hard person to not like, given enough time."
She shrugged. "Anyway, I made it pretty clear to Vance that he better lay off you, one way or another. And 'like' him or not, I'll back that up. He knows it, too -- that I'll back it up, I mean." She added quickly. "Not that I . . . um . . ."
She gave up with a hopeless chuckle. "This whole thing is too complicated for me."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 29, 2006 21:30:34 GMT -5
Joey chuckled and shook his head, then shrugged.
There was a tap at the front door then. Proteus stood outside, his evening dress from the night before once again replaced with rather quaint, weathered sailing clothes.
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Post by skybright on Sept 29, 2006 22:04:04 GMT -5
Daws stood and crossed to let Proteus in.
"Good morning." She gestured him into the office with a lopsided grin. "Welcome back to our humble offices."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 29, 2006 22:37:18 GMT -5
Proteus smiled demurely at Daws. "Good morning." He nodded to Joey, who regarded him with curiosity and slight trepidation. "Don't be nervous, boy. After all, I came here to see you as you are normally."
"What do you want me to do?" Joey asked.
"Just pretend I'm not here. Later I'll have some questions to ask you--things I should know the answers to, if anyone asks me about them when I'm pretending to be you. But for now, I just want to learn your habits, the way you talk. That sort of thing."
The shapeshifter turned his silver eyes toward Daws. "What do you have planned for him to do today?"
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Post by skybright on Sept 29, 2006 22:44:37 GMT -5
Daws shrugged. "We've got a couple of boxes of older casefiles in the storage closet that I'd like to try and get sorted out. Someone might call in a case, but work's been pretty slow around here recently."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 29, 2006 22:53:02 GMT -5
"Lucky for your friends," Proteus observed, somewhat cheekily. "You wouldn't have much time to play vigilante if you were actually working hard."
"Not more case files," Joey sighed. "There must be an end to 'em someplace. There's only so many people you could have worked for in all these years!"
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Post by skybright on Sept 29, 2006 23:07:25 GMT -5
Daws rolled her eyes at the pair. "For the information of both of you, this place has a record of being consistently busy. That just happens to mean a lot of paperwork gets generated."
Then she grinned. "And in my defense, I think some of those files in the closet are from before my time -- when Jack was running the place alone." She shrugged. "If you think my organizational skills are bad, you should've seen his. There's no telling what could be back there."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 29, 2006 23:18:48 GMT -5
"Just as long as he didn't file any bloody knives as evidence," Joey sighed longsufferingly. "Okay, okay, let's get at it."
He moved off to find the files in question, and Proteus smiled impishly at Daws. "There's no middle ground for that boy, is there? Either he's holding his breath waiting for Tiernan to find him out, or he's numbing his brain on office work. I think he must be tougher than I expected."
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