Before her first day was even over, Stephen and Ajība both knew without a doubt that Jenny Lewis was going to end up strangling Nick Cutter. He could see it already. Apparently, Jenny looked like Cutter's semi-imaginary girlfriend, but apparently, her dæmon was wrong. How exactly one could have the "wrong" dæmon was beyond him, but he just figured that Cutter was being more mad than usual, and Laiguline was no different, always pacing by his feet, hissing and bristling at seemingly nothing.
Stephen liked Jenny. She wasn't so bad, considering. She had kept it together better than most would when faced with the whole "creatures from the ancient past as well as the distant future through holes in space-time" thing, and damned if she couldn't keep the press and the public well out of the way when it was most important. In his opinion, her dæmon was just right for her: a snow-white Arctic fox named Zurial. What better for Public Relations than a fox? Still, she and Cutter got along like a house in water. He would say a fox and a serval, but that didn't have quite the same ring to it as cats and dogs. He was just waiting for the day when they'd need to call security to break up a fight.
"She's gonna kill him," Ajība announced from where she sat on his desk, watching Jenny stride in the direction of Cutter's office like a woman on a mission, Zurial streaking alongside her ankle-snapping heels, his pristine white fur fluffed up in aggravation.
"Hmm. What do you think, Abby?" Stephen asked.
"He's a dead man," the blond agreed as Aegis, her armadillo lizard dæmon, added, "Miss Lewis in the study with a candlestick."
Ajība laughed. "We haven't got any candlesticks in the ARC, I don't think. My money's on the spanner."
Stephen loaded his tranquiliser rifle as Ajība spoke with Aegis, discussing the strength of the tranquiliser doses they had and which would be best used. Connor was a few feet away from the Hilux, Imzadi perched on his shoulder, getting a reading on his handheld detector.
"Professor, the anomaly signal's fading already. I don't think it's going to be open much longer," the student announced as the Scotsman approached. Laiguline appeared even more weary today, lacking the usual energy in her step.
"Good. Perhaps we'll go home without any trouble today," he replied gruffly, striding over to take up a tranquiliser pistol from the gun cases. He hated carrying the damn things, but Stephen had insisted on it after one too many close calls with toothy creatures. His eyes shifted to the car that was pulling up to the kerb, and Laiguline hissed softly as Jenny Lewis got out.
Stephen sighed quietly. "Cutter, don't antagonize her today. Let's just get this done and go home."
"I do not antagonize her," the other man protested, then paused. "Do I?"
"Do dogs chase cats?" he deadpanned, shouldering the rifle. Cutter was still sputtering indignantly when Stephen walked over to Connor. "I don't know how we'll ever get anything done with those two at each other's throats all the time," he muttered under his breath to the younger man.
Connor was still studying the display on the handheld, reaching up with the other hand reaching up to scratch under Imzadi's chin. The genet dæmon cooed softly, her ringed tail curled lightly around his neck. "Oh, I dunno, Stephen. I think they make a good couple."
Had he been drinking anything at the moment, he might have spit it all over himself. "A good what? Are we talking about the same two people? We must not be," Stephen protested as Ajība stared pointedly at Imzadi; the other dæmon only smiled. "They hate each other."
"Nah," Connor dismissed lightly with a wave of the hand. "That's just how they flirt."
"Flirt," Ajība repeated quietly, and she murmured in his ear, "I don't know many people that flirt with threats of paperwork and bodily harm. Do you?" Stephen shook his head. "Didn't think so."
The anomaly had been particularly brutal.
An entire pack of raptors had been disgorged into a public library. The library was closed for the day, thankfully, but by the time they got all seven raptors taken care of, three soldiers had been killed, four more were injured, and they were all exhausted. Stephen sat on the back of an ambulance, letting a medic wrap up his sprained wrist, Ajība curled into a tight ball of fur on his lap, and he stroked her silky fur with his free hand. He wouldn't ever be forgetting the awful things he'd seen today, the terrible screams of the soldiers, their dæmons wailing in pain before exploding into shimmers of gold Dust as they died, the smell of blood and fear.
Connor and Abby were huddled next to each other in the back of the Hilux, heads bowed close together. Aegis was curled tightly on Abby's shoulder, Imzadi buried in the geek's coat so only the tips of her ears and the end of her stripy wail were visible. And on a bench a few feet off, Cutter was sitting next to Jenny. They weren't looking at each other, weren't even physically touching each other, sitting stiff and inclined away from each other. But that wasn't what Stephen was looking at. Beneath the bench, Zurial was curled into a shaking ball of white fur near Jenny's feet, and Laiguline was curled around him, the serval gently licking the fox's ears and muzzle. After a moment, he straightened up and leant against the other dæmon, tenderly grooming the thicker fur around her neck with sharp fangs, and Laiguline began purring softly. Jenny and Cutter still hadn't moved, but the PR's eyes were closed, shoulders relaxed, and there was a small smile playing at the corners of the professor's mouth.
"Well, I'll be damned," Ajība muttered, having lifted her head to take in the sight for herself. "Connor was right."
Jenny Lewis and Nick Cutter got along like a house in water, but then again, as Shakespeare said it, reason and love kept little company together nowadays.