Franklin quietly followed Xǐ Què and Xiàng Rì Kuí—known to the rest of the world as Flynn Carsen and Eve Baird, respectively—as they slowly walked down the long tunnel that led from the workroom to the front door of the Annex. The tall woman, whom Franklin had named 'Sunflower' for her height and yellow hair, had her arm around the waist of the man Franklin called 'Magpie' because of his chattiness, and he had his arm around hers. When they at last reached the door and opened it, a burst of cool air, bearing all sorts of new smells and sounds, reached the small reptile, and his attention immediately shifted to the whole new world he spied outside the open steel door.

The Librarian slipped his arms again around the Guardian's waist, from behind this time, as they stood on the walkway just outside the door. The night sky was gently giving way to a pale, yellow-tinged horizon as the sun began its climb into a new day. The air was chilly and still, their only company being the birds beginning their morning by rushing about in search of food for their nests full of hungry offspring. Eve leaned against Flynn, the warmth of his body comforting against her back.

"Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day," she commented quietly. "Perfect and cloud-free." Flynn couldn't resist nuzzling her neck.

"Every day is perfect with you in it!" he murmured into her ear, and Eve smiled at the endearment. She turned around in his arms and placed her lips on his. She kissed him slowly, and Flynn returned it eagerly, tightening his arms around the most perfect woman he had ever known. Eventually they broke apart, reluctantly, and just as he was about to suggest moving things to someplace more private, he felt something brush against his lower leg and heard a soft squeak. The startled man yelped and jumped back from Eve; she, startled in turn, jumped back from him.

"Flynn! What the…?" she started to ask, when a movement caught the corner of her eye. She turned her head just in time to see Franklin, Jenkins's pet tea dragon (though he stubbornly refused to use that word) sprinting across the open grassy area outside of the Annex.

"Franklin! NO!" she yelled, and started off after the small creature. He was far too fast for her, though, and he soon disappeared from view in the dim dawn light after she had covered only a few yards. Flynn caught up to her, his mouth hanging open. She turned to look at him, dismay in her blue eyes.

"Jesus, Flynn—Librarian or Guardian or not, Jenkins is going to KILL us!" Eve stared in horrified disbelief at the open ground in front of the Annex. She turned and began marching quickly back to the open door, Carsen in her wake.

"Why? It's not our fault he got out, we didn't do it on purpose! It was an accident!" he protested, waving his arms.

"We should've been more careful, Flynn! We shouldn't have left the door standing open!" Eve remonstrated.

"What, we can't even kiss in an open doorway of our own Library while we watch the sun rise anymore?" As soon as they were inside he pulled the door shut behind them, hard, then stalked into the tunnel that led to the workroom, Eve now hurrying after him.

"God, Flynn, he is just going to freak! He loves that dragon like it was his own child! How are we going to explain this to Jenkins?" she asked worriedly.

"Explain what to Jenkins?" the Caretaker asked blandly as the bickering pair burst into the workroom. The Guardian and the Librarian stopped in their tracks and stared at the tall man.

"Uh...Jenkins! Hi! Good morning! We weren't expecting to see you up so early! How are you? Did you sleep well last night? Any interesting dreams you'd care to share with us?" babbled Flynn, clearly uncomfortable now. Eve elbowed him in the ribs.

"Tell him!" she stage-whispered. Jenkins merely stood silently, regarding them with a resigned look on his face; whatever it was they had to tell him was sure to be irritating at the very least; it always was. Flynn straightened up and adjusted his jacket nervously.

"Yes, well, uh...it seems there's been a little...accident. With Franklin," he said, forcing as much calm bravado into his voice as he could muster. Resignation was quickly replaced by alarm on the immortal's features.

"An accident!?" he repeated apprehensively. "Has he been injured? Is he ill? Where is he?" Jenkins stepped toward Carsen, and the younger man automatically backed away from the much larger, much stronger Caretaker.

"No! No! No! Not injured! At least, I don't think he is," Flynn said. "At least, not the last time I saw him..." Sensing that something very unpleasant was being kept from him, Jenkins's eyes became hard as he furrowed his brow.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on with Franklin?" he demanded, his patience quickly thinning. "Where is he!?" Eve and Flynn exchanged glances, the Guardian making a gesture indicating that Flynn needed to tell the truth, now.

"We, um…accidentally—it's very important that you understand that part, Jenkins—we accidentally left the front door open and…Franklin got out of the Annex and ran off into the park somewhere and we couldn't catch him!" Flynn blurted. It took a few seconds for his words to register with the older man, and when they did his normally placid face darkened with a mixture of anger and fear.

"Got out of the Annex?!" he bellowed, eyes widening. "You mean, out into the city of Portland!?"

"Well…uh… It's your own fault, Jenkins!" Carsen barked defensively. "You shouldn't let Franklin run loose in the Annex anyway! How could you be so irresponsible? Pretty careless for someone who calls himself a caretaker, am I right? 'Taking care' is sort of in the job description, right?" Eve turned and stared wide-eyed at the Librarian.

"Don't blame this on him, Flynn!" she countered. "We shouldn't have left the door open! We both knew that Franklin was loose, we should've been more careful! There's no one to blame here but us!" She turned to face the dumbfounded Jenkins.

"He doesn't mean that, Jenkins! He's just upset. It was just an accident, I swear!" Eve said quickly, stepping between the two men. "Don't worry, Flynn and I will find him for you and bring him back!"

"And how will you do that, exactly, Colonel, if I may be so bold as to ask?" Jenkins asked, becoming more distraught by the second. "An animal that size could be anywhere! He can go anywhere, fit anywhere!" Eve thought she could hear tears beginning to tinge the old knight's voice as distress gave way to anguish, his thoughts racing to a slew of worst-case scenarios.

"He's only a small tea dragon, Colonel—he's virtually defenseless in a modern city like Portland! What if someone captures him? What if he becomes caught in a trap of some kind? What if he eats something poisonous? He could be hit by a car! Merciful Iesu—what if a dog should get hold of him!?" Jenkins's face paled at the idea. "I have to go look for him, Colonel! I have to find him before something terrible happens to him!" He started for the hallway, but Baird laid a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Don't worry, Jenkins, we'll find him," she said calmly, giving his arm a light squeeze as she tried to reassure him. "You stay here in case he finds his own way back. We'll get the others and scour the park. He hasn't been gone very long, he can't have gone far. I've hunted down IEDs that were smaller and better hidden than him, Jenkins. We'll find him, I promise you. We'll find him!" She turned back to Flynn.

"Go get the others, Flynn," she ordered, but he didn't move. Instead, he stood staring at her skeptically.

"Eve, do you have any idea how long it'll take to search a park this size for a creature who is designed by Nature to blend into vegetation?" he said. "And we can't exactly put up posters or anything like that, either. The odds of finding a tea dragon the size of Franklin in an area the size of Cathedral Park are hundreds of thousands—maybe even millions—to one!" The Librarian paced excitedly as his mind automatically began figuring the odds under varying conditions, much to his Caretaker's horror.

"And the odds against finding him totally explode into the trillions to one if he gets out of the park and into the city itself—We skip right over the 'billions' phase!" Before he knew what had happened, Eve had him by the lapels, her face directly in front of his, a steely look on her lovely face. She spoke slowly, clearly enunciating her words.

"Go. Get. The others. Flynn. NOW!" She let go of his coat and he stumbled backward a few steps.

"Of course, being Librarians, we eat the impossible for breakfast! Every day, in fact! Twice before Friday!" he prattled nonsensically, realizing his mistake. "In fact, we eat it thrice before Fridays, because we're just that hungry for the impossible! Starved for it, in fact...!" Eve glared at the babbling man, her eyes boring into his. Carsen began backing away from her slowly. "I'll...just...go and get the others, why don't I, aaaand then we'll go scour the park!" Carsen turned and rushed from the workroom to gather the other Librarians while Eve tried to soothe and reassure a now highly-agitated Jenkins.