January 12, 2008
Abby and Jenny watched as the professor was led away by Connor quickly; the younger woman took a step towards the other and set a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't take it personally," she said with a gentle smile. "The professor's a bit…eccentric, but he's a good guy when you get to know him."
"You don't say," Jenny replied, inhaling slowly. Lester raised his eyebrows.
"Yes. I suppose I don't even need to say my pride is breaking just to say this, but he's one of the most brilliant men of this century. Not that the bar is set very high…" He pursed his lips, swallowing.
"See? If he says so, it's got to be right," Abby said, lowering her voice. "He's not about to dish out any frivolous complements without legitimate reason."
Jenny smiled a little at that. "So…this place functions a bit like a family? Everybody seems to be very relaxed around one another."
"One of the facts of life I greatly lament," Lester said, pacing back upstairs to his office. Abby cocked her head to the side, swallowing before speaking to Jenny.
"You know…Cutter thought he knew me before we met," she murmured. Jenny gave a light laugh in reply.
"As who? Another Claudia—Brown?"
Abby smiled sympathetically. "No—he thought he knew me. He decided after a little while that he just knew someone who looked like me. Said it was years ago, I would've just been a kid."
Jenny raised her eyebrows. "Obviously a ladies' man, then, this professor? It says in his profile he has a wife, Helen Cutter, who continues to elude authority's grasp."
Abby smirked a little at that. "Ladies' man…? Perhaps in his own mind. Bit like Connor."