At the zoo, Megan was going absolutely nuts
A/N: My apologies to anyone reading this story—I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated! (it's that time of year again…final crunching time for school). So anyway, if you recall, Link, Malon, and Megan were chilling at the zoo. . .
&-
At the zoo, Megan was going absolutely nuts.
"ELEPHANT SHREW!!" she cried. "Malon, c'mere, c'mere, c'mere, look!"
"Ooh, look at the weeny rodent!" Malon squealed.
"It's so cute!" the two of them gushed.
"Yeah, yeah, really cute," Link said. He wasn't being sarcastic, but he wasn't being enthusiastic, either. Sure, a shrew with an overly-long nose was pretty, well, adorable, but Link was more for a ferocious animal than a cute critter.
This dawned on Malon, and she grinned and straightened. "Where would you like to go now, Link?"
"Yeah, where?" Megan asked, not looking away from her precious shrew.
"Oh, I don't care," Link said sheepishly, placing his hands in his pockets. "I really don't…mind…"
"Aw, come on," Malon goaded him. "Just pick any place in the park."
"Okay, um…are there any of those big cats around?" he asked, turning red.
"Yeah, we passed them on our way to the mouse house," Megan said, hopping down from the step she'd been perched on. "Cats are cool! Let's go!"
Watching Megan skip ahead of them, chasing a peacock, Malon felt compelled to say something. "I never knew if I…I mean, I can never decide if I agree with zoos or not," she said, chuckling a little. "I mean, what they do. On one hand, they protect countless species, endangered and not, from becoming extinct, but on the other hand…"
"They confine wild animals to areas significantly smaller than their natural habitat," Link finished for her. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."
"I just feel cruel sometimes, you know?" Malon sighed. "Like we're…flaunting our freedom by pointing and gaping at these poor creatures…they don't deserve it."
Link nodded. "I expect it's a dilemma we'll both be stuck with for a while. Like you said, there are arguments for both cases. It saves so many animals…there are just some idiots who go around abusing the opportunity to see them."
Malon followed his gaze and realized what Link was glaring at. On their way to the big cats, the group had inadvertently walked into the ape house. A pair of garishly dressed tourists was standing in front of a lone gorilla's cage. The big simian was lying on his side, his hands covering his ears, and his eyes screwed shut.
"Come on, fella, let's see your monkey face!" the middle-aged woman squealed in a high-pitched voice. She rapped her knuckles on the glass. "Come on, pose for a picture with the pretty lady!" She flashed a photo of him, and the bright light made him cringe slightly.
Her husband had joined in the knocking on the glass. Link grimaced and took note of the sign posted right by the tourists in clear view; the sign projecting rules which each individual seemed to regard themselves as the exception to:
1) Do not tap glass
2) No flash photography
3) Do not ask primates for directions.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Link said in the politest voice he could muster. "I don't think he likes that."
"Likes what?" she asked distractedly, still hitting the glass.
He restrained the urge to grab her wrist. "You knocking on the glass. You're not supposed to do it, they don't like it."
"Do you work here, young man?" the woman's husband asked, as if Link's lack of authority made him unimportant.
"He doesn't need to have to work here to know that what you're doing is wrong!" piped up a small girl's voice. The tourists found themselves turning and looking at little Megan, who had popped out of nowhere, it seemed. Her speech went on. "Would either of you like it if you were in a cage all day, and someone in tacky clothes came up and knocked on the glass forever?"
"Yeah, it's like Chinese water torture," Malon added.
Looking slightly embarrassed, the couple muttered something incomprehensible and left the ape house.
"From the mouths of babes!" Malon said in a low voice. She laughed and shook her head. "Only a Cleverly."
"Yeah, you really told 'em off, Megan," Link said as they proceeded out of the building as well. He gave her a high five. "Thanks for helping me out."
"You're welcome! Now let's go to that cat place!"
"Yes, ma'am," Link said.
"Ma'am?" Megan giggled. "That's what everyone calls, like, my mom. Well, except her boss. I heard her telling Mrs. Vaughn that he thinks she's a—"
And then she uttered a word that made old women passing by gasp in chock. Malon, looking scandalized, cried, "Megan!"
"What?" the little girl asked innocently.
Malon and Link exchanged significant looks; he appeared to be trying hard not to laugh, whereas she was frowning at him.
"Was that a bad word?" asked Megan, looking rather cute.
"Well, uh…" Malon thought she should choose her words carefully. "Let's just say it's not a word used in, uh…high society."
"Yeah, outside of a kennel!" Link blurted. He and Malon burst out laughing so loudly that they didn't hear Megan asking what a kennel was. And that was when they reached the big cat house.
"Ooh, it's big," Megan observed. "Just like the cats."
Megan and Malon were immediately enraptured with a pair of snow leopards. The animals' blue eyes matched the paint of the scenery on the walls of their cage. The smaller leopard put her paw up on the wall and pressed against it, as if hoping she could break through.
"They're beautiful," Malon breathed. "A friend of mine had her car seats covered in fake fur patterned like that."
Megan tugged at Malon's hand, and pointed to the plaques with many random bits of snow leopard information on them. "Could you read that to me?"
Link tapped Malon on the shoulder and pointed forward a ways. "I'll be just up there, okay?"
Malon glanced at where he was pointing and smiled. "Have fun, tiger."
Making a face at her, Link walked towards the tigers. He had always had a certain fondness and fascination for the animal; the way a tiger paced the ground, yawned, looked just like an overgrown housecat. Three tigers were in the capacious enclosure, a thick sheet of glass separating their outside area from the people indoors. Two of them were in a fight, rearing back on their hind legs, batting each other on the side of the head. The last tiger was further away, attempting to walk up a very thin, pliant tree.
A loud outburst of laughter distracted Link, and he looked to his left to see two middle aged men, one grumpy, the other laughing hysterically. They were looking at the tigers, but not really seeing them. Link decided to eavesdrop.
"For Chrissake, Steve, she's just practically a kid!"
"Yeah, thanks, that makes me feel so much better," grumbled the man named Steve, still looking really P.O'd. "You'd have lost, too, if you'd been against her, Fox. I swear, she's got the intellect of a neuro-scientist."
"And the body of a supermodel," Fox smirked.
Steve snorted a laugh. "Yeah, but looking at it won't help you in the court room, my friend—even if it did, she doesn't wear the right kind of clothes. Anyway, Cleverly's just what her name would lead you to believe."
Link folded his arms and frowned. In a strange sort of way, he didn't feel all too surprised that they were talking about his new boss. In fact, that's what he had wondered from the first thing Fox had said.
"What is she…twenty-five?" Fox asked, lazily grabbing the jacket of a young boy running by. "Slower steps there, son."
"She's twenty-four," Steve replied through his teeth.
Fox raised his eyebrows. "Shouldn't she still be in school?"
"Oh, no," Steve said with a sour expression on his face. "No. She was put into all these accelerated courses, even if she wasn't doing extremely well, and of course going to dear old mom's alma mater does help, especially when mom is the most famous lawyer this side of China."
"Clarissa Cleverly," the men said in unison.
"Clarissa J. Cleverly," Steve elaborated. "'J for Justice!'"
"Well, actually it was for Jane," Fox corrected him, almost automatically.
The men were silent for a couple moments. Link glanced sideways at them, and saw Steve looking at the tigers as if he'd just noticed they were there. The smallest one had given up scaling the flimsy tree, and was now nearly right up against the glass. He was pacing back and forth, and for a minute or so, he stopped in front of Steve and stared him in the eye.
Steve coughed and looked away, appearing flustered and uncomfortable. "What's with you?" Fox asked, amused.
"Looking Cleverly in the eyes is like staring a tiger in the face. You feel as if she's going to rip you apart and then stomp on your gut with her stiletto heels. Fears you never even considered creep up out of no where, you see holes in your arguments. You see those eyes pierce through your soul…you forget what your point was, what you were going to say next, how you were going to counter that remark if she said it…she tacitly instills these irrational fears in you." He turned to Fox, sweating slightly. "It… it sounds stupid, but it's like looking death in the face."
The other two tigers pulled the pacing one into their fight. The small one blew them both swats to the face, roaring loudly. Link's eyebrows raised; he was impressed. A small boy in front of him shouted, "Uncle Jeremy, are you watching?"
"Yeah," Fox answered gruffly. He suddenly looked very grave.
Link was distracted once more when Megan appeared at his elbow. "Whoa! What are those tigers doing?"
"Uh…fighting," Link answered.
Then Megan saw something more interesting to her than the tigers. "Ben?"
The little boy who had spoken to Fox turned around. "Oh, hi, Megan!"
Fox was looking from Ben to Megan, wearing an expression that clearly said he had no idea how the two knew each other. Link could almost see the cogs working in his brain to figure it out and try to make a connection.
"Who ya here with?" Ben asked conversationally.
"My nanny," Megan replied, nodding behind her.
Ben glanced at Malon, who had just walked up next to Link. He looked as if he was teetering on declaring how hot she was, but Megan spoke up before he could.
"My mom was supposed to bring me, but she had to work."
Ben frowned. "Is she a doctor?"
"No, that's my Aunt," Megan answered. "I can't remember what my mom does."
"Which one was your mom, again?"
"The tall, blonde one," Megan replied. With a touch of pride, she added, "The real pretty one."
A look of remembrance seemed to glaze over Ben's features. "Oh, yeah…"
Fox just seemed to have realized who Megan was. "Hey, you—"
"Excuse me, sir." A zoo official pushed by Link and Malon, and tapped Fox on the shoulder, interrupting his question. "Sir, would yours be the little tyke in the 'Grateful Dead' T-Shirt and combat boots?"
"Yes," Fox said, staring at him blankly.
"Well, he's trying to jump into the lion pit outside and won't stop trying to unless his father comes."
Without further ado, Fox grabbed Ben and dashed out the doors. Looking a little amused, Steve followed.
Malon stared after them. "Link, were you eavesdropping on those guys?"
"Uh…how could you tell?"
She smirked. "I just know things. Rude habit, you know."
"You'd have been eavesdropping, too, if it was you," Link said in a lower voice. "They were talking about my boss."
"Eh?" Malon asked. "That's weird. What were they, er…saying about her?"
Link cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, they're lawyers, or at least one of them was—anyway, he was saying how she'd just beat him in court."
"Ah."
"And, uh, one of them was saying how they thought the reason she—Ms. Cleverly—was so far up on the ladder of success was because of her famous mother."
Malon nodded wisely, keeping an eye on Megan as she said, "Yeah, Clarissa Cleverly. Matron, stringent, bringing-home-the-bacon kind of woman. Real rich. Kind of disliked the fact that Zelda and I were friends, because I…was never really as wealthy." She flushed slightly.
Link was beginning to think how snotty this was, when he felt Megan pulling eagerly on his hand. "C'mon, Link, there's a leopard over there!" she said
"Wow, let's go!" Link said, quickly feigning enthusiasm.
This was not enough to satisfy Malon, though. "Megan, who was that little boy you were talking to?"
"Oh, don't worry," Megan said nonchalantly. "He was family."
"Family?" Link and Malon repeated, looking positively dumbstruck.
"Yeah," Megan went on casually. "I saw him two years ago at a family…onion."
"Family onion?" Link asked, now really confused.
"Uh-huh," Megan said. "And my mom's whole family was there."
"Do you mean a family reunion?" Malon asked, trying not to laugh.
"Oh, yeah," Megan recalled unblushingly. "Anyway, my mom couldn't go, so the only time she was there was to pick me up. I wanted to go, so my Aunt Vivien brought me with her family and as soon as we got there, there was this boy who'd fallen off a swing and my aunt Vivien is a doctor so she calmed him down and cleaned him up and I helped so we became friends. His name's Ben."
"Did you recognize the man he was with?" Link asked.
"Oh, I didn't see him," Megan said carelessly, pressing up against the leopard cage. "Wow, look at him!"
"Her," Malon muttered to herself, skimming the plaque.
Link tried to focus on the beauty of the cat, but his brain was still buzzing about what he'd just heard. Who were those men? Would Malon have recognized Fox if she'd seen his face?
&- Meanwhile. . .
"Could you help me out here?" Schreiber asked Zelda, pulling up the Internet (or trying to) on her laptop.
Zelda sighed and marked her place in a heavy book of old court cases. "What with? Are you on the Rotenburg-Scheffler case?"
"Yes," Schreiber answered, "but that's not what I need your help with."
Smirking, Zelda rolled over on her wheeled chair. "Computer woes gotcha down again, Eliza?"
"Yes," Schreiber groaned. "Why won't the web open??"
Zelda pulled Schreiber's computer towards her. "Uh…that would be because you've been clicking on Word."
"What? I have?"
"Yeah, hence the fact that you have about six new documents open… nice job. I'll pull up the Internet for you—what's the site?"
Schreiber handed Zelda a slip of paper. "There." As she typed quickly, frowning slightly, Schreiber made a bold statement. "You don't smile much, do you."
"I smile," Zelda said passively.
"You smirk. I don't think I've ever seen you smile."
Zelda said nothing.
Schreiber pulled a weird face, sticking out her tongue. "Heeeeyyy Zellie! Did I tell you about the time my mom grounded me 'til menopause and I was like yours or mine and she was like your fathers!?"
"Watch any Roseanne lately?" Zelda asked, again wearing a poker face.
Slumping in her chair, Schreiber made a noise like the air being let out of a balloon. She tried a new tactic. "It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile!"
"How do you think I get my exercise?"
"You need a boyfriend."
Pushing Schreiber's laptop roughly back to her, Zelda looked bewildered. "Little random, don't you think?"
"Nope," Schreiber said calmly. "If you had a boyfriend, you'd be happier."
"Oh, but I don't think I could ever be happier with someone else as I was with Marth," Zelda said sarcastically.
Blushing, Schreiber warily eyed the scar on Zelda's wrist. "I mean a guy, Zelda, not some scumbag. Doesn't Megan ever, like, want a—"
"No," Zelda interrupted her, opening the book again. "Megan does not need a father figure and she's fine with the new nanny I just hired."
Schreiber wanted to press the subject, but Zelda had such a scary, lawyer-like look on her face that she decided to drop the matter.
. . .
"Megan, what's that by your eyebrow?"
Still at the zoo, the threesome was sitting down for some ice cream. Link had just noticed a light mark on the girl's forehead he hadn't seen before.
Megan's hand went up instinctively to graze her head. "Oh, my scar."
"Yeah, what is that?" Malon asked curiously.
"Well, I guess I was like…two or three when it happened. My dad was coming to visit, and I was so excited to see him, I ran out of my room and right into my mom's glass table in the living room."
Link winced. "Ouch!"
"Yeah," Megan said, rubbing her head again. "I don't actually remember it, like how much it hurt, but mom said it was bleeding a lot."
"Megan, do you remember your dad at all?" Malon asked quietly, wearing a very contemplative expression.
"Well…not really," Megan said slowly. "I don't even know what he looked like, 'cause my mom doesn't keep pictures of him around the house…but I remember he had dark hair, not like my mom."
"Do you remember what he was like?"
Megan shrugged. "Nope! I don't think my mom likes him very much and he can't like her that much either, because he never visits us anymore. I don't know why they got married at all."
There was silence for a few moments. Malon looked like she was struggling to keep some kind of forbidden sentence inside. Link was staring at the table. "I miss him," Megan said. "I think." She didn't seem very disturbed, in fact she just went on slurping her ice cream, but Link felt awkward and Malon looked tortured.
"Link?" Megan said softly. "My feet are really tired. Can we go?"
"Yeah, sure," Link said quickly, getting to his feet. He picked up the empty ice cream cups and threw them out. A small crashing noise made him swivel around.
"Whoa, are you okay there, honey?" Malon asked, holding out a hand for Megan—the young girl appeared to have fallen, and was now accepting Malon's help to stand back up. Blood was leaking down her legs from huge cuts on her knees.
"Gotsy!" Link gasped, rushing over. "Megan, what happened?"
"Uh, I tripped," she said simply, stooping a little. Her eyes were squinted from what looked like pain, but Link realized she was trying not to cry. He knelt down so that they were at equal height.
"That looks pretty bad," Link noted, motioning for Malon to get him some napkins. Megan's lower lip was trembling. He looked her in the eye and said gently, "You know it's okay to cry, Megan."
She bit down on her lip and still shed no tears, shaking her head. "No, no it's not. It's just a scratch."
Link stared at her, looking confounded. Didn't kids her age sob over things like paper cuts, and much more so when they had blood practically billowing down their legs? And yet Megan, though wavering slightly, did not cry at all. Malon came back to clean up the blood, and though she didn't say anything, Link could tell she was also surprised at the lack of tears.
"There you are," Malon said, tossing away the bloody napkins. "You sure you're okay, honey?"
Megan nodded.
"We'll have to bandage that up once we get home," Link said. Just as Link had straightened up, he saw a man with graying hair coming towards him.
"Sorry, I couldn't help noticing the, uh…accident that occurred over here," the man said, pulling something out of his backpack. It was a box of large band-aids. "I'm a doctor, I usually carry these around, just in case."
"Thanks, man," Link said, gratefully taking the box and getting on his knees again to properly fix up the wounds.
The doctor turned to Malon. "That was quite a fall your little girl took," he said.
"Oh, we're not her parents," Malon said quickly, faintly pink. "We're watching her for a …friend."
"Ah." The doctor then squatted down next to Link, taking a pack of tissues out of his pocket. "Here you go, sweetheart." Megan stared at him, and that's when he realized she wasn't crying. "Eh? No tears?"
Megan shook her head again. "I'm not a baby, you know."
"No crying for a Cleverly," Malon muttered darkly.
"Cleverly?" the doctor asked, his patron-like voice suddenly gone. "Are you related to Zelda Cleverly?"
"Uh-huh, she's my mom," Megan replied, while Link and Malon exchanged incredulous looks.
"Your mother got my cousin out of a bad spot a couple years back," the doctor told her, looking excited. "Never forgot her! Brilliant mind for someone so young!" He got to his feet, beaming. "My family really owes her one!"
"Thanks for the band-aids," Link said slowly, handing him back the box. "Really glad we ran into you…"
"Oh, pleasure's all mine!" the man sputtered. "Safe journey home, now!" And he ran back to his table, looking rather flustered.
"Geez," Malon snorted. "The way people have been talking, you'd think Zelda was some kind of celebrity."
"Link, can I ride on your back?" Megan asked, giving him her best look-how-cute-and-helpless/hurt-I-am expression.
"Yeah, okay," Link chuckled, bending down so she could get on.
Later that Night…
It was half past ten. Zelda was still in her small office, scribbling away. A ringing noise went off in her bag, making her jump. Sighing, she opened the bag and irritably answered her cellular phone.
"Hello?"
"Zel, you still at work?" It was Malon.
"No, I'm in Tallahassee," Zelda grumbled.
"Oh, ha."
"What do you want, Malon?" Zelda asked, sounding more tired than annoyed.
"Just checking in, you know, ask if you're going to be home any time soon," Malon said casually.
"Mal, I'm up to my eyes in work," Zelda sighed. "I don't know when I'm going to get out of here. And I'll probably have to get up really early tomorrow, to get here as soon as possible."
"Why?" Malon asked.
Zelda tried not to sound impatient. "Firstly, I have to review all these briefs—"
"Ew!" Malon interrupted. "You a pimp!"
"Malon!" Zelda groaned "Briefs. As in documents of the legal variety! Why are you so perverted?"
"Right, sorry. What's the second reason?"
"I never gave Link a proper job interview," Zelda replied. "My goal is to do this by either tomorrow evening or Saturday." She paused. "He seemed good and everything …how was he today?"
"You mean with Megan? Oh, he was fabulous. I think she really likes him."
"Great," Zelda said, stifling a yawn. "Would you be able to watch Megan for me when I take him out?"
"Oh, I guess," Malon responded. "That reminds me—Megan wants to know if she and Link could paint his room tomorrow."
"Yeah, fine," Zelda said. "Just please nothing garish. And I also don't want to get home and see that Jackson Pollock has come back from the dead to do a room of my house, all right?"
"Fair enough," Malon laughed.
"Oh, there goes my office phone," Zelda observed. "I'll talk to you later, Malon."
"Well, bye."
"Bye." Zelda shut off the cell and picked up her office telephone. "Hello, you've reached Zelda Isabel Cleverly, may I be of service to you?"
"Hey, it's me." Schreiber.
"Oh. Hi, Eliza. I was wondering who could possibly be calling this late."
"I called you on a lark; are you really still working?"
"Yes…remember the old man that passed away? He completely screwed up my case. Stupid Topham family…how's Rotenburg-Scheffler?"
Schreiber grimaced, though Zelda couldn't see it. "Let's just say Rotenburg's getting sadistic and Scheffler hasn't got a prayer—never did—but I've got to defend her anyway. Great, huh?"
"Yeah…so what're you calling about, anyhow? It's nothing personal, I assure you, it's just that I've got a bunch of paperwork to go through, you know…"
"Right," Schreiber said. "I was calling about Link Vaughn."
"How'd you know my new employee's name?" Zelda asked.
"You told me, remember? And I was like, oh, that's familiar, and you were like, oh yeah, whatever—well, it turns out I did know him!"
"You did!"
"Yeah, wanna hear what I have to say about him?"
"So long as it doesn't include a criminal record, shoot," Zelda sighed. "Just make it as quick as you can, will you?"
"Sure thing. Anyway, we went to the same school, K—12. Well, practically. He was gone for sophomore and junior year, then came back."
Zelda straightened with interest. "But…didn't you grow up in New York?"
"Born and raised there," Schreiber answered. "Isn't that weird that we both ended up way out here?"
"Yeah," Zelda muttered. "Or his parents did, anyway." She paused—she wanted to ask Schreiber what she remembered about Link, but felt asking "What was he like?" sounded a little too schmaltzy. Fortunately, Schreiber seemed to have read her thoughts.
"I recall that he was very…very sharp," she said delicately. She laughed. "I'm pretty sure he was in my Home Economics class one year. He was quite a baker."
"Really…what about his grades?"
Here, Schreiber hesitated. "Um…well, he graduated…"
"Schreiber."
"Okay, well, I'm pretty sure he did well through freshman year, and then he moved, and when he came back, he….OH." She sounded as if she'd just suddenly understood something that had been bothering her for a long while. "That was the year we got a new principal."
"So?"
"So…our getting a new principal to Link was kind of like… Dragmire replacing Deku for you."
"Oh. So basically, Link felt a desire to strangle this man by his own vocal chords, gouge his eyes out, and make a eunuch out of him?"
"Uh, wow. You really hate Dragmire that much?"
"Quite."
"Well, I guess that's pretty much how Link felt about this principal…they hated each other."
"Why?" Zelda asked blankly.
"I don't know," Schreiber said. "But there was this real palpable enmity between them. I think the principal thought Link was a punk 'cause of the way he dressed."
"You'll have to show me a picture, because he sure doesn't dress like one now."
"Lordy, he was hot, too," Schreiber recalled.
"Thanks for the information, Eliza," Zelda said. "Now if you don't mind, I'd really like to get back to my job."
"Okay," Schreiber laughed. "Have fun. Bye."
"Bye." Zelda put her phone back in its place and stared at the papers in front of her. Now her mind was buzzing with so many different things, she found it difficult to concentrate on legal matters. She couldn't stop thinking about Link—or the stuff Schreiber had said about him.
Then she remembered Mido saying something about going to High School with Link as well. All these odd coincidences! Zelda also recalled Mido tried to talk her out of hiring Link, but Schreiber had given him a pretty good review—but then, she observed shrewdly, Schreiber might've only said that because she thought he was hot. In the end, Zelda decided she'd just have to judge him herself.
A/N: Whoo! Don't you just love my over-the-top attempts at symbolic imagery? Wow, I love this cheese. Sorry it took me so long to update this!!