Cabot & Associates, Sunday

[bitten_notshy]

Jack, lucky enough to be spared too bad of a hangover and wearing a yellow rose as a boutonniere, was carefully composed in mood as he arrived at the law office today. Flirting with Tony the night before had been poorly thought out on both their parts, but it wasn't as if more had happened than flirting.

Well. Not much more.

After he sorted through the paperwork that always seemed to accumulate on his desk, he went to listen to the radio broadcast. He was working as he listened, so he only half-heard Beka had Emma the Ermine crashing her date with Jonas. But when Paige said, how Emma stood him up for the dance. Um. Is that the same Emma who is an ermine? that made a bit more of an impression. And when she said I guess no one bothered to tell him about her being an ermine, he turned away from the computer and banged his head into the wall, very deliberately, three times.

He'd have to find a way to make it up to Emma sometime, preferably soon.

Was there such a thing as an ermine treat?

[OOC: Open law office. OCD got turned into an ermine.]

Comments

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

It'd taken a moment for Beka to figure out how to check her messages (http://provostsdog.livejournal.com/936.html?thread=109992#t109992). She rarely used her telephone, but even in ermine form, Emma had been helpful.

So a while later, Beka showed up, carrying a wriggling Emma who'd luckily been able to lose her ribbon. "Hello?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack's eyes lit up as he looked at the girl and her ermine.

"Hello," he returned, stepping over to offer a hand for Emma to sniff. "And thank you for coming. I think I even noticed you at the dance, I just ... didn't make the connection to Emma." Because he'd been stupid and sulky, shhhhh.

"How long has she been like this?"

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"I'd not think of Emma if I'd see an ermine either," Beka chuckled and she wished Pounce had come with so she'd understand what Emma would have to say. "I woke up on Wednesday to find her like this in her bed."

[bitten_notshy]

"Well, that explains why I didn't see her for a few days," Jack said, actually blushing. "I'm sorry. We were ... seeing each other? We talked Tuesday to work it out and when I didn't see her again I thought -- things I shouldn't have thought."

The ermine made a soft, irritated noise at his foolishness.

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

Beka grinned at Emma's response and she held her out for Jack to take. "I'm certain she'll have more to say once she's back to herself. I'm sorry, I should have sought you out sooner."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack took the ermine softly in his arms, as if she were something precious.

"It's not as if we'd made an announcement," he said easily. "I could have asked you just as easily. Thank you for taking care of her, anyhow. What has she been eating?"

He was not precisely an ermine expert.

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

She smiled a little at how Jack took Emma and decided she'd have to speak to her big sibling once she was back to normal. "I've been feeding her the same as Pounce. She turned her nose up at aught else I tried. Just some scraps of meat," she said. "She did seem to like the punch yesterday, I had to pull her away from it plenty of times."

[bitten_notshy]

"I think that punch was half whiskey by the end of the night," Jack said, nodding at the instructions.

Emma bit his hand lightly, in a way that was almost friendly. She was stuck as an ermine. She needed spiked punch.

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"It smelled like it," Beka agreed, biting her lip to keep from laughing at Emma's response. "I was worried how it might affect her."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack shrugged, laughing a little himself. "I'd want to be drunk, if I had to be an ermine at a Valentine's Day dance."

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"She can get drunk when she'd back to herself," Beka said with some amusement.

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm sure she'll do that too." Jack was unrepentant.

Emma, at least, seemed to approve.

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Beka chuckled and reached out to pet Emma. "Tis nice to finally put a face to your name."

[bitten_notshy]

The ermine squirmed happily under Beka's hand. "The same to you," Jack agreed. "I've seen you in passing, but I think the only time we were introduced, you were a terrier."

Idly, he wondered if this meant Emma talked about him a lot.

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

Enough for Beka to know where Emma disappeared to at nights.

"She did? Tis possible I tried to forget about that," she admitted sheepishly. "The world is very strange when you're on four paws."

[bitten_notshy]

"George did, actually," Jack said, thinking back. "I'll take your word for it. I've avoided it so far -- and I always feel like I just cursed myself when I say that."

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Mayhap you did," Beka teased. "Tisn't too bad."

She glanced around the room for an instant. "You said these are law offices?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack bobbed his head in a nod. "Mostly research," he said. "There's not a lot of crime on the island. Professor Cabot has me looking up precedent case law in felonies. I just started, but it's interesting work."

When he did it, which he hadn't so far today.

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"It sounds interesting," Beka agreed, even it'd not be the side of the law she usually worked on. "Are you thinking of continuing this type of work?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm not committed to anything -- but essentially, yes," Jack confirmed.

Emma, bored, was squirming for freedom. Jack gave Beka a questioning look to ask if she'd be all right set down before he kept talking.

"I grew up thinking I'd be a detective, but it seems like lawyers can make more of a difference these days. The only question is how to get into a decent university,. given I'm deciding this in the last term of my senior year. But there's always a way."

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Tis her own fault if she gets lost," Beka said with a small nod.

She'd read enough on law in this world that she was able to follow what Jack was saying. "They seems very different functions to me. I'd not want to have to defend someone I know did wrong."

[bitten_notshy]

"I wouldn't want to do that," Jack said, setting Emma free. She promptly started digging through some stray papers, but at least it seemed to make her happy. "I'd either work for the state, or I'd do civil law -- adoptions, wills, that kind of thing."