I woke up when I realised my toasty-warm wrap-around was missing and my butt was feeling a draft. Not that I snapped awake all at once; it began with a vague irritation. My butt was cold; this was annoying. Then I realised that my hair was all over the place; even more annoying, since getting it back under control would take a while. And that my left hip seemed to be glued to the bed. Ick. I cracked open one eye and reached a hand behind me at the same time. No Wyvern in sight in the room in front of me or by feel in the bed in back of me. I huffed a little and set about getting myself unstuck from the sheet and untangled from my hair. Of the two feet that we cut off last fall, almost a foot had grown back. I'd been thinking hard about cutting it again; short enough not to get stuck to the sheet along with my left hip. Maybe even up to my waist this time.
I was still finger-combing knots when Heero came through the bathroom from his room, fully dressed, with his cloak fastened around his shoulders. I flopped back into the pillow, remembering that I was supposed to be pissed at my overly-protective Dragon. Hey, you try staying mad at a guy who can make your toes curl, liquefy your spine and cause super-novas to go off at the back of your eyeballs. It ain't easy, believe me.
"What's going on?"
"Q has a conference call in half an hour; he wants me there."
I concentrated for a moment. "It's not even 0700 yet."
"Here; no. He's got Britain, France, Brazil, Slovakia, China, Africa and Australia on the fire; it's the middle of the night for some of them." He sighed and touched my cheek. "I'm sorry; I'd rather stay with you."
I pouted, trying to sound pissed. "Yeah, yeah, sure you would."
He gave me that laser glare above an evil smirk and reached under me to take hold of my hair and pull me up to meet his kiss. I let him; my hair is thick, and hanging onto as much of it as he had distributed the pull, so it didn't hurt. And I don't really mind his incredible strength. Not when one of his toe-curling kisses comes with. I came up gasping for air and let my head drop back limply. He nibbled and sucked his way from one side of my throat to the other and back again, until I was cross-eyed. Then he let me down onto the pillows again with a chuckle.
"Easily distracted, aren't you?" he smirked.
"Yeah... well... Just... just wait until I get my pheromones going, lizard boy; you'll be smirking out the other side of your... your..." He attacked my neck again and I lost my train of thought for a few weeks.
"I'll see you later, angel," he breathed into my ear. "Why don't you check in on Wufei? Tiffany says he's spitting nasty at not being allowed to go back yesterday."
"Okay..." I mumbled groggily. Whatever he wanted... I stroked his cheek with the backs of my fingers. "Later?"
"Absolutely." He kissed my forehead. "I love you, Chosen."
I recognised the implied "mine!" in that. At the moment, I didn't care; he could be as overly-protective as he liked, until that kiss wore off.
As expected, it took a while in the shower to get the icky out of my hair and off of me, and looking at myself in the long mirror, I decided that I was definitely ready to trim a few feet off my hair; it was well past my knees again. I would ask Heero once this demon mess was cleared up.
I combed out, braided and dressed, then set about stripping the linens from my bed. Damn Heero anyway, for letting us go to sleep that way. Damn me too, come to think of it.
Housekeeping came just as I was about to set the hamper out, so I just handed it to the giggling House Elves. They snickered at me, obviously well aware of the pong. I shrugged and grinned; the elder of the two winked at me. Nice to know Heero and I amuse the staff.
~*~
I headed for the infirmary first; breakfast could wait.
Mistress Loquinn was in her office, writing a report, when I stuck my head in to ask if I could visit Wufei.
"Sure," she laughed, kicking back in her chair to plop her pink cowboy boots on the desk. "You might as well; everybody else has. Except Heero," she smirked. "And I imagine his attention was on you rather than that pissy Were-Dragon."
"Well... Kind of..." Mistress Loquinn has always been pretty nice to me, but she's also kind of intimidating. Her given name *is* Jezebel...
"Good; that's exactly where it should be," she grinned. "Go on in; he's having breakfast and grumbling at anyone who will listen. I told him twenty-four hours and I meant it; he's not leaving until 1325."
Wufei had a bed in the ward; only the seriously ill get a private room, since there are only two. And apparently getting shot doesn't qualify as 'serious'. I could hear him grumbling before I saw him. It sounded like he had company. Probably Trowa; he's pretty protective of the cranky Dragon.
I sure as shit wasn't expecting to find Trowa on one side of the bed, holding the plushy, and Farquahar on the other side, carefully cutting up sausages and feeding the pieces to an incredibly imperial-acting Wufei.
What the fuck?! What the hell was the demon doing here and why the hell was he *feeding* Wufei? And why was Wufei allowing it?
While I was trying to decide if I was dreaming or just loopy, Trowa noticed me and called out, beckoning to me. No chance of slinking away in confusion; I'd have to be confused in front of everyone. As usual.
"Hi Duo," said Trowa happily, pulling another chair over for me. "You're feeling better?"
"Much," I said absently. "Although, Heero seems to have neglected to mention a few things..." I stared at the demon.
He ducked his head to concentrate on cutting another sausage. Gotta pay attention to those wild sausages; never know when one of them might just go for your throat.
Wufei swallowed and reached out a hand. "Duo! You're all right? This idiotic lamebrain didn't hurt you?"
I took his hand, rubbing his knuckles with my thumb. Warm and golden and strong as ever; our healthy, obnoxious, irritable Dragon was just fine again. I suppose I knew that, but seeing it made it real for me. I hadn't realised how scared I'd been.
"What?" I growled in playful relief. "With you throwing your own silly self in front of me? How could he possibly hurt me?" I grabbed him then and hugged him tight enough to make him squeak. "You scared the crap out of me, dammit!" I hissed in his ear. "You're not supposed to do shit like that!" He made a noise and I pulled back to look at him. His face was quite red.
He shrugged in embarrassment. "Dragons," he muttered. "You know..."
I did. By now, oh boy did I know. "Thanks." I squeezed his shoulder and then swooped on him for another hug. "And this is Banshees." He returned my hug awkwardly. Wufei isn't much of a hugger; Trowa initiates the contact in that pair.
I sat back in my chair finally and looked at Farquahar who was still intensely interested in the sausages. "Why are you here?"
He sort of shrank into a lump, pulling in his arms, legs, head and tail until
he resembled a lumpy rock sitting on the chair. Holding a fork with a piece
of sausage on the tines.
"Lord Wizard Q said I had to come. Zephyrus was mad. Zephyrus is always mad," he sighed. "He hates me." He extended the fork to Wufei, who leaned forward a bit and snagged the morsel.
I looked at Trowa. He shrugged.
"Q wants to get to the bottom of this enspellment; he's not a happy Wizard."
"Heero said there was a conference call scheduled for this morning; he had to be there."
Trowa nodded. "They need to find out who might have the power and the inclination to bind a demon. It's not an easy thing to do; not every Wizard could do it, even with Farquahar."
"I'm only second level," muttered the demon. "It's not my fault."
"I didn't say it was," said Trowa with an exasperated roll of his eyes.
"Yes, Lord Puma..."
Trowa rolled his eyes again. Wufei snorted.
"Is there anything that *is* your fault, pray tell?" sneered Wufei.
"Um..." Farquahar sighed. "The swamp was my fault; I admitted that. But I didn't expect that to happen. It never happened before, so why would I think it would happen that time?" he said petulantly. "And I tried to fix it."
This time Wufei rolled his eyes. "And made it worse. Never mind." He held up a hand to forestall the demon's protest. "That's over and done with. I'd like to know why you were in Wyoming when we left you in Fresno. Hmm?"
The demon pouted... I think. "I told them I didn't want to go to Fresno; I hate Fresno.... It's so... tacky," he muttered.
Trowa lifted one eyebrow. "I don't remember anyone asking you," he pointed out. "And you certainly never voiced an opinion at the time."
"You were placed in Fresno," Wufei growled. "You were expected to stay there."
Farquahar shrugged. "I stayed. For a while. But they had me working in
a Walmart! It was tacky! Then I sort of heard about this place in Wyoming....
So, I just... relocated." He hunched even smaller on the chair, extending
another piece of sausage to Wufei as if making a peace offering. "No one
ever said how long I had to stay in Fresno..."
Trowa and Wufei looked at each other; Wufei looked pissed, Trowa thoughtful.
"He's right, you know," said Trowa after a moment of silence. "I don't remember a time limit being mentioned, although it may have been in the paperwork."
I decided that I was tired of not knowing the whole story, and said, "Is anyone going to share this with me? Or does Heero have you guys 'protecting' me again?"
The Weres looked guilty; Farquahar looked confused. Trowa broke the uncomfortable silence.
"He did say we shouldn't upset you... But you don't look upset," he offered.
"You don't even look pissed," said Wufei.
"I'm not." I waved a hand and the demon flinched. "I *was* pissed yesterday, when he sent me home with a *nanny*," I growled. "But I got over it. So." I glared from one to the other. "Who is going to enlighten me before I *do* get pissed?"
They looked at each other again. Farquahar had shrunk into the chair so much he really did resemble a fork-wielding, bug-eyed rock. Maybe that's the reason he answered before the Weres did.
"Um... A while back, I tried to... um... claim some territory... 'cuz that's what demons do, you know? But I'm not a very good demon, so it kind of... um... didn't exactly work the way I intended...? Some people got upset. I tried to fix it... but it got worse... and they called Magical Investigations... and Lord Wyvern and Lord Dragon came... and they were pretty upset with me... And then Zephyrus came... and... well... it was just a big mess," he sighed. "And Lord Wizard Q said I could either go with Zephyrus or go to Fresno." His tone left no doubt that he didn't like either option. "Who would *want* to go with Zephyrus, right? Especially since he hates me. So, I went to Fresno. But I hate Fresno! So... this... opportunity came along... to go to Wyoming, and it didn't seem too bad, so... I went. That's all.”
I blinked at him. Not much actual information there, but at least I sort of knew what the fuck was going on now. Farquahar messed with the Human world in some way, and got nailed with it, then got some kind of probation or parole, which he then ‘jumped’ for Wyoming. Idiot.
Wufei rolled his eyes and snorted. “You weren't supposed to go anywhere without permission, you grainy slug!”
Trowa blinked. "It just occurred to me... Wasn't someone supposed to be checking on him? Who was his minder?"
Wufei blinked; frowned. "One of the assistants in Continuing Cases, I think. Macky? Moltereaux? Something with an 'M'? Montmorency? Whoever it was, they clearly need a refresher course in 'checking on demons'," he snarled.
Trowa looked at me warily. "Um... Wufei... I think it was Mobley...."
Wufei froze. "Oh. Oh... I think you're right.... Damn. Well, someone should have gone through her cases... Um... Eventually, at least...."
"Do I know a Mobley?" I asked into the uncomfortable silence. I didn't have a lot of contact with the CC office yet, since I haven't handled any really dire cases. Even my own abduction was officially handled by Heero and Q.
The Weres regarded me for a moment. "She was before your time..." said Trowa slowly. "She... um... lost focus when rounding up a probation violator..." I waited for clarification, but none seemed to be forthcoming.
"And...?" I prodded.
Wufei examined his hands and Trowa sighed. "They gave her a very nice funeral," Wufei said sourly. "And Heero took care of the Wizard who... who did it."
Um... yeah. We sat there silently until Farquahar said thoughtfully, "I kind of wondered what happened to her. She came by a couple of times to check on me, but then she stopped." We all stared at him. "What?! I didn't do anything to her!" He ate one of Wufei's sausages. "She was okay," he admitted sullenly. “She didn’t seem to like Fresno either...”