Quick Fix (6 page)

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I can help you look after Molly for a few days.”

“Don’t you have a client to take care of?” he said.

“Nope. I called to check on Mr. Brown—you’ll be happy to know he didn’t die—and he assured me Thelma will have her position. I’ve already relayed the news to her. She couldn’t be happier. So it appears I’m all yours,” I said. Sweetly, of course.

*   *   *

Mark showed up right after James left to catch the next available shuttle back to New York to begin his preparations. Thomas had already gone back to work. Billy and I were packing.

“How’s Molly? Did James figure her out?” Mark asked first thing.

“Still orange and furry. We’re heading back so he can work on her in his lab,” Billy said.

“Taking your car?” Mark said with a ghost of a grin.

“Ha ha. Yes, we are. Unless you’d care to take her in yours? I’ll throw in Ciel, if that’ll sweeten the deal.”

“Hey!” I slapped his arm with the back of my hand.

Mark laughed. “Sorry, bud, you’re on your own. But I can recommend a good Manhattan car wash.”

Billy gave him a sour look. “You are kindness itself. Hope you don’t need me for anything—looks like I’ll be busy for the next few days.”

Molly joined us before Mark could respond, dragging the backpack she’d been cramming with her currently unnecessary clothing behind her. When she saw Mark, she let go of the pack and climbed into his arms, grinning big and hugging his neck.

“Hello to you, too, Molly,” Mark said, patting her back. “Hope you’re enjoying all this monkeying around while you can, because James is going to have you back to normal in no time.”

Molly nodded enthusiastically. I was glad to see her adjusting to her situation, but hoped she didn’t get
too
comfortable with her new form. The thing about projecting auras is, once you have the energy, it’s always there within your reach. It could be awkward if Molly decided it would be fun to liven up future school functions with impromptu zoology lessons.

Mark put down Molly. “Billy, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure, come on up with me. I have a few more things to get from the guest room. Ciel, keep an eye on the munchkin?”

I nodded, curious, but I was used to the guys disappearing to plot their next job together. “Come on, Molls, let’s go pack some car snacks.”

Billy cut me a look.
“No junk,”
he said, his voice full of threat.

I smiled sweetly at him. “Would I do that to you?”

*   *   *

Mark left after his brief meeting with Billy, with only a “try to keep the girls out of trouble” for Billy and hair ruffles for Molly and me. Apparently things were back to the status quo with him. Just as well, since it appeared I was about to embark on some sort of (probably
really
ill-advised) romantic adventure with Billy.

I’d gone upstairs right after them to, um, get something I forgot to pack, pausing at the door to the guest room. (Okay, so curiosity won. There are valid reasons for eavesdropping, and I happen to think making sure the two guys currently driving me crazy weren’t discussing
me
is a damn good one.) Thirty seconds of “the Agency” this and “the Agency” that was enough to tell me it was boring old business, and I’d gone back downstairs. With my spare toothbrush. You can never pack too many toothbrushes.

I stuck to Billy like glitter on glue while we finished getting ready for the trip. No way was I going to give him an opportunity to eject his latest inamorata without me in earshot of the phone conversation. If I was going to be involved with him, I at least wanted to go in with my eyes open. Knowing Billy, he wouldn’t shed his baggage before he was certain he had me in reserve. If then.

Billy came back in from loading our bags into the car. I’d watched him out the front window the whole time. He hadn’t taken his cell out of his pocket once.

“All right, monkey girl, the car’s packed. Do you have your Sea-Bands on?”

Molly clapped her wrists together like Wonder Woman, showing Billy she was heroically prepared to stave off an attack of motion sickness.

“I gave her some candied ginger, too,” I added. I also had plenty of large, resealable plastic bags, just in case. I didn’t mention that in front of Molly, though. Didn’t want to undermine her confidence in the home remedies.

“All right, then. Let’s hit the road. Anyone need one last pit stop before we leave?”

Molly shook her head. She’d already been to the bathroom. I, not wanting to leave Billy alone with his phone, hadn’t. I looked at him sharply but decided he seemed preoccupied enough with Molly to risk a brief absence.

He was hanging up as I returned.

“Who was that?”

“Mommo. She wanted to say hi to Molly.”

“What’d you do?”

“What do you think? I let her say hi to ‘Molly.’”

“She bought it?”

He lifted one brow and didn’t bother to answer. Silly me. Of course she bought it.

It was considered bad form to use another adaptor’s primary aura without express permission, but I didn’t imagine Molly much cared under the circumstances. I think being stuck in orangutan form qualifies as implied consent.

I was still a little suspicious. “So why aren’t you still Molly? Since you just hung up and all?”

“Mommo wanted to talk with me again after she spoke to Molly. Any other questions, or is the interrogation over?” He winked.

I held myself tall (-ish) and brushed past him to pick up Molly. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“No?” He put his hands over Molly’s ears on the pretext of dropping a kiss on her head, and said, “I like it when you’re jealous.”

He removed his hands before I could respond, so I had to make do with a dirty look.

“Did you let Molly touch you while you were her?” I said, shifting topics. “Maybe she could reabsorb her own aura somehow.”

His eyes lit. “No—didn’t think of it. Cuz, you
do
have a brain.”

Back to projecting Molly in an instant, he took her from me, staggering a bit under the weight. Molly clutched her erstwhile aura and closed her eyes. She rubbed her hands up and down Billy’s arms, bringing them to rest on his face. As her thumbs stroked his—or rather, her own, in this case—cheeks, she slowly opened her eyes.

Nothing happened.

Billy looked at me with Molly’s eyes, so disconcertingly like his own.
What now?
they asked.

“Give it a minute. You know secondhand auras can take a little longer,” I said.

“That’s right,” he agreed, though it wasn’t technically so. Sure, you had to touch a secondhand aura longer to maintain it, but you ought to be able to project it instantly. Besides, it wasn’t really secondhand—it was her own aura. But what are straws for if not to grasp at?

“Hey, why don’t you help? Maybe a double dose would do the trick.”

I obliged and added my own Molly projection to the mix, taking one of her hands and trying my best to give energy instead of take it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Assuming an aura is voluntary; it’s not like you can impose it on someone, even if they are an adaptor.

Still, we waited a full minute more before we gave up, each resuming our own form. If it hadn’t happened yet, it wasn’t going to.

“It was worth a shot,” Billy said with a too-casual shrug. “Not to worry, sis. James is the brilliant one, and we’ll be at his lab in no time. Heck, he’ll probably have the whole thing figured out by the time we get there.”

Molly drooped against him, the saddest little ape in the whole world.

After she was safely buckled into a hastily obtained car seat in the backseat of the Chevy—an indignity she was forced to suffer because of her size—Billy walked me around to the front passenger door.

Seizing the opportunity, I said, “I am
not
jealous. Just so you know.”

He pulled me to the back of the car and opened the trunk, blocking us from Molly’s view.

“Did you forget to pack something? You want to run back and—”

He framed my face with his hands and kissed me, slowly. I was too surprised to protest. When he finished, he took me by one elbow and deposited me in the front seat. I couldn’t fail to notice he hadn’t claimed there was no reason for me to be jealous.

The thought was shoved aside by the car that pulled up alongside us and stopped, blocking our exit. I waved it along without looking, trying to indicate our parking place would soon be available. Billy slid into his seat, started the car, and gave a polite tap of the horn. The car blocking us didn’t move. Finally I looked over and tried to catch the driver’s eye.

Shit!
“Step on it!” I yelled at Billy.

“What? Are you crazy?”

“It’s the woman from the zoo! She must be after Molly.
Go!
” I said, bouncing in my seat, ready to reach a leg over and stomp on the accelerator myself.

“And where do you suggest I go?” Billy asked, looking around him. Car in front, car behind, and Zoo Lady holding steady where she was. What did she think we were going to do? Just hand Molly over?

“I don’t know. Crap. Someone’s getting out of her car. Two someones.
Big
someones. Hurry, before they have us surrounded!”

Billy grinned, took a deep breath, and jumped the curb. He missed the parking meter by inches. Thirty or so feet down the sidewalk (fortunately clear of pedestrians), he found a spot to squeeze through back onto the street.

Zoo Lady was slowed by waiting for her goons to get back into the car, giving Billy a chance to get ahead of her, down obscure streets. A last look behind me showed her gesticulating frantically at somebody next to her in the car.

My speculation about who it could be was cut short by Billy swerving around a corner. “Do you know where you’re going?” I asked.

He gave me a quelling look I took for a yes. “Just keep an eye on Molly, okay? Make sure she doesn’t barf in my backseat.”

Molly looked to be on the verge of sleep, completely unimpressed by our daring escape. Candied ginger is a wonderful thing. Especially when laced with a hefty dose of Dramamine.

Chapter 7

James’s lab was straight out of a sci-fi movie. He wasn’t officially affiliated with Columbia, other than as a perpetual student, but they backed his research anyway. They must have really liked him, because the large work space was outfitted with more computers than an Apple showroom, and had scientific gizmos out the wazoo. I couldn’t tell you what half of them were, much less what they do.

Security was tight. Even Billy had to wait for James to let us in, unusual for a guy who doesn’t generally grasp the concept of “locked.” Once we were inside, he gave Billy a key, so he could come and go with Molly as needed, and commandeered the freshly acquired stroller, pushing it to an alcove equipped with a sofa, several TVs, and an array of video game consoles.

“There you go, Molly. The tests might take a while, and I wouldn’t want you to get bored. Have at it.”

I smiled at James, a little surprised it had occurred to him to find ways of distracting Molly from her troubles. His brain usually occupied a much loftier plane. He shrugged, and helped her out of the stroller. She dove straight for the Wii, something I knew she’d been lusting after for the better part of two years. Auntie Mo thought video games rotted the brain, and persisted in shoving her offspring out into the fresh air whenever they begged to be allowed to join their peers in the twenty-first century.

Once Billy and I had eluded Pregosaurus Rex, the rest of the ride up had been uneventful. Ultimately, we’d decided it must have been a phenomenal piece of bad luck that Zoo Lady had been passing us as we were loading the car, and that pregnancy hormones, coupled with an overdeveloped sense of zoo-volunteer responsibility, had impelled her orangutan recovery attempt. That didn’t fully explain why she had the goons with her, but we put it behind us anyway, certain nothing could come of it once James had Molly back to her own form.

After Molly was settled and figuring out how best to hold the controller with her simian hands, James led Billy and me to the other side of the large room. We had to wend our way around several tables crowded with experiments in various stages of completion.

“Has there been any indication yet that she might bring herself out of this?” James asked, directing his question to both of us.

“Not a flicker,” Billy said.

James nodded. “All right, then. I have a few tests lined up—I’ll get started right away. By the way, do needles bother Molly? I’ll need to take some blood.”

I spied a nearby stool and sat, hard.

Billy laid a casual hand on the back of my neck while James automatically ran a paper towel under the nearest faucet, wrung it out, and handed it to me. I dabbed my face and the insides of my wrists while they went on talking. Needles do bother
me,
just a tad.

“Not much. If you poke her while she’s in front of that Wii, she probably won’t even notice,” Billy said.

James gave me a sideways look. “Ciel, I need you to do me a favor.”

“Sure.” Anything, as long as it involved me leaving before he brought out the needles.

“Mom and Auntie Mo are expecting me to show up”—he checked his watch—“in about half an hour. They’re decorating—”

“Oh, no you don’t! I had decoration duty last year. No way can I do that two years in a row. It’s inhumane.”

“Well, I can’t be there, obviously. My hands are full here. You think it would be fair to make Molly wait?”

“Why can’t Billy go? He’s better at being you than I am. I always slip up and throw in too much of me.”

“I can’t,” Billy interjected. “I’m meeting someone—a
colleague,
” he stressed, for my benefit, “uptown in an hour. I can’t put it off. I can stay with Molly until she’s comfortable here, but then I have to leave.”

“
Grrr.
This is so not right.”

“Sorry. No choice,” James said with an angelic smile. Easy for him to be happy. Nonadaptor that he was, he never had to fill in for anybody.

“Okay,” I said grudgingly. “But I’m going to do it as myself. If I have to suffer, I may as well get credit for it.”