Family Tails

A Story of a Mixed Family in the Genetic Age

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Names of actual businesses, their products, etc, are the property of their respective owners.

Story and characters © 2013 Ronald J. Lebeck

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Chapter 17

Later that morning Ron, Lupina, Rosie, Rob, and Helga met with Dr. Nemeth in her office to discuss various issues.

"That was quite a wild evening last night," Dr. Nemeth stated after everyone took a seat.

"From what I've been told, and what I remember of it, I think you're right," Ron agreed. "If I may, I think that room needs a little re-design before you do this sort of thing again, because if our suspicions are correct, you'll need it."

Dr. Nemeth regarded his words for a moment and then slowly nodded her head.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" she asked bluntly.

"There are things that I am forbidden to ever discuss, Dr. Nemeth...with anyone. I swore an oath to that, and I take it quite seriously," Ron replied.

His now amber-colored eyes were fixed steadily on her, making Dr. Nemeth a little bit uncomfortable despite having the desk between them. She had seen for herself, along with several other staff members, the damage done to the door...and the shredded remains of the mattress in the room. She had not yet seen the full playback from the camera in the room, though she had seen a few clips from it, and it was frightening.

"I...I'm sure that you do, Mr. Daugherty," Dr. Nemeth said, swallowing hard.

Ron blinked slowly once and then seemed to relax back into the chair, with Lupina and Rosie both wrapping an arm around his.

"You might tell your security people the next time that the only thing those Tasers of theirs will do is piss one of us off and possibly get one or more of them killed," Rob added.

That surprised Dr. Nemeth.

"I understand that those devices are the same that law enforcement officers use, and they will instantly incapacitate a person," Dr. Nemeth said.

"Let me put it to you this way, Doctor," Rob explained, "the last time we went through this, they didn't have rent-a-cops armed with stun guns--they had highly trained military men armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers with explicit orders to shoot to kill if things didn't go right."

Except for the quiet whir of the cooling fan in the biologist's laptop, the room was silent. Even Helga's tail froze in mid-twitch as the weight of Rob's words sank in.

"Just let this be a learning experience for you," Ron said. "Just because you have PhD's in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Cal-Tech, doesn't mean a bloody thing when it comes to blokes like us and what we're capable of doing. If Sumter didn't have his head so far up his arse, he might have warned ye."

"Um, the thing with the door might not have happened if Dr. Sumter hadn't showed up and called Ron a 'lab rat'," Rosie piped up.

"He did what?" Dr. Nemeth asked incredulously.

"Yeah, he put his face up to the window in the door and said, 'Let's see how our little lab rat is doing.' Lu and I both heard him say it, didn't we, Lu?" Rosie asked.

Dr. Nemeth looked from Rosie to Lupina and asked, "Is this true, Lupina?"

"Yes, he most certainly did! I about let him have it, too...but while Rosie was trying to keep me from doing something to him, that's when we heard something hit the door really hard from the inside," Lupina said.

"Hey, Lu...remember when you told me about how Ron got kinda uptight around Dr. Sumter the last time you guys were here?" Rosie asked.

"Yeah, what about it?" Lupina asked in return.

"I don't think the big guy would've wigged out like that last night just because somebody said somethin' stupid. I'm kinda thinking it was more when Dr. Sumter put his face to the window," Rosie replied.

"Why do you think that, Rosie?" Lupina asked.

"Well, as soon as ol' Rob saw him, he kinda got bent outta shape real quick on the dude, and when you asked Rob if he knew Dr. Sumter, he said he did...and there was somethin' else, too. Oh yeah, somethin' about bustin' his face thirty some years ago for some reason," Rosie explained.

Dr. Nemeth looked first to Ron and then to Rob, and asked, "You two have some history with Harvey?"

Rob's expression darkened a bit, and he replied, "We do."

"I see," Dr. Nemeth said. "What was this about?"

Ron snorted quietly and said, "A cat."

Helga looked quickly from Ron to Rob, making a little "mrr?" sound.

"Excuse me?" Dr. Nemeth asked, not understanding.

"A lab cat got out during feeding time, and the lab tech had trouble trying to catch it, so we helped. The cat ended up running straight for Rob and he picked her up. The cat wouldn't let the lab tech take her, so Sumter--being the arrogant ass that he is--tried to grab the cat out of Rob's hands, and got clawed and bit in the process. That's when he struck the cat, and very shortly after that, Rob punched Sumter in the face. If you've ever wondered why Sumter has that little crook in his nose, that's why--Rob busted it," Ron explained.

"I don't like people who abuse animals," Rob added.

"I don't either, though while Rob tends to go more for the frontal assault, I get a bit more...creative," Ron said with smirk.

"Oh, Rosie, remember those stores in Georgia that wouldn't let you shop in them?" Ron asked.

"Yeah?"

"They're all out of business," Ron replied with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

"No way!" Rosie exclaimed.

"Way," he smirked.

"What? All of them?" Lupina asked incredulously.

"I remember you mentioning something about that on the phone, Lupina. Were they a chain?" Dr. Nemeth asked.

Ron shook his head and said, "Each store was owned by different parent companies...and those companies are now out of business, along with every one of their stores. Last I heard, they filed bankruptcy, and were bought out. The stores are still there, but they're now owned by different outfits...and I doubt that there will be any problems with G.E.L.F.s shopping there in the future."

"While that's curious, what does it have to do with what we were talking about?" Dr. Nemeth asked.

Ron grinned deviously and replied, "Creativity."

No one said anything for a few moments, until Rob asked, "Do you have the results of that compatibility test you did on me?"

"Oh. Yes, that," Dr. Nemeth said. She pulled up the results and after quickly looking them over, she replied, "It seems that you have the compatibility as well, Mr. Cloud. Interesting. You, Mr. Daugherty, and Mr. Idelzhye are all completely unrelated...and yet...you have almost exactly the same variances, though there are just enough differences...," she trailed off and looked closer at the laptop's screen.

"Dr. Nemeth, do you have a complete map of the genomes from the animals that you've derived the G.E.L.F.s from?" Ron asked.

"Yes...why?" she replied.

"Just a hunch, if you can, try cross-referencing those variances and such you've found in the three of us with the animals you've used as base material," Ron suggested.

"I...think I see where you're going with this," Rob said, thinking about the questions Rosie had posed the night before.

"About what I was thinkin' last night?" Rosie asked Rob.

"Yes. You got me to wondering about it, too," he replied.

"Can you do that from here, or do you need to go back to your lab to do it?" Rob asked Dr. Nemeth.

"It'll have to set it up from there, but I can get the results from it here," she replied, and then picked up the phone.

Dr. Nemeth called the GDS-1 lab and talked to an assistant, giving the parameters of the search. Once it had been keyed in, it would take the installation's super computer a while to sift through the data.

No sooner than she got off the phone, someone came and knocked on the door. It was another staff member who needed to discuss something with Dr. Nemeth, so she excused herself and stepped out into the hallway for a little bit. Peering around Lupina, Ron seized the opportunity to fish out his cell phone, and quickly punch in some commands. Rosie, Lupina, and Rob saw what he was doing, though only Rob knew what it was. Shortly there was a faint, quick beep from Dr. Nemeth's laptop when the connection initiated. It took only a few seconds for the worm program to transfer to her laptop and hide itself, work its way into the network, and then spread out across the entire computer system for The Center. Once the worm finished uploading, Ron quickly terminated the connection and put his phone away before Dr. Nemeth came back into her office. Before leaving her laptop, the worm erased the appropriate entries in the log files on the laptop so that there would be no trace of it. Prior to leaving home to come to The Center on this trip, Ron had made a few extra changes to the little worm program, to include not only anything related to his DNA, but also to that of the other twenty-three veterans and Project: Hunter.

With a couple of hours to pass before the results were back, the five decided to have lunch, so they headed off to the cafeteria. Along the way, Rob asked Helga about the time she had left at The Center.

"You said you have six more months left here, correct?" Rob asked.

"Yes," Helga replied.

"What will you be doing during that time?" he asked.

"I will be completing my B.S. degree in Nursing," Helga replied.

"Six months...that'll be in April, graduation usually isn't until May or June," Rob observed.

"Correct. Most of us take accelerated courses, though. I am in the honors program, and if I can place high enough, I could earn a grant to continue my studies towards becoming a Nurse Practitioner," Helga said.

"I see, so I guess you plan on staying around here for a while then," Rob said.

"No, I do not wish to stay here any longer than necessary. I want to be...," she said, pausing a little bit, "...someplace not so hot."

Helga nearly said that she wanted to be with him, but caught herself before the words slipped out. As much as she had taken a liking to Rob, and she thought that he seemed to like her, she didn't want to assume too much too soon. After all, they had only just met the day before. If there was any way the staff at The Center would allow it, she definitely wanted to at least be relocated somewhere in Alaska. Rob, on the other hand, initially assumed that she was going to continue her education in Texas, when she mentioned that she wanted to become a Nurse Practitioner. He knew that would require getting at least a master's degree, and that could take anywhere from one to three years, depending on what the requirements are. When she said that she wanted to be someplace that wasn't so hot, he caught the hesitation in her voice, and he wondered if she might have said something else. Still, he felt a little rush because of it, and he found himself wishing to see her again.

Upon entering the cafeteria for the G.E.L.F.s, they noticed the place was nearly full, though there were still some tables open. The various conversations dwindled as more and more of the G.E.L.F.s present became quiet and turned their attention towards the group. Rob wondered if it might have been because he and Ron were the only two humans present in the dining area. Lupina, Rosie, and Helga heard the low murmurings in the G.E.L.F.s own peculiar language, and had an idea as to why they were suddenly the center of attention. Ron noticed the way the other G.E.L.F.s were looking at them, though he wondered if they might be looking more at him due to what he went through the night before. As they walked between the tables on the way to the serving line, the expressions on the faces of the G.E.L.F.s were mixed. Lupina tugged Ron's arm a little so that she could mention something to him.

"Word got out--they know about last night," she whispered into his ear.

Ron glanced at Lupina and she nodded her head once very slightly.

"They're not sure," Lupina whispered again.

Ron nodded his head, understanding the situation. He nudged Rob to get his attention.

"Hey, back when we hit Panama to take down the cartels holding the Canal...remember how the regular forces guys were nervous before going in and we helped reassure them?" Ron quietly asked Rob.

"Yeah," Rob replied.

"I think we've got a similar situation here," Ron said.

Rob looked at his friend briefly as he remembered that particular time in their lives.

The drug cartels had seized the Panama Canal and were threatening to blow up the locks used to move the ships through, along with any ships currently in the Canal Zone, unless their exorbitant demands were met. The Sea Wolf units were called in to find the cartel strongholds, gather intelligence, and harass the enemy. The Sea Wolf guys joked about doing yet another "prowl and growl", though what they really wanted to do was to show the low-life cartel thugs just what was coming after them. During the preparations, Rob's unit, Sea Wolf Alpha Pack, had been waiting along with the regular forces guys for their gear to be unloaded. Once it was, they set about going over everything, calmly and methodically inspecting, selecting, and equipping the supplies that they thought they would need. Once they had finished, they took it upon themselves to help the regular forces prepare. Rob's men went about calmly reassuring the regular guys as they helped the NCOs check their unit's readiness. A quick look over, a pointer or two, a friendly grin, a pat on the shoulder, all did wonders to boost moral. The Sea Wolves had a reputation among the regular forces that almost bordered on legend. They had never lost a man, and had never lost an engagement with the enemy. Oh, there were times when they came back after a particularly brutal assignment or two, licking their wounds as it were, but they never once came back with their tails between their legs in defeat. Their presence in this particular action was viewed as something of a good luck charm among the regular forces, if for no other reason than because the bad guys were justifiably terrified of them. The fact that they were there meant that the chances of the regular guys getting back home on their feet just increased, as if the legendary Myrmidons[1] of the ancient Greeks once again walked the Earth, leading the way into battle.

Continuing through the cafeteria, Ron saw Willie at one of the tables, still wearing the elastic braces on his elbow and knee and with a cane hooked over the back of his chair, so he waved at him. Willie saw him, smiled, and waved back.

"Is that the one you told me about, that got beat up pretty bad?" Rob asked Ron quietly.

"Yeah. He's doing pretty good, considering," Ron replied.

When they got in line, Kylie, the batgirl, was there. She had heard the rumors about what had happened the night before, and when she looked up to Ron's face, the uncertainty was clearly present in her eyes.

"Hi, Kylie, how are you today?" Ron asked pleasantly.

"Um...I'm...okay. Uh, are you...okay?" she replied.

"Heard about last night, eh?" Ron asked with a little grin.

Kylie just nodded her head. Ron felt Lupina's hand lightly rubbing his back as a show of her support.

"Yeah, things got a little...interesting...for a while, but I'm okay," Ron said, and he held his hand out to her.

Hesitating for just a second, Kylie put the long thumb and forefinger at the wrist joint of her left wing in Ron's hand and held it, but then she stepped up to him and hugged him with her other wing arm. Ron carefully returned the girl's hug and gently patted her on the back.

Looking up with her soft hazel eyes, Kylie smiled shyly and said, "I'm glad that you're okay. Oh, your eyes...they...they're...," she started to say.

"A different color?" Ron interjected.

"Yeah," Kylie replied.

"We're glad that he's okay, too, aren't we Lu?" Rosie said with a big, toothy grin, wrapping her arms around Ron's.

Lupina smiled and laid her head against his shoulder and said, "Yeah, we were worried about him."

"I understood the risks, baby," Ron said gently, kissing Lupina on her head.

"And you did it anyway?" Kylie asked with wide-eyed wonder, and holding her "hands" to her mouth.

"Yep, without hesitation," he replied with a grin.

"Wow," Kylie said quietly.

When it was Ron's turn in line to be served, one of the cooks said, "This cafeteria is for G.E.L.F.s only. The staff dining room is up on the main floor."

Ron looked at the cook and started to get a little annoyed by the tone of voice used.

"I don't work here, I'm here with my mates," he replied.

"Sir, I don't care if you're Australian, this cafeteria is only for the G.E.L.F.s," the cook insisted.

Ron shot Rob a quick exasperated glance, and then muttered something under his breath.

"Stop actin' the maggot[2], ye bloody eejit, I'm Irish, and these two fine bitta fluff are me mates, an' so it is!" Ron exclaimed, getting rather miffed.

Lupina quickly raised her left hand to show her ring and said, "This kind of mate!"

Rosie, seeing what Lupina was doing, raised her left hand, too, to show her own ring.

"Yeah, this kind of mate! He's ours and we're his, and he's eating with us!"

Before Rob could say anything, Helga slipped her arm around him and said with a purr in her voice, "He's with me," much to Rob's surprise.

The cooks on the line all looked from one to another. Many of the G.E.L.F.s had heard what was going, and some of the ones who were sitting at the closer tables got up and came towards the serving line.

One of the male canine G.E.L.F.s that approached asked Lupina, "Is it true? He's your mate?"

Lupina looked at the male canine and said, "Yes, it is. Rosie and I both claim Ron as our mate."

Ron faced the canine and putting his arms around both Lupina and Rosie, said with a grin, "Aye, lad, we're mated."

The male canine looked up and saw Ron's amber eyes and a faint hint of shine in them.

"You're not...fully human, are you?" the male canine asked.

Ron grinned and said, "Not any more."

"Why?" the male canine asked.

The other G.E.L.F.s who had gathered around murmured their approval of the question.

"Ron was already one of the few humans who are compatible with us, and so is his friend Rob, and the other human friend of theirs who was here a week ago. Ron took the risk of getting enhanced so that he could be even more compatible," Lupina said.

The gathered G.E.L.F.s shifted their attention from Lupina to Ron, who simply nodded his head in agreement.

Rosie added, "Yeah, it was pretty hard on him, the pain and all he went through, but he did it because he loves us."

That drew more murmurs of approval from the G.E.L.F.s.

The male canine stepped up to the serving line and said, "I say let them eat with us if they want to!"

Several more of the G.E.L.F.s also crowded around and said with raised voices, "Yeah, let them eat with us!"

"But the rules...," the one cook started to say before she was cut off.

"Ah, to heck with your rules! This is our area and these folks want to be with our kind, not yours!" another G.E.L.F. said loudly.

That prompted a loud "Yeah!" from a large portion of the G.E.L.F.s in the cafeteria.

"So what's it going to be, another insurrection in the cafeteria over food?" Ron asked the cooks with a merry grin.

That drew several laughs, barks, and other assorted sounds from the diners.

"Oh...alright!" the cook said in exasperation, to the cheers of many. "What will it be, carni, herbi, or omni?" she asked with a bit of a sour face.

"Omni, with extra meat," Ron said with a smug grin.

As they walked through the seating area to get a table, the G.E.L.F.s that they passed all reached out and lightly touched Ron and Rob, who reciprocated with a free hand, as they went by.

The afternoon brought a few more round of tests to see how the changes in Ron were stabilizing. It seemed that after the initial accelerated reactions, things seemed to have calmed down within his body and were proceeding normally. Ron was given the okay to return home, though he was given a number to call in case he should notice anything unusual. When it was nearly time to leave, Rob took a few minutes to speak privately with Helga.

"Looks like we'll be leaving soon," Rob said quietly.

Helga looked at him, blinked her eyes slowly, and cocked her head a little.

"You will miss me?" she asked when she saw the wistful look on his face.

"Yes, I...I would like to see you again," he replied.

Helga smiled softly and she felt a purr starting.

"Only to 'see' and nothing more?" she teased. "Perhaps I might like to...touch."

Helga began to purr noticeably and she began to rub her head against him in a very similar manner that any house cat would do when wanting attention. The effect on Rob was beginning to make itself noticeable, which pleased Helga even more.

Rob's first thought was to step back and put a little distance between the two of them, but instead he hugged her. That kept from possibly hurting her feelings, and also got her to stop rubbing, which was kind of embarrassing he thought, given the short time that they've known each other.

"Uh...is there any way that we can keep in contact until...you are able to leave here?" Rob asked.

"Not directly, though perhaps...through my student e-mail we could. They watch everything here," Helga suggested.

"Hmm...where do you access that at, here or at the school?" Rob asked.

"At the school. They would prefer that we do everything here, but some of us have to physically go to the university for certain classes, such as science labs. Perhaps someday that will change, and we will be allowed to attend classes with the humans," Helga replied.

"It might take a while, but it'll happen eventually," Rob said.

Helga looked up, blinking her eyes slowly, and purred.

When it was finally time for Ron, Lupina, Rosie, and Rob to leave, word quickly spread among the G.E.L.F.s and a large number of them walked away from whatever they were doing and headed out onto the grounds. Dr. Nemeth and other staff members were surprised by the sudden turnout. What the staffers failed to take into account is the fact that like their four-footed cousins, most of the G.E.L.F.s can hear into the ultrasonic range, and the bat G.E.L.F.s are the only ones who are able to make sounds in that range using their echo location ability. With their large and highly sensitive ears, their ability to "see" sound, and their ability to account for environmental factors that can cause distortions in the reflected sound waves, the bats could filter out any induced "noise" and act as "repeaters", accurately relaying and disseminating the message. In effect, they created their own "town crier" public address system that humans couldn't hear without specialized audio equipment.

"I wonder what's going on," Rob said quietly as they came outside and saw the gathered G.E.L.F.s.

"I dunno...," Ron said. "Got any idea, luv?" he asked Lupina.

"I don't know either; we were in the offices before we came outside," she replied.

They walked a little bit further and caught up with Dr. Nemeth, who had a folder in her hands.

"I have the results of that query you suggested, Mr. Daugherty. A rather unusual 'hunch' you had...and the results, well, you can see for yourselves," she said, handing the file folder to Ron.

He opened it up, and Lupina, Rosie, Rob, and Helga gathered around to look. Sure enough, the slight variances in each of the three men's DNA matched three specific species: Canis lupus*[3]*, Puma concolor*[4]*, and Vulpes vulpes*[5]*. While they were looking at the report, Ron looked up and observed someone standing at a window on the second floor of the main building.

"Rob, check out the third window on the left, second floor," Ron said.

When Rob saw the face in the window, he uttered a brief, low growling sound, which Helga understood immediately.

"You don't miss a thing, do you?" Rob asked, still staring darkly at the window.

Dr. Nemeth looked up and saw Dr. Sumter looking down, just before he stepped away from the window.

With a little snort, Ron replied, "A good sniper never does."

Dr. Nemeth looked at Ron with an expression of shock.

Ron looked back at Dr. Nemeth with a calm, though slightly intense look in his amber eyes, and a certain faint hint of danger in his voice, said, "I never miss."

He held his gaze for only a moment before grinning and doing something completely unexpected. Almost quicker than the eye could follow, Ron reached up and gently cupped Dr. Nemeth's chin with his fingers, and then leaned in slowly until he was nearly nose-to-nose with her.

"Another time...another place...who knows...," he said quietly and then made a quick kissing gesture before pulling away with a sly grin.

Dr. Nemeth became suddenly flustered and her face blushed deeply. No one had made a pass at her like that since her first years of college.

Putting his arms around both Lupina and Rosie, Ron lovingly kissed each in turn full on the lips and slipped a bit of tongue in the process, to the howls, barks, and other sounds of happiness from the gathered G.E.L.F.s.

"Come me lovelies, our carriage awaits," Ron said with a merry chuckle and they headed off together towards the SUV that would be taking them back to the hotel. Rob walked a short distance behind Ron with Helga walking beside him, her arm around his. As they passed through the crowd, the G.E.L.F.s drew close and all reached out and touched the five, in a silent show of friendship and support. As soon as they got to the SUV, Ted opened the side door and stood there waiting.

"Gee, Rob, is this were one of us says something snappy, like General MacAuthur, or William Wallace?" Ron smirked.

"I'd rather keep a low profile," Rob said, shaking his head.

"A little late for that, I think," Ron grinned.

"Hey big guy, you weren't really gonna kiss ol' Dr. Nemeth, were ya?" Rosie asked, eying Ron suspiciously.

"Nah, I got all I could ever want with Lu and you, Rozer," Ron grinned, giving Rosie a quick squeeze.

Willie was among the crowd that had gathered and Ron made it a point to speak to him before leaving.

"Hey, Willie, take care of yourself, and get that bow arm limbered up. We're looking forward to having you play at the UAF auditorium," Ron said, shaking his hand and giving the mouse G.E.L.F. a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks. I'm working on it, and I've been doing a little light practicing. The therapist says I should be fully healed in another month or so," Willie said with a grin.

"Good deal! Well, you've got our number, so when you're ready, just give us a call and we'll get you up there," Ron said with a smile.

Also waiting to say goodbye was Kylie. She stood shyly next to Willie, with her wings folded across her chest in the typical bat fashion.

"Hey kiddo, come to see us off, too?" Ron asked, holding his hands out to her.

Kylie grasped his hands with her digits and said, "Yeah. Um...are you ever going to come back sometime?"

Ron glanced at Rob and Helga, and then looked back at Kylie and said with a grin, "I think there's a good possibility we'll be back again."

Kylie smiled and said, "Thank you...for treating us like real people."

Several in the crowd agreed, including Willie.

Ron smiled back and said, "Well sweetie, that's because you are." Looking around the assembled G.E.L.F.s, Ron added, "It doesn't matter to me how you came to be in this world, you're part of it now--all of you. Personally, I think life is going to be a lot more interesting because of it, especially if my mates get their way."

That caused a bit of laughter and a few howls, making Lupina and Rosie a little embarrassed. Rob didn't see the little smile on Helga's face as she thought about the possible future.

Turning his attention back to Kylie, Ron said, "You take care and fly straight, okay?"

"I will," she said shyly.

Ron gave her a friendly hug and little peck on the cheek, which caused Kylie to make a kind of chirping sound, albeit at ultrasonic frequencies.

Lupina entered the back of the SUV first, followed by Rosie. Her long, bushy tail brushed along Ron's face, causing him to grin. He saw the expression on Ted's face, and that caused him to grin all the more.

"Heh, you have no idea what you're missing, dude," Ron said with a smirk, and then he followed Rosie into the vehicle.

Helga tugged on Rob's arm slightly so that she could say goodbye.

"I will miss you," she purred, laying her head against his chest. Rob put his arms around Helga and held her, working the fingers of one hand into the thick fur on her exposed lower back.

"I hate goodbyes," he said quietly.

Helga looked up at him, slowly blinking her luminous green eyes.

"Then we must make sure to see each other again," she said.

Rob took a slow, deep breath, and nodded slowly.

"I look forward to it," Rob said.

Helga's tail slowly swished back and forth a few times, and when it stopped, she had decided what she wanted to do. Putting her arms around Rob's neck and pulling him closer, she kissed him on the lips. It caught Rob a bit by surprise. He was just in the process of starting to say something when she did it, so his mouth was partially open. The next thing he knew, he had a furry face pushing into his, and felt a rough tongue dart in and rub against his own. He felt his face flush and his heart rate increase, the former from embarrassment at being unexpectedly kissed and in front of a crowd to boot, and the later from the excitement he felt from being kissed by a female that he felt an unusually strong attraction towards.

When she pulled back, Helga said, "I will see you again," as she licked her lips, purring loudly.

Lupina, Ron, and Rosie were all smiling at Rob when he took the rearward facing seat just behind the divider in the SUV. This caused his face and the top of his head to turn an even darker shade of red, just as Ted shut the door.

"Geez Rob, I didn't know humans could turn the color of a beet!" Rosie said with a toothy grin.

"Rosie! Be nice!" Lupina admonished.

Ron didn't say anything at first; he just sat there grinning. As soon as the vehicle started moving Ron hummed a few bars and sang, "They give me cat scratch fever[6]..."

"Ron...stop it."

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons

[2] Irish slang: "stop acting the maggot" means "stop messing around"

[3] Canis lupus - gray wolf

[4] Puma concolor - cougar

[5] Vulpes vulpes - red fox

[6] From Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaQFC0h91zQ