Post by Joseph Alvarez on May 2, 2015 12:32:56 GMT -5
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The comfortable lull of conversation he had drifted in to, piles of paperwork on his cubicle desk forgotten in favor of a clandestine call to his daughter back home in the Wizen projects to ask about her day at school had taken an abrupt turn for concern as Joseph immediately sat up straight in his chair, earning himself a loud squawk of indignation from the Murkrow who had been snoozing off on his shoulder and flapped off in a flurry of black feathers to sit on his computer instead.
”Is it bad? Did somebody drop it?”
The ex-con felt his heart sink almost immediately, biting down on his bottom lip as he wildly looked around and noted that the time was only four in the evening. An hour away from the end of their working day, and his alarm didn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues a few desks away who side-glanced him suspiciously.
”Jayda, is Nanna there?”
”Yup!”
The little girl on the other end chimed with all the air of a hopeful little soldier giving a report to a commander.
”Um, no one did anything bad to it. I stroked it and sang to it a little kinda? I didn’t drop it I swear! And you said not to touch the heating pad so we didn’t. It just started shaking and then there is a crack---ah Papa there is another crack!”
At this point the Interpol agent-in-training had all but leapt off his seat, knees colliding with the edge of the tabletop as he swore foully and struggled to throw on his leather jacket to the annoyed canine yelping that echoed from under the desk.
“It’s hatching. It’s hatching darlin’, can you get Nanna to heat up some water and get some towels?”
Joseph hurriedly mouth into the phone which was still pinned between his head and shoulder as he made a grab for the important files and folders to tuck them under one arm and swiftly whistled for Jericho and Siegfried to follow him.
”Uhuh! Nanna says she had not delivered babies before though, is everything gonna be okay?”
He opened his mouth to answer, only to clamp down on his tongue a bare second later.
Eggs held a promise of new life, yes, but he’d trafficked enough of them in a past life to understand that the chances a hatching could go wrong without proper care was not as minuscule as he hoped and he offered an apologetic glance at the older gentleman that was walking around the cubicles with an authorative air, the one they knew as Rhafiel who raised an eyebrow at him quizzically.
”Family emergency.”
The ex-con blurted out, not expecting to be believed but to his surprise, the man merely looked him dead in the eye, shrugged and nodded, before sweeping a hand in the direction of the punch clock.
”Be sure to fill in a permission form with management when you come in tomorrow.”
Came the crisp acknowledgement as Rhafiel tilted his head to a side subtly in a manner that suggesting he was studying body language.
There were times Joseph felt like the man saw more than most people in a manner that was unsettling yet reassuring in a way; It was ridiculous but despite his skepticism, he had been raised by a superstitious mother, and if the man did and he hadn’t been called up for immediate resignation, it had to be a good omen on his part.
The deep-purple, swishy-tailed and spotted feline named Nyx that never left said man’s side and was eyeing him with a mixture of mischief and distaste suggested the complete opposite however, but today he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
He’d always been a dog person anyway.
”You understand that the reports will be required on Werner’s desk on Monday regardless of your family issues?”
”Oh, absolutely sir. Right on time.”
The ex-con managed the most winning grin he could muster, crisply saluting his superior---an act which Siegfried emulated---before rushing towards the machine to punch out his card before flying down the emergency stairs five steps at a time from the tenth floor of the office. It was still faster than attempting to wait for the elevator and less inclined to make him want to pry the doors open and shimmy down the shaft himself.
”Papa? Are you still there?”
The tiny voice chimed it from the phone once more as he heard the faint Alamese accent in the background, that of an older woman who was swearing to Arceus and about five other deities he was fairly certain didn’t exist in the same brand of religion.
”Yeah Princess I’m right here! I’m comin’ home aight? You just wait for me and report status on the egg.”
”Aye aye Captn’!”
Crashing out into the main lobby with a dog that tripped over itself the last five steps and a fairykitten who looked about one surprise away from a heart attack, he took one look at them before grabbing both, one under each arm like a sack of potatoes and rushing out towards the entrance of the carpark.
”W-H-A-T H-U-R-R-Y”
The insistent clacking caws next to his ear made him grin despite himself as he fished out the keys to the second-hand Lumina, and his answer made a similar grin of dawning realization and glee break across the bird’s beak as well.
“Gotta ready yourselves for a new team addition, you bastards. A tiny, wailin’ new team addition.”
’He speaks in riddles.’
Siegfried scowled as he was dumped into the backseat with the panting mutt who stared at Gambit with a comically daft expression that made the Ralts want to smack him across the snout.
‘That’s great. I didn’t get a fucking word of that.’
‘Oh my friends!’
The Murkrow tilted his head back, a cawing laugh in symphony with he car’s engine as it revved up and began racing down the streets at whatever speed that wouldn’t have the patrolling cops tailing them in a downtown car chase.
’A child! We’re expecting a child!’
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