Diane slumbers peaceably, in wolf form, in the corner of the living room.
She has turned off the TV, finding it an unnecessary distraction and waste
of the generator's power.

Leigh starts when she sees Diane, Phaedra close by her.  Sinfi wanders
around the house as if nothing is out of the ordinary.  He notes the
sleeping wolf, and thinks nothing of it.  After all, strange wolves,
sleeping in pretty much strangers' houses are nothing new to him.

A strange whuffling noise gives Leigh another start.  Oh, it's just Diane,
starting to snore.  Since they're both dripping, Leigh pulls out one of the
towels and dries Phaedra, then herself. Phaedra prowls for electrical items;
the only one on is the light, so Phaedra growls at the light. Hearing the
growl, Diane wakes. She looks around disoriented, at first not knowing where
she is.  Huh?  Oh yeah, she's at that doctor's house, the one who used to
employ Leigh.  And there's a huge storm outside.  And it looks like Leigh,
Phaedra, and Sinfi just got back with their towels, or whatever they went to
buy.  She squints at Leigh, noticing that she's using the towels already.
Handy.

Leigh puts a towel on her head and leaves it there, and invites Phaedra to
curl up on a comforter with her.  Phaedra eyes the light warily as she
slowly walks over to Leigh and lies down.

Leigh looks at the light.   "Don't like that huh?" she says to Phaedra.

"You should take a shower, to warm up.  We can't have you getting sick,"
Sinfi tells Leigh.

"Wouldn't you like that?  You know I don't get sick."  Leigh winks at him.

Sinfi picks up another towel and tosses it at Leigh - it covers her face.
"Some  people don't get sick, no."

Phaedra's eyes narrow a bit towards Sinfi.

Leigh giggles and tugs the towel off her face.  Turning to Phaedra, she
says, "Wanna take a shower, girl?"

Phaedra looks behind her and gives Leigh a puzzled look.

"Shower, like rain, only inside and warm," Leigh clarifies.

Leigh and Phaedra make their way into the bathroom.  Phaedra, still a wolf,
gives the bathtub contraption an incredulous look.  Leigh turns on the water
and tests it, wondering if it's still hot.  Finding it warm, Leigh hops in
clothes and all, since her clothes need a wash, too.

Phaedra steps into the tub, and yips.  Her claws slip on the tub as she
scurries around, continually falling but managing to keep herself slidingly
upright.  Leigh helps her steady.

Diane has waited until Leigh and Phaedra are out of earshot.  Still a wolf,
she speaks in Garou without thinking.  "I bet there isn't much hot water
left... but who knows.  Hope they can get warm and clean up quick huh?"  She
realizes then that he probably doesn't understand her.  She sits up on her
haunches, then starts to shift to human form.

Sinfi, understanding perfectly, casts a rather ambiguous look that says, oh,
you would have to bring it up like that, wouldn't you? in Diane's direction.
He coughs again.   "I think they had a longer engagement planned."

Diane settles herself back comfortably on the sofa, then absorbs the
inference that Sinfi did, after all, understand.  "You understood me huh?
Cool.   Um.........."  She tries to figure out what he might mean by a
longer engagement.

Sinfi smiles engagingly.  "And why wouldn't I understand you?"

Diane considers, but can think of no good answer to this.  "Good question."
She shrugs.  "No reason, I guess, since you do.  Where'd you learn to talk
Garou?"

Sinfi laughs quietly to himself.  "Learn what?  Garou?  Is that some new
kind of cheese?"

"You're mixing it up with Gruyere."  She switches to Garou.  "This is, what
I was talking in when I said that about the shower."

Sinfi laughs out loud at the explanation, which was, in his estimation,
completely unnecessary, but certainly proved a point.  Diane chuckles along
with him, for probably completely different reasons.

In the bathroom, Leigh strips down to her undergarments and rinses until all
the mud and stuff is gone.  She washes Phaedra's fur a little, then does her
own mess of hair.  Tired of slipping, Phaedra shifts to human form.  She
gets half pinned as her sword melds out of her, but manages to get it off
and drops it outside the tub.

Sinfi sits beside Diane, casting one look (that's all he allows himself, at
least) in the direction of the bathroom, then gets comfortable, leaning back
and propping his feet up on the coffee table.  "So... tell me about
yourself."

Diane nods, and puts her feet up next to his.  "Okay.  I'm a Galliard,
member of the Children of Gaia.  Official storyteller for my pack.  Which
Leigh is sort of in.  She's still a cub officially though."

Sinfi muses over this for a few minutes, slipping his arms behind his head,
resting on his palms.  "A cub?  Interesting.  She got the gene then.  A
designer gene, no less."

Diane says, "She did, I guess.  You didn't realize that?"

Sinfi shakes his head, as if caught red-handed sleeping at his post on the
night watch.  "No... I've been watching her for years, you know... keeping
her out of trouble... making sure she ate her vegetables.. that sort of
thing.  But, I had no clue."

In the bathroom, Leigh shakes off and rinses her hair, steps out of the tub,
drying off and hanging up her stuff, and waits for Phaedra.  Phaedra
finishes and steps out too.  She picks her pack and clothing and sword up,
watching Leigh to see what comes next.

Leigh leans over and wraps a towel around her head, then shuts off the
water.

Phaedra picks up a towel and wraps it around her head in imitation of Leigh,
then picks her stuff back up.

Leigh puts a towel around herself.  "You can leave that stuff to dry, and
wear a towel, if you care to."  Phaedra sets the wet clothes down but keeps
the pack and sword. Leigh smiles and hands her a towel.  Phaedra holds the
towel and follows Leigh out of the bathroom.  Leigh shrugs and leads her out
into the hallway.

Diane is saying, "I'm glad she had someone looking after her."

And Sinfi is answering her, "Thank you.  I think she was kinda privileged as
well."  They are smiling at one another as Leigh and Phaedra return to the
living room, towel turbans on both their heads, Phaedra wearing nothing
else, but carrying her pack and sword and a towel.

Diane is laughing at what Sinfi said, then gives him a triumphant look.
"See? They're back quickly."

Leigh flops down on the comforter she has claimed at her own, across from
Sinfi and Diane.

The pleasant expression never leaves Sinfi's face as he says, "Not for lack
of trying, I'm sure."

"Trying what?" Diane asks.

"Huh?" Then Leigh thinks about it and blushes bright red.

Phaedra drops her pack and carefully sets her sword down and sits next to
Leigh.

Sinfi glances at Leigh and Phaedra as if noticing their presence for the
first time.  "Back so soon?  You'll spoil my bet!"  He laughs.

Diane looks sideways at the red faced Leigh, thinking about her reaction.
Hmm, she was blushing when Sinfi joked with her... could it be an
attraction?  Seemed likely to her.

Leigh says to Sinfi, "You have an overactive imagination."  She tugs the
blanket over Phaedra nonetheless.  Phaedra curls up against Leigh.

"Mother always said I was blessed with creativity."  He had taken note of
the quite attractive, nude female as she wandered out.  He had also noted
the sword and scrupulously refrained from mentioning her utterly stitchless
state.

Leigh asks Diane, "Think the others will worry?"

Diane considers.  "Probably, yes.  At least Niko will."

"I really don't think I could make it back tonight, unless the storm
stopped," Leigh says.

"I don't think we should even try.  If we did, they'd probably have
something real to worry about," Diane says.

Leigh nods. "Does Tamara have E-mail, you think?"

"Probably, but her computer's in pieces.  She probably can't check it."

"OK... I guess we just have to hope they don't send out a search party."
Leigh turns from Diane to Sinfi.  "I hope you can restrain yourself for the
evening."  She grins.

Phaedra looks at Leigh then looks at Sinfi, giving him one of those
touch-her-and-lose-a-finger looks.  Sinfi scrupulously ignores this, as
well.

Diane closes her eyes, reaching her thoughts out to Niko.  She focuses very
intently and when she thinks she might have reached him, she mentally
shouts, we are here, safe and dry, the storm is too bad but we'll come back
tomorrow.

...and somewhere, out there, far, far away... Niko sits up a bit straighter
and smiles.

"Well, uh... I tried something.  I think I managed to tell them we're okay,"
Diane says to Leigh.

"Can you do that?  Cool."  Leigh stands up again and goes rummaging for
food.

Sinfi kicks off his shoes, then leans against the wall again, almost falling
asleep as he listens to the "packmembers"  talk to one another.

Phaedra reaches over and grabs her sword and begins to polish it with a
cloth.

Diane calls to Leigh as she forages, "It's pretty far, so I'm not really
sure."  Leigh listens as she gathers some little goodies, and makes Digger
his supper too, taking that in to the dog.  Digger wags affectionately as
Leigh feeds him.

Still appearing quite convincingly asleep, Sinfi nevertheless keeps one eye
trained on the Ginsu wielding female - never can tell, after all...  until
Phaedra finishes and slips the sword back into its odd looking back sheath.

The night passes without event... Sinfi asks Leigh to come meet him again,
as soon as she can... he gives her his cell phone number. (All scoundrels
have cell phones these days - weaver marches ahead.)  The good doctor
doesn't return home before they depart... and the note Leigh leaves explains
it all.   Around midnight, when all are asleep, the storm becomes a gentle
rain.  Waking, Leigh peers out, but the clouds still hide the stars, so she
returns to her dreams.