Love Bites

R is for rainbows

15.

Ruby jumped up from her seat on the couch in Fox's office, starting her fourth pace of the room for the afternoon. Clenching and unclenching her fists she wondered for the millionth time what was taking him so long.

'I'll just be half an hour at the most,' Fox had said after instructing another employee to take her to wait in his office. He didn't trust her to find it by herself, not after last time.

So she'd been waiting for forty-five minutes now, and was going a little stir crazy. She'd already studied every single picture on his wall, flicked through the many books neatly stacked on his shelf and attempted to log on to his lap top which was taunting her from its spot on his desk. Of course it was password protected, and she'd tried a couple of obvious choices but who actually used familiar words these days for passwords?

'Hi darling, how are you going in here?'

Ruby spun around to find Rachael at the doorway with her charming bright smile. 'Oh hi Rachael, any sign of Fox?'

She stepped inside the room, 'I think he's still in the lab, do you want me to find out how long he'll be?'

'Nah, it's fine I'll just wait here,' she sighed. 'He's not going to hurry on my account.'

Rachael's smile softened, 'he's awfully busy lately isn't he? These last few weeks have been crazy at the office. I can only imagine how you must be feeling in the middle of it all, but if it helps at all you have the best people looking for your family. Fox is driven, when he puts his mind to something or someone, well they don't have a hope.'

Ruby cocked her head in surprise, so Rachael was definitely paying attention to the goings on at the council.

'Thanks,' she smiled. 'To be honest this whole situation is still really strange to me. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with the fact I'm living with a bunch of vampires, and that they even actually exist in the world. I'd love to go back to thinking they're just a myth.'

Rachael threw her head back in laughter, 'Oh I completely understand. I'm not one either, did you know?'

Ruby felt her mouth drop open in shock, she would have though it would be a pre-requisite for a job interview here.

Rachael nodded, 'My father is one, he and my mother had me in secret because those types of relations are obviously frowned upon.' She shrugged, 'When my mother passed away my dad raised me in their world, he works here too and got me the job.'

'Oh Rachael, I'm so sorry about your mother. That must have been horrible.'

'I was two, I can't remember her,' Rachael smiled softly. 'Don't worry about it.'

'So you understand my situation a little more than I thought,' Ruby frowned.

'I sure do, if you ever want to talk about it you know where I am,' Rachael winked at her. 'So do you have something in here to keep you occupied while you wait?'

Ruby shrugged, 'Apart from snooping around his office?'

Rachael grinned, 'Oh I bet you could find some interesting things in here. Of course I wouldn't do that as a doting employee, but I guess you have free reign.'

Ruby laughed, 'It's certainly a lot brighter than his office at home. There's a lot more photos here, any idea who the dog is?' Ruby gestured to her favourite photo of Fox wrapping his arms around the pup at the beach. 'I definitely haven't seen one around the house.'

Rachael walked over to join her at the wall peering at the photo, 'No I'm not sure actually, I bet Darius would know though.'

'Hmm,' Ruby mused as she glanced at some of Fox's other pictures in search of the dog.