Bad Choices (Hypernaturals 8)

Missing Morgan

Standing where I am I can scent her, but Morgan's scent is everywhere out here. This is her and Jessica's domain.

I went up the stairs on the side of the building to the porch level and then curled around to the back. Morgan's scent is fresh and getting stronger. I am making zero attempts at stealth, not that I am being noisy. Morgan is like me in the over-amped senses department and can hear me coming no matter what I do to be quiet unless I learn to float. She knows it is me and that I am headed toward her. She knows I know where she is.

Morgan stood all the way back along this side, in the darkest part of the porch, leaning against the rail, looking up at the sky.

I stood next to her and leaned against it too. Not too close. I respected her mood, even though I am here to massage her buttocks with my foot, figuratively speaking. Morgan is not a moody person. She is, most of the time, as even keel as they come. Not normally demonstrative: she is almost always in control. The exceptions are notable. She is openly affectionate with her spouses and our daughters, and our extended family.

There is the time she got really pissed off at me and left me at a bar in the rain. Hey: She is only Vampire, fangless edition. I did deserve it.

I looked up at the night sky. Moonless nights are my favorite, especially here away from the city where we are. The stars are so bright to my Vampire enhanced eyes. I waited. Angel is not going to be here for a while. I have time to deliver Angel's prescription.

Morgan is up here because earlier today a complete asshole walked into the office, by appointment, wanting to talk about putting the PI firm of 'Olsen and Sagan' on retainer. The office is Morgan's original PI space, and a while back we decided to merge our two businesses. I help her with PI work, and she helps me write code. We do it all from her original office. I sat in on the meeting. It is a big-ticket opportunity, and in fact, would possibly swamp what two people could reasonably cover. That is fine because Angel could become a PI and help. We might have needed more beyond that.

We have been after Angel about her license for a while. She keeps saying she likes her job like it is, but with Angel's intuition and empathy, she would be amazing at investigations. She did not need Morgan and my enhanced senses to figure out things about people. Angel somehow knows. I decided it is like Gladwell's "Blink', hyped up to a ridiculous extreme. Angel can apparently integrate all the little clues without conscious effort. The only exception to that had been her Ex, who is scum. Andrea somehow talked Angel into marrying him and having a baby. Then he disappeared. I grok two-thirds of that sequence.

Angel, in retrospect, thinks Andrea is gay and that when he married her he was compensating somehow. I have heard that before about other men, but when Angel says it, it carries serious weight.

I do not care if he is or is not gay. My wife has a lover who ONLY likes women. Big deal. He hurt Angel so that means I am pre-disposed against him. It's about what he did to someone I care about, not his favorite gender flavor. 'Their' daughter, Nakoma, is dark-haired and attractive, so his genes had at least not been a complete waste. She is a nice, intelligent, capable girl. Good student. Typical early teenager in some ways, but she likes spending time with my daughters, and with the adults, so not typical in other ways.

I use the phrase 'Their daughter' advisedly. A man that impregnated and ran has no claim to any kind of parentage.

Morgan finally looked over at me. "So. Am I getting soft?" Morgan asked.

"Morgan. The guy looked at our little girls' pictures on your desk. Not just your girls, but mine too. Asked you, specifically YOU, if you would have time to work cases and be a mommy too, and it is clear from that one question we did not want to do business with him. My opinion, but you made me your partner, and that's how I vote."