The Glass Scientists micro-fanfictions

Missing

"What do you mean you haven't seen him?"

"Oh please, you didn't do all that good of a job of keeping an eye on him either."

Somehow, over a matter of several minutes, Edward Hyde had slipped away, out of sight and undoubtedly off into some sort of nefarious, debauchrous  villainy. It really hadn't been all that long, but the second there wasn't someone keeping an eye on him, he vanished.

They hadn't even heard the bloody bastard/sweet innocent child of a man leave.

Robert had all too quickly started pacing, already imagining what they might have to try and cover up, or at the very least deflect away from them, and how much time - and money - it would take to do so. His head found a place in his hand, as if nursing a headache that he was almost positive would emerge by the end of the night. Of course, to make matters worse, he couldn't even ask Henry where he thought that strange little assistant of his would be heading off to, because the doctor had been oh so conveniently called away on some business or another that night and so was no help at all. Admittedly he didn't want to have to admit that they'd already lost track of the man they'd been asked to keep an eye on, and so early in the night as well.

Rachel was also thinking fretful sorts of thoughts, but she was slightly more still, even with her bouncing from foot to foot. He could barely look after himself! He could get hurt! He could get someone else hurt! Oh, she knew that he would escape when given the chance, but she still, like a fool, presented the opportunity for him to do precisely that. She knew him well enough to know that wherever he'd be off to was not the sort of place that he should be sticking his nose into, and he had a habit of sticking his nose into everywhere he knew he shouldn't.

The absolute fool/reckless child was going to have them prematurely bald from tearing their hair out from the stress he causes.

"Jasper!" Rachel exclaimed all of a sudden, having not expressed anything else from this train of thought until then.

"Jasper?" Lanyon echoed, confusion obvious in his tone, even if one didn't happen to see the way his nose had scrunched up in confusion.

"Yes, Jasper!" she confirmed, "He could find him again! He can just try and sniff him out, he has a particularly strong, distinct smell about him, so Jasper can just follow that!"

"Rachel, Jasper isn't a bloodhound. We can't just put him on a scent trail and have him lead us around."

The woman pouted at this, her hands on her hips, tapping an irregular rhythm with her foot. This was met with little more than a shrug from the other person, which prompted her tapping to grow in speed.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" she asked, issuing the aristocrat a challenge, her eyebrow quirked to solidify this as fact, "A single idea? It doesn't even have to be a good idea! Just any idea before he does something, and he will do something, this is Master Hyde we're talking about!" The pace that her words came grew more and more frantic as she spoke, which definitely did not help either of their nerves.

"Well, no," came his response, not sounding quite as calm or unflappable as he had hoped he might, "But we can't pin all of our hopes on a werewolf, now can we."

It was impressive that he didn't flinch when she got far too close to him all too quickly, the beginnings of a scowl beginning to form upon her face.

"And what's wrong with having a little faith in him, eh?" she asked, her face awfully close to the other person's.

"Nothing," he returned, his hands raised up in a pacifying motion, "But we can't rely solely on him. He might be busy and not even be able to help us at all, so we ought not put all our hopes on him."

Rachel let out a sharp breath, but much to his relief she had stepped away after he's said this, so he could assume she understood his point.

"'spose so," she huffed, "But without any ideas on what to do, Edward could be half a dozen blocks away, or lying unconscious somewhere, or half a dozen blocks from where someone that is lying unconscious somewhere!"

"You're catastrophising."

"Am I?"

"Point taken. As you said, there's little we can do just standing around talking about things while our man is getting further and further away from us." It felt odd, almost wrong for Robert to claim that Hyde was his man, or even their man, even given the strange circumstances he always managed to get dragged into by a man he'd yet to even be formally introduced to, not a 'how d'you do' or a handshake, but rather a wild goose chase about the city because apparently that was what he was supposed to be doing.

What Robert supposed he was supposed to be doing that night would be setting down in a comfortable chair with a nice cup of tea and a good book, and certainly not traversing the undesirable corners of the city, which is what it seemed more and more like how the night would be going for him as each moment passed.

Turning on her heels, Rachel began to make her way towards the door before he'd even had the chance to finish his sentence. If all went well, they'd be able to catch up with the man, and miraculously convince him to come back with them before he could get up to any sort of mischief. She had enough bartering material if it came to it, mainly in the form of various foodstuffs, which had more or less worked in the past.

"Well, come on then," said she, turning back, a look of determination clear upon her face, "We haven't got all night, you know?"