Awakening

[Maira]

Her first part of the day at the shelter was for the most part uneventful. It was filled with paperwork and phone calls both to prospective pet adopters and to their food and medicine suppliers. Only after lunch did things get out of hand.

She had a routine that she followed every day after lunch. It was her favorite part of the day. First, she'd go socialize the cats then she'd take some of the dogs out for leash work. Maira had finishedplaying with the cats, giving them the attention they need when being cooped up in kennels all day, and she had just arrived at her first doggy charge of the day. For some reason, the normally friendly terrier was cowering in the corner. worried that she was injured, Maira went into her kennel to look at her. Just as she reached out her hand to pet her and talk to her, the little dog lunged at her. Luckily she missed her hand and she was able to get out of the kennel quickly before she latched onto her pantleg.

The next dog Maira went to get out for his walk was a rambunctious playful mixed breed. Nobody had been able to figure out just what exactly he was but there were guesses on part Shepard and part Lab. When she walked up to the kennel he was sleeping so Maira went in with his leash in one hand and called to him to wake up. "Come on Sam, time to go for a walk!" Hearing his favorite word, the dog quickly woke up his tail wagging already. Maira was reaching to clip on his leash when without warning the dog latched onto her wrist with his teeth and started growling.

Even when she cried out in pain and tried to back away, Sam just wouldn't let go of her arm. In fact, he was chewing it digging his teeth deeper and deeper into her arm. At a loss for what else to do, Maira was about to scream for somebody to help her when she felt Twilight's Rain shove to the surface. Not knowing what she was doing, Maira hissed and growled at the dog and it immediately let go and went and cowered in the corner on his bed again. When the dog let go, Maira fell backwards and then scrambled back toward the kennel door to let herself out.

Once outside, Maira stood there breathing heavy and trying desperately to push Rain back to the back of her mind. Two normally friendly dogs had just snapped at her, one actually biting her badly. What on earth was happening? Then, just to test a theory, Maira walked past another couple kennels and sure enough. The dogs in those kennels either cowered from her or lunged at the walls of their kennel trying to get at her.

As heartbreaking as it was to her, Maira knew she couldn't work at the shelter anymore and she didn't even bother to tell the office she was leaving. Her purse was already in her truck since she always left it out there while she was at work so she just ran around the side of the building to the parking lot and got in her truck and left.

Only after she'd been driving for a few moments and she reached for her cell phone in her purse did Maira realize just how much she was bleeding. "Shit," she muttered as she flipped the phone open and called the shelter. Her boss answered and Maira told her that she suddenly wasn't feeling good and had driven herself to the doctors and likely wouldn't be coming back that day. Her boss was obviously upset that Maira had left without telling anybody, but she also sounded worried and told her to get better.

Once she'd hung up the phone with her boss, the next phone call Maira made was to Dayan. He said he'd be home all day and right no, considering her new genetic make-up she was rather leary of going to the hospital. What if while stitching her up they decided to draw blood or something and it came back really weird? They'd throw her in a science lab and she'd never see the light of day again. So instead of risking that she just pointed her truck in the direction of Dayan's house and hoped he'd pick up his phone.

[Races The Night]

After a lengthy lie in, Dayan finally gathered enough of his lazy wits about him to emerge from his bed chambers. After a quick shower to ease the ache from his muscles, he dressed in his usual home fashion of jeans and an old flannel t-shirt. The majority of his day was spent at his workstation in an office just off from the living room. Mug of coffee in hand and the shirt Maira had worn the night before still clutched in one hand after Inka refused his human personality the ability to let it go into the aundry basket.

Nothing much was happening in the world of Darke Computer Systems LtD. No new clients, a few returning ones requesting new components via email. One or two phone calls came through, both were from pard members quizzing him on the previous evening. Dayan offered nothing as they suspected he might. Reluctantly they both hung up, figuring information could be gotten another way, through other members of the pard.

Another phone call came in midafternoon and Dayan was pleasantly surprised to hear Maira's sily tones on the other end of it. Inka, normally lazy during the day while Dayan attended company matters, came awake fully, interest piqued at the sound of Rain's human.

"Darke Systems, Dayan here, what can I do for you?" Maira's voice was frantic at the other end as she explained away her day. "Wait, go back to the part where the canine bit you?" Dayan said, worry beginning to coil in his gut. "And you're on your way here? Are you ok, can you remember the way? You're sure you're ok to drive?" As he was firing these questions at her, Dayan fumbled with his mobile in his jean pocket. "Right I'm ringing the pard healer now, I'll meet you out on the porch."

Immediately after hanging up, Dayan patched a call to the pard healer explaining the situation. The skittish man bustled about his papers on the other end before agreeing to be there within the hour, complaining that Dayan's residence was by far not easy to reach.

Inka paced furiously under his skin as the man paced his living room like a caged animal, waiting for the sound of Maira's engine. When he heard it a ways off, he rushed out onto the porch to greet her. He ahd dug out a crude first aid kit and held a poultice to staunch off any bleeding until the healer could get there.

[Maira]

Getting much the same greeting as she had the day before when she'd called his house, Maira couldn't help but sigh with relief at the slightly gruff voice on the other end. All in a rush Maira explained what had happened with the dogs and that she was bleeding pretty bad from the bite. Dayan said he'd get a hold of the Pard healer and that calmed her significantly.

When she finally pulled up into the long driveway to Dayan's house, Maira was beginning to feel a little queasy and lightheaded. Her truck's bench seat would never be the same so noted to herself as she looked at the blood on it. As she pulled up to his house proper, and finally stopped the truck, Maira just leaned her head back against the back window and took a steadying breath. She'd made it. Now she was too tired to move though and so she just sat there trying to wait for some energy to come back so she could get out of the truck.

[Races The Night]

Dayan practically leapt up onto the truck, opening the drivers door and, seeing Maira too weak to have moved herself, hoisted her into his strong arms. His worry rose several notches at the sight of blood on the seat. He carried her over and set her down on the porch. "Stay here, I'll get some water." He gave her the poultice. "Keep pressure on it until the healer gets here." He disappeared inside briefly to retrieve a small bowl of water and some clean rags which he used to clean the wound. He also carried a glass of sugar and water to help her pallid complexion.

With his free hand he held her face gently. "Focus on me, don't drift off, you lost a lot of blood on your way here." Damnit woman! Why couldn't she have bandaged and applied pressure to the wound sooner! The healer would still be a ways off yet and Dayan had no way of knowing just how much blood Maira had lost.

"Talk to me, Maira, tell me what happened. In detail." He held the glass up for her to take. "Drink this before you tell me, it will help your energy."

It wasn't long before another engine could be heard out on the approach to the cabin. The sound of the door shutting and a huffing, brisk voice calling out, "Where is the patient? Tell me what has happened?" Adam, the pard's healer, joined the couple on the porch and sat himself down next to Maira. Praising Dayan for his rudementary skills as a healer, Adam rustled around in his bag for his supplies.

Dayan removed the poultice so the healer could have a look at the wound. Adam clucked and fussed almost to the point where Dayan wanted to order him away.

"So, you were ok with cats this morning but the dogs took a sudden disliking to your new...state, shall we say. Is that right?" Adam was asking. "I apologise, but we should have warned you about this earlier," He cast a chiding glare at Dayan for not doing so, "But the cat in all of us is very much that - and we're not too liked by canine kind. Many animals can tell what we truly are and it's never good to have one around in a sticky situation, especially involving humans."

After rewashing the wound and applying a new poultice to the wrist, surpporting and bandadging it, Adam clucked again. "You will need to drop by my surgery for a rabies shot, you can never be too careful! In the meantime I would suggest not going anywhere on your own, young lady. You're new to our world, so I suggest taking residence with your friends in town so they can better explain our world to you."

"She will stay here." Dayan growled in warning.

[Maira]

After Dayan lifted her out of her truck and carried her over to his porch where he st her down, everything was a bit fuzzy. She knew the healer asked her questions and she answered them. He seemed satisfied so she didn't worry overly much about it. She just felt so detached from herself and she couldn't help but wonder if this was what going into shock felt like?

The thing that finally brought her out of her haze was Dayan growling out, "She will stay here." She sat up a little straighter and looked at him with a raised eyebrow before telling him, "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself in my own home with my own cats and I don't need you to fell obligated to babysit me. I just need some time to rest and a list of do's and don'ts now that i've got this giant cat prowling inside my body and I'll be perfectly fine." Then, in total contradiction to everything she had just said, Maira blacked out. Her body slumped sideways and she fell into Dayan where he knelt beside her.

*****

When she woke, Maira had no idea where she was. Her brain was all fuzzy from sleep and all she knew was that she wasn't at home in her own bed. She went to rub the sleep out of her eyes and cried out in pain when she moved her right arm. What the hell?!

Opening her eyes again, she stared at the big bandage wrapped around her wrist and forearm. With the sight of that bandage, the day's events came crashing back in on her and she suddenly knew just where she was. She was in Dayan's bed... Again... Though, this time he wasn't in it with her and she was still fully clothed. She wasn't sure if she was dissappointed by those facts or not but she was leaning towards a yes.

Flipping back the covers with her left hand, Maira got out of bed carefully since she was still feeling a little light headed. Once she was up, Maira slowly made her way to the bedroom door and then downstairs. The sounds coming from downstairs were quiet and Maira felt almost like she was intruding on something but when she reached the foot of the stairs she didn't see anybod right away.

It took her a couple moments to locate Dayan in what she assumed was his home office and he was talking on the phone. She didn't want to interrupt his conversation so instead of knocking on the french doors, she just watched him. As she watched the other leopard, a small smile tickled the corners of her lips and Rain began to purr.

[Races The Night]

Dayan would not take no for an answer and was about to say that he would accompany her back home if she wished to be near her cats, when she promptly collapsed. He glanced with raised eyebrows at the medic, who adjusted his glasses and grimaced in sympathy of the man.

"She's all yours." He commented, gatehring his belongings. He left his cell number incase anything changed and Dayan needed to contact him while he was out on his rounds before he left, advising the lone leopard to give her plenty of rest.

Dayan left her under his sheets upstairs before retreating to his private den and office area. There were accounts still left to be done and they would have to occupy him until Maira rose, when she would probably insist on being returned home. He would have his hands full convincing her that she needed someone to keep an eye on her, just until she was over the worst of the shock and injury.

It was sometime later, Dayan lost track of time, when he felt eyes on his back. Inka raised his head, scannign the immediate area for an intruder. Satisfied that he and Dayan were safe, he left the mundane task of computing to his human. Dayan rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to ease the headache accounting gave him, leaning back in his chair, signalling his surrender for the moment. He glanced up at the continued sensation of eyes on him and found Maira stood on the other side of the doors to his living room.

"You're up. How are you feeling?" He asked, after rising with his cat-like grace and crossing the floor to open the doors to her. He tried not to notice the fresh scent of sleep and woman that drifted off her in waves. Sometimes he felt having the tuned senses of a cat were more curse than gift as his body hardened painfully.

[Maira]

When Dayan finally noticed her presence, Maira smiled and stood straighter in the doorway. When he asked how she was feeling she shrugged and answered softly, her voice still a little scratchy from sleep, "Better but my arm still hurts if I move it too much or bump it."

Maira watched, happily, as Dayan got up and walked toward her. She took a few steps toward him and met him partway inside the room. When they were facing each other, Maira gave in to the sudden urge to lean into Dayan's chest and inhaled deeply. Rain caught Inka's scent and started to purr even more and Maira totally agreed with her. Having this male around just made her feel much better.

After a moment of just standing, leaning against him, Maira turned her face up to look at Dayan and apologized. "I'm really sorry about all of this," she told him softly and hoped that she wouldn't have to elaborate. The past couple days had just been sheer and utter chaos and trying to keep all the events straight was just asking a lot of a girl.

[Races The Night]

He raised a sinfully playful eyebrow. "Sorry for what? You're new to this, we all make mistakes." He laughed, low in his throat and turned her back to him, urging her forwards with a hand on the small of her back. "And you're in no state for the kind of medicine I have in mind for you, so let's get you food and drink instead." He slapped her once on the rump until she moved towards the kitchen.

In the country-styled kitchen, Dayan prepared glasses of fruit juice for them both and handed her one. "Are you hungry?" He asked, gesturing to the full stock of food stuffs. "I have stuff for light meals or heavy meals, whatever you fancy. Fruits, whipped cream..." He left the rest to her imagination, grinning, unrepentant at her.