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*The front door opens, held on the other side by Kira Clemens, and three tired and blood-spattered people step through.*

*Makita, who's got the worst of the blood-spattering, heads immediately for the stairs to her room and a shower. The two Wells cousins look at each other.*

I don't know about you, but I need a drink.

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"That makes two of us," Wells says grimly. "And I need to make up for lost time on that, too. It's been a fucking wonderful week so far."

Blood, bah, he'll clean it up later.

What, before the unexpected field trip?

Right, I'm a buy the first round. What's yours?

"Pint of Bass'll do fine," says Wells. "And yeah, before. Starting with Zuko reckoning that with Spoon around, there's no longer space for him as a family member. Not that I think he was ever willing to accept family from us to begin with, but still."

like he said. Fucking wonderful week.

*startled* Zuko? Wait, what?

-- hang on. Alcohol first.

*He waves down a nearby waitrat, and orders.*

Wells smiles tiredly and settles back in his chair. "When Zuko heard Spoon was living with us, he didn't take it well," he says. "I'll grant you I could've done better telling him, but he's been havin' a bad patch of late anyway and I didn't care to make it worse until I had to. As nearly as I can tell, he reckons he ought to just go home with the dogs and leave Yorkshire to me and Spoon and Annie."

Because he thinks you don't want him around anymore?

"Because he thinks he's been replaced," says Wells.

Oh.

That's ... yeah.

*That's dumb, is what it is. But it's a kind of dumb that people are, all too frequently.*

"That's bein' seventeen, I guess. God knows I was a git at that age myself. That's about set the tone for the rest of the week, really."

So was I, *says Andrew loyally.*

*Also quite truthfully.*

What else happened?

"Well, the dogs being Zuko's, he went home with them after dinner was over," says Wells. "Or back to the Bar, anyway. So it was just me and Annie and Spoon for a couple of days. You can imagine how well that went over."

... Oh, man. Poor Spoon.

*Andrew's seen him with Gheri and Gifr. Enough to have at least a vague idea of how that went.*

Wells nods. "Yeah. I've got an application in to a kennel up in Bolton-on-Swale. It'd better get through fast, that's all I can say."

Man. You have been having the week from hell.

"Not as bad as Spoon's been having," Wells mutters. "Could be worse, though. At least it's not full moon, eh?"

Not for another couple weeks.

I got to talk to Spoon a couple days back, and ... just, god, I wish I could do something to help him.

He lost how to read.

"I know," says Wells. "I know. I took him to the bookseller's in Harrogate the other day. He kept recognising books he'd read but couldn't remember. Hardest thing I've seen in a long time, him going over the Asimov like that..."

He pushes the heel of his hand against his face for a moment.

"Makes me glad we finally ran Drayson to ground."

Good.

*Pause, as the waitrat arrives with their drinks.*

Who's Drayson again?

"Formerly the Under-secretary of State and Minister for Defence Procurement. He was the highest name on the list of people responsible for the Special Weapons Division's disturbing tendencies these past thirty years or so."

*Andrew sits up straight, almost spilling his drink.*

And you got him?

"Ace ran him to ground in coastal Poland," says Wells grimly. "Brought him back alive, even, so that he could answer Mr. Ingram's questions- but all he did was push the responsibility off on someone else and whimper like a fucking puppy. Lucky thing Ingram already uncovered most of his locked files."

Ingram's the one who's maybe trustworthy, right?

"Yeah, he's the one who gave us Spoon back," says Wells. He pauses a moment before adding, "He's also the one who told me that it looks as if one of Special Weapons' other projects had to do with demons."

*Only Harry's well-timed pause saves them both from a spit-take. As it is, Andrew chokes on nothing.*

-- what.

Wells rubs at his face with both hands.

"It was one of the initial avenues of research after Rendlesham Forest. Just in case. Seems someone took Churchill's old comment about the Devil having all the best weapons a bit literally. Ingram's not sure how far that unit got, the research reports peter out after a while, but..."

*Andrew rubs at his own face, in unconscious imitation.*

Governments always screw up this kind of thing. I wonder how many of their guys got dragged back through.

"Don't know. I expect we'll be hearing about it soon enough, if anyone at all hears about it," says Wells. "Ingram... I get the feeling Ingram never knew shit about the really exotic stuff the Army was doing. He was just Veterans' Affairs. They put him in charge when Drayson ran off 'cos he had the clearances. I get the feeling he'd like to clean house if he could figure out how to begin."

Clean house like put a stop to it entirely, or clean house like make a go at doing it right?

"More like the first than the second, I think," says Wells. "The man's got a conscience, as far as I can tell. I expect he's going to want to keep up research into the supernatural, 'cos let's face it, it's fucking dangerous, but he's the sort to say 'there's some things you don't do' and mean it."

Yeah.

*Andrew looks down at the book lying on the table, under his arm.*

Kira wants to burn this. And ... frell. Maybe she's right.

Wells looks at the book. "What else is in there, other than the spell that fucked her and her friends over?"

I don't know. I haven't read it yet.

I, I mean --

*He sighs, shakes his head.* Dammit. Kira said not to read it, but I can't destroy a book without knowing what's in it. Even if it's probably all evil. I can't.

Wells grunts. "You'd know how to handle these things better than I would," he admits. "Could you have someone else read part of it for you, so the evil didn't get its claws all the way into you, or something?"

I don't even think it's the kind of book that reads you while you're reading it. It's just got stuff in it that people can use to do horrible things.

"Ah," says Wells. "Bit like some of the reading I've had to do lately, then. Spoon's file and such." He looks at the book. "You can handle that, right?"

I have before.

*He studies the cover of the book, and the intricate symbol on it.*

Wells nods.

"Y'want anyone to turn up at intervals as a sort of anchor, or something?" he offers. "Or would that be the sort of thing that'd keep you from ever finishing?"

God knows he couldn't've finished Spoon's videotapes if he'd been interrupted.

Maybe.

Kira's not going to like it.

"I get the feeling," says Wells, "that Kira's world's a bit different from ours."

I dunno. The magic works pretty similarly, and this particular demon? We've got him too. I don't know if it's the same one or a parallel-universe version of him, but ...

"Ah, so it's just that we're the lucky sods who got exposed to more of it first, then."

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