Love's Shadow Part 2
#2 of Love's Shadow
******************************************************************** Love's Shadow prt2. c. Grey K. 1997 ******************************************************************** - Love's Shadow part II, * * *
> The cavernous library, a full four stories tall was something of a second home to the young skunk, he spent a lot of time there perusing through the third floor. Each level of the old stone building was devoted to particular area(s) of study. The main level Jace had been on being business, economic fields, law and law enforcement. The second floor was dedicated to the various arts, music and literature of all periods and languages. The third floor, Jace's destination, was devoted to the natural sciences, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Anatomy, Geology, and a host of offshoots of all of those fields. The young skunk spent a healthy amount of time immersed in the thousands of volumes on the third floor, sating his thirst for knowledge in his favorite subjects. The only floor that the youth seldom ventured to was the fourth floor. The area that comprised the young skunk's most vivid nightmares, the floor devoted to mathematics, chemistry, physics and their daughter fields. The only interest Jace showed in venturing to the hated level was to make use of the drinking fountain or restroom that were there. The young skunk ascended the creaking staircase to the third floor. His sensitive nose picked up the musty smell of the ancient tomes, yellowed or greying with age, interspersed with the fresh tang of the crisp, newer volumes dotted here and there. Jace absently flipped a snow-white strand of hair out of his eyes as he pushed through the doors to the third floor. He surveyed the level, seeing that it was virtually empty except for himself and someone he didn't recognize. The other individual was heading for the doors on the opposite side of the room, those to the fourth-floor stairs. Jace had only a glimpse of the other person before the doors swung shut. They seemed vaguely feline with long, light colored hair, seeming almost white to Jace. The skunk noticed that the other person seemed to walk oddly, really almost as thought they were limping. He shrugged, passing it off as the other person probably had an arm-load of books. Jace dropped his pack and coat onto one of the reading tables, leaving them and walking to one of the tall stacks against the wall. He wasn't worried, everything he had of value(which wasn't much) was on him and there wasn't anyone else around. If the other individual came back in Jace would hear the door. Gazing absently at the printed card the file computer had spat out at him, Jace scanned the shelves, looking for the proper number. He found the correct shelf quickly, scanning down it's length for the book he wanted, "G231, 232, 233, 234, Whoops..., Yes!, G235." The title jumped out at Jace near the end of the shelf. Jace seized the book, sliding it out of it's spot and reading the back cover intently. As he walked back to the reading table Jace passed one of the gigantic windows that were set around the level and allowed a good view of the campus. A small flash of light caught Jace's attention, making him look up and out the window, past the small streaks of water running down the glass from the light rain that persisted outside. The skunk stood looking at the darker grey clouds a ways off to the north. Another jagged streak of lightning zigzagged down from the storm clouds off on the horizon. Jace scowled slightly, it looked as though the area might be in for a thunderstorm later that night. "Great, terrif.." Jace didn't mind thunder and lightning, as a matter of fact he often enjoyed sitting behind the big bay window on the front of his apartment and just watching the forks of colored light as they came crashing to earth. The young skunk just didn't like the idea of more and heavier rain accompanying the storm. Jace sighed heavily, another cold, lonely night by himself in the apartment. He missed Gary intensely. At least his former roommate had offered some contact, a little intelligent conversation and the presence of another person in the apartment. That is up until the amiable human had moved back home to Illinois almost four months months prior. The spare room in the apartment had sat vacant since, Jace just couldn't find anyone that appealed to him as a roommate and friend. He still wrote Gary often and talked to him on the phone when he could afford the long distance bill. His human friend had promised he'd be back as soon as matters allowed, but it didn't look like it would be any time soon. As he stood gazing out onto the damp, cold day Jace thought of Gary and of his brother, and how he missed both of them so much it nearly hurt. Jace assumed that his being alone and lonely often probably showed to those he knew and he realized that was probably why the rotund librarian and his other friends were trying to get him settled with someone to fill the gap in his life. Thinking along the lines of meeting new people, Jace rolled the name that Mrs. Dewitt had given him around in his head. Patrick Lauren, a nice name, and it did ring a faint bell somewhere in the back of Jace's mind. But as hard as he tried he just couldn't put a face to the name at all. The young morph shrugged to himself, he knew a lot of people in passing around campus, he had probably heard the name around somewhere or something. Jace nodded, concluding that was probably it and continued to look out the window, watching the glistening ribbons of water cascade down the face of the glass. He pressed the pad of his hand against the cold pane, seeing it frost over around the outline of his fingers and palm. Pulling his hand away, Jace looked at the window curiously, seeing a fogged relief of his palm and fingers on the glass. Almost like one of those Kurlain effect photos he had seen in a magazine, Jace thought absently to himself. If it was already that cold out as it stood, things would probably be downright frigid after dark. Having a fur coat does have some assets but Jace still got cold some nights more than others. Often there are types of cold that no amount of fur or number of blankets can alleviate, in Jace's case it was often the icy chill that accompanies heart-wrenching loneliness. He had spent more and more nights lonely and cold since his brother and Gary had left. Not that Jace didn't have friends or hadn't had relationships since their departures but passing associations and meaningless sex are seldom the answer to loneliness, and also seldom alleviate it. Coffee after classes or sex with people he hardly knew could never fill the gap in the youth's life that his friendship with Gary or the presence of his brother could. Now that those things were gone, or at least temporarily relocated, Jace needed something or someone in his life to fill their place. None of the individuals he had gone out with had met his criteria for sharing his life. Jace was more than open to sharing his bed with those who had been willing, sharing his heart was another matter entirely. The stream of idiots and jerks the young skunk had gone through had just discouraged him. Not one of them had been ever close to filling the gap in his existance the departure of his two closest friends had made. As things stood, after a number of meaningless flings Jace had stopped dating entirely, and hadn't had made love with anyone for over a full two months. For some species that's not too long, but for most morphs a week much less a month is fruatrating at best and nearly maddening at worst. Needless to say, videos, magazines and other similar forms of stimulation were losing their effectiveness at sating the healthy young skunk's physical and emotional needs. As Jace stared out the window, absently tapping the spine of the book against the sill of the humongous window an arctic fox he recognized from one of his classes strolled into view. Jace had been amazed at the changes the slight fox had undergone as the seasons shifted. The male fox's fur had gradually transformed from a rangy, dusky, reddish-brown to a dazzling, thick, fluffy white, slashed with black on his tail and ears. Perfectly suited for the weather in northern California at this time of year, the young fox made his way across the courtyard hardly feeling the inclement weather. Jace envied the vulpine, he carried no umbrella, and the rain seemed to just sluice off the thick, snow white fur. The vulpine hardly seemed bothered at the brisk wind that had sent Jace running for cover earlier. Jace knew the slim fox was an open bi-sexual, he'd seen him at local hot-spots with various males and females, sometimes both, on his arm. He had tried to strike up a conversation with the snow furred vulpine more than once but the fox hadn't shown more than passing interest in him. The young skunk sighed, gazing longingly at the handsome fox, thinking how nice that soft, warm fur would be to curl up next to on a freezing winter's night. Jace shook his head to clear it of his dreary thoughts and pried himself away from the window and the shrinking figure of the fox. Making his way back to where he had dumped his stuff Jace pitched the book onto the table top. As he did so a tickling sensation erupted in his throat sending the skunk into a spectacular coughing fit. After a few moments the wracking coughs and chokes subsided, leaving the morph dry-mouthed and breathless. Wheezing slightly the young skunk leaned on the back of a chair to gather his strength for a minute then struck off for the 4th floor stair-well. Jace padded up the stairs quickly, pushing past the doors and making a bee-line for the stainless steel drinking fountain on the opposite wall of the level. He gulped several mouthfuls of cool water, feeling it assuage the scratchy sensation in his throat. Swallowing a final mouthful too fast, Jace began to hack again slightly and spat some of the water back into the drain. He watched it swirl down through the tears that had welled in his eyes from the new coughing fit. Regaining his composure Jace straightened and gazed around the eerily quiet floor, the only sound being his rasping breath and the softly humming fountain. Jace assumed that the odd individual he had seen must have exited through the alternate stair. They weren't obviously visible and there was no noise at all to indicate the presence of anyone else on the level. The young skunk gazed about, skimming his eyes over the section signs, Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biochemistry. Jace perked his ears thinking he heard a creak from the stacks devoted to general Physics. Not hearing the sound again Jace shrugged, putting it off to the old building settling with the cold. He dismissed it and headed back to the doors to the stair-well. As Jace's raven furred hand contacted the heavy swinging door the skunk's sensitive ears were assaulted by the sound of a loud commotion, followed by a muffled thump and a sharp cry of pain. Freezing for an instant, unsure of where the noise had originated from, the young skunk realized it had emanated from the Physics section where he had heard the mysterious noise moments before. Dashing to the aisle that composed the General Physics section Jace saw a form lying slumped on the carpeting. The young morph neared the motionless form recognizing it as being the unknown morph he had seen earlier. They were lying quite still, face down on the floor, obviously semi or un-conscious. Jace knelt, rolling the person over and straightening their body out more comfortably. Getting a closer look than he had earlier Jace realized he was looking into the face of a stunning male feline. Dressed in plain clothes, a dark shirt and loose navy jeans, the male resembled a Russian Blue cat. He had dusky, blue-gray fur with a lighter gray undercoat beneath. Jace was caught by the almost ethereal colour of the morphs hair, it's shade was somewhere between silver and platinum and it hung down to almost shoulder level on the handsome feline. The young skunk was almost disappointed that the felines eyes were closed, concealing their colour from view, Jace wondered with fur and hair like the feline had what colour his eyes could possibly be. He noticed that the amazing hair cloaked the upper right part of the feline's face, concealing his cheek and partially blocking his eye from view. Getting past his initial awe at the feline Jace bent over, patting the feline gently on his exposed cheek, "Hey., Hello?, Are you all right?, Hey, wake up., Come on..." The feline stirred slightly against Jace's knees, eyelids fluttering slightly but not opening all the way. Jace gripped the male's wrist, seeking out his pulse, and finding it strong and very rapid. The skunk hoped it was just adrenaline making it so fast. As Jace gripped the feline's wrist the closed eyes finally flew open behind the curtain of silvery hair. The prostrate male gasped, making Jace jump, then pulled violently out of the skunk's grasp. Jace watched as the feline quite nearly threw himself against the shelves, banging his head against the access ladder in the process. He jumped to his feet, backing away from the feline as quickly as possible, speaking in a low tone, "Whoa, whoa, whoa..., Hey now. Come on, calm down. It's all right, I wasn't going to harm you. I just wanted to make sure you weren't hurt." The feline morph's chest still heaved as he watched the skunk with slitted eyes. Jace suddenly realized that if the male had injured his head or was somehow delusional he might have a fight on his hands. The rational part of Jace's mind, not so preoccupied with keeping things calm, idly wondered if he could control a crazed male feline nearly the same size as he and undoubtedly with larger teeth and claws. Jace took it as a good sign that the feline hadn't moved, either toward him or to get away. That he must still be rational but scared and shaken up from what-ever accident had happened. He was just kneeling awkwardly on the floor, gripping the lower book-shelves for support. Jace noticed that the feline's claws were still sheathed in his fingertips, and decided to take some initiative. Bending down slowly, with his hands held up so the cat could see them, "It's OK. Not gonna hurt you, I think you must have hit your head, you were out cold for a minute there. I just want to make sure you're all right, just stay calm. Do you recall what happened?" Jace lowered himself down onto his haunches, then into a kneeling position. When he was level with the feline he smiled, keeping his hands open and visible. Jace felt better when he saw the morph's chest slowing gradually as the cat relaxed. As he watched the feline gently shook his head, slowly reaching up and probing near his right ear. "Ladder..." Jace barely caught the word, "What?" He noticed the colour of the feline's eyes for the first time as they flipped up to regard him. Yellow would have been much too crude a word to descibe the feline's eyes. A pair of dazzling, utterly brilliant, golden eyes studied Jace's face for a moment as the morph repeated himself, "Ladder., I fell off the ladder. Lost my balance I guess." Jace sighed, relaxing slightly, "Are you O.K.?" The feline nodded slowly, "I think so." Jace stood again, offering a hand to the feline, "Need a hand up?" The golden eyes narrowed again, regarding Jace's outstretched hand and arm warily. Biting his lower lip as though he were about to plunge his hand into some boiling cauldron the male feline shot out an arm, gripping Jace's hand a little harder than the skunk would have liked. Flexing his muscles Jace pulled the feline upright fairly easily. Before he was even fully upright the feline wrenched his hand back away from the skunk morph. He faltered and nearly fell again, barely catching himself on the nearby shelves. He gazed around at the floor, evidently searching for something. Jace watched as the feline's ears perked forward, turning his eyes to where the male was looking, "Uh, w-would you mind getting that for me?" the morph faltered slightly, gesturing over to an object half hidden in shadow. Jace shrugged, walking over to the object. As he neared it Jace realized that it was a short walking staff. A glossy, black finished cane with a non-slip ferrule and knobbed grip. Jace bent down retrieving the aide from the floor where it had come to rest and delivered it back to it's owner. Proffering it back to the feline Jace smiled warmly, seeing the cat return the smile shyly, "T-Thank-you." He stammered slightly not meeting Jace's eyes as he took the staff in his hand. Jace perked his ears at the feline's voice. It was pleasantly soft, even, and slightly accented, though just barely noticeable. The skunk picked up the just slightly rounding of the T's and R's in the feline's vocabulary, Jace thought it sounded faintly Mediterranean but he wasn't totally sure. The male cat shifted uncomfortably, seeming to favor his left leg as he stood, using the cane to keep it's weight off the floor. Flustered as to what else to do Jace stuck his hand out boldly at the other male, "Jace." The feline glanced up at him sharply, "Pardon?" Jace wavered slightly, "Uh, my name, it's Jace. Pleased to meet you." The feline regarded the skunk's outstretched hand skeptically for a moment before slowly reaching out and gingerly grasping Jace's raven furred paw in his own. He smiled again shakily, "Uh, P-Patrick, Thank-you." Jace felt Patrick's smooth hand pad against his own with the silky fur around the feline's wrist rubbing lightly against his fingers. The hand-shake was fleeting, much to Jace's disappointment. Patrick quickly drew his hand away, although less vehemently than before. Jace watched as Patrick attempted to step over a pace to orient himself better with the skunk. As the feline did so his left leg buckled underneath him, making the him cry out in shock and pain. Starting, Jace rushed to catch the feline before he could hit the floor again, supporting him under the arms and holding him upright. Patrick allowed Jace to take his weight, realizing that the slim skunk was stronger than he appeared. Panting from the shock and sudden discomfort, the feline looked over his shoulder at Jace, "Please, I think...I need...to.....sit..." Jace nodded, helping Patrick to the fourth floor reading tables and sitting him down in one of the chairs. Concern coursed through Jace as he saw that Patrick's ears, nose and lips were pale against his fur and the feline morph was shaking slightly as he sat. Looking around himself Jace noticed a small pack laying on one of the chairs next to him, the initials P.L. were embroidered on one of the zipper pulls in bright blue thread. Jace helped Patrick to recline slightly, gently probing at the base of the feline's right ear, feeling a small knot under the fur there. Patrick yelped sharply, jerking away slightly at the touch. "Sorry!, Sorry." Jace pulled away, "You've got a little bump on your head there. Now, what happened to your leg?" Patrick rubbed gingerly at his head, eyeing Jace, "I think I twisted my knee a bit when I fell." He paused, regarding the skunk as the black and white morph glanced sidelong at the cane in his hand, "Old accident." Jace nodded, "Here, I might be able to help, let me have a look. Here lean back a little. There, like so." Jace helped Patrick to lean back far enough in his chair as to allow the feline to place his leg on top of the table, elevating his knee above the rest of his body. He probed at Patrick's leg gently, feeling the morph tense, looking almost panicked, "Whoa, whoa, take it easy., This won't hurt, I promise." Jace felt Patrick's knee through his jeans, noticing that it felt oddly swollen on one side. He reached around to the back of the feline's knee seeking out the pressure points there and pressing gently. The skunk felt Patrick relax slightly under his hands as he continued to press on the nerve point while lightly massaging the feline's battered joint with his other hand. After several minutes Jace sat back. He looked approvingly at Patrick, who was staring with wide expressive eyes, one of which was still cloaked behind the curtain of silver hair. "Better?" Patrick flexed his knee experimentally nodding, "Yes, but how did..?" Jace smiled, "Oh, my mother knows a little about accu-pressure and nerve point manipulation., She showed me some techniques when I was younger." Patrick nodded slightly resting his hand lightly on a small notebook that was lying open on the table. Jace's eyes skimmed across the open pages, seeing them covered with some kind of mathematical equations, physics equations, he realized with a start. Suddenly Jace's brain did a bit of a mental back-flip and everything clicked, the odd behavior, the Physics work, and the initials P and L. "Patrick Lauren." The skunk blurted despite himself, seeing the feline jump in his seat and look as though he were about to bolt but was unsure as to which way to flee. Jace grabbed Patrick's arm attempting to steady the high strung feline, "No!, No, no. It's OK... I just realized who you were, that's all. I thought I had seen you around before." Jace lied slightly to cover his own out-burst. The gold eyed morph seemed to settle down once again, "Yea-yes, that's my full name." Jace let go of the feline's arm, settling back to a comfortable distance from Patrick allowing the cat his space. "I hear you're good at physics." Patrick looked slightly taken aback, "From who?, I-I really don't know anyone here on campus, uh, j-just yet." Jace forced himself to look as relaxed and casual as he could, hoping that it would rub off onto the agitated feline a little. Patrick looked as though he had a live wire shoved up his posterior with sitting at the table in such close proximity to the skunk. He was fidgeting and moving constantly in the chair, playing restively with his cane or a plain pencil that was laying on the table. Jace noticed that the feline's eyes roved constantly, tracing a near perfect outline of his body, hardly ever focusing on Jace himself, and never meeting the skunk's own green gaze as they spoke. Jace felt Patrick's short furred tail brush past the tip of his foot as it tangled in and around both the feline's ankles and the legs of the chair. "I heard you were good at Physics from Mrs. Dewitt, the librarian, she's a friend of mine." Patrick seemed to relax slightly at hearing the portly woman's name, but still wouldn't look Jace in the eyes at all. This rather unnerved the skunk, he usually used the other person's face and eyes to gauge them in conversations. With his eyes already partially hidden by his hair and nervous, evasive behavior, Jace wondered exactly what the fidgeting feline was so keen at keeping to himself. Patrick nodded slightly, "Oh, yes, Mrs. Dewitt, I-uh, I've spoken with her a few times before. She is....talkative." Jace laughed, stifling his amusement when he saw Patrick looked apprehensive, almost as though he were afraid to laugh at all. "Yes she is, very talkative." Jace personally thought that talkative wasn't nearly the term needed to describe the librarian. He often thought that if the rotund woman didn't need to take a breath now and then she would probably never cease speaking. Patrick smiled slightly, then returned to neutrality again, if Jace had blinked he would have missed it, "Thus far she's the only person I've met that seems interested in knowing me at all." Jace smiled at the feline, "I'd like to., Mrs. Dewitt says you're new here., Where are you from?" Patrick scrutinized the tabletop and his watch throughly before speaking, "Uh, well, Chicago originally. W-When my father died several years ago I moved in with my brother in New York., Th-then this last spring I came here to be nearer to my Grandparents." Jace looked puzzled, "Chicago?, But..." Jace caught himself not wanting to embarrass his new acquaintance. Patrick surprised him by smiling again, a little wider this time, "Oh, uh, my accent. My parents are, were, is, ach, sorry, is for my mother, was for my father, from Europe. Near the borders between Italy, Switzerland and Austria, its kind of odd, I'm not sure exactly where, I think my grandparents moved around a lot. It's sort of a local dialect type of thing, I don't speak it, never have. I and all my brothers and sisters were born here in the states. All of us except for a few just seemed to pick up the accent a little as we were growing up, kind of rubs off I guess. I didn't think it was that noticeable, but I seem to notice it gets heavier when I'm stressed, bizarre." Jace nodded, he had noticed the feline's accent lighten as he relaxed. He sat watching Patrick, examining his features more closely than he had gotten a chance to earlier. The feline's soft, short fur on his neck and face, the pointed ears set wide and back on his head. Patrick's facial features, a smallish dusty beige nose on the end of his blunt muzzle, set above his mouth and light colored lips. Jace was caught by the wide, expressive eyes with their intense, golden yellow color. Patrick's long lustrous hair shone like platinum in the muted light of the library as it dipped down past his shoulders in back and draped across his ears, neck and face, especially the right eye and cheek. Jace itched to reach forward and push the amazing hair out of the feline's face so he could admire those golden eyes unimpeded. Suddenly, catching himself staring, Jace twitched, feeling anxious and tapped his tail against the table leg reflexively making a muted rustle. Patrick started at the motion near the floor, noticing the skunk shifting in his chair, "Oh!, Uh., I-I'm sorry., Am I boring you..?" The inside of Jace's ears reddened sharply and his nose felt hot as he realized he had been so caught up with looking at the feline he hadn't caught a single word the other morph had been saying. He looked chagrined, grimacing as he looked at Patrick, "I'm sorry. I was somewhere else., What was that last thing you were saying?" Patrick didn't look convinced, glaring at the floor intensely, "You were staring at me then you spaced out., Didn't hear a word I said did you?" Jace felt ready to die, "I, uh, I'm really sorry, it's just your fur is so handsome, and your hair and eyes caught me, they're wonderful." Patrick looked hurt, as though he weren't really listening to the skunk, "Yeah, right, sorry, that's how it all starts. Then people always end up staring at my fac-.." The feline froze in mid-sentence squinting up at Jace suddenly, "Wait a minute, what did you say?" The skunk looked startled at the intensity in his new companions gaze, "Nothing, just that your eyes and hair are..," Patrick cut him off, putting a hand protectively to his face, "What's wrong with my eyes and hair?" "Nothing, nothing, really. They're just so amazing, really I've never seen anything like them, they're beautiful. That's all, I swear." Jace spoke honestly, not understanding the feline's defensiveness. Patrick's eyes were wide as his hand was slowly coming down, "What?, What did you say?, You actually think my eyes and hair are nice?, I don't think I heard you right... It sounded like you said I was handsome, and that my eyes and hair are amazing, Ha." "I did." Patrick was deathly quiet for a moment, mulling that over in his head, then speaking softly, "No one's ever said that about me, it's always been odd or weird or bizzare. I don't think I've ever heard the term handsome or-or beautiful with my eyes or hair. That's the first time anyone's ever said that to me. Why did you?" Patrick was looking at Jace with a sudden suspicious wariness once again, the skunk held up his hands, "I was just being honest. I've never seen anything like them before. They're so striking, I kind of got caught up looking at them while you were talking ., I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Patrick's gaze was softening rapidly as he looked at Jace directly for one of the first times, "No, that's OK. And T-Thank-you. You're the first person to ever say such a nice thing to me before, I thought I was hearing things for a minute. Next to Mrs. Dewitt, you're the first pleasant person I've met here." Jace saw the feline's ears dip slightly, "You seem perfectly fine to me and the people around here are normally very nice, quite welcoming." Patrick chuckled bitterly, idly turning his cane between his fingers, "Not with people like me. Everyone looks at me like I'm some sort of shambling abomination, some Mary Shelly type Frankensteinian monster come to flesh, some poor freak with a cane. Everyone, everywhere I go, it's never been different," He paused looking up at Jace, "That is, until now, until you. I just don't understand. I hope you forgive me, it's just you get used to a certain reaction., When you don't get it, it's kind of a shock." Jace shifted in his seat a little, feeling somewhat uncomfort- able at the feline's candor, hoping he wouldn't come to disappoint his new friend, "Uh, well, that is... Let's just say I've had some familiarity with how it feels to be called a freak, or an abomination. I would never patronize or claim to know how you feel but I do know what it's like, and I know it hurts a lot." Patrick looked concerned, "You?!, Why do people call you those things?, You're not like me, why would they do that to you?, You're normal." Jace smiled, putting out a hand on the table and nearly patting Patrick's arm, then drew back, not wanting to make the feline uncomfortable. That would no doubt come later, Jace thought bitterly to himself. "Oh, it's nothing obvious, it's just, well, I just met you and I don't want to risk alienating you so quickly..." Patrick looked puzzled at the skunk's reluctance, Jace didn't notice as he sat with his eyes glued to the tip of his tail, watching it flip against his leg, finally shrugging, "OK, maybe you'll feel more comfortable telling me later, after we've gotten to know one another better. It can't be that bad, can it?" Jace jerked as though he'd been poked in the side, "You'd be surprised." He muttered to himself, thinking the feline couldn't hear, "What?" Patrick asked. "Oh, nothing, I just said I'd like that a lot, getting to know you better, that is..." Seeing Patrick nod Jace paused hesitantly, "Uh, Patrick, would you like to go somewhere a little more relaxed than here and talk..?, You don't have to, we can stay here if you like..." * * *
> end part II