Lechance

Paul had been to see the spider, and was still considering the engineering detail he'd seen as he walked down the street towards his house. That was probably why he wasn't paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should have been, and very nearly walked into someone.

Only nearly.

He pulled back just in time, raising his hat automatically in greeting. "I apologize, I didn't see you. I didn't step on you, did I?"

Surgery hours had finished, and Paul had agreed that Harry and Elspeth should leave early. Something about the look in Elspeth's eye had made him very careful not to enquire why.

It left him sitting in the library, ostensibly reading the latest edition of the Journal of Medical Science, but in actuality thinking more about the dismembered mechanical spider he'd seen, and slowly rolling Scotch around a tumbler more than actually drinking it, waiting for Jay to return from teaching.