Who: Remus Lupin, Toby Ziegler & Jeannie (weirdest. combo. ever.) What: Toby gets handsy with a genies lamp in O&R. When: Monday afternoon, November 22 2010 Where: The O&R Department in the London Agency Warnings: TBD?
Remus was down in the dumps. Not exactly unusual for the more solemn of the marauders, but especially so today. It was the day after the full moon and he always felt a little more haggard the morning after. Like a hangover but worse, in his humble opinion. And he was worried about Zoë, so far he and his friends hadn't been able to figure out how or why this had happened. Though really, it had mostly been Remus trying to get to the bottom of this while he spent half his time babysitting James and Sirius. Not much had changed. Despite his currently low level spirits, that thought alone could always cause him to smile. He'd missed his friends. They'd been with him all along but somehow it was different now, he actually felt like himself. Maybe because he was himself, despite not being in his own body. That didn't excuse this rather strange sequence of events that had seemed to one way or another snatch his host from him. After what seemed to have been a week where he himself had been curiously absent. He would get to the bottom of this if it killed him.
He'd spent most of the early morning down in the O&R department. It was in the basement so there wasn't much of any natural lighting, perfect for locking yourself away and burying yourself in cataloguing and research for hours. The one thing he had to be grateful for at the moment besides James and Sirius was that Zoë at least got to miss one full moon in her life time. He'd never forgive himself for saddling her with such a terrible fate, it didn't matter that it had been completely outside of his own control as well. Remus's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming down the corridor and the sudden appearance of Jim Reynolds' face around the corner. Or, technically Toby Ziegler now. This was strange, very strange indeed.
"What can I do for you, Mr. Re-, so sorry, Ziegler?"
Toby rarely traveled further then C.J's office in the White House. When it came to the Agency, he knew Jim could count the number of times he'd actually gone as far as the basement on one hand, and Toby didn't particularly like being down here either. Too many explosions, it was disturbing. And considering who the reincarnates of most of the people who worked in R&D were, he was already regretting coming down here.
... Though somehow the thought of getting blown to smithereens wasn't quite as unpleasant a thought as it might have been had Jim not been screwing around with the host of Leo McGarry. Toby shuddered, immediately shaking it off and concentrating on the female-male werewolf in front of him. "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Lupin," he said casually, peeking into a few shelves and idly fingering a few objects along the wall as he made his way to Remus' desk. "But I've got some inquiries about this department that I need to follow up on. Should have been done so months ago but Jim has been, uh, busy."
"Yes, yes, of course," Remus responded immediately, rising from his seat to aid Toby as the man started manhandling his objects. It made Zoë especially nervous and fidgety when people started touching uncategorized items in the room, a nervousness that Remus shared. Only they knew what each and every item was, and both the O&R department and the Wizarding World had taught them that some things really should just be looked at and not touched. Bad things tended to happen when one touched objects they weren't familiar with. "What can I help you with?"
"Well, for starters, I was wondering what your thoughts were on a more thorough screening process? It's been concerning me for some time that we seem to just be giving these things away to people. Reincarnates, that is. When it comes to things like weapons I should think we would be a little more careful about letting some of these objects be handed out to them." Toby didn't even notice Remus's constant hovering as he continued down the row of shelves, or the way Remus started actively wringing his hands and making small noises of protest every time Toby actually picked up an item to examine it before handed it back to Remus to put away. "Oh, well this is obscure, what do you call this?"
It took a moment for Remus to realize just what it was that Toby was holding and then it was too late. All it took was the time it took for Remus to blink and lurch forward with a shout- "NO, DON'T TOUCH THAT, PLEASE PUT IT DOWN, AND FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN DON'T RU-" But it was too late. Suddenly he couldn't see Toby anymore because the room was filled with smoke and both he and Toby were coughing violently.