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“Here, Rahonavis, here boy!” Kowalski called, whistling. “Ah, there you are!” She scooped up a small bird like creature in her arms and made soft cooing noises at it. “You’re cute, but you’ve got to go back in your cage.”
“So you finally found that thing.”
“Skipper, he’s not a thing – he’s a Rahonavis, a type of dromaeosaur. His name is Toby,” Kowalski replied, striding towards the kitchen area. “Besides, he’s not that big. He’s only going to be a couple of feet long. He could be a Velociraptor.”
Skipper sighed and followed his friend and teammate. He wasn’t sure what kind of trouble she could get into just by walking to the kitchen.
In the kitchen were Rico and Private, each in their own little corner. Private was sitting at the dinner table, Quilting Monthly in front of her. Rico was at the counter dicing chicken. Neither of them looked up as Kowalski walked in and over to the far end, where there was a small pen put up. “Told you he would get out,” Private said, not once looking away from her patterns. Kowalski just rolled her eyes and checked the pen’s latch. “Why’s it got feathers if it’s a dinosaur?”
“Some of them did. That’s just how they evolved – and how birds came about,” Kowalski stated, satisfied with the latch. She pointed at Toby, muttering, “Stay” and going towards Rico once she stood.
“Kowalski,” Skipper began, “Are you sure nothing is going to happen because of this one? I mean, after last time…”
Kowalski’s eyes narrowed. Private paused and looked up. Rico kept right on chopping. “What do you mean ‘after last time?’” she asked. By that point, she had propped herself up on the counter on the opposite side of Rico, legs crossed.
“All I’m saying is, have you ever created something that hasn’t tried to kill us?” Skipper continued, only a little worried now. He stood in front of her, back to Private, who had begun munching on popcorn she pulled from nowhere.
All of a sudden, the dark, murderous aura Kowalski was exuding was gone, replaced by puzzlement. “Ah, well, there was the time… no, wait, Manfredi made me promise not to work with those again. Then may…be…. No, not that time either, Johnson told me that if I ever attempted that again she’d kill me. Then… Oh wait, you forbade me from trying to fix the coffeemaker. And the blender tried to kill us, so…” Kowalski drifted off.
“So, what?” Skipper prompted.
“Ah, well, the answer’s no.” Kowalski chuckled slightly. “That’s what happens with science – sometimes it’s dangerous.”
Instead of face-palming, like his inner self wanted to do, Skipper just sighed and shook his head. “No inventions, two weeks,” he said. Kowalski froze, grey eyes wide.
“What?” she croaked.
“You heard me.”
In a split second, the temperature seemingly dropped twenty degrees. “You’ll regret that,” Kowalski said. She leaned right into his face, using one finger to make him look her in the eyes.
“Really?” he asked.
“Really. Oh Rico,” she sang, leaning back against a cabinet and stretching. “I’m going to be all alone, left out of the lab for two. Whole. Weeks.” Rico got the hint and instantly perked his head up, smirking as he did so.
Skipper mumbled something as he realized what she was implying. “That’s what you have Hanne for – that and your damn foreplay at the table.” She slid from the countertop. “And remember Skipper. I’m still taller than you.” She chuckled again, leaving the kitchen with Rico hurrying behind her. Skipper just shook his head and looked at the little dinosaur in its cage.
“Wow,” Private said. “She got you good, didn’t she?”
“That she did, Private. That she did.”