She hung up, shoulders sagging and head dropping unhappily to her chest. This was the best and worst day of her life. As much good was happening as bad, but all together it was exhausting and beginning to wear on her.
The sound of the door opening made her straighten abruptly. Jill didn't want Nick seeing her looking as defeated as she felt. Taking a breath, she forced a smile and turned, only to freeze when she saw John Heathcliffe moving quickly toward her.
Eyes widening, Jill swiftly shifted around the desk, placing it between them. "Leave me alone. I'm not going with you."
"Of course you are." John started around the desk toward her.
"No she's not," Nick countered from the doorway. His mouth tightened at John's surprised expression and he said, "I saw you slipping in here. What happened? You saw us arrive and what?… Hid in the coat closet to wait until Jill was on her own?"
Ignoring the question, John continued around the desk. "Don't interfere. I'm taking her with me."
"The hell you are!" Nick rushed forward, catching John's wrist before he could touch Jill. He then swung at him with his other hand balled into a fist, but the scientist grabbed his wrist before he could land the blow and the two men began to struggle. They were about the same size, and apparently equal in strength because at first they simply crashed first one way then the other, neither of them able to pull free or land a blow, but then John suddenly released the hold he had on Nick's wrist and reached into his pocket.
All the breath seemed to leave Jill's lungs when she saw the gun he pulled out. The paperweight she'd picked up from the desk a second before suddenly seemed as effective as a toy and Jill glanced around wildly for something else… anything else. Even as she peered around though, she was wishing she was still the reindeer. She'd gore the man but good were she still the reindeer with those long, deadly antlers.
In the next moment she was. Jill hadn't closed her eyes, and hadn't spent several moments concentrating as she'd thought she had to, she'd just wanted it and suddenly the paperweight was slipping from her mutating fingers and she was dropping to the floor as her body shifted to reindeer form. The sound of tearing cloth accompanied it and Jill grimaced, knowing her lovely dress was being ruined by the new shape. Unable to do anything about that, she glanced to the two men again, relieved to see that rather than shoot Nick, John was swinging the gun at his head. She immediately launched herself forward, a frustrated growl slipping from her lips as Nick fell under the blow before she reached his attacker.
John cried out in surprise when she rammed her antlers into his backside. He crashed to the floor, the gun slipping from his hands and skittering across the hardwood to come to rest under the desk. He didn't go after it, but instead scrabbled across the hardwood himself, trying to get away from Jill and her antlers.
Jill let him go and peered at Nick, relieved when he stirred and moaned. John could have killed him with that blow. That thought brought her anger roaring back and she lifted her head to glower at John. Despite the fact that she was Rudolph in a torn dress, John whimpered and pulled himself into a ball. Before she could go after him the door to the library crashed open and instinct made her drop to her belly on the floor to hide behind the couch.
"Who the hell are you?" Lou's voice was sharp and demanding.
"Where are Jill and Nick?" Mac added, the question assuring Jill that neither she nor Nick were visible from the door. They would be though if the men moved further into the room, she realized and closed her eyes, concentrating on being herself.
Nick's hand on her arm drew her eyes open a moment later to see that he was awake and she was herself once more. Smiling at him worriedly, she helped him to his feet, then grimaced when she glanced down to see the state of her dress. This shape-shifting was obviously going to be hell on her wardrobe.
"What on earth is going on here?" Maggie pushed her her way through the crowd that had gathered in the door and hurried around the couch to join them, her worried eyes sliding from Nick to Jill and back as if unsure who was in the worse state. "Nick you're bleeding and Jill…" Her voice trailed off helplessly as she took in her torn dress. "Are you all right?"
When Jill nodded, Maggie turned her attention back to Nick to fuss over his head wound. Nick suffered it until Mac shifted impatiently by the door and demanded, "What the hell is going on, Nick? How did you get hurt? And why is Jill all beat up? And who the hell is this guy?" he added, gesturing to where John was just getting back to his feet.
Jill lifted her head slightly. She wasn't really beat up. Her dress was a mess and her hair was probably a bit tangled, but other than that she was fine.
Nick slipped an arm around her waist, drawing her to his side as he said, "This guy is John Heathcliffe. He attacked Jill and was trying to force her to go with him. He hit me over the head with his gun when I tried to stop him."
The word «gun» was like an alarm bell. Mac stiffened, his eyes narrowing on John, no doubt searching for the weapon in question.
"He dropped the gun. I think it slid under the desk," Jill said helpfully.
"Take a look and see if it's there, Lou, but don't touch it if it is," Mac said, positioning himself in front of the door in case John had any hopes of leaving that way.
Lou moved to the desk and dropped to one knee to peer under it. He straightened a moment later and nodded solemnly, indicating there was indeed a gun there.
"The man's a nut," Nick said at once. "He thinks Jill is a witch or something."
When Jill glanced at him with confusion, Nick squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"Not a witch, a shape-shifter, you fool," John snapped.
"Right, whatever," Nick said with a meaningful look at his brother-in-law. "And he wants to kidnap her, take her back to his home and torture the evil out of her. He probably has a cage and everything."
"The cage is just to keep her from escaping," John said quickly. "And I wouldn't torture her, just study her. I'm a scientist and we need to experiment on her, do empirical studies to see how her cells respond to various stimuli like cold, heat, or being cut off."
"Cut off!" Jill squeaked with horror.
John nodded. "Yes, painful but necessary. I'll have to cut parts off and see if they change on their own or die and see if the appendage will grow back or your cells simply displace to replace it."
"Well, I've heard enough," Mac said dryly.
"Hmmm," Lou murmured. The psychiatrist came to his wife's side and whispered something that made her nod and move silently out of the room. The moment she was gone, Lou offered John a smile. "These sound like fascinating experiments, John. Science has always fascinated me, would you tell me more?"
He moved carefully forward as he spoke, his movements slow and cautious, his expression nonthreatening.
John frowned, looking uncertain, but it seemed keeping this all to himself for so long had been terribly difficult. He was eager to tell someone.
"I have a whole list of experiments I wish to try," he blurted, excitement edging into his expression. "I need to test her in cold temperatures and hot to see if it affects her ability to change, and see if she can now withstand freezing temperatures better than normal people. I had a huge walk-in freezer installed for that one," he admitted proudly.
Jill shuddered at the thought. Cutting parts off, freezing her… None of it sounded appetizing. She was doubly glad she'd escaped him that morning.
"Jesus."
Nick's soft horrified whisper drew her gaze to see that he'd gone pale. It seemed he was equally distressed at the «tests» she'd barely escaped.