Lara anticipated his question. "Ben spends a lot of time with Marlee."
"I spend a lot of time with Marlee," a small voice piped up.
Judd glanced down. "Are you sure he's wolf? Sounds more like a parrot to me."
Ben's face clouded. "Am so a wolf!" Letting go of Judd, the child shifted in a shower of multicolored sparks. Judd held his breath until a small wolf began trying to climb up his body. Ben's progress was hindered by the fact that he wasn't using his claws.
Bending, Judd picked him up and held him against his chest, unable to explain his own behavior. "He isn't clawed."
"Of course not," Lara said. "It's the first rule we teach them - no claws during play. Can you imagine the carnage otherwise?"
"Logical." The pup was batting at his chest, a warm live weight.
"That's why Tai is so embarrassed he went clawed."
Judd had already put the incident out of his mind. "We weren't playing. Claws were never an issue."
"Not for you. But they were for him." Lara blew out a breath between pursed lips. "He didn't mean to do it. He lost control like a child. I take it he hasn't apologized yet?"
"There's no need." Judd caught Ben as he slipped, holding the cub more firmly against him.
"Take my advice," the healer offered, "if the kid works up the guts to apologize, let him. It'll make him feel better."
"Alright."
"Ben." Lara's tone tried for harshness, but it was patent that she was charmed by her tiny charge. "Let's get going."
Ben's response was to growl and bury his head against Judd's chest.
"Do you want to spend the rest of the day in the Pen?"
Judd knew the Pen to be a fenced space inside the nursery bereft of toys. As a punishment, it seemed to work very well. It did this time, too. Ben wriggled and then shifted without warning. Reacting instinctively, Judd threw a Tk shield around the entire shimmer, keeping his hands exactly where they had been before the boy began to change.
Ben's weight hit his hands a split second later and the boy twisted to hold out his arms to the healer. "Do I gotta be clean?"
Taking him, Lara planted a smacking kiss on his cheek. "Yes, you do, my little escape artist." In her embrace, Ben giggled and turned his head for another kiss.
"Lara," Judd said when the healer turned to leave.
She raised an eyebrow.
"What would've happened if I'd moved and disrupted - " He didn't want to say the words in case they had a negative impact on the child.
"Don't worry." Lara stroked one hand over Ben's head as he laid it on her shoulder. "The process isn't that easily messed up. Otherwise the Psy would've taken advantage of the weakness by now." She seemed to have forgotten she was talking to one of the same race. "An extremely big disruption can cause errors in a shift. Most can be corrected - so long as it's not a major part of the brain that's compromised."
"But to shift near someone implies a relationship of trust."
Lara smiled. "I guess Marlee must like her uncle Judd a whole lot."
"Only she likes her dad more," Ben said in a stage whisper.
"Oh, well" - Lara winked - "second's not so bad. 'Bye, Judd."
Judd found himself raising his hand in response to the wave Ben gave him over her shoulder. He was still standing there trying to process the extraordinary encounter when D'Arn passed him.
The soldier stopped, then retraced his steps. "Let me guess - a woman or a pup."
"How did you know?"