Justin let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.  [i]I knew that taking this job from Cybertronics Unlimited was gonna be trouble,[/i] he thought to himself as he waved at Jaiden as the other man walked away out of sight behind the trees, [i]but I had no idea I was gonna get this involved with the folks here.  Still, the pay is too good to pass up, and rent just got bumped up, so beggars can't be choosers...and if this encounter just now was any indication, I'm gonna be out at the lodge a lot for extra repairs.[/i]

He turned to Amie and, seeing she had dropped her offered hand, gave her a sympathetic shrug.  "Well, that could have gone better, but at least it didn't go worse.  I'm sure you two will smooth things out once you get to know each other better...err, Lady Jane," he added at the end, remembering what she had said about the method of addressing her to Jaiden.  Then he made a sweeping gesture back toward the lodge with both hands and bowed at the waist; he had no clue if it was deep enough, but as casual as he usually was, he knew that the fastest way to lose his job was to get a complaint filed by an important representative of the co-sponsoring nation of the lodge project.  "Shall we head back to the lodge now?"

He looked up toward Sam, but then his eyes widened slightly as he saw Boxcar leap out of the bushes and land on all four feet, glancing this way and that as if looking for danger.  Nora managed to clamber through the underbrush as well, though she nearly tripped when her white labcoat got caught on a branch and then slipped free a moment later.  Boxcar pointed his nose at Sam, then looked at Justin with a raised eyebrow.  "Where'd the other one go?" he asked without preamble.

"Jaiden?"  Justin thumbed the direction.  "He went to go get some pants and his bike, he'll be heading straight to the lodge."

Boxcar's eyebrow went up a little further, but he seemed to relax after a few confirming sniffs.  "I will pretend that all made sense, just as long as you weren't in any danger."

Nora put her hands onto her knees and panted - she clearly wasn't used to running around like her four-legged friend was.  "H-hold it, Boxcar, let me catch my breath," she managed to say as she recovered from the exertion and stood straight up again.  She looked at each person in the small clearing in turn, ending with Sam.  "Oh!  You're new!"  She flicked the edge of one lens of her glasses as she peered at the girl, and the full list of the lodge attendees scrolled past her vision as she confirmed that this was not anyone related to the lodge.  "I'm Nora Minder, head of staff for the lodge," she introduced herself.  "And you are?"

Justin thought about speaking up, but he suddenly realized he hadn't even gotten the girl's name yet.