“You are really choosing some weird ways to try to make a good impression,” he told Jessica, stepping around her and walking out of the door towards the conference trailer. Part of him felt bad for Jessica, because obviously she was more than just “a little distressed” about her changing role. But there was more than enough work to go around in the Bayou. She could thrive if she wasn’t trying to swipe what she saw as the “highest profile” tasks. He was going to have to have another conversation with Sonja because Jessica was coming across as a little unhinged–and unhinged administrative assistants left unsupervised was a bad thing in the Bayou.

Leonard walked into the conference room to find Zed studying a poster sized chart pinned to the walls. Leonard had spent the better part of a day getting those printed and arranging them just so. Things were changing fast in the Bayou and he wondered if Zed, whose family had lived here for centuries, resented the League and its impact on his home. Jillian had originally been welcomed into the town because cooperation with the League meant much-needed resources, like funding for the clinic and new roads. Were those things worth potential exposure to the outside world?

“Zed, what are you doing here?” Leonard asked.

“Hey, bud. Just looking at a chart of our population forecasts. Jillian asked me to join tomorrow’s meeting about the issues facing the town post-Pope Lick Monster,” Zed replied. Zed gave Jessica a disapproving look as she walked through the door. She scowled when she saw Leonard was placing agendas in front of each seat.

Alex, Jillian, Sonja, Dani, Rob, Adam, and the other department heads filed in, each giving Leonard a friendly wave. Will walked in with Charlotte and sent Sonja a very “professional” eyebrow wiggle from across the room. Sonja rolled her eyes as she took her seat near Alex, but she was grinning. Zed was far less professional, sweeping Dani into a kiss that belonged on the front of a romance novel. Probably involving an MMA fighter. Bael had no role in this meeting whatsoever, but was hovering behind Jillian as if she could collapse or burst into flames any minute. Either one was possible, but she’d done the flame thing before and it was always a crowd-pleaser.

This was one of the things he liked best about working in the Bayou, the people. (Well, except for Jessica, who was the worst.) He had friends here, something he’d never quite managed in his hometown in Ohio. He was contributing, making the world a better place for people–something that would have been more difficult in his original field as a geologist. Unless you managed to find an enormous secret volcano and stop it from erupting, there weren’t a lot of “save the world” opportunities in geology. He’d already had at least two in this job.