Her answer to that was a low, dangerous growl. He stopped shutting down his equipment and turned to her. "Okay, I figure you're ticked off on a couple of levels, so I'll pick one to start. There was no funny business going on between me and Nell. It was completely professional."

"Son, if I thought otherwise you'd be braying like a jackass."

"Right." He took his glasses off, to see her more clearly, and because if she decided to try to deck him, he didn't want them broken. "You're angry because I brought equipment here and ran tests on Nell."

"Bingo. I invited you here, to my home. It's not a goddamn lab."

"It's also Nell's home," he pointed out. "I wouldn't have brought anything if she hadn't agreed."

"You wheedled her."

"I can wheedle when I have to," he said equably. "I didn't have to. The fact is, she was interested. She's exploring herself, and this is part of it. I'm sorry it upsets you; I was afraid it would. And if I'd been paying more attention to the time, I'd have shut it all down before you got home."

"So you'd have hidden it from me? That's a nice touch."

His own temper rumbled. "Tough to win with you, Deputy. No, I've never hidden my work from you, and I wouldn't have done so now. But I'd have tried to respect your feelings about it, as I've tried to do from the start."

"Then why-"

He cut her off by holding up one finger. "The simple fact is, thisis my work, and you have to deal with that. But this is your home, and my being here under these circumstances upsets you. I'll apologize for that. It'll only take me about fifteen minutes to break this down and get it out. I'll tell Nell I'll take a rain check on dinner."

"Oh, stop being such a jerk."

"You know, Ripley, you just keep pushing and pushing until nobody wins."

When he turned away to remove his camera from the tripod, she reached up, pulled her own hair until the sharp pain cleared her head. "Maybe I do. I didn't ask you to leave."

"What are you asking?"

"I don't know! I come home after a pisser of a day, I'm tired and I'm irritable, and I walk in on you doing your mad scientist routine with Nell, who's obviously not only cooperating but enjoying the hell out of it. I wanted a damn beer and a hot shower, not a confrontation."

"Understandable. I can only apologize for the timing. It doesn't change the fact that this is what I do."

"No, it doesn't." Nor, she realized with a twinge, did it change the fact that she'd jumped down his throat because of it. That he'dexpected her to.

Not only was she being a bitch, she was being a predictable bitch. It was lowering.

"You missed a level."

He packed his camera, closed up his laptop. "Which is?"

"I want to know why you didn't ask me."

"I couldn't ask you if you'd mind if I ran tests with Nell because you weren't here to be asked."

"No, why didn't you ask me to run them with you?" As he stopped unhooking cables to stare at her, she shrugged. "I think it's rude that you went to Nell before you came to me."

Just when he thought he had her pegged, she changed the pattern on him. "Would you have agreed?"

"I don't know." She huffed out a breath. "Maybe. I'd have thought about it, anyway. But you didn't ask."

"Are you serious, or are you just using this angle to twist things up so I come out being a jerk?"

There was no arguing that however geeky he might be from time to time, his mind was a scalpel that cut through all the bullshit in one swipe. "The jerk part's just a side benefit. I shouldn't have jumped on you that way. Taken jabs at you and your work. I'm sorry for it."

"Now you're apologizing. I have to sit down."

"Don't milk it, Booke." But she went to him, laid her hands on his arms. "Why don't you get us those beers, then while I'm taking that hot shower you can explain to me what all this stuff's for. Maybe I'll let you use it on me."

"I can do that." He reached up to take her hands before she could slide them away. "But I have a question first. Why are you considering it now?"

"Because it's like you said. It's your work, your deal. I respect you, Mac. So it looks like I'm going to have to start respecting what you do."

Not one of his professional or academic accolades had ever given him such pleasure as that one hard-won statement did. He stepped closer to her, framed her face with his hands. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. You're still a jerk."

"Understood." He felt her lips curve into a smile under his when he kissed her.

"Paranormal science-"

"Now, see, there you lose me, right at the kickoff," Ripley complained. "Because to me that's an oxymoron."

They were in her bedroom, with her sitting cross-legged on the bed while he set up his equipment.

"There was a time when astronomy was considered outside the mainstream. If science doesn't push the accepted scope, study the possibilities, it stagnates. We don't learn anything by standing still."

"Science and education are part of what turned magic from the acceptable into the condemned, then into the dismissed."

"You're right, but I would add ignorance, intolerance, and fear to that mix. It's science and education that may, in time, turn the tide back again."

"They hunted us down, slaughtered us and countless others."

It was in her voice, he thought. Cold rage, hot fear. "You can't forgive that?"

"Could you?" She moved her shoulders restlessly. "I don't dwell on it, but it pays to remember what can happen when fingers start to point."

"You're worried about what might happen to you if outsiders look too close."

"I can take care of myself. Just as the sisters took care of themselves. Do you know how many witches were hanged in Salem Town, Mac? None," she said before he could speak. "All were innocent, powerless victims."

"So you're a cop," he said, "because you've chosen to protect the innocent and the powerless as others once weren't protected."

She started to speak, then just hissed out her breath. "You don't have to be a superhero to keep order on Three Sisters."

"That's not the point, though, is it? You protect, Mia educates-books-and Nell nurtures. You've all chosen to do what you can to heal old wounds. To balance."