Wal-Mart, Wednesday afternoon

Of course Aeryn had to work Christmas Eve. The fact that she had to deal with all the last-minute shoppers almost made it not worth the money. Shockingly, she wasn't much of a people person.

She thought she'd escaped by being able to spend a lot of time in the stockroom, but came out when she was called on the speaker into a mass of parents trying to get through the crowd to the toy aisle. She could tell they were parents due to the screaming children in the carts. Not for the first time, she was extremely grateful that Talyn was good. There was one mother in particular who caught her eye, as both of her small boys were throwing full-on tantrums that she was completely ignoring, even when one threw himself on the ground in front of and old woman's cart. (Aeryn actually noticed a lot of behavior like that working here.)

For a moment she thought she'd blacked out, but when she felt a little less disoriented the boys were still screaming and the mother was now answering her ringing cell phone and covering her free ear.

It had been a long time since Aeryn'd snapped a neck, but she was sure she could still do it. She'd give hera by since it was Christmas.