Lexus nodded along with him and was actually glad that he didn't suggest they start an investigation into the residents of Knockturn. She had been spending most of her free nights there and was starting to get on very well with those that were considered regulars at the Black Chimaera even if that meant she was seeing more of Forrester than she wanted but at least both of them were readily acting as if their one night stand had never happened.

"I'll do my best but that's not really something people are going to be talking about out in the open." Although an attack on muggleborns from those in Knockturn seemed like the likeliest cause it wasn't necessarily the right one but everything else they had ruled out just seemed much less plausible. Then again she could just be being arrogant in not believing in curses but seriously an ancient cursed dagger? How cliché was that?

Lost within her own thoughts Lexus almost fumbled the vial of unknown potion that Jonas had tossed to her. She held the small vial between her thumb and forefinger and looked it over, "Well just because we haven't drank it doesn't mean it doesn't have some kind of curse or something like that on the bottle itself." Now she was talking about curses on bottles after having disregarded the curse that was supposedly on the dagger? Great, now she was arrogant and a hypocrite.

She smirked, "But I doubt it. Give me a few days and I should be able to tell you what's in this and how they made it." She glanced back to her boss remembering that the vial had been sitting on his desk when she first came into the room, "Was this what you wanted me for to begin with?"

Jonas tore out the piece of paper that he'd been writing on and crumbled it into a ball.  Taking aim, he banked it off the wall into a nearby wastebasket. 

"And what it'd do if you drank it," he added unnecessarily.  It wasn't that he didn't trust Malvivicus...well, it was that he didn't trust Malvivicus.  One didn't put in the effort to appear as some quirky criminal mastermind if one wasn't intending to ante up.  Even if the potion did exactly what the old wizard had said it would, Jonas couldn't believe that there wouldn't be some kind of side effect.  Best to leave it at that for Lexus, let her puzzle her way through, and then see if her conclusion matched what his favorite employer had said.

"And yeah," he agreed, flipping back through the notebook to skim through the other pages.  "That was most of it.  Oh, I was thinking about driving down to Exeter on Thursday night," he added, completely offhandedly and without missing a beat, his eyes still locked on the notebook pages.  "Don't mind calling it a long weekend and taking Friday off, do you?  It'll be easier if I can leave the office closed up."

Lexus nodded along to his unnecessary add on. Of course she'd find out what it did, that was a given. However she wondered how she was going to manage all of this from a muggle perspective. It wasn't that she couldn't do it. The native tribe she had lived with prided themselves on their alchemy and when it came down to it the reason why Shamans weren't considered real magic users by the general public was because they didn't use wands. Lexus still had no idea how they did it but then she hadn't been interested in all of their secrets, not that they would have told her to begin with.

Her golden blue eyes were still fixed on the vial of dark liquid when he mentioned the long weekend. At first she had simply nodded until she remembered what the date was. It was currently Monday the eighth which meant that Friday was the twelfth, the full moon. She suddenly drew her eyes to her employer and dear friend. She studied him intensely. Had he managed to figure it all out or was this simply some kind of creepy coincidence. For the time being she had to assume it was all a matter of chance, no sense in getting paranoid over something that might not even exist.

She cleared her throat and did her best to smile, "Yeah sure, that sounds fine. I could always use the time to get some early Christmas shopping done." It was an odd thing to think of the holidays. It had been so long since she had celebrated them. She remembered when she was younger taking the tram home from Pinebrook to meet up with her family in Toronto. Jackson and Kelly were never really big on the holidays but she had always loved them. Opening stockings first thing in the morning, a big brunch then off to Nana and Papa's house. More often than not Lexus was stuck spending time with Ayla and the twins in their grandparents basement but she didn't mind. She was the only one that knew her cousins were magical like her.

"So what's in Exeter?"

Paying attention to something in a nonchalant way was an art form, and Jonas clearly had it perfected.  Now that the vial was out of the way, any outside observers would have been certain that he was entirely focused on the notebook, to the point where any other recent comments must have clearly been a second thought.  It was clear that it took a beat for Lexus's question to register.

"What?" he asked, tearing his eyes away from the pages to look up at her.  "Oh."  He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, and then shrugged.  "Family's in Exeter.  I've got an uncle - and an aunt now," he said, looking horribly amused by the addition, "who aren't much for the rest of the clan, so they're not usually about for Christmas.  I try to stop in when I can to see them, and I'm certain I'd hear if I were remiss this time of year."

In all likelihood, he probably wouldn't hear it - it was more likely he'd get an earful for causing a fuss by inviting himself over for a visit, especially without the kids, but he'd still feel like an arse if he didn't stop by.  Going by the coming weekend was probably out of the question, so he'd have to arrange a stop while on his way down south for the holidays.

Which were, undoubtedly, approaching quickly, just as they did every year.  At least this time, he'd only have to worry about one set of family, even though he wasn't looking forward to having to explain time and time again how Anna and the kids were.  Not to mention that he had somewhere to go - he wouldn't have enjoyed spending this year alone, not after the previous winter. 

"Got plans for Christmas yourself, then?" he asked, his forehead creasing as he glanced to Lexus.  It struck him suddenly that his assistant was in even more of an awkward place; spending a year on the run didn't lend itself well to have somewhere to spend Christmas.  "I'd invite you along to the south, but they're all Muggles, the family.  Might be a bit hard to explain."

As Lexus listened to him talk about his family a sweet smile was placed on her lips but her mind was elsewhere. When it came to the calendar the only dates Lexus really kept a mind on were those of the full moon and she had been avoiding thinking about the holidays. She hadn't seen any of her family in almost five years and missed celebrating Christmas all together the year before. This year she doubted she'd really do anything. All of her family was overseas and she didn't really see herself sitting by the fire sipping hot cocoa and listening to carols with the likes of Dazmond.

His added apology at the end had completely caught her off guard, "Oh yeah no, don't worry about it." She chuckled softly, "They'd probably think I was your mistress or something." She gave him a playful wink. Wondering what exactly would be hard to explain. Lexus was a muggleborn as well and had no problem acting like a muggle, it had actually become a survival technique now. Perhaps his family didn't know he was a private investigator which would make it hard to explain why he would need an assistant.

"I'll probably just be kicking back at my own place anyways. I can't really contact any of my family back home." Not that there was much family back home to contact. She didn't even know what her brother and sister were up to and even without the fact that she was werewolf and a witch the muggle world thought that she was a brutal murderer, not exactly the kind of person you wanted on your guest list.

It was impossible to pretend that he hadn't heard her say out loud exactly what he had been thinking.  Jonas looked up at the ceiling, extremely conscious of the fact that his face was now bright red, and decided to ignore the comment anyhow.

"Yes, well, I suppose that's understandable," he replied, his tone a little too businesslike.  "Reckon we can do something for Boxing Day though, can't we?  That's perfectly acceptable for an employer and employee."

The rain was still beating on the roof outside, and suddenly, the small office felt much too confined for two people.  Jonas sighed, running a hand through his hair as he avoided meeting Lexus's gaze.  He was suddenly intensely grateful for the distraction of her still-bouncing curls.

"Did you want to borrow a wrap so you could get home?" he asked, nodding to her animated hairdo.  "If the spell doesn't wear off by the morning, there might be a couple of blokes around Diagon that we could ask for a favor.  It shouldn't be too hard to quiet something like that, yeah?"

Lexus sucked in her lips and was practically biting her tongue to keep herself from laughing. The sight of Jonas' now red face, to match his beautiful red hair was enough to make her forget about her own family issues. She couldn't stop herself from picturing her entering his family's home arm in arm in a scandalous dress trying to explain that they were simply employer/employee. If it wouldn't be so horribly uncomfortable and embarrassing for him Lexus would have begged to be brought along.

She took hold of one of her animated curls as if to make sure they were still bouncing and nodding, "That sounds like a good idea. It's dark enough now that I should be able to hide the fact that I'm pink." She smiled again, the whole situation a lot more funnier than it had been a few hours ago. She tucked the vial he had handed her into her pocket and got to her feet grabbing her own coat and wrapping it around her slender body. She fished around for the wrap he had mentioned before tying it over her enthusiastic curls.

"Boxing day sounds good. We'll go out for dinner or something." Dressed for the weather and accurately covering up her magical mishap she gave him a pat on the shoulder and a kiss on the cheek just to bug him and waved goodnight, "See you tomorrow Boss."