Jay yawned and stretched as she awoke, squinting in the sunlight. She moved one hand to block it out as she reached for...wait, sunlight? Snapping awake, she glanced over at the clock, which was blinking 12:00. There must have been a power outage sometime last night. She sighed. Overall, it was impressive how quickly the infrastructure had been restored after the initial shock, but some things were still a bit glitchy. Oh well; she was just happy to have electricity.
The fox-girl rolled out of bed, still stretching her tired muscles. She'd been up a bit too late last night anyway, and given the circumstances she figured Toby would forgive her for being late to work. She pulled off her nightgown and went into the bathroom to get cleaned up.
Jay regarded the fox-girl in the mirror curiously. She had to admit, after the initial shock, she hadn't really thought about her changed body that much, until Lisa had brought it up yesterday evening. Of course, she still held to everything she'd said; she wasn't going to be in the throes of an identity crisis any time soon. Jay Warner was Jay Warner, end of story.
But she did find herself kind of thinking about how she looked from an outside perspective. The most immediately obvious thing about her was of course the russet fur that covered her body, with a white stripe down the front of her torso, running from her groin to the lower part of her face. And there were the three tails, of course. Less noticeable were the claws in place of fingernails and angled, paw-like feet that lent her a strange yet clearly feminine stance and gait.
Strangely, though, her face was less changed than any of these. Sure, it was covered in fur, and her damp canine nose was unmistakeable, but her eyes were still human, and the facial structure was mostly the same; there was a definite pronouncement to her nose and jaw, but it was a far cry from a full-fledged muzzle. She smiled; that, she was actually grateful for. More convenient for her, and more easy for others to read - an important thing in the TV-reporter business.
It was indeed kind of a strange sight, but Jay was used to it by now. The old Jay's body had been fine; most of her best memories were in that body. But this one had its own charm and its own merits, and it was no less her than the other one. No, she didn't have a problem with this at all. (Well, besides the height thing.)
Jay brushed her teeth, brushed out her fur and hair, and donned one of a set of suit-dresses she'd had made after her change. She wasn't quite sure if she liked the look or not, but they fit well and didn't constrain her tails, at least. Grabbing her wallet and phone (she'd yet to take to carrying a purse, though it was more out of habit than any particular objection,) she headed off to work.
Jay's first clue that something was amiss came when she spotted the police cars parked outside the station. She rushed inside to find things in a chaotic state. Most of her fellow employees were visibly upset, and very few of them appeared to be getting much work done. Jay had a sinking feeling that she knew what this was about, and she only hoped that the worst hadn't happened.
When she reached Toby's office, two transformee cops were standing guard outside. She'd had plenty of experience wheedling police into letting her investigate, but before she could start buttering either of them up, a voice from inside said "It's okay. Let her in."
The fox-girl's ears perked up with curiosity; the voice itself was unfamiliar, but the tone and the diction she knew. She stepped into Toby's office and beheld a strange sight. Seated at the desk was an attractive young woman with deep blue hair, dressed in what appeared to be a variant of the "sailor fuku" outfit Jay had seen pictures of on the Internet. Except...instead of the girl, what Jay was seeing was a drawing of the girl.
She leaned first to the left and then to the right. The view rotated as if she were any other three-dimensional object, but she remained projected into a two-dimensional image. She wasn't the only thing, either - the chair she sat on was similarily rendered.
She nodded. "Strange, isn't it?"
Jay nodded, then gaped. "I, uh...Toby!?"
Toby nodded. "Seems that a certain weasel up in corporate didn't take kindly to being told off yesterday, so he hired a nice young man from the local underworld to knock me out and leave me in the sun."
The fox-girl gasped. "Do we have proof yet? Don't tell me he didn't even cover his tracks!"
Toby chuckled bitterly. "Well, he was busy with a shredder when the police caught up with him, but apparently he was too mad to even think to do it until this morning, and he was only just getting started. So, in another week or two I'll be needing you to cover a trial for me."
Jay laughed long and hard at that. "Oh, the guy hires a hitman but doesn't even think to cover it up properly? You couldn't keep me off this if you tried." She looked back at her boss, and then grew solemn. "But...um, how are you feeling?"
The young woman shrugged. "I...I don't really know," she said. "I kind of don't feel anything just yet; I think I must have gotten all the freaking-out out of my system back before I changed, back when I was shutting myself in the office for eight hours straight. The only thing I was actually worried about was Terri, but I saw her after I got out of the ER, beforeI came here, and...she's pretty much okay with it."
Jay sighed. "That's good, at least."
Toby smiled. "Well, you don't have fifteen years of a happy marriage without forming bonds a lot deeper than simple male-female biological attraction. She...she's actually considering exposing herself, in hopes of, um, changing to match. I did my best to warn her off, but when she gets an urge in her..."
Jay chuckled. "So you've said. Well, I...I don't claim to be an expert on this kind of thing, but if you ever do need to talk about it..."
The blue-haired girl smiled. "Thank you. I'm sure I will; I don't feel anything just yet, but I'm sure I will when the shell-shock wears off."
The fox-girl nodded. "By the way, what's with the clothes...?"
Toby shrugged. "They came with the package," she said. "Thankfully I'm not stuck with them, but for today, it was this or a hospital gown..."
Jay laughed. "Right, that makes sense. Well, I guess I've got things that need doing..."
"You certainly do," her boss replied. "And...thanks."
