[present day]

It felt really wierd walking through UCirc's corridors again.
Seeing squirrels rushing past that he didn't even know... it'd
been... how long? A month? Two? But the conversion was finally
finished, and there was no excuse to keep him from going back
to work.

So he made his way through the warren of tunnels to the
computer room, and walked over to his chair...

Which was occupied, of course.

"Hi, Derek," he said, "Hi... Jase? Hi. [greetingsflick]"

"Chit?" Derek asked, with a look of mock surprise, "You're
alive?"

"Barely. [flick] I was *this close* to death" he held his
paws a millimeter apart "for days. But I managed to pull
through." He walked over to his chair and leaned over Jase's
shoulder to look at the screen. "I bet you'll be glad to
get back to mechanics."

"Actually," Derek said, "he applied for a permanent transfer
to your position a week ago. It was accepted."

Chit blinked.

"But I hear there's an opening in mechanics," Jase said,
giggling. The two of them laughed until Chit stormed out.

* * *

The next day, they found him shoveling cement to patch cracks
in the warren structure.

"What," he asked, turning to face them.

"Nothing," Derek said. Jase giggled.

"Then go away."

"How did your plot go, Chit?"

"I was sick. [flick]"

"You were plotting."

"Fine. [chittersigh] It was an unmitigated disaster, like
always. [ruffle] We failed in every objective, and couldn't
even abort in time. And now I'm stuck doing odd jobs for the 
next three months, at least."

"Looks like fun," Derek said. Jase giggled.

"Does it talk?" Chit asked, slapping another patch of cement
at the floor, and missing by almost an inch.

Jase half giggled, until he was cut off by a trowel full of
cement in the face. "I am not," Chit said, bristling and
brandishing the trowel, "In the mood."

"I just came by to let you know that I'm cancelling your
administrator priviliges on the warren net. [flick] Seeing
as you're no longer working in computing."

Chit's eyes narrowed. "You can't do that."

Derek backed away, flicking (mock) apology. "Regulations, Chit.
It's out of my paws. [grinflick]" Jase, of course, giggled,
having wiped off most of the cement.

When they were gone, Chit refrained from giggling, or grinning,
or bouncing with glee, since the cameras were on.

==
Chit