(Sorry that it's short... muse is eluding me)

It was about this time that Jacob started wishing that his ability had been one where he could read the minds of others, because she perused the shop without much to go off of as far as reactions went. He did note that she did something that he always did, and eyed each pathway to get in or out of the room… something he always did as a habit from the Army, but he wondered what reason that she would have for wanting to do the same thing. Once again, not a mind reader, and no reason to pry into something that could very easily be a sensitive subject. He knew the reasoning behind him doing it was a sort subject.

He responded simply. “Shouldn’t take long. Once I get it in here, I’ll level off the fluids, double tap and make sure there isn’t anything else wrong, and you will be on your way. 20 to 30 minutes.” Truth of the matter was, he had already known all of that when he sensed things from the car earlier, but he hadn’t done it very thoroughly. He hated overlooking things, and he wasn’t about to let his ability make him lazy as a mechanic. He enjoyed working on cars, and decided to question something entirely different. “So, just out of curiosity, what brought you out to this neck of the woods?”

Emerald had never been a person who trusted just anybody and because of this, it always made her a little hard to get to know. Sure she could be friendly in an environment she was familiar with or something like that, but this was a completely new place for her. Not only that but she wasn't in the best of situations, this whole thing could easily change in a second. This wasn't the first time Emerald had found herself in a situation like this and while she had the potential of being viewed as overly paranoid because of this, she just couldn't help it.

She should probably attempt to be more friendly though, not everyone was out to get her, she knew that but it was one of those hard things to shake. The tried her best to give Colt a friendly smile to describe what she was doing in the forest at the time that all this.

“Well, I was out on a hunting trip with a couple of buddies of mine, catching deer and stuff,” Emerald replied. She scoffed a little at the next bit. “Course, they weren't able to catch the beasts bare handed or with their teeth like I could so they were a little bit at a disadvantage.

With a wolfish grin, Emerald's face lit up immediately and looked considerably less reluctant than the face earlier. While she wasn't going to completely trust this dude,t here was really no harm in hamming it up a bit, after all he sort of did it to.

Jacob could see from her overall body language that she was consciously trying to relax. That was good… she didn’t need to feel at any sort of unease with Jacob, and the truth of it was that this was likely one of the safest places in the state. He had a multitude of different things that prevented anyone from tampering with him or his home. She spoke of going hunting, and Jacob gave her a wide smile. “I do hunt once in a while… and I have to say, I don’t want to compete with you.” He moved to a cabinet he had stashed behind the counter, and fished out a small vacuum sealed package of his self-proclaimed world famous deer jerky. The stuff was excellent, with just the right blend of juices, spices and flavoring, but without overpowering the taste of the venison itself. It was smoked in a smoker he had out back, and his cooking skills when it came to meat were on point.

For someone who lived up in Alaska for some time, he cooked like a Southern Boy more than anything. Spuds, meat, and veggies. He brought it over to her, and presented her with the gift. “I made it myself… and I could certainly use a taste tester who enjoys some good Venison.” He hoped she would accept, but wouldn’t pressure her if she didn’t… not everyone was into that kind of thing, but considering how she was tearing into the jerky when he first pulled up, certainly she would enjoy it. It wasn’t a candle-lit dinner, and to be honest, he was trying to talk to her in the same manner he would anyone he considered a friend.

It was then that the lights flashed through the front window, and he moved towards the garage, her truck pulling in behind the tow truck. Opening a door, he hit a switch near it, and the closest bay door began to slide open. “Thanks Bobby! Get home to that beautiful wife of yours before she gets madder at me for taking time away from you!” It was simple enough, and he replied in a thick southern accent in agreement, and he got into his other truck and made away. Jacob quickly got the car unloaded, and then pulled a bit of a trick. Standing in the bay, he moved towards the front so he could see where the tires were lining up, and her truck came to life, moving slowly and steadily towards the rack until it was on it. It then shut off, and the door began to close and ward off the cold again, and the tow truck then pulled around into its designated spot, and turned off. Jacob then popped the hood, and motioned for his guest to join him, and he could give her a few pointers, as if he didn’t just reveal to her that he was a mutant as well in any small fashion.

A slightly cocky grin crossed Emerald's face when he mentioned that he didn't want to compete with her. Of course he didn't! Who in their right mind would say "I want to compete in hunting against a creature that was literally built for it." that just seemed silly. Besides, after failing several times at hunting, she ended up learning how to do it very well, sure she had some hiccups here and there but that was all part of the fun.

The werewolf's eyes followed after Colt when he moved, eyes following him cautiously more than anything else. The she-wolf caught the scent of the jerky almost immediately and while it did smell good, she knew if she ate anything else at this point she would be overeating. Sure, she naturally ate a lot in order to keep herself energized and able to use her powers, but she could overeat and if she did it wasn't pretty.

“Sorry, I would if I could, but I'm pretty sure if I eat anymore I might explode. I already ate a few deer that I hunted on my own with my bear hands, but even the jerky you saw me tearing into before was pushing it,” Emerald explained. “Sides, wolves can't exactly run very fast when their stomach is so bloated it's hanging to the floor.”

The alpha female, while she did feel slightly better about being here still had her reservations. Even if she wasn't nearly bloated she would still be reluctant about eating it, just old survival instincts was all there was to say about that. The Werewolf made her way over to where Jacob was, standing in front of her car. She didn't say anything to the mater of him moving the car all by himself because she didn't feel like she needed to.

“It looks a lot like the old one, stuffs probably in the same exact place too. Might be a leak or something because I think I remember changing fluids on this thing not too long ago.” Emerald pondered, wondering if that was the problem with it.

She barely used her car and it was possible she didn't notice a leak like that when she drove out that morning, considering the overwhelming scents from the X-Garage, due to the other car and the fact that Ruby was almost constantly working in there.

Jacob didn’t take any offense once she explained that she was already quite full… and although it did strike him as odd at first when she mentioned she had eaten some deer, she did realize that it made sense, after all. Still, she looked rather slim considering she had eaten at least one whole deer that day. There was a lot of meat on that animal, but that could be another part of her mutation. He chuckled lightly at her little joke about her belly keeping her from running. “Well, you have a very fit figure, so I don’t think that will be an issue for you.” A compliment and a fact rolled into one. He then re-sealed the jerky after grabbing a small handful, and put it away.

He was a little disappointed now, having demonstrated his powers and rolling the car into the bay without touching either the door controls or the car itself, having controlled it with his ability much like a kid with a little RC Car with the precision of a scalpel. He liked being able to share his secret, largely with other mutants, and after learning about her incredible ability, he wanted to show off a little bit, but she didn’t even seem to notice. He didn’t let that disappointment show, mind you, but it was something that made him mentally sigh. He quickly refocused on the car instead of dwelling on it though.

The lighting in the shop was pretty good, but it got dark under these hoods, and Jacob grabbed a hanging lamp, which was nothing but a LED light inside a metal frame with a hook, and hooked it to a notch in the hood itself, illuminating the engine compartment. Normally, it would take a while for the fluid to cool down, as it built in pressure as it got hot, but again Jacob grabbed the frame of the car, a centimeter of his skin gaining the color and texture of the part he was grabbing, and he used his ability to cool it down supernaturally fast. “First off, before you ever start your car, you should always check your oil,” he paused for a moment, pointing at the oil dipstick, “and your coolant.” He reached down and grabbed the cap to the radiator, twisting it off with practiced ease.

“You never want to do this after the car has just been running, because your coolant gets hot and builds up pressure. Normally this cap would sear your skin if you weren’t careful, and the fluid would nearly explode out of the opening, but I cooled it down, so no issues this time. I already sealed the hole from the radiator where the coolant was leaking, but you could have probably spotted it if you checked under your truck wherever it was parked.” This was usually true. On occasion, something could happen in transit, but the radiator was usually protected. Perhaps something happened when she was hunting.

Till this day it was absolutely baffling to Emerald when people complimented her. It wasn't that she didn't understand what compliments meant it's just she felt like she really didn't deserve some of the ones that were thrown at her. Emerald was, for the most part, modest about herself and it was a bit odd for here some of these compliments.

Once Colt started instructing her about the "basics of cars" the werewolf gave him a look that could only be described as "No really?" It was an honest to goodness dumbfounded look, mainly because she had mentioned before how similar this was to the old car she had and how she had changed the fluids herself not to long ago. Yes, she was a motorcycle person, but she knew enough about cars to know the freaking basics.

"Can we skip the basics I already know and find out how bad the damage is in this damn thing?" The wolf woman growled at him, her shoulders squaring off a little, teeth gritted together in irritation. Wether or not he was trying to be insulting didn't matter at this point, she just felt like this guy wasn't taking her seriously.

"It probably happened while I was hunting, I didn't notice it this morning and I changed my fluids myself not too long ago." Emerald said, tail lashing back and forth. "Probably the damn kids did it as some sort of prank or something."

There were some kids that ran around the forest that tended to prank the visitors of the park. The problem was that these pranks escalated recently since they started taking shop at their school and they had been taking apart people's cars. No one had done anything about it yet, but if they were the cause of this whole mess, Emerald would string them up by their shoelaces on the powerlines.

Jacob noticed that she didn’t take to the compliment in the traditional manner, that being recognizing it and taking it as exactly what it was… a compliment. Instead, she had more of a ‘Wait what?’ look to her, meaning that she wasn’t used to getting compliments… or was very modest… maybe both. Regardless, when he moved on to the car, giving her basics 101, she seemed to grow a little agitated, mentioning that they could move on to the more complicated stuff. Part of him wondered about that, because if she did understand the basics of it, why didn’t she realize what was going on with her car in the first place? This was a very basic and simple problem… but it didn’t matter. He simply nodded, and moved on.

“The damage isn’t bad at all… and I can fix it now, but I have a slight confession to make.” He paused, grabbing the rim of the engine compartment, and his hand taking about a centimeter of texture of the metal and paint along his skin. An audible popping noise, and a metal clank sounded, and he was good to go. “I might have been able to fix your car on the road… and may have wanted to simply get to know you a little better. You still needed to come in, mind you, so I can fill it up with the coolant you needed, but we didn’t need a tow truck. I didn’t know if you were someone I could trust with knowing that I too, was a mutant, at the time.”

It was a lot all at once, but as he said, instead of having to replace the radiator all together, now he simply pulled it off using his ability to repair the small hole. Anything could have caused it, but most kids go for the tires, not a radiator… but it was still possible, he supposed. He turned, grabbing a 5 gallon bucket of coolant and a funnel, and began to fill her radiator.

It had been weeks since those kids' last prank, but considering the fact that the last prank they pulled was drain the oil out of someones car and splash it all over the ranger's dog, Emerald wouldn't put it past them to do something like this. It probably didn't help matters that she wasn't exactly the nicest to them, primarily out of their own safety. She wanted them to stay away from her so when she was in third form they wouldn't be in any sort of danger.

This did cause some problems, though, and since the little snots threatened to do something like this to a car of hers if they ever saw it, she wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

After all, she had checked all of her fluids recently and despite not being able to scent it, she would have noticed if something this big was wrong when she was driving several miles out to this place. Emerald didn't even get that far from the park when it had started overheating and considering the fact that she left it out in the parking lot for a few days during this little trip it made sense that this had happened.

Logically speaking, her car - if it wasn't tampered with - wouldn't have screwed up this bad because despite the fact she wasn't a grade A mechanic she knew enough to keep her going. The woman lived on her own for quite some time so these were the sort of skills she had to learn.

Speaking of things a very cautious werewolf had to learn, her main one, the one that she still used till this day was automatically don't trust anyone because they might be lying to you. Always know the way out of any situation. Be able to make a run for it or fight off any foe.

Emerald had basic survival instincts that every human or animal had, but hers were turned up to eleven. Now was a prime example of those instincts kicking into overdrive. The wolf woman tensed, all muscles getting ready to spring at any moment, teeth gritted together in frustration.

"It doesn't matter that I would've had to come the shop, anyways. You still lied to me," Emerald replied tersely, trying her best to keep her cool. It really wasn't going too well though, judging by her fists clenched at her sides and her tail sticking rigidly out. The alpha female looked every bit as poised to attack as a wild animal would.

"Even if you wanted someone to talk to about being a mutant, ya would've done it in another way, by, oh, I dunno, TALKING TO ME?! Don't just lie in order to get what you want! I bet this high powered security place that you seemed to go on about has a fold out bed too right?! Emerald snarled at him,her teeth bared.

Whether or not he intended to, Colt picked the wrong person to lie to. Even if the lie was an innocent one, or one just to woo her, it was still a bad move on his part. Even if he was fixing her car, Emerald really didn't care, she would leave the car there if she had to, there was just no excuse for lying. The alpha female knew she wasn't a saint, but this whole thing was unsettling, to say the least.

Jacob listened to her, but visibly bristled at the mention that he had ‘lied’ to her. A seething rage began to boil within him, but he contained it, as always, even as she began to rant and rave over a simple misunderstanding. He waited until she was done, and noted that her teeth were bared and her fists clenched… and while he hoped that she could keep her own rage in check, his own muscles were coiled and his reflexes set delicately on a hair trigger, just in case he needed to use them to subdue this woman if she tried to harm him in some way. He wouldn’t hesitate to defend himself if he had to.

“You misunderstand my words.”

He turned, locking his own hazel eyes with hers. His own eyes were full of rage, but instead of burning white hot, like hers seemed to be, his was an unseemly cold, as if she was staring at Death himself. His tone was flat, calm, and collected, and he set down his tools and gave her his full and undivided attention. “I didn’t say I wanted to confide in you about my mutantcy… I said I wanted to get to know you better. I never said once that I needed a tow truck, but that one was available if you wanted it. Before you spit on my honor with such a phrase as ‘lies’, please consider that I have not once lied to you, but I did not know if I could trust you.”

Jacob, above anything, despised people who threw lies into their words. Integrity was his most essential value that he could think of, and was the basis for anyone to lead a decent and healthy life. For her to call him, of all people, a liar was the same amount of disgrace as someone walking up and spitting on the coffin of a fallen soldier, someone who had given their life to defend peace. He could not stand for it, and while she was standing here, teeth bared, and fists clenched, he would not back down, he would not give an inch, until she took those words back or apologized.

Jacob had gone out of his way to help her, and she was stomping on his good deed without so much as thinking about what had been said. He could have driven right by, leaving her in the cold while waiting for a sister that may or may not have come any time soon. He had been nothing but courteous, generous and respectful to the young woman, when most people wouldn’t have even given her a second glance… and he was unsure if he should have, if this was the thanks that he was going to receive. Certainly, he didn’t pop up and say, ‘I’m a mutant, I can fix your car right now!’, but of anyone, certainly she should be able to understand that anyone who walked around talking about how they were a mutant was likely going to be met with some kind of aggression if not violence towards that fact.

Standing completely still, his hands at his sides, and his eyes locked with hers, he waited patiently for a response.

In life, sometimes people didn't understand what they were saying to other people. Sometimes, people even completely conveniently blacked out what they said five minutes ago in order to make themselves seem justified and righteous after they are called out on it. These sort of things happened in the world, that said of course that didn't mean they were by any means okay.

Emerald returned the glare, not backing down and not saying a word. She had faced far scarier foes that Colt, this guy was a kitten compared to what she had seen before. He could glare all he wanted to but she wasn't backing down from this. This guy could be as self righteous and as all knowing as he wanted but Emerald wasn't having any of it.

"Did you not hear what you said a few minutes ago, you got me into your car so you could get to know me better, while that's good in those bullsh** romantic comedies that's not how it works in real life. It's not endearing it's freaking creepy," Emerald told him, tail lashing back and forth. "I appreciate that you are fixing my car but you should have been straight up with me from the damn beginning. If it was possible for you to have fixed it you should have said that in the very begining"

There was no look of giving up in Emerald's eyes her eyes returned the stare. Her stare wasn't a death glare or anything like that, it was a stare of someone not backing down. She wasn't afraid, she wasn't intimidated and she sure as hell wasn't sorry.

Jacob listened, his ice cool demeanor standing fast in the face of her heated rage as she threw accusations at him again, trying to prove that he had been lying. Part of him wondered if this was the same young woman that only a few minutes ago had been very grateful and polite, talking with him about hunting. Then another thought came to mind; What if this was a part of her mutation? He hadn’t realized it before, but a general association of most predatory animal based mutations had a increased amount of aggression, many to the point that simple agitation could become, well, what was before him at the moment.

That said, his eyes, white hot, softened slightly, but he still did not back down, but his tone was slightly different now as well… he had to understand that it was possible that it likely wasn’t all her fault for the rage she was emitting. “Again, a misunderstanding. I got you into my vehicle so that I could get you here. I didn’t tell you I could fix your car because the only way I could do that on the spot was with my ability, and I couldn’t reveal that to you at that time. I am sure you understand that even between some mutants, trust is still something earned.” He paused, letting that sink in, and hoping that the change in his tone and demeanor was helpful. He wasn’t showing weakness, he was showing compassion… and he truly hoped that a bit of compassion in this situation would help defuse the bomb that had been lit from a little miscommunication.

Time would tell.