With how things had been going, Jacob couldn’t be happier. He’d received his first paycheck with his new raise, and his eyes went wide upon seeing the number in his bank account for the first time. He and Lane couldn’t help but celebrate that night. Naturally, it came in the form of a huge gourmet dinner for the horse, and a very sizeable breakfast in bed for Jacob the next day. 

Nearly a month after Zander had started, everything was still exactly as it was when Tony was in charge. No changes around the office and clients were still regularly coming to them for assistance. Zander seemed to know when to make changes and when not to, and since the business was already profitable, he knew not to mess with it too much.

It wasn’t long later, however, before the first large change was made. It wasn’t even the dragon’s meddling that caused it – no, Jacob’s teammate, probably the only other truly technical mind in the place, had resigned. Upon hearing the news, the fox immediately felt dejected. There were only two of them who could actually do development in the office, and with one leaving, the rest of the work would likely fall onto Jacob’s shoulders.

After a few hours, Jacob made his way over to Zander’s office. With how polite he had been in the past, he felt he could trust the dragon, and lightly knocked on the open door. 

“Uh, Zander? Can we talk for a sec?”

“Sure, Jacob, what’s up? Shut the door if you need; feel free to have a seat,” the dragon instructed.

“Thanks. I just wanted to talk about Dave leaving…” the fox said slowly, shutting the door behind him and sitting down.

“Yeah, not someone I wanted to lose. You two got along well, right?” Zander asked.

“Yep. Could always bounce ideas off each other. He really knew how to deliver what was asked, even if it wasn’t always the easiest,” he started, to which the dragon slowly nodded. “Anyway, I guess I just wanted to talk about what’s going to happen when he leaves…I mean, our clients are still going to have needs, and I don’t know that I can meet them all myself. I don’t know if you’ve started interviewing for a replacement yet, but if you haven’t, I’m happy to try to help as soon as we can start looking…”

Zander simply smiled and waved a paw to dismiss the concern. “Already taken care of. One of the perks of being in the industry before is having a few contacts from the last place I worked, including some who knew their way around a computer. Dave leaves in just under two weeks, next Friday, and Greyson will start the Monday after.”

Jacob looked momentarily surprised, then recomposed himself. “Oh. You think he’ll be able to learn quickly? I mean, I can help train, but while he’s learning,” he started, only to be cut off by Zander.

“He’ll pick it up quicker than anyone you’ve ever met. You have my promise on that. I’ll depend on you to show him the ropes though – I expect you two to work very closely together. Can I count on you for that?” Zander asked.

Jacob nodded. “Yes sir!” He replied enthusiastically.

“Good. Anything else?” 

“No, I think just knowing I won’t be alone helps a lot. Thank you,” Jacob said, standing up once more and heading out.

“My pleasure,” the dragon remarked, offering a small wave goodbye to the fox before returning to his work.

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief as he made his way back to his desk. Zander sure seemed to be on top of things. He only found out Dave was leaving earlier today, and the dragon already had someone lined up to take the spot. The fox guessed what the dragon said was true - having contacts and networking really did help him out.

Another two weeks rolled by, and the small departure party for Dave came and went. Everyone was happy for him, wished him well, reminisced about the stories of their time working together, and, thanks to Zander, ate and drank their fill. Jacob, partaking in all but the last of those, wished Dave a heartfelt goodbye. Throughout the party though, the thought in the back of his mind was getting stronger, wondering what Greyson would be like in a couple days. It had been a while since anyone new started at their little place of work – over a year, anyway, before Zander – but Jacob was nothing if not accommodating. 

The weekend quickly rolled by, with Jacob and Lane discussing potential scenarios for what type of person Greyson would be, all the way from a nerdy, meek programmer to a useless muscle-bound fur who only got the job by knowing Zander.

Monday morning, he soon found out which end of the spectrum Greyson was closer to. Zander stood in front of the office with a large wolf standing next to him, presumably the new programmer. At first glance, he certainly seemed to be more toward the latter end of his expectations. While not nearly as large as the dragon, he was certainly bigger than Jacob. He had a small gut on him, but his arms clearly conveyed that he went to the gym at least somewhat regularly. Jacob had to guess he was in his thirties, a few years older than the fox.

“Everyone, a moment,” Zander called out, pausing for a moment as muzzles turned toward him. “I’d like to introduce your new coworker, Greyson. As sad as we all were about Dave leaving last week, the show must go on. I’ve worked with this guy before in a few different contexts, and he always knows how to get the job done. He’s one of the smartest tech guys I’ve ever met – next to Jacob of course,” Zander paused, giving the fox a quick wink, “so I think he’ll get up to speed quickly. Greyson, anything you want to say?”

“Yeah, just excited to be here and work with all of you!” he said happily, though his eyes focused on Jacob quite a bit longer than anyone else. “Can’t wait to learn how you all work and how best to help. I’m an open book – feel free to ask any questions!” A couple furs around the room waved as they smiled up politely at the wolf, mostly waiting to get back to work. Some were already glancing back at their computers, checking email or messages by now.

“Jacob, do you mind giving Greyson a quick tour of everything? I’m sure you two will want to get comfortable with each other,” Zander remarked.

“Yeah, sure,” the fox said, quickly saving his work and rising from his chair.

“Jacob, nice to meet ya!” the wolf said cheerfully, stepping forward and wrapping the fox in a large embrace. Those muscles were definitely undersold here; Jacob was nearly crushed by the hug. Nevertheless, he reached out and returned the gesture, happy that he could at least get his arms all the way around, unlike with Zander.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” Zander said happily, walking back to his office and leaving the canines alone.

“Thanks, Zander,” Jacob said quickly before turning his attention to the taller lupine. “Well, I guess let’s look around. Not a whole lot to see, as you can imagine,” Jacob said nonchalantly, gesturing to the mostly open office. “Zander’s office is around the corner where he just went, the rest of us at the desks here – that one’s yours, by the way,” he paused, pointing to the desk next to his own, where a new computer and monitors sat atop it. Greyson simply nodded along, following closely behind Jacob as they strolled the few feet through the office corridors.

“Kitchen and break room area over there, office supplies here. There are some spare chargers of different types in the drawer here, and a couple different types of phones you can test on if you want. Conference rooms just past the kitchen if you want to take a call in private, and bathrooms are just down the hall, over here,” he finished with a gesture. Unexpectedly, he received a slight chuckle out of Greyson at that. “Huh?” he asked, turning his head to the side slightly and looking up at the wolf.

“Oh, nothing,” the lupine said with a smile. “Thanks for the tour though; didn’t think there’d be much. Not a giant company after all. I’m more interested in the tech. You mind grabbing one of the conference rooms with me and giving me a quick rundown of whatever you’re working on?”

“Uh…sure,” Jacob said slowly, not expecting the wolf to want to get into things so quickly. The pair walked for ten seconds or so to get back to their desks, grabbed their laptops, and headed off toward the conference rooms. 

“So, I guess if we’re gonna work together, should probably get to know each other a bit more,” Jacob said, trying to break the ice. “I think Zander said you and he worked together before?”

“Oh yeah. We had a lot of fun together,” Greyson said, his grin growing wider. “Known the big guy for a few years now.”

“He really is big, isn’t he?” Jacob remarked, thinking of all the times he had to crane his neck up just to look at his boss in the eyes.

“He’s absolutely huge,” Greyson said, his smile somehow even growing wider. There was something hidden behind those words, but in a professional setting, it wasn’t on Jacob’s mind to pick it out. “I thought I was big, but he’s just ginormous. You like him as a boss?” Greyson asked in return.

“Yeah, he’s great,” Jacob replied. “Very easy to talk to, doesn’t micromanage, anything like that. Pretty much exactly what I want in a boss,” he finished, reaching out and opening the conference room door.

“Sounds about right. Great dude,” Greyson said simply, striding into the room and plopping into one of the cushioned chairs. “You been here long?” the wolf asked.

“Yeah, few years now. Not a huge amount of turnover at this place. Usually, guys who work here stay for a while. I’ll be here another couple years at least,” Jacob said, mind going back to the contract he signed with Zander. As he spoke, the fox lowered himself as well, setting his computer on the desk in front of them. 

“Good, then I know just who to go to for questions!” Greyson said happily, clapping a paw briefly against Jacob’s back. The fox looked mildly uncomfortable with all the touching the wolf was doing, but he didn’t readily object to it. 

“I’ll be here,” Jacob said, forcing a smile a bit. “These conference rooms always feel so small to me. No windows just makes it feel like a broom closet.”

“Maybe it was once. Gotta make do with a small office like this,” Greyson commented.

“I suppose. So, what brought you here anyway?”

“To the conference room? We were gonna look at stuff together. Did you forget already?” he asked, laughing to himself. Jacob laughed slightly in return, mostly out of politeness, before Greyson resumed speaking. “Nah, but I came here at Zander’s request. He needed a good programmer, and here I am. Always happy to work with him again. Not much more to it than that.”

Jacob nodded softly. “Well, I look forward to working with you then. Always nice to have another good mind around. You want to see the project I’m working on?”

“Yeah!” Greyson said happily, scooting his chair closer to the fox’s and looking in at the small laptop screen. As he got closer, his leg lightly bumped into Jacob’s, keeping them barely in contact as the pair focused on the screen. 

“This is a pretty simple modification request for a client,” Jacob said, pulling up the website where the current live version was deployed. “Right now, all the items on the site are displayed like this,” he gestured, showing the right side of the screen, “but they want them to look like this,” he continued, swapping to another tab and showing a mockup photo. “So far, I’ve got this,” Jacob said, switching screens yet again, “but it doesn’t seem to be showing the contents the way I expect. Code’s here,” he finished, pulling up another window. 

Greyson sat silently for a moment, studying the code and reading it through. Soon enough, he lightly tapped the table. “I think I see it. your loop variable’s not incrementing correctly. Can I drive?” He asked, before taking control of the keyboard anyway and redoing a few quick lines. “There we go, try now,” he instructed. Jacob, rather skeptical someone could find and fix something that quickly, performed a quick test deployment and refreshed the page. Sure enough, everything looked exactly like he expected.

“How did you…?” he started, and Greyson waved a paw. 

“Just a quick off by one thing; you did the hard part. I’m sure you’d have found it eventually,” the wolf said happily, wrapping an arm around Jacob’s shoulders. This ordinarily would have annoyed the fox, but he simply sat there mostly in stunned silence. “Working on anything else I can give you a paw with?” Greyson asked, giving a quick squeeze.

“Uh…No, not at the moment,” Jacob uttered, now squirming slightly in the embrace. “I guess I just need to let the client know the issue’s finished, and see what projects need my attention next.”

“Nice. Well, let me know if you wanna tag team more issues like that, I love pair programming,” Greyson said happily, finally removing his arm. “Guess I’ll just work on setting up my computer for the day then, unless the big dragon has anything else he wants me to do.”

“Good luck with that,” Jacob said, standing up and grabbing his laptop. “And, uh, same, I guess. If you need anything, let me know, though it seems like you can handle yourself just fine.”

“Appreciate the offer all the same,” Greyson said, also standing and heading out of the room with Jacob.

The pair made a bit more small talk on the way back to their desks, but Jacob’s heart wasn’t really in it. As he sat back in his place, he opened his laptop once more and became very focused on his email, doing his best to signify that he wasn’t in the mood for more conversation. 

It wasn’t until the afternoon that Jacob’s mood had settled back down a bit more. He stayed busy at his computer, headphones on, dialed into his work – the outside world didn’t exist to him at that point in time. That is, until a tap was suddenly felt on his shoulder. 

“Hey, you busy?” Greyson asked, standing over the fox and holding his laptop.

“Uh…kinda…” Jacob replied, “but I’m already distracted now I guess.”

“Sorry,” the wolf replied, ears flattening a little bit. “I’ll make it quick then. I was looking over one of your old projects to learn more about it and didn’t really understand the logic here. Can you give me a quick rundown?”

“Alright, I suppose…I don’t know how well I’ll remember it,” the vulpine replied, taking the wolf’s computer and setting it on his desk, beginning to peruse the code on the screen. 

“I guess I’m not sure why you’re using a loop here, it’s so much harder to understand,” Greyson replied.

“As opposed to…?” the fox asked.

“Recursion. This is like one of the first things they teach in college now, and it’s always recursive,” the wolf answered.

“Gimme a sec…” Jacob paused, trying to recall the logic behind it. As the reasoning popped into his head, his eyes lit up, and turned back toward the larger male. “Right, it’s due to the size of the inputs in some cases. There are some edge cases where recursion was essentially overflowing the stack and causing timeouts, but it wasn’t happening with a loop.”

“Right! Genius, thanks man,” the wolf said happily, patting Jacob on the back and grabbing his computer again. “I’ll leave you be now,” he said, heading to his own desk once more and leaving the fox alone. 

As annoyed as Jacob was at the interruption, he had to admit he felt a certain sense of pride in being able to help his coworker out. While it was clear the wolf was no dummy, maybe there wouldn’t be as big a gap between them as he thought. Renewed in his happiness for the day, the vulpine smiled for the first time since that morning, put his headset back on, and got back to work. He found himself not dreading the time to come with his new coworker nearly as much as he was before.
