Things had, for the most part, gone back to normal at this point.Tarin was no longer keeping a hawk's eye on her, was no longer refusing to let her out of the apartment without him there with her.

But not completely back to normal. They did have a brand new baby boy, after all. Which in a way confused Lee as to why Tarin's excessive over protectiveness seemed to be gone.

Lee had been wondering for a while what had ever happened with the investigation into the man who had kidnapped her. She hadn't heard anything about it since shortly after she had left the hospital. So that led to Lee calling Detective Cervantes to set up a meeting. One that Lee set up for during one of her normal daily walks.

Walking into the diner they had agreed upon, Lee took a quick look around but didn't see the detective. So she made her way to a table, setting the stroller up beside her, to wait.

It was a voice that he really thought he was never going to hear again. After a strange discovery during a run of the mill bust, Jorge Cervantes had stumbled into what could only have been described as something straight out of a horror movie. While investigating a warehouse for an escaped criminal, he found a house, perfectly built in the cavernous interior. And it was in that house he found the captured Lee Brooks, a young woman, pregnant, who had been missing for months. She had disappeared without a trace and her case had seemed pretty hopeless; until that day anyways.

Many more months had passed since that day and he always had wondered what happened to her. He had investigated her case, searched for this “Anton”, but in the end found absolutely nothing. It was as if the man simply vanished. Now though…the woman wanted answers.

He definitely could not blame her.

Driving up the diner in his Chevy Impala, Jorge pulled into a parking spot and proceeded to climb out. Dressed in his usual trench coat with the cheap gray suit underneath, the man sighed as he glanced at the diner. He hoped that she was still well and apparently she was. But this…he did not want this news to put a damper on the rest of her days. The man had disappeared, but that did not mean he could not come back. So long as there was no resolution to that matter, Jorge feared she would get little rest. He had seen in victims before. Whenever the perp survived or was not in jail…there was always that fear that they would be back. He prayed she would not feel like that.

But he, again, he definitely could not blame her.

Steeling up his courage, the detective walked into the diner and glanced about. So far he could not see her but as he turned to a grouping of booths, he spied the familiar face…with an unfamiliar stroller next to the table. Even the hardnosed detective had to crack a smile at the sight. He walked over and greeted her.

“Afternoon Ms. Brooks,” he said warmly and offered his hand to shake. “You’re looking extremely well.” His voice rang with honesty. She really did look a lot better than when he first met her. A glance down to the baby and his smile cracked a little wider. “And you, um, tiny…person. Nice to meet you as well.”

Lee wasn't in a huge rush, her normal walks often lasted upwards of an hour, or two. So she simply sat there, content, and ordered a coffee while she waited. Kevin was quiet, though he had woken up as she had maneuvered the stroller into the diner, so Lee was more than happy to just let him stay there.

Her coffee came, and yet there was still no detective joining her at the table.Lee shrugged to herself. Maybe she had just misjudged the time it would take her to get to the diner and had gotten there early. Taking a sip of her coffee, she waited. If Tarin was taking a nap while she was gone, she definitely did not want to get home too soon and wake him up. With the new born in the house, he needed to get his sleep, after all.

Finally, she heard a voice greeting her, and looked over to see Detective Cervantes standing beside the table with his hand extended to shake. Standing, Lee shook the detective's hand. "Thank you," she replied. "And thank you for meeting me." Then Lee smiled as he greeted her son. "His name's Kevin," Lee continued as she returned to her seat. "And hopefully he'll continue to be a good boy like this so we can talk.

"Did you want anything to drink? It's the least I can do for asking you to meet with me."

It was practically a happy ending to one of his strangest cases. The young mother he rescued, along with her now born son, it was enough to make a nice warm glow start inside his chest. Too many times he meets people on the worst day of their lives and in the process he never finds out what happens to them after. This time, though, was just a little different. He knew the outcome, and they were both apparently doing well. That could not make him any happier.

>> "Thank you…And thank you for meeting me…His name's Kevin…And hopefully he'll continue to be a good boy like this so we can talk…Did you want anything to drink? It's the least I can do for asking you to meet with me."

He smiled down at the child who seemed content to just be lying gently in his stroller. He nodded gave the baby a small wave.

“Excellent to meet you Kevin. Sleep well.” he chuckled.

He still did not know why he so awkward around children. It had nothing to do with him disliking them, it was simply that…they were so fragile. Jorge is a big, gruff, and to some people a scary man, but around children he was always overly cautious. He felt at times that he could scare or break them simply by staring for too long. Unfortunately that made him a bit jumpy around kids. He prayed that the second he sat with Lee that his very aura alone would not cause the child to have a breakdown.

“I will have a water, actually,” he nodded to Lee, “But please, it’s on me.” He smiled happily as he nodded to the child. “I won’t allow a new mommy to purchase her own drinks.”

He sighed as he slid into the booth across from Lee. So far so good, the child had not jumped up and screamed. Hopefully his good luck streak would continue. He sighed a bit relieved that the baby remained calm and turned his attention back to the child’s mother.

“Sorry,” he said apologetically. “Sometimes when I’m around babies they…get a little on edge. I think I make them nervous.” He shrugged. He cleared his throat as he glanced around the diner. “I take it that you, your husband and your child are doing well?”

He knew he should not beat around the bush concerning Anton. She was going to ask sooner or later but the scene was too perfect to ruin with paranoia. He prayed that when it was time to deliver that news that she could handle it fair enough.

Though the detective seemed happy enough to see her, and Kevin, he didn't seem to know exactly how to react to the baby.

He did, however, seem to know how to react to her, even going so far as to in one breath reject her offer of buying him a drink because he was planning on paying for hers. Well, fine then. That wasn't why she was there, anyway, and it wasn't worth fighting over.

Then Detective Cervantes apologized for not being good around babies, apparently he made them nervous. Glancing over, Lee saw that Kevin was still content laying in his stroller, and looking like he was about to fall asleep again, before turning back to the detective. "I think he's fine with you here," she told him with a small smile. "If anything, they probably pick up on your nervousness. I know I was extremely nervous to start with, and Kevin seemed to be much more fussy so much more of the time." She shrugged slightly before continuing. "Maybe it's because he's getting older, but it is possible that he was picking up on my nerves."

Lee smiled at the next question directed her way. "Yes, we are all doing well," Lee informed him. "Amazing, actually. Well, Tarin's rather tired since this guy doesn't want to sleep through the night yet, but otherwise we're doing very well."

That said, Lee picked up her coffee cup as the waitress came back around again. After waiting for the detective to order, Lee asked for a refill then waited for the waitress to walk off before turning back to Detective Cervantes. "Have you found anything out yet?" Lee asked, her voice low.

>> "I think he's fine with you here…If anything, they probably pick up on your nervousness. I know I was extremely nervous to start with, and Kevin seemed to be much more fussy so much more of the time…Maybe it's because he's getting older, but it is possible that he was picking up on my nerves…Yes, we are all doing well…Amazing, actually. Well, Tarin's rather tired since this guy doesn't want to sleep through the night yet, but otherwise we're doing very well."

It all sounded good, very good, and Jorge could not be happier to hear that. The family seemed to be thriving and they seemed as if they were all going to the usual family related things. It was good to hear, especially from someone who had gone through the trauma that Lee had. He had seen how people who’ve gone through things similar have had a hard time of putting the pieces back together. Sometimes it takes mothers, years, or is simply never happens. But apparently then had reason to pull through. A glance to the kid in the stroller proved to Jorge what must have been her motivation.

He could definitely understand that. He doubted there was anything he wouldn’t do for a child in need either. Sometimes that can be all the inspiration someone needs to pull themselves up out of the dark. He was glad that Lee found that.

The waitress came and as soon as she set down Ms. Brooks coffee, Jorge ordered himself just a regular water with ice and sat back as the woman disappeared in the back to get it. He could feel that shift in the air, that sensation that told him that he going to have to answer that difficult question that he was called here to answer to begin with…

>> "Have you found anything out yet?"

…He was right.

Jorge gently scratched an itchy spot of stubble on his throat as he turned to look at Lee closely. It was an honest question, one any such victim was sure to ask of the detective that saved them. It simply killed him that he did not have better news.

“I apologize, Mrs. Brooks, for not having better news but unfortunately no,” the detective announced. The waitress returned and set his water down gently. Jorge let it sit there until the waitress once more vanished to go and help other customers. Once she was gone he continued on. “The forensics team swept that entire house and, they found evidence and samples but nothing that can traced to anyone in any of our databases.” He sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Brooks. The case is not closed though, I am investigating it personally. I will find out where that psycho has gone.”

After she asked her question, the detective simply seemed to be looking at her. Staring at her. Examining her. Almost as if he were trying to decide how much he should tell her, how much he thought she could handle. But before she could tell the man to just spit it out, tell him that she could handle whatever it was, he finally opened his mouth.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any kind of news that Lee had been hoping for. And, even though they were interrupted by the waitress, Detective Cervantes went on to explain that while forensics had gotten a lot of stuff from the house he had found her in, they were no closer to actually finding him.

Taking a deep breath, Lee leaned back in her seat and just examined the detective for a few moments of her own. He seemed truly earnest when he said that he was personally investigating it and would find Anton.

Another deep breath, followed by a sip of her coffee, and Lee nodded. "I'm guessing by the apology that you're not anywhere closer to finding him than you were that day." Another nod; understanding. "Have any other women gone missing like I did?"

There, it was out. He told her that they could not find this Anton that kidnapped her so long ago. He killed him to do it, it really did. It was as if the man simply did not exist. They did find physical evidence of a man in that house but it did not match nothing in the databases. Unlike the TV shows, it is not always easy to find a criminal, even with a DNA sample. Not every criminal is preloaded into the national databases. Some people slip through the cracks and, in some cases, those people are practically invisible to people like the police. It was an unfortunately true fact.

Lee looked a little disgruntled with the idea. It must have not been good to hear. To escape all that only to know that the man who did it was still running free somewhere, that must have been a blow.

>> "I'm guessing by the apology that you're not anywhere closer to finding him than you were that day…Have any other women gone missing like I did?"

Jorge shook her head at her statement. It was true, they were no closer to finding the freak that did this. They check hardware stores for receipts (that house had to get supplies from somewhere), investigated the area over and over again, even posted a guard at the warehouse it was situated at but no soap. Either one of two things happened, the guy got wise that he was going to be caught soon and just abandoned the Lee there, or he’s in prison for some other reason. Or, more optimistically, he had died from some other cause.

That was bad, he shouldn’t have thought of that. Well...

He sighed as he again shook his head to Lee.

“We’ve been checking,” Jorge responded. “New York is a big place and, as unfortunate as it is, people disappear in this city. We can’t find them all, but we seek out as many as possible.” He took a breath before he continued. “But…I can say that no other women matching your experience exactly have shown up missing. Either the freak is, taking a break or he’s moved on from the city,” he shrugged, getting really tired of doing that. “That’s our best guess for now, but we’re still looking.”

The detective simply shook his head at her questions. He really did look upset about the answers he was giving her. Or the lack thereof. He seemed to want to give her better answers, just had nothing to give her.

Lee had thought from the hospital that this was cop was a good man. This just proved it further.

At least there didn't seem to be anyone else who had gone missing. "At least that's one good bit of news," Lee said. "Hopefully no one else ever has to go through that. And please, call me Lee. Mrs Brooks makes me sound much older than I feel."

Even as she said it, Lee knew that it was too much to hope for, there were a lot of bad and evil people out there in the world, but hopefully no one else would have to go through what Anton did to her.

"Thank you very much, Detective Cervantes," Lee said. "Thank you for telling me, and thank you for still looking for him. You're proof that there's at least one good cop on the force."

>> "At least that's one good bit of news…Hopefully no one else ever has to go through that. And please, call me Lee. Mrs Brooks makes me sound much older than I feel."

Jorge smirked a little and nodded his head.

“Lee, of course.” he said, referring to the fact that he would call her by her first name from now on.

At least she was not panicking to getting angry at him for not doing his job. Sometimes police officers just become the blame-all for people with problems. Even if he was not assigned to a case, the victims would still blame him for not keeping the man behind bars or allowing him to disappear. It was horrible to think that he could not help these people but the city was big. A lot of people have problems and a lot of people are victims. As much as he wanted to, he could not save them all.

>> "Thank you very much, Detective Cervantes…Thank you for telling me, and thank you for still looking for him. You're proof that there's at least one good cop on the force."

“Thank you,” he said earnestly. “Sometimes hearing that just once makes the job worth it.”

It was true. Sometimes after all the crap, all the bad times, all the accusations that he was not doing his job, a police officer like him would like to call it quits. But they can’t. There is always something in the back of their brain telling them that they have to keep going, that they have to go in just one more day. It is their fundamental need to protect and serve the public. And many times it is not appreciated or it is thankless. Too many cops let that get to them.

But in moments like this, where an officer like Jorge knew that his actions actually helped someone and they appreciated it wholeheartedly, it helped keep him going. He would take a thousand people calling him a traitor, a pig, an enforcer, what have you, but if just one person was truly helped…that is all the detective needed.

A crooked smile came across his features as he nodded to Lee.

“Again, thank you.” he said with a small sigh. “We’ll find him, one way or another. In the mean time,” he smiled as he peeked over the edge of the table to the extremely calm child. “You have a beautiful baby. And you sound like you have a wonderful home. It makes me glad you were found in time to enjoy that. You deserve it.”

At least the detective decided that he would call her Lee from then on. Not that she was extremely opposed to being called ‘Mrs Brooks’, in fact in a way it helped remind her how lucky she was to have been able to marry Tarin. But hearing it over and over as she talked to someone did get a little old.

But then Detective Cervantes thanked her for thanking him, and she was a little confused until he explained further. Lee smiled. Not just a good cop, but a good man. That seemed fairly rare in this city.

“I sure hope that you can find him,” Lee replied; her voice wasn’t worried, or frightened, she was simply stating a fact. “To be honest, it was far from the worst thing that could have happened, but I still don’t want anyone else to have to go through that.”

Then the detective seemed to think it was a good idea to change the subject by commenting on her son. “Thank you,” Lee replied, her smile turning slightly shy. Compliments were still sometimes harder for her to take than they should be. “First Tarin, and now him, they’re everything I always wanted and never thought I would be able to have. Though,” she continued, starting to joke around a bit. “If I deserve something amazingly good like this for every bad thing that’s happened to me, I deserve so much more than this.”

>> “I sure hope that you can find him…To be honest, it was far from the worst thing that could have happened, but I still don’t want anyone else to have to go through that.”

He had to admit that that was true. Things could have definitely gone an extremely bad route if this Anton had been a different sort of psychopath. Kidnapping a pregnant woman and holding her against her will in a house built in the middle of a warehouse was definitely not the best scenario, but it was not the worst. Jorge had seen some of the worst that humankind can offer, the types of things that can give a man nightmares. Lee’s experience was not the worst…

…but that didn’t mean it was not scary or life altering either.

“I understand, nobody should have to go through something like that. That’s why we’re going to find him.” he said resolutely. The man could be a bulldog when he was on a case. He hoped that type of skill would lead him to some break.

Then, as the conversation switched to her child, her life, she seemed to just get slightly shyer…

>> “Thank you…First Tarin, and now him, they’re everything I always wanted and never thought I would be able to have. Though…If I deserve something amazingly good like this for every bad thing that’s happened to me, I deserve so much more than this.”

Jorge smirked a bit and nodded his head as he took a sip of water. “Difficult life, I take it,” he said more rhetorically than anything. He obviously did not want to pry, but the man knew a thing or two about a hard life. Maybe not as hard as she might have had it, but he could still respect the notion of it. Especially with the combination of what he has seen and experienced himself. He raised his glass to her in honor and bowed his head slightly. “Well, if you deserve more, then you’re definitely have an excellent start.”

Detective Cervantes seemed sure that they were going to find Anton. Even though it had been over 6 months since she had been found in the house and they were no closer to finding him.

But Detective Cervantes was so sure that they were going to find him. So even though Lee had her worries and doubt about Anton ever being caught, what the man across from her was saying did make her feel better. "Just be careful when you do find him," Lee said, wanting to remind him. "He's an adapted, powers don't work around him."

His comment about her having a difficult life didn't even come close to the mark. But if he was a mutant, like Tarin had told her he was, he had to have some idea, since life never seemed very easy for mutants.

"I just hope things keep going like this. I'm rather enjoying having a nice, quiet, normal life."

>> "Just be careful when you do find him…He's an adapted, powers don't work around him."

Jorge nodded. In a way he was very touched that the woman seemed to care so much. Most people just send cops on their way offer them a “thanks” and that’s it. There were the rare few that offered them a nice prayer to go along with their day, but Lee was caring. She really did seem like she wanted him to be careful, especially when she reminded him that the man was an adapted, a term that he was recently adding to his vocabulary.

“Yeah,” he muttered as he took another sip of his water. “I’ve…had some experiences with adapteds. At least I won’t be caught off guard.”

Thanks to an incident several months ago, he learned that adapteds were people who could turn off or weaken the mutant powers of others. It was a strange concept, especially when he realized that that is what Gemma, his long time girlfriend, always did around him. But knowing that this man, Anton, was one as well was especially interesting. It would make it that much harder to find and stop him. But, be that as it may, Jorge was a cop first and a mutant second. He trusted his skills and the talented people at the precinct. They would find him or at least discover what happened to him. He was sure of it.

>> "I just hope things keep going like this. I'm rather enjoying having a nice, quiet, normal life."

Jorge chuckled at the comment. Mainly because it was something he said to himself most of the time. It is the type of thing that all people want to have, just a quiet everyday life with nothing to stir the waves. Jorge lost that when he was 15 years old and then chose the life of a police officer. Now he works exclusively with mutant related problems.

Yeah, his life is a far cry from normal.

“I think we all deserve to have some normalcy in our lives,” the detective nodded sagely. “You appear to have yours and I hope it last longer than you can imagine. I see too much craziness in the world already. Will be good to have a period of rest every once and a while.”

He sincerely hoped that Lee’s life would continue to be peaceful and calm, that way at least he knew someone he helped could have that chance.

And after that incident, Lee no longer felt the draw to adapteds that she had felt with Jacen; the temptation to shut off her siphoning so she could be normal was gone. She now knew what happened to her when her siphoning was shut off for too long, how she felt after days, weeks, months of no siphoning. And she had come home to a husband who loved her, who didn’t care how much energy she siphoned from him. That was her new normal, and she was happy with that.

But when the detective went on to say everyone deserved some normalcy, Lee couldn’t stop the smile that came to her lips. “Tarin’s been telling me that almost from the day we met,” Lee explained her smile. “But that we have to create our own sense of normalcy. This,” she waved her hand around the diner, “Is part of that. He’s at home right now, supposed to be napping, because the little one had us up five times last night.”

Glancing over into the stroller as she took another sip of her coffee, Lee saw that Kevin had fallen asleep. As she set her mug back down on the table, the smile faltered slightly, though her eyes remained locked on Kevin’s face. “I know it’s not going to last, something is going to happen, but I’m loving every minute of it.”