."Water, please" came the reply. Good-she'd calmed down, considering the circumstances he was surprised, but didn't show it. He didn't blame her for flinching away, considering he'd used the whole hog on her. He walked to his kitchen annex, picking out a clear glass, not expensive but certainly well kept. He promptly filled it from the cold tap, turning round he saw she'd moved to the sofa.

She turned to him from the TV-unsurprising that an Australian wouldn't know that much about the situation in NYC at the moment. First she apologised, and then her question "Why help me"....why indeed, he had three siblings, and his younger sister was around her age. To think of her in that situation, alone and lost...a mutant as well...it was unbearable. However his response didn't reflect that.

"No need to apologise, I was the one who used one of the most powerful attacks my power can do and then brought you to my home" Then answering her question. "Sometimes , we have to look out for people, even if they don't want our help" he paused..."Sorry that sounded very corny didn't it? I figured the safest place for you was with me, rather than on the streets. Finding Xavier's alone is difficult for most mutants. Goodness knows what would be done to an unconscious teenage girl...though I was mostly responsible for that" He looked down ,ashamed. He then continued in a kindly, genuine fashion.

"You can stay here for as long as you like, have hot shower-the room you have has an en-suite, and meals. Then I can put you in contact with Xavier's school as soon as I can. What do you say to that?"

As soon as the glass was placed within her grasp Rachael had all but gulped it down. She'd needed that, she could already feel the dry tingling leave her mouth and much of the remaining fog clear from her head. "More?" She asked the detective, extending the glass in his direction. 

She wasn't sure why but she trusted the man, not entirely of course, but enough to believe that he meant her no more harm. From what she could gather his intentions were in the right place but it seemed as though he was willing to go to extremes in order to see them come to fruition. Of course he could just be an exceptional liar, but Rachael was willing to trust him for now.

"You're right it was a little corny," She replied, a small smile on her face. "But I do understand what you're trying to say, even if I don't entirely agree with it. In some cases you need to know when to step back, you can't help everyone." It felt strange to be offering the man opposite her advice, especially after what he had done to her. It was already past midnight though, the last thing she wanted right now was to be wandering around the city for a place to rest. Especially not if the offer to stay her include the access to hot water, it had been a long time since she last had a hot shower.

"I'll stay the night," She finally muttered. "I don't like the idea of wandering around the city so late, usually by now I'd have found someplace to rest for the night. Then we can talk about this place, when my head isn't quite as fuzzy." Also her usual resting grounds didn't have televisions either she silently noted, her gaze quickly returned to the entertainment box. Ew, Financials. Even before she'd become a mutant financial segments could bore her to tears but now, given she had absolutely no money, they were absolutely torturous. "Also you don't have to worry about meals, I... have a very strict diet."

She gulped it down. She wanted more...gosh this girl was thirsty for water, even for someone who had endured such a painful attack. "Sure" he walked to the sink again, poured another glass and returned it to her. His guess is that would go down quickly as well...

"Of course there are some people you can't help-I'm a cop, I've had that situation before. In your case however, I can and will help you, despite the fact you didn't want it". Typical teenager, old beyond her years-then again she sounded just like his sister, lecturing people on subjects that the person in question knew more about.

She was staying the night, he smiled at this "I'll get your bed properly prepared then, sorry that it wasn't sorted before...I did kinda have my hands full" He smiled still more at his own bad joke. "By the way, you can change the channel if you want-I don't much like the financials. It's all voodoo anyway."

Her final sentence confused him-no meals? Most mutants he knew had to keep eating to keep up with their mutations. "No meals? Not meaning to pry but...Is that anything to do with your mutation?" he spoke curiously, not sure what to expect. He then looked at the time again. 2am. "Also looking at the time, I think it's best we both get some rest. Once I've made your bed, my room is opposite yours if you need anything." He then walked into her room and started sorting the bedclothes.

Rachael smiled gratefully as she took the glass from the detective and had a small sip, a content sigh escaped her lips as she put the glass down. Rachael's self control had even surprised herself, though the fact her mouth no longer tasted like the Sahara was the likely cause. "It's fine," She replied in response to his prying. "Aside from water I can't eat or drink anything else. Well nothing that I've found anyway. Everything else just makes me ill, so I've kind of given up trying." It was obvious this aspect of her mutation was an unwanted one, perhaps even more so than the green skin. Rachael in the past was by no mean gluttonous, but who doesn't love some cake or ice-cream now and again?

After another quick drink Rachael grabbed the television remote and switched it off, she still felt somewhat nauseous from the earlier incident so perhaps some rest would do her good. Slowly she stood from where she'd been sitting and finished off the rest of her drink. "Thank you for this," She finally managed to stay, "It'll be nice to spend a night indoors for a change."  

So she didn't need to eat? Seemed like that was a plant mutation, given her green skin, his basic knowledge of biology implied that it was. Still, it was none of his business.
"Not a problem, and as I said before you can stay here for as long as you like. Just as an aside, I don't think you've ever told me your name?"

Spasm made the bed quickly and efficiently. "The bed's ready for you now". He then went to his kitchen, poured himself a glass of water, and went to his room. He changed into his sleepwear, knelt down and began to pray in his nightly routine. First came thanksgiving, repentance, prayers for the girl and his colleagues, finally himself. "I ask for all of this in Jesus' name. Amen." He then settled down in his bed, and went to sleep.

Rachael knew the question would come eventually, the detective couldn't just keep calling her 'you' or 'girl' after all. "Rachael," She admitted with little hesitation. She didn't bother with her surname, didn't see the point. None of her family resided within America, in fact the closest member of her family was literally thousands of kilometres away. Ah, she did it again. If she was going to live in this country she'd need to adopt imperial units. Either way, still thousands of miles away.

Still dressed in her tattered old clothes Rachael removed her jacket and placed it in the nearby cupboard. She could hear the silence of the apartment, no television, no footsteps and now quiet whispers from the next room. The detective was asleep. If she wanted to she could probably just walk out the front door right now, only ten minutes ago that was all she could think of doing. She decided against that for now, the detective seemed reasonable enough. She took off her shoes and climbed into the bed. She hadn't noticed before but the mattress was so soft, so comfortable. Rachael fell asleep in no time.

Spasm woke to the sound of his alarm. 6am. The events of last night had been interesting to say the least. His room was less bare than most of the rest of the house, a wardrobe, cupboard , a couple of tasteful landscapes adorning the walls, he liked to be visually stimulated in his room. He showered in his en suite, refreshing on a reasonably warm day like today was,and quickly moved to his wardrobe. He was soon dressed in his work plain clothes. "No rest for the wicked" he muttered to himself.

He swung his door open, moved to the Kitchen, deciding not to have a cooked breakfast this morning, instead opting for cereal. Just standard stuff-not much sugar but the fiber would do him good. He wolfed this down, and turned on the news. More protests. More difficulties. He would have to get down to the precinct soon. First though, he would need to check on his guest.

He opened the door to Rachel's room. Carefully covering his eyes with his hand just in case he caught her in a compromising position. Had he heard the shower going when he was having breakfast? "Are you decent?" he called to the room, tentatively taking a step into her room.

A rather light sleeper the sound of movement from in the apartment stirred Rachael from her sleep, the detective must have woken up. With a groan Rachael sat up in the bed and looked over at the clock, 6:15 am. A little later than she usually woke, though when you usually sleep outside the mixture of car horns and morning sun make it difficult to sleep in. Seemed she had the wrong first impression of the the detective, while it was hard not to compare his actions to kidnapping Rachael didn't mind the end result. Especially since it involved a hot shower.

Excitedly Rachael bounded from the bed and entered the en-suite, never in her life had she expected to be so moved by the sight of a simple shower. Quickly she stripped out of her clothes and threw them to the side before adjusting the temperature. Once she'd finally found the perfect temperature Rachael stepped under the stream and sighed in relief. Bliss, pure bliss. Looking back Rachael wasn't sure how long she simply stood under the relaxing stream of hot water, however she did know that she enjoyed every minute of it.

Once her shower was over and she'd sufficiently dried herself down Rachael returned to her discarded clothes. She'd just about finished dressing when the detective's voice reached her, "Just about." She called back. Once she was finally dressed Rachael stepped out of the en-suite, her skin almost seemed a more vibrant green. Once she caught sight of the detective she couldn't help but chuckle slightly, "You can uncover your eyes now." 

Linely slowly lifted his hand from his face. Rachel was standing there with a look of teenage amusement on her face.  She was even more green than before. Yep, definitely a plant mutation , the water would have done her the world of good. She was probably feeling more comfortable than she had  felt in a while.

"Now, I'm going to have to go to the precinct for my next assignment, I've been looking for someone to help with the paperwork-it's a menial job, but it will earn you some money. I work with the Mutant Related Crimes division, so don't worry, there are people that look far more unsusual than you do." He remembered working with one Caleb Swartz, part man, part cat on a case a few months ago. Now HE was a visible mutant. "I'm hoping to contact Xavier's school this afternoon.."  Unfortunately Xavier's could be difficult to contact without knowing one of the X-Men. He was sure one of the people at the precinct would know though.  With this he pulled out his wallet, and produced $60 from it.

"This is so you can get some clothing, I daresay you probably haven't had the chance to change since you arrived in the USA. It might also help with the "homeless child" thing you've got going here. As I said before, you can stay as long as you want to. I own this flat so you don't have to worry about rent." He waited on her response, he DID need to go soon, but it was best that she didn't feel rushed, and the sooner she could get back on her feet, the better.

Rachael stared at the $60 dollars provided to her in surprise, she'd already been offered a place to stay and though she didn't need it food to eat. To be given money on top of that to buy fresh clothes had Rachael at a loss for words, everything she originally thought about the detective seemed foolish now. "I... I don't know what to say," Was her immediate reply."Apart from thank you I'm lost for words."

Though she couldn't find words to thank the detective Rachael's mind was racing, thoughts on how best to use the $60 buzzed frantically in her mind. Obviously she should go for quantity over quality in this case, a variety of cheap outfits would serve her better than a single more expensive one. She'd be back in square one if that were the case.

There was another thing that the detective mentioned that caught Rachael's attention, something about organising and sorting out paperwork. Was her offering her a job, even if it was just for a day. "Were you asking if I wanted to help you?" She asked to be sure. A little earlier and Rachael may have suspected this was a ploy just to get her to the precinct with no fuss but now, after all he had done for her it was getting difficult to doubt his sincerity. "I'd be glad to help out, though I don't have much experience."

Her thanks came very quickly. Linely smiled "It's really not a problem, I have more than enough to provide for myself" . The teenager looked like one of those old cartoons when the characters got dollar signs in her eyes. He waited for her to recover, then came her next question.

"Yes, and don't worry about experience-it's not going to be that task-heavy. Oh, just in case that anyone might think you're waiting to be processed, try to stick around me. If the worst comes to the worst say that you're with PD Linely, no-one will look twice, a 15 year old mutant intern in the MRC is not uncommon. It'll mostly be filing, which anyone can do, but it's better to have the officers out in the protests than having to deal with admin. We also have to sort out getting you into formal education-helping out with me will give some breathing space. "

The police were stretched really thin, and any help he could get would be taken. The rogue METAs hadn't helped either. He could teach her self defence as well, many experienced officers would be more than happy to help her learn to shoot. This would be for their mutual benefit. He smiled again, and turned to leave Rachel's room.

"Shall we head off then? By the way, I think I know the answer to this, but how is your combat training? I mean, we haven't had an attack on the precinct for a while but it does happen from time to time."

Rachael could have thanked the Detective until the cows came home, such was the extent of her gratitude. However she was able to eventually calm her excitement and stow the cash into her pockets, there was something more important to focus on. Detective Linely had actually offered her a job! Sure it was likely to be menial paperwork but at this stage Rachael couldn't care less, this was about the best thing to have happened to her in months. "I'll do it," She practically blurted out. She didn't like the idea of being so close to other police officers but without much choice it was an easy decision. "Filing and paperwork sounds easy enough."

There was also the off hand comment about formal education that made Rachael pause, how long had it been now since she attended school? Far too long was the obvious answer but the exact date escaped her. How far behind was she? How different was the education system here in the US? So many concerns danced in Rachael's head about the prospect of going to school again.

"Lets go." At the mention of combat training Rachael suddenly found the floor exceedingly interesting, thoughts of her attempted escape in the park yesterday surfaced in her mind. "Not good." Was her initial reply. "I mean, non existent. I think I did a year of karate when I was like six, didn't like it very much."

Rachel quickly accepted his offer, at which Linely smiled, mildly grateful that he had more people to help with the protests. Her second response was not surprising at all, that little push had been an act of desperation, rather than performed with any skill. She looked rather embarassed , staring at the floor. " No need to look so embarrassed Rachel, I'll happily teach you some hand to hand combat-though to learn to shoot you'll have to speak to someone else." He responded in a kindly matter-of-fact kind of way.

"Now, follow me. I'm afraid we're walking." With her following, he walked through his lounge, unlocked his apartment floor, and entered the Foyer. The sun was blazing out through the large glass windows. The place was deserted. He descended the stairs without difficulty, daily routine had taught him not to be concerned with the slight creakiness of the 4th stair.

Ground floor. Shaded , sun was still coming out of those areas not blocked by the vegetation from a nearby green space. Hopefully , they could manage to get to the precinct without incident. Hopefully. A couple of guys had followed him home once...that would be a good start for the new intern.

"Do keep an eye out here Rachel...it's not exactly a rough neighborhood, but occasionally a local gang tries it on with me." He told her sternly. "Don't worry, I'm more than capable of defending us both if that happens, think of it as an impromptu first lesson" he smiled at his own humor.

Despite the detective's reassurance Rachael still seemed somewhat embarrassed, Spasm had his work cut out for him if he believed he could teach her how to fight. However she looked forward to the training at least, it would likely be an enjoyable activity. As such she eagerly followed the detective as he left the apartment and began to descend the stairs to the ground floor, each time the passed a window Rachael could feel the warm sun as beaming brightly. It felt wonderful.

"Do you not have a car?" Rachael asked as they reached the ground floor and continued on their way to the precinct. She didn't mind the walk, each time they stepped out from the shade the warm sunshine felt great against her skin but she was still curious. Was it common for people in large cities to just walk everywhere?

Despite his reassurance it was obvious his warning had a negative effect on Rachael as she suddenly stiffened and appeared much more alert, her eyes darted across the road and down every alley and side street they passed. A barely noticeable gulp every time they passed a group of three or four guys. "Define occasionally," Rachael eventually managed as she looked down a shady alleyway.

"Oh I have a car-parked at the precinct of course. But this is New York. We walk everywhere in New York." Rachel clearly hadn't been in a big city before-well this would be a learning curve. At least she'd enjoy the sun.

His assurance clearly hadn't been enough to alleviate her nerves, and she was being somewhat more guarded towards the dark alleys and the people they passed on the street. "Oh-you know, once, maybe twice....a month, I normally have to remind them that I'm a mutant." He smiled at this pun-that was quite a good one.

A few shady looking characters were hanging round the next alley-the precinct was visible, but that's where they always waited. In the alleys. One of them was playing with a knife. Two of them were visible, but Linely knew that there would be more.

Linely stopped walking. "I'm afraid they are going to try it on this time-the precinct is the building up ahead-across the road." It was actually quite a pleasing building, architecturally speaking that is. "You can either dash for the precinct or help me with this, you know what my power is like-my guess is four basic goons, one with a knife. I can defeat these easily on my own."

His talking had attracted their attention. Four guys. Biker Gang. The "knife" was longer than he had expected, didn't look like he knew how to use it though. The others were unarmed, and they looked more flabby than strong. "Are you guys really going to do this?" Linely drew his baton. "I shall be forced to arrest you if that's the case".

"That's a pretty girl you have with you there-new intern?" the man with the machete said, clear New Yorker accent-and a tone that gave away his intentions at once.
"With respect, my business is private." Linely reached out into the speaker's nervous system, hmm, there was that rather nasty pain in the bloke's spine. That would be enough to deal with him.

"Well Rachel-lesson number one it seems." Linely joked, as he prepared to defend himself.