”You said there was a witness...” the icemancer held the bridge of his nose trying to keep his cool. He let out an audible sigh. ”How long have you been at this?” Sam asked trying very much to not start yelling. He happened to be passing through, he was told this was an easy one. It was starting to be clear it wasn’t.

The witness’s tail wagged and cocked his head to the side. Immediately his scowl faded and he crouched. ”No, it’s not your fault the officers don’t know how to do their job. No, it isn’t. No it isn’t.” he reached over and had a hand out so the dog could approach. Sam thought the dog deserved a good scratching.

The golden retriever got low and approached slowly tail wagging nervously. ”No, I’m not mad at you. Come on,” the younger dog brushed it’s head into Sam’s hand and he let out another loud sigh, ”There we go. Did you see your owner get kidnapped? Yes you did! Broad daylight too. Meaning the kidnappers have been planning this for a while. Yes they have!” the dog let out a little ‘whine’. ”I knoooow you miss her! Did the officers check for any security cameras of the building? It was right out front her residence right?”

The dog looked up to the officers and almost squinted. This witness was perfect. Unfortunately for Sam he had no means of communicating with the best boi. “Not yet!” one of the newer officers chimed in enthusiastically. ”They must not want to find her! Don’t worry!” Sam said holding the dogs face in both of his hands. ”Sam’s on the case. Yes he is!”

His lone eye met the two officers, ”Well.... go check. I got to make a call. Might have a specialist for this one.” he sighed and called Sundance. ”Only take a minute my @$$” he huffed as he continued to scratch the Golden boi.

Elizabeth sat doing something she didn’t enjoy: grading papers. It got very monotonous and she usually tried to put it off as long as possible. She loved coming up with the assignments, of course, and teaching them and explaining them to the students was very rewarding, as was that fierce pride when students got the answers right. She just hated going through dozens of copies of a single test or paper or homework assignment where all the answers were supposed to be the same or whatever.

Liz placed the last test in its designated folder and slid it into a box. There, two days worth of grading done. Just...one more day left? And the periodic table quiz. And the biochem research papers.

“Kill me now…” she groaned, slumping forward at her desk and grabbing tufts of her hair with her hands. “Who couldn’t I just do scanner tests!” She must have had a death wish or something.

Then her phone rang. She immediately paused the opera she’d been listening to and checked the ID, grateful for the distraction. It was Sam, so she probably didn’t need to ignore the call. She answered the phone, “Hi Sam. Please tell me you’re fighting a clay cthulhu or running from mercenaries again. Please!” she begged. ”I need a distraction from grading papers so bad!”

”Sundance!” Sam said when she finally picked up. It was only the second ring. Usually he had to leave a message or call someone else to get through to who he needed to. Was she sitting by the phone waiting for someone to call? ”It’s Sam.” she knew that. So why was he responding like he was talking to an answering machine? Because the ‘star’ witness was trying to hump him. ”Off.” he commanded. The dog obliged.

”I don’t run from mercenaries. Not when I'm alone.” was she trying to make a joke? ”No, thankfully no clay Cuthulu’s here. Haven’t seen one of those for a few years.” he said shaking his head as one of the officers returned to wave him into the building. Sam offered the leash of the ‘Witness’ to him. The dog whined loudly.

”Why don’t you just use the scantrons?” he asked into the phone? Maybe he should ask Eve to help her grade papers? No she probably liked grading papers on her own. Liz was weird like that. ”Got one better. Got a star ‘witness’ I can’t talk with. He witnessed his mom get kidnapped.” the dog looked up at him tail wagging. He knew when someone was talking about him. ”Yes he did!” Sam finished talking in his ‘dog’ voice.

”I’ll send an officer to pick you up.” he said pointing at one of the officers and thumbed him to the cruiser. ”Officer... Tweddle dee will be there in twenty. Not sure how long this will take though.” he shrugged turning to ‘dumb’ ”What do you mean you don’t know where the security offices is?” and hung up.

Sam let out a sigh, ”You know where the mansion is?” the officer nodded and then pointed in the right direction. ”Good, Sundance will meet you there. Then you two come straight back here. No detours got it?” the officer in question was already thinking about a coffee run.

”You, let’s go find those security tapes.”

Elizabeth cut back a combination of a scream and a sigh. “I keep asking students to write short answers, is why!” she complained, forcing herself to not clunk her head against the desk. If Sam was also getting onto her about scanned papers, she knew she’d seriously overlooked stuff. Note to self: adjust next week’s homework plans to multiple choice options only.

“That’s horrible!” Liz said as Sam explained why he called. A kid watching their mom get kidnapped? “But what do you need me--” He kept going and Liz zipped her lips so she wouldn’t be competing with Sam for the line. But why was he calling her? He did okay with kids. Was it his dad jokes? Surely they weren’t so bad a kid was refusing to speak with him!

The call ended quickly and Liz pulled her phone away and stared at it. “What?” she asked the empty room. “What’s going--does he expect me to--what?” Liz frowned. A kidnapping that needed her? Why her? Why not Gemma, the actual counselor? Had Sam forgotten that Liz could only affect animals, not people?

Liz went to her phone log and held a finger over the call button to find out what Sam actually had in mind when her eyes caught the mound of papers still to be graded. “On second thought…”

About an hour later, the cop car pulled up to the scene of the crime, a confused and annoyed empath in the back seat. Confused because she didn’t really know why she was there, annoyed because the cop had gotten lost twice on the way back from the mansion despite having just driven that same route and he’d kept ignoring her directions. Itt almost would’ve been better to stay back and grade papers!

The cop finally let her out of the car and Liz immediately made her way to Sam and his adorable friend. “Alrighty, I’m here,” she said by way of greeting, looking around for the kid. If his jokes had already messed the kid up enough that they wouldn’t talk to Sam, what would being stuck with the man for an hour do to the kid? “Where’s the witness?” She immediately stuck a hand out to the dog and treated it with a blinding smile, immediately layering feelings of happiness and friendliness toward him. He wagged his tail harder and started lickiing her hand.

She was late. They both were. Did they stop some where? After going over the video surveillance which only took him a minute to find he decided there wasn’t enough for any decent descriptions of the suspects involved in the kidnapping. Just a partial of a partial plate. At least he had the make and model of the vehicle but a windowless delivery van didn’t really narrow things down.

The dog the entire time kept pawing Sam till he broke down and patted the dog. Every time. ”You’re worse than Bruno.” he said slighting his dog. Both seemed to live off attention more than anything else. Sam looked up to thing one (the officer that stayed) and asked, ”Did you get anything back yet on the plate?” he asked curiously knowing there wouldn’t be much information. “Nope! But they said they will put out an APB!” Sam rolled his one eye back to the dog. ”Come on, let’s introduce you to Liz.” “Can’t wait to meet her!” ”I was talking to the dog.”

”Bout time!” he said thumbing to his rookie, ”Should of sent him.” he sighed loudly holding onto the leash. ”Couldn’t get a full license plate but we got the direction, make and model. That’s not enough though.” he offered the leash to Liz.

”This is Simon. His mom was kidnapped.” the dog looked up to Liz and wagged his tail enthusiastically. ”Hoping your area of expertise might help.” Sam said looking back to the officers. ”Thing one and thing two were the ones that came up with the idea.” he sighed again, ”Went through the same training as them. Usually police work doesn’t involve hoping a mutant has all the answers.” he scolded the two. ”One of you two go get me a coffee. Liz?” he asked if she wanted anything.

”I know you don’t talk to them. Hoping you can give us a little more to go on before I have to track down every delivery van. It’s a big city. We don’t even have her name or a M.O.”

Liz accepted the leash with a wry grin. “Sorry, we uh, took a few wrong turns.” And completely ignored my suggestions, too. And the GPS. And that pigeon I’d found, although that one is understandable at least. She crouched down to get on Simon’s level and briskly began petting his head and rubbing him. “Hello there, Simon! My name is Liz. Don’t you worry, everything is going to be okay.”

Elizabeth’s smile could’ve lit up an entire theater, but more important than her words and expression were the feelings she was broadcasting at the same time. Comfort, peace, happiness, along with a mental reverb of her words and an impression of safety. Simon began to respond in kind and Liz could feel the emotions reflecting back at her. Good.

“I’ll take a water,” she said offhandedly, breaking from her momentary reverie. “And some water for Simon...Diamond.” Liz blinked at the dog. “Hello again, Simon Diamond,” she said as the name flowed into her head. It seemed Simon was frequently called by his full name. Well that was helpful.

“Diamond? Like Tiffany Diamond?” the remaining officer said.

Another thought flashed across Simon’s mind, triggered by those words. “Actually yeah,” Liz said. The blonde shut her eyes and sank her fingers deeper in the retriever’s fur. “His owner. Tall, great fashion choices, striking looks…” Liz rattled off. She opened her eyes and frowned at Sam, the woman’s face looming large in Simon’s mind. “Why does that name ring a bell? I feel like I’ve seen her face before but I can’t quite place it.” Simon wasn’t very helpful in that regard. With the talk about his owner, all of his thoughts were focusing on her and so strongly tied to Tiffany were the feelings that Liz was broadcasting that Liz didn’t think she was going to be able to get anything more useful from a surface scan.

“Alright, I’m going to have to go deeper, to get anything like car details or whatnot,” she announced, standing up and leading the very good boy over to the house. “Either of you know Morse code by any chance? Might make this easier.” She’d be able to understand them just fine, but in Liz’s experience, few people ever understood animals.

Liz found a space against a wall and sat down with her back to it, angled slightly back so her head would naturally be kept upright. Simon came over to lick her face and in that moment, she slipped her mind into his. Now time to witness the incident.

”That’s fine. I’m hourly anyways.” he lied rolling his eye from Liz to any vehicle passing in the street. Sam had all the time in the world apparently. Because saving whoever was the owner wasn’t that important to the two officers at least given their ‘I don’t know’ attitude. Sam had half a mind to just leave and have Liz deal with everything.... could he do that?

His thoughts jumped back to the conversation after the name ‘Diamond’ was mentioned. ”Whut?” the officer taking the order nodded his head writing everything down apparently the list was too complicated. ”Diamond!?! Like... theee Tiffany Diamond?” Sam walked over to the first officer he talked to the one not taking the order and lifted him by his shirt. ”Theeeee Tiffany Diamond!?!? International super star? Ms. Mutant Universe!?!? The most famous cataloged Angel ever? MS. JANUARY!?!?” Sam asked in shock yelling now.

The other officer took a step back as his partner was lifted off the ground and hopped into the car and drove away. The officer he was yelling at nodded his head still in shock. “We thought you knew?!?”[/color] the officer started to panic cry and fight to get his shirt free. Sam’s face turned red and then he let go forgetting to breathe. ”These guys are sick.... why kidnap an angel like her!?!?” he looked around suddenly remembering the area. Someone tried kidnapping her before. That was years ago though.

”If anything happens to her I’m gonna make sure neither of you do anything except for traffic for the rest of time.” Sam scowled as Liz and the dog did their thing.

The golden retriever stopped wagging its tail and turned to stare. They would’ve arched their eyebrow but that wasn’t really a thing a dog could, so instead they just tilted their head up enough to look down on Sam in amused judgement. Well, that at least answered the possessor’s question of who Tiffany Diamond was. She’d likely seen a pinup of her in Sam’s office or something. Liz made a mental note to possibly bring it up if she needed to embarrass Sam in front of Cora one day.

But pranks later. Right now she had a job, even if she was actually avoiding her real job by doing this.

Focus Liz. The mutant sank deeper into Simon’s mind, beginning with his most recent memories.

A cacophony of thoughts and feelings launched themselves at her and within seconds she was entrenched in a hurricane of vignettes. Tiffany throwing a stick, the warm feeling when she yelled his name, but not in the angry way but in the love way. Her smile. The herbal smells emanating from her, the sweat from physical activity, the tea and fruit she’d had for breakfast and the egg sandwich for lunch. Her hands scratching behind his ears and hitting that perfect spot that made him feel amazing.

Liz could feel Simon’s mind branching out from there, trying to associate related memories and sensations with the ones she was recalling but she tried to block them out. She focused on just today’s memories, walking backward along memory lane until she got to the event, just mere hours beforehand.

Tiffany had been playing fetch with him and Simon had been such a good boy, constantly helping her find the stick she kept losing all over the yard. And every time he brought it back she lost it again! The silly human! This is why humans needed good boys like him.

But then the van had driven by. The fumes of fuels burned strongly in his nose. A man human had come out and approached his human. She’d told Simon to be quiet. He was a good boy, so he did. Words were exchanged, ones he didn’t know. Then he held out a not-stick and pressed it against her. More words. She told Simon to stay and then she and the man got in the van and left.

Simon still stayed.

Liz called up a memory of Tiffany and focused Simons’s mind on that, to distract him from the sudden surge of sadness in him as she parted ways from his mind, sliding back into her own body.

Without getting up, Liz hugged the dog. “Simon got a good look at the guy. I’ll need to keep in contact with Simon to give a good description, but more importantly he caught the man’s scent,” Liz began reporting. Then she caught herself. “Oh sorry. A man pulled up in a van and got out to talk to Tiffany. She talked to him briefly, seemed a bit tense, then he pulled a gun on her and asked her into the van. Seemed like she knew him, did not’ indicate she liked him.” Sam probably knew that from the security tapes already though.

“Simon didn’t pay much attention to the van itself, but it and the man smelled strongly of happy fun forbidden flowers and spicy hot sweet nut bread food and meat.” Liz blinked and pulled her head back from Simon. “Er, sorry. His thoughts, not mine. I believe those are lotuses and azaleas, and he’s describing...some Chinese cuisine?” Liz frowned at the dog briefly and channeled her own memories of the flowers and food to the dog. Recognition bloomed in him.

“Yes, seems like authentic Chinese cuisine and lotuses and azaleas. A number of other flowers and I want to say fertilizers as well. The man was saying a few things I think was Chinese, but I’m not certain. The van had a picture on the side - Wong’s Florals. Smelled like it had just been painted though.” Liz blinked again and focused on Sam. “That enough?”

Sam wasn’t the type to live with regrets but never asking out Tiffany Diamond seemed to be at the forefront of his mind now that he was back on another case involving her. She was when he was drinking referred to as the one that got a way. His “Great White Whale” now however that he was in a committed and happy relationship he had determined the best thing for him now is just to get a photo of the two of them to hang up in his bar. A man needs dreams.

Letting go of the officer Sam silently shook his hands at the sky wishing for other officers to show up and cut these two... rookies from duty. He felt old now. Wishing to go back to the good ol’ days where he just got called to break something or someone and then not get involved in a case. When could he say he was getting too old for this?

Sam tried not to move too much after Liz went memory diving into Simon Diamond. The luckiest dog on the planet. So while one of the officers eyed the pavement where the van that took her was (a request from Sam) best to keep the little rookie occupied otherwise he might distract Liz. Sam folded his arms and studied the surrounding buildings finding three that might have had better views of the abductors face.

”Oh?” was his first response to Liz when she came out of her trance with way more information than he thought she was going to produce. ”Liz, I could kiss ya!” he said walking over and ignoring Liz but rubbing the dogs face again. ”Best Boi! Whose gonna help find his smoking hot mom!” the dogs tail wagged, ”Yes you are!”

”Tweedle dee! You get any of that?” the officer stopped looking at the ground then looked to Sam, Liz and the dog. “Dee went to get the coffee and waters. I thought I was dum.” ”You can be whoever you want to be. But it looks like we got a lead. We’ll be heading to China town to check out a lead. You can go over to those three buildings and check the tapes. I want a face, and two clear shots of the writing on the side of the van. Unfortunately Liz’s and Simon’s testimony won’t add anything useful to the case.”

The real Tweedle Dee arrived with his hands full. Sam took the coffee offered to him then held out his other hand. ”Give me your keys we are going to ChinaTown.”

Sam's reaction to her report was something...more than what she expected. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll pass,” she said, warding off any chance of a kiss with a snort. “I’d hate to get on Cora’s bad side.” Liz knew there was nothing real behind his comment though, which is why Sam was easy to be around. She knew where she stood with him, whether it was in regards to their personal friendship, professional coworker status, or even as student and teacher. Of course it probably helped that Sam’s girlfriend could see relationships - Sam always had to be on his best behavior, from what Liz understood.

Although he seemed very eager to track down this Tiffany Diamond. Liz didn’t bother hiding the smirk. Oh she wasn’t going to miss this for the world!

But Simon was the one who got all the attention and both dog and woman were completely fine with that. Simon barked and panted before trying to lick Sam’s face as he fully immersed himself in the pleasures of the rubbing.

Liz unapologetically basked in some of that happiness as well, her face brightening and mood lightening. It was one of the things she loved about dogs - they felt so vividly when it came to joy. Few animals in her experience ever had that much happiness without any kind of external trigger.

She pushed off from the ground and got to her feet. She unslung her purse from her shoulder long enough to do a few stretches. Between the car ride and the possession, and hours of grading, she was really wanting to be active. Being around a dog’s unguarded mind probably didn’t help. So when Sam announced they were heading to Chinatown, Liz’s smile matched the dog’s.

“Hot dog!” she said before poorly attempting to conceal her glee. This was a most excellent distraction from grading papers. Ensuring Simon’s leash was secured in her hand, Liz lightly tugged on it. “Come on, Simon. Let’s go get your mom.” Accompanying her words were images and impressions of following her and obeying her. It didn’t hurt to pour a little more joy into the dog as well.

As Sam took care of keys and arranging transportation (and Liz had forced herself to not laugh at the officers’ faces as the man completely commandeered their vehicle), she’d taken the cups of water and removed one of the lids, holding it on the ground for Simon. “Drink up, boy,” she said, layering memories of lapping up water from a dog’s perspective alongside her words. “We’ve got a lot ahead of us.” She put her purse back on her shoulder, where the pepper spray and taser inside would be within easy reach. She never went anywhere without it and she had a feeling they might be more likely to be used today than most other times.

The icemancer chuckled at her response, glad she knew he wasn’t serious. That would have been a conversation not to have. ”Haven’t seen it yet... never want to.” he said to Liz as he snatched the keys out of the officers hand. His look of shock apparent. “My stuff is in there!”

”Take a cab after you’re done here? We have the witness. I can call it in if you’d like. That you two need a ride.” Tweedle Dee shut his mouth and snapped to attention. “No sir.” before shrugging to ‘Dum’s’ side. Confused as to what transpired.

The seat took a moment to move back to a suitable position. What did they do? Nap while they drove? Sam climbed into the drivers seat and then waited till Simon and Liz were safely in the vehicle before he pulled off. Sirens off. They were only going there to investigate, not apprehend. Not yet at least.

”Who gets to see his mom soon?” he said in his doggy voice trying to conceal his hatred for New York City traffic. If he was sure Simon wouldn’t have peed all over his ice slide they probably could have been there in a tenth of the time. He might have also been slightly frustrated with the stopping all the time. He had to look into it more due to his lack of depth perception. Bullets were fine, tail lights and bumpers made him nervous.

”So you’ll recognize the vehicle and faces when you see it or does he recognize it and you tell me?” Sam said changing the radio station from whatever they were listening to to classic rock.

Liz took the water back from Simon and placed the lid back on it. “That’s enough for now,” she told him before standing up. “Come along now,” she said, only barely tugging on the leash. The retriever easily followed along and Liz thanked the Lord for well-trained and easy-going dogs. It really made things so much easier.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure your stuff is fine,” Liz said to the officer. Well, probably. She’d at least try. Of course, she didn’t really foresee anything happening other than maybe pointing out the guy who took Tiffany and maybe seeing Sam arrest him. That was more than fine by her - she’d heard a lot of police stories from her last boyfriend, the cop, so it would be kind of nice to have a front row seat to one.

Liz let Simon into the back of the car but took the shotgun position herself. She wanted legrooM. Besides, she’d still be able to monitor the dog easily enough and if he needed to pee or anything she could get Sam to pull over.

Simon was happy enough to get into the car. He loved cars! Cars meant going to fun places! Or the vet. Which wasn’t fun. But that only happened when Mommy was hush-hush and weird - when she was happy and normal they went to fun places! Like parks or food-places! So was he going to a park? Or a food-place? Or maybe a food-place at a park? With other dogs?! He had absolutely no idea what the man was saying but he sure did like the tone being used! His tail wagged in staccato rhythm on the seats, sounding like a heavy downpour in the back seat.

Liz just smiled and enjoyed the dog’s stream of consciousness. A little too much, really. It took her a moment to realize Sam had spoken to her. “Could be both, actually,” Liz said with a shrug as she stared out the window and idly counted birds. “I’d recognize the van for sure, the man...eh. More likely to recognize his scent - Simon has a way better memory of that kind of thing. It’s easier for me to tap into his olfactory senses than eyesight anyways.”

As she spoke, Liz did just that, connecting her mind to the portion of Simon’s that interpreted smells. She sneezed as the entire car suddenly came alive in a vast and rich smellscape and then gagged. “Oh God, so much vomit…” she moaned, instantly severing the connection. She was not going to try that again in a cop car!

Sam didn’t say anything for a few moments letting the radio fill the silence along with the tail of the happy boy in the back. ”.... Bless you... so that means you got to smell a bunch of strangers?” he asked grinning then thought, ”Vomit where I’m sitting or just where everyone else is?” he didn’t wait for an answer. His clothing connecting to the seat coated in a thin layer of ice. The officer’s chair would be wet upon return more than likely but at least it wasn’t urine or vomit.

Someone cut him off from his thoughts by merging in front of him with no blinker. If he had his blind eye turned anymore the police car would have been hit. Sam laid on the horn in response rolled down the window. ”It’s a cop car! You sure you want to cut me off?” It was complete years of being in the city turned him into a New York driver. Could he pull the person over? Sure. Was he going to? Too much paper work and they weren’t Tiffany Diamond.

After another fifteen minutes of traffic they parked the car in an alley way and finally got out. Sam jumped out like it was the greatest moment of his life. Not being in a car. Give him a cramped plane or even a jet and Sam was fine. The traffic alone on these roads were awful. There was enough road rage where he looked back into the car eyeing the shotgun. He decided to slam the cop car with his hands instead. ”Well I feel like hitting someone now.” Sam said seeing the red storefront signs.

”Any ideas where to start or should I just freeze over the whole area?” he wasn’t joking he had an itch now that couldn’t be scratched by police work. ”You’re sniffers picking anything up yet?” he asked opening the back door for Simon and loosely holding the leash. ”You smell your mommy?” Sam asked trying to bury his rage for later and reverting back to doggie talking.

Elizabeth gagged again. Dear God, that was a violent smell! Liz couldn’t even smell the vomit anymore, but she could still remember and that was bad enough! She shut her eyes and pulled the neckline of her shirt up to her nose and inhaled deeply, trying to focus on the real smell to counteract the ghost smell in her head. Then she glanced at Sam and glared at that smirk of his. “Yes,” she said in answer. Vomit everywhere and who knows what else. But there was no way on God’s green Earth she was hacking Simon’s nose to determine further!

“We’ll sniff out strangers,” she said once she wasn’t in danger of gagging again. “I mean, it’s a start, right?” Although she’d dated a cop, had trained several police dogs, and had been inside the minds of various of those police dogs, and had even been a consultant and witness on a few cases, she herself was not a cop and wasn’t exactly sure the best way to go about doing this.

Especially since the whole mind reading thing had just started happening a few months ago. She still wasn’t used to it, especially when she accidentally tapped into Zorro’s hearing or Nico’s ultraviolet sight. Now that was trippy!

Almost as trippy as experiencing Sam negotiating his way through New York traffic. Liz couldn’t keep a smile off her face the entire time and she knew it was infecting Simon, but she didn’t care at all. The guy was literally always cool under any circumstances, and seeing him about to blow his lid at some mild rudeness was, well, hysterical.

Liz was chuckling as she got out of the car. She didn’t feel the need to happy dance like Sam, but then again he was a much bigger person than she. While Liz had ample leg and elbow room, the elemental had seemed rather squashed. Just one more reason to laugh. “My, what a refreshing ride that was!” she said merrily as she shut her door normally and stepped over to the others.

“Not to give you the cold shoulder or anything, but I hardly believe a mini ice age is the answer here,” Liz said as she reached out for Simon’s leash. She figured she might as well stick with the dog, just in case Sam needed the freedom to move without concern. “After all, we’re just observing and running recon, right?”

She cautiously extended a psychic channel toward the dog. Her nose wrinkled immediately. “Oh, Simon is smelling tons of stuff. Everything, really,” she said. “There’re too many people around and the street is too busy to narrow anything down.”

She cocked her head and nodded up the street. “Perhaps we should start at Wong’s Florals? Might be a good place to scout for familiar scents.” Liz started heading toward the shop but stopped after a few steps. She glanced back at Sam. “Uh, would you happen to know where it is? I’ve been to Chinatown exactly once and I was mostly concerned with rampaging bulls at the time.”

”Can it Sundance.” the icemancer said wishing he could scowl more in her direction to wipe her infectious smile off. He looked down to Simon who looked like he was trying to smile as well. Last time he went on a car ride. Next time they are taking an ice slide. If Simon pees all over everyone under them so be it. He didn’t have the patience for New York traffic. Not sober anyways and driving was a great way for him to start back up.

Reluctantly he handed over the leash being used to being the one to hold Bruno’s on walks. ”You say that, but it’d clear up traffic pretty quickly.” he said forcing a smirk to remind her he was kidding. He could, but that wasn’t who he was anymore at least he tried not to be that way anymore.

Her next line of questioning caused him to smirk. ”Yeah, I know where all the flower shops are around here.” he said rolling his one eye waving her and Simon on hoping something stood out. He didn’t know but figured after some walking that one of them might recognize something. Either by scent or sight.

The air grew colder around Sam as he focused on a thermal sense one that extended outwards a few feet. He too took a moment to deal with all the sensory information as they walked hoping that if he couldn’t see anything he might be able to feel for something that led to his favorite model of all time. She was a national treasure, he’d argue global. Sam was going to save her. ”Not really the flower giving type. Ice tends to last longer around me.” he said smirking.