Lori steeled herself what she knew lay behind the door. It'd been a full month and a half, nearly two, and her dad wasn't exactly the forgiving type. He wouldn't take excuses, he wouldn't pity her for the black eye, and he sure as hell wasn't going to understand. But she needed to see him. She needed to know he was still okay. It was impossible to cut him out of her life when he was so close by.

She didn't knock, knocking was for strangers. She used her key and made sure to make enough noise that her dad would have enough time to run and get pants if he needed them.

That thought alone probably said more about her dad than anything else.

She turned the door knob and pushed at the door, surprised at some unseen resistance behind it. Some things rattled like plastic so of course, she shoved harder. "Oh gross." Food containers of every kind imaginable littered the floor. Plastic, glass, beer, yogurt, applesauce, hot dog packages, pizza boxes... not all of them empty from the smell of it. She tried not to flare her nostrils too much. He hated that.

"Go away." Came her tell-tale greeting from a lone corduroy armchair that was facing away from the door and toward a 12 inch TV supporting an honest to god set of bunny ears. No, not even bunny ears, it was a set of mangled hangars. "You make the reception in here like shit."

Lori closed the door behind her and closed her eyes counting to 5 before she went wordlessly to the kitchenette area. It was true. Her magnetic field did tend to cause televisions to go nutty if she got too close, and of course this shiny metal mobile home was often the site of lightning strikes because of her unnatural affinity for electricity. "Nice to see you too, dad."


Grabbing a trash bag, she started the arduous task of cleaning up. "Thought you was dead." The gravel in his voice was permanent, but the tinge of anger seemed to come and go depending on his BAC, blood alcohol content. Lori crammed the containers into the bag until it was too full and started another. "Hit a rough spot. I'm here now." And apparently he hadn't cleaned up a damn thing since she'd been here last time. If she were really dead, he'd be swimming in his own trash apparently.

She blatantly ignored the sink. It contained dishes under the science experiment, she was sure. "I'm gonna buy you some paper plates." A racial slur or two floated back toward her as well as anti-paper plate sentiments. They never surprised her, he practically spoke in a formulaic manner. If he didn't approve: (random racial group) did (fill in the blank) , and he couldn't do that because it'd make him look like one of them.

"Daddy, don't say those things. It makes you sound ignorant."

And that set him off just as it always did. He wasn't ignorant, no, he was just the only one smart enough to say something about it. She'd heard it all before and had stopped being impressed years ago. By the time Lori had cleared away all the garbage, there were 5 white trash bags lining the wall next to the door, and daddy needed a refill. Lori made her way to the small Chevrolet brand fridge at her father's behest.

The contents did not disappoint her expectations, but then again she'd learned not to expect anything different. There were four items in his fridge: white bread, mustard, packages of olive loaf bologna, and beer. Her dad was the one who had taught her how to twist off a beer cap with her small and delicate hands. The trick had been to develop a callus.

She dropped off the beer in the recliner's cup koozie, and hazarded a glance at the shell of the man that had once been so strong and infallible in her eyes. His blue eyes were just as dubious in his inspection of her. "Looks like you finally found a man who'll treat you right." At first Lori was shocked, how could he have known about Jacen? But she realized he meant the eye. Rolling her eyes she turned to tackle the dishes next. She got a hefty smack on the butt as she passed for rolling her eyes.

The sink. Lori shuddered. Oh the sink. Maybe she should have just thrown all the dishes away too. Usually she stopped by often enough that it wasn't a problem. She ducked under the sink to look for her yellow rubber gloves, but they were no where to be found. In fact, neither was the soap.

"Hey, dad...?" Rather than ask where the cleaning supplies had gone, she decided to get out of the trailer for a while. "I'm gonna take the trash out and run to the 7-11 for ... paper plates. You need anything?" She gathered her hair up into a Yankee's cap, tucking the blond away and pulling the brim low enough to hide her eye before grabbing a tenuous hold on all the stretching bags. They were ushered out the door and down the steps ahead of Lori. This was going to be a long day.

"Potato chips." She heard the order just before the door closed. Potato chips he would get.

Official Police Theft Report

Rebeccah J. Noonan reported her bag was stolen off of the subway and another bag was left in its place. There was nothing of any value in the bag left at the scene so instead of bringing it down to the station she left it on the subway thinking it must be another person's bag. When officers checked the subway car the bag in question was gone so there is no evidence to report.

The missing items are as follows:
1 Black Tennis Equipment Bag
1 Ladies Tennis Racket (Pink Frame w' Green & White Netting)
1 Ladies Tennis Outfit (Long Sleeve, Orange Body, White Sleeves, White Trimming)
1 Knobby Brown Wallet (Contained Aprox. $38 In Cash, 3-4 Credit Cards, Driver's License, & Various Other Cards)

[/center]

The report kept running through Jacen's mind as he tried to connect the information from that theft with what he already knew about Lily but he knew there were still pieces missing. Really, he didn't know much about her but he did know she was attractive, sexy as hell, and great in bed. Add to that knowledge a few things he had observed and he began to get a shadow picture. She was a fighter and apparently a thief as well but she obviously wasn't a cleptomaniac because she wasn't steeling all the time. In fact, other than their breakout from the hospital, he'd never actually observed her doing anything that even bordered breaking the law.

"What in the world are you thinking about?" A voice suddenly broke through his thoughts, "You haven't heard a word I've said in like the last ten minutes!"

Oh yes, Jacen was back to experiencing the joys of patrol life. After his injuries from the other night, he had temporarily been removed from S.W.A.T. while he recovered but he wasn't bad enough to get desk duty. Instead he was assigned to a partnerless idiot of a cop that needed someone to tag along with him. Officer Jagger was the kind of police officer that formed the butt of every police joke on the planet. About 39 or 40 with thining hair and an obvious bald spot, Jagger had a paunchy belly and was rather clumsy. Thankfully most of the NYPD could prove the various jokes wrong but Jagger was not one of them.

"Nothing. Just staring out the window." Jacen replied dryly. He had actually heard most of what the other man was saying but listening to someone talk about the experience of a colonoscopy and the results they had received the week before was not his idea of a good time. "We need a call. Something, anything to get this man to stop talking!"

"So where was I then... oh yeah, then the doctor called and said some of the test results weren't clear so they want me to come in for another. Personally I think she just likes staring at my a** 'cause she's not getting any."

This was wrong... just wrong.

She had to break the trip up, leaving three bags by the trailer and taking the two heaviest with her to the dumpster.

"You hear me?" The shout came from the door as Lori was busy pushing back the plastic dumpster cover. She'd hardly seen him leave that trailer except to go to work. And it'd been a while since his contracting license had expired.

"Yeah. I heard you." She made the mistake of letting some amount of frustration leak into her voice. It'd been too long since she'd played this game.

"Are you talking back to me? ME? Your own father? You look at me when I'm talking to yous and say: yes, sir."

The problem with looking at him was that he was disgusting. Yeah, she loved him, he was the only family she had left excepting an uncle or two. But she really didn't like who he had become. Dirty undershirt stained pink from her laundry skills, ratty jeans with a smattering of concrete and asphalt, house slippers Mom had bought him at least 10 years ago, and this place... She looked at him and pitied him. "Yes, sir."

Pity was something he didn't take kindly to.

Lori wasn't a cringer, she wasn't one to stand there and take it, but from her dad... how could she have won even if she had fought back physically? She would hurt him and that would hurt her. After she'd taken a good slap, they ended up shouting. God, the neighbors would end up calling domestic dispute on them and the police would come, they would see she wasn't missing and never came in to the station after her apartment went up in flames, and they would spend a day in jail together Father and Daughter still fighting.

She ended up throwing the trash bags at him and shouting at him to take out his own trash since he was outside for once. Of course he wasn't done shouting about what an ungrateful wretch she was, but she was on her way to the 7-11. She had gloves and potato chips to buy. Hopefully he would get his tempertantrum out while she was down the street

It was all Jacen could do to not grab his ears and try to plug them with his fingers or with whatever piece of cloth was close at hand. He didn't want to know what Jagger imagined his doctor wearing under her uniform and he'd rather pluck out his own eyeballs than have to look at the photos that had been taken during the colonoscopy.

Right as he was beginning to seriously consider pulling his gun and either shooting himself or his 'partner' the call came in over the radio. Reports of a man and woman screaming in their yard and disturbing the peace. Possibly a domestic dispute and possibly just two neighbors getting into it. Jacen didn't know, and he didn't care. Before Jager could say anything Jacen had already snatched up the mic and reported that they would be heading to the location.

"Bu, bu, but it's time for our coffee break!" Jagger complained, obviously annoyed that his partner had taken the liberty to respond to a call.

"To late for that. We've already got the call. Let's go." Jacen replied, quite obviously satisfied.

"You know what King, I'm gonna ask for someone else tomorrow!" He grumbled.

"I can only wish." Jacen muttered under his breath as the siren and lights flipped on.

***

The location for the call was only a short distance away but it still took Jacen right by the 7-11 that had played such an important roll in a previous nights activities. As they approached the gas station Jacen felt like a bystander at a horrible accident. He wanted to look away at anything except the gas station but something riveted his attention to that one spot.

There it was. What had once been one of the most beautiful and sought after cars in the world was now nothing but a metal frame that sat up on concrete blocks. The vehicle had been stripped of everything of value and even a couple pieces of the frame had been cut away leaving horrible gaps in what otherwise would have been a perfect skeleton.

"Looks like the local hoodlums finished another piece of artwork." Jagger observed as they raced past the convenience store.

"Yeah." Jacen replied as he was finally able to tear his gaze away from the horrifying sight, "Looks like it." Suddenly he was looking back over his shoulder as his mind processed something that he hadn't really noticed right away. There was a woman walking along the street that looked an awful lot like Lily. The problem was she was wearing a cap so he couldn't see if she had blond hair.

"Couldn't be." Jacen finally decided as he looked back out at the street in front of them, "Lily wouldn't come back here after we dumped a car like that."

***

Pulling onto the correct street there was no question about what house they had been called to. Standing out in front was a rather messy looking man that was cursing up a storm as he walked back and forth across his lawn. The string of profanity was so long that Jacen had absolutely no clue who or what it was all directed toward.

"Sir, please calm down. We're just here to talk." Jagger said even though his expression was extremely nervous, "No need to be upset."

"Who the hell do you think you are, all fancy in your uniforms?!" The irate man screamed as he turned his attention on Jacen's partner, "I'll f****** get angry if I want to! In fact I'll f****** throw an f****** fit if I want to!"

"Uh..."

"Great come back Jagger." Jacen muttered as he walked past his partner and towards the angry man. It was rare that Jacen wore his actual uniform but since he was out on patrol, this was one of those days. Well shined black shoes, black socks, pressed black pants, and a pressed short sleeve black shirt. Strapped around his waist was the normal belt with various pouches and holsters for his gear and pinned to his chest was his police badge. "Sir! Quiet down or we'll have to take you downtown to cool off!" Jacen spoke up, his voice loud enough to be heard over the screaming.

"Who the f*** do you think you are? This isn't the army! You can go sh** yourself!"

Inwardly Jacen sighed. This was going to be some day... he could just tell.

There was trash leaking from the bags where the man had obviously thrown them. The plastic bags could not stand the abuse and had exploded in a rain of festering, putrid garbage. Though the second combatant was no longer there, Lori's dad felt the need to shout after his ungrateful spawn before reminding the officers that he was paying their salary and if he wanted to pitch a fit in his own 4 foot yard, he could. He picked up his beer gut and re-tucked the front of his shirt in to his pants before spitting on the dweeby looking one. At least Lori's dad had maintained a full head of hair.

Well, Officer Dweeby didn't seem to know what to do. He sputtered obviously disgusted and advanced a half step crossing the imaginary line that Lori's dad had imagined up for himself. And then he shoved him.

"Sir! C-Calm down!"

But just like Lori, her dad could smell weakness from a mile away. And weakness had to be punished. With his fist. One second they were standing and the next, Lori's dad was on top of Dweeby using his fist in combination with his lips to tell him what he thought about weaklings like him. Normally, Lori's Dad was a more charismatic fellow, but the combination of several bitter years and alcohol had made him loose his finesse.

*****

Lori took her dear sweet time at the 7-11. Left to his own devices, she knew her dad's rage would putter out and settle back in that seething pit of anger he carried in him. He would leave her to clean up the mess, but he would return to his cave and his general dislike of everything. In the meantime she was comparing Ruffles to the Original. Did he think Ruffles reminded him of communists? She couldn't remember.

It was understandable, really it was. It made perfect sense that someone would want to beat up on Jagger and really he couldn't blame this guy for attacking his partner. The sad thing was that, even though Jacen completely agreed with the man's actions it was his job to protect his partner. Kind of sad to interupt but if he was anything he was a man of duty!

"Get off him!" Jacen ordered as he grabbed the man's shoulders and threw him away from his partner. "Look, I understand that he deserved to be hit but you can't just go around punching police officers!"

For a minute, Mr. Potty Mouth seemed to be eyeing Jacen, trying to decide whether he could take this stronger and tougher police officer. Apparently the decision was that it was deffinately possible because without warning the man rushed him, swinging powerful hamhock fists wildly as he tried to take down the slightly taller officer.

Bringing up his arms to fend off the blows Jacen took one step back. He probably could have gotten away without even getting hurt if that idiot hadn't gotten lucky and tagged his injured arm with one of the wayard punches. With a grunt of pain Jacen's guard suddenly dropped and immediately a one two combination hit the side of his neck and then his jaw.

Stumbling backward, Jacen's eyes narrowed as he saw the other man's expression become that of the victorious warrior. He actually thought he had just won the fight... pathetic. Obviously he hadn't fought nearly enough real combatants or he would have realized that the gloves were now coming off.

Righting himself quickly, Jacen suddenly stepped forward, closing the distance between the two men with surprising speed. Lifting his left arm to block a punch coming from the intoxicated man, Jacen swung his right arm around in a powerful cross that connected with the man's jaw. As soon as his first connected Jacen felt even more pain lancing through the muscles in his arm that were still trying to repair themselves. Gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain Jacen pressed the advantage with a quick one two combination of his own. A quick right jab to the man's nose, seeting up his face perfectly so that a power left uppercut could slam into his jaw.

As the man fell to the ground it was quite clear that he wasn't unconscious. The t-shirt clad man was tougher than that but he was stunned and that was really all that Jacen needed. Moving quickly Jacen flipped him onto his stomach and then pulled his arms behind his back and handcuffing them together.

"My nose... did you look at my nose?" Jagger groaned from where he was now sitting, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his large honker.

"Forget your nose and get on the computer." Jacen snapped as he fished a wallet out of the man's pocket with obvious distaste on his face. Immediately he tossed the wallet over to Jagger who missed the catch and instead picked the wallet up out of the dirt. "Run the name and see if this guy's been involved in anything else. I'd be willing to bet we've had some sort of assault complaint filed against him before."

When Lori came out of the 7-11, she regretted dilly dallying. Apparently things had gotten out of hand and there was a police cruiser nearby. She could see her neighbors all looking out their tawdry drapes to see the scene. 'Not every day someone gets hauled off to the slammer.' She thought and the idea stunned her. It was entirely likely that whatever he had done was enough to put him in jail for a time considering his history. He already had his license revoked for too many DUI's, what must they think of him?

She hesitated. Her options were slim. She wouldn't use her power because her dad didn't know. That was like going into the gun fight with no left arm, but if she didn't go... well, she couldn't just let him go to jail.

Lori dropped the bags near a shrub at the edge of the trailer lot and tried to be as quiet as possible. She pulled her hat down low and moved slowly, concentrating everything she had on the stealthy approach behind the officer that was maintaining a hold on her already cuffed father.

She wasn't entirely sure what she could do that wouldn't get her in trouble, but she had to try something. And that something was leaping on the man's back and locking her arm around his throat in a move she'd seen work on TV wrestling matches. She'd never tried it in real life, but surely it was worth something. A distraction enough for her already struggling dad to make a getaway maybe? She wasn't actually trying to strangle anyone, though that would be an added bonus. Just pacify or distract, that was her only goal. If they took her to jail what would it matter? No metal cage could contain her.

*****

Jagger took his honker and the ID back to the police car to do his thing. He was betting there were priors as well as this incident, if there weren't well... he'd think of something. Luckily, the rap sheet came back fuller than his hair.

"Hey, we got a repeat offender here, and... oh, looks like he's suspected in his daughter's disappearance, but never came in for questioning. Let's book him and see if he knows where she is." His smarmy shouts echoed through the unnatural stillness of the trailer park. He was giddy - he'd always wanted to get the bad guy and help interrogate.

"Hey, King, you listening to me?" Finally taking his big nose out of the computer screen, he looked over to see... well, not what he expected.

"If you had waited until I turned my back you could have clocked him without any report being filed." Jacen muttered somewhat regretfully as he crouched over the handcuffed man. Grabbing the handcruffs, he stood and lifted the somewhat stunned suspect to his feet as well. "Find anything Jagger?" Jacen called as he started to turn toward the police cruiser.

Suddenly out of nowhere a weight descending onto Jacen's back, forcing him to pitch forward slightly and accidently knock the handcuffed man down to the ground. As arms wrapped around his throat in a vice like hold he had to acknowledge that he was under attack. From the weight he had to guess that it was either a kid or a woman. "Girlfriend? Maybe his missing daughter?" A part of Jacen's mind wondered as he recognized the feeling of boobs pressing against his back. Moving quickly his hands reached up to grab the arms around his throat and with a firm pull he overcame the strength of his attacker. Suddenly bending at the waist he launched the woman up and over his back so that she landed with an audible thumb on the ground. Moving quickly Jacen slipped around the woman and dropped into a crouch, one knee pressed into the crevice between her breasts in order to hold her immobilized.

"And who the heck are you?" Jacen asked, slightly winded from the short time without air. With her face turned to the side and her hat pulled down there was really no way to tell so obviously that left the police officer only one option. Reaching down he grabbed the hat and yanked it off her head, allowing the blonde hair that had been concealed within to tumble out and pool around her face. At the same moment she turned her face around so that they were looking directly at each other.

"Lily?"

***

This was his chance to escape and there was no way that Lori's father was going to pass it up. He had friends that could help him get out of these cuffs and then set him up with a new trailer to live in, he just had to get to them. Scrambling back up to his feet as best he could he broke into a shambling run that just happened to take him right by the police car that he was assuming must be empty. Unfortunately for him at the same moment he was passing by, Officer Jagger opened the car door in order to climb back out of the vehicle. It was almost like something out of a three stooges movie as Lori's father ran face first into the car door and bounced off just to fall back on his rear.

"You're not getting off that easy bub." Jagger said, doing his best to cover up his surprise and act like things had gone exactly as planned, "You're gonna spend a night in the clink!"

"Lily?" His partner's voice rang out over the yard and immediately both Jagger and Lori's father looked over.

"Who the hell is Lily and what the f*** are you doing trying to grope my f****** daughter?!"

Her teeth were grit and she was set on suffocation when he flipped her. No matter her strength, her weight would always mean she had a disadvantage. And police training meant he wasn't messing around. His knee came to settle on her sternum effectively pressing the air from her lungs, not that the fall hadn't started the process already, but her fight was gone. She'd heard his voice and there was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when he reached for her cap. It was all coming unraveled now. He pulled of the baseball hat and saw her exact expression of dumbfounded shock expressed on Jacen's face.

How could she have known? Lori suspected he was a cop or his ex-military made him wary of them at the very least, but she never thought she'd see Jacen wearing brass and blue, let alone the fact that she had jumped him! She was horrified... embarrassed... he had seen her father, he would know her name, he would... suffocate her. She struggled against his weight putting up more than a fair fight for a girl her size. She was starting to get dizzy from lack of oxygen. Her life was all kinds of life-threatened and she was fighting for every inch, social and physical.

Officer Dweeb was lucky her dad was handcuffed. "Go for the gold, Lor, we don't have time to be messing with these chumps." He urged his daughter on, they had survived scuffles worse than this before with his poor spending habits. Police were honor bound, loan sharks were not. In fact, while Officer Dweeb chose to stick his large honker in his daughter's fight he choose to stomp his upper calf shooting the knee sideways and hopefully doing the damage needed to make his get away. Everyone had joints and hopefully this guy would be missing the use of one. He'd have to come back for Lori later, she would understand. She always did.

Her eyes squeezed shut, she didn't want to see Jacen's face as she threw her hip upward. In fact, she wished behind her eyes that it was someone else on top and her mind was playing paranoid tricks. "I can't." She wheezed, still fighting, still struggling. He would have to pin her better than that to get answers out of her. If there was a glimpse, one chance she could get away and run she was taking it.

As soon as it penetrated through Jacen's brain that this woman was Lily he froze. Was it possible? Could this beautiful creature really be the daughter of a scum bag like that one sitting on the ground near his squad car? As she threw her hip upward, Jacen reacted completely on automatic. Rocking slightly with the movement he quickly lifted his knee out of her chest and then settled it on the other side of her petite figure so that he was now straddling the young woman. Reaching he he grabbed for her arm, managing to only catch and pin one as she continued to wiggle and struggle for her freedom.

"Lor?" Jacen asked in shock as what her father had said finally penetrated through his brain, "It's not Lily... your name isn't even Lily, is it?" The words were out before he could even think but it was obvious that he wasn't accusing her of anything as if she were a criminal. No... it was more like there was just a touch of hurt that she couldn't even trust him with her real name.

***

"AUGH!" Jagger screamed in pain as his knee twisted and he fell to the ground. Thankfully the creepy father hadn't managed to break anything but there was no way that the poor cop was going to be winning any foot races for the next few weeks, even if he somhow managed to lose his beer belly.

With a cry of triumph Lori's father struggled to his feet and began to shakily make his way down the street. Still somewhat unsteady he failed to notice Officer Jagger pulling his stun gun out of his holster and aiming it in his general direction. Unfortunately, Jagger's qualification to use the stun gun was far over due. As he pulled the trigger his leg gave a slight twitch meaning that the barbs inetending for Lori's father imbedded in his own leg.

"AUUUUUGH!" Jagger screamed as the electricity coursed through his body until a spasm forced him to release his hold on the charge button. As he began to move toward unconsciousness the poor cop realized that due to the electricity he had done something even more embarassing and had wet his pants.

***

Jacen's head popped up as his partner screamed the second time and he saw Lori's father getting away. "Damn it!" He swore before suddenly leaping off of the young woman and taking off after her father at a dead run. Closing the distance quickly Jacen lunged forward in a flying tackle that planted his shoulder in Lori's fathers back and set him face first into the pavement.

"This time stay down!" Jacen growled as he rolled the man over, ignoring the bleeding scraped that now adorned the man's shoulders and cheek, "Now I have to charge you with fleeing the scene of a crime!"

"Lor? It's not Lily... your name isn't even Lily, is it?"[/color] She shook her head, her blond hair bunching with each pained movement. She kept her eyes closed or away from Jacen's face. She didn't want to see the look that matched the betrayal in his voice. She hadn't meant to. Like she would supply her real name to a tennis tournament when she was supposed to be missing or worse... it was precaution. She was never supposed to see any of those people again let alone have one pinning her to the ground.

Another man's voice sounded and Lori was grateful for the distraction. Jacen seemed to respond and after she'd bucked him again, he swore and was scrambling over Lori. Her chest heaved and she grabbed at his leg, missing his polished shoe my an inch. She rolled and scrambled after him, she wasn't sure why at first until she saw what Jacen was after. Jacen lunged and Lori was a few seconds behind.

"Don't hurt him!" Jacen rolled him and she saw blood. Her dad was kicking and elbowing for all he was worth and when Lori threw herself at Jacen to pull him off of her dad, she caught one of her dad's elbows to her ribs. She was still a bit tender there and so she responded by pushing Jacen with more force than she meant. Her hand went behind Jacen's head and it was smashed between his skull and the pavement, but hopefully he wouldn't feel it too bad. Her knees went on one shoulder each applying all the pressure her weight allowed before she folded to close the last bit of distance between her lips and Jacen's.

Lori heard a snort as her dad scrambled sloppily away. "Bagged a cop. What a little slut."

She didn't know what else to do. How else could she pacify him? How else could she hope to hold him? He would have to be able to crunch her weight this way since most of it was at his shoulders. Her hand was behind his head, keeping his face too close to hers, her other arm steadying her where she knelt on Jacen. "Please."

She breathed the word against his lips kissing him again whether he wanted it or not. Her chest squeezed tight and she was breathless, not from the run, not from the pressure he had applied earlier, but from circumstances. She was fighting as hard as she could. "Please, please, please." She punctuated each desperate word with lips. It was one of the only times in her life she'd said the word and meant it... one of the only times and reasons for her to beg.

If the fight was just between Jacen and Lily, no, the blond's dad then it would have been wrapped up in short order. After throwing the dude into the back of the squad car Jacen would have put his partner in the passenger seat and then driven both of them back to the station. After booking the one man and getting medical attention for the other he would have hosed down the passenger seat that had come in contact with Jagger's wet pant. But no, things just couldn't be that easy.

SHE had to get involved. The girl that he'd been sleeping with but didn't even know her real name. The girl that he had actually begun to care about, not love, but deffinately care. This was his job but there was still no way he could fight his hardest when there was the chance that he might hurt her. He fought sure, but he held back because he couldn't stand the idea of being the one that gave her another black eye or bruised rib.

Suddenly he was flat on his back on the hard pavement with her on top of him. Her hand was cushioning his head from hitting the pavement to hard while her knees rested on his shoulder. If she'd been wearing a skirt this would have been a great 'flasher' moment but instead this was going to be a great moment of another kind. As her head dropped toward him Jacen found himself wondering if it was even possible. Could she really bend over that far? And then their lips were touching.

It was kind of a strange kiss for Jacen and... whoever she was to share. After so much passion going on between them in previous encounter this was different. There was a desperation in each kiss as she asked, no begged him to let the man escape. He really was her father Jacen realized with a slightly sinking feeling, which meant that she was the missing daughter that wasn't really missing.

"Fine... he's gone." Jacen finally murmured a few moments later when the sound of feet running away began to dissipate and the kisses from above began to slow. A part of him couldn't believe he hadn't even tried to fight the woman off but another part admitted that in his shocked condition it was perfectly understandable. She hadn't even give him her real name after their intimate times together.

Finally Jacen strained against the woman's weight as he tried to sit up. If she fell back his arm were ready to catch her so that she didn't hit the pavement but if she simply chose to get off of him that was acceptable to. Then would come the real question. Did he just leave with his partner or did he try to sort out what in the world was going on? At least part of that decision would reside with Lil... whoever she was.

After he said the magical words her kisses changed from desperate to more rewarding. Thank you. He sat up and she slid down his front, jeans catching on every brass button of his shirt. She refused to separate herself from him and the result was her sitting in his lap with her knees on either side of his hips. He... could get up and give chase again. He wouldn't be the first to lie to her. And she it wouldn't be the the first time she deserved it.

Breathe. She had to remind herself to breathe as she let her head fall forward against his chest. "I'm a bad person." She'd said it before, but never had she felt... bad. She balled her fists against the starchy uniform and didn't know what to say. Didn't know what to do. How could she make this go away now? He knew. He knew! It made some part of her insides run cold and tight.

He could always find her, he had another thing to hold over her head... in fact - in a matter of minutes she'd given him enough to quite possibly ruin her. She would never be the same. It was all unraveling. She just never imagined it to come apart so messily.

Sitting up, Jacen just looked at her as she spoke those few words. The expression on her face combined with those words made him want to... made him want to... Damn her! She made him want to wrap his arm around her and say that everything would be OK. Say that she wasn't a bad person just complicated or some such nonsense. What in the world was he thinking? This was the woman that had lied to him about everything!

"Why?" Jacen asked quietly as he leaned back slightly from the weight of her head on his chest. Using his left arm to support their weight he brought his right hand up to gently stroke her hair in an intimate and comforting gesture. That one word covered a broad spectrum of territory and even though Jacen wanted an equally broad answer he wasn't sure she would be ready for anything like that. What would she answer? Would she give him any explanation? "Why kiss me?' It was probably the least important of all the question but it was the one that was popping to the forefront of his mind. "You could have stopped me most any way you wanted so... why?"

This was stupid... he should be leaping to his feet and trying to chase down the man that had assulted his partner as well as himself. That was a man that needed and deserved to go to jail but instead Jacen was letting her personal life interupt his professional life. Why? Why was this more important than that? "Because I'm a mutant and if the truth got out, she's the only friend I'd have." He finally admitted to himself, "Because... because I've started to care and that scares me more than anything."

Why? "For the very reasons you're mad at me." and so many, many more that she hoped he would never know. Why was a fantastic question to be asking. Because why did she care? She should be moving on by now. She should have punched him or hurt him or at the very least let his head smash against the ground. Instead she was sitting in his lap as he comforted her. Her hand was throbbing with each squeeze of the heart.

"Why kiss me? You could have stopped me most any way you wanted so... why?"

She made a small pain sound. He had to ask the hardest question first didn't he? Why did she? Why was she still here despite the white roaring sound that was making it hard to think and cold dread that had settled at the top of her stomach?

She addressed the button just above his belt buckle in all seriousness. "Because... I didn't want to hurt you. I couldn't bear for you to hurt him. Dirty rotten bastard that he is, he's all I have..." Her voice was empty, carefully empty. "I'll go in if you need. I'll do..." anything. She'd almost said anything.

Her head was swimming. Did the truth always make people dizzy? Maybe that was the breathing. Oh right, breathing. She reminded herself to breathe again and sucked in a ragged breath like a sob. She wasn't crying. She didn't have any tears for this. She was just... horrified.