Verdy was a fan of shampoo. Of all the things she had missed while living on the street, shampoo was one of the worst. Washing hair with pilfered public restroom soap just wasn’t the same. Lathering the bubbles into a pile of white foam she fumbled with her necklace, it was tangled in the back of her hair and no amount of brushing before she hopped into the shower was loosening it. Hopefully the shampoo and conditioner would do more than clumsy fingers. She really had to remember to take it off before going to sleep.

Jack’s whining at the door distracted her from her disentangling and she let him in, instantly wet tail slapping against her bare legs happily. Jack was a fan of showers in general, and didn’t protest to the doggy shampoo/conditioner combo she rubbed into his fur, lathering him into a waggling, dripping, pile of wet-dog. Letting the running water rinse him off she moved to her own conditioner and wrestled once more with the necklace. She could feel the tangle of hair around the chain, but couldn’t work it loose.

~~~

Giving up on the necklace and its persistent tug on the hair at the back of her neck she left her hair hang out, instead of its usual ponytail. Dried and dressed she rubbed Jack down with her old beach towel and clipped the lead to his collar.

They made their way through the mansion hallways and across the expanse to the front gate, before exiting and wandering down the street and along the road towards the park. They were going to meet Dad. She watched Jack carefully to make sure he didn’t run out onto the road in pursuit of something appealing, but he seemed content to trot along beside her, wagging his very clean, very fluffy tail behind him.

Arriving safely at the park they moved to the designated meeting spot and she unclipped his lead and threw the ball for him, perching herself on a bench to wait for Andrew/Dad and Jack to retrieve the ball and bring it back. The necklace continued tweaking in its annoying way and she fiddled with it restlessly.

The park was a fairly nice place to spend time. He'd gone early to the park to have a walk through it before he was to meet up with Verdy and Jack. Today their furry companion was to get some exercise in the park. The change of scenery from the mansion would probably be interesting to the dog. Verdy had thrown a ball for the pooch and had sat down on a bench, leaving him to play with Jack. Andrew tossed the ball for him a few times and stood by as Jack made a couple of doggie friends of a great dane and a poodle. When Jack returned with the ball Andrew smiled at him.

"Made a couple of new friends?"

Jack answered him with a couple of enthusiastic wags of his tail and short bark.

"I'll take that as a yes. Why don't we go back to Verdy now? Wouldn't due to leave a pretty girl like her alone in the park would it?"

He scooped up the ball and headed back toward the bench where Verdy resided. Verdy appeared to be annoyed with something and kept reach up to the back of her neck. Unable to think of any reasons why off the top of his head as soon as Andrew drew near her he had to ask.

"Something wrong Verdy?"

Jack sat at her feet and stared at her with a curious expression. Either they had adopted a seriously smart dog or that was a mutant who could turn into a dog and couldn't turn back.

Andrew appeared after she had thrown the ball, and paused to play with Jack, before making his way over. Jack seemed to be having a good time, and the new canine companions seemed friendly enough. The two arrived at the bench and looked at her with matching expressions of curiosity and concern. Despite the discomfort of the necklace, and her annoyance with its stubbornness, she had to smile at them.

“Good morning. Sort of, my necklace is all caught in my hair and I can’t get it out.”

Tugging on the stubborn chain entangled in her still-damp hair she grimaced. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, and yet the longer she left it, the worse it would get. More than her irritation at the necklace was her slight embarrassment at the implication that she was neglecting personal hygiene. She had been very careful on the streets not to give off that vibe, avoiding dreadlocks at all costs and dragging a brush through her hair everyday, no matter how little she wanted to. She felt uncomfortable enough to give an explanation.

“I usually sleep with my hair done up, but it was out last night and got all wrapped around the chain.”

The necklace was the one she had received for her birthday from her roommate, and it was a regular accessory on her neck, this was the first issue she’d had with it, though, and she blamed her hair. Flicking most of her hair, except for the tangled bits, around to the front she shrugged, perhaps if Andrew sat beside her on the bench he could see what was causing the problem and remedy it. That’s what friends are for, after all, getting you out of tricky situations.

“Ack, I’ve been trying to untangle it all morning, can you help me please?”

The black Chevy impala pulled up to the parking lot for the park, one that he had yet to explore yet. He had passed by a couple of times prior, but that was as he was either driving Gemma home or was visiting her at the mansion. The detective had noted how active it was so he was only to happy to explore it one of these days. And that day ended up being today. He still had an issue or two with showing up at Central Park, after that whole event with Halloween. There was still instants repressed snippets of memories flooding back and still there were many parts of the park that had not been opened to the public yet. Apparently quite the mess had been made there.

But the only good thing about any major city…it never lacked a good park. As he pulled his car to a stop and killed the engine, he glanced over and saw his whole reason for coming.

“Ready girl?”

Lizzie, his white English bulldog, looked up at him with excited eyes as her nub of a tail wagged back and forth. She barked in reply as she circled once or twice on the passenger seat before she turned and leaned up against the door and stared out the window. He chuckled as he reached over, attached her black leash to her blue collar and picked her up. The dog squirmed excitedly in his arms as he climbed out of his car and finally set her down on the ground.

Lizzie sniffed all around the lot, snorting and huffing as she took in all the smells. Jorge held her leash tight because he knew that when she got overexcited, she tended to bolt. Which was both good and odd about his little white dog. Bulldogs were not always most known for their activity, but Lizzie seemed to love it. Well, when the mood struck her. If she did not feel like running about, that usually meant it would be a day a sleeping that Jorge could do nothing about. He was glad she seemed eager for a walk too. And not surprised. She had spent the greater part of the day sleeping.

He chuckled as he watched Lizzie wander in a circle and sniffed at the ground more. He leaned down and patted and scratched her head. “Come on Lizzie. Let’s burn some of that energy off of you.”

Dressed simply in his sweats, running shoes, a loose navy blue jacket and a gray shirt that had the letters NYPD written across the chest, Jorge headed into the park. The greenery certainly was beautiful. It was a very visually pleasing park with several tall trees and what seemed like acres of grass. All around him, he watched as other people enjoyed the park. Some walked their own rambunctious dogs, others simply jogged, or chatted amongst themselves, still others seemed to be contently simply lazing away the day by sitting on the grass and either people or cloud watching. He would have to show up here with Gemma one day. A good outdoor lunch or stroll would do them good after Halloween. But he also knew she needed her rest. DocProf would not let her go easily.

He sighed a bit contentedly as he strolled about, Lizzie trotted happily and barked a few dogs, as if in conversation. He chuckled as he shook his head. “Already trying to make friends, are you?”

The detective watched as Lizzie looked up innocently before she continued on. He smirked but said nothing as he enjoyed the stroll. His eyes rested on a person or two. Not for any particular reason, actually, only because he enjoyed to people watch. Seriously though, what were the odds that he would run into someone he knew at this park?

So it was a necklace causing hassle for her? Why hadn't she just taken it off before she went to bed and put it back on after showering? That was the sensible thing to do. But then again maybe the necklace was special to her. People could be silly when they were being sentimental. Andrew didn't think he was above that failing at all. He spent a good portion of each night that should have been devoted to sleeping or something else productive to baking after all. Verdy had asked for his help though and Andrew would gladly give it. He sat down on the bench beside her.

"Sure."

Andrew found the chain of the necklace and followed that toward the back of her neck. When her hair got in the way he just pushed it aside. He was entirely unaware of how this could look to someone else. Verdy was a friend(?) and needed the help. When he found the clasp he frowned at it and began trying to disentangle it from Verdy's hair as gently as possible.

"Sorry if I tug too hard. If I hurt you then just hit me or something."

That made sense to him. Not to mention Jorge had given him some pretty rough knocks during their boxing matches. Surely anything that Verdy would dish out as a means of telling him to be a bit more gentle would not be worse than Jorge when he got serious. The old man moved quick and, though Andrew was beginning to learn to counter that, he still won against Andrew more often than the college age guy would like.

Why hadn’t she taken it off, one might ask, and the answer (had that question been actually asked, rather than mused upon) was simple really. Fear. She was almost certain if she took the trinket off from around her neck and let it sit on the dresser, or the bathroom sink, or anywhere else for that matter, she was bound to lose it. It was special enough to her that its loss would be rather devastating, her first gift from her first friend. It was better to keep it close.

“Thanks.”

His fingers were gentle across her neck and she suppressed a shiver. This was her friend, friend, and he was helping her with her little issue, nothing more, nothing less. Certainly nothing to get all shivery about. His fingers found the problem and worked it through, still very gently. Perhaps it might have been better if he had have been rough, the unexpected tingles might have receded if he was tweaking and making it sting. Then again, maybe not.

“Mm-hmm.”

Biffing him for yanking on her tangled hair sounded a little mean, but if it came to it, she probably would in an instant moment of pain. That’s if she didn’t yelp first. Tweaky hairs were one of the most irritating things about having longish hair, whether they got caught in necklaces, zippers or hair-ties, they never ceased to annoy. The look that Jack was giving her made her blush, and she could feel the heat travel from her neck to her ears. How could an ordinary dog look so darn knowing.

The heavy panting and Jorge had to grin as he looked down and saw that Lizzie was starting to slow up. The little bulldog could be a powder keg of energy when she wanted to, but as soon as that energy was expended, she would rather lie in the middle of a ditch than continue on. But, over the years, Jorge notice the slow in her stride that indicated she was going to stop. Instead he slowed down the walk and let her go at her own pace. She knew better than to expect that he would pick her up and carry her for long.

“Come on, girl,” he chuckled as he let her slow up some. “Just another mile then we can go and get you back to your bed.”

At the word mile Lizzie seemed to have a look on her face and whimper that could melt the hardest of hearts. But he only arched his brow and gave her a look. His encouraging words were not a suggestion, they were an order. They would be walking that next mile, no matter what face she gave him.

But, in order to not be so heartless, Jorge slowed to a stop. The dog seemed thankful for this and took the opportunity to walk into the soft grass and sniff around. He wanted to chuckle again but instead he merely stood next to her and surveyed the area. It was pretty tranquil out here, he had to admit that. Very beautiful with healthy green as far as his eye could see. People picnicked, ran around and simply had fun. But as he began to wander off to the side, he had paused when he noticed a bench with a couple of young people on it. The scene was not hard to make out. As a matter of fact it was pretty blatant.

The guy, much taller than the girl, seemed to be all over her. He looked like an octopus with his arms wrapped around her neck and his face hidden behind her head. The girl did not seem to be protesting either…even in front of their dog! A diabolical smirk came across his face as she slowly made his way over, silently and out of line of side of both the girl and the dog. Young love was one thing, but reenacting famous love scenes in public could get one into trouble. Especially if the guy did not calm himself down, which he did not seem inclined to do at the time. He was probably a delinquent with a rap sheet and she was just another innocent victim.

Bunch of no-good kids… he thought. He immediately reprimanded himself mentally for sounding like his father.

Once he was close enough he suddenly cleared his throat to startle them.

“Alright you two, this is a family park. You want to practice whatever Twi-night, vampire, embracing neck sucking love scenes you have going on here, I suggest you do that at home, behind closed doors.” he sighed as he stood there, looking over them. Why did they look so familiar?

The clearing of a throat startled Andrew and in his start he hadn't though to let go of the necklace. It came free with some of Verdy's hair still attached. Verdy yelped and since his ear was fairly close to her mouth it sounded much louder to him than it would have to other people. Andrew dropped the necklace chain back onto Verdy's neck to cover his ears. That was when she took advantage of the offer he'd made her by smacking him, none to gently, across the side of his thigh.

It actually kind of hurt, more so than he'd been expecting anyway. He wasn't left to think about that long as the throat clearing was followed up by an accusation that had his face flushed red quicker than he'd ever thought possible. He'd recognized the voice that had made the statement though. Andrew had no idea what the old man was doing here.

"Old man! I wasn't, I mean, ugh! We weren't doing that! I was helping her with her necklace and almost had it loose before you startled me!"

He was managing a fine glare at Jorge. Seriously, if he'd had to do that he couldn't have waited two seconds longer until after he'd gotten Verdy untangled from her necklace?

"What the heck are you doing here anyway Jorge?"

Of course angry statements and angry questions wouldn't do anything against the embarrassed blush that ran across his cheeks. The old man was sure to pick up on that and he would be teased mercilessly as soon as Jorge had a moment. Suddenly a nice trip through the park with his friend and their dog seemed less nice and more like some sort of grade school nightmare.

The necklace was almost free, she could feel that, most of the tweaking had lessened. Her freedom was close at hand. Jack’s cocked head and thumping tail indicated that he was ready for the necklace to stop being the centre of attention and the focus return to him. Preferably to throw the ball now coated evenly in a layer of slobber. Poking her tongue out at him she held still, waiting for the last bits of hair to be coaxed off the chain by Andrew’s persuasive fingers.

The throat clearing startled her, but not so much as Andrew, who jumped and snatched his hand away, unfortunately taking the necklace and remaining tangled hairs with it. That hurt.

“Yeowch!”

Her hand moved faster than she could think to stop it, and she took him up on his offer to hit him if he hurt her, slapping his thigh with a resounding crack. Jack leapt up from where he had been sitting contentedly and released a flurry of barks, evenly distributed between the intruder, Andrew and Verdy, unsure as to who was at fault. Amid all the kerfuffle the gruff voice accused them of something which friends like they were, wasn’t likely to be happening. Her face flushed to match Andrew’s and her protests swirled with his.

Apparently, when startled, Andrew yelled out the first thing he saw. Something like a woman squealing 'mouse!' or 'fire!'... 'Old man!' didn't quite pack the same punch, but perhaps he had an in-built phobia of gentlemen past a certain age.

“No! It wasn’t… We weren’t!… Nothing happened!”

She felt like she was defending herself to a teacher, or someone else in a position of authority, and she scanned the grizzled face, trying to place how she knew him. She knew she knew him, in fact she was fairly certain she had his number buried away somewhere, and programmed into her phone under ‘mutant cop’.

“Detective… Cervantes?”

Water bender, new-New-Yorker, cop.

He knew Andrew? Or rather, Andrew knew him, on a first-name basis? That was startling, small world, all that. What could Andrew possibly have done to get him acquainted with a mutant-specialising cop? Mental images of Andrew behind bars, chatting to the cop on duty seemed a little far-fetched, and she put them down to an overactive imagination.

>> “Yeowch!”

His plan to startle the youths worked! Though apparently too well. Whatever the kid was doing to the girl, it had obviously gone a step further than she wanted because she yelped out in pain. What was it? Did he had fake vampire fangs in his mouth and accidently bit deeper into her skin than she wanted? He shook his head at the thought, then, as they both turned towards him…he tilted his head. He knew one very well…the other had the face of someone familiar.

>> “No! It wasn’t… We weren’t!… Nothing happened!”

>> "Old man! I wasn't, I mean, ugh! We weren't doing that! I was helping her with her necklace and almost had it loose before you startled me! What the heck are you doing here anyway Jorge?"

Amidst the cries of protest, the sounds of a dog barking, and the flushed look of indignation and embarrassment on the kids’ faces, Jorge could not help but smirk. He felt Lizzie immediately run up front and bark madly at the dog that dared to bark at her master. The scene was a pure sensory chaos. But as looked at Andrew’s face, be could help but laugh inwardly…and a little outward. He kid looked so embarrassed, like a five year old with his hand caught in a cookie jar.

Ew, he thought to himself and shuddered. He did not want to think where Andrew’s hand could have found itself had he not interrupted them when he did. Then again, kudos to the kid for getting out there and meeting someone! But serious? A vampire fan?

He hid his smirk as he continued to stare down at Andrew, his arms across his chest while Lizzie bared her teeth and snorted at the other dog at the scene. Lizzie was a scrapper and she was not afraid to be fierce in front of anyone, no matter the size of her opponent. Jorge gently tugged the collar to calm her and she sat staring at both Andrew, his female partner, and their dog.

“I’m just out walking my dog, kid.” he smiled innocently as he nodded to the pair of them. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you there, you know, this is a public park and I have a service to uphold…”

He paused in his giving Andrew a hard time and glanced over at the girl once more. Where did he know that face from? Then…she spoke.

>> “Detective… Cervantes?”

The detective was still as he stood there and searched the girl’s face for any hint or clue as to who she was and how she knew his name. But then, his old brain finally caught up and rushed the information back to him. His first day in New York, how lost he looked standing in front of the precinct, a bribe of Twinkies for help in understanding the complicated subway system. Now he had the moment and the face remembered with a name soon to follow.

It was something he never really heard before…beginning with a “V”…

“Verdigris?” he finally remembered and smirked. It certainly was a small world. “Oh wow, it nice to run into you again. My first New York friend.” he chuckled heartily now as he glanced away from her and turned his attention to Andrew, but still addressed Verdigris. “I didn’t know you were going out with this bum. When did he get into the whole vampire, immortal kiss thing?” he smirked, intentionally giving Andrew a hard time. He had not seen him in a while so it was needed.

Wait, what? Too much was happening at once. Verdy knew Jorge too? Jorge had a dog? Verdy's full name was Verdigris? Way too much at one time. Andrew couldn't tell what was happening. Add two dogs barking at each other and his head was almost spinning. Once he'd finally sorted out who had said what he glared even harder at Jorge. The man was smirking and...he thought Verdy was Andrew's girlfriend?! Andrew just stood there with his mouth hanging open for a minute and then sputtered.

"Buh...ehh..."Andrew took a moment to try and form some actual words, "Verdy is not my girlfriend, Old Man."

There was one more thing Andrew had to make abundantly clear. He cleared his throat before proceeding and made darn sure Jorge knew he was angry.

"I am not in to that stupid vampire thing!!!!!"

Andrew was still blushing, though part of that might be just heat from anger, and breathing a little hard from shouting. Of course he immediately started feeling bad for yelling and losing his temper and up went the plain old embarrassed blush again.

"Sorry, didn't mean to yell."

Andrew cast around for a nice safe topic to avert Jorge's attention to and thereby hopefully avoid any embarrassing story swapping. Jorge would get a kick out of how he and Verdy met.

"Uh, nice dog Jorge."

Seriously? Even Andrew couldn't believe he'd used that. Andrew Leroy you fail at social interaction forever.

“Shh, Jack, shhh, it’s alright.”

The furry pirate captain hushed and sat obediently, tail returning to its semi-permanent wagging as he sniffed towards the little white dog, possibly his third friend for the day. After a moment matching her own the detective recognised her, and she nodded. It was nice to see him again, especially since it didn’t involve her calling him to the scene of some crime or another.

She flushed again at his implications. They were friends dang nabbit, all stolen kisses, adopted doggies and mixed signals aside. Andrew confirmed that with his spluttered denial. They were friends, the option was there for more if they decided to walk that road, but for now they were nothing more than that. Getting to know each other and sharing the caring for a certain fluffy friend. She raised her eyebrows at the vampire comment, but before she could reiterate that it was the necklace’s fault, and there was no neck-nomming Andrew flared up at the ‘old man’.

Surely he wasn’t that old.

Verdy stared at Andrew, temper-temper. Something about that had touched a nerve apparently. She wasn’t sure if she should pat him comfortingly on the back, or duck under the bench whimpering. She compromised with a terrified pat on the leg. Possibly right on top of her slap-bruise. Possibly not.

“If you mean the ones that sparkle, not a big fan… no. If perchance you mean the mutant Hunter, who runs a spiritual balance place, the originator of all vampire myths, then of course.”

She smiled, take that as you will, ‘old man’.

She looked at Andrew curiously, before turning her eyes to the detective’s dog. Jack had snuck under the bench and was now sniffing her face curiously, ready to jump back if bared teeth snapped at him. Andrew didn’t like small dogs, so his compliment of the loud-mouthed bulldog(?) struck her as a desperate attempt at a change of topic.

“What’s her name?”

A dignified pause.

“How do you two know each other?”

Her claim to the detective’s recognition had been explained, first friend in NYC, yet Andrew’s had not. After his outburst the cell-thing seemed a little more plausible, still not quite right, but plausible.

>> "I am not in to that stupid vampire thing!!!!!"

Jorge’s face was emotionless for a second and he simply seemed the stare at Andrew and his sudden outburst to deny that he had any love for the ‘vampire thing’. He had to admit that he was surprised to see the kid get that worked up. Then again, in the face of constant teasing and torture, any man is allowed to suddenly snap. He chuckled inward as he rose an eyebrow.

>> "Sorry, didn't mean to yell."

The detective had heard of a good anger management counselor from the other guys in the precinct. He would make sure to grab the man’s business card and leave it for Andrew the next time he saw him.

>> "Uh, nice dog Jorge."

>> “What’s her name?”

He chuckled as he leaned down and gently patted his dog on her side. “This is Lizzie. I’ve had her for more years than I’d like to admit,” he smiled as he stood back up. Lizzie looked up at him proudly, he long tongue hanging out as she panted and eyed both Andrew and Verdigris before she finally just laid down and looked innocently at them. “She’s also saved my life a couple of times, believe it or not.” When he glanced down, he noticed that Lizzie was now on her back, happily rolling back and forth on the grass and he sighed. “Nice way to show your fierceness.”

So, here he was, running into Andrew with a girl that he (and she) claimed was not his girlfriend. He was reminded of Shakespeare as he thought to himself, Me thinks he doth protest too much. But Jorge decided he would let the matter drop. The last thing he wanted for was Andrew to burst a blood vessel in his head because of too much teasing from him. Besides, he could think on the matter some and save whatever good punch lines he could come up with for this situation later on, when Andrew was not expecting. Would be good boxing initiative for Andrew to want to punch a little harder.

>> “How do you two know each other?”

He turned to Verdigris who had asked the question. At that he knelt down and gently patted and played with Lizzie who had started to get back some of her spunk after the exciting time with barking at a new dog. Jorge tried to weigh what he told her. To be honest he did not know what Andrew had said and had not, how much he was comfortable reveal. To be honest Andrew seemed like the type who would rather keep things quiet. But still, may be she really was just a friend and he did confide in her.

In the end he simply sighed as he scratched Lizzie’s stomach. “I met him while I was on duty. We got to chatting and I offered to teach him how to box. Been taking lessons with me since.” he grinned as he then nodded to Andrew’s arms. “Those guns you see there are because of me.”

One last joking jab wouldn’t hurt.

Way to embarrass yourself further. You just screamed at one of your best friends. Whatever will you do next? Still, Verdy and Jorge took it in stride and didn't really say anything about it. The outburst had let him know that he was obviously having a harder time holding the anger in than he used to. Andrew would have to do something about that. Maybe an extra hour of baking each night would do it. Yup, more baking less yelling. Made sense to him.

Moving on to other things, had Verdy said something about a mutant that was the source of vampire legends? What the huh? Andrew felt a little ignorant with all the things Verdy was saying that were completely new to him. No point in getting worked up over it. She barely knew him. No one with sense would share everything with someone they barely knew. Verdy asked how Jorge and he had met. Jorge gave an all to brief version. He probably didn't want to tell Verdy anything that he might or might not have said.

"Jorge saved my life. Thanks to him a mutant criminal that had taken hostages, of which I was one, was not able to drop me out a second story window to splat on the pavement below."

There was a pause.

"Of course that was after the man had threatened to turn my head into mush." Andrew paused again, "The guy had really big hands."

Amdrew gave Jorge a grin.

"After that was settled I brought this guy some coffee and pastries as thanks. He is a cop after all."

Then to emphasize Jorge's jab about the muscles he'd developed Andrew flexed one arm with a goofy grin.

"And yeah, he's teaching me to box. When he's not getting beat by me that is."

Verdy smiled at the ‘fierce’ dog scratching a back itch, tongue lolling and eyes rolling in pleasure. Life-savers or not, all dogs were puppies at heart. She nodded to the pirate captain who was sniffing in the grass, tail wagging back and forth evenly.

“This is our Jack, we’ve had him... a week maybe.”

Already Jack was part of the family, and he fit seamlessly, making the times without him strange to think on. The pause between her question and his answer was borderline awkward, but the joke after the brief explanation saved it. She smiled and glanced at Andrew’s arms. They were pretty impressive.

Andrew’s elaboration made Detective Cervantes’ pause a little more understandable and she glanced at Andrew surprised, he had been a hostage? Why would anyone want to kidnap Andrew and threaten his life? He didn’t quite seem like the type to have incredibly rich parents (although he was an only child). Perhaps he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seemed like a traumatic event. To have your life threatened was a big deal, no wonder the two of them had gone for a coffee/ wind-down afterwards.

“That sounds like fun... The boxing I mean.”

A good skill to have too, especially if Andrew was nervous about people discovering about his mutation and the lack of use as a defensive or offensive mutation. Better safe than sorry.