There really wasn’t much to say once they were in the back of the squad car. Aurum had said it all..for both of them. So much for the right to remain silent.

Riley knew how this looked, Aurum was half naked for God’s sake, and she was wandering around in pajamas. The cuffs were making her hands ache, and the dark haired woman took a moment to glare at the obvious rookie in the front seat. He didn’t know how to put cuffs on. Riley shifted slightly, trying to find a comfortable way to sit. At this point, talking wouldn’t help, not at all.

Aurum had sounded like an idiot, raving about the water cop…but the mention of MRC (pronounced “mercy”) did bring something to mind…and they had rights. Like a phone call.

Back she sat against the seat, rolling her head to the side so she could see Aurum, poor disillusioned golden boy.

Riley nodded to the cops in the front seat. ”You realize they think I’m a hooker…right?” she asked, eyebrows raised at Aurum.

>>”You realize they think I’m a hooker…right?”

"Tell them you aren't..." Aurum shifted uncomfortably in his seat, glancing out the window.

He knew this all looked bad. He hadn't wanted this outcome. He hadn't thought it possible... but it was. He'd messed up. Tonight... no, this entire case... was just a parade of his screw-ups. If Riley even spoke to him after all of this was through, it would be a miracle. And not the kind Ami always raved about involving creepy clowns she couldn't help but try and explain for his uneducated mind. A real one. Not made up like roofingtile... or... whatever Ami always said.

Ugh. Why am I thinking about crap like this now?

He glared at a passing headlight. "At least we aren't dead." He said heatedly.

Tell them she wasn’t a hooker…and at least they weren’t dead. Aurum had a lot to add to the situation.

”I’m sure they’ve never heard that one before. I’ll bet that usually hookers own right up to turning tricks in obvious alleyways.” she said, staring out the window. ”Hey though…at least I’m used to getting called that …you remember, right? The court room?” Yeah…it was a low blow, bringing all that up, but Riley wasn’t feeling particularly charitable.

She sighed and shut her mouth, sparing Aurum some of her ire. This wasn’t completely his fault, she was the one who’d decided they should dig into Lonnie’s side job. She was the one who’d been bitter over something that was over. She was the one who’d had to prove to Aurum that Lonnie was a creep.

”Yeah. This is definitely safer than my apartment.” she sighed. It was something.

>>”Hey though…at least I’m used to getting called that …you remember, right? The court room?”

Aurum didn't say anything. He only brooded and watched the city fly by.

He remembered alright. They'd first met in the Court Room. Her honor had been challenged. Lonnie'd done a hell of a job challenging it. He'd nearly ruined business for her for a long time. She was doing better now, and that was good, but... it had taken a long time for her to separate him from Lonnie and stop blaming him for it all. At least they were alive... and at least she'd forgiven him for being connected to Lonnie. She wasn't saying everything in the world was his fault.

The cop car they were in at the moment was his fault, yet she wasn't blaming him heavily for that. It was kind of ironic. He didn't see any humor in it, though.

The ride to the station was silent for the most part after that. Riley and Aurum both had their thoughts, but they kept them to themselves. When they reached the police station, the two officers, redheaded Ron and round-cheeked Ralph, helped to dynamic duo out of the car.

Were they going into a cell? Aurum wondered about that.

A guy in a leather jacket strutted into the front lobby as they arrived and put those thoughts to rest. It was almost as if he'd been waiting for them.

He'd been waiting for them. The pair that had been ranting about some 'water cop' and 'thugs'. Ashton hadn't seen Cervantes that day. It was almost suspicious. And if two goofballs were mentioning someone matching Cervantes' description and modus operandi, it was almost as good as calling him by name.

He stepped into the lobby, addressed the two officers, and told them he'd take it from there. Then, he turned to address shirtless Joe and Mary Sue. He paused. Turned back towards the officers. Stared at them. Made a mental adjustment, and turned back to address Riley.

"We need to get you out of those cuffs. But first, tell me what's up."

He ignored the shirtless guy. Someone needed to get him a shirt. Riley, he knew. That other guy? Who cared?

Most people would have been embarrassed to run into someone they knew while they were in cuffs, especially if they’d gone out and done things with that person on multiple occasions. Riley wasn’t embarrassed when she saw Ashton though…she was relieved.

He waltzed into the station lobby, and Riley didn’t even try to hide the smile as he cast a look at the beat cops. No, it wasn’t really their fault…but Riley still felt a little better about the whole situation.

Ashton back to address them and Riley nodded enthusiastically when he said they needed to get her out of the cuffs. ”Rookie over there clicked them too tight, I can’t feel my hands.” He also wanted to know what had happened. Well….

”Well. It’s not what those two thought.” she said, then shrugged her shoulders, ”Just a regular night…I found a trio of weirdo hitchhikers. One of which I happened to know. ” she gave Aurum a quick nod and then went back to ignoring him, ”Got stuck in an elevator, then a couple of bad guys broke into my apartment.”

”It’s all his fault.”

Aurum didn't grumble. Not one bit. Even when she tried playing it all off on him. Hadn't he just thought something about it being ironic she wasn't blaming him for this? He had to learn to keep his mouth shut. It was like saying a storm couldn't get any worse, right before a freak downpour.

Speaking of being all washed up. "Ahem." Aurum cleared his throat, in a vain attempt to draw attention to himself, and away from Riley, who obviously knew this man, and... perhaps even liked him... not because he was somehow strangely jealous she wasn't paying attention to him blaming him or anything, but because he had key information and they really needed to talk to this clown to get his help before she got freed and he got tossed into a jail cell shirtless, with a big guy named Hunk. "It wasn't all my fault. We're in trouble, Mr... sorry. I didn't get your name." Cops really needed to wear grocery store clerk name tags. And aprons, since they were always cleaning up everyones messes.

The guy was staring at him now. He decided to make his point.

"One of your own. A water cop? He's in this with us. And he's in trouble. So. Maybe we should all have our wrists freed so we can pool our minds and do something about it."

>>”Rookie over there clicked them too tight, I can’t feel my hands.”

Now, that was simply a crime right there. Ashton glanced towards the rookie. The guy shrunk under his scrutiny and a single head shake. That was enough for the moment. He returned his focus to the pretty lady. She said it wasn't her fault.

It wasn't what the two officers had thought. He knew that. Confirmation was good, though. He believed it coming from her mouth. Hitchhikers were involved. Shirtless boy was one of them. She knew him. Maybe later she could explain when, where, and how he'd lost that shirt of his? He wouldn't judge... her. Him? He already was. The guy was to blame for everything.

Everything was on spineless shirtless guy's back. Ashton gave him a hard look, taking the guy's measure. It was then the guy chose to try and prove he wasn't spineless, and practically wet his pants crying his eyes out and trying to look important to prove something to the lady. Or... at least that's what Ashton got from it.

The guy asked for his name. "Tell me yours, first." Ashton said.

"Aurum."

"Detective Drake." Ashton glowered.

Spineless boy continued quickly, as if trying to force out some feeble point before he decided to go back to ignoring him and getting the real story from the far better source. What the guy said, though, piqued his curiosity just enough. That's what he'd come down for. The water cop.

Ashton's eyes snapped to the two officers. "Keys." He said. One word. Guttural. How could they refuse? Ashton bent behind Riley, unlocking her cuffs first. Then, he moved over to 'Aurum', the guy he had nothing to be jealous of. He unlocked musclechest's cuffs gruffly. "Speak." He said, but turned to the rookie and his boss, cutting gold boy off before he could start. He snapped his fingers. "Ralph. Get this guy a shirt."

The round-cheeked cop skittered. Ashton turned his focus back to Aurum. "Speak." He repeated impatiently. Ralph rushed back to him with a dingy t-shirt that looked like it had been used for scrubbing or mopping something up. Ashton shoved it towards Aurum quickly. "And put this on. Have some decency. Jesus." Wherever that hastily-acquired shirt had come from, he didn't care. The thing was a godsend. Seriously.

Riley watched the exchange between Aurum and Ashton with no small amount of amusement. There was definitely some posturing going on and under normal circumstances she would have been thoroughly intrigued…but her hands were really starting to hurt. Names were finally exchanged…to a point, and Riley had to admire the way Ashton was handling the whole situation.

He’d told her he was a Detective, and that he did important things, but Riley was impressed…he held sway around here, and quickly enough cuff keys were handed over. The second her hands were free, Riley started rubbing her wrists with her numb hands, wincing at the pins and needles as the feeling returned.

Aurum had bumbled his way through the story, and Riley nodded her head to corroborate the places where she was necessary. ”Obviously there’s more to the story than that. Your cop buddy and the chick with the scar on her face were going to some bus station. I just wanted to go home…but then those thugs showed up with their fancy mutant powers and their guns.”

At some point, someone had gotten Aurum a shirt, and Riley’s eyebrows rose at the state of the thing. Maybe she felt a little sorry for the guy…

”We skipped out the window…Aurum was crashing at my place since he’d already had a run-in with the thugs. The shirtless thing isn’t his fault…the punks busted in while he was changing and we didn’t have a chance to grab anything….” she held up a slippered foot, ”Not even shoes.”

Drake had told him to speak, so of course Riley had spoken for him. While she was talking, he focused on pulling on that shirt. Ugh. It wasn't dry. And was that... for a second, there had been a flash of recognition in his mind at the face of the celebrity with girl hair on the chest of the shirt, but it had been gone lightning quick. Whoever was on the shirt obviously didn't matter enough for him to have committed their face and name to memory.

He let Riley finish, then cut in. "Water cop, Scarface and I all woke up in the back of a truck in the middle of nowhere with no memory of how we'd gotten there, all handcuffed together. I don't know if we actually had met those goons before then or not. Scarface told me she was responsible for the memory loss. We jumped out of the moving vehicle and... that's how I lost my shirt." Losing it in the line of duty was better than losing it accidentally, wasn't it? Yeah. He thought it was.

Oh good. Putting that shirt on had shut him up. It wasn't as if he'd planned that, but... Riley was making a whole lot more sense with her far more complete summary of the story so far, so... just as planned, he guessed.

Scarfaced women and watercops and bus stations. There was certainly a lot to this story. And thugs with mutant powers and guns.

His eyes flared in recognition. Well. Guns would explain the gunfire heard. He highly doubted Riley knew how to fire a gun, and shirtless boy hadn't had a piece on him when they'd frisked him... not that he'd been wearing much to frisk.

Why Aurum was crashing at her place, he couldn't fathom, but the story, for the most part, made sense.

Aurum decided now, after Riley'd finished showing off her story and her slippers, it was his turn to talk. Ashton looked his way skeptically.

Memory-erasure... no mutants came to mind for him with that power.

What he said about the shirt conflicted what Riley said about it. Ashton looked between the two of them.

"Just what are you two into?" He asked. It sounded pretty big, whatever it was.

Aurum chimed in at the perfect time…after she’d said everything useful. Riley nodded more, impatiently, hoping he’d get to the point. Yes there…water cop, scar face lady, blah blah blah. Pretty much the same things she’d said. Ashton didn’t care about how he’d gotten to her apartment…he cared about what had gotten them thrown into the back of a squad car.

What were the two of them into?

Riley actually slapped a palm to her forehead.

”What are we into?” Riley said, eyes wide as slightly hysterical chuckles started to well up inside of her. ”We are not into anything.” she said, gesturing between herself and Mr. Bieber fever.

”I was having a really good day Ashton. A really. Good. Day. Then…my cab got flagged down…then…everything. Someone broke into my apartment, I climbed down the fire escape, got shot at. Then I got called a hooker. A. Hooker. Ashton. “

Riley took a deep breath and let her hand drop to her side, ”I had a good day.”

”This is a police station. Is there coffee anywhere?”

"Real coffee," Aurum commented. "Strong." Because stronger was better, and they could certainly use a stiff drink right now. In lieu of liquor, coffee would have to do.

Ashton ignored him. His focus was still on Riley. Aurum took the moment to consider their next course of action. They'd eluded the bad guys for the moment, gotten in touch with a cop, and told him their story. He was helping them... at least, that's what Aurum figured he'd do. Help them. Or Riley, specifically. Their next course of action had to be a good one. He didn't want to waste Mr. Drake's time. Maybe he could call his cop buddy and see if they couldn't get in contact with him? Would that even work?

"We should try and call up the water cop." He interrupted Ashton and Riley's conversation. "He still has his phone."

"Calm down," Ashton told her. "You won't get anywhere gnawing my ear off. It's a rough situation and I just want to get all the facts. If this whole thing is part of something bigger, that's good to know. I can get you coffee."

>>"Real coffee," Aurum commented. "Strong."

Ashton very nearly rolled his eyes.

"Coffee the way you like it, Riley. But you're going to have to work with me instead of against. You've been doing great so far. Keep it up."

>>"We should try and call up the water cop."

The punk interrupted him.

>>"He still has his phone."

"Good idea." He commented dryly, giving the guy the smallest of points. Ashton pulled out his phone.

Ashton told her to calm down. Normally, someone taking that tone of voice with her would have made Riley bristle…but she knew Ashton. Ashton wasn’t being condescending, he wasn’t trying to lord his lofty police position over her. Ashton was straight up, Ashton called things like they were. Ashton was telling the truth, she did need to calm down...and his praise actually felt kind of nice.

Riley nodded her head slowly and took a deep breath, ”You’re right.” she said, with a heavy sigh. He offered her coffee…just the way she liked it, and the dark haired woman even had to smile a little.

”You know the way right to a girl’s heart.” she said, then ran a hand through her hair, the pony tail was going to need redone.

”Truth be told…I didn’t know it was a bigger thing…but since they came after me and Aurum…it must be.”

Riley eyed Aurum as he interrupted and made his suggestion and Ashton got out his phone, ”Tell you what. When you’re done there, you get me that coffee and I’ll tell you everything.”

While the Detective made his call, Riley glanced over at Aurum, "I suppose I should tell you thanks...for back at the apartment."