An eyebrow arched.

"Um." He said. "Maybe I should go...?"

She seemed awful busy accusing him of stuff he had no clue about... and talking to herself. Didn't police officers usually do none of those things? Were looks all she had? Cuz her mind. It was slippin'.

"I'll let myself out..." He muttered. And then he bolted.

And now….he was running.

Dammit. DAMMIT. Dammit.

When she was finished cursing her head, Quin cursed under her breath and took off after the young teen who was possibly her partner.

It would explain a few things, she thought…like his AWOL and why he hadn’t picked up the phone. It created so many new questions though, like how they were going to fix this. They had to fix this if it turned out to be true.

One good thing….Kid Ashton wasn’t nearly as fast as she was. Catching up quickly, Quin turned on the speed and stopped in front of him.

”Don’t even think about it. If you’re Ashton, then we have got to talk. Doesn’t have to be here though, we can head back to the precinct.”

"OH--" BLINK!

One second he was there. The next, a random girl in a pink jumper and pigtails was jumping rope in Quin's face.

Ashton had no idea what was going on!! But... running. He picked himself up off the wood chips, dusted off a knee and ran.

Past the kids on the spinny wheel. Dodged the kid going down the slide. Down and around the kids on the hanging bars. He ran for his life.

And suddenly a kid was jumping rope in front of her. He'd run down the sidewalk, along the fence. She'd cut him off. And then. Poof

”Why aren’t I dreaming?” Quin said, staying just long enough to make sure the kid was okay before she was scanning the playground and looking for Ashton. Because it was Ashton. The power confirmed everything.

As she ran, and hopped the fence, trying desperately to catch up with the little brat, Quin flashed her badge at parents and onlookers who thought it was strange for a grown woman to be chasing a kid through a park in the middle of the day. It was strange, the redhead thought, and even more than they thought.

”Ashton!” she called out, gaining ground, but afraid that he’d simply port again if she got too close. ”Just….stop….I can tell you what just happened.”

And now a cop was after him. Just great. If his old man found out, he was going to tan his hide. The wise thing to do here... would be to not get caught.

Oh sure. He could have turned around and gone willingly. That might have gotten him into LESS trouble. But he was already running, and damn it all if he was going to get caught.

... And what the hell had that blinky thing been, anyways?! How had he jumped the fence... and now he was in the park... and there were swings. He shoved a guy off. Guy had been stealing the swing from a girl. Jerk. He fell on the wood chips and held his knee. And cried. Woman.

Ashton kept running.

The downside of fenced in parks is... fences generally wrap around the whole thing. And he didn't know where the exits were. He reached an edge and cursed so profoundly and loudly, a mother covered her grinning daughter's ears.

"What." He glared at her. "Hey ugly. Know where the exit is?"

She raised her hand to point...

Man. He wasn’t going to stop. Not at all. He was just going to keep right on running, and porting, and whatever it was he was going to do.

Thank god for fences. And thank god for moms who proved to be a momentary distraction.

Up Quin ran, but she stopped far enough back that she hoped she wouldn’t be threat.

”Just...stop…running.” She said slowly, hands spread out in front of her in the most non-threatening gesture she could think of.

”I just want to help.” Man…why was he running?

”You’re not in trouble. I promise.”

Caught. Damn. It.

The woman with the kid shot him the dirtiest look, then left. Ushering her kid in front of her, ears still covered.

Ashton swore again. "Just lovely."

"Are you gonna start making sense and not ranting like a crazy person then, or am I going to have to run again? That's bad form, you know. Scaring the people you're trying to HELP."

He thrust up his arms. Now he was just frustrated. Couldn't she have just let him go? Good lord. Sweet baby Jesus.

How had she not been sure before? This kid was Ashton straight down to the way he threw his hands up in the air. A younger, less….refined version maybe, but it was all still there. Taking a deep breath, equal parts to calm down her breathing and to control her temper, the redhead nodded.

”Of course I’m going to help. You just caught me off guard.” she said, ”I didn’t expect to see you standing there like that.”

Now that the shock had worn off a bit, Quin’s detective brain was starting to kick into gear. Ashton didn’t remember being a grown up, otherwise he’d have never ran and he wouldn’t look like a scared kid. He would have remembered her too and known that she was one of the good guys. This was bad…really bad.

”Will you come down to the station with me now so we can figure all of this out?” It wasn’t the truth…not the whole truth anyway, but for some reason Officer Archer didn’t think that Ashton would take it well right now.

”People have been worried about you…”

Standing there like... caught her off-guard?!

Weird.

People, worried...

He arched an eyebrow. "Have my parents been... this isn't my home town. Did they track me down that fast?"

Suddenly, things were even shiftier.

"Can I see your badge again, lady...? In fact, maybe it'd be better if you showed me all your ID."

Of course he was going to cover all his bases. Apparently this was Ashton, and even as a kid there was no way he’d just wander off with a stranger. Not when he’d woken up to the thought that he’d been kidnapped. It was only reasonable that he’d want to be sure.

”Of course you can.” Quin said, pulling the badge free, then reaching into her pocket for her NYPD ID holder. ”I’m not going to let you take them, but you can come closer and look if you want.”

Out she held the ID, so that if he stood just out of arms-reach he could see everything he needed to see. Hopefully he’d believe her and come to the station.

As for his parents…they’d talk about it at the station.

Carefully, cautiously, Ashton approached the redhead's identification.

He'd seen badges and IDs before. In person. His dad had had cop buddies, and officers of all names and ranks. He'd bugged them to show off their swag, and they'd reluctantly done so. He had either been convincing enough, or annoying enough, to get a good look-see.

He got a good look-see at the babe's badge. And then, since the badge looked real enough, he eyed her NYPD ID for a while. Ashton screwed up his eyes and held his chin.

He read the name out loud. "Quincy. Buttercup. Archer... Hm. Buttercup." He looked up at her, impressed.

Oh lord.

How had she managed to go all this time without showing the grown up Ashton her full ID, then caved in no time to the kid. It was ridiculous, but there was no going back now.

Jerking the ID back, Quin irritably closed it and shoved it back in her pocket where it belonged.

”That’s enough.” she said. ”Now are you going to come with me to the station or not? “

The boy looked at her for what felt for a long time. A long, searching time. But not really long, nope. In reality, it was probably only a second and a half. In that time, he found his answer.

"Alright, Buttercup." The words came out hesitant, but trusting. "Whatever you say."

Badge was real. She was real. She was a real cop. Maybe she'd be able to help him? And apparently, people had been looking for him. So soon. Or maybe not. How long had he been out?

"What day is it, anyway."

His voice was almost drowned out by the noise of playground cheers.

Oh God. Now he was going to call her Buttercup. This was exactly why he’d never seen the ID before. It was something the redhead instinctively knew she’d never live down. This day got better and better all the time.

At least he was going to go back to the station with her, Quin decided, looking on the bright side. The second question was harder, though. Gaining kid-Ashton’s trust had been hard enough, telling him that he wasn’t actually a young teenager was the last bomb Quin wanted to drop. He’d figure it out soon enough anyway…surely things had been a little different when he was growing up from what they were now.

”We’ll talk about it when we get back to the station.”

"Alright..." Ashton sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, and repeated, quieter this time. "Alright. So where is your..."

The kid's eyes traveled from the redhead, towards the street beyond, then landed on something that made his head hurt.

"What... the hell is that?"

He was looking at one of those new-age cars. And by god if he didn't know what the hell it was. It looked like ass. Sleek ass, but ass, all the same.