John Tarnum walked outside his trailer and headed to his mailbox. It was a beautiful day, the kind of beautiful day that, at one point in time, he might've savored. Now, however, they simply annoyed him. He groaned as he shielded his eyes from the suns ever present and relentless rays, and headed down the walk to his mailbox, tugging at the lid until it flopped open. He reached inside and grabbed his mail, then stood there and leafed through it momentarily. A few checks. Junk. A magazine subscription. And then...at the very end...there was a letter. A letter with clearly child written words on the front. This piqued his interest and so he slit the top and pulled out the paper inside, which had the same discernible child hand writing all over it. It read:

"Dear Mr. Stinko, thank you for coming to my birthday party! You were SO funny! I told all my friends who didn't come about you, and now they want you for their parties! I drew this for you! Love, Marie."

And that's when he heard the plop sound. He looked down to the dirt and noticed another piece of folded paper, so he knelt down and grabbed it. He stood back up and unfolded the paper, and his eyes were immediately filled with tears. Inside was her rendition of himself, dressed as a clown, and the birthday girl, also dressed as a clown, having a lot of fun together. He wiped his eyes on his long sleeve shirt, then tucked the letter and the drawing neatly back into the envelope, just as his neighbor, an older woman named Harriet, came out to get her own mail.

"Anything good today, John?" she asked.

"...yeah, yeah there was," he replied, smiling like an idiot, before heading back inside.

John Tarnum's life was awful, but every now and then, Stinko the Clown managed to bring a little bit of light into someone else's life, and that, he figured, was worth the effort.

                                                                                 ***

"Why would anyone ruin perfectly good pancakes by putting stuff in them?" Alexis asked as she, Lillian and Tyler sat at the table in the diner eating breakfast; she skewered a pancake piece with her fork, and held it up, seemingly examining it as she continued, "and why do I, despite knowing the outcome, fall for its lies every single time? You'd think by this point I'd recognize that pancakes with stuff in them are awful, be they blueberries, chocolate chips or anything else."

"It's hope," Lillian said, biting into her breakfast sandwich, "you have hope. You so badly wanna be proven wrong that you keep believing there'll one day be a chance that a waitress will set down a plate of special pancakes and you'll finally understand the appeal. It's admirable, if anything."

"...Ew, I'm hopeful? That's disgusting," Alexis said, making them laugh.

"So," Tyler said, "what's everyone doing for their day off?"

"I have errands to run," Lillian said, "laundry, groceries, you know, all that fun stuff everyone loves so much. You guys?"

"I'm gonna go home, lie on the couch and watch nature documentaries about giant fish," Alexis said.

"Oooh, I like that option," Tyler remarked, taking a sip of his coffee before saying, "I think I'm gonna do what Alexis is doing, but at my place. Maybe I'll bake something."

"You bake?" Alexis asked, "That's so wholesome."

Lillian checked her watch and groaned.

"I guess I better get going," she said, nudging Tyler so he'd scoot out and let her free from the booth, which he did. She stood at the side of the table and pulled her jacket on, then pulled her long hair up into a messy bun and sighed, looking at them both before saying, "Welp, have a good day, don't get into trouble."

Alexis and Tyler watched Lillian leave, then Alexis looked back at Tyler and said, "let's do crimes while she's gone."

Lillian headed out through the main doors and into the parking lot. She pulled open her car door and slid into the drivers seat, pushing her keys into the ignition, then starting the engine before sighing again and pulling her rearview mirror down and looking at her face, her makeup job. She hadn't been feeling all that attractive lately, despite Josh's utter insistence that she was the most beautiful girl ever. She pushed the mirror back up and then backed out of the parking lot and onto the street, heading on her way to do her errands. Her princess dress was laying in the backseat of the car amongst other laundry, a vigilant reminder that no matter what day it was, she was never too far from being at work.

                                                                              ***

John was standing in line at a bakery. He was looking at the pictures on the wall beside him, historic shots of the location, their opening, things like that. He'd been in line for 15 minutes now, and was beginning to get frustrated. How long's it take someone to order a box of donuts? After a minute of looking at an old advertising piece hung on the wall, he noticed the woman in front of him was looking back at him and sneering, which got his attention.

"What?" he asked.

"Can you believe this?" she asked, "she's holding up the entire line."

John glanced around her and up to the front counter where he saw another woman, with a little girl beside her who happened to have a prosthetic leg. The little girl seemed to almost be in tears, and the woman - presumably the mother - looked fed up. John asked the woman to hold his spot, then walked past the line and up to the front where he stopped at the couple, both of whom looked at him.

"Yes?" the woman asked.

"Well it's just that you're holding up the entire line and I figured I'd do everyone a favor and figure out WHY that is," he said, shrugging.

"Because I'm dealing with a child who doesn't understand the concept of 'no'," the woman said, "do you have children? Because if you don't, then I doubt you'd understand."

"I had a daughter, yes, and I work with children every day," John said, "so what, she wants something and you don't wanna get it for her and she's understandably upset by this transaction, am I right in assuming what's happening here? Because it seems to me that she's already got a bum hand in life by being disabled. Not because being disabled is a bad thing, but because of how society will treat her for it. And then you, her own mother, is gonna tell her she can't have, what, a cookie? A pastry? The one person she should be able to count and depend on, especially in her situation, is gonna tell her she can't have a single nice thing that might make her day even a smidge better?"

A silence filled the bakery, as everyone was watching now with baited breath. The woman, whose jaw was slightly ajar from this mans sudden approach and verbal assault, took a long deep breath and then blinked a few times, as if she was having trouble seeing what was actually happening in front of her.

"Cause like it or not, your kid is disabled, and her world is already smaller because of that. Why take away one of the few creature comforts left for a child dealing with such a persistent life long issue?" John asked, "the person holding up the line isn't her for not understanding the value of 'no', it's you, for not understanding the value of 'yes' when said to her in the right moments. What do you want, sweetheart, what is it your own mother won't get for you?" John asked, kneeling down to the little girls eye level.

She sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sweater sleeve, glancing up at her mother, then back at John.

"I just wanted a sprinkle donut, that's all," she managed to whisper.

John nodded, stood back up, ordered a sprinkled donut and, upon getting it over the counter, handed it to the little girl, before looking at her mother and smiling.

"There," he said, "now she knows she can depend on strangers to make her feel better moreso than her own family. It's sadly a lesson we all must learn eventually," he said, before walking back to his spot in line. The woman in front of him, who'd been holding his spot, had the biggest grin on her face as she turned to look at him now behind her once more.

"You were amazing," she said.

"I do what I can," John remarked.

And it's true. When it came to helping little girls, John Tarnum did what he could, no matter what the cost.

                                                                                 ***

Standing in the cereal aisle of the grocery store, looking at various boxes, Lillian couldn't believe her whole life could come to a grinding halt on deciding on breakfast foods. She heard a cart coming down the aisle behind her, which then stopped, and then she heard someone walk up beside her and looked down to see Maddy.

"Hey!" she said happily, as Maddie hugged her around the waist; Lillian glanced around and asked, "are you...are you here by yourself?"

"No, my mom's here, but she's in the bathroom so she told me to push the cart by myself for a bit and go get some cereal," Maddison said, "...what kind of cereal do you like?"

"Oh god, all of it, honestly, and that's the problem," Lillian said, "do I want something that's pure sugar, do I want something that pretends it isn't pure sugar but is almost pure sugar, or do I want something that's so healthy that it's inedible and the equivalent of eating a rotted garden hose?"

Maddie laughed, and Lillian smiled. She liked these times when she and Maddy were alone. It reminded herself of being a child with her own mother, when they did get along, when things were actually good, when she wasn't doing pageants.

"I like the ones that come with toys," Maddie said, "but they don't really do that much anymore."

"It's true! A time honored tradition killed by a poor economy," Lillian said, shaking her head, "when will the senseless killing end?"

Just then they heard someone walking up behind them, and they both turned to see Maddie's mother, Jessie, standing there. She was just standing there, watching Maddie interact with Lillian, and smiled when the girls turned to see her. Lillian felt something drop in the pit of her stomach, and she tucked her hair back behind one of her ears, smiling nervously.

"H-hi," she said, "uh, I'm Lillian Phillips, I'm a friend of your daughters babysitter, and your daughter, I guess."

"I know who you are," Jessie said, "it's fine, you don't have to be nervous. Thanks for keeping her company while I was in the bathroom. So, you find some cereal you like?"

Maddie nodded, grabbing a box and tossing it into the cart, then waving goodbye to Lillian. Jessie also waved goodbye to Lillian, and together they continued on down the aisle. Lillian stood there, somewhat speechless but also uncertain of what Maddie's mom must think of her. Why would a grown woman wanna be friends with a little girl? It didn't strike Jessie as weird at all? And certainly, Lillian had no creepy ulterior motives. She was just genuinely concerned for Maddie's well being, as was Rina, but from the outside looking in, especially as a parent, it had to seem strange, right?

Lillian sighed and picked out a few boxes of cereal herself, then continued with her shopping. She figured she'd take her dress to the cleaners next. After all, she had to be back at work the next day, and a princess certainly couldn't be seen in a dirty gown.

                                                                            ***

John couldn't get the little girl from the bakery off his mind.

He hated parents like that woman. Parents who intentionally made their childs lives a living hell for the sake of teaching them something, when in reality they're teaching them the wrong things in the worst ways. He wanted to talk that woman down some more, but there was only so much you can say to someone like her. Eventually your words of wisdom go in one ear and out the other. John chewed his lip and thought about his daughter, fighting back tears. He came to a red light and stopped, tapping along on his steering wheel with his fingers to the song on the radio. His eyes casually glanced down and noticed the wedding ring on his finger, and he smiled a little. The light changed to green again, and he kept driving.

What was it, he wondered, that made people unable to think about how it feels to be a child? At what point in life does a person seem to lose the ability to remember how big and scary and unfair the world once felt, and not because the world is actually those things, but simply because you were so young it just seemed all that much worse. On one hand John hated pseudo science, and laughed at the idea of the 'inner child', but on the other hand he knew full well it was a real thing, and that by scoffing at it, he was only hurting himself and his work. He knew that kids who didn't enjoy being kids often hate being adults, and long to be kids again when they're older. If you don't have a happy childhood, your chances of having a happy adulthood are even less, he found.

But he couldn't think about it for too long, because not only did it depress him, but he was so lost in his thought that he didn't see the car in front of him had stopped again, and he hit them. Metal on metal, glass shattering from the taillights, John immediately swore under his breath and climbed out of the car. As he walked around to the front, he saw the driver of the other car getting out as well. A long hair brunette, tall and lanky, surveying the damage. She sighed and ran a hand through her shiny hair as John approached.

"I am SO sorry," he said, "Sincerely, I'll...I'll pay for any damage and-"

"No, it's fine, I co-own a business, I have good insurance," she replied, "I'm just...I'm gonna need a ride to work now because I can't show up in not just a jalopy but a beat up jalopy at that."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry, I wasn't...I wasn't paying attention, and, god, lemme give you my card, and you can call me and we can work something out and-"

He began to dig around in his wallet, before pulling out a business card and handing it to her. He then knelt down and inspected the taillights, as if he knew anything about what he was looking at. The woman looked at his card and then looked down at him. He was rubbing his forehead and sighing profusely.

"Christ," he muttered, "uh, look, I'd still like to give you something, money or something, and-"

"Stinko?" she asked, as he slowly rose back up and looked at her, one eyebrow raised as she continued, "Stinko the Clown?"

"Yeah, I...I'm a clown, I do parties, sorry it's not the most professional card or name, but-"

"...you performed at my birthday," the woman said, "Do you remember me? My name is Lillian. I was...I was hiding out in my plastic castle in the backyard when you found me and you were kinda drunk, and...and you just hung out with me for a while. Do you...do you remember me?"

John pushed his hands into his coat pockets and exhaled, shaking his head.

"Holy shit does time fly," he said.

Lillian was sitting at a plastic picnic table in a backyard, identical to the seemingly thousands of plastic picnic tables she'd sat at before at these birthday parties. With a small sundae cup in hand, she watched the kids run back and forth across the yard, screaming and laughing, eating cake, having the best time of their lives and not even knowing it. Not even knowing that things only get worse the older you get. She sighed and looked down at her shoes, covered in dirt and blades of grass. Suddenly she felt something hit her in the back of the head, and reached up to touch it, turning around.

"Ow!" she said, looking at the fence behind her and noticing Alexis leaning over it, grinning, in her pirate costume; Lillian continued to rub the back of her head and added, "you know, a 'pssst' would've sufficed."

"You're not a cat," Alex said, "besides, what're the odds we'd wind up working next door to one another?"

"For the sake of my skull, unfortunately not slim enough," Lillian said, making Alex laugh. Just then, Josh also propped themselves up on the fence, waving at Lillian, who blushed and waved back as she asked, "what...you guys are working together today?"

"Well, pirates and mermaids go kinda hand in hand, so," Alex said, "Can I have one of those sundae cups?"

"...sure, just hop on over here and go to the red icebox, they're stuffed in there," Lillian said, not expecting Alexis to actually do such a thing, and mildly surprised when she did. As she ran across the yard to the icebox, Lillian, chuckling, looked back at Josh, who was smirking as she tossed her hair a bit and asked, "so...what's it like working with the walking equivalent of a construction site disaster?"

"Hey, give her a break, she's entertaining, and she's pretty nice," Josh said, "also she looks hot in her pirate costume."

"She does look hot, I can't deny it," Lillian said, glancing back over her shoulder at Alex before hearing Josh speak again.

"Jealous of her hair, too. It's so bouncy and bright. That's au natural, nothing I can do will ever match that," they said, grabbing their own and touching it gently, adding, "I waited a long time to grow my hair out to this length, and god do I love it, but there's just something that I can't seem to capture that you and Alex get so easily."

"Volume," Lillian said, mouth shivering from the sundae, "it's volume. You need volume. Otherwise your hair is flat."

"You should come over and do my hair sometime," Josh said, making her blush as they added, "it'll be fun, I'll order pizza."

"You sure know how to show a girl a good time," Lillian said as Alexis rejoined them and sat on the top of the plastic picnic table Lillian was seated at.

"I had to fight off like 3 other kids just to get this sundae cup," Alexis said, tearing the lid off it and licking the underside.

"You didn't actually punch children, did you?" Josh asked.

"It's not like any of them were the birthday child," Alexis said, shrugging.

                                                                                   ***

Maddie was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a sandwich for lunch and reading a book she'd gotten from the library while her mother, Jessie, was making something for her father, Phil. Despite all the work she had to do now around the house, despite the reasons for why she had to do all this new additional work, Maddie couldn't help but notice that her mother was humming a lot lately, specifically while cooking. After a bit, Maddie put her sandwich down, bookmarked her page and looked at her mom.

"Is dad gonna be okay?" she asked.

"He should be, yes, he's getting better day by day, and it's been over half a year now, so," Jessie said, "hopefully soon he'll be able to go back to work and and stuff."

"I don't want him to go back to work," Maddie said, "I like it when he's here. He was never here before."

Jessie put her stirring spoon down and looked over the counter at Maddie, unsure of how to respond to this. She sighed and pulled her hair up into a bun, tying it down.

"...we haven't been around enough, we know that. We know we fight a lot. We know that isn't fair either. We both feel terrible," Jessie said, "but we both have very high paying jobs and with those comes a lot of stress, but you are never the problem, you know that right? In fact, you're the only good thing in our day to day lives."

"If that's true, why don't you guys spend more time with me?" Maddie asked, and to this, sadly, Jessie didn't have a response. Maddie picked up her sandwich and her book and went to finish eating in her room, while her mother went back to cooking, quietly crying to herself as she did.

                                                                                   ***

"My mom let me grow my hair out real long in high school," Josh said, "like, long long, and it was awesome. Course a lot of people thought I was a hippie or a surfer, but still."

"Mermaids are kinda like surfers," Alex said.

"The Surfin' Mermaid would be a great name for a Tiki Bar," Lillian said.

"It so would! Oh my god!" Alexis said, making Josh laugh.

"Anyway, I appreciated it, because it made me feel more comfortable in my own skin. Unfortunately, my father didn't. One time, in junior year, my mom went to visit her sister and my dad dragged me into the bathroom and cut all my hair off to the point where I nearly had a buzzcut. I refused to go to school for a week. It was...god it was traumatic. I remember going back into the bathroom that night, after he'd fallen asleep, and looking at all the hair he'd put in the trashcan, just standing there, crying. I'd gone from beautiful to ugly in 10 seconds flat."

Alexis sucked on her wooden spoon and then sighed.

"That is, bar none, the worst glory days story I've ever heard," she said, making them laugh.

"Well, either way now I do whatever the hell I want, and fuck him," Josh said, "I just wish I could get that bounce you guys seem to have effortlessly."

"It isn't effortless," Lillian said, "I have to put a lot of time and work into my appearance. I mean, sure, a lot of who I am is effortless, simply because I'm a woman, but a lot of it is makeup, contouring, hair work. It's exhausting being a woman. It takes so much time."

"I'm effortless," Alex said, shrugging, "what can I say, I'm perfect, and I'm sorry, but you can't teach perfection."

Lillian and Josh laughed again, both appreciative of Alexis being here to lighten the mood. She excused herself for another cup, leaving Josh and Lillian alone once again. Lillian stood up and leaned on the fence, her and Josh's faces only an inch or so apart as she lowered her voice and spoke.

"It's pretty cool we get to see one another this regularly," she said, "guess there's perks to working at the same place, huh?"

"I've always heard office romances don't pan out, so I don't know about all this," Josh said, smirking, before Lillian leaned in more and kissed them, to which they happily reciprocated. It was new and exciting, but it was something both of them needed, and to hell with anyone who might say differently. After a minute or two, they pulled apart again, both giggling, Lillian blushing.

"I think you make a beautiful mermaid, and I think any other girl would be jealous of your hair," she said as she reached up and touched it, playing with it gently.

"You sweet talker you," Josh replied.

                                                                                 ***

"Parents are weird," Lillian told her therapist that week, "like, everyone I know, either who works with me or who doesn't, seems to have pain that stems from some kind of unfulfilling adolescent experience with their parents. This little girl I know, Maddison, her parents are like never home and she's always upset at how lonely she feels and hates how often they fight, and then most of the people in my company hate their parents too. I've been trying to get along with my mother more, but lord knows it's hard."

"Parents are tough people to understand," Greg said, crossing his legs, "We want to see them as fully complex individuals, but we can't help but see them as our parents, first and foremost, and as such, we are doomed to judge them based on the actions made as parents more than any others. If we knew them as people instead, perhaps we'd be a bit more subjective, but that's sadly not the case."

Lillian sighed and looked at her nails, then started tugging at the knees of her jeans nervously with them.

"...I worry that I'm an extension of her worst attributes, and as such, that makes me not only hate myself but hate her even more for making me what I am," she said quietly, almost whispering, "...she put me into these pageants, she made me believe that beauty was important, the end all be all defining trait for a woman, but lately..."

"...lately?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow, as Lillian smiled.

"Lately I've begun to learn, thanks to someone I know, that women cannot be defined," she said, "certainly not by their appearance. Femininity is not a strictly defined thing, it's a concept, it's an idea, it's a belief. If someone feels they're a woman, they are. I'm not my mother. I'm me. A wholly different woman than she was, and I think that that's what's helping me most right now."

Greg smiled and jotted something down on his legal pad, then let it rest of the desk beside him as he cleared his throat and ran a hand through his pepper grey hair.

"...do you ever think about returning to the pageant circuit?" Greg asked, "but as a judge, maybe? Prove to other little girls what it took so long to prove to yourself? Show them that they have more to offer besides their bog standard beauty dictated by society. Maybe this would be a good form of closure, or maybe it'd be simply a new way to make something good out of something that once hurt you."

Lillian had never once considered it, but maybe Greg had a point. Maybe she should return to the circuit, if, for nothing else, than to help other little girls not be so ashamed of themselves like he'd said. She knew the damage these things did on little girls self esteem and self worth, and she knew that it was worth salvaging. But god, could she? That was the question. Could she stand to be back in there, amongst those kinds of people, seeing those kinds of mothers pouring their toxic identity beliefs into children who aren't even in 3rd grade yet?

"...I never did think about it, no," she finally said, biting her lip, "but now that you've brought it up, I doubt I'll stop thinking about it, so thanks for that."

                                                                                ***

"Everything is a falsehood," Lillian said.

The party was winding down, the kids parents were coming to get them, and it was just her, Alex and Josh now sitting by the poolside of the party Alex and Josh had been working. Lillian had taken her shoes and stockings off, pulled her dress up and slid her legs into the lukewarm pool water.

"Everything about who we are is made up," she continued, "every facet of our personality is decided upon by us because we think it fits who we wanna be. So, for someone to get mad at someone else for not being part of the binary or part of what society might consider 'normal' is ridiculous. A woman isn't a cheerleader all the time. A man isn't a construction worker nonstop. Eventually they take these uniforms off and they go back to being themselves. Those parts of themselves are not their whole. We are all so much more than what our uniforms make us to be. Just a small part of us, honestly."

"Deep," Alexis said, plopping herself down next to Lillian and sliding her own legs into the pool as Josh swam around in front of them.

"Everyone plays dress up," Lillian said, "Some of us just take it to more extreme measures than others."

"Wait wait wait," Alexis said, "you're telling me Josh isn't actually a mermaid? Oh god, my entire belief system is now thrown into question!"

Josh and Lillian laughed as Alexis pulled out a package of cigarettes and lit one, taking a puff.

"I'm just saying that nobody should be judged for who they are simply because who they are isn't who everyone else is. Unless you're a legitimate horrible person with vile beliefs that's outright hurting others, nobody should be judged for adhering to one social scene over another. We invented the idea of cliques without realizing that it wasn't a joke. We need these characters. We need these roles. They define us, in some small way, and help us feel more at ease with ourselves. I think that's a beautiful thing."

"You would, Princess Twinkletoes," Alexis said.

"Like you, just because you do drugs doesn't make you an addict, and even if you were, it's not WHO you are, it's just part of what you do. It doesn't define you, nor should it be the singular characteristic others judge you on," Lillian said, making Alexis go pale and stutter. After a moment she softly mumbled 'thank you' and went back to smoking. Lillian looked down into the pool at Josh, who was smoothing their long hair back, and she smiled at their innate beauty; Lillian took a deep breath, then continued, "we're taught to play pretend, to play dress up, and then told to stop once we get 'too old'. But the adults continue to do it. They just have to call it different things for their ego. It's all still dress up."

"Deep," Alexis said.

"You already said that."

"No, I mean the pool, it's deep, see," she said, shoving Lillian into it, making her scream. Alexis cackled as Josh helped Lillian up, the both of them laughing. A year ago Lillian might've gotten annoyed at Alexis for doing such a thing, but lately she'd learned to fine tune her irritants and only be mad when the situation truly called for it. Besides, she knew there was no correlation to the act of treading water and her actual life. She wasn't sinking. She was swimming.

And she loved it.

It was warm. It was warm all over, like life itself was giving her a hug. That was until the sound started to come back, and she could hear someone crying over her. When Alexis Lafayette finally got her eyes opened, even just a bit, everything was blurry, like she was underwater. As it turned out, she had been underwater. She'd been underwater for a bit too long. Now, however, she was lying on the beach as a small crowd formed around her, and a young woman - someone who appeared to be in high school - was sitting beside her, breathing hard. She was wearing a one piece swimsuit and had a whistle around her neck. Alexis would later come to learn this lifeguard was the one who'd dragged her limp body out of the ocean, and up onto the sand. She'd never find out her name. She was told it didn't matter. But it did. It did matter.

Because the older Alexis got, the more addicted to drugs she became, the more she began to let down her parents, the more she wanted to yell at this lifeguard. This poor, 17 year old girl who was simply doing her weekend job, who didn't expect to be saving a child that particular day. She wanted to grab her by the shoulders, shake her violently and ask her why she'd saved her. Why had she brought her back. Alexis hadn't wanted to die, but as she got older, she was getting angry that she'd survived. Now, as an adult, standing in front of a large aquarium filled with small sharks and various other marine life, sipping on the straw in her plastic soda cup from the theme parks cafeteria, she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps her interest in making "pirate" her costume of choice for work was partially driven by her seafaring escapades as a little girl.

She grimaced and shook her head. Nah. That was dumb. That wasn't remotely connected outside of being vaguely water related. She shouldn't try to psychoanalyze herself, she knew, it never went well. Suddenly she heard Lillian approach her and hand her a churro.

"Thank you," she said, taking it and immediately taking a large bite.

"The show's gonna start in like 3 minutes," Lillian said, checking her watch, making Alex scoff.

"Who still wears a watch?" Alex asked.

"It's a little thing called fashion, I suggest you familiarize yourself," Lillian replied, the both of them laughing.

Since starting their own company, Alexis and Lillian had been spending more and more time together, and had become essentially best friends. These days they often spent entire weekends together, and were even doing parties together now. For Lillian, it was that Alex was the closest thing to a friend she could have (outside of Rina), since Vera was far too business oriented and Tyler was too focused on Vera.

"Where's Rina and the kid?" Alex asked.

"They're already seated," Lillian said, "Josh is gonna go on shortly. You like fish?"

"I guess," Alexis said, shrugging, tossing her hair from her eyes, "did I ever tell you I almost drowned as a kid? I was probably 7 or 8, and I wasn't a very strong swimmer. My family was kinda poor growing up, so we went to the beach a lot just cause it was free. One time I don't even remember what happened, but I do remember waking up on the sand, and this lifeguard had pulled me from the water and I guess I was real close to being dead."

"That's terrifying," Lillian said as they turned and started heading for the outdoor arena area where the shows took place.

"Probably, but I don't remember it. That's the thing, people always talk about these ordeals as if they're scary as hell, but the people experiencing them are often unconscious. Like, also one time, I was hit by a car while on my bike and I was in the hospital for like a week, unconscious, and my parents always talked about what a harrowing thing it was, but like, wasn't shit to me, dude, I was sleepin'."

"Why did they continue to let you out of the house when everything is clearly trying to kill you?" Lillian asked, biting her churro, making Alex smirk.

"You got me. Maybe they were trying to bump me off, make their lives financially easier. Having three kids while being poor isn't too great," Alexis said.

They exited into the marina, and headed up the concrete stairs, up through the seating area, looking for Rina and Maddie. After a short walk, they spotted them and saw Maddie waving furiously at them, jumping up and down. Alex and Lillian smiled at one another, and headed further up until they reached them and took their seats.

"Good seats," Alexis said, "...we won't get wet from this will we?"

"I doubt it, we're pretty high up," Rina said.

"Churro?" Lillian asked, handing one to Rina and one to Maddie, both of whom happily took them and started to bite in. The show started, and the performers were announced. One by one people around their age swam out from the building and into the enormous pool arena, in their mermaid costumes, and when Lillian finally spotted Josh, she couldn't help but smile like an idiot. Since coming to work for them, Josh had grown their hair out to their waist and had chosen a mermaid as their party costume, which, as it turned out, wasn't as difficult as they'd initially thought it'd be to achieve. It meant that they could charge extra, because the people Josh was hired for had to have a pool, and they got a lot of work for them because of that uniqueness.

It'd been almost a year since the gang had left the company and formed their own, and almost a year since Maddie's dad had suffered a heart attack that had rendered him virtually reliant on his wife. Things had calmed down at Maddie's, but she still found herself spending a lot of time at the company headquarters, inside her little rocket ship, and Lillian had found herself spending a lot of time with Josh.

                                                                                     ***

"I have to tell you something," Josh said one day at lunch, right before Lillian was supposed to head to a party. She was in full costume, and they were sitting in the diner the gang liked to go to, just the two of them.

"Is it bad?"

"No, it isn't bad," Josh said, cutting their sandwich in half, "actually, it's great."

"Thank god. I can't handle more bad news for a while," Lillian said, "last year almost killed me."

"Well, I assure you this is good news. For me, anyway. Last week I had a doctors appointment," Josh said, taking a bite of their sandwich and chewing for a bit before continuing, "actually, same doctor who helped me with my physical therapy after the accident. Kind of a jack of all trades apparently. Anyway, so I talked to her about what we talked about, you know, in the hospital when you came to see me, and ultimately she suggested what I'd always considered, which was hormone replacement therapy."

"Which is...?"

"I'm going to live as a woman, like I've always wanted," Josh said, "I've already gone through the act of growing my hair out, changing up my wardrobe-"

"It has become noticebly more feminine, I admit," Lillian said.

"-and now I'm gonna start taking medication for physical effects," Josh said, "I figured, like we talked about in the hospital, why wait til I'm dead to be happy. I wanna be happy now, even if it isn't exactly what everyone else might want from me. My folks should be okay enough, they've been accepting up to this point, and my mom even knows I've always felt wrong in my body, but still. A scary but necessary change."

Lillian smiled and stuck her fork into her salad, lifting some to her mouth and eating. After she chewed for a bit she put her fork down and folded her arms on the table, looking at them.

"I'm jealous, cause you know what you want from life," Lillian said, "I'd give anything to be that certain of something at all."

"You are though, you knew you wanted to start your own company," Josh said, "That's gotta count for something, right?"

Lillian blushed. They were right. And so for the next few weeks, she took Josh shopping, she even went to doctors appointments with them, she wanted to be a building block in their new identity and help them stay stable as they took this new step into their future. But she wanted to do more than be there for them. After a while, Lillian discovered, she wanted to be a part of their future in general, and not just as a friend.

                                                                                             ***

After the show, everyone was back inside the main building. Alexis, Rina and Maddie were looking at stuff in the nearby gift shop, while Lillian waited for Josh to get changed and join them. Finally, after a bit of sitting and waiting, she spotted them coming out of a back door, in their jeans and button down flannel. Lillian smiled and shot right up from her seat, approaching them and hugging them tightly.

"You were so good," she whispered.

"Thanks!" Josh said, patting her on the back, "I'm glad you guys came, it was nice to finally have people appreciate what I do who actually know me."

"Maddie loved it, like, totally loved it," Lillian said, as they both glanced over at Alexis and Maddie using plush seahorses to play make believe together and they laughed at the sight; she turned back to face Josh and added, "can we talk outside?"

"Actually..." Josh said, looking around, "You wanna see something really cool?"

Josh led Lillian halfway across the park, and into a large almost empty building. A few people were here, but it was almost solitary for them. Inside were dozens of glass tubes filled with various types of fish, including the ceiling. The lighting was a mixture of soft blue and white, and the whole place had a comforting feeling that washed over her as soon as she'd entered.

"Why don't more people come here?" she asked.

"Cause they'd prefer to do activities and see shows or the other aquatic animals. Most people don't wanna just look at boring fish," Josh said as they strolled though the hall, hand in hand; they continued, "but I don't think fish are boring. I think fish are cool. There's so many varieties and stuff, it's nice to see that much difference in one species. Diversity is good."

Lillian smiled, looking at her feet as she cleared her throat.

"...uh," she started, her voice shaky, "I haven't done this in a long time, and most of the people I've been with in the last few years have been kinda...not romantic, hah, it was more like casual hook ups and stuff, so I'm a bit nervous but-"

"You don't even have to ask, of course we can go out," Josh said, making her laugh loudly.

"God, am I that transparent," she asked.

"You kinda are, but I like it," Josh replied, the two of them sitting down on a large plastic display of sea lions. Lillian pulled her legs up and crossed them, as Josh held her hand and rubbed them with their thumbs.

"...you look really good," Lillian said, chuckling, "in and out of your mermaid costume. But I'm glad you said you wanted to, cause I've really enjoyed doing things with you, and I'm not so great at relationships so it'd be nice to get some practice, not that you're practice or anything, but you know what I mean. I'm just...I'm not...blah."

"If I kiss you will you stop babbling?" Josh asked, and Lillian giggled and nodded. Josh leaned in and, one hand on her shoulder, the other still holding her hand, pressed their lips against hers. Later in the week, when Lillian would recount this moment to her therapist, she would say that it felt like kissing someone she'd always known, and that she'd never felt that before. She'd tell him that in the last few years she'd had random hook ups with guys she'd meet at the parties she worked who wanted to be with her just because of how feminine she looked in her princess attire, and how much they liked feeling bigger and stronger than her as a result, and how much this sickened her. She'd tell him how Josh didn't come off that way, because really, they weren't a man. She knew she was kissing another woman. She'd tell him how funny it was that sometime last year she'd told her mother she wasn't gay, and yet here she was, kissing another woman.

But most importantly, she'd tell him, maybe for the first time since attending therapy...

...that she was happy.

                                                                                           ***

Josh was 12 when his sister had a birthday party. A pool party, nonetheless, and everything was mermaid themed. She was 9 years old, and yet Josh couldn't help but feel jealous. Sitting there in his bedroom, watching from upstairs as his sister and her friends splashed and played around with all their mermaid attire, all they wanted in the world was to be like them. To join them. Their bedroom door opened, and their mother stepped inside.

"You don't wanna go down?" she asked, coming in and sitting on the bed as Josh shook their head; their mother rubbed their back and sighed, then asked, "...is there anything I can do for you?"

Josh waited, then turned and pushed themselves into their mother, burying their face into her, and whispering.

"make me like them," he said, near tears, and his mothers heart hurt. She stroked his long hair and held him close, wishing she could do anything to help subside this pain.

"If I could go back in time, I don't know how I'd do it, but...I'd find a way to make you like them before you were born, I promise," she said quietly, "I'm so sorry. It's not fair that you have to feel this way, and it must hurt so much. I don't wanna see you hurt."

Josh just cried harder, and spent the entire day with their mother, avoiding their sister and her pool party. Later in life, when getting the job at the aquatic center, when they were told they would be costumed as a mermaid, it made them feel grateful. Like somehow they'd won something back for themselves. They held that costume near and dear to their heart, which is why upon meeting Lillian, they instantly connected to her, because she understood how it felt to want to be something nobody else sees you as, whether it's a mermaid, a princess, or just a girl.

                                                                                           ***

"You're drunk, how'd you get drunk at an aquatic center?" Lillian asked as she drove Alexis home that evening. Alexis had the passenger window rolled down and ashed her cigarette out it, chuckling.

"Like I go anywhere without alcohol on my person," she said, "you should stay over, I'm gonna take mushrooms."

"You really should try and take a break," Lillian said.

"Mushrooms aren't dangerous," Alexis said, "I'm trying to get off the harder stuff, which means taking more of the fun stuff, it's a fair trade off I think. And then maybe eventually I can ween myself off that too, not that I'd want to. The world is more fun when you're not experiencing it like everybody else."

After dropping Alexis off, Lillian headed home to her apartment, and, upon getting there, found a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy outside. She picked them up and headed inside. As she sat down on her couch, she opened the little card and was surprised to find it was from Josh, which surprised her if only because how had they had the time in between leaving and now to make this happen? But Lillian didn't mind. She didn't mind one bit. She loved that someone was that invested in her, and was thinking of her. She opened the box and popped a chocolate in her mouth. Coconut. Her favorite. It might be a good night after all.

After all, it isn't every day a cute girl sends you flowers and candy, and so she appreciated the gesture greatly. Josh really knew how to make her feel like a princess.

Zoe was lying in bed on her side, staring at the wall. She rolled over and found herself facing Effie, who smiled at her before kissing the tip of her nose. Zoe blushed and tried not to laugh. Effie pulled Zoe's head closer to hers and held her close, kissing the top of her head, and Zoe relaxed into her chest, feeling peace for the first time in what felt like weeks.

"You doing anything today?" Effie asked.

"Allie wants to have lunch, and we might practice something, but otherwise not really," Zoe said, "you?"

"I have a set sometime tonight, but that's about it," Effie said.

Zoe nodded. She didn't know why Allie wanted to have lunch, but lunch was better than their last few meetings, so she was trying to take it in stride. After a while, the girls got up, took showers, got dressed and Effie drove Zoe over to the place Allie had said to meet at before heading over to the casino herself. Allie was already there, in jeans and a sweatshirt, her hair messily pulled back into a ponytail. Zoe approached the table and seated herself.

"I already ordered, I hope you don't mind," Allie said as she took a bite from her sandwich.

"Not at all. I've never understood the weird societal condition that you have to wait for your entire party to show up to eat. Why are we forcing people to starve themselves?" Zoe asked, and Allie nodded in agreement.

"Well," Allie said, chewing and putting the sandwich back down on the plate, "Get whatever you want, it's on me."

"How generous of you."

"You know me, I love to give."

Zoe smirked, which made Allie smile. It was nice to finally be able to put everything behind them and go back to just being professional partners and friends once again. These past few weeks had been terrifying and nerve wracking, somehow simultaneously, and both women were so happy to finally be over it all. Sunny's body was gone, Jenny wasn't squealing, Claire wouldn't say a word and overall, it seemed like it had all blown over. Whatever evidence might've existed was no longer existing, and they finally felt safe.

Zoe ordered an iced tea and a large breakfast plate before looking back across the table at Allie.

"So," Allie said, "...I think I'm gonna leave town."

"Going on vacation?"

"...no, I mean leave leave," Allie said softly, wiping her mouth with her napkin, surprising Zoe with this admittance as she added, "Vegas has been terrible for me. I mean, at the start it was great, but after the accident on stage with Domino, yeah. I can't recover in a place that continually encourages me to be the worst version of myself."

"Where are you gonna go?" Zoe asked.

"I don't know. I thought I might move back home at first. I need to talk to Nick about it, maybe I could convince him to go somewhere with me. After all, with his credentials, he's certified to work as a hospice nurse anywhere, so," Allie said, cupping her hands on the table and sighing, "...I just wanted to say that I'm really really sorry about everything. I didn't wanna just up and leave without telling you what you've meant to me. You've been the best friend I've ever had, and I'm so sorry I got you dragged into this nightmare. I thought I was doing the right thing, at least in the moment, but...in hindsight there must've been a better way to go about it."

"You couldn't have known what it would've led to, you had no way of knowing who his family was," Zoe said softly as the waitress set down her iced tea. She picked it up and sipped as Allie kept talking.

"This is true, but that doesn't make what I did right," Allie said, "and now I've done even worse. Stealing evidence, accidental near manslaughter, like...it's this place. Vegas is built on debauchery, and no matter how much they may try and clean that up, that's a stink that won't wash off. You can't erase your past. All you can do is try and make a cleaner future. That's what I wanna do. I wanna leave and make a cleaner future."

"...but...my work is entirely dependent on your person," Zoe said.

"I think you're talented enough to go it alone, quite frankly. If anything, I'm holding you back," Allie said, smiling warmly, "you're the most talented person I've ever worked with, outside my cousin, and I think you're perfectly capable of outright replacing me, not assisting me."

Zoe wanted to cry. Nobody had ever spoken this way to her before about her attempts at magic. She'd been doing it for so long, but her parents, her friends back home, nobody...they'd never once said a kind or encouraging word about what she was able to do. But now she'd not only gotten to work with her childhood hero, but also be praised by her, and told she was better than her. What more could a girl really ask for?

"...I understand if you need to leave," Zoe said, "I don't wanna stop your attempts at recovery."

"It's just a thought, at the moment, nothing concrete yet. Besides, I promised Molly I'd help her with something first. But I wanted you to be the first to know," Allie said, "so here's to a brighter, less convoluted future."

Allie raised her coffee cup, Zoe raised her iced tea glass, and they clinked the two together.

"To the future," Zoe repeated, smiling.

                                                                           ***

Jenny lay in her hospital bed as her doctor sat beside it on a stool, sifting through the pictures she'd given him. He licked his lips and furrowed his brow in confusion. He finally took a long sigh and put the pictures down on his lap before looking at her gauze covered face.

"You're sure this is what you want?" he asked.

"Positive," she said.

"Because with this kind of surgery, I can make you look like anyone. A lot of people don't go back to their old faces, if anything they see it as a way to become a whole new person, and you didn't even do this willingly, so think of it as a freebie. Some choose celebrities, some choose their parents, some choose a girl they admired in high school. But you want this?" he asked, holding the photos up and waving them slightly.

"...yes," Jenny said, "I want that. I know it must seem weird, but that's what I want."

The doctor shrugged and handed the photos back to her.

"If it's what you want, then that's what we'll do," he said, smiling, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I'm here to help you, not belittle you for your decisions. Other doctors might, but not me. I just want you to be absolutely certain, that's all. If you ever wanna change it again, you're gonna have to pay for it yourself as it'll be considered elective surgery that time around. I'll be back with some paperwork in a few minutes."

The doctor turned and exited the room, leaving Jenny by herself. She picked up the photos and looked at them, smiling. A nurse entered with Jenny's lunch and set it down on a small wheeled table beside the bed before looking at the photos Jenny had.

"Well she's pretty," the nurse said, "...I know her, that's that woman from TV, she's a magician here."

Jenny smirked and nodded, adding, "Yeah. That's gonna be my new face."

                                                                         ***

Molly was sitting at her draft table, trying to come up with some plans for the vault when Allie entered the room. She sat down on a chair in the corner and pushed her cane against the wall before clearing her throat. Molly waved over her shoulder at her and Allie just shrugged.

"...I don't know that I can do this," Molly said through her gritted teeth, "this is so goddamned frustrating. I can't do something that requires such...such...slipshod work. I'm a professional."

"All you gotta do is make it so someone else besides him has access to it. He trusts you. He doesn't know we're friends," Allie said, "If we create a backdoor access, we can turn that over to anyone who might come after us again as evidence that he's at the top of the food chain. If Tony's the one they're actually after, then we'll be able to hand him right over and secure our freedom."

Molly turned around in her chair and looked at Allie, putting her pencil behind her ear.

"But nobody's been following you since you crashed your car, right? You haven't had any feelings of being watched or tracked or whatever, right? So what makes you think they're gonna even come after us again?" Molly asked, and Allie shrugged, picking up an architecture book from a nearby table and thumbing through it.

"It's a precaution, Moll, that's all. A 'get out of jail free' card if you will. I just wanna always be one step ahead," Allie said.

Molly nodded, then turned back to her table and continued looking over her drafts. She chewed on her lip and tossed her curly bangs from her face before groaning and putting her face down onto the drafting table in exasperation.

"Everything okay champ?" Allie asked, not even looking up from the book.

"I wanna die," Molly said muffled.

"In due time," Allie said, which, sick as it was, made Molly laugh.

                                                                              ***

Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper were in Tropper's house. Siskel was getting her gun loaded and strapped into her belt, before pulling her jacket over it. Tropper entered with his wife right behind him, who waved politely at Siskel. Siskel had never spent much time around Tropper's wife, but she seemed like a pleasant woman, and she loved her husband to death and back.

"How do I look?" Tropper asked.

"Oooh, like a man about to take down a hardened criminal," Siskel said, leaning back on the couch and grinning, "Give us a twirl."

Tropper laughed and did a little spin, making both Siskel and his wife laugh. He then pulled his gun from his holster and made sure it was loaded before putting it back in and looking at his wife, Robin. He approached he as he tossed the car keys to Siskel so she could get the car warmed up. As Siskel exited, Tropper put his hands on his wifes hips and kissed her.

"I love you," he said, "I'll be back in a little bit, and I'll bring dinner, okay? I know you always tense up when I go out to do these sorts of things, but don't worry. This woman isn't a threat. She's slippery, but she's nothing compared to Siskel and myself. Besides, she's got my back. She'll ensure I come home."

"After this is over, we should take a vacation," Robin said, "I wanna go somewhere that's not Vegas."

"How about Reno?" Tropper asked, chuckling at her disapproving smirk as he added, "What, it's not Vegas."

He kissed her again before adjusting his holster and then heading for the door. Robin watched her husband climb into the car with Siskel, who was driving. She leaned against the door and waved, as the agents waved back, and then pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road to finish the job. Robin was nervous, but she tried to relax. After all, after tonight her husband would be done with the case, and be a hero. And she knew Siskel would make sure he came home.

Siskel was nothing if adamant on keeping her promises.

"You sure you're ready for this?" Siskel asked.

"Are you?" Tropper asked, "I mean, shit, we've been dealing with this case for weeks now, over a month even, and you don't seem all the least bit excited to be finished. You're finally gonna back her into a corner and close it out."

"It'll be rewarding when it's over," Siskel said, taking a long deep breath before adding, "but it ain't over til it's over."

                                                                            ***

Allie was heading up to her penthouse when the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Tony stepping inside. Allie smiled at him, and he smiled and nodded at her before hitting his offices floor on the panel. Allie cleared her throat and leaned in.

"I never really got to congratulate you on your new places success," Allie said, "A shame what's happened, but you still deserve the congrats nonetheless."

"I appreciate that," Tony said, chuckling, "Yeah, it's been a shitshow. I'm starting to regret ever building a second place. But that's part of owning a business, I guess. The trouble that comes with it. Even if it's trouble from someone else. I just can't imagine who would bury a person like that."

"It was pretty sick," Allie said, "I saw it on the news and it made me retch."

"I just want you to know I'm proud of you," Tony said, surprising Allie completely as he rubbed his nose and nodded, continuing, "you got sober, you've mostly stayed sober, and you haven't made a big fuss about working with this girl and in fact you seem to like her now even, and I just wanna say how great it's been to watch you do that turn around. You were real young when we met, and after learning about your family and stuff, I don't know, I guess I always sort of felt like a father figure to you."

Tony shrugged, and Allie felt the pit of her stomach groan.

"Anyway," he continued, "I just wanted to say that. It's been great seeing you get sober, get back to being successful. You're a great magician, Allie, and a great person, and I'm proud of you. We should get together soon. I'm having a BBQ for my birthday in a few weeks, so you should come and attend. I'd love to have you there, as part of the family, not as a worker."

Allie wanted to cry. Tony smiled and patted her on the shoulder before the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. He walked out, said goodnight and headed down the hall to his office. Allie leaned against the elevator wall as it continued its ascension towards her penthouse suite. She looked at the head of her cane, which had been outfitted with a fake crystal ball and she saw her reflection.

"aw hell," she whispered.

                                                                             ***

Siskel and Tropper stood in the hallway, waiting, listening. Siskel looked at Tropper and nodded, and Tropper pulled his gun. Siskel pulled hers and together they approached the door with caution. Tropper took a long deep sigh, then pushed his shoulder against the door and forced it open.

"Federal ag-" he began, before the first shot went off and he stumbled back against the wall and immediately crawled to hide behind the bar near the kitchenette. Siskel screamed a little, completely surprised that they'd been expected, but she quickly joined him. Kneeling down and looking at him, he grimaced but nodded at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sounding worried.

"I'm fine, it's in the shoulder, it's fine," he said.

"Nicole Sykes!" Siskel shouted, peeking out over the bartop before more shots came and she quickly retreated, "Nicole, we just wanna talk with you!"

"Nobody comes in guns blazing just to talk!" Nicole shouted back, "I know why you're here! He sent you didn't he?!"

Siskel and Tropper exchanged a curious glance.

"Who?" Tropper asked, "Who sent us?"

Silence.

Agent Siskel stood up and put her gun down on the countertop of the bar, seeing Nicole standing by the window in a sleek, form fitting black dress, her hair a mess, her makeup running, a gun in one hand and a bottle of gin in the other. She looked like the worst kind of a rich party girl. Agent Siskel put her hands up and stepped away from the bar.

"I'm not armed, okay? I'm not here to hurt you," she said slowly and surely, "you have nothing to worry about. We're not here on the orders of anyone, but of our own reasons. Why don't you tell me who it is you think sent us for you?"

"...my father," Nicole whispered, tears running down her face, now stained with eye makeup, "he sent you to kill me, or take me in. I'm the fall guy, aren't I? I knew he would. I knew he would, the bastard!"

She raised her gun and Agent Siskel stopped in her tracks but Nicole just fired into the couch a few feet away and screamed more. Agent Siskel continued approaching, cautiously.

"We don't even know your father," Siskel said, "but maybe we could help eachother out. We're looking into your stepbrothers death, yeah? Remember we came and met you before? If you think your father has something to do with it, which we suspect, then we're more than willing to cut a deal."

Nicole leaned against the glass door to the balcony and sobbed, sliding down it until she hit the floor.

"...there's no deal, you don't get it," she whispered, "he'll make sure I never see the outside of a prison again. He'll do anything to ensure his own freedom. He'll kill you too...."

She lowered the gun and took a long swig from the alcohol bottle as Siskel turned and headed back to Tropper. She pulled her cell phone out and dialed the office, lifting the phone to her ear.

"This is Agent Rebecca Siskel, my partner's been shot, a minor wound, but we need an ambulance here immediately," she said, before giving them the address.

"Agent," Nicole said, and Siskel turned back to face Nicole as she said, "...in my office, there's a locked drawer. The key is in the pinstripe suit in my closet in my bedroom. Inside the drawer are all the financial records that I've doctored to hide his money, to alleviate him of guilt. It's all there in black and white. But..." she wiped her nose on her arm and sniffled, "but it won't be enough, because he isn't at the top, you won't take him down by just taking him in, you need both."

"Both what?" Siskel asked.

"...both parties involved. Him and the casino owners. Specifically Ephram, Tony Ephram," Nicole said, "he's the biggest benefactor and, as a result, gets the largest tax cut. He's the one you're gonna need to bring in too, otherwise you won't have much. My father is so powerful, and he's got such great lawyers. You need to turn them on one another. But getting to Tony won't be easy. You'll need to gain his trust. You need someone close to him."

Siskel furrowed her brow as Nicole looked at the gun in her hand and took a long breath before lifting the gin bottle to her lips and taking the longest sip Siskel had ever seen someone take of straight gin.

"...there's a woman on TV, in commercials for his casino," Nicole said, "She's a magician."

"Allie Meers, yes. She works at his casino, she's been there forever apparently," Siskel said, "Why are...why are you telling me this?"

"...because," Nicole said, "he's not gonna let me go, but if I'm gonna go down, I wanna see him go down too. You're gonna need to get to Tony to turn him against my father, and to do that...you're gonna need Allie Meers."

Siskel and Tropped looked at one another before looking back at Nicole.

"You're gonna need Allie Meers," Nicole repeated before putting the gun to her head and pulling the trigger, her brains exploding out onto the fiberglass balcony doors behind her, shocking both Tropper and Siskel. Siskel stood up and raced over to Nicole, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her, as if it would do any good. Her eyes were already rolled back, her jaw slack, she was gone. She'd been gone the second the trigger had been pulled. Siskel screamed and stood up, kicking the shit out of a nearby table. Tropper watched in absolute disbelief at what he'd just witnessed. Siskel dropped to her knees and screamed, pulling at her hair.

Nicole's body slid down the door to the side and collapsed on the floor entirely, her hand still gripping the gun tightly. In one swift second, she'd both given them everything they'd need to beat this case, and taken away their main source. Everytime, Siskel thought, every single fucking time it seemed like she had it on lockdown, she somehow had another new wrench thrown into the mix that only further complicated things. Outside the sound of the ambulance approached and the lights filled the room even from down on the street. Siskel leaned against the couch on the floor, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. Nicole was right, she knew. Not about her father, or about driving a wedge between Tony and her father, but about what they'd need. They could have all the papers and evidence in the world, but there was one thing they needed above all else...

...the Astounding Allie.

"You got everything?" Nick asked as he entered the hospital room. Allie, using a cane, was standing by the bed, zipping up her bag and nodding. Nick walked across the room to the bed and picked the bag up by its handles and then looked surprised at its weight.

"What?" Allie asked.

"You were only in here for a week, why's this weigh like a ton of bowling balls?" he asked.

"I stole stuff," she replied, shrugging, "I didn't come in with anything, remember? Everything that's in that bag is stuff I stole from this hospital. Towels, tongue depressors, gauze, you name it and I shoved it in that bag. Except my tooth brush."

"Please tell me your toothbrush isn't touching hospital gauze," Nick murmured.

"Of course not," Allie replied, scoffing, "What kind of goblin do you take me for? It's surrounded by cute fish bandaids for children."

"You are disgusting," Nick said, laughing as he left the room. Allie, chuckling to herself, turned and pulled the curtain back from around Jenny's bedside. She then pulled a rolling stool over to the bed and sat down beside her on it. Jenny looked over at her, best she could, her face still essentially covered.

"I'll be back, okay?" she asked, "And if I don't come back, then tell everyone you're a mummy who cursed me. They'll buy that, look at how you're wrapped."

Jenny tried to smile, but it hurt.

"When's your surgery?" Allie asked.

"In a few days," Jenny said, "hopefully they don't make me look any worse than I already do."

"I don't see how that's possible," Allie replied, "right now you look like raw hamburger. The best outcome is you look like a nice steak."

"Please stop comparing me to meat," Jenny said, "I don't appreciate being objectified like this."

Allie laughed, as Nick re-entered the room. He stood in the doorframe and waited, watching. Allie looked over her shoulder at him and knew she couldn't wait too much longer, so she turned back to face Jenny, patted her hands and smiled.

"I'll come for your surgery, okay? I'll be here when you get out," she said softly.

As Allie stood up and left, Jenny watched the two of them and thought to herself why she was still defending someone who had put her in this hospital bed. Sure, it'd been accidental, but...it still had happened. Why was she so very desperate for the attention of a woman not interested in her, and who had done so many awful things to her? Jenny looked away from the door as it shut behind them, and sighed. She'd worry about all this later. Right now she needed to focus on getting her strength back for upcoming surgery. In about a week, she was going to have a brand new face.

And one that nobody would see coming.

                                                                          ***

"Mr. Ephram's expecting you," a woman said to Molly, who was waiting in the hall. She put her book down and headed inside Tony's office. He was on the phone when she entered, but he didn't shoo her away. Instead he merely waved at her politely, grinning, then motioned for her to take a seat, which she did while he wrapped up his phone call.

"Yeah, well, let me know what comes of it," he said, "either way I'm working on something, and if this works out, we can fix this problem together. Alright, thanks for calling. Bye."

Tony hung up and turned his attention to Molly.

"So," he said, cupping his hands and leaning in on his desk, "I never really thanked you for the work you did on my new casino. It's beautiful. Sure, it...uh...has had its share of unwanted attention now, but ya know. That's Vegas."

Molly managed to push out a small, seemingly unforced laugh, but inside she was nervous.

"Anyway, you're an architect, I mean clearly, but I looked into your background. You're, like, a well established architect. You went to a good school, you've designed a lot of famous places here in town, always come critically acclaimed and highly recommended. I like your work on my casino so much I think I have another job for you."

"...really?" Molly asked, "...to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure why you wanted to see me to begin with."

"I know, I probably should have done this over the phone to lessen the tension but, hey, I prefer face to face," Tony said, lighting a cigar and taking a few puffs, "you don't mind if I smoke do you?"

"Not at all."

"Would you like one?"

"...okay."

Tony smirked, then lit up a cigar for Molly and handed it across the desk to her. As she started puffing on it, he stood up and walked over to the large window behind his desk, looking out at the cityscape below. A few minutes went by of silence, and finally he exhaled and spoke again.

"You ever build a vault, Miss Hatchet?" Tony asked, "I know it's probably not technically architecture considering it isn't an entire building, but you ever done something like that? Design a vault? You know, like...like what they use at banks and stuff?"

"...uh..."

"The reason I ask is because I'm looking for a way to store something," Tony said, "...can you keep a secret?"

Molly hesitated, then nodded nervously. After all, wasn't she already keeping a dozen secrets? What could one more hurt?

                                                                         ***

Zoe was sitting at Molly's kitchen table while Effie served her breakfast, and then took a seat across from her, the both of them digging in. When Molly had left that morning, Zoe called Effie up and asked her to come over, and when Effie subsequently offered to cook an enormous breakfast platter, Zoe wasn't going to say no to that. Zoe took a sip of her coffee and sighed, looking at Effie scooping scrambled eggs onto a fork and eating them.

"I don't deserve any of this," Zoe said, "this cute rom com bullshit."

"I don't think your girlfriend cooking you breakfast counts as a rom com, but alright," Effie said, chuckling.

"It's been a terrible few weeks, hell, it's been a terrible few days," Zoe said, "so I appreciate it either way."

Effie blew her a kiss, making Zoe blush. For so long, this was all Zoe really wanted. Just a nice quiet home, a girl to cook for her, and to do magic with her idol. She'd sort of gotten all that, but with a giant caveat attached. Zoe wanted to tell Effie everything about what she'd been through, but she knew she couldn't. Effie couldn't get involved. She didn't deserve that. If Allie's entire argument was that she did what she did to protect Zoe, then Zoe was doing the same for Effie. Zoe started sniffling, and then full on crying, causing Effie to stand up and come around the table, sitting beside her, kissing the side of her head and rubbing her back.

"Hey it's alright," Effie whispered, "you're alright. I know things have been fucked lately. Allie putting herself in the hospital has to hurt."

Zoe started wailing and collapsed against Effie's shirt. Effie sighed and just held her, consoling her. She hated seeing what Allie was doing to this girl, but she was in a strange place. On one hand, she and Allie had a long time personal and professional relationship that she didn't want to damage, but on the other hand, she was now romantically involved with a woman Allie was - likely unintentionally - hurting, and that didn't sit well with her either. It seemed like there was no good way out of this situation.

"Move in with me," Effie said, surprising her.

"w...what?"

"Yeah, you don't wanna go back to your sisters, you don't wanna see your family, you can't stay with Molly forever-"

"Yes I can, she said she likes having a pet."

"That's not a compliment, sweetheart," Effie said, laughing loudly, "come move in with me. We'll make it work. It'll be our home together. You don't have to live through the goodwill of friends. Live through the goodwill of your partner."

Zoe smirked, which made Effie smile, who then took Zoe's face in her hands gently and pressed her lips against Zoe's. Zoe could never resist the taste of Effie, and her knees buckled even though she was sitting down. How could she say no to this sort of thing?

"Will you make me breakfast every day?" Zoe asked.

"Get off my back, woman," Effie said, the both of them laughing now before kissing again.

                                                                              ***

Allie pushed open the door to her penthouse, with Nick in tow behind her. He dropped the bags when he entered and stretched, cracking his back. Allie sighed and looked around at her home, and shook her head. God...she didn't realize how much she missed her place when she wasn't capable of being in it. She turned back to face Nick, who was still adjusting his spine. Allie looked down at the handle of her cane and thought to her "accident". She sighed and looked back up.

"Did you put me in Jenny's room on purpose?" she asked bluntly.

"Well, I figured you'd wanna be with her," Nick said, "Considering what'd happened. But that doesn't mean that what happened can happen again, okay? You've worked too hard to get clean to backpeddle now."

What? Allie was confused. She thought Nick knew she'd purposefully done what she'd done, but...oh no. It finally hit her. Nick thought she had genuinely tried to hurt herself. She fidgeted uncomfortably and chewed her lip as he walked to the minifridge and grabbed a soda, popped the top and took a long swig before leaning against the wall and looking at her again.

"Seriously, Allie, I'm here," he said, "I was angry, but...I don't know, I'm sorry. I'm not saying I don't have the right to be angry, but I also don't want you to hurt yourself. I didn't think you'd be so upset that you'd try to-"

"ohmygod," Allie muttered under her breath, unable to believe what she was hearing, even though she'd now missed a good portion of his statement. She zoned back in for the last of it though.

"-but we can work on it together, okay? I still love you. I don't wanna see you get worse again," Nick said, approaching her, setting his soda down as he got closer and putting his hands on her hips and lifting her up onto the back of the couch and kissing her neck, whispering, "I don't wanna see you get worse again. God you smell good."

"I do?"

"Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've become attracted to the smells of the hospital. I do spend a lot of time there," Nick said.

"Weirdo," Allie said, making him chuckle as he kept kissing her neck and she ran her hands through his hair, moaning lightly. How could she say no to this? All she wanted was Nick, and she had gotten him back by getting sober. She certainly wasn't going to lose him again now, not because of Jenny, and not because of her half hearted attempt to get into the hospital to see her. So she figured she'd let Nick believe whatever he wanted, because it gave her the upper hand. But this made Allie wonder...was she really as bad a person as he had said? Was she, in fact, poison?

"I know I just spent a week in bed, but take me there anyway," she whispered, giggling, and Nick nodded, picking her up and carrying her across the suite.

"With pleasure," he said, kissing her.

When Allie woke up, it was later that night, and she stretched and rolled onto her side, cuddling up to Nick, who pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. She smiled and closed her eyes, snuggling up into him when she noticed the flashing lights outside. Sudden dread and fear filled her. Anxiety came rushing in. This was it. This was the last nice moment. They'd finally come for her. Allie stumbled out of bed and fell to the floor, before pulling herself back up, her hip screaming at her. She grabbed her cane and hobbled her way to the window and looked out cautiously.

"What's going on?" Nick asked, sitting up now, before standing and joining her, "...the fuck? What's with all the cops?"

Allie turned and began to sweat as she walked away from the window. She panicked. She had to tell Nick everything. Right now. The truth. The entire unvarnished truth. She turned and looked at Nick, who was still looking out the window.

"I did something bad," Allie mumbled, and Nick cocked his head, pulling the window open and leaning out, looking upwards above them, but Allie didn't notice and she said, "Nick, I said I did something really bad, and I-"

"Holy shit it's Molly," Nick said, and that caught Allie's attention. Allie rushed to join him at the window and looked out, noticing Molly was on the roof of the suites, standing on a window ledge. Allie's breath caught in her chest. She quickly pulled on some pants best she could and a tank top and, with her cane, rushed outside of her suite and up the stairs towards the room Molly was near. Allie bumbled through the door and then looked around the suite, trying to find the right window, until she finally saw a window open in the suite in the bedroom and approached it. Allie leaned out and noticed Molly standing there, overlooking the city below.

"Yo, what the fuck," Allie said loudly, getting Molly's attention.

"What are you doing here?" Molly asked.

"I live right below this suite!" Allie said, "What are you doing, Molly?"

"...I'm gonna jump," Molly whispered, her voice wavy and broken, "I'm gonna jump and remove myself from all this."

"The fuck you're not," Allie said, climbing through the window, before remembering that perhaps being on a ledge when using a cane was likely not a god idea; she pulled herself back in and kept looking out instead, "Molly, what's going on? Talk to me."

"...I just wanted to make buildings for a living," Molly whispered, "but then you two...you specifically, you had to drag me down into your bullshit, lying to me until lying no longer served your needs, and now I'm fully in it, man. I'm part of a criminal empire."

"Okay first of all, I'll accept the criminal part, but the empire part is a bit of a stretch," Allie said, "Not saying I don't appreciate the thought, it's nice that you think of me as that established, but-"

"Not you!" Molly said, tears rolling down her face, her lip quivering, "not you. Tony wants me to build a vault."

"What?" Allie asked, half laughing.

"...he needs somewhere to store money that isn't being collected in taxes, somewhere it can't be found," Molly said, "he says some of his associates are being followed for their part in a major tax dodge, and he's worried. He made me promise not to tell. I promised."

"Then why are you telling me?"

"Because I trust you, stupid as that must sound considering what you did to me, I trust you," Molly said, "I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna hide things, I don't wanna steal bodies, I don't wanna build vaults. I just..." Molly bowed her head and sobbed, whispering, "..,i just wanna make buildings again."

Allie felt her heart break. Danger be damned, she thought, and she put her cane on the floor and climbed out onto the ledge, keeping herself as stable as possible as she approached Molly. Molly looked over at her and Allie smiled, reaching and taking her hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Then take me with you," Allie said, "cause I'm not gonna be somewhere you ain't. I can help you, Molly. Either jump and take me with you, or come inside and let me help you. We can figure this out together, alright?"

Molly looked over the ledge again, her feet shuffling closer to the edge, and she thought about it. How it'd feel, to be so free, falling carelessly through the air to the inevitable end. But...but here she had a chance, a chance to do something better. To come out on top.

"If you help me," Molly said softly, "I want the credit."

"What?"

"If you help me, and we put Tony away, I want the credit. My entire life was tarnished by a man hurting me in high school. Your life was derailed by a man offering you pills. I am sick and tired of powerful men putting their problems on the women around them, and then using those women to further their agendas. If we're going to take down a powerful man, I want the credit."

Allie was dumbfounded. She'd never expected Molly to say this sort of thing. But...at the moment, what could she do besides no and agree? After all, she had to get her off this ledge.

"Sure, yeah, just...come inside, and we'll talk through it," Allie said, "We'll find a way to make it work, alright?"

Molly nodded, took Allie's hand, and together the two entered the suite as clapping and cheers from below sounded. Allie then, surprisingly even to herself, turned and hugged Molly as tightly as she could, and never wanted to let her go.

                                                                           ***

"What do you think that's all about?" Agent Tropper asked, nodding to the television, as he and Agent Siskel sat in her apartment, eating chinese and watching the scene unfold on the news.

"I don't know," Agent Siskel said, scooping some shrimp into her mouth, "but I reckon we'll find out any day now."