#bergen_county

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"Uh. No, just.... at Pennons?"

"There were all these Sidhe. I mean, more than around here, more than I've seen in one place. Or, you know, ever. And.... and I wanted to be there, right? "

"You think it was the pull of your blood?"

"Could it be?"

"I don't know enoough to know" he admits

"I mean... there aren't many -here- right? Nadeen. An' Dag and I were gonna road trip to Teaneck before Pennons but we never got to. But at Pennons.... I mean...."

"You gonna look at me weird if I say I like Sidhe? I kinda want to .... hang out with more? Know more? I mean, if they ARE my blood.... shouldn't I ?"

"I think you don't know the danger, but maybe you should meet a few under control conditions. Talk to the Chief. Maybe she can introduce you?"

A shrug. "Can't. But thanks."

"you're ALLOWED to talk to the chief. I checked the rules"

"Yeah, but I don't have her number and I can't visit without a babysitter, so I can't talk to her."

"I'm not sure that's how it works... but fine. I'll ask for you"

"If you want."

"It's cool" They move on.

**************************

Earlier...

"So what DID Happen?" Lupe says

"Kid opened his horn case and I saw a gun. Tackled him." Grunt-shrug.

"Holy shit" Lupe says, "no wonder you were making paste out of him."

"Right? He ain't gonna shoot up MY school."

"No kidding" The Gnawer agrees, "Better you than me. But woo girl power"

"Mr. Gardner helped keep it quiet.... but I dunno if the news will get on it or not..."

"Bound too..too many asking questions" She says "And don't they have to make a police report? I mean... they might try to down play it...but my guess is by tomorrow you'll at least have rumors"

"Yeah. Hope I don't hafta talk to anybody."

"...Part of why I bounced, you know?"

"I hear.. nice of may to cover for us" Lupe says

Lower voice "Frankly, if I saw that gun and wolfed out, it would have been a whole lot messier and panicky... but.. weird thing... I felt like this wave of calm when Mr. Gardener spoke... strong neough to dim the rage, you know?"

"Yeah, Vali's good at that."

"Okay, that is spooky. I mean.. I always figured if I had to I could take a faerie on... in a fight you know but you guys got some mojo that makes me think maybe I'd be lucky if the fight got started"

"I dunno, you're pretty scary that way."

"Oh yeah sure. I mean, I could lilke tear through a lot of folks once I got started but I need the rage to really do that"

"Vali is REAL GOOD at magic. I'm not."

"Hey, when you're old like he is? maybe you will be" A pat on the shoulder.. well lower bicep "You think I know all the gifts I should?"

"You're different lately" She says "Whats up?"

"Oh." She frowns.

"Just... stuff..." brow-furrow.

"We... uh... there's Halloween?"

"Yeah... big to do, thinning veil... but that's a while yet. " She says

"Something's bugging you"

"Well, Halloween we change Court."

"Though that was for mostly just that night? "

"Um. Sometimes we change other times, too."

"Huh... yeah... but something was bugging you to help it along. See. . igot gifts..studying shit and.. well.. I'm ears if you need ears? Kay?"

Shrug. "Ain't nothing, not really..." It's a bad lie, even if one isn't a Gwydion.

"Yeah? Well, then no big in sharing it " A smile from the much shorter girl "So share the small shit. You might joke it's just my size"

She fidgets and shrugs again. "I dunno. Not much new."

"...Tove's knocked up..."

She stops, then "That's not much? Damn. You okay?"

Grunt.

"So .. not really, but what can you do about it?"