A/N: this is in response to a challenge by Nemi Jade. Enjoy and, as always, feedback is always welcome.

Chapter 1

It was a bright, beautiful day in New York as Mac entered the café and the waitress, Kate, called out a greeting.

"The usual?" she asked, handing him a glass of orange juice as he sat down at the counter.

"Please and thank you," Mac said, smiling over his juice.

"Oatmeal and brown sugar, Charlie!" Kate called out to the cook. He bellowed back an acknowledgement. "How are you this morning?" she asked Mac.

"Ah, same old, same old," he said, smiling. "You?"

"Living," she said, smiling back. About two years ago, Kate and a handful of other patrons, including Mac, had been involved in a shoot-out in the café and Kate had been one of the victims shot when someone had pulled a gun upon recognizing Mac as a cop out for his daily run. One of the people involved in the whole fiscal had been Kate's then-boyfriend, who had been a forger and was now doing time in jail, thanks to Mac and his people.

"Hey, Kate!" Charlie called.

"Yeah?" she called back.

"You seen Randy yet? Them bones ain't gonna hang around forever!" Charlie called.

"Knowing her, she'll show up soon; she always does. She's probably running late this morning," Kate said.

"Who's Randy?" Mac asked, curious.

"Miranda, but everyone calls her Randi. She's really cool and she's got a dog by the name of Fabio. He's butt-ugly, as far as dogs go, but Randi dotes on him and Charlie always saves the bones for him," Kate explained as she neatly slid Mac's bowl of oatmeal in front of him, complete with spoon and a copy of that day's newspaper.

Charlie chuckled and said, "Randi's a good kid, missing a few screws, but she's a good kid."

"Are you sure about the missing screws part?" Kate asked, raising an eyebrow. Charlie just chuckled.

Outside, a large truck pulled up to a store across the street and the two drivers started unloading the truck via a mechanical lift. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside and Mac looked up in time to see someone running down the street.

"Stop, police!" someone yelled, followed by the oddest baying sound Mac had ever heard, and the runner glanced back enough that Mac knew the guy was running from the cops. He immediately bolted from his seat to assist when the man suddenly did a face plant.

What the heck? Mac thought, going outside in time to see a small dog, complete with collar and dragging leash, crouched down in front of the man and growling. The man was looking at the dog with something close to growing horror. Mac couldn't blame him; the dog looked like it had a bulldog mix in it but it had the longest ears he'd ever seen in a dog. It was also missing one eye and a back leg and it's belly was nearly touching the ground. Mac was sure it was one of the ugliest dogs he'd ever seen in his life.

Just then, a pair of beat cops caught up to them, huffing and puffing.

"Good boy, Fab, you got 'im, but I know Randi isn't going to be too happy with you bolting on her like that again," one cop said as his partner cuffed the runner and read him his rights.

"You know this dog?" Mac asked incredulously.

"Yeah, that's Fabio. He belongs to Randi, who lives in the area and, I'll tell ya, man, this dog loves to run, so when jackass here decided to run for it, Fabio happened to be nearby and just took off right after this guy," the officer explained. "I thought I was fast but Fabio here, he may be missing a leg but he makes me look slow."

Fabio? Mac thought incredulously, staring at the dog, who simply plopped on it's butt and started panting.

Just then, a woman with long, curly black hair with the sides pulled up in a fancy knot, complete with gold hair sticks, wearing a backless red Chinese top, complete with mandarin collar, black stripped pants, sunglasses, small backpack on her back, and brown knee-high lace-up high-heeled boots, ran up to them. Mac thought she was really quite pretty and was amazed she could even run in those boots of hers. She, too, was breathing hard.

"Fabio, you are the love of my life, baby, but really, you know better than to chase after bad guys like that. One of these days, sugar, you are going to get seriously hurt," she huffed, crouching down to the dog, who wiggled faster than a vibrator as she rubbed his ears affectionately. This was obviously Randi.

She picked him up, cooing affectionately when, suddenly, there was a loud crash from across the street. Heads snapped around to spot the two drivers and their load now all over the street. It looked like one of them hadn't been paying attention and had missed the loading ramp.

"You guys okay?" Randi called.

"Yeah, yeah, we're okay, ma'am," one driver called back. She flashed him a smile and turned away in time to miss seeing the same driver nearly have another accident. Mac's eyebrows shot up.

"Randi?" one cop said patiently.

"Hmm?"

"Go inside and get Fab his bones before you cause another accident, please."

Randi just shrugged good-naturedly and smiled, heading inside the café, Fabio in her arms.

"You guys going to be okay?" Mac asked the two officers.

"Yes, sir. We'll be just fine," one cop replied. His partner had already radioed Dispatch for a pick-up so Mac left them to their jobs and went back inside to finish his breakfast.

Seated at the counter, Randi enjoyed her coffee while Fabio lay on the floor, happily gnawing on a large bone. Mac sat beside her and listened with one ear as Kate and Randi chatted.

"Oh, Mac, this is Randi," Kate said, introducing the pair. "Randi, this is Mac. He's a regular, just like you."

"A pleasure," Randi said, smiling at him.

Mac felt like he'd been sucker-punched. She had the kind of smile that lit up the whole room and, from the looks of it she didn't even realize it.

Suddenly Randi shrieked. "I'm late!" she yelped. She quickly swallowed the rest of her coffee and grabbed her dog, bolting out the door after tossing a five-dollar bill on the counter from her pocket.

"Looks like she forgot her backpack," Mac noted.

A moment later Randi dashed back in to the café, grabbed her backpack, hollered "Bye!" and dashed back out again, leaving Mac staring after her, wondering if he'd just witnessed his first human whirlwind.

"She always like that?" he asked Kate.

Kate just shrugged. "That's Randi," she said, picking up the five-dollar bill and ringing in Randi's coffee.

And that was Mac's introduction to Randi.