Author's note: This chapter is pretty much a characterization of the figure from the summary. The second chapter is a dialogue between Guerrero and Chance. It'll leave you with some answers, but not a lot of hopes. Or the other way around.
The first time Chance saw her was when she strolled in his loft behind Guerrero. Guerrero went straight for the office, giving no explication other than the usual "Hey dude!". Both Winston from his office and Chance from the couch looked their unannounced guest over. The girl stood a few feet away from Chance and just finished a quick sweep of the place with her round, dark eyes, then glanced at Chance quickly before casting her eyes to the ground. She didn't even make eye contact, Chance noted. He knew better than to go and ask Guerrero for what he wasn't obviously too keen on telling, so he asked the subject in question herself:
"Hi. I'm Chance! And you are?"
"Uh, Gillian." She cast a glance over to where Winston and Guerrero accompanied their heated discussion with a lot of excessive gestures, then she crossed her arms before her chest. She wore a thick moss green satin jacket that seemed a bit too big on purpose, for she proceeded to burrow her hands in the long sleeves. From the size of her brown corduroy pants Chance estimated that she was actually quite skinny.
"So, Gillian, since I live here, that kinda makes you my guest for now. Wanna eat or drink something?"
"Thanks, but I'm good."
"You can sit down, ya know." Chance gestured towards the suite where he himself and Carmine were lounging. Gillian actually looked scared by the thought of getting even closer to the muscular man for a moment, then shook her head.
"We won't be long." Her dark, frizzy hair that looked like she cut it herself fell back into place to frame her face as if she tried to hide it. It suited her, but it made it impossible to tell how old she was. Probably older than she looked. Meanwhile Carmine decided that if the woman didn't want to keep him company on the couch, he would keep her company and he lazily loafed over to where she was standing. He sat down right in front of her and with his head tilted looked up at her, making soft puling noises. Gillian looked back at him as if he had just given away her darkest secret, but after a while her look softened and she gave him a weak smile.
"He doesn't do anything, you can pat him." Chance said almost as a request. He looked back and forth between his dog and his chosen new friend. He always admired the dog's empathy skills, but normally he would be bouncing out of control now trying to animate the guest to play with him or give him a belly rub. Usually the people in his apartment would have already succumbed to the dog's smile and were more than happy to give the dog the demanded attention. But Carmine just looked at her like he saw something Chance couldn't and Gillian didn't know what to make out of it. With Chance's inivtation she reached out and gently scratched him behind the ears. Carmine collapsed with a sigh against her legs.
Chance opened his mouth to ask her something else, when Guerrero came storming back out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Gillian jumped violently at the sound and for a moment Chance thought he saw her reaching for something under her jacket. Haunted was the word that came to his mind when he saw her stressed mimic. She relaxed a bit when Guerrero gave her a reassuring smile, but her hand wandered up to her neck where its fingers found a fine scar. Chance reckoned she did this subconciously either to calm herself or when she felt abashed. When she noticed Chance studying her she quickly removed her hand and went back to hugging herself.
"Dude, how come you guys always expect my full cooperation when I can't even get the most simple information from you?" He waved the papers in his hands.
"Uuh, let me think 'bout that for a minute. Oh right- 'cause you can supply yourself with whatever information you need." Chance answered, chuckling.
"Dude, just 'cause I can, doesn't mean I should have to. Reciprocity, dude. Winston needs to learn it. Seeya!" And with the young woman on his tail he bounced out the loft.
Tonight, roughly four months after the first encounter, she was back. She hesitated when she walked in with Guerrero as though she didn't want to be there, but after she scanned the room to make sure the coast was clear she actually sat down on the armrest of the couch. Chance gave her a once-over from the office where he, Winston and now Guerrero were discussing some last-minute flaws in their plan for a job that was to go down soon. She was in all-black, tight clothes that showed how flimsy she was, but as he watched she wrapped herself tighter into her green jacket, shuddering. She didn't seem interested in what was going on in his office, but Chance noticed that Guerrero seemed to have a lot of interest in getting out of there as fast as possible - he kept glancing at the woman on the couch until he got caught up in the details of the elaborate security system he was asked to hack into. When he looked back at her, she was gone. He looked puzzled for a second, then simply wandered off the conversation and over to the couch where he was met by a whining Carmine.
Chance looked up as he heard Guerrero's "Shit." and saw him kneel down behind the couch where he disappeared from view.
"Guerrero?" Chance and Winston went over to investigate and found Guerrero kneeling next to a half-conscious Gillian. It looked like she had passed out and slipped off the couch.
"Whoa, what happened?"
"A fever happened, dude." he snarled as he removed his hand from Gillian's forehead.
"She's got a fever? Why did you even drag her here, then?" Winston piped up.
"Not now, dude!" Guerrero snapped as he helped Gillian sit up and lean against the couch, then slapped her slightly in the face.
"Can we help? What do you need?" Chance asked, feeling responsible for not having noticed that the strange girl in his loft was sick enough to just collapse.
"What I need is to get her out of here. As for you-" he turned to look at Winston "-You ordered me here spontaneously for your last-minute shit and since she was with me, I had to bring her along. I didn't want to, and most certainly neither did she, so don't you dare say another word." Guerrero hissed the last few words from between his teeth, which showed Winston that he was pissed off. Winston actually meant to reply something, but was wise enough to shut his mouth when he caught Chance's look.
"I'm sorry, Gill. C'mon, let's get you outta here." As Guerrero helped her to her feet, Chance could see that her black pants were outfitted with a lot of pockets of different shapes and sizes and her belt with several clips to engage gadgets to. Where the hell had they been and what had they done there?
"Well, that was random." Winston stated when the odd pair had left. "Guerrero being sorry? Who the hell is she? And what kind of stuff is she involved in?"