Omens, Good and Bad
Stella slammed on the breaks as they arrived at the orphanage. The giant stone building had cracks and bricks missing from the front. The shadow cast reached the truck and hit Stella's cheek. The light hit her cheek bone and contrasted with the shadows. She and Mac got out and slammed their doors. Stella's heels clacked on the sidewalk as she walked briskly to match Mac's longer strides. Mac himself pushed the heavy wooden door open and let his partner go first like the gentleman he was. He let it creek closed behind him.
"Excuse me!" Stella called into the empty chapel.
"Can I help you?" One woman asked.
"Yes ma'am, we're from NYPD and we're looking for a girl with black hair and amber eyes. She said she was a basilisk known as Stella." Stella explained firmly.
"We don't have any girls by that description here, and we certainly don't call our children basilisks!" The woman snapped.
"I was a basilisk!" Stella protested. "And if she does show up, under any name, please let us know."
"I will." The nun nodded courteously.
"Thank you, sister." Stella nodded and spun on her heel.
"We'll be in touch." Mac finished, following her out.
"Mac, if she didn't come back here it means she's on the run in the city and who knows where doing who knows what." Stella murmured quietly. "Basilisks know the city, Mac, she could be anywhere."
"Then we'll start with abandoned buildings; places she could go unnoticed. I'll have Flack put out an alert." Mac said, touching her arm. "Don't worry, Stell, we'll find her."
"I hope so, for her sake."
"I don't see anything besides a busted fire escape." Danny sighed to himself. "You find anything?"
"Nothing. If that girl was here she's good at disappearing." Lindsay frowned, holding up another swab sans blood. "Even the gun's been wiped down."
"Didn't Stella say she didn't even know who fired the shots?" Asked Danny.
"Yeah, but what kind of twelve year old girl carries around a gun and knows how to steal apples and conceal evidence?" Lindsay asked with large doe-brown eyes.
"Sadly, this is New York, people just know that stuff now." Danny paused and chuckled. "I bet Stella knew how to do it."
"Come on, Stella?" Lindsay smiled slightly, not able to picture the Statue of Liberty, symbol of justice herself, pickpocketing.
"Yeah! I bet she knew all the tricks. She's slicker than most people know." Danny pointed out, remembering his first meeting with Stella.
"Stella Bonasera. Danny Messer." Mac introduced.
"Hi." Stella smiled, shaking his hand.
"How you doin'?" He asked quietly with his accent. Stella was a beautiful and slightly intimidating woman as she stood with her hands on her hips. She was a tall, lithe, Greek woman with a police badge, gun and clear, sharp green eyes. "You're my boss, now, huh?"
"Don't worry, Messer, you'll fit right in." She winked.
"That so?" Danny asked, feeling better already.
"Yep, so long as you let me do what I do." She smirked.
"Leave Stella be when she gets going, and you'll be fine." Mac repeated, trying to assure the young man of himself.
"Yes sir." Danny chuckled.
"Also, I suggest you work on your street skills. You'll need them to keep up with me."
"She actually said that?" Lindsay laughed.
"You bet she did, and she had me shakin' in my cowboy boots when she did." Danny cringed.
"You don't wear cowboy boots." Lindsay quirked an eyebrow.
"I could. You know I'd be sexy in 'em!" Danny struck a pose by thrusting his hips to the right and putting his hand behind his head like a model. Lindsay doubled over laughing. "What? You can't take my shining handsomeness?"
"I can't take your shining sense of humor!" She laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "Danny, you kill me."
"Come on, Montana, back to work. You can fantasize about my perfect body later."
"Flack, put out an alert on a young girl with black hair, amber eyes, approximately twelve years old and on foot. She could be anywhere and she was at the shoot out this morning." Mac said into his cell phone.
"You got it, Mac. How's Stella?" Flack asked from his end.
"She's fine, just wants to find this kid." Said Mac.
"Better not keep her waiting, I'll get right on it." Flack said before flipping his phone closed and picking up his radio. "This is Dt. Flack, be on the look out for a young girl with black hair, amber eyes, approximately twelve years of age and last seen wearing black."
"Okay, Flack's put out an alert, we'll find her soon enough." Mac said to Stella, who was fidgeting while looking out her window.
"I know, it's just... " Stella bit her lip as she turned back to him. "I can relate to her. I was on the street same as she was. Now, she ran and we still have no idea why."
"What happened between the shooting and when I got there?" Mac asked seriously, turning around a corner sharply.
"Nothing really, she just saw you and bolted." Stella felt her inner lightbulb go off. "That's it! She's not running from us, she's running from the police! She's a basilisk, she has rights to go wherever whenever she wants. But if a basilisk is found by the police in the city without supervision they're sent back to the orphanage and dealt with by the nuns. She probably just got out, the last thing she wants is to be dragged back there."
"Then why did the nun deny her being there at all?" Mac frowned.
"Basilisks practically don't exist unless they're being adopted. Something about the orphanage not needing trouble makers being dragged back and forth for the good people to see. They want the kids to be adopted, and the basilisks are the failures of the orphanage." Stella said with her hand in the air. "After so many reported incidents with a basilisk, they're sent balanced between the orphanage and the foster homes. They don't want the basilisks infecting the potentially adoptable kids."
"Stella... " Mac started, knowing Stella herself went from foster home to foster home to Basil's again.
"I want to find this kid before she gets herself killed." Stella said gravely before being cut off by her cell. She fished it out of her coat pocket and looked at the number. "Lindsay?"
"Stella, I found absolutely nothing in that alley. She's completely vanished, like she was never even there." Lindsay said to her cell phone.
"Okay, well we're heading back to the lab to see if we can track her some other way." Replied Stella.
"Meet you back there."
"Adam, have you found anything?" Mac asked the younger man.
"Nothing, not even the satellites can find her, so she must be inside a building and staying put." Replied Adam.
"Alright, Flack's withdrew the search. She wasn't seen anywhere." Mac sighed heavily.
"We also don't have any idea what her real name is. I did some research, and I found these." Danny said, handing Stella a file folder.
"These are all adoption forms. They're all signed by different people. Charlie Brown, Stella Skye, Nike Bonasera?!" Stella squinted at the papers strangely. "The last one is signed by Nami...no last name."
"I found them all in a database of children's orphanages. These four are signed with fake names, all of them with a different signature, but they all belly flopped. After the papers were signed by both the family and the kid, they disappeared with her and they never saw her again." Said Danny. "I figure it's all the same kid."
"I've seen this before, it's called faking. Only the basilisks that don't want to be adopted do it. They sign the document with a fake name and then they take the documents and everything they have and vanish. The orphanage just tells the family that they've been sent to a foster family." Stella explained to her friends, all of whom had sad expressions. "Don't look like that, it won't help anyone."
"Hey guys, someone showed up at PD. A certain black haired, amber eyed girl who won't give her name." Flack said as he dashed into the room, hanging off the door frame.
"That's probably her. I guess she decided to find us."
"There she is." Flack pointed to the young girl, hunched over on her knees for support. She was wearing a white zip-up vest under a black sports jacket with black cargo pants. Her hair was in a tight, pony tail tied at the back of her head. Her bangs were cut to leave a few wisps in front of her left eye with longer pieces falling against her left cheek until they reached her collar bone. The part that rested over her right eye left a few locks the length of her cheek on the left. Her red-amber eyes were still sharp and clear, but they were also a bit glassy.
"Poor girl. Wherever she goes it can't be too good for her to be running around like this all the time." Stella shook her head.
"Where is it she goes?" Mac asked with a set jaw.
"She probably has a safe haven somewhere she knows no one will snoop around." Stella said, twitching the corner of her mouth.
Nami let out a yawn and cracked her back. She shook her head like some kind of feline and focused her gaze once more.
"Poor girl's trying to stay awake." Stella looked at Mac instinctively and met his eyes. He looked down at her with sympathetic blue as she looked up at him with pleating green. He could see his reflection in them, through the question. Through the desperation for the girl she saw herself in. "Mac?"
"Go ahead Stella. Flack and I will wait right here." He said comfortingly, putting a hand on her arm and opening the door for her.
"Hey... " Stella started softly, sitting down next to the girl. "Hey, sweetheart. How are you doing?"
"I'm sorry I ran." Nami started with an equally soft voice, clasping her hands together. "I didn't have a choice. I'm the oldest basilisk, at the time, believe it or not, and I just can't go back there. I don't have the right to go back to them, the kids. I have someone I have to protect."
"Who? Who do you have to protect?" Stella asked, putting her hand on Nami's back.
"A man who died a long time ago." Nami mumbled - sounding a lot like Mac - gazing at nothing.
"Who?" Stella asked again.
"You were a basilisk." Nami said, turning to Stella. "Did you ever have a father?"
"No, I didn't." Stella sighed. "I have good friends now."
"I bet." Nami smiled with Stella in the direction of Mac and Flack, who waved and smiled. "I had a dad, for about six months. He was killed by the same men who are now chasing me."
"It's going to be alright, sweetie, we can protect you." Stella said optimistically, looking at Nami's cinibar eyes.
"No, you can't. I think... I think they're going to come after you."