Chapter Six: Crossing Paths

It was the mid-afternoon as pedestrians were waltzing the sidewalks, less paying attention to anyone's presence.

Among the crowd of people, Lola Bunny was alone, seated at a single table outside of a restaurant known as 'The Hometown Buffet.'

She wore a slightly leathered black jacket that covers her shirt, a light purple designed skirt, a fourteen-karat ring on her middle finger, and wore short-heeled red slippers.

Her slender tan bare legs were crossed under the table. However, they became noticeable to a couple of male bystanders.

However, due to the distraction, one of them walked right into a nearby lamp post and was rendered unconscious while another, who was issued the same treatment, tripped and fell right over him.

The incident literally caught the attention of a couple of pedestrians, but they ignored it and resumed their walk. Lola took note of it as well and followed their example while resuming her wait.

She was apparently waiting on a call from her job, which, to her, was kind of normal. Others would just go to their jobs in person. Most of the time, she wished that she had a car so she could drive there rather than walk it. But she mentally convinced herself that walking would do some good.

She sat there in wait for the next five minutes before she immediately caught sight of someone sitting opposite of her in the form of Bugs Bunny.

With a smile, he spoke.

"Hi."

With a single nod of the head, Lola returned the gesture and spoke.

"Likewise."

Lola took note of the attire that he wore, which he recommended earlier in the day, before speaking.

"Isn't it a little hot for a trench coat?"

He inspected his attire before speaking.

"Well, yeah." He said, and then sent his gaze to her. "But I've decided to wear it anyway, just in case we go inside."

Lola issued a confused gaze to Bugs, and then anticipated on what he was referring to before speaking.

"What, you mean go inside here?" She asked, gesturing to the restaurant.

Bugs took note of the expression and followed suit upon her question.

"Well, yeah. Isn't-Isn't dat why you're sittin' out here?"

Lola shook her head.

"No."

With his expression switched from confusion to dejection, Bugs' ears lowered to the side.

"Oh."

Lola took note of this, then, after a brief train of thought, came up with a solution.

"Well, you know, I am hungry. So it won't hurt to have lunch."

Smiling, with his ears perked up, Bugs spoke.

"Y-Yeah. We could have lunch."

Nodding, Lola and Bugs got up and went inside of the place. However, they were completely unaware of two individuals approaching towards the same area.

Several feets away, Stanley and Winifred, whom were freely off-duty until tonight, were waltzing the sidewalk pass pedestrians on their way to a restaurant of sorts for a bite to eat.

During their walk, they were pondering and conversing on the investigation.

"You know, this reminds me of a game called 'Where's Wanda.'"

Winifred issued a confused gaze to Stanley and spoke.

"Who the hell is Wanda?"

Stanley shook his head to clear his thoughts and spoke.

"Sorry. I meant, 'Waldo.'"

Nodding, Winifred diverted her gaze forward.

"Oh." She said, before Stanley resumed.

"Difference: He's not a goddamn rabbit."

With her gaze droned forward, Winifred spoke.

"Well, we'll find this guy eventually, you know. Hopefully, you'll get lucky." Winifred said, trying a spark a measure of hope in her partner.

But Stanley grew briefly unfazed by the comment with a measure of doubt before speaking.

"I don't know, Winny. I mean, what are the odds of us finding the right rabbit?"

"You know something, that's kind of what I said. Yet, I had no answer. What makes you think you'll get one from me?"

Stanley pondered the question a bit, and then sighed deeply before speaking.

"Yeah, maybe you're right."

"Of course I am. Look, let's just get some protein and beverage into our veins before putting police work into discussion. Okay?"

Stanley nodded in response as he and Winifred made their way inside Hometown Buffet.

The Hometown Buffet was packed with customers, people and toons alike. Although the buffet was a huge place, it has a variety of entrees to choose from.

Since every person in the place was able to choose any food they want, it's no wonder that they called it a 'Salad Bar.'

At one seat lounge, Bugs was seated on the left side with a variety of food on his plate. One of which is a salad with cucumbers, cheese, olives, pickles, chopped eggs, a sprinkle of shredded carrots, and topped with ranch dressing.

Lola was on the opposite side with a different variety of food. The only thing that was pretty much the same was the salad, except it had slices of cranberry sauce to it.

Bugs, momentarily, took note to that with interest.

'Hmm. She likes cranberry sauce.' He thought

Then, he remembered the conversation he had with her at Starbucks. But despite that, he wasn't entirely sure at that point.

"Say, Lola..."

Swallowing a bit of her food, Lola gazed to him and spoke.

"Yes?"

Bugs hesitated a bit, and then spoke.

"Aside from carrots, you like everything else, right?"

Lola grew silence while studying his gaze. A measure of curiosity was in those eyes of his. Not that she would mind. In fact, she found it kind of cute when he's in a curious state of mind.

With a smile, she responded.

"That's right. Why?"

Bugs shrugged his shoulders and spoke.

"Nothin'. Just noticing da cranberry sauce. I didn't know ya actually liked dat stuff."

Lola snickered upon his comment as Bugs noticed.

"What?"

Lola kept her gaze to him with the sweet smile on her face and decided to humor him a bit.

"You didn't know that I actually liked hot chocolate neither."

Bugs covered his mouth to keep from letting out a chuckle upon her comment, but failed much to Lola's notice.

For a moment, Bugs uncovered his mouth, loosened the smile a bit and got into thought of what transpired earlier before they entered the restaurant.

Once again, he was on act to an emotion. An emotion of dejection. The reason he didn't react to it before was not only because of Lola's invitational answer, which she took her time to do, but a sudden feeling that closed the gap in the middle between her answer and his emotion.

Dejection...Feeling...Answer...

It became apparent to him that he was having these sudden feeling for her. Those feelings appear to be mentally fighting him, but he somewhat decided to fight back to deny those feelings.

Closing his eyes, he exhaled a deep breath of relief.

'Strange.' He thought

An amount of feelings struggling to get free into his very being was indeed strange. Yet, he managed to block them out of his mind for a while.

Lola took note of this with concern and spoke.

"Bugs?"

Bugs opened his eyes to apply his gaze to her and spoke.

"Yeah?"

Lola leered forward a bit and spoke.

"Y-You okay?"

Briefly silence, Bugs momentarily took note of the ring on her finger before nodding in response.

Smiling, Lola went back to her meal before Bugs, whose gaze was diverted to her, spoke.

"You married?"

Before the spoon of food reached her mouth, she halted, then gazed Bugs in confusion.

"Huh?"

"You married?"

Silence a bit, Lola shook her head.

"No. Why?"

In response, Bugs set his eyes on the ring, before Lola noticed and followed his example. Upon anticipation, she spoke.

"Oh, this?" She said, then gazed Bugs while indicating her ring. "This isn't a wedding ring. This is a twenty-four karat jewelry ring, which I got from my house."

Silence, Bugs nodded.

"Oh. Nice ring."

With a grateful smile of response, Lola resumed her meal, while Bugs, although a bit hesitant did the same.

About four lounges down, Stanley and Winifred were seated there enjoying the rest of their food as well.

Stanley was on the right seat while Winifred was on the left.

Momentarily, Stanley tried to converse on the investigation and Winifred, once again, decided to talk him off of it until they were done eating.

Reluctantly, Stanley agreed and resumed his meal while Winifred did the same. But during the ordeal, she grew briefly suspicious of her partner's behavior whenever it comes to police work.

At one point, she wanted to ask him. At another, she decided against it in order to not apply any pressure on the issue.

Nonetheless, she left it alone for now until the time was right.

Stanley, on the other hand, was mentally disturbed. But he was partially good at hiding his emotions long enough to not have his partner to notice.

At countless times, he wanted to tell her, but once again had to refrain himself from doing so.

To him, that issue was his and his alone to confront. Not anyone else.

However, his conscience told him otherwise. Should he tell her about his past experiences or not? That was the only question. Yet, he never answered. The reason: Was it fear? He didn't know. All he knew is that he hopes to catch this mysterious killer before he strikes again.

As he brushed the thought off by each chews of food from within his mouth, Stanley tok a brief and casual look over Winifred's shoulder. Then, he did a double take as he caught sight of a face of grey passed the brief line of people.

Winifred noticed and started to speak, but Stanley held a hand up to halt her from doing so.

As he narrowed his eyes for a close observation, without the purpose of directing suspicion by removing himself from his seat, Stanley took note of the person's long ears in the distance.

Could that person be a rabbit? The one that the henchman identified? The one that he's looking for? Could he be the killer?

He wasn't sure at this point. It could be kids wearing a cap with rabbit ears as a means for a practical joke. Or it could be another grey rabbit as a citizen. All these certain possibilities became confusing to him.

As he gazed away from the area in thought, Winifred eventually decided to speak.

"Stanley, what's going on?" She asked

She expected an answer out of him, but all she got was pure silence.

"Stanley!" She shouted in a whisper

Stanley snapped out of his trance, and then gazed to her.

"What?"

"What the fuck is going on here? You're looking over my shoulder and suddenly zoning out? What's going on?"

Stanley was silence and before he could answer, he looked over Winifred's left shoulder again to find, to his notice, a grey bunny waltzing away from his lounge with a plate in hand.

Winifred noticed and started to look, but Stanley halted her from that attempt.

Bugs was on his way to the food buffet when, to his unawareness, his wallet suddenly dropped to the floor right next to the lounge that occupies the two off-duty officers.

Stanley noticed and picked it up. Having had a brief peek of the ID inside, he peeked out his lounge and called the grey bunny back.

Bugs halted and gazed in their direction before noticing that Stanley was gesturing his wallet in his hand.

As he approached their direction, Stanley gracefully gave the wallet back to him.

"Drop something."

With a smile, Bugs took the wallet and nodded.

"Thanks, doc."

Nodding with a smile in return, Stanley spoke.

"No problem. Don't worry. It's all there."

Snickering, Bugs spoke.

"Yeah, I know."

Then, Bugs walked off, leaving the officers to their business. Stanley briefly watched his departure before gazing to Winifred, who smiled upon the display.

Stanley took note of this.

"What?"

"That was real generous of you."

Snickering a bit, Stanley spoke.

"Thanks."

Then, his expression slowly grew serious before speaking.

"Listen, Winny..." He said as she gave him the full attention. "...when we get back to the station, I want you to check up on a name."

"Which is...?"

"Bugs Bunny."

Winifred nodded, but grew suspicious of the ordeal.

"Okay. And how did you..."

She halted herself upon anticipation and gazed over to the grey bunny, who was getting his beverage. Then, in surprise, she gazed to Stanley, who issued a wide smile.

Shaking her head, her expression changed to one of annoyance, she spoke.

"So much for generosity."

Stanley grimaced and spoke.

"Y-I didn't take anything. Honest."

"And yet, you decide to take a peek into his wallet for identification."

Stanley groaned in annoyance while Winifred resumed.

"Look, Stanley, for all you know, it could be the wrong rabbit."

"You know, you're right. But we could at least try."

Silence a bit, Winifred sighed deeply in defeat before speaking.

"Okay. Okay, we'll try."

Stanley nodded as he and his partner resumed their meal.