Hey, it's a new chapter! Liz and Trip scheme to get Vince to stop being a moron.

Beta'ed by the lovely WtchCool.

- o – o –

Chapter ten: Brighter than the Sun

It said something about Dana Faraday's character that learning that her son's imaginary friend wasn't so imaginary, and that his best friend was a future criminal mastermind didn't even faze her. She'd merely asked the vigilante sitting at her kitchen table if he wanted more coffee, and told Trip to take…Liz to watch cartoons in the living room. The two children had wandered out without much prompting, leaving Dana with the Cape.

"Well?" the Cape said, breaking into Dana's thoughts. She looked at him sharply, wrapping a strand of hair around her finger as she thought.

"What? Am I supposed to scream at you or hit you with a frying pan, or something?" Dana replied. Judging by the look on his face, Dana had gotten the question on his mind correct. "I wouldn't do that. I'm trying not to alienate my son, you know… Shit. I have to apologize to him." She sighed, rubbing her forehead with one hand.

"Umm… That thought had crossed my mind," the Cape admitted. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, coffee cup held loosely in one hand. He was about to say something else when his com link buzzed. Dana waited patiently as the vigilante listened to whoever was on the other end of the line.

The vigilante stood up, an apologetic smile on his face. "Work calls," he muttered, slipping past her. Dana heard him say his goodbyes to Trip, but she didn't really focus on them. For just a second, she'd heard Vince under the vigilante's tone… But that was stupid. And besides that, she apparently had a smuggler arriving at her apartment in a little less than an hour.

Her life couldn't be simple anymore, could it?

- o – o -

Dana sat on the easy chair rescued from a Goodwill store when she was in college, staring at the front door while she pretended to listen to the cartoons Trip and Liz were watching. It was Hong Kong Phooey or something like that; she didn't remember the name, but it was apparently popular with them. Unsurprisingly, Liz had been rooting for the villains of the show, while Trip was firmly for the hero of the show (which, for some reason, was an anthropomorphic talking dog in a world full of regular humans).

She jumped a little as someone knocked on the door. As the public defender checked her watch, she realized that it'd been an hour since Liz had contacted her father—or at least one of his representatives. It wasn't like a big bad criminal mastermind could…be… Oh.

Apparently, Dana realized, even the big bad criminals with a track record of alleged murders could be troubled to drop everything to come get their children. Although, honestly speaking, this was kind of pathetic to watch… Very rarely had she ever seen a grown man, who looked even half as terrifying as Scales did up close, sob as he hugged his child. Given that Scales had watched his daughter being abducted, she could probably understand.

Dana smiled as Scales finished out his obligatory parenting speech, which always seemed to be finished with "I'm so glad you're safe, and never scare me like that again"…or some variation thereof.

"Would you like some coffee?" Dana offered, just to be polite, as the smuggler stopped hugging his daughter. Liz smiled at her father, indicating that she was alright. The public defender decided that the girl was going to grow up to be a devious little devil in a few years—she was obviously manipulating something. What that something was, Dana wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"T'anks verra much," Scales rumbled, standing up. He shot a look at his daughter, clearly ordering her to stay put. Liz smiled as her father left with the public defender.

After she was sure her father was out of earshot, Liz turned on Trip. "You said your dad was bein' an idiot, right?"

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Trip asked in reply. Liz smacked him on the arm.

"Shut up, you! I'm bein' serious 'ere!" Liz grinned, shrugging the annoyance off as quickly as it had come. "I think convincing the Cape that my dad is dating—or at least interested in—your mum is a great solution to our problems. Well, some of them, anyways…" She frowned and stuck her tongue out at the kitchen. "You'd t'ink me dad 'ad more sense, honestly."

"I don't find that solution very funny, and yet…" Trip groaned into his hands. "Somehow, it's the best one I've ever heard. Dear god, am I actually agreeing with you?"

"Don't worry," Liz said sympathetically, patting him on the back. "It should pass in a day or two."

Trip could only hope that it did.

- o – o -

Scales sat at the opposite end of the worn kitchen table, studying his mug of coffee. Dana thought she'd caught him looking at her a few times, but couldn't be sure. She uncomfortably stirred another packet of sugar into her coffee, not caring that she'd already poured in five before it. At the rate this was going, she was going to need twice the amount of sugar and caffeine than she usually had.

"Y' seem a bit nervous, ducks," Scales rumbled, taking a sip of his coffee. "Don't worry… I won't eat you."

Somehow, that wasn't exactly reassuring, Dana thought as she took a sip of her own coffee. She grimaced at the sickly-sweet flavor, wondering why she always added so much sugar when she was nervous. It always turned what was left in the bottom of her mug into sweet-tasting black sludge.

"One can only hope," she replied, voice pitched a bit higher than normal. It wasn't hard to guess why she was scared: Smugglers, like Scales, did not get along with public defenders, like her. He'd had a bit of a track record with hurting public defenders who'd gotten on his nerves, and she wasn't exactly eager to be the next one.

Dana was rather unprepared for the laughter that bubbled out of Scales' mouth. He slapped his hand on the table, making her jump.

"I like you!" Scales said when he finally stopped laughing. "No one's ever responded to that without fainting first." He grinned at her, showing an awful lot of white teeth.

"Oh goody," Dana muttered into her coffee. Maybe the sugar would insulate her brain from any damage that resulted from this conversation… She caught a glimpse of two children peeking in the doorway and sighed. "Why do I get the feeling that our children are trying to set us up?"

The look on Scales' face was enough to make Dana wish she had a camera.

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Think Dana should be a little more wary of her son and Liz? Drop a line and let me know!