A/N: Half the time these notes are basically gonna be copy-pasted from Ao3:

"There's a lot of drinking in this chapter. Wasn't planning that. It just came out that way."

No seriously I don't know why so much drinking is in this chapter. I wasn't aiming for a theme. I basically wrote both halves separately.

"Guess I'm doing this." Jackie with her pointer and thumb stroked a strain of hair, before tucking it behind her hair. She stared at the window of the carriage and saw water. It was just water and she had been looking out there for a good thirty minutes.

"Have you heard of Panacea?" No: that's basically how she answered.

When Jacob filled her in on exactly what that meant, she had to go. This was the only solution. Even if she had to deal with whatever it was on end of this route.

Jackie dropped her forehead to her palms. She had to meet her parents. Birth parents. How was that going to work? She didn't even remember their faces. Now she had to pretend to be glad to see them? Plus one of them were practically on their own death bed if she understood it correctly and she's gonna spend the whole time thinking about how she rather be somewhere else. Good thinking Jacob. This was sure to go smoothly.

Some weak stranger is gonna look up to her and tell her how beautiful she looks during his last moment. What was she gonna do, give him finger guns, 'right back at ya'?

"Hey Jackie, have you tried these?" There was chewing. Wait correction, there almost comically exaggerated chewing. Wrapping paper made a crack as it was torn by chocolate cover finger and with a single motion, Janna absolutely crushed the piece of candy.

"They have these chocolates shaped like little bottles." There wasn't even a fraction of a second between another sweet being freed from it's imprisonment and that same piece entering the girl's mawl.

"I thought you didn't drink Janna." Jackie looked up at her friend. Janna blinked. Guess she didn't understand the relevance of the question. The blonde elaborated "Those chocolates look like bottles cause they have booze in them."

"Huh?" Janna held one of the confections between her fingers and scanned it. After just a beat she shrugged "This is some good chocolate."

Jackie could tell, the box of then that Janna had already opened was nearly done and she didn't even wait to finish that box before she started emptying the contents of a second and third box into her backpack.

"So just so we're straight." Janna jimmered a few more chocolates into her bag, "Your brother showed up."

"Ya." Jackie answered.

"Your brother who neither of us knew about because you're were adopted after being abandoned by your crazy nan?" Janna seemed to paused between each sentence, ready for Jackie to correct when needed.

"Apparently."

"And apparently you kept secret from me that you can breath underwater cause we're in a carriage, being drawn by seahorses, leagues under the sea in a alternate dimension," Janna opened another box,

"Ya, I'm like a mermaid or something like that." Jackie answered, but her voice was shakey like she wasn't confident in her answer. "Like I don't really remember. It was some time ago."

Janna stared at her friend would could only pleas silently back. It felt awkward. Jackie had invited her friend along, but in the end she had no idea how the beanie wearing girl would react to this. That is until Janna licked a bit of chocolate off her thumb and said "Well?"

"Well what?" Jackie blinked.

"That guy is heading to the same place we are, right?" Janna confirmed, 'that guy' being Jackie's biological brother. "I mean we're a billion leagues under the sea and he's swimming. You can do the same thing right? Do you secretly have gills or-?"

Janna let the question trail off. She leaned forward. Her head shriveled trying to find any unusual markings on her friend's neck.

After a few moments Jackie had looked away and muttered "Ya, basically," before she started to shift. The change seem to align with a single breath. It was almost like chunks of flesh flipped like dominos revealing teal scales that armored portions of her arms from the tip of her fingers up to where her shirt covered. These scales invaded her legs, from where her feet was covered by her shows, up to her shorts and beyond.

Her face was mostly the same, but the scales went up her neck to the edge of her cheeks and while they did nothing to hide her hair, they did wrap behind her ears.

It was something Jackie hadn't done in a long time. She didn't think she could still do it, but there she was, showing her best friend her greatest secret.

"Cool." Janna almost lost her hold on the next piece of her chocolate. Almost.

"Ya." Jackie reached down and peeled off her socks and shoes, revealing that the scales went down to her toes, now partially webbed. "I can go full tail if I want. I just haven't in a long time. Where we're going there are a whole bunch of people who can do the same trick."

"And you don't sounded too excited about that." Janna pointed out.

"Down there is some kind of magical cure for dad. I just want to get in and get out quickly." Jackie plopped her sneakers next to her on the seat. "Thanks for having my back Jan."

"No problem." Janna shrugged before suddenly grinning. "Hey remember when the only thing you had to worry about was your boyfriend getting another girl pregnant?"

"Damn it Janna." Jackie would've groaned, by that line of questioning was just so Janna that she couldn't take any offence at it.

"But seriously." Her friend defended herself anyway, "That was yesterday. This is nuts."

Knuckles tapped against the door. Hekapoo was lucky she didn't lean into the door. The moment she touched it the thing threw open. The entity had expected an angry mother. Who she came face to face with was so much worse.

Star smiled "Hey Hekapoo," and before the commissioner could even greet her in kind the young mewman started to spasm. She leaned into Hekapoo, invading her personal space and cooed "And this must be Minnie."

Hekapoo wanted to scold the girl for speaking so loud, but she realized that the princess was probably speaking as low as she could. Besides what did it matter, her daughter was gonna be their problem for the weekend.

"You're here." Hekapoo's ears perked. She peered around the blonde. Standing there was her daughter's father.

Immediately whatever Star was saying was blocked out. Hekapoo shrugged, "Ya I'm here. Thought I would duck out?"

Marco hesitated, "Never doubted you for a second."

"Liar" Hekapoo snorted. "Now come on and take the brat. My arms are getting tired."

Marco stepped forward, but he was stop by a hip check. Star quickly took his place, scooping the snoozing baby. "Don't mind if I do."

"Star." Marco whined, "I haven't got the chance to hold her."

"If you want to carry something." Hekapoo kicked a thing. She had left the sack of Minerva's belongings at the base of the doorway.

His arm grabbed the neck of the sack and did nothing else even as Marco struggled and whined. "What's in here?"

"Everything you should need."

"For two days?" He couldn't imagine that everything in there was needed. "Any advice?"

"For the squirt? Ya, hire Kelly." Hekapoo laughed and she was the only one who did. Marco gave her a frown which caused her to roll her eyes at him from behind her sunglasses. "Fine. I left you some notes in the bag. Or at least my clone should've."

"And the kid is pretty open to about everything. That means you don't have to worry about her being too shy, but that also means she'll try to shove everything into her gaping mouth, so y'know try not to poison the baby." The mother continued, explaining the quirks of her child, sounded both excited and exacerbated at the same time. Hekapoo suddenly stomped her foot as she made a sharp turn directly towards Marco. With her finger stabbing him in the chest, she warned, "And never ever take eyes off her for even for a moment. You understand that?"

The only course of action Marco could think of was to raise his arms in surrender. He understood exactly where she was coming from. He tried to sound confident as he swore, "I'll take care of her. I promise. H-Poo."

She gave him a once over before slowly resetting to an idle position, "I'm going home and relaxing. You know where to find me when you realize you can't handle it."

With a flick of her wrist a portal sliced the entryway of the house in half.

She had set a foot in before and than the boy asked, "Wait, my moms upstairs. You don't want to maybe talk to her?"

Hekapoo dipped her lower half in, but spared a second to turn to him, "Ha. Ha. Funny," and than she was gone.

"Hold on, hold on. Grandma is coming down the stairs." Star and Marco turned to the sudden rattling of the steps as the matron of the house bulldozed her way down the steps. Angie came to a halt as she saw the sleeping baby in the princesses' arm. It died quickly as her eyes frantically darted around the room, "Oh um, Marco is-"

"Hekapoo already left mom."

"Oh thank god." The woman's chest seem to deflate flat, "I am not ready for that mentally."

It took another fifthteen minutes before they saw anything, but when they did they could only imagine it was like arriving to new york in a helicopter. The darkness of the ocean was gone, lit up by underwater tower's lights.

Jackie found it beautiful, but she wasn't left awestruck. She felt like she had seen it before and she probably had a long time ago. She however did take the opportunity to watch Janna. Her best friend was in a rare moment of excitement. Not the mischievous excitement she was known for but pure childlike excitement.

She pushed against the window as looked below and it almost seemed like she was prepared to break through the glass and race the carriage there.

They eventually docked. When the carriage pulled in, it looked sort of like a spaceship docking into a station. Maybe, Jackie wasn't really into scifi or space studies. What she did know was that the door of the carriage made a sort of water proof seal that allowed the two to walk right in to one of the underwater skyscrapers. They proceeded to a airport lobby? That was the best way she could describe it.

"Seriously?" Jackie stopped examining the decor the moment she heard the disbelief in Janna's voice.

It wasn't hard to find what she was exclaiming about.

"Oh ya. I guess this is a little bit too much." To match the theme of the place, her brother Jacob, last name currently unknown, was standing there holding a paper sign that read 'Jackie.' He quickly dumped it to the side.

"Like we just saw each other an hour ago when you decided to swim on ahead and meet us here." Janna's pupils flicked upwards, "Speaking of which, there was no bathroom in there. That could've been dangerous."

Janna pulled a chocolate bottle out of her pocket and began to unwrap it, giving Jackie a chance to speak up. "Thanks for getting a carriage for us."

"Ya, gotta compensate for my air breathing ways." Janna said between a bite.

"It wasn't any trouble." Jacob smiled, "We run these taxis constantly. Atlantis is a bit of a tourist attraction, unfortunately."

"Atlantis?" Janna cocked an eyebrow. "Never heard of it. Hey how come you couldn't just cut us straight in here?"

"Wish I could. The wards wouldn't allow it, plus tramorfidian crystals built right into the foundation." He stomped his foot as a visual cue. "But those were put there for a reason. This is a kingdom after all. It wouldn't be smart to just let anyone make a portal straight into the throne room. Besides the visitor still flow through, even if it's relatively hard to get in."

His cloak fluttered as Jacob turned around, beckoning the girls to follow him.

They did, but not without Janna crossing her arms, "Or out."

Hekapoo could say that when she got home. She really did relax. She relaxed the hell out of a beach chair which she spread right outside the dark plains of her front door. It wasn't exactly beach property but the chair was comfortable enough that she got a good long nap out of it. Besides she had the beach hat and sunglasses, it was a good enough substitute.

She wouldn't exactly tell this to anyone, but she woke up with a glop of drool running down her chin. She had to wipe that off quickly. She hadn't planned to spend the entire day sleeping. She shoved her vacation set up back into her humble adobe.

Scales gazed her leg. She nearly jumped before she realized that it was just Nacho. Just because Minnie wasn't around didn't mean he didn't go anywhere.

He purred at her and she immediately rolled her eyes, "I got it. Sorry I haven't given you lunch yet. You don't have to give me that look."

She wandered over to her kitchen and pulled a large bag out from underneath the sink and undid the ziplock, pouring the chucks of dragon food into a predesignated dish that sat besides a water bowl. Meat, veggies and gems. Hekapoo was pretty sure that Nacho ate better than she did.

She reached up into the cabinet above and pulled out a tin. She peeled open the plastic top. A bit of powder clouded up when she did. Turning on the sink she let the water run before she began to fill a plastic cup and a small metal pan. She dumped about a spoon full of powder into the cup, put a rubber cover over the cup, and dropped it into the pan.

She then poured the entirety of it into the sink, because she just started to make a bottle when there was no baby to give the bottle to.

Hekapoo wasted a bunch of time preparing that for Minnie when she could've been using that time make her own lunch.

She needed to make something.

Beer?

Beer.

She pulled a bottle out of the fridge and with a quick swipe, chopped the neck off instead of bending off the bottle cap. Was a trick that her baby's daddy once showed her. Except instead of relying on karate and a mix of other martial arts like he did, she just used the speed and strength gifted to her from being a cosmic entity.

The cut was smooth, than again she doubt it could cut her even if it wasn't. She took a nice long gulp before crashing onto her couch, the nice one that facef the forge.

This was the life.

Hekapoo took another sip. She tapped her fingers against her lap. There was a small clicking of her tongue as she cherish the flavor of the booze.

Yup, the life.

She took another sip.

The door than creaked open, thank god. "Hey Hekapoo."

The greeting sounded more like a moan. It more fit a spirit than it did the bush girl that limped into her home. "Sorry I'm late."

Hekapoo twisted herself around. Laying her knees onto her sofa she greet her daughter's babysitter with a teethy smile and greeted her with more euphemism than anyone could think was possible from her. "Kelly. Glad you here. I don't actually have work today."

Kelly just blinked, letting out a small questionable "Oh."

"Ya no commission meeting today. They're probably talking about me behind my back cause they found out I had a kid without letting anyone know." Hekapoo scuffed. It wasn't like she needed permission to go through the miracle of birth. "Besides the kid isn't even here. She's over at her father's."

"Marco?"

Hekapoo cocked an eyebrow, "Ya, how did you know?" Than she thought about it. She pinched the bridge of her nose, "That's right you were there when I was chewing him out in front of everyone."

Kelly nodded before she began to turn around, "Well I'll be back next week. I guess."

"Woah wait." Hekapoo stood up, muttering a hail of nos as she chase after the teen girl. She place her hands gently on her, "You just got here. Why not hang out for a bit? Tell me what's going on."

The lady of the forge lead Kelly over the coach, placing both their butts firmly down. Kelly glanced back at the door that now seemed miles away, "Well okay."

She did a mix of inhaling and sobbing as she began, "Me and Tad broke up."

"Uh huh. uh huh." Hekapoo nodded vigorously, as she slowly picked her beer back up. She took another swig. "Continue."

"Well, we've broke up before but I think that he might be gone for good this time and I'm not sure what to do."

"Hold on." Hekapoo eyed her now empty drink, "Do you want anything to drink cause I need a refill."

She began to strut back into her kitchen, "I got beer."

Kelly visibility whined, "No. Thanks, but I'm underage."

"Please. I've witness enough generations of princesses growing up to know you kids don't let whatever laws your dimension has stop you." Hekapoo pulled the fridge open once more. "Besides we are just two girls on their own, away from guys. I just sent my daughter to her father's for the first time and you got whatever that thing with Tad that you just mentioned was." She grabbed a bottle. Placing her own drink on the counter. She opened her guest's suggested beverage the only way she did without a bottle opener.

"I'm not going to force you to drink anything, but let just say I left an open bottle lying around and whatever happens happens." It was only a second that Hekapoo was in the kitchen, but came in, a beer in each hand, her guest was clicking away at some device. "What's that?"

"Oh, I just got a text. You know, from Star." The bush twisted the device over to the demoness, revealing her phone's scene had some message that was too far away for her to read. "I got to go. It's really important."

"Oh, you have to go already?" It was half question, half resignation. "Fine, I'll give you a ride."

Hekapoo's spine shagged, but she still made a portal like only one of her blades could. She stepped to the side of it before ushering the teen, "Come on, out."

"Thanks Hekapoo." Despite the drama the girl was going through to went through the effort of giving the woman a smile.

"Ya ya." Hekapoo placed her hand on Kelly's back encouraging her to move through the portal.

"What is it now?" There was a sudden but familiar whine and Hekapoo knew that she had wrapped space to just the right space. Not that there was any doubt to begin with.

Kelly readjusted her glasses. "Hey Marco."

"Oh, ah Kelly, right?" Marco blinked and before he could say anymore there was a obnoxious interruption.

"Are you Marco's baby mama?" From behind Kelly, Hekapoo's squinted her eyes. There was some fat man thing near her baby's father. It was seemingly human.

"What, no Ferg. Kelly's just Star's friend. She's not Minnie's mom." Marco sounded frustrated for obvious reasons. He was close to covering his face when noticed the red haired chauffeur. "She is. Guys, this is Hekapoo. Hekapoo. Guys."

Besides for the roundish friend of the boy, there was also a stick of a kid. He had big round glasses and goofy look on his mug.

"Sup." Hekapoo wasn't really interested but she was going to say something, at least for Marco's sake.

"What are you doing here?"

A good question, she wished she had a better answer than, "Just giving Kelly a lift."

"Thanks Hekapoo." Kelly waved her goodbye, quickly ducking out of the conversation and off to wherever the mewman princess was.

The skinny kid, the one with the specs open his maw and out came out was a coughing sound mixed with nervous laughter. His friend looked calm for the most part and his face didn't look blue so Hekapoo assumed that he was trying to communicate in some way.

"What did he say?" She asked.

"He wanted to know how many kids you and Bad Boy Diaz are gonna have."

"You gave him the nickname Bad Boy Diaz?" Hekapoo paused, "That's adorable."

"No, it's cool and edgy." Bad Boy Diaz insisted. He suddenly found his toes very interesting, "And I worked really hard on it."

"And no. Muscles here will have to find a new girl if he wants more kids. I might end up strangling him if he made me go through childbirth again." Hekapoo was an immortal entity, but still, she shuddered. "You don't know how bad it was. There was tearing." The boys cringed in sympathy, she optimistically hoped. They could just be typical teenage boy who flinched at any mention of lady problems. "Anyway. You know that since Kelly's here you can ask her for help. In case you can't handle it."

Bad Boy Diaz rolled his eyes. "Funny. H-poo, you don't have to worry about Minnie. I got a handle on it." He gave her a smile.

"I'm not worried." She crosses her arms. It wasn't very convincing.

"She's taking a nap right now, but you see her again Sunday night."

"Okay cool. Well I'll be off than." She began to sink back into her own dimension. "Later flesh bags."

"Our names are-" The chubby friend began.

"Sorry, can't hear you. Portal inference." And with one motion ducked completely back in, severing the link between the two dimensions. "Well so much for having a drinking partner."

Hekapoo looked around the nearly empty home. She snapped, "You know what. I'm master of dimensional scissors. There has to be a party out there somewhere."

"The many great sights of Atlantis." Jacob's voice bang through their fleshy bodies and caused the girl's heart to beat prematurely. He stood T posed as he presented the location, "Atlantis' great hall of art. Home of such works as Amphibinecros and The Fall."

There was a red carpet just in front of them. A thin one. It was tight, between the pillars that held the structure up and the velvet boundaries that kept visitors separated from the works. It was probably more impressive for the natives as the majority of the building was filled with water. It had amenities made for them. He had taken Jackie and Janna through the tourist route but even with the smaller halls they all had more than enough room to move about.

"The ancient colosseum." Jacob roared once more. The colosseum was a strange melding of a roman arena, a football field and a waterpark. They stood near the top made for tourist but the the bottom rows were filled with pools connected to underwater tunnels. It could actually be a cool place to be when an actual event was going on.

"The near infinite achieves of Triton." Jacob gripped onto the railings. The library resembled a warehouse. At least from where he and the girls stood. Bookshelves poked from the water's surface but started down. Way down beneath the water. When Jackie bent down and peered into the water she could see lights of some sort. Maybe magical lamps that allowed her to see the flourishing around them.

Jackie didn't actually mind this one too much. She was tempted to peel a book off a shelf. The tip of her longest finger was just about ready to tilt a tome when Janna cut in with "Yo, Prince Charming, I'm a girl who's a fan of graveyards but these places have just been dead. Where are all the people?"

"Do you really think I'm charming?" Jacob padded his cheeks.

"Not really." Janna lesbianed.

The large guy coughed. "Yes well. These are the not the most popular hangouts but they are dear to me. Unfortunately the majority of our guest seem to prefer to spend their time-" Jacob sighed. "-at the casino."

It really did look like a hot spot of such a large kingdom. The casino was one of the few arenas not built for a aquatic majority, but there were still tubes built in. The populous used these tubes to jet in. Catching the glimpse of one merfolk, they saw him jump out high allowing his tail to split apart. He was now standing on two legs, though they were still scaly and the toes were webbed. He joined the masses but sitting at the nearest table. It was poker or some out of world equivalent.

Each table was swarmed by both quest and servers, each holding a tray, balancing a bottle on top. Janna swiped one, "Wonder how much this is worth." She muttered to her before eyeing Jacob, "You're paying for this, right?"

"I guess" Jackie's lost sibling submitted instantly and without a further thought Janna slipped the alcohol into her sack.

"I'm sorry" Jacob began. Jackie didn't know what he was talking about. Janna was the one milking free booze from him. Than again that was just Janna being Janna. "I know you're in a rush. I was just a bit hesitant to bring you here."

It was a bit hard for her to not agree with sentiment. Jackie wasn't on a strict schedule but she did want to get whatever miracle medicine they had hidden away and get back home. He was technically doing for a favor, potentially saving her dad's life, so she had some patience to spare him. She joked, "Why afraid I get swept in the by debauchery?"

"It has happened to some." Jacob muttered, not hiding an obvious displeasure, "but in truth I wanted to put our best foot forward. It's just frustrating that our kingdom's grand history tends to get overshadow by this."

Despite the grimmous he was giving the room, the people enjoyed themselves none the wiser.

"Now before we continue I thought it would be important for me to introduce you to-"

"Hey Jacob, what are you doing here?" A hand swayed through the air like a dog's tail. Behind a slot machine brown hair and the majority of a face rose.

She looked glad to see Jacob. Jacob didn't look as excited.

"A friend of yours?" Janna inquired and their red haired host just muttered to himself his back slouch as he moved over the brunette.

Jackie rosed an eyebrow as imagined a line from Jacob to the girl, "Do I know her?"

"Now before further ado" was all the guy could get out.

He was stopped by an calm "Hold on, I have a couple more tokens." The girl dainty carried a gold coin between her pointer and thumb which she dropped into the slot before cranking the machine.

"This is important."

"Just a couple more." Another coin went it.

"I just wanted to announce the return-"

"Relax sweetie." Another was gone.

"I don't even know why you're doing this."

"Just having a little fun." Another was lost to the void.

"We own the casino. You can't even make any money doing this."

The last coin slid right in and there when all three wheels jerked to a stop nothing happened. The girl giggled excitedly as if she had won. "Aw, you hate to see that happen. Okay all done Jacob, now what did you want me to see?"

Jacob tried to physically wipe the look of exasperation on his face. "Jacqueline, mom."

Jackie didn't have the time to react before she found herself bum rushed by the girl, "Oh my baby." The stranger cooed as she began to stick to the blonde like a cephalopod.

Jackie played along with the embrace for a second but even as she tried to loosen herself the hug continued. "Oh, hi you." She looked towards the other two for assistance.

"Mom? She looks our age." Janna eyes the strange woman.

Jacob's 'mom' twisted around Jackie. She stood behind her cheek to cheek as she got the good look at her son's guest, "Aging is for foreigners and the poor, darling."

"Jacqueline. I'm not sure if you remember but this is our mother." A clearly exasperated Jacob explained.

"Oh how could anyone forget this face?" The matron swung around to face Jackie, giving her a bright smile.

All Jackie saw was a scowl, "I know you." she spoke slowly that information seem to slowly blossom in her mind.

Her 'mother' said with unrelenting pride. "I knew you would remember me sweetie."

Jacob breathed it. "Now, I was in the middle of giving Jacqueline and her friend a tour of the kingdom. I thought around this time that you might want to join us." Any frustration that he felt before seem to dissipate or he had plenty of practice internalizing it.

The woman perked. "Oh how wonderful. Of course mommy would love to join the two of you." She started to play with Jackie's hair. "Oh Jacqueline, isn't this great. We're get to catch up after all this time."

"Oh great." The blonde barely seem to have the energy to say it and it came out raspy like she had a throat infection. As a result the muttered, "Please stop touching me," sounded much louder.

However if the brown haired woman hear it she didn't show it. Her smile never faulted as she skipped off, ignoring her son's instructions as he stalked after her.

A loud chewing continued as Janna tore the neck of a chocolate bottle. For a moment that was the only sound between the duo as the newly discovered relatives went ahead of them. "So she seems perky." Janna peeled off the wrapping on the second half of the piece of candy. "How wonderful." Her tone dripped with sarcasm.

Jackie eyed the candy liquor. "Can I have some of those?"

Hekapoo's favorite bar was on a wide forgotten plain right in the center of nowhere. It was on lawless land, making it a nice tough guy location. The image was propagated by the fact that just behind the bar there was a board full of wanted posters among other sheets with bits of information. It was also a shack on the edges of shambles and she had only just than realized it.

She was able to still get a good drink but when she scanned the room she could only noticed just how dreary the joint was, especially before it was even happy hour. There were barely three guys in the entire bar.

The bartender her a mug. It was some purple concoction that she downed in a second flat, before she ordered another.

She made a fist and lifted it until it hovered just above the bar, squeezed her fingers together tight and let go. A small rectangle device dropped from her palm. It was a yellow with some crystals poking out from one end and when she focus a little bit of magic into it a bit shot up that projected an image just above it like a hologram.

With it, she could see a picture she has taken of Minerva. She acted as if she didn't spend a majority of her life with the munchkin for the last few months and she hated herself for it.

"Cute kid." Her ears perked. She was surprised that anyone were even up for conversation. She doubt the voice belonged to the one guy passed out with his legs scrawled along the entrance nor to the shaky cow man with anisocoria who pupils darted at every single creak that echoed through the hub.

It didn't matter. She just didn't have it in her to really care who was sitting next to her.

"So she's your-" he trailed, leaving Hekapoo to fill in the blank.

"Daughter." Hekapoo answered, resting her cheek on palm.

"Woah." he said, "Sorry, but you look a bit young."

"Ya, I get that a lot." Not really. It's not like she had that much time to socialize, but he didn't need to know that. "Did you want anything?"

"No." He coughed, "Nothing really."

Rolling her head, she peeked at the man and sighed. He wasn't bad looking, "Order a drink."

He did. While another purple thing came for Hekapoo a green serum came to rest in front of the stranger. The lady of dimensions took a drink, slowly this time deciding to savored the mixture. Her new found drinking took his quickly, possibly to catch up to the two drinks she had beforehand.

"So." He chugged it in one gulp before asking, "How old is she?"

"Not even a year."

"Must be exciting." He smiled, somehow it was possible with that thing on his face. Anatomy was weird.

"Ya, what a wonderful time to be alive." Hekapoo muttered, sounding anything but enthusiastic. She took another sip. "She's with her father for the first time. For the next few days. Well the next few days for that dimension."

"Oh, so you and the father aren't-"

"Together? No. We were never together." That brought on a headache. She had to massage her temples. "Or maybe we were. Long story."

"Wicked." Try not to sound too delighted guy, "I mean it must be rough. Mama wasn't said that letting me out of the nest was the hardest thing she did."

"Ya well, she's probably right." She has to concede to that. "I don't get it. I only just got her. I didn't even like her for the first couple of months. She just came out of me and I took care of her because that's what you're supposed to do, but now I don't have to deal with her and-" She was ranting. Hekapoo knew what she had to do. She tapped her drink and pushed it away from herself. "You know. I'm done with that."

Her impromptu drinking buddy took a long deep exhale. He crossed his arms and spoke. "I can't talk from experience. I love kids. I volunteer with them. It's great. Makes me feel like I'm building them up, but I haven't got one of my own. What I do know is saying goodbye is hard and what helps me afterwards is stepping back and doing something for me."

"What do you think I'm doing?" She motion towards the all but derelict pub

"Nah." He shook his hand, his wing. "Here is where you forget stuff, at least if you're here alone. You need to consider it more of a milestone. Something worth treating yourself a bit. Go learn a skill you always wanted to, take a class, go somewhere exotic."

"Go somewhere exotic, huh?" Hekapoo looked to the distance, at something only visible to her.

"In fact I know a couple places you might like."

Hekapoo looked at the man her lap and than back at the man. "Hey listen you're nice and look like you could bench press me which normally would be a plus" she eyed his pecs. Now that she noticed them, she hated that she couldn't enjoy them. "but I'm still not over whatever is going on with my ex."

She didn't know if that was the right term for Marco. The entire affair was long and passionate, but very informal. There weren't really labels.

"Oh you thought I meant go with me." She could imagine that his eyes widened behind his sunglasses. After a beat he relaxed. "Don't worry about it. You just seem stressed. That's all. I'm being serious, there a bunch of places on the job board. Been to a few. You should try them out." He motioned towards the wall of wanted posters. Now that she was looking carefully she could see some colorful posters underneath the mess.

"Oh thanks. Just so you know, I don't say that to a ton of mortals." The could probably count the number she've shown gratitude on her two hands.

"I'm not like most mortals. I aim for the extreme." Now she knew the man was trying to sound cool. He stood. "Anyway I gotta jet. See ya on the flip side."

Finger guns.

"Yo, before you go my name's Heckapoo." She introduced herself.

"Talon." He did the same as he backed out of the pub. "Talon Raventalon."

"Ha, lame." She snorted. Hekapoo stood and faced the bar. Pushing against the counter she reached over until her nose was just at the wall. Carefully she peeled back the mugshots of known criminals. It really was an advert for a vacation spot.

It didn't sound like a bad idea.

For once she needed to get away from the stress.

A/N: Hey Talon Raventalon, AKA guy who probably isn't showing up again. Ya my originally plan was basically for Hekapoo to randomly announce where she was going on vacation for but I found that lazy and dull. Like the originally idea was that her destination was the inter dimensional equivalent of Vegas. Needed someone to basically win her over to the idea of even going somewhere and who was better for the job than her canon replacement love interest?

Hekapoo briefly met Marco's friends. Why they're there will be seen next chapter which takes place simultaneously with this one.