Chapter V

'Oh wow now you're being really dumb' Nick says to himself. He is standing behind a dumpster outside Dana's office. He gingerly steps towards her window, coming out from shelter of the dumpster. Shielding his eyes, he tries to look through the narrow slit of the blinds. He sees Dana sitting at her desk. She has her head in her hands, and is rubbing her temples. After a moment, she picks up her phone, dials a number and waits. After a few moments of talking, she is broken off. Nick mashes his ear against the glass to try and make out what's happening, but it's no use. Dana looks horrified. After a moment she sets the phone back down. She looks very upset, and Nick is itching to run into her office and ask her what's wrong. To make everything better. He hates it when she's sad. He knows that any kind of knight-in-shining-armour gig that he might want to pull is a bad idea, so he resigns himself to watching. But he can't stand it- he can't watch her, helpless.

Dana sits at her desk quietly trying to decide what to do. She is seriously worried about Leia's situation. What kind of parents denied their child medical care? When she had called Leia's home, she had been angrily rebuffed. She wasn't sure whether or not to alert Child Protection Services or not. Her initial instinct was to alert them at once. But she knew that she couldn't be hasty in a case like this.

'I just wish I could talk to her. See what she needs...' She thinks, frustrated. She starts in surprise when there is a noise at her window. She gets up to investigate, drawing up the blinds. Nothing there.

'Must have been a bird or something,' she thinks.

Nick jumps back away from the window just as Dana gets up. It was as if she had looked right at him. He scurries away, clearing his throat and hurumphing and looking around innocently.

Back inside Lana is relating the morning's events to Lu.

"And then this big old man just came in and swooped her up!" Lana exclaims.

Lu furrows her brow. "Did she go with him willingly?"

"I dunno, Lu, it happened so fast!"

They both look up as Nick comes in the door. Lana wrinkles her nose.

"P U what smells?"

Nick shoots her a vehement look.

"What? It smells like a...a dumpster in here," she sniffs the air. "Where have you been?" she asks Nick suspiciously.

"Out," he answers shortly and hurries away, leaving behind him a fresh wave of dumpster essence.

Lana and Lu look at each other and exchange raised eyebrows and grins.