disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of Marvel. Except for Jenny, Liese, and Zelig who are mine (and in Liese's case Elizabeth Robbins).

Finding Liese:
Part 1
by Dizi

The door slammed behind her as Jenny walked out of the bar. It was earlier than usual because she was just filling in, but was slow enough that she felt she wasn't really needed and was going home.

She just had to wait for her ride. Just waiting. Kurt wouldn't be happy with her for waiting outside but she had a roaring headache and had needed air. It shouldn't take him long to get there anyway.

Leaning against the wall, she breathed in the cool night air. Relaxed her mind and body. Smiled when she realized that this meant she'd get to spend the evening with her guys.

Suddenly, she straightened. She'd heard something. She listened carefully, then shrugged and relaxed.

The sound came again.

Looking around, Jenny didn't see anything and cocked her head to the side, listening.

There, she heard it. This time she was able to follow the sound to the back of the building where the trash bins were, but hesitated. She knew better than to go into the darkness back there. Even if nothing happened, Kurt would kill her. Not to mention the gripe session everyone else would have at her expense.

But that sound... Now she was closer she could identify it better. It was muffled and sounded like a whining or crying, she wasn't sure, but... She had to check it out.

Staring into the darkness, she tried to let her eyes adjust. When the sound came again, she knew it was a whimper and stepped forward, still hesitant.

Moving slowly, Jenny almost tripped over the box. Seeing it at the last second, she kicked it accidentally and her eyes widened when the sound came again, from inside the box. She relaxed slightly, thinking someone had decided to get rid of some kittens or something.

Picking up the box, she took it into the light, opened it, pulled out a blanket laying on top, and stared.

It wasn't a kitten.

It was a baby. A beautiful baby. The pale green skin was slightly visible in the street light as well as the small bright red tufts of hair.

Her eyes flared with anger, but she quickly buried it. This wasn't the time.

She picked the baby up and cuddled it against her, covered it with the blanket. The small body curled against her, seeking warmth from the cold night air. Jenny felt another surge of anger that someone could so callously throw a baby away. Simultaneously, her heart was breaking at the way the child shivered against her.

It was so small, only a newborn. And it was cold, so cold. So helpless and alone.

Warmed by Jenny's body heat, the baby's shivering was slowing and it stopped whimpering. Jenny kissed its soft cheek and the baby curled closer against her. Her heart opened and she felt tears pricking her eyes.

It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened. Someone hadn't wanted a mutant for a baby. She just didn't understand, had never understood such things. How could someone do this? Just leave such a beautiful little baby? Their own child? How?

"Don't worry, I'm here now. I'll take care of you." she whispered her promise, meaning it with everything she was.

"The cold had a detrimental effect as well as the manner in which the child was packed, so to speak, in the box. From the description Jenny provided, she might well have smothered..."

Hank continued speaking but Kurt wasn't really listening, his attention focused on Jenny standing over the newborn baby.

She was singing a lullaby while stroking a hand over the bright red curls. Whenever she stopped, the baby would stir and whimper. So she didn't stop.

Jenny had walked away when Hank had started his explanation, and Kurt had wanted to back away from the banked rage in her eyes. She became angry very seldom, but he had never seen this level in her before. She was almost shaking with it, but he preferred the anger to the heartbreak he knew she was also feeling.

He understood completely. His own mother had abandoned and left him to die only hours after his birth. She had been similarly angry on his behalf when she found out but not nearly this bad. God help them if Jenny ever found the ones who did this.

Realizing Hank had stopped talking, Kurt said quietly, "She has not let ze child out of her sight since she found her."

"Child services will need to be informed." Hank warned, also looking at Jenny. "I will make the telephone call if you prefer."

Not answering, Kurt walked over to Jenny. He put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them absently in a longtime habit. She leaned into him, accepting the comfort he offered.

"Hank has said he vill call ze authorities." he whispered. When she didn't respond, he said, "She is very lucky, she vould have died if you had not found her. It is hard to believe someone vould do zis to a baby."

"No, it's not." Jenny said sadly. "We both know that. Babies are abandoned all the time, we hear it in the news. A mutant baby being abandoned is almost expected these days."

He reached out a hand and touched the small green curled fist. "I vill pray to God for her and whoever did zis."

Never looking away for the baby, Jenny said, "I'm not letting her go."

"Vhat?" He looked at her, not sure he'd heard her correctly. He had known she was upset but didn't realize she was thinking of the future.

"I'm not letting her go," she repeated. "I found her, she's mine."

"Jenny, ve cannot simply keep her. She does not belong to us," he said reasonably. "She is not a kitten or stray dog."

"Exactly. Look at that box, you don't abandon a baby like you would a litter of kittens." Her voice shook with the bitter words. "If her family loved her they wouldn't have left her to die in that alley."

"Jenny..."

"No. They threw her away with the trash. She's public property now and I'm claiming her." Jenny looked up and met his eyes. "You can talk to whoever you need to - Charles, Warren, whoever, I don't care - but someone better find some way to fix it. She's not going back to someone who left her to die. We both know what could happen to her in some children's shelter, if they even put her in one near other babies and aren't afraid she'll contaminate them. Remember the nurse that was found last year smothering mutant babies? No, I won't have it. I'm NOT letting her go."

He looked at her face, resolute and strong, then back at the small bundle the baby had been wrapped in, almost smothering her. If the cold hadn't killed her the blankets would have smothered her, Hank had said.

He knew Jenny was right, the child was unwanted. No, that was wrong; she was wanted. Not by her own, not by her family, her mother or father. She was wanted by Jenny.

Jenny was still looking at him, her eyes full of an old deep pain. "I'm not letting her go. She's mine now."

"Nein." He put his arm around her and ran a finger down the baby's cheek. "She is ours."

note:
Part1 and Part2 are actually kinda short but I felt that they deserved a separation asthere is adistinctly differnt feel to them. Or at least I think there is. Liese is a character that was created by Elizabeth Robbins at the end of "Second Chances" where Jenny, Kurt, and Liese 'guest star'. Liese deserved her own short-story as it was her creation that made me come up with the story "Human and the Demon" in the first place.

I have a confession to make in that I had planned to put another story in here but I got stuck on it and really didn't like it when I read over it again. As I was writing it for my brother and he didn't like it either, I gave up. So there is going to be one less of the stories originally planned for "Demon's Kind". I'm very sorry but it just didn't work. The last one is really long so that kinda makes up for it.

Thanks for reading and the support,
Dizi