Charm City Girl Ch 2

"Hey John,"- Odafin Tutuola just let his greeting of his partner dwindle to a whisper as he saw the anger in the older detective's eyes. John charged up the stairs that led out of the building. A moment later a slender young teenage girl followed in his wake, and then Olivia came out after her.

"What's up?" Fin asked Olivia. She shrugged her shoulders and motioned for him to follow her.

"I think your partner just met his daughter," she said.

Fin put a hand on Olivia's arm to stop her and turn her towards him, "What?" he asked in amazement.

"Come on, I need to catch up with her. I wasn't done interviewing her when first John bolted and then Joanie did. I'll fill you in as we look for them," Olivia answered.

Joanie saw her "real Dad" up ahead of her, just standing on the sidewalk looking nervous, and she thought, a little lost.

"What's a matter can't figure out which way to run to get away from me?" she asked derisively.

"What?" John asked, bewildered by her question.

"Don't worry you just figure out which way you want to go and I'll go the other way. I don't want anything to do with you," she said with as much venom as a twelve-year-old street kid could muster.

"Wait, uhm look I realize my stalking out of there like that had to look bad to you, but I was kind of blindsided by this, this situation" he spread his hands out and then he ran one hand through his silver hair. "You have to understand, until I saw that picture of your mom, I had no idea you even existed, and to hear you say I didn't want you and that I left Felicia to raise you on her own, that's so wrong. I just couldn't take it. I had to, to"-

"Move or you'd jump out of your skin?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said and smiled as he nodded.

"I guess I must get that from you. Obviously I get being tall and skinny from you, and gee thanks for the nose. I wonder what else I get from you?" she asked.

As John and his daughter talked, Olivia and Fin had come out of the station house, but when they saw the newly united father and daughter talking they decided to back off and give them some time to get acquainted.

"Say, are you hungry?" John asked.

"Actually I'm starved," Joanie replied.

"Well, what's say you let me buy you something at the local diner?"

"OK on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You tell me your name."

John laughed a little. "Oh yeah, of course. I'm John Munch. And I know your name, Olivia told me, you're Joanie Thomas. Your step-dad must have adopted you, is that right?" John asked as they walked to the diner.

"Yeah, when I was going to start school, that was a few years before momma died."

"That's what you meant when you said you only had a few of your mother's things left," John said half a statement, half a question.

"Yeah," Joanie answered as she opened the door to the diner. She saw a sadness sweep over John's face, but he didn't say anything more.

After they'd been seated and decided to order the daily special, Joanie asked John a very simple but heart-felt question, "Did you love my Mom?"

"Yes," John answered without hesitation, "but loving someone doesn't always guarantee that you can make a relationship work. Felicia and I fought like a cat and a dog. We'd fight and breakup and get back together and repeat the whole crazy mess over and over again. Finally I guess she had enough of me and she moved away."

"But I grew up in Baltimore," Joanie said puzzled.

"She must have moved back at some point, maybe when I moved up here," John suggested.

"Do I have any other family?" she asked.

"Yeah, you have a grandmother, who will adore you and want to spoil you rotten. You also have an Uncle and Aunt, that would be my kid brother Bernie and his wife Lisa, and their children would be your cousins, and then there's my Uncle Andrew, he' d be your Great-Uncle and his children would also be your cousins."

"Wow, that's a lot of family," she said.

"Yeah, well most of them live down in Baltimore, but Uncle Andrew lives here in the city."

"John?" Joanie started very shyly. "Can I stay here, in New York?"

"Unfortunately that's not up to me."

"Why not? You're my Dad."

"Biologically, but not legally," he answered.

"Isn't there something you could do about that?"

John smiled and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He hit a speed dial number and waited patiently. "Casey, I need some legal help."