"The specials today are fish and chips - panko and parmesan crusted cod, baby greens, french fries, lemon tartar sauce, or mushroom ravioli with portobello mushrooms, shaved parmesan cheese, and arugula salad. The drink special is Blackberry Punch: Volcan Blanco Tequila, Chambord, fresh lime, cranberry, soda," Vonnie repeated, her mouth on autopilot.

"Fish and chips, but with malt vinegar instead of tartar sauce," Julia said, "did I see Old Speckled Hen on tap?"

"Bottles."

"Fine. I'll have one."

Beth had not even picked up the menu.

"Hamburger and fries, and a Diet Coke."

"We have steak burgers, and Pepsi products."

"Fine, steak burger, fries, Diet Pepsi."

Beth's reaction when she first got a glimpse of Luke was typical, but her reason was not.

Holy fuck, she thought for the fraction of a second it took to realize that it was not Carver Burke standing behind the counter, but a man easily twenty years younger, half a foot taller and one-hundred pounds heavier than the man she had seen just a half an hour earlier.

She could still see him from where she was sitting, but only when he was at the end of the bar farthest from the door. The three guys at the table next to theirs blocked the rest of the bar from her view.

She would not have noticed the three women seated at a table at the other end of the room if it had not been for two of the guys next to her and Julia, and the way they talked about them. The third man, the only one of the three that had looked at Beth and Julia as they took their seats, the one that had smiled at Julia as she passed by, the one who was stealing glances of Julia every minute or so, was not partaking in the stereotypical male bullshit conversation. At one point, when his eyes and Julia's finally met, he mouthed Sorry as he tilted his head at his friends. Julia smiled at him before looking down at the table.

"Dude, chill out," he said to the loudmouth of their group, "at least pretend that you're an adult."

"Pussy," the loudmouth said, but brought the conversation down in volume so Beth could no longer hear what he was saying.

"How did your Dad sound?" Beth asked her friend.

"He sounded good, they both did."

"You talked to Bruce?"

"Dad had them on speaker."

"What did your boyfriend have to say?"

"Jesus, not you too."

"What? I was just asking."

"I am never sharing a secret with either fucking one of you ever again."

"You know, if the two of you got married then you and I would be related."

"Oh, for fucks sake."

Their drinks arrived and they each took a moment to drink and, in Beth's case, to look at the three women across the room.

When was the last time someone touched me like that? Beth wondered as she watched the shorter, more muscular of the pair caressing the arm of the taller woman.

It was clear that they were an item, the third woman just along for the ride. Beth wondered if the dark haired woman in ripped jeans and leather boots was wondering the same thing that Beth was.

Will anyone ever look at me like that, once they learn the truth about me? Will I ever be able to be completely honest with someone? Is that why I am so hot for Carver Burke, because he knows everything there is to know about me?

"Penny for your thoughts."

Beth was about to answer when man number 3 looked Julia's way again and the two smiled at each other.

Kane, party of one….Kane party of one, Beth thought.

"Jesus," Beth said as the strong fragrance of malt vinegar engulfed her, "fucking Brits."

"It's how you're supposed to eat fish and chips," Julia replied as she continued to sprinkle her fish and chips with vinegar, "not smothered in mayonnaise and what ever the fuck that other clobber is in tartar sauce."

"The mystery is half the reason it tastes good," Beth answered.

Beth initially thought that it was the cloud of malt vinegar aroma that had caused the man to stand up and walk away from the table until she saw the direction he was walking. Julia had noticed as well as she exchanged the bottle of vinegar for the salt shaker.

The dark haired woman was at the bar talking to the oversized bartender as the man stopped at the table where the two women were still seated. Beth could not hear what was being said, but the women did not look happy.

"Shit," the second man at the next table said as the dark haired woman returned to her table and set down her drink.

Whatever words the loudmouth and the woman exchanged were brief and ended when the woman grabbed the man by his shirt with one hand and picked him up off the floor.

"Ruh roh," Beth said.

"Holy shit," Julia said.

"Fuck," man number two said.

She carried him to the nearest wall and held him there, his feet dangling a foot from the floor, as she spoke to him and he nodded. She eventually let him go before returning to her table and emptying her glass in one gulp.

The man wobbled back to his table and sat down.

"Dude, are you alright?" asked man number 2.

It took the loudmouth a minute to find his breath.

"Yeah. She just took me by surprise."

"Uh huh," said man number three.

"Shut the fuck up."

"Should I go tell her you want a second chance?"

"No!"

"Okay then."

"Let's get the fuck out of here."

"Fine by me."

The three men began to leave.

"Miss, I think you dropped this," man number three said to Julia as he handed her a folded napkin.

Julia waited until the men had left before she opened the napkin and looked at what was written on the napkin.

Terry - 646-386-1575.

Julia smiled as she looked at the name and number before she took out her phone and began to type.

Beth and Julia had just finished eating when the three women stood up to leave. The dark haired woman stopped at the bar, and it became clear to everyone in the room what her relationship was with the bartender.

Kane, party of one…Kane party of one.

"Who was she? Do you know?" Julia asked as they walked down 129th street.

The July sun was no joke in Harlem, and what few trees lined the sidewalk provided Beth and Julia no shade. But neither women were strangers to life in the big city, even if the big city they lived in at the moment had been home for less than a year.

In many ways this section of Harlem was just like Wrigleyville, which was why both women had agreed on the apartment only one street over on 130th as their home. But both women had also agreed that their base of operation, currently on 51st street on the fourth floor of an old historic brick building,the location where Julia would work gathering intelligence, monitoring police frequencies, as well as the several dozen listening devices they had scattered in strategic locations, and directing operations such as tonight's, the location where Elizabeth Kane, formerly known as Alice, currently yet to have chosen a new pseudonym, stored all her gear and gadgetry, that location needed to be far away, and totally unconnected, to the safe space they called home.

"No idea," Beth replied, her head and face protected from the sun by a large straw hat and a pair of Ray Bans, "some no name super-woman who is stronger than the average bear. Hard to tell them apart if they are not wearing a suit or a cape or whatever. They should wear fucking name tags."

"She looked like a biker," Julia said, her own head protected by the same Columbia Omni Shade Sun Hat and Oakley Frogskins that she wore when she went hiking.

"She looked like she wanted to fuck the bartender right there behind the bar."

"You looked like you wanted to fuck the bartender right there behind the bar, the way you kept looking at him."

"He just reminded me of someone else. It was like meeting your elementary school teacher in the supermarket. The context was wrong. It took me by surprise."

"Don't tell me there is another guy that looks like him. That guy was huge."

"Not exactly like him. A smaller version of him."

Julia had her phone on silent, but Beth could still hear it vibrate, and could see Julia smile as she took it from her pocket and glanced at it.

"Jesus, you couldn't have waited an hour before texting him?"

"I just texted to say thank you."

"And he texted back?"

"Yes. He wants to meet for a drink later."

"Did you tell him you're busy tonight?"

"I told him I work odd hours, and I wasn't sure what time I would be free."

"Well, you didn't lie."

"It is tonight, right?"

"Yes. I would hate to obstruct your social calendar."

"Do you want me to say no?"

"No, I want one of us to get laid, and if it can't be me then it should be, by process of elimination, you."

"You worked that math out pretty quick."

"There are three types of women: those that understand math, and those that don't."

Julia laughed.

"You can argue with me, but you can't argue with figures."

It was Beth's turn to laugh.

"Do they get Foghorn Leghorn across the pond?"

"No, just like they don't get Danger Mouse in the colonies."

"We get Danger Mouse here."

"Since when?"

"What the fuck are we talking about?"

They had arrived at the Harlem Rose Garden, one of their favorite spots to sit and talk. It had ample shade which allowed the two women to remove their headgear, and the natural zen like tranquility forced visitors to speak in a whisper, which the pair were doing now even though they had the garden to themselves.

"It's referred to as flanneling in the Empire - talking about stupid shit to avoid the main topic."

"Which is what, our mission tonight, or your mission with Terry."

"We can avoid talking about either one. Take your pick."

"Let's avoid your new boyfriend for a second, we need to focus on tonight."

"He's not my…what's the fucking point."

"What's left on your end?" Beth asked as she enjoyed the breeze on her head and face where she sat on the shaded bench that was positioned in the corner made by the two adjacent buildings that were just beginning to cast shadows of their own onto the bench and gravel walkway.

"I need to hop servers. We might get another day out of this one, but I don't want to risk them finding my backdoor and closing us out right in the middle of an op."

"Smart."

"Aside from that, everything else is still on chargers, or in the ultrasonic cleaner. We should be good."

"You changed the target address in my suit's stack, right?"

It wasn't a suit, not really. It was bits and pieces that Kate or Selina had donated to her, combined with a one piece leather shell over a kevlar filament reinforced Elastane/polyester mesh protective underlayer. It was not as bulky as Kates, and not as form fitting as Selina's, but she did not have Kate's muscles, or Selina's figure, and it suited her well. And when she threw a long black leather duster over it she just looked like someone with a serious leather fetish.

"Okay, I have one more thing to do before tonight."

"You were going to send me to the wrong fucking address."

"You know where the fuck you are going already. You had eyes on it a couple hours ago."

It was usual pre operational banter, something that was part of their ritual. They were like two old stage actors, even though neither of them had hit forty yet, throwing up before going onstage no matter how many performances they had given.

Both of them enjoyed a moment of silence, and the fragrance of the flowers and foliage that was one of the highlights of the garden. In times past Alice would be triggered by certain smells more than certain sounds, and God help anyone in the immediate vicinity. The woman who currently referred to herself as Elizabeth Kane was still strongly affected by smells, but not in the old externally violent ways that were still the cause of so many sleepless nights; her reaction now was more internal self reflection rather than external self harm. Beth was more likely to ponder the meaning of life where Alice would have taken life indiscriminately.

"Think I'll be alone tonight?"

"Shouldn't I be asking that?" Julia asked.

Beth smiled.

"You'll be fine. Just don't go down on him on the first date. It creates unreasonable expectations."

For as long as the two had known each other it seemed like they traded laughs just like this, first one then the other.

"This city is so full of supers, or enhanced, or mutated whatevers, I'm surprised that there is any crime left for us to fight at all, forget about fighting it alone."

"It's a big city. Plenty of assholes to go around."

"And they do go around. We'll see how many of them you meet tonight. But I know you didn't mean them."

"No, I didn't mean them."

She had meant another night crawler like her; someone taking their insomnia, or anger, or aggression, or need to inflict pain, out on the criminal element of New York in general, and Carmine Falcone in particular whenever the opportunity arose.

"You meant someone like the woman from the bar," Julia said, "someone with the same agenda as you."

"No one on the planet has the same agenda as me," beth answered, "no one else is as broken as me."

"Every fucking person on the planet is broken," Julia said, "some just as broken as you are. You're not alone. Try and remember that."

"It's hard to remember when I'm all alone in the dark. It would be nice to have someone."

"A sidekick?"

That wasn't the dark that Beth meant. She meant the dark of her bedroom, and the bed that she had never shared with anyone; but that was not a conversation for today.

"I wouldn't mind the company," Beth said. She knew the thin ice she was skating out on, how Julia felt about Beth being the field operative, and Julia the controller who sat safe behind a keyboard.

"You know I love you. You keep me safe. You've gotten me out of more than one jam that would've killed me if I had not had your voice in my ear, and your eyes on that screen, guiding that little fucking dot to safety. It would just be nice to have a warm body nearby when I'm out in the dark. Just the knowing that someone is close by."

"I know," Julia Pennyworth said. She said it because she did know; knew it very well, very personally, from the inside.

"Loneliness is a genetic trait in my family. We don't open up often, or quickly, we don't latch on to that many people, but when we do, we go all in. We sink our claws in deep, for life. My dad found Bruce. I found you."

Julia was quiet for a moment.

"Having you is the main reason I started going to church again. To thank God, and to ask her to keep you safe."

Both women had tears in their eyes, and Beth's laughter caused hers to spill down her face and run down her neck and mingle with the sweat that coated her skin on the hot July day.

"Her?"

"Fuck the patriarchy," Julia said as she wiped her own tears away with one hand while using the other hand to raise a fist.