Mark, Roger, and Mimi sat waiting in the loft. Collins, Maureen and Joanne were supposed to be stopping by any minute in order for the six of them to spend an evening at The Life, a practice that had became a sacred tradition for them all. However, they all were about five minutes late.

"Seriously, where are those guys?" Mark asked, beginning to pace.

"Easy, Mark," Roger looked up from the couch where he was sitting with Mimi perched on his lap. "You know how girls are." This earned him a sharp slap over the head from Mimi. "Ow! I was just kidding, baby!" Mimi grinned, before leaning in to kiss him.

"Well, if they don't get here soon, there might not be enough seats at The Life for six people," Mark pointed out.

"Seven," Mimi corrected. "Seven people."

"Come again, Meems?" Roger looked over at his girlfriend.

"I stopped by The Center earlier," Mimi smiled. "I thought it would be nice to invite Emily to join us tonight, to thank her for helping Mark when he almost got himself killed last week." Roger couldn't help but grin at this. Typical Mimi. She was always the one to reach out to new people, determined to make as many friends as possible.

Seconds later, Maureen and Joanne finally entered the loft, the former practically bouncing out of her skin abut something.

"Guys, this is really amazing!" she squealed. "I saw a special on TV last night about learning magic tricks at home! I need you to help me test out the first trick I learned!"

"Maureen, I told you. You can't just master a trick like this in less then a day," Joanne sighed, ever the rationalist.

"Oh, come on, don't be a spoilsport," Maureen pouted before turning back to the others. "Say you'll be my volunteers! Pleasepleasepleaseplease….?"

"Okay, okay!" Mark cried, if nothing but to calm her down. "What kind of trick?"

"Wonderful trick, Maureen," Roger scowled twenty minutes later. All five of them were handcuffed together. Maureen was trying one last time to wiggle her hand out of her handcuff, but to no avail.

"Guys I'm so sorry!" Maureen apologized as she finally gave up. "I could have sworn these were the right handcuffs!"

At that moment the phone started to ring. However, since they were also inconveniently handcuffed to the lamp as well, none of them could reach the phone.

"SPPEEEEAAAAAK!"

"Um, hey guys. It's Collins. Listen, do you think you guys could, uh, come down to the station for me? I'm in a little bit of trouble. I… kinda need you guys to bail me out of jail here. Please don't ask questions; I'll explain everything when I get out of here. Thanks."

"Nice job, Maureen," Roger growled again. "Next time, bring the da-n keys, okay?"

"Mer-ci-ful heavens!" The friends all looked over to the window to see Emily standing on the windowsill, staring at them all, stunned. "What… did you guys do?"

"Emily?" Mark blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, Mimi came to The Center this afternoon, asking if I wanted to join you on your trip to The Life Café tonight. I figured it was that or a TV dinner. I would have been here sooner, but Rupert and Jerry thought it would be… amusing to set a bunch of frogs loose in the building. It took ages to round them all up."

"How'd you get up here?" Joanne asked.

"I found an old umbrella in a pile of garbage outside," Emily explained. "Since I couldn't get through the front door without a key, I had to use that to pull down the fire escape ladder. Now it's your turn to answer some questions. For starters, what happened to you guys?"

"Maureen," Roger grumbled, pointing to the drama queen," got the wonderful idea of getting into magic tricks."

"Oh!" Emily nodded in dawning understanding. "You mean the thing, with the handcuffs, and the cloth, the hand waving, and the trick latch thing?"

"Yes," Joanne sighed. "Except someone mixed up the trick handcuffs with real ones."

"I said I was sorry!" Maureen huffed. "What more do you want from me?"

"Emily, listen," Mark began. "Could you, by any chance, go and try to find a locksmith to come over and help us out?"

"Don't have to," Emily smiled as she reached up into her hair and removed a bobby pin. She bent down next to the bound-together group and inserted the bobby pin into one of the handcuff locks, twisting the small length of wire around. Seconds later, the handcuff opened with a click."

"How'd you do that?" Joanne asked, clearly impressed.

"Lucky for you guys," Emily stated, moving on to another lock, "I happen to have a bit of experience with handcuffs." Suddenly, Emily froze, and began to chuckle, a definite blush appearing in her cheeks, apparently realizing that her words could easily be taken the wrong way. "I don't mean like that," she laughed nervously. "My brother, Zack, was a cop. So naturally, he worked with handcuffs all the time. He insisted on teaching me everything that could help me get out of every sticky situation imaginable, and even some that were unimaginable. Picking handcuff locks was one of his first lessons."

As Emily finished her narrative, she managed to open the final handcuff. Rubbing his wrists in an attempt to get the circulation back into his hands, Mark introduced Emily to Maureen and Joanne.

"Mark, come on!" Mimi stated. "Collins is still waiting for us!"

"Oh, right," Mark nodded. "Emily, do you mind waiting here for a bit? Our friend called up before you got here. We gotta help bail him out of jail."

"Oh! Sure, no problem, but, how'd he get into jail in the first place, if you don't mind me asking?"

"With Collins, you never can be sure. We'll be back soon," Mark shrugged as he left with the others. Once they were gone, Emily began to look around the Loft with an appraising eye.

"Hmm. Spacious," Emily commented, before glancing over at the stove with a raised eyebrow. A smile slowly crept onto her face.

"You were stealing animals?" Joanne muttered incredulously as the six friends walked up the street to The Life as Collins filled them all in on his latest escapade. It had taken almost an hour and a half to get past all the legal work, but finally, mostly thanks to Joanne, they had managed to get Collins released.

"It was an animal testing facility," Collins defended. "It wasn't stealing. It was liberating."

"Man, why didn't you invite us along?" Roger playfully scolded.

"Next time, Rog. Promise."

"Oh, come on!" Maureen pouted as they reached the Life. The restaurant was completely deserted, and the door was locked tight. "I can't believe they're closed! I'm hungry!"

"Well, I guess it's cold leftover pizza tonight," Mimi sighed.

"Just one question, guys," Collins began as the bohemians began to head back to the loft. "What took you so long to get down there to bail me out?"

As they began to fill the anarchist in on Maureen's failed magic trick, Mark suddenly went as stiff as a board, a horrified look on his face.

"OH, NO!" he cried.

"Mark, what happened?"

"Emily! I just remembered! She's been alone in the loft this whole time!"

"Aw, sh-t!" Roger hissed as they began to race back home.

When they finally reached the large sliding door that lead to the loft, however, they were greeted by a strong garlicky smell that was wafting its way out through the small cracks between the door and the wall. After sharing a confused look, they opened the door, just in time to see Emily place a serving tray of fresh-baked breadsticks on the center of the large metal table.

"Oh, good! Perfect timing!" she grinned upon seeing them. "Dinner is served!"

"Emily, what's this?" Maureen gaped as the bohemians stared at the seven plates arranged neatly around the table, each containing a generous portion of tortellini covered in light orange sauce.

"Well," Emily shrugged. "I thought that, since you were using your money to help bail your friend out of jail, you might not have enough left over to buy a substantial meal. So I thought I'd help out by making you something instead.

"You can cook?"

"Don't insult me! I happen to be part Italian. Cooking's in my blood. And don't forget that I have to take care of children every day. Knowing how to cook is something of a requirement."

"Wow, that smells good." Collins noted, eyeing the dish. "What is it?"

"One of my specialties. Three cheese tortellini in rosé vodka sauce, with sautéed mushrooms and fresh-baked breadsticks." The others all had to fight back a laugh. They knew Emily had Collins at 'vodka sauce'.

"It's a big hit at the Center," Emily continued. "All the children love it. And I figured, if they love it, then maybe you'd enjoy it, too. None of you are allergic to dairy, I hope." Emily suddenly frowned, as if fearing that someone was.

"Oh, no, no one has food allergies here," Mark assured her.

"Good, because one of the ingredients is heavy cream, Well, come on, then; it's best when eaten warm."

No one needed to be told twice.

AN: And that's the end of part one, which was meant to introduce Emily. Part two's the main story, and it will be up soon. Maybe some more good reviews will inspire me to speed up the process. (hint-hint)
On personal notes:
1) The dinner Emily makes is a real dish, and it's super good: I used to eat it all the time at the Community College in my home town.
2) Sorry for censoring out the swear words. Blame my parents and their child rearing skills. (Lol)
3) Hope I managed to get everyone in character. I personally could see Maureen and Collins pulling stunts like that. I hope I wasn't wrong.
Again, hope everyone's enjoying my story. Until next time.