February 8th, 2012

Long Beach, California

Charlotte waits outside of a clothing store. She decided to do some shopping until Seth got there to pick her up. A couple pairs of shorts, sandals, and tops to accompany the sunny Cali weather. Seth rolls up in a green McLaren. A huge grin on his face as he rolls down the window.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" He playfully asks.

"Really?" She groaned.

"Oh come on. At least crack a smile."

Charlotte pulls back the sides of her mouth for an imitation smile. Seth smirks as he gets out the car to grabs Charlotte's bags. He puts them in the back and opens the passenger door for Charlotte. A smile appears as she gets in.

"That's more like it." Said Seth.

He drops the top and hits the highway. Driving fast, picking up speed as he goes on. Seth starts laughing as he cuts through traffic. Charlotte grips on to her seat for dear life. The wind blasting her face as Seth goes Speed Racer down the road. Swerving through a few semi's and bikers. Thankfully no cops. Now off the highway and back onto regular streets, Charlotte starts punching Seth.

"Hey, what I do?"

"Driving like a psychopath!"

"You scared of a little speed?"

Charlotte shakes her head before leaning back and turning away. There goes any goodwill. He enters Cole's apartment complex. Seth gets out as Cole comes storming out with a man right behind him.

"Yo man, everything okay?"

"It was till about five minutes ago."

"What happened?"

"Shelly just got here upset about some teacher at her school. Two weeks ago this dickhead tried to make a move on her. She kindly said she wasn't interested. He clearly didn't get the message. Started touching her, grabbed her ass earlier. She pushed him off and he threatened to fail her!"

"Why didn't she report him?"

"I aint got time for that shit. I told MY girl that I'm taking care of this. Shelly said he hangs around some coffee shop on Lare Street. Me and Roddy were gonna head down there and tune his ass up. By the way, Roddy this is Seth."

Roddy gives a silent head nod. Seth answers back with one as well.

"You coming?"

"Hell yeah."

Seth reaches over Charlotte into the glove box, grabbing a pistol and tucking it into his pants.

"Where are you going?" Asked Charlotte.

"To go teach some manners. I'll be right back. If you didn't hear, this is my boy Adam. That's Roddy. Guys, this is my partner Charlotte."

"Sup. You can head on inside, Shelly's expecting company. C building, apartment 6."

The trio leave in Cole's car, while Charlotte looks dumbfounded. She grabs her purse and walks to Adam's door. She gives a hard knock. It takes a few seconds, but Shelly finally answers. Her eyes were red and held a balled up tissue in her hand. Charlotte was surprised to see another woman match her height.

"Oh, hello. You're Charlotte?"

"Oui. Tu dois etre. (Yes. Nice to meet you Shelly.)"

"Oh, tu parles francais! Entrez s'il vous plait. (Oh, you speak French! Please come in.)

They take a seat on the couch. A tea set along the small table.

"Tea?" Offered Shelly.

"Sure."

Across town, Cole drives slowly on the curb. Seth observing as Roddy prepares a retractable baton.

"You see him?" Asked Seth.

"Uh huh. He's in line right now. Eric Hane. Middle aged dude with the bald head and blue button up."

"I see him now. Whenever you're ready."

Hane comes out followed by a young female. They walk over to his car in a nearby parking lot. As he pulls out keys, Cole and Roddy rush in. Pushing him against the car and stomping down. The young woman calls for help, but Seth grips her up.

"Don't do that." He warned, flashing his gun.

Cole kicks on Hane's chest while Roddy beats his legs with the baton. Cole grabs Hane by the shirt and rocks him with a stiff left, busting his eye.

"Hurry up." Said Seth as he looked around for witnesses.

Cole backs up Roddy before he kneels down to Hane, who's bruised up badly at this point.

"Listen closely dipshit." Cole whispered. "If Shelly Marone comes to me saying you even BREATHED in her direction, imma have to come pay you another visit. If you tell anybody what happened to you, I'll have to come find you and we do this all over again. Got it!"

Hane silently nods his head. Cole starts to walk away, but gives one more kick to the gut. He pats Roddy on the chest and they head back to the car. Seth lets the woman go, giving her a hush gesture before joining them.

Back at the apartment, Shelly is braiding Charlotte's hair while they chat. Both eating through a bag of caramel chocolate pieces Shelly had out .Talking love, work and life amongst other things. Charlotte sharing her story of how she got into the business. She showed a picture of Leo on her phone.

"He's adorable." Shelly squealed.

"Thank you. Little guy is my entire world. I hate that I'm always working."

"How old is he?"

"He turns seven this year."

"I want a baby too, but I need to finish school first."

"Smart girl. Last thing you need is to get sidetracked by childcare."

"Are you going to have one of your own someday?"

Charlotte got quiet. A familiar dark cloud returning. Shelly couldn't see her face, but knew something was wrong.

"So your hair's all done."

Shelly finishes the last knot and gives Charlotte a mirror. Charlotte checks out her new French braided pigtails. She thanks Shelly as the boys return.

"Tea and brading hair! We're a couple of lingerie sets from a slumber party!" Joked Seth.

Shelly giggles while Charlotte rolls her eyes.

"Don't worry about your teacher anymore, he won't be a problem." Assured Cole.

"Thanks baby."

Charlotte's phone starts ringing and looks to see it's Sasha. She steps outside to take the call.

"Hey Char."

"What's up." Charlotte muttered.

"You okay? You sound mad as hell."

"I'm not mad, just irritated."

"Is Seth treating you right? I'll come down there and kick his ass."

"He aint do nothing wrong. I'm not in the mood to deal with him and his friends. I like working with, you know, professionals. I just want this shit to be done with."

"Hang in there girl. At least you get to be in California. Texas is boring as shit."

"Everything okay with you and Roman?"

"Oh yeah. An absolute gentleman. I could do without these hicks staring at me all creepy. But hey, it's part of the job. Anyway, I was just checking up, seeing how you were doing."

"I'm good, you know me. I'll talk to you later. Be safe."

Charlotte heads back inside to find the living room empty. A nasty smell coming from the back of the apartment. She walks back and opens a door. A giant cloud of smoke gushing out into her face. She coughs while seeing everyone inside the bedroom, crowded around a hookah.

"Are you fu*cough cough* kidding me!" Charlotte shouted.

"My bad, did you want in on this?" Said Seth.

"You're on duty. May I remind you we're here to do a job. Not fuck around and smoke pot!"

"Lower your voice. Don't come in here yelling like that!"

"Guys lets not." Pleaded Cole.

"No, no, no. Let her speak. Tell me how you really feel?"

"You want to know how I feel?" She snapped. "I think you're an immature punk who's 'playing' secret agent. You abused your authority earlier, you're always joking around, and you don't take anything seriously! I feel like the only reason we came down here if for you to fuck around!"

"I'm not serious? Because I like to chill out for a minute and hang out with my friends. Oh that's right, you don't have a life because all you do is work. It's not my fault you're an uptight bitch!"

Seth's eyes immediately lit up. He reaches out, but Charlotte slaps his hand away. She stomps out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. Seth exhales deeply, knowing he just did wrong. He turns to his friends, who sat quiet. Seth shakes his head and runs outside. Looking around to realize she took his car.

"Ffffffffuck."

Down by the beach, Charlotte sits by the water eating a ham sandwich. A large bag of chips as well. She watches the kids swim around. Laughing and having a great time. Leo hasn't been to the beach in a while, that's definitely something she needs to put on her list. Her head was spinning, presumably a headache from earlier. Feeling lonely, she decides to make a call to her best friend Becky.

"Hey. How's California."

Charlotte sat confused for a moment. Forgetting who she just called.

"Who's this?"

"What? Its Becky. You drunk?"

"No."

A few seconds of silence pass. Charlotte grabs a big handfuls of chips, shoving them in her mouth.

"Charlotte!"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"Ya know, just hanging around."

"Well what do you want?"

"I don't know."

"YOU CALLLED ME!" Shouts Becky.

"Oh yeah I did...bye."

Charlotte hangs up. Laying down, getting a view of the ocean. The sun was setting, making the sky a lovely shade of orange. Seth walks into her line of sight, looking down at her.

"Heeeyyyy, Seth." She greeted, tugging at his shoelace.

"How you feeling?"

"Good. Feeling really damn good."

"That's good. So uh, Shelly gave you some laced chocolate by accident."

Charlotte's eyes widen and she sits up quickly.

"Wait, what?!"

"She was pretty high when you got there, so she forgot to tell you. You seem to be handling it pretty well."

Seth takes a seat with her. Gazing out at the ocean. He turns to Charlotte, noticing the red glaze in her eyes.

"I wanted to apologize about earlier. Calling you a bitch. It was uncalled for."

"Damn right it was."

"Yeah I know. We're supposed to be working together and getting acquainted. I treated you like a tag along rather than a partner. Honestly, you are more qualified than me, so maybe I should let you take the lead."

"Smartest thing I heard you say all day. How'd you find me anyway?"

"That's car has a tracer on it. As expensive as it is, I better go searching if it go missing."

Things quieted down for a minute. Everyone else on the beach relaxing and having dinner. Seth grabs some chips to eat.

"I wasn't always a hard ass. I used to be a pretty chill back in high school." Charlotte admitted.

"Oh yeah?"

"My life was simple. A small town girl out of Wisconsin. Track star, great boyfriend, everything I wanted. For my senior prank, there was this teacher I didn't like. Old lady who I swore had it out for me. So after a night of drinking on graduation day, we drove to her house and I peed on her car."

Seth burst out laughing. Holding his stomach and wiping tears from his eyes. Charlotte chuckles with a huge grin on her face.

"That's great. So what happened after high school?"

"Well, my boyfriend broke up with me after we couldn't have children. I'm infertile. It cost me the love of my life. We dated for 6 years and he just, up and left me."

"Damn, that took a wrong turn."

"It hurts just thinking about it. Although it was easy to talk about just then."

Seth makes some puffing noises.

"That made me feel like I wasn't good enough. But it motivated me to work my way to the Olympics. There I met my last husband Arin. Such a sweetheart. He gave me everything and more. Then it all went to shit."

"I know the story."

"It's amazing how much you take for granted. I'm lucky to even be here. Which is why I try to motivate and bring people to a new level. I don't like being rough with people, sometimes it's just the only way to get through."

"Understandable. I guess I haven't fully embraced the nature of what I do. You're definitely an inspiration."

"Appreciate. I still have my son. He's all I need. So what about you? What brought you here?"

"Well I got into a lot of bullshit as a teen. Stealing bikes, drinking alcohol, smoking weed. Pretty much what I do now, except legally. My mom had enough of that and sent me off to Japan with my uncle. I spent years out there training. Strengthening my discipline. Almost got killed out there over something stupid."

"Tell me."

"I slept this gangster's girlfriend-"

"Of course."

"-and he found out. Dude brought his gang and beat me senseless. I was about to get tossed off a bridge, but my best friend at the time Kenneth literally came in at the last minute. He went all across town looking for me."

"Now that's a good friend."

"Aint it. Hopefully I can pay him back one day. Eventually I came home to the states. Did a few crossfit tourney's and I was offered this job by an old British man."

"That's...interesting."

"I learned a lot in my time over there, but I never lost my old ways. Only toned them down. I hate to see what getting old does to a person. Might as well enjoy youth while you can."

"I guess I can't hate you for that. But do that on your time."

"I got you. Lets get back. I got a house rented in Santa Monica. Shelly and Cole are going to join us later. They'll get us into the club."

"You know when this dope wears off I'm going to be mean again."

"I know. Lets enjoy it while it lasts."