He stepped into the chilly office building and crept past the security guard who was too enthralled in his paper to notice. He knew Leia's office was on the second floor. Pacing up the staircase towards his adoptive mother's office he felt a shiver, forcing himself to forget about the past.

"Excuse me, do you have an appointment?" The receptionist asked the brunette.

"No, I'm sorry I don't. Do I have to make one?" Apollo wondered. The young woman at the desk looked past him for a second to the pin board beside him. In the centre was a photo of Leia and her adopted son. The receptionist had never spoken to her boss about the boy before. Suddenly something clicked, this kids' hair was the same.

"You aren't Leia's adopted son are you?" She looked at the vacant stare. "The boy in the picture?"

"Yeah, that's me." Apollo held out his hand. "May I see her?"

"Of course, go right on ahead into this door and head into the door on the back left."

He followed the woman's instructions. As he knocked on the door a floral scent wafted out.

"Come in!" She called.

"Thanks." Apollo closed the door softly behind him.

"That voice sounds familiar to me…" She removed her glasses and looked up from the folder she was reading at her desk.

"Well it should."

"Apollo!" The 50 year old woman leapt up and hugged him. "How have you been?"

"Fine thanks. I'm sorry I haven't been in touch for a couple of years." He took the seat she motioned to. "I can't stay for too long but I figured I'd say hi."

"You're looking quite the big-shot attorney yourself boy." She chuckled. "And that's fine; I know how busy you are."

"Thanks. Maybe you can help me with something. Even though I know you haven't seen her for quite a long time but…what do you know about Angel's partner?"

"I know his name's Jake, that's about it. The last time I saw that evil daughter of mine was at your eighteenth birthday party." Apollo looked around the room at the books lining the black shelving units lining the wall behind her desk. To his left was a painting, which he guessed was based upon an old piece of artwork he had drawn up in high school. Apollo was very bad at drawing portraits but surreal and fantasy artwork was his specialty. It was an image of the world, surrounded by some of the most obscene or bizarre things in nature – like flying fish and Venus fly traps.

"Hm…thanks anyway." Apollo felt his heart sink.

"Would you like a drink?" The older woman asked. It was hard to picture this woman as a 50 year old as she still had her dark brunette hair and slim figure.

"Um…please." Apollo hesitated. "A coffee, no sugar."

"Of course." She spoke into the intercom. "It will be here momentarily."

"So how are you doing?" She asked.

"Not too bad, I got my dream job."

"That's my boy. Joanna would certainly be proud of what you've become." She waited for a moment. "Hm…I do know something else about this Jake fellow. He had a crush on Lana Skye – a girl I often faced in court until about nine years ago. I believe he managed to charm the young Skye girl after he left Angel, and I'm not sure what happened but that soon ended because of my daughter." The sweet smell of the oil on Apollo's neck drifted to her nose. "You smell awfully nice."

"Oh, I know Lana Skye quite well. Her sister is the detective who usually takes the cases I work on. They offered to help relieve all the tension in my neck, the smell is the oil they were using." Apollo watched as the woman at reception placed his drink in front of him.

They both chatted over the coffee about what Apollo had been up to since he left to go to college. She was curious about whether Apollo had found the girl of his dreams and he just chuckled, saying he might have somebody in mind then shrugged the question off.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

He was up bright and early the next morning, ready to face the challenge of the day – asking Jake about Angel. He had arranged to meet Jake in the security guard's room around nine that morning. Hastily getting himself dressed and grabbing his bike, he began to make the short journey to the precinct.

*

The security room used to be a bland, white room near the locker room until Jake started working in there. Lana once told Apollo he begged his boss to let him decorate the office into the bizarre Wild West saloon it had become.

"Mr Marshall. I appreciate you talking to me alone."

"I understand why you don't want Angel around partner as you two have quite a past…" Apollo gulped expecting to be yelled at. "But this is neither a time nor place for that." He flicked the cap up to reveal his face as he lounged behind the desk.

"I'd like it and I'm sure she would too if you didn't mention our little 'run-ins'" Apollo took his seat on the window ledge.

"So what'd you want to know?" The man was probably in his forties – Apollo's observations told him that and yet he was quite a handsome guy.

"Um…I sorta have to go through all the legal junk first…" Apollo did not want to be held responsible for anything. "I just need you to sign the bottom of my answer sheet here to prove it was you who answered."

"I thought you were an attorney, not a cop."

"I am." He watched as he squiggled his name.

"So who's asked you to d' this? One of the Skyes maybe?"

"I'm not liable to say. All the questions I have listed here are about your personal relationships. I hope you don't mind answering them." Damn…this guy's good.

"Heck, I ain't got nothin' to hide." Jake chuckled. "Fire away cowboy."

"Um…so first of all, when was the first time you dated Angel?"

"Long time ago now boy… eleven years, maybe more." Apollo busily squiggled answers on the sheet.

"Did you ever have any breaks between then and now?"

"Yep, broke up 'bout a year after I started dating her. Went after the other object of my desires." He smiled. "Betcha know who I'm on 'bout too since you're good mates with her little sis."

"Lana Skye." Apollo smiled. The man was quite accommodating really.

"The kid was going to England n' I went to say bye. Lana looked really upset so I took her for a few drinks then took her back to my apartment where I'd had everything changed so Angel couldn't get in." Apollo listened intently. "I got home n' there she was, my ex, on the couch half naked."

"What did Lana do?"

"What most women would do, slapped me. I explained it to her at a later date though."

"Can I just skip ahead to talking about this time with Lana after you explained to her for a while?" Apollo asked looking down at the next question. "When you explained to Lana, did she accept it?"

"Yeah, but she also told me that I should go back to Angel."

"Any idea why?"

"None." The cowboy poured a small drop of amber liquid from his flask into his coffee.

"Did you try to start a relationship with Lana?"

"Nope. She didn't seem interested after that. I figured the girl was jealous, I miss her like crazy though." He sounded sincere. "I think letting her go was the worst mistake I made."

"Thanks. I'll go back to questions about said Starr girl now."

"Any idea how she managed to get into your apartment that night?" Apollo was liking this interview – he should have been a journalist.

"There's a rumour and it's 'bout the only thing that would make sense too. I was patrolling them cells not far from here. My new keys were on the key hook on my belt and I was in charge of caring for a man who called himself Gant. You know about him right?" Apollo nodded, he read it out the old records in the station. "Rumour says something like he made a mould of my key while in his cell and gave it to Angel."

"And you think it's true?" Jake nodded. "Are you happy in your relationship?"

"Not really, I love the bambina 'n all but I keep dreaming 'bout the Skye girl all the time."

"Thanks, I think that's the last of my questions for now." Apollo shook the cowboy's hand before getting up to leave.

"Justice ain't it?" Apollo turned back around. "Come back here for a minute boy." Apollo closed the door and paced back to the desk.

"Yeah?"

"You're friends with that rock dude ain't ya?"

"Klavier Gavin?"
"That's the one." He grabbed the boy's wrist. "I'll let ya in on a little secret only I know. My Bambina's sure she's played away with him if ya get my drift."
"On night stand with Klavier? Ha!" Apollo laughed. "If that turns out to be true then I'll be looking at Klavier in a whole new light." Why would he pick a middle aged woman over some hormonal teen if he slept with fans?

"Gives me a good reason to throw her out for good if it's true though." He smiled slyly. "I told ya already – I love Angel but I dream of Lana."

"When I was little and I first met Angel's family I always seem to remember them telling me to pick the girl I dreamt about – something about my life would be better than a dream." Apollo shrugged. "Up until just now I had no clue what they were on about."
"See ya cowboy, hope ya got your info ya needed."

"Thank you again Mr Marshall." Apollo immediately ran out to Ema. He hadn't written down the stuff about Klavier – after all the guy was visiting his family in Germany to tell them about Kristoph. He would have to dig out the note Klavier had left him…