Part 6~Nick
Detective Nick Knight shot out of his chair as soon as he could, fairly sprinting from the building. Schanke yelled after him to watch where he was going, but Nick only grunted non-comittally. Something was wrong with Natalie. He could feel it.
"Nick! Hey!" Schanke jogged up behind his partner and Nick stepped out into the brisk night air. "What's up, partner? Got a hot date waiting?" he asked with a suggestive raising of his eyebrows.
"Not exactly, Schanke. Look, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Nick took off for the parking garage.
"Nice talkin' to ya, Nick. Painful as always," Schanke murmured, shaking his head.
Nick hopped into his Caddy and peeled out of the garage. On the radio, Lacroix droned on about something or another. With a disgusted sigh, Nick turned the volume down to a steady hum. "Our visitor seems to want something, my children . . ." Still annoyed, Nick turned the radio off, focusing all his attention on getting to Natalie. His hunches were rarely wrong, and if Natalie was in trouble, he had no intention of letting her down.
Parking haphazardly in front of Natalie's apartment building, Nick bolted up the stairs, pausing to knock on Natalie's front door. Her face appeared almost immediately. "Nick!" She seemed genuinely surprised to see him and a bit... nervous? "Uh, what are you doing here?"
"I just had this feeling that you needed me. Is anything wrong, Nat?"
"Well... no. No, nothing's wrong."
Nick knew Natalie well enough to know she was omitting something. Something important. "What's going on?"
"I think you need to see this for yourself. C'mon in." She stepped aside, allowing Nick to enter the apartment. He was more than a little dismayed upon seeing a strange man sitting on Natalie's couch. "This is Qui-Gon Jinn."
The man rose and held out his hand to Nick. "Natalie has told me a bit about you, Detective Knight. I was hoping to get a chance to meet you."
"Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too, Mister... Jinn, is it?"
"Qui-Gon, please." The man's face was oddly expressionless, as though he were holding back any emotions that might broil beneath the surface. He easily towered over Nick, and the lack of outward emotion made him no less intimidating. "I am afraid I have been imposing upon your friend Natalie to help me."
The doctor shifted uncomfortably under the force of Nick's gaze. "Uh, yeah. You see, Qui-Gon here is, uh-"
"From another galaxy," the man finished for her. "And I need to find a way back."