Morelli sat in the back of the briefing room at the station. He was early as he sipped on the hot cup of coffee in his hands. Several other uniforms where around the donut box at the table in front of him.
"I heard she didn't come in last week for her last probation meeting. I knew that little bitch wouldn't go through with it." Gaspick told other two uniforms.
One of the officer's shook his head. "But…wouldn't you think that maybe something went wrong? She did have a year of parole and she's been to all the others."
Gaspick gave a bark of laughter, "Any little bitch that comes from where she does is no good. No follow thru. Probably got in a fight and didn't want to show up. She comes in with bruises sometimes and claims it's from fight nights at the karate school. They are so geared up you can't have that many bruises."
Morelli glared at Gaspick from behind. Gazarra walked in and patted Morelli on the back and took a seat next to him. Morelli gave Gazarra a nod. Gazarra took a drink of coffee and glanced at Morelli and looked at Gaspick.
"It is a contact sport though, you can't expect her not to have bruises at times." The officer said.
"You on Ramono's case again, Gaspick?" Gazarra asked.
Gaspick turned around. "Little bitch didn't show up, warrant is being issued today."
"So you going to haul her in?" Gazarra asked.
"Damn straight I am. Her bond gets revoked at midnight." He looked at Morelli, "Guess your girlfriend isn't so good after all."
Morelli sipped his coffee, the little dick wasn't worth it.
Gazarra watched Joe, he knew Joe would respond if he wanted. "My cousin-in-law is better than you are any day of the week."
Gaspick turned to look at Gazarra, "If she is so good, why doesn't she have her in custody yet?"
"Thing come up GasPrick." Gazarra said the officer's name for him, "Word on the street has been her mama got in a world of hurt with Shiropolli. I don't think Ramono would be worried about a little thing like a warrant at the moment."
Gaspick came out of his seat and placed both hands down hard on the table on the table Joe and Eddie were sitting at. "It's Gaspick, and that's no excuse for missing a parole meeting."
"Sit Down!" Joe growled out. "Eddie has the measure of that girl better than you do."
"You are all fucking nuts. She broke my arm, she'll kill a cop next. That little bitch is bad news." Gaspick glared at Joe but sat back down as the room started filling in with more uniforms.
Joe gave out a bark of laughter. "In your dreams she might do that."
"Yeah, like you fucking know her." Gaspick threw back at him.
"Better than you," Joe stood up and leaned over the table, "You touch that girl and fuck up my case with Shiropolli and have your balls nailed to the wall. The feds will chew you up and spit you out. Don't fuck with this girl." Joe felt his shirt being tugged and turned around to see his chief.
"I need to talk with you."
Joe threw his leg of the chair he was straddling and moved off with his chief outside the briefing room.
"How deep is she in?" The chief asked.
"So deep she couldn't show for her probation appointment. The kid needs a break, and with Wyatt Erp in there she won't get it. At least with him having the judge in his bed."
The chief glanced at Morelli, "Now we can't blame the judge for her taste in men." The chief smiled at Morelli's groan. "Seriously, this judge is hard on all the kids that are even near Comstock Street. I agree with some of her views, not all of her decisions. The kid was given a fair shake on this though."
"She didn't miss that meeting because she didn't want to go." Joe told him. He played his cards close to his chest, but he didn't want to spell out just how deep Alex was involved in this whole mess. He wanted to talk to Alex so he could learn more.
"Morelli!"
Joe looked up and saw the feds coming his way. "Time to play with the big boys." Joe walked away from his chief and went to meet the white nights on his chess board of justice.
Alex was sitting in the waiting room of the small clinic on Desmond, not to far from her home about six blocks over. There was a shoe store across the street but it wasn't open this early and the clinic was.
"Alex Ramono!" The nurse called out while she was reading from the clipboard.
Alex stood up and walked over towards the nurse with her duffle bag in hand. The nurse looked her over up and down. "Come on back, looks like your old man did a number on you."
"It sure wasn't pleasant." Alex droned out, not bothering with changing the story the nurse was creating for her.
"You leave so fast you didn't bother with shoes?" The nurse pointed down to Alex's bare feet.
Alex gave a shrug in response.
"Honey, you probably ain't gonna have any clothes when you get back."
"Not gonna go back."
The nurse opened the door to the exam rooms and pulled the curtain on room one. She changed into the normal sterile hospital garb the nursed gave her and hopped up on the flat bed. Alex stretched out and closed her eyes while she waited for the doctor. Alex woke when her right arm was being lifted and she felt the cold vinyl of the blood pressure cuff being placed around her arm.
"What in the world did he beat you with?" The doctor asked.
"Anything the bastard got his hands on."
The doctor shook his head, he had cases like this every day. And every day they seemed to get younger and younger coming in this clinic messed up this way. He finished checking her vitals and started going over her body, shaking his head at all the bruises.
"Sure hope you are pressing charges on that bastard." The nurse said.
"That was next on my list of things to do after I get some shoes." Alex lied smoothly.
The doctor looked up at the nurse, "Why don't you call this in and we can save her a little bit of time."
Alex jerked her head up looking at the nurse, "I can do it myself once I get some shoes."
The hand on her upper chest pushed back gently for her to lay back down. "It will be better if we get a police officer in her now. Besides, you are under eighteen and I have to report this in." He was now checking her side and pain shot through Alex.
"Son of Bitch! That hurts!"
"Possibly broken, if not broken you are bound to have at least a few of them bruised." He nodded to the nurse who walked out from the curtained room.
Alex sat up. "Look, you can't call the cops. It wasn't a fucking boyfriend, or my old man or any other shit. Just tell me what the fuck is wrong and I'll pay you your damn money and leave."
He stood back for a minute, looking at the kid on the table. "Are you gang banging?"
"Yeah, that's it." Alex glared at him, "I wasn't raped. Just tell me what I need to know."
"I won't know for sure without x-rays."
"I don't have time for x-rays." Alex stated as she slid off the bed and grabbed the clothes by the gurney. "I also had to wade through sewage," she turned towards him as she started slipping on her gi bottoms, "Look, just write out what I need for the pain in my ribs and some antibiotic."
"I can't do that." The doctor told her and came around the bed. "Stop that and get back up on the bed. I haven't finished examining you."
"You're finished." Alex stated as she tied off the gi ties. "Consultation is over."
Alex pulled out a hundred dollar bill from the bills and laid it on the bed. The doctor looked at the bill on the bed. He looked back up at her as she was pulling off the gown facing away from him and pulling the shirt over her head. He groaned at seeing how bruised the kid really was.
"How much trouble are you in?" He asked against his better judgment and reached for a prescription pad.
"I'm treading water, but the sharks are getting closer." She turned back around and picked up the duffle bag. She watched as he scrawled out on the pad. He tore it off and handed it to her.
"You probably have about five minutes before the police show up." He said as Alex took the prescription.
"It was pleasure doing business with you." Alex pulled the curtain back and walked out. The nurse started after her and the doctor held her back. Alex paused at the door and looked back them. "I wished you really wouldn't have called the cops."
Stephanie was driving close to slayerland, she told Ranger she wouldn't go inside, so skirting the outskirts of the place she felt at least relatively safe. She was looking for any clinics that were close to the place. She had already found two and no one had seen Alex or anyone that had even looked like her there this morning. She stopped at the light and took a drink of the coffee she had purchased earlier. A black and white sped past her and through the red light while she sat in her Mini Cooper.
Alex took off at a run once outside the clinic. She looked longingly at the shoe store, but figured she couldn't hang around. Even with feet hurting she kept plodding on, with death hanging over her head it gave her the motivation she needed to keep pushing herself to her limit. She had just slipped in the fence on the side of the road she was on when she saw the police cruiser fly by. Alex slid down the fence as she looked at the prescription. She grinned at the piece of paper. Now she just had to get it filled. Sticking her head back towards the gap she saw the cruiser coming back down the road at a slow pace. She moved her head back in and took deep breaths to calm her pulse rate down to a low roar in her ears. She heard the car drive on slowly by and then looked out again, the only other car she saw was a Mini Cooper coming down the road, the cruiser having turned off on an off street.
Stephanie slammed on her breaks as she saw the head coming through the fence. Putting the car into park she hopped out and took off at a jog to get across the street. Alex stood and saw the women coming. She threw the duffle at her, and spun taking off down the street with Stephanie running after her as she knocked the duffle out of the way. Alex started across the street not bothering look either way. Stephanie slowed only for a bit to make sure no cars were coming and kept after her.
"Stop!" Stephanie told her getting winded with short sprint already.
Alex looked back and then turned her face forward again, she saw the dumpster and planting her hands firmly on the hold outside of the sliding door she pulled herself up and then scrambled up on top of it. She looked over the edge and over the fence it was sitting next to, she judged the jump and missed the few concrete blocks sitting on the ground. Stephanie was scrambling up the dumpster and was on top when she saw Alex was half way across the back yard of some storage lot. She jumped down without looking.
Alex heard the thud, and crack. She turned to look back while still running and then stopped. "Shit!"
She saw the women laying flat on her back and her head over the concrete slabs. Alex walked back over to her and bent down and moved Stephanie's head. She saw the blood coming out from the back of her hair.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid. Someone needs to tell you to look before you leap. It adds to your life expectancy at least by two percent from dumb shit like this." Alex told her as Stephanie was groaning and reaching for her head. Alex stopped her hand from going to her head. "Don't! You're going to get shit all in that wound and I won't be held responsible for this."
Stephanie sat up and felt the world revolving. "Fuck!"
"Yup, that is typically how it feels." Alex got behind Stephanie and put her arms under Stephanie's arm pits and hoisted her to her feet. "Hold still and let me look at the gash on your head."
"Why did you stop?" Stephanie asked her. "I couldn't have caught up to you."
Alex moved Stephanie's hair away and looked at the gash, "You're going to have to get stitches, this wound is too deep, and you'll have one hell of a headache." Alex ignored the question, she wasn't about to explain why she stopped. "Come on, there is a clinic only two blocks down. I suggest you don't tell them your old man did this. They get touchy and call the cops."
Stephanie turned around and had to grasp onto Alex's arm to keep the world still. "Answer my question."
Alex furrowed her brows and frowned at her. It wasn't easy to explain. "I wanted to make sure you didn't kill yourself and I got blamed for it." Alex grabbed Stephanie by her arm and looked for a gate. She saw one and started heading them both to it. "It wouldn't sit right with my ethics." She wrenched open the gate and led Stephanie through it after she made sure no cop cars where circling the street they were on.
Stephanie groaned, ethics, moral codes, some measure of right and wrong I haven't even figured out how to get. She looked over at Alex, the kid was shorter than her, smaller than she was, and more Italian. She looked at Alex's black hair that was pulled back in a pony tail that hung down the middle of her back. The kid's complexion was richly tan and her dark blue eyes bore bullets in them when she glanced at Stephanie. "I'm really not very good at my job if my FTA is escorting me to a clinic."
Alex gave a hearty guffaw. "You need to get in better shape and look before you jump down on the other side of things."
"I saw you do it and thought it was safe."
Alex threw her a perplexed look, "Did you see Ranger jump down that embankment and chase me through raw sewage? He looked but he didn't leap." They reached the door of the clinic. "He's already seen me today, seeing me twice would probably go to his head. I'll go get your car and bring it around."
"You're going to take off on me aren't you?"
"You have no faith in your fellow man. I just walked you to a clinic so you can get stitches in your head and now you think I'm gonna snitch the car. Get inside!" Alex spun around and started jogging back to get the car and her stuff.
Stephanie shook her head and went inside the clinic. Alex picked up her duffle and went to the Cooper, she slid behind the wheel and put the car in gear and drove it around to the clinic. Getting out she walked across the street and walked inside the shoe store that was just opening up. She picked up a pack of socks and grabbed the first pair of sneakers that were her size. Paid for them, put them on and then walked across the street, she opened the clinic door and looked in, Stephanie wasn't in the waiting room. The same nurse from earlier looked up at her.
"Where's the head case that came in? She going to be alright?"
"Doctor is sewing her up right now. Her old man do that too?" The nurse asked.
"Nope, fell and hit a brick, I walked her here."
The nurse looked down at her feet, "Got your shoes I see."
"Yup, I'll call the cops when I get back to my place." Alex pulled the keys out of her pocket, "The woman's keys to her car are right here."
"You're letting all the air out, get in here and just go give them to her yourself, she's in room two." The nurse said then called out the next name on the list.
Alex came in and passed the nurse and said, "Bless you, you did your good deed for the day. St. Peter marked it on the books."
The nurse made the sign of the cross. "We had to call. It wasn't our fault."
"Yeah well, this time let me get out of the place before you call again." Alex moved over to curtain number two and pushed her way in.
The doctor looked up, "What didn't like the prescriptions I wrote?"
"Those were fine. Just came to give her, her car keys back." She handed them to Stephanie.
Stephanie took them and grabbed onto Alex's wrist, "He said I have a concussion and can't drive home."
"Imagine that," Alex said smarmily.
"I won't turn you over today if you can just get me home. I don't feel like calling Ranger and explaining how I botched up catching his hundred grand dollar girl."
Alex looked at the doctor. She didn't know what he was thinking about this conversation but she saw his eyebrow raise up to the top of his head. "You still need an x-ray."
"I'll tape my ribs, not much you can do even if they may be broken." Alex told him.
He shrugged at her and then tied off the last stitch on Stephanie's head. "Suit yourself, she doesn't need to go to sleep for twenty four hours, she had four stitches in her head. Don't give her any pain medication other than normal over the counter until we know she can stay awake."
He turned and stripped the gloves off his hand and then wrote out a prescription for Stephanie. Alex pulled the bills out and peeled off another hundred and handed it to him.
"Come on wonder woman, let's get you home." Alex said and started walking out of the clinic with Stephanie trailing along behind her.
Stephanie watched as Alex drove her to her place after she gave the kid directions. Alex didn't talk while she was driving. Another one of those Ranger qualities. When they got to the lot Alex put the car in park. "You trust me to go get these filled?" Alex asked waving the prescriptions in front of her.
"Only if you tell me why you really came back for me?" Stephanie asked.
"You were five blocks from Slayerland. If any one of them would have came back there, they would have taken advantage of you. Look at you," Alex waved her hand up and down indicating Stephanie, "you don't belong over there. You were over there because you were after me. I don't want anything to happen to you because of me, it would eat at me. I don't take shit from them and they know it, they know me, they don't know you, they would eat you alive and not give a damn about it. I don't play by their rules, I bend them to suite my own means when I find reason I have to do it. Anything else?"
Stephanie couldn't help but feel she just got a dressing down by a grown up and not a kid. "Not at the moment, but I owe you for paying for the stitches."
"Then let me get these filled and I'll let you feed me."
Stephanie gave a nod of consent and got out of the car and made her way into the building. Alex drove to the nearest drug store and asked them to put a rush on the prescriptions and was granted it for once in her life. She was pretty sure the pharmacist didn't want her collapsing in his store, it wouldn't be good for business. She hurried back to Stephanie's apartments and took the stairs up to the second floor and was banging at Stephanie's door.
Stephanie opened the door and Alex walked in passed her and handed her the bag that was hers. "I haven't got much, I haven't made it to the store."
Alex shook her head. "What have you got?"
"Peanut butter and bread."
"Sounds like a feast to me at the moment. I'll take it." Alex went over to the chair and flopped down in it and laid her head back, this was the most comfortable she had been in two weeks. Minus the short ten minute nap at the clinic.
Stephanie made the sandwiches and got a beer from the fridge for herself and a bottle of water for Alex. She felt inadequate, she couldn't even offer the kid a coke. She put the plate down on the coffee table and sat down on the couch. Alex reached out and grabbed one of the sandwiches and ate it, she opened the pill bottles from her bag and downed both of them along with the whole bottle of water.
"You want another one?"
"I'm fine. No thank you."
Stephanie sat back looking at the kid, she had FTA's in her apartment before. This was the first time she had one in her apartment that actually didn't try to kill her. The silence stretched between them. Stephanie couldn't help but have question after question floating around in her head. "I take it, you aren't ready to be brought in yet."
"Correct."
One word answer. What was with the one word answers? Doesn't anyone like to elaborate and give me more. No one seemed to be wanting to share. Stephanie thought.
"Why?"
Alex opened her eyes and looked at Stephanie, "That should be obvious." She leaned back and closed her eyes again, "You know the TV will probably give you more company than me. It'll help you stay awake."
"Aren't you afraid if you fall asleep I'll call someone?"
Alex reached inside her pocket and pulled out the cell phone's chip. "Your phone doesn't work at the moment. And I'll hear you if you open the door, I'm a light sleeper."
Stephanie looked incredulously at the chip in her hand. They think of everything, this would be classic Ranger. "Are you always one step ahead?"
"Turn on the TV. I'm through playing." Alex put the phone chip back in her pocket.