Betsy kept an eye on Jubilee as she grabbed some things from her bedroom. I lingered in the doorway of the Lee's apartment, feeling awkward. Betsy produced a cigarette and a box of matches from one of the many pockets on her navy dress, offering me one. I took it gratefully.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced." She said, dropping the extinguished match into the sink. She seemed at home in the Lee's kitchen, and I guessed that she spent a lot of time there. "I'm Betsy Braddock."

"Braddock?"

"My ex-husband was a gaijin." She shrugged. "I guess I have a type."

I blew a mouthful of smoke out, the nicotine in my lungs dulling the rush of adrenaline in my veins. "You're dating Logan?"

She held out her hand, flashing a small diamond ring. "We're engaged. Thank you for not assuming I was a hooker."

I shrugged. "I like to think that Logan has slightly higher standards than that." I squinted at her. "You're not Chinese."

"My parents were from Japan, came over before the war." Sitting down on a stool at the counter, Betsy shot me an appraising look. "How do you know my fiancé?"

"We used to work together."

"You're a cop?"

"Used to be."

She took a cool drag on her cigarette. "What are you now?"

"Private detective." I said as Jubilee emerged from her room, carrying a packed suitcase behind her. Betsy stood up, taking the little girl's hand.

"Do you have everything you need?"

She nodded. "Where am I going?"

"You can stay with me for a few days. Just until we track down your mom. Sound good?"

"Okay." Jubilee said as she climbed the narrow staircase, squeezed between Betsy's side and the railing. I followed them, my suitcase bumping against he wall.

Betsy's apartment was small and smelled overpoweringly of cigars- Logan clearly spent a lot of time there. She opened a widow as Jubilee sat down on the couch, looking very small in her grimy yellow dress. We could hear the wail of a siren getting closer, loud and clear through the everyday hum of traffic.

"Can I get your something to drink?" Betsy asked gently, laying a hand on Jubilee's shoulder "Water? Milk?"

"Water would be nice."

She disappeared into eh kitchen. I tossed a throw pillow to the side and settled down next to Jubilee. The little girl looked up at me, brown eyes glassy. "I don't know what to do."

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders remembering how I'd felt when my mother died. "You're probably in shock. It's normal."

"My grandmother is dead. Dr. Wong is dead." She stared at me. "Should I be crying?"

I stared back. "I don't know."

Betsy returned from the kitchen, handing Jubilee a glass. She downed the water in one gulp as Betsy turned her attention to me. "You still haven't told me your name."

"Oh. Sorry." I blinked. "I'm Erik. Erik Lensherr."

Betsy's eyes widened. "You're Erik Lensherr?"

"Um. Yes."

"Huh." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I've heard a lot about you."

"You have? Should I be worried?"

"Probably. Logan says hat there's still a warrant out for your arrest." A smirk crossed her face. "Is it true that you're the one who dropped Sebastian Shaw?"

"That depends. Ask me again hen the warrant's been revoked." I stubbed out my cigarette in a tin ashtray on Betsy's coffee table.

"Well if you did do it, I'd say thank you. That man was scum." She glanced out the window for a second contemplatively. "Though I guess if you think indirectly, what just happened was sort of your fault…"

I did a double take, sputtering angrily. "Excuse me?"

And then the door banged open and the last person I wanted to see stomped into the room.

"What the HELL are you doing here?" Moira McTaggart yelled, her hands on her hips.

Logan bounded up the stairs after her, giving me an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, bub. I tried to keep her out but she recognized your coat."

I realized that I had left the woolen jacket on the sidewalk. "Christ, Moira. You've got a memory like an elephant."

"I was your partner for four years, Erik, I know your dressing habits." She glared. "But that doesn't explain why you're back in the city after I expressly told you to stay out!"

"Moira, this really isn't a good time." I glanced over at Jubilee. The glass in her hands was shaking. Following my gaze, Moira's shoulders slumped as she let out a sigh.

"Shit. Does she have anyone she can go to?"

Logan nodded. "Mother's out there somewhere. Last I heard she was living in Texas with her latest boyfriend."

"Put out a trace on her."

"Yes, ma'am."

Mira turned her attention back to me. "Erik, we need to talk."

I cleared my throat. "Can we do it somewhere a bit more private? I only just got into town this morning."

If looks could kill, the expression on Moira's face would have put me in intensive care. "You just live to make my life more difficult don't you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Miss me, McTaggart?"

She snorted. "Don't flatter yourself."

I put a hand on Jubilee's shoulder. "I'm going to leave now. Will you be alright?"

"I guess." Her hands were still trembling.

"Hey." Words spilled from my mouth unbidden, words I had wished someone had said to me years ago, as the ambulance pulled away from my house with the sirens off. "Everything is going to be alright."

The little girl nodded. I stood up, tipping my hat to Betsy. "I wish we were meeting under different circumstances, Miss Braddock."

"Come on, let's go." Mpira grabbed my sleeve and dragged me out of the door. My mind was whirling. I felt like I was being dragged everywhere today- it wasn't a pleasant sensation.

I stumbled over the cracked sidewalk as Moira yanked me outside. Her beat-up Ford was parked in the alley, it's chassis marred with new dents and scratches. It was nice to see that some things hadn't changed in my absence- Moira's driving was notoriously bad, and her vehicle has always born the evidence of her many run ins with the tow truck.

She settled into the driver's seat and glared up at me as I lingered on the curb. "Get in the car, Lensherr."

"What about my coat?"

"Get. In. The car." She repeated, growling. On the steering wheel, her knuckles were slowly turning white.

I got in the car.

Moira revved the engine and peeled out of the alley, leaving the yellow tape of the crime scene in the rearview mirror. As she drove, she seemed to relax a little. One eye firmly on the ever-increasing speedometer, I did not.

"I'll buy you a new one."

"A new what?"

She rolled her eyes. A pedestrian narrowly avoided being run over. "A new coat, Erik. Keep up."

"Oh. Right." I reluctantly took my eyes off the road ahead. "Where are we going?"

"Your apartment." A flurry of disturbed pigeons flew over the car.

"Moira, I haven't paid rent on it since I left. I'm pretty sure it isn't my apartment anymore." I picked at a loose bit of padding spilling out of the threadbare seat. She snorted.

"You're a lucky son of a bitch Lensherr. That Summers kid's been living there, paying the mortgage and everything." She shook her head. "He's a loyal little shit, you know. Royal pain in my ass."

"Alex?" I tried to wrap my head around what Moira was saying Alex Summers was a kid I'd cleared when some bank robbers tries to pull a frame-up job and get him sent to the big house instead of them. He was a good guy, a bit overeager and with a history of juvenile delinquency, but it was hard to picture him living in my place.

"Fancies himself an amateur gumshoe." Moira continued. "Spends most of the day working at a grange downtown, but I've caught him tracking down cheating husbands, missing girlfriends- the whole shebang. He said something about taking over your mantle." A glower passed over her face. "There's a lot of that going around theses days."

I felt a stone drop In my gut. "What do you mean?" She stayed silent. "Moira, what do you mean?" I thought back to what Betsy had said in the apartment. "The Braddock dame said that shooting back in Chinatown was my fault. What was she talking about?"

The car pulled up in front of my old apartment building. I stared out tat the crumbling brickwork as Moira ran a hand through her hair. Looking at her more closely I could see the bags under her eyes, the creases in her forehead, and the hollows of her cheeks. There was tenseness about the way she held herself now that she had never worn while we worked together. She looked completely used up and stressed out; a dramatic change from the Moira I knew.

"There's a war on, Erik." She sighed. "And I'm afraid it's a war you started."