Dan sighed as he set the sugar bowl and creamer on the kitchen table, casting another glance at the ticking clock next to the refrigerator. It had been nearly an hour since Nicole had hung up on him. Assuming traffic was only its normal level of abysmal, she should be arriving within the next few minutes. He may still not understand half of the things she meant whenever they talked, but after a decade and a half of on and off…friendship? Less? More? Of whatever they were, he knew she wouldn't be waiting three hours to find out why Rorschach had seen fit to break into her house. Dan could only hope nothing too terrible happened between the two of them. Nicole's loathing of Rorschach was near legendary, almost matching the vigilante's reputation of detesting whores and pimps, retired or no. Putting the two of them in a room together was like stacking up oily rags in the sun: it was only a matter of time before it all went up in flames.

A rhythmic series of knocks echoed sharply through the house, signaling the woman's arrival. She had already let her self in, it was hard to lock a busted wooden frame after all, and was currently in the process of hanging her jacket on his coat rack, the raising of her arms briefly exposing the tattoo curving along her lower back before it slipped once more from view. He clears his throat in slight discomfort as she unties and removes her shoes, the tattoo slipping back into view as she bends over, the twisting pattern moving down, spiraling into her jeans. He rapidly redirects his gaze to her face as she turns to him, handing over the peace offering of a coffee filled mug the moment she is within reach.

"You knew I was coming. I'm really that predictable, huh?" She scoffs, taking the mug with a grin despite the annoyance in her voice.

"Only when it comes to yelling at me." He assures her ruefully and gives a mental sigh of relief when she laughs. He'd been worried she would be too angry to have a rational conversation with.

"So, let's get the hard part over with, shall we?" She asks, taking an experimental sip of coffee, smiling contentedly at the taste.

"May as well." He agrees, and gestures for her to lead the way into the kitchen. The only room on the ground floor without any windows, it's the best location, outside of the basement, for discussing items normal civilians had no business overhearing.

"Rorschach," she opens, half sitting on the edge of the kitchen table, the arm not holding her mug folded across her chest, "broke into my house this morning and conducted an interrogation over your birthday present to Nathan. Care to explain?"

"How bad?"

Nicole takes off her scarf and licks her finger, wiping away the layers of make-up from around her neck and Daniel swears softly. She rolls her eyes and gives him an all too familiar look that means he's overreacting.

"Trust me, this is nothing," she assures him, "I just want to know why the hell it happened."

"He thinks there's someone out there killing masked heroes." He confesses, the words still sounding ridiculous to his own ears.

"Uh-huh."

"The Comedian was killed the other night."

"Fuck."

"Yeah." He rolls the bloody pin between his fingers in his pants pocket. She'd never known the man personally; the item would be meaningless to the red head.

"How'd they manage that? The guy was built like a Mac truck."

"Threw him out a window."

"Fuck." She states again. "Shit. Jesus."

He winces a little at the foul language, but if she notices she doesn't show it.

"So he thinks whoever did it will come after the rest of you?"

"That's his theory."

They both sip their coffee in contemplative silence for a few minutes. She stares off into space, digesting his news, and he can only stare at the stripe of bruise now visible on her neck. He was no stranger to Rorschach's questioning techniques and couldn't stop the small bubbling of annoyance caused by his former partner's actions. He wasn't mad at the smaller man. If he wasted his energy getting angry over each and every person Rorschach harmed on his quest for information he'd have no energy left. He was irritated the other mask hadn't simply asked him about the check, however. A few words and he could have prevented the whole issue. It was a small knife to the gut to consider how little the man must trust him if he wouldn't even attempt to find out his side of a story. It meant that even if Dan had explained Rorschach probably wouldn't have believed him. Had so much happened since they'd been partners that his friend had that little faith in him?

"He thought I might have something to do with the killings?" She asks at length, looking at him skeptically.

"He suggested Hollis might be behind it, too." He countered and smiled slightly at her scoff. "I don't think Rorschach is paranoid, but he's not ruling out any options right now."

"Dan." Nicole was shaking her head and Dan closed his eyes, knowing another anti-Rorschach speech was on the way. "Have you heard the way he's talking? The man's lost whatever tentative grip on sanity he had left."

"He's not that bad, really." Dan pushed off from his reclining position against the counter, moving to the sink to rinse out his now empty mug.

"He's fucking crazy."

"No," he shook his head, glad Nicole's glare was only burning into his back, "he's just very…dedicated to his cause. He came to warn me first, you know. It was kind of…" nice to know he cared? Touching? "…like old times."

"Yeah, well, believe me, Dan, you're certainly no Nite Owl anymore. I should know." He glanced at her in confusion at the level of bitterness in that statement, but she wasn't looking at him anymore. "And he's not your good friend Rorschach. The man's paranoid, and he's going to kill someone if he keeps this up. And I mean someone in addition to the normal thugs he butchers for kicks and giggles. Someone he didn't mean to."

He shut the running water off sharply at her comment, turning around again to face the angry woman with a frustrated stare of his own.

"Rorschach has saved a lot of people in this city. I know you're upset, you have every right to be after what he did today, but I'm not going to let you drag his name through the dirt out of anger."

"He's pretty good at rolling through the filth on his own, I think."

"A hygiene shot? Are you sinking that low already?"

She nothing short of snarled at him, stalking over to slam her own empty mug into the sink before turning away.

"You know us whores Dan; we're always that low."

"I didn't say that."

"But you meant it. Admit it, if I were one of your high and mighty hero friends you'd be taking me seriously. Rorschach is fucked in the head, a lot worse than he used to be. He's going to cross the line this time, Dan, and when he does it's going to be too late for you to help him or fix what he's done."

"He's not that bad…" he insisted, watching as the woman jerked out a chair, slamming herself down into the same seat the subject of their conversation had occupied less than forty eight hours ago. "It's been a while since he's dealt with people on a personal level, you know? He's trying to help. It's just going to take a bit for him to adjust."

"Fuck, Dan." She exclaimed, slamming a fist down onto the table hard enough to make the sugar bowl jump. "You'll excuse anything for him. The man's a homicidal maniac, but you talk about him like he's a stray mutt! He's a menace, not a pet."

"That's enough. You wanted to know what he was looking for, I told you. I'm not going to argue about his mental state with you anymore. Rorschach's a friend and I trust him."

Even if the man didn't trust him anymore. It hurt that the relationship between him and Rorschach seemed to have regressed twenty years, back to how it had been when they'd first met and Rorschach had regarded him like some strange and potentially poisonous insect whenever he tried to talk to him. Considering it had been Dan who had quit, effectively casting the other hero out of his life, he was more than a little surprised at how hard this whole thing was hitting him. And given how much time he'd spent worrying over Rorschach's mental state in past few days, it was close to hypocritical how much he was defending his friend to Nicole. It was different somehow, hearing her say it rather than him thinking it. Rorschach was his friend, when he questioned the man's sanity it was born out of concern. When the woman did the same it only came out as bitterly insulting. Beyond that, she clearly thought far less of Rorschach's ability to restrain himself. She didn't know him like Daniel did; it wasn't appropriate for her to judge him so harshly.

"Ah, yes." She drawled mockingly, "your friend. And what has that friend done for you lately, huh? Gone through your things, attacked your…" she paused, apparently as confused as he was when it came to quantifying their relationship, "…associates based on scraps of paper and paranoid delusions? I'm guessing he's the reason your door's busted in too. Hell, Dan, he just might succeed in putting criminals out of business. With heroes like him, who needs 'em?"

"I'm serious, Nic. I'm done talking about this."

"Trust me, so am I." Nicole shoved herself out of her seat, stalking down the hallway. "Forget diner, I don't think I'm going to have an appetite."

"Nicole, wait." He trailed after her helplessly, watching from the kitchen door frame as she angrily reached for her coat, the tattoo appearing and vanishing once more.

"No, Dan. I really don't know what I was expecting. For you to have a rational attitude about that psycho? For you to maybe take my side over his, for once, after I've been here all these years and he's been…what? Sending teenagers to the hospital for taking drugs? Sorry that's too fucking much to ask."

"It's not like that."

"Yeah, Dan, it is." She shrugged her coat on angrily, turning to glare at him over her shoulder. "And you tell that maniac that next I see him I'm calling the cops, and so help me I'll send them knocking on your door too if that's what it takes."

Dan sighed, taking off his glasses to clean with the edge of his shirt as she struggled with her shoes. He didn't believe her for an instant, of course. Nicole had her issues, but she cared too much to turn him in now. Or depended too much on him for some kind of understanding social contact, whichever it may be. Still, even if she wasn't serious she shouldn't be using those kinds of threats at a time like this. If Rorschach ever happened to hear about it, it would lead to a world of problems.

"Nicole, don't talk like that. If Rorschach thought you'd turn any of us in he'd…well…"

"He'd kill me, is what you want to say. He'd come into my house and kill me." He winced at the brutal truth, but could only give a slight shrug in reply as he returned his glasses to his face. "And I bet you'd give him a real stern talking to about it while you made his breakfast for him the next morning, huh? Christ, Dan. Sometimes I don't know which of the two of you is more fucked up, him or you."

"Nicole…" The phone in the kitchen started ringing, causing him to start. "Nic, come on."

"No Dan, just forget it. We're done for tonight. Answer your fucking phone."

He winced as she slammed the door behind her, the damaged wood bouncing against the frame to sway part way open again, letting him watch as she stormed down the front steps and along the sidewalk. And to think the two of them had been getting along so well recently. Not perfectly, not as well as they had in the days he was still a masked avenger, but decently. They'd finally moved past the lingering awkwardness that had tainted all their interactions for the past few years, ever since they decided they didn't work as lovers. She didn't believe in monogamy and he refused to wear his mask in bed, and even though they'd seen each other on and off during the years following it, they'd both known the relationship was over as soon as the Keene act was passed. Nicole had always loved the Nite Owl; she just tolerated Dan for his alter ego's sake. And now she was furious with Dan on account of Nite Owl's old partner. The past and present had been interacting a little too forcibly for Dan's taste in the past few days, starting the moment Rorschach had kicked in his front door. He sighed quietly. She'd be back, eventually. He'd make things up to her then.

The phone rang for the third time, dragging the retired hero out of his wandering thoughts.

"Hello" he half sighed, failing miserably at sounding pleasant and normal.

"Hey!" The voice on the other end chirped, "Dan? It's Laurie."

"Laurie!" He straightened immediately, the fight from moments before flying from his mind. "He-hey, what's going on?"

"Listen, I really need to get out of this place. Rorschach stopped by and, well…I was wondering, and I know it's sudden, but I was hoping you'd be free for dinner tonight?"

"Oh, um, tonight?"

"You have plans." She sounded crushed, but was making a strong effort at sounding okay. "I figured you would, don't worry about it…I'll just figure something else out…"

"No!" He blurted out, grateful she couldn't see his spreading blush at his outburst, "I, ah, actually have a table reserved at Rafael's tonight at 8…I, I guess I was just going myself, you're more than welcome to come." There was no way in hell Nicole would be talking to him again before the dinner reservations tonight; there was no reason to put them to waste.

"Really?" The level of relieved excitement in her voice was enough to make the blush race down his neck, causing a warm flush to settle in his chest. "That would be great! Oh, I haven't been anywhere that nice in a while…I need to pick out what to wear! Thank you, Dan, you're the best! See you in a bit."

The phone clicked on the other end and Dan wondered briefly what it was with women hanging up on him today. Though, in all honestly, he should be grateful there were women who were willing to talk with him at all. He'd spoken more with the opposite sex today then he had on any other day in the past...his mind rebelled against actually admitting how long it had been since he'd spoken to two women on a personal level in one day. Suffice to say it had been a long, long time. And, ironically enough, he had Rorschach to thank for it. He wondered for a moment what the other man's reaction would be to Dan informing him he was the best wing man he'd ever had. He laughed out loud at the resulting mental image, though the icy silence from Rorschach that would follow such an announcement would probably be less entertaining. Still, it was an amusing thought.

AN: Wanted to try a new point of view in this chapter. As always, if something seems off with the character, please let me know! I'm trying to make it so all these events could have occurred while the comic/movie was happening, just off camera, but as stated previously there will be some alterations. I like movie Laurie better than Comic Laurie, and wanted Dan to have made the reservations, so I wrote what the phone conversation may have been like in the movie rather than using the one in the comic. Thanks to everyone who was read this far, and especially to my reviewers.

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