The sun was barely up the next morning when I was shocked to consciousness. I wasn't alone in my bed and it wasn't my usual bedmate. I looked up at the fully dressed Dawn from where I had burrowed my head in the pillows and blanket. I gave the little girl a small smile and she snuggled in on the other side of the bed.

"What's up?" I whispered. I could hear Mia moving around in the rest of the apartment.

"I don't want to go to school." She whispered and burrowed in further. I threw the top bedspread over both of us and we ignored the day for a little while together. We listened to her mom moving around, cooking and doing other mommy-like things. Mia needed to get her life figured out. Fast. I loved Dawn (who wouldn't?) but I hated waking up early.

* * * * * * * *

It was a late night last night. Andy called Marcus while we ate and the deaf guy immediately agreed to take Andy to Staten Island. He was happy that Andy was going to finally meet his family, but worried for him too. You know, the whole good boyfriend thing. I was ready to kick Andy's butt for moving so slowly with him.

I don't really know what Andy and Marcus are. They are dating and there is obviously something there, but Andy is shockingly blind to that. He is so scared that he's going to get hurt, like Marcus is going to wake up one day and suddenly not feel anything for him. He either complains that since Marcus isn't really gay, maybe this is just a phase or that the guy is just playing with him and he will lose interest. I'm not good with the whole touchy feely thing. My family doesn't do emotions or hugs or stuff like that, so I may not be an expert, but anybody could see that Marcus adores Andy.

He is genuinely interested in my normally intelligent buddy and Andy needs to wake up and give him some credit. I have spent time with both of them and heard a lot about Marcus's huge and amazingly loyal family. His dad was a cop and his mom was a history teacher for the high school that Marcus and his three sisters attended, both retired. His sisters are all still in the city. One is married and pregnant just down the block from where she grew up. His middle sister lives in Manhattan and is a successful businesswoman with no personal life to show. The baby of the family lives in the Bronx and runs a community garden that employs the homeless and gives some of the proceeds to local soup kitchens and the rest is sold cheaply to area families. Doesn't that self-sacrificing thing sound familiar?

Andy, on the other hand, didn't share about his family. I knew that they were fairly wealthy and they lived in Chicago. That was about it. From his silence about the Carson family and his lack of confidence, I had to wonder if they had a very bad reaction to their son being gay.

Marcus and Star arrived at the apartment about the same time that Mia found our hiding place and called us pathetic.

"It's comfortable down there." I called over my shoulder as I walked to the door to let the hunk in. Marcus Wright gave me a hug and asked me at the same time how Andy really was. When he set me back down on my feet, I signed in my slow and painstaking way that Andy was holding up well, but I was sure that there he was having trouble with all of this.

Marcus signed patiently back that he would try to help him when they got away from Trenton. He was a fairly big guy with a nice body that he took care of. He knew his body well and he just had a confidence that made him attractive. Since he had grown up in a hearing family, he had adapted to them in many ways. He had learned the tricky and unreliable art of lip reading and his cell phone had a handy dandy attachment that told him what the speaker was saying. He had a sweet chocolate lab named Star that would let him know if someone knocked on his door or if the phone was ringing. Growing up, he had been taught a different type of sign language that was probably easier for older English-speaking people to pick up called Signed English, as opposed to the more common ASL (American Sign Language) which actually had a different grammatical structure from English.

He has been signing around me for 4 months and we both came to realize that I had a hard time learning ASL. I just didn't do French grammar. Andy and Marcus reverted to Signed English to help me learn and I was slowly getting the hang of it. Signing came in handy when I needed to communicate without making noise, such as when I'm talking to my best friend's deaf boyfriend about that friend in the hallway.

Andy needed to pack before the jaunt the Big Apple, so I went upstairs with him. Before I left the apartment, Ranger moved close on the pretense of kissing me and slipped a small gun into my jeans. He pulled my shirt around it and whispered, "Just in case."

I hate guns. I really do. I know that they are an essential part of my job, but I don't like having mine with me. I usually keep mine in the cookie jar beside the sink. Mostly it's because I'm sure that I'm going to pull a Barney Fife and shoot myself in the foot, but it's also partly a fear of the weapon itself. I've killed with that gun and though all of those deaths had been in self-defense, they didn't necessarily sit well with me. My boyfriend didn't have the same qualms. Ex Rangers usually didn't.

I followed Andy up and helped him throw his stuff in a bag. He was unusually silent through all of this.

"Alright, what's up?" I asked. He sat down on the bed, his head and his shoulders slumped.

"I can't do this, Steph." He murmured. "I really can't. They're going to hate me."

"Why on earth would they hate you? You're great."

He looked up at me in frustration. "Steph, Marcus has never had a boyfriend."

"So?"

"He's had a lot of girlfriends." Andy stressed this like it was important. "I mean, a lot."

"I'm not following." I really wasn't. What did it matter if he had been with a million girls before Andy? He was with Andy now and he cared about him. I was pretty sure Marcus wasn't the type to cheat.

"Steph, it looks like I turned their only son gay. Not only that, but he's never been with a guy before at all. He's a straight guy who has never thought about being with a guy before he met me." I sighed and sat down beside him. I didn't know how to reassure him or which concern to start with.

"Alright, first of all," I turned so I was facing Andy and I took his hands. I was preparing for one of my rare and awkward touchy feely talks. Only for Andy.

"You are a great guy. How many times do I have to tell you that before it sinks in? You're incredibly smart, incredibly sweet and amazingly successful. How many guys have done what you have by the time they're 25? You have your own law practice in a city that's wrapped around your finger." He smiled slightly. Okay, maybe I was getting somewhere.

"Andy, Marcus and his family don't sound like fools, but if they don't absolutely adore you then they are out of their minds. What does it matter if you're gay? It's the twenty-first century. People are starting to understand that so much better. Hell, it's practically mainstream now."

"But Marcus isn't gay."

"He's never made you any promises with it, but just because every guy doesn't turn him on doesn't mean you don't or that he cares any less about you. Honey, that boy is crazy about you. He doesn't try to hide that and he wants to share you with his family."

"And it might not work out."

"But it might. Just give them a chance, they may surprise you. And you can always call if you need some comfort." He nodded and squeezed my hands.

"I'll give it a shot. I promise." He pulled me close and rested his chin on the top of my head. "I didn't know Princess Leia had these skills."

"She learned them from her Jedi brother."

"He must be really in touch with himself."

"Comes with the training."

* * * * * * * *

Dawn snuggled closer and I must have dozed back off, because when Mia flung the door open, she scared the shit out of me.

"Cripes, Mia!"

"Dawn, it's time for school."

"Aw, Mom!"

"No arguing, come on. Time for breakfast."

"I have food?" I was half-asleep, but I was pretty sure that the fridge had been pretty empty yesterday morning.

"I went shopping yesterday, Steph. I can't believe that you live like this."

"I've been busy." I yawned. Dawn climbed off the bed and Mia moved to let her out.

"I made breakfast for you, too." She said in a softer voice and pulled the door closed as she left. I made a trip to the bathroom and made sure that I was presentable. It would do. I trudged into the dining room and sat down across from Dawn with a yawn. Mia set scrambled eggs and toast down in front of me. I hadn't had scrambled eggs since I lived at home. I thanked the cook and started eating. Mia sat down beside her daughter and flipped open the paper. I smirked and wondered if she had bought it too or if she had stolen it from the neighbor across the hall like I did when I needed a paper. For some reason, I had a feeling that she had actually paid money for it.

My egg-covered fork was halfway to my mouth when I saw the screaming front cover. It read: COMPANY TRIES TO CLEAN UP NORTH TRENTON. Gee, that was quite the coincident.

"Um, Mia, can I see that?" I asked in a slightly strangled voice.

"Sure, kiddo." She handed me the paper and in the same move checked out her watch. "I've got to go anyway. Ready, Dawn?" The little girl nodded reluctantly and the two went off to start their days. I flipped the paper over and started reading the story.

AP TRENTON- Crislon Incorporated, a rising superstar in the business world, has been making the East Coast its home base for the last decade while it built its vast empire overseas. Trenton has been selected to be the newest site of construction. The manufacturing company has promised to build factories and office buildings in the infamous North ward of Trenton, thus cleaning up decades of decay.

The story went on to talk about the history of the North side and the riots. It never mentioned what Crislon Inc. manufactured or the extent of their contract. I decided that I needed more research. Lucky for me, I knew a guy with a really good computer. I flipped through the paper to see if there was anymore about the company. The only interesting stories that I could find was one on trial of Con De Luca and another about the rising crime rate in the North side.

Constantine De Luca was a major crime boss for the Botticelli crime family. He was up for attempted murder. His wife, Angel, went missing about six months ago. Everyone in Trenton except De Luca knew that she was seeing other guys in a social way. When she disappeared, most people assumed that she skipped town, but Con De Luca suspected foul play and went into a rage. He nearly took his brother's head off with a bat because his brother had been telling him for years that she wasn't true and he was sure that Leo had finally done something to her. She still hadn't been found, dead or alive.

I flipped through the story on the rising crime rate and found out nothing that I didn't already know. The crime rate was on the rise. It had been for the last 40 years.

I went to the bathroom and got ready to go to Haywood. I needed Batman. Gee, who saw that coming? I've needed his help since I started this job.