He pulled the collar of his coat a little higher around his neck. November in New York wasn't really cold enough to have reason to complain, but Dan felt more and more exposed in his regular clothes as the years went on. He couldn't really figure out why he felt so compelled to come whenever Laurie called, why he was willing to set aside his costume and gadgets and partner and meet her at whatever restaurant she named. Tonight it was some place called Rafael's.

The first time she had rung his home number, he had gone assuming that she would have Dr Manhattan there with her and he'd be able to talk biology with a fellow scientist. He hadn't even thought about what he might say to the still-teenaged Laurie at the table. When he'd arrived and it was just her, he'd been nervous that he seemed to be sneaking around behind the back of such a powerful man. He'd never been good with women, and it occurred to him that she might be using him to make Dr Manhattan jealous. God knew women had used him like that before - and for other reasons. Dan took greater care now to conceal his wealth from others, since it seemed to make more trouble for him than it solved, but ever since he'd been a kid girls had talked to him, even slept with him, just to make a point, or to get something they wanted - and what they wanted was never Dan. That first night, Dan made up an excuse and blamed it on Rorschach, and left before dessert.

But Laurie had called again the next day and assured him that her boyfriend knew she was going out without him. His work was getting going, she said; he was out of the country with the government, and she was just looking for someone to talk to. After that, the two of them got together every couple of months, like normal people. The last few years, that pace had slowed to a few times a year, but Dan still could tell when the phone call was from Laurie. He could tell, as soon as it rang, that he'd be meeting her for dinner in the next few days.

As he walked down the New York streets, ignoring offenses he would ordinarily have put an immediate stop to if he had been dressed like himself, Dan recalled the very first time they had ever spoken. He'd been crouched on a rooftop, watching a drug exchange on a street corner, planning the right moment to sweep down upon the dealer. Goodness knew where Rorschach had been that night, and when Dan heard footsteps behind him, he knew there was going to be trouble. Without turning, he tightened his hand on the taser at his hip; when he faced the assailant, his cape had swirled around him with a satisfyingly dramatic flutter.

"Whoa there, it's me, it's me," said a feminine voice. Dan had blinked at her through his goggles, stupidly.

"Spectre?" he asked, even more stupidly. Of course it was her. Though it had been almost two years since they had been at Captain Metropolis' party together, and though she had filled out - considerably - since then, she was still wearing that racy costume, now stretched more tightly over her chest and bottom. Her green eyes glinted at him as she smiled.

"And you're the Nite Owl," she said, grinning. "But I'd really prefer if you called me Laurie." She stuck out her hand and waited for him to take it. After an instant, he took and shook it.

"Uh," he said, his eyes darting away from her exposed cleavage and landing on her bare thighs. He squeezed them shut. "Where's your partner?" he asked, a little desperately.

"Vietnam," she replied, as if it were Queens. "Yours?"

Dan shrugged. "I guess we're looking for the same guys here?"

"Guess so." Laurie's smile didn't waver, even as she leaned precariously over the building's edge to watch the milling gangsters below. She must have been about nineteen then, to Dan's twenty-six, but she still seemed so much like a child, with so little fear about falling. "I suppose one of us ought to go down to that end, and the other stay here, so they can't esc ape."

"I'll take the street side," Dan said. "You don't know who might be out there as backup."

She turned to look at him defiantly. "I can take care of myself, you know," she said.

Looking at her, Dan was sure she could. But any slight error on her part, and he would have to bear the guilt for her getting hurt. He never, ever had that twinge of conscience when he was out with Rorschach. "Seriously," she insisted. "You've got my back and I've got yours." So Laurie took the street end, and Dan went into the darkness of the alley, and when the dealers turned to enter it, the two of them dropped from the sky at the same moment. Trapped.

The gangsters looked surprised and nervous as they were cornered by not one but two masked crusaders. Dan always liked to see that look on their faces when he and Rorschach came in for the kill. Laurie and Dan closed in, tightening the trio in together. It was Laurie who made the first move, knocking a draw pistol out of one of their hands with a high kick. And then there was a shuffle of arms and legs, and Dan lost track of who threw which punch.

He only saw more dark figures entering their alley, drawn, no doubt, by the sound of fighting, come to help their fellow gang members. Dan watched as Laurie ducked beneath the grasp of one of them and rose to kick him firmly in the groin. Dan could almost hear the crunching of soft parts as that one fell. She could indeed take care of herself, but as Dan finished off one after another, more and more of them arrived. Laurie was getting overwhelmed.

"Spectre, down!" he called, and drew out his acetylene torch. He hated to cause lasting damage when it could be prevented; for this, Rorschach called him "soft". But here it seemed warranted. A single zap to the perp's chest and he fell to the pavement. Dan winced; that one would never rise again.

"Thanks, Nite Owl," she replied. "Look out!" But it was a little bit too late: Dan had taken too long to reholster the torch and someone had gotten behind him. Dan jerked forward as the knife blade pierced his shoulder from behind. Time seemed to stand still as he felt it part slip through the fabric of his suit, part his skin, and enter the muscle there.

Now it seemed it was Laurie's turn to save him. One incredible kick to the face and the thug was knocked over. She finished him with a blow to the chest and threw him against a dumpster, and he fell, pieces of trash knocked loose falling on top of him.

His left arm was worse for wear but he was grateful that Laurie had thought so quickly. She flashed a smile at him and perused someone a little deeper into the alley, and Dan was glad that he had the chance to take over the entry to the alley instead.

"Behind you, Daniel." Dan ducked down to the cement and knocked the knees out of the thug behind him with one moulinaise kick. He fell and cracked his head on the pavement. He did not rise. Dan stood again, noting that the gangster was out cold, before looking around for Rorschach. He was already on the opposite end of the alley, back to back with Laurie. Remarkably, she was not only holding her own against the drug dealers that came at them, but was working effectively and well with Rorschach. Dan couldn't help but be impressed.

When it was all over, only a few of the men were dead. Mostly that was because of Rorschach. The rest were unconscious or moaning in pain, and there were sirens in the distance, drawing closer. Dan could feel blood dripping down his back, but he smiled all the same at the two of them, all standing together. Laurie and Rorschach were positioned beside each other still.

"I'm Laurie Jupiter," she said and stuck her hand out at him. Rorschach's gaze lingered on her.

"Hurm," he said in reply, before he turned and walked away into the dark.

Dan rolled his eyes. Dammit, Rorschach. Much as he respected Rorschach, even cared about him, he knew he could incredibly difficult. "That's Rorschach," he said to Laurie. "It's not you. He's just like that."

Dan wasn't sure what to say next to her. As they stood in the alley, he dressed like a fool and she in a negligee, her breath still coming in deep gasps making her chest heave visibly, he tried to retain his composure. He could hardly stride off into the night like his partner just had, yet he was all out of ideas.

"So, Daniel, is it?" Laurie asked. Dammit, Rorschach! "Do you have a last name? Or a phone number?"

"Uh," he began. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"

"And I'm sure you have a girlfriend," she countered. If only she knew … "But I know he won't mind our being friends, as long as we keep it above board. Besides: how else do you meet new people in this line of work?"

She had a point. Dan began patting his owl suit, praying that he wouldn't have a card on him. Why had Rorschach been compelled to say his name? Why was Rorschach Rorschach and he couldn't just be Nite Owl? Tucked in his utility belt, he had one left. Aw, hell.

He handed it to her. "Daniel Dreiburg," she read out loud. It had his home address, his phone number. It was kind of a stupid thing to have tucked into his owl suit – what if he ended up dead on the sidewalk someday? – but he'd had them printed to give out to girls. Somehow that had seemed like a good idea when he'd first gotten into this; now it was just somewhat humiliating. "Well, Daniel Dreiburg, I look forward to running into you again."

"Dan'll be fine," he said.

"I look forward to running into you again, Dan." She was beaming that smile at him, and he couldn't help but smile back, and watch, dumb, as she, too, disappeared into the night.

Naturally, Rorschach was at the Owl Nest when Dan got home. His mask didn't have any eyes, yet somehow Rorschach's gaze was penetrating. Neither of them spoke as Rorschach stitched up the small wound in Dan's shoulder and then closed the hole in his owl suit. The blood was barely visible on the dark fabric, so they just let it go. Dan wriggled in the increasingly uncomfortable silence.

"Can we just go?" Dan asked. "Please?"

Once aboard the Owl Ship, Rorschach broke his silence. "Didn't think you were the type, Daniel."

Must we? "What type is that?"

"Her type," he said. "Miss Jupiter's."

"I'm not her type." Why did Dan always fumble the important points? "She's not my type. I'm not the type, Rorschach."

"She's jailbait and she's taken, Daniel." According to Hollis, she'd be twenty this year, but Dan wasn't interested in perpetuating the conversation.

"I'm not interested in Dr Manhattan's girlfriend." That seemed to satisfy Rorschach, and somehow to satisfy Dan, too. She was hot, it was true; hot like fire, and just as dangerous. Messing with a woman like that could cause all sorts of problems, Dan knew from experience. Women like Laurie had powerful men behind them, and seemed to have motives that Dan could never quite parse out. And to want a woman who was already with someone else was ... well, dishonorable. And confusing. But mostly dishonorable.

But those weren't Rorschach's reasons for keeping Dan away from her. Rorschach didn't trust women, Dan was starting to see, just as a general rule. And Rorschach didn't approve of Laurie's outfit - of that Dan was sure. At least he had trusted her enough to fight with her. Maybe the fact that Dan had trusted her first let Rorschach do the same, but Dan could never be entirely certain what all went on inside his partner.

The conversation, though, was at an end, and Dan was glad to just be able to fly Archie over the city and wait for a call on the radio. When Laurie rang him up at home that first time, Rorschach had been there to listen to Dan's end of the conversation. When Dan had announced that he was going out to meet Dr Manhattan, he'd even invited Rorschach along. And when Rorschach predictably refused, Dan wondered in the back of his mind what Rorschach knew that Dan did not.