Piper enjoys early mornings.

Sure, it is far easier to sleuth about under the guise of night. But the mornings aren't for journalism or investigation. They are for Nat – a peaceful time where Piper can sit down with her sister as the papers print and get to know the young woman she is growing into. It is something they have been doing for years, unless Piper is out on a case or Nat is with her friends.

Lately, though, when Piper looks at Nat she sees hints of herself. And she finds this terrifying. Nat is a bright girl, headstrong like her sister. But Piper worries about her. She worries that she sees her putting herself in danger for the sake of a story and is inspired to do the same. Nat is all Piper really has in this world, and if anything ever happened to her...

Well, she prefers not to think about that.

Still, she thinks, perhaps some distance from Nat could be beneficial for her development as an individual. So on this particular morning she lets Nat sleep in as the papers print and she instead steps outside for a solitary cigarette. As she lights it and steps off the porch, she figures maybe it wouldn't be too bad an idea to go for a quick walk through the city, and so she does. She walks slowly through the marketplace which is quiet at this hour as people are still only just beginning their days. Then, she turns down an alleyway and passes Nick's agency and wonders if the old synth is awake – or if he even needs to sleep at all. Best not to disturb him, she figures. Just in case.

She circles through the back streets, eyes casting upward as she passes The Dugout, and reflexively, her lip curls. She swallows a lump in her throat, remembering the foul taste of the Moonshine she had used as an antidote when someone had poisoned her beer in an attempt to do away with her. Yet, after that initial feeling of disgust passes, Piper can't help but to chuckle to herself bitterly. "Always making friends, aren't you Piper?" she quips to herself under her breath and shakes her head.

When she turns to continue her walk, she catches glimpse of a sight which makes her freeze where she stands: some ways down the street, a man in a hooded winter coat reaches for a poster taped to a wall.

Piper gasps, her eyes widening, and ducks back into the recessed 'patio' of the inn where she watches as this mystery man rips the poster from the wall and tears it in half. He crumples one half of the poster in each hand and then drops both halves to the ground, kicking one ball of paper down a side alley. Then, he nonchalantly slips his hands into his pockets and turns away from Piper, continuing down the street.

Piper's heart races, eyes wide with trepidation but adrenaline pushes her forward and she creeps through the shadows along the wall which the early morning light grant her.

She considers calling out to him; revealing herself – letting him know she has seen him and he's been caught. But then, she doesn't know who it is beneath the hood. And she worries he could be dangerous. Especially after what she had seen in those photographs...

So instead, she follows after the hooded figure and ducks down all of the same streets and alleys he does until finally, he glances quickly over his shoulder and notices her. His fur-lined hood casts shadows down his face and Piper can only barely make out the perpetrator's wide, dark eyes which lock with hers.

Whoever he is knows he has been caught, and so without warning, he turns and sprints down an alleyway. Piper leaps to action then, gritting her teeth as she pursues him. "Hey!" she calls out aggressively. "Get back here!"

Obviously, the hooded man does not listen. He snakes his way through streets and alleys in his bid to lose the reporter, but Piper gains on him and proves that she is difficult to evade. He approaches a group of confused onlookers who loiter outside their homes and Piper calls out, "Stop him!", but disappointingly they flatten themselves against the wall and let both him and Piper pass without interference. They are unwilling to get involved and Piper can't help but wonder if it is because they fear who is beneath the hood or if it is because they don't want to be associated with her, but she tries not to dwell on the thought and instead focus on the pursuit.

The chase takes them all through and around Diamond City, until the mystery man suddenly runs into the Diamond City market which is now filling with people. He weaves his way through the crowd and Piper loses sight of him. She stops in front of Fallon's basement and takes a moment to catch her breath, eyes fierce as they dart about.

Then she catches it – the briefest glimpse of a figure stepping behind a building off a side street. Instead of following in his path, she hurries through the market to meet him at the other end of the alleyway.

The chase ends only a few feet from where it started as the hooded man steps out into the street only to be immediately tackled by Piper. He lands face down on the ground and grunts as he tries to squirm his way out from underneath her, all while fending off her attempts to remove his hood. But he is unsuccessful, and finally, Piper pulls his hood off just as he rolls onto his back.

"Cass?!"

The drug dealer stares up at Piper from beneath her and drags in rugged breaths for a moment, before he summons the strength to throw her off of him. By then the guards had been alerted of the commotion, and several of them jog down the street toward the two, reaching them before Piper or Cass can say anything to each other.

"Sun. Wright." a guard barks. "The hell's going on here?!"

Piper draws in a sharp breath to speak and even jabs an accusatory finger toward Cass, but he laughs disarmingly and shakes his head.

"I was out for a walk, and then suddenly Piper here was chasing me down like a feral ghoul." he states, and Piper can already see the guards' opinions shifting in his favour. Not like it is shocking – Cass has an undeniable charm, and Piper isn't exactly favoured by Diamond City security...

"Yeah, because I saw you ripping Miss Quinn's posters off the walls!" she snaps, then looks pleadingly up at the guards before them. "Bring him to the lock-up. He's up to something!"

The guards look unimpressed with what is happening, and the one in the front looks to Cass, who shrugs and shakes his head and smiles crookedly. "I don't know what she is talking about—"

"Oh, don't play innocent." Piper scoffs. "If you were innocent, you wouldn't have ran."

"I was afraid!" Cass claims, his palms turning upward. "I didn't know what the fuck was going on."

Afraid. Afraid. Of Piper?! The reporter hopes to herself that the guards don't buy his bullshit, but is entirely unsurprised when one scoffs. "Don't you have anything better to do then stir up trouble, Piper?"

Cass hops to his feet then and dusts himself off, before he offers out a hand to help Piper up. She eyes his outstretched hand spitefully and then pulls herself to her own feet sans Cass' help. "Look, I know what I saw—" she tries to argue, but the guard lifts his hand to stop her and then turns to Cass.

"Go ahead, get out of here Cass." he says, his tone apologetic as if Cass were a victim which makes Piper's stomach churn. She watches with ire as Cass grins and nods a quiet thank you to the guards, then steps around them and heads back down the street but not before shooting Piper a smug look over his shoulder when the guards could not see him. She can feel herself trembling with rage.

"You're just gonna let him go?!" she asks, but her words are ignored and the guard in front speaks over her.

"You assault another citizen here again and you'll be the one in the lock-up, you understand that?" he says sternly. Piper frowns and scoffs, then takes a submissive step backward and crosses her arms.

"Yeah. I hear you loooud and clear." she says caustically and glowers as the guards take their leave.

Meanwhile, Nick sits at his desk after a restless night and rests his head on his arms. A cigarette dangles between his fingers and a cold cup of coffee takes up residence beside him. He had spent all night combing through Maggie's diaries but had found no mentions of Tim or really anything of any value to his case.

He runs his hand over the top of his smooth silicone head and groans lowly. Ellie is not here yet. It is just him here in the agency. Him and six diaries full of nonsensical poems and doodles and short stories and impersonal ramblings.

When he hears his door open, he figures it is likely his dear secretary or perhaps even Piper. But the footsteps which descend the stairs to his office do so with uncertainty, and he lifts his head in time to lock eyes with a woman whom he has not before seen. She is tall and curvy, and her hair is jet black and straight, cut neatly at her shoulders in a bob. Though Nick does not recognize her, he can't help but note that she seems vaguely familiar. Perhaps he has seen her around the city, he figures. Regardless, he stands and attempts to blink the sleepiness from his eyes.

"There something you need, miss?" he asks the woman warmly, and she shifts nervously on her feet.

"Um..." she swallows. "I... I heard you've been working on Maggie O'Hearn's case." she says, and Nick perks, his exhaustion replaced quickly with intrigue as he takes a step forward.

"You heard right." he says, then tilts his head. "Wouldn't happen to know anything, would you?"

The woman clears her throat and wrings her hands. She looks not at Nick, but instead at Ellie's desk, and seems hesitant to answer. But she does.

"Actually, yeah..." she says slowly, then her glassy gaze finally meets Nick's. "I saw her the night she... went missing."