Night's Omen

Skye was running like a champ from rooftop to rooftop, trying to get a good shot on her mark. She had left a little pile of clothing back at her drop point, because damn, it got hot in New York. Currently she was trucking with a sniper rifle slung across her back, wearing her standard olive fatigue pants, boots, and a black t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a single pony tail, and it fluttered behind her as she moved.

She landed on the final rooftop just as the car of the mark below stopped, and slid into position just in time. "LeCroix. Engaged," she said into her 2-way, and a few blocks away someone in position got the message. She took a careful aim and scored a shot right in the head. Luckily, the crowd of people in the entrance of the large club was so great that it took several seconds for someone to notice that the party lingering in the car was slumped forward against the dashboard for a reason that was unlike any hangover they'd hope to experience.

"Wrap it up and bring it home, boys," she said. "I've got some business to take care of." Meaning, she would not be at the rendez-vous point. She made the trudge back to her things, and went down the fire escape into the back alley, where a vehicle was waiting for her. She hopped in, and hopped out moments later, changed, with no weapons.

"My own personal phonebooth," she cheered as they drove away, referencing Superman. She looked down at her watch. Impressive. Seventeen minutes to track, locate, and engage. That would be a nice lump sum hitting her bank account in 24 hours.

ooc:
lolz Superman.  

ic:
After receiving a call from his sister-in-law to meet her, Jaime had been glad that he wasn't doing anything at that time.  Technically, there were probably plenty of things he could be doing, but technicalities weren't anything that Jaime was particularly interested in.

He had put on his helmet and hopped on his bike, revving the machine just for the effect before he took off down the busy New York streets.  It didn't take too long to find Skye after he had left his home, but that was purely because he lives downtown.  It was a convenient place to live if only because it was so close to his office.  These meetings only proved it that much more convenient, if possible.

The motorcycle pulled up near Skye and Jaime hopped off, taking care to keep the thing standing as though it had feelings.  "Bonjour, little almost-sister of mine."  He grinned at her once he took off his helmet, giving her a small, mock bow.  "You summoned me for something?"  With his ever teasing air, he moved to stand nearer to the little sniper.

Skye heard the bike's telltale exhaust note just as soon as the Denali had pulled away, and so she paused, waiting patiently for Jaime. She stepped back from the curb as he dropped the kickstand, and reached into her purse while he took off his helmet.

Her nose crinkled as she grinned; she'd always liked Jaime. He was youthful in ways she had simply never been, and it amused her greatly. "Bonsoir, my dear," she chimed, holding out an envelope. "Negatives, conveniently delivered with anonymnity to the message box of J. A. LeCroix at the precinct by a 'good sameritan' who happened to be taking photos of his garden at the same time the suspect that's about to walk on your latest case was 'with his mother'. You'll find he was not, in fact, with dearest mum."

"Call it a thank you for cleaning up that mess with... you know." Nick. Now, Skye had some -awesome- connections as far as lawyers, editors, and judges went, but within the New York police system, she relied on virtually none. Dirty cops were too easy to come by, and she preferred to keep her slate rather dirt-free.

"And a very big thank you that was. Next week, I'm making you dinner, no 'no I have to work's." Ah, Skye. Den mother. She was a damn good cook, though, so Jaime would be mad to refuse that one.

Jaime plucked the envelope out of Skye's hand with a soft "sweet" as he glanced inside the paper.  He flashed her a pleased smile and nodded as she continued speaking.  It didn't surprise him that the suspect wasn't with his mother.  He had doubted that since the words left the man's mouth.  It just seemed too unlikely, even if the alibi, his mother, had suggested the same.  Any proof saying otherwise was more than welcomed.  He wanted that man behind bars for life.

At her gratitude, he brightened a bit more.  'Thank yous' were always wonderful, and meals included?  All the better the gratitude was in the end.

"You don't have to do that, little missus.  And what if I do have to work, hm?  Are you going to call up my boss and tell him off for me?"  Once again he was teasing her, which was made obvious by the obvious positivity at the mention of a free meal.  He just liked to mess with her; she was part of the family, and what else was family for if not to be annoying?

Silently he was running through his plans for the next week.  Depending on the day, he should have been clear.  Most of the days he worked, he was not working too late so he could make it out in time for supper.

Skye laughed at his reaction to the envelope. It gave her a warm fuzzy in her chest to see little things like that from him. She didn't hang around a lot of people who retained something of their boyish charm, and the fact that it was practically a relative made it so much more giggleable. Of course, Skye was just a giggly kind of person. She was hard to be mad at, that was certain.

"I can, if you want. Men fear being cornered by an angry housewife, no matter how gruff they are on the outside. We have the power to reduce them to ten years old, standing in mom's kitchen with her favourite broken China all over again," she added with a wink. Skye as a housewife was comedic gold enough - the fact that she ACTUALLY pulled it off was, well, phenomenal.

"Do you have anything pressing in the near future? I want to go grab something to drink but I'm reluctant to hang around town by myself." It was strange that even with Skye's abilities, she definitely knew the laws of the city filth, and knew she'd be an easy target for a mugger. She'd hate to have to explain that to Nick later. Besides, there was a Starbucks literally across the street.

Jaime laughed at Skye's explanation of how his boss would feel once she was done with him.  There was a sight that Jaime would pay to see.  His boss was a hard ass with narrow brown eyes and bushy mustache, not someone that would be expected to react in such a way.  It was definitely a ridiculous thought, but it was also a funny one.  He didn't at all doubt her abilities when it came right down to it, though.

Then he nodded, cocking his head to one side.  "Not today, no."  He glanced across the street to the Starbucks, nodding in its direction.  "You want to go there then?"  After a momentary pause, he turned his attention to his bike and wondered just how safe it was to leave there.  If anyone touched it, he would seriously make them regret that they had even come up with the idea.  He decided, though, that this was a fine spot for it and that he and Skye could leave it there.

He offered his arm to his sister-in-law, smiling at her.  "Shall we?"

Skye took his arm obligingly. Really, she adored Jaime, for all of his little quirks. She felt fortunate to have been accepted by him, though it hadn't been easy at first. Then again, she imagined brothers always were somewhat protective of eachother when a new female came into the picture, especially when said female was of the exact opposite side of the predatory food chain. She smiled up at him.

"Dare I even ask when you're going to settle down?" she taunted, a note of laughter in her voice. "I'm honestly surprised one of those pretty detectives hasn't snatched you up yet. Of course, most of them are human." She frowned. Skye could never imagine herself with a human. There was a little too much in the complexities of her nature for a simple mortal to understand, or even possibly fulfill.

Quirks?  They weren't quirks!  He was simply a magnificent piece of work, that was all.  Silly, silly misinformed Skye.

Jaime had, naturally, minded the fact that Nick married Skye at first.  Aside from the whole food chain issue, there was also the fact that she was younger than Nick's younger brother was.  That actually did bother him a lot more than he had let on, although not simply because of the fact itself.  To Jaime, their relationship had happened too fast.  One minute they were dating, the next they were married.  Sure, Nick was happy initially, but Jaime was positively certain that it wouldn't last.  He was not necessarily a pessimistic person, but he had a habit of looking at love in a rather negative light.  Happiness, the real, euphoric love, lasted three years or so before it wore off.

After a while though, Jaime relaxed and lightened up to Skye.  He had to really.  Now though, he really did like Skye.  She was a great woman, even if she was a hyena of all things.

"I'll settle down when a circus comes and takes me away to jump through flaming hoops."  He smiled then, glancing up and down the street before walking, arm in arm, with Skye towards the Starbucks.  "And those pretty little human detectives ain't the circus, that's for sure.  They're too stuffy for crazy outfits and wild animals like me."  In all honesty, he hadn't found anyone that he wanted to even consider recently.  It was rather discerning but he didn't focus on it much.

Oh, Skye was very aware of his thoughts on the matters when she and Nick had first married; they were mirrored by pretty much everyone that she knew. Skye, however, had never been known to make impulsive decisions aside from joining Crimson in the first place, and so, with bitter reserve, her friends had held their tongues long enough to see it through.

Lucky for her, things went her way for once. She couldn't even imagine her life without Nick. At all. She'd just... she didn't even want to think about it. The thought made her insides flip around, and she felt sick.

She shook her head a little and looked at Jaime, who'd been speaking the entire time her mind had gone in its little loopedy-loop. She laughed, a sound of relief at her reality and at his words both.

"Fair enough. Maybe some cat will come along and knock you on your feet," she teased. Really, it was almost bizarre to her how different they were; they were even in different stages of their lives. Skye was younger than he was, but she felt older.

"Ooh, this is what I love best about this place. I can smell it from miles away. Mocha...mmmm..." And there was the chocoholicism in Skye surfacing again. She was getting an iced mocha latt? with extra extra extra chocolate syrup.

Jaime wasn't into coffee at all, but he did like the giant chocolate globs of sugary awesomeness that Starbucks sold.  That an a fizzy whatever-drink and he was a happy Starbucks consumer.

He laughed lightly at Skye's words, deciding not to comment anymore about his lack of a love life.  Instead he paused in front of the door, opening the door and disentangling their arms.  "After you, madam."  He flashed her what could have been a heart melting smile, but he didn't mean it at all that way to her.  She was family and that was disgusting on many, many levels.

He felt, if only the slightest, like he was lagging behind in life.  He wasn't though--there was no way that he could be!--since he was so accomplished in his career.  Did it matter that much in the long run, though?  What about a family?  God, Jaime loved kids.  Once again, he chose not to think about it.  There was no use wanting to rush into anything anyway, he didn't have a girl.  Aside from that, he wasn't at all prepared to get married.  The thought still bothered him, repulsed him even.

Maybe he feared divorce.  That was a possibility.  He feared getting everything he ever wanted just to have it all taken out from underneath him.  Stupid, stupid thoughts.

"Oh look, not many people in here either.  Wanna take the big comfy chairs after we get our stuff?  I'll pay, by the way."  And that was that.

Skye blinked, slightly surprised. "Well, thank you," she said preemptively on his offer to pay, although she would probably say it several more times before they parted ways. And those comfly chairs sounded nice. Skye was all about some fuzzy, soft, cushy chairs. And the fact that those little gamer geeks weren't hoarding them with their little laptops made it that much nicer.

She ordered her iced coffee thinger, and then plopped down in her chair, her feet swinging up and barely touching the ground as she sank into it. Ah, but she was 5'6 and still somehow so petite.

"So anything else going on?" she asked casually, sucking her chocolate coffee goodness through a straw.

After waving off Skye's thank you with a shrug and a pleased smile, he bought their stuff and sat in the chair across from his sister-in-law.  Her question only pulled a slightly thoughtful air out of Jaime.  Anything else going on?  Well, really, was there?

"No, not a whole hell of a lot."  He tore off a piece of his chocolate lump and pondered silently.  "I guess I have to have something, right?  I ain't boring or anything, so let's see..."  He popped the chocolate into his mouth and took a swig of his drink.  "The old woman in the apartment above me was making a lot of noise yesterday, so I went up and checked on her.  I was seriously expecting a wild party."  Grinning, he shrugged, "Crazy kid that she is.

"But so, it turned out she had just bought a new coffee table and a puppy--no, I don't know how the two correspond either.  So she was trying to assemble the table while the puppy got into the garbage, which was what all the noise was about."  He laughed at the memory and took another swig of the fizzy drink.  "She's a sweet sack a' wrinkles, though.  She gave me a brownie that was hard as a rock for helping her."

Skye laughed aloud, and even the sound of her laugh was soft and sweet. Sort of like Skye. It was hard to believe she was an accomplished sniper, or even a viscious hyena.

"As hard as a rock? Did you eat it?" she inquired deviously. She bet he had. "At least Nick and I aren't the only ones with bizarre neighbors. Did I tell you that she stopped me the other day and asked me where he'd been? She was all concerned, like she thought he left me. Jaime, he'd been gone for twenty minutes. I don't know if they've both got Alzheimer's or what, but Ebere swears up and down she's going to bite them."

She sipped her coffee-iced-thing and smiled. "And then Nick said that if they thought we had a bizarre family dog, it might only add to the confusion."

Jaime laughed.  Yes, yes he had eaten it.  "Well, at least it's something to add a little bit of excitement into your life, right?  I mean, not that you need anymore, but at least they're just old people.  It could be worse.  They could be crazy, psycho serial killers that want to eat your brains."  As he said this, Jaime made a strange hand motion, wiggling his fingers as though he were attempting to be spooky.  It seemed like an unconscious gesture though, rather than him actually attempting to freak her out.

"Heeey, maybe they are.  Want me to look into it for ya'?  I could stalk 'em and see if they let loose the crazy bomb."  He flashed Skye a grin before munching on his chocolate-whatever.

"Oh, and for the record, I did eat that brownie and let me tell you, for a solid chunk a' chocolate, it was absolutely delicious after I gnawed on it for a while."  He beamed.

Skye crinkled her nose. She supposed the old lady had made the brownies with either weed or love; both of which had some interesting effects when in food, she'd found. Actually, as Skye sank deeper into the chair and laughed at Jaime's commentary, she realized that everything was different with a little love. More... better.

"I don't even know what to do with you sometimes, " she laughed. "I really do think they're just a little senile. I might ask the other people next to us and see how they feel. Ooh, did I tell you, we got new neighbors? Two kids, both like, four. They're adorable. Boy and girl. Boy has taken to following Nick around the yard when he's outside. Thinks he's some sort of superhero because he's so tall? And the little girl," she said with a squeal. "I offered to watch them in my off time."

Skye loved kids, it was no secret. She hadn't brought it up to Nick yet, but her mind had been working the whole baby idea again. She usually let it go; it went in phases. Sometimes she would, and sometimes she wouldn't. She figured she'd know when she was really serious, but it didn't stop her from stealing the neighbor's kids and watching them for the afternoon while mom and dad got some effing alone time.