Joanne went back to soothing her daughter by rubbing her hand. "Ok, ok. How about we not talk about this right now? Let's do something we haven't done for a while. Let's do a girl's night out. We'll grab some dinner. Your choice and my treat." Joanne gave her daughter a smile.

Jenny sighed. She just wanted to lie in bed, but she knew that her mother wouldn't take no for an answer. "All right. I should probably shower though."

"Yes, please!" Joanne encouraged.

Jenny raided her closet for jeans and an oversized black t-shirt. She wanted to be comfortable, but hidden. She gathered her items and brought them to the bathroom to change into after her shower. While she was getting ready, her mother called Chris.

"DeSoto's," he answered.

"Hello, Chris. It's your mom." He knew it was her without her having to tell him. "Your sister and I are going out to eat."

"Sweet! Where are we going?" He interrupted.

"Sorry, girl's night out, kiddo. But you know your sister, she likes pizza places. Do you want me to pick up pizza for you and David?"

"Why are you asking about David? And I'm not going to turn down a pepperoni pizza. David likes pepperoni pizza too, but again, why are you asking me about him?"

"I asked to speak to Jenny alone. Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling he'll be stopping by shortly. I'll see you guys in about an hour or so." They said their goodbyes.

As Chris was heading to back to his seat in the living room, he heard a knock on the door. "She's good!" He said to no one in particular. He opened the door and standing there was David.

"We have pizza coming, courtesy of my mom. The girl's are having a girl's night out." The lack of surprise that Chris had slightly taken aback David. The surprise did not go unnoticed by Chris. "Mom had a feeling that you'd be over, since she kicked you out of the apartment."

"Man, your mom is something special. I've been trying to get Jenny to come out all day, and nothing. Your mom spends what twenty minutes with her and they're going out to dinner."

"She's got some sort of superpower. But honestly, they've always been close, seeing that mom was home all the time. Now we only got about an hour or so to figure out our game plan with Jenny."

"What do you mean, game plan?" David asked. "Is there anything we really can do aside from finding Captain Engle and beating him to a pulp? I mean, we need Jenny to file a complaint or something."

"As much as I want to go after him, we can't. It'll just end badly for everyone. Doesn't stop me from imagining, though, but that's besides the point. Tell me, what stations were good to her?"

David took more time that what Chris thought was needed. There had to be a few that came to mind. She had been doing shadowing for close to two months. To kill some of that time waiting, he grabbed the grocery list pad and a pen from the kitchen and came back to the living room. "So?"

"18A was the best shift she had. Man, she was so happy on Wednesday. I'd never seen her like that. But every other station has given her some type of trouble."

Chris wrote 18A at the top of the sheet. He waited some another minute, hoping that there were more stations that he could add to the list. He looked at David, who could only answer in a shrug and a headshake. "How the hell is this possible? One station? Didn't she ride with you on a shift?" When David said nothing, Chris got angrier as he realized that one of the few stations that should have been a safe place for his sister, wasn't. How would Uncle Johnny let that kind of behavior go on in his station and to family?

It was not a proud moment at 51's, but there was nothing more that Captain Gage could have done. Especially since Jennifer refused to sign a complaint. "There were pictures in her locker and just some tasteless comments directed towards her. It was only done by one paramedic. Captain Gage had a discussion with everyone on how it wouldn't be tolerated at his station. Things got ugly. The guy ended up walking out mid shift and requested a transfer. Your dad ended up filling in for the rest of the night. He's gone, so I think you can add 51B on that list."

It made some sense. He recalled the afternoon when he was getting home from the library and his dad was heading out to cover for a sick paramedic on John's shift. He didn't realize the sickness was prejudice and bigotry.

"So, this is it? Two good stations?" Chris asked, making sure that he understood correctly. David confirmed with a head nod. "Well, this sucks. Uncle Mike gets in at the hospital around 7:00 during the week. I can stop over before classes and see if he can place Jennifer at these stations. I just wish I had more stations to give him. You sure this is it?" A quick nod. Chris could only sigh. He didn't have much to work with.

Jennifer was still as predictable as ever, picking Little Tony's Big Pizzeria for pizza. The two did not talk much, which was fine by Jennifer. She had not wanted to leave the apartment, even though she knew that she had to leave, eventually. Her mother made small talk about things that went on in the house and the honey-do list that she would always make for Roy to do. Joanne also explained that they would be dropping off pizza for the boys and that Jennifer could always spend the night with them. Jennifer politely declined. She knew that her mother had wanted an opportunity for her to speak to her father when he got off shift the following morning. Jennifer didn't want to involve him. She just wanted to be alone the next day after David left.

About an hour and a half later, the boys sat on the back patio with pizza in hand. Joanne and Jennifer had sat in the living room for several minutes before Joanne goaded Jennifer into going outside. She didn't want to see them after the embarrassment of Friday night. But her mother always had a way of getting her to do things she didn't want to do. Again, it was small talk trying to fill the void of not knowing what to say. Chris spoke about his classes and Joanne had asked how David enjoyed being a firefighter. David had loved most days. Johnny had made him feel like a welcomed member to the team and was a great mentor to him. He loved his job most days, but he always felt uneasy about sharing that joy with the group. It was just a reminder of what Jennifer might have had if she were a guy. It was something that she wanted, but it may be something that she never gets. Joanne took the hint and asked about David's family. Those answers were much shorter than the ones about the fire department. He spoke about being an only child and then deflected on how Chris and Jennifer probably had a crazy childhood. Their mother took it as a chance to tell about embarrassing stories and fights over board games, which lead to a ban on Monopoly in the house. For the briefest of moments, Jennifer wished that she could just go back to being a child. Just a year ago, she had wanted so desperately to be an adult, but it was not turning out how she imagined what adulthood could be.

The next morning, Jennifer tried to return to her normal. She got up early and fixed her and David breakfast. David had offered to take a day off and stay with Jennifer, but she insisted that he went in for work. She didn't want him to risk any black marks while he was still on his year probation. She reassured him she would be fine. She was always fine. He didn't want to leave, but he felt he had no choice.

After she finished cleaning up the breakfast mess, she lay back down. She didn't get much of a chance to relax because at 10:00 AM; the phone was ringing. She figured it was David checking up on her. It surprised her to hear "Good morning, Chica?" When she picked up.

"Hey Linda," she didn't have the energy to deal with Linda. She loved her dearly, but she just couldn't handle her today.

"Chica, we're going to lunch," it wasn't a request, it was an order. Linda had spent most of the morning contacting the other ladies in the department and could get a few to come for lunch. She wanted Jennifer to meet these incredible ladies and to see that she belonged in the department. When Linda didn't hear a response, she knew that Jennifer was trying to work out an excuse. "Listen Chica, I'm picking you up at 12:00. No excuses. There're some friends I want you to meet."

"Linda, I'm sure your friends are nice. I'm just not in the mood to meet anyone. It's been a rough few days. I just want to be by myself," Jennifer pleaded.

"I know. I was there Friday night with the other two amigos. Those boys be loco! But you're still going."

Jennifer was still clueless and was about to ask when Linda had come over cause she didn't remember seeing her, but then again, there was a lot she couldn't remember from that night. All Jennifer could hear was the dial tone. She sighed with defeat. She had no choice but to have lunch with Linda and her friends. She went to her closet and found jeans and another oversized shirt.