As Jenny began to cry, a reassuring hand suddenly patted her on her shoulder. Hawkins was behind her, having suddenly "reappeared" behind her. "I had a feeling something like this would happen."
Tetra was startled by the reappearing act, but right now Jenny took comfort in the human contact, someone caring about how she was doing, calming down a small bit.
"Howd'd.. howd'ya do that?" She asked, voice still somewhat gummy from the crying.
Hawkins seemed to smile. No one could actually tell, as apart from the white mask, his face was an inky blank slate. "I just moved behind you, that's all. You only focused on looking where you thought I'd gone. Doubting what things "seem" to be might be something to take to heart, with your... role."
Jenny sniffled, and smiled a bit. Tetra still didn't feel quite at ease with this guy. He was just too... calm. "But you were gone in a blink! How did you-"
Hawkins straightened himself up, readjusting his fedora. "I took track in college. Now, I beleive I caught your name is Jenny, right?"
Jenny nodded. "Well okay Jenny, I can help get your mother to come and pick you up. Can you tell me her name?"
Jenny paused. "I don', really know who..." Jenny began to tear up again, remembering that she had no idea who her family was or who they were. " I don' have-"
Hawkins hurriedly put his hand on her shoulders, trying to calm her down. "Easy, easy.. It's okay. It's okay." This was disconcerting. No mother? Did she have any family at all? Could it be that she had just... appeared into the world this way?" Something about that theory didn't mesh with what he felt, his intuition acting up again. He tried again to talk to her.
"Is there anyone who takes care of you Jenny? A guardian?"
Jenny fought back the tears, remembering. "T0there's Ms. Muriel.. she lets me stay at her house. ..She's nice." Thinking about the woman who'd taken her in calmed her down a great deal. She managed to stp her tears, and rubbed her face dry with her arm.
Hawkins relaxed a little. Good, someone he could contact, someone keeping on eye on her. He looked at the child, only what? Nine years old from his approximation. And she definitely seemed more like an ordinary child than some odd fictional character made real.
"That's good. Can you tell me what Ms. Murial does as a job? That will help me find her and call her up." He made sure to be clear as possible with the child.
Jenny brightened up a little. "She's a police lady! She's got a car with the lights an every'fin!"
Aha! A police officer. That made it easier. Now that he began to think of it, he remembered overhearing some conversations whilst waiting overnight in the police station. Some officers were talking about "Walsh" taking in some lost kid she'd found while on duty. Apparently no-one could find anything about her.
More threads interweaving. Hawkins thought smugly. "Ok. I think I might know who she is. A Murial Walsh, am I right?"
Jenny nodded. "Dats her name, yeah!"
Hawkins nodded, and brought out his second phone. He had his phone for contacting Cecilia, and another for general use. Cecilia was probably still busy in the net anyway.
He opened up his phone's name search application. A handy little government issued phone book, able to cross reference multiple data sources. He typed in Muriel Walsh, and added her profession as a Police Officer, to narrow it down.
+++++++++
Murial was beside herself, Jenny was gone and she couldn't find her anywhere. Maybe she'd gone off looking for another weird "thing" to stop. The thought only made her worry more. She was still just a little girl, and she didn't really trust that cat-girl as someone to watch over her. The damn thing probably lead her away in the first place!
Murial held her temples, trying to calm down. If she didn't find her soon, she'd just have to call out an APB on her, get a search team out. She didn't care if it wasn't protocol, Jenny was her responsibility and she wasn't going to let anything happen to her-
She didn't finish that thought, as the phone had began to ring. She picked it up as fast as she could, knocking over the chair in her way to the phone. "Hello?!"
A calm, collected voice answered her. "Officer Walsh?"
Trying to calm her breathing, Muriel responded. "Yes? Who is this?"
"This is Agent Hawkins, You might have heard about me from your colleagues."
Muriel vaguely remembered some of the guys talking about this weird as all hell G-man showing up in the middle of the night, investigating the bomb threat. "Maybe. Look, what is this about?! I don't really have the time to help you, it's-"
"It's about Jenny, Officer Walsh."
Her heart stopped. Did they find her? Was she hurt?! Why would a federal agent calling her about it. She began fearing the absolute worst. "Wh-what ha-"
Hawkins interrupted. "She's fine Ms. Walsh. She's perfectly fine and she's right here with me. I'm calling to tell you I found her down here at the local mall."
Reiefe washed over Muriel like a tidal wave. S"Oh god thank you, thank you so much!" As she profusely thanked whoever had found Jenny, she noticed the wetness on her face. She realized she'd been crying.
"It's no problem at all Ms. Walsh. I'll keep an eye on her until you get here. You should probably take a minute to compose yourself, I'm sure this had been quite an ordeal. But let me reiterate, Jenny is safe. She's a very brave girl Ms. Walsh."
Muriel thanked the Agent again and hang up. She realized he was right about taking a minute, looking at herself in the mirror. She was a wreck, even her antennae were frizzed out.
She thought about just how emotional she'd gotten. She barely knew Jenny for a few days... but.. She just seemed so innocent, so vulnerable, so... Jenny. She'd never really put much thought into having children before, but having Jenny around was causing her to reconsider a lot of things.
She walked into the bathroom to wash her face.
++++++++++++++
Hawkins reached into his coat and pulled out a handkerchief, which he handed to Jenny, which she blew her nose into. "She'll be right along in a little bit. She was very happy to hear you're safe." He paused.
Jenny honked into the handkerchief again, and looked up at Hawkins. "Th.. Thanks a lot mister Hawkins." She handed the sodden hankie back to the agent, which he took gingerly, and quickly stashed behind his back, it seeming to vanish in thin air.
Tetra sat silently watching the Shadow man. He seemed to genuinely be on "their side", but the whole situation still seemed immensely strange. How did he manage to find them? How the hell did he see the creature? Just what was he, and what was he trying to do here?
Jenny then looked worried. "Do you think she'll be mad?"
Hawkins considered the question for a second. "If so, only because she cares about you a lot."
Jenny teared up a little again. Hawkins quickly patted her on her shoulder to keep the wetworks from starting up. He only had so many handkerchiefs. "Alright Ms. Jenny. Now that we've gotten all that settled, there's a very, very important question I have to ask you."
Jenny looked up at him, concerned.
Hawkins gave her a very serious stare. "Do you prefer Chocolate or vanilla?"
+++++++++++++++
Moments later, they were back in the food court. Now sitting down and talking over frozen yogurt. Or frogurt, as the cool kids say. Jenny had picked chocolate with sprinkles, while Hawkins had gotten vanilla, plain. It was especially strange to see when he'd gotten some on his cheek, the stark white dairy product siting on a sea of black.
"So I'd like to offer up some explanation about who I am. I'm Agent Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Investigations. I've been sent here with my partner to investigate the strange phenomenon that seem to be originating here. And so far, I can see that there's definitely something very important going on."
He took another spoonful of yogurt. "What you're able to do is quite impressive. It took me a week to figure out how to go incognito like that."
Jenny looked at him.
"It means being hidden."
Jenny gave an "ohh" of recognition, and happily took another bite of her frozen treat. Tetra enjoyed a bit of it from her own spoon, and then spoke up. "So the government sent you to look into all this? Look. I'm sure you're good at your job, but this is something specially meant for Jenny. It's her destiny, something she was specially chosen for, and not really your concern."
Hawkins calmly took another spoonful. His attention seeemed to be entirely focused on the Styrofoam cup containing the yogurt. "I assume that the fat of the world is at stake here, correct? If so, something like that would probably be everyone's concern."
"Uh..." Tetra didn't have an answer for that one.
"Secondly, you may know a good deal about Jenny's role, and some about her "destiny", but one shouldn't presume they know the destiny of everyone around them." He paused. "Certain higher ups in the government have had... revelatory changes. I'm not at liberty to discuss what they became, but my supervisor in particualr gained an acute awareness of the grave importance of current events, if not their exact nature. She also specially selected me for the investigation." He raised his line of sight to look Tetra directly in the eyes.
It was unnerving to stare deep into the eye-holes of his mask, especially when he had such a grave expression on it. "We all have a part to play in this story Miss Tetra. Some roles may be smaller than others, but they all have an important effect on the grater chain of events. It is not only my duty to investigate this affair, but it may well be my destiny. As is my change."
Things had gotten silent around the little table.
Hawkins broke the silence, and his gaze-lock with Tetra, returning to his more friendly tone. "But that doesn't mean that cooperation is not possible, beneficial, or desirable. I've been given a lot of leeway in the following of my orders, and I have been given specific allowance for "unconventional" methods."
"I propose that I, for lack of a better word, "deputize" you, and any others of your "profession", as part of the investigation. Meaning that you will have a certain degree of assistance when facing pressing matters of the... other worldly sort." He seemed to chuckle. "As good as you are at not being seen, it would still be difficult for a little girl to get into certain highly secure places. If necessary, I can assist you by "opening the door", so to speak."
"It may also prove beneficial to be able to exchange what either of us knows about any "events", and researching them."
He took another bite. "Of course, I'm not demanding you join me. I am not some big scary government man trying to control everything like in E.T. ...have you seen E.T.?"
Jenny shook her head, Tetra nodded.
Hawkins shrugged. "Remind me to tell your gaurdian to pick up some dvds. Anyway, think about this offer. Don't rush into it. If you feel like you'd prefer to go it alone, I won't stop you. But if we worked together, we may have a much easier time of locating your... "colleagues"."
Hawkins put his spoon down. "Now I'd like to ask you a few things about your side of the story. What exactly you know about what we're facing. Perhaps including a description of the event that took place at the home of a Mr and Mrs. Cooper?"
