“Hello?” I said tentatively into my phone after bringing it up to the side of my face.

“Hey there Jenni, it’s just me Gunderson. How are things?” A familiar asked from the other end.

“Um, good…” I replied cautiously. “What’s up? Any specific reason you're calling me?”

“Ah well, let's get to the heart of it then, but first, are you alone right now?” Gunderson asked cryptically.

“Uh, no. I’m with my Dad and a friend.” I said looking back at the other two who were standing behind me. Both of them were staring at me with mixed expressions, likely trying to discern who it was I was talking with.

“I see, well I’ll just fill you in on the details when I pick you up then. Where are you at right now?” Gunderson asked, making me feel even more concerned with this discussion.

“What’s going on Gunderson?” I demanded a bit more forcefully this time. Name dropping the person I was talking to made Mira’s eyes go noticeably wide, and my father's to focus in with interest and curiosity.

“No need to worry Jenni. It’s nothing bad, you just have a meeting with someone. I’ll tell you all the details when I pick you up. Promise.” He said as reassuringly as he could over the phone.

“Fine.” I said with a loud sigh of defeat. “I’m currently just leaving the mall after shopping for some clothes. You can pick me up out front then, okay?”

“Sure, sounds great. Be there in 10 minutes or so.” Gunderson promised, ending the call from his end.

It seems I was supposed to be meeting someone. Who though? Is it another meeting with the people at the IDPA, cause I’m super not hyped about that particular idea after last time. Gunderson did say it wasn’t a bad thing though, so I guess I’ll just have to trust him about all this crazy stuff I know hardly anything, again.

Turning back around I took in the moods and appearance of the two other people still standing nearby.

My Dad was still dutifully holding the bulging bags of clothing we had just bought in his arms. His face though was looking at me with a more contemplative sort of expression.

Mira on the other hand looked like she was roughly half a second away from just bolting in the opposite direction of us. Her posture and body language were both fidgety and nervous.

“Woah there, relax Mira. Everything’s fine.” I said in a calming tone of voice. “He's just coming to pick me up. It has nothing to do with you, so there’s no reason to be nervous. You haven’t done anything wrong after all.”

I locked eyes with her after saying this, waiting for her to digest my words and also the things I left unsaid as well. Namely Mira’s likely connection to whatever was going on with the people making the spike drug

“I should go.” Mira just said quietly.

“No Mira, you shouldn’t.” I said a bit sternly. “You haven’t done anything wrong, so there’s no reason to act like you have. I trust you and Gunderson both, and it’s important that he sees me supporting you, right?”

“I-I guess, it's just I'm not super comfortable with the idea of meeting an, uh…” Mira paused reorganizing her thoughts after looking in my Dad’s direction. “An FBI agent. I’m not really all that comfortable around people in law enforcement.”

It was a reasonable cover for the truth, but the cover was likely to raise just as many questions in my Dad’s overly curious mind. Questions that I’ll likely have to deal with later on, especially if and when he tells Mom about all this.

She’ll probably be asking me things like ‘Jenni’s new friend isn’t comfortable around law enforcement? Does she have something to hide?’

Something like that. Whatever questions and suspicions they may come up with will inevitably be annoying, regardless.

“So this Agent Gunderson from the FBI is coming to pick you up Jenni?” My Dad interjected before I could respond to Mira’s concerns again.

“Uh, yeah. Sounds like it.” I replied vaguely, my eyes looking away and refusing to make eye contact with him.

“Did he say what it was about? Are you just going to be shadowing him some more then.” He asked with obvious interest.

“Um, sounds like it. He was uh, vague on the details. He said something about filling me in in-person, once he’s picked me up.” I answered.

“Hmm, well that’s fine I guess. It’ll be nice to actually meet the man face to face for once. Especially since it seems you’re going to be spending so much time with him now, apparently.” My Dad said with the apprehension plain in his words.

“Uh right, yeah.” I said nervously, just now realizing what a potentially catastrophe was coming my way with Gunderson’s arrival.

On the one hand my Dad was going to meet and assess the guy I've been, and likely will be spending a great deal of time around. On the other side you then have Mira who was going to be, somewhere between extremely skittish or extremely shy. Probably both.

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“Relax guys, everything'll be fine.” I said as much to myself as to the two of them.

A few short but tense minutes later, a speeding red convertible pulled up the curb beside where we were standing with a screeching halt. Dust and the smell of burnt rubber wafting off the tires as the car came to a rest.

Gunderson turned in my direction and gave me an eager wave when he spotted me.

“Hey Jenni, sorry to pick you up so abruptly, but I just got word about all this myself.” He told me matter of factly.

“Uh right, that’s okay I guess. Never really know what the bosses have planned for you until they uh, tell you at the last minute.” I said, awkwardly trying to follow along with the cover story we were using.

“Hah, right. That’s the truth, but the meeting isn’t with the bosses, well it is and it isn’t.” Gunderson explained poorly. “Eh, I’ll explain on the way. Who are the two you have with you here? The handsome young man beside you there looks a bit like you, so I'm guessing an older brother maybe?”

Gunderson was shamelessly trying to flatter my father here. He knew the details of my family life, and that my actual brother was noticeably younger than me. Plus, as much as my Dad tried to take care of himself, there was no reasonable way someone could mistake him for my sibling.

“Hah, no. I’m her father, Tanner Morrow.” He said walking up to the side of Gunderson’s car and offering his hand out for a handshake.

Gunderson eagerly accepted, shaking my father’s hand vigorously with a big smile on his face all the while.

“And who’s the quiet young lady you have hiding behind your back there?” Gunderson asked politely, but still pointing out the obvious shyness Mira was displaying. “Not a sister I think, so then another one of your friends I haven’t met yet.”

Gunderson was an agent of the IDPA, so he likely could see the small but visible points of Mira’s ears pointing out from underneath her long dark hair.

Gunderson’s words also prompted Mira to move up even closer to my back, she was now practically pressed up against me entirely at this point.

“Uh yeah, this is my friend Mira.” I could feel a slight jolt of tenseness run through Mira’s body as I said her name in front of Gunderson. “She’s um, a bit shy, but she’s a good friend.”

I hoped those few words would do something to ease the obvious tension between the two of them, but I had no doubt there was a long way to go before they could both be completely comfortable in each other’s presence.

“Hmm, well it’s nice to meet you Mira, but Jenni I do really have somewhere to be shortly so…” He left the ‘please wraps this up quickly and get the fuck in the car so we can get moving right now please’ part unsaid.

“Uh right.” I gave my Dad a quick hug, and then to Mira's obvious befuddlement, I gave her one as well. “Bye guys, uh Dad can you give Mira a ride home or wherever it is she wants to be dropped off at?”

“Sure thing sweetie. If that’s alright with you Mira?” He asked turning in her direction.

“Y-yeah, sure. Sounds great.” Mira said with mixed feelings. Clearly, she was happy at the idea of being away from Gunderson, but was hesitant at the idea of being chauffeured around by my Dad without me around as a buffer. She’ll survive, hopefully.

Getting in the car with some haste, I gave both of them a final wave goodbye as Gunderson floored the gas pedal and we sped off away from the mall.

“So, sorry again about the abrupt pickup. The meeting time I was given is in about fifteen minutes from now, and the problem with that is the place we need to get to is somewhere around half an hour from here down the highway, assuming we are going the speed limit.” Gunderson said while watching the road in front of him intently. “Fortunately for us though, we’re not going to be going anywhere near that slowly.”

As a manic grin began to form itself on Gunderon’s face, I made sure to buckle my seatbelt and also tighten the strap extra tightly for good measure.

“So are you going to uh, tell me who I’m supposed to be meeting with now?” I asked, my voice straining slightly to be heard over the loud whipping sound of the wind blowing past us at our increasingly greater speeds.

“Ah right, you’re going to finally get the chance to meet and talk with Bobbie.” He replied casually, but with a voice still loud enough to be heard.

“Bobbie, the other supernatural who lives around here?” I asked, assuming I remember that name correctly.

“Yep, that’s her.” He said with a big grin on his face as he did so. “As I told you on the phone, it shouldn’t be a big deal, but Bobbie keeps a fairly crazy schedule so getting a set time to meet with her can be a challenge.”

“I see.” I said simply, organizing my own thoughts in my head.

What should I expect? What did I know? Am I in danger? Was this an opportunity?

All of those thoughts flitted quickly through my head as I decided on what to ask Gunderson first.

“So what should I be expecting with this meeting? Anything I should know or do specifically?” I asked.

“It won’t be anything formal or overly serious. That’s not really Bobbie's style.” Gunderson explained. “You probably heard some mention of her from the others at the office, but she can be a little brash and over the top. Her heart is in the right place though, and she won’t try to manipulate or screw you over either.”

“Hmm.” Was all I said as my thoughts drifted inward, contemplating Gunderson’s words as we kept on driving at high speeds down the highway toward our destination.

“So that was the elven blooded girl back there you were talking to me about earlier, right?” Gunderson asked abruptly, pulling my thoughts back to the present with a strong mental yank.

“Oh, uh, yeah. That was her.” I confirmed. It was pointless to lie about something he obviously already knew, and it would be counterproductive to any positive outcomes down the line to try and do so.

“I figured as much. Learn anything interesting from her so far?” He asked me casually, as if spying on someone who was kinda sorta my friend now was a normal and easy thing to do.

“Some stuff.” I answered vaguely. “I’m um, still looking into it, if that’s alright.”

“Of course.” He said warmly and with a reassuring smile. “It is what I asked you to do, and I trust you to do what you need to.”

Right, do what I need to.

In Mira’s case, what would that even look like? Would she be considered an accessory to the manufacturing of spike? Would Gunderson and the IDPA want to take her in for further questioning? Was Mira’s Mom going to be arrested and jailed for her part in all this?

Before I could think about possible outcomes much further, we pulled off the highway suddenly and into a sparsely filled parking lot.

“Ah, here we are then. Not even ten minutes, what did I tell you?” Gunderson said happily.

Looking up I saw we were now parked in front of what looked like a small ice cream parlor that was situated on the side of the highway. The bright and colorful lettering in the windows named the place ‘Chuckle Cone Creamery’.

“Now all we have to do is wait.” Gunderson said with a small sigh of relief, a feeling I wasn’t really sure I shared. "Also maybe grab me an ice cream as well real quick."