Hazel ran her hand along the newly solidified black liquid metal armor of Sariel. She looked at her mother then climbed into the cockpit. Enid was watching her daughter with a wide smile. She was wearing a black t-shirt declaring that if you’d read it, she’d had enough social interaction with you. She was wearing jeans with front pockets and her hands where slid into them as she watched her daughter gush over how nice everything looked. Enid had reworked the airframe to remove the rail gun hardpoints and magazines for the ammunition and she’d replaced the missile launching hardware with grapples and extra storage space. Sariel’s profile was slimmer than it had been. She looked like a whole new fighter. It had taken Enid two months of working twelve hours a day seven days a week to do it but the look on her daughter’s face had been worth it.

“Maria’s one rule was no weapons. So instead of just leaving the holes there I modified them. She is much lighter, so I was able to add in the nanohex structural reinforcements Aurelius developed. For the fighters based on these ones.”

“Mom, this is the best thing you’ve ever done for me.”

“Aww I thought that was giving birth to you.”

Hazel laughed. Enid climbed up the ladder.

“Tested her thoroughly. No power surges. No spikes.”

Sariel’s skin flicked.

“Your mother has made me a whole new woman.”

Hazel hugged her mother.

“Amee took care of pushing your pilot license through.”

Hazel nodded.

“You are to use Sariel to assist you in flying until Sariel gives you her permission to fly on your own. Her body, her choice. You got it?”

“I got it.”

“Also, you are not to leave Earth space without permission from Amee or myself. FTL drives aren’t toys. They generate antimatter and with Sariel there is no antimatter generator for it to power. So, it will need to be disposed of. Make sure you observe all required Systems Alliance laws while flying. Your pilot’s license can and will be revoked. If you do have permission to leave Earthspace you will log an FTL flight path with the Interstellar Control. Remember if you break down you are stuck wherever you are for a very long time. Thanks to the removal of weapons and a very expensive purchase you have FTL comms, do not have them on when you’re in FTL. Wormholes and FTL do not play well together. It should not allow you to open them during the jump but who knows what you’ll get up to. Just don’t. Worst you’ll never be able to regret making.”

Hazel looked up at her mother and smiled.

“Mom, I got this.”

“You’ll always that little girl who sat and watched me in the forge when your legs couldn’t even reach the ground from the bench to me hon.”

Hazel hugged her mother tightly again. Enid groaned.

“Not vampire. Ouch.”

Hazel wiped away a few tears. Enid hadn’t seen her this happy since she gave her daughter her first sword.

“Remember she has no weapons. So, if there is a fight you max power to shields and you get the hell out of there. All that being said. Go ahead and call Miles. Remember follow all those rules you read about to get your license you didn’t actually get your hours for. Have fun you two.”

*****

It had been six more months since Enid had finished Sariel’s refit. Hazel had graduated and was sharing her time between NAFTA dome and New Amazon. She hadn’t decided on what to do now that she was legally an adult with a secondary school diploma. Enid was trying to encourage her to go to some form of post-secondary education, as was Eyre. Hazel was uncertain. She was enjoying her life as a mercenary. Now with transportation. She had used the funds from her work with the crew to pay for drones which she had slaved to Sariel. While under the rules her Aunt had put in place Sariel couldn’t be armed. Nothing stopped Hazel from having armed drones that she could drop out of the former missile bays to swarm around her and shoot her targets. Her mother had been displeased but neither her nor Maria could fault her for a technical following of the rules.

Hazel was in New Amazon today. She climbed out of bed just after the crack of noon and caught her mother and Amee kissing. It was rare Amee was at home during the day. The business of being the President of the now Interstellar Systems Alliance usually kept her fairly busy. Enid had a green smoothie in her hand and took a drink with the straw when Amee released her. Hazel was about to turn around to avoid a conversation with the pair but her mother caught her.

“Hey you. When are you going to get a job or apply to a university?”

Hazel rubbed her face and waved her hand towards Enid.

“I’ve got a job mom.”

“Mercenary work is not a job."

"It was good enough for you up until six weeks ago.”

Enid tugged Amee close for another kiss.

“Love you, see you tonight.”

Amee kissed her back and waved to Hazel before heading back out to her likely waiting armored sky limo. Hazel wrinkled her nose when she got close the smoothie didn’t smell like fruit at all, more like the grossest of the gross vegetables.

“Mom what is that?”

“Special mix, you want some.”

Hazel gagged a bit.

“God no.”

“Well then you make your own lunch.”

“If you’re the one cooking gladly.”

Hazel was poking around the kitchen and started to pull things out to make breakfast. Enid drank some more of the smoothie as she watched her daughter prepare some food.

“I’m serious. You’re not going to be one of those spoiled rich kids living off of our dime.”

Hazel groaned.

“Mom, I make good money doing what I’m doing.”

“And no degree?”

“Mom, I look like I’m sixteen. You think I want to be the kid at a post-secondary school? God I’ll be a pedo’s dream.”

“Hazel, school is good to make contacts, build relationships with future leaders. The crowd you’re hanging around with, they’re going nowhere. They’ll end up dead, arrested, or worse. I don’t want that to be your future.”

“Why aren’t you going then?”

“I already went to university twice and grad school for my medical degree. I’m good.”

“Yea a thousand years ago. You got no excuse.”

Enid didn’t meet her daughters gaze.

“I have reasons.”

“What are you pregnant again?”

Enid almost spit out her slime green smoothie, managed to get her throat cleared up and looked at Hazel.

“What makes you say that?”

“I was just talking out of my ass mom. Gah, why are you always on my back about stuff!”

“Because I’m your mother.”

“I don’t see you harassing Eyre.”

“That’s because she’s the majority shareholder and CEO of an interstellar… no wait intergalactic corporation. I forgot they have assets in Andromeda. Has raised a family and raised my adopted daughter. She’s ruled over a good portion of England. And you, your current highlight is you are dating a street kid.”

“Hey Miles has money now.”

“Because you saved his ass instead of letting him get incinerated by security robots. They are using you.”

“So what? Look mom, I’m not good at school, I’m good at this.”

Hazel threw the fork she had been using to prepare her omelet in the sink angrily.

“You are good at school, you just don’t try.”

“Mom, I was born to be a Viking raider not a glorified secretary. You raised me to be a warrior, not some desk busy body. So let me be who I want to be.”

Enid went slightly pale and coughed once. She put the smoothie down and rushed off. Hazel watched her mother’s antics and shook her head. She went back to cooking her omelet. She was absently looking at the calendar display on the fridge as she waited for the omelet to cook. She almost let it start to burn when she noticed the appointment from the morning. It was the obgyn the three women used. She flipped the omelet and started snooping more. She found prenatal vitamins, and appointments for the last three months with a BMC clinic.

“Jesus she is pregnant.”

She put her omelet on her plate and started munching on it and reading the morning’s news on the HUD her contacts provided. Her mother came into view looking as green as her slime-colored smoothie. She put her feet up on the couch and turned on the holo-viewer. She finished the last bite of her omelet and sat down across from her mother and stared at her. Enid looked at Hazel.

“What?”

“Whose is it?”

“Whose is what?”

“The baby. I knew something was up when you stopped running jobs. Is it Harbor’s? You two were spending a lot of time together. Cheating on Amee mom, not cool.”

Enid glared at Hazel as the accusation left her daughter’s mouth.

“How dare you?”

“What mom? Unless Amee has a penis, she manages to conceal in those bikini’s she wears it’s not hers.”

Enid looked hurt and shook her head.

“It’s none of your business kid.”

“She’s my step-mom and she’s been nothing but good to me. So, if you’re sleeping around on her I’m kind of mad at you so it is my business. How long do you think it will take her to figure out? Prenatal vitamins, Obgyn appointments on calendars?”

“You are out of line Hazel Aurelius!”

“Me? I’m not the pregnant one when I’m married to a woman!”

“We paid BMC to implant embryos grown from her DNA and one of my eggs you insolent foolish immature child! It took four tries! Fuck! She took time off today to come to the first prenatal appointment. We just found out its viable. I was in a good mood until you started running your mouth off. You are so self-righteous!”

Enid had tears in her eyes now. Being pregnant was hardly a recipe for stable hormones. Enid threw one of the couch cushions at her daughter. Hazel put the cushion aside and stared in the direction her mother had vanished.

*****

Enid paced on the balcony of their penthouse their dome scraping penthouse. She was seven weeks pregnant, but Apollo was ready. She knew she could get home now, or at least was very sure she could. But it was irresponsible to go into the past while pregnant, wasn’t it? What if the longer she spent in the future the worse it got? Because if she went to term and had her child, she wouldn’t want to leave him for until he was older… she had been so irresponsible agreeing to this. She had gotten caught up in the thought of a child with her wife. She looked down at herself and grumbled. Surely, she had enough time to go find a few probes… if that was all she found. She could take Hazel. Just go after the drones… But she had no idea where Hazel was. She’d taken Sariel a week ago after accusing Enid of sleeping around and hadn’t returned a single call from her. In truth Enid hadn’t tried calling for a few days.

Enid leaned on the balcony railing with her forearms. She didn’t hear her whisper quiet wife come up behind her and slide her arms around her abdomen. Enid had cut her hair shorter and what she had was in a ponytail she felt Amee’s kisses on the back of her neck.

“Why are you out here?”

“Just thinking. How was your day?”

“You know. Whining corporations, bureaucrats and various people complaining about their budget. And yours?”

“Maria called.”

Amee’s arms tightened around Enid slightly.

“What’s up with her?”

“Apollo’s ready.”

Amee’s grip loosened, and she leaned on the railing with her elbows facing towards their apartment. Enid met her wife’s gaze.

“You’re going aren’t you?”

“I hadn’t decided yet, but I keep thinking what if the longer I’m here and stuff is back there the worse it gets?”

“I have an entire alien knowledge base in my head some of it which pertains to temporal mechanics, and I still have no clue how it all works. What about the baby?”

“He will be fine.”

“Really? Hazel hasn’t aged a day since she traveled through time.”

“He’s still part of me. Besides she moved forward he’ll be moving back then forward to his own time. Its just two drones. No demons, no wars.”

“Wasn’t the last one in a secret Soviet bunker where you had to kill your way through dozens of armed soldiers?”

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“Yes, but this time I’ll have Apollo and his advanced weaponry.”

Amee sighed and nodded. Enid motioned to the city.

“I keep thinking, what happens to all these people, or the ones on the colonies if I don’t do it and the temporal shielding fails.”

Amee looked at her manicured nails. Looking at the reflected city lights in her black nails.

“You aren’t wrong. It was foolish to think we could have happily ever after, a family.”

Enid shook her head.

“We can, we just need to temper hope with reality. There are demons left to hunt. If I wait until he’s born how much damage could they do, hell one blocked out the sun, where would we be now if not for me being there to stop it?”

“As your wife and the mother of the baby growing inside you, I don’t want you to go. As President, I would have to order you to if you worked for me. God, I know how my mother felt now, ordering my father into North Korea.”

“You don’t have to order me, I’ll go willingly.”

“She didn’t have to order him either.”

Amee turned around and hit the soft plastic that capped the railing with the bottom of her fist.

“Damn it I dared to hope.”

“It will be fine.”

“And what if it is not?”

“Then we try again. And again.”

“You could end up stuck in the past again, pregnant and no support.”

“I could end up stuck, pregnant, have the baby and return with him when he’s twenty years old.”

“Worse you could do it someplace where being an unwed mother is a stoning offense.”

“I’d find schmo and marry him. Then leave with the kid at the first opportunity.”

“You’re not that heartless.”

“Have you met me?”

“Yes, you are the kindest person I know, if someone’s not trying to kill you.”

Enid hit her elbow against Amee’s.

“I won’t be alone you know. I’ll bring Hazel.”

Amee nodded.

“Is she okay, saw she was here just after we found out… haven’t seen her since.”

Enid pushed the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ears.

“She found out about the baby, went off on me for cheating on you. I didn’t react sanely.”

Amee frowned and put her arm around Enid’s shoulders.

“Sorry hon. Wish I’d known.”

“It was you she was worried about.”

“That kid has the biggest heart.”

“She’s also the biggest pain in the ass kid I’ve ever had. I better call Eyre and tell her so she can get Hazel to call me back. Hazel hasn’t returned a single one of my calls.”

Amee kissed Enid’s cheek and hugged her close.

“I’ll get something ready to eat that isn’t instant.”

Amee went to kiss Enid’s cheek again but found she got a full set of lips. They stayed like that for several sections before Amee broke the kiss and went off to the kitchen. Enid brought up her contact list and tapped Eyre’s personal number. Eyre’s face appeared almost instantly.

“Hey mom.”

“Hi kiddo. Is Hazel there?”

Confusion danced through Eyre’s emerald, green eyes.

“No, I thought she was with you.”

“What?”

“She comes to visit but she has her own place here. Pays for a landing pad for Sariel.”

“You didn’t think to tell me this?”

“Mom she is legally an adult. What am I gonna do lock her up?”

“Okay. Can you check on her?”

“I’ll send someone. I’m just on break from a meeting with the New Chicago office. Having colonies with actual normal celestial day and night cycles is crappy for scheduling. I miss when everyone just used the same clock. Anyway, I’ll let you know as soon as they get back to me. Probably by text, Peterson loves to drone on and on.”

“Thanks. Just tell them to have her call me.”

Eyre blew her mom a kiss and ended the call. Enid wrapped her fingers around the top of the railing. She didn’t want to pull Amee in, because then she’d pull Systems Alliance security to search. She called Milese number. He went pale when he saw her face.

“Hi ma’am.”

“Hello Miles, do you happen to know where my daughter is?”

“Uh… she’s not grounded?”

“She’s eighteen years old, I can’t ground her. Why should she be grounded?”

Miles blinked and swallowed hard. He started rubbing the back of his neck.

“No reason, Mrs. A. No reason.”

“You are a terrible liar, Miles. What happened?”

“Well, we were driving away from a job and she uh hit a few NA Security cars. I thought you…she said. She got us to run with the haul and said she’d just get you to get everything buried.”

Enid sighed heavily.

“Fuck.”

Miles tugged on the collar of his t-shirt.

“I swear I didn’t know ma’am, no idea she was lying. I would have called you right away.”

“Where?”

“Blue sector.”

“When?”

“Six days.”

“She didn’t call you for six days and you didn’t think to tell someone?”

Miles looked like he wanted to be anywhere but on this video call.

“I thought you were mad and uh took her holo-tablet away.”

Enid frowned.

“This conversation is not over Miles. If I vanished for six days without a trace my wife would have called in all the ships of the fleet to track me down. What’s your excuse for not calling us? Don’t answer now. Just think about that and if you deserve her.”

Enid disconnected the call and went back into the apartment. She smelled tacos. She was very hungry, but Hazel was missing somewhere in the prison system of the Systems Alliance.

“Uh, I really appreciate you cooking supper dear, but I need to go.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just Hazel being Hazel. I need to go sort it out.”

“Can I help?”

“No, I’m her mother, I’ll go deal with the mess. If I need you, I will call right away.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re the President, you stand out.”

Amee shrugged.

“That’s what my infiltration suite is for.”

She tapped a few things and her hair turned blonde, her eyes turned blue and her face changed. It looked painful but Amee made no signs of feeling it.

“See?”

“If I hadn’t done something myself when I was a vampire I would be forever scarred. Sure come, but let me handle stuff, would you?”

“Whatever you say. But let’s eat first. It’s been six days, a thirty more minutes won’t hurt and we’ll think better on full stomachs. But if she’s missing why don’t you want me to call in the troops?”

“You do that too much and I think its an abuse of power.”

“But it’s our daughter.”

“Who got herself into this predicament, I’d rather not tarnish your image with her antics.”

Amee frowned but nodded. The pair ate their dinner quickly and got into Enid’s car. Enid drove to the security station for blue sector. Blue sector was the worst part of the dome. The only place worse was probably in the ancient maintenance and steam tunnels that crisscrossed the ground beneath the dome’s mass transit mag-lev train tunnels. At least blue sector had running water and food. Amee watched buildings pass. The trip reminded her of a time nearly a thousand years ago when she was in a police car leaving the slums of DC. Her computerized brain could remember every detail of the trip. She thought of Rusty and the homeless people she’d sought warmth with. She shook her head when she saw a very similar group huddled around a barrel on fire.

“I need to do something about this place.”

“Why?”

“People shouldn’t be homeless in this day and age.”

“People will always find a way to be homeless. Drugs, alcohol, gambling addiction, mental illness. They will always congregate somewhere they feel safer and there is nothing any government can do about it. Some people just don’t want roofs over their heads.”

“That’s a pretty callous way of looking at it.”

“I’ve been alive through twenty-three centuries now. There are always homeless people, there are always wealthier people happy to let them be homeless so long as it is not near them. And there are always people more then willing to take advantage of their addictions for profit. You are just the latest leader to deal with the mess. You offer them support sure some will get out of the gutter, but the majority, they’re going right back into it after they are left to their own devices.”

“But they don’t need to be.”

“Do you have enough housing for every living human?”

Amee shook her head.

“Do you have enough funding to get every living human into housing?”

Amee shook her head.

“Then good luck finding places for them if you don’t have a roof for them, or the money to put a roof over their heads. This isn’t your fault. This is just how humans have always been.”

“Some are veterans.”

“And veterans get a pension, they get a free parcel of space do they not?”

“Yes.”

“Then why is it your fault they are on the street?”

“We could create more supports.”

“Are they using the ones you have now?”

Amee shook her head again.

“Then its not your fault, or your problem. You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Trust me, the saying is truer than ever when applied to humans.”

Amee glanced at her wife as they pulled up to the gate for the Blue Sector Security Force. Enid looked out at the youngish New Amazon Officer.

“Can I help you kid?”

Enid glanced at Amee who smirked.

“I am looking for my daughter. She’s gone missing and was last seen in Blue Sector. I think she might have been arrested.”

He looked over the pair with his cybernetic eyes and the gate lifted up.

“Head on through, talk to the front desk they can help you.”

Enid pulled forward and found a parking spot. She looked at Amee.

“How the hell are you going to get past an ident chit scan?”

“How are you going to do it?”

“I have a jammer.”

“I have a morphing one.”

“Can I have one?”

“Sure, as soon as you get cybernetic implants dear.”

Enid frowned and opened her door. She yanked the strap of her ever-present Atlantean pack and closed her car door. Amee rushed to catch up.

“We don’t got out together often, do people always assume you’re ten years old?”

“No, but they assume I’m a teenager.”

“That must suck.”

“Well, there is a reason I miss being a vampire. I could look like anyone I wanted too.”

They walked through the automatic doors and to the front desk. The place was dirty and quite dimly lit compared to most buildings. Most of the officers were wearing body armor and were armed. The criminals ran the gamut. Amee hadn’t been here before. She felt like the queen who disguised herself to go see what her subjects thought of her. This place was underfunded and overwhelmed. While Amee scoped out the front entryway Enid approached the desk. A tired looking woman older woman looked her up and down then spoke.

“Yes?”

Enid pretended to dig through her pack and pulled out a holo-projector with an image of Hazel saved on it. Amee joined her. Enid flipped on the holo-projector.

“I’m looking for this woman.”

“That’s great. Go to the kiosk, fill in the details and we’ll add her to the list.”

Enid blinked.

“No, she was arrested.”

The woman rolled her eyes.

“When?”

“Six days ago, middle of the night.”

“Then unless she’s not been ID’d she’s been shipped to Horizon station until her trial.”

“Could you check?”

“Seriously kid? You’re wasting your time. Just call justice and ask them.”

Amee tapped her fingers on the counter.

“And why can’t you look her up?”

“I’m not in the habit of searching up two-bit criminals for her punk ass friends.”

Amee smiled very sweetly.

“Then what exactly are you paid to do?”

“Not enough to deal with idiots like the pair of you. Now go on and get out of here before we arrest you for mischief or loitering.”

Amee frowned and was about to say something more but Enid tugged her away.

“Why did you do that Enid?”

“Because you were about to make a scene. Your security team would be super pissed with you. This place is nowhere near secure and its not like that woman would believe you anyway. Good luck explaining to the people of the Systems Alliance how you were arrested by accident.”

Amee frowned.

“Good point, lets just go back to the car and I’ll make a call or six.”

Enid sighed.

“I was hoping to handle this without poking the bear too much. It will make her mercenary work complicated.”

“You have any better ideas?”

“I have a few thousand in black credit chits.”

“You seriously think they’ll take a bribe?”

“Do you know how your police forces work? Everyone will take a bribe it’s the nature of your society.”

Enid pulled a black credit chit out, it had ten thousand credits on it, probably three months salary for a NA police officer. She held it in her hand when they got back to the tired looking officer.

“You two again? Buzz off unless you have a new complaint.”

Enid put the credit chit on the counter she pushed it towards the woman.

“Please, can you do a search for my daughter?”

The woman glanced around tapped a holo-keys and slipped the chit into her pocket. She tapped the same keys again.

“Sure ma’am, happy to help.”

Amee blinked. Three crimes had just been committed in the space of ten seconds. The desk officer moved through quite a few records.

“Found her. Jane Doe. No ident chit, she cut it out or never had one. Refused to answer any questions, didn’t ask for any holo-calls. Refused public defender. She’s still in holding.”

“Has bail been set?”

“Bail? She injured three officers and destroyed four police cruisers. She’s going away for a long time.”

Enid frowned and spoke quietly.

“What would it take to make it go away, have you just lose her paperwork, walk her out of the side door?”

“Call from the president herself!”

The woman scoffed.

“In other words, more then you’ll earn in your lifetime kid. No way she gets less than thirty years.”

Amee was annoyed now. She leaned close.

“How about we don’t have you charged with disabling security devices, accepting a bribe and dereliction of duty?”

The officer went pale for a few seconds then looked angry.

“Alright that’s enough. We’ll see how you two feel after a few days in the pen.”

Enid shook her head.

“Officer, you really don’t want to do that.”

“Why?”

Amee glared at her.

“Because then they can add false arrest, abuse of position of authority and false imprisonment.”

“Oh you’re a right little lawyer aren’t you.”

She whistled loudly and pointed at the pair.

“Take these two jokers to processing!”

Enid sighed.

“You really don’t want to be doing this.”

“What are you the President’s side piece? I hear she likes women. Don’t worry the girls inside do too.”

Enid sighed and looked at Amee who looked like she was going to go psycho-cyborg on the entire police force. Enid had no doubt her wife could probably do it too. She looked at one of the officers who was holding her arms and about the cuff them. Enid looked towards the command on her HUD to turn off her ident chit signal scrambler. Then back to the officer.

“Scan my ident chit please for the love of God and your future freedom. You do not want to be dragged down with her.”

He glared down at her but shrugged he waved his wrist over her right hand. It took about three seconds before he went ghost white pale and released her arms. He motioned for the other officer to the same. The woman behind the counter looked a the four officers.

“What the fuck? Take them to processing, that’s an order.”

The one who had scanned Enid’s ident chit shook his head.

“No disrespect lieutenant but I’m not following that bullshit order, I like getting a paycheck and not being on a prison station. You better call a lawyer, a good one.”

He looked down at Enid.

“Sorry about that Ma’am how can we help you.”

“My daughter was falsely arrested for a crime someone else committed. She just happened to be on the scene. Your officers failed to identify her so I, her mother was never notified of her arrest. Now I can see why these issues are occurring here. She has a biochip sometimes they are…less then reliable. As your door scanner can tell you about mine.”

He went pale, Enid continued.

“Clerical errors I can overlook, my daughter probably need a few days in a cell she’s been getting a bit to big for her britches, however, if I’m being falsely accused of a crime for inquiring about her whereabouts, I’m wondering how many others have been too. I understand budgets have been tight lately, but Aurelius Corp pays you to arrest criminals, not innocent people. If you’re not doing your jobs, I can see why my daughter is lowering budgets across the board. I would have loved to have told her what a wonderful job you were all doing but… look at the way my friend and I were treated.”

“I know exactly who you’re talking about now. I’ll go get her out right now, pull her belongings from evidence and get you on your way as soon as possible. Well make sure all records of this terrible mistake are completely erased from the system. I apologize for the misunderstanding tonight Mrs. Aurelius-Jace.”

Enid leaned on the desk addressing the officer who looked like she’d just died inside.

“You should have just taken the bribe. I wasn’t looking to get anyone in trouble.”

Enid went back to Amee and waited with crossed arms. She was displeased to see the station’s CO show up with Hazel and her things, so much for low profile. He was an older man with a grey handlebar mustache. Looked like an old time Texas ranger. He motioned to the back.

“Could we talk in my office before you go? I wouldn’t want there to be any lingering misunderstandings when you leave.”

Enid nodded, Amee moved to follow. He held up his hand.

“You don’t need to come, just her mother.”

Enid quirked an eyebrow.

“Commander, you want her there. Trust me.”

He thought for a moment then motioned for them to all come. The trio of women piled into his office. Hazel looked bedraggled and wilted from her time in the cell. He motioned to the seats by his desk. Amee shook her head. Enid accepted. She was only seven weeks but early pregnancy was exhausting for her so she sat down.

“I’m going to speak plainly. Your daughter broke several laws. I don’t like letting people off just because of who they are.”

Enid nodded.

“You know, I agree with you, however. She is going through some things and I don’t want this mistake to ruin her life.”

“I’m going to release her, make it go away, but you’re teaching her a bad lesson her. I’m doing this because I know if I don’t my entire station will be out of work. Your family pays the bills. Hell your wife is the president. After the shit that just went down out front, I’ll be lucky if I can be a meter maid if you decide to press things. But I hate this the rich get away with murder bullshit. I just wanted to tell you to your face, ma’am.”

Enid nodded.

“I like you. You’re honest. I also get where you’re coming from. But thirty years for a few bruises, a broken arm and three police cars? That’s ridiculous. Also against sentencing maximums. So what bullshit charges did you find to pump it up to thirty years? The street runs both ways Commander. Fair is fair. You want people to pay for their crimes, charge them with the crimes they did. I know your budget depends on arrests, charges and crime rates. So is your Station increasing the charges you’re pressing against people to pad the numbers?”

He frowned.

“No.”

Enid frowned.

“You’re lying. Either to yourself or to me.”

He hit his desk.

“How dare you accuse me of that kind of impropriety? I’ve been doing this job for forty years.”

Amee leaned forward placing her palms on the desk her disguise fading away.

“Then you should clean up your shit, because its full of dirty cops gaming the system. A citizen making an inquiry about a family member should not have to bribe an officer ten thousand credits to do a search. And thirty years is not even close to reasonable. You have thirty days to make this place sparkle because I’m sending investigators and they are going to pull on white gloves wipe their fingers along your ass crack and if they come up anything but clean white gloves, I’m going to make sure you get held responsible for this mess. And if my daughter’s name graces the lips of anyone about this incident, I swear to the Dark Mother you will regret the day you put on that badge. I would start with the lieutenant at the desk. She tampered with a police recording device, accepted a bribe and tried to falsely arrest my wife and I for making a simple inquiry. And for the record this is me calling you directly and telling you myself, my wife and my daughter were never here. My wife will make sure the officers receive compensation for their injuries.”

He blinked at Amee. Realizing just how deep the shit puddle he stepped in was.

“Do you find this acceptable Commander?”

He nodded. Amee smiled at him.

“Keep up the good work Commander. I look forward to seeing the report stating how smashingly things are going here.”

The trio made their way to the car. Enid sat in the back and let Amee drive. Hazel was in the passenger seat so she had leg room. She was staring out at the road. Enid sighed.

“Hazel why didn’t you call me?”

She shrugged.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to help me after what I said.”

Amee and Enid both frowned. Enid leaned forward.

“You really don’t know me. I’d die for you even at the end of that self-righteous rant you went on I would have taken a silver bullet for you. You silly girl.”

Amee nodded.

“I’m sorry mom.”

“You could have saved us all a lot of trouble if you’d just said that six days ago when you called from the cell, or hell, just let them read your ident chit.”

Hazel shook her head.

“I didn’t want to embarrass the family.”

Amee slapped her on the back of the head.

“You are really dumb sometimes kid. I still love you though.”