“Lieutenant O’Brien? This is Louise Williams,” Lou said anxiously.

“Ms. Williams,” he said, and a smile could be heard in his voice over the phone. “It’s good to hear from you. What can I do for you?”

Lou swallowed nervously. She’d been adamant that Aera not talk to him over the phone, because that girl had a tongue as loose as a goose. But being on the phone herself was nerve wracking.

“We need to talk to you,” she said. “Soon.”

“Do you have more information on the cases?” he asked. “Or is it something else?”

“I… um,” she stammered. “B-both? Sort of. I can’t explain over the phone. You need to come here.”

“Immediately?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“Um, no,” she said. “Whenever? Whenever. Any time. So, you know, take as long, or not, as you need. Like days, even. Up to you.”

“Perhaps tomorrow afternoon, say, two o’clock?” he suggested.

“Yep, that’s good,” she said. “We can do that.”

“Very good,” he said. “Thank you for calling me, Ms. Williams. I want you to know I appreciate it. I’ll be by as close to two as I can manage, given my profession.”

“Yes, sir,” she said. “We’ll be here. All of us. For talking.”

“Very good,” he said. “Goodnight, Ms. Williams.”

“Goodnight, sir,” she said, and then slammed the phone down too quickly.

“He’s coming tomorrow at two,” she said to the group, and then headed to the door.

She needed to go on a walk. Away. Just away from everything and everyone.

---------

I watched in confusion as Lou abruptly left after her phone call with O’Brien. I glanced at the others and they shrugged.

Nothing to it, I supposed.

The next morning was full of a wide variety of anxieties, and no one was talking about anything other than trivialities. For my part, I braided and undid my hair, over and over again.

I did decide to keep it in a braid, ultimately. They weren’t the fashion, here - they liked to keep their hair raised, in what was called “updos” - but I thought it would add a little to the discussion if my I had my hair the way I used to.

Time seemed to pass far more slowly than usual. Eventually, the clock hit two.

We all sat on the sofas in silence, waiting for him to arrive.

A seeming eternity later, there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it,” Lou said, jumping out of her seat.

Alice scowled a little, but otherwise didn’t react as Lou almost ran to the door.

“Hi,” she said, trying to smile at the lieutenant.

“Greetings, Ms. Williams,” he said. “Thank you again for talking with me. May I come in?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, and she nervously guided him in.

His expression was speculative as he took us all in, sitting silently as though we were planning on telling him something awful.

I couldn’t help but wonder why they were so anxious about telling O’Brien, and yet were practically cavalier with Dorothy and Domiano. Still, the nervousness was contagious, and I found myself fidgeting as well.

O’Brien took a seat on the sofa, sitting on the edge, while Lou went and hastily got a glass of tea for him.

“Good to see you all in good health,” he said, nodding at each of us in turn. “I understand that there’s something important to tell me about, which relates to recent cases?”

He left it at that, and looked at us curiously. We all exchanged glances.

“We’re just telling him, right?” I said hesitantly.

“Sort of,” Lou said. “We should… um… clarify some things first, I think.”

“Like what?” I asked, confused, as O’Brien’s expression grew more inquisitive.

“I don’t know,” Lou said. “Just coming out and saying what’s going on seems a little…”

“I think it’s sensible,” I said, crossing my arms. “I’m sure he can handle it.”

O’Brien chimed in, “No matter what it is, I’m listening.”

Slick looked annoyed.

“Look, maybe we should tell him the whole story of how we found you, first,” Lou said.

“He wouldn’t understand it, if we kept… you know… out of it,” I said.

“But we can’t just say it,” Lou said. “He’s… different, you know? He’s a copper.”

“We have ‘just said it’ plenty of times,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Why does his job change that?”

“Because he might not believe us,” Lou said.

“Who ever believes us?” I countered. “He’ll need proof, just like anyone else.”

“But…” she started.

“Alright,” Slick said, turning towards O’Brien. “I’ll take care of this.”

He sat up, his posture perfect, like he was on stage and started snapping his fingers.

“Lieutenant O’Brien, sir,” Slick said, with dramatic flair. “Magic is real.”

As soon as the word “real” came out of his mouth, his music began. He decided to go with Swing Boogie, the song that had launched his success. Lou, Alice, and I looked at each other in confusion. We hadn’t expected Slick to reveal himself...

O’Brien had a vaguely impressed look, and started looking around.

“So where’s the sound coming from?” he asked. “It’s a nice trick, but…”

“It’s real, sir,” Slick said, and changed the sound to that of a distant police siren.

O’Brien’s eyebrow raised skeptically.

“Let’s run with that theory for now,” O’Brien said. “I take it that you’re ‘the impossible’ that was in the papers?”

“No, sir,” Slick said.

I raised a hand a little.

“That would be me,” I said. “I taught Slick. I didn’t expect him to show you what he’d learned, at this point…”

With that, I gave Slick a speculative look. He shrugged.

“Tired of it always being about you,” he said, taking a gulp of coffee. “Besides, you two were just yammering away, wasting the good officer’s time.”

“Right,” I said.

“Right,” O’Brien echoed, looking at me. “So, you claim that you can do magic.”

I raised an eyebrow. “‘Claims’ are of little worth. It is proof that has value, and I will be happy to demonstrate to your satisfaction.”

I lifted the coffee cup I was holding, and shifted it to a black and gold color.

“And that’s not a trick?” O’Brien asked, his eyes sharply focused on the cup.

“No, sir,” I said. “I can change it to any color you choose, to prove it wasn’t pre arranged.”

“Blue,” he said immediately.

The cup shifted to a lovely shade of blue.

“Green with orange stripes,” he said as soon as the color changed, and I complied.

“Purple, with pink diagonal stripes, and bright yellow stars” was next.

I frowned a little. High speed changes was tiring, and I still hadn’t fully recovered. But my pride was on the line, so I shifted the color at my fastest speed.

“Red, blue, and a yellowish green plaid,” he said next.

I raised an eyebrow at that.

“Plaid?” I said dubiously.

“Yep,” he said, looking faintly victorious.

“Plaid is complicated,” I complained.

Lou was trying not to laugh, and both Alice and Slick were grinning at me.

I grumbled to myself as I tried to get the colors in place right. O’Brien watched intently as the tiny stripes began to overlap. Interestingly, it seemed like the little mistakes I kept making were more convincing than my high speed success.

While the other colors and patterns I’d been able to create in mere seconds, the startlingly intricate plaid pattern was taking minutes. O’Brien watched closely for a while, and after two minutes, by which point I’d gotten about half the cup done, he sat back, seeming satisfied.

“You can do magic,” he said, sounding a little bewildered, then shook his head. “I’ll deal with that when I have a chance to think. In the meantime, I’m just going to run with it, and hear what’s going on. Let’s start with the butcher shop. Were any of you there?”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “I was.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“I found the location from one of their injured men, at the hospital,” I said. “On going there, I requested to speak peacefully with Buddy, as I wished to arrange non hostile relations. When he received the message, he came out with four other men, all of whom were wielding tommy guns.”

He nodded, his eyes tightening at that.

“How did they get shot?” he asked, his voice a little low.

“Initially, I used my barrier to simply block the bullets,” I said. “But, to do that is to try to just take, by brute force, all of the power thrown against me. It was too much. An easier, but more dangerous type of barrier is one that simply makes their direction somewhat random. Reflection, in essence.”

“Reflection,” he said, his eyes widening and a grin covering his face. “That explains the bullet patterns!”

“Oh?” Lou asked, clearly intrigued by his reaction.

“They had half the detectives on the force trying to go over that crime scene,” O’Brien said. “No one could make any sense of the bullet trajectories. The closest guess we had was some madman swinging his gun around randomly.”

He demonstrated, holding his arms like he was holding a gun, and moving his entire upper torso and arms around, as though trying to fire at the entire room from several different positions, at random. We all couldn’t help but smile at the display.

His grin was still bright as he went on, “Thing is, a shooter that crazy would have to have been shot, and there were no other pools of blood. Reflecting the bullets, though - that would explain the lack of another gun or type of bullet, and the lack of a shooter’s blood, and the trajectories.”

“Well, that would be because that’s what happened,” I said.

“Aera,” Alice said, frowning at me. “Let the man have his fun.”

At that, O’Brien instantly sobered up and looked professional again, as though Alice’s comment reminded him that he was on the job.

I suppressed another smile.

“Moving on. The attack on the house?” he asked, completely serious looking again.

“They used molotov cocktails,” Lou said. “The house was starting to burn down, but Aera snuffed it out. Otherwise basically like we told you.”

“You’d said they’d visited before, too? What happened there?” O’Brien asked, his eyes alight with curiosity, even though his face was stoic professionalism.

“They tried to grab Lou,” Slick said. “Aera wouldn’t have none of that. She got mad, and ripped apart Buddy’s leg. It was real messy.”

O’Brien looked at me in surprise. I blushed.

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking down at my hands. “I know better than to use magic when I’m angry, but I couldn’t let them have Lou.”

“And what happened with his leg?” O’Brien asked.

“Oh, I healed it back to normal,” I said. “I can heal any injury, other than the brain.”

“Convenient,” he said. “That’d be why you said you left on bad terms. Did anyone stay hurt?”

“No,” I said. “Well, I let Buddy keep a bruise on his leg, because he’d insulted me.”

O’Brien covered his mouth, but I could see from his eyes that he was suppressing a smile. Lou just huffed at me, annoyed.

“So, you were the reason for the weirdness with the Cocoanut Grove, too?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “The fact was, I was a coward, and hesitated too long before acting. I could have stopped the fire before most people even realized there was a fire.”

“Not this again,” Slick said. “Aera, you saved hundreds of people. And the fire wasn’t your fault. When is that going to stick in your head?”

“But six people died,” I said, suppressing a groan of frustration. “I could have, and should have saved them, too. Do their lives mean nothing?”

“Again? Right now?” Lou asked, exasperated. “Will you two just stop?”

“I understand where Aera’s coming from,” O’Brien said, then looked over at me. “When you have the power to make a difference, failing to do so in time weighs on you. A lot of people on the force have to face that.”

Slick looked surprised, and I gazed at O’Brien openmouthed.

He understood.

The feeling of relief at having been understood almost made me feel dizzy.

“Have I been essentially caught up with what’s going on?” O’Brien asked. “Obviously there’s more details, but I’ve got the basic idea?”

“Not… quite,” Lou said. “There’s, um, an issue.”

“A big issue,” Alice said.

“A nasty issue,” Slick said.

O’Brien looked a little impatient.

“I’m being hunted by the government,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow.

“A military investigator named Lieutenant Pash,” Lou supplied. “He’s onto Aera, but doesn’t have enough evidence to move against her.”

“I see,” O’Brien said.

“Further, I have reason to believe he murdered Buddy and the teenage girl at the shop - or at least was involved,” I said.

O’Brien’s eyes narrowed sharply at that.

“I spoke to Buddy after the altercation, and healed him in exchange for answering my questions. He told me that the Mob had been paid by someone in the government to attack my home and shop,” I said.

“Considering that the only bloke from the government we’ve seen is Pash, gotta be him,” Slick said.

“More to the point,” Lou said, “He’s been bugging us, pushing for evidence. This seems to line up - like he was trying to push Aera into doing something, without directly getting his hands dirty.”

“And killing the only person who knew he was involved,” O’Brien said. “It’s a reasonable theory. That said, it’s all circumstantial. But you say both Buddy and the girl were fine when you left?”

“I didn’t check the girl,” I said. “I just saw her cowering, and she didn’t look injured. Buddy, though, was… fine. I healed everything he couldn’t heal himself, given time.”

O’Brien nodded.

“Can you describe the extent of your interactions with Lieutenant Pash, to date?” he asked.

Lou answered him, and quickly summarized our encounters, directly and otherwise, with the investigator. O’Brien looked thoughtful.

“What are your intentions from here?” he asked.

“We are out of options,” I said, raising my trembling hand. “I overexerted my strength, and cannot protect myself for a time yet. Pash has won. His next trap would take me, and possibly kill the others. I had thought the best course was to negotiate my surrender with him, but on discussing with the others, it occurred to us to seek your input first.”

“It’s a good thing you spoke to me,” he said, leaning forward and looking at me intently. “America accepts anyone who comes to our shores, and you are as welcome here as anyone else. Our laws are here to protect you. What you’ve described is harassment at best, and extremely illegal at worst, if he is behind the mob’s attack. There is no reason for you to surrender.”

“Told you so,” Lou muttered under her breath.

“But it doesn’t matter that it’s illegal,” I said, getting anxious again. “He does not care! Laws cannot hold those with power!”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Do you feel that’s true of yourself?”

“Of course,” I said. “It is not laws that hold me, nor threats of punishment. No mundane jail could ever hold me. It is only because I value morality that I can be coerced.”

He seemed vaguely displeased by this.

“Well, that may be,” he said, “But this investigator doesn’t have magic or anything else we haven’t figured out how to deal with. He’s a normal person, and our laws will hold him. He’s been harassing you, and there’s enough of a case, especially with the construction warrant, to get a restraining order placed on him.”

“But how could you know if -”

“I will take care of him, Aera,” he said, the authority in his voice compelling. “This is my city, you are a lawful resident of it, and I have both the power and authority to protect you.”

He was absolutely certain.

I sat back, dazed again.

“A restraining order, you said?” Lou asked, but her voice seemed distant.

I truly looked at Lieutenant O’Brien for the first time.

It was strange, like he’d not really been real to me, till that moment. He’d been just some random person I’d interacted with. Even with the glimpse at his soul, I’d not quite taken him seriously.

Now, though…

That ginger hair was framing a face that told a story. Faint scars told me that he’d been hit before - punched, probably, and a number of times. Lines at the corner of his eyes spoke of long nights of stress and focus. Curves faintly visible beneath the cloth of the uniform hinted at a body thick with lean muscle.

The wave of awareness that flooded me was intoxicating.

He was a very attractive individual.

And I was very lonely.

I blushed abruptly and looked away. Fortunately, O’Brien didn’t seem to notice - he was talking to Lou.

“- else you need to do,” he was saying. “I’ll be able to take care of everything from here.”

“That’s a relief,” Alice said. “So we can just go back to the way things were, before he showed up.”

“That’s right,” O’Brien said.

I frowned and leaned forward.

“No,” I said, and even before I continued, Lou groaned. “Lieutenant O’Brien, I cannot remain in hiding for the rest of my life. I feel trapped. I must come forward. Lou and Slick feel I must stay in hiding, but…”

I trailed off.

“For now, they’re right,” he said, and I sagged in my seat, dejected. “We need to keep you safe, and with everything that’s going on, that’d be hard to do if you came forward right now. There needs to be a plan in place, and that’ll take time.”

“How much time?” I asked, half grumbling.

“At least six months, upwards of a few years,” he said, and I startled. So little time? “It depends some on how much trouble Lieutenant Pash gives us, as well as how things go with the war. But you’re going to need to do some research, find out who to talk to, get a number of plans in place, and make sure there are no loose ends. That’d take at least a few months, I figure.”

“Would you be willing to help with that?” I asked.

“Yes, but keep in mind, I have a lot of work on my plate,” he said. “I can absolutely get you started, and see if I can find some good leads, but most of the legwork will be up to you. Even then, it’ll be a bit before anything can be done.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “But in the meantime… I can’t just sit here. It’s driving me mad. I can’t just sit back and do nothing. I have to do something to help.”

“What do you mean?” O’Brien asked.

“I can heal, make enchantments, all sorts of things,” I said. “It is wrong for me to just sit here and waste my time.”

“Hold on,” he said. “What’s an enchantment?”

“Oh. It’s like the necklace I made,” I said, reaching for my neck before remembering that Lou still had it. “Lou? Can you give it to him?”

She took it off and tossed it to O’Brien, who looked at it in some confusion.

“I’ve stored some magic in that,” I said, “And I gave that magic a job. Whoever wears that necklace will be protected from bullets until the magic runs out.”

“That’s useful,” he said, looking at the necklace more closely.

“Come to think of it, you should keep that,” I said. “In case Pash decides to attack you. I can make more, for the others. Just so you know, I expect it would only be able to hold off perhaps ten bullets, before it breaks. If you bring it to me after getting shot a few times, I can simply recharge it.”

“I don’t plan on getting shot,” he said, smiling wryly as he put on the necklace. “But I appreciate it, nonetheless. As far as helping others, generally, when someone wants to help people, they join the force.”

He was talking to me, but gave Lou a look as he spoke.

“Women?” Lou asked, her tone odd. “In the police force?”

“Yep,” he said.

“Wouldn’t that involve taking orders from someone in authority over me?” I asked, frowning.

He hid a smile.

“That it would,” he said. “But it’s a job about protecting and serving the people, and it’s a good way to make a difference.”

“I don’t think I could take orders for very long,” I said. “I’ve been struggling with just Lou and Slick.”

Slick gave me a look, and O’Brien managed to not quite chuckle.

“What about these?” he said, lifting the necklace. “These ‘enchantments.’ Could you make other kinds, too?”

“All sorts of kinds,” I said. “Given enough time, I could do… well, just about anything.”

“You could make these for the police,” he said. “That’d be useful.”

“It would,” I said. “But wouldn’t they have to know about my abilities?”

“Yeah,” he said. “You could work on making ‘em, and then have a bunch ready to give to the police, when it’s time.”

I frowned, and then abruptly grinned at an idea.

“But you know what I can do!” I said. “I can make things for you!”

“That’s true,” he said. “I’ll trust your judgement on that, for now. In the meantime, I think we’ve settled everything here. I’ll deal with Lieutenant Pash, and keep you up to date with any developments in that regard.”

“So, we just rest and stuff, for now,” Slick said.

“That’d be about right,” O’Brien agreed.

“How long, do you think, before I can repair the house?” I asked.

“I don’t know much about construction,” O’Brien said. “But maybe, try to fix things that are deeper inside than just the front room, and then hire a crew to fix that part up?”

“That’s a good idea,” Alice said. “They can stay with me, in the meantime.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” O’Brien said, and stood up. “It sounds like everything’s in order. I’ll take care of Pash, you lot can get your house back into shape. I’ll keep in touch, and feel free to call if there’s any issues.”

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Lou said, getting to her feet.

I looked over at her curiously. She had an unusual expression on her face - some sort of blend of intensity and timidity.

I couldn’t quite make out their conversation, but I figured it wasn’t polite to eavesdrop. Taking another nap was probably the better plan, anyway. I needed to finish recovering so I could make more enchantments.

----------

Lou paused at the door, and O’Brien seemed to realize she wanted to ask him something, as he waited patiently.

“Did you mean what you said?” she asked. “About women, as police?”

“I did,” he said. “You wouldn’t be the first woman officer, but from what I’ve heard, you’d be a good one.”

“You think so?” she asked, surprised.

He nodded. “Protecting people, even if it means getting ourselves in harm’s way, is what we do.”

She looked down at her feet for a moment, then looked up to him.

“How… how would someone go about becoming an officer?” she asked.

“There is an academy, but we’re real short of officers at the moment,” he said. “If someone puts a good word in, a person could just take a test, and if they do well, they’d get in.”

“Would you… I mean, would that be something you’d do?” she asked, uneasy.

He chuckled.

“From what I’ve heard, not just today, but the various times I’ve seen you, I’ve got quite a lot to work with, to write you up a letter,” he said.

She smiled timidly.

“What about the test?” she said. “What’s on it?”

“A physical component, basically running an obstacle course,” he said. “And a mental component. Seeing if you know the procedures, and such.”

“For the knowledge stuff, where would I find that?” Lou asked.

O’Brien smiled and said, “Tell you what. I’ll swing by in a few days with a stack of books for you to study, if you like.”

“That’d be great,” she said. “I… well, it’s appreciated. That, and that you think I can, I mean.”

“It’s my job to observe things,” he said. “And to help when it’s needed. Good luck, Ms. Williams.”

“Thanks,” Lou said, smiling sheepishly.

Her heart seemed to have some sort of odd pitter patter when he smiled back. Lou froze up and gave him a curt farewell before closing the door on him a little too quickly.

She tried to shake off that weird flushed feeling as she turned back to the sitting room. Aera was already asleep on the couch, and Alice and Slick were smiling, looking more relaxed than they had in some time.