Jane quickly ducked inside the shelter offered by the pawn shop and closed the double doors behind her. She unlocked the staff bathroom's door, dropped her soaked jacket on the door's coat hanger, and looked in the mirror. Her blonde hair had been turned brown by the rain, and she looked a lot like the winner of a wet T-shirt contest...

"Jane? That you? Ugh, what is that smell? Are you boiling cabbage in there?"

"Yeah, Mon, it's me. I don't know what it is, it comes from outside..."

Monica poked her head inside. Her ice-blue eyes quickly scanned Jane's statuary figure: "What happened to you? Did you fall in a pool or something?"

Jane sighed: "It started pouring rain all of a sudden... I was, like, on the other side of the street, and I'm soaked!"

Monica looked at her: "Hey, we can put you on display, get some more customers."

Jane glared at her workmate: "That's so funny."

"Yeah, well, now maybe you'll start wearing bras."

"Envy rears its ugly head again..." Jane grinned: "Do not worry, little one, you are perfect just the way you are."

"Why don't you go f..." Monica's reply was interrupted by a knock on the door. More precisely, by someone insistently banging on the door.

"You gotta pull it, you moron." She breathed. Then, in her upbeat "how may we help you" tone: "I'm coming!"

More banging. "Gee, keep your pants on, I said I'm coming! J., come help me when you don't look like a cheap stripper anymore."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:06, Wed 27 Aug 2008.

"You need to pull, sir." Monica told the large guy on the other side of the heavy glass double doors. "Like it's written right above the handle. See?"

She pushed the door and the man stumbled inside, bringing along a gust of the cabbage-smelling air from outside.

"Are you alright?" She didn't really care, but having a guy die in your shop is not the best way to begin the day.

"*COUGH* *COUGH* I'm looking for *COUGH* *COUGH* Little Mickey." He replied.

Monica sighed: "That would be me."

The guy stared at her - for a moment, before another fit of cough hit him.

When that passed, he continued: "You are... Little Mickey D'Angelo?"

Monica sighed again: "I'm the only Micky D'Angelo you are ever gonna find here, Mister. How may I help you?"

The guy considered her for a long moment, then apparently made a decision: "Carlito says you have something for me."

The girl's eyes hardened: "I already told Carlos that we don't deal with that stuff anymore. Please leave."

"What?! *COUGH* *COUGH* No way, missy I- *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* I need my shit, and I need it now! *COUGH* *COUGH*... Hey! Don't you walk away from me!" He tried to grab her shoulder but, with a powerful Judo throw, the tiny brunette sent him flying against a cupboard - breaking its delicate glass doors in the process.

"What the..." Jane rushed out of the staff bathroom, saw the man lying on the floor and looked at Monica: "Not again!"

"He attacked me." Monica replied indifferently. "I'm gonna call the police. You make yourself presentable, I don't want them to get any strange ideas on what we do here."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:35, Wed 27 Aug 2008.

Tapping her foot impatiently, Monica kept waiting for the recorded voice to yield to a human being, but apparently every single cop in town had taken the day off.

Every now and then, she threw a look at her guest, who was "resting peacefully" on the floor.

Eventually, she ran out of patience and hung up, dialing a different number.

"Buongiorno Eddie baby..." She smiled when she heard the voice at the other end.

...

"I'm peachy, but I just tried to call you guys for like half an hour" - more like ten minutes, but who was counting? - "and it looks like everyone's on leave."

...

"What do you mean 'disturbances'? I'm a civilian sweetie, speak English with me."

...

"Really? Here too... There's a guy lying on my floor, he came in looking like trash and then tried to attack me. No, I'm fine, don't worry, just... Can you send some of the toys to bake him away?"

...

"Yes, that is my favorite Simpsons line, and I will use it any chance I get, so sue me."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Wed 03 Sept 2008.

Smiling, Monica hung up the phone: Eddie was a good friend, and a reliable guy in a world where those two words rarely went together.

There had even been a time when they had tried to be something more: that hadn't worked out so well, but somehow their friendship had come out of it stronger - a blessing neither one fully understood, but one they were both grateful for.

Monica threw a look at the unconscious guy on her floor, and almost went behind the bench to get the store's gun, but then decided it wasn't really necessary: he wasn't going anywhere, and he really was in no condition to take her on.

Thinking of the gun brought back memories of the first time she'd met Eddie at the shooting range...

---

Cursing under her breath, Monica examined the target in front of her: most of her shots had missed the paper square entirely, and only one was anywhere near decent.

She put a new target on, waited for it to get to the right distance, and aimed her .22 again.

"It's not like in the movies, you know?"

She turned around and almost aimed her gun square at guy behind her, but with a smooth movement he intercepted her arm and pushed it down so that the weapon pointed at the floor: "Woah! Easy, Calamity Jane, we don't want any accidents here."

Monica was about to retort in her usual, "sweet" way, but...

She had been single for months, and this guy was tall, handsome, and had a really nice smile. Plus, she had to admit, he had a point: you should't aim your gun at someone unless you really intend to shoot him.

All that considered, she just smiled back and replied: "Didn't they tell you not to startle an armed girl?" .

"You know, now that I think about it, they probably mentioned something like that, yeah. "

"Well, you should've paid more attention! Now, what were you saying about movies?"

"Just one thing: forget them. You don't wave your gun at random hoping the bullets will magically hit the bad guy: you hold it with both hands, and aim with care. Remember: the bullet doesn't go where you are looking, it goes where you are pointing the gun. Here, let me show you..."

He gently nudged her to turn around, and helped her aim. When Monica fired, all the bullets actually hit the target, most of them nicely grouped around the center.

"Well, I'll be damned... You weren't just blowing hot air after all."

The guy laughed: "Well, thanks! By the way, my name's Edoardo Caruso, my friends call me Eddie."

Monica blinked once then chuckled: "Beh, piacere di conoscerti, Eddie... Monica D'Angelo."

Eddie smiled apologetically: "Uh... I don't really speak Italian..."

Wide-eyed, Monica could only reply: "Are you kidding me? Your name's Edoardo Caruso and you don't speak any Italian? At all?"

He shrugged: "It was my grandfather's name... He died when I was a kid, I never really had the chance to learn any Italian."

Monica shook her head: "I'll tell you what, Eddie Caruso: you teach me how to shoot with a gun that's actually useful," - she looked meaningfully at his .45 cal. - "and I'll teach you the language of your forefathers. Deal?"

He sized her up for a moment, then nodded: "Deal."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:34, Wed 03 Sept 2008.

  Meanwhile, six blocks from Monica's diner, Hector was in his his squad car just finishing
a report on a robbery.

Time was the crack-heads just tried to cut you, not try and rip your throat out with their teeth! I swear, it's starting to feel like home around here.

BZZZ, BZZZZ

"This is car 7075, officer Hector DeSanto, responding."

.......... .......... ..........

"Eddy, is that you? You working dispatch now?"

...............  ......... ............  ..........  ........  .......

"Oh great, she threw another pinch-ass 'cross the room! Need me to clean up one of your girlfriend's little messes then?"

...... ..... ...............

"Oh she's not, aye? Well I'll be there in a minute, I could drop that on her if you want-"

........ ......... ........... ............!!!!

"Oh calm down, I'm just playing with you! I'd watch it though, she's got the eye out for yeah!"

........... ......... ......... .......... .......... ...........

"Nah I'm just messing about, I don't really mind. I've got the whole 'she'll drop the sexual harassment if you drop the the assault charge' argument down to a science now anyway. You owe though."

He the hangs up, rolls down his window, and calls out to his partner:

"Hey Geoff, quit bothering her for her digits and get in! We've got another call!"

"OK, Hector," Geoff replied and got back into the patrol car, "what we got?"

Still trying to restore what, not a half-hour earlier, had been a reasonably expensive hairdo, Jane looked at Monica: "So... Is Eddy coming?"

Monica glanced back at her: "No, Eddie is not coming, Eddie's busy. He's sending some of the boys." Then she turned around to look at her friend: "Is that my sweater?"

"Back off, 'kay? My clothes are soaked, and you are not using this anyway. Hey, d'you think he sent Hector?"

Monica sighed: "Maybe... Jane, do you really have to jump in the pants of every man that darkens our threshold?"

Jane raised an eyebrow: "Like you haven't been thinking about him too... I'm not the one who calls him bel cioccolatino."

Monica blushed slightly: "I said, bel 'chico latino', and it was all that stupid song's fault!"

"Tomayto, tomahto... I think that's them." A police cruiser had just stopped outside the shop.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:53, Sat 06 Sept 2008.

"Ah just another 'Monica Situation,'" Hector says, pulling the car into the diner's parking lot, "You know the drill: we sober the perv up, I convince everyone to keep the big bad lawyers out of it, while you keep that Jane from getting too.......handsy on me." A nervous look briefly enters Hector's eyes, like a deer being hunted. "We then print out and have them all sign enough 'waver' forms to fill a good sized barn, make sure the pervy one goes on his way, and hopefully call it a day. We've done this enough times, I mean what could possibly go wrong?" finishes Hector, getting out of the car; not realizing what terrible machinations of fate he may have set into motion with that most dangerous of saying he dared to utter....
This message was last edited by the player at 08:23, Mon 08 Sept 2008.