“Come on slow pokes. Move it.” Nora was running behind Kelly and Christina to motivate them to pick the pace up some.

They were out jogging down the street first thing in the morning. Nora was whipping Christina and Kelly into shape. Christina because she was asked by Cheshire to train her and Kelly, because her girlfriend wanted to lose a few pounds. She was already in good shape, but she wanted to learn how to defend herself like Nora was teaching Christina.

Christina glances over towards Kelly “why do I get the feeling she is enjoying this?”

“Because she is such a task master.” Kelly smirks when she says that.

“I can hear you two. Just for those remarks, I’m adding on an extra quarter mile. Now move it.” Nora was enjoying watching her lover’s ass move as she jogged.

By the time they get back to the house. Kelly and Christina were exhausted. Both haven’t jogged in years. Even though Christina tried to walk as much as possible. Nora had them eat a light breakfast, because she was going to teach them some basic hand-to-hand moves. Nora demonstrates with Kelly first as she explains what she wants them to do. Then she pairs up Kelly and Christina and have them practice the move against each other. She has them repeat the move several times, correcting any flaws or mistakes she spots. She stops around noon, so
Kelly could get ready for work and so Christina could meet up with her study partners, so they could do some more work on their project. They were going to meet at the campus computer lab.

Nora drops Kelly off at work first and gives her a kiss. She’ll be back later in the evening to pick her up. She takes Christina to the school and drops her off.

“I’ll be around. Don’t worry, okay?” Nora just smiles at Christina and watches as she exists from the Mustang.

“Okay.” Christina gets out and heads towards the computer lab to meet up with her friends and work on their project.

Nora makes her way inside the building and pretended that she was a student. She blended in with the rest of the students and instructors there. She spends the day blending in and watching over Christina as she worked with her partners, finally getting the project completed. So, far nothing out of the ordinary has occurred. By the time Christina calls her and tells her she was ready to go. She had already made it out to the car and was waiting on her.

Christina comes walking out with a spring in her step. She was so happy that her and her friends had finally gotten the movie they were making done and ready to submit for grading. She spots Nora’s mustang and walks over towards it. She makes sure no one is taking aim at her or coming towards her. Nora had taught her what to look for, to protect herself.

“You look like the cat that ate the canary.” Nora watches as Christina gets in the car.

“I finally finished the movie me and my partners were working on. All the special effects, credits, editing and everything has finally been done.
All we have to do, is submit it for our final grade.” Christina puts the seat belt on as she looks over towards Nora.

“Well, I wish you all the luck in the world for your project. Where would you like to go for lunch?” Nora turns the mustang’s engine over.

“How about Kooky Canuck? They have the best burgers around town?” Christina was in the mood for a good burger.

“Bad choice. Christina, if you want to have a nice figure. You need to lay off the burgers and a lot of other junk foods you like. However, I will allow it this once.” Nora knew where the place was and drove over towards there.

Nora orders a Boston Burger with onion rings and Christina orders the bacon monster burger with onion rings as well. Christina adds a French Vanilla milkshake to her order. Nora enjoys a nice diet Pepsi.

Their server brings their drinks over and place them in front of them. Christina waits till their server leaves their table, before asking the question on her mind.

“Nora, how dangerous is this Jones person?” Christina takes a sip of her drink.

“He’s extremely dangerous. He has killed six agents and assumed their identities. He normally, targets agents that are single and don’t have any relationships with any one. He’s also an ex-Delta Force member and is CIA trained. He was one of the CIA’s trouble shooters.” Nora did some background check with a few DSS agents she knew that served overseas with her.

“So, the team that went to apprehend him, walked into a trap?” Christina saw what he had done to the two teams in the warehouse.

“Yep, from what I have been told. He knew they were coming after him and had the place rigged. He wanted them out of the picture because they cost him and the people he was working for money. Plus, they arrested the person he had been sent to bring back to Russia.” Cheshire had shared the details about the case with her.

“Does Cheshire and Jack know where he is, and can they capture him?” Christina takes another sip of her milkshake.

“If there were two people I would be afraid of, it would be the two of them. I can’t tell you much about them or what they do for a living, but what I can tell you is this. If the two of them are coming for you. That means you cross some line that you shouldn’t had cross. It’s bad enough when one of them come after you, but to have both come after you. That’s a death wish I wouldn’t want on me or my worse enemy.” Nora knew how dangerous Cheshire was.

She had wonder why she had been assigned to the woman when she was a Senator’s wife. Most of the old timers in the DSS knew Cheshire from her days as a CIA black-ops agent. When she first met her, she could tell she wasn’t what she appeared to be. She couldn’t believe Cheshire’s actual name was Cheshire. She always thought the name was a code name or nickname. Until, she learned that it was her real name.

She knew Cheshire went by another name because she was an author and an expert on big cats. Her other name was well known and respected in the academic field. There were very few professors that taught zoology that did know her or used her research to teach their students. She has gone to colleges to give lectures and to show off her Liger.

“Do you think it will take her and Mr. Bounty long to capture Mr. Jones?”

“Nope, it shouldn’t take them long to hunt him down. It’s what they are good at.” Nora knew they were close to capturing him.

Cheshire had a few contacts here in Memphis that knew approximately where he was hiding. It still amazed her how connected Jack and
Cheshire were. It seemed that they had people in every part of the country. She knew they had an extensive network of people and suppliers.

Their meals finally arrive as they sit and eat in quiet. As they are eating and looking out the window of the place. They see a long copper hair kid run by being chased by a group of burly teenage boys.

“Excuse me Christina.” Nora gets up from the table and step outside.

As she is looking around, she hears a bunch of kids chanting.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” It was coming from just down the street in an abandon parking lot.

Nora walks down to where the kids were fighting. She noticed the long copper hair girl had blood coming from her nose, but one of the burly guys that chased after her. He was on the ground holding his crotch and moaning. Another one laid nearby and he looked like he had a broken leg. There was another guy standing in front of the girl trying to punch her. While another one was trying to circle behind the girl to grab her.
She kept moving to keep the guy from getting behind her.

The guy in front of her charged towards her, while the one that has been trying to get behind her. He manages to grab her and wrap his arms around her. The one that charged her, he punches her in the stomach. Nora could tell that it had hurt her.

The girl brings her leg up and kicks the guy in front of her in the groin. She plants her feet and flips the guy holding her into the guy she just kicked. She follows up by punching the guy that held her in the face. The young girl looks up and at everyone watching her.

“Do any of you jerks have a problem with me being a t-girl?” The copper hair girl looks at all the teenagers gather around her.

Now that Nora could get a better look at her. She could tell the girl had bruises going around her neck and a black eye. She had bruising on her arms. The shirt she had on was thorn and the knees of her jeans were torn.

“Alright, fights over. All you kids go home.” She pulls her cell out and call for the paramedics and the police.

When the police show up, one of them recognize the girl.

“Fighting again, Ginger?” Officer Green notices his son had a broken leg.

“They started it. I was only defending myself.” Ginger looks at Officer Green and knew he was going to arrest her, like he did last time.

He walks over to put handcuffs on Ginger. He pulls his cuffs out and was about to slap them on Ginger.

“I would stop, before you make a fool of yourself Officer. She fought back in self-defense. I saw it.” Nora stood near Ginger.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s a known trouble maker and her foster parents said she stole from them.” He went to slap the cuffs on Ginger.

“They’re lying. My mother gave me that necklace before she died.” Ginger moves her arm out of the way.

Officer Green went to grab her again, but was grabbed by Nora instead.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” Nora had a good grip on his wrist.

“You better let me go, before I charge you with interfering with a police officer and assault fo a police officer.” Green looks directly at Nora.

“You mean you’ll try to charge me. I have friends on the Memphis police department, Officer Green. Once I tell them what you did. I don’t think you’ll be an officer much longer.” Nora had friends in high places on the Memphis police force.

She helped the police department out a few times when she was in the states. They also knew she was a DSS officer. She just looks at him
with her serious face on.

“Your lucky you freak. Get out of here.” Officer Green put his handcuffs away.

Nora just gives the Police Officer a dirty look and make sure she remembers his badge number. She holds her hand out to Ginger.

“Let’s get your nose looked at, Ginger.”

Ginger takes the woman’s hand and walks with her over to the paramedics. Her nose wasn’t too bad. Once the paramedics were done checking her over.

“Why don’t you come with me.” Nora looks down at Ginger.

Ginger looks up at the black hair lady “thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Nora takes Ginger back to the restaurant where Christina was waiting for her.

“Looks like you have a new friend.” Christina smiles at Ginger.

She could tell the poor girl had been beaten a few times from all the bruises on her.

“Ginger, this is my friend Christina.”

“Nice to meet you Ginger.” Christina holds her hand out.

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” Ginger shakes Christina’s hand.

“Are you hungry?” Nora had a feeling that Ginger didn’t get feed on a regular basis.

“Yes ma’am.” She was wondering who this woman was and why she was helping her.

Nora flags their waitress down and ask her for a menu.

“Order whatever you want, Ginger.” A smile appears on Nora’s face.

Ginger looks at the menu. She orders a nice ¾ pound Texas burger, onion rings and a nice chocolate milkshake with whip cream. She hands the waitress the menu back.

“Thank you?” Ginger had a puzzled look on her face.

“Nora Midnight and your welcome, Ginger. Now, why don’t you tell me why those boys were chasing you and why Officer Green doesn’t like you?” Nora had forgotten to tell Ginger her name.

“It’s because I reported them to the principal for bullying some kids in school. Our school doesn’t allow bullying. They got kicked off the football team because of me reporting them. So, him and his friends have been making my life hard while at school. The coach is my gym teacher and he has been rough on me. My foster parents are friends with the parents of the boys I got kicked off the football team. They accused me of stealing their things, which they took a necklace that was given to me by my mother before she died. So, I stole it back and hid it form them. My foster parents hate the fact I refuse to dress and act as a boy.” Tears were starting to leak from Ginger’s eyes. She wipes them away.

“Do you know who your case worker is?” Nora takes a pad out from her purse.

“Yes ma’am.” Ginger gives her the information.

Ginger’s food arrives and as she is sitting there eating. Her foster mother comes storming in and grabs her by the hair. She pulls Ginger out of the chair and causes her to fall to the floor.

“Begging for food again, you little brat.” Heather couldn’t believe what Officer Green had told her that her foster child had said and did.

“Take your hand off that child.” Christina stood up and got right in the face of the woman.

Nora slowly got up and walked around to where Christina and Ginger was.

“Back down Christina. I’ll handle this.” Nora helps Ginger up off the floor and mover her behind her.

“Now, why don’t we act like reasonable adults here. My name is Nora Midnight and I take it that you are Ginger’s foster mother?” Nora was looking at the woman.

She had her professional look on her face. She was also ready to protect Ginger as well. She kept Ginger safely behind her.

Heather looks at the woman standing in front of her. She was protecting her good for nothing foster child behind her.

“Yes, I’m that brat’s foster mother and I don’t know what lies he has been telling you.” Heather wasn’t going to let that brat get away with whatever he did.

“Actually, she hasn’t been telling me anything. We were having a nice lunch, before you came in here. Now, do you mind telling me why you felt it was necessary to grab her by her hair?” Nora kept her eyes on the woman.

“That brat isn’t a she, it’s a he and he is my foster child. I can treat him any way I like.” Heather was fuming.

“Actually, you can’t treat her any way you like. Now, why don’t you tell me why you came in acting the way you did?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything. That’s my foster child and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Heather was starting to get pissed at this woman.

Christina had pulled Ginger near her. She was going to make sure Ginger was protected. Her parents may not like her decision to become a girl, but they never acted like this woman.

“Actually, you do if I am going to allow Ginger to go with you. If you don’t I’m going to call the police, and have you arrested for child abuse.” Nora had her friend on speed dial.

Heather knew she couldn’t afford to have the police investigate her again. She looks over towards Ginger. She notices he was being protected by the girl who got in her face.

“Why don’t you keep the stupid brat then.” Heather looks over towards Ginger.

“Don’t come back to the house you brat. I’m going to throw your things in the trash.” She turns around about to leave.

“Actually, your going to pack her things up and have it ready for me to pick-up. If I found any of her things in the trash or littering the lawn. I am going to press charges for child abuse, child neglect and first-degree assault. You have one hour to have it done.” Nora gives her a sweet smile.

Heather just turns and storms out of the restaurant.

Nora follows behind her till she gets outside. She watches as she walks towards her car and drive off. She takes a snap shot of the license plate and heads back inside the restaurant. She spots her waitress.

“Can I have a replacement order please?”

“Yes ma’am.” The waitress just smiles at her and place the same order for Ginger again.

Nora walks over and helps clean the mess up on the floor from Ginger being manhandled. She places the mess she picks up off the floor on their dirty plates. She stands up and looks at Ginger.

“Please sit down, Ginger. I have a replacement lunch coming for you.” Nora sits down in the chair Ginger had been sitting in.

“Yes, ma’am and Thank you.” Ginger sits down in the chair Nora had been sitting in and rubs the spot where her hair had been pulled.

After a few minutes, her replacement order shows up and slices of pie are given to all of them, compliments of the manager. She clears the dirty dishes away.

When Ginger is done with her lunch. They head over towards the house to pick-up her things.

“Christina, stay here with Ginger. Keep the door lock and your phone ready.” Nora checks her gun as she locks her door and walk towards the house to retrieve to Gingers stuff.

She walks up to the door and knocks gently.

“Who is it?” Heather had gotten the last of the brat’s stuff downstairs and packed.

She had tried to call Officer Green to come over and help her, but he was unavailable. Her husband wouldn’t be home for another few hours. She was sick of that dam kid and she didn’t know who that woman was that interfered. She was startled when she heard the knock on the door.

“Nora Midnight. I’m here to pick-up Ginger’s belongings.” Nora stood back and a little to the right.

Heather walks over and opens the door.

“Here’s all his stuff.” Heather aside to show three trash bags.

“If you’ll bring them outside please.” Nora noticed the bags.

Heather goes and grabs all the bags and leave them at Nora’s feet.

“There! I hope the brat dies.” Heather slams the door afterwards.

Nora just shakes her head as she carries the bags to her car and pop the trunk and put them inside. Once they were carefully stowed away.
She gets in the driver seat and heads back towards her house. She makes a mental note to call Ginger's case worker later.