Just a Cop

I wasn't drunk enough. There was only two of Bill instead of the twelve I wanted. I could probably still drive like this, though I wasn't going to. The bartender had already taken my keys. Maybe just a few more and I'll be out cold.

Bill was no help. He was my landlord, the guy I paid to keep living in my apartment with my fa... With my daughter. I forgot. I don't really have much family anymore, since my wife left and took our youngest with her. Thanks Melissa. I can't even get drunk without thinking about you.

Anyway, Bill was no help. "You're sure she didn't rent a new apartment from you?" I asked, slugging back another one. Finally, there were six of him. Just a few more...

He sighed. "No, Hank, she didn't rent from me." He called me 'Hank'. Everybody's been calling me 'Hank'. They think it makes them sound sympathetic. The only two who've actually been sympathetic are Charlie and Holly. Neither one of them calls me 'Hank'. Hell, Charlie's my daughter, it'd be weird if she called me 'Hank'. "Hey, pal, you should go home. Bet your kid's been out of her mind with worry." He pointed to my phone, laying on the table. "She's called about a half dozen times."

I shook my head. "Charlie's got other things to worry about," I slurred out. I'm pretty sure Charlie came out as Sharsheeve.

He patted me on the back. "Then maybe she just wants a ride home from whatever dive she's gettin' drunk at."

I sighed. Only eight of him, still not quite there. I knew Charlie had taken up drinking, too, and it depressed me. My super hero daughter, somebody the city counts on just as much as me, and she was drunk half the time. She'd even dropped out of school. She was taking her mother's absence harder than I was because she thought it was her fault that Melissa left. I'd tried to console her, but what help is a father who's drunk more often than not?

He tilted his head to look me in the eyes. "You okay, Hank? I was just jokin', y'know?"

I shook my head. "No, you weren't. You just didn't know you weren't."

***

Tim helped her up, then firemans carried her to the taxi cab that was waiting outside. "How did you get them to let you in there?" he asked.

She drunkenly chuckled. "You'd be sur - " she belched, loudly "surprised how many bars let you inside when you pretend the lady in the restroom is your mom..." She laughed again. "It would be an improvement over what I've got now!" she shouted, nearly blowing his ear out. He told the cab driver the address and then paid. He already knew how much it would cost, since it was the third time in the last week that he'd had to take Charlie home from one bar or another, and they all seemed to be the same distance away. "Say... what're you doin' here? I called my dad like... a gagillion times."

He sighed. "Your dad's getting a ride home from your landlord."

She laughed again. "Great! Daddy's dru - " another belch, "drunk, too..." She turned to him. "I really screwed this up, didn't I?"

He didn't answer her, he just patted her on the back of the head and held onto her.

I don't know how to answer her. I don't know what to say. I don't know anything. I just know what I should do, and that's hold her. I'm one of the few people she's got.

When the cab came to a stop, the driver - who Tim noticed was the same driver that had carted him around to all the other bars to get Charlie back home that whole week - handed him back the cash he'd paid for the ride. "Get her cleaned up," he said. "She needs it, bad." Tim just nodded, and helped Charlie upstairs to her apartment.

He had to admit, it wasn't as dirty as he thought it would be, a week after the only two remaining members of the family turned into obnoxious drunks. He helped Charlie down onto her bed and sat down in the chair beside it. What do I do, Charlie? What do you want me to do?

Almost as if she was reading his mind, she said, "Go home, Tim."

"Not if you need help."

She propped herself up with her elbows. "What I need is to go to sleep and wake up with a killer hangover tomorrow morning, then go to work." She fell back down and rubbed at her eyes. "If I just went to work all the time, I wouldn't have time to get drunk."

He inwardly laughed. She sounded more coherent than he'd expected. He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, but she pushed him away. "Please, you smell... not drunk. I don't want your mom thinking you went out drinking tonight."

He smiled.

***

I didn't let Bill take me home. I had him take me to the precinct, where I pulled the exact same thing Charlie did over a week ago, and I went to sleep on my desk. I had to hand it to her, that thing wasn't as comfortable as it looked, and it didn't look comfortable. When I woke up, my headache was about a thousand times worse than it would have been if I'd slept in my bed, and there was Holly, ready to hand me a cup of coffee.

I gladly took the offered cup and let the nice decaffinated glory of bad office coffee fill me up and wash away my hangover. Sadly, it didn't work right away. I almost coughed out, "What's the first thing today?"

She shook her head. "First thing for you is to get a shower. Most cops don't want their captain smelling like beer and cigarettes. Especially when he doesn't even smoke."

I shook my head. "No. I want the reminder. If I don't smell like this every day, I fool myself into thinking I'll see Melissa when I get home. All I ever find is Charlie passed out either on her bed or on the floor."

Holly sat down on one of the chairs across the desk from me. "How's she doing, anyway?"

"Like shit, how else? Last night was the third night in a row that I had to call her boyfriend to pick her up from another bar. I'd be worried about him raping her if I didn't already know the kid's as harmless as a dead rat in a very small cage." I scratched at my armpit, where I felt a great deal of sweat. "Okay, maybe a quick shower and a change of clothes."

After I was done, I walked back into my office and saw Anna Adamsen sitting in front of my desk. I sat down behind my desk, shuffled a few papers and set them off to the side, and then finally asked, "How can I help you, Ms. Adamsen?"

She sighed. "Talk to your daughter."

I leaned back in my chair. "I'm sorry. This whole mother abandoning her thing is hitting her pretty hard."

"I know. She's missed work twice, and when she did come in, she was either hungover or just outright drunk." She leaned forward. "Charlie's been like a kid sister to everyone since she started, I haven't met one person at the Brigade that doesn't like her, save maybe for the guy who refills the vending machines in the sixth floor break room, because she has a habit of buying all the Snickers bars. She's the Brigade's star photographer, and..." She quickly got up, shut the door, then sat back down. "And the only super hero I know personally."

I fell forward instantly. "What are you talking about?"

She sighed. "My photographer's always mysteriously missing whenever Arachnya shows up. It's not all that hard to figure out when you put the pieces together. Plus, there was that whole deal with those HARP nuts last week, when she was supposedly cowering in a corner. I didn't tell her that I saw her sneak away and slip into her costume. She should really find a better way to hide it, too. Just covering it up with her street clothes isn't the best way to keep a secret, especially when you fall asleep at your desk a few times a week."

I sighed. "I'm glad you shut the door before you said anything. I'm going to assume you can keep a secret?"

She smiled. "Just because I believe in the First Amendment doesn't mean I'm just going to go outing one of my personal favorites just because I know who she is. She's a brave kid for taking on what she has at fifteen years old."

I nodded. "I know. She's just taking this whole thing hard, harder than me, actually. But she's a lot stronger than I am, too. I can't even face my own apartment door, and she goes back there to sleep every night."

Anna shook her head. "Not every night. There have been nights I found her at the Brigade."

I sighed. "I'll talk to her. Maybe she'll actually listen."

***

Keith Cabot looked at the girl and wondered if there had been any change in her situation. She looked like she'd been drug through the mud a few dozen times and then sprayed with a garden hose. She was barely even paying attention to what she was taking photos of. He felt sorry for her.

She took a picture of something that he wasn't paying much attention to. When he saw the screen on her camera, it just looked like a dozen people walking across the street. "You feeling okay, Charlie?" he asked.

She sighed. "Yeah, I'm just... Bad hangover."

He raised an eyebrow. "Where do you get the alcohol, anyway?"

She shrugged. "Any bar'll let you in if you claim that your mother's puking in the restroom. I just find creative ways to sneak drinks." She sat down on the nearest bench. "I just wish the part I tell about my mom being in the bar was true."

He sat down beside her. "My father died when I was young. He kept a liqour cabinet in his office, so I didn't need to lie to get into any bars or anything. My mother came into that office one day and found me on the floor, drunk out of my mind, and didn't say a word. She didn't talk to me for days, until I'd sobered up." He sighed. "That was the last time I ever took a drink."

He looked down at her. "Sorry, Mr. Cabot, if this story was supposed to make me stop drinking, the ball landed way south of the goal, because I'm still depressed enough to head to a bar right after work."

He frowned. "How's your dad?"

She pulled out her phone. "You wanna call him? Ten to one he's at a bar right now."

A voice from off to the side said, "No, actually, I'm not." Keith looked in the direction of the voice and saw Captain Harkins walking up to them. "Mr. Cabot, can I speak to my daughter alone, please?"

***

Cabot got up from the bench, nodded to me, then wandered off somewhere. I wasn't paying much attention. I sat down next to Charlie and contemplated putting my arm around her, but I knew that wasn't what she needed.

Or, well, I thought that wasn't what she needed. She instantly leaned against me and put her arm around mine. I didn't know what to say. I simply sat there with her, letting my daughter cry against my sleeve (great, again I need to wash this shirt). I couldn't bring myself to actually ruin the closest thing to an important moment we've had in the last week.

Well, at least until she stood up and started to walk away. "Stop, Charlie," I said, not loudly, not forcefully. I just said it calmly. That seemed to get her, because she looked at me, tears in her eyes, and then sat down beside me again and I put my arm around her. "I know what you're going through, honey." I sighed. "It's been tough." I made sure no one was in earshot. "You should put your costume back on and do what you do, otherwise, you'll just drink yourself to death."

She moved closer to me. "Why'd she have to go, Dad? We haven't even been getting along all that well, but I didn't want her to leave."

I rubbed her shoulder. "I dunno, kiddo. Maybe she just couldn't take it anymore." I thought tried to find more words. "Maybe she was tired of seeing her husband and her firstborn gone all the time. Maybe... Maybe I don't know why she left, but we need to get past that, baby. We need to. Both of us."

She shook her head, then looked up at me. "I don't know if I can, Dad..."

I smiled at her. "I know you can. You can, if you just put that costume back on, swing around town, and help people. If you do it, then I can do it. You know why?" She shook her head. I smiled again. "Because you're my inspiration, Charlie. You're the reason I can keep putting that badge on and doing my job." I sighed. "Ever since all you heroes started popping up, I've been wondering what cops like me are still around for. I know Timmy didn't mean anything when he said what he said last week, but the truth is, he was probably right. Cops are useless when it comes to people like that GoldenEye guy, or those Avenger robots." I hugged her closer. "We need heroes like you, babe, because we're screwed without 'em. I'm just a cop."

She shook her head again. "No, you're not. You're my dad, you're my hero."

I smiled at her. "Thanks, Charlie." I laughed. "Look, baby, we both need to quit the drinking crap. I'm not going to another bar so long as I live, and I don't want to see you in another one until you're over the age of sixty-two."

She smiled, then pushed up against me. "Thanks, Daddy." I loved hearing her say that.

***

ONE WEEK LATER:

I was drinking my eighth cup of coffee when I heard a tap at my window. I turned in my chair and saw Charlie sticking to the side of the building, a giant tear in her costume along her left side. I tapped the call button on my intercom. "Holly, can you come in here, please?" Then I got up, walked over to the window, opened it up and let my daughter inside.

I carried her over to the desk and motioned for Holly to shut the door. "What was it this time?" she asked.

"Crappy special effects," Charlie answered. "That movie they're still making about me, even though more than half of it is just footage of me saving their asses - "

I lightly smacked her on the head. "Language, kiddo."

"Sorry. Even though half of it is footage of me saving their butts - " I could just imagine she was sticking her tongue out at me from under the mask. " - they still need to film more crap with actors, and as I was swinging by, some fireworks that they were using for explosives hit me. I had a really big, really expletive-filled conversation with Mr. Cameron about how he shouldn't be setting off fireworks in city streets when random super heroes are swinging by!" She yelped when Holly pulled up the torso section of her costume. "Hey! It's a really bad burn!"

Holly giggled. "Quit whining about it, and I'll buy you ice cream later."

I smiled. Holly and Charlie were really starting to make a connection now. Charlie trying to find a new maternal figure in her life, I guess. She needed one, since I wasn't much of a father figure. Granted, how does a guy raise a super hero? Especially when he's out stopping muggers, car thieves, bank robbers, drug dealers and stupidly named gangs when she's out stopping robots, uber-criminals and stupidly named anti-super hero organizations.

This was probably a good thing for Holly, too. She seemed to be missing her niece more and more, and the chance to play surrogate mother to another super hero was likely something she really needed. I'm not gonna lie, those two were helping me a lot, too.

My intercom buzzed, and Butters' voice said, "Captain, there's someone in Holding B who wants to talk to you. I don't know why."

I sighed, pressed the button. "Alright. I'll be there in a few moments." I turned to the adult policewoman and teenage super hero and said. "I'll be back. You two girl-talk for a little while, but then you - " I pointed to Charlie. " - get back to swinging around. If anybody hears you two talking for too long, they'll probably just open the door and it'd be pretty damn awkward if they saw the detective lieutenant talking to the spider-powered super girl."

***

Holly flashed Captain Harkins a smile and then turned back to Charlie. "So, how's things going with that boyfriend of yours?"

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, kid, I asked about that, deal with it. She finally answered, "He's mainly just happy that he doesn't have to drag me out of bars anymore. Our relationship hasn't really changed much. He's a great guy, I just... I dunno... I feel so awkward around him. Probably because I still haven't told him about, well, this," she said, motioning to her costume. She sighed. "And I don't know why, either. He loves Arachnya, and reads every story the Brigade prints about me, but I just can't let him know, for some reason."

Holly patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, hon, your web-swinging, bad guy beating lifestyle isn't for everyone, and there are some people who just don't like it if it's too close to home. Monica considered leaving town after the first few TVs she blew up, just so she didn't accidentally hurt me."

"How's she doing, anyway? I haven't seen much on the news about their little team of X-Men since they blew up that factory and captured those three super idiots."

"She calls from time to time. Most of their day consists of classes and then powers training. Then there's those little dates she has with Colin. We rarely ever talk about when she used to be Jose, it's almost like she's forgotten. Maybe that's for the best."

Charlie shrugged. "I dunno. It helps me when I forget I used to be a boy, but only because I've got to keep my 'life story' straight whenever somebody at work asks me about it."

Holly sighed. "I wonder what possessed those weird things to change your genders in the first place."

"I don't think about it much anymore. Honestly, I probably wouldn't change back if I could. I really, really like Timmy."

Holly just smiled.

***

I walked into Holding B and found four men wearing black suits. Four flanked the door - two in the room, two in the hall - while the fifth sat at the table in the center of the room, smoking a cigarette. He motioned for me to sit down in the chair across the table from him. I was in my own police precinct, surrounded by officers I trusted, and yet I felt worried, almost frightened.

Not showing any of this (I've been told I have the best poker face imaginable), I calmly walked in and sat down across from the cigarette smoking man and waited for him to finish going through whatever paperwork he was doing. About ten minutes later, he finally clicked his pen in, set it down, and looked up at me. "Thank you, Captain Harkins." He nodded at one of the men flanking the door and then the door was closed. Great. "First of all, I'd like to thank you for apprehending the HARP terrorists a few weeks ago."

I leaned back in my seat. "That was Arachnya. You'd know that if you read the papers."

He reached into something on his side of the table, then pulled out a file folder and set it in front of me. "Read it," he said. I was almost certain I knew what it was, but this guy had a very commanding tone to his voice. I fliped open the folder and saw exactly what I knew it was: a file on Charlie. "If you think we don't know everything about your daughter and her secret life, you're fooling yourself into thinking you're the most powerful man in the room." He pulled the folder away and stuffed it back where ever it had been. "I'm here to talk to you about your daughter."

I smiled. "Are you with SHIELD?"

He smiled back. Now I was frightened. "That's comic books, Captain Harkins."

I sighed. "Can you blame me? There's guys in costumes flying around, swinging around, shooting lightning bolts out of their hands, blowing up buildings by looking at them, teleporting, causing people to see their worst fears... That's not comic books?"

He chuckled. "It's quite obviously real life now. And it's on almost every doorstep, every morning. You read the papers, you watch TV, you pick up a magazine: Chosen, everywhere. As such, the President deemed it a necessary action to create a sort of... back-up plan for them." He took another puff of his cigarette, which didn't seem to have shrunk the entire time we were in the room, and it wasn't an e-cig. "So, tell me about your daughter."

I leaned back further, propped my feet up on the table. "What can I tell you that you don't already know? You've probably got a whole damn page in there about her alcoholism."

The man nodded. "Indeed, we do. But that's not what I'm here about."

I leaned forward. "Then what are you here for? All Charlie's done since this happened is good, she's taken down crooks, thieves, super criminals... She's done her best to - "

He cut me off. "Are you aware that she still occasionally slips off to the bars?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you know about it?"

"It's nothing serious. She simply drops in every now and again and has a single drink."

I wasn't surprised. I've smelled it on her before. I was hoping that she had just forgotten to wash her costume in the last week. She never seemed too impaired, so I just let it go, figured she still had some things to work out. I was going to talk to her about it, some time. Maybe tonight would be the night.

Still, I didn't like that this guy I've never met knew so much about my daughter. "How long have you been watching her?"

He stamped out his cigarette in the ashtray and then lit another one. Chain-smoker, apparently. "My organization has been watching your daughter and many other Chosen since the Event. It probably should come as no surprise that Chosen are still popping up even seven weeks later, am I correct?"

I nodded.

"Good."

"Now, tell me what it is you're really here for. All you've done is say you want to talk to me about Charlie, but all you tell me are things I already know, what the hell do you want?"

He leaned back in his seat. "I'm here to let you know that your daughter is on watch."

I pointed at the file folder on the table. "The fact that this is about as thick as a twenty-seven year old photo album in my living room tells me that she's on watch. What the hell did you need to say it for?"

He pulled out another file folder. "This is a file on your daughter's first meeting with Gustav Hammond. She's done an admirable job intriguing Mr. Hammond." He slid the file over to me.

"I knew that. All you're doing is proving that I'm a damn good father, considering you've told my nothing about my daughter that I didn't already know."

He smiled. "Then I can see this meeting is over." He stood, picked up his files and his briefcase, and walked to the door. "Thank you for your time, Captain." His men opened the door, then the three of them joined the two that were still outside the door. "Good day."

I stood up and adjusted my suit jacket a little, then noticed the paper on the floor. I picked it up and saw that it was a picture of someone wearing an Arachnya costume that clearly wasn't Charlie (she's not small when it comes to the boobs department, but this lady was mighty damn big, could put most porn actresses to shame, I'll tell ya), webbing up some people outside a gas station.

Oh crap...

***

Tim yawned, then Charlie yawned, then Ms. Adamsen yawned, and Tim wanted to hit himself for making everybody yawn. Only Mr. Cabot wasn't yawning, but, then again, he was actually asleep.

Tim clicked through all the pictures he had saved to his hard drive and found the one he was looking for. "See?" he said to Charlie and Ms. Adamsen. "This is the one I took outside that Shell station over on forty-third, just a couple hours ago."

Charlie and Ms. Adamsen both leaned in. "That looks like Arachnya," Charlie said.

"Not with that rack," Ms. Adamsen pointed to the large bust of the woman in the costume. "Arachnya's probably a high school student, judging by her size. This chick's clearly older."

Charlie looked nervous. "Why would you say 'high school student'? I kinda thought she looked a little older, that last time I saw her."

Ms. Adamsen shook her head. "She's nowhere near that developed. You said you took this on forty-third?"

Tim nodded. "Yeah."

"A copy-cat Arachnya? This seems kinda weird." She rubbed at her chin. "Okay, you two, I want you to head out to that gas station and ask around. Maybe you'll get some clues as to where this bitch went."

The two of them nodded, then Tim felt Charlie's hand in his. I should really tell her that I know.

***

I looked in the cell and saw what I couldn't believe. The HARP woman that Charlie nabbed us was gone. Her three buddies were still there, each of them unwilling to do anything but grumble, but still there.

"And you're saying she just disappeared?" I asked the officer that had reported it to me.

"Yeah, like that teleporter woman from the bank robbery a few weeks ago. I couldn't believe it when I saw it, but it really happened."

I rolled my eyes. "I know, kid." I took out my phone. "Keep an eye on these three and make sure their friend doesn't come back to bust them out." I walked upstairs and ducked into a secluded corner, then called Charlie.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Charlie, there was some guy here at the station, government agent type. Seems like this group has been studying the Chosen for a while now, including you. He had a picture, some woman dressed in an Arachnya costume. Judging by the fact that she just escaped today, I'm putting my money on that HARP woman you helped us catch a couple weeks ago."

I heard something over the phone, then Charlie said, "Dad, I'd love to talk right now, but I'm just a little busy."

"Wait a minute, what the hell is going on?"

***

Tim wanted to curse Arachnya's name for inspiring this woman to imitate her, but he couldn't exactly curse his girlfriend if he wanted to keep his girlfriend. His girlfriend being webbed up, just like he was, back to back with him. Okay, I guess... I'll blame Ms. Adamsen. Sending two kids to get answers about the Arachnya copy-cat. How could she do that to us?

He sighed. He couldn't blame either Charlie or Ms. Adamsen, because neither one of them was to blame. Super heroes inspire super villains, if movies are anything to go by, so Charlie's only misdeed was choosing to use her powers for good, all the while Ms. Adamsen was probably just sending them out together to give them some alone time, which Tim was pretty happy for, since he hadn't gotten much time to talk to Charlie in the last week. He almost wished she'd go back to drinking just so that he could talk to her more.

The woman in the Arachnya costume knelt down in front of him and looked him over. "This your boyfriend?" she asked Charlie. "He's a pretty nice catch for a nerdy chick like you." She patted him on the head and then walked around them over to Charlie. "Lemme guess, he took pity on you at the prom and hasn't had the heart to dump you yet, right?"

"Actually," Charlie answered, "we met at work. So, what do you want with us?"

"Well, two kids show up looking for me, I needed to put a stop to that, maybe get the real Arachnya to show up so that I can beat the crap out of her for what she did to me."

"What she did to you?" Tim asked. "You mean the fact that she beat the crap out of you? Humiliated your little anti-hero group?"

The woman kicked Tim in the face, knocking out one of his teeth. "Shut up, kid!" she spat. "That little bitch made me this!"

Tim turned his head a little bit to try and see Charlie, but he couldn't see her face. He could tell that she felt responsible, but he knew that she wasn't. Whatever this bitch was, she had been that way before she somehow developed the ability to copy Charlie's powers.

"Wait a minute," the woman said, then walked back around to Tim. "How the hell did you know that I was a member of HARP?"

"I told him," Charlie said. "I recognized your voice from that day on the movie set. You're that woman with the device that made her walk through walls."

The woman walked back around to Charlie. "No, I just made them believe that it did. None of those things worked, it was just me using all the different powers I've absorbed. I was just lucky that I could fake using so many at once."

"If you have powers, why do you hate the Chosen?"

"Because they weren't an experiment!" She kicked Charlie in the stomach. "I didn't volunteer for what happened to me, and those freaks just showed up one day and the world suddenly loved them!" She kicked Charlie again. "So I joined HARP, to kill all the freaks in the world, but then comes that stupid Arachnya, and screws it all up, just because Hollywood's making a stupid movie about her!"

Suddenly Tim realized he was free. He spun around and saw Charlie brushing the webs off of her arms. "You wanna blame Arachnya for how screwed up you are?! Fine! Here I am!"

The woman pulled off her mask. "You're kidding,right? You? You're Arachnya? A stupid little kid like you?" She laughed, loudly. "Does your little boy toy know?"

Before Tim could answer, Charlie said, "Yeah, he does. He's known for a while now, he just hasn't told me that he knows." She turned to look at him, a saddened look on her face. "Sorry. And thanks, for keeping it a secret."

The woman shot a webline around Charlie. "Such a sweet little moment, honey, but I'm afraid I'm gonna havta cut it short, and kill you."

Tim caught the first glimpse of it through the window. Light, blue and red. Cops, he thought, good timing.

***

I stepped out of the car and pulled out the megaphone. "Harmony Sprite, come out with your hands up!" Nothing happened, save for a group of my finest officers pulling out their weapons and aiming them at the building. Lucky us I was able to use the GPS feature on Charlie's phone. I thank God her mother thought it was a good idea to get that option. I also thank God we never bought her a cell phone until after she became a Chosen. It seems like every mother's nervous about her daughter dating a bad boy. Thankfully, I wasn't. Tim's actually a harmless puppy.

I motioned for two officers to go up to the door. They did, but before they could open it, the door burst open, and Harmony Sprite, the woman in the Arachnya costume, swung out from the building and landed in front of me. As I went for my gun, she pulled a knife and jammed it into my stomach. She whispered, "How's the world gonna respond when they find out Arachnya killed her own dad, cop?" She twisted the knife, then pulled it upward.

My vision started to blur as I heard gunshots. Harmony jumped up and weblined over to a building, then out of sight. Of course, a lot was out of sight for me. Things were starting to go dark pretty quick. I fell against my car as Holly ran up to me and held me upright. I heard Charlie's voice coming from twenty miles away, even though she was suddenly standing over me. I reached up to touch her face, but I only managed to just barely touch the tip of her chin. I wanted to speak, to say a thousand things to her, but the only thing I could manage was, "Be a good girl." I couldn't actually tell if I'd really said the words, sadly.

Charlie put her arms around me as I slipped away, her tears were the last thing I ever felt against my skin.

***

Holly sat beside Charlie at the funeral. It depressed her to see that the girl wasn't crying, but a part of her understood that Charlie probably had no more tears to shed. It had taken hours to get her away from her father's corpse, and when they finally did, it was all Holly could do to stop her from swinging away and slaughtering Harmony Sprite for what she'd done.

Especially when Harmony's death was exactly what Holly wanted, too.

***

As the funeral procession rounded the corner in front of the precinct, Tim felt Charlie's hand grasp his. He let it go, instead putting his arm around her. He felt she needed far more than simply someone to hold her hand. Detective Montoya nodded when he did. He nodded back.

Say you're sorry for not telling her you knew beforehand. Tell her something, you stupid asshole, just say something to help your girlfriend!

But he couldn't say anything. He couldn't find anything to say.

***

Monica Montoya watched the funeral on TV in her bedroom and couldn't help herself, she started crying again. She'd started crying as soon as she'd read about Captain Harkins' death in the paper, and now she was again. She couldn't help herself. The man had done his best to help her, to help everyone around him, and now he was gone.

***

Angel watched from the sky, incapable of finding anything to say even to the clouds she hovered amongst. She simply closed her eyes and whispered, "Goodbye."

***

Anna felt Keith's arm around her but felt no comfort. She was angry. Not at him, but at her boss. She held up the newspaper and cursed Barry Brindleson's name one more time.

"FUNERAL HELD FOR HERO COP TODAY

"By Keith Cabot (so, she had a little reason to be mad at Keith, but she didn't hold their job against him)

"The funeral for East City police captain Henry Harkins will be held today at the Saint Michael Cathedral on Seventeenth Street. Harkins, a third-generation police officer, was brutally murdered by former hero Arachnya two nights ago, in an attempt to arrest her for kidnapping two East City teens, Timothy Saul and Harkins' own daughter Charlotte Harkins. Arachnya has made no further appearances in the city since the murder, and still wanted by the police and the public at large. Harkins is survived by his wife Melissa, daughter Charlotte and son Christopher."

She crumpled the paper in her hands again. "I can't believe Barry made you write this pack of shit," she said.

He sighed. "I'm sorry, Anna. He practically wrote it himself and slapped my name on it, to be honest."

"Everybody knows Arachnya wouldn't kill anybody."

"I know. And if she ever shows up again, I'll do my best to make sure the truth comes out."

I'm sure you will. You're almost every bit the hero she is.

***

Melissa Harkins couldn't face her husband's funeral. She couldn't even watch it on TV, she waited until it was over before she turned on the TV. She couldn't face the fact that she had walked out on him, She still felt miserable having done it, having left her husband and daughter without even so much as an explanation.

There was a knock on the apartment door. She set her book down and opened the door, surprised to see a very disheveled Charlie standing outside her door. "I don't have anywhere to stay," she said, slurring her words. Melissa could tell that Charlie was half drunk, despite the fact that the girl was standing upright and appeared to be very capable of walking a straight line.

She held her arms out to hug her daughter, but Charlie walked right past her and then collapsed on the couch. Melissa sat down on the other end of the couch and began to cry. "I'm so sorry, sweetie."