When You Wish Upon A Star

Coffee and Illegal Actions

"Ugh, I'm so tired and we've only got two semi-good candidates so far." Azalea groans and rubs her forehead. We started working on Ashlynn's wish at about 8:30 this morning. Now, it's 4:30 in the afternoon and we've only got a few hits.

"I don't know how we're going to do this." I sigh.

"I really don't want to get fired." Azalea says.

"Well yeah obviously. But it's not just that. I really want to help this girl and I don't know why." I rub my eyes. My head hurts after looking at a screen all day besides for an hour at lunch. I reach for the bottle of painkillers, and read the label. It's a 200 pill bottle. "Jeez, you weren't kidding." I pop one in my mouth and take a sip of water and swallow.

"Yeah I wasn't. Hand em' over." She reaches out her hand, and I give her the bottle. Azalea opens the lid of the bottle, and pops two in her mouth. She swallows without even needing a drink.

"I'll never understand how you do that." I say puzzled.

"When you get chronic migraines, you get used to having to take pills all the time." She takes a sip of her iced tea, that was leftover from lunch. "But you still never get used to that bitter taste. Blegh." She makes a nasty face.

"I can agree with that. Even when you use a drink that's strong in taste, if you leave em' in your mouth too long, it tastes horrible."

We work for another two hours, finding a few more potential families. Now the hard part; thinking of an excuse to tell the adoption center about why we're there and trying to help Ashlynn in particular. And how we even know her.

"Any ideas?" I ask Azalea.

"I mean, I've got a few, but most of them require doing something illegal."

"We've got a big budget for bail money." I suggest, and then grin.

"Nah, I was thinking about that too. We would probably get fired if we got caught. Malik would be pissed." Azalea points out. I hate to admit it, but she's got a good point.

"So, what exactly were these ideas?" I question.

"We could dress up as child services, and say we were interested in her situation and wanted to help. That one's at the top of my list for my believable, but again, probably illegal to impersonate a child protection services worker." Azalea sighs. This was going to be harder than we thought.

"Maybe we should ask Malik?" I suggest hesitantly.

"I can ask him tonight." I raise my eyebrows at Azalea. "What?" She says defensively

"Sorry I could never just picture you and Malik together. I guess it could work." I explain. Azalea groans.

"Ugh no it's not a date. I would never. He just invited me to dinner at this new place

Downtown to discuss the case. I think it's called Streetwise. It's a cafe slash diner sorta thing." I'm still a little suspicious, and I think my facial expression gives it away. "Relax, I don't think I could ever go out with him. Anyway, I made sure it wasn't a date. I told him that if he pulled anything I'd slit his throat." She grins.

"Ouch, wow. Okay then, remind me never to mess with you. Let me know how it goes. You'll have to suggest some of your ideas, including the illegal ones, to him. See what he thinks." I say.

"I'll be sure to." Azalea looks over at the clock. "I gotta head out, dinner's at seven-thirty and it's six-forty-two. I have to get home and get out of my work clothes." I eye her.

"I thought this was a professional meeting?" I smirk. She glares at me.

"Shut up. You staying?" She stands and grabs her purse.