Nefarious Thoughts

Two

Arriving home Charlie was greeted with the smell of pizza and breadsticks wafting in from the kitchen. In the time it took her to come home she had managed to catch her breath and put her emotions in check. It was something Charlie had learned to do and learned quick for she didn't like to see the worry constantly showing on her friends faces. Even though she knew it still laid under the surface of their smiles.

John's head poked out from behind the kitchen wall and greeted her with a smile. "Hey kiddo how was school?"

"Okay. I'm pretty sure all my teachers hate me already." Charlie stated as she dropped her bag near the door and found her way into the kitchen to grab a slice of pizza.

John had the news on in the living room, the sound of the reporters voice traveled through the small space as they talked about a recent robbery that had been stopped by the city's own masked hero, Spider-Man.

"I'm sure they don't hate you, teachers are always unnecessarily assholes to everyone the first day." Charlie gave the man a half smile as she took a bite of her pizza.

"How was the station?" Charlie asked her question with a mouthful of pizza causing John to send her an exasperated look from the other side of the counter. The girl smiled in response to his look.

"It wasn't too bad today, just a few minor arrests and tickets. There's been talk with some of our under-covers that a new player is on the streets." John O'Brien was a longtime best friend of Jenny and also a detective down at the New York Police Department.

Charlie met him the second day she was living in Queens when he waltzed in the door holding two pizzas and a tub of ice cream. Stating as he walked in that "If there was a new member of the family it needed to be celebrated O'Brien style!" Charlie decided that day that John O'Brien was one of her favorite people. Another reason that he remained her favorite was that despite police rules stating that he wasn't supposed to disclose information for ongoing investigations he would still come over every day or so and keep Charlie up to date about all the crime in the city.

Charlie grabbed another piece of pizza while asking, "What kind of player? Are you talking drug trade, human trafficking, illegal fight clubs?"

John shook his head, "Nah none of that actually, our under-covers just said that he's been passing through surrounding and local trades, asking for names but never leaving one of his own. He's not dropping bodies so the police can't do much yet, especially when we can hardly track him ourselves."

Charlie hummed in response, trying to reassure herself that he was not the one running around New York asking for names. There was no way in hell, she had been assured.

"... So I thought that might be something you'd be interested in." Charlie caught the end of John's sentence feeling a little guilty for getting lost in her own destructive thoughts.

She smiled sheepishly as John gave her a knowing look. "You didn't hear any of that did you?"

"If it makes you feel better I caught the end of it."

The man in front of her scratched the scruff on his face as he dramatically rolled his eyes at the teenager. "I said, there's an opening for an internship at the station. They're looking for a new sketch artist to help out with some of the smaller cases. Since I know you draw realistically and all that, I thought you might be interested."