EPISODE FOUR
The masked man raises the pipe to hit Jessie once more, and as he swings, Tish’s hand grabs the pipe, and he cannot budge it. Her face has a look of sheer anger on it as she looks at him. He looks back and sees Tish.
He struggles to take the pipe from her, but she holds fast, and he can’t even so much as budge it.
Tish reaches up and begins to bend the pipe around his hand as he falls to his knees, screaming out in pain.
“You dare to attack my friend, you asshole?” She kicks him in the side, and he slides across the ground until he crashes into the wall of a building.
She turns to her friend, “Jessie! Jessie!” she screams as she kneels down next to her.
Jessie begins to sob.
“Oh no,” says Tish as she tries to comfort her friend, “I’m here now. I’m so sorry for letting you go out alone,” Tish begins to sob as well. “What did he do to you?” she asks as she helps Jessie up.
At the emergency room, Parish runs around the corner and stops when he sees Tish, still crying. Tish sees him, “Is she okay?” she weeps.
Parish hugs her, “She’ll be okay. Her ribs took a beating, but she’s going to be okay. She’s awake now. ”
Tish can’t help but sob uncontrollably, “What a relief,” she says between sobs.
Parish pulls back, “We’ve put her in a room. You can go see her. She’s going to be fine.”
“Okay,” cries Tish, still bawling.
Kal and his sidekick are watching nearby as the man in the mask gets up and limps away, holding his ribs where he got kicked.
Kal caresses his chin, deep in thought, “You know what I’m thinking?”
The sidekick turns to look at him, “That guy’s mask is creepy?”
Kal slowly turns to look at him, unamused. “No. Perhaps this neighborhood needs our type of protection.”
The sidekick ahs and nods his head, “The kind that pays.”
Kal nods his head, “Right. Though, that guy’s mask is very creepy.”
Tish sits by Jessie’s bed as Jessie slowly opens her eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Jessie!” cries Tish. “I should have gone to get the chicken.”
Jessie, looking pretty beat up, asks, “Did you finish making the chili? Don’t you dare eat it all by yourself!”
Tish isn’t in the mood for the joke and just nods her head as tears run down her face.
Tish grabs Jessie’s hand, “Just rest here. Get well.”
The following morning, Jessie is looking at her face to see how bad it was damaged.
Tish wrings out a washcloth, “Move your hands for a second.” She begins to clean up Jessie’s face, “How could he do this to your pretty face?” Tish asks, still in anguish over what happened the night before. “Just wait until I catch that bastard. I’ll break every damned bone in his body.”Jessie shakes her head, “Stop. Don’t summon the demon.” She lifts the mirror back up, “I think he broke my nose.” She reaches up and touches it.
“They said your nose was fine,” says Tish.
Jessie looks up at her, “I’m sure the bridge of my nose was much higher before. It looks all flat now.”
Tish makes a face, “That’s because your face is swollen.”
“I know my nose better than anyone else. I’m sure it was much higher.”
Tish ahs, “Looks who’s returning back to her normal self. I guess I can go back to work now.”
Jessie whines, “I’m still in pain. Don’t go. Ow.”
“Don’t move,” scolds Tish.
“You know what, Tish?” says Jessie. “I was so scared yesterday. I thought I was going to die by his hands. I only survived because of you, but I feel so badly for those other women. I can’t even imagine what has happened to them,” tears begin to roll down her cheek.
“What I don’t understand is why he just ran off like that,” says the chief of police.
Jake doesn’t understand either, “Since I know Jessie, let me go question her, and at least get a statement, and perhaps she can tell us what happened.”
The chief nods, “She’s familiar with you, so go ahead and take her statement.”
Eric looks over at Tish’s empty desk. He reaches over and taps a button on his office phone.
“Yes, sir?”
“Come here.”
Rob comes hobbling in, “Sir?”
Eric gets up to greet him, “Look, I know this is a weird request, but I want you to sit over there at Tish’s desk. It looks way too empty in here.”
Rob is actually touched, “Was it that empty without me here, sir?” he says, shuffling over to take a seat.
Eric shoves his hands in his pocket, “Speaking of which, when is that girl coming back to work?” He walks over, and grabs his keys, and walks out of the office, leaving Rob sitting at Tish’s small desk wondering what the hell happened.
“How long will I have to say?” Jessie asks Parish.
“Probably a few weeks. Broken ribs take some time to heal,” he says.
Jake bursts into the room, “Are you okay, Jessie?” he asks.
Jessie chuckles, “Everyone’s fussing over me today. It’s like a damn high school reunion in here today,” she says, looking from Jake, to Tish, to Parish.
“You’re okay, right?’ asks Jake.
Jessie nods. “Yeah.”
Tish asks, “What about that bastard? Any clues?”
Jake shakes his head, “No. That’s why I’m here. I have a few questions for Jessie,” he says, turning back to Jessie. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I was picking up some chicken for dinner from the diner, and I had this weird feeling of being followed. I turned around, and this guy was following me. I started running when all of a sudden, he was right in front of me.” Jessie gets the chills as she tells the story, “It freaks me out to talk about it.”
“So scary,” whispers Tish.
“Something terrible would’ve happened to me if it hadn’t been for Tish,” Jessie says.
Tish’s eyes go wide, and she shakes her head a little to Jessie.
“So, the guy ran off when Tish showed up?” asks Jake.
“You should have seen her, she,” Jessie started when Tish gives her hand a squeeze. Jessie looks at her, then turns back to Jake, “She screamed really, really loud! You know how loud and annoying she can get. She screamed her damn head off.”
“I screamed really loud,” agrees Tish.
“She’s got a loud voice for sure,” says Parish.
Jake seems confused, “So, just because she screamed, he ran off?”
Jessie nods, “That’s right.”
Jake leans in, “Did you get a look at his face?”
Jessie thinks about it, “Come to think about it, he didn’t really have a face.”
“What?” asks Jake, confused.
Down in his little prison, the masked man pulls up his shirt. His entire side is completely bruised where Tish kicked him.
The two victims are watching from their cells as he begins to wrap himself up around the waist.
One of the victims weeps out loud. He turns to her, “Shut up.” She doesn’t.
He reaches down, picks up the bent piece of pipe that Tish had wrapped around his hand, and looks at it. The woman continues to weep, so angrily he throws the bar at her cell door, “I told you to shut up!”
“Damn it,” he says, holding his side.
Outside of Jessie’s door, Jake is upset with Tish.
“Why didn’t you press the button on the bracelet? That’s why I gave it to you,” he lectures her.
“I didn’t have it on when I rushed out the door,” she says softly, looking down at her feet.
Jake snaps, “That’s the problem with you. How could you not wear that?” He places his hands on his hips and turns his back to her as he tries to calm himself. He finally turns around to ask, “Did you get hurt?”
Tish looks up at him now.
“I’m going crazy because of you, seriously,” he tells her. “How many times has that bastard seen your face, now? It’s too dangerous in that neighborhood for you. You need to find someplace to lay low.”
“It’s not like I can just skip work.”
“Then perhaps it’s better if you stayed at your boss’s,” he starts to say, as much as he doesn’t like this idea. “You should stay at his house. At least the son of a bitch won’t be able to find you there.”
Tish looks up at him, “You don’t need to worry about me so much, you know? I know you don’t know this, but there’s this thing I’m good at.”
“What thing?” Jake asks, “Being able to scream loudly? Stay at your boss’s place until I can catch this asshole, you hear me?”
Tish finally concedes, “Okay.”
Jake storms off.
Tish leans against the wall and sighs.
There’s a knock on Eric’s office door.
“Come in,” he says.
Jake opens the door and walks in.
Eric looks up, and as the two men stare at each other, he scoffs.
“I came to ask you a favor,” says Jake, as much as each and every word he says to the other man hurts him.
Eric waits for the punchline.
“You heard what happened to Tish’s friend Jessie, right?”
Eric nods.
“I need you to keep Tish at your place until we catch this guy,” says Jake. “This is the third time that the suspect has seen Tish’s face. If we let her stay in that neighborhood, she’ll continue to be in danger.”Eric watches Jake for a moment, “You really don’t know her all that well, do you?”
Jake looks at him.
Eric shrugs, “I get what you’re saying.”
“Just keep her at your place until we wrap this up,” says Jake. “But if I find out you’ve laid so much as a finger on her, you’ll be sorry.”
Eric tilts his head, “She’s just your friend, right? I mean, you are just worried about the well-being of your friend, right?”
Jake is not amused, “I don’t need to answer your questions. Just keep an eye on her, and make sure Tish stays safe.”
Eric watches as Jake leaves his office, then he mutters, “Perhaps her one-sided love is not so one-sided after all.”
The next morning, Tish steps out of her home after getting ready for work, and Jake is there waiting for her. She grins to herself as she walks up the stairs and meets him.
“Why is your skirt so short?” he asks. Tish looks down.
“And why are you wearing so much makeup?” he asks.
“Do I look weird?” she asks?
“Just, stop going around looking so pretty,” he demands as he gets into his car.
Once the words come out of his mouth, she stops everything. She starts to blush as she brings her hand to her mouth and thinks, “He said I looked pretty,” she can’t stop smiling.
“Hurry up, and get it,” Jake says, rolling down the passenger side window.
As they arrive at the Aamessoft building, Jake escorts her towards the entrance. “You have to be careful, understand? You know what to do if anything happens, right?”
Tish holds up her wrist, “I press this button right away.”
As they reach the entrances, Jake says, “I’ll call you later. Go inside now.”
At that moment, Eric is also walking towards the entrance, and he stops to watch the exchange between the two.
“You go ahead and go, Jake,” says Tish.
“Just go inside,” demands Jake.
They go back and forth for a little while about who will leave first, and Eric scoffs at how ridiculous it is. Jake finally turns and walks back to his car as Tish waves at him, watching him the entire time. When Jake faces her again to get back in his car, she waves even more animated.
“Wow. Just wow,” says Eric to himself. He finally walks towards her, “He told you to go inside already. Just go.”
Tish practically bounces as she walks into the building and uses her key card to get past the security gate. Eric follows her through.
“Tish!” he says to her, and she spins around.
“Huh?”
“How’s your friend?” he asks.
Tish is all smiles today, “Thank you for letting me have the day off yesterday,” she says as she begins to brush some lint from his jacket, still smiling widely. “I won’t even be upset if you take it out of my paycheck.” She spins around and walks off.
Eric watches her walk off and just shakes his head.
Tish plops down in her chair and swings back and forth, still blushing from Jake’s earlier exchange.
“Tish!”
“Yes?” she answers.
“Get it together,” he says.
“Whatever do you mean?” Tish asks.
Eric just stares at her, “What’s wrong with you today?”
Tish just can’t stop smiling, “What do you mean? Nothing is going on with me?”
“Don’t go around looking all pretty.” Jakes’s words echo back in her head.
She leaps up from her chair with a giggle and skips out of the room as Eric just looks on in confusion. “What the hell?”
Tish is washing her hands at the restroom sink. She looks at herself in the mirror and says to herself, “Don’t go around looking so pretty.” She covers her mouth and giggles to herself. Suddenly in the mirror, Jake appears behind her.
“Don’t go around looking pretty, I mean,” Jake starts, “What I mean to say is, you’re pretty.”
Tish covers her face with both hands and squeals in glee as we see that Jake really isn’t in the lady’s restroom at Aamessoft. Tish bounces around a bit like a schoolgirl with a crush.
“You’re making me so embarrassed, Jake,” she says to herself in the mirror.
Just then, someone steps out of the stall and looks at her like she’s lost her mind.
Tish walks back into Eric’s office with that smile still on her face. While she was gone, Rob entered the office and is standing over by Eric’s desk talking to his boss. They both watch as Tish skips like a five-year-old back to her desk, sits down, and lets out a dreamy sigh.
“Hey!” yells Eric.
Tish looks up at him. Her day will not be ruined by him.
“You need to stay at my place for the time being. That cop you are crushing over has asked me to keep you, and I’m trying to cooperate,” he says.
Tish smiles at him, “Thank you for your hospitality, boss.”
Eric nods, “Sure,” and turns back to Rob.
“But, I’m fine,” says Tish. “Jake just worries about me so much. Oh, so much. It’s heartwarming how much he cares for my well being. I mean, a suspect is out to get me after all. That would certainly make him worried. That scary man goes after people with a steel club.”
Eric looks at her like she’s lost her mind, “Why are you saying that scary stuff with a smile on your face? Are you mental?”
Tish looks at him, “Was I smiling?”
“I just barely get used to you, and then you do something totally different that completely baffles me,” Eric says. “You have something up your sleeve, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Tish giggles.
Eric and Rob watch her for a moment, then Eric finally turns to Rob, “What time is the meeting?”
“In 30 minutes.”
Tish is humming over at her desk as Rob tries to go over the itinerary of the meeting, but Eric turns to look at her, “Damn it. I can’t focus on this because of her.”
Sarah walks up to the chief’s desk and hands him a folder, “There’s no sign of the car past the point where we last tracked it. They must have gone down a path to avoid the cameras.”
Chief flips through the folder, “This guy must be very familiar with the neighborhood to be this prepared.”
Jake steps in, “I think he’s targeting my friend. He wears a mask that covers his entire head.”
Chief points to Jake, “Investigate that angle. Check around for a shop that sells that type of mask. Everyone else, not a word about this tidbit of information to anyone. This may be the tip we’ve been looking for. If the media leaks it out, then this case is hopeless. Any leads on that limited edition shoe?”
It’s dark. Tish has long gone to bed, but Eric is tossing and turning in his bed. He finally sits up with a sigh. “Damn it, I can’t sleep.” He climbs out of bed and walks to his window, “I wonder if Tish is asleep.”Tish, in fact, is not asleep. She’s on the phone, “So, you’re at your boss’s house?” asks Jessie.
“Yeah,” says Tish. “How are you feeling?”
Jessie grins, “I’m healing at the speed of light. I feel like a celebrity with the cops guarding my door.”
“Make sure you stay in your room. Don’t try to go anywhere,” warns Tish.
Jessie sighs, “All right, I get it. You told me already.”
“Listen, that guy took someone from the hospital already one time, so be on your guard, okay?” says Tish.
Tish hangs up and lies down.
Kal and a couple of his goons are walking around the neighborhood with flashlights, ‘patrolling.’
A cat leaps out, hissing, and it scares all three as they scramble away from it before realizing what it was.
Pretending to be calm, Kal adjusts his ballcap and just shakes his head at the other two, even though he was just as scared. “Let’s keep going. Stop being scared of everything.”
One of the goons shines a flashlight in his face, and he knocks it out of their hands, “I told you to stop flashing that in my face.” The goon scrambles to pick it up.
They walk down alleys, streets, and the like. A patrol car comes by, flashing its lights as it also patrols the neighborhood.
Tish is having a hard time sleeping as she keeps remembering the night that Jessie got attacked.
She finally sits up and crawls out of bed.
Sometime later, she’s also walking through her neighborhood, hoping to find this guy. She arrives at the scene where Jessie was attacked, and she looks around nervously. She cuts through an alley, and we see someone following her.
Perhaps she also senses someone behind her as she slightly looks behind her, but she doesn’t run.
She wants the guy to find her.
Jake is not having a good night as he paces back and forth at the police station. Sarah walks up to him, “Are we sure he’s only targeting weak, skinny women?”
Tish walks down another alley, the figure still behind her.
Jake turns to Sarah, “I need to check something. I’ll be back!” and he runs out of the station.
Sarah yells after him, “Where are you going?”
Tish walks down some stairs when someone places a hand on her shoulder, and she spins around, ready to beat this guy to a pulp when she sees that it’s just Eric.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“Why are you here?” she asks.
“I thought you were sleepwalking,” he says. “Why did you come here?”
Tish looks at him, “I’m going to catch that bastard with my own hands,” she retorts.
Eric nods understandingly, “We should go home,” he says. “We can talk about it there.” He starts to walk back up the steps.
Tish doesn’t move, “I’ve kept my powers hidden for all of my life.”
Eric stops to turn around.
“Now, I want to use them for this. I need to stop this man before he hurts anyone else.”
Eric and Tish arrive back at the house and haven’t even removed their coats when the doorbell rings.
Eric walks over and looks at the screen to see who it is, and Jake’s face fills the tiny screen, “Why is this guy here?” he asks himself before hitting the button to let him in.
Jake runs in, out of breath. He turns to Eric, “I’m going to stay here too.”
Eric is annoyed. “If you were gonna pull this crap, why tell me to have her stay here?”
Jake and Eric are face to face, “Maybe I just don’t trust you as much as I thought I would. It might be best if I take her someplace safer.”
Tish is just standing there watching these two men fight over her, and slowly steps towards them, “Jake,” she says.
Jake looks at her, “Are you okay?”
Tish just stares at him all dreamy-eyed. Eric waves his hand in front of her face with no response and then just scoffs. “Figures.”
“Why did he rush over there?” asks the Chief.
Someone else pipes in, “She’s a witness, and the kidnapper has already seen her face several times, he said.”
Chief shakes his head, “We need him here. Is he dating her or something? I thought he had a girlfriend?”
Sarah perks up at this conversation but doesn’t add to it.
“Anyone heard anything back from the two we sent over to question the victim?”
A couple of officers are at Jessie’s hospital room. They have an assortment of masks they ask her about to see if any are the ones the suspect was wearing.
One cop puts on a mask, like you would see at a masquerade ball. Jessie shakes her head, “No.”
Another puts on a mask, the one from V is for Vendetta. “No.”
The first one holds up a clown mask and a robot mask, “Any of these?”
“No,” Jessie says. “Look, it covered his entire head to make him look bald. It wasn’t plastic. It may have been rubber or something like that.”
One cop looks at the other, “Maybe he’s ugly.”
Jessie and the other cop look at him.
“If he were handsome, he wouldn’t have to cover up his face, right?”
The cop shakes his head, “Just stop talking,” he says to the other. “Let’s go find some more masks.”
“You’ve got a big place,” Jake says as he looks around. “Let me stay here for the night.” He walks over to the couch, “This looks comfortable. I’ll just sleep here.”
Tish shakes her head, “That couch is uncomfortable.”
“You going to let him sleep in your room then?’ asks Eric.
“No!” protests Tish, “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then it’s settled,” says Jake as he sits down on the couch.
Eric shakes his head, “Nah. Go right ahead,” though it’s apparent that he minds. “In fact, how about if we just stay up all night and make a night of it?”
A while later, they are in an empty bar, they play pool. Eric is cleaning up, actually, as he scores one point after another.
In fact, Jake and Eric seem to be getting along just fine, which annoys Tish for some reason. Eric is giving Jake some pool playing tips when he missed a shot.
Eric makes the game-winning point, and they rack them up again.
Tish stretches and yawns.Jake knocks the wrong ball into the pocket.
Tish looks bored.
Eric knocks in three in a row. Then performs a trick shot that puts in a ball and then drops the eight ball to win the game again. “Game over,” he says and grins as Jake looks on in disgust.
Tish lays her head on the table as the men line up to play darts next.
Eric throws the first one that barely hits the board. Jake hits a bullseye.
Eric throws the next dart that doesn’t even connect with the board. Jake scores another bullseye and gives Eric a grin. Eric is starting to look frustrated.
Eric takes aim, pauses to kiss the dart, and then throws. It goes into the wall.
Jake makes a third bullseye. He reaches over and pats Eric on the back, “Don’t be disappointed.”
“How about a tie-breaking round,” Eric asks.
Jake looks him in the eye, “What do you have in mind?”
We see glasses lined up along the bar. Each glass is filled with beer. Then on top of that row, a set of shot glasses, each one filled. Eric hits one, and like dominoes, the shot glasses fall neatly into the beer glasses.
Eric is on one side of the bar, Jake on the other. Eric looks at Jake, “I’ll go first.”
He picks up a glass, and swallows the contents straight down, and sets the glass back on the bar.
“I’m off duty, so drinking is not a problem for me,” he says. He picks up a glass and drinks it down.
Tish is watching them, “How is this a competition? Let me drink too!”
They both turn to her, remember the last time she got drunk. “No!” they say.
She looks from one to the other, “How dare you team up against me,” she whines under her breath.
They each pick up the next drink and down them. Then the next., and the next.
When they finish the first round, Eric fills them up again. They continue to drink. Tish tries to get them to stop, but they ignore her and continue to drink.
It’s evident that continuing to drink is starting to get difficult for them after a while, but they force it down anyway. Tish sips her soda through a straw and gives them the evil eye.
A little while later, she waves her hand in front of Jake’s face. His eyes are open, but he doesn’t really seem to be there. “Are you okay, Jake?”
Drunken Eric grins, “It’s too much for you,” as he sloppily reaches for a bottle of vodka, and refills the glasses, kinda. He misses most of the glasses and pours it onto the table. He slides a glass over, “Drink,” and picks up one for himself.
“You guys need to stop.”
They ignore her, and drink the contents of one glass, and then reach for another.
Eric begins to heave a little. Jake grins at it.
The scene changes, and Tish looks at something, though we can’t tell what it is until the camera pans back to reveal Jake and Eric passed out on top of the pool table.
Tish sighs and looks around. The bartender seems to be falling asleep at the bar. She reaches out and grabs each one by a hand, and pulls them onto her shoulders, and carries them out of the bar. They grunt and groan as she walks through the door. “The both of you shut the hell up,” she snaps at them.
She carries them around the corner of the bar and asks herself, “What am I doing right now?” She drops Eric but gently sets Jake down. “Jake! Jake!” she says to him. “I’m going to get you guys something to drink to help you sober up. I’ll be right back.”
Two guys stroll up and notice the two guys passed out on the sidewalk as she walks off. “You shouldn’t sleep here,” one of them says as they bend down and start going through Eric’s pockets, pulling out a large sum of cash as the other checks Jake’s pockets.
“What are you doing?” asks Tish as she returns.
When they realize she’s a female, the guys ignore her and go back to what they are doing. Meanwhile, spying on Tish is Kal and his sidekick. The sidekick is watching with a pair of binoculars, “What’s this?”
Tish walks up and asks, “Did you take his money?”
“So, what if we did?” the guy asks.
The second guy looks up, taking what he wants from Jake, “You’re so scary, little girl. Did your mom send you out on an errand?”
Tish looks annoyed.
The first guy says, “I dunno. She’s kinda cute. How about you and I go somewhere a little warmer and get to know one another.”
The second guy finds Jake’s police badge, “Damn it. He’s a cop. We should get out of here.”
Tish says, “I told you to put their stuff back.”
The first guy sticks his finger on her forehead and pushes, “You’re just disappointed that we’re not going to get acquainted.” Then he slaps her across the face. “I was gonna just let you walk away, but you can come with me, honey.”
Tish takes his hand, “Honey. Let’s go.”
She flings him across the air, and he lands in a dumpster.
The sidekick watching from the car goes, ‘Whoa! She’s totally destroying those guys.”
The second guy picks up a board and runs to hit her when she grabs his wrist and twists. The sounds of bone popping are heard as he screams out.
Kal grabs the binoculars and looks.
Tish breaks the board over her knee, kicks him square in the balls, hits him with an uppercut, and sends him up flying. “How dare you!” He crashes through a stack of pallets.
Kal goes wide-eyed as he watches her work.
Tish is super annoyed, “Seriously! How come no one ever listens to me?” She dusts herself off, turns to Jake and Eric, and sighs, “This has been a hard day,” she says as she walks towards them.
Kal just stares, “Who in the hell is she?” he asks out loud.
The sidekick turns to him, “A vampire?”
A little bit later, Tish is driving them home. She tosses the two into the back seat, and she glances back there and just scoffs. “Men.”
She reaches down and turns on some music on the radio, “What did they say? They’d protect me? Protect me, my foot.”
She carries them into the house, one on each shoulder, and dumps them on the couch. Tish pushes Eric over to get him out of the way, then gently helps Jake lie down on the couch. She lifts his legs and places them on top of Eric, “Get comfortable,” she says to him, patting Jake gently on the head.
Meanwhile, Kal’s hoodlums are walking through Tish’s neighborhood. However, they are causing more of a scare than comfort as folks cross the street to avoid them when they see them coming.
They’re kinda creepy about the “protection” they’re supposed to provide, hitting on the female as they walk by and threatening the males.
In another part of the neighborhood, police cars patrol with their lights flashing.
However, a white car that no one pays attention to drives slowly past the pharmacy where the pharmacist is closing shop and starts to walk home. The vehicle slowly follows her. The car drives past a few of Kal’s men, and they don’t pay him any mind.
Eric wakes up on the hard floor, while Jake has been covered with a blanket as he sleeps on the couch. Eric struggles to get to his feet. When he first sees Jake on his couch, it scares him, and then drunkenly, he nods, “Oh right. I know you.”He finally notices that Jake’s covered all nice and neat, “Well, that figures she’d put a blanket on him and leave me to sleep on the floor. Discrimination, I tell you.” He snatches the blanket up off Jake, “That’s my blanket.” Then he grabs the pillows from under his head, “And my pillows.”
Jake remains asleep through it all.
Eric drags the blanket as he walks down the hall and opens Tish’s door to check in on her. “Goodnight,” he slurs as he shuts her door.
Parked outside Eric’s house, Kal has fallen asleep in the passenger seat while his sidekick keeps watch.
The sidekick finally turns and says, “I think they’re staying there the rest of the night.”
Kal opens his eyes and nods, “Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
Kal just glances at him sideways, “Home, you numbskull.”
“Right!” and the sidekicks drives off.
The next morning, Eric, Jake, and Tish are sitting at the table.
In front of Eric is a bowl of oatmeal.
In front of Jake is a feast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, pancake, and coffee.
Eric looks at his meal, then looks at Jake’s meal. “Discrimination,” he mutters under his breath.
That metal straw that Tish stuck in the counter a while ago, it has the American flag attached to it. Jake is looking at it, “What is this?”
Eric nods, “I’m such a patriot. I have to have the flag nearby when I eat.”
Tish scoffs at him.
“How did we get home?” asks Jake.
“You don’t remember?” asks Tish. “We walked.” She has some toast in front of her, so she reaches for the jelly and makes a show of not being able to open it as Eric looks on.
Jake reaches for it, “Let me help you.” He opens the jar for her and hands it back as Eric just scoffs at that. Tish smiles sweetly at him, “Thank you, Jake.”
Eric finally asks, “Who won last night, anyway?”
Jake crosses his arms across his chest, “The last thing I remember was you passing out and lying on the floor.”
“That’s weird,” says Eric. “I remember you passing out as well.”
Tish clears her throat, “I wasn’t going to bring this up, but do you remember what you did last night?”
The two men look at Tish and then at each other, and she begins to explain.
Eric begins to heave as he takes his next drink, and Tish covers her mouth, hoping he doesn’t spew. Jake is laughing, knowing that Eric is gonna hurl, so much so he nearly falls off his stool.
“Jake, are you alright? Where are you going?” asks Tish.
Jake stumbles one way, then realizes that’s not how he wants to go, turns around, and sees Eric. “You jerk,” he says. Jake grabs his jacket and puts it on, and says, “I have to go before midnight before my carriage turns into a pumpkin.”
“What?” says Tish, her eyes wide.
He takes two steps towards the pool table and falls onto it, curling up.
Eric staggers to his feet, and grabs his jacket, and puts it on. He walks to the pool table and swats at Jake, “You didn’t lock the door. It’s dangerous!” he whines. As he tries to get his arm through the sleeve, he stumbles and lands next to Jake on the pool table.
Tish just watches the entire thing, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The two men look at each other when she finishes, and then look away, and begin to quietly eat their food. Eric takes a bite of his oatmeal and begins to cough, “What did you put in here?”
Tish just grins and takes a bite of her toast.
Suddenly, Eric’s phone begins to ring, and he looks at it and sees Restricted Caller. He gets off his seat and wanders away from the others to answer.
“You can’t ever inherit your father’s business. Give it up.”
“You piece of sh--” Eric starts to say as Jake and Tish look his way. “How about you take your sorry ass and come say this to my face.”
“Announce at the board meeting tomorrow that you refuse to inherit the company. This is your final warning.”
“I won’t,” says Eric.
“Then I will destroy you and your company. This time, the gun will be real.”
Eric laughs into the phone, “You’re pathetic. I’ll catch you long before you get to fire another shot at me. I’ll find you, asshole.” Eric hangs up and walks back to the table.
“Another blackmail call?” asks Tish.
Eric blows it off, “Nah. Let’s eat.”
Jake looks at him, “You should report this to the police.”
Eric shakes his head, “I’ll pass. I don’t trust the cops.”
Jake’s phone rings this time as he answers, “Yes?”
“We have a lead on that burner phone. Come in now. We’re sending another officer to protect Weathersphere.”
Jake says, “Roger,” and hangs up the phone. He turns to Tish, “Another officer will be coming to look after you at your office today. Just let him do his job.”
Tish nods, “Okay. Are you leaving?”
Jake looks at Eric, “I’m asking you, man to man, to take care of her.”
Jake grabs his jacket and walks out, as Tish waves after him, “Bye, Jake.”
Eric mockingly waves after him as well.
Tish sits next to him and taps his shoulder, playfully, “Don’t worry, boss. I’ll protect you.”
Eric shakes his head, “He asked me to protect you.”
Tish smirks, “I’ll protect myself,” she fistbumps her chest a couple of times.
Eric taps his spoon on his bowl, “You ruined my food on purpose, didn’t you? Are you trying to kill me? You shouldn’t mess with someone’s food.”
Tish leans over to smell the contents of the bowl, “Smells alright to me!”
Jake crosses the street and opens the side door of the van his squad is using to stakeout someone.
Sarah is in the front seat, the chief is in the first back seat, and Jake slides in next to him. The chief leans over and points, “It’s that one there, third apartment on the left.” He hands a box to Jake, “Put this on.”
Wearing a UPS uniform, Jake rings the doorbell.
“Who is it?”
“UPS delivery. I have a package,” says Jake
The door opens, and a man says, “I didn’t order anything.”
“Are you Charlie Newman?” asks Jake.
The man nods his head. “That’s right.”
Jake hands him the box, and as soon as the man takes it, Jake grabs him by the shirt and jerks him into the hallway where several police officers seize him and start to lead him away.
“You are under arrest for suspicion of kidnapping,” the chief reads.“Wait? What kidnapping?” asks the man being led away.
Tish and Eric walk into Eric’s office, and Rob is right on their heels, “Sir, we have a problem.”
Eric turns around, “What?”
Rob says, “The stock for your father’s company just tanked.”
Eric is confused, “Why would that happen?”
“There’s a rumor spreading that you’re not going to take over your father’s company,” says Rob. “I’m not sure where it started, but it’s gaining traction.”
A little while later, Rob is sitting at his desk, reading the rumors being reported on the Internet.
Tish walks over, “Don’t worry, boss. When I had my video out there, it disappeared within a day.”
Eric, knowing he was responsible for getting that video removed, ignores her and makes a call.
“Mr. Park,” Eric says into the phone. “I would appreciate it if you could delete the negative rumors about me on your site.” He pauses as the other man speaks, “Well, just know if our business tanks because of these rumors, it won’t be good for your business either. and thank you for deleting the drunk girl video for me last time.”
Tish’s head snaps over to look at him.
“I’d appreciate it if you'd delete them as soon as possible.” Eric hangs up.
Tish rushes over, “Wait, it was you who got my video deleted?”
Eric nods. “Yes.”
Tish smiles at him, “Thank you.”
Eric nods, “You should be thankful.” His phone chirps and he picks it up to read the message. “Oh, hey! They found the motorcycle. It’s only a matter of time before we catch my stalker.”
“Did you really find it?”
“Of course. The guy is trying to sell the bike for parts now to get rid of it.”
Tish seems amazed. “How did you find it so quickly?”
Eric scoffs smugly, “Why do you think I distrust the police? I’m much smarter than they are.” He pulls up the site where the bike is listed, “Here, this is it right here. That punk didn’t even change the license plate.”
Tish leans over to look, “Did you get his phone number?”
“That’s not all,” says Eric. “I’ve got his name, age, height, and weight, and where he works. Tank Squad.”
Tish thinks about it, “Tank Squad? Where have I heard that before?”
“It’s a company in name alone that is run by some gangsters. They do anything for money. It’s run by this shady character named Kal. Used to hang out at my school and try and recruit kids into his little gang.”
Tish gets a determined look on her face, “Fine. I’ll be the one to catch this gang.”
“Will you?”
“You don’t trust the police, so we’re going to have to do this ourselves,” she says. “Get your jacket, and let’s go!” she storms out of the office.
Eric watches her leave and then says, “Hey! Wait up!” and rushes out after her.
A little while later, they are driving down the road when Tish suddenly slams on the brakes.
“Hey!” yells Eric! “Drive safely!”
Tish points to the two cars in front of her, “It’s not my fault. There seems to be an accident.”
There are two cars parked in front, and it looks like the second car rear-ended the first. The door opens in the front car, and a man gets out, obviously annoyed. He walks back to the second car and knocks on the window, “Lower the window, you.”
The woman lowers the window, and the man begins to yell, “What were you looking at? You should learn to drive properly!”
The woman seems terrified as she says, “You stopped suddenly, and I didn’t have time to brake!”
“If you’d keep a proper distance, you wouldn’t have to slam on your brakes.”
Tish is watching the exchange, “He’s a little harsh.”
The woman is trying to reason with him, “I have insurance. They’ll cover this.”
“Insurance! Are you kidding me?” He begins to kick at the car, “Get out.”
“Okay, okay!” says the woman.
The man pulls open the door, and Eric shakes his head, “What an ass.” Eric has had enough and undoes his seat belt, but Tish has already left when he looks to the driver’s side. He looks up and sees Tish walking towards the two.
The man tries to grab the woman’s purse, and Tish gets in between them. “She said she had insurance. So, exchange information so we can get out of here. Stop bullying her.”
“You two know each other?” the man asks. “You probably should since you’re both ugly as sin.” Eric walks up and pushes the guy back.
“What are you doing?”
The man now seems to back off, seeing a male approach. He looks at Eric, “What’s it to you?”
Eric looks at the back of the man’s car, “It looks fine to me. In fact,” he says, “It looks like her car took most of the damage. She apologized and said she’d pay for any damages, so what the hell is your problem?”
Eric jabs his finger hard into the man’s chest, “It happened because you braked all of a sudden.” He gets him several times with that finger. “It’s not even her fault. Let’s do this. We’ll call the police. They can settle this.”
The man suddenly realizes she’s probably in over his head here and turns to walk back to his car, “Wasting my time here,” he says.
“Where are you going?” asks Eric.
“To turn off my car. I’m wasting gas sitting here.”
The man gets into his car and starts to drive.
“Next time, lock your car and call the police. There are some trustworthy cops around here,” he tells the woman.
The man in the car stops and rolls down his window, “You running some kind of scam here? Bunch of assholes!”
The woman thanks him, gets into her car as he walks back to his, and starts to get inside when he notices that Tish isn’t there.
“Where’d she go?”
The man is driving down the road, awfully proud of himself, “They’re a bunch of crazy jerks! They’re lucky I went easy on them.”
Suddenly, Tish rises up from the back seat. Angry.
“I should have used my martial arts on them.”
Tish leans into the front seat, “Mister.”
“Mister?”
He turns, and sees her, and swerves on the road. “What are you doing?” he asks.
“You’re awful petty,” she says. “Pull over somewhere quiet. I have something I need to say to you.”
The man chuckles, “You have something to say to me? That’s funny.” He considers her request and nods, “You know what? Somewhere quiet seems to be a great idea. Somewhere there is no one around.”
Eric is following them.
“Let me turn in here,” says the man. “Then, I’ll stop.”
Eric is trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
The man pulls onto a frontage road and then parks on the side of the road. Tish gets out of the car, and the man is asking, “Where are you going?”
Shewalks to his side of the car and asks him to roll down the window. “What is it?”She smiles, “Stay here while I check something out.”
The man nods, “Sure thing, doll. How about a kiss first?” He says, puckering up for her.
She looks disgusted. “I was going to let this go, but I just can’t do it.” She walks towards the front of the car, “I was going to just keep it all bottled inside, but…”
“Where are you going?”
Tish places both of her hands on the hood of the car. “I just won’t do it,” she finishes. “Is your seatbelt on?”
“What for?”
She pushes the car to the right, and it spins around and around like a top.
The guy is screaming, the force of the spin causing his cheeks to inflate as he holds on tight to the steering wheel, “Stoooooooooooop!” he squeals.
Eric’s eyes go wide, “What?”
As the car spins around, leaving donuts on the pavement, Tish continues her lecture, “You have nothing to say when a man comes around, but when it’s a weaker woman, you got plenty to say, don’t you?”
The man looks like he’s gonna hurl as the car keeps spinning, looking to stop no time soon.
“You’re a foul-mouthed jerk. You should learn to be more generous to those weaker than you. You knew that accident was your fault, but you wanted to blame that poor woman,” Tish continues.
“Should I do something?” Eric asks himself, looking around.
The car finally stops, and the man opens the door. He starts to stagger around, dizzy and has to crawl a bit away from the car to puke his guts out on the street as Tish cringes a little.
“That’s disgusting,” she says, covering her nose with her sleeve. She finally sees Eric standing there watching, “Oh, hey boss. Um, how long have you been standing there?”
Eric is speechless as she approaches.
“Let’s go ahead and go. I didn’t mean to make you late.” She walks over and gets into the driver’s seat.”
Eric is still speechless as he looks back at the car, and then to his own car, and goes to get inside.
“I have records that showed you called her three times,” says the chief to the suspect in an interrogation room. “So, don’t pretend that you didn’t.”
The man seems flabbergasted as he nods, “Of course I did! I called because I didn’t know where she was parked! Then I called again to say that I was at the bar to pick her up, and then, I called her again when she didn’t show up.”
The chief pulls a phone from his pocket, “Is this your phone?”
The man nods.
“Why do you need a burner phone?”
The man sighs. “It’s not a burner phone. It’s the phone I use for my business. I have a business phone and a personal phone. It’s not that uncommon,” he pleads his case.
“According to the call log, you left to go pick her up as soon as you received the call.”
The suspect is exasperated, “I just told you. I went to pick her up, but I couldn’t find where she parked. I called three times. Once to find the parking lot, once to tell her I was there, and once more when she didn’t show up.”
Behind the mirror, Jake shakes his head, “It’s not him,” he says to Sarah as they both watch the interrogation.
Sarah nods, “I think our kidnapper was at the bar already and heard her call for a ride. So, he slipped outside to wait and claimed to be the driver.”
One of the officers storm into the booth, “We found footage of a man driving into and leaving the parking lot.”
Jake and Sarah turn to him, “Are you certain?”
The officer must have run all the way to where they were because he’s out of breath, “We’re still trying to ID him, but we’re pretty certain he’s the same guy who was the fake doctor at the hospital. Height, weight, the way he walks, it’s all the same.”
Sarah sighs, “So, now we know he has another victim.”
Eric and Tish are near the sea. Eric is leaning against a railing while Tish is enjoying the view. “Have you ever seen King Kong?” he asks randomly.
“Huh?” she asks.
“While watching the sunset, King Kong and the heroine say, “Beautiful.”
Tish looks at him and nods, “The view here is beautiful,” she admits.
“I feel like I’m that heroine,” Eric says.
Tish narrows her eyes at him, “Are you trying to say that I’m King Kong?”
Eric chuckles, “You’re a very special King Kong. Like a tiny version of King Kong,” he teases. He watches her for a moment, then asks, “How can such a small person like you have so much power inside of her?”
Tish turns back to the view and shrugs, “I really don’t know. I was just born this way. I’ve only been told that it runs down the female line of our family.”
“So, if you get married,” Eric says, then adds, “Not to me, of course, but to someone, and you have a daughter, she’ll have these powers too?”
Tish thinks about it, then nods. “More than likely, yes.” It seems to be something that really bothers her.
“Whoa,” says Eric, astounded. “This can’t be true. So, you were born with it, kind of how I was born with these good looks. So, don’t be down. Being born strong isn’t your fault.”
She turns her head to look at him, “How come every conversation I have with you ends up with you bragging about yourself in some way?”
“Anyway,” Eric moves on, “You told me you want to use your power to do good., and since this is the way you were born, let’s use it to the fullest. I will help you. Let’s do some training.”
Tish tilts her head, “What exactly do you mean by training?”
“Think about it like a video game. Relying on your original power, you won’t get to the higher levels. You have to train your characters to get stronger, right? It’s like that. I will help you evolve.”
The man from the traffic accident is walking down the street, weeping.
“My car,” he says.
First, he walks by a tire, then a couple more, and then the fourth. As he approaches his car, we see it’s turned upside down. “My car,” he weeps. The trunk in the back is open, and he walks around and tries to close it, but it keeps falling open.
He runs, and picks up a tire, and tries to put it back on, but it just falls back off as he wails in his misfortune. He finally falls to his knees and just sobs.
Jake and Sarah pull into a parking lot. As Jake starts to get out, Sarah reaches for his hand, “Wait. There’s something we need to talk about.”
Jake seems confused and clueless.
A little while later, Jake walks back into the police station and into the room behind the interrogation room and takes a seat with a heavy sigh as he recalls the conversation from a little bit ago.
Sarah seems unsure of where to start, but she nods, perhaps trying to bolster the courage to tell him. “My heart has been wavering as of late.”
Jake looks at her innocently, not sure what she’s trying to say.