No Angels

Chapter 3

Heather turned around immediately to face Joey, trying desperately to hide her blush. What if he had been standing there the whole time? She questioned, her stomach somersaulting at the thought. What if he thinks I'm crazy? But if Joey had noticed anything out of the ordinary, he didn't say a word.

Instead he walked over to his desk, waving a simple, beige folder around and motioning for Heather to come forward. "There was only one Erik Lehnsherr registered in the system, so either this is the right guy or you're out of luck." Heather nodded in understanding, before silently taking the folder out of his hands and opening it. Within, there were a couple of white sheets full of information and she flipped through them absentmindedly before she came across a picture.

Erik was quite an attractive man with fair skin, grayish-blue eyes, and short, ruffled brownish hair. While Heather was studying the picture, she felt Edie appear behind her and look over her shoulder, before hearing a quick in take of breath and Edie whispering, "That's him." Hearing that, Heather didn't even look up at Joey as she stated, "This is him." Flipping back to the sheets in the front, she slimmed through to find an address or a location of some sort.

"Westchester County, New York..." Heather mumbled to herself in disbelief. For the love of god, the guy lived 4 hours away from Washington DC. Heather - who hated long distance traveling - groaned internally, before finally looking up at Joey, who had been silently watching her. "Is it a possibility for me to take this with me?"

"No can do, Feather. Boss could kick my ass for just thinking about a file not included in my case. Can you imagine what he'd do if it went missing?"

Heather opened her mouth to speak, but Joey continued, "But because you're my best friend - "

" - I'm your only friend - "

" - Hurtful. I'll let you write down whatever you need." Joey tossed her a pen and scrap paper, and Heather quickly scribbled down the address of where Erik was currently living. Folding it up, she slipped it into her purse before turning to face Joey. "Thank you so much, Joey. You're a life saver." Joey gave her a smug smirk, responding, "Yeah, I know. I'm the best." Heather rolled her eyes, but still pulled him in for a big hug.

I'm sorry that I'm using you, she wanted to say, as she tightened her arms around his waist, I'm sorry I can't tell you the truth.

Heather sat in her car for a full 2 minutes before Edie finally appeared, a curious look on her face. "When are we planning to head to Westchester County?" Heather looked over at the woman, replying, "As soon as I can find the next bus to New York."

"Why don't you just drive?"

"I hate driving out of state. It - makes me nervous, like what if a ghost pops up and I get in a wreck or something? I can't really help anyone if I'm dead too, you know?"

Edie nodded calmly, leaning back against the car seat with her eyes closed, looking as if she was relaxed and worry free. "Are you going to start the car anytime soon?"

"Just - give me a minute."

Silence. And then - "Are you also going to tell me what you meant by 'I didn't know moms were like this'?"

Heather swore for a moment that her heart stopped. She sat there, frozen, wondering what to do or what to even say. Do I tell her the truth? Do I lie? Do I tell her its none of her business? No, no, not after everything she'd been through, she didn't deserve to closed off like that. Plus she had seen (and heard) what this woman was willing to do to get what she wanted. And she had a 4 hour ride ahead of her. After a moment of thought, she replied in a soft voice, "I had a pretty bad mom. She, uh, never really wanted kids, especially one who saw dead people. She pretty much ignored me, except for when she needed someone to scream at." Or hit, but Heather didn't add that. No need to make it seem worse.

Hearing a huff, Heather looked over at Edie, who was now sitting up with an expression was so angry that she was glad she wasn't her mother. "How could a mother just do that to her child? It shouldn't matter if your baby is a mutant or not, they're still - "

"Edie," Heather said loudly, getting her attention, "I know that. You know that. It doesn't matter. It's in the past." Edie looked like she wanted to argue further, but she simply sighed, leaning back against the car seat again. Heather started the car and began backing out of the parking spot, when Edie's words hit her. Mutant. How did Edie know about mutants? Had she been one?

"So - the whole mutants thing. Were you - "

"No, I wasn't," Edie replied easily, before adding, "But Erik was. He could - control metal, but it was hard for him to do at times." The mood in the car suddenly turned sad and Edie looked out the window, the look of a kicked puppy in her eyes, so Heather decided not to press further.

At home, Heather quickly packed a total of 2 days worth of clothing after deciding that she wasn't going to stay long after reuniting Erik and Edie. After all, it wasn't her place to intrude on their lives. Thankfully, Heather arrived just in time to catch the last NY bus of the day and, after finding her seat, decided that now would be the perfect chance to catch up on a few much needed z's.

And it turned out that Edie was willing to let her - to the point of Heather nearly missing her stop.

"Wha?" Heather slurred, as someone kept speaking in her ear. "Heather, our stop is coming up in 5 minutes. Wake up." Heather opened her eyes, blinking groggily before squinting out the window. "What - I slept the whole ride?" She questioned in disbelief, as she reached down and pulled her bag on her lap. She made sure to keep her voice low because, even though none of the people around her were paying attention, it would still be creepy to over hear a girl talking to herself.

"Yeah," Edie laughed, "I was afraid for a moment that you were dead." Heather rolled her eyes playfully, before the bus came to a complete stop. Exiting the bus, Heather finally glanced down at her watch and noticed that it was a little after 11 pm, and decided that her best bet was to check into a hotel for the night. "We'll head out to find Erik tomorrow morning," she explained to Edie as the two made their way out of the bus stop, "But, for now, I'm going to find somewhere to stay."

The hotel she found was cheap and pretty simple looking, though she was terribly creeped out when the old man at the front desk kept staring at her with hungry eyes. She defiantly made sure to lock her door after that.