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49-12?  Good Morning, Sunshine -- Sammy (armed with Dunkin' Donuts coffee and some honeyglazed donuts) meets up with John on his way to school to ask him about Megan's sudden move

"Hey Sammy."  John says, a look of confusion on his face.  "Was I supposed to be somewhere?"

"Nah" Sammy replies.  "I just wanted to ask you some questions about Megan, and it didn't seem fair to do it over the phone or without offering you something to help you wake up and think first.  Have a donut and some coffee-flavored coffee; that's how you drink it, right?"  She hands him his share then takes a bite of her own donut.  "El and I were talking last night and it just dawned on me that Megan and her family left too fast.  The explanation given to her was as thin as tissue paper, but she, her brother, and her mom were all hustled away so fast that none of them had time to think, just to do what her dad said.  Was something bad going on with her dad?  Do you know if her sister in college went to England too?"

John takes a drink of coffee and looks at the donut.  "Ah, no, her sister is still in college here."  he takes the donut and seems to savor the bite, washing it down with some coffee.  "It does seem a little fast though, but I guess that's how big law firms tend to do things.  I can ask some people though.  Maybe someone knows something about it?"

"Maybe.  Elrod said he'd check around too.  He has some really unexpected connections, unexpected by me at least.  I need to raise my expectations."  She smiles at the thought, totally oblivious to the crumbs on her cheek.  "She never said anything about her dad?  Huh.  Maybe it is something different?  He isn't in trouble, but somebody else in her family is?  Has she called since she left?"

"Not yet, but we figured they'd be too busy for a while."  John brushes the crumbs off Sammy's cheek.  "I'm not really expecting to hear from her for a while though, she'll be busy settling in and getting used to what might as well be another planet."

"Aww, John..." Sammy says sympathetically, with no little measure of concern.  "I'm sorry!"  She looks like she wants to give him a hug but isn't sure how he'll react to it.  "I didn't mean to make it worse." 

This is going to be me someday, when Elrod finally goes away on his grand tour of the world.  I'm going to miss him so much.  The thought of it, following so closely after the lovely night before, makes a fat tear well up in the corner of each eye.

John's expressions changes, and he looks into Sammy's eyes, "You okay?  You look like you're about to cry on me.  I'm not that sad and pathetic am I?"

"Just a little bit."  She wipes her eyes.  "But its enough to make me feel sorry for myself in advance, for when El leaves.  Sorry I got all goofy girly.  This was supposed to be about you, and Megan.  The other thing just kind of hit me out of nowhere."

"That's how emotions work.  I'm not really too familiar with mine, sol they sneak up on me from time to time."

"That must be scary as hell when it happens."

"It has it's moments.  I've spent so long keeping myself bottled up to keep people from getting hurt that I think I may be slightloy broken in the person department."

"You're scared of hurting people with your power; if your emotions get out of control, you might hurt them anyhow?  That's a tough one.  Maybe you just need to practice with people who can take it, or are at least able to defend themselves just enough?  The Suspects have their quirks, but I think you could let your hair down there if you wanted.  Heck, you could practice on me and Sarah.  Both of us are able to get away from you without too much trouble.  She could just fwip away, and I could fly straight up and out of reach."

"That's sort of what I thought would happen with Megan.  I think the biggest thing is that I can be me around you guys, since until I came here I had to keep my powers a secret from everyone.  It ruined my only relationship, and pretty much made me an unintentional loner.  At least here I have some friends that I can be open with."

"I'm glad you feel like you can trust us.  Seriously.  Megan's gone, but we're not, so you're not alone.  I can't make promises for anybody else, but anytime you want to talk about anything, find me.  I'll listen."

"I appreciate that.  The same goes for you, you'll always have someone that will listen in me."  He takes a sip of coffee.  "Now we just need to find out if this thing with Megan's family is normal or not."

Sammy nods and walks along quietly for a moment.  "What about that cop she used to talk to?  The one she called by his first name?  Kermit?  Carney?  Conan?  Kiernan!  Detective Kiernan.  I have his number somewhere.  Maybe he could help?  There was somebody else too, but I can't remember.  Do you?"

"The two cops were from the Chicago PCD office.  Kiernan and Colin's friend Chris something.  They may be able to follow up on some stuff.  It does seem wierd stepping down as mayor like that.  I guess I was so focused on Megan leaving I never really spent any time looking at the why behind it."

"That's natural.  Its not like I questioned it either."  She drinks some more coffee.  "Her house.  Do her parents own it, or is it owned by Oak Park?  'Cause there's no way they could physically move all of their stuff so fast, not overseas, so its probably mostly still there except for what they could fit in suitcases.  My dad was military and has friends who still are, and stuff has to be crated up way in advance for long distance moves.  He had friends stay with us for a couple of weeks once."  She gives him a sidelong look.  "What's your position on breaking and entering?  Or at the very least trespassing and looking in windows?"

"There house was theirs, but it's empty.  Private moving company sent a crew in and they were packed and out in one day."  John says.  "I guess I should have thought that was suspicious too, but I didn't.  I'm not sure how rich people move, maybe you could ask Elrod about that.  I just assumed you called movers and they came and took your stuff right away.  I mean, if you can afford it right?"

"So much for that bright idea.  I thought it would take longer, especially if you had a big house with a lot of stuff to move.  Maybe her dad knew about it ahead of time and set it all up before surprising his kids.  Then again, maybe enough money can make anything happen."  She stops and pushes the street crossing button on the corner.  "I'll consult the brain trust at lunch, if I can get there."

"Yeah, how's that going.  You seem to be plenty busy with practice lately."

She seems a little uncomfortable.  "Too busy.  I'm tired...  I mean, the singing is fun, don't get me wrong, but I've got the winter concert to do, the band is doing Christmas performances in the mall and some old folks homes, I barely get to see Elrod, there's this whole saving Oak Park from evildoers thing, I haven't done most of my Christmas shopping, and I don't have time to do my homework right so I'm settling for good enough and hoping to just slide through until January when things settle down, but then Nick and Greg are making noises about me being in the spring musical... its a lot."

"I guess laying low has it's advantages.  I can imagine we'll only get busier as we go through school.  Just try not to get too much on your plate, you wouldn't want to burn out before your a Sophmore."

"Yeah, I suppose, but what do I cut?  I'll just keep pushing.  The worst of it won't last much longer.  Maybe when I get time to sleep more I'll be able to figure it all out."

"Well, like my mom always tells me.  Don't forget to live some while your out there doing all the things that make up your life."

"Your mom sounds like mine."  The street crossing light finally changes, and they cross.  "How long have you known you wanted to be a doctor?"

"Since I was little I guess.  Especially once I realized that if anything ever happened to me there wouldn't be a doctor in easy reach that could take care of me."

Sammy is confused.  "There are doctors everywhere.  Was it the paranormal thing that made the difference to you?"

"Yeah.  I've had my powers since I was born.  I had to get specialized immunizations and everything as a kid, all oral.  Needles don't go in, can't get blood work the normal way.  My dad's connections made it possible for me to get the kind of care I needed.  I realized not everyone is that lucky.  I want to help if I can."

"That's a good kind of goal to have.  I still haven't figured out any for me."

"You don't have to have one, I'm just overly driven so not having one bugs me."

"Well you kind of have to be strongly driven to be a doctor.  Otherwise you'd never survive the process of becoming one."  She waves at somebody passing by in a car.  "Now that Megan is gone, have many of your more immediate plans changed?  Are you still planning on trying to catch that Spark guy she was after?"  She notices a couple of girls admiring John and shooting very dirty glares her way. "Look over there" she whispers.  "Do you want a bodyguard to fend off the wimmenz that will be hurling themselves at you now that you are sort of single again?  Maybe one of Donnie's dragons?"

"At some point I'll probably see about Spark.  Otherwise my plans, no.  I had this weird idea that Megan and I would be together until college, but that was unrealistic.  My track record with relationships is pretty dismal, but I've learned to delude myself about it fairly well."  When Sammy mentions the other girls John glances over.  "I don't think I'm in any danger.  I hang around with you and the other suspects, so there will always be the idea that I'm sort of dating one of you guys.  Besides, I'm sure Dave's rumor machine could fabricate some out of town girlfriend or something.  That guy is probably only one rejection letter short of becoming a super-villain."

"Dave... Dave confuses me sometimes.  Did you know that he might be turning down MIT?  I didn't even know he had been accepted when I found out he might just walk away from it.  How do you walk away from MIT?  Elrod said that Dave hasn't cared about much of anything for a while, until we came along; he said we seem to have energized Dave.  Then there is that army of his, which is really well operated, but he's got the rep of a slacker."  She stops walking.  "Do you really think he would want to be a super villain?  I want the answer to be no; I like Dave a lot.  But it would make some things make a whole lot more sense."

"I'm not sure.  I wouldn't have thought there would be villains at high school, so I may not be the guy to ask."

"I wouldn't have thought it either."  She shakes her head to clear it.  "Never mind what I said.  It was a dumb thing to even think.  I'm probably just being stupid because I haven't been sleeping enough. Dave's one of the good guys.  He's helped me out more than once, and he never had to do it, he just wanted to do it.  He's a good guy."

"Yep.  He certainly has gone out of his way.  Sarah and he go way back though, I'm sure her being part of the group helped."

"It probably didn't hurt.  I think he gets a kick out of watching us take down evildoers too.  We're better than tv."

She looks down at her watch.  "Aw shoot.  I need to hurry up.  I have to get the list of families so I can get it to El sometime today, then I'm supposed to try on the costume for the show for the first fitting, all before first period.  Sometimes I really wish I was as fast as Megan."

"I'll see you around then.  Good luck with wrangling your schedule."

OOC: End?

OOC:  yep