Angie Ramirez sat at the bar of the East Side Mario's restaurant near the Mid Town South police precinct. She pushed her blond hair back from her ear and shifted in her seat.

"Waiting for someone?" The young bartender asked as she set down Angie's drink. Angie sighed.

"Yeah, my best friends, my boss and my date." She said with a small chuckle.

"Sounds like you're anxious to meet them." The girl, whose name tag read Heathar, said as she cleaned some stay peanut shells off the bar.

"Him." Angie corrected. "It's all one person." The girl smiled and nodded understandingly.

"Well, that explains why you're anxious." Heathar said with a grin.

"Actually," Angie admitted. "I'm not nervous about that." She sighed again. "I'm nervous because this is our first real date and I've been waiting for it for years." Understanding flashed across the girls face. Her blue eyes sparkled softly.

"What does he look like?" Heathar asked. She held up a finger as Angie began to answer and took an order from another waiter. Returning to Angie she began mixing the drinks. "Ok, Go on."

"Well," Angie smiled and closed her eyes. "He's tall and rugged with tousled, curly, brown hair and deep, sensitive eyes." Her smile widened. "He's got this cute Australian accent and the most contagious smile." She opened her eyes and saw Heathar smiling in that contagious way, her eyes dancing with held in laughter. "And he's standing right behind me, isn't he?"

"I think so." Heathar said with a laugh. "He's nodding." Angie turned around.

"Hi Love." Rollie Tyler said with a grin. Angie blushed slightly and hugged her date, looking up at him in his arms.

"You're late. Were you off saving the world again?" She asked.

"No. I was trying to do some banking on the phone and it wasn't working." He smiled, leaned down and gave her a kiss. They separated and Angie felt Heathar's eyes on them.

"Can I get you a drink while you wait for your table sir?" The young woman asked. Rollie nodded.

"I'll have a Fosters." he said as he took a seat on the stool beside Angie. Heathar grinned and turned around.

"Australian for beer." She said with a perfect Aussie accent as she turned back and put it down in front of him. Her voice returned to a normal New York drawl. "You two just flag me down if you need anything. My name's Heathar." She grinned again, "Trevor will be showing you to your table when it's ready." she pointed out a young man with short dyed blond hair escorting a family to a back room.

"So." Angie said as she watched the bouncy bartender walk away. "How was your day off?" She asked.

"Surprisingly quiet." Rollie said with a pleased grin. "No police cases, no death threats, no saving the world." He should have knocked on wood. . . but he didn't
 
 

"Hey Ryan." Heathar said as she walked up to the handsome blond detective. "Renee and Lochley showing up for dinner? Or you just having a drink before you go home to the ready made family?" She asked as she poured him his favourite drink: a virgin rum and coke, he called it.

"Just stopping by after work." Ryan said with a sigh. "I had a rough day, new partner AGAIN!" Heathar cocked her head to the side and kept silent as she wiped off the bar. "I liked being partnered with Mira but Captain VanDuran had other plans. I guess he wanted her and Frank back together again." He shrugged. "It's not that I'm complaining about my new partner it's just that she's so . . . odd." He shook his head. "Renee has a great new partner. Her name is Angie Reichs and she's nice but tough." He took a drink of his coke. "But Harper. Harper Scott is a nutcase." Heathar had been right with him until that part. She'd nodded sympathetically, smiled at the right times, she'd picked up an empty glass to put it at the back when he said that name but as soon as he said the name she lost it. Her bartender's ear and her grip on the glass.

SMASH.

"Woah!" Ryan said. "You Ok?" Heathar stood and sputtered in shock.

"Did you say Harper Scott?" she asked, kneeling down to pick up the broken glass.

"Yeah. Harper Scott is my new partner." he said, kind of confused, "Why do you know her?"

"I used to." she said quietly as she stood up.

"Hey Heathar, what happened?" her boss, Corrinne Janachak came behind the bar and helped clean up the mess.

"I lost my grip on the glass." she admitted. Corrinne gave her a slightly confused look.

"Why don't you go help Trevor for a while." she told the younger girl. Heathar nodded and left quickly waving goodbye to Ryan and scooting out from behind the bar.

"What did you say to her?" Corrinne asked Ryan roughly.

"Heathar and I are friends." he explained quickly to the hostile senior bartender. "I happened to mention that my new partner was Harper Scott and Heathar dropped the glass." he shrugged and looked at his watch.

"Harper Scott." Corrinne said, emphasizing the first name in confusion. "I'll talk to her about it." Ryan nodded and stood taking a five out and placing it on the counter.

"Tell her I'll see her around." He said as he walked out to find his new partner.

Angie looked beautiful. It was all Rollie could think about. He'd never really looked at her in this way before and it confused him now that he ever could have missed this side of her. The dress she wore was and ice velvet dress with rhinestone straps and a jewel heart pendant. She was laughing right now, eyes sparkling, head tilted slightly back. He was in awe.

"So this kid on the net nicknamed headstrong, she begged us to take her on as a co-op student." she said as she recovered. "She's from some little suburb in Canada. I thought hey, a co-op student might be interesting and that I'd talk to you so I asked what school and she said ‘Central Peel Secondary School.' A high school." She looked shocked.

"A high School student from a suburb in Canada wants to do a co-op with us?" Rollie asked with a small laugh. "I'm honoured." Angie laughed again and Rollie stared in amazement. Angie stopped, suddenly shy.

"What are you staring at?" she asked, slightly nervous.

"You." he answered quietly. "I've never really seen you before." he said slowly. "Not like this." Angie smiled and ducked her head. "No don't!" He said, catching her chin and pulling her head back up so she looked him in the eyes. They seemed frozen like that, staring at each other as if for the first time, for minutes.

"Um, your table's ready." the young man Heathar had pointed out as Trevor said. He led the two of them through the restaurant to the same back room that he'd led the family into. He seated them at a table in the corner underneath a hanging television that was playing the family channel for the three young children of a family across the rectangular room.

"Your waitress should be with you momentarily." he said, smiled and placed menus in front of them.

"Um, where's the ladies room?" Angie asked.

"Right this way." he said politely. Angie smiled at the young man and followed him out of the back room.

"Hey Mate, Australian for Beer?" a voice from behind him said as a hand reached past his shoulder and placed his Fosters on the table. He turned to see the smiling face of Heathar, the bartender Angie had been describing him to. "You and your date left your drinks at the bar." She said as she put down Angie's glass of white wine. Rollie smiled at her.

"Thank you very much." he said. "Why was Angie, my date," he smiled at the thought of that, "describing me to you?" He asked. Heathar shrugged.

"Well, I asked." She answered plainly with a smile. Her voice began to imitate his Australian accent, but it sounded natural.

"Ok," he said, a small smile growing on his face as he held back a laugh.

"What'cha laughing a-" she paused and slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh no." She said, forcing a New York Drawl back into her voice. "I did it again, didn't I?" She said. "I was imitating your accent." Rollie nodded.

"You were doing very well," he admitted. "Have you ever been to Australia?"

"When I was . . . " the young woman though for a little. "Seven, I lived there for . . . six . . . no eight months" she smiled. "I've lived just about everywhere." She said. "Except Canada, or England."

"What except Canada or England?" Angie asked as she returned to the table. "Oh my wine. Did I forget that at the bar?" she sat down again.

Trevor walked back in, escorting three suited gentlemen with briefcases. One looked around the room and nodded. In seconds the other two had whipped out large guns and swept them around the room, scaring everyone and the two took up positions at the doors..

"Everyone freeze." The first said with a thick Irish accent. "This room is now ours, and you are all our hostages."

Ryan Anthony walked into the Midtown South Police Precinct and looked around, he couldn't see Harper anywhere so he walked up to his old partner, Mira Sanchez.

"Hey Mira, you seen Harper anywhere?" he asked as he approached her desk.

"Check the basement." Mira said without looking up from her papers. "She has a reputation for loving the basement." Ryan sighed.

"Thanks Mira." He sighed and began walking away.

"Poor Ryan." Mira chuckled as he walked away. Harper Scott had a reputation for loving basements, talking to herself, transferring every 3 months and driving all of her partners crazy!

"Harper?" Ryan looked around the basement. "Hey Harper, it's Ryan."

"Yes?" He heard from directly behind him. He turned quickly and stood face to face with Harper Scott. The young woman was tall and thin. Dark brown hair with red highlights accentuated her childlike face and deep blue eyes with a mischievous gleam. She had been described to him as a basement dweller obsessed with the strange cases the precinct picked up and she had a tendency to connect totally unrelated common occurrences to major crimes. Strangely enough, to Harper, they actually did connect.

"I, uh . . ." Now that he was in front of Harper, confronting her about the Bartender seemed silly, but he'd come back specifically to do this. "I was just talking to a friend of mine and I happened to mention your name." Harper raised one inquisitive eyebrow. "She dropped and broke a glass at the mention." Cocking her head to the side she pondered that.

"Who?" Harper asked with interest.

"She's a bartender at East Side Mario's, I don't know her last name, but her first name is Heathar." He said. Harper's face went blank and she mouthed the name. Suddenly she grabbed a leather jacket, grabbed Ryan's arm and propelled him out of the room.

"Show me where."

Heathar turned towards the Irish guy, glancing at Trevor as she did. Trevor was frozen in fear, everyone was in shock for a minute until suddenly, two of the three children across the room began to cry. Their parents began comforting them when a young woman with a fussing baby in her arms walked into the room, concentrating so fully on the child that she didn't notice the man with the gun by the door.

"Raena." The Irish guy said with a grin as she entered. Her head flew up and she paled.

"Sean! What are you doing here?" She asked, hastily looking around the room and taking in the men with guns. She looked like she wanted to bolt back out the doors. Sean walked over to Raena and took the baby out of her arms. The little boy began to cry.

"I'm here to see you Raena," he grinned and shifted the squirming baby. "You." he pointed at Heathar. "Come here." Rollie and Angie both began to protest but Heathar walked over before they could. "What's your name girl?" He asked looking her up and down.

"Heathar." She barely breathed the name.

"What?" He asked harshly, leaning forward.

"Heathar Scott." She answered louder.

"Well Heathar." He said as he handed her the baby. "Why don't you and all the kids go sit over there." he pointed to one corner. "And all the adults over there." He pointed to the opposite corner.

Everyone looked at him blankly until Raena spoke up.

"Sean. You can't do that!" She reached for the baby but Sean caught her arm.

"I assure you Raena, I can." He pulled her to the adult's corner or the room where the family was seated. "Now you kids go over there with Heathar while I have a little chat with your folks." He shooed the children to Heathar and motioned to Rollie, Angie and Trevor. "And you three come over here."

Angie sat and stared in indignant shock while Rollie glanced at the gunmen. The one closest to them was grinning coldly and his trigger finger was twitching. Rollie stood quickly and pulled Angie to her feet as well. The two walked to where they were told.

Trevor and Heathar exchanged nervous looks. They'd been told what to do in the case of a robbery, but hostage situations hadn't come up in training. Heathar gave Trevor a reassuring smile. Shifting the baby in her arms she looked to the sniffling children and knelt to their level.

"Hey there now, don't cry." She said gently. "Everything will be ok." Pulling them over to the corner she sat them in a circle and asked their names and ages.

"I'm Heathar and I'm 18." She said to start them off.

"I'm Suzannah." Said the oldest quietly and calmly. "I'm 9."

"I'm Jeremy." The little boy said, a proud smile pulled at his tear stained cheeks. "I'm 5 years old." he held up his outstretched hand for visual aid and then pointed to the smallest child. "That's Kate an' she's 3." The youngest nodded mutely.

"Well kids." She said, eyeing the gunmen, one of whom, the one with the twitchy finger, closed and locked the door behind him and started patrolling the room. "The TV is still on, and I's pretty sure that the movie Anastasia is supposed to come on soon." He came to the glass door to the outside patio right behind where Heathar had seated the kids. He checked it, it was locked. He glanced at Heathar with a cold measuring look, as if ascertaining if she were a threat or not. She ducked her head and broke eye contact with him. With a satisfied sound he returned to his post. Heathar let out the breath she had been holding and shifted, suddenly very aware of the set of keys digging into her thigh.