Tate
Tate followed the two men out of the courthouse. The one who had hold of her arm turned his head and glared.
"Stop it," he hissed.
"You stop it," Tate replied calmly. "It's not my fault you like red heads and big bums."
The second man smirked and stifled a laugh.
"This is not the place to be -" the first man began
"Then stop thinking about it," Tate replied.
"Here's the car," said the second man, holding the door open for Tate.
The three got into the car and drove off.
"Thanks for getting me out of there," Tate said. "I thought for sure I was going to the slammer."
"Technically, you probably should have done. How'd you get mixed up in that anyway?"
"It was an accident."
"From you I can believe that."
"Just the wrong place at the wrong time. So," and Tate started getting flirty. "May I know the names of my rescuers?"
"I'm Roland," said the first man who was now in the fron passanger seat. "And this is Leroy."
"And Leroy knew it was a bad idea to bring Roland along," Leroy said. "I can see Tate changing in my mirror Roland. Get a grip."
Tate giggled. Leroy sighed.
"Where do you live?" he asked.
"Nowhere really," she replied. "I did have a foster home, but they didn't like my attitude much and I ran off. I can't imagine why they didn't like my attitude. They gave it to me."
"A human foster home?"
"Yes."
"How the heck did that happen? You should have been put with an alien family."
"Sometimes these things slip through the cracks. So, where are you taking me?"
"You'll be staying with me until we can find an appropriate home for you," Roland replied.
"Scrap that," Leroy said.
"Excuse me?"
"You're getting too... let's just say I don't think that's such a good idea any more."
"You can't do that!"
"Watch me. I'm not going to let you take advantage of her. Look what you're already doing!"
Roland looked back at Tate, who now had a head of gorgeous red hair and a big bum.
"What's your point?"
Leroy gave a terse sigh. Some people would never learn to keep their hormones in check. Then he paused for a moment and thought of Oliver. Would it be dangerous having her stay with them with a teenage boy around? Well, Miette was still with them for a few more days and hopefully that would be enough time to find Tate a decent home.
Tate and Oliver
It was an hour before Leroy and Tate arrived at the B&B. They had dropped Roland off earlier in the trip.
"This is where you live?" Tate asked.
"No. This is where I'm staying at the moment," Leroy replied. "Come on, my niece and nephew should be here."
They walked inside and headed to the rooms Leroy had booked. Olivre was on the computer.
"Hi Oli," Leroy said. "Where's Mi?"
"She's on a double date with Ike, Ash and Mindy," Oliver replied, intent on his game.
"Have you done your school work?"
"See table stage left. No wait, stage right."
"Hmm. Well, I'm sure Mi won't mind if you share her room," Leroy said to Tate.
"Thanks," then she walked over to Oliver. "What are you playing?"
"Heroes of Might and Magic 4," Oliver replied.
"Can I play too?"
"Well..."
"Be nice, Oli. I just had to get Tate out of court with false evidence."
This had Oliver's attention.
"False evidence?"
"Sadly, Tate was at the scene of the crime and did participate."
"What crime?"
"Breaking and entering," Tate grinned. "We could have gotten away with heaps if it hadn't been for security. And you didn't falsify it too badly. You did point out that the person on their secuirty cameras didn't have the right appearence to be me. So clever of you to make me appear differently when it came time for comparrison. Five foot seven instead of five foot two. Different hair style and colour. Blah, blah."
"How'd he do that?"
"I'm a Pathic shifter."
"What's that?"
"I telepathically and empathically find out what people around me want me to be and I turn into that. And my attitudes change too. It's lots of fun."
"And it can get her into a lot fo strife too," Leroy pointed out. "Especially when she around people who want her to be a bad girl, or a slut or a few other less than desireable things."
"The world is full of people. There are bound to be a lot of them with unsavoury tastes," Tate smiled.