Of all the Gin Joints in the World you had to Pick a Cafe?


The smell of coffee hits her hard when she enters the café. It might have been overwhelming to her more than human senses at one time but now it's just a pleasantly familiar smell. It's noon and the line for coffee is long, not to mention the barista looks a little harried behind the counter, so she takes a seat at one of the empty tables in the corner, her back to the wall.

Opening up her book bag she takes out her laptop and starts going over the news on her home page. She scrolls past the London Olympics coverage and go straight for an article on this years upcoming election.

She only manages to read the first few sentences of the article she'd chosen since he's decided not to make her wait.

"Pearl Preston, as I live and breath."

Pearl takes her time looking up from the laptop because she still hates him with a burning passion. She can still see him standing over Henry's corpse, smirk tilting his lips, the words 'We're even now,' ringing in her ears. It didn't matter that Henry was on death's door step at the time, she had hope and he'd crushed it under his heel.

He's holding out a cup of coffee to her like a peace offering, but that same smirk quirked his lips now. His blue eyes are locked on to her with that terrible calculating gaze of his causing the hackles on the back of her neck to rise. She takes the coffee anyway and puts it down on the table with out drinking it to make a point.

"What do you want Sweet?"

"Oh dolly are you still mad at me? Now you know you had it coming after what you did in Taipan, but hell, I was really doing old Hank a favor anyway. If you'd had your way he'd have been a vegetable for the last of his days. Not a very good death if you ask me."

He takes a sip of his own coffee and leans a few inches toward her, all friendly and open posture. The fangs behind her teeth begin to ache, and her finger nails begging to extend into claws because she wants to rip his eyes out. He chuckles and lays his hand down close enough for her to feel the heat of his skin, but not close enough to touch. She doesn't say anything, just glares at him and hopes he makes his point soon.

"Alright, you go on being angry then," he says as he waves a hand and rolls his eyes, "But I have some real good news you might find yourself interested in."

"You said as much in the email," she replies dryly; she still doesn't know why she came here, this is probably a trap.

His grin goes wide, teeth bared in a feral smile as he leans back in the chair, "I brought you a present."

Hattie bursts through the front window of the café causing glass to fly everywhere and people to panic. She's fully vamped out, teeth bared and claws extended like she's out for blood. The patrons are scrambling and screaming to get away from her, though she pays them no mind. She only has eyes for her.

"Skinner!" Pearl's voice comes out as an accusatory growl. She looks back at him and he's still grinning but now it looks sheepish.

"Now you know me better than that dolly, if I wanted to kill you I'd do it myself. I just thought I'd put a little peace offering between us, after all, it has been a good fifty years... By the way, I thought you might like to know that old scar face here is the one who organized the attack on Hank all those years ago."

Her eyes widen and gaze shifts to the angry red head stomping toward her. In an instant Pearl's eyes flash golden and claws extend, but she stalls for one second to address him, "I still don't forgive you, but this is a good start."

Then she grabbed the table and threw it at Hattie's head.