The Universe's Mixer

Some years ago, four scarred and stained and spindly wooden table legs held up a singular tiled tabletop -- a tabletop that itself had been itself holding up a number of brightly-colored bits and baubles. In the middle of this chaos, hiding under tarnish and tangle, Beauty found a small chandeliered string of tiny bells no larger than the length of her palm. She loved the set immediately, rescued it, polished it to gleaming brightness, then brought it to Bookmark Books and gave it a position on the inside railing of the front door. Since then, the delicate sound of bells heralded the coming or going of anyone passing through the front door.

From the force she put on the door this afternoon, the sound turned dissonant and harsh. It was neither a bound that set her over the threshold of the door, nor a leap... Someone watching might have called it a storming, if storms could ever be deployed from such a slender frame as hers. Before the door closed, Honour stalked from the front of the store to the middle aisle that ran the length of the bookstore. She hurried down that aisle, looking for customers -- and when she found the only one in the store, she approached that man with a very bright smile.

"Congratulations!" she said cheerily. "You're Bookmark Books' ten-thousandth customer! Your purchase today is on us. But naturally, there are conditions -- aren't there always? We can only allow you to take as many as you want if you can get to them and get out the door within 60 seconds. Ready?" She checked her watch on her wrist. "One-- two-- three -- go! Go!"

Fifty-three seconds later, Beauty cheered, "Great job, sir!", threw the lock to the door, flipped the sign so that 'Open' was facing into the bookstore, and closed all the blinds. When the shadow of the last customer passed across the blinds, she raked a hand through her hair and turned.

Work was insane. It seemed like there wasn't any down time. And what downtime she did have was apparently on the wrong time table to have it with Charlie. There were many calls between them, trying to arrange time together that wasn't at work or while they were sound asleep. It wasn't like she didn't get to see him. He was her partner. But it would have been nice if they could have gone out to a movie or had a dinner that wasn't rushed.

She'd snuck away from the station to have some time to breathe, and got all the way to the park, which was nice. Walking in the cool grass with her shoes off, Jennifer began to relax. The smell of some of the food carts drew her, and she found the most disgusting example of a hot dog she could uncover - a thing with cream cheese and onions on it - and bought it. She also retrieved an enormous slushy ice drink that tasted like red. Not a fruit that was red, but red. She'd been tempted toward blue, but didn't feel like she was in a blue mood. Or a green one.

Parking herself in the shade of a lovely large tree, Jennifer leaned back and just enjoyed the sun and the people playing. It was nice to know that even with all the crap she saw on a day to day basis, that there could be people having fun. She wanted to be having fun like that.

For the first time, Jennifer was giving consideration to resigning from the force. She knew that she wouldn't really do it. It was in her blood to be a cop. An agent. Government. People needed to be helped, and criminals needed to be stopped. That didn't mean she couldn't fantasize about a life with no badge.

There weren't people here that Dexter had to fake it for. He had his job, and he had to put a good front up for them, but other than that, he was alone. He had not discovered anybody within the City that he had known prior other than Red. Red was only going to continue to encourage him toward the darkness, and more and more, Dexter was beginning to think that she was right.

He had desperately hoped that he might find George. George had been perfect at keeping him in an even keel. She knew what he was, and what he did, and she didn't judge him for it, but she kept him on the right path. He had found he wanted her to look at him and see a guy who was helping, killing for the greater good. But there was no George. There was also no Selina. He had something of a strange relationship with her. He hadn't really known what to do with her, but she had been a friend. And knowing she was out there had helped. There was no Deb. There was no Betty. There was no Angel or Masuka. And there was no Harry.

The threads keeping him together, keeping him a well hidden monster, were coming unraveled.

Only one project kept him in focus, and it wasn't anything he could work on consistently. He knew that he wanted to track down Effie. He knew that he needed to put an end to her. She had lied. She had escaped. She was now free to torment the City. He should have put an end to her when he had the chance, and he was kicking himself for thinking that she was actually going to try to be good.

But she was nowhere to be found.

He had not hunted in too long. Effie had mentioned something about bigger fish, and Dexter had given consideration to tracking them down, to ending them, but the need to finish what he'd already started stood in his way. Until Effie was gone, he couldn't turn his focus elsewhere.

The frustration in him was quite high.

Dexter sat at an outside table at a little coffee shop, a cup circled by his hands, but he wasn't drinking it, just staring into it like it had all the answers he wanted.

Annie was feeling so much better. Not being in the hospital - she would have sworn on anything anybody asked her to - was actually speeding up her recovery. It helped that Tony had the best of the best to take care of her.

The only problem was that she was getting antsy. He wouldn't let her go upstairs to work, and she wasn't quite well enough to argue that. Which meant she also wasn't well enough to try to go outside. She did think, though, that she was well enough to have a visitor.

Annie found the tablet that Fred had let her borrow. She hoped that Fred had another source of communication. Annie held the device in her hands and let her power take over. She burrowed deep into it, finding another computer on the other end.

Fred,

It's Annie...

You can come get your tablet back...

And we can work on the project if you like...

AKA I'M SO BORED, HELP...