All good? Rachel asked. She made sure not to move or speak too fast. She had no idea what sort of movements might trigger another episode. At the same time, though, she did her best to appear normal.

Yeah, were good, Jack said.

You think so? the protestor asked. You just wait until I call my lawyer.

Ill do that, Jack said. Maybe he can tell us why you decided it would be a smarter bet to run from us than answer some questions. Id love to hear how that goes.

The three of them walked back across the lot and feeder road. The protestor did not argue or put up much of a fight. She did, however, receive a smattering of applause from the other protestors when they arrived back at the car. A few of the protestors cast curse words and threats at Rachel and Jack, but neither of them took the bait. With the runaway protestor in the back of the car, Rachel got behind the wheel and pulled out of the lot.

You sure youre okay? Jack asked.

I think so. I think I just did too much, too fast.

You understand why I find that hard to believe, right? Youre always in amazing shape and Ive seen you hustle a lot harder than that in the past with no issues.

She felt a sting of irritation coming on, but squashed it right away. She grinned, still playing a part, and said: Yeah, well, I guess aging is just a bitch, huh?

Jack grinned back, nodding, but it was clear that he was not totally convinced. But if he suspected something, he said nothing about it and for that, Rachel was thankful.

***

Her name was Maria Oliver, she was a forty-three year-old divorcee and she lived in Baltimore. Rachel and Jack were able to get these small details out of her on the way back to the station. Other than that, though, she spent a lot of time griping about her rights being infringed upon and how fertility clinics were trying to play God.

Slowly, as they got closer to the station, Maria Oliver started to calm down. Rachel had seen it countless times beforethe criminal acting angry and aghast that they were being arrested, screaming and fighting at first but then slowly becoming subdued as they got closer to the station and the reality of the situation came over them. Maria was no different. It was like a little puppy placed in a crate, yelping and whining hard for the first few minutes but quiet and accepting several minutes later.

Once she calmed down, Rachel tried to get a little more information out of her, thinking she was likely coming around to the acceptance phase of things. Is there anyone we can call for you to let them know what has happened?