[Nell Shepherd]

Nell had gotten lucky, really, when she went to the beach that day. She'd been walking along when someone had caught her attention. She had the instinct to hide, even though he didn't know who she was. He was with his family, it looked like, and she supposed she couldn't have gotten that lucky to be able to speak to him alone. But then again, she didn't think she wanted to.

She didn't know what she would have preferred, all she knew was that fate had dropped this into her hands.

The question was: how to do this without looking like a creep.

The answer was: she couldn't.

Her problem was that she had already done some rather stalkerish things. It wasn't entirely her fault, though. Elbows deep in the paperwork that Elena (thankfully) kept so meticulously organized, she'd found a bounty that she felt like she shouldn't be reading. But her great aunt had left this business to her, and so when she found the list of names and contact information, she decided there must have been a reason why this was in her hands.

Or maybe she wanted to give meaning to the tedious work that had become half of her life.

Great Aunt Elena knew a lot of things. She knew her favorite restaurant (a five-star establishment simply called Noir), she knew how to take care of the plants she kept in every room of her mansion, and she knew far too much about the Sector. Enough to properly introduce Nell to their existence. And in learning about them, she decided that at least someone there might be able to help her. But she needed to be careful with how she did it.

Her eyes fell on the name Ferris Felwinter. A detective with The Sector, and therefore exactly the type of person she was looking for. And like everyone else that Elena had information on, she included a picture of the man, a candid he likely didn't know had been taken of him. She felt bad, then; like something was very wrong with this. But it wasn't as if she had nefarious intentions. Not that nefarious, at least.

And so she had committed herself to happening upon him by chance. Los Eurosia wasn't really small, but Nell had some amount of luck, as she'd proven today. So she approached him, pushing her sunglasses up, un-sticking her flip flops from the shoreline. It was now or - probably - never.

"Hi," Nell started, "You're Ferris, right? You're a detective."

for Ferris Felwinter

[Ferris Felwinter]

Having been forced to take medical leave from work by his wife, the good news was that they could do more family activities. Of course he was barred from some of those. Like play wrestling the kids or running in the morning or doing any significant projects around the house. It meant he was bored. A lot. And 'resting' and him didn't get along. Thankfully, Darcy had taken some time off too and today, that was being spent at the beach.

The one that El had really wanted to go to last week before...well...the good news was they were at the beach. And El didn't want to leave him alone. Not he blamed her for not wanting to go with her mother and the younger two kids, Rhys and Beck, to play in the waves.

"You could have invited Jonathan."

His oldest daughter at fourteen, El was the image of her mother. Curls, sass and all. She lay stretched out in one of those short beach chairs, aviators reflecting the sun and waves and her phone. "Mom said this was a family outing. She was all dramatic about it."

"You're all dramatic about it."

El looked over at him over her sunglasses. He was seated in a matching beach chair beside her wearing blue swim trunks and a white T-shirt. "Really, Ferris? How old are you?"

His first instinct was to make the joke 'old enough to be your dad,' but the pair had a...hit and miss relationship with that. He didn't want to force anything on her. He decided to pretend he didn't hear her. "We're at the beach. Remember? That place with sand and water and swimming?" The place she had really wanted to go. "Enjoy it. You don't need to sit here with me," he encouraged, his tone taking on a more 'I'm not going anywhere, promise,' pitch to it.

The teen sighed but got up and stretched and put her phone in the pocket of the chair. "Fine," he said, grumbling about something else he didn't quite catch. He could feel the eye roll behind her aviators as she walked down toward the water.

It being a weekday, it wasn't very crowded. He was thankful for that. It was easier for him to keep an eye on wherever El went and Darcy with the little kids. And, he knew, for Darcy to keep an eye on him. See, there were pros and cons to being married to a doctor when unexplained medical emergencies happened. On the one hand, he was breathing. On the other, she'd forced him to take off work and 'rest' and so here he was, baking on a beach when a stranger walked up to him and knew him by name.

It wasn't entirely shocking. He did work 'normal' cases occasionally. He had his own agency and partnership with the police and government, that was what he supposedly worked for, as far as his wife was aware. Having his name out there was part of the job. Still, in looking the woman over - a petite brunette with a friendly smile and warm eyes and dressed as a beachgoer - he wondered how someone looking for him made it all the way out here.

"I am, yeah, Ferris Felwinter," he didn't get up but he did extend his hand to her. "Can I help you with something, miss?"