Prolouge

In all her years, Paula Crock had only been with a few men. She had two boyfriends through high school and married her partner after falling in love with him during training in the League of Shawdows. But now their once happy relationship was gone and had ended. Fizzled out and become meaningless. She never would have guessed that she fall in love again. And she certainly never thought she'd make the same mistakes again. She had met the man for whom she had newly fallen for, in a completley different way then she had met Lawrence. She was at her lawyers office after her sister died a few months ago. The contents of her weathy sister's will had just been released and Paula was apparently on it. She was in the waiting room, whcih only had six chairs, three on either side and very little to look at or do, when a handsome gentleman around her age came in and sat beside her. He smiled largley at her and winked. In spite of herself she blushed at bit. No one ever looked at her with anything but pity since her accident. A few minutes later, her lawyer came out to speak to her.

"Good day Ms. Crock. How are you?" Her stuffy lawyer, whose name was Stan asked her primly. Paula always found it entertaining to talk to this man since he was enourmously guliable and his reactions were priceless.

"Thanks Stan, and I'm well minus the giant eagle in my apartment." The man next to her stiffled a laugh by turning his head and covering his mouth. Stan looked appaled.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked placing a hand over his heart. Before Paula could respond, the handsome man cut in.

"It's quite a problem actually. American Bald Eagles are comming in through open windows and catching fire on stove tops. It's quite a tragedy." Now it was Paula's turn to laugh into her arm, pretending to be coughing.

"My word! Why haven't I heard of this before?"

"It's a government coverup. No news station is allowed to broadcast it!" the man said cheerily, winking at Paula.

"Yes, they paid those who complained handsomely to keep quiet." she added. Stan shook his head.

"It's things like these that make me homesick for the Canadian North. Now Ms. Crock shall we get down to business?" Paula nodded and wheeled her chair over toward Stan's office. The man smiled and waved at her as she left.

The office was small and cramped with many books on law and heirs. The desk was a mirror of it's posseser; shiny and proper with a name tag that read: Stan Merkins, Attorney at Law. Paula thought it was pretensious and found it all very amusing.

"Alright. The last will and testament of Suzane Nguyen, last changed on the fifteenth of November. To those the enemies I left behind, I give you my trouble and debts as well as all the unfortunes in the world. Death didn't make any less of a vindictive woman then life. So screw you karama, I'm already dead. To my loving neices, Artemis and Jade. I know that you probably won't be able to hear this, so I hope you mother will tell you. Jade: while a life of crime is fun, it's no subsitute for a real family. You shall receive your third of my one million and 52 thousand dollars when you no longer where that adorable cat suit of yours. Try and remember that. Artemis: Never stop questioning everyone about everything. Stay independant and sassy like you aunt. Spend you third of my fortune wisely. Maybe get yourself a deccent archery range to practise on without your over reacting father breating down your neck. Fianlly to my dearest sister: You were the shining light of my life. You deserve a far better man then that creep Lawrence, so use your third to get a makeover, find a guy and fall in love. I loved you all except for those I didn't. You know who you are. It's time for me to go now, so don't bother me again." Stan looked up from the letter to see the crippled woman laughing and crying at the same time.

"That's Sue for you." They talked for a little while about the finner point, when the money would arrive, the trust fund for Jade, ectera. Finally they said goodbye and Paula wheeled herself to the door. To her surprise, the handsome man was still waiting outside.

"Your still here? And I thought wait times at the emergency room was long." The man smiled again and rose to meet her.

"Actually, I was waiting for you." Now the rational side of Paula's brain was being overridden by the part of her that was still listening to her sister's last words. And so she shut down her guard for the first time in a long long time.

"Oh? And why would you do that?" she asked. This time his smile was coy.

"Well... don't think me too forward, but, I kinda wanted to get to know you more. My name's Norman. Norman Oswald." Paula grinned and stuck out her hand. He took it and kissed it. While the action was cheesy and a bit creepy, Paula smiled a bit bigger.

"Paula. Paula Crock. You aren't perhaps a secret agent are you?" Norm giggled, and nodded.

"Good to know. And no, unfortunatley I have no licence to kill and my drinks are prefered stirred." Paula laughed out loud and Stan stuck his head out of his office to glare at the pair. Still chuckling, they moved outside.

"So can I buy you a cup of coffee?" Norman asked. Paula said yes. Everything went down hill from there.

Being the prolouge this is probably the shorest chapter I'll post but others will be longer. I'll try my best to post once or twice a week and since i have no life, thats probably attainable! R&R and tell me if I should continue! :D