"Hmm. It's a bit convenient how he was exactly nice to you, after finding out about your power."

"Dad!"

He shrugs minutely.

"Trust him some."

"Power helps with... safety, if I'm - careful."

"And the other one?"

"Friend. Helped with, Sideways, once."

"Where did you meet, and why do you trust—" He squints at the name. "—them?"

She considers for a moment and then gestures, hesitantly, for the phone back.

He hands it back.

She opens the text to speech app and starts typing.

"I don't trust either of them as much as you think I do."

"I've only been here a few weeks, not a month yet, I think."

"I don't know many people, and I don't know much of how things work here. I didn't go to orientation, it doesn't sound safe for me."

"So when I hear something strange, I don't have many good choices about what to do about it."

"I am pretty sure I can keep myself safe from them; my power makes that pretty easy if I'm careful. They haven't tried to hurt me yet, but I'm not making it easy for them to, either."

"They don't know about you, and they don't know about Penny, and I'm not going to tell them unless I have a reason and permission, or it's an emergency. I know better than to take risks for other people."

The only expression of his surprise is a slight raising of his eyebrows, but he nods curtly. "And you'll want to help?"

Nod.

"I was already planning to try to do something about this," she taps the phone demonstratively as it reads out that bit, "before I knew you were working on it too. And I want Penny to be okay."

His glance flicks to his daughter—

—who looks terribly smug—

—then back to Denice. "Okay. I'll accept your help."

She doesn't grin, exactly, but she does relax some.

"I was planning to go back and listen to Dr. Montgomery next, but I don't know much about what you're doing."

"If you can show me the people who're following you, I'll be able to recognize them later and warn you before they get close, and maybe follow them home."

"Somewhere within a two-block radius from here, black suits and overalls, sketchy-looking."

She zones out.

'Wearing a suit' is a tricky criterion, but between the layers and the fabric being the same on the jacket and pants, it's not impossible, and two blocks is plenty close enough for her to pick that out if she's trying; overalls are significantly easier. She ignores anyone in an office or restaurant, and anyone at a construction site unless they're acting particularly suspicious, and after a few moments she switches to the map app and starts indicating what she's found.

Which is four people with variously obscured views of the entrances to the restaurant. He frowns. "I'd only seen three of them."

"It's easier to hide when you know what you're hiding from."

"So it is. Do you have any idea why they could be after my daughter and I?"

She hesitates, then looks to Penny to see if she wants to answer that one.

Penny purses her lips and looks down at her legs, shrugging slightly.

<argylecape> I can tell him if you're just nervous about saying it

<argylecape> But not if you don't want him to know

<PennyLane> You can tell him