"Order up!"

Elena glanced back at the hatch into the kitchen, turning to collect the order that had been placed there to ferry it over to the customers waiting for their food with a smile. She wasn't normally a server or waitress in her own cafe, but today was a little different. Magnolia had not yet arrived for her shift, and Elena was worried. Mags was a hobbit, and usually went unmolested through the streets, since no one really considered hobbits or halflings to be a threat to anyone. But with all the violence and unpleasantness in the streets right now, Elena couldn't help being concerned that somehow it had caught up to her favorite shortie.

As she passed the table nearest to the doors, she smiled at the two sitting there as well.

"Everything all right, got everything you need?" she asked of the pair.

The woman chuckled, nodding. "Any more, and we're not going to be able to move fast any longer!"

Elena laughed. "Well, I gotta look after you," she pointed out. "Can't have my security wasting away on the job, can I?"

The man rolled his eyes. "You know what? You De Lucas are all the same," he grinned.

"Donnelly, but close enough," Elena corrected him, making a mental note to make sure she topped up their coffee on her next wander about the cafe.

Things seemed calm enough, thankfully, but what was calm here could easily be something close to a riot elsewhere in the city. She leaned on the shelf of the hatch, her concerned expression catching Liza's attention. The cook came over, sharing her frown.

"Still no sign of the little miss?" she asked worriedly.

Elena shook her head. "No, nothing," she admitted reluctantly. "And she's dead set against having a cell phone, so there's no way to call her and find out what?s keeping her. I hope she's all right."

"Mags knows what she's about," Liza tried to assured her. "She's a hobbit, they're the slipperiest folk I ever did meet. If she got into trouble, you can bet she'd find a quick way out of it."

"Hopefully into the nearest safe haven," Elena pointed out. "I don't want any of you to be intimidated into not coming into work just because I'm behaving like a decent human being."

Liza snorted with laughter. "She's tough as old boots," she promised her employer. "Once she gets here, you do what you need to do to settle your mind, and then you go back home to your husband and your baby girl. I'll batter anyone who gets past security with my frying pan."

Elena bit her lip to keep from smiling too broadly. Liza was in her sixties, and the frying pan in question was cast iron. She couldn't see even the most hardline protester intent on violence wanting to test the temper holding onto the handle. Liza even intimidated her on occasion, and she owned this place! Still, it was a comfort to know that her staff - of all races - was prepared to stand with her on this issue. If any of them had disagreed, she would have had to have let them go, and she didn't want to do that. Since she'd taken over Incredible Edibles, the staff had become like a second family to her. It would hurt to find divisions in that family.

A commotion behind Liza caught her attention as the door to the alley out back swung open to admit a very harassed-looking Magnolia. The little hobbit scurried inside, turning to push the door closed behind her. The door was held open, however, by a burly man holding a cudgel. Elena's eyes narrowed, her head snapping back to call for some help from the pair by the window even as Liza hefted her frying pan and placed herself firmly between Magnolia and her pursuer.

"Don't you dare bring your bad attitude into my kitchen, mister, or I'll knock you out the way your mother never did," the cook warned in a terrifyingly low tone.

"Get out of the way, grandma," he snarled back at her. "Don't have a problem with you, just that."

Elena, by this point, was already in the kitchen, advancing toward the tableau with an angry expression on her face.

"Are you harassing my staff?" she demanded. "Is it your fault that she's arrived late and scared, and came in through the back for the first time in her life?"

Faced with a pretty human woman, the man hesitated, glancing at his cudgel as though he'd only just noticed he was holding it. "Uh, well ..."

"Well?" Elena repeated, folding her arms as her foot tapped. They were cliched signs of a woman in a temper, but they worked wonderfully well on human men who weren't expecting them.

He floundered, not quite able to come up with the right words to plead his case, and ran out of time as the security team joined Elena in the kitchen. The owner of the cafe glared at the man furiously.

"Do you read the newspaper, or listen to the radio?" she asked. "Or even watch television' Because if you do, you'll understand what I'm about to say. Incredible Edibles is a safe haven. I will not tolerate any disrespectful speech or behavior toward my staff or my customers. You have just crossed the line. Now get out."

Angry lines appeared on the man's brow as he caught up with what she was saying. "Wait, you're one of those apologists?" he demanded, hefting his cudgel again. "You should -"

Whatever it was he thought she should do, Elena didn't find out. The female half of her security team took hold of the cudgel and twisted both it and the man's arm up behind his back to push him bodily out through the back door. She kept hold of the weapon, though. The male half, meanwhile, was chanting quietly under his breath, integrating this particular human into the spell that had already been cast over the building. As the man roared and charged the doorway again, he slammed into an unseen barrier, unable to put even a hair over the threshold.

Elena watched him clawing at the air for a few moments.

"Allow me to explain what?s happening," she told him. "You have behaved intolerably toward my staff. You are no longer welcome in my establishment. You will never set foot in here, so long as you live. And if you choose to hang around in some misguided attempt to ambush anyone leaving or entering this premises, you will find yourself at the mercies of the 27th Division, do I make myself clear" Good."

Without waiting for his response, she slammed the door in his face, offering a brief thank you to the security team before moving swiftly to where Magnolia was staring at all of them in amazement. The hobbit looked harassed but unhurt, thankfully, disheveled more from her madcap rush through the streets than from any unfriendly hands put upon her person. Elena drew her to sit down, wanting to be sure.

"What happened, Mags?"

The hobbit shrugged. "Came up on him as I passed along the Mile," she said. "Reckon he was looking for a weak target to beat up on, but I didn't think he'd chase me all the way here. What did you do?"

Elena smiled regretfully. "I declared us a safe haven and had a mage cast some kind of friend or foe spell over the place," she explained. "Anyone who pisses me off, or makes themselves unwelcome, is never ever going to be able to come in here ever again. I'm tired of just letting people spout their bigotry. I'm making a stand, and I'm going to hold their favorite coffee and pastries hostage if they try to fight me over it."

Mags looked close to tears with gratitude. "I was goin' to say that maybe I should resign," she started, but Liza interrupted her before she could go on.

"Over my dead body, you will!" the old cook snapped vehemently. "Silly children who pull the wings off flies don't deserve to think they've won just because you're worried about protecting us, my girl. We'll see you safe."

"Yes, we will," Elena nodded. "I'll make sure someone is available to escort you to and from work until we're sure all of this has died down. I am not losing a friend because a few people are feeling precious about skills and jobs they never had in the first place. And I'm not the only one who thinks that way, either. So wipe your nose, eat your second breakfast, and get back to work, Mags. Edibles wouldn't be the same without you."

"Oh, bless you," Mags half-laughed, a sound that became a full blown laugh when Liza set a full breakfast plate down in front of her.

"Eat hearty, short-arse," the cook said cheerfully. Though it could have been an insult, from Liza it was definitely a term of endearment.

Satisfied that Mags would be all right, Elena left the kitchen, returning to her counter to help serve the customers who were waiting. This spike in nastiness had left a bad taste in her mouth, but now she'd dealt with one such incident, she was confident they would be able to deal with anything more that came their way. One thing was absolutely certain, however. Incredible Edibles was definitely a safe haven.

Zero tolerance.