Wendy Cody, Laurel Somerset & Joe Somerset

Wendy is Smurf's firstborn and she always told little Wendy that her father was an octopus, all quick hands and sticky, tricky fingers which made sense since Wendy ended up being the best pickpocket in the family. Of course, she gets into trouble all the time but she's always been too fast to actually get caught – until she's sixteen. But the detective that nabs her, much to her surprise, takes it easy on her. He's not a fan of Smurf or in her pocket like some others in the precinct, but the rumors about how she gets her money and raises her kids isn't exactly a state secret. So this detective – an older black guy called Joe Somerset – makes her a deal: he can book her and she'll likely be tried as an adult, which would mean jail time as opposed to juvie, or she can do public service as penance and he'll throw her arrest out thus keeping her record clean. She jumps at the chance but immediately regrets it when he makes her work for him.

It starts as just picking up food and coffee for detectives, cleaning up around the station, washing the cars and other menial tasks until he starts trusting her more. He starts letting her file cases away, deliver mail, files and evidence to other detectives, and various other important tasks. And Wendy enjoys the work! She likes going to the station after school, which she normally skipped but Somerset started following her to make sure she actually went (and he found out she skipped in the middle of the day once, somehow, so she just gave up), and she really likes hanging out with Somerset, too. He's different than every other adult she's ever met because he doesn't treat her like a burden or an asset or someone he has to butter up to bang her mom. He actually gets to know her and jokes with her, helps her with her homework, and helps her get a real job at the beach as a lifeguard.

Eventually, Wendy decides that she wants more than what she has. Smurf always told her that if she wanted something she had to take it for herself. It never occurred to her that she could earn the things she wanted. And she never dreamed that she'd get to keep 100% of what she earned, as opposed to Smurf taking mostly everything for herself and leaving her just enough to get by. So Wendy starts hunting for an answer and goes to a lawyer she's taken coffee to way too many times at the station for help. The answer: emancipation. The lawyer tells her that she meets the basic requirements: she's at least fourteen, she doesn't want to live with her parent/guardian, she can handle her own money and has a legal way to make it. But the difficulty is proving that Smurf won't mind her emancipation and that, ultimately, it would be good for her. Leaving her little brothers wouldn't be easy but Wendy knows she has to get out of that house, get away from Smurf, if she wants any kind of chance at having the life she knows she wants and deserves – her life.

"Smurf, if you ever loved me, or even cared about me just a little bit, then sign the damn papers and let me go."

"Or what? What are you gonna do? You gonna blackmail me? Tell your friend the detective about what we do, what you do? Oh, baby, you should know better than to try something like that."

"I do know better. Because that's something you would do and I'm not you. I'm not you, Smurf. I'm not gonna end up like you and I'm gonna prove it."

"You are gonna regret this, little girl."

"Maybe. But you won't be around to see it."

Flash forward a few decades, Wendy has done everything to set herself apart from her family in every way short of changing her name. She graduated high school, she went to college and got a degree, she doesn't do drugs and rarely drinks beyond a glass of wine or a beer at dinner if she's in the mood, she became a cop and worked her ass off to make detective. A Cody is a cop; it's practically an oxymoron. Wendy's also a single mom to an adorable nine year old girl, Laurel. Somerset is retired but still very close to Wendy and Laurel, who calls him PopPop. After her emancipation, Somerset let Wendy move in with him "just until she found her feet" but it ended up being permanent until she could afford her own place after college. Somerset is the father she never had and Wendy loves him dearly, affectionately calling him Pop. Initially, he thought it was just a play on Laurel calling him PopPop until she told him the truth. Eventually, they had Laurel's papers changed from Laurel Cody to Laurel Somerset, to give her a better start than her mother had.

The only contact she has with her family is through Baz and Deran. Baz and her fooled around in the past and remained flirty but amicable. Having daughters around the same age helped smooth things over for them, and she doesn't mind letting him crash on her couch when he and Cath get into a fight. Doesn't stop him from trying to get back into her bed and, while she's very tempted, the reminder that he can never be honest with her because she knows, deep down in her gut, that he's still pulling jobs for Smurf keeps him at bay. Deran, on the other hand, never begrudged his sister for wanting a legitimate life of her own away from Smurf. He was pissed at first, not because she left but because she didn't take him with her. As the years went on, his anger faded into envy of her getting out when she did because he wants something that's just his, something that Smurf can't touch. Smurf, of course, knows that her boys see her and about her other granddaughter but says nothing, preferring to act as though Wendy doesn't exist anymore in a fashion similar to how she treated Julia. Honestly, not having a relationship with Laurel hurts her more than her broken-beyond-repair relationship with Wendy.

Regardless, Wendy is a detective and a damn good one at that who specializes in theft. Originally, she wanted to steer clear of that division, given her own upbringing and past, but Somerset reminded her that she couldn't hide from it. "You've got an inside look into how these particular criminals think, how they operate, what their strategies could be, their patterns. While the other divisions would be damn lucky to have you, you know your talents would be wasted anywhere else." And he's not wrong. Wendy fights it at first, settling into the Narcotics unit before eventually transferring to the CAP (Crimes Against Property) division. Everyday she's dealing with auto thefts, burglaries, forgeries, frauds, computer crimes and identity theft. Somerset was right, too – she's really fucking good at her job. And she's happy, which is more important because she swore she wouldn't end up like Smurf, that she'd prove her wrong. Well, she did. Take that, Smurf.

Of course, some teenager showing up at her desk saying he's her nephew and needs help sends her idyllic life into a tailspin. What was it Michael Corleone said? "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Neela Jilani

This is a plot bunny that never fully formed beyond a name and face, unfortunately. Smurf mentioned having a connection at a pharmacy dry-up and my mind created Neela, a pharmacy tech at the local hospital. I had the idea that she was the one supplying Smurf with the drugs for Pope to manage his condition and would help patch up Smurf's boys whenever she called but, sadly, it never went beyond that.