Take Me Away, Officer! (TAG)

[Jaina Gaben]

The chair was a little too tall for Jaina. Her feet didn't quite reach the floor, so she just sort of kicked her feet back and forth and tried to touch the ground with her toes. She was a little battered and bruised, she touched a split in her lip with her tongue, wincing a bit at the pain. One eye was black and swelling up a bit. Still, through it all, she grinned, even though she was sitting in a police interrogation center.

She had gone and robbed a convenience store, swiping a bunch of cash from the till, and making a point to be seen. She'd managed to hide the cash before the feisty guy manning the till caught up and started beating the crap out of her, and she just screamed for a cop. Finally, someone came up, and she was arrested. Exactly as planned. 

She confessed to everything, and made it clear she still had the cash, but wasn't going to tell them where it was until she talked to a specific investigator. She needed to talk to him. She'd realized some things and had to talk to him about them.

And she'd lost his phone number.

She grinned even wider when the investigator in question finally walked in. "Hiya werewolf guy. Nice to see you."

@lupo

[Deleted]

Luca stared at the other detective in confusion, and blinked as he sat back in his chair. He’d been busy all day working on another case, and just finished eating his late lunch when the other man and his partner walked over to him, handing a folder to him. “Huh? Your suspect wants to talk to me?”

The man’s partner sighed, and she spoke up as she crossed her arms, and answered him while Luca glanced at the file, looking to see who their suspect was. “She specifically asked for you, Moretti. She won’t tell us where she hid the cash she stole from the convenient store she robbed until she spoke to you.”

“Really…?” He gazed intently at the mug shot of their suspect, followed by the name and other information about the young woman. He knew her, and it showed on his face.

“You know her, Moretti?” asked one of the detectives curiously.

Luca glanced up and nodded.

“It won’t be a problem, will it?”

He shook his head, and simply replied as he got out of his seat, and headed over to the interrogation room where she was left in, waiting for him, with the file in hand. “Nope. I’ll take care of this, detectives. Thanks.”

///

Luca headed down the hallway where the interrogation room was located, and entered the one that was occupied with the young woman, and closed the door when he locked eyes with her, but seemed a bit taken aback by how beaten up she looked. He responded with a soft grin at how she greeted him. “Jaina. I’m not a werewolf, but nice to see you too,” while adding as he sat down in the chair across from her, as he set the file down in front of him, “Better here than in the morgue, huh?”

He winced, leaning over a bit with his arms resting on the table, and studied the bruises, the split lip, and the black eye. “Who did this to you?”

He asked with concern in his tone, reaching over as he stood up to gently hold her by the chin and the corner of her forehead, and carefully turned her head from the left to the right to check her over - especially to see if she had a concession as he carefully looked in her eyes after pulling out a small, pocket-sized flashlight from his pocket and checked her pupils; relieved to see they were fine and she didn’t appear to have a concussion. He turned off the flashlight and returned it to his pocket. He knew it wouldn’t matter, as she healed in such an odd, yet sad way, but still…he couldn’t help but feel concerned and wanted to take care of her.

“It would’ve been so nice if the detectives who brought you in would’ve mentioned this to me,” he ranted under his breath, and then asked her mildly, “Do you need me to get the medics in here to patch you up a bit, Jaina? Give you a cold pack for your black eye there?”

Jaina Gaben

[Jaina Gaben]

Jaina shrugged when he mentioned the morgue, still grinning. "I mean I thought about it, but I figured you aren't staring at stiffs all the time, so I figured this would have been best."

Jaina maintained her nonchalant demeanor. This was nothing compared to other things that she had gone through, but she was feeling weird with Luca caring for her, checking her over. "Eh, it's fine. I've had worse. Seriously, it's fine. It was the cashier, Sandra. She's chill, but takes no shit. Don't worry about her. Oh, and the money is hidden behind a loose brick on 6th. Fifth one up from the bottom. The guy that picked me up should know the spot, it's where Sandra caught up to me."

She gently pushed away Luca's tender checking, starting to tremble a bit. Now things were getting down to brass tacks, and that nonchalant demeanor was breaking. She was feeling a lot of emotions, emotions she hadn't felt or dealt with in over a decade, and she wasn't sure how to deal with them. It resulted in a lot of lost confidence.

"I-I needed to t-talk to you about the other night and--" She dug around in her pockets, looking for something. "Y-you did a thing and--and--and it's a... it's like... it..."

Her hand closed around the small object, and she pulled it out.

And threw it at Luca. "SORRY CATCH. I-- shit."

It was a small wolf figurine, made from trash plastic and cans molded and shaped over a lighter she had found. "Sorry. Sorry. I-- fuck. Sorry. I wanted to--I needed to--I'm--I'm... thanks?"

@lupo

[Deleted]

“I deal with major crimes, like murders, missing persons, robberies, and theft. So, no. I don’t stare at stiffs in a morgue all the time,” he grinned back. “Only when someone who’s thought to have died comes back to life and takes items collected from the other bodies.”

He studied her for a moment, and grinned again as he added, “You know, you could’ve come here and talked to the nice lady at the front desk in the precinct’s entrance, and asked to see a detective, and then she would’ve taken you up here, and you would’ve seen me.” He paused, chewing on his lower lip as he creased his brows quizzically. “What happened to the card I gave you? Did you lose it?”

He nodded when she said she was fine and had worse, and who had beaten her up, and then told him where she hid all of the cash she took. He stopped checking her over when she gently pushed his hands away, and then returned to his seat, noticing how she was starting to tremble a bit. He looked at the file given to him by the other detectives, and then fixed his eyes back on her, with a pen in hand.

“The cashier did that to you?” He was about to write the name down in his notepad, but asked, “You sure it’s fine? You don’t want to press charges on her? If you’re sure, then I won’t arrest her and charge her with assault.” He did write down the street and the exact location the money was hidden at as he waited for her to respond.

Luca glanced up at her when she brought up what happened the other night, the night he saved her from those thugs, and the night she learned what he really was. He set the pen down and rested his hands on the table as he leaned over a bit, giving his undivided attention as she stammered. He glanced down when she looked like she was rummaging around in her pockets for whatever she was looking for. He knew it wasn’t anything bad, as the previous detectives had already searched her for weapons, which they did find a knife in one of her pockets, and was curious what she was doing, rather than worried.

He raised an eyebrow when she pulled something small out of her pocket, and then suddenly threw it at him, and apologized loudly. He swiftly and easily caught it in hand before it could hit him in the head, and opened his hand and looked at the small figurine of what looked like to be a wolf laying in the palm of his hand. He studied it, turning it around slowly as he held it by his fingertips, smiling a little.

“You…made this…for me?” He looked impressed at her creativity by using plastic and cans, which were molded and shaped by some kind of open flame she used. He was really touched, especially when she made it look like a wolf. “I…it’s really good. You’re really good. I…um, thank you. Seriously.” He nodded. “I appreciate this, Jaina. No one’s really, ever…made me anything after saving them.” He smiled warmly. “I have a place where I can put this on my desk here. I uh…thank you.” He placed it in his pocket of his pants for safe keeping until he's able to return to his desk.

"Um..." He glanced down at the file folder with the papers again, and said as he looked up at her, "I'll see if I can get the robbery charges dropped, talk to Sandra, since it says in the report she's also the owner of the convenient store, since it'll be up to her if she wants you to be charged for robbing her. It's the least I can do." He shrugged his broad shoulders. "Just this once though. I won't be able to do this again. So, uh..." He grinned. "Please come see me if you need to talk to me, instead of getting yourself in trouble, all right?" He huffed an amused chuckle, shaking his head a little, as he closed the file up and placed his pocket-sized notebook on top, sighed, and looked at her. 

"You okay? Need anything? I won't be able to let you go yet," he explained, "Not until the charges are dropped. So, sit tight. I'll call Sandra and talk to her and use my charms and silver tongue to persuade her in dropping the charges, especially since she'll have all the money stolen back, that'll be a big plus." He smiled faintly.

Jaina Gaben

[Jaina Gaben]

Jaina flushed, and rubbed the back of her neck under her hair, feeling incredibly awkward. She swung her legs harder, wishing she just just vanish. Into that one way mirror over there, maybe, like Samir. "Y-yeah. I made it for you. A-as thanks. Y-you put your--you risked.. you protected me and you... you... yeah."

He should know what she was talking about, right? She couldn't get it out. Too many emotions and she couldn't deal with them right now. She refocused on the file.

"Yeah I just wanted to talk to you and I lost your card so I figured I might as well do something that would definitely get your attention and yeah I don't wanna press charges against Sandra maybe you can spin that into a deal I don't press charges she don't press charges yeah? Yeah that sounds good."

She looked down at her swinging feet, feeling awkward. Feeling small. Feeling like she wished she could be smaller. Over a decade on the street had taught her not to trust anyone because they were always out for themselves but Luca and Samir had proved that was wrong, and she was struggling to process it.

"I'm good. I don't need anything. In fact I should probably call the guy I'm staying with, he'll worry like hell if I'm not back by 8 PM. Could I have that phone back so I can?"

@lupo