Upstairs Offices - Vice Division

[Ophelia]

Phee snorted in an extremely non-demure fashion, one that would have made her mother scowl and reprimand her; thankfully her mother wasn't even in the same state and therefore the detective felt free to be as non-demure as she pleased. "No, but fear makes him take them out and then eat them," she offered, looking up and answering the unasked question, "Oh yeah, yeah he did." she deadpanned.

"So if you wanna be disgusted in an interrogation, that's fine by me but you'll have to play 'good cop, bad cop' by yourself and please," Again Ophelia looked up from the diminishing stack of papers to her partner with her eyebrows raised and her free hand reaching for her coffee. "I'd rather not share the horrors of my date with the rest of the building if it's all the same."

The blonde signed then picked up a sheet of paper and deposited it to her left. Her tone was thick with humour though; she wasn't really worried about 'office gossip', there were much more interesting people to gossip about than her anyway and Glenn wasn't the type to shoot his mouth off if she really didn't want him to.

[Glenn]

Glenn had pulled a face, non-surprisingly, at the explanation regarding the breadsticks, telling himself quickly not to imagine it, because really, his stomach wouldn’t be thanking him for that visual. “Delightful…” he quipped drolly, shaking his head. No wonder the guy hadn’t lasted, or more to the point, hadn’t really had a chance. If Phee had made him nervous enough for him to do something so ridiculous in the first place, then he really hadn’t had a hope in hell.

“Okay, okay, no breadstick bowl in the interrogations.” He held up his hands, admitting ‘defeat’ with a small smile as he finished with another file. It seemed his sense of flow regarding the paperwork had returned to him now that he could engage in witty, or perhaps not-so-witty, banter with his partner. Maybe she kept him focused, or perhaps it was just that she distracted him in such a way that paperwork didn’t seem so utterly terrible, but whatever the reason, Phee’s presence certainly seemed to impact his productivity regarding the menial but necessary task.

“I’m sure we could find some alternative method, anyway,” he suggested, calm-as-you-please, shrugging his shoulders as he fiddled with his pen, wagging it between his fingers as he perused a fresh document.

[Ophelia]

Ophelia nodded and dropped her gaze simultaneously, agreeing with the sarcastic 'delightful' line; it had been a rather disturbing evening if she was totally honest. She couldn't see what it was that made cops such a different 'breed' in some cases. She knew full well that she perhaps didn't see the world quite the same way as other 'normal' people but she wasn't that cut off was she? Bianca would say she was, of course, but her opinion was at the bottom of the pile of ones that counted. The blond blinked down at her paper work silently, wondering to herself as she rested her chin on the heel of her right hand why she had thought of her sister so suddenly.

It wasn't easy to shake off, but she did it anyway and continued to skim read the document on her desk while speaking; multi-tasking was an art. "What about giving the perp a security blanket? Soon as he goes foetal we'll know we've intimidate him." She paused to underline something and scribble a note in the margin and looked up with a crooked smile after wards, "'Course getting our suspects to regress might not be the best tactic..."

[Glenn]

Long story short, cops just intimidated most people, or in the extreme opposite, they wowed people too much; it was the case with a lot of women, unfortunately — they found themselves dating a cop, and wham, the guy never got a minute’s peace. They would get messages asking if they were doing anything heroic or dangerous, and could they meet up later? Had they saved or shot anyone yet that day? It was ridiculous, and… to be fair, a little creepy. Glenn had been unlucky enough to date a woman like that once, and he had promised himself that it would never happen again.

Glenn laughed at her suggestion, leaning back in his chair as the mental images ran rampant in his mind’s eye. Oh, that could prove far too entertaining; there would be a Wall of Shame before the week was out, he was sure. Shaking his head, he pointed at her with his pen. “That’s a good one. Something tells me it might not go down so well with DAs though, or whoever has a beef with us on any given week.”

[Ophelia]

With her palms flat on the arms of her office chair, Ophelia pushed herself up and re-crossed her legs to get comfy, then she leant forwards again, having cleared her mini-stack of papers for the moment she had a clear desk to cross her arms over loosely. "The DAs?" she snorted derisively, "Don't they line their briefcases with security blankets?"

Having something of a black and white approach to her job, Phee often saw the DAs office as more of a hindrance than a help. If he booked a guy, she did it with evidence to back it up and she did it for a conviction; not to spend months in court bogged down in bureaucratic crap that just slowed the process and in the worst cases stopped her doing her job to best of her abilities. That was something that plain ticked her off.

[Glenn]

Glenn gave a snort of a noise. “Good point,” he acknowledged, tossing his pen up lightly and catching it easily, watching the little object tumble through the air for a moment. The ability to simply enjoy such a ‘meaningless’ conversation with a partner that had become his best friend was not something that Glenn took for granted, but rather something that he was thankful for every day, even if only quietly on the inside. He considered himself lucky, knowing there were plenty of others officers he could have been ‘dumped’ with.

The more they could avoid the courts, the better, in Glenn’s opinion. To him, there was nothing worse than getting stuck in a courtroom, dressed to the nines, listening to argument after argument, defence after defence, complaint after complaint… and then for it all to come down to the decisions of a handful of random people who, often, had no expertise in the area of crime and law… well, it was sometimes something of a slap in the face, he thought. But it was none of his business, and simply the way things worked.

[Ophelia]

She watched him toss the pen in the air, eyes following its progress absently as she reached out for another sheet of paper. She wanted to get all the paper work out of the way before the day decided to throw something into her lap that would railroad any later attempts. It felt like one of those days where something was about to happen... Maybe that had something to do with the rough night the station had had in general last night. Despite all the inter-department animosity and grumblings -there were definitely some of both- they were all on the same side and such a brutal homicide and two cops in the Hospital meant they would all be feeling the effects in one way or another. Not in a creepy ESP way either, in a very practical, on edge kind of way.

Just because she and Glenn were enjoying one of many random conversations they had didn't mean that under that they weren't concerned.

"Oh hey," Phee said, her brain grasping the words on the page she had been reading, "Permission for that phone tap on Bates finally came through, geeze, I was starting to think we were gonna be shuffling around the precinct with a Zimmer frame by the time the honchos pulled their fingers out." The blonde skimmed the page and then passed it over the top of the desks.

[Glenn]

Glenn had learned at a young age to delicately cover something tragic or dark with a light layer of subtle humour, complete with somewhat lame jokes and wan smiles, or depending on the situation itself, a full-out laugh; if it made you feel better, then it was for the best. True, sometimes it seemed out of place, or even downright inappropriate to most, but Glenn had long ago given up on doing things for the sake of other people, such as laughing or smiling; those things were very much in his control, and would never stop being in his control. Not if he could help it, anyway.

“Seriously?” He rocked forward in his chair, setting down his pen as if the gesture were finalistic in some way, showing his relief and shock, even as he reached for the page. “Jeez, about damn time. What took ‘em so long? They lose the request forms, or did they have to learn how to read all over again, or something?” Okay, so it was far from the best jab in the world, but Glenn had been up for several hours for no real reason, and was perhaps starting to feel it, much to his irritation.

[Ophelia]

"That or they were pulling breadsticks out of their noses, or other orifices." Phee sniggered, amusing herself even as she noted the flicker of real irritation in her partner's quip. It was quite sad to be laughing at her own joke, she supposed but she felt more than comfortable doing so in the presence of Glenn. She leant forwards on her elbows, "I guess this means we can get that case rolling again, it's taken long enough to get the damned paperwork through, I just hope there's still someone to arrest at the end of the day."

The figurative end of the day, rather than the actually day of work, she added to herself, though it was obvious. Then again she wouldn't have been against arresting someone over the course of the shift, they'd just need evidence... and really that was what their department was about, they gathered intelligence. Hence a phone tap being a big deal, they had to cut through all manners of red tape and luckily the case they'd built was strong enough to warrant what was considered 'extreme' circumstances, in other words they had enough dirt on the guy and those her worked for to grant them permission to use slightly harder tactics.

[Glenn]

Chuckling in amusement at the thought of the breadsticks, he shook his head. Looking over the paper she had handed him, Glenn nodded his head; about damn time. They had been waiting on this for… he had actually forgotten how long it had been, but it hadn’t been a speedy response to say the least. “Remind me to never touch breadsticks again,” he said in something of a dry quip as he perused the paper briskly. “Never know where they’ve been. I swear, you’ve put me off for life, now.”

Tossing the paper back lightly, so it landed just in front of Ophelia’s perched elbows, he said to her, “There’s always someone to arrest. It’s just a matter of whether or not they’re our guy.” His brows lifted as he pointed out such a detail, as corny as it perhaps was. Glenn sighed lightly. “At least we can’t be accused of moving too fast on this one. Maybe the guy won’t get suspicious, this way.”

[Ophelia]

"Sorry," Phee laughed with regards to the breadsticks. Then again she had been put off too, for a while at least but maybe not for life; she really liked breadsticks now that she thought about it. She blinked, dislodging the potentially extremely random train of thought.

Clarity returning the blonde gave a nod, "Too true. I have no idea where the file went though, now that I think about it." Bates was a 'finger-in-every-pie' type, hence the length they were willing to go to gather intelligence on the scumbag. He had connections with lots of cases and it was entirely likely that the file was sitting on someone's desk somewhere, part of background reading for another case. The thought of going on a case file scavenger hunt was not appealing though... not really.

Not without at least one more cup of coffee anyway.

[Glenn]

Glancing into his mug, Glenn sighed. “Either someone’s put a hole in the bottom of my mug, and the desk,” he began almost wearily, as if the morning truly were catching up with him, the notion of a long day ahead adding to the lethargy, “or I need a refill already.” After a pause, he said to Phee, “I’m inclined to believe the latter.”

Coming up out of his slouch, shifting his badge around his neck subconsciously as he did, he looked across the desk to her. “Before we get our heads down on this,” he pointed at the sheet, “you want one?” The detective lifted his mug for emphasis, even though the woman across from him would obviously know what he was talking about. Not only was it their friendship that allowed them to understand one another so easily and clearly, but the partnership they had shared for several years also ensured a certain level of understanding, and one that definitely paid off in their day-to-day work.

[Ophelia]

"You even have to ask?" Phee tilted her head slightly and raised her eyebrows and her mug, the latter she shook to demonstrate that she too was out of coffee. She read Glenn's expression and took from it that perhaps the head start he had gotten on the day was starting to work against him and therefore coffee was definitely in order.

Rising from her desk and pushing her chair away with the back of her knees rather than her hands, she tilted her head towards the door, "Break Room?" she asked, holding onto her cup as she made the action. True she hadn't been there long, but she'd finished a cup of coffee and powered through enough of her paperwork to be satisfied that it was time for a break. Besides she'd even managed to get a practical joke into the mix. The train of thought reminded her and she picked up the Reader's Digest from her desk, intending to drop it off in Metcalfe's desk as they went by.

[Glenn]

Glenn chuckled in quiet amusement at Phee’s response, and after a few more moments of enjoying the relative comfort of his chair, he made the effort to stand, rolling his shoulders a little to loosen them up. He hadn’t been seated all that long, but his muscles, he found, had a tendency to stiffen up on him if he relaxed or slouched too long or too much. He wasn’t even sure why that was, or if it was all psychosomatic, but given he was rather active anyway, on any given day, it didn’t bother him much.

“Break room it is,” he confirmed, making an ‘onward!’ gesture, with a confident nod of his head. Together they headed away from their joined desks, passing Metcalfe’s on the way, and Glenn grinned as his partner dropped the magazine onto it, ensuring it landed where the other detective would be sure to see it. “I sense a revenge war coming on,” he teased lightly as they headed out of their department.


Continued at: Break Room with Ophelia.