Poison
Title: Poison
Author: mina_kat9
Theme/Set: 09 Poison/CI
Rating: G
Claim (+ additional character(s)): Alex Eames (w/ other)
Warning: n/a
Summary: Debt Paid (Note, I'm taking a decidedly AU approach for this claim. So don't freak. Or, do, 'cause it's pretty freaky, really.)
He pulled her aside when her coffee was finished and asked her very nicely to come back the next morning. For three years she’d in here after dropping one partner or the other off after work. Just outside her neighborhood it made a nice close to the day. And it was quiet. He wouldn’t explain why he wanted her, but the look of concern, almost to the point of fear, was obvious.
She came back the next morning, with her partner, and took a seat at the counter, not quite out of the way. The owner didn’t greet her and she didn’t bother him. Instead she took her time looking over all the patrons. At that hour pretty much everyone looked seedy so she didn’t pick anyone out as the owner’s concern.
Not, that is, until the owner was pouring her last cup of coffee. She noticed a very slight tremor in the hand holding the coffee pot just when the diner door opened. Gesturing for him to stop pouring, she nodded very slightly. Her partner went on talking about some movie he’d seen. She’d stopped listening ten minutes earlier.
Following the sound of the man’s progress, she had a rough idea of where he’d seated himself. A few minutes sipping her coffee and nodding at her partner and then she reached for a fresh napkin a couple seats down. Turning subtly she saw what the diner owner had and only barely managed to conceal a look of disgust. Returning to her coffee, she had more trouble with her second impulse-a mixture of fear and anger.
The man she’d seen was tall, almost painfully thin with angular features. He’d have been attractive if not for slightly beady eyes and his expression. The moment she’d first seen him she’d labeled him JoJo the Rat Faced Boy and nothing she’d seen had changed her mind. He was talking to two younger men, both speaking with Russian accents. Now she understood the owner’s concern. The three of them had ‘connected’ written all over them in big, ugly letters.
Normally, she’d have wandered over, patted one of them on the shoulder, leaned in close, and told them in no uncertain terms to pick a different place to have their little pow-wows. JoJo made that impossible. One word from him to his table mates and an awful lot of work on her part would be shot. She swore softly.
Her partner turned to her and asked loudly, “What’s up?” He spoke so loudly that half the customers turned around. Including JoJo. She’d turned away by then, but not nearly far enough. Odds were high that he’d spotted and identified her. She knew full well that JoJo knew she was a cop, and everyone in the place would have made them for cops taking one look at her partner. And now he was looking around the place wildly. She contemplated simply shooting him and putting the gun in JoJo’s hands.
“Nothing. Let me pay the tab and we’ll go. You go on out to the car.” With a shrug, and a final less than subtle look around, he left. She turned and very deliberately looked at JoJo and his friends. JoJo had turned and was watching her, a small, twitchy little smile on his face. He thought he had her.
She was afraid that maybe he did. It could just as easily look like she was following him, checking up on his ‘official’ work as what it really was-him betraying his boss with a couple of new kids. Neither answer was going to go over well with Jimmy. And if he chose to believe it, it could get her killed. Meeting JoJo’s eyes, she nodded once. Then she turned to the owner of the diner. Gently, she told him she’d take care of it over the next couple days. She damn well hoped she wasn’t lying.
In the squad car, her partner was in the shotgun seat, playing idly with the radio. Again she seriously considered just shooting him and planting the gun on JoJo. It was a win/win situation. With a snarl, she got in and turned the car on.
“I’m leaving early today.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Cramps.”
****************
She left work at four, went home, and paced her apartment for a full hour. Leaving right after dropping her partner at work just wasn’t possible. Tempting, but not possible. Running straight to the restaurant sounded good, too, but it left her in a vulnerable position in a completely different way.
She was, in once sense, contractually obligated to report what she’d seen. To two different employers. One of them she couldn’t care less about at this moment. The other hadn’t been out of her thoughts since setting eyes on the rat faced boy. Who would he believe? Had she convinced him well enough?
Pulling open her closet, she started pulling clothes out and tossing them on the bed. Everything she wore had to be his-purchased with his money. After making six different outfits she decided on simplicity. She dressed quickly in jeans and a tunic style shirt. Just this once she considered putting her badge in her hip pocket, but at the last second she decided against it. He knew what she was. If he didn’t believe her, the piece of metal wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
*************
Walking into the front door of the restaurant was as purposeful tonight as it had been the first time. Then she had been searching for something. Something she thought she just might have found. Now she was paying a debt. A debt to a man who took them very seriously indeed.
Table Link
Author: mina_kat9
Theme/Set: 09 Poison/CI
Rating: G
Claim (+ additional character(s)): Alex Eames (w/ other)
Warning: n/a
Summary: Debt Paid (Note, I'm taking a decidedly AU approach for this claim. So don't freak. Or, do, 'cause it's pretty freaky, really.)
He pulled her aside when her coffee was finished and asked her very nicely to come back the next morning. For three years she’d in here after dropping one partner or the other off after work. Just outside her neighborhood it made a nice close to the day. And it was quiet. He wouldn’t explain why he wanted her, but the look of concern, almost to the point of fear, was obvious.
She came back the next morning, with her partner, and took a seat at the counter, not quite out of the way. The owner didn’t greet her and she didn’t bother him. Instead she took her time looking over all the patrons. At that hour pretty much everyone looked seedy so she didn’t pick anyone out as the owner’s concern.
Not, that is, until the owner was pouring her last cup of coffee. She noticed a very slight tremor in the hand holding the coffee pot just when the diner door opened. Gesturing for him to stop pouring, she nodded very slightly. Her partner went on talking about some movie he’d seen. She’d stopped listening ten minutes earlier.
Following the sound of the man’s progress, she had a rough idea of where he’d seated himself. A few minutes sipping her coffee and nodding at her partner and then she reached for a fresh napkin a couple seats down. Turning subtly she saw what the diner owner had and only barely managed to conceal a look of disgust. Returning to her coffee, she had more trouble with her second impulse-a mixture of fear and anger.
The man she’d seen was tall, almost painfully thin with angular features. He’d have been attractive if not for slightly beady eyes and his expression. The moment she’d first seen him she’d labeled him JoJo the Rat Faced Boy and nothing she’d seen had changed her mind. He was talking to two younger men, both speaking with Russian accents. Now she understood the owner’s concern. The three of them had ‘connected’ written all over them in big, ugly letters.
Normally, she’d have wandered over, patted one of them on the shoulder, leaned in close, and told them in no uncertain terms to pick a different place to have their little pow-wows. JoJo made that impossible. One word from him to his table mates and an awful lot of work on her part would be shot. She swore softly.
Her partner turned to her and asked loudly, “What’s up?” He spoke so loudly that half the customers turned around. Including JoJo. She’d turned away by then, but not nearly far enough. Odds were high that he’d spotted and identified her. She knew full well that JoJo knew she was a cop, and everyone in the place would have made them for cops taking one look at her partner. And now he was looking around the place wildly. She contemplated simply shooting him and putting the gun in JoJo’s hands.
“Nothing. Let me pay the tab and we’ll go. You go on out to the car.” With a shrug, and a final less than subtle look around, he left. She turned and very deliberately looked at JoJo and his friends. JoJo had turned and was watching her, a small, twitchy little smile on his face. He thought he had her.
She was afraid that maybe he did. It could just as easily look like she was following him, checking up on his ‘official’ work as what it really was-him betraying his boss with a couple of new kids. Neither answer was going to go over well with Jimmy. And if he chose to believe it, it could get her killed. Meeting JoJo’s eyes, she nodded once. Then she turned to the owner of the diner. Gently, she told him she’d take care of it over the next couple days. She damn well hoped she wasn’t lying.
In the squad car, her partner was in the shotgun seat, playing idly with the radio. Again she seriously considered just shooting him and planting the gun on JoJo. It was a win/win situation. With a snarl, she got in and turned the car on.
“I’m leaving early today.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Cramps.”
****************
She left work at four, went home, and paced her apartment for a full hour. Leaving right after dropping her partner at work just wasn’t possible. Tempting, but not possible. Running straight to the restaurant sounded good, too, but it left her in a vulnerable position in a completely different way.
She was, in once sense, contractually obligated to report what she’d seen. To two different employers. One of them she couldn’t care less about at this moment. The other hadn’t been out of her thoughts since setting eyes on the rat faced boy. Who would he believe? Had she convinced him well enough?
Pulling open her closet, she started pulling clothes out and tossing them on the bed. Everything she wore had to be his-purchased with his money. After making six different outfits she decided on simplicity. She dressed quickly in jeans and a tunic style shirt. Just this once she considered putting her badge in her hip pocket, but at the last second she decided against it. He knew what she was. If he didn’t believe her, the piece of metal wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
*************
Walking into the front door of the restaurant was as purposeful tonight as it had been the first time. Then she had been searching for something. Something she thought she just might have found. Now she was paying a debt. A debt to a man who took them very seriously indeed.
Table Link