bobby leaves the alleyway and lets herself slip easily back into an old mask. it's leisurely on the outside. she puts on her hat and pulls her ponytail through like she doesn't have a care in the world, slips her hands in her pockets and saunters off like she owns the street. but underneath she's got a constant buzz running through her. excitement and anxiety wrestle with one another.

god she missed this.

she walks the street with one eye peeled for a while. no cops are approaching her (some even give her a respectful nod when they recognize her uniform) and it doesn't seem yancy brought any trouble with him. she's sure she's all clear until she starts recognizing a large shadow tailing her.

at first bobby assumes she's being paranoid, but she stopped trusting assumptions when she was ten. so she takes a few random turns and changes the side of the street once and sure enough he's still there. so she does the only logical thing.

she slips off into a fresh alleyway and waits for him to follow. the moment he rounds the corner she glowers up at him from under her cap.

"what's your deal, big man?"

boruta maher

☉

oh, this is mortifying. bobby can't believe she's been caught this quick. she told yancy it was a one off, she's never going to live this down and -- wait. fuck, that's not the worst part of this.

she's going to go back to prison. goddamn it.

captain maher asks her for an explanation and she visibly deflates. her back hits the alley wall and she lets herself sink until she's sitting on the grimy ground. she looks up at the captain from under her cap again, this time smiling in a desperate kind of way.

"you didn't just see what you think you saw?" she tries, weak humor in her tone, voice most certainly not trembling.

she bonks her head against the wall.

"fuck."

boruta maher

☉

now that she is one, bobby knows that rangers don't carry handcuffs. that being said it's still somehow surprising to her that captain maher doesn't pull out a pair for her the moment she fails to prove him wrong about what he saw.

the terms of the deal with the rangers is pretty cut and dry and her experience with authority is not that it is known for lenience. and yet here is a figure of authority not hauling her by her hair to jail. miracle of miracles maybe she has a chance here.

"my name is bobby," she speaks up immediately when maher asks, shifting from slouching against the alley wall to sitting on her knees and facing him. then she remembers that's what she prefers to go by and this isn't a casual conversation.

"uh, roberta karp -- sir. and listen i know this looks bad, but i haven't actually done anything yet you can uh --"

her voice is unabashedly pleading as she reaches into her pocket and takes out the baggie yancy gave her.

"you can just take this and throw it away or, or do whatever you want with it. this whole thing was just a lapse in judgement, i swear."

she holds out the couple of grams like an offering to maher's sun-stretched silhouette. she shakes it in her cupped hands as if begging him to take it.

boruta maher

☉

it's with uncharacteristic meekness that bobby stands up. it's a bit clumsy, too. she'd hit the ground kind of hard when she kneeled and so her knees ache as she pulls herself upright. wouldn't have happened if the uniform had fucking pants instead of shorts.

god why is she even thinking about that shit.

"no really, it's just -- it's just this one time i was just . . ." there's no good way to spin this and so even as bobby gives it her best effort nothing comes out of it. no one really does this shit one time. she knows that. captain maher apparently knows it, too.

she turns the baggie over in her hand, looks at it for a moment before turning her eyes to the left. to the alley wall.

"man, what does it even matter," she grumbles bitterly, eyes glaring resolutely on a dark stain, "so long as i do my job what's even the point of fussing."

regret fills her the moment she complains, but she's too proud to take the words back once they're out there. apparently she's just committing to seeing how far she can push the issue until she's fired and in jail for sure.

boruta maher

☉

bobby's arms cross defensively at maher's dressing down. she doesn't have the good sense to look properly cowed, but she at least looks a little embarrassed as her eyes shift to staring at his boots instead of the wall.

"this whole situation sucks," she says instead of 'i'm sorry' or 'i understand'.

"i was only in for a couple years but everything feels different. i don't know what's going on with . . . with anything and this job is --"

she huffs air through her nose. what the fuck is she doing complaining to this dude? why is she even still speaking?

"i just wanted to feel something i'm used to," she lets out a grim bit of laughter as she hears what she just said, "i guess i got it. nothing like a little shame to make you nostalgic."

boruta maher

☉