Trooper Station, Friday

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Ray was on the phone. Not so much for any complaints or paperwork or whatever. Just, you know. Mingling. Networking. Making contacts.

It always helped to have a guy in with the local pizza parlor, after all. Even if everybody categorically refused to fight him on the pineapple issue. Some things, you just couldn't import from home.

[ open station, of course ]

Comments

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy hadn't been late that day; she'd been quite specifically, right-on-the-dot on time. After a while at her desk and coming to realize that, unlike what she was used to, no one was going to come around and argue that point with her, she got up to finally get some tea and get a start on the day. Ray was clearly so busy with phone calls, though, that she just gave him a wave in passing, not wanting to interrupt.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

It took him a couple to realize she was waving at him. Right. Ray waved back, distractedly, and continued his phone call at a volume. "Yeah, pineapple on it. Trooper station. Yeah. Okay, what are you, hard of hearing? I said pineapple--"

He was such a charming guy on the phone, really.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

It took Daisy a moment to realize that perhaps Ray's call wasn't exactly a business one. Her head quirked slightly, considering her level of hunger, before reaching for a pad of paper and scribbling down a note.

Order up a small veggie while you're at it?

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Ray squinted at her, squinted at the note, then scrambled to open up the drawer of his desk and pull out his glasses. "--Yeah? Are you absolutely sure you're not retarded or something?" he demanded, slipping them on.

Ah. Okay. "...And a small vegetable one. You spell that v-e-g-g-e--"

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

That poor, poor person on the other end of that line. Daisy bit her lip a bit to keep a bit of a grin down, giving Ray a little thumbs up of thanks, returning to her desk with her tea.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"...Yeah, okay, thanks, buddy," Ray grumbled into the phone. "Thirty minutes!" He slammed the horn down and made a little squiggle on his schedule that was supposed to mean something like 'swing by pizza place on Saturday' or something.

He slipped the glasses back off his nose and tossed them on the desk. "Morning," he said. Sunnily. Kinda.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Morning." Daisy couldn't hold back at least a little bit of a wry grin. "Was that thirty minutes to make that call, or thirty until the order's ready?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Until the order's done," Ray said, pinching the bridge of his nose and leaning forward into his hand. "Back home, wouldn't be more than twenty. I'll break them in just yet."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy had absolutely no doubt about that. She grinned into her tea as she took a sip and then set it aside to consider some of the work on her desk. "It'll be interesting to get to see through that progression; just remember that they're the ones making it before you eat it."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Eh. Never had any trouble back home. Just gotta smack 'em upside the head couple times," Ray said, off-handedly. Hey, it had worked on Sandor, had to be an impressionable pizza kid somewhere. "Real useful to have the in, too."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Ah, yes," Daisy said, tilting her head just a tad at Ray. "The in. And, do you have the in, Kowalski?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Just five Meat Lovers' away from it," Ray shot back, "Cultivating this kinda in takes time and, uh, commitment."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"And lots of cholesterol," Daisy observed, with a nod.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Eh. Me, I eat cholesterol for lunch," he informed her, making a little punching gesture with his hands. "Nom, nom."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Quite literally!" Daisy said with a laugh, considering that, yes, that was practically what he was eating for lunch here. "Not much of a fan of it, myself, I've got to admit."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I'm a literal kinda guy," Ray said, grinning for a minute before he dropped it. "Nah, it's never really been a, uh, problem." Hey, he was getting older, this was the sort of thing you were supposed to pay attention to when you got old.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"So long as you stay active and balance it out with other things in your diet." Daisy lectured slightly, but she did so rather brightly. "Then it's usually not a problem. I can actually make a pretty mean cholesterol busting smoothie, if you ever want to give it a try."

And a try would likely be all, because, while Daisy thought it fairly good, her old flatmate would swear by the fact that it could be used to caulk the tub.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"...No, I've got a Mountie for that." Seriously, the Fraser flashbacks were just too much around this girl. It was just freaky. "I like pizza, pizza likes me. And my arteries. I am not going to mess with that balance."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Somehow, Daisy thought that Ray's arteries were just really good at hiding it, but she wouldn't say anything else and just chuckled a little. "if it ain't broke," she chirped, "don't fix it, right?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale dropped by on his way to get his sixth cup of coffee of the morning. "Good morning Detective! How are you today?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Ray eyed him over his cup of coffee. "I'm fine. What's with the chipper?" Had someone delivered some kinda magic coffee from India or something?

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale shrugged. "Not sure what you mean," he said looking puzzled. "Just my usual self."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure.

"Forget I asked," he said, "I don't wanna know. I'm good." Ray sipped his chocolate-full coffee with only a slight sense of Coop-caused wariness.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale tilted his head. "I'm not making you jumpy, am I detective?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Me? I'm not jumpy. I'm good," Ray repeated, staring at him. "You haven't seen me jumpy."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"All right," Dale said. "Don't mean to pry. I just get the feeling that I was bothering you in some fashion and wished to find out the hows and whys."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"I'm not bothered either," Ray informed him. Like, at all bothered. Nope. "I was takin' phone calls."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Fair enough," Dale replied with a shrug. "Usual weirdness I assume?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Nah." Been kinda weirdness-free lately, for which Ray was grateful. "Networking."

Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Roy's first stop when he returned from Amestris was the station. Knowing that Aly was probably at the school right now, it gave him time to set up a few things like write his letter of resignation to the mayor and write a different letter for Cooper (http://light-a-spark.livejournal.com/28267.html).

He'd do both in a bit, but he stopped for a moment at the lobby. "Everything in order, Detective?" Like nothing had changed. Well, maybe the rank on his uniform had.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Everything's good," Ray shot back. Why the hell did everyone keep asking him that today?

Okay, if 'everybody' was 'Cooper', but c'mon! "Sir," he added, after a beat of that. "Just working the phones."

In case he was going to be questioned or something.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"They needed work?" Roy dead panned. No, he wasn't actually serious.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn't want 'em to get bored, sir," Ray shot back, same kinda tone. Hey, the guy missed pizza.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"No, that'd be a shame," Roy agreed with a nod. "Keep up the good work."

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Keepin' it," Ray said, wedging the phone between his shoulder and his ear.

He'd consider calling Fraser or something, but that was 1) girly and 2) would probably get him a lecture on making personal calls or something.

He poked the phone book instead.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Roy grabbed a report from the stack, just checking the date on it. It wasn't very surprising to see the time difference, considering he'd hadn't been able to contact Fandom at all.

"You'll get a new Sheriff starting next week," he said casually, dropping the report again and a cup of coffee seemed like a good idea.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Ray said. The casual tone meant the message hadn't fully connected in his brain. At least not for the next five seconds. "Huh," he followed that up, eloquently, "We getting somebody new transferred in?"

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"That's not exactly my decision," Roy commented, fulling up a cup of coffee. He was going to miss Dale's coffee. "Not if I can help it."

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Busting out of this bin, huh?" Ray said, tossing his head in Roy's general direction. "Can't blame ya."

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"Fandom's not a bad place to work," Roy felt the strange need to defend, "but I'm required back home."

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Wait, you got transferred?"

Ohkay. Well. That worked.

"Huh," Ray repeated.

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"Not exactly," Roy said, "but I suppose that's an as adequate description. I can't say no to a promotion when I'm needed."

Re: Sheriff's office - Afternoon

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Ray was not gonna comment. He'd resisted a promotion by pretty much shackling himself to his desk last time, needed or not needed. So he shrugged. "Been nice knowing you, sir," he said.