Trooper Station: Wednesday

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

The troopers in the station were watching Dale carefully today. Instead of his usual chatty, cheerful, talk your ears off type of mood, Dale was quiet, reserved, and spending most of the time in his office.

But what really worried them?

Dale was drinking decaf.

Comments

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy had been giving the coffee machine funny looks all day, but she, being the astute detective that she was, thought she finally figured it out. Not that the answer seemed to make any sense.

"Coop?" she asked, tentatively. "Is this...decaf?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale was lost in thought so it took him a second to look up and realize what Daisy was asking.

"Hmm? Oh. Yes. My apologies. I should have used the right pot. I just assumed you'd stick to the bad coffee."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Oh, are you switching?"

Because, if he was, why, Daisy just thought that was great news. The amount of caffeine that man consumed frightened her, to be honest.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Um."

Dale hesitated a moment or two before answering.

"Just trying out something different."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

The hestitation was...interesting. Daisy arched an eyebrow, slightly, but wasn't about to ask questions. She knew all that caffeine couldn't be good for a bloke, though. She wasn't the type to rub it in, though.

Not to her boss, anyway.

"How's it going so far?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale frowned. "So far? Not working. The... um. Trying something different that is."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Well," Daisy said, trying her hardest not to sound lecturing, "it would likely take a while. You've so much caffeine in your system that your body probably has a significant level of dependence, and it'll take a while to adjust. Maybe you should alternate with a cup of tea, to make the detox a little less of a jump?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Tea? Hmm.

"Those are high in anti-oxidants right?"

Maybe eliminating some free radicals would be a good idea.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy's head bobbed cheerfully. "Mmhm! Should be very good in flushing out all those built up toxins, sir."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"I'll have five cups of tea," Dale decided immediately.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"All at once?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Dale said rather quickly. "No time like the present."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"I, uh....I'll make some different kinds, maybe? Another good thing about coffee, sir, there's plenty of variety."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"That would be perfection," Dale said bordering on cheerful.

He then looked at his desk.

"And I also want pie."

Because pie fixed everything.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Pie?" Daisy asked, blinked slightly, and then nodded. "I can start the tea and then go pick it up, sir. Any particular kind?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"No, I'll have Ralph get the pie," Dale said shaking his head. "He ate the last doughnut so he can get pie."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy nodded a little, feeling relieved by that answer. She'd asked as a test, after all. Coop was definitely acting a little strange, but she could easily chalk that up to the fact that detox was hell.

However, if he'd gone ahead and told her to pick up the pie, then she'd know for a fact that something was much worse than she tought.

"Sounds like a good plan, Coop."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"'sup, Cooper?"

Like Ray noticed any decaf. He chucked his coffee full of chocolate anyway, so the effect was mitigated. Still, he looked kinda... quietish. Weird.

He guessed he should be counting his blessing or something.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Nothing much," Dale replied. "Just catching up on some paperwork."

Which was actually all finished and sitting in his out basket at the moment.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Ray, to his credit, did not say hey, got time to catch up on mine? but kinda lifted a brow at him instead. Or tried.

Okay, eyebrow lifting was not fully his skill. Listen, he was the only person in the office who seemed anywhere near cheery lately, alright? "Yeah, uh, I can see that."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale nodded absently. "Have we been getting any unusual complaints today?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Lots of furniture breaking," Ray said, "Animal attacks, but nothing deadly. No bad guys, but somebody lost a window." Sure, he could push about Coop's bad mood, but... yeah, no.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

That seemed to break Dale out of his daze. "When you say someone lost a window, you mean it was broken, correct?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Socked something straight through it, sir," Ray said, with kind of a nod. "People're cranky."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"No underlying reason?" Dale asked. "Usually it's because the water turned to whipped cream or something."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Nope, sir. Nothing but your regular island idea of normal," Ray said, and now he was shaking his head. Sure, it was weird. "Only thing all these incidents have in common is, uh, crankiness."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Huh."

Dale drummed his fingers on the desktop for a moment or two.

"And how are you doing, Ray?" he asked thoughtfully. "Everything fine? Health okay?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Weird.

Ray shook it off. Physically, even.

"My health is a-okay, sir. Top of my game. Um..."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale paused for a moment and nodded thoughtfully.

"Good. Just checking. I thought there might be a bug going around."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Right. Bug," Ray said, nodding once, "Got it. Um, I gotta go bug Day about some limes."

Not dealing with a weirder-than-usual Cooper, nope.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Carry on," Dale said going back to his... paperwork which was already complete. Yes.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela had been meaning to stop by the Trooper Station for a while now, but hadn't gotten around to it. Which was quite unlike her. It's a good thing no one knew that she'd been putting it off. They might think she had issues with authority figures or something...

As it was she walked in and looked around with one of those expressions that said she was trying to find someone in charge.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Can I help you miss?" Dale asked, spotting the girl during one of his trips to the coffee machine.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I hope so," Triela pursed her lips. "I work with those crazy Freelance Police... things, and I wanted to talk to someone about how much legal authority they actually have..."

Wow... that was a weird thing to try to explain.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"I'm aware of their business," Dale replied. "My understanding is they provide additional security services much like a private investigator would. They have the right to make citizen's arrests for wrong doing but they have no legal authority."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

No legal authority he said. Triela nodded in understanding and smiled just a bit. "Thanks. I just wanted to double-check."

Hilshire would probably prefer that she avoid causing trouble for local law enforcement, after all. So it was good to know for sure that her current job wouldn't do that.