Trooper Station, Friday

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

He needed to go see Pepper. Hadn't had a date in a bit, there'd been the whole dogs thing, plus the whole failure... incident.

And the harpies, Wednesday. Dammit. Had not checked in on her yet.

The Trooper Station was open for business as always, but Ray was absolutely not doing any paperwork whatsoever. He was kinda staring at the phone.

[ open! ]

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[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy, who was of course doing paperwork diligently and trying her best not to wince whenever she had to reach for something higher than her head, couldn't help but notice Ray's...distraction.

"Expecting a call, are we, Kowalski?"

Hey, they'd done good this week. She could have been buried in paperwork and still be incredibly happy.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"What?"

Ray blinked, looked up, um, what now?

Oh. Calls. "Uh, no," he said, trying for smooth, "No calls. Just, you know, mentally, uh... preparing."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"For what?" asked Daisy. "Staring contest with the telephone?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Paperwork," Ray said. He was fast, dodging and weaving here. "Still got a whole crapload of stuff for the harpies."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Nice pun," said Daisy, even if she wasn't sure Kowalski had entirely meant it.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"What?"

Yeah, Ray really was distracted.

"Oh. Right, yeah, that's me. Real good with the puns. Um, you get anymore calls on that harpy thing?"

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy shook her head a little. "I think most of them came in yesterday," she said. "Considering how they appear entirely gone now and everything. Now it's just all the fun paperwork."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

So there was Dinah, sometime in the mid-morning, with a big box of J,GOB donuts and one of those trays with four black hot coffees.

"Special order for Fandom's finest."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Hey. "Hey!" Ray said.

Had not expected that. He grinned. "Miss, uh, Lance. See you lived."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Just what they needed around here. More coffee and donuts.

But it really was a sweet gesture, and Daisy gave the girl a smile, too. "That's very kind of you, Miss Lance."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome!" Dinah grinned at them both. "I appreciated you guys getting me out of the open on Wednesday. I really didn't have a way to fight them right then, and I know it wasn't easy. Plus, hey. Coffee and police. I figured ou could doctor it however you like."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"I like coffee," Ray announced, in case she didn't know, "But it's no prob. It's our job, ma'am."

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Grinning a little, Daisy tilted her head toward Ray. "What he said. Not that the coffee isn't appreciated."

So long as they got to it before Coop did.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grinned back, and said, "I put a few croissants in there, too. And yeah, I know it's your job, but I have an uncle who's a cop, so I know that thank you is always a good idea." She shrugged, and said, "Just wish I could've been more help. Or, well, any."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"That ain't your job," Ray pointed out, reeeeaching for that coffee. He liked coffee. Coffee, good. Better not to lure Coop out of his pen just yet. "You stayed in one piece, that's your job."

[lots-of-olives.livejournal.com]

It had been a bit, and Pepper was -- weirdly -- kind of bored, so there was a lanky redhead crisply making her way into the station and over to Ray with two cups of coffee.

"How bad is the fallout from those things the other day?" she asked, smiling. "And hi."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Pepper, hey," Speak of the damn devil. He was not nervous. "Lots of paperwork," Ray supplied, "And a couple of these." He held up his arm to show off the bruise. He was hardcore, dammit. "But, eh, it was Paperwork Day last week, I got another three months."

[lots-of-olives.livejournal.com]

"Oh, poor you," Pepper said, reaching out to touch the bruise lightly. "But hey, at least you don't have to suffer the trials of more paperwork, at least for awhile. Even if you could probably streamline it and get it done really easily."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Nah, see, I got a system," he said, grinning at her. The grin fell away about a second later, though. "How'd you do? I mean, you look all in one piece, not sayin' you couldn't manage or anything."

[lots-of-olives.livejournal.com]

"Pff, do I look like someone who'd go out in that if I didn't have to?" she asked, grinning. "I'm fine. I worked from home and hid out. But had I gone out, I probably could have managed by...running and hiding. Maybe throwing a rock or something."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Probably better you didn't go out," Ray said. Cop voice this time. "Had to escort a couple of kids back to safe havens. They were all over the place."

[lots-of-olives.livejournal.com]

She smiled. "If I'd had to go out in it, I probably would have called for your escorting services myself. Better to have someone who can at least take a few of them out than relying on my own ability to run in heels."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Day and I were kinda busy," Ray admitted, scratching at the back of his head where, he swore to god, he could still feel the harpy poo. "Flock of them picked up on us near, uh, JGoB, took us a couple of hours to get rid of 'em. Weirdest beat I've ever walked." Beat. "Some kid fell out of the sky."

[lots-of-olives.livejournal.com]

"...fell out of the sky?" she repeated, raising a brow.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Harpy grabbed her," he said, with a shrug. "Flew a couple feet, then bam- girl lands on the pavement. Wakes up, magically ditches the outfit for another... walks it off. Kinda."