Trooper Station, Friday

[firstofitskind]

"No," Liam was saying over the phone. "We haven't caught who's responsible. Because no one's responsible. It's just the island being the island. It'll all be over by tomorrow." At which point something else ridiculous would be going on in its stead, not that Liam knew that.

(Though given the past couple days he wouldn't be surprised at yet another day of Fandom whimsy)

No sooner had he hung up the phone than it rang again.

"No, she hasn't mobilized her 'army of bees' to throw water balloons at you."

It was gonna be a day.

Comments

[died8yearsago]

Well, this should be a nice addition to it.

Rosa was definitely much more damp than she'd have liked to have been out this...or ever, really....but she'd put it off long enough.

"Hey," she quirked her chin up in greeting, "you got a few minutes?"

[firstofitskind]

"Sure," Liam said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. "Pull up a chair. What's on your mind?"

[died8yearsago]

Rosa decided to stand; she wasn't much of a sitter, and she wasn't exactly planning on getting comfortable to chit-chat and catch-up or anything.

"This, mostly," she said, pulling an (somewhat damp) envelope from her back pocket and handing it over. "It's a letter of resignation. I'm quitting."

Well, she never was one to beat around the bush.

"Sorry it's a million pages long," she added, even though it wasn't really, it was just, you know, a single page, but typed and printed instead of the signed Post-it note with I quit scrawled on it that Rosa was going to go for originally, "I had my friend Amy write it."

In a way, Rosa was glad for the water balloon to the butt she'd gotten on the way here so she didn't have to explain that, yeah, those were tear drop marks on it. Santiago got very emotional; it was super awkward.

[firstofitskind]

Well, she was the one who'd opened with 'got a few minutes', after all. Chit-chat or catching up wasn't an entirely unreasonable assumption.

"Ah," he nodded. "To be honest, I'm not surprised."

[died8yearsago]

And that was...surprisingly reassurring, and not just because it was also remnisicent of what Holt had said. Rosa nodded a little, simple enough at first, but her brow furrowed in thought.

"I'll still be around," she said, and that, she felt, was the actual surprising part of it, for her at least. "Just...doing my own thing."

Which was mostly just a front to avoid having to admit to following in her dad's footsteps with this whole 'actually enjoying being a teacher' thing, but still...

"So if you need help or anything," she shrugged, "you know where to find me. Just not the, you know, usual cop stuff. Williams is way better suited for that stuff, anyway. I bet he gets a real boner over paperwork, even."

Which might have been a little crass and uncalled for, but what was he going do? Fire her?

[firstofitskind]

Liam let out an amused little snort. "He does seem fond of doing things quote-properly-unquote," Liam agreed.

[died8yearsago]

If you looked close enough, you might have seen the corner of Rosa's mouth twitch up a little.

"I wonder how long that'll last," she murmured, thinking that she'd had a few of her own moments in that vein once upon a time, which just reminded her of exactly how long she'd actually been here, and....

She was just dedicating herself to not thinking about that.

"Anyway. I'm sure Ralph'll be heartbroken, and Calvin'll be upset he never got me into one of those stupid suits. I'll go clean out my desk. Don't suppose you'd be interested in a tiny cactus my fake kids got me one year, would you?"

Which was only slightlyy weirder than some of the offers she'd made to the Nine-Nine and some of the contents of her desk.

[firstofitskind]

Weird, maybe, but also sweet in a Rosa-ish kind of way.

"I'd love it. It can keep the zen garden company," he told her, nodding at the rectangular box with sand and stones that sat on one corner of his desk.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa followed the nod, wondering if she should get herself a little zen garden like that, but, honestly, the fact that she was just in here to turn in her badge instead of being booked for double homocide right now proved that she had shown an incredible amount of zen for her already this last week or so.

"Good," she said, looking back. "I was just going to burn it, otherwise. I'll just leave it behind instead."

[firstofitskind]

"Thanks," Liam acknowledged. "It's been- I've enjoyed having you as part of the team," he told her. "I'll miss having someone around to keep Ralph and Calvin especially in line, but," he shrugged. "I'm glad you're doing what you need to do, for yourself."

[died8yearsago]

Another nod. Another echo from what Holt had to say about the whole thing. Another twinge of regret or guilt or...something making her wonder if this was the right thing to do, followed very swiftly by the firm assurance that it absolutely was

"I figured you'd say something like that," she said. "And don't worry. They're not done with me yet. I still live here, after all, and they'll see plenty of me still if the new line of work kicks in. And invasions..."

Possibly if anyone's dumb enough to try to break into her apartment again, but she liked to think no one was that dumb, not even Hot Leaf Water and Baby Linetti.

[firstofitskind]

"If you're not out on the front line of any sort of invasion that involves fighting, that's when I'll worry," Liam agreed.

[sexy_giraffe]

"I would like to register a complaint," Tahani said, stomping her feet. "This dress is designer!"

[firstofitskind]

"Are you not a fan?" Liam asked, deliberately misunderstanding.

[sexy_giraffe]

"This dress is dry clean only," Tahani shrieked. "It's ruined!"

[firstofitskind]

“That’s unfortunate,” Liam said, sympathetically. “Especially since the island doesn’t care about that sort of thing.”

[sexy_giraffe]

"Look, officer," Tahani said, "I don't mean to tell you how to do your job," but she was going to tell him how to do his job, "islands can't do this! They are land masses!"

[firstofitskind]

Liam thought about pointing out he wasn’t actually an officer, but figured that might go in one ear and out the other.

“Okay, sure,” he said, because if she was still new enough that she hadn’t just accepted that sometimes the island just... did things... he doubted he was going to be the one to convince her. “Do you have,” he sighed, “a suspect?”

[sexy_giraffe]

"Alexis Rose," Tahani said, based on absolutely nothing.

[firstofitskind]

"Hmm." For some reason, he didn't believe you, Tahani. "That's a very serious accusation, young lady," he said sternly. "Do you have any evidence to back it up?"

[sexy_giraffe]

"Well, no," Tahani admitted slowly, "but I know she loathes me."

[firstofitskind]

"Is that so?" Liam asked. She was just a kid, so he was doing his best to rein in the sarcasm. "Why do you think that might be?"

[sexy_giraffe]

"She's jealous of my accomplishments and sense of style," Tahani said.