Trooper Station | Tuesday

[knife_bender]

Diego had thought when he went back to work he'd enjoy a quiet and chaos-free haven of paperwork. Turned out when he got there he was irritated by how quiet it was. Not a single baby crying. Not even Bee Lady was calling to add some noise.

He was just going to sit here with his phone by his side and count down the minutes until he got to go back to his kids and wife.

Comments

[grenadesandohana]

"Welcome back, brah!" Steve said with a grin. "Brought you a welcome back gift."

He tossed a small package at Diego.

[knife_bender]

"Thanks," Diego said with a tired smile. "Miss me?"

[grenadesandohana]

"Not at all," Steve said with a bright smile. "What would make you think that?"

[knife_bender]

"Because you got me this..." Diego trailed off as he opened up the gift Steve had given him. "...little statue of a sexy lady."

[grenadesandohana]

"It's very important to my culture," Steve said, nodding.

[knife_bender]

"Well I'll keep it here on my desk then," Diego said. "Otherwise in the near future it'll probably be stolen by my kids."

[grenadesandohana]

"Oh, it's way too cool for them," Steve agreed.

[knife_bender]

"Pfft, my kids are already cool," Diego said. "But this is a bit of a choking hazard, so another reason to keep it in the office."

[grenadesandohana]

"Plus there's only one and I wouldn't want them fighting over it," Steve said.

[knife_bender]

"In my experience there could be seven of everything and they'll still fight over it." Because that's how siblings rolled.

[grenadesandohana]

"Well, one's always better," Steve said, "and it was always the one Mary was holding. That's just how families work."

[knife_bender]

"Exactly," Diego said. "I'm trying to prepare Annie ahead of time but it's probably she'll probably have to experience in person."

[grenadesandohana]

"It's really hard to explain until you've experienced it. My mom's rule for sharing was that one of us would cut the treat in half and the other would choose the first piece. You've never seen such anal cutting of chocolate bars."

[knife_bender]

"I was the sibling who ruined everything so no one could have it." Shocking revelation, really.

[grenadesandohana]

"I'm shocked to hear this," Steve told him.

[knife_bender]

"It did stop the fighting." It was much harder to divide things into seven pieces than two.

[grenadesandohana]

"So you were really helping," Steve said, "and I'll bet they never even thanked you."

[knife_bender]

"Not one single time," Diego said with a sigh. "I was unappreciated."

[grenadesandohana]

"I would definitely bring that up all the time," Steve, terrible advice giver, told him.

[pocketpretzels]

And lo, there was also a Watts, though he didn’t have any tourist kitsch to gift Diego with.

“Welcome back to- well, I suppose you have been working this entire time,” Watts mused. “Welcome back to the station.”

[knife_bender]

"Thanks, Boss," Diego said. "Honestly sitting here is the most peace I've had in weeks. It's kind of weird, actually."

[pocketpretzels]

“I can only imagine,” Watts said. “Is that a good or a bad thing?” Some people, after all, enjoyed chaos.

[knife_bender]

"I'm one of seven kids; silence was never really my thing," Diego said with a grin. "So I'll take the crying and the noise at home any day."

[pocketpretzels]

“Well,” Watts said. “Should you feel the need to perhaps take an extended lunch break, I can- look the other way.”

[knife_bender]

Diego chuckled. "I appreciate that. I actually have my ringer on for once for baby emergencies."

Because like most Millennials, Diego kept his phone on silent most of the time.

"I see the place didn't burn down without me. Or, if it did, you got it up and running again really fast."

[pocketpretzels]

“There hasn’t been much going on,” Watts admitted. “Well- new man. British fellow- Detective Inspector Goodman. Started here the other week. But other than that, nothing of note.”

[knife_bender]

"Is a Detective Inspector someone who is really really good at finding clues?" he asked.

He was picturing the love child of Sherlock Holmes and Magnum, P.I.

[pocketpretzels]

“You know, I’m not entirely certain of the specifics?” Watts admitted. “But he must be a decent enough hand at his job to have risen to that rank.”

[knife_bender]

"Good point," he said. "Not that we're much of a clue-finding station. We're more of a...herding cats situation."

Only the cats were racoons most of the time.

[pocketpretzels]

That got a chuckle out of Watts. “Herding cats. What a delightfully descriptive turn of phrase.”

[knife_bender]

"I can't claim credit," Diego said. "I think it was one of those weird things my dad used to say."

How odd that a man fathering seven children would need to use that phrase.