Who: Winnie and Bas When Over the weekend Where: Bachi Burgers What: Arresting Bass and life changing event for Winnie Warnings: Running? I think it's pretty mild.
There were few things in life that really mattered to Basilio. The Family always topped that list, so when the big man had called and the orders came down, Bas went out like he was supposed to, went in silent and deadly to take out his marks. When it was all said and done, three people were dead, double tap to the head, the gun was wiped down, and he took a pipe to the barrel to score it. Messy, but it was hard to get an accurate match off the bullets that way.
Once it was done, he laid low, worked on his baby while the National Guard moved through the streets. Once everything was quiet again, he went about his business like normal. Changes alerted people. If you did something just the same way you did it every day before, people didn't notice anything, it was only when someone did something odd, or different, that an observant person would pick up.
Take today for example. He was back at Bachi Burgers for lunch. It wasn't Gaetano's, but it was still damn good. Like usual, he was packing under his white t-shirt, gun tucked into the back of his jeans. He didn't like being unprepared for anything.
Winnie normally didn’t spend much time looking at the wanted list, but with Joseph gone, she felt the need to pick up the slack. Being a beat cop on her own was something that was expected of her, but a role she felt unready for. You’re not a rookie anymore Garrus told her that morning after Winnie couldn’t jog her mind clear. He was right, of course, but adapting to change that quickly was hard for anyone that constantly had some old timer breathing down their neck. So, Winnie dealt with it the only way she knew how: work harder. Even after giving October a half-hearted lecture on why having a personal life might actually be good for their little workaholics anonymous club. Maybe it was hypocritical, but it was the only way she knew how to improve herself. The only way she could adapt.
And, that was something she and Garrus had in common. He saw the change, the attention to detail and he pushed her harder. It was exactly the kind of support she needed, even if it was from some weird blue alien with a bad attitude. So, when she walked into Bachi Burgers that day on her break and she saw a familiar face, Winnie decided to take action instead of just call it in. This guy was good at his job, but the police department had been taking extra care watching anything to do with his Family and had spent time, energy and resources to finally pin this guy. It was just a matter of finding him. Winnie didn’t know all the specifics, just that he was wanted for murder and that was good enough for her.
Whispering code into her shoulder radio for backup, she walked calmly over to Bas’s table, one hand ready to reach for her gun if this came down to a quick draw. “Basilio Agnoli, you’re under arrested for suspected murder. Stand up and put your hands behind your head.” Get your gun out. Garrus whispered. Winnie glanced around the burger joint to see that everyone was already listening and either leaving or too freaked out to move, but this was too close quarters to point a gun at a guy. Still, her hand had subconsciously moved to touch the edge of the gun’s handle.
Everyone in his line of business knew that one day this day would come. There'd be something that they left behind, some clue, some scrap of DNA or hair (not that Bas had any anymore), a fingerprint, something and the law came breathing down their neck. There were a couple of options: let them take him in or do what he did, which was to finish off the last bite of his burger before he even looked up her. Blond. Cute. Young. And reaching for her gun like she was really going to haul it out of the holster and fire at him with so many people around.
He grinned, all teeth and cocky easiness. "Yeah? Of who?" There were, of course, many options. Bas left a string of corpses in his wake. It could have been something that happened back in New York for all he knew, he'd left a string of bodies there too. Why kill in one state when you could do it in a few? He tilted his head towards her gun. "You going to let me pay for lunch or haul me outta here and charge me with stealing?"
The grin should have scared her like a circus clown, but she was Irish. A little cockiness made it into some kind of contest. “Tell you what, big guy. Lunch is on me.” Being a woman cop meant you only had so many ways to get the job done. You could shout a lot, puff up like a chicken trying to scare away a fox. For some of the women that worked. The little shrewd ones or the tall, hefty women who looked just as blocky as some of the guys shouted until their throats were sore and didn’t ever smile. Winnie wasn’t small enough to have a complex or big enough to earn instant physical respect. Her round face, blonde hair and big eyes made her look more like a stripper than a cop. So, she played the good cop. She let them underestimate what she could do. She made them feel kinda bad for even thinking about assaulting a girl.
“Just get up nice and slow.” Winnie didn’t reach for his arm to yank him out of his chair. If this guy was in the business as long as his file said, he wanted a little respect. And, if that didn’t work, she could chase and take him down the hard way, too.
It wasn't her good cop routine or her pretty face that would keep Bas from assaulting her. Truth was, he didn't believe in hitting girls. Not cops (though that might have been because his dad was one), not hookers, not any girl in between. And, maybe, he had a bit of a soft spot for blondes. It wasn't going to keep him from running out of here because fuck if he was going to go down easy. Not when he had a chance of getting away. "I don't let women pay on the first date," he said, moving slow as he leaned forward to get his wallet out of his back pocket.
"Unless you want the honors," he grinned, almost playful now. If she wanted to get his wallet out, he'd let her. His gun was right there, covered up by his t-shirt and he could have reached for it, but Bas wasn't the type to shoot a woman anymore than he was the type to rough one up. But, out of the corner of his eye, he was watching as a couple of guys got up and started easing their way out and they'd have to go behind his nice lady cop friend to do it. Perfect.
Winnie’s expression turned a little too serious, showing her hand. She had been shot at before. Her father had made it abundantly clear that not every criminal was a gentleman like Bas here and most of them, the really desperate terrible ones, would happily mow down a cop just for looking at them funny. She could hear a growl of disappointment from Garrus in the back of her head. The renegade blue alien would have forced this guy to the floor by now and cuffed him. But, her methods were different. Poor Garrus never had the chance to work with someone that saw force as the last means of getting a job done.
“Come on, funny guy.” She said, hand firmly on the butt of her gun now as she stared at him with bright, intense blues. Winnie was giving too much leeway. Not just to him, but to everyone in the diner. And, it didn’t help that the voice in her head kept reminding her that she could have gone about all of this differently. The young cop who just rose above her own rookie status didn’t know she messed up until she slid to the side a little to allow some of the customers to leave. Their safety was more important than hers, but it also gave Bas a window to make a run for it.
Had he known about the blue alien giving Winnie tips, he might have told her that she should have listened. Bas could have pulled out the gun, but didn't. He kept an eye on the people starting to pass her as he removed his wallet and threw down enough money to cover for his lunch. He wasn't going to steal (he did have some morals, somewhere) and he wasn't going to let this pretty little lady cop pay for him either. A quick glance out of the corner of his eye told him that the family was right where he needed them.
Just because he wasn't going to shoot her didn't mean he was going in easy. Jumping out of his seat, he pushed her none too gently back into the family amidst gasps and cries and took off for the exit, wallet in hand. As soon as he cleared the door, he ran to the left and sprinted towards the end of the block.
Winnie cursed under her breath while Garrus did it out loud in her head. Get moving rookie the alien demanded, that gruff, no nonsense bark sounding like an alarm in her head. She played it too cool. He was being too cooperative. She should have taken a hint from her more bitchy cop sisters. She should have done a lot of things differently and Garrus wasn’t going to let her forget it. Later, though. Winnie found her feet and rocketed out of the little shop, barreling past customers who weren’t smart enough to get out of the way when the first person made a run for it.
Now, maybe Winnie needed some work on judging criminals, but the one thing she really had going for her as a patrolman was speed. “I need backup!” She shouted into her shoulder radio and gave the name of the streets they were heading towards. So now you need a safety net. Garrus snapped, angrier than she had ever heard him with this weird mix of disappointment that stung a lot more than she wanted to admit. Winnie powered through it, gaining on Bas fast so that she was a good five or six feet behind him. Not close enough to tackle, but gaining on him. “STOP!” She shouted, far from out of breath and angry as hell. But, not at him.
If he wasn't going to stop when she was standing right next to him, hand on her gun, he didn't know why she thought he was going to stop now as his footsteps pounded on the pavement. There was a second set not far behind his own, lighter, but filled with all the rhythmic slap-slap-slap against the sidewalk. He had to hand it to her, girl was fast.
He wasn't built for speed though. Power, yes. The ability to beat a man to a pulp in less time than it took to ask how he was, yes. The ability to look daunting and menacing, yes. It was only the desire to remain free and out of prison that kept him going and that ended when he reached the next block down and a squad car pulled out in front of him. With a grunt, he half slid, half rolled over the hood of the black and white and nearly got hit by an oncoming car when he landed on the other side. With a sharp intake of breath, he fell backwards, the lower half of his body pressed back against the same car he was trying to avoid.
The otherwise quiet street suddenly erupted in sirens and shouting. Winnie couldn’t help but give a sigh of relief when the cop car screeched in front of Bas and two officers jumped out shouting orders. She slowed to a stop, breathing heavy and head spinning a little from feeling a little like a failure. Winnie wasn’t used to being a screw up and she never had to be saved by anyone, but here she was. Pretty sure she couldn’t have wrestled this guy back to the precinct without a little help from these officers. And, as she stood there for a moment shocked and angry at herself, Winnie waited for Garrus to say something. To at least bore into her with that feeling of disappointment only an older cop turned vigilante could.
But, there wasn’t anything. She frowned, regained her composure and ran towards the police officers and Bas. The two patrolmen made quick work with shouting hands in the air and shoving their guns in his face. Winnie waited for them to cuff Bas and start shoving him in the patrol car before she holstered her own gun and explained the situation to one of them. They told her good work, but she didn’t feel it sink in. Winnie usually took confirmations with pride, but today it rolled off her. Felt like nothing. She looked to Bas as he was being arrested, giving him a small glance of unsure that only a young woman could and turned back to return to her own car and work on the reports.
He didn't fight the arrest once he was cornered. There was a time for running and a time for lawyering up and Bas knew which one of these it was. He'd tried running and hadn't made it, but he wasn't out of options yet. Leaning back into the cop car, his head on the rest, he watched as the little blonde cop looked at him one last time, eyes full of doubt. She was still cute and Bas? Well, he'd always been a sucker for the cute ones. He gave a small shake of his head. She could have been anyone, any single damn cop in this city and he still would have done what he did. If she'd been a guy, it probably would have been worse, but she wasn't and it hadn't been.
"I want my lawyer," Bas finally said, his dark gaze still on her as she returned to her own car. It was the only thing he'd say until he got one of the sharks with him.