Who: Gus and Lucy. When: Lunchtime. What: Just a friendly chat between a waitress and a regular customer. Where: Dan's, the diner Lucy works at. Rating: PG. Status: Complete. It had been a slow day. Too slow for Gus's liking, if only because it made him feel like something was going on that he didn't know about. And that was a feeling he hadn't been able to shake off in two years. Even when the phones were ringing and he was out on call after call, or stamping case after case as closed, he felt like there was something going on that was going to jump out and bite him in the ass sooner than later. His biggest fear was some sort of large scale meth operation, but seeing as they hadn't busted anyone even for possession yet, he was probably barking up the wrong tree. Better than just ignoring the trees entirely, in his opinion, but he still had a whole load of nothing to show for all his sniffing around.
Free time gave him too much time to think. He'd missed Christmas number two with the kids, not to mention New Years, and while they'd talked on the phone at length, it wasn't the same. They'd liked the gifts, and they hope he'd get some time off to visit, and there was talk of them coming to stay for the summer, but it still left a very painful void in the large man. That was part of the reason he parked his squad car in front of Dan's diner come lunch time, wondering what sort of deadly pastry Lucy might set in front of him next. She was a hell of a baker, and the coffee wasn't bad, either. Better than the watery mud they had at the station, anyway. It felt like some universal rule, police stations having shitty coffee, so he hadn't bothered changing it when he'd taken the helm. It was something familiar, if nothing else.
Gus pulled off his sunglasses as he stepped out of the January chill, making sure the door shut behing him and wiping his slush-caked boots before he took a seat at his usual table. It was a little uncomfortable, what with his belt and everything loaded on it, not to mention his gun, but well worth it to be treated to good eats and conversation. He took a moment to get situated, shrugging off his heavy coat and making his his sunglasses were sitting up on top of his head, finally pulling his gloves off and shoving them in his coat pockets.
"Afternoon," he said when he saw Lucy, offering her one his broad, friendly smiles. It pulled at the scars on his face, but he had been told his big, earest grin was part of why he'd been elected Sheriff over a local, "What're you hardening my arteries with today, Lou?"