WHO: Laney and Nick. WHAT: He asked for information and she's meeting him with case files for a 'date'. WHEN: Now, after her shift is over at the jail. WHERE: Her house. RATING: Who knows? High for content.
It was after 11pm when Laney pulled into her driveway and shut off her car. She sat back in the seat, her eyes closing as she sighed heavily having had a long night. After her attack, Matt decided to put her on lighter duty until she was fully healed since being stabbed took more than a few days to recover from. Part of her was angry that he was babying her. She was a deputy sheriff like he was once, and a corrections officer. She could handle some asshole who thought he was hot shit for attacking a female officer.
On the other side of things though, Laney was grateful for the change in situation for a little while. Being stabbed was no small thing, being attacked in general was no small thing. It made your experience in the jail different. Despite her mind telling her she could handle anything and to suck it up, there were parts of her subconscious that couldn’t just ignore what happened and how vulnerable it had made her feel. So, she was at war with herself, and quite honestly? It hurt. She was stabbed! So not having to deal with her wound and inmates testing her was probably for the best.
It also had worked out in other ways. How? Well Laney’s head turned to the side to look at the box full of casefiles she’d made copies of and placed into folders and brought back with her. Technically….or well actually Nick shouldn’t be given access to any of this. Nick shouldn’t really have been involved in any of the sheriff’s department business at all. If anyone found out she’d taken all the information it could be the end of her job or worse, her ending up on the inside of the bars for a while.
However, Laney trusted Nick. Despite the fact that they hadn’t known each other for years and hadn’t been wrapped around each other for decades, she knew when he was playing her. She had since the moment he’d walked into the jail in cuffs. She’d been staring down at her computer putting notes in when the sheriff’s brought him in. First words? “Hands on your head and lean forward for your pat down…is there anything that will harm my officers in your pockets.” It was then Laney looked up into Nick’s eyes and honestly? If there was a spark that COULD happen? It would have happened then because for the first time in her LIFE she felt….she didn’t know what. But she felt it.
At first it was banter whenever he was locked up, and then it was banter when he wasn’t locked up. Eventually he was using lines on her and honestly? That was what made Laney give in. She liked nick a lot. She really did, but the fact that he had that corny, funny side to him? She loved it. He made things fun, he made her life fun and she needed that. She needed someone that was all business when it was needed and otherwise, was that oozing charm, giving shitty pick up lines kind of guy that made her laugh.
Lifting the box from her passenger seat, Laney got out of the car and kicked the door shut, locking it behind her with a button before heading into her house. The garage door was up, she’d pressed the button in the car, so once she was inside of it, she bumped the button with her elbow on the wall, and pried the door open, using her leg to hold it there as she pulled herself into the small house.
Her house? Nothing special. Now it wasn’t a rundown, place you’d never want to be, but it wasn’t some fancy mansion either. It was your middle of the road, normal working-class house and it worked for her. She actually didn’t live that far from Matt and his fiancé. It wasn’t that far from the jail and sheriff’s station either which was what drew her to it. Easy access to work when she worked at the station and eventually to the jail when she transferred into corrections after taking those classes.
Hearing a corny line as she set the box down on her dining room table, Laney couldn’t help but smile as she turned to see Nick standing there. “Oh, I heard that one tonight.” She teased him, “you’re going to have to come up with a better one. Especially since I have a whole box of case files to go over with you….and some of them didn’t fit the ‘missing but found’ thing but seemed right up your alley as far as a weird case that no one could figure out. I figured might as well see if it fit what you’re looking for.”
Hearing another line? She laughed as she began unbuttoning her uniform shirt and tossed it away, leaving her in a thin tank that she wore beneath it. “Better, definitely better. For that, I have…” she opened the box and dig in it for a moment before pulling out a case file. “Herald. Missing for three weeks, came home and ate the family dog.” She said as she set the box on a chair and moved into the kitchen to the fridge grabbing him a beer and her a bottle of water, passing the beer to him. “What food did you bring? I’m starving.”