charlie west, also known as 'cactus the angry elf' (littledeadly) wrote in immune_ic,
"Oh, I turned out great," Charlie replied with a laugh. She wasn't sure if she honestly believed that; there were a great many shortcomings in her personality. She was quick-tempered, impulsive, foul-mouthed, prideful, sometimes even vengeful and mean... All things she tried to work on, of course, but she wasn't exactly convinced that the willingness to change made her a good person. "But sometimes, you do the right thing for the wrong reasons."
At her comment about her brother, Charlie shook her head, still laughing. "I wish my brother were a womanizer. Womanizers I can handle; you meet enough of 'em in the Marine and the Bureau. I could just beat his behind or some crap. Robbie's kind of got the opposite problem." She shrugged. "Too sweet, believes the best about every girl he meets, lets himself taken advantage of. It's bullsh--crap," she corrected quickly.
Her smile faded at Leah's comment about self-defense classes. "Don't worry about it. I mean, if I were carrying another person, even a little person--" she glanced at Marigold, "--my instinct would be to hold on as tight as I could. Don't feel bad, all right?" Charlie gave the woman a gentle pat on the shoulder, as comforting as she could manage. "You did the right thing. 'sides, you made a new potential friend outta it, right? Not all bad."
Okay, maybe that was a little presumptuous, but Charlie did honestly like Leah right off the bat. That was a rare thing, since she tended to be a little abrasive at her worst and awkward at her best, but Leah had a quiet sort of strength and she had no doubt the woman could have handled herself if she hadn't been holding Marigold when the asshole thief had grabbed her.
"Wait. I just realized," Charlie started, though she handed her phone to Leah nonetheless, "that I kinda sound like I'm hitting on you and I promise I'm not. That'd be kinda scummy and besides, you're not really my, uh, type." She didn't think she was Leah's type either, but she was trying not to be insulting, just in case Leah was the type that liked women. "I'm just not so good with people when they're not suspects, so... Yeah. I'd like hanging out." She gave the woman a grin. "Maybe I can even drag my brother along, if I can get him away from his girlfriend." The word 'girlfriend' was spoken much like one would say the word 'slug', 'cockroach', or 'bitch', making it clear that Charlie was not fond of her brother's current girlfriend.