Who: Holden Stern and Langston Wilde Where: A Coffee Shop near the County Courthouse When: June 23rd / 2009 - 1:30pm
If there was one beat cop that you didn't want to get a ticket from...it was Holden Stern. Why, you ask? Because Holden Stern was the type of Police Officer that believed that if he gave a ticket, it should be paid. No if's and's or but's. No excuses. No pass go and collect two hundred dollars. This means that if any one person decides to contest a ticket...Holden would be there to argue it. Always. It didn't matter if it was his day off (which it was, this very day), or if he was in the middle of something across town. If he was called to court for a traffic ticket, he'd go. And that's why he was where he was at that very moment.
He was sitting in a coffee shop across from where he needed to be in an hour. Holden had little else to do that day (he would have to pick up his laundry after the hearing, and then head back home to do chores) and so he decided to get himself a nice cup of joe before he had to go argue that he'd seen, with his own two eyes, the man speed straight on through a red light. He was sipping at his mug (straight black coffee...nothing complicated for him, no sir) and flipping through the day's paper. He wasn't one to really be interested in the business section, (that part of the paper usually going to line the small enclosure he had for himself when he felt like shifting) and he pulled out the sports section, reading up on the latest scores and trades.
Holden was just finishing up reading about a group of Vampires that wanted to start their own league for Baseball, but were having trouble finding fields that were willing to keep the lights on over night. He shook his head to himself. He didn't know if Vampire's played a good game of baseball, but he knew he wouldn't want to play against a group of them.
Looking up, he saw a familiar head of hair walk in to the shop. "Hey Wilde." he said smiling at the woman he'd met a few years ago when he'd found a body behind an abandoned warehouse. She'd been the first CSI on scene. And Holden had cracked a joke that she didn't look like Gil Grissom (Holden was a closet fan). She'd made a quick quip back at him and from then on, they bantered back and forth at various crime scenes.
Langston Wilde was a talker, one that very much enjoyed hearing herself speak, maybe that was just an inherent trait of a genius, liking to hear one’s self talk and sound brilliant, maybe. Whatever the reason, Langston was quite guilty of enjoying the sound of her own voice, and most especially in a crowded room with all eyes focused on her with the expectation of wowing them. Criminal court was great for that, so any day that the CSI had to testify in front of a judge and jury was a good day in CSI Officer Wilde’s book.
The case that had been seen by the judge today had all the outward indications of an accidental death when the Crime Scene investigators had arrived on scene, however after careful meticulous gathering of evidence it quickly had become clear foul play was involved and once everything gathered had been tested and retested the finger of guilt had been pointed at the guilty parties involved. Langston only needed ten minutes on the stand to present the evidence results and another thirty to argue it with the defendant’s legal counsel, not that she minded, it just meant more of that fun talking time, which was even more fun when she knew she was right and the lawyer could try and dance around it, but a fact was still a fact and the defendant was going to prison, of that Langston was pretty confident.
Langston left the courtroom with a rather self satisfied little grin before opting for a much needed coffee break before heading back to the lab. Walking into the Coffee shop that was pretty much always filled with cops and judicial officers one usually expected to see at least one familiar face, of course if you were an officer with a rather handy talent for being able to see future events she'd already known she'd run into Detective Stern if she chose to go for coffee. Had it been one of a dozen other cops, Officer Wilde would have taken the alternative option of returning to directly to the lab, a lot of the other cops were a little on the dull side. Holden however was always fun, she rather enjoyed their little quips, didn't hurt at all that he was nice to look at while partaking in games of bantering. "Detective Stern, good to see you, and in civvies no less. Must be a parking ticket day, yes?" She smiled over her shoulder at her colleague.
"Must be." he smiled up at her and tipped his coffee cup at her, along with his head in salute. Unfortunately, the man was pretty predictable. Nobody could ever say that Holden wasn't the reliable kind. He didn't hold conversations with people that were busy or on their way somewhere either, and usually let the other person decide if they wanted to continue a conversation with him. He was pretty easy going like that, didn't expect much from people, especially when it came to coworkers. They were usually on their way somewhere, mostly on to court or back to their jurisdictions. Holden was used to the breezy hi and goodbye of the people that surrounded him. There were no hard feelings if people had to go.
He waited until she had her coffee though, the line up that she'd joined moving fairly quickly. He was glancing up now and again, thinking about the times he'd talked to Langston over the time they'd known each other. Never anything long standing, mostly it was all work related, which was likely the smart thing to do, considering it was hard when you entangled your regular life with your work life.
He smiled at her as she made her way back towards where he was sitting by the door. "Get yourself a win?"
Langston gave her colleague a nod and a smile before looking back up at the menu board to make that big life decision, latte', iced or hot, plain or flavored? Either way there would be the addition of a shitton of sugar, she'd run that off later of course, but for right now she felt she'd earned a little something sweet after successfully closing another case, the good folks of Scarlet Oak could sleep just a bit easier tonight with one less child murdering blood witch on the streets. She knew Holden wasn't the type to take offense if she didn't step out of like to talk right that second, besides, she fully intended on joining him once she made it through the long but quick moving line.
Iced latte' in hand, (it was summertime after all) Langston made her way back Holden's direction, he was seated by the door so she could have easily been just grabbing coffee and dashing as far as he knew, she stopped at the little bar of condiments between Holden's table and the door to get her sugar fix on and smiled rather triumphantly at the blond officer's question. "I did, and it was glorious..." she replied in a little sing song-y voice. Once her latte' had it's fair share of sugar and nutmeg, she moved over to Holden's table. "In the mood for company, Detective?"
Holden folded up the paper that he held in his hand and put it to the side. It was the coffee shop's paper...he was merely reading it. Anybody else could come by and take it if they liked, he wouldn't mind. There wasn't anything much interesting in it anyway. The same old and same old. He ran his hand through his hair when she turned and said that she'd had a good day in court. That was always good. Putting the bad guy away. Holden was a bit of a skeptic at times though. He wasn't sure that DNA was an exact science at times. Things were hard to interpret at times, and he'd seen just as many crooked forensic people as he did crooked cops. There were people out everywhere in every profession that weren't doing things 'right'. He was pretty certain however, that Langston was good in her word.
"Of course, please." He said half getting up until she was seated and then sitting down with her when she plunked in to the other chair at table. "Glad to hear you're off putting away bad guys." He commented idly, sipping his coffee. His little nose picked up all the scents of her coffee and it made his nose twitch just a touch. Lots of nutmeg.
"I do the best I can, it's just always good when it all pays off, y'know?" Langston smiled, getting comfy in her seat, sipping her sweet iced drink through her straw. "So what about you, Holden... busy making sure the status remains quo? I hear tell you're one of the Mayor's favorite officers for all the revenue you bring in." She winked, teasing gently. Langston took note of the little nose twitch, it reminded her just a bit of Samantha Stevens on old episodes of Bewitched, it was also kind of cute. Langston attempted to push that thought aside though, she'd always tried to remain professional with her fellow officers, even if they did work in separate departments.
Once comfortable in her chair, Langston reached up a hand and undid the clip holding her long red hair up in place and let it fall where it may, it was just nice to have it down. She'd found that she was always taken more seriously in court when her hair was pulled up, apparently it was a more professional and polished look, also noted was that she got the attention of the jury and judge while presenting the evidence if her hair was red. The myth of the 'dumb blonde' was still alive and well.
He chuckled. It wasn't that Holden thought he needed to make the city more money, it was never about money when it came to Holden. Holden was just ready to hold up the law. If he didn't do it, the citizens wouldn't right? "Never about to make money, but if you're not going to be paying for breaking the law, you're not going to respect it, you know?" He grinned at her a little bit. "How many times to you see guys getting pulled over for the same thing, over and over." He shook his head. It drove Holden crazy.
He sipped at his coffee and watched her taking down her hair and paused his cup at his lips as he seemed too entranced at her hair falling. He blinked a little bit and then when she finished and looked at him he cleared his throat, averting his eyes and drinking down his coffee. "Just one of those things." he said running his hand through his hair. "It's been a while. How's that new place of yours? That's when we last talked I think, was when you were moving." he said tipping his head thinking.
Langston nodded and grinned at him, few people really had the power to surprise her, let alone in a positive way, and Holden seemed quite good at doing that very thing. With so much corruption in the world, Holden seemed one of the rare few that chose to walk the line and follow proper procedure and protocol, Langston couldn't help but feel a lot of respect for his character. "True enough," she replied, taking another sip of her drink. "The really sad one's are that never learn, though I guess they're the one's that help pay our bonuses... or would if we got them." Not that she was necessarily in her particular career for the money, though she couldn't complain about that, CSI's were compensated quite well, her collection of Jimmy Choo shoes was testimonial to that. More than that though, her job gave her an odd feeling of connection to her mother, Langston treated every case the way she wished her mother's case would have been.
She stole a glance at him under her long lashes as she absently twirled a strand of hair around a finger, and bit her lower lip. "It has been awhile, yeah. The new place is good... well, mostly good, one of my roommates decided adopting a problem child designer shoe eating English bulldog was a good idea... but, other than losing some beloved footwear, it's actually pretty good. The house is beautiful, the girls are fun and I'm up for the challenge of trying to come up with the ultimate dog proofing system..." She answered, snorting a little laugh.
"The sad ones end up getting so many strikes on their license and have it taken away." He pointed out. "Then when they're out driving without a license they get their car impounded and they get tossed in jail. It's a beautiful thing." He said grinning. Not that it happened a lot where Holden was from. They could go months without issuing a ticket, but for the ones he did issue, he was more then happy to make sure they were upheld. Cops were paid well enough. Not like he was rolling in the millions or thousands either. He'd purchased his home in the trailer park, but that hadn't cost him too much money in all honesty. Trailer homes weren't particularly pricey after all but it suited Holden just fine. If anything, he'd love to have a trailer up on a bit of land out in the wilderness. That's where he'd be most happy, but for now, Scarlet Oak's Trailer park would have to do.
Holden had been taking a sip of coffee when she mentioned the bulldog and it's description and he nearly sporfled coffee all over the table. He quickly grabbed a napkin and daubed at his lips to make sure he wasn't drooling coffee. He was still laughing though at the description. "He sounds like a gem, maybe he needs to be walked more. I've heard that dogs are destructive when they're bored." He pointed out. "Maybe your roommate isn't exercising him enough. You said all you girls were professional girls. Can't imagine he gets too much stimulation during the day." He said putting his coffee cup down and folding the napkin in half and placing it on the table.
Holden had always thought he wanted a dog, but it would be pretty difficult to have any animal that was bigger then him when he was in his bunny form. He wasn't about to become Lassie's dinner.
"A beautiful thing indeed," Langston agreed, saluting with her cuppa, smiling at her handsome colleague.
Langston couldn't help but laugh a little herself when he did in response to that damn crazy dog. "I'm sure he could use a lot of attention, the drooling little monster." Langston snorted. "I threatened Artemis that I would zap her dog for eating my expensive shoes and you'd have thought I'd threatened the dog with the electric chair by her reaction. I'd never hurt the little walking disposal unit... he's lucky he's ridiculously cute or I'd likely just ignore the little fart machine all together... but he's annoyingly adorable... I might have bought some chew toys for the little bastard..." she admitted, trying to look disinterested in the little mutt. He ate her Jimmy Choos for the love of God!
Holden shook his head. It was funny pets and their owners. "Ouch, sounds a little painful. I guess it wouldn't really hurt him, though then you'd have the dog running scared every time he saw you. That wouldn't be all that nice." He said, tipping his head. He as a bunny wouldn't want to be shocked, then again he had been as a child when he'd chewed through the wire of the Television set. That really hadn't been very good, he'd got the electrical shock and then the wallop from his mother.
"He'd probably love you for the toys though, so long as they didn't give him indigestion. Though from the sounds of it he's never had any stomach issues. What he doesn't consume just gets burped up." He chuckled. "You like him though, I can tell. It's always good to have an animal around. I'd have one but I'm too busy to take care of it." He added silently that he was one, but that didn't make it out of his mouth.
"Idle threat was idle, seriously, cute is his defense mechanism. I don't think I could even swat him with a news paper. He looks up with that big doofy face and all you wanna do is baby talk and snuggle him. I hate him." Langston sighed in defeat. "Except that I don't, yes, I totally like him" she smirked. "I spent an hour at the Petsmart making the sales dude help me pick out toys safe for a chewing monster like Pork Chop. I got this Kong thing that looks like a bizzare sex toy rather than a dog toy. It's a little scary." she continued, crinkling her nose.
"Well, feel free to stop by and live vicariously. Might wanna bring a rain slicker though, he drools like a mofo."
"Well then it sounds like you're a little stuck with the dog that eats all. Maybe you should write a letter to some talk show to have the dog that eats anything on. Unless he's a closet eater...." Holden didn't realize he'd made a funny until he said it and then he rubbed his face, grinning. "Wow that was bad, even accidentally." He shook his head and sipped his drink. He glanced casually at the time, he knew he'd have to head over to the courthouse at some point, even if he was enjoying the conversation. The thought of a dog sex toy though, even though it wasn't meant that way, caused Holden to pull a face and near cough once again on his coffee. "Wilde, Jesus." He said once again, tapping at his mouth with his napkin. She was a nutty one, but he liked it. It was a nice change from all the real crazy people he dealt with sometimes on a regular basis.
"So long as your roommates know what it is, and didn't think that he made off with something he found in a box under your bed?" He teased, surprised at himself really for even going 'there'. Holden was pretty tame when it came to things like that, and even more so when he was speaking to people that he worked with.
"You did say that he was a Bulldog, doesn't that like, come standard?" He asked laughing. He could only imagine this mongrel's face. "What's his name?"
Langston couldn't help but snort a laugh at Holden's little funny, it was bad, but the kind of bad funny that would likely have her laughing like an idiot when she thought of it later on and wondering why she found it so lol worthy. "Yeah, but bad in a totally good way..." Langston shook her head, still snorfling to herself. When Holden nearly sporfled his coffee at her canine sex toy comment, Langston did her best to not burst out in a giggle fit herself. "Whaaat?" she said, batting her eyelashes, smiling innocently. "Well, it does, seriously... and for backdoor entry no less." she expanded, pulling a face. "If you happen to be an elephant..."
"Oh God..." Langston facepalmed. "Thankfully that box is tucked away in the nightstand, and I don't think he can manage to open drawers, at least I'd hope not." He lead the way there, Langston merely followed. They were adults after all, little talk of sex toys shouldn't be that big a deal, right?
"Yeah, it totally comes with the breed. Slobber machine that one." She smiled, thinking of the little a-hole. "Porkchop... she named him Porkchop..."
Holden shook his head and tried not to go red. The very idea was...well slightly disturbing. "That's...wow." He didn't know what to say so he didn't say anything at all and just bit his tongue. That really was rather disturbing the very thought and now that it was in his mind he couldn't quite get it out. He rubbed his face and then his hair. "I'm going to have nightmares for weeks." He said shuddering a little. Yeah, his butt clenched just a bit, automatically, but he didn't move enough for any notice to be had.
He managed to not go red at the talk of her own personal things that he'd been joking about a moment earlier. When they were in the abstract it wasn't so bad, but now that they were talking about her own, he was a touch uncomfortable about that. She was his co-worker after all! "Well...there's worse I suppose that he could be chewing on."
"Did you say she adopted him or she bought him? If she adopted him I think he came with a name maybe?" He asked, but then grinned. "I like Porkchop, that's kind of hilarious if you think about it."
Langston wasn't really the type that censored herself, she was pretty out there with the things she said more often than not. That was just part of who she was, she was just fine with it, even if it did tend to make for a bit of awkward at times. She saw him turn red and sort of half shrugged. "Yeah, like my Jimmy Choos... woe." Langston frowned, she really loved those damn shoes.
"She adopted him, obviously from the Hounds from Hell rescue society..." Langston quipped. "I dunno if it's the name he came with, could have been, but it sounds very Artemissy to me..." she snorted. "It fits though..."
"Well I'm sure Artemis would pay for them. She's a sweet enough girl." Holden said, regaining his composure. He had met the girl at a few of the house parties that the girls would sometimes throw. They were all really nice, and it was kind of amusing that they three girls lived together in such a way that reminded him of a college movie. So long as they were happy though, that was all that really mattered. He was also pretty sure she made good enough money to pay for them as well at her job. All of the girls were gainfully employed after all.
"It does sounds very much like Artemis named him. Poor dog." He chuckled and shook his head. At least Langston always had a good story to tell. He glanced at his watch. "I should get going. I like to be there early just in case the case before gets thrown out fast. I don't want to not be there when they call us in." He said gulping down the last of his coffee and wiping at his mouth again with the napkin he'd been using. No coffee face for him. "Give me a call or something sometime, we can go get lunch or something." He offered gathering himself.