Jane and Mina - 1:30 a.m.
As the night and party wore on, it became very obvious that it hadn't just been the collective of Nina, Joel, Mariah and Jane that had been feeling cooped up and down lately. With Mariah playing hostess and aided by supplies Nina had managed to conjure up, Capitol revelers seemed determined to tie one on. Jane was feeling the festivities just as much as her comrades; it was no secret that cops could be huge boozehounds, not to mention how much government workers could throw back. Once she imbibed the proper amount of social lubricant, the normally stoic and monosyllabic Jane circulated throughout the Kulseth abode. She stopped to make gruff small talk with coworkers, neighbors, and strangers alike but she found that she kept coming back to hang out with Mina.
Her and Mina couldn't be more different, and yet, Jane felt a strong kinship with the middle Kulseth daughter. Jane had no family of her own besides her ex-wife, so when she was partnered up with Joel at the precinct, the Kulseth's had welcomed her into their home with open arms. In the two years since, Jane had come to many a Kulseth family gathering and even though Joel was her partner and Ahna was her good friend, her and Mina had built up a strong rapport that sort of defied labels. They were a team; often double-teaming the peacekeeping duties that was sometimes needed when Joel and his eldest daughter were in the same room together. Jane respected the hell out of Mina and fiercely admired what she did at the hospital. Being a cop in Austin could be a thankless and depressing business but to Jane it felt like nothing compared to being a grief counselor. To be bombarded with people's anger and sadness on a constant loop took a special kind of person and Mina was just that gal. If anyone deserved a night off to let their hair down, it was Mina.
Finding the conversation she was in with a few DoJ agents super boring, Jane gracelessly removed herself from the group in search of Mina. She finally found her on the other side of the room, looking decidedly wobbly. Jane pushed purposefully through the room and sidled up next to her, greeting her friend with an atypically wide grin.
"You're doing a hell of a job holding up this wall here," Jane said, appraising Mina's demeanor to try and gauge her state of drunkenness. "How you feeling?"