sweetchaos (sweetchaos) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2023-10-12 15:01:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #july 2018, bailey, bailey x max, max |
Who: Bailey and Max
When: Wednesday afternoon, July 18th
Where: O’Reilly House and beyond
Bailey didn’t know what it was about arresting former lovers. If one could call a two-night stand a former lover. But the arrest warrant had shown up in the PPPD system, and when she saw who it was for, she couldn’t say she was surprised. Leopards couldn’t change their spots, or whatever the phrase was. It was on her to bring Max O’Reilly in to stay the night in the police station before being transferred to the State Police tomorrow. She was just hoping he wouldn’t make this difficult.
Bailey drove through Blackwater, sucking on a mint and wincing slightly as her patrol car bounced over the uneven road through the trees until she came to the O’Reilly home. The fact that her GPS still worked out in the middle of nowhere was mildly comforting.
She didn’t see any vehicles when she pulled up, but that didn’t mean a damn thing when so many people supposedly lived in this place. Parking, Bailey squinted up at the house through her windshield before she finally exited the car and headed for the porch. When she knocked on the door, her hand moved instinctively to the butt of her gun. Again, she doubted she would need it, but she had seen what lurked in these woods and she glanced around just to make sure she was alone.
Max knew there was a cop at the door before Bailey even knocked. He hadn't developed any kinds of superpowers regarding that specifically, he just had a weird, bratty girl in the house with weird door powers. He was having breakfast - or early afternoon brunch? - when Aya stormed past him and told him there was a cop outside and that he had never met her before. Then she walked out the kitchen door and disappeared, leaving him wondering if she had done something too great to get away with this time. They normally didn't steal things anywhere near Point Pleasant and Aidan was usually with them disabling any cameras but he still couldn't help but feel a little worried as he headed to the door. It was weirdly comforting to see Bailey standing there of all people, at least he'd been up close and personal with her naked, it did make the uniform a little less grating. She had her serious cop face on but that didn't really have to mean anything and he grinned a bit in greeting, running his fingers through his unruly hair and wishing he looked a little less like he'd spent the last two days doing nothing but play video games and drink.
"So, do I say good day, officer? Or just hi?" he asked playfully, eyes crinkling as he looked her over. She was not here for seconds, that was pretty much a guarantee, but a guy could hope and he wouldn't say no to that.
Max did look a little rough but that wasn't Bailey's concern. She didn't return his smile either, since she didn't want to give him any false hope that this was a social visit. All Bailey could do is hope this didn't turn into a bad situation. "Look, Max, I've got a warrant for your arrest," she explained, wanting to sound official but also maybe slightly sympathetic. Bailey rarely took pleasure in arresting people, unless they were difficult assholes, and she had no beef with Max O'Reilly. "I'll let you get your shoes on, but I have to take you to the station."
If they were closer - or if they'd had sex more recently - Max would have thought she was joking with him and his brows rose in shock before he could steel himself. "What?" he asked slowly and tried to think of which crime it could be for and how he had fucked up. He shook his head, squinting as he thought about it. "I've been sitting at home doing jack shit, what the fuck is the warrant for?" He always wore gloves, Aidan always detected any electric gear and would have picked up on any magical interference too - or Max had to assume he would. Maybe not though, maybe they'd fucked up. Was Aidan in trouble too? Aya could pretty much disappear to wherever the fuck she wanted to so she wasn't really a concern, but Aidan... Max couldn't imagine him surviving prison and that wasn't just his bias as a big brother.
She would rather just take him back to the station to explain it, but Bailey had a feeling Max O'Reilly wouldn't move an inch until he knew what he was in trouble for. The problem was, it wasn't really anything he had done. So she sighed inwardly and decided to just get it over with so they could get out of these damn woods. "A clerical error was found in your release papers," she explained. "So a report was filed. They released you early by mistake. There's a no bail warrant with your name on it, so I've got to take you back to the station. State police will be picking you up tomorrow morning."
"A fucking clerical error?" Max echoed incredulously and his temper was rising fast, more for the fact that he was safe here and nowhere fucking else and now Bailey wanted to take him away? "Are you god damn fucking kidding me? That is bullshit! Tell me you know that's bullshit." Where the hell was Aya? If she was here she could walk him out of there, hide him anytime anyone came looking, but no. That little bitch had run to cover her own ass, because of course. His mind was spinning, fucking prison again? No. Way. "Tell'em I wasn't here," he said with a touch of desperation, hoping maybe he could appeal to the Bailey behind the uniform. "You just couldn't find me. I can stay missing for a while until they fix that shit."
Bailey could agree that it was bullshit but these things happened and there wasn't anything she could do about it. It didn't surprise her that he wanted her to pretend like she hadn't seen him, but that was also something she couldn't do. She thumbed back to her patrol car. "You know I can't do that. That records everything I do, Max, including standing here and talking to you. I've got to take you in." Maybe the clerical error was a clerical error. Stupid shit like that happened all the time, usually by newbies or interns who shouldn't be entering data without plenty of training. And she did feel bad for Max, but hopefully everything would get sorted out and he wouldn't be gone terribly long.
God damn cameras everywhere. Max never thought the day would come where he'd wish the protection on his home to turn off for a minute. If he just sidestepped into a different dimension, Bailey would see him disappear and the rest would be her problem. He wouldn't be running away, it'd just be yet another supernatural fuckery that she'd have to deal with in her report. But no, the O'Reilly land was the only place where he was safe from those glitches and that was both a curse and a blessing at the moment. "You don't understand," he said desperately, forcing himself not to 'resist arrest' or 'flee' or anything that could make that clerical error into an actual offense. "There's something wrong with me and this place is the only place I'm safe. I fucking... I can't go to prison." And of course nobody was home to help, how often did that happen? He never had the house to himself, something he'd hated as a teenager, and now he just wish everyone was home. "Do you have the arrest warrant? Can I see it?" Maybe, just maybe, there was a loophole in there that the cops didn't bother to look for.
Bailey should have known he would want to see the warrant. Most people getting arrested did. She held up her finger and walked back to her car, hyper-aware of his presence. If he decided to make a run for it, she was going to be pissed. Bailey reached into the car, grabbed the filing and returned to the porch to hand it over to Max. There was no reason for anyone to fuck around or make this up, but if he wanted to read it for himself, that was fine, as long as he didn't try to complicate things further.
Max knew reading the damn thing wouldn't do him any good but he still wanted to see it. If Aidan was home, maybe he could cast some illusion magic on the paper, put some errors in there to buy them time. He knew he could probably disappear at the station, he could run now and she wouldn't be able to harm him, but that just meant resisting arrest, adding more time to whatever they'd give him. He was fucked but he wasn't so impulsive that he was going to fuck himself more. The thought of going back to prison though... A holding cell was one thing but going through all the procedures, the dehumanizing bullshit, going back. A few years ago he might have raged and made things worse for himself but after the other side and everything he'd been through, he just couldn't muster up the energy and that was probably a good thing. Good old depression washed over him and he sighed, shook his head and handed the papers back to Bailey. "How long until they get here? Do I get a phone call?"
"They'll be here in the morning," Bailey said, taking the document back from Max and folding it in half. "You can make a phone call when we get to the station." She paused and raised a brow. "Are any of your family here? I can let you talk to them for a minute if you need to." He may want to call his lawyer, which was fine with Bailey, but she would hope he would tell his siblings or dad if he was going to the police station. Then again, who knew what went on out here and for all Bailey knew, the O'Reilly clan was scattered to the wind... or the woods... today.
"Nobody here but me," Max muttered darkly and started reaching for his phone before he remembered that even if they were on friendly terms, Bailey was still a cop and probably wouldn't take kindly to him just reaching for things in his pocket. So he patted his side pocket slowly to indicate what he was up to with no attempt to slip his hand inside. "Mind if I text my sister at least? So she won't freak out on me?" If the state police wasn't coming today, maybe Shayna Mae could still fix this somehow, he had to have hope for that, and the sooner she knew the better.
It was a bit unnerving, Max announcing he was alone and reaching for his something in his pocket. Bailey's instinct was to reach for her gun, but she settled as soon as he seemed to realize how it must look and he clarified what he was doing. She didn't think Max would do anything to harm her, but people could be unpredictable, especially when they felt backed into a corner. "You can text your sister," Bailey said with a nod. They would have to take his things when they booked him, but she wasn't about to yank his phone from him before they even got to the car. Right now she was starting to feel antsy, like someone was watching them from a distance. Or something. She didn't like it. "Make it quick. They'll send someone out here looking for me if I'm not back on the road in a few minutes."
Bailey was cop first, ex fling second and Max had been around enough guards and cops to know how to behave around them. Prison hadn't been hard on him for the reasons people tended to assume it had, it was the boredom, the incredibly crappy company and the dehumanization that got the worst of him. Maybe it'd be easier now that he'd spent time in an actual hell but he really felt like he deserved a god damned break. He pulled the phone out slowly and sent off a short and concise text to his sister. He didn't think Bailey would change her mind and take his phone away, but it was instinct to expect it anyway. Arrested on bullshit charges, come to the station. He might have added a please just to be sweet but his finger was on the sent button before he could even consider it. "Guess you'll be taking this now," he muttered, though he hoped Bailey would let him keep it until they got to the station."
Bailey shook her head. "We'll take it at the station," she said, stepping back so he could walk to the car ahead of her. Technically she should have cuffed him, but Bailey was going on instinct right now and she opted to leave the handcuffs where they were. Maybe this was all a mistake and it would get figured out before the state police showed up tomorrow to take him. Either way, she just wanted to get this done so she could get out of these damned woods. She had seen first hand what lurked in this place and Bailey felt like she was overstaying her welcome. She didn't really have any words of comfort for Max - comfort wasn't really something she was good at - so she merely walked to the patrol car to open the back door for him. Empty words wouldn't placate him anyway.
Max wondered if her kindness was because it was a mix-up or because they'd had a fling, but the reason why didn't really matter, he was grateful for it all the same. It gave him a chance to send his sister some more information on the ride to the station and he could have texted the rest of the family too but something gave him pause. If this got solved today, then why make them worry now? Patrick wasn't doing good to begin with, he didn't want to make him feel even worse if he didn't need to. "Does this happen a lot?" he asked when they were on the road, glancing up from the phone to find Bailey's face in the rear view mirror. "Clerical error arrests?"
Bailey was happy to be leaving the O'Reilly house, and the woods in general. She didn't know how Max's family lived there, in the midst of so much darkness. Maybe they were used to it, having lived here their whole lives. Bailey had been born and raised here too, but she had been lucky enough to get away for a while. Glancing up at Max in the rearview, Bailey shrugged one shoulder. "A lot more than you would think. We have databases and programs and all that, but user error is still a thing. I know it's bullshit, but there's nothing I can do about it myself. If they got it wrong, they'll figure it out." Bailey knew that probably wasn't very helpful or comforting, but she didn't have it in her to bullshit him about it. "Did you get a hold of your sister?"
"You've got a lot of trust in a shit system," Max said and in his experience, people didn't really give a shit about prisoners. It was better up here with their state not running prisons for profit, but he had a bad feeling he might just get lost at the bottom of some shit pile in the office of someone who didn't have the time or energy to clear said pile. It sure as hell wouldn't be the first time someone lost their life to bureaucracy - one way or another. His screen lit up and he felt a pang of guilt and relief when he saw his sister had replied to him. She was on her way to the station, he was pretty sure everything was going to be fine. At least he had to believe it was.
Bailey didn't have a lot of trust in anything, but this wasn't the time to get into that so she simply shrugged and kept her eyes on the road ahead. There wasn't anything she could do for Max. She didn't have the authority, after all, but that didn't mean she didn't feel shitty for him. When she had been a cop in bigger cities, she had seen people go through a lot of bullshit and she had quickly learned there was only so much she could do for them. Max hadn't answered whether or not he had gotten a hold of his sister so she let it go, assuming they would figure things out.
At some point during prison, Max had managed to get into a state of mind that helped him get through it. It wasn't zen or any of that shit, he didn't think so anyway, but it was a kind of calm and not caring that helped in boring situations. He didn't think he could muster that now, already feeling like a trapped animal ready to gnaw its foot off to get free. He wanted to bombard his sister with texts but he had nothing more to say other than 'come get me out' and there was only so many times he could say that without sounding absolutely batshit. He'd never really paid attention to where the homestead protection ended even if Patrick kept telling him while he was growing up, but now he could see it. Just subtle changes in the woods, places he knew weren't here bleeding into the landscape. He never saw that at home and it was both fascinating and terrifying. Maybe this was how all the badness kept seeping in; all those tears in reality. At least they didn't drive through any but that wasn't all that comforting.
He wondered if it was getting worse, if in a few years the 'here' would be the exception and everywhere he stepped would be somewhere else, but town had fewer of these so maybe it was just the woods. There were none at the station, both a relief and a disappointment - how funny it would have been to just walk right out of there through a hole in reality. But no, this was where the waiting started and without his phone, he was pretty sure he was going to go insane.