Liv Moore is an alabaster badass (livmoore) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-03-27 11:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, leon orcot, olivia moore |
Who: Liv and Leon
What: Celebratory drinks after solving a murder
When: Mid March (before Liv started dreaming)
Where: Cop bar
Rating/Warnings: Low. Talk of dead bodies?
Status: Complete!
The case was actually pretty easy to solve, once Liv had given Leon the toxicology results. The poison they’d found in the victim's system was only available to a small amount of scientists, and from there it really hadn’t been rocket science to figure out who the murderer was. Leon had slapped the cuffs on him that afternoon, laughing about how murder was more difficult than biochemistry. It obviously meant that it was time to celebrate, and Liv deserved just as much as the credit as other guys.
Besides, Leon figured he should probably become friends with at least one of the MEs. He knew that they were all professional, but he also knew that sometimes a medical examiner would bump an examination up to the front of the pile if they liked they cop who was working the case. Leon had never gotten on well with the MEs, partly because he thought the morgue was incredibly creepy. There was a quiet part of him that wondered about people who wanted to spend all day with corpses, but he always silenced that by reminding himself that he was a homicide detective so that was part of his job description as well. But Liv was new, and he hadn’t thought she was too creepy when they had talked over the case.
“Liv?” He called as he entered the morgue. He’d made sure that it was only a couple minutes until she was supposed to be done her shift. “Grab your coat. We’re going for drinks.”
Liv was just finishing up for the day. It hadn’t been too busy since Detective Orcot had left that morning. Only one other victim came in, a stabbing. She had just finished up the autopsy. Her boss was in the back writing up the paperwork when the detective came back. It was her first time working with him, but then it was her first time working with pretty much everyone. She was still new to the job, to Orange County in general.
“Drinks?” she asked removing her lab coat. She hung it back up and retrieved her regular coat. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say you solved the case?”
“We did,” Leon said proudly, puffing out his chest a little bit. “Easiest case I’ve had in awhile, thanks to you, so drinks on me.”
Well that was certainly good news. Liv was still adjusting to the whole being a medical examiner of a heart surgeon thing. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t proud to help solve a case. That was her way of helping people now after all. “I can’t refuse an offer like that,” she smiled putting on her coat. “You pick the bar, I’m still new.”
“McNally’s it is. It’s where most of us go for beers after work,” Leon said with a grin, leading the way out of the chilly morgue (thank god) and back into the nice, warm sunshine. He had a few regular bars, but most of them were dive bars where he could get the most bang for his buck. Liv worked for the police force, and so he’d take her to the unofficial cop bar.
“Do you want a ride?” He’d parked his car, a green ’66 Mustang GT500 right outside the doors, knowing he was only going to be inside for a couple of minutes.
McNally’s sounded just fine to her. Not that she knew the difference but judging by the fact that Leon said it was where most of ‘us’ go she assumed there would be other cops there. It wouldn’t hurt to get to know the other detectives she would be potentially working with.
Once they got outside Liv felt the urge to take her coat back off. It was so much warmer here than Seattle. Probably because it wasn’t constantly raining. “Nice car,” she commented. It was old school, she liked it. “Depends. Are you going to be sober enough to give me a ride back to my car?” She had no clue how much this guy drank or how long it took him to get drunk and she’d rather not leave her car at the morgue overnight. Wasn’t a good look if her boss saw.
That was a good question, and while Leon was only planning on having a couple of drinks with the new ME, prior experience told Leon that the answer was a rather resounding ‘no.’ He cleared his throat, and then gave an almost sad look at Stella. “Maybe it’ll be better if we take your car,” he said.
Her car it was. Taking out her keys she used the clicker to unlock it. “You’ll have to give me directions,” she told Leon as she climbed in the car.
Leon climbed into the car, and gave Liv the directions as they drove. The bar really wasn’t that far from the precinct, so it was a fairly short drive. When Liv parked, Leon headed for the bar, making sure to hold the door open for the new ME.
The bar really wasn’t too busy right now. A couple of cops sat in a corner with pints of beer and wings, and someone Leon didn’t know was situated at the bar, but other than them and the bartender, the place was empty.
The cops in the corner called a greeting to Leon, and Leon returned it before finding another table to sit at.
“Oh, is this that girlfriend of yours, Leon?” The bartender asked, coming up to the table with a pint of Leon’s beer and two shots of whiskey already poured. She was a matronly sort, middle-aged and slightly overweight, with long, curly black hair but an open and friendly face.
“No,” Leon said, flushing a little. “This is Liv, a new ME. Liv, meet Roberta.”
“Oh, it’s wonderful to meet you,” Roberta said. “What can I get for you, sweetie?”
Liv had honestly never been to a cop bar before. Which made sense considering she had only been a MA for a few weeks and have never worked with cops before that. And it wasn’t like she was some badge bunny looking to pick up cops. But it seemed nice enough, just like any other bar. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting. It was obvious that the PD hung out here considering how they called out to Leon.
“We can sit with your friends if you want,” Liv suggested. She wasn’t opposed to meeting new people, however glancing back over it did look like they were getting ready to leave.
A pitcher of beer and two shots, and the bartender was asking what she wanted? Damn how much did Leon drink? Good thing they took her car. “It’s nice to meet you too,” she responded to the bartender. “I’ll take a jack and coke, thanks.” When she left to get the drinks Liv turned her attention back to Leon. “Girlfriend, huh?”
“No, that’s fine,” Leon said, glancing back to the cops behind him. He lowered his voice. “Frank is kind of obnoxious once he has a couple drinks in him.” He paused for a moment. “Actually, he’s kind of obnoxious without a couple of drinks in him too.”
He pushed one of the shots in front of Liv, and then raised his in a sort of toast before knocking it back. He almost blushed at Liv’s question. “She’s not so much a girlfriend as a girl I’ve been seeing for a couple of months,” he said. He and Peggy hadn’t exactly made anything official yet. When he’d started seeing her he’d told his colleagues, and he had yet to mention that they’d stopped seeing one another. Most of them didn’t push it further than that, but Roberta was always wondering when Leon was going to bring her by.
Liv just nodded at his explanation. She was sure she would discover some of these things out eventually. If she ever worked with Frank or whoever. But it was nice to have the information ahead of time. She wasn’t entirely sure how reliable of a source Leon was, but he was the first cop to share the outcome of a case with her and take her out to celebrate, so he was alright in her book.
“What, no toast to how awesome I am?” she joked raising her own glass and downing the shot. “Ah,” she replied as he explained about the girlfriend. “Close enough,” she shrugged although it made more sense why he hadn’t brought her to meet Roberta. “So you clearly come here a lot. Does she know all the cops orders or just yours?” Liv asked just as Roberta returned with her drink.
“Not this time,” Leon said, grinning. He decided he kind of liked Liv. She definitely wasn’t as gloomy as he expected someone who worked in a morgue to be. “First shot’s for getting through the day.” It was needed, especially when ‘getting through the day’ could possibly involve getting attacked by vampires or being rained on by sheets of blood.
“I know a good chunk of them, honey,” Roberta said. “I’m convinced some of these boys spend more time here than they do at home, so you get pretty familiar with what they all like.”
Leon blushed slightly. There had been a time when he’d been one of the guys who’d spent most of his time in this particular bar. Now he’d branched out, spending more time in seedy dive bars, though he still spent a fair amount of time in this particular bar. Roberta left them to their devices, letting Liv know that if she needed anything else to just wave.
“So, Liv. New to town or just new to the job?” Leon asked.
Liv had yet to experience all the joy that was Orange County. No dreams, no random weirdness. Of course she had seen all the posts on the network but wasn’t exactly sure what she thought about those. So getting through the day without weird shit happening was just a normal day for her. But whatever she’d drink to that as well.
She did notice how much Leon seemed to blush. This was like the second or third time. There was nothing to be embarrassed about though. People came to bars to drink, it made sense they would usually go to the same one. Got to go with what you like. Liv thanked Roberta again before the bartender headed back to the bar.
“Both,” well obviously she was new to the job. Considering she had just met Leon recently and he worked with MEs. But she wasn’t just new to the job for that percent, she was new to being an ME as well. She wasn’t going to get into that though. “I’m from Seattle. Just moved here a few weeks ago,” she paused to take a sip of her drink. “How long have you been a cop?”
When his guard was down, Leon was fairly easily flustered. His coworkers often teased him for it, which wasn’t nearly as bad as when they’d throw crime scene photos under his nose when he was in the middle of lunch just to see him lose said lunch. When he was working a case, when he was expecting things to go wrong, he was much harder to ruffle his feathers.
“Seattle, huh?” Leon asked. “The land of rain and coffee, from what I’ve heard. How’re you enjoying the Golden State so far?” He took a rather large gulp of his beer before he answered Liv’s question. “Going on ten years now,” he said, suddenly feeling rather old. “Apart from a gig as a delivery driver when I was a teenager, it’s the only job I’ve had.”
“That basically sums it up.” There were other things too but those were definitely the main things about Seattle. As for California, well it was stranger than she was expecting. “I’ve yet to run into a celebrity,” Liv commented with a fane pout. She honestly didn’t care much about all that. “But the people seem nice so far, a little into their dreams.” Which was just referring to those on that network really but it was a lot of dream talk. She wasn’t around long enough to know if it was just the network or everyone here.
“I’m going to guess you’ve always wanted to be a cop?” if that was the only job he had. Liv could definitely understand that. Although her life had taken a turn she had wanted to be a heart surgeon since she was little. Odd thing for a young girl to want, but who wanted to be normal?
“Well then, you haven’t been here long enough,” Leon said. “Everyone runs into a celebrity sooner or later.” He was actually pretty sure that there were celebrities on the Network, though none that Leon particularly cared about. “As for the dreams… That’ll start to make sense eventually. If you’re unlucky, at least.” He hoped that Liv didn’t have to deal with them, much like he wished that no one else had to either.
“I sure did,” Leon said, a wistful smile on his face as he thought about days long past. “My old man was a cop, and there was a time when I wanted to be just like him.” And then he’d become a teenager, where he definitely did not want to be like his father because he was a teenager, though even then he knew his calling was law enforcement. “I’m going to assume you didn’t always want to be a medical examiner?”
If there were any celebrities on the network Liv certainly hadn’t noticed them, or knew who they were. She honestly didn’t care all that much about meeting a celebrity unless it was from a show or movie she really liked. But it did just seem like the typical California stereotype. Leon confirmed it with his statement. She’d probably run into one sooner or later. “I’m not sure how I feel about that,” she replied honestly to the dream subject. On one hand she wanted to understand what the hell everyone was talking about, but on the other they didn’t sound like they were the best thing in the world. Knowing her luck lately though she’d end up having some.
“So is your life complete now?” she joked although part of her did wonder how it felt to actually have the job you always wanted. “What? Is it abnormal to grow up wanting to dissect dead people?” another joke. “But no, I wanted to be a surgeon.”
“I can guarantee you probably won’t be too happy about it,” Leon muttered. He didn’t think he knew of anyone who seemed to actually enjoy the dreams, except for some weird, apparently hyperactive guy who posted about dragons sometimes.
“That’s the dream, isn’t it?” Leon said, grinning. “But naw, there’s still some work ahead to get The Dream.” He wasn’t even sure what that was anymore. There was a point when he wanted to get married and have kids, but now that he thought about it he was pretty sure that was only because that was what was expected. “So you traded living people for corpses,” Leon said, and he couldn’t help but smiling. “Probably get a whole lot less headaches out of that set-up, eh?”
Liv had gotten that vibe from the posts she had seen. She was tempted to ask Leon more questions about the whole dream subject but given how bitter he sounded and how clueless she was about it all she decided not to. Maybe one day if she ever had dreams.
“Let me guess. Wife, 2.5 kids, white picket fence?” she teased. That was the stereotypical dream at least. “Basically,” she agreed with a nod and another sip of her drink. “I don’t have to worry about killing them. They’re already dead.” A joke but it was a big clue about her past, one she hadn’t necessarily meant to give.
“Something along those lines,” Leon said. “No dogs though.” Partly because his first thought when he saw someone walking their dog nowadays was that it was some sort of weird BDSM thing until he remembered it was a dog on the other end of the leash instead of another human being.
“And if they start lipping off at you, you shouldn’t have any problem justifying shooting them in the head,” Leon said, laughing at his own joke. He wondered if there was more to her statement than what she mentioned, though he quickly stuffed down the thought.
“What do you have against dogs?” Weren’t they supposed to be a mans best friend or something along those lines? They always seemed pretty cute and friendly to her but she had never had one so it wasn’t like she could speak from personal experience.
Liv faked a laugh at Leon’s joke. “I think if a corpse ever started lipping off to me I’d want to shoot myself.” That would be a sure as hell sign she was going crazy. At the very least that she spent too much time at the morgue. “Or at least change my career.”
“I just don’t have the time to take care of an animal,” Leon said. It was the excuse for not having a pet that he’d always used - didn’t have the time, didn’t have the space, didn’t have the patience, and definitely didn’t have the desire. Possibly not a great excuse for the future married Leon, 2.5 kids and white picket fence and all.
Leon balked. “Don’t do that,” he said. “If a corpse starts lipping you off here, chances are you aren’t going crazy and you might actually have a zombie problem.” He wished that there was a way to say that without sounding crazy himself, but he didn’t want Liv to think she was going nuts if something like that happened, and he sure as hell didn’t want her shooting herself because of it.
Made sense to her. She hadn’t been working with the PD for that long but she could tell the hours were long. And she had a feeling if you were a detective you were never really off the clock. Always trying to figure things out until the case was solved. Hell Liv found herself spending too much time thinking about these things, analyzing the evidence in her head when she wasn’t at work and she was only a ME.
“Okay,” Liv said with a sip of her drink. “Are we still joking or are you being serious now?” The sound of his voice sounded serious, but talking corpses and zombies, really? That had to be a joke.
“I’m being very serious right now,” Leon said, and he made sure that his face was deadly serious so she’d know just how serious he was being. “This place is, to put it lightly, fucking weird. If strange shit starts happening, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not going crazy.”
“Right,” Liv replied not really believing him. But at least now she new better, no joking about going crazy around this guy. She’d definitely be keeping that in mind for the next time she worked with him.
Leon ran a hand over his face. He obviously sounded insane, and he wasn’t terribly surprised that she didn’t exactly believe him. There had been a part of him that knew it was just luck that everyone he’d warned about it so far took him at his word, but the idea of someone who worked with him now thinking he was crazy was a little much. She’d learn eventually though. Or she wouldn’t. He’d lived in the OC for his entire life and it had only been in the last year when everything had started going tits up.
He forced himself to laugh then, as though it had all been a joke, and he chugged back his beer before gesturing to Roberta with a two-fingered wave that she should bring him another. “Right. So. You catch the game last night?”