Who: Sara and Dan What: First day at the new job When: Recently Where: The Double Tap Warning/Rating: Low/none Status: Complete
It had been nearly five years since the last time Sara had been home, and she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about it just yet. Of course, it had been her decision. She was nearly thirty, and it was probably time for her to start at least attempting to make something of her life.
She was, of course, relieved that she had managed to get a job so quickly after getting home, but it did drive home the fact that she was home now. No more under the table jobs, no more packing up and leaving whenever the urge struck her. At least The Double Tap seemed like her kind of bar. The smell of smoke hung in the air, musky and, she was pretty sure, illegal. She’d never been one to play by the rules either.
“I guess this is where you show me the ropes, huh?” she asked Dan, her new boss, having just emerged from stashing her jacket in the back.
The last round of monster attacks had been the last straw for Dan’s part-time bartender, Phil. Literally the following day after things had quieted down, Dan was cleaning up and preparing to reopen the bar as a bar again when Phil had declared he was quitting. Not just quitting, but leaving Orange County for good.
“I just – I can’t take it!” Phil had declared. “I’m getting out of here. If you were smart, boss, you’d do the same.”
Dan didn’t try to dissuade him. He didn’t try to press the usual cover story that went around during and after these kinds of events. He only nodded his head in understanding, paid Phil what he was owed for his shifts that week (plus a little extra for actually hanging around during the latest invasion) and gave him a ride to the closest Greyhound station. Where Phil was planning to go Dan didn’t know, and it wasn’t his business. He saw Phil off, wished him luck and that was that.
Dan couldn’t blame the young man for wanting to get out. Orange County tested people, even those who weren’t on the Network. Some people adapted. Others didn’t or couldn’t. Dan could only hope his newest hire was one who could adapt.
“Aye,” he nodded at Sara and motioned for her to follow him into the back rooms. “I gotta replace one of the kegs, so may as well start there.”
Sara was no stranger to changing kegs, and so she hoped that it would be a good place to start. Give her a chance to show off and hopefully gain some of that boss trust so that she’d be given a few extra freedoms when she needed them.
“Sounds good,” she said, and followed Dan into the backroom, trying to take not of where everything was located so she could find it again in a hurry if she needed to. “Just tell me which one and consider it changed.”
A narrow somewhat poorly lit hall ran from the front room all the way to the rear of the building. The hall connected the front room to a small, but clean and respectable kitchen immediately behind the bar, as well as the business office located in the back. At the very end of the hall was another door that opened to the stairs going up to the apartments upstairs. Dan always kept that particular door locked with a chain, two deadbolts and a padlock.
Dan stopped at the kitchen door and pointed towards the end of the hall. “My office is down there,” he told Sara. “That’s where the safe is. There’s a drop slot in the top for you to put in the nights’ proceeds if I’m not here. I’ll show you how to do that in a bit.”
He then led Sara through the kitchen. “We don’ serve food,” he told her as he headed towards a non-descript door located on the far side of the room. “But if we’re slow an’ ye get hungry an’ brought yer own food, feel free t’ use the stove.” He gestured to the flattop. “So long as ye know whatcher doin’ and ye don’t burn the place down, aye?” He gave Sara a bit of a smirk and pointed to the fire extinguisher hanging nearby. “But that’s right there, just in case. Don’ worry, despite how this place looks, I keep that up to code.”
Before taking Sara down to the basement like room where the kegs were kept, Dan fetched a new keg from the cold room in the kitchen. He wouldn’t make her lug the thing down the narrow wooden steps, unless she asked to. Once down below he set the keg down and indicated which one of the line along the wall needed to be replaced. Then, with a grin he took a step back. “Have at it,” he said.
Sara nodded, making a note of the kitchen. She was couchsurfing for the time being, and knowing she had a place to cook her own meals was pretty nice, even if it would only be during work hours. “No promises on the not burning it down, boss,” she said, grinning cheekily. “But I’ll try.”
She wasn’t about to lug a full keg down the stairs. She knew her own strength, and knew that she wouldn’t be able to manage it herself. She didn’t yet know that, in time, she’d be able to do so with relative ease. “So when you’re not here, how should I go about getting these down here?” Sara asked, heading to the keg that Dan had indicated. She took a quick look at the keg coupler. Once she figured out what kind it was, she changed the keg out with ease. The empty keg, at least, she could carry back up the stairs.
“I’m here every morning,” Dan said as he watched her switch out the kegs. “And I check everythin’ before opening, so if I see something needs to be changed or stocked I’ll probably do it myself. Kegs rarely go dry durin’ the week an’ I’ll be mannin’ the bar with you on the busier nights. So you shouldn’t have to worry ‘bout it.” He motioned for her to follow him back up the stairs. “If you should notice we’re gettin’ low, though, leave me a note and I’ll take care o’ it.”
Once back upstairs, Dan gave Sara the rest of the nickel tour, including were the safe was kept and how to drop a nights’ proceeds and receipts into the little slot at the top, which was really more of a one way security drawer. All Sara had to do was drop in the cash and the nights’ receipts and Dan would handle the rest in the morning.
After showing Sara were the emergency exit was and telling her the door leading upstairs was to remain closed and locked at all times (and he had the only set of keys, so that shouldn’t be a problem), he took her back to the front room where she would be spending most of her time anyway. Part of Sara’s interview had been Dan giving her a number of drink orders to make in order to be sure she knew how to function behind a bar and not break a dozen glasses. He was already confident she knew what she was doing when it came to the bartending aspect of her job and there was no real need to show her were things were behind the bar, though he did make a point to show her the billy club tucked out of sight, but within reach should she need it. The Double Tap wasn’t located in the best of neighborhoods, after all.
“I gotta few rules here.” He informed her. “No fighting, no throwin’ shite, no breakin’ the furniture or glasses and leave the ladies alone. Anyone breaks those rules an’ I toss them right out. No discussion.” He pointed at Sara. “And you’ll do the same. My regulars, they all know an’ respect my policies. But occasionally some asshole will come wanderin’ in looking to start trouble. Most o’ the time all you gotta do is show’em yer armed and they’ll leave well enough alone. If things get outta control, call me. If ye can’t get me, ring up this guy.” He tapped a business card taped to the wall next the bar’s phone which bore the name: Detective Leon Orcot. “He’ll either find me, or come down himself.” Dan chuckled. “If he isn’t already parked on one of the stools.” Dan leaned back against the counter behind the bar. “I’ll be workin’ the first coupla weeks with you. Introduce ye to the regulars, get them and you familiar with each other. So long as that goes smoothly, we’ll work out a more permanent schedule for you.”
With that all out of the way and Sara still standing in front of him, Dan turned their conversation towards getting to know his new employee. “So, yer movin’ back home,” he said, recalling the sparse personal info he’d gotten from her interview a few days prior. “What made ye decide to come back?”
“Leave the ladies alone, huh,” Sara repeated back, and tossed Dan a teasing smile. “Does that rule apply to the bar staff too?” she asked, only half joking. One of the perks she’d found as a bartender in the past was being able to leave at the end of her shift with anyone who wanted to leave with her. Of course, she wasn’t looking to get fired right out of the gate, so she might have to learn how to keep that in check.
She took in Leon’s business card contemplatively. She hadn’t pegged this bar as the type that welcomed a police presence, but that was, maybe, just her previous experience in dive bars. It wasn’t something she’d ever asked her employers before, but she was fairly sure that a handful of the bars that had hired her under the table, with no workers visa to speak of, weren’t exactly above the board. But she left her questions unasked. It wasn’t any of her business what kind of business Dan was running.
“I’ve been gone for a long time,” she admitted. “I didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms with a lot of my family. I really screwed things up.” Her mother, of course, had always stood behind her, even when Sara had made her mistake with Oliver. But her dad, while it was obvious he still loved her, hadn’t been quite so supportive of her massive mistake, and she hadn’t talked to Laurel at all since it had happened. “I thought it was maybe time to come back and try to mend some fences. My sister, she had a daughter a couple years ago, and I didn’t want her to grow up not knowing her aunt.”
“It does if you want it to,” Dan said with a shrug. “I’m not out lookin’ to police people’s love lives, but if a woman – or bloke for that matter – doesn’t want someone playing grab-ass with’em, then no means no as far as I’m concerned.”
He grinned slightly as Sara looked at Leon’s business card pensively. Phil had been relieved when Dan had taped Leon’s card up by the phone. Sara seemed more thoughtful about the situation. “Leon is the only cop that really ever comes in here. Most o’ the local force frequent a place called McNally’s.” His grin widened a little bit. “Don’t worry, though. Leon’s a good guy. My best friend.” It felt good to say that. Dan had never had a best friend before and of all the people in the world he could have chosen to have, Leon was (in Dan’s opinion) the best there was.
“Mendin’ fences,” Dan repeated thoughtfully. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and selected one before offering the pack to Sara. “Noble pursuit, that. Not an easy one either.” He lit his cigarette and took a drag. “How long you been outta touch?”
“So, avoid McNally’s. Noted,” Sara joked, grinning at Dan. “Actually my dad used to be a cop. It might be nice having one hang around.” It would definitely be a call back to her childhood. Most of her dad’s friends had been cops too, and she’d learned pretty young how to joke around with them.
“Around five years,” Sara growing a little subdued. “I shouldn’t have left it so long, but… you know. It’s one of those things where the longer you leave it alone, the harder it is to come back to it.” It was true that Laurel could have also reached out, but Sara hadn’t made it easy, and she couldn’t exactly blame Laurel for not wanting to make the first move.
Dan laughed and flicked some ash off the tip of his cigarette into an awaiting ashtray. It was interesting that her father had been a cop. “Was he now?” He said with a raised brow. “Interesting, that. I was a detective with the Detroit PD some time ago.” He didn’t expand on that, not for the moment at least.
Instead he regarded what Sara said about being away from her family with a thoughtful look. He blew out another drag of smoke, letting it waft around his face before dissipating. “Ye probably shouldn’tve,” He said with a nod. “But ye can’t change the past. What’s done is done. The point is yer here now lookin’ to move forward. Some folks go their entire lives not speakin’ to their families over something or another. Yer tryin’, and that’s commendable.”
“Huh,” Sara said, looking around the bar with fresh eyes. She could see that. Cops, at least her father’s friends, had liked to keep things like bars simple, with none of the showiness that other bars employed, and it looked like Dan had followed suite. “Seems like owning a bar is the better job, if you ask me.”
Sara managed a wane smile. “Yeah, I definitely don’t want to end up like one of those people. Not with my sister, at least.” It was bad enough her father had died before she could prove to him that she wasn’t a disappointment.
“So,” she said, in a little more cheerful of a voice, trying to change the subject. “Unpaid detective bouncer, money slot, creepy dungeon keg room, anything else you think I should know?”
“It has its perks,” Dan said. “I make my own hours. I’m my own boss. Plus all the booze I could ever want.” Another flick of ash off his cigarette and his eyes followed Sara’s around the bar. When he’d first come into possession of it, he’d never expected to have kept it as long as he had, nevermind rely on it for his income. But now that he was here, now that certain events had changed the course of his life, Dan wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Sara’s voice drew his attention back towards her. There was something about the sadness of her smile that made him hope that she was successful in reconnecting with her family -- her sister at least. Dan had no family to speak of. His father had been dead for years, he had no siblings and had only faint glimpses of memories of his mother. But he understood all too well the importance of those blood bonds. People needed them, on some level...
Taking the hint to move on to less personal matters, Dan smirked at Sara’s rather apt description of what he’d shown her so far. “Not that I kin think of,” he said. “You got any questions?”
“Not that I can think of,” Sara echoed, and extended her hand for a handshake. “I think I’m going to like it here.”