Title: Late Night
Summary: Working a little late can have its advantages. So can having a car in the shop. Thanks to both, Samantha has the opportunity to catch a ride home from Joseph Oda.
Notes: Ah, I'm so happy that Lunch Break wound up pretty well liked! I'm not ready to expand into a full Joseph/OC fic, but here's a little more Joseph/OC one-sided cuteness. Also, big debate with myself over whether Joseph's car should be black or blue!
It was late. Detective Joseph Oda knew that of course. His partner, Detective Sebastian Castellanos, had left hours before. Joseph had wanted to put the finishing touches on a report of his. But he had not expected it to take this long. It was past time to go home, get a shower, and go to bed.
On his way out, he bumped, literally, into Samantha Rask, a pretty redhead from dispatch. "Sorry," he said, glad that he had not knocked her down. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"That's fine," she said, shaking her head and staring at her phone. "If you weren't, then I certainly wasn't either." With a sigh, she snapped her phone shut.
It was on the tip of Joseph's tongue to ask if anything was wrong. Instead, he wound up asking, "What are you doing here so late?"
With a sigh, Samantha glared towards the parking lot. "I don't think you and Sebastian were here earlier, when I came in pretty late today. The bug decided it needed a checkup, badly, since it didn't even want to start. I had to wait to get it towed, talk to the mechanic, who said it'll be in the shop for a few days, and then catch a bus since I can't get a ride!" Realizing she was getting angry, Samantha let out a little laugh to calm herself down, though that did not prevent her cheeks from turning a light shade of pink.
"So, I worked a few hours to make up for what I missed this morning," she finished. "And you?" she added conversationally.
"I wanted to go ahead and finish a report." He looked at her phone, felt like he knew the answer, but asked anyway. "Do you have a ride now?"
Samantha shook her head, a strand of hair falling loose as she did. "No, but if someone else needed a ride, they'd expect me to drop everything for them."
"Sounds like you need new friends," Joseph murmured. Samantha agreed and added she could not deny it. Joseph, having worked for the Krimson City Police Department for years, knew exactly how Krimson operated.
"Then I'll give you a ride," he told her. She actually did a double take, gray eyes widening in surprise as she took in his words. Before she could say the inevitable "Really?!" Joseph nodded, put a hand on her elbow, and lead her towards his car.
"It's too dangerous to let you take the bus, much less walk, with everything going on," he said. He unlocked the passenger door of the black sedan for her, then crossed the front of the car to let himself in the driver's side.
"Things are getting worse," Samantha said, her tone agreeing with him. "Have you even found anyone?" When Joseph shook his head no, she looked down and muttered directions to Papillon Avenue.
She was silent for a little while, her time spent looking out of the window and jiggling her foot. He thought her body language made it clear she was irritated, but Joseph also felt there was something else there. What, he was not sure of.
He immediately remembered the last time he was in a car with her. It had been her own yellow Beetle, which she seemed to as a "bug" almost affectionately. She did call it her baby at the time. He had to practically sit in the backseat to fit comfortably, but it seemed most passengers in the bug had to do that.
As he stopped at a red light, he looked over to her. She was still looking out the window, almost determined to it seemed. It did not seem like the Samantha he rode with before, who would cut herself off and apologize for babbling. "Anything on your mind?" he asked her. In his head, he could hear Sebastian calling him dense again. He shook his head a little, as if to clear a little subconscious Sebastian away.
"Just a long day," she said weakly, turning to face him. "I'm sorry," she added, "I either talk too much or not enough." Joseph himself had no way of knowing she was surprised, pleased, and trying to keep herself calm and collected as he drove her home. Unless he read the signs.
She tucked the errant strand of hair behind her ear and began to speak. "Thank you, really, you didn't have to. I hope I'm not taking you too far out of the way."
"It's no trouble," Joseph told her. "And it's not that far out of my way." Papillon Avenue was less than a dozen blocks from his own residence.
"Good," she said. "I would feel so terrible if you had to go way too far for me. I know you're probably exhausted, and we both have to get up bright and early and do it all over again tomorrow." She sighed. "There I go again."
"It's a tough job," Joseph agreed, taking a right turn.
"I don't envy you and Sebastian," she said. The two chuckled. The lightening mood quickly soured as Beacon Mental Hospital loomed in the distance. Samantha even went so far as to scowl at it. She wondered if Beacon had something to do with everything going on. It gave her the creeps, she had even mentioned that to Joseph once before. And there were whispered, never loud ones, that Beacon was more than a mental facility.
She shook her head. 'Down, girl,' she told herself. 'It's just a building.'
"How do you do it?" she asked suddenly as Joseph took a left.
Joseph was confused by her question at first, then he understood what she meant. "It's just my way of helping people, I suppose," he answered. He waited for a green Jeep to pass, then turned onto Papillon Avenue.
"It's the fifth one on the right," she said. Her tone seemed a little sad, as though the car trip ended too early for her liking. Once Joseph stopped in front of the small wooden house, she took a little while to make sure she had everything. Before opening the car door, she turned to Joseph and quickly placed her hand on his.
"Thanks again," she said, "I owe you one."
It had been on the tip of his tongue to again say it was no problem, then he smiled. "We can call it even if you bring me one of those strawberry cupcakes."
Samantha giggled and said, "OK, that's more than fair!"
He waited until she was up the walk, unlocked the door, and waved. He waved back, then headed home himself.
True to her word, there was a small cupcake box on his desk first thing the next morning.