(6,479 words) Hello, and welcome to 'Coin Laundry'. My new pretty story. Anyway, I've got just one or two things to say before we get on with the story, mainly just a quick mention that the set up of Midgar is a little different. Being that there is no ShinRa buiding and Seventh heaven is on the plate, that happened as I was writing, I'm not sure when or why.

This story came randomly into being because a little voice in my head was complaining that 'We could do worse'. I'm clueless as to why, as for our other VII fic the main character is an alchoholic rape victim, so you can understand my confusion.

But I relented and created this, so apparently that means that if I ever comes up with some new insane thing while writing I'm not allowed to say 'No that's going too far', because this story is essentially made for going too far.

We'll enough of that, enjoy this new likkle thing delightfully named the irrelevant name of 'Coin Laundry'.

Coin Laundry

Chapter 1: What a day

Tifa stepped off the treadmill, exhausted from the morning workout. If her shift started late it was common for her to go to the gym to help pass the time before hand. The treadmill like usu-al ended up as the last part before she left the gym. The black haired woman wiped the sweat off her forehead with a rag placed on a chair next to her she'd had there for just this use.

She headed in the direction of the gyms locker rooms to retrieve her bag and normal clothes; she was half-way there before one of the most common things that got on her nerves happened, an idiot guy calling out to her. She tried not to face palm.

"Oi, girly! Why don't you come over here?" A man's voice cut through her thoughts, and she'd been enjoying them so, she had only one thing to say to him. Turning on her heel to look back at the tall brunette, she scowled at him irritated and yelled back across the room, "Not your type. I'd say sorry but I'm not." She got on with what she was doing. But the man, being dull, would have none of that. He strode across the room and grabbed her arm roughly, twisting her to face him.

"Oh, I'd have to say you are." He chuckled with an almost evil undertone to his words.

Tifa rolled her eyes at his comment and batted his hand away, "Pfft, body wise maybe; that don't count for much," she spat; enjoying the look he gave her back.

She pulled her frame out of his grip and stormed out of the room, right before getting out of earshot the obnoxious stranger, attempting to hide his actual thoughts on the outright rejection claimed, "Ha, well you're too high and mighty for me anyway."

She heard no more from him after that. He was the usual idiot, she dealt with it every day; she didn't care much for them now. Thanks to her job she'd learnt some damn good sayings she could say to oafs that tried to say one word wrong to her.

…

Tifa walked the usual path back to her apartment, an onlooker or two gave her a look but it was easily ignored. The pairs of eyes that locked on to her either belonged to a pervert or one looking down on her for her choice of clothing. She did admit that the silver cocktail dress was revealing for sure, but it didn't actually reflect on her personality unlike many with the same fashion sense. Sometimes it wasn't even the dress that got the looks from the scrutinising people; it could be the un-brushed hair (hey it was long it took more to take care of, plus she didn't have her brush at the gym) or the tattoo on her left shoulder. She saw nothing wrong with it, it was simply the name 'Synda' written in fancy letters, what could be wrong with that? Obviously they just didn't know the meaning behind it.

The slender woman rounded a corner on the concrete path and hopped up onto the steps of a small pub, the words 'Seventh Heaven' written in faded letters out the front. It wasn't much, just a few tables and chairs with the counter at the back, but it was a popular place to settle down and relax after a hard day at work with a couple drinks and friends. A friend had started working here five years back and since then she'd been living up in one of the spare rooms upstairs. She'd gotten to know the staff well since then, and constantly they'd asked if she wanted to act as a bartender if she had some time up her sleeve. They would say a 'pretty young thang' like her would certainly attract the customers. Sure it was partly a joke but still she'd always told them she was too tired. Most nights she spent at work anyway, she had no time.

Tifa strode over to the hallway at the back, purple converses making a 'tap' sound on the wood floor. She headed into the hallway, seeing Barrett and his daughter, Marlene in one of the rooms, she gave each a quick wave before heading up the stairs to her own room. She didn't have enough time to see if they waved back. Her room was at the end of the hallway, she walked to it with a skip in her step; any annoyances she had to deal with today were forgotten as she got there.

As she opened the door silently she was greeted by the sight of a small brunette boy sitting on the couch, distracted by the cartoons on the TV. He was holding a beaten old teddy bear with a mouth full of chocolate, the proof being all the brown smearing his chubby cheeks and the half-finished purple packet by his side.

"Hello Synda, you miss me?" She spoke up to grab his attention. Right away bright blue eyes caught onto hers and he beamed, face alight with happiness.

Synda clambered off the green couch, dropping his teddy onto the ground he ran to the woman standing by the door. "Mamma!" he squealed jumping into her arms.

Tifa picked the boy up and hugged him tight; his tiny hands clung to her black strands resting on her shoulders.

"So you missed me did you?" She asked, giggling at his adorable actions.

"Ya, ya!" He laughed, resting his head on her shoulder smiling.

Tifa loved seeing her little son smile like that; he was such a precious little guy. He'd been small for his age ever since he was born; earlier on it was because of him being two months premature but as he got older he simply didn't grow very much at all. His chocolate hair had lightened from his mother's own black, his face, though chubby at his young age was more like his mother's than anyone else's. Only his blue blue eyes were different, as hers were of a reddish brown. She'd been asked many questions thanks to it, but she wasn't ready to grace it with an answer, she didn't even like to talk about it in her head.

The sound of the door opening behind her snapped her out of her momentary trance, causing to ruin a perfectly good moment. She turned round to see who had done it, seeing it to be the only other woman taking up residence here.

"Oh jeez, I didn't interrupt anything did I?" Jessie laughed, seeing how Tifa was looking at her, holding her son in her arms.

Yes. "No, no it's alright." Tifa slowly placed her son back down, so he wrapped his little arms around her right leg, listening in on the conversation.

"But you looked like you were enjoying yourself." Jessie laughed again. Dropping her phone and handbag on the kitchen counter with a bunch of grocery bags.

Tifa rolled her eyes at the girl; she always did this if she walked in when she herself was having some 'mother-son' time with Synda.

"Oh drop it. Now pray tell me why you left my son by himself? Must've been a bit because he helped himself to your chocolate stash" She crossed her arms and gave her friend a stern look, nothing wrong with her being a protective mother, she didn't have much and what she did was important to her.

"My chocolate stash! How dare him!" The smaller girl yelled, but then quickly realised that comment would get her nowhere; as it wasn't actually answering the question. The way Synda seemed to cower as she yelled hadn't helped.

"We had no food, so I went to get some. It was only twenty minutes I swear!" She flapped her arms in apology, the attempts to.

"Why didn't you take him down to Barrett, at least then he could have had Marlene to play with. I wouldn't trust a child to be by themselves, who knows what they could get up to?" She said with her arms still crossed.

"But he didn't get up to anything did he?" Jessie said while stepping over to the grocery bags and digging out an apple, which she promptly began eating.

"Sides eating your chocolate?" Tifa rolled her eyes at her friend trying so hard to get out of this.

Jessie visible stiffened from the black haired woman's comment proving her wrong just like that.

"Yes, sides that." She face-desked the counter.

"It's all over his face." Tifa chuckled, leaning down to ruffle Synda's short hair. When Jessie looked back she could see the evil way Tifa was smiling at her, she was having fun with this now!

"Don't you have to get to work?" the girl grumbled, taking a bite out of the red fruit.

The response was immediate; Tifa stood straight up straight like she'd been zapped by an electric rod.

"Oh god you're right, I've got to get ready." She panicked before kneeling back down to give Synda a quick hug.

"Mamma's got to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow and I'll take you out for ice cream. Does that sound fun?" She smiled as the little boy hugged her back and nodded, giggling in his cute babyish voice.

"That's good then." She beamed and got back up making a run for her room.

As she got her blue uniform on, she could still hear Jessie talking to herself, something about 'damn washing machine's still broken.'

It was her turn to do the washing if memory served her correct, looks like she'd have to go to that old Laundromat down the street. Tifa was glad it wasn't her turn, she had had especially bad luck at that place, the entire place had been looking at her last time; it'd been obnoxious. She hated it.

Tifa tied her hair up with a black hair tie and exited her room, ready for her shift; she said her goodbyes to Jessie and Synda and she was off.

…

She had to remember to thank Jessie later for reminding her of work, or else she would be late for her next shift. But that didn't mean she was completely out of the danger zone, if she didn't hurry a little she could very well be late. If that didn't make it worse the fact her car was still in the shop certainly did. She jumped down the stairs two at the time rounding the bend she stood at the door way of Marlene's strawberry coloured room, seeing that Barrett was indeed still in there.

"Hey Barrett?" She asked, attempting to make her sound innocent. She had her doubts that he would trust the young woman's driving skills enough to let her borrow his car but she had to try.

"Yea, what is it Tiff?" His gruff voice answered her as he stood up from his daughter's bed; the seven year old looked downcast as her father moved away.

"Would it be alright if I borrowed your keys so I can drive to the station? It will only be a short drive, nothing will happen I promise!" She looked almost childish as she leant against the door, begging with puppy-dog eyes.

The tank of a man gave her a sceptical look, not going to fall for her act. "Oh yea, it'll be fine jus' like your last un." He folded his arms, having trouble slightly thanks to that massive gun arm. Honestly whenever someone new to the town saw it they called the police. But the force was already well acquainted with the man and knew he wasn't going to cause havoc with it: he'd gotten it during a darker period of his life and didn't have the Gil to replace it with a proper arm. So he always got off.

"It wasn't my fault it blew up on me, it was old. Older than me." She added on for emphasis. She'd been half way back from a late night shift glad that'd she would be finally able to rest in her beloved bed and something just went wrong. A big bang noise happened and it stopped moving, after getting help from a kind passer-by she got it working again but it took a million years for sure. Well whatever happened to it, it was in the shops and that was that.

"Heh, blew up on ya." Barrett chuckled at her lack of knowledge over her own car's problems.

"Hey! I'm an officer not a mechanic." She pouted; he just laughed harder over her childish face. It wasn't what you expect from someone in uniform, usually they act far more seriously.

"Kay, you can borrow it, but you betta make sure nothing happens kiddo." He rolled his dark eyes at her and left the room to go find his keys. Tifa looked back to see the pouting child on the bed. To prevent herself from being made to feel bad from the sad look she quickly said, in hopes if cheering her up, "It's alright, he'll be right back." She rested her head against the wood of the door frame. As if being summoned by the thought Barrett came up beside her and dropped his car keys into her waiting palm. She mouthed a 'thank you' to him before running to the garage. She feared being late with a boss like hers.

…

Tifa strode into the large garage; it was filled with three cars and boxes at the back. One of the car spaces was empty thanks to that very car being stuck in the mechanics. She stepped over to a beaten up Shanghai red Holden, which she knew to be Barrett's, and twisted the lock. Opening the door she pulled herself in and adjusted the seat belt to her slender frame. Fixing up her hair so she wasn't sitting on it she turned the car on, listen to the roar of the engine as she placed her head against the head of the seat. The entire car was vibrating; she felt it all along her back.

She sighed outwardly as the radio turned on automatically, straight to a love song. Stupid love songs; sure this particular one gave it a more realistic version of love by telling of all these different problems with the relationship, but it still had a happy ending. How dumb, life doesn't have happy endings, only bad ones.

She almost wanted to slap herself, why was she thinking of this! She needed to get to work. Sighing deeply she reversed out of the space and drove out of the dark garage. The light pounded against her eyes and she needed a moment to adjust, she'd spent a minute too long in there. Blinking twice she put the pedal to the metal and began driving to the station. Outside pedestrians walked with friends and relatives, laughing and chatting to each other, window shopping, generally having a good time. The sun shone above gracing the world below in its golden light, with a shadow here or there.

It felt happy, but it didn't make the woman driving past feel happy, she didn't have joyful moments like that anymore, she gave it up. The people who she considered friends didn't get to see her much because of work and her so commonly attending the gym round the bend. Only Synda could make her feel anywhere near happy, she would never let anything happen to the boy, he was her world.

She rounded a bend in the road, getting a sudden fright when she noticed someone running in the most peculiar outfit across the road with a bundle in her arms. Hastily she slammed her foot onto the brake and stopped just in front of the hurrying woman. The girl, with long hazel brown hair jumped at the sight of the red car, which unnoticed to her, was less than a metre away from hitting her. Visibly she was frightened and her arms were shaking, bad enough for her to drop what she was holding. A troubled face looked down on the scattered, from what Tifa could now see, pile of clothes and picked them up as quick as she could. Ignoring the fact that she may have people behind her, Tifa hopped out to assist the girl in collecting the garments.

"Are you alright?" The tall woman asked swiftly, giving a concerned look to the worried woman to her side.

"Ah, yeah. Don't worry that Laundromat is cursed." She nodded her head in its direction. "This is the third time this has happened." She continued collecting the fallen clothes, concentrating more on that than the conversation. She stood back up, the clothes held in a neat bundle in her trim arms.

"Thanks for your concern but it's best I leave. See ya!" She waved childishly before crossing all the way over and jumping into a very expensive-looking sports car. Whoa, if she has a car like that why did she need to go to a Laundromat to get her clothes clean? And to be honest they didn't look like they would have been cheap either. What a weird girl.

Looking back at the car she'd placed in the middle she quickly noticed two drivers yelling at her to make a move on. Oh jeez she knew she'd make a line of cars end up waiting on her. Hurriedly she hopped back inside the car's interior and got it started, hoping that that little encounter hadn't gone and made her late.

…

Tifa ran with haste up the steps of the station, hoping to god she hadn't made herself late with that distraction before, but for that she was clueless as Barrett's car's clock was broken, it'd said it was six o'clock. Well that was at least two and half hours a front. Opening the doors wide she stepped in, and ended up a breaths length away from one of her colleagues.

"Oh, Lockhart, geez; look where you are going next time." The lanky man chuckled. He was cold and emotionless to the public but to other officers he would show as much emotion as possible, unless of course they were on duty with him and were surrounded by a bunch of buffoons. He would be then forced to go into full on officer mood.

"Hello Sia, about to go on patrol?"

"Yeah, yeah." She scratched the nape of his neck absent-mindedly, shoving a hand into his pants pocket; like he always did when he was thinking. Everyone was yet to figure out what having a hand in a pocket had to do with thinking, it seemed like he was clueless himself, it was just a habit built into him from who knows when.

"And you are going with me!" He beamed. Sometimes he reminded her of a puppy, always hypo. Had to wonder if he had multiple personalities considering how different he could be outside than in here. It border lined on the creepy.

"What? But I was supposed to go with Henry!" She complained over the problem with what he'd just said.

"Yeah, you were. But you are late; he went with Jackson. And so now you are with me, go check in or whatever so the chief knows you're here but then you are coming with me." He patted her on her small shoulder then walked out the door, standing on the other side twiddling his fingers.

Tifa sighed; he was an idiot sometimes. She would have preferred going with Henry even if he would be silent most the time. He was a very serious man; he never went out of officer mode like everyone else. Marching over to the chief's desk she found the man going through what looked like a pile of papers, had to hope it was actually work related this time. Last time she'd seen him do this he was searching for his daughter's permission slip that he had to sign. Why had he even brought it to work? And yet he was the chief, had to question.

She coughed to make herself known, as he as very caught up in whatever he was doing now. Dark eyes rose up to see her brown one looking down on him with slight curiosity.

"Ah, Lockhart, good to see you're here. I'm busy at the moment but I've reassigned you to be with Sia, Henry has already left." He informed her before getting back to his search.

"Yes so I've already been told. But one question if I may?" She leaned down, black hair falling off her shoulder; her confusion more obvious, "What are you searching for?"

He looked up to her for a second before moving his gaze to the papers. His look reminded her oh so much of the look Synda gave her when she had quite literally caught him red handed with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Ah, it's not very important." He muttered in an almost nervous tone. "Just some um, work stuff…yes work…stuff." He shooed her off with a movement of his hand.

Yes of course it's 'work stuff', not. How on earth was he her superior? But she dismissed the thought; she had more important matters to concern herself with. With a silent sigh she exited the station to go find Sia, expecting he had already gone to the car waiting for her.

…

She found him in the parking lot in one of the two police cars parked there. She knocked on the window so she wouldn't surprise him when she got in; he'd had a miniature nap in the driver's seat. He awoke right away to see her with the slightest of grins planted on her face. Giving her a mock scowl, which she rolled her eyes at, he opened the door for her, even if it wasn't locked.

"Madam." He bowed his head, granting her to roll her eyes at his actions again.

"Don't Sia, I'd rather you treat me just like everyone else. No kind of special treatment because I'm a woman." She clambered into the seat and did up the seatbelt. As she rested her back against the car seat she noticed the way he was trying not to laugh.

"Sia?" He questioned, he had his head in his hand with a bright red face. "Why are you laughing?" She leaned forward with a more than questioning expression.

"I have no bloody idea." He managed to get himself under control, albeit a chuckle or two and that his face remained red. "But you know I'm not going to give you special treatment. I don't even believe in that 'no hitting girls' rule. Everyone's a person, so why have these rules?"

Tifa sighed at him as he twisted the key, car coming to life shown from the sounds of the thundering engine.

"But that's thanks to work isn't it?"

"Maybe." He shrugged and drove the car out of the lot.

…

The patrol went as per usual for a while; they sat in silence, Sia having gone into his 'officer mode'. They drove past a number of streets, waiting for something to happen. It was possible to go through an entire patrol without one bad thing happening, but that was insanely uncommon. This was Midgar, half the city was made up of bad people. Out of the car was a bright sunny day, very unusual for the polluted city. So many people were outside at the moment. Shame everyone in the slums wouldn't be able to enjoy this rare moment of fresh sunlight, but that's what they got for living under the plate. It was a mess down there, she was glad she never really had to go down there, especially having to live there. The only times she had to go down to the slums was for work, when some kind of trouble was going on. Fights were common; they were poor people, it could happen for a million different reasons.

And right now she felt like her thoughts had caused what happened next to happen.

Ruining the half an hour of little nothings finally a call came in of some kind of disruption in town that needed police assistance. Tifa answered as Sia had his hands firmly on the wheel. She'd heard of other towns where the calls would be instant speaker phone, but Midgar didn't care much for their police force and they quite seriously had average mobile phones put into cars for those on patrol. It was a pain, it would save so much time if both could hear the information at the same time, but these phones were so god damn old they didn't even have the speaker mode option.

"Lockhart here, what's the problem?" she answered formally, and was without delay answered by a deep gruff voice, for which she knew belonged to one of her superiors. "A domestic disturbance down in the sector 4 slums. Same couple from last month; haven't learnt a thing at all. Bring them in, it looks like we need to use it bit more force to ensure this doesn't occur again. Address is 32 Perry Street. Good luck, you'll need it." He hung up.

Same couple from last month? Did Sia know something about this?

"A domestic disturbance down in the sector 4 slums. Said it was the 'same couple from last month' and that we needed to bring them in; wished us 'good luck' too. Do you have any idea why?" She asked in a voice not so full of emotion rather than question. Brown eyes became more curious as the blank man became less and less blank, and slowly his face turned blue.

"Sia?" She asked, leaning forward she waited for some kind of response.

"Just wait Lockhart, you'll see. That good luck is needed."

…

They drove faster than the other cars on the highway down to the slums, apparently from what she could tell; mainly from Sia's lapse of his 'officer mode' the couple must've caused some kind of trouble previously. And from how exactly her superior had described it she got the feeling it hadn't only been once before, but many.

They got off the well treated black concrete road onto the dirt and gravel of the slum's streets. Immediately the drive, thought already fast, became rough and near-painful from the bumps that made the wheels go off the road with each touch. This was why she hated them, how could these people stand it down here? It stank, there was no sunlight and everything looked like a hurricane had hit it dead on. Seriously, more than even the police force, the slums needed money. But the leaders of Midgar were too caught up making better and larger buildings on the plate, too blind to see all the places the cash should've been heading. Well this wasn't the slums for just nothing.

Sia drove past a number of run-down houses in sector 5 heading to their destination. This part, though just as run down, didn't seem to be as bad as the rest of the slums. As her eyes gazed out the window to pass the time before they arrived, she spotted a multitude of small children running amok, no adults in sight; it looked to be they were orphans. What a shame, they looked like good kids. The others living in the sector appeared to be either parents of some of these kids, as most didn't have any, or elderly. For reasons she didn't fully understand, her attention was drawn to a woman sitting on the steps of a flowery house, she looked so lonesome there by herself. It made her want to help her, despite her being a perfect stranger; she knew that people here had it worse than the middle-aged woman that had caught her attention. At least this woman had a home to live in, so what made her not be able to look away?

The only thing that got her to look away was when Sia drove around a corner, and the woman was out of sight. It was here they exited from sector 5 and into sector 4. Almost right away did she wish to go back. The housing was quite the same, yet those living here were a world different from the inhabitants of its neighbouring sector. They were a bunch of sorry-looking human beings wandering around almost aimlessly. This was the worst she'd seen from down here. It was the first time she'd touched this place of Midgar, and she wished she had just gone on without seeing one bit of it. The road was made bumpier by broken beer bottles and garbage from destruction-ridden houses. The whole place stank of alcohol and who knows what. She wasn't surprised that the couple they were meant to bring in lived in this hell of a sector; it made so much damn sense.

Sia turned into Perry Street; a back street around what could've once been called a built up area, but it was too run down now to class it as one. Still it was a hard space to spot, caught between the only two buildings that could even dare go near the plate. It was amazing they didn't fall down and crush the surrounding area. Driving along the small path, the houses turned into more and slightly more house-like. As they got up to the driveway of 32, Tifa could only guess why this place had the best houses she'd seen down here yet, and also question severely the scene playing out in front of her eyes. A tall lanky woman was holding up a chunk of steel, presumably found in the surrounding area, and was threatening to beat a cowering man, holding up a cracked white washing basket for protection. How in the world?

"Oh god I see what you mean about them. Jeez, how did this happen?" She spoke through gritted teeth.

"Last time she'd actually managed to get her hand on a katana, no idea how but luckily for us it was so rusted she never managed get the blade out of the sheath. But that didn't stop her from using it as a bat."

Tifa grimaced at his words, this woman was a nut. She shook the thought out of her head, right now she needed to be serious, no lapses in concentration just because this woman was confusing. She and Sia opened up the each their respective doors at the same time and stepped out before this situation got further out of hand.

"Oi, what's this here?" Sia called out in his deep voice, he could make himself intimidating when he chose to be. The grumpy woman stopped after she gave the washing basket another whack, ripping a hole in its bottom.

"This stupid guy won't stop playing 'round with those slutty little school girls, and I'm going to go make him pay. Now scram!" She wracked the basket again, causing a whine to rise from the poor man hiding beneath it.

"I didn't do it, I didn't do it! Please believe me! The mates were just kidding wid ya!" He pleaded pitifully.

"Look I couldn't give a shit about the details of however the hell this has happened!" Sia cut in, "But this is the sixth time in the last two months of violent activity being claimed to have come from you two. Now I and Officer Lockhart here are going to bring you in!"

He stepped forward menacingly. The woman dropped what she was holding but that didn't mean she was going to do as the policeman said. No way in hell.

"Who are you to say that to me?" she screeched with clenched fists.

"A scary police officer from the plate." The man on the ground mumbled dryly.

His previous attacker sent him a venomous glare, which to he flinched at and made it clear he would stay quiet.

"Listen madam; we need you to come with us. Resist and we'll use force," Sia continued. But the woman was blind to the possible danger to her his words spoke of.

"I'm not going anywhere until this man is dead!" She stomped furiously on the ground.

"That's what you said last time. We have reason to believe you will not go through with that."

"And how do you know I won't?" She pointed her finger at him, eyes aflame.

"Because this would be the sixth time you've said the exact same thing. Now come with us before any trouble ensues."

"No way in hell is I coming with you bitches!" she yelled, and dashed out of the yard.

"Shit, Lockhart go after her, I'll deal with the husband." Sia commanded, and she did just that.

She may or may not have heard the man cowering under the broken washing basket mumble something about 'How is she supposed to run with boobs like those?' But it was ignored, like most comments of that nature. To say she was sick of them was quite the understatement. Shoving the thought away she made after the woman who had gotten up a good distance between her and the front yard. But she was presumably, from her looks well into her middle ages, the fact that she'd managed this was feat enough, but in no reality was she going to outrun a police officer in her prime.

It wasn't much of a chase at all, if the ground hadn't been so slick under her boots it would have been even faster. Predictably this woman had been chased through this very area many times by other officers and from experience she could better her footing on the wet terrain, but she was no marathon runner.

Tifa had run past four houses by the time she caught up, she was right on the woman's heels. The moron was in no way going to slow down any time soon, she was amazingly fit for one of her age, and the officer was in no mood to wait for her to lose her breath. Grabbing her arm first she forced the middle aged woman backwards onto the ground. She hit it hard, her back taking most of the impact made by the fall. Tifa went easy on her by knocking her down in a way like that, but it would still cause pain to erupt.

Kneeling down she removed a pair of handcuffs from her pants pocket, secured them around the woman's wrists and pulled her back up onto her feet. She was making a groaning noise as she was walked to the car, but as for most things for the particular officer by her side, it went ignored. Well if she didn't want to be caused any pain she shouldn't have run. Her husband pretty much hopped straight into the back of the car on Sia's word, so no problem on his part.

Upon reaching the vehicle the woman was shoved into the back and the two officers got in the front after making sure the doors were indeed closed properly (The cars were all getting on in years and their doors didn't always serve overly trustworthy). All the way back to station, as the couple couldn't physically harm each other, the wife argued with him all the way.

Oh joy, the life of those married for far too long.

…

The wife, luckily for all inside the car, went utterly silent as they reached the plate. As Tifa suspected, it may well be the first time she'd come up upon it. It wasn't uncommon; some people grew too used to the lack of sun down under the plate and just wouldn't be used to seeing it. In severe cases people even became scared of the sun and sky; when she first came here a girl had asked her 'if the stars were going to eat her'. It got that bad.

The woman was in awe of her surroundings, and for the last half of their journey to the station they didn't have to deal with her logic less complaining. It was bliss for their headaches but there was however one disruption on the drive back. A horde of kids and teenagers ran across the street on a green light and Sia was forced to slam his foot on the brake. They managed to stop just before anyone was hit but that didn't stop the car behind them banging into the boot. And if their ears served them right, it just created a chain reaction of cars doing just that.

"God damn you stupid kids! Wait for the cars to stop!" Sia screamed out the window, glaring. Well he was a policeman, laws were important to him.

But the kids kept coming, it was a red light now but it sure hadn't been at the start, the line of cars with their faces shoved into the backs of the one in front of them were clear proof of that. The people running across were laughing and pushing around; it was a mess of a crowd, every now and then it got so bad people were being pushed onto the front of the police car. She didn't even know if she should've been surprised when the woman from the morning was pushed into the bonnet.

"Umph!" She groaned and rubbed her head and stomach which were the places that's taken the impact. Slowly reality came back to her and she realised what she was lying against. She jumped at the sight of the car and was screaming an apology, but they could barely here it thanks to the crowd behind her.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" She flapped her arms in some weird way of ask for forgiveness.

Slowly the crowd dissipated behind her and the lights turned green again, which she missed as she was still apologising.

This got to Sia's bad side and he couldn't help but scream out the window, "How 'bout instead of all that sorry shit you move, we got somewhere to go you know!"

The brunette recoiled at his deep threatening voice, "Oh I'm sorry I.."

But a hand stopped her by covering her mouth, belonging to a tall man with jet black hair and deep blue eyes.

"Sorry about her, she didn't get much sleep last night." The man flashed a cheeky smile. "We'll just be getting out of your way now…uh…literally." He chuckled as he led the woman off the road, who was now laughing herself with a face bright red from embarrassment.

Sia put his foot back down on the pedal and released one long big sigh.

"What are day, what a day." He muttered.

Tifa sniggered, "You're telling me." She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

What a bloody day.

Now let's hope to dear god that this story get's read, and if it's not much let's hope for a review or two.

Jya ne

~Serah Villiers Valentine