Senior Constable Susie Raynor slammed her car door shut at five am, sleepily ready for a day at work with people she couldn't give a hoot about today. Well, techincally it was only two people she couldn't give a hoot about. Now and for the rest of her life. That's how she felt towards them for the time being. Senior Constables Evan Jones and Alex Kirby were these two people. She was supposed to getting married to Evan Jones, the man she had 'loved', until Alex had screwed that up by sweeping her off her feet for one night, which resulted in a bad hangover, the day off from work and crying and talking with Probationary Constable Kelly O'Rouke. She spent the first two nights in Kelly's hotel room with her because of the amount of guilt that she felt. She couldn't go home. Alex messed it all up and for that she hated him. Even Jonesy wouldn't look at them twice. They had all been avoiding each other for the past four days and because of that she was one strike away from desk duty for two weeks.
Taking a sip of coffee from her travel mug, she opened the back door to the station, closing it quietly behind her and proceeded to her locker in the mess room. After she refilled her cup, she walked into the office area of the station to sit down at her desk and look over paperwork from last night. Sitting directly adjacent to her desk was Alex Kirby, going over his own load of work. He looked up at Susie and back down, realising he was staring at her, something he should probably not do right now. Senior Detective Amy Fox was in a small office at the back of the room, head on papers and a light shining brightly onto her skin and hair, illuminating her features gently. Softly treading into the office, Susie noticed all the papers spread over the two desks, the other belonging to Senior Detective PJ Hasham.
"Amy," whispered Susie softly, crouching down to eye level with the older woman, while gently shaking her shoulder.
It didn't take long to wake the brunette, with her rarely sleeping since memories of her uncle would come flooding back everytime she closed her eyes. Amy had recently told Susie of the abuse she had recieved after her parents died and she had to move in with her aunt and uncle. She spent every night in fear as a teenager, until she ran away at sixteen never to see her abuser again.
"Hi," said Susie, brushing Amy's hair behind her ears as she woke up properly. Offering her coffee to Amy, she watched it dissapear speedily as it was gulped down, most likely scalding Amy's tongue. "Did you ever leave at all last night after I left?"
Amy shook her head 'no' and stretched her back out, wincing as her muscles ached, bones popped from the stiffness and bruises prickling lightly some more than others as she moved. Yesterday, Probationary Constable Joss Peroni and Amy had gone out on a call, only to have to chase down the perp who had allegedy stolen a car, which became obvious one he began running away from them. He had hit Joss in the head with a heavy steel pipe, giving him a concussion and dazing him badly and Amy was tackled and thrown against several things including rocks between the train tracks, a fence and the solid tracks, all until Joss tackled the guy, handcuffing him in the process.
Amy always had been stubborn and like her work place more than her place at all, which was room down the hall from Kelly's at the Imperial Hotel. Joss had been admitted to hospital from some tests and Amy checked out by the Ambo's. Once she was cleared, she went back to the station to file the report, where she was asked, "What the hell are you doing?" from her boss, Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon, a highly respected man in Mout Thomas. They talked in his office and she agreed to stay on desk duty for a day or two.
"Come on, lets get you home, come on," suggested Susie, helping Amy out of her chair and towards the door.
"Kirby! I'm taking Amy home. I'll be back soon," she telled into the offices, ignoring him the entire way and her voice dripping with venom.
"Get Kelly while you're there. She starts at six!" he yelled after her, dissapointed that the first thing she said to him this morning was full of her venom. He knew not to piss her off, especially when she was armed with her hand gun.
The entire car ride back to the Imperial was silent, Amy slightly fidgeting in the passenger seat, waking up properly. She never rubbed her eyes to rid them of the sleep, she just blinked and shook her head.
"Amy, you okay?" asked Susie, looking at her friend, while trying to keep and eye on the road. "You've been kind of quiet lately."
Sitting there silently before answering, Amy finally responded just as the car pulled up to the footpath outside the pub, "I saw him a few days ago, outside the Primary School. He was picking up his granddaughter. I know he saw me. He smiled and it scared me because now he knows that I'm here and I didn't want that."
Tears began to slowly fall from her eyes as she told the younger officer of why she was isolating herself from everyone else. Susie climbed out of the car, before checking that there were no cars coming down the street. Opening Amy's door, she helped Amy out of the car in her crumbling state, wrapping her arm around her for support, taking her into the Hotel and up into her room. Before they even got to the stairs, the owner of the pub, Chris, asked them to wake Kelly for her wake up call because she never used her alarm.
As the two women walked past Kelly's door, Susie kicked it, pretty sure she had woken any other visitors in the hotel rooms at 5.30 in the morning. Swinging the door open, Kelly gave a grouchy look to Susie, "What?"
"Get showered, get dressed. You start at six," said Susie, as Amy unlocked her door. "I'm leaving soon so you better be ready and in the car."
Recieving another death glare and rolled eyes, Kelly shut her door and made her way to get ready.
Making her way into Amy's room, she saw the distressed woman sitting on the edge of her bed peeling her jacket off from her shoulders. She groaned in pain, yawing ans nearly passing out from lack of sleep. Susie stripped her jacket from her shoulders as well, laying it over a chair and made her way to Amy's closet, pulling out a pair of tracky pants and a t-shirt.
Susie kneeled in front of Amy and held her hands letting her know she was there for her.
"Have a shower, get changed and get some sleep. You definately need it. You start at one this afternoon too," explained Susie, hugging her and placing a kiss on her forehead. "I'll see you later."
"Sus," said Amy, stopping the Senior Constable from yelling at Kelly to get her arse into gear. "Can you please not tell anyone? And if a guy named Ben Sanders comes to the station looking for me, I'm not there."
"Amy, it's not my place to tell, so I won't say anything. And I take it that guy is your uncle, so you went to the city for a week," replied Susie, smiling softly at Amy.
"Thank you," whispered Amy.
Crouching back in front of Amy, "You don't need to say thank you."
Walking out of the room she waved goodbye, leaving Amy with her thoughts before banging on Kelly's door again. Several minutes later it opened, revealing Kelly in her uniform ready to go.