My friend unknowingly left me a prompt; "headcanon: Dredd keeps Anderson's badge following Peach Trees". Eventually will be a two-part drabblefest.
Months have passed since that shitstorm everyone just refers to as "Peach Trees". Since then Anderson's avoided any busts on that scale… whether from luck or intuition she's not quite sure. Mostly luck, perhaps. She's gotten by somehow trailing along in Dredd's wake. He's hauled her ass out of the fire on more than one occasion, and there are days (long days when she's seen the sun rise twice before she can crawl back to her quarters and finally sleep) where she swears that maybe she saved him at least once in that day. Maybe. He'd never admit it and she has no inclination to read his heavily guarded mind. It's a promise she made long ago and it especially applies to her stone-faced partner… if you could call him that. That's another thing he hasn't admitted, but he hasn't said no either.
Some days she really wonders about him.
Today Dredd's not waiting for her in the parking garage. His Lawmaster is there parked next to hers, and Anderson silently wonders if she's earlier than she had anticipated. Her feet follow the same familiar path back to the elevator and up to his apartment, although she hesitates for a moment as her hand reaches to knock at the door. She can feel his presence inside, familiar even with the crush of other minds around her. Reassured, she finally knocks.
The door opens soon after and he's standing there in his street gear staring down at her. There's a flash of something metal in his hand but he places the object out of her sight, expression guarded. Curious, she pushes a tendril of thought just against his mind just to find his attention focused on the badge at her chest. The thought's gone in an instant as Dredd grunts and presses past her. She knows that signal as conversation's over. Sometimes it's almost like he knows when she's trying to read him, knows that she's not willing to pry more than at the surface. She tries her best to peer around the doorway as it closes behind him, barely catching sight of the object and certainly not enough to fully understand what it is. Puzzled, she trails along after him back down to where their bikes are parked, sliding over onto the seat while Dredd makes the preparations for the nightly patrol.
As he guns the engine on his Lawmaster she catches the flicker of attention in her direction again. He's already coasting out of the garage as she follows along behind when suddenly all of the pieces fit together. Her fingers touch the surface of the badge at her chest and a memory flickers in her mind of the day she thought she had failed her assessment and had handed her badge away to…
She had gotten a new one later of course, having assumed Dredd had discarded the piece of metal back at the Hall of Justice. Had he actually… kept it? It didn't seem like the grizzled senior judge, but he also didn't read like an open book either. She curses her vow to leave his mind alone; it'd make this a hell of a lot easier.
"Anderson," his voice crackles in her helmet comm as he veers off an exit. She's hot on his trail, and although his driving is superior she knows that he holds back just enough for her to keep up with him. It's their unspoken secret, or at least one of them. "Don't think too hard on it."
She scowls at his tone, but he's already picked their first call and if she lingers on his words for too long he'll leave her behind. For now she drops the thought. She'll figure him out eventually.
She hopes.