Author's Notes

Hello and welcome to Gathering Stories.

This will be basically a drabble dump, where I write down whatever is on my mind at the time. (usually is influenced by whatever song I'm listening to)

If you are new to my stories and my writing, a fav/follow and review would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you want to see more of my work, check out some of my other stories.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoy.

A Sheriff and Her Loose Cannon

(A Caitlyn x Jinx drabble)

Song I listened to while making this: "Love Love Love" by Of Monsters and Men

There are several intricacies to the Sheriff of Piltover that made her so good at her job.

Her perfectionist nature

Her desire to purge Piltover of crime.

Her bravery in the face of adversity.

They all helped.

But one of the major factors in why she was so good at her job was the fact that there are very few things in the world that really annoy her. She is a calm, collected person that rarely gets annoyed. But there are still a few small things that really tick her off.

One of them is getting sick or injured. She hates not being able to do her job just because she is physically unable to. She especially hates when an illness or injury impedes on what little free time she has.

Another is dealing with paperwork. One might think after being Sheriff so long, she'd be used to it by now. But no, that's not true at all. She hated it when she first started as Sheriff, and still hates it now.

But the single most irksome thing, or rather person, to Caitlyn was Jinx.

There was something about the criminal that just annoyed Caitlyn to no ends. No other criminal or person could set Caitlyn off so easily. And the most irritating part about Jinx was that Caitlyn knew she had a motive, a reasoning behind annoying her and her partner. It wasn't just random targeting. No it couldn't have been. It was too deliberate, too complex, too...repetitive.

This wasn't just Jinx simply wanting to annoy them because of their jobs, despite her claims of it to have been. No, this was more than that. It was almost like Jinx was a little girl, they were her parents, and she was annoying the hell out of them to get their attention. And just like a little girl, Jinx had disrupted them where they would have most noticed it: their jobs. But the thing that Caitlyn couldn't figure out at the time was what Jinx had wanted. It was perplexing and it had irritated Caitlyn like nothing else could have done.

Now with that being said, there is another thing about Caitlyn that makes her good at her job: her ability to not be bothered or disturbed by occurrences. In all of her years as Sheriff she has seen things that would make most sick to their stomachs. Brutal murder cases. Incidents with fire or other hazards. Dismemberment. It was all sickening and horrible, but Caitlyn has managed to numb herself to them over time. She has seen Death and all of its friends several times now without ending up too mentally scarred from her encounters with them.

However, that doesn't mean that she is completely immune to witnessing death, especially as it occurs. It doesn't mean that she isn't bothered in the slightest when she has to take a life. And it certainly did not mean that she wasn't bothered when her gun went off and with it, Jinx to the floor with a bullet wound in her chest.

She remembers it all perfectly. It had been like any other day. Caitlyn and Vi on patrol. Jinx showing up. Caitlyn and Vi attempting to apprehend her. But something went wrong. Caitlyn had pressed to hard when she set her finger on the trigger, and Jinx had been too perfectly in her sights. She didn't mean for the gun to go off. She just wanted to provide backup to Vi who had been chasing after Jinx. She should have left Vi to it. She should've not released the safety.

But she had, and she paid the price for it…

She remembers calling for medical attention, and rushing to Jinx to perform triage and first aid until they arrived. She remembers barking at Vi to help her, and to give her supplies. But the bullet had passed through Jinx's right lung. They had known that Jinx wasn't long for the world because of it. And so, Jinx had told them to stop and listen to her story for her dying wish. She told them how she had came to Piltover broken and with no purpose in life. At least, until she had seen them. She told them how she had known them from a long time ago. How she and Vi were siblings and how her and Caitlyn were friends.

She told them a name, her real name. Jessebelle Strauss. Caitlyn remembers how she paled at hearing that name. She and Jessebelle-Jessie- had been best friends in elementary school. Despite being a year apart, they were almost inseparable. Wherever Jessie went, Caitlyn would follow, and vice versa. Until Jessie disappeared one day, and left Caitlyn all alone. Jinx had said that she changed a lot since she was a kid. She said being a Zaun experiment for years does that to a person. She had told her that she wanted Caitlyn to know that she missed the Sheriff, that she loved Caitlyn.

That's when Caitlyn had broken down. She had finally found the motive behind it all. Jinx had annoyed her in hopes of getting her attention. In hopes of getting her sister back. In hopes of getting her best friend to remember her. To love her. But Caitlyn had discovered the motive too late. She had always ignored Jinx's antics instead of attempting to interpret them. And when she pressed down just a little too much on the trigger, she had made the mistake of her life.

There are several things that made Caitlyn good at her job. They make her seem like a hero, a person without any faults and above everyone else. But that's not true. She isn't any different than another person. They don't make her any less human. They certainly did not stop her from bawling her eyes out as she held Jinx's unmoving body. And they most definitely didn't stop her heart from being broken as she heard Jinx draw her last breath, and as she closed Jinx's lifeless eyes…

This was originally meant to be the special for Broken Gears reaching 100+ followers, but I placed here instead. I may incorporate elements of this into Broken Gears, so any readers of it, let me know how it turned out. Thanks.