Plans to Make Bail
Written for the prompt : Any, any, making bail
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Plans To Make Bail
It all started between Christmas and New Year with Clay's third trip to the drunk tank to post bail for the more wayward members of his team. Current score was Roque 2, Cougar 1, Pooch . . . Well, Clay wasn't sure whether Pooch got a 1 or a 2 for managing to get his wife arrested at the same time. Seriously, when the cop on the other side of the counter asked him if he absolutely wanted to bail the two of them and Roque (for his second time) out, he was severely tempted to say no and to just get Jolene and leave the other two to suffer for a while.
Better judgement overcame him and, for the third time that week, he found himself giving his details, their details and a foolish amount of money over for their release and trying to figure out a way to make it all stop.
Jensen was the only member of the team so far to stay out of jail, for which Clay was grateful, not just because of the embarrassment of having to claim yet another drunken soldier but because invariably when Jensen did get taken in, he managed to wind somebody up in the process to such an extent that it cost even more to get him out.
Clay was sitting at the kitchen table pondering various disciplinary procedures and their accompanying paperwork when Jensen ambled into the kitchen whistling tunelessly . . . or fairly tunelessly, every now and then Clay thought he was just starting to recognize the tune when Jensen seemed to lose it again.
"You get discount rates to get the team out of there yet?" Jensen asked with a smirk.
"Not funny, Jensen," he growled infuriated. "Jolene! I had to bail out Jolene!"
Jensen's smirk got bigger as if he knew something that Clay had missed.
"Where's Cougar? Tell me he's not out drinking again."
"Nope, he's still in bed trying to sleep off both the hangover and the mortification of last night," Jensen replied lightly.
"Mortification?"
"Yup, Jolene drank him under the table. He was so wasted I had to bring him home early. That's why we didn't get picked up with the others."
"Jolene . . . Jolene outdrank Cougs?" Clay tried to imagine that happening and shook his head again in disbelief. "Anyway, you do realize this has to stop?"
"Don't look at me, boss. It's not like you've had to bail me out since . . ." Jensen held up his hand and counted back on his fingers as he tried to work out when he'd last been taken in.
"Bail – how many times . . .?"
"You should garnish their pay – set up a fund to cover the bail and then give it back every time we have too much in there if people haven't 'used up' the fund." Jensen smiled brightly like it was obvious and Clay realized it kind of was an obvious way to make sure they'd got enough to make bail next time he had to go to retrieve his team.
Or at least he would have if he could keep them out of jail long enough to set up the fund.