Sorry about the wait. I'm updating this in the computer lab of my two-week writing camp.
Chapter Summary: Rinoa Heartilly gets a taste of what it's like to work in a police station.
Warnings: Not much. A bit o' flirting. That's it.
"Officer Heartilly. Welcome to the force."
Rinoa's first impression of Chief Quistis Trepe was that she was smooth, and coldly efficient. The long flaxen hair had not a strand out of place, and her work clothes were free of wrinkles. She wore four gold stars on her lapel, the symbol of her rank. Her ice-blue eyes looked both friendly and intense.
"I'm glad to be here," Rinoa responded sincerely, extending a hand to shake.
Quistis shook her newest employee's hand, while simultaneously assessing her looks. A pretty girl, with guileless, wide brown eyes. Hopefully, she would stick it through. Quistis couldn't afford to lose another officer.
"I run a pretty tight ship around here, Officer," Quistis warned. "This job, especially the Homicide department, is not for the faint of heart, mind, nerves, or stomach. You need to be on your toes almost constantly. But I'm sure they told you all about that in Academy…"
"Yes, they did. And I can assure you, I'm up for the job," Rinoa said confidently.
Quistis smiled slightly. She wondered how many times she had heard that. "That's good to hear. We'll see how you live up to that statement. Now, if you want some time to get acquainted with your co-workers before you meet your partner, that can be arranged…"
Rinoa nodded. "I'd like that, thanks."
Quistis sat back down. "Well, I'm frankly too busy to lead you around, but I trust you're capable of finding your way. In the meantime, I'm going to page your partner."
"Oh. Um. Right," Rinoa said bashfully. "Speaking of which…could you tell me a little more about my partner? I'm afraid I don't really have much information to go on. I make it a habit to know a bit about the person I'm going to be working with…"
"Certainly," Quistis answered, leaning back in her chair and folding her hands in her lap. "Lieutenant Squall Leonhart, an excellent cop, been on the force for nine years. He's one of my best. Mind you, he's a little…unusual, for lack of a better word and a bit of a hassle to work with. But I assure you that you will be well prepared for the Detective's Exam. The soonest exam is in 3 months, I believe. That's all. Dismissed."
Rinoa scurried quickly out of Quistis's office and leaned against the wall. "Sheesh!" she said to herself. Quistis gave her the feeling that she was being dissected to her very core.
"Looks like you survived your first encounter with Quistis, Supreme Police Chief of the Universe. Is she a hardass or what?" a friendly voice drawled. The voice belonged to a young-looking man with sea-colored eyes and long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. He held out his hand. "Irvine Kinneas, mounted officer. I mostly do crowd and riot control. Good to meet you."
"Same here," Rinoa said, relieved at meeting a friendly face. "I'm Rinoa, Lieutenant Leonhart's new aide."
Irvine's expression changed to one of mock horror. "No shit? God, you're in for it."
"Huh?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
Irvine rolled his eyes. "I guess you'll see for yourself. Wanna meet the rest of the team before you head for the gallows?"
"I…guess," she said, seriously disturbed by the "gallows" comment.
Irvine grinned. "Cool! Let's go."
He led her through the maze of cubicles by the arm. There was a cacophony of phones ringing, people jabbering, and other noises.
Irvine motioned to a diminutive woman with an eyepatch and choppy silver hair. "That's Fuujin, our forensic scientist. Say hi to our newest member, Fuujin."
"BUSY," Fuujin cut in loudly, striding past them with an armful of blood samples.
"She doesn't talk much," Irvine mused, explaining the obvious. "Let's go on. This is Raijin
I'm never going to remember all these names, Rinoa thought as Irvine introduced her to a flurry of people, all in various degrees of a hurry.
"That's Zell Dincht. He's a newbie detective, almost like you. He passed his Detective's Exam a few months ago. Maybe he could give you some pointers."
Zell, with a coffee in hand, grimaced. "I got reassigned. With Seifer of all people. This is the fifth coffee he told me to get for him. One more, and I'm gonna tell him where he can put it. I'm not a goddamn aide anymore! I have a badge and everything. I really need to have a word with Quistis…"
"Good luck with that," Irvine said sympathetically. "This is Rinoa. She's gonna be Squall's new aide."
Zell raised an eyebrow. "Tough break. I thought I had it bad."
"The guy can't be that bad…can he?" Rinoa said nervously.
Zell and Irvine both laughed. "Guess it depends," Irvine said. "Maybe you're tough, and Zell's just a chickenwuss."
"Don't ever call me that again," Zell said acidly. "I have it bad enough with Seifer. I don't need you doing it, too. Well, good luck, Rinoa. I have to get Lieutenant Asshole his coffee."
"Lieutenant Asshole. I like it," Rinoa joked. Zell winked and left with the coffee.
"There's only one more person for you to meet. Let's go," Irvine said. He led her out of the double doors and into the blinding sunlight.
"Why are we going out here?" Rinoa asked quizzically.
"One of my friends works out here. We're gonna pay her a visit."
He led her to the back of the building, where there was a large system of chain-link fences. Irvine dug a key out of his pocket and unlocked the fence door. In the center of the chain-link catacomb was a young woman kneeling in the center of the floor. She had bright green eyes and impossibly bouncy brunette hair. She was fitting a black vest emblazoned with "K9 unit" on an enormous German Shepherd.
"Hey, sexy! Looking good!" Irvine said slyly.
The brunette whipped around and scowled at him. "That's sexual harassment, Irvine Kinneas, and I'm gonna sic Zeus on you do it again!" A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, showing that she wasn't completely angry.
"Selph, you know how much it turns me on when you threaten me with the dog."
"Oh my God, Irvine, shut up. Who's the new girl?" she said, her cheeks pink with flirtatious embarrassment.
"I'm Rinoa."
"Hi! I'm Selphie. This is Zeus," she said, indicating the dog. "Drug and cadaver sniffing extraordinaire. He's the best."
Rinoa smiled gently. "Can I pet him? He's cute."
"Yeah, sure. He's not on duty now, so you can pet him. We try to make it so that they stay totally professional when they're on duty. He doesn't really like Irvine, though. It's 'cause I told him all about you!" she shot at him.
"Don't worry, Selphie, I can work with a little competition."
She rolled her eyes and turned back to Rinoa. "So, yeah, welcome. If he gives you any funny stuff, I'll sort him out for you. That goes for Squall, too, actually."
Rinoa scratched under Zeus's chin. He leaned his head back and narrowed his eyes happily. "What's so bad about him, anyway? I've been hearing bad stuff about him all day and nobody will tell me what I have to look out for."
"Oh, nothing. He's just a jerk. That's all," Selphie said casually.
Irvine blinked. "Well, I wouldn't say that…" he said, trying to be fair, but failing.
"Well, I've worked with him for three years, and he's never said one nice thing to me. Not a 'How are you?' or 'How was your vacation?' Nothing. Talk about mean!" she complained.
"It's not just that. He's very…intense," Irvine added. "He's been at this job for nine years. It's like, his life. He throws everything into it. The force comes first for him, no matter what. He won't say why."
"He doesn't take vacation days," Selphie said, in a hushed tone. "Not one since his first day. I think he's got like, two years of vacation time racked up. I mean, jeez. Wish he'd share the wealth. Mine are all used up."
"That sounds…strange," Rinoa admitted. "But it doesn't sound unbearable."
Irvine and Selphie glanced at each other, and shrugged.
"Maybe," Selphie said.
"Depends on your definition of unbearable," Irvine suggested.
A frazzled-looking young woman with curly hair frizzing out of her loose ponytail poked her head out of the station door. "Rinoa? Chief sent me out here to get you. She wants you in her office."
"Oh, thanks, um…" Rinoa said, trying desperately to think of the name. She vaguely recognized the woman as the desk sergeant. It started with an 'M', she knew. "Erm…Molly? Yeah, Molly! I'm, uh, I'm working on names."
Molly nodded slowly and went back inside.
"I guess it's to meet up with Squall," Irvine said. "I'll walk you there if you want."
"You man-whore!" Selphie exclaimed.
Rinoa laughed. "I think I can find it, thanks. You've been a lot of help." She stood up and ran, with heels nonetheless, back towards the station.
"That's what I'm here for," Irvine called after her.
When the door closed, Selphie said, "I hope she'll be okay. She's so nice."
"Well, according to Squall, 'This job isn't about being nice.' Damn, that's a pretty good imitation of him, isn't it?" Irvine joked. "But yeah," he continued. "It'd be really cool if she makes it."
"Lieutenant Leonhart, Officer Rinoa Heartilly," Quistis said, motioning from one to the other. "Now that we've made introductions, we can get onto business. Officer Heartilly is going to take the Detective's Exam in three months, as she very well knows. Lieutenant, your job is to make sure that she's prepared for that in the best way possible. Her performance will reflect on your performance. Clear?"
"Yes," Rinoa piped up, sneaking a sidelong glance at her new partner and was pleasantly surprised. When she had heard her new co-workers talking about Lieutenant Leonhart, she had pictured a middle-aged, red-faced man who shouted a lot. But in reality, her partner was not middle-aged, red-faced, and she couldn't picture him shouting about anything. There was no emotion in his cool, blue eyes. His hair was brown and slightly unkempt, coming down to his collar. Shadows stained the skin below his eyes, a sign of exhaustion.
"Lieutenant Leonhart will brief you outside of my office. Then, you can do whatever you choose. Lieutenant, I expect a full report on my desk tomorrow. Dismissed."
When they were out of Quistis's office, Rinoa exhaled and cheerfully said, "She makes me so nervous!"
Squall gave no sign of even hearing or caring about what his new aide had just said. "Alright, let's make this quick. I'm going to brief you on this, and then we can go make things happen." His voice was slow and bored. "We've got a possible serial killer on our hands. Probable mental disturbance. Killed a 15-year old boy. The only current piece of evidence is a note. Got it so far?"
Rinoa blinked. The facts were coming at her too fast. She had expected some sort of…welcoming? Orientation? That sort of thing. But that wasn't the way that Squall apparently operated.
"I'll take that as a yes. Let's go."
"Where are we going?" she asked his retreating back.
He didn't so much as turn around. "We're going to make things happen."
Slow goings there, I know. This was a fun little character introduction. But things will speed up in the next chapter, I'll make sure of it.
