After his partner's stabbing, Diego gets stuck on traffic duty. He spends half his time considering quitting the force. He has to spend his days driving around, looking for traffic code violations. If he has a suspected DUI, he isn't even allowed to administer the test. He has to call dispatch, have them send someone else out to the location, and they administer the test. Meanwhile, Diego is just sick of frisking people down.
The civilian arches his back over the hood of the car. "I guess," He says, licking his finger and trailing it down his chest."You're going to have to search me officer." He turns over, sticking his ass out and pressing his chest and cheek against the hood, spreading his legs and letting out a low moan.
Diego hates working traffic. So much.
He's not even allowed to complain about it. The team voted and permanent banned traffic complaints. Probably because most of them were also doing some of the same stuff.
"Horton's buying drinks today!" Beaman says. "This crazy ass girl actually got assigned to an Equestrian partner."
"No shit," Diego says. "Really?"
Horton shakes her hands by her head as hard and fast and she can manage.
"That's fantastic. C'mere," Diego pulls her into a hug.
Patch shows up late with her side piece and introduces Gillian to all of them with a bright grin. Gillian spends most of the night leaning in a little too closely to Patch for Diego's comfort.
The senior officers had warned them. Being an officer's sweetheart is hard but being a cop's spouse is even harder. Sgt. Crews had overheard Beaman bragging about his sub at home and given them a decent lecture on balancing their personal lives. "Hiding the hard parts makes it harder on them. Be honest with your partner," he told them. "But don't ruin an investigation."
Patch is bringing Gillian as a litmus test to see if it could work before it gets serious. Diego knows this. He does, but there's something in his stomach that's deeply unsettled at the thought of Patch having someone. She's different than most people. She's like solid ground for Diego. She's laughs at bad jokes, she always makes the sensible decision and she hates ketchup.
He likes the rest of the team as well. Yamaguchi had confidence and sexual drive that reminded him a little of Klaus. Beaman had a thick streak of justice in him that Diego frankly admired. Horton was tiny but the the loudest of the bunch. Every single thought was always displayed on her face like a billboard.
Patch, though. Patch had a knack for calming him down when he was on edge and making him laugh when he least wanted to.
Diego wants to like Gillian. She had bottle red hair and a smile that's never seen hardship. He wants to like her but, "Oh my god, your name is Diego Hargreeves? Like the kid from the Umbrella Academy?" she asks, gasping with delight.
Beaman doesn't even blink, "Him?" He says, baffled.
Yamaguchi laughs so hard he has to lean on the table for support.
Diego crosses his arms. "I don't know what's your talking about. The Umbrella Academy never gave out any names."
Horton throws arms open, signing 'what the fuck' with her entire body.
GIllian nudges Patch out of the way and leans into Diego's space, examining him closely. "Yeah, but come on. A rich billionaire unveils a team of six preteen superheroes that are the same age as his seven adopted kids? Yeah, the Hargreeves kids are totally superheroes." She glances back at Patch and then goes back to leaning into Diego's space.
He tolerates it until she starts poking as tugging at him, "Hands off, I'm not consenting to getting groped." He pries her hand off of his chest and places it on the table. His hand lingers on the cuff for second. It's softer than he expected. He wouldn't mind touching something like that every day. He glances at Patch.
She looks furious.
He pulls his hand back as fast as he can.
"Sorry," Gillian says.
Diego can tell she doesn't mean a word of it. He presses his lips together in an attempt to smile. "So who wants an order of-"
"I'm sorry, it's just - Are you the Horror? Or Kraken? Or are you the secret seventh member? What's their code name?" She asks, grabbing her hand around his right wrist.
He can see Patch standing behind Gillian, getting angrier at the second. Diego is so busy hoping that she's not mad at him that it takes him a second to catch the last question.
"What? There's- What? There's no shapeshifter." He says, trying to tug his hand out from her hold.
Her grip tightens. He can feel her nails dig in.
"It's all over the forums. Seven adopted kids but only six public members?" She lets out a bark of laughter. "We can count. Clearly there was a seventh secret member with invisibility or shapeshifting or some other secret power trade off. What happened to the seventh member?"
Beaman covers his mouth. "Oh shit. Oh shit. I thought it was a weird coincidence that your name is Hargreeves."
Diego tugs his hand harder. He really wants to like Gillian. It's really not going to happen.
"Let go of him right now!" Patch snaps, teeth almost bared. "We're leaving."
Gillian somehow manages to grin even wider when Patch grabs her roughly by the other arm and yanks her towards the door. Her nails leave long red scratches across his wrist.
Diego rubs his wrist and tries and tries to act casual. "Anyone else have a shit patrol today? Traffic beat was the fucking-"
Horton shoves Diego mid-sentence and punches him in the shoulder.
Yamaguchi slumps in his stool, weak from laughing. "You even have the tramp stamp on your forearm."
Diego is one million percent done with these dumb shits.