A/N: Sorry for the delay! I've been sick again and for some reason my vision is blurry now. Please forgive eventual mistakes. If you like it, please leave me a review with your thoughts, it's very important *heart*
"I know you don't usually do this, but it's a police matter! Then get me someone who can crack it, you gotta have this password in some system!" He sighs. "Yeah, I'll hold. Thanks," he says, before turning the mic off and putting the phone on loudspeaker. Of course he wasn't gonna sit there, like an idiot, holding a now-mute phone to his ear. Moving over, he jumps onto the couch.
"Nothing?"
He lets out a groan, shaking his head. "If Moon survives this, I'm gonna kill him."
Laura laughs before joining him on the couch. "Don't you even joke about that," she begins, popping open a couple of buttons in his shirt and beginning to caress the fur that now stuck out. Munro stiffens up, a surprised look on his face. And then, it turns into a smile as he brings her closer. "Ash's worried as it is."
"Almost forgot about her. How's she?"
"Oh, she's fine. She sent me a good night message."
"That's nice."
"At two in the morning." He looks up in concern, so she sighs. "Yeah, I know. This is so obviously hurting her, I'm worried. She needs a break."
"Take her home."
"She refuses."
"Then, bring her here." Laura scoffs. "Hey, it could be fun! We pop open a couple of beer cans and just chill."
"You, a cop, going out of your way and giving beer to minors?" Munro frowns playfully at her.
"Hello, sir?" He almost jumps off of the couch to grab the phone, and when he does, he quickly switches the mic back on.
"I'm here!"
"Hello again, Mr Belleville. I am terribly sorry, but we cannot provide you the images or the password. "His ears droop more and more at each of the attendant's words. "The password is personal, and encrypted, and impossible to be recovered from our servers. As for the images, we simply do not possess them. They only exist in the owner's property."
"You couldn't give me them even if I had a warrant?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but your warrant would be useless. We cannot provide you something we don't have in our domain. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Do you know how to get someone out of a coma?"
"Erm... no, sir, I do not."
"Then that's everything. Thank you."
"Calatonia Surveillance Systems appreciate your call, and have a good-"
"Yeah, yeah," he hangs up before the sweet-sounding woman can finish. "Whatever."
Laura shoots him a sympathetic smile when he falls back on the couch next to her, arms crossed behind his head and eyes shut tightly. "Mun, it's not her fault..," she says, both soothingly and matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, I know it isn't..."
Then, they lock lips. And Munro can swear that, just for a moment, all his trouble goes out the window. He lets his hands wander down her body, stopping at her waist. Laura groans into the kiss, pulling him closer, and so he smiles. Their passionate kiss in only broken by the insistent ring of Munro's phone. With an irritated groan, he grabs the device.
"Yeah?"
"Captain? Officer Frisk here."
"What do you want?" He asks, sitting up.
"I was just wondering when is it that you're getting to the hospital."
"Oh... uh..," he starts off, a bit ashamed. He forgot completely. "We're... not staying at the hospital today. Sorry, I forgot to tell you. I was just so tired yesterday and... ah, well. Sorry you lost your trip to there."
"I'm not there yet, it's alright. But captain... if we're not staying at the hospital, then-?"
"The Moon Theatre. Moon has got to have this password written down somewhere."
"A... password? To what?"
"I found the images. They're at his computer, but require a password to be accessed. I don't know for how long the images will be saved there, so we're running against time. Plus Moon hasn't made it any easier for us. He left us a coded message to crack the password."
Frisk laughs. "Police work at its finest, eh, captain?"
Munro chuckles. "You're right. Call me Munro, from now on. And be prepared, this may take a while."
"That's no problem."
"'First love year' is his reminder. Got that?"
"Wait, what? Why does-?"
"I'm gonna ask him when he wakes up. Before you go there, however... I need you to pick Buster's record at the station. Anything you can find. Parents' names, school record, associations, criminal record... summing it up, I want anything you can find about him."
"Got it. Full name?"
He covers the speaker and turns to Laura. "Do you know his full name?"
"Buster Brandon Moon Jr. He's from... 1975, if I'm not forgotten."
"Buster Brandon Moon Jr, a koala, possibly born in 1975. He's 42, I'm too lazy to do the math."
"Yes, from either 1974 or 1975. Erm... if you don't mind, sir?"
"I don't."
"What do you need those for?"
"He could've used any of that as his passcode. Knowing him, he might've even changed the password but forgot about the reminder. This guy's crazy. Go to the theatre, try to find the password there. Retrieve any crucial info about him you can find in books, notepads, annotations, anything. I doubt that he wouldn't have the password to something so trivial not written down somewhere. Check for anything highlighted. Send it to my phone when you do, you got that? I'll be looking somewhere else for that."
"It's gonna be solo work, sir?"
"Is there a problem, officer?"
"No, sir. But I'm supposed to work with you, if someone at the station finds out about it, I-"
"The way I see it, no way someone from the station will figure it out if you don't tell them. But if someone gives you a hard time, report to me. Just do as I say and please hurry."
"Right away, sir," Frisk says, before hanging up.
"He has a criminal record?" Munro looks up at her. She has a frown on her features and it makes him chuckle.
"Possibly not, love," he explains. "But I need to check. I gotta go."
"Where?"
"Ash's house. I'm gonna turn Buster's crap upside down looking for it... can you try to get it from her?"
"Mun... do you think he'd give her this password?" She asks, sheepishly. He looks at her, so she starts mimicking Buster's voice. "'Hey love, have the password to access the theatre's cameras,'" she shrugs. "Does it make any sense to you?"
Munro chuckles, then takes her hand, starting to caress it. "No, it doesn't, love... I like the impersonation, though. And I gotta check anything that I got... I'm gonna go check if his friends have it, why not his girlfriend?"
"How would you explain it later, you got it from his underage girlfriend?"
"No one has to know she's his companion. She's a friend who learned the password from him, chop chop."
"Alright."
"Thank you, moonpie," he says, leaning in once again to kiss her. But the moment their lips touch, Laura lets out a laugh. He looks at her, puzzled. "What?"
"Moonpie," she replies, between giggles. It takes him a moment to process the fun part of it, but when he does, she laughs at him.
"For Pete's sakes, Laura." He rubs his forehead with two fingers, trying to hold his laughter back.
When the two of them are finally done, they kiss, then leave to their destinations.
"Hey, if that was true, lizards wouldn't have tails, thing they do."
"Are you even serious right now? Of course not! It was-"
"I'm older, I know what I'm saying!"
"That's why! You studied this many years before I did, so your theory is old and rusty!"
"Ha! How dare..."
"Hey, I'm talking about a newer theory. Newer and more credible than yours."
"How dare you!"
"I studied this a little while ago, so there's more info to the theory, grandma."
"Grandma?! Here, hold my cane and I'll kick your ass!"
The two girls were walking back to the hospital, having the time of their lives on their way there. It was so much fun. They had walked on the beach, shared a couple drinks - Laura, obviously, hiding the fact Ash is a minor, the latter being extremely grateful for that - and bought some bags of chips for the porcupine, too. Laura figured they'd make a somewhat decent meal when you've spent the last three days in a hospital. However, the ride was much shorter than she expected it'd be. In half an hour, the two of them were almost back at the hospital, talking about whichever random subject they could find. When they reached the door, both females piped down not to disturb the patients.
"How's everything up there?"
"He's alright. At least, that's what the nurse said. But Rosita found out about... us."
Laura's ears droop as she shoots the girl a sympathetic smile. "How?"
"Munro mentioned it last night, and she heard it. She talked to me today about it, she said some horrible things..."
"I can imagine."
"She said Buster is 'using me' and just 'wants young blood in his life'."
She chuckles. "Does she know Buster at all?"
"I think not. I mean... that's ridiculous, right?" The older woman looks down at her, and so she puts her hands up, defensively. "I-I mean... you know him better than I do."
"He wouldn't do it. Not with how much he loves you." This was Ash's turn to look at the other female. "The way he talks about you gives it away. Perhaps, if he had talked about you to Rosita the same way he talks about you to me, she wouldn't think he's using you."
"Does he... talk to you about me?"
She shoots the rocker a humorous smirk. "All the time. Especially after you traveled. He got really lonely, and..." she laughs, the memory rushing through her mind. "This day, he called me in the middle of the night, crying, worried that you'd meet some great guy in some city you visited and realize how much of a 'loser' he really was and dump him."
Ash laughs at that, shaking her head. "I told him many times he's the best guy I found."
"He told me you did," she shoots back, a smug grin on her face. "But still, he was so scared!" The two walk into the hospital room, taking a seat at the visitor couch. "He asked me to meet him in Harry's Bar at two in the morning! And all that because he had to cry a little."
"Next time, I'm taking him with me," she jokes, the two once again sharing a laugh. "Sorry if he was a bother."
"He wasn't, it's okay. It was fun, it's been a while since we last met to just chit chat, it was... entertaining. He didn't change the least bit. But that's not everything."
"There's more?!" The porcupine asks, shocked. Laura merely nods, her mouth once again curled into a smirk.
"Yes. He got drunk. Like totally drunk. Like 'he had to crash at the bar' drunk. He downed three or four beers and started telling me, and whoever else who wanted to hear, about his dad. He spoke about the car wash, about Miss Crawly, about his father is the best person he ever met. Two more beers, he got mad and was saying how Eddie cheated him on cards once and how he was going to get revenge. I doubt Eddie even knows how to cheat at cards, but Buster got mad at him because he cheated on a card game."
Ash listens intently, and at some point, her jaw drops. "Shut up."
"Three more, he started crying about how he was going to lose 'the girl of his dreams' to some nicer dude who wasn't some 'middle-aged loser'. One more beer, he started talking about marrying you."
"Okay, now you're joking."
"Through the phone, too." They take their sweet time laughing at that fact. "So I hid his phone and put a couple of sleeping pills on his drink. Half an hour of crying later, he was out like a light. He slept on the counter and I told the waiter to just let him crash there for the night."
"I can't believe I missed all this."
"Well... personally, you missed it." She winks.
"No way."
"Come on, you think I'm gonna see Buster drunk, crying and laughing almost at the same time, singing some pop song he knows to a bunch of alcoholics that were in the bar, and I won't take a single picture?! I didn't even have to take any, altho I have some in case I wanna rub it in. He recorded videos rehearsing his proposal. Even tried sending you one."
"That's too perfect!" Ash calls out, her face red from laughter, her eyes glassy with tears. She holds her aching stomach, too, and barely manages to get the words out.
"You had to be there. You would laugh really hard." When Ash finally grabs a hold of herself, she sits straight and wipes the tears that formed in her eyes. "I understand your friend there thinking he's just using you. I really do. I mean... she has probably seen a generous number of cases in which older guys trick younger girls for... well, sex. But not Moon. He loves you so much he thinks he's not worthy of you."
Ash nods, the little uncertainty she had now gone for good. "When he's up, I'll make sure he understands he is worthy."
"Do it. But again, I wouldn't mind seeing a drunk lovesick Buster again," she says, gently elbowing the teen's waist.
Ash winks. "I'll see what I can do. Now, can we see the drunk Buster videos please?"
"We can. But Ash, before that..."
"Yeah?"
"Mun found cameras at the theatre."
"Yeah, I know. I already told him the images are in Buster's laptop."
"We know that. Problem is... it requires a password."
Frisk sat down on the floor, several open notepads and notebooks all around him and on his lap. Him going through, he figured, the millionth page in that day. At this point, he didn't even care anymore and quickly scanned over pages before turning them. He tosses the notepad to the side. In that one, too, there was nothing that looked like a password.
He moves over to check the koala's desk, messing with more notebooks and writing pads he has there. Still, nothing that resembled a password. Just old theatre receipts, visiting cards, and sticky post-its. Giving up, he lays down on the ground and picks up his phone. Putting all those papers back can definitely wait. He checks his newest message.
"None of those. I swear to Pete I'll look into every single one of those images to find out what he's hiding. I mean, come on! Well... I guess our job at the theatre is done. The lizard doesn't know and you've checked every paper sheet after the password. It's probably somewhere here, then. Nice work, Frisk. You can go home now. We meet again tomorrow. - Munro"
Frisk lets his eyes scan over the message several times. It had been sent half an hour ago. If he knew, he wouldn't have wasted time looking at all those notepads. He curses himself for missing the tiny 'beep' his phone made whenever it got a message. Well, that had been a nice job. He had sent Munro many password options.
Just enough so the senior operator would not suspect he worked for the ones who did this.
Standing up once again, he proceeded to carelessly throwing the notepads into drawers. And when he was almost done, he ran out of space. He grunted, looking down at a pile of six or seven notebooks that still sat there. For a moment, he thought about leaving them there. Catching some wind. But he soon decided against that, so he began emptying a drawer. He coughed at the amount of dust that was in it. Seriously, how long since it had been cleaned for the last time? He covered his nose as pulled loose paper clips, stage dispositions, screenplays from the drawer.
When he got to the bottom of it, not much was left. A small tuft of hair, an equally small - and dried out, he could see - pen ink container, and two pictures. One of them was a polaroid, while the other seemed to be quite recent. The officer bent over to grab them.
Flipping the polaroid, the same girl who Munro carried a picture of in his wallet. A few decades younger, he noticed. She had her lips locked in Buster Moon's. The sides of his mouth curled into a frown, then a smirk when he saw the other one. The same male with his arms wrapped around a familiar porcupine's waist, she planting a sweet kiss on his cheek. The same porcupine who, he learned, was a minor. He dropped the pictures, his smirk growing broader, and quickly dialed a number on his phone.
"Dmitri? Pass the phone to the boss. You are not going to believe what I just found."
A/N: ALRIGHT! This is it, folks! I hope you all enjoyed that! It was fun to write the part about drunk Buster. XD If you like it or has something to tell me, please drop a review! *heart*
