Chapter Eleven
"You are a lifesaver Cas."
"I know. I'm awesome." I roll my eyes at her as I finish putting my new uniform on. Glancing at her I see her flicking her tussled blonde hair overdramatically and puffing her chest out proudly. Oh brother. She's smiling and laughing at herself even as she strutting around my hospital room like a boastful peacock as I yank my boots on.
"Yeah, don't overdo it. You only brought a bag of fresh leathers for me." But I keep the smirk anchored to the corner of my battered lips as I stand. My body protests to every movement I make, joints creaking like rusty old hinges. Can't I sleep yet?
"Nope. You have an assessment to finish." I huff at her in exasperation as I pull my helmet on.
"How much longer am I on for?"
"You've got three- four hours maybe. Give or take."
"Faaantastic. Well wish me luck." I head for the door, Anderson in my wake. Once at the door though I pause and look at her from under my visor. "...Why was Dredd standing guard in my room?" I look at her face with as neutral an expression as I can manage. And there it is again, that hesitant distant look on her face, eyes looking through me instead of at me.
"Well... he's your assessor. You're his assess-ee." She tries to shrug it off but I refuse to move, refuse to carry on and open the door, until I get answers. Real answers. I let my head tilt, lips purse, in mildly irritated consternation as I wait.
"Alright. Fine. I asked him a favour."
"And that was...?"
"That he be your assessor and keep an eye on you."
"Jeez Cas! What the fuck for!? I would've been fine with a regular!"
"But- "
"And I don't need babysitting!"
"Lu- "
"I thought I'd seriously fucked up somewhere when the cap told me Dredd was assessing me. I've been driving myself nuts trying to understand, to figure out what I'd done! I nearly chickened out, judge Anderson. I nearly quit!" She opens her mouth to say something else, anything else, but I just grab the door handle roughly and yank it open, restraining the snarl that's curling at my lip. I walk away from her, straight towards where Dredd is stood waiting against the wall next to the ward desk and the elevator. She's behind me, several steps behind in fact and walking slow, hesitating to catch up. I stop once I reach him and wait. I could practically hear her head hanging as she approaches us but I can't bring myself to look at her, not yet, not when I'm still pissed. When she comes to a halt I turn my head to face her slowly. We'll talk later. Maybe. I see a tiny nod from the corner of my eye, hear the softest sound of a gulp.
"Ready rookie?"
I nod once, not trusting myself to speak just yet. He uncrosses his arms and pushes himself off the wall before hitting the elevator button on the wall behind. All three of us stand and wait, the faint sound of beeping as the elevator counter goes up, my eyes watching it the whole time. Forcibly focusing on the digitised numbers counting up, until it finally reaches us at the thirty fourth floor. There's a gentle bing as the doors open. Stepping inside, Dredd hits the ground floor button once we're all in, the doors close and it starts moving down. Three judges in an elevator, I'm sure there's a joke here.