Parking Services
CS Genre: College AU
Killian tossed his backpack to the ground and rolled his shoulders, twisting his head from side to side. To say he had a heavy course-load this semester was an understatement of bloody ridiculous proportions. So much for senior year being a time to slough off with easy courses.
"Oi, mate!" Will Scarlet said, shuffling into the student employee corner. "Heads up. The boss is lookin' for ya. Looks like he's in a right temper."
Lovely. Just the way he wanted to start his work day, with a confrontation with Robert bloody Gold, head of parking services. If there was a more unpleasant and downright nasty man on the entire campus, Killian had yet to meet him.
"What's got 'the Dark One's' knickers in a bind today?" he asked with a sigh, dropping into his usual seat.
"Seems tickets are down again," Will answered. "You know how testy he gets when we're not bleeding our fellow students dry."
Aye, Killian knew that all too well. He'd had more than one run-in with his boss over his failure to hand out the vast quantity of traffic citations Gold insisted on.
"Best just face the music, mate," Will suggested, face a mask of sympathy. "The bloody git's not going to give it up."
"Suppose not," Killian said, reluctantly getting to his feet once more. He walked the length of the large room, and then rapped on Mr. Gold's office door. After waiting for a muffled "come in", he entered and shut the door behind him.
"So kind of you to grace us with your presence today, Mr. Jones," Gold said in a voice heavily laced with sarcasm. "Tell me, would it be too much to ask for you to get to work on time?"
Killian took a deep breath, trying desperately to tamp down his temper. He'd arrived exactly one minute past the start of his shift. To hear Gold, you'd think he'd waltzed in a good two hours late.
"My apologies," Killian muttered through clenched teeth. "The shuttle bus was late this morning."
"Always an excuse with you, isn't there, dearie?"
Killian merely nodded, not trusting what might come out of his mouth if he were to speak. He needed this job; he had to keep that in mind. His brother Liam did the best he could to put Killian through school, but Liam was hardly made of money. Killian was determined to pay as much of his own way as he possibly could, and right now that meant making a valiant attempt to not completely piss off his boss.
Gold shuffled through a stack of papers on his desk, and then typed for a moment at his computer. After a moment, he looked up, scowl firmly on his face. "Mr. Jones, our stats for the month are way down. We've issued thirty percent fewer citations over the summer than last summer and that is utterly unacceptable."
"Perhaps the student body has merely become more adept at following parking procedures?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Gold scoffed. "One can always find a reason to cite a vehicle if he looks hard enough. Something you evidently are completely incapable of doing."
"I beg your pardon, sir?"
Gold's eyes hardened into a glare. "Your personal statistics are abysmal. Tell me, Jones, how are we to make money for our department if you insist on leniency? My sources inform me you turned a blind eye to two vehicles parked in an improper lot. That is utterly unacceptable. If you wish to keep your job, you will adjust your attitude accordingly."
Killian counted to ten, decided that wasn't nearly enough, and upped it to one-hundred before he replied. "Aye, sir."
"Now," Gold said, turning his gaze back to the papers on his desk. "We have a new initiative that's bound to increase our revenue exponentially. This year's parking permit enrollment period begins next week. Bound to result in a few citable offenses. Listen closely: if I hear one more report of you showing leniency when a ticket should be written, you're out. Do you understand?"
~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~
Emma shrugged into her coat, snagged her handbag and headed out the door of the college bookstore. It had been a long day at work. Her fellow students had been more demanding and bad-tempered than normal for some reason. Wasn't like she had any say in the prices of textbooks. She just rung up sales, she didn't set the prices. Personally, she thought they were all a little steep, but what are you going to do? Having the appropriate textbook was kind of a necessity if you wanted a halfway decent grade.
The night was warm and balmy, and Emma wanted nothing more than to get back to her off-campus apartment and pass out for the night. It had been a rough day, but at least the drama was over.
Or so she thought.
As soon as her old, yellow bug came into view, she saw the dreaded slip of paper held in place by her windshield wiper. She'd been ticketed? What the hell for?
Yanking the offending slip of paper free, she perused it. "Parking in a restricted lot without a valid permit; citing officer #305404421422."
Emma crumpled the paper up in her fist, her blood beginning to boil. What were they talking about, parking without a valid permit? She'd just received her permit for the new school year in the mail this morning. Seeing that the old year's permit expired that day, she'd gone ahead and dutifully affixed the new one.
She wasn't going to stand for this. Come first thing in the morning, she was going down to the parking services office and give this "citing officer #305404421422" a piece of her mind!
~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~
Killian startled as the parking services door was opened and then viciously slammed. Getting to his feet, he peered in the direction of the noise…and found himself gazing upon the most beautiful lass he'd ever seen. Luxurious blonde locks pulled up into a pony tail, sparkling green eyes hidden behind glasses with wide black rims, a trim, lithe figure. She was bloody gorgeous.
And apparently bloody furious.
Killian sighed. It was not an unusual reaction from those who found themselves in the parking services office. This wasn't the most hated office on campus for nothing.
Killian sauntered to the counter the woman was rapidly approaching. "May I be of assistance?" he asked politely.
Reaching in her over-the-shoulder bag, she snagged a parking citation and slammed it on the counter between them. "Yeah, you can tell me what the hell this is all about."
Killian looked at the item and winced. Ah yes; looked like Gold's newest initiative to bleed the students dry like a starving vampire was bearing fruit. "It would appear, love, that you parked in a restricted lot without proper permits."
"Yeah, here's the thing," the woman spat, digging once more into her bag and pulling out another stack of papers. "I do have proper permits."
Killian grimaced as he glanced toward her proof of purchase of this year's permit. He hated his job he really, really, really hated his job. Well, there was nothing for it. He'd best tell her the worst and get it over with.
"If you'll notice the date on that paperwork, love," he said, glancing aside and scratching at a spot behind his ear, "you'll see that next year's permit is not valid until next week, the start of the fall term."
She stared at him unblinking. "But last year's permit expired last Friday?"
"Aye, that would be correct."
The woman growled. "What the hell are we supposed to do during this week then?"
Killian shrugged. "Pay to park in one of the garages? I'm sorry love, truly I am, but there's nothing I can do."
She growled deep in her throat, angrily tossing her paperwork back in her bag, and he winced once again.
"Love…" he said once more. "I truly am sorry."
From the venomous look she shot him as she turned and stomped out of the office, it would seem she didn't care.
~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~
One week later Emma Swan found herself once again in the parking services office, parking citation in her indignant hand.
"Parking in a faculty/staff only lot before 7:00 pm. Citing officer #305404421422."
She was really beginning to hate this officer #305404421422, and she'd never even met the S.O.B.
When she opened the door to the office she found the same student working the desk she'd talked to the previous week. The name tag he wore on a lanyard around his neck identified him as "Killian Jones".
Angry she might be, but even so, she couldn't help but notice how ridiculously handsome this Killian Jones was. With his longish, dark hair that he couldn't seem to tame if he wanted to and his clear blue eyes…well, he certainly made an impression.
As did the amount of embarrassment he was clearly exuding as she marched up to the counter.
"Seems we meet again, love," he said, ducking his head and scratching at his ear.
"Yeah…not your love," she said irritably, "and if it's all the same to you, I'd really prefer we not meet again, given the circumstances."
He sighed. "I'd wager not. How may I be of assistance today?"
"Yeah, what's the deal with this?" she said, pointing toward the offending piece of paper. "I parked in that lot at six fifty-eight! Two minutes before seven! This…officer 305404421422, gave me a ticket for being two freaking minutes too early?! Who does that?"
He glanced aside. "I'm afraid I'm the one who does that, love. I'm the officer you seek. Once again, I must apologize. Truly, if I had any other choice I would have dispensed with the ticket, but I'm afraid you were parked too early. I was just doing my job."
She shot him a venomous glare, hardening her heart against the obvious sincerity in his voice. "Yeah, well that makes me feel so much better. I may have to pay out half my bank account in parking tickets, but at least I know it was because you were doing your job."
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It was another two months before Killian had the pleasure of seeing Emma Swan again. It would seem the very indignant Miss Swan had decided to scrupulously follow all university parking laws in the interim.
Quite a shame that. There was something about this woman….something he couldn't put his finger on, something that called to him in a way he didn't remember experiencing before. She was beautiful, aye, but there was more to it than that. Even in the few short encounters he'd had with her—encounter where she was uniformly furious with him—he'd seen a mingled strength and vulnerability about her. He'd been drawn to her as a moth to a flame.
Was it possible to fall in love at first sight with someone who was yelling at you?
Killian sighed as he made his rounds through the university parking lots in search of parking malefactors. It didn't matter. The chances that she'd give him a chance—him the bloke who'd done nothing but make her life more difficult—were slim to none.
He really hated his job.
Killian finished his round of the south end of campus and was about to move on when suddenly he spotted it. A little yellow bug. A very distinctive little yellow bug.
A little yellow bug that, according to the timestamp on the meter, had been in its 2-hour parking spot for two hours, three minutes and forty-seven seconds.
Killian headed toward the meter—not sure whether he planned to write a citation….or feed the meter enough coins to keep it happy for another two hours.
But before he arrived, a blur of blonde hair and red-leather jacket ran past, reaching the car before him. Swan. Hastily she jabbed a couple of quarters in the slot and then turned beseeching green eyes in his direction.
"Look," she said, one slim hand raised toward him in supplication. "I know I was late. I know I'm this big terrible parking criminal that deserves to be drawn and quartered…or whatever it is you parking Nazis are doing these days, but could you please, please, please let it slide just this once? I've had a hell of a day, and one more thing goes wrong…I might just go ballistic."
Killian looked at her closely and his heart clenched. She truly looked at the end of her tether. Gold would probably kill him if he let it slide…but suddenly he didn't bloody well care. He wasn't such a cold-blooded cad he'd turn from a lady very clearly in distress.
Killian took a deliberate step toward the parking meter, peered at it intently, and then looked back at her. She eyed him with wariness and trepidation—a situation he would soon remedy if he had any say in the matter.
"I've no idea what you mean, love," he said with a wink. "From my vantage point you've still got half an hour left on your meter. It appears there's nothing for me or any of the other traffic Nazi's to cite."
She let out a long, deep breath she'd obviously been holding. "Thank you!" she sighed.
"You're quite welcome," he answered with a smile. "If you don't mind me asking…are you quite alright lass? You seem quite troubled."
She chuckled, shaking her head slightly. "It's…it's just been one of those days, you know? The alarm didn't go off…and then I couldn't get this stupid piece of junk to start..and then I was late getting to campus…and then there wasn't a single parking spot free in any of the student lots on the whole campus…and then I was late for my literature midterm…and…and then I'm pretty sure I failed it spectacularly…and Professor Mills took one look at it and then gave me her 'evil queen' glare…and I just want to go home and go back to bed and forget this whole day even started, but I have to go to work in ten minutes…and then I realized I took so long failing that stupid test that my parking meter was going to run out…and then I got here and saw you and I just got that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach."
"Well darling," he drawled, "that's not normally the effect I have on women. I'm not sure whether to be sympathetic or insulted."
She laughed, a genuine, joyous sound this time, and, if possible, he smiled yet wider.
"Well, given the fact that you didn't ticket me, I'd say my day is starting to look up," she said finally. "Well…I guess I should get going. Maybe we'll see each other around again sometime? Preferably not in the Parking Services office."
"Of that, you can be quite sure, love," he said in a low voice. She turned toward her car and reached for the handle. Suddenly he didn't want to wait another several months…or several traffic citations…to see her again. If angry Emma Swan had intrigued him, smiling Emma Swan bloody fascinated him. "Perhaps you would like to accompany me to dinner this evening when you've finished your shift?"
She turned startled eyes in his direction for a moment. "Are you…are you asking me out?"
He sauntered toward her. "Perhaps," he said smoothly.
"Why?"
Did she really need to ask? "Aside from the fact that you're beautiful and alluring and captivating and I'd like nothing in the world more than to come to know you better? Perhaps I feel a bit guilty. What do you say, Swan? Will you allow me to make up for those truly ridiculous traffic tickets I presented you with in the past?"
She gave him a long, assessing look and then finally nodded, smiling mischievously. "Sure, why not? But then do you really think one measly dinner is going to make up for all the emotional distress of those tickets?"
He grabbed her hand and placed a lingering kiss against her knuckles. "Not nearly, love. I fear it may take me a couple hundred dinners to truly make up for my boorish behavior. Never fear. I shall be perfectly willing to pay my debt."
"I look forward to it."
~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~
He was right; Gold was not happy at all about his negligence…so not happy in fact, that he fired him on the spot.
Killian wagered he should have been upset to lose his employment, but having Emma Swan on his arm more than assuaged any distress he might feel.
And when his lovely girlfriend managed to land him a job in her own place of employment, life couldn't be better.
All told, perhaps he'd do well to thank Gold. Who would believe such ridiculous parking policies would have resulted in the happiest semester he'd ever had?
Notes:
-Happy Friday everyone! It's been a rough week for me, but Fridays are always nice!
-This is a story once again borne out of personal experience. The university where I work has the most bureaucratic parking services office in the known world! They are uniformly hated and reviled on campus (which they know full well. They had a representative come talk to us at our new-employee orientation, basically saying "don't believe the hype guys, we're not really evil! (Well…at least not all the time!)"). While they may seem exaggerated, the things that Emma got ticketed for in this story actually happened. This past year, our old parking permits expired a week before the new ones took effect. (Luckily…they weren't overly ticket-happy that week!) I also know of someone who parked in an "open to the public after 7 pm" lot at 6:56…and came back to a ticket on her car.
-Up next: I will probably go for some light, happy canon compliant future fluff to take place after everyone returns from the Underworld.