Elisa woke with a start. Disoriented, she looked around trying to get her brain to function.
She was in her living room, she thought, rubbing a hand over her eyes. She'd worked a full shift last night, and had a court appearance this morning. She'd gotten home, made herself a sandwich so that she didn't run herself completely empty of fuel, and must have laid out on the couch long enough to go to sleep.
"No more salami before bed," Elisa groaned, sitting upright on the sofa. "It gives me some weird dreams."
Elisa stood, taking the plate that now held only crumbs with her to place in the sink. She'd had her share of wild dreams in the past, and even now, this one was getting hazy around the edges, details beginning to blur with every minute she was awake.
Elisa hurried out to the small entrance of her condo, grabbing the notebook and pen that she normally kept on hand from her coat pocket. She hurried to scribble down all of the details she could remember before they were completely gone.
"Keep allies close," Elisa muttered, struggling to write as fast as her mind was whirling. "Heal the family relationships."
That covered a whole lot of people in Elisa's life at the moment. It seemed as if everyone were having familial issues at the moment, though for once it wasn't her family.
"Elisa?" a familiar voice called from the far end of the living room.
Elisa brought her head up and gave Skyler, her friend and one-time desperately needed nanny, a smile.
"Oh. Hi, Skyler," Elisa said. "Sorry. Did I wake you up?"
"No," Skyler said, giving a stretch and a yawn. "Not really. I thought I heard you talking out here, and thought you were on the phone or something. Would you like some coffee?"
"Bless you," Elisa sighed. "No, I wasn't on the phone, just had a weirdly realistic dream, that's all."
Skyler nodded. "I have those sometimes. Dreams where you wake up, and it takes a minute or two to figure out it was a dream, and you're not really in a palace surrounded by a harem of good looking male movie stars."
Elisa blinked at the young woman. "I'm… sorry. What?"
"Hmmm?" Skyler said, batting her eyes innocently.
Elisa let out a rolling laugh. "Thanks," she said, wiping at the humor tears in her eyes. "I needed that one." She looked at the notes in her notebook. "This one didn't make a whole lot of sense, but I'll see what I can do with the little I've got. Who knows?" Elisa shrugged.
Skyler took down two mugs from the cabinet while waiting for the coffee to brew. She gave Elisa a concerned look. "It was that realistic?"
"Yeah," Elisa mused, "I think my head was just trying to work some things out that's been bothering me, that's all."
"This one really bothered you, huh?" Skyler asked.
Elisa gave a soft grunt in agreement.
She looked at the hastily scribbled notes in her notebook, then closed the cover and set it aside for the moment.
"Strange dreams aside," Elisa said, running a hand through her hair, "I've got a full morning. I have the sentencing hearing for Roth today…"
"The photographer guy?" Skyler asked. "You guys caught him not that long ago, and he's already hit sentencing?"
"That's the one," Elisa said. "He didn't fight it and, probably against his lawyer's wishes, plead guilty, so the wheels of the justice system have been able to turn along with no hesitations."
"All those poor girls," Skyler said softly. "I can't imagine… and you, Elisa. You were drugged by the guy."
Elisa all but groaned. It hadn't been a highlight in her career but being that she'd been wearing a wire in a place that had some high powered video surveillance that caught the guy in the act, it hadn't been a complete loss. She'd also had another female officer with her, as well as a number of officers on standby to step in if they'd been needed.
When the time had come that they were needed, they came in and caught the guy.
Elisa hadn't been much help after that, and had been sent to the hospital, then home to sleep it off.
As the main officer on scene that night, it was requested that she be there at the sentencing in case the judge had any questions.
Not that it mattered. Elisa had met with a few of the man's victims, and she wanted to be there to see Roth go down anyway.
Elisa looked at the clock. "The sentencing is slated for 10:30 a.m., but I'm going to aim to be there around ten."
Skyler nodded. "Just enough time for some breakfast. What sounds good?"
Elisa chuckled. "I'm an adult," she pointed out. "You don't need to feed me."
"Maybe not," Skyler shrugged. "But, comparatively, I'm in for an easier morning than you, so it's not a problem." Skyler got to her feet once more. "Eggs, bacon, and toast okay?"
Elisa sighed in defeat. "Alright. You win. You always do."
Skyler grinned. "I know."