A/N: For once I actually have a respectable reason for a slow delay. COVID is not fun, but it's come and gone for which I'm grateful.
Ages: Cameron is 23, Artemis is 21.
Questionable Decisions
Winter, Beginning of Team Year 6
The officer filed into the holding room with a loud sigh, clearly telegraphing his desire to redo all the life choices that got him to this moment. Trudging to the front of the metal table, he dropped a thin brown file folder onto the surface, pulling pulling up the chair with an obnoxious metal screech that seemed endemic to every police interrogation room.
Plopping down, he stared with a mixture of wonder and disgust at the crumpled form of the pale young man sitting across from him. He looked completely disheveled: Hair turned up every kind of way, a laceration across his lower jaw that was still clotting, and an assortment of stains across his clothes. The officer could smell liquor from across the table, though the man didn't seem drunk himself.
"Mr. uh, Mr. Hawthorne, do you have any idea what time it is?" the officer asked, double checking the name on the outside of the folder. Blake Hawthorne.
Cameron looked upwards towards the ceiling in a thinking motion, as if seriously pondering the question. "If I was gambling man, I'd put money on 1:30, 2 A.M?"
The officer raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner. "It's about a quarter past 3 in the morning."
"Ah," Cameron said, tapping his head, handcuffs clinking as he did so. "West Coast time. Trips me up every once in a while. I'm used to east coast time."
"That's backwards," the officer mentioned.
"Hm?" Cameron asked absent-mindedly.
"Eastern time means you should have guessed a later time, not an earlier time," the officer clarified, sounding smug. As if he'd just caught a serial killer in the midst of a case-cracking lie.
"Right," Cameron said. "I see you're gearing up for a detective badge there Officer uh," he squinted, leaning across the table, "O'Sullivan. Wow, O'Sullivan? Irish name out in Star City? Haven't seen too many of those out here."
"I'm not a detective," Officer O'Sullivan answered gruffly. "Just the sorry stupid son of a bitch stuck working the night shift who has to take your statement. I tried to talk to your co-conspirator, but she really wasn't capable of saying much other than snarling."
Cameron shrugged again, making a mental note that the officer was touchy about not being a detective. "That's more or less how she usually is."
"Right. So, back to the events of the night at hand," the officer said, opening the folder in front of him to rifle through the report. "You've been quite busy. Assault, battery, inciting violence, disorderly conduct, disturbance of the peace, property damage."
"Well when you put it like that, you make it sound worse than what really happened," Cameron responded casually, as if discussing a mistaken pizza order.
"Worse than what really happened? Are you talking about overturning a parked vehicle? Or the fistfight on the beachside? Or just setting a bicycle on fire while someone was riding it?"
"Hold up," Cameron said, raising a finger in protest, a serious expression flickering on his face. He paused, as if he was about to say something of significance, before his face relaxed back into his former casual look. "We told the guy to jump off the bicycle before we set it on fire. Not our fault he didn't listen."
O'Sullivan grit his teeth, clearly annoyed. "I'm sure you think you're a funny guy."
"Thank you!" Cameron said with a clap, pretending to be oblivious to the growing irritation of the older officer in front of him.
"But you're looking at serious charges. And that's before we talk about the bull you pulled in the holding cell just now. Nice cut by the way," the officer said in a taunting tone, pointing at Cameron's jaw.
"You should've seen what I did to the other guy."
"I did," O'Sullivan answered tersely. That fight played no small part in his insistent that Cameron remain handcuffed. It had been surprising, and slightly concerning, seeing how much damage a girl and a pale, skinny looking guy could do against four gym bros in an enclosed holding cell.
"My friend did warn your cop buddies not to put us in the same cell as them, but they didn't want to listen. Unfortunate really," Cameron said innocently, as if he was mournful about the entire incident. The smile tugging at the corner of his lips destroyed what little credibility he may have had.
O'Sullivan slapped the file folder shut, his irritation reaching a breaking point. "Alright wise guy. If you don't have anything important to say, I can toss you back in holding and chat with you after the weekend passes."
"So long as I get that phone call I was promised."
...
Artemis lay down on the concrete slab, legs resting on across Cameron's lap as she pressed her palms into her eyes. The lighting in the cell was purposefully dim, but to her every sliver of light felt like a stab directly into the cornea.
She risked a peek in Cameron's direction and hissed in irritation at the light, shutting her eyes back immediately. Irritated, she lazily kicked at him. "How was your interview?"
"That's the second time you've woken up, growled, and asked me that question," he answered. He was leaning back against the cool concrete, eyes closed and head tilted upwards, as he tried and failed to get some semblance of sleep.
"Urghhh, I feel like crap," Artemis groaned, taking another peek from behind her fingers to force her eyes to adjust to the light. The following pain was accompanied by some creative Vietnamese cursing.
"I'm not far behind you," Cameron said, looking down at his handcuffs. Officer O'Sullivan had pointedly refused to take them off after his interrogation, and they were starting to chafe his wrists. Forgot how annoying these are.
Unfortunately, he hadn't forgotten about the events of the last night, replaying the whole situation from start to finish several times in relative solitude, barring the occasionally conscious Artemis. At some point, what had started out as a fun night on the town had morphed into teaching some frat boys a lesson in manners, and somewhere along the way of fulfilling that latter purpose, their decision making had spiraled way out of control.
Incredibly, stupidly, out of control, considering that two beat cops were able to arrest them with minimal effort.
"I can't believe we did those things," Artemis said, apparently arriving at the same conclusion as he had in significantly less time.
"I can't believe we let ourselves get caught doing those things," he added, sounding genuinely annoyed. Bad decisions were practically woven into his DNA. Getting arrested for bad decisions that he wasn't even getting paid for? That wasn't a practice he wanted to get into the habit of.
"I was under the influence. You were supposed to be the calm-headed one, keeping an eye out on things," Artemis said accusatorily.
"You're a terrible drunk," he shot back. "I was too busy making sure you didn't accidentally set yourself on fire." Among other things he didn't add.
Artemis moved, trying to shift herself upwards into a sitting position. She grimaced through the entire thing before practically collapsing against the wall next to Cameron. "I'd call B.S Frostbite, but since I can barely move without my whole frickin' head throbbing, I'll give you that. Just this one time."
"I told you drinking was a bad idea," he said.
"I told you drinking was a bad idea," she repeated in a mocking tone. "Says the guy with meta-human resistance."
He opened his mouth to make a retort about he hadn't drank anyway, so the resistance was a moot point, but his attention was diverted by the sound of metal clanking on metal as the door down the hall was opened. The noise was followed by the thud of heavy police boots, accompanied by a much lighter pair of footsteps. Cameron sat up straighter, tensing in apprehension at the coming visitors.
Artemis eyed him curiously, noticing the shift in his mood. "We expecting someone?" she asked.
He didn't answer, only raising her suspicions as the rubber boots finally stopped in front of their cell door. A rather disinterested looking officer banged his baton sharply on the metal door to rouse them, clearly ignoring the fact that they were already awake. "Rise and shine dynamic duo."
Artemis winced at the noise, the echoes reverberating in tune with her pulsing headache.
"Come on. Your ride home is here," the officer continued, his keys jangling as he sorted through them to find the cell key.
Ride home? Artemis thought, wrenching her vision back to the door. She immediately blanched at the sight of the person standing besides the officer.
"Excited to see me sis?" Jade drawled, clearly amused by the situation. Suddenly Cameron's early apprehension made significantly more sense and, the situation now clicking into place, Artemis turned to give him a murderous glare.
"It was her or Crystal. Believe me, this was the better option," he said with a defeated sigh.
Artemis uttered a low string of curses as the officer finally opened the cell door, motioning for them to both rise.
"Come on, up and at em. We need to process you out before you two commit another crime."
"You know," Jade added from behind him. "I really cannot wait to hear the explanation for this."
...
"How did you get them to drop the charges?" Cameron asked, sitting in the backseat of Jade's car. He gripped the front headrest when Jade made a sudden swerve left - not that any of her turns weren't sudden - and tried to quell his growing concerns about getting in the vehicle in the first place.
"How did you get arrested so easily?" Jade asked, obviously sidestepping the question. "Especially you, sis. At least Cameron had the decency to have a fake ID on him. You commit crimes every night without getting caught, and the one time you don't do it in a costume you get arrested?"
"It wasn't our fault. We were minding our own business, and some frat boys started getting a little too chirpy."
Cameron gave a non-committal nod from the backseat, distinctly remembering a slightly more...aggressive version of events. One that involved Artemis throwing the first punch and a lot of chasing on their part. Wisely, he decided that this was not the appropriate time to make that distinction.
"Mmm hmm," Jade hummed, hitting the accelerator to zoom through a yellow light that she clearly wasn't going to make in time. "That's not what the police report said. 'Suspects chased victims six city blocks,' it said. 'Suspects initiated fight inside of a bar, according to multiple witnesses' it said. 'Male suspect had to pull female suspect off of one victim,' it said."
"You know you can't trust those things," Cameron replied, cringing at the sound of burning rubber behind them. Someone had just earned themselves a new pair of tires in a desperate attempt to avoid hitting them them at the intersection. I really hope Will drives Lian to school he thought, wondering how Artemis questioned his driving skills but didn't seem slightly fazed at the moment.
"They started the fight, we just finished it," Artemis said defensively.
"And you?" Jade asked, referencing Cameron.
"I was mainly playing a support role."
Artemis snorted. "Yeah, until one of them tried to smash a bottle over your heard. You went a little beyond a 'support role' after that Frostbite."
"No comment," he replied.
"You know," Jade said, accompanied by another sharp turn and the honks of several concerned early morning drivers. "This wouldn't break the top 3 list of my arrests with Will, but it would probably rank somewhere in the top 10. Maybe top 7 if you don't count arrest after Lian's birth."
Cameron gave a curious look from the backseat. "Uh, exactly how many times have you and Will been arrested?"
"Okay, well, I appreciate the rescue, sis," Artemis said with a clap, not wanting to go down that particularly rabbit hole. "We can drop Cam off at the zeta tube, I can shower and sleep in my bed before going to train the Team, and you can find a way to blackmail us with this later this week."
"Us?" Cameron asked tentatively from the back, just as Jade added a caustic "Later this week?"
A vicious grin spread across the eldest sister's face, and dread curdled in Cameron's stomach as he got the distinct feeling that he was about to be entrapped in some Machiavellian sisterly brinkmanship. "You know, the Zeta tube isn't too far away from here. You could just-"
"Mom's coming over for a family lunch later today," Jade said, cutting off Cameron entirely. "You two are both going to be there."
"What? Absolutely not!" Artemis exclaimed, eyeing her sister with a glare. "I'm not going to be your human shield because mom is mad at you for scaring off one of Lian's babysitters, again!"
"Sure, I can just mention your night in lockup in your absence instead," Jade answered flippantly. "And if I remember somethings worse than they actually were, whoopsie."
"You know, this really sounds like a family thing-" Cameron said, trying to get a word in edgewise and failing.
"He has to be there too," Jade said, jabbing her thumb back at Cam. "He's weak, and she'll hone in him to get information about you instead of focusing on me."
"Seriously, you can just drop me off right here," he continued, recognizing some of the buildings whizzing by the car window. Sure, it was a long walk to the zeta tube and he had lost his money somewhere in between setting the trash can on fire and fighting on the beach, but a walk didn't sound so bad. It certainly sounded better than a lunch under the all-encompassing scrutiny of the Crock Matriarch. Paula, nice as she was, had a way of unnerving him in a manner that made Jade seem like a harmless housecat.
He glanced at the rearview mirror to meet Artemis's eyes for some silent communication, but the moment he saw the apologetic expression on her face, he knew it was curtains.
"Sorry Cam, it looks like you're coming to lunch" she said, an air of finality around her words.
Leaning back in defeat, he added another decision to his lists of regrets of the last night. Should have called Crystal.
"You should have called Crystal," Artemis parroted, sounding almost as miserable as he felt.
A/N: Thanks for reading!