The place was all but dead. It had been for a full half hour now, actually it had been dead all day but Maggie wasn't about to grumble too much about the lack of visitors even if that peace was tainted when she remembered that without visitors the remaining animals would be spending another night in a kennel rather than with a loving family. With that heartbreaking thought in mind Maggie decided to leave her post of keeping an eye on the front desk to go make better use of her time than playing a less than fun game of solitaire with a card deck she'd found in one of the desk drawers. Half the cards were missing from it anyway.
She pulls out the treats bucket from under the side cabinet on her way out after one last check of the empty lobby and making sure she'd remembered to set out the 'ring for assistance' notice beside the annoying bell she had to keep at the desk for when she was in the back enjoying the real joy of her volunteer hours at the local animal rescues and adoption center.
"Hey everyone." Maggie greets making her rounds of giving each of the mercifully few animals still waiting for a better home than a shelter a treat as she unlocks the gates to let each of them roam the back room for a little more exercise.
Even in Gotham, the fact the shelter was so low on their occupancy was a real wonder as Maggie folds herself down on the floor to give a few seeking dogs some well-deserved scratches and belly rubs.
"Brooks, what's up buddy?" Maggie questions after a good five minutes of her not really a break, break time when the human notices the way one of her more temperamental pups who'd had a heartbreaking history of being brought back when a possible owner says caring for him was just too much work after only lasting a night or once a single afternoon seemed to be making it his mission to dig his way from the back room to the front office.
The pup in question only gives the curious human a whined huff before going back to his task before he sits and gives a frustrated half bark at the firmly closed door before jumping up and starting the attempted digging job all over again.
It was then Maggie hears a tentative "Hello, hello? are you still open?" call coming from the front desk.
"If they weren't open, we couldn't have gotten through the front door, Kara." Another voice points out before Maggie could answer back. This voice sounded board and not someone Maggie was in the mood to deal with at the moment as she starts the sluggish process of getting back to her feet.
Her legs besides the fact a few tired pups had been using them for pillows as she divided affection on the more awake of the shelter's current selection had also gone to sleep themselves in her inactivity.
"Yeah, yeah we're open just give me a second, please," Maggie calls back over the remaining dog's happy barks at the sounds of possible freedom as Maggie herself scrambles over towards the door without tripping over the eager bodies following her.
Surprising was then instead of bolting out as she'd thought given how eager he'd been for freedom moments before it was only Brooks that stays behind as his fellow rescues rush out in a wave of nervously shed fur and running paws the second Maggie's tugged the door wide enough for the first to finish nudging it open.
Most of the pack had already charged as one towards the already kneeling grinning blonde when Maggie, Brooks, and a few lingering dogs catch up with the rest.
"Can I help you both?" Maggie questions eyeing the still-standing woman sitting on the edge of the front desk watching the scene unfolding with an amused smile.
"I sure hope so otherwise, I can't go back to my job." The woman says without giving any more acknowledgment of Maggie's presence as she watches the blonde now in the middle of a puppy kiss fest. The blonde for her part gave each furred head a kiss in return as best as she could.
"I'm sorry?" Maggie asks with a laugh.
"Her…. she …" the blonde still lost to the dog pial tries to answer when the non-dog-incased woman refused to elaborate.
"My last pyc eval for my job came back that I should get an emotional support animal. I've been resisting for a while. But after this last slip up my boss has put his foot down. Either I get myself an ESA like I've been cleared for, or I'm being demoted to desk work until I commit to actual therapy." Her companion helps out her arms still crossed however loosely in a defensive lock over her front.
"Wow." Maggie sympathized "mind if I ask what…"
"FBI." The woman says far too quickly for Maggie to really believe her.
"Then you're a little out of your jurisdiction, agent." Maggie teases trying to break the faraway look that had taken over the woman's glazed eyes.
"Huh?" the dark-haired woman asks, or that could have been her startled reaction to Brook's light nudging against her knee before he stretches up to wedge his head under the woman's still crossed arms until she relents and starts scratching behind his ear.
Maggie pulled her badge from her pocket to let the woman examine. "Mind showing me yours just to double-check?" she probes only half-joking with the ask.
The woman does her one better and not only hands over her EBI credentials but also not just one but three recommendation letters all of them agreeing she was a prime candidate for an emotional support animal
"So what this is a rush placement just to clear for continued field work?" Maggie presses as the one Maggie knew to be called Alex after a quick glance at the badge in her hand continues her slow stroking of Brook's head..
"No, I'm already pulled from that until I get a better handle on… well everything." Alex confesses with a sigh that Brooks echoes as he nudges that much closer to her in sympathy. "I only came here to get a second opinion other than my own mother, and our department shrink evaluating me.". "but if you don't mind my asking who's this sweet one?"
"That's Brooks." Maggie introduces making a quick but hard read of the medical notices in her hand as well as the accompanying badge Alex had readily handed over.
"Like Garth or & Dunn?" Alex jokes still rubbing tenderly behind the pup's ears as the dog's tail continued to thump happily against the edge of the desk.
"Neither actually." Maggie sighs running a hand through her hair as she gathers herself to tell this next bit of her favored dog's history. "he's called that because he'd been found nearly drowned in one of the city brooks not far from here."
The information earning a low mirrored curse from both women as the blonde successfully maneuvers enough to finally sit up amid the tightly squeezed pack demanding her attention.
"it's actually one of the reasons he's been brought back so often was his potential owners even after I told them his history tried to force him to take a bath right out of the gate and when he lashed out at them just trying to get away from the water, they brought him right back. Most of them just traded him for another of our dogs but others said we should just close up shop if this was the best of animals, we were housing. "
Alex moves to kneel more to the dog's eye level making Brooks sit up just a little straighter as the two held gazes.
"I don't like water much either." Alex admits after a few beats of quiet between them. "I had an incident like yours. It keeps me up most nights. The nightmares."
Brooks gives a soft sympathetic whimper at that but makes no other move to get closer as Alex's fingers card slowly through his scruff.
"I'm not supposed to do this but how about we do a trial run." Maggie offers "I'm assuming from your badge you're here for a few more days so why not take Brooks back to your hotel for the night….
"That's not fair to Brooks." Alex argues before Maggie had even finished making the offer. Even going so far as to pull the puzzled pup into her arms with a defensive glare in Maggie's direction at the very idea she guessed the other woman was proposing.
"but instead of having you come back here tomorrow morning we all meet at the park down the block." Maggie finishes. "I care about this guy just as much as you already seem to, Danvers." She accuses with a playful wink.
Alex clears her throat much too loudly as she drops her eyes. And f Maggie spies a blush dusting the other woman's cheeks as well she wasn't about to point it out.
"I promise we'll take extra super special care of him." The blonde vows still sitting amid the pup pial she didn't seem that keen on leaving.
"You've got a deal, Sawyer."
Maggie was about to ask just how Alex found out her last name when she dropped her eyes from holding said woman's gaze long enough to remember Alex was still holding her badge hostage.
"I'm keeping this. Let's call it insurance so you can't just run off with my dog." Maggie bargains tapping the edge of Alex's FBI credentials against her knee.
"Only if I can keep yours for the night too." Alex grinned
"Deal." Maggie agreed earning an answering bark from Brooks who even did one of his happy chasing his tail spins before giving the chuckling human one of his lopsided grins his tail thumping happily against Alex's knee.
"I like this one too Brooksie." Maggie agreed.
"Back at yeah, Sawyer." Alex blushed.
Kara just looks between the two oblivious to the new spark of possibilities flickering to life between them.