Chapter 3: the police

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

"Yes, officer?" Beverly asked with a surprising (to her) placidity, when the knock on the window came. "Is there something the matter?" she asked, hoping that she was not currently channeling her inner flamingo or anything like that.

The officer hesitated. There was something strange about these two women, but he simply could not figure out what. "I just want to check your driver's license," he said politely, although he felt slightly unnerved by this encounter for some reason.

"Here!" Beverly may have decided not to make any complicated plans in this endeavour, but a necessity of a very good fake driver's ID and other papers was obvious, and so she acquired them.

"I see," the police officer took a good look at the ID and the license, and found them to be satisfactorily. "And yours, Ms.?" he turned to Holly.

"Oh, I'm not driving – she is!" Holly said brightly.

The police officer was taken aback, but quickly recovered. "Yes, well, I still to see them, due to protocol?"

"Why?" Holly was not backing down either.

The officer hesitated once again. The question was legitimate enough, and neither woman appeared to be in distress of any sort, though the one in the driver's seat continued to eye him in a strange way: as if she was some sort of a big cat and he – a hairless ape who presumed himself to be the king of the world.

"Look," the officer decided to fold, "I've got orders from the higher-ups to be especially vigilant with travellers on the road – apparently there's been a situation of some sort in the neighbourhood; so I got no choice, really-"

"We understand," Beverly said politely, "here you go." And she gave him Holly's fake paperwork. "Satisfied?"

"Yes," the officer said, after giving them a more customary glance – the younger woman was not driving, after all. Still, something did catch his eye: "Willow Rosenberg?"

"Yes," Holly said without missing a beat – perhaps Beverly had underestimated her; given her luck with women lately, she probably did. "I'm a fan of the actress. Is that a problem?"

The officer twitched. Truth to be told, he was on his way to a greater traffic accident when he saw the car with the two women and decided to do his duty. Now, seeing how one was a potentially crazy fan of a teenage TV action show, and the other was eyeing him in a way that made him flat-out uncomfortable, period, he decided to fold and withdrew, with as much grace as possible.

...As his car gradually vanished in the distance, Beverly turned and faced the younger woman directly. "I've underestimated you," she said flatly.

"Eh, don't mention it," Holly said breezily. "Now, let's go and get to Eureka – I'm so excited to meet it for real for the first time!"

Beverly just closed her eyes and shook her head. Fortunately, they were already close to Eureka – but even such a short distance was going to be a challenge with Holly in the back seat...

TBC