"Ah, you must be the babysitters that other cop told me to expect," Joey Collins said without much humour behind her words. "About time I saw some life around here after being stuck in here for hours," she said. She really wanted to be elsewhere, yet as she finally took a moment to appraise the two officers, she had to admit, that at least the scenery during her enforced confinement was going to be rather enjoyable. The slightly taller one in particular captured her attention. Those eyes, now intently regarding her, were like blue laser beams trying to read into her soul. Fuck, she really needed to be careful here and she broke the gaze and tilted her head to her right. "Actually, I take that back about seeing some life, since you two look as lively as corpses at a funeral," she said with a smirk.
Watson coughed behind her hand while Charlie openly smiled in response.
"Jesus, she's going to kill me if she does that too often," thought Joey.
It hadn't taken Charlie long to gauge her protectee's sexual orientation. That had been answered when she saw the way the woman had eyed her up and down with a look of appreciation. Charlie had watched the appraisal with some humour, then she'd raised a brow when those soulful eyes had caught hers, before they'd quickly looked away. Soulful? Where did that come from? They were though. There was a great depth to those eyes that was somewhat captivating to her. What secrets lay behind there, she wondered?
"I'm Snr Const. Charlie Buckton and this is Const. Georgina Watson," Charlie informed her. "That's Charlie and Georgie from now on."
"Nice to meet you Charlie and Georgie," Joey said. "I'm pissed."
Was she though, wondered Charlie, because despite her words, there was a calmness about this woman that Charlie found a little unnerving. She was a witness to a murder and now because of what she'd seen, her life was in danger. In effect, her whole life was about to be turned completely upside down. She was going to be forced to live with two strangers and change the way she lived her life, yet still, there was this calmness about her. It was a little weird, but she supposed, not entirely unexpected. People reacted differently and when it came to dealing with witnesses under her protection, Charlie had seen all sorts of reactions to the situations they found themselves in. From anger, to fear, to arrogance, to sullenness, to all sorts. She'd been abused by some, others would refuse to talk or listen to her and some even mistook their protective officers for their personal servants. This particular part of her job had certainly offered a varied experience, especially since not all of her protectees were innocents. Some of those were the worst to deal with, because you couldn't really trust them to abide by the terms of the agreement, that had seen the charges dropped or downgraded against them, in return for becoming prosecution witnesses. For some of them, they saw protective services as a chance to be taken away from the danger and then running at the first convenient time. More than once, she'd had to go running after them and when she caught up to them - and she always did - she made damn sure that they were less inclined to think of doing it again.
While all these thoughts were going through her head, Charlie's eyes never left Joey's face. She was curious as to which type of witness this woman was going to fall into and how she was going to react once they were out from behind the protection of this building.
"Nice to meet you Ms Pissed," Charlie finally replied and she received a reluctant grin in response. "Now, we'll try to make this as comfortable for you as we can, but from this moment on, Georgie and I are responsible for your safety and so there are going to be some ground rules in place that you're going to have to abide by," she told her.
"Great, rules, just what I need," muttered Joey.
"Miss Collins, I know you don't want to be here, but your life is now in danger and we're going to need your cooperation to help us keep you safe."
"And I'm not in danger from the cops?" Joey fired back. "I've seen the stories in the news, you guys are as bad as the damn criminals."
"I admit, there may be some among us who may have betrayed the uniform, but I'm not one of them." Charlie turned to Watson. "Georgie, are you on the take?"
"Of absolutely, that's why I live in a cubby hole masquerading as an apartment," Watson flippantly replied with a grin. "For the record, I am not corrupt, I've never even fudged the time on my timesheet."
"And I'm certainly not corrupt either," said Charlie.
"And I'm just meant to take your word on that?" Joey said. "Even if you were corrupt, you'd just deny it."
"Then you're shit out of luck because you're stuck with us," Charlie told her.
"Don't I even get to choose who my jailors will be?"
"No."
"I can see you're going to be a barrel of fun."
"This isn't about fun," Charlie pointed out. "It's about keeping you safe."
"Yeah, so you and Sergeant Plod out there keep telling me," she muttered. "So, how much longer am I going to be stuck here for?"
"I just have a couple of forms to fill out and Georgie and I need to get into some casual gear," Charlie replied. "Then we can head straight to the motel."
"What about my things?" complained Joey. "Clothes and shit."
"We can't let you go home, so we'll make some arrangements for clothing and toiletries once we're in the motel," Charlie told her.
"This is a waste of time, I really didn't see anything," Joey murmured.
Charlie sighed. It was amazing how many suffered memory problems when the enormity of their situation really started to hit. "You'll have plenty of time to think things over," Charlie murmured back. "Now, we'll only be staying at the motel for the next couple of days or so, just while a safe house is made ready for us," she informed both of them. She glanced at her watch. "We'll be back shortly," she said to Joey.
"What's going to be our cover?" asked Watson.
"That hasn't been sorted yet," she said. "This has all happened rather quickly."
"It's going to have to be something interesting to explain three women just rocking up together to a new place."
"Yeah, I know," said Charlie. "My regular partner is a man, so it's usually a little easier to come up with cover stories, but I'm sure they'll figure something out."
"A ménage a trios," joked Watson as she and Charlie walked out of the room. Charlie closed the door on the rather colourful response coming from their witness to Watson's suggestion.
"This is going to be one of those really fun ones," Charlie sarcastically said to Watson and the younger woman chuckled. They'd only just met, but Charlie already found herself liking the young Constable, which was a relief, because in spite of Nick's assurances to the contrary, she'd still been half-afraid Watson would turn out to be a pain in the arse, yet the way she appeared to be taking everything in her stride and showed signs of having a sense of humour, it boded well for their upcoming assignment together. The less conflict between them, the better it would be for all.
"Where is the safe house likely going to be?" asked Watson in a whisper.
"We won't know until it's time to go there."
"They're really playing this close to the chest this time."
"Do you blame us?" murmured Charlie. "With Harvey dead, she's now one of our most valuable assets."
"Oh, you have got to be fucking joking," Joey said as the car came to a stop at the Sunset Motel. "This place looks like a dump."
Charlie was inclined to agree, not that she would say it aloud. "It's perfectly suited to our needs," she told both the other occupants of the car.
"Yeah, a need for a delousing after we leave," Joey fired back. "I doubt this place even has a one star rating."
"It's out of the way, quiet and we'll only be here for a couple of days," Charlie reminded her. "Like I said, it suits our needs."
"I might be with Joey on this," Watson murmured to her. "I feel dirty from just looking at the place."
"I've been here before," Charlie said. "It's much better on the inside."
"God, I hope so," Charlie heard Watson mutter.
Surprisingly, the room wasn't so bad on the inside, thought Joey. It was clean at least and the beds appeared freshly made. She stared more intently at those beds for a moment. "A double and a single?" Joey was the first to point out the set up. "The double is mine," she informed them. "You two can share the single."
"Nice try," said Charlie. "The single is yours since you will have to pass us if you want to try to sneak out," she explained. "Not that you can get out without this key to the deadlock." She held it up for Joey to see.
"Jeez, if I wanted to sneak out, I'd just go out the bathroom window."
"I'd love to see you try that."
Her curiosity peaked, Joey walked over to the bathroom.
"A mouse could barely get through that tiny window," Charlie said from right behind her.
Joey tried not to react to the warm breath against her neck.
"Like I said, this place suits our needs," Charlie rather smugly said.
"Could you please pick a channel and stay on it?" Charlie said through gritted teeth.
Joey's reply was to flick through the channels even faster. "How can there be all these channels and nothing worth watching," she muttered aloud. It was evening, which meant they'd been here most of the day, yet she'd been bored out of her mind within the first couple of hours.
"Georgie will be back with some dvds any minute."
"If you'd let me bring my laptop, we could have already been watching something online."
"I told you before, you can't have access to your laptop."
"Yeah, funny how you left mentioning that little titbit until after we were already here," she grumbled. "And you tossed my phone."
"I explained why."
"You honestly think someone could track me through my laptop and phone?"
"We can't take the risk of someone hacking into your computer or phone and trying to do just that."
"Sounds pretty farfetched."
"It's just an added precaution," Charlie told her. It was also to keep their protectee from contacting anyone and blowing their location, she added silently. Joey muttered a few unintelligible words just as her younger colleague returned.
"Movies, dinner and popcorn is here," Watson announced.
"Did you get my beer?" queried Joey.
"Yes, I got your beer." Watson spared a glance at Charlie, who seemed to know what she was asking without even having to say it.
"You're fine to have a couple of lights yourself, but just remember, you need to keep alert at all times."
"I will," she assured her. "Do you want one?"
"Not tonight."
Joey lathered her leg, then ran the newly acquired razor along it. The door to the bathroom blocked out a fair bit of noise from the other room, which at least gave her some semblance of privacy from her new housemates. She actually quite liked that Georgie girl. She was friendly, even a little flirty and she had that youthful enthusiasm that was quite infectious. Charlie on the other hand, was wound so tight, Joey half expected her to take off.
Georgie would certainly like to get Charlie off, Joey chuckled softly. She was positive that Georgie had a crush on Charlie. Not that she could blame her. High strung she may be, but there was no denying that Charlie was one hot looking woman. It was just a shame that the humour she'd shown signs of having at the Station was gone. Joey supposed she was just taking her job seriously. She sighed. Since that job was to protect her, she probably should cut her some slack. Except she didn't want to. She wanted away from them. No, she needed to be away from them and from here.
"She's off limits," Charlie told her younger partner when she caught her glancing toward the bathroom.
"A little flirting never hurt," Watson replied. "And who knows, it might help to have her friendly with at least one of us."
"Just not too friendly."
"Relax Charlie," she told her. "She's safe from me." Watson smirked at Charlie. "You on the other hand..." She left the rest unsaid, but she dangled her handcuffs from her fingers and then laughed when Charlie nearly choked on her drink.
Charlie glared at the woman and couldn't help but shake her head in bemusement at the mirth she saw in her eyes. The woman was a tease and enjoying this a little too much.
Sitting up in the double bed, Charlie put the book she'd been reading aside and glanced over at Joey. She was already asleep, though not very restfully, if her tossing and turning was anything to go by. Under the circumstances, she wasn't surprised that Joey was having trouble sleeping. Her whole life had been uprooted and she was now sharing a strange room with two women she barely knew.
Just then, her attention was diverted by the bathroom door opening and Watson walking out in just her bra and knickers. The woman certainly had no qualms about walking around half-naked and with a body like that, she couldn't blame her.
"A belly button ring," she then murmured in surprise. The woman might be all professional when in uniform, but Charlie was getting the sense that once she was out of it, Watson was a whole different woman. Charlie's eyes widened even further when Watson turned her back on her and she saw the tattoo for the first time. It ran from the top of her buttocks to her shoulders and depicted a tiger blended within a bunch of roses. She wasn't a big fan of tattoos, but Charlie found this one to be quite beautiful.
Watson felt Charlie's eyes on her and smiled to herself as she picked up her bag and searched for the oversized Marvin the Martian t-shirt she liked to sleep in. She turned slightly as she removed her bra so that Charlie would get a good side profile view of her breast. It worked as she heard Charlie's sharp intake of breath. She suspected Charlie would never let anything happen between them, but she didn't care, she was having fun just with the teasing.
Slipping into the t-shirt, Watson then checked the windows and door, before strutting over to the bed. She set her watch on the side table and climbed under the covers. "Night," she said to Charlie as she rolled onto her side, presenting her back to her. She smiled at the stiffness she felt coming from her bed partner.
"Good night," Charlie managed to strangle out. If Jack had still been her partner, he would have taken one of the chairs, but Charlie had thought there would be no problems sharing a bed with Watson. Now she wasn't so sure.