Those Freaks

Participants:

colette_icon.gif kaydence_icon.gif judah_icon.gif

Scene Title Those Freaks
Synopsis Kay and Judah treat Colette to dinner and milkshakes in return for information. The compassion is given with no strings attached.
Date August 27, 2008

Brooklyn - Diner


Order up! Kay's returning to the table where Colette sits waiting for her and her partner, carrying a tray of three milkshakes. She sets the tray down in the middle of the table and snags herself a chocolate shake. "That's better," she drawls faintly. "Demsky's taking a call from the Powers That Be. I don't think he'll be much longer." She peers out the plate glass storefront of the diner and watches Judah speak on his phone for a moment, before turning her attention back to Colette and smiling.

Colette's eyes shifted up towards Detective Demsky's proactive partner, seated next to the window with her chin resting on her palm. She wrinkles her nose, blowing a stray lock of hair away from her good eye as the milkshakes come over, "There's a vein sticking out of his forehead…" Colette murmurs, watching Demsky pacing back and forth on the phone before turning her attention back to the milkshakes. "You…" She wrinkles her nose again, then hesitantly reaches out for one, "You really didn't need to do this." Her feet idly brush against the paper bag she had brought in with her, one that looked like it was from a Chinese takeout restaurant.

"Sorry I kinda' yelled at you after you took me out've the booth…" She belatedly apologized to throwing a fit after having the phone taken away, something she hadn't thought much in advance on before doing. "I uh, it's… been a long night?" The clock on the wall read 9:51 pm as she looked at it, "I guess I could'a just called from Chinatown, I feel really stupid having you both out here like this…" Her feet shifted beneath the table, crinkling the bag as they moved against it. Sliding the milkshake over to her, the girl appraised it intently, looking at the wide straw stuffed into it, and the way the condensation on the glass was frosting from the cold.

Kay shrugs. "Detective Demsky's got the tab, so it's no trouble at all." She glances through the window again, brows furrowing. "That vein is a little prominent, isn't it? Huh." That really cannot be good, when you think about it.

If Detective Demsky knew what Kaydence was saying, the expression on his face would be a lot fouler than it already is. He slips back into the diner, his hair and coat slick with rain. It must be drizzling outside. Wordlessly, he weaves his way around tables, careful not to bump into anyone — or their food. This isn't the sort of place he would have chosen to take Colette, but with his partner around it's not as though he has any say in the matter. When he arrives, he takes a seat in the booth beside Kaydence, presumably to make the teen feel a little less crowded. The last thing he wants now is to lose her; in eyes, it's a miracle she decided to call him at all. Most of the girls he gives his number don't.

"Hey — Awe shit, it's raining?" Colette lets out a heavy sigh as her cheeks puff out, looking out the window of the diner to the rain-slicked streets, "Just my luck…" She looks down to the paper bag at her feet, then leans forward to rest her chin on her hand, lazily stretching her neck out to snag the straw of her milkshake between her lips. After a few moments of slurping straw noises she glances back up to Judah, then to Kaydence. "So, a-anyway." The young girl leans back against the bench seat, ruffling her hands through her messy hair, "Like I said on the phone, there were these kids, um… On the street corner." She motions out the window with her head, "They were just talking and stuff, and I was going to ask them about Nicole. But I bumped into Detective Demsky — " She gestures with one hand to Judah, " — before I could talk to them. But the thing is, I noticed one of them was holding a briefcase, right? It seemed really silly, it's like they were trying to be too cool to have a messenger bag or something, right?"

Blowing an errant lock of hair out of her face, Colette leans forward again, resting her elbows on the tabletop. "So after me an' the detective finish talking, I get ready to go talk to them, and…" Her voice trails off for a moment, a guilty look flashing across her face. "They were gone, just the briefcase left leaning up against a telephone pole. I didn't think anything of it, but… but when I saw the news…" She leans forward, resting her head in her hands, finger sraking through her dark hair. "If somebody had gotten hurt, and, like, I didn't say anything?" As Colette looks up, it's clear she feels terrible about not having said anything, a remorseful expression on her face. "That'd all be on me."

"Don't beat yourself up. Those are the kinds of details that don't seem important to anyone until after the fact. They're easy to slip someone's mind." Kay offers a reassuring smile. "The fact that you're telling us now is good. Do you think you would be able to describe these kids to a sketch artist? Maybe we'd be able to figure out who they were. Keep something like this from happening again."

While Colette offers her explanation, Judah fishes into his jacket pocket and retrieves what looks like a cigarette tin. He slides his thumb along the side until his nail locates the catch, flipping the lid open. Inside are about a half dozen cigarillos wrapped in faux gold foil and a thin layer of plastic. Apparently, he doesn't trust his jacket — or the tin — to keep the water out. "Even if you can't," he adds after Kay has said her piece, "there might come a time when we'll need you to pick them out of a lineup."

"Yeuuhh…" Colette was about to say yes without thinking, to Kaydence's request, but there is some hesitation there as she slurs her words. "I'm… not really good with faces or names for that matter." A grimace awkwardly plastered itself on her lips, "I could tell you what they were wearing, but, I really didn't pay much attention to who they were. It didn't seem… important?" She winces, visibly, disappointed at her own inability to make this easier on the officers. "I mean — I'll try? But… but honestly, I can't remember a thing about 'em. I… I wouldn't want to be, you know, responsible?" She doesn't explain properly at first, and then with a sulk shakes her head, "You know, responsible for like, the wrong person getting in trouble for this. It's those freaks who are the ones who deserve to be behind bars because of this, not just some kids who were in the wrong place at the wrong time…"

"It may help point us in the right direction. Anything you can remember with any certainty is good." While Kay's sympathetic gaze may be on Colette, her hand is outstretched toward Judah, fore and middle fingers creating a vee. Gimme. "Whoever did this will be brought to justice," eventually, "but everybody needs a little help now and then, right? It speeds up the process."

Although he knows that Kay can't see it, Judah rolls his eyes as he plucks one of the cigarillos from the case and guides it like a missile in between the vee of her fingers. "Mooch," he mutters under his breath. He's about to try to flag down the nearest waitress when something Colette says catches his attention, causing him to swivel in his seat so he can face her. "Freaks? What do you mean, 'freaks'?" The question is a pointed one, but there's nothing offended about his tone. If anything, he sounds curious. "The Evolved?"

Straining a sigh, Colette nodded and let her hands come to rest on her knees as she bends in to take another slurp of her milkshake while Judah speaks. Once she hears what the man says, though, her eyes upturn to him and she casually nods, "Yeah, like the one that killed everybody and was the bomb. Like all of the other whackjobs that run around the city blowing things up and makin' it hard for all of us to live without worrying about getting killed." Colette speaks as if she had heard this all somewhere, a reiterative tone of voice, "That's what the folks who're running the Orphanage were talking about the other day when they were watching the news. A couple of kids got taken away yesterday too — Everyone says they got placed in foster homes, but I know better, I know they were freaks and they got shipped off somewhere before they could hurt anyone." Her arms fold across her chest, and she stares down at her milkshake, "It's not their fault they're born that way, or whatever, but they can't just walk around the streets like that. Somebody's gonna get hurt, I mean, look at what they're doing already." Lots of 'theys' and 'thems', she iss dehumanizing them like the media, like she has heard over and over again. "S'just how things are, I guess."

The dehumanising certainly isn't something that Kay isn't used to. Lord knows she has to step back and look at things from a different perspective, but… she's just a kid! It shocks her to hear it from someone so young. But then again, everybody was changed by the bomb. That sounds kind of personal. "Did you see any of them use an ability? That'll help narrow things down, if we know what they can do. Think, Colette. Did you see anything strange?"

"If think if she'd seen something like that, she would have brought it up by now." Judah snaps the cigarette tin shut. He must not be interested in smoking, after all. Folding his hands, he rests them on the top of the table and fixes Colette with an even stare. At this point, it doesn't matter whether or not Colette provides them with any useful information related to the bombing; she's indoors, out of the rain, and that's really all that's important to him.

She deflates when presented with the burden of proof, even if Demsky had dismissed the question, "No…" she answers. Colette's shoulders roll forward and she leans in to take an appraising look at her milkshake. "No, I didn't see them do anything weird. They looked hyper, but…" She shakes her head, slowly, "I know it was them though, nobody else has a reason to blow up the city, to do stupid stuff like that. We're all just trying to make it, trying to live, and they're just causing more trouble…" She's beginning to become frustrated, this isn't just about the Evolved anymore, "Haven't they done enough damage already?" It most assuredly isn't.

"I'm sorry…" She mumbles after a moment, bringing her hands up to her face, using the heels of her palms to rub at her eyes before she turns to look out the window at the drizzling rain. "I ah, I — I just — I'm sorry." She doesn't have a way to explain her foul mood, maybe she doesn't need one, but it feels warranted. "I'll do whatever you think'll help, but I just don't know how much use I'll be." From the sounds of it, she doesn't sound like she's accustomed to being useful at all. It's something of a piteous situation.

So much for the smoke. It's slid into a jacket pocket for later. Kaydence Lee, to her credit, manages to keep the pity out of her features. "You're a very brave girl. Most people wouldn't come forward at all. You've been a great help with what you've given us already. Isn't that right, Demsky?" The other detective's knee gets smacked silently under the table. Pretend you have some empathy and reassure the kid, Jude.

Colette's brows raise at the compliment, and she looks up to Kaydence with a puzzled expression, "I — " Her words hitch for a moment as she gives a small shrug of her shoulders, "I was just, you know, worried… and stuff." She began to mumble, color coming to her cheeks at the idea that she had done something worthwhile. "I figured I was just being annoying by coming down here, bothering you both. I'm sort've always in the way, so…" Her voice trailed off, eyes shifting to look towards the window, it was still raining outside.

"Nonsense," Kay insists. She slides a card across the table to the girl. "Now you have a matching pair. That's got my direct line on there. You can call either of us. Any time, day or night. Okay?" She smiles genuinely, resisting the urge to reach over to squeeze Colette's hand. That would be an invasion of personal space. Colette isn't one of her girls.

Beneath the diner table, Judah tenderly rubs his leg where Kaydence smacked it and shoots her a reproachful look as if to ask, "Was that really necessary?" He sighs, nodding along with everything his partner says. "Day or night," he echoes, "and not just if you remember something about the crime scene. If you need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to call. You might not believe me when I say this, but it's not like we have anything better to do than pick up."

Colette grimaces, turning her head away as she nods. Her eyes shift to the side, to look at the card, but she ends up having to turn her head due to the lack of her peripheral vision on that side. One hand reaches out from below the table, sliding the card with two fingers towards the edge before she picks it up and flips it around, looking at the name and number on it. A faint smile crosses Colette's lips, and she looks from Kaydence to Judah, "In that case," She begins after hearing Judah's request, "Do, um… you think I could get a ride back to the Orphanage?" The rain came down harder outside, and Colette shifted her gaze sidelong to it and then back again. "I ah, I don't have any money for a cab." She had forgotten all about the profiling sketch.

Kay sighs heavily at Judah's admission. "It's true. We really don't have anything better to do than to pick up. It spices things up a bit." Unless she's got her daughter at home. But those days are few and far between. "Did you think we were going to let you walk? No way. Not even if you had asked." She grins. "Did you want to grab a burger or something? We wouldn't want to return you with an empty stomach." Somehow, Kay's been subtly dwindling down her milkshake between assurances and kind words. It's almost gone already.

"It wouldn't hurt to order something else while we wait for the rain to let up," Judah suggests. It would hurt if they didn't, because Kaydence would probably punch him — or worse. "Besides," he says, tapping the very tip of his finger against a nearby menu, "you haven't lived until you've tried a Jiffy Burger."

"Nah, I've got some leftover Chinese." A warm smile immediately spreads on Colette's face, "My friend picked it up for me…" Her smile twisted, turning a bit crooked, "Well, er, friend might be overstating it a bit, but…" The young girl reached down to the paper bag she had been kicking for most of the evening, pulling it up and settling it down on the bench seat next to her. "She's really weird, but…" That smile crosses her face again, "Anyway, uh, y-yeah, if you can take me back that'd be nice. I mean, I'm not in a big hurry to get back there… ever, but I probably should before they call your office and say that I'm breaking curfew or something." She was, long before she showed up at the bombing site, but that was besides her point. Eventually though, Colette cracks a smile and looks back to the paper bag, "I… I guess I could save it for lunch tomorrow…" Her mis-matched eyes drift up to look at Detective Demsky, "I guess I'm a sucker for free food anyway, right?" She clicks her tongue and winks at the detective with her blinded eye, leaning forward to pull her milkshake closer with both hands. "Thanks, by the way, for listening to me. You're the first adults — 'cept for my sister — who ever have."

"Hey, think nothing of it. If you ever need someone to just listen to you, give me a call. As long as I'm not wrapped up in official business, I'll be there for you. Or I'll call you right back when I do have the time." Now, Kay reaches to squeeze Colette's hand gently. "Any time."

Her hand snakes back across the table immediately upon the contact, fingers curling closed at her chest. Colette obviously didn't realize she was doing it until it was already done, and her eyes immediately widen, "S-sorry I — " This really isn't something she can explain, let alone wants to. "T-thanks, really. It… it means a lot, even if you're just doing your jobs." She covered the hand Kaydence touched with her own, then slowly settled both her hands down in her lap, forcing a smile as she tried to overlook her sudden reaction, "So, detective Demsky — " She manages to flash a convincing enough smile, "I think I'm going to test the limits of your generosity!" With that, Colette reaches for the menu, ignoring the sound of the rain pattering against the window beside her. It was good enough, and that's what mattered.


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August 27th: Return to the Scene of the Crime
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August 28th: Bullet in the Brainpan
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