Partners In Crime Fighting

Log Archive » Logs for January 2009 » Partners In Crime Fighting

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Scene Title	Partners in Crime… fighting?
Synopsis	Elisabeth Harrison and Darius Johnson meet up for the first time — a partnership made in heaven? Or maybe, for some, in hell.
Date	January 5, 2008

One Police Plaza, NYPD Headquarters

The conference room-turned-squad room for SCOUT is packed with desks. It's a luxury to have a room of their own, so no one gets to complain that the desks are practically on top of one another. Each has a requisite computer and phone, some buried under more detritus than others. White boards cover the walls, lists of suspects and contacts from previous operations (what few there are) still written up there in dry-erase ink. The place still smells like a police squad room, though, no doubt about it.

After word came down that she's getting a new partner, Elisabeth had to decide to start as she means to go on. Which is to say, she dressed in her business clothes, not her black uniform, and she even brought baked goods! Which will not be the norm, but you know… it's always nice to welcome a new partner with a smile, right? She hopes to GOD she can get along with the new guy. She's sitting in the meeting room that SCOUT uses for a squad room, the place littered with desks, computers, phones, and white boards. She's working on one of the computers, watching the door, curious about what her new partner will look like. Will just gave her a name, nothing else.

Tall, dark, and GQ is the appearance of her new partner. Of course, appearances can be deceiving and he does have a smile on his face as he steps in. The smile wanes in favor of an efficient sweep of his eyes and Darius soon settles on Elisabeth as being the only other person in the room just now. Presently, he's dressed in black slacks and a dark purple knit longsleeve that's unbuttoned at the collar and first button to reveal the beginning of his physique. Over this, he wears a grey trenchcoat and a grey fedora is tucked under his left arm. His badge is visible at his right hip attached to his belt but no gun is obvious as yet. "Morning." He offers pleasantly enough. "Darius Johnson." He's not met her yet so introductions are in order, along with an extended right hand.

Elisabeth gets up as soon as he steps through the door, her smile both sincere and easy. The blue-eyed blonde is about 5'9 due to the two-inch heels on her boots, and she's wearing black pants that on second look are obviously jeans and a cranberry V-necked blouse. Her gun's on her belt with her badge. "Elisabeth Harrison… Liz," she says as she steps forward and puts her hand into his. "Pleased to meet you, Darius. Welcome to Purgatory," she says with a wink.

Darius relaxes from the type a personality advance to a more at east poise as he gives her hand a firm, but not crushing, shake. "Liz already? Rules out mistake by Beth, I guess." He returns the wink and releases her hand. "I'm so used to people barking Johnson at me, that I'll answer to that.. but only if you want me aiming my gun at something. Fair warning. Useful in a pinch, maybe." A tilt of his head and he grows studious. "I have to ask. Purgatory. Now I've already gotten the tour here so are you telling me that sweet smile of yours is just the illusion to cover impending pain?"

Elisabeth laughs at him, liking both his attitude and his sense of humor. Always a good sign when you meet your new partner for the first time. She gives him a good handshake, no wimpy girl-stuff. "Well… the sweet smile - and the baked goods! - show up periodically, but I warn ahead of time that I have a temper, that I'm more than a little opinionated, and that you better duck and cover if Will Harvard and I get into it," she says around a chuckle. "But I was referring to the fact that clearly in a past life we did something mortally wrong to be fielding calls about "possible" Evolved criminal activity. Eighty percent of the calls I've taken are definitely NOT Evolved activity. And I hate phone detail."

Darius smirks. "Its only fair I should warn you in return. I don't do bullshit. Play it straight with me and I'll play it straight with you. I almost turned him down. Can't believe he came by on Christmas day of all things to try and recruit me." He glances towards Will's office and gives a shake of the head. "I also have the rather unpopular opinion of thinking Linderman needs my size thirteen shoved up his ass. I don't bake but I'm fair at the grill. Pavlov, Porterhouse, and I have an understanding. Babyback ribs? Aww yeah." He frowns a little. "Damnit, now you got me thinking about lunch. Anyway, I worked EOD in Iraq for four years. I can handle explosive." The frown turns to a grin.

Elisabeth chuckles. "Christmas Day, huh? That's a bit bold, even for Will." And then she pauses and considers. "No… no, it's really not. The only true shock is that his brother and sister didn't sit on him and keep him home." She shrugs easily, gesturing him to come on over and sit a spell with her hand. "Muffins in the box," she tells him. "Homemade — I did a lot of cooking last week. Took a bullet the day Rickham had his tour through, and wound up with IA up my ass for a friendly fire incident at the same time. Didn't have much to do." She eyes him thoughtfully and then smiles. "You and I are gonna get along real good — I know Will likes to help enforce the Federal law, asking people for their papers, but I don't play that shit. I assume anyone using powers in public is smart enough to have their papers cuz it'd be stupid to use 'em in public otherwise. Other than that, I play it all by ear. So what made you say yes?" she asks curiously as she sits down.

Darius looks to the box and picks it up on his way to a chair. "Figured I'd do more good here than by him telling to shove the stick up his ass a little further and going back to patrol or eod. To be honest, I'm still wondering about it. The words 'officer discretion' don't seem to exist in his vocabulary. I'm a fucking marine and I'm not half the mad dog as he seems to be about 'law'. I could be wrong." He shrugs, opens the box and gives the muffins a vaguely impressed look. "Mostly, I just don't want to see peoples' civil rights get stepped on along the way. Not that the bureaucrats seem concerned about those these days."

Elisabeth grins, and there's an unholy glee to the expression. "Oh, Will's gonna be up Shit Creek with no paddle when he figures out that partnering us up means there are TWO of us on his case." She laughs, clearly LOVING the idea. "Darius, I think you're gonna be the best partner I ever had." She swivels her chair back and forth a couple times, literally chortling with evil amusement. "So tell me… are you Evolved, and if so whatcha got under the hood?"

Darius gives her a sidelong glance, a bemused expression on his face. "Think so?" There's almost a surgical precision with the way he cuts a muffin in half with a pass of his hand as though he were holding a knife. Only he isn't. He offers her half the muffin. "Force fields. Took a reprimand not long ago for failing to register. I could have lied and said I didn't know but I wanted the precedent so I could challenge it in court." He shrugs. "Still looking to find a lawyer to take the case."

Elisabeth merely nods to his 'think so?' question and then shrugs a little. "Well, if you find one, lemme know. I think you'd have a better case than I would. I went in "voluntarily"," she gives him air quotes, "only because I wanted back on the force and figured if I got nailed for not registering, I've heard some REALLY scary things about what HomeSec does to involuntary ones. Another cop I know was tortured when his powers came out on the job." She grimaces and shrugs a little. "I was a hostage negotiator before I took two years' leave after the Bomb." She grins a little. "They call what I do 'audiokinesis' or some such thing. Basically it means…. I control sound. I can enhance my voice to a form of hypnotic suggestion — which came in handy as a hostage negotiator, I'll tell you — and I can do some other things more physical… knock stuff over, make people puke, things like that."

"I think they knew the intimidation crap wouldn't take with me." Darius returns rather deadpan. "I mean for fuck sake we were fighting terrorists and got training in how to thwart interrogations and torture. Nevermind that they were free to hit me if they wanted a broken hand." He grins. "So yeah, there was a lot of posturing across the table. This that and the other. I could go back to work for the force and be a 'good boy' or 'dot dot dot'. I played nice. Figure they can take their spook nonsense and shove it up their butt. I've done the urban survival gig. New York? Hell of a lot easier to get lost in this city than they give folk credit for."

Elisabeth chuckles softly, her eyes on him thoughtful. He's actually got a skill set that she was very recently advocating for a certain other group, but it's a bit too early to raise that kind of thought with him. She's barely met him. "So you looking forward to our first shift today? You do realize it's a whole lot less street work than you're used to, right?"

Darius shrugs gamely. "It is what it is." He takes a bite of the muffin and looks down at it. "Damn woman. What the hell are you doing in police work?" Warily, he closes the box and moves the muffins away from him like they're live grenades. The one in his hand is quite enough.