The Thin Blue Line

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Scene Title	The Thin Blue Line
Synopsis	Will reminds Liz of why they were friends in the first place — he's not always a jerk!
Date	January 5, 2009

Police Precinct, Capt. William Harvard's Office

"Confirm." Comes the irritated tone, "Confirm!" A little louder. And then an exasperated sigh. "Representative…" A beat. "Representative!"

Such are the sounds that emit from Captain Harvard's office. His secretary will go ahead and wave anyone who comes by in, as he has not expressed wishes to not be disturbed. Though disturbed he is. By an automated phone service. Dressed sharply, a black suit with a blue tie the man waits rather impatiently in his large office chair behind the desk, his eyes practically rolling out of his head. "Lost baggage." He says angrily.

Elisabeth is working in the squad room while her new partner gets his paperwork all sorted out with Personnel. When she hears Will hollering at the phone, she pauses what she's doing, and then she moves to get up and head for his door with quick, sympathetic grin at his receptionist. She's dressed semi-casually, a pair of pressed black jeans, black boots with two-inch heels that bring her height to about 5'9", a cranberry-red V-necked blouse, her gun and badge both clipped to her belt. She leans a shoulder on his doorjamb and cants her head sideways. "Always sucks," she agrees. "Maybe the automated thing is broken," she offers.

The phone is slammed down as he looks up to Elisabeth, his glare continuing on for a moment before it gradually fades. A smile albeit weary one creases up on his lips. "Liz." He intones gently, gesturing with his hand for her to enter. "Can I do something for you?"

"You look tired," Liz offers quietly, moving to enter and close the door behind her. "Just wanted to mention Darius Johnson came in this morning. Nice guy. Just curious about the fact that you actually approached him, given our argument not that long ago." She's wondering, clearly, how well William vetted him. "I think he's going to make a good partner," she offers.

"You two will get along famously." William comments dryly, leaning back in his chair. He does not acknowledge the statement about how tired he looks. "You can both not do your jobs together." He mutters, without grinning. He might be joking though he doesn't fully let on whether or not he is. He gives a roll of his shoulders. "He is Evolved. We need all the Evolved we can get on SCOUT. Maybe if someone like him was at the last raid…" He trails off, implying the rest.

Elisabeth merely smirks at him. "Hey, now… we're going to do our jobs. And we're gonna totally rock at doing 'em!" She wrinkles her nose and sticks out her tongue at him. And then he gets more serious. "Yeah…. his forcefield thing could have made a difference," she agrees quietly. "So I wanted to update you on two cases that I've got on my desk. You got a minute?"

"Sure you are." The Captain replies, inclining his head a little bit as if conceding something. "Yeah. Give it to me." William states, spinning on his chair to face her fully and give her his undivided attention.

Elisabeth nods. "I've got a former student whose case I'm continuing to follow for now. He's got an appointment to register 'voluntarily', but the case could be pretty precedent-setting for all of us. The kid's father was beating the shit out of him when the uniforms busted in." Will would have already had this on his desk because Liz was called in to negotiate the situation. "In the fray, kid got gun, held dad and a rookie hostage for a few hours. Kid's been remanded to Juvenile Hall, and dad's not even had assault charges or child abuse charges pressed. When the boy's lawyer gets done, there's going to be a *lot* of scrutiny on the PD about why the father wasn't booked at the same time the kid was. So I thought I'd flag that for your attention because whatever comes of it is going to potentially alter the way we deal with some things too."

"Did he use his ability on the police, or his father?" William asks inquisitively, tilting his head back as he surveys the woman across the desk. His arms fold across his chest as he watches her relatively quietly.

Elisabeth shakes her head. "Not that I can tell from the investigation. The kid's ability is to change the colors of things like fabric and walls. I'd call it a Tier 0 threat level, completely non-aggressive. The kid himself might be aggressive, but his power is not a combat-related one in any way. The father is clearly and vocally anti-Evolved. Figuring out what happened when they went through that door is proving to be a bit harder. The two cops in question have their union reps in on this, so I'm hitting the Blue Brick Wall. But I'll get to the bottom of it."

An irritated 'tsk' is given, the Captain shakes his head. "This is a persistent problem. Families outing Evolved children." A little sigh is given as the man's eyes roll around the room. "No wonder kids don't register." He gives a nod and refocuses on Elisabeth. "Right, well, make sure they are dealt with accordingly. What's the other case?"

There's a faint smirk when he says that, and Elisabeth murmurs, "Yeah… gotta wonder why, when we have to put up with harassment and worse from our own friends and co-workers, we don't run and jump in the streets hollering 'look, I have a power!'" She sounds a little bitter… coming back has been far harder than she expected. "The second case is a possible Evolved eruption. I'm waiting on the arson squad to come back with some better information for me first… like whether there was anything more mundane going on. A tenement got torched a few nights ago, and the witnesses were all talking about one of the people in the building always complaining it was cold. I'm still actively looking for the guy, but if the arson team comes back with a mundane explanation, I'm probably going to drop it to the back burner for other cases coming up."

William humms softly, bringing one finger to his lips. Though he can't help but smirk at her bitter assessment. Letting the finger tap his lips three times he brings it away. "Sounds good, Harrison. Great work." He says without excessive enthusiasm. He watches her for a moment before saying, much softer than his voice was before. "How are you?" His tone could most aptly be described as: sensitive.

There's a pause, and Elisabeth says, "I'm fine." She's not one to complain very much. At least, not to her bosses. Being a woman in this job is tough enough — she's just having to start back at square one, kicking asses and taking names. "It's just been… a big adjustment to being back."

William pushes the chair back from the desk for a moment. Bringing up one leg he places the shoe on the opposite knee. "Liz. If you want to talk.." He gestures to the chairs in his room. "You know I'm always here. I was your friend before I was your boss."

Elisabeth forces a faint smile for him. "Yeah, I know that. And if anything happens that either my friend *or* my boss can do something about, I'll be sure to let you know about it." She heaves a sigh. "I went through their bullshit the first time around, and I'll get through it this time too. Hell… it's almost better now. Only a couple of them have decided I slept with you to get on the team," she says with a faint smile. "The rest are just pissed that I'm female, Evolved, and caught the plum 'kick the asses of the Evolved out there' assignment after two years off the force. You realize that the boys in blue have decided that we are, at the same time, 'those Evolved cops who think they're above themselves' and targets of envy because we take all the high-profile cases." She shakes her head. "I forgot what big babies cops are."

"I wish." William says with a huff, once again it's not blatant whether or not he is joking. He goes to stand up out of his chair, tucking his thumbs into his belts. "Maybe we are above ourselves." He gives a little shrug. "We certainly have more to answer for when we fail." When, not if. "Don't let them get to you, Liz." He says gently, making his way around his desk slowly.

"I won't, believe me," Elisabeth replies firmly. "As long as I'm doing the job I was hired for, they can eat their hearts out." She looks at him. "I dare any of 'em to face off against Sylar. And I dare them to step up and go out there with us. None of the people running their mouths have the courage that the guys on the squad two weeks ago had. They don't deserve their badges."

"That's pretty harsh." William comments lightly, going to sit on the front of his desk. His arms folded over his chest easily as he eyes her. "Well you sound pretty invulnerable. Anything I can do to help Liz?"

Elisabeth shakes her head, her expression easing. "Not as harsh as I'd like to be to some of them," she comments, shoving her hands into her pants pockets. "I'm fine, Will. Really. But I appreciate that you asked." She grins. "Hey, c'mon… I gotta live up to Damaris's rep around here. You can't go jumping into my fights."