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“Oh wow Rob is this where you work?” Maxon gasped the second he came in through the doors. “I didn’t expect it to be so small, we have holding cells where I work and- oh, well, I’m not technically supposed to visit them the lieutenants like to take care of that so it’s none of my business but y’know I think they’re bigger than these cells,” his voice was already quite loud, and Rob tried to hush him. Not because he minded the noise, but because some of the people around here really didn’t like it when strangers criticised them.
He didn’t think anyone would try and start trouble with Maxon if he stayed close to him, but then again Maxon was a giant of a man and he doubted anyone would willingly start a fight with him.
“Yeah, it’s not the best.” Even he knew that, but he didn’t want to talk about officer stuff. Not only did he sort of hate his job but his cousin could only visit him so many times a year and he wanted to talk about other things. Fortunately it was pretty easy to change topics with him. “So, are you excited for today?” He asked, and Maxon nodded.
“Yeah! You know I’ve never been to a police station before of course because you know, I don’t have a legal identity,” he laughed. “So I sure hope no one tries to book me that would make it hard to explain!” He laughed a little too loud.
“Shh, we don’t want anything thinking you’ve committed a crime,” he chuckled, pulling up an extra seat at his desk. “Let me just run some files and then we can find something to do for lunch,” he explained.
Maxon shook his head. “Oh well I have committed crimes, sometimes at PEIP you just sorta have to like this one time I was undercover and this one man-“
“Maybe you should tell me that story at lunch, Max!” He recommended. He didn’t want his coworkers to think he was booking a criminal, no, Maxon was here today because the office had organised a sort of family day. Mostly for parents to bring in their children and show them the ropes - the commissioner loved a good public image around the community but Rob didn’t really want to be involved in the fuss.
For him it wasn’t about good press, he didn’t care what happened honestly when he was planning on quitting soon, but it did mean that Maxon could come to work with him for one or two hours so they had more time to hang out, but Rob thought Maxon would probably wouldn’t enjoy it too much. There was a bit too much hustle and bustle around here for someone who wasn’t used to it so he was only staying for lunch.
“Oh, hey,” Doug came down to their table across from Rob, sort of throwing themself down in the chair and letting it spin before catching the ground with their boot to face the chair back to Rob. “Brought in your cousin?” They inquired, giving Maxon a wave. “I didn’t think family day would be your thing.”
Rob shrugged. “What about you? Didn’t bring anyone?”
They shook their head, sparing a quick glance over their shoulder at the front doors before turning back. “Well I’ve only really got a sort of distant cousin, and she is not friends with the law,” Doug snorted but the attempt at breaking the tension that had suddenly appeared seemed forced.
It even caught Maxon’s attention and he looked up from the notepad he was scribbling on to watch Doug.
“The rest of my family lives ages away and I probably wouldn’t want them here anyways,” Doug clicked their tongue, glancing over their shoulder again. “Have you seen Sam today?”
“Ah well he’s in a bad mood,” Rob answered with a huff. “He hates it when the office gets full. He even wanted to cancel on Charlotte but something about their therapist came up so,” he shrugged, turning back to work on his files so he could hurry up and take Maxon out for lunch.
“But she’s still coming right?” Doug interrupted, the questioning high rise of their tone not really starting in the right place like they had put it there purposely.
Rob nodded. “Yeah, still coming. Just on her lunch break though. CCRP stuff.”
“Oh that’s cool, cool,” Doug nodded, staring at their computer.
It allowed Rob a moment to work again, and Maxon was rather quiet now too.
His head was tilted down to continue scribbling away at his notepad so he figured he was just doodling.
“Hey, I’m Maxon,” he reached his long hand across the table to shake.
Doug shook his hand. “Yeah, I know,” the answered, for some reason the words were getting caught in their throat. Even Rob noticed they were sounding a little funny and they had been shaking hands for about ten seconds before Maxon pulled back. “Are you waiting for Charlotte?” He inquired.
Doug let out a loud laugh. “What? Why are you saying that? I’m just working, doing my work,” they chuckled, shaking their head. “Why what’re you up to? Drawing? Are you here for lunch?”
Maxon nodded. “Yeah I am. We’re gonna go down to the Lakeside Mall,” he narrated, waiting for Doug to respond but they had stolen another glance over their shoulder.
“Oh hey, I’ve got to go let Charlotte in,” Doug answered instead as they caught the lady at the office doors, turning around in their chair and hurrying off.
The back of their sentence had smacked into the front of their sentence so it had all come out very rushed. Maybe Doug was sick today? That wasn’t very usual of them. Perhaps all the people around the office today were just extra stressful to them.
“That’s funny,” Maxon started.
“Sorry, Max. I think they’re just in a rush.”
“Yeah, I think they’re in love,” he replied back equally nonchalantly, hand still working the pen moving frantically about on the paper.
“No,” Rob chuckled. “What do you mean?” That was Sam’s wife. If anything, maybe Doug was just worried Sam would be angry at her today, and that was a valid worry for Doug to have. They worried about a lot of things when it came to keeping people happy. They would always make sure Charlotte got safely to Sam when Sam didn’t come to get the office doors himself. Perhaps they were worried about going to see Sam or something.
“Oh, well I was just doing some undercover work just now,” he began, which was not what he expected on Maxon’s day off. “And they just seemed excited to see her.”
Rob laughed to amuse Maxon. “What did you find?” He asked. Maxon wasn’t always a genius at social cues, why would Doug be in love with Charlotte?
“Well, I’ve been watching them just now and they weren’t doing any work at their computer so I think they were busy thinking,” Maxon tweaked at the shades he always wore as he said that. “They were just staring at their screen they weren’t even typing,” he chuckled like it was funny. “And their hands were really sweaty,” he added as he wiped down the hand he had shook with on his pants. “Also do they always speak like that? Because that’s how it sounds when we interrogate people and they’re trying not to seem guilty, and Xander says you can tell a lot about the way they talk.”
Rob was actually a little concerned about how in-depth Maxon had just been working in the span of five minutes sitting at a desk. Although he did suppose that was pretty normal from what he had heard about PEIP.
“Also, did you see how fast they just took off?” He shrugged, returning to his paper.
“Oh well,” Rob turned in his chair to look at Maxon. “They probably didn’t want to keep her waiting. Sometimes people wait at those doors for a long time before they get buzzed in by their host.
“Oh well. Maybe I’m just guessing. Would be weird if they were in love right? Haha. It’s funny because my General talks about love all the time and the strength of the human heart and so it’s not like we don’t learn that sorta stuff when we’re cadets but it’s way too far a shot haha, maybe they’re sick!”
“Hah. Yeah. That would be funny.” He lifted his eyes up from his desk though to watch as Doug let Charlotte in, tilting their head in the direction of Sam’s office.
And he noticed Maxon was back to watching too.
“Hey, I’ll be right back!” He said, standing up.
“Oh, Maxon. We were about to go get lunch,” Rob gestured at his screen. “Wouldn’t you like-“
“We can still go after!” He exclaimed. “I’ll be quick, but everyone back at PEIP is gonna love this story!”
—————————————————
Under the very cleverly created guise of ‘fetching coffee’ Maxon had found the perfect lookout point.
No one questioned what he was doing at the coffee machine if he was making a cup or having a drink, no one had time to bother him when the office was this full anyways!
And besides, just as he had suspected here came Doug, one arm out hovering around Charlotte to make sure no one else in the busy office bumped into her.
“Here, would you like some coffee first? Or a drink?” Doug was asking. “Or, whatever you want miss Charlotte, I can probably sort something out for you.”
“Oh, just a coffee is just fine!” Charlotte laughed, a hand to her chest. “Is Sam in?”
Doug nodded as they grabbed a cup, Maxon stepped to the side to free up the machine, keeping their back to their cousin’s coworker so they didn’t notice him although it seemed Doug was fairly distracted as it was.
“How do you like your coffee?” They asked first. “Sam is in,” they confirmed. “I’ll walk you to his office. I was just wondering if you were thirsty.”
“Oh just black will do,” Charlotte stood besides Doug in case for some reason they needed help. Maxon supposed she didn’t want to be a bother.
“Oh great. That’s good. We don’t really have much in the way of fancy coffee,” they chuckled, tapping a foot when the machine didn’t start up right away.
Maxon took a sip of the water he had grabbed from the cooler, trying not to seem like he was loitering as he listened in.
“So, he invited you over for the lunch thing yeah?” Doug asked.
Charlotte gave a hesitant nod. “Oh yes, well-“ she stopped herself. “I won’t bother you with the details but yes.”
“Oh it wouldn’t be a bother to me, it’s not a bother I mean I’d love to listen! What would be a bother with you right?” They stammered, and even Maxon winced.
Charlotte just giggled though. “Oh well that’s lovely of you to say Officer.”
“Uh, here,” Doug handed her their cup. “It might be a bit hot so let’s wait for it to cool down right?” They suggested, and Charlotte nodded to oblige.
Hmm, Maxon was thoughtful as he took another sip of his drink. Procrastination at its finest, Doug.
Sometimes Xander would pretend his drink was too hot to finish when he was put in charge of a cadet non-com roll.
He recognised this trick well, although he was curious as to what that meant. Was Doug putting off seeing Sam or putting off leaving Charlotte? Very curious, Doug.
“Uh, you didn’t have any trouble getting here did you?” Doug asked.
Charlotte swallowed her sip, wiping her lips. “Oh no the traffic is fine today, Doug.”
“Oh, that’s great. Was- is everything fine at work too?”
Charlotte laughed again at the anxious questions. “Oh of course. I’m never too busy, I don’t like to stress myself out because sometimes the stress makes me sick. You don’t have to worry!”
“Haha, oh yeah because you don’t have a very good immune system right?” Doug was quick to jump in.
It seemed to frighten Charlotte at first that Doug had brought that up.
“Oh, I just- Sam’s mentioned it.”
“Oh, he has?” Charlotte cooed, holding a hand to her heart again. “Well, that’s nice of to remember, but I wouldn’t want you worrying about me Officer.”
“Oh well I do! Because you know I’m an officer it’s sort of my job to worry you know? Not just specifically about you that’d be a little weird,” Doug tried to lean up against the wall but couldn’t quite pull it off when they had a cup of coffee in their hands.
Doug opened their mouth to speak again when a door flew open at the other end of the office. “Hey, Doug, get your ass over here will you?” He assumed that was chief Sam everyone had been talking about.
“Oh, shit. Sorry, shoot, let’s get you over to him right?”
Maxon hightailed it back to Rob’s desk before Doug could return and notice he was ever missing.
“I have made some very interesting observations,” he reported.
Rob gave him a small smile. “That’s great Max, how about we talk about them at lunch?” He had just finished saying as Doug slipped back into their seat, returning to their work.
“Oh, yeah! Let’s go,” he stood back up, and after Rob signed off for lunch they headed down the street.
“So, do you wanna hear what I’ve found?” He asked excitedly.
Rob nodded with a snicker, pulling on a hoodie over his uniform. “Maybe that undercover espionage ability of yours is a little too intense.” But at least he was having fun.
———————————————————
By three, most of the office had emptied out of its extra visitors. Doug was glad that the noise had gone down, today had been a little tense and they didn’t appreciate Sam getting on their back about spending too much time at the coffee machine when he couldn’t even show his wife the basic decency of opening the god damn door for her.
The office had halved its size, and Doug was just relishing in the silence for once. Most of the desk workers were filling out papers sleepily, it was a Friday and their shifts were about an out from over.
The only real noise was the hum of the printer and the sighs from officers starting on another stack of paper work.
That’s why when they heard footsteps they looked right up, watching as Charlotte trailed from Sam’s office alone towards the door.
Doug got up from their seat to catch up with her, catching her in the lobby and sticking out a hand. “Charlotte!” They greeted her.
“Oh! Officer Doug!” Charlotte stopped in her tracks, turning to face them.
Doug didn’t know what they were holding a hand out for, but at least Charlotte shook it. “I hope it wasn’t too busy at the office for you today, you know it’s not usually like this.”
“Oh well it was a bit hectic wasn’t it?” She gave Doug a sympathetic look. “I hope you could still get your work done.”
Doug nodded up and down. “Yes I did don’t worry about me, Sam wasn’t being a pain was he? He’s been in such a bad mood today.”
“Oh well you know,” she shrugged and didn’t answer. “Sam will be Sam, he gets a little annoyed when he can’t work.”
Doug hoped he hadn’t caused Charlotte any trouble. “Oh, well. I hope he didn’t cause you any trouble.”
Charlotte let out a proper laugh, and Doug’s hand went to fiddling with the radio on their breast pocket and the wires attached, almost tapping a hand to their chest to ask it to stop racing.
“Thank you, Officer Doug,” she smiled.
“Oh, for what?” Doug shook their head to deny they had ever done anything. “What?”
“Well I knew Sam was busy today, and I was worried I’d be on my own if I came in today!” She explained. “Thank you for taking a second to help me out when you must’ve been so busy today!” She gasped like the idea still shocked her, and she even patted a hand to Doug’s shoulder apologetically.
Doug’s hands flew to their pockets, their hands bunching up in fists as they chuckled. “Oh, it’s nothing, it didn’t waste my time,” they promised with a nod to match.
“I’m happy to hear that, Doug,” she smiled, opening up the office door to the street. “I hope you have a good evening tonight, Officer, you deserve it after a busy day!”
Doug bit down on their tongue so they didn’t respond too extra or too loudly. “Yes,” they settled on. “You too, Charlotte.”