detective batista.

He suppressed his chuckle as he leaned against the wall; intentionally close to her person. His focus seemed to fall to her hand - her actions - becoming distracted for mere seconds before his eyes pulled back up to her own. "You surprise me." he lifts his hand, just to bring his thumb closer to the corner of her mouth, gently brushing away a stray crumb she had missed. He smiles, dropping his hand just to cross them both over his chest. "Heard my dad let you go on vacation." meaning that Harold Donovan had suspended her for a bit; Nate was just being funny about it.

Abi locked eyes with him for a moment when his thumb met her lips, and her eyes narrowed just a little, matched with a twitch of her mouth into a smirk. If she knew Nate at all, she knew where this was going. He wouldn't be having nearly as much fun with this if he was actually talking about something she'd find funny. "Oh, that!" Clearly-faked surprise coloured her tone. "Very thoughtful of him, you know. Good guy, your dad." There was no small amount of sarcasm in her words. "He's even paying me while I'm off." She raised her brows at him, waiting for the next subtle jab, and folded the rest of her donut back into its crinkly wax paper bag.

with: @abibatista where: downtown

Abril had been shoving a donut into her mouth one second, and the next she was looking at Nate, standing somewhere she hadn't been just two chews ago. She was not normally one to be taken off guard, but she had been off her game. For reasons likely to soon be discussed.

Will was glad she was talking to someone at least and would accept help somewhere. He knew better than to push her on it but that didn't mean he'd stop checking in to make sure she was good. Everyone needed someone to remind them they didn't have to have it all together all the time. Especially now that she was forging so much of this path on her own, without her father's guidance. "Well then let's do something not boring. Go somewhere, anywhere you want. Plane, train, helicopter, you name it. Unless you want me to like..beat someone up just so you can arrest me which...I'm usually a pacifist but for you? I'd make an exception for you," he added with a soft laugh. "Seriously though, when's the last time you did something just to have a good fucking time? We could go away for like..three days and be whoever we wanna be." He wasn't totally sure she'd go for it but he was still gonna try. Plus it fit into his plan to be more spontaneous. Routine had started to bore him a bit as well. More than it used to. "Yeah, basically. You know, as much as I'm sure that would be true, I'm not confident my dancing will inspire as much lust as one would like. I think I still have some ways to go. I'm working on it," he admitted with a smirk before he took out his phone. "So, where am I buying us tickets to?"

The offer took her off guard. Part of her wanted to say fuck it, and agree --she had near-infinite vacation time. She never took time off, for anything. "You know I'm a workaholic," she offered, a gentle way of saying no. At least for now. "So, nowhere right now. But I'll be saving a few of my vacation days with your name on them, and I will be cashing in. Eventually. When you least expect it." She added that last bit with a mischievous smirk. "And then, we'll go to..." She hummed in thought. "Bali? Ever been?"

Theo gazed at the woman, his expression one of utter confusion as if her words were tangled in some cryptic dialect. "What do you mean? I just explained it," he declared, his voice a blend of astonishment and irritation. "I took the zebra, fed it some hay - or whatever the fuck it is that zebra's eat - and then I took it downtown to the pet spa, where he is with my goat getting pampered. What's so hard to understand about that?" He folded his arms defensively, settling back against the unyielding contours of the plastic chair that the detective had relegated him to. "I haven't committed any crimes, here. Well, I mean, I guess I did technically, but if you saw how they treated animals in zoos, you'd completely understand. Ralph is way happier with me than being confined by some bars where people gawk at him all day." He paused for a moment. "Ralph. That is what I named him."

She let out a sigh that only mildly gave away her frustration that this was how she had to spend her day. "Nothing hard to understand, Mr. Knox," she began, eyes locked steady on him. "I just want to make triple sure our boys in blue got the story straight. So..." She flipped a legal pad open and clicked her pen at the ready. "One more time. Was anyone there to witness your retrieval of... Ralph?"

A sliver of her, a barely there whisper of hope, had clung to the possibility that the file might reveal something more substantial. That, if for no other reason than the sheer magnitude of the tragedy, or perhaps in a bid to safeguard one of their own, the authorities might have made significant strides. Yet, as the blonde sifted through the documents, a tumult of rage and a begrudging sense of relief surged through her. The investigation had stagnated, frozen in time. Not a single new interview had been logged since the preceding summer, and their trail of leads had long since turned cold. "I think this department is overrun with a pack of indolent idiots." She declared, her voice dripping with exasperation. "Chasing their goddamn tails like a bunch of aimless mutts. And what? They've quit knocking on doors?" Her already tenuous trust in Tonopah Police Department had utterly evaporated.

She tapped a finger, quietly, against the edge of her desk as Sawyer looked. It felt like an eternity until she had something to say about the file. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Well, that we agree on." She straightened up a little in her chair. "Look, with Shep... gone, for now, we're down one good officer, and there's not many left. These bozos don't like cold cases." She paused a moment, perhaps intentional dramatic effect. "But I do. They won't officially put me on the case, but... I have my P.I. license." She let that hang in the air between them, passing the ball to Sawyer to move forward with that information however she saw fit.

"Do I Wordle? Oh baby, ask me again. It really gets me going when you say Wordle," they teased, laughing through their words. "I love this sophisticated puzzle solving. I don't have the patience. I mean I have the patience for legos but that shit has a guide. I'm a terrible guesser." Ella got a kick out of making her laugh and it easily put them in an even better mood. "I mean it depends on the day, really. You should see my apartment, all the shit laid out for my various hyperfixations. Painting boards, cultivating plants, making dumbass jewelry, learning how to sow. I'm gonna start making my own beanies and sweaters and shit. Outside of the house though, I do plenty of shit. I tried rock climbing but climbers have such weird ass vibes. I take kickboxing though, and once a week I go to this pottery class at the rec center. Still trying to have my ghost moment with somebody but it hasn't happened yet," they added with a dramatic sigh.

She nodded as they rolled through their list of --evidently-- many, many hobbies. God, that sounded nice. All, literally all, of Abi's hobbies revolves around her job one way or another. Crosswords and mind games kept her sharp. She went to a gun range at least a couple times a month, shot competitively, even had some trophies for it. She did mixed martial arts training. Nothing came close to crocheting her own fucking beanies. "Pottery, huh..." She mused. "Maybe I'll sneak in and be your Swayze."

"Give me five minutes before you shoot that off, I promise it'll be worth your while." All Hernando had done lately was think. Over and over. Second Guess. Think it over. Ask the questions. For as much as he looked like a crazy man right now, Hernando was really trying to be smart. If he hadn't left town he'd probably be dead right now. Just by him being exposed put a target on his back and it was clear that Alejandra didn't like loose ends. Or Valdez men for that matter. "I think you and I both know I wouldn't be here unless I absolutely needed to be." He had known Abril for a long time. In the life where he was just a florist and a small town guy. The one that was gone now. He wondered if she was surprised to find out he was involved with Los Santos or maybe she wasn't surprised at all. She was a hell of a cop after all.

When she saw him in her driveway, she stopped. Still as a statue. She knew the world he'd been involved in, she saw criminals and interacted with them every day. Not often in her own driveway, though. "Five minutes," she agreed after a drawn out moment. It was all she could think to say until she heard more. She relaxed, but only a little.

"I can't make any promises," Shep replied with a chuckle. He was known to worry in general, but especially about those he cared about. After what had happened with Abi's dad, he'd taken it upon himself to keep an eye on her, keep her out of too much trouble, but she was her own person and he had to allow her to make mistakes. He furrowed his brow some at the case in question, wondering why the department had been focusing on such smaller things when there were still several unsolved murders and a missing ADA needing to be investigated. He would have assumed it'd be all hands on deck to prioritize those -- or at least that's what he would've done as chief.

Abril would be lying if she said she didn't appreciate his worrying, at least to a certain extent. Knowing he worried had kept her from falling off the deep end more than once, even if she would never willingly admit as much. So instead of admitting anything, she crinkled her nose at him over a grin. "You're gonna give yourself premature wrinkles."

With a mischievous glint in her eye, Maeve couldn't help but embrace her penchant for Whiskey, declaring it a testament to her Irish heritage. She shot Abril a cheeky grin, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards in a playful challenge before she tossed her head back, savoring the smooth burn of the amber spirit that awaited her indulgence. "So, are gonna dive into the lastest of your fuckin' life, or are you gonna sit there, givin' me the eyes, makin' me feel like we're some half-baked Tinder fling?"

She had to admire Maeve's... gusto, if she was honest with herself. Abril didn't often choose to have more than one or two drinks at a time, but even when she did, she didn't --couldn't-- put 'em back like Maeve. "Half-baked?" She put a hand to her chest, mock-offended. "I thought we meant more to each other than that." She paused, shrugged , and though she didn't down her drink, she took a bigger gulp than she otherwise might have. "The latest is, I need to get laid. Work is a shit show, I mean I love it, but everyone's overworked and it's showing. I'm wound up like one of those cymbal-smashing monkeys ready to blow."

FOR: @abibatista WHEN: 08th of Febuary, 2024 WHERE: Outside the Police Station.

Abril had sat with the kid for no insignificant amount of time, and he had given her nothing. Sure, they caught him high as a kite, but their search hadn't turned up anything. Either he'd used it all - Abril's guess, based on the way he'd behaved during questioning - or he'd tossed it somewhere. All they could do was talk to him. They would normally only hold him til he was sober and make sure he didn't hurt himself or anyone else in the meantime, but this kid had a record. One that pointed to potential trafficking charges if they could ever make something more significant stick.

"Hmm, probably not as often as I think about you but I'll still take it." He almost laughed at himself at how easily it came out of his mouth. How easy it was for him to praise her in any kind of way. If his younger self could see him now he'd be either laughing or slightly mortified. He ordered and omelet, clearly excited about sharing this meal with her and he sat back with ease as he sipped his coffee and listened to her. "I mean of course, yeah. You're like..the Simone Biles of detectives. But I mean who would ever doubt that? But I mean outside of that. Yeah you're a detective in this...beautiful, bountiful town," he said with a laugh, "but what else? I mean how are you taking care of yourself? How's your heart and all of that? You know I've got this great morning affirmation podcast my Dads have made me listen to, it's actually pretty helpful. I can send you the link." He let out a laugh, wondering where her imagination had taken her. "Oh yeah I just started dancing at the Raven, Nate loves it," he joked. "Mostly handy work. I just stared helping out Ms. Beaumont over at the B&B she bought, that's been fun. You know, sheet rock, electrical, plumbing and all of that. But it actually looks like the Vineryard finally found an owner so I'll be back to that work soon. Kind of miss being out there in the fields."

If she wasn't already painfully arrogant about her investigative skills, Will's compliment and comparison to Simone Biles would have inflated her ego significantly. It also might have made her blush. As things were, she already knew as much, so she simply raised her coffee cup in a gesture of slightly smug thanks. "Tell that to my boss." And then, her smirk wavered a little. God, it just had to get real, didn't it? All things considered, Will was a good enough person to be vulnerable with. Still didn't mean she wanted to do it. "Ah, shit, man." She huffed. "I'm not an affirmations kind of girlie, you know that. I go to therapy, though. Like, more than once a week if I have the time." She laughed a little, the fact that she probably spent more time with her therapist than any one person she really cared about not lost on her. "I'm cool. I'm fine. I'm... bored, I don't know. Life's kind of stagnating right now. I want something to shake things up." Careful what you wish for, Abril. "So you're out there in the hot sun, slugging it out all day? Dirty, sweaty..." She trailed off and quirked a brow at him. "You know, maybe you should look into a job at the Raven. I know some heavily repressed suburban women who would tip you half their husband's salary for a dance."

The faintest trace of a smirk danced at the corner of her lips, a silent tribute to Abril's unvarnished words. Sawyer, a woman who relished the raw honesty in others, especially in a world festooned with pretense, settled into the vacant chair with an air of cool authority. Her gaze, sharp, fixed back on Abril. "Well, detective," she uttered, her voice carrying a blend of impatience and challenge as she leaned back, the chair bearing her formidable presence. "I don't have all day."

She flipped the file open without any further ado, and turned it around to face Sawyer. It wasn't a particularly large file, so she doubted it would take all day to get through it. "Have a look," Abril nodded to the paperwork laid out between them. "I have a funny feeling you're not going to be terribly impressed by what the boys in blue have found so far." She'd have liked to think the case might have been further along if she'd been put on it. But, conflict of interest, personal involvement, blah blah blah. Whatever. "Let me know what you think."

"I take you as someone who likes to solve shit. Puzzles seem up there. Unless you're playing Nancy Drew computer games. I used to have one that I fucking loved when I was a kid. Oh well excuse me. You're right, crosswords are the superior puzzle. I was close. But you do that New York Times shit, don't you? I can see it. Very smart. Super hot. Very intellectual," they added with a decisive nod. Her words though made them laugh so hard they snorted. "Jazz cigarettes? Are you fucking 95?" They were giggling and felt grateful for it, the only image they could conjure up was them doing jazz hands while skating and smoking a joint. "Corrupting the youths? Is that really what you think of me? But yes, skating, smoking, imparting my wisdom on the young ones. I really do tell them to stay in school, I promise. But I do have my hobbies outside of being Tonopah's lesbian Tony Hawk," they joked, pulling away from the bar to check on Abril's order. "Jazz cigarettes," they said to themselves again with a laugh. "That's a new one on me, damn."

"It's not just the crosswords," she answered, some over-exaggerated pride tinting her words. "I'm not paying five dollars a month for nothing, baby. Do you Wordle? I kick ass at Wordle, too." Abril laughed and barely saved herself from snorting her gin out as she did so, and covered her mouth as she choked down the near-miss of a sip. "Okay, lesbian Tony Hawk." She gestured to suggest Ella continue. "Do tell how else you fill your time."

@abibatista

Abril had her big girl pants on today --she at least had to put the fear of the law in Theo, whether he was really going to be punished for this or not. It was ultimately up to the original owner of the zebra if they wanted to press charges, and they had tentatively decided not to. They still had to get the zebra back, and if they could do that through Theo rather than animal control, it would likely be better for the animal at the end of the day.

Caleb chuckled a little, tipping a bottle over as he mixed a drink for another patron. "You sure? Not everyone is used to it," he spoke up over the music, shaking his head back and forth. "It doesn't happen as often as it seems, most people at least make it to the parking lot before generously giving us back the lemon drop and green tea shots." Fuck, he hated serving green tea shots. They were the epitome of a college sorority drink and it made him want to chuck it in every single person's face who ordered it. But they usually tipped well, especially the women, so he painfully poured them each and every time. At least they thought it was funny when he was a dick, so he didn't have to pretend to flirt.

"Doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd want returned." She gave a little shiver of disgust. Green tea shots --god, that brought her back. She used to love those things. Her palette became more refined (at least a little bit, save for the sweet tooth when it came to food) as she aged, and she liked her drinks strong and bitter now. Better to last longer and help her keep a steady pace, rathe than down them like she used to. Less alcohol helped her keep her temper in check, too, which was the responsible thing to do.

@abibatista Location: Outpost

It was good enough money, as far Abril was concerned. Good enough to support her habit of dining out far more often than she should, at least. She wasn't gonna complain any time soon, though she'd like a promotion. More for the better work than the pay, really. "Oh, fuck off with your 'technically's. It's either my round or it's not." She laughed, and paused. "I think it is, though." She ordered two glasses of top-shelf whiskey --she'd make her's last-- and slid one down to Maeve. "You better enjoy that. Make my detective salary count for something."