Putting one foot in front of the other, Billieās body swayed to the music emanating from one of the headphones lodged in her right ear. It was a chilly, late evening in Muddy Waters tonight but sheād always loved the bite of the cold. There was something exciting for her to feel the wind brush up against her skin, leaving her cold and breathless. For someone who had spent her youth running around in cutoffs and a t-shirt in the humid, sticky summers of Kentucky, sheād always held a fondness for autumn. While the days dragged on in the summer, autumn brought change and chance. The summer heat may have stoked tempers but the autumn cold inspired people to do strange things. Especially as it grew closer to Halloween - last yearās fire was a testament to that.Ā
Unfortunately, it seemed the weather wasnāt content with just being chilly. Within a couple of minutes, Billie found herself on the main strip with a storm bearing down on her. The rain hadnāt been immediate but halfway to Rustyās, the skies had darkened and started pouring. Cold, fat raindrops landing on her head and cheeks, causing the rascal to duck underneath the nearest alcove in between shops. Shaking out some of the water from the hair, Billieās attention was drawn to the figure approaching her dry spot. Nodding and pulling the earphone from her ear, she drawled out a greeting.
āLovely evening, isnāt it?ā
It seemed, perversely, that in the aftermath of the flood there was both too much to do and too little to do at the same time. Most actual cases had been put on hold to try and do damage assessment, file claims, and figure out just what would need to be done to keep everyone safe while reconstruction started. That was all well and good during the day, but it was regulated to just that - during the day. There was no case that he could stay up for hours working on and just end up falling asleep at the office so when roughly five oāclock hit, they were all expected to leave. Declan had pretty much always worked more hours than he was supposed to and heād cheated the last few nights in getting some paperwork cleaned up and reorganizing the filing system but that was all done and he found himself with free time. Declan didnāt much like free time since he never really knew what to do with himself and going back to his empty apartment and just sitting there, watching Netflix or whatever, wasnāt exactly his style so heād found himself roaming, for lack of a better word. The Syndicate was still in town and so were the Rascals. He doubted the streets would remain peaceful for long because of that so he could justify it as being on patrol, doing his due diligence to make sure the streets were safe.Ā
Declan hadnāt accounted for the rain, of course. His mind had wandered as he walked, something he usually tried to keep busy enough that it didnāt, and he was thinking about Travis and trying not to when heād felt the first cold drops of rain. Glancing up, the sky was dark and threatening and by the time heād hurried his pace, it was raining pretty hard. He managed to duck into an alcove, noticing it was already occupied, and gave the person a slight smile. She was the mechanic, he was pretty sure, with ties to the Rascals but Declan had had to learn to try not to judge people too harshly for ties to that gang since just about everyone in town had one.Ā
āYeah, itās perfect.ā He shook his head, bemused, glad that he only seemed somewhat damp and wasnāt legitimately soaked.Ā āI guess we picked the wrong night for a stroll.āĀ