INVISIBLE WOMAN.

“sage? maybe,” gail smiled, shaking her head gently. she did like sage, even gravitating to her kindness and peculiarity above the demeanors of others. “she’s nice.” it was easy to be transparent with ingrid, especially once gail overcame the impulse to feel intimidated. it was similar to how it’d been to speak to her superiors back at the sibley and all the other hospital. even when handed a disarray of facts, of disconcerting pieces and dead ends, it was people with personalities like ingrid’s that exuded an air of reassurance; following their steps, it was easy to believe that things, sooner or later, would simply click. 

    “is it the same, or is it worse?” her words were laced with curiosity. “what does that look like? i’d assumed cryptids were too elusive to partner up with humans.”

“yeah,” said ingrid, smiling softly at the thought of the younger team member. “i figured if anyone was gonna be your welcome party and tour guide to the team it would be her. whether you wanted one or not.” ingrid thought of most of the team with a strong fondness, almost like family. and she was certain gail would be no different, but it would take ingrid a while to figure out just how to speak to the other woman. not that ingrid adjusted her demeanor a lot for anyone, but ingrid just wanted to know how much attention she’d need to give gail, or if gail was fine without supervision. 

“cryptids don’t often pair up with humans. they like their own space,” she agreed, “but it’s the demons you gotta watch out for. they feed off of human insecurity and desire, create codepedent relationships, and leech on to anyone willing. their harder to pry away from their hosts and harder to contain.” 

andrew was by no means ready to let the tension go he was holding throughout his entire body. strangers in his police station looking through his files was not exactly an easy thing to swallow. “ah, well i’m glad you arent looking for fancy cause you ain’t gonna find fancy here.” he said, his lips pressing together in what one could consider a very very small smile. “lately we do. before that it was all petty shit. mostly bored teenagers but this new stuff is bad. like big city bullshit bad.”

“as long as the coffee maker works that’s as fancy as i’ll need it,” she shrugged. that was enough small talk for her. she didn’t have the time to keep assuring him. “small town starting to have big town problems, hm. can you tell me a little bit about the escalation? i imagine there was a ramp up. or if it was sudden, was it after any new residents moved to town?” 

stephen had not stopped fidgeting from the moment he arrived at the police station. his legs bounced with every moment he was left alone in the interrogation room. the mirrored wall having his reflection starring back at him almost to mock him. his head now resting on the table to hide from his own gaze. he barely lifted his head when the door opened. “back for more questions?”

@formersheriff​

ingrid hated interrogations. she didn’t have the patience for them and was prone to giving up. she always passed it off to others as letting the perp ‘stew’. but the truth was that she preferred paperwork to conversation, especially when she was supposed to play good cop. as a very direct person she could never understand why someone wouldn’t cooperate. she, unlike most, preferred the kooks who rambled every thought and theory that popped into their head. 

she was inclined to be sarcastic and snap back at him, but instead she just sighed and slumped in the chair across from him. the new tactic was to anger him, but not in a way he’d notice, “not really. i think i’m just gonna sit in here a while. doesn’t matter if we talk or not, i’m being paid by the hour and i could really use an extended paid break, courtesy of the taxpayers.” 

. DATE AND LOCATION: january 2005; amber, arkansas . FT: ingrid colt ( @formersheriff​ )

while she had let her eyes scan the scene over and over, focusing on a subject before shifting over to something else, gail had only managed to make herself something akin to motion-sickness. it seemed that the world had cracked open and that the team was trying to weave it back together, all before her eyes, one clue at a time. 

   “ye— ingrid?” she extended, her polite smile somewhat bashful. “how is the investigation going? i mean, i know it’s still so early to tell but… well, you’ve supervised hundreds of cases already, so how does this one… feel?”

ingrid sympathized with the newest recruit. she remembered how scary and confusing the first few months were. it didn’t really get any better, ingrid supposed she was just numb to it now. fortunately, gail was tough, or at least ingrid assumed so. the most jarring part of the job was always the bodies so having someone well acquainted with blood was better than someone acquainted with books. 

ingrid chuckled under her breath, “feel? sounds like sage if rubbing off on you already.” she sighed and flipped throught he case file on the table mindlessly, “i suppose it feels. . .human. there’s a certain brand of sinister that hits you in the gut different than it does when monsters are involved. i wish i could say it’s easier to deal with, but it’s just got it’s own problems. i’m just hoping it’s not a mix of both: humans in cahoots with monsters. that’s always the worst.” 

arms folded tightly across his chest, he looked around at the meeting room he had set up for the team. “hope it works. had to move months of paper work out of her for you guys so not like you got anywhere else to go.” he said glancing over to ingrid. “sure it isn’t what you’re used to.”

ingrid could understand the defensive posture. it was never easy for the police to welcome a bunch of strangers in suits into their home, their work, and to allow the fbi to do the police’s work for them. but ingrid hoped he knew there was no judgement on her behalf, some mysteries just needed specialists to solve. ingrid chuckled softly under her breath, “actually, it’s exactly what we’re used to. feels like home. do you guys have a lot of unsolved cases on your hands?”