follow my girl;

“Uh.. fuck, no, I don’t.” Robin waited around while Anika patted down her pockets. Good, she had Advil, and no, Robin didn’t have water, which may explain why she had a huge headache – she was fucking dehydrated. Or maybe she was still hungover from last night. She honestly couldn’t tell.

“Honestly, I’ll take the risk,” Robin said, shrugging. She held out her hand, waiting for the woman to track down her Advil in… how many pockets did that thing have?

“There’s probably a vending machine or two around here, I wouldn’t pass it by if you see one,” she advised, clearly still tortured by clear memories of her aching throat and the anxiety over being so damn sure she would never recover from it.

She handed the strip of pills over, only two were already missing from the foil sealed blisters. “Oh uh-” she looked down at the vest, though she wasn’t actively counting the number of pockets, “About 6 or so,” she explained, “There’s some hidden ones too,” was she supposed to say that? She wasn’t sure if the hidden pockets were explicitly secret pockets or just made to be discreet. “Comes in handy,” she offered with a chuckle, though the statement was obvious. The vest was literally designed to be handy, why else would she be wearing one? It certainly wasn’t the height of fashion. “You didn’t hit your head or anything, did you?” she asked, “Sorry- that should have been my first question,” she admitted, realizing that while it wasn’t strictly in her duty of care provisions, she probably should have been more concerned than she was for good measure.

“I’m not drunk if that’s you’re wondering,” Johnnie reassured the woman. Did he know her from somewhere? Briefly, he thought that she was pretty, but the thought slipped his mind when he registered her concern again. Did his own philosophical musings secretly make everyone think this way? In his own experience – his limited 24 years of life – his own musings brought up some fun conversations. Clearly, that wasn’t happening today. “No, I didn’t. Why? It’s…” he waved his hand around. “…bad for the environment.”

“I-” she started, her eyebrows lifting as Johnnie managed to see right through her, or something like it at the very least, “No, I wasn’t thinking that,” she insisted and it was somewhat true. Technically she didn’t think he was drunk, though she had considered that he might have been high. She pressed her lips together for a moment, hoping he wasn’t offended, “I just- I was heading off soon and figured you might need a ride,” she explained, well aware that it wasn’t the smoothest recovery she’d ever managed but hopefully a recovery nonetheless. “You can tell me more about your theory, like uh- so, how come nature can be totally random but we can’t program computers to be totally random? Every thought about that?” she admittedly hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about it but it seemed like a fitting discussion or something akin to one anyway.

Lilith tried to guide to the other girl to the best of her ability but being short and just pointing could only get her so far. Luckily, the girl was able to figure out quickly which book it was that she was pointing at. Lilith thanked the girl for her help as the other held the book and glanced at it. Lilith couldn’t help but laugh quietly at the comment that was said about reading philosophy. “Mm, sort of. This particular book is more about understanding the self, freedom, and choices. So, some may say a cluster fuck of ideas.” 

“I see. Sounds like a lot to tackle in a single afternoon,” she noted, though it was more like a lot to tackle in an entire life time in her case. She’d never been one for that sort of literature, she was much more literal and she much preferred to have things spelled out for her than have them remain ambiguous and open to interpretation. Perhaps that was why she made a good police officer, she preferred hard evidence over questionable hypotheses. 

■

“Look at you knowing all your big girl police names. Very cute,” Tristan commented patronizingly, looking Nik up and down, sizing her up. Despite the uniform (which he still isn’t convinced she didn’t pay for on eBay or something), it was still the same old Nik. To him anyway. Awkward new girl trying to find her footing at a school that was going to eat her alive. Except now they were just playing on a different field. Though the elements remained relatively the same in Tristan’s mind. There was still very much a hierarchy, she was very much going to be eaten alive if he could do anything about it, and Tristan was very much above her despite whatever his ‘superiors’ had to say about her.

He stepped closer and poked lightly at the sewn-on name tag. “How much did you pay for that on Etsy? Like 15 bucks? Or did you take up sewing in the last ten years as one of your many exciting hobbies?” To anyone else, it would be a shame how quickly Tristan slipped back into his high school role. But to Tristan, he was just glad he hadn’t lost touch. The slight venom in his voice was still there, the predacious demeanor… all signs of a great intimidator. “You’ve always just been so entertaining to me, West. I think you know that.” If the way he met and subsequently made her his target for the entirety of his senior year had anything to say about it. “Alright, I’ll bite. You’re a cop now. Why Beaver Cove? Still holding a torch for me?”

She cocked her head slightly, “Is that how you got yours?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest, instinctively defensive as he stepped closer with all the energy of a caged tiger. 

“Okay, we need to start with the fact that I never, ever held a torch for you. You were the one that asked me out,” she reminded him, bluntly, “I would rather shove a torch up my-” she stopped herself short, remembering that she wasn’t in the school yard, she was in her new office, in a professional setting, surrounded by people who expected her to be a professional at all times, “Second, I didn’t know you were here- how would I know that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, “Unless you have it plastered all over social media which is stupid- especially for a cop, you should know that,” she added, feeling a little smug about it if indeed he was foolish enough to share his information with the world for no good reason. “I’m here because-” No. No fucking way was she throwing Hanna under the bus. How hard would it be for Tristan to find out where she worked? What she did? Who she knew? He’d relish in the opportunity, not to mention the fact that he was sure to use the information to turn Nik’s personal life into a joke once he was done with her career, “-it’s actually none of your business,” she decided bluntly, “I’m here to do my job, not to give an oral presentation on my autobiography. I can’t imagine why I entertain you, I’m not an interesting person, I don’t do interesting things so it shouldn’t trouble you too much not to know the details,” she added, turning it back on him.

■

Tristan was hardly ever wrong. When something was up, something was up. It was only ever about waiting until his attention was brought to it. Despite his fellow colleague, Jenkins, telling him that a totally normal and boring day was allowed at Beaver Cove, Tristan wasn’t convinced. And rightfully so. Because with a turn of his head, he spotted a bad omen right there and then. For a second, he thought it was an illusion. His mind playing tricks on him in an effort to make a seemingly mundane day exciting. But after a moment’s focus and narrowing his eyes, he knew what he was seeing was true despite how absolutely nuts it was. He’d recognized those bug alien eyes anywhere. 

Tristan waited till the Captain left Nik’s side before setting down his tumbler of hot tea and walking over. Boss Man didn’t need to see him tend to the trash.

“Well, well, well. Do my eyes deceive me or is that little ol’ Westy I see. Please tell me this is an elaborate plan you’ve worked up to make me laugh and that you’re not an actual cop.” Because West? A cop? Tristan’s never heard of a bigger joke in his life. “This is a long ways to go to get my attention. You could have just hit me up on Facebook.” Not that he’d accept her friend request but you could totally send someone something via Messenger that they could also… totally ignore.

Though Nik could have easily have predicted as much, it appeared that despite the decade that had passed between them, Tristan Hacker hadn’t changed much. He certainly hadn’t matured. 

Anika’s muscles tightened with a familiar form of anxious energy as she took a couple of steps toward him, wary like she was approaching a rabid dog or ready to negotiate with an armed offender.  “Chicago P.D., Toronto Police Service- and I did ten weeks at the National Academy in Quantico,”  so shove that, Tristan Hacker, she thought to herself before the realisation that her professional history might pale in comparison to hers. The Tristan she knew was connected, slimy as hell but a go-getter without a doubt, God knew what he’d achieved in the years since high school. “Besides all that, your superiors seem pretty impressed with me too,” it was nice to say ‘your superiors’ to Tristan, when she wasn’t aware of anybody else that had ever qualified for the title when he was on top of the teenage food chain, except for Matilda Worthington perhaps. “So, I don’t see what’s so funny,” she stood her ground, though maybe it was the weight of all the butterflies in her stomach anchoring her to the floor instead of her resolve. 

“I don’t know what it is, maybe a sixth sense or something,” because he did have hella intuition which made him amazing at his job, “but I just get the feeling something terrible’s gonna happen today,” Tristan mentioned to the person beside him. It was an average day, no gloomy weather or anything, and so far it’s been quiet since he started his shift but he couldn’t rid of this… ominous feeling. Like something was sitting heavily on his shoulders or stirring his tummy the wrong way. 

@beaverstart​

Nik was in good spirits to say the very least. Having just completed her official tour of her new detatchment, she was eager to get to know her new collegues and most of all, impress them. She was a good cop, as far as she was concerned. She’d never been the subject of any disciplinary action, she’d never had any formal complaints lodged against her, she kept her uniform neat and tidy and her intentions were sincere. Even though she was new to Beaver Cove, it didn’t stop her from feeling the compelled to prove herself as a helpful member of the community.

Any semblance of the good spirit that had possessed her that afternoon was swiftly snatched away, the moment she was lead into the room where her new desk sat near a window. Near a window where Tristan Hacker was mouthing off about something. The residue of her teenage self urged her to demand a transfer, to warn them that there was a wolf in sheep’s clothing in the Beaver Cove office and that she would never, ever, ever, work with the creep that stood just feet from her new desk. The desire to impress her new boss, however, far surpassed her impulse to call Tristan the fuck out right then and there, despite the raging battle between flight or fight that was making her stomach twist into knots.

“Wow, what a view,” she said instead of voicing even a shred of what was troubling her. Perhaps if she pretended Tristan didn’t exist then he wouldn’t. Perhaps if she didn’t look him in the eye, he wouldn’t recognise her, despite the name WEST sewn onto her uniform. 

@beaverstart​

“Ooph, I have a killer headache,” Robin groaned. “Hey. Do you have Advil on you by any chance? I keep forgetting when the drugstore opens. And, gah, I can’t handle bright lights right now.”

“I-uh- yeah, somewhere,” Nik was already patting down the pockets of her duty vest. She always kept a strip of low dose painkillers in her rig, in the event that a blinding headache or back pain reared its ugly head in the middle of a shift. “Have you got water?” she asked, handing the Advil over to the brunette, “I dry swallowed a capsule once because I was too lazy to get out of bed and get water and it caused like a- some sort of rash or burn type thing in my throat,” she tapped on her throat as she spoke, “It turned out to be a pretty minor irritation but I convinced myself that I had an irrepairable hole in my throat that would be there forever,” she had learned her lesson after that and was more than happy to pass the teachings onto others.

“Good call. Everybody needs a good sugar rush now and then,” he agreed with her. Holding his hands up in surrender, Dan shook his head, “Hey I said nothing.” Not at loud anyway. If he made a comment in his mind about it, that was for him to know and for her to never find out. He nodded his response to her question. “I did actually, so my day’s still going. Mama and her pups are getting checked out by the doc before I take ‘em back to the rescue. Bet your day’s felt longer though.”

She smiled at his submissive gesture, glad that she’d beat him to the punch if he’d so much as considered making a joke, not that she would have taken it to heart anyway.

“Aw, is that what that was?” she had imagined some kind of rabid dog, foaming at the mouth and threatening prospective fisherfolk and boardwalkers, not a mother and her pups just trying to find somewhere to hide. That was the case with most call-outs, however, she’d discovered. The circumstances of a case were hard to predict until you were actually on site, seeing it for yourself. She shrugged her shoulders again, sure, her day had felt long but she wasn’t one to complain to somebody she didn’t know all that well, “My tan won’t be as nice as yours but I don’t know- not to brag or anything but I’m getting pretty freakin’ good at using the photocopier these days,” she mused, her words dripping with playful sarcasm. “Besides- a boring day can mean a good day sometimes,” she conceded, it meant that nobody was getting hurt, nobody was getting into trouble, nobody was making somebody else’s life particularly hard...at least not on the radar of the local police, anyway.

Dan had his own trouble with RCMP in his days. Admittedly he still preferred to be as far away from anyone who donned the uniform as possible, whether they were on duty or not. But Nik and her playful sarcasm found him making a bit of an exception. Not that he was entirely comfortable in her presence still, but he figured he could push past his instinct to flee for a few minutes. “Sure.” Taking a seat opposite the woman he gave her a polite little grin. “You should’ve stuck it out though. Echolocation would make one hell of a party trick.”

She smiled at his words, a good response, she thought as she nodded her head. “It’s still on my to-do list,” she assured him, “I just couldn’t resist my daily serve of diabetes inducing sugar,” she explained with a shrug of her shoulders, gently nudging the plate that had remnants of a honey crueller on it. “Yes- I’m officially leaning into the cop stereoype- coffee and donuts,” she confirmed with another soft chuckle. “How was your day? I heard something about dogs on the docks- did you pick that up?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. Throughout the day she heard various things radioed in and out, some were more interesting than others and a lot of them were a complete waste of time.

@beaverstart​

“The world being weirdly random can be comforting if you really think about it,” Johnnie mused to no one – he just loved hearing himself talk sometimes. “The world itself being not sentient? It can’t want to help you, nor can it want to hurt you. It just exists, you know?”

To say that Nik didn’t have the slightest clue about whatever it was the male was talking about would have been an overwhelming understatement. Instead of responding, she took a sip of her coffee and waited for a beat, just to make sure he was indeed talking to whoever was listening and not to somebody in particular, other than her. When nobody else seemed to be half as engaged as she was, she felt compelled to answer, nodding her head, “Yeah, that is most definitely one way to look at things, ”she agreed,  trying to work out whether the male was intoxicated rather than trying to work out what he was getting at. “You didn’t happen to drive here, did you?” she asked curiously, though it was perfectly legal to sit in a coffee shop and wax philosophical about the state of the universe and the energy within it, she wasn’t all that stoked on the idea of him driving home right after it.

Today was a turning into a long day at work for Daniel, not that he minded. His shift had almost been over when there’d been an emergency call for a Mama dog and her puppies running around by the docks. Naturally, he volunteered to go on the call with a coworker. There was a lot of scouring the area but thankfully once they’d located the little family huddled in a crawl space, it didn’t take too long before everyone was safely and soundly in their care. He brought mama and her pups to the vet to get checked out, and the team told him it’d probably be a couple hours so he figured he might as well grab a snack or something while he waited. Besides after all the running around, a frozen hot chocolate sounded real good right about now. Stepping into the cool air of Tim Horton’s, Dan’s eyes scanned the other occupants. His gaze landing on a familiar face, he nodded their way. “Well look who finally got out for some fresh air.”

@beaverstart​

Nik chuckled and nodded her head in agreement with Dan’s cheeky assessment. Though he was being facetious, there was no doubt that Nik had earned a little fresh air that afternoon, having spent most of the day with her nose buried in paperwork and case files. “I was starting to develop echolocation so I thought I ought to see the sun at least once today,” she concurred with a smile on her face, “Want to sit?” she asked, offering the empty chair opposite her to the male. She wasn’t expecting anybody else to join her and the thought of having the company of somebody without an RCMP uniform was a welcome change for the day.

Open Starter - @beaverstart​

To describe how Lilith was feeling right now, tired would be an extreme understatement. She had a very long week at the doctor’s office of running around doing exams and filling in charts. As well as taking care of the locals that regularly came in for check ups. In order to truly enjoy this weekend to the fullest, she decided to stop by the library to pick up a few new books and return the ones she had finished. As she wandered the aisles looking at possible books to read; she spotted a book that a coworker of hers had told her about on the top shelf of the philosophy section. There was no way she was going to be able to reach it. A person turned into the aisle she was in, so she decided to ask for help. “Hey, do you think you can reach this book for me or help me find a ladder?”

Nik was perusing the non-fiction section, trying to find something that captured her interest. Since she’d moved to the otherwise sleepy town of Beaver Cove, her spare thoughts had been largely consumed by wondering about the treacherous waters and trying to understand how so many accidents could happen in one place, seemingly without any logical explanation. Perhaps she hoped that a book would simply leap off of the shelf and explain it to her in layman's terms, though it was unlikely.

She was distracted by the sound of a female voice nearby and completely lost her train of thought, “Hey- yeah, I mean, I can try,” she assured the other, reaching up on her tiptoes and stretching to tap the spine of a book on the top shelf “This one?” she asked, following Lillith’s direction as best she could. She pulled the book down and without meaning to be intentionally nosy, she had a curious look at the cover. “Philosophy,” she noted, “Trying to understand the world?” she asked, it was something she’d never been good at, it made her head hurt when she thought about the expanse of the universe in any great detail.

Meet Nik.