(no subject)

[headed4hell]

Grace saunters out of Captain Perry's office, already tapping a cigarette from her pack, and tries not to smile. The guys are all looking at her, thinking she's in trouble with their new boss. Quite the opposite. Perry's an old friend from Vice and if Grace loved laughter any less, she'd warn Butch about being all UT in her face, at least for awhile; but he’s been a big boy in a unit full of Sooner fans for years now. It'll be entertaining.

She shoulders open the door to Major Crimes, then the stairwell, and mutters a half-hearted curse. Milliways. A few days without Earl’s making her soft. Whatever, it’s still a bar. Better to smoke with a drink than without one.

When Bar gives her the note, Grace tosses back her head and laughs. She looks at it again; laughs again.

"Sure thing. I could use time to think."

Because pouring drinks in between drinking her own will help her figure out why the motel manager got dead in one of his guest rooms. Obviously. Pushing her hair back, she pulls some not-so-random drink ideas from the proffered book and goes to work on the specials board.

HAPPY HOUR!

Absolut Hell
Holy Water
Jack and coke
and
Shots of Yukon Jack

Dance with the bartender, get a free shot. Bartender's choice.

Smirking, Grace rummages around behind Bar until she finds the sound system remote and cranks the volume to almost too loud. The classic rock already playing suits her fine. Time to shake up this place, she thinks. Time to shake Earl loose.

"Belly up, people. What'll be?"

(tiny tags: Grace Hanadarko, Cal Chandler, Michael, the Pirate King)

Comments

[mnt_raph]

"That so. Makes sense, I got one of them faces."

He takes one final pull from his drink before turning and looking at Veronica. Raph's eyes narrow. Then his brow furrows.

"Veronica freakin' Mars. Mithros, how the fuck you been?"

[watching_you]

She blinks.

"...Good? Thanks?"

Now she's even more confused.

"Okay, I'm glad I wasn't wrong. But you've clearly solved this one before I have."

[mnt_raph]

"You got no idea, huh? I been gettin' that a lot."

He wipes his nose with the back of his hand.

"Mike's brother Raph."

Never in his whole life did he EVER think he'd be introducing himself this way.

[watching_you]

Well, the voice fits.

"Raph. Raph? You look --"

Different.

"-- Good."

[mnt_raph]

Oh yeah, he's buying that.

"Yeah, I been gettin' that a lot. Time ain't been too good to me. What'cha gonna do, right?"

[watching_you]

Aw. Now she feels bad. Sorta.

"Hey. We can't all be hot blondes."

[mnt_raph]

He cringes, remembering the brief time when he was a blonde.

"I'm really okay with that. So uh...what's new? How's the multiverse been treatin' you?"

There's a hint of, any legs need breaking on your behalf? hidden in between the lines.

If you squint.

[watching_you]

"Not terribly," she says, propping one elbow onto the polished surface of the bar. "Or at the very least, not much different from anyone else who walks in through that door. So I won't complain."

She nods at him.

"How 'bout you?"

[mnt_raph]

Raph pulls a face that most people probably use in a Robert Di Nero impersonation.

"'Bout the same. I mean, world ain't ended an' I still got a pulse, so it can't be all bad. Takin' my girl on a trip soon, 's why I'm here. Figured I'd pick up a shift an' get some supplies. Figured I'd give this place another once over. Still ain't found my sais since that panda thing."

[watching_you]

First, she seems interested. "Girl?"

Then, she just seems confused. "...Panda?

"Maybe now would be a good time to mention that I was locked out of the bar for the better part of a decade in my timeline, so the last time we've spoken from my perspective was more than ten years ago. Um. There might be -- gaps."

[mnt_raph]

"You too? Thought it was just me, didn't realize it was an epidemic. Huh."

The more you know.
Cue the star.

[watching_you]

"You're serious? You make the third, that I know of."

Veronica's brain, accustomed to looking for links and conspiracies even where there are none, starts mentally compiling a file folder marked The Great Door Mystery.

"If we start a club, I call Not Secretary."

[mnt_raph]

"I vote we make the third secretary. All in favor?"
He raises his hand.

[watching_you]

Veronica lifts hers as well.

"Vote passes with two in favour, one abstaining."

[mnt_raph]

"Ain't democracy grand?"

Raph'll drink to that. Raph'll drink to pretty much anything, but he'll certainly drink to democracy that leads him not having to take notes.

[watching_you]

"That can be the foundation of our charter," Veronica says with a firm nod. "That and 'screw doors'."

[mnt_raph]

"Right in the freakin' ear," he grumbles.

It's possible he's had a little bit to drink by this point.

"Which ain't to say it was all bad, just some notice would have been nice."

[watching_you]

"Yeah? I missed this place. Started thinking I'd made it up, after a while.

"What happened on your Magical Mystery Tour?"

[mnt_raph]

"You know Alanna and Adam, yeah?"

[watching_you]

"Met Alanna the other day." She pieces things together, and points. "She's the secretary!"

[mnt_raph]

"She's our third?"

[watching_you]

"Why, does she have terrible shorthand?"

[mnt_raph]

He starts to chuckle.

"We were stuck together. Or...well, as she probably tells it, her world was stuck with me."

[watching_you]

"You weren't even trapped in your own universe?"

[mnt_raph]

"I ain't that lucky."