milliways_bar | (no subject)

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)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Here," Grace answers. "I've filled in at Louie's a few times."

Mostly she just does what she wants there, but the folks at Louie's like them and know they've got a good thing going: cop bars don't see quite as much trouble.

Usually.

"Have you done this before?" A gesture at the bar area.

"Couple of times," Veronica admits.

"Louie's is back --" she jerks a thumb over her shoulder, towards the door, "-- home, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah. Cop bar."

She turns her hips slightly, so Veronica can easily see the badge at her belt.

"Oklahoma City PD."

"Oh. Hey."

Veronica ducks down for a second, rusting in her bag. When she reappears she's flipping open her badge wallet.

"FBI."

Grace takes one look at the badge and her expression softens.

"Hey," she repeats, quietly. Her gaze shifts to Veronica. "DC?"

Edited 2009-04-17 05:16 (UTC)

The badge has already vanished again. There's a sharp difference between 'letting people know' and 'broadcasting'.

Meanwhile, Veronica shakes her head.

"Field office in Chicago, right now. But I'm hoping for L.A. in the long run. Why, do you have friends in DC?"

"Yeah. Met 'em in '95."

She wishes she hadn't.

"Don't take it wrong, but this is the most normal conversation I've had in this place."

Talking shop is familiar. Comfortable. She can forget about the damn end of the universe.

Veronica gives a low chuckle.

"I can start talking about aliens if the normal is too weird."

"Nah, last guy who talked to me about aliens ended up skipping during his psych eval. Big ole' mess."

In this case, normal isn't so bad. She takes a lazy sip of her beer, then sets it down and fishes her pack of cigarettes out of her fitted but faded green jacket.

"So, what's in L.A.?"

"You mean other than Dodger Stadium, LAX and Hollywood?" She smirks and sips her beer. "It's near where I grew up. Closest major field office to Neptune, California."

"LAX is a selling point?" Grace grins back. "Cool. I don't ever see myself leaving Oklahoma."

It's in her blood.

"Rose Bowl Stadium. That I'd like to see."

"Welll, it's not so much a selling point as... a thing that is there."

Nodding at Grace, "Are you a big college football fan?"

"Huge," Grace laughs. "Whole unit is full of Sooner pride. One guy played quarterback for UT. Good guy, but he's got a permanent target on his back. New boss already calls him Benny."

She shakes her head, glancing absently down the bar.

"You?"