2019-07-28 - Small Talk With Small Dog

It's a late afternoon in the park. The park is not far away, but today Abby's probably done with work, or just not working at all. It looks like she's just out for a stroll, unfazed by all the murders in the news. Or, at least, suspecting it doesn't quite apply to her. She's in comfortable athletic shoes, jeans, a long-sleeved mint green tee and a yellow bucket hat. In her hand, half an ice cream. The rest of the ice cream is on the ground behind her, or dripping all over her hand under her scowl.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a lovely day where nothing really happens? Rick thinks so, as he's walking along the park, dressed in simple, comfortable clothes. Looks like he's got the day off. He has a camera with him, every once and then stopping as he takes photos, before moving further along the park. His steps take him over in the direction of where Abby is, although he hasn't seen her yet.

Arriving to the park after leaving the hospital, Cherish is dressed in her scrubs, though minus stethoscope and lab jacket. Nope, her accessory for the day is Roxi, a boxer puppy of about six months straining on a pink leash. She wants to GO... over there. Or maybe over that way! "I swear, we're going to go take a puppy class as soon as I can get time for them!" The words are muttered, though as the puppy dances back towards her, the blond can only smile. Then mutter some more when the leash ends up tangled about her legs, "No.. Roxi.. don't do that!" She's going to fall soon, if the puppy doesn't settle down!

Abby stands there, awkwardly leaning forward so she can lick up the edges of dripping and collapsing ice cream without getting it all over herself. It's a complicated maneuver, and it takes up much of her concentration. But it's easy enough to get her attention, so she blinks and turns to look in the direction of the voice. And the puppy. "Oh. Hi. Is everything okay, doctor?" She smiles, giving the other woman a playfully sympathetic look.

Having prepared himself to take another picture, Rick's attention is stolen as he hears Cherish. Still keeping the camera up for a shot, as he turns, reflexes causes him to take a picture of the doctor with the leash tangled about her legs. He wouldn't have done so if it wasn't reflexes, promise. Lowering his camera as he notices it was up, he heads over towards the women and the puppy, although he might be moving a bit slow.

Somehow Cherish manages to keep her feet. Don't ask how! Muttering still at Roxi who's jumping up to lick her face, the doctor sets to untangling the leash around her legs. Looking up, she offers Abby a smile, "Nurse Abby... hey.. " And then she's licked again, this time across her nose, "Come on Roxi.. stop that!" A wrinkle is given and she pulls her head back to keep from being licked again. "Just trying to keep Roxi here from tripping me... she's still learning how to walk in a leash." Finally she manages, telling the puppy to sit and getting a funnylook from her instead.

"You're doing great!" Abby comments with an approving nod as Cherish manages to keep the puppy from lassoing her legs. "And Roxi is adorable! Aren't you? How old is she?" The nurse asks with a bright smile, still tilting forward to lay another lick on the ice cream. As she turns, she spots Rick and holds up a hand to throw a wave his way.

Rick looks a bit relieved as he sees Cherish doesn't end up on the ground. As he approaches, he readies his camera again, pointing it towards the puppy and taking a few pictures. Stepping the rest of the way over he smiles. "Hey..." he offers to the two women, before looking towards Roxi. "Now that is a lovely puppy, Doctor," he offers to Cherish, before he crouches down a bit, holding out a hand towards the animal. "Hey you..."

"Thanks." Cherish offers to Abby, still laughing, "she's about six months old. I just got her from a friend who had to move, and couldn't take her." Awww. Thus the reason the puppy isn't listening so well to her. Change of owner! Following Abby's wave, the doctor looks over to see Rick. Takes her a moment to identify him out of uniform, "Officer! Good to see you up and around." As for Roxi, if someone is going to offer her petting, you can believe, she's going to bound forwards, half ready to knock Rick over!

"Hi there, officer." Abby returns the greeting with a smile in Rick's direction, adding after a second's pause, voice dropping slightly. "I haven't forgotten!" She bites at the cone she's eating, eyes moving back towards the puppy. "She's really terribly cute. She's probably going to be a handful though!"

Thankfully, it was that good arm that is near Roxi, and Rick shifts his weight a little so he won't get knocked over. "Such a lovely puppy you are," he offers to the puppy as he pets her, gaze going up to both of the women. "Please, just call me Rick," he offers to them, with a smile. "I hope you are both well today."

"And that would be why I've signed us both up for puppy classes.." Cherish says with a wry smile as she glances between the pair. As Roxi goes after Rick, she ohs, trying to hold her back, "Sorry!" Certainly not wanting the dog to hit his bad side! "Rick.. hope all is well?" She questions him before glancing to Abby, "Enjoying your day off?"

Faced with the hope things are well, Abby stares at her ice cream, then gestures very carefully with it in her hand. "The weather's nice!" That's a nice optimistic tone to strike there, turning on a cheerful smile. "And yes, I am so glad it's my day off! I feel kind of guilty, though. I don't know if it's the heat or what, people are just tripping over themselves to land in the hospital these last few days."

Rick smiles, "It's okay," he replies to Cherish, along with a chuckle as he continues petting Roxi. "Aside from being a bit bored, all is well," he replies to Cherish, before he adds, "What's her name?" The puppy, that is, since he didn't catch it before. He grins at Abby. "How did things go with that kid at the market?" he asks, after a few moments. "It was a good thing that you were there when it happened."

"Things do seem a little more hectic in the ER.." Cherish answers, nodding her head at Abby's comment, "If it was near a holiday, or the heat of summer.." surely there would be an excuse? To answer Rick, she smiles, "Her name is Roxi, and usually, she's a sweety, but today she was at the vet getting her checkup, and I just got her from there. She doesn't like being cooped up."

"It's not just more patients, either! It's like everyone's losing it a little," Abby comments in Cherish's direction, but just shrugs it off and smile. "Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow!" She's an adept of positive thinking, clearly, and hides her unconvincing smile behind the ice cream, trying to finish it off before it melts entirely. "Hmmm. Oh. I think everything's okay. Last I heard, anyway, Ivan was doing fine. He's probably been discharged and everything already."

"Nice to meet you, Roxi. R-names are the best right?" Rick offers to the dog, before he moves back a bit, holding the camera ready to take a few pictures of the puppy again. Nodding at Abby, he smiles again. "I'm glad you were there to be able to help him. It's good to hear he was doing fine." Getting back to his feet now.

"Hmm. I haven't noticed it beyond the hospital, but I admit that I've been going almost straight home and falling into bed." Cherish murmurs, watching Roxi, ready to pull her back if she jumps on Rick too much. Listening to their comments, she wonders, "What happened?"

Abby smiles at Rick again and draws a deep breath, "I'm glad I was, too! I'm sure someone else would've stepped up, but I guess all those classes were good for something!" Her tone is lightly self-deprecating there. Turning back to Cherish, she frowns for a second at the question. "I'm still not really sure. There was a boy - his mother was looking for him, said he'd vanished, but then he turned up in a different fitting room? He must've been hiding, or the poor woman got confused, maybe? Anyway, the boy was just drenched and was drowning, somehow? He'd definitely inhaled some water. He was in a fitting room, I've no idea where the water came from. It was the strangest thing, really." Abby frowns when she concludes that with a small puzzled smile, and goes back to her ice cream, clearly having chosen not to think too much about it.

Rick nods at Abby's words about what happened. "Some people seemed to think the boy was pulled into a mirror or something, and they wanted to break the mirror. It was a bit chaotic for a little while." He looks down to the screen on the camera for a few moments, cycling between the pictures. There's a pause as he reaches the one he took when Cherish was tangled in the leash, blinking a few times. "I took a picture of that?" There's a brief pause as he looks up from the photo again.

Listening as they discuss the incident, Cherish just peers at both of them, looking from one to the other, "He was drowning. In a fitting room. Mirror?" She finally shakes her head, "That is.. crazy." Of course, Rick gains her attention, and she shifts to peer at the tiny screne, "What did you take?" Likely surprised to find herself there.

"He might've been drinking water and - I don't know, things were a little weird!" That's the best Abby can do, face scrunching up in a squinty, doubtful expression. Also, she can't really talk while urgently eating ice cream. "I didn't really look for where the water came from. He'll be fine, though." She also looks towards Rick and his camera with a curiously arched brow.

Rick looks a bit torn between just skipping past that picture and showing it, but in the end, he turns the camera so both of them can see the picture. "I'm sorry. I must have taken the picture without thinking or something," he offers, after a few more moments of pause.

Surprised is Cherish, and yet as she leans in to take a closer look, she smiles, "It's actually pretty good. I wouldn't mind a copy of it, if you wouldn't mind sharing it?" The question is asked of Rick before she glances to Abby, "Well, strange as it is, glad he's going to be okay."

Abby leans in, "Ooooh. That was pretty close to being a picture of /someone/ falling over. I guess timing is everything!" She licks some ice cream off a finger, discreetly, and looks around, nodding to Cherish. "I do feel bad for his mother. How do you even prepare for something like that?"

"Share? Of course," Rick replies, looking a bit relieved at the reaction. "And timing is quite a bit, yes," he replies to Abby. As for how you even prepare, he shakes his head. "I've not been in town for a full year, but it seems to me some things... just happen around here," he offers, after a few moments.

Patting her pockets, Cherish manages to find a pen, and a scrap of paper which she jots down her email, handing it to Rick, "My email. Thank you." As for his comment, she chuckles, "Gray Harbor is.. Gray Harbor." Whatever she might mean by that!

Abby hums pensively and lifts her shoulders in a small shrug as she listens in. "I guess everywhere has its own little quirks! I mean, I wouldn't know, but I'm sure things happen in New York too..." she says the latter part with a brighter smile and a side look in Rick's direction, all playful suspicion. "I haven't even left the state, but I assume, anyway."

Taking the piece of paper with the email on it, Rick smiles. "I'll get you that picture later today. I'll send some of the ones I took of Roxi too." Abby's mention of New York makes him pause, taking a few deep breaths. "Oh? What have you heard?" There's a brief pause, before he realizes how tense it had made him. "Sorry..." he mutters, a bit more quietly.

"I'd love that. I tend to take a few, and they are nothing but snout and tongue half the time." Cherish answers, laughing as she glances to Roxi, "AS soon as I take my phone out, I get mobbed by her trying to lick me." She does hmm, nodding her head to Abby, "I guess that's true." Rick's tension is not missed, and she glances back to him, but doesn't immediately say anything.

What has Abby heard? Abby takes in Rick's reaction with a subtle shift of her eyebrows, and after a small pause replies with a perky smile. "Well, it's New York! It's got pizza rats and people with swords in the subway, that kind of thing? Not that I've ever been!" She holds a hand up in a placating gesture, and turns to look down at Roxi again. "Aw. She just needs to get used to the high-pressure modeling lifestyle."

Rick nods a little as he hears that, looking a bit more relaxed at once. "Oh yes. Things happen there as well, but not quite like some of the things around here..."

Cherish laughs quietly, "I guess it all depends on what you think is strange, hmm?" She says as Roxi sniffs the ground, circling about, following some scent before going to the end of her leash away from the trio to do her business.

Abby finally finishes her ice cream, biting away the last of the cone. "I'm sure! Maybe Gray Harbor doesn't have as many strange things as New York, but they're more concentrated? Gray Harbor's bigger than what I'm used to already, so I can only imagine a really big city," she admits, turning to follow Roxi with her eyes. "I'm sure she smells all kinds of strange things."

Nodding a bit, Rick sighs. "Sorry... I just don't like talking that much about New York..." He looks between the two, and over to Roxi, smiling momentarily. "But I'm sure things are more concentrated here, yes."

There's a tilt given to Cherish's head at Rick's answer, "From New York, I take it?" The question is one that she fully expects to be answered yay or nay, and nothing more. Laughing, she glances to Roxi, "I'm waiting for the fencing to get finished at my house. Some of it needed to be replaced. Hopefully soon, I can allow her to go outside to run some energy out at home."

Abby puts her hands on her knees as she leans over to coo in Roxi's direction, "Ohh. Yeah, you'll need that. She's still got a lot of growing to do!" The nurse flashes a quick smile over at Cherish, then adds in a quieter voice. As if so Roxi can't hear her. "I have a cat. She used to be an outdoor cat so she gets a little frisky being cooped up all day."

Rick nods at Cherish as he hears her question. "Yes, but that's far behind me now," he replies. Smiling as he watches Roxi, he nods again as he hears the others. "She looks like she could use somewhere to run and play and get some of that energy out of her system."

"Well, I think it's safe to say Gray Harbor is good to have you, Officer Rick." Cherish says before chuckling as they both talk to Roxi, who once her business is done, turns to look for some treat. Should Abby let her ice-cream stained hand get close enough, it's going to get cleaned by a raspy tongue! "A cat? I thought about getting one of those.. maybe later. I ended up with Roxi instead."

And Abby does, indeed, let her hand hang down close enough to Roxi to have the ice cream licked up, with barely a small giggly snort from the blonde woman. "Aw. She's a good girl, I'm sure she'll be great. Especially if you have a yard for her to ruin! Isn't that right, Roxi?" And she reaches over to pet Roxi and scratch her lightly with pre-licked hands. "I already had Chickpea when I moved here."

Rick smiles, "I've always liked animals, although I never had one myself. Was a bit too chaotic back home. And then when I moved away... I had enough things to load up onto the motorcycle already."

"You came all the way here on a motorcyle only?" Cherish quesitons, brow raised, "You really pack light, hmm?" Roxi happily cleans Abby's hand, licking it till there's not a trace of ice cream left on her skin. Now it's just damp with slobber! Won't her cat just loooooove that!

Abby's eyes widen slightly at that, fingers still lingering dangerously close to Roxi as her head rises to stare at Rick. "Oh, wow! Oh, you definitely wouldn't have made it here if you'd tried to bring Chickpea all the way from the East Coast on a motorcycle, I'm pretty sure she would've murdered you along the way."

"Well, it took a few years, and it may not have been intentional that I ended up here, but yes. And I packed far more than I would have wanted, to be honest," he replies after a few moments of pause, offering them both a smile.

"I still trying to imagine packing anything on a motorcyle." Cherish answers, shaking her head, "I had a small Uhaul full after moving out of my apartment back in Massachusets.." And then, theres' a blink as Abby talks about trying to move a cat on a motorbike, and she laughs at the very image.

Abby grins and finally stands up after one final scritch, resting her hand on her hip instead. "I just moved from Elma, which is just a little over - I don't know, 20 miles? I only had a little pick-up so I had to do couple of trips back and forward to grab everything. I can't even picture moving that far."

Rick shrugs, "Some clothes, this camera, a few very small things. Fishing equoment. All you need to head off on the road to nowhere." It's offered with a brief smile, before he shrugs a bit.

"I couldn't do it either, Abby." Cherish answers, shaking her head a little. "I moved from here to Harvard for school, then back here. " That was enough for her! Glancing to the camera, she wonders, "So you've gotten plenty of practice with it? "

Abby rolls back her shoulders and tilts her head to consider Rick, lifting an eyebrow, her grin splitting wider. "Fishing equipment? Well, did you at least stop to fish along the way?" She asks curiously, then reaches up to adjust her hat. "That might've placated Chickpea a little bit, fresh fish for the road. I haven't gone fishing in years!"

"Both the camera and the fishing equipment was used as therapy, I think. And so I've gotten skilled in the use of both of them." It's offered with a quiet smile.

Cherish blushes a little, "I have never gone fishing before." It might be showing her family's influence there with taht comment.

Abby wrinkles her nose before replying with a smile in Cherish's direction. "If you like sitting around, it's great! In my experience it's a lot of waiting and not catching anything but I hear it might be a bit different for people who know what they're doing," she says that last part with a quick wink at Rick. "I can see how it might work as therapy, though. I mean, it can be pretty relaxing when you're not getting yelled at for doing it wrong."

"What? Never gone fishing? We need to change that," Rick replies, a bit lightly, before he offers a grin at Abby. "The secret is knowning that half the fun is the waiting," he replies.

"No, I haven't." Cherish answers, laughing quietly, "I have never had the fortune to do so. I've gone to the beach many a time, but never fished." She wouldn't know how to do it. "I think I would just end up falling asleep waiting for the fish."

"Just remember to wear a hat and sunblock if you're planning on a nap," Abby is prompt with the advice when Cherish mentions falling asleep while fishing. She helpfully points at her own bucket hat. Then her phone chines and she takes a small step back. "Excuse me! Hi!" She takes the call, and a moment later covers the phone. "I'm sorry, I have to take care of this. It was nice to see you though! And you too, Roxi."

Rick smiles, "We'll just have to make sure you can do the fishing in company that keeps you from falling asleep, right?" That's offered to Cherish, before he nods as he hears Abby's words. Especially about having to take care of something. "Of course," he replies, offering her a smile. "It was nice to meet you again."

"I'll remember that. I don't go out in the sun usually without a good coating of sunlotion." She likes ot keep her skin lightly tanned, but not risk cancer! With Abby taking a call, she nods to the nurse, lifting a hand to wave bye to her before turning to the officer, "So, is that a request for a date fishing?" Oh, she's teasing him, right?

There's a pause as Rick hears that question, but after a few moments, he shrugs, with a grin. "Sounds far better than getting shot, doesn't it?" he remarks, a bit lightly.

Cherish laughs quietly, "You have my email, and you know where you can find me most days." She'll leave it up to him, soon tugged by Roxi wanting to walk. She's remained in one spot too long now. "I'll see you around, officer." She says with a grin before heading off to continue Roxi's walk.

Rick nods as he hears that. "I do," he replies, before he smiles as Roxi seems to decide it's time to go. "See you around," he replies, remaing where he is for a few moments longer as he watches them leave. He might take a few more pictures of them as they walk away, before he turns to head off.