2019-10-15 - How Do You Even Drink That?

Sutton sits at a four-top with what looks like a huge iced latte of some kind. It's hard to tell from the look of it. Sutton's tipped back in her dark blue cargoes, GHFD tee (it says PARAMEDIC across the upper back in huge letters), and some heavy boots on her feet. She's currently resting those booted feet on the chair next to her (possibly rude), and sucking down her chai while the radio clipped to her belt crackles lowly. She turns it down more and picks at a caramel streusel muffin on a plate at her table.

For what must be an attempt to be 'low key', Cassidy's budding trademark really isn't. She walks in with huge sunglasses on. Even though it's gray and dreary, it's totally known that UV rays can still affect the skin around your eyes causing premature wrinkles - and it's actually WORSE in gray skies than pure sunlight. So... She blows a huge bubble as she's texting and it pops loudly sending the gum back against her lips and chin, which she deftly collects back in her mouth with a nonchalant gathering of the tongue.

She's also wearing a huge pink marshmallow parka over what appears to be a very conservative heather gray pants suit.

She text messages her way up to the counter. "Huge coffee please. No sugar."

Mae is usually a night owl, but on the days she doesn't have to work, she tries to get up early. She's got things to do tonight, was up at a god awful time in the morning so now she needs coffee. She pushes into the shop, giving a brief look at the people already seated inside as she makes her way to the counter to order. So many choices. She settles for a caramel chocolate frozen latte with whipped cream. Sugar rush. While she waits for it, she picks up two muffins and sets them on a tray. Yum.

She catches sight of Cassidy and her sunglasses and makes a brief yikes look. She looks like a big pink bug.

"I don't know how anyone drinks that shit without sugar in it." Sutton's comment is for Cassidy, though whether she hears it with the texting? Debatable. The blonde paramedic's phone is resting on her table, face up but silent for the moment. That probably won't last. She's drunk texted too many times this year and has too many numbers for it to last. She gives the pink marshmallow parka a brief looking, but has trouble forming opinions this close to quitting time.

Her gaze lazily tracks to Mae after the tattooed brunette passes through her field of vision. And then her gaze wanders liberally from inked image to image to image. Usually she does that from behind aviators, but apparently she left hers in the rig tonight. Where ever the rig happens to be. Which is not currently outside the shop or in view of the Foggy Bluffs Strip Mall.

She doesn't really answer Sutton so much as she answers 'the voice' - eyes never lifting from her phone. "I don't need it to taste sweet I need it to wake me up and keep me regular." (she means poop)

Cassidy's gum chewing becomes much more prominent as she speaks. She waits off to the side patiently for the arrival of 'a huge coffee'.

Mae makes eye contact with Sutton briefly, but her focus is on the counter person who is making her drink at the speed of snail. Something bothers her so she turns her head back to look at Sutton. She stares. Her eyes narrow, and then she tilts her head slightly. "Harry?" It can't be, but it really looks like it is.

She forgets her coffee, well sugar rush, for a moment and eases closer to the blonde paramedic's table. "Is your name Harry?" She is distracted again by a combination of Cassidy's gum chewing and someone at the counter calling out her name, holding up her order. "One second." She mutters, turning to the counter so her items can be handed over. Yeesh, impatient people.

Sutton thinks about that for a minute. Or, you know, sips her drink several times and regrets commenting? It's really kind of a toss up. "... Oh kay — What?" She starts to answer Cassidy when someone speaks her name. Her actual name which no one here knew (except dead persons and a cop), but now several people do because she has a big mouth when she's drinky. "... Uh. Hi. Yes."

The paramedic's gaze flicks up from Zoiya's elbow region and then up to her face, because, yes, she does have one. "... Mae." Give her a minute for all the dots to connect. She was very, very drunk for the latter portion of her time in Seattle, and though she did run into Zoiya at the Cabaret, she was not a blonde then. "Yep, take your time."

"I said I need it to wake up and keep me regular," Cassidy repeats, not catching what happened around her and why 'the voice' said 'what'. She is only now looking up to see who spoke. Then she's not sure if it was Sutton or Zoiya. She looks to each of them briefly and then just closes her lips together and turns around to retrieve 'a huge coffee'.

Cassidy takes the coffee to a counter and proceeds to pour a looot of cream into it.

Mae grabs her drink and her bag of muffins, making her way back over to where Sutton is seated. "May I?" She asks, gesturing to the almost empty seat at the table. Hopefully Sutton doesn't have dog shit on her shoes. She doesn't sit down right away, she's too busy watching Cassidy dump a cow into her coffee cup. "That is not going to keep her regular with all that creamer in there." She murmurs toward the blonde paramedic, holding her own sugar bomb up to her lips for a sip.

Sutton's only got her butt and/or feet on two chairs, conveniently leaving two chairs open for anyone who may want to have a seat, which most certainly includes Mae. "Yeah, please." She moves her muffin on a plate closer to give the illusion of more space for the brunette's snacks. She grins at the commentary re: Cassidy's drink. "Regularity is important, but caffeine is ever more." She sits up a little, returning from standby mode to social. "How's the club? I haven't had a chance to come back since that opening night event."

She glances over to the pink one. "Care to join us, Bennet?" She heard the name, never caught the full name from the horse's mouth, but that can be remedied now.

"I have 3 years of post-grad experience and another 1.5 in the Public Defender's office that says otherwise," Cassidy explains, essentially giving Zoiya half a decade's worth of bowel movements to calculate - and by the looks of Cassidy, they probably drop within a couple minutes of the the same time every day. Yeesh.

Cassidy settles up to the table and takes a sip of her coffee. There is judgment in her gum chewing when she looks at Zoiya but then she says, "I always thought about getting one." A tattoo. So maybe that was admiration and not judgment.

The blonde pink marshmallow then takes a look at Sutton - who she now knows owned the original voice that came to her as she was hammer out innocent text messages. "You were at 2 If By the other night." So hello? Obviously.

Mae settles into a seat, setting aside her muffins, another sip taken of her drink. "The club has been nice. Just got a raise because apparently I have the ass of a goddess. I don't have the same view as others unfortunately, so I'll have to take Antonio's word for it." She tracks Cassidy's movements toward the table, her hazel eyes taking in the pink parka and the rest of her ensemble, expression amused.

Mae tries not to laugh out loud as Cassidy mentions the tattoos, taking a noisy sip from her cup. "You should get one, I think it would look good on you."

"I was definitely a the Deuce the other night." Yeah, people call it that, unfortunately. At least Easton does, which means Sutton does, which is unfortunate enough. The hazel-eyed blonde looks to Mae. "Congrats on your bodacious booty bump." She'll be here all night. (Until her radio yells for an intervention in someone's shitty day.) "From what I saw, well deserved." She sips her iced chai through a straw poked in the lid. "The right tattoo levels up the hotness on just about anyone." She briefly checks her phone, nope, no messages, then goes back to relaxing.

All three women are gathered at a four-top, though Sutton's using two of the chairs, her feet kicked up on one.

"The sunovabitch stood, right in front of me, and said 'I don't buy that you are a cop, missy, but if you shake that ass for me, I'll shower you with bills'. That is the story of when I got my first paid leave. Cracked him something fierce."

In comes Tessa Chen, from the police department, dressed in her gym wear, besides Sarah Stevens. The woman has probably been through a mighty workout, given how disleveled her hair is, but otherwise she still looks like control-freak Chen.

Everything is how it is supposed to. Jacket isn't too flashy, no tattoos on her, shirt tucket into her pants, overall very meticulous and unfun-looking. It is upon noticing other officers that Tessa's expression changes some, and that frown comes up, as a way to say 'Hello, people I know from work!'.

"Officers," she offers with a nod and a tip of an imaginary hat at Cassidy. At Sutton, she eyes the woman with a question mark over her head. Sutton isn't a cop, but she is very cop-adjacent. Always there. She nods at the woman too, even if she judges the use of two chairs like a deliquent!!!

Zoiya gets a once-over and a nod. Looks like trouble. Total profiling. "Ma'am." She eyes Sarah, the social one.

"I'm not an officer," Cassidy explains in a brush off sort of fashion to her tablemates as she looks at her phone and starts browsing again. (This is Cassidy 'hanging out')

She reaches for her coffee and takes another sip before way too late asking of the two ladies with her, "Yeah? What should I get?" She didn't look up but she did tick an eyebrow because she really wants to know what they think.

"I can believe it. Were you wearing your beat uniform at the time? Because that would explain soooooo much off this story." The voice of Detective Sarah 'Hollywood' Stevens carries into the coffee shop as the little bell above the door announces their arrival. She stops short just inside, staring at several of the occupants already present. "Is it weird no one's ever mistaken me for a stripper?"

"Well, well, well," Declares the blonde, hooking her thumbs into the front pockets of her jeans, swaggering towards familiar faces like she was the one from Texas. Her top is covered by a tanktop that leaves her shoulders somewhat bare and reveal a pair of dog tags that hang from her neck. The badge and pistol are noticeably absent. The sunglasses in her hair are not, though for once that blonde mane is restrained in a ponytail instead of left loose and wild. "If it isn't Bennet and the Pastry Bandit."

Blue eyes travel from Cassidy, to Sutton, and finally land on Zoiya. "...And friend. If one is judged by the company they keep... then you're boned, ma'am." Sarah flashes her best movie-ready smile and lifts the sunglasses from her hair to gesture towards Cassidy. "Things slow down enough at the office to sneak a smoke break?"

Casually, still looking at Cass, the blonde reaches for Sutton's muffin (the one on the table) to brazenly pinch a piece off as she slowwwwwwly turns to look the woman dead in the eye. That small piece of deliciousness travels up to her lips, deposited between them. She chews with purpose, mad-dogging the paramedic in the eyes as if daring her to say something. Finally, after a long, painful moment that drags the joke out probably way too far, she swallows. "...How does it feel?"

She smiles, widely, then turns her baby blues on her fellow detective. "Chen, less frowning, more bearclaw and French Vanilla! You owe me still. From the thing." There was no thing. "You remember. I'll get next time."

Mae looks at Tessa when she calls her ma'am, tipping an imaginary hat back in her direction. She gives Cassidy a brief look but before she can answer, she is reacting to Sarah. "I'm used to being boned, so it's fine. Plus, it's nice to be the innocent lamb for once while some other people take a bad rap." She gazes over at Sutton, amused. "Pastry Bandit.."

She sits back in her chair, pulling a foot up as she sips loudly from her cup again. Her head tilts toward Cassidy. "You should get Eat Me on your ass. Unforgettable, yeah?" When Sarah picks a piece of muffin off of Sutton's plate she shifts her eyes to the blonde paramedic. "Weren't you just fucking sneezing?" She glances back at Sarah. "You might be the one who's boned, babe."

Sutton glances over as Tessa cops her way in, popping a piece of cinnamon streusel muffin into her mouth. Must not be a stolen donut day. She flicks a single finger-gun hello to Tessa when she nods. Sutton might move her feet if asked. "I like botanicals on softly colored pretty blondes." Sutton, it should be noted, has a black and grey sleeve on her left arm. "The Pastry Bandit." Hm. "Would you like to be mistaken for a stripper?" She smiles to Sarah, watches the muffin thief muffin thieving, and says, "Fan of muffins, are you?" She seems less than incensed. More like mildly amused. A glance is flicked to Mae, then, and she replies, "I'm pretty sure the Eat Me is implied." When Mae mentions Sarah sneezing... Sutton looks over. "Do you have chills?"

Cassidy 's eyes manage to pry themselves from her phone and point in Sarah's direction. The woman earns herself that much look of recognition and an upnod, then Cassidy looks back at her phone

Somewhere (probably at Harvard) Cassidy discovered that the reason coffee cups are recessed at the bottom is so you can stick your gum down there and it will be elevated off the table. So that's where she puts her gum - phone down for a brief second.

Zoiya's tattoo recommendation is either not heard or ignored as Cassidy leans toward Mae and shares her phone screen, "Like this but maybe on my ankle?" (It's a little colorful sea horse)

Chen eyes Sarah and nods, "Yes, the beat uniform." When told to frown less, the Texan woman just frowns a little harder without meaning to, as a reflex to the suggestion, before she eyerolls and nods. She knows there was never a thing, but even if there was never a thing, she doesn't know how to talk to people anyways.

So there she goes to the line, where Chen spends an inordinate amount of time picking the damned demands, being one of those 'This cup isn't even completely full' sort of people that sends the French Vanilla back at least one. Eventually, however, she makes her return, and approaches that table again just in time to see Sarah eating Sutton's sugary sweetness.

"Can you be more civilized? This wasn't yours, Stevens," states Tessa, eyeing Sutton with a, "I'm sorry. The trainin' is not complete on this one. Missin' some parts." Still, she smiles, some. It feels very artificial, like something she read in a '10 tips to build rapport' book in the airport. The talk of chills and sneezing gets her to take a very unsubtle step back.

She hands Sarah her things, and stuffs her hands in the pockets of her jacket. She is eating nothing. That would beat the purpose of working out!

Sarah snorts to cover a laugh, tucking her chin down and looking away at Mae's response to being boned. At the rejoinder that Sarah might be the one who is, indeed, phallus'd, the blonde curls a lip and cants her head to the side in a close approximation of a half-shrug. "Eh. At least it wasn't on camera. 'Pics or it didn't happen'. Words to live by."

"Wouldn't have mattered even if she licked it. Worth it for the jokes alone." The detective proves it so by turning her next question towards Tessa. "Hey, remember that time I ate Sutton's muffin? It was delicious."

Since all four chairs are already occupied, Sarah invites herself into the cabal without asking by turning and grabbing a chair from another table. She slides it up to the side of the occupied one, turning it around to straddle it, resting her forearms across the back. She offers a lopsided smile towards the Paramedic, lifting a hand. "At this point, it's just hurting my feelings that no one's made the mistake yet. Do I not look good enough? Is Chen that much hotter than me? It's enough to make a girl feel insecure."

The bearclaw arrives, and that is all that matters as Cassidy and Mae compare tattoo ideas. It is taken and settled between her teeth so she can grab the coffee cup with both hands and a muffled 'thank you' offered. There may never have been 'a thing', but the Thing Gambit worked, and therefore filed away for use again in the future. When the bearclaw comes away from her mouth, held aloft by a hand, there is a piece missing and one side of her cheek is puffed out like a chipmunk.

"No. Civilization is for East Coast people. Here we are wild and untamed. Learn to love me as I am, Chen! ...I already got the ick anyway, a while back. It was gross. I could sail nor surf," Nor work, but that's not a drawback in her opinion. "For like a week."

"What does the sea horse mean to you?" Mae asks, giving Cassidy her full attention for a moment. Sutton can handle the flu questions that she's brought up. "Because if you just get something that's cute, when you're 80 and you're trying to explain why you have a sea horse on your ankle, it's gonna sound stupid as fuck. If it has meaning, it's a story.." She gets to her feet, unbuttoning her jeans, pulling the denim down over one hip. There is a Valkyrie brandishing a two sided axe. "Someone told me to get this Valkyrie after a bad experience, it has a story and meaning. Go for something like that."

She buttons up her jeans and takes her seat again, glancing between Sarah and Tessa. She smiles widely at the blonde and shrugs. "I have pictures, videos too if you're really curious."

Cassidy looks to Mae as she speaks and then gives the Valkyrie a brief study. She looks back to her phone and tilts her head a bit. She looks like she's started to think but a brief shake of her head stops /that/ and she shrugs a little shrug. "I dunno, I think it's cute." The sea horse tattoo.

She scratches the side of her head and then it's two-handed browsing on her phone screen - presumably for other CUTE tattoo ideas.

"I got the flu. It's a bitch." Cassidy reaches for her coffee and takes a sip. She looks up again, "We were talking about the flu, right?"

When Tessa apologizes for Sarah's violation of Sutton's muffin, the paramedic's smile widens. "Thanks for your concern, love." Once the accent starts strengthening up around some words, like that last one, the cops may recognize the blonde's voice as one who was running Dispatch for a good while there back in May - July. The injured paramedic they put on Dispatch who liked to send units who were snarky or rude on the radio off-beat for bullshit runs across town, like the frequent flyer mental cases, of which this town has a few.

"You should say exactly that muffin thing to Moretti. He'll get a kick out of it." Moretti, the hot black cop everybody calls waffles because the big man loves his breakfast foods. "Pop a few more buttons open and I bet they'd get there eventually." Her gaze flicks to Tessa like she's doing a hot-check. "Just wanted to be sure you're not contagious," she says to Sarah. She eyes the bearclaw briefly, because it's glazed dough. What? She has a problem, ok.

There's a very lengthy pause in which something Mae said rattles around in Sutton's brain for a good long while, and then Sutton reaches over, rests a hand just under her elbow, and gives it a light squeeze.

Tessa eyes as Sarah talks about doing things on camera and being called a stripper, and for the untrained bystander, she just looks mortified, but to the keen-eyed, one can capture the exact moment the migraine in her head is born and takes hold of her thoughts, washing away all over the Texan's brain to silence the thoughts of WTF that are going on in her head.

"You are an oversharer, Stevens."

That is all the very stunned woman can say, even if she does nod at the thank you from her chipmonkey-y partner. The mention of a flu gets her to tap Sarah's shoulder in solidarity, but it is brief, before the blonde can make fun of it somehow. Nothing is sacred to god damned Stevens.

"Oh Lord," Tessa looks away when Mae lowers her jeans, obviously not ready for the act that she obviously considers borderline nudity. Still, being the fun and friendly cop she is, Tessa just pretends she didn't see it, her eyes elsewhere until she feels it is time to look back again. "Sea horses are fine. You shouldn't feel ashamed of some drawin' when you are eighty. You won't have time for it."

Cop advice to a fellow cop in Cassidy! Follow your dreams!

Which doesn't mean her frown doesn't deepen at being called love. That mouth thins in a line, and she decides to listen to that barely there, whisper of a voice in her head that say Tessa shouldn't take everything so seriously. She fights the urge to be a complete sociopath, and nods.

And then frowns, at the hot check!

Sarah stops chewing, staring at Mae. She stares for a long, long moment, her mouth kind of open, a few crumbs on the corner of her mouth. Finally, she swallows. It looks painful, like she wasn't even done chewing, and washes it down with a mouthful of hot, liquid caffeine. Then she points at herself with the hand holding the bearclaw?

"Of me? Hell, the internet really is forever!" Sarah glances at Tessa, doing her level best not to grin, before shaking her head, glancing at the ground, then back up to the dancer. "Well, as long as you liked them, I guess mission accomplished. We were all young once, right?"

Those baby blues flick over to Sutton, noting the woman eyeballing her 'claw. She instinctively holds it a little closer to herself, narrowing her eyes with a thin-lipped scowl. She is not nearly as good at it as Chen is. But she tries, bless her heart. Which is why she always has to play Good Cop. "You'll have to fight me first, Sutton. And I will go Dark Side. I will bite your chin off and stab you with a pair of confiscated scissors. Because I am a crazy motherfucker. And you know that from the breakroom."

"But!" She says, pointedly licking the underside of her delicious confection while making way too much intense eye contact with the paramedic. This donut-adjacent article is CLAIMED. She continues once her tongue is back in her mouth. "I'll keep the button thing in mind. I need to reclaim my place as Detective Hottie."

"Chen. Chen. Chennie-boo." The blonde turns towards the Asian woman, gesturing around with her coffee. "Stop hovering and pull up a chair so you can tell me how I'm terrible for skipping Church last week, too. Speaking of St Mary's..."

"Bennet, the lovely stranger," A nod towards Mae, before Sarah returns to Cassidy. "Is right. That thing's gonna be on you forever. Don't get a fad, get something meaningful. Something beautiful. Like a tramp stamp."

"I was talking about me. Now I know way too much about you." Mae says to Sarah, making another yikes face as she gets settled in her chair. When Sutton reaches over to to squeeze her arm, she aims a smile at her. It's brief, but it's there. Then she gets absorbed back into the conversation, not really contributing, but that's because she has to drink up her drink before the whipped cream is totally useless, right?

She turns her head away to briefly wipe at one eye before she glances toward Cassidy as if judging if she could rock a tramp stamp. She makes no comment, so nobody will ever know.

"You're, like, having four different conversations at once." Cassidy says to Sarah without looking at her. The ADA's voice just kind of floats in that direction. "Impressive..." she murmurs through her teeth, still scrolling. Compliment for Sarah, or of a picture on her phone?

Cassidy finds something and leans over to share the screen with Zoiya, looking to the other woman curiously.

"I like over-shareers. They give me something to talk about with my nervous patients who need a good giggle while they're trying to be brave for an enormous IV stick." She seems unaware of Tessa's migraine brewing, perhaps a throbbing temple-vein about to pop out?

Her attention flicks from the pastry to Sarah. Oh, fighting words! "Wrestling in foodstuffs goes a long way toward the change in career if you're thinking you might want to strip." She mms. "Aren't you off processed sugar?" Didn't she hear Sarah's not doing donuts? "Licking off the glaze doesn't imply ownership and sustained eye contact certainly doesn't assert dominance. It's more of a challenge situation."

Sutton goes so far as to drag her feet off the other chair she has claimed, which leaves room for Tessa to take it if she wants to. Her boots were even clean! Her hand lingers on Mae's arm, then silently sweeps off, her elbow dropping back to the arm of her own chair to rest.

The whole exchange about who has what in the internet has Tessa's eyes going from Mae to Sarah and back again like she is trying to pay attention to a tennis match. A tennis match she disapproves so hard of that Chen might clears her throat and needs to eject from, going to the counter and asking for some water

When she is back, the officer is drinking and she doesn't comment on it. Instead, she simply places a hand on Sarah's shoulder and shakes her head, looking at Sutton. "Again, so sorry. We are tryin' to find her real owners, but the collar she came with had no identification. She won't bite anyone."

And then she smiles at Sarah, "I hover so I can intercept y-" And just then the tramp stamp line is given, and the Chinese-American does take a seat, finally. She drinks her water, and simply allows her mind to go to a zen place where Sarah isn't in the warpath.

"Oh, you are a paramedic! That explains it," she says at Sutton, offering her hand for Sutton to shake. Apparently, she respects the profession! Just mild frowning right now!

Mae looks down at Cassidy's phone, glancing from the picture, to the woman with raised eyebrows. "That means something." She's not sure exactly what, but she gestures to Cassidy's screen as she smirks. "Won't make a good tramp stamp though. Stick with the ankle, or when you're getting it from behind you're gonna have to answer questions."

Hopefully she's not getting judged still for being a stripper, but if she is, she's not terribly worried about it. Especially since Sarah might be joining the fold soon. "Do I get a hand shake?" She asks Tessa, sticking her bottom lip out so she can pout prettily in the dark haired police officer's direction. "I promise that I don't bite, don't listen to anyone here who tells you differently."

Who likes coffee? Cops like coffee. De la Vega's a cop, thus he likes coffee. "Large," is his answer to the barista's question of what size? And for SOME REASON his reply makes her friend who's manning the machine, snicker softly. The captain, meanwhile, is busy digging out his credit card and looking for all the world like he has no idea what's so funny (he knows perfectly well what's so funny).

"Me? No. I was talking about you." Sarah insists, stuffing her face full of most of the rest of her bearclaw before she has to explain how that works. She says something, but with her mouth stuffed full, none of it is intelligible. She gestures at Mae, says something, then to herself, talks some more, then between the two of them, all with her pointer finger. She lifts her hand, swirling it around to indicate all five of the gathered women, before finishing off whatever that bearclaw is muffling. Only then does she chew with the smug confidence of a woman who has explained away every bit of her awkward case of mistaken identity.

She looks towards the Texan detective, giving her a certified nod, complete with a bat of her lashes to let her know how handled that was just now. Now no one will surely ever know of her embarassing slip-up. She's swallowed down her food and taken a drink from her steaming cup by the time she tosses a self-appreciative smirk Cassidy's way.

"It's a gift. I got the gab. Among other things."

She's mid-drink, doing her best to drain her cappucino in record time when Sutton's comment causes her to sputter. She manages to block most of the flying coffee with an uplifted hand, laughing as it runs down her chin and she reaches for a napkin. "Yeah, I guess it would, wouldn't? First Responders Gone Wild, could be the start of my new comeback career."

"Look, Sutton, darling, I'm going to level with you." Folding up the napkin she's just wiped her face with, Sarah dabs up the droplets she spilled on the table, as well. "Bearclaw calories don't count, everyone knows that. Also, licking totally implies ownership, look up the 'dibs' accords, and sustained eye contact lets you know I am both crazy and ready to throwdown. I mean, it's been a while since I watched Animal Planet, but I'm pretty sure those are the rules."

Those eyes roooooll towards the Asian-American cop as Sarah leans back in her seat, held up from falling backward only by the knuckles of one hand that hold onto the back of the thing. "I'm a peacock, Chen. You gotta let me fly. Besides, everyone loves my stories! I was voted Miss Congeneality in High School." She wasn't. "And I'm often told that my wit and candor are much appreciated." Not even once.

"And I haven't bitten anyone all day. Not since lunch. I was in a mood." A glance at the counter as a male voice rings her bell of recognition. Sarah lowers her voice conspiratorily. "Oh shit. It's The Man."

"Which parts does the job explain?" Sutton's curiosity is spoken aloud when she leans in to take Tessa's hand. Her grip is firm, professional, hands pretty soft for someone who must wash them a billion times a day dealing with patients.

"I never believe anyone when they say they don't bite. I just wait and see." Sutton grins, giving Tessa's hand a squeeze even as she's talking to Sarah. "And I carry a taser." Which is about the time de la Vega ambles by to order... ugh. A black coffee, no sugar. "See, how do you drink that shit?" She glances back as the blonde cop sputters, brows going up at the leveling. "It's ok, love. I like a woman with a little jiggle in her wiggle." She says this clearly and enunciated to carry. "You go ahead and put that back in your mouth."

Cassidy furrows her brow and her nose wrinkles with the universal look of disgust, "I'm not a tramp so I'm not going to get a stamp." She sighs and pulls her phone back. She gives her screen exactly two 'scrolls of frustration' before locking the screen and slapping it face down on the table. "It's too hard to choose. That's why I haven't gotten one," she says of the tattoo.

Cass blows out an exagerated exhale and reaches for her 'huge coffee'. She catches Suttons coffee commentary and looks briefly confused like hadn't they been over that already?

"The part where you are always around, acting like Stevens. Met a paramedic once. Had a hard time on the job. Always lookin' for a way to unwind after work. Not sure it's the case but whatever it is, the profession is damn noble."

Tessa eyes Mae for a moment, and she seems a little stunned by the question. Her eyes do not leave the other woman's for a moment, as she tries to assess what exactly is going on, but she nods. "Sure." And that hand is offered to Mae to shake. Polite whenever she can be, the Texan only has the most superficial information on the woman.

And being partnered up with Sarah has broadened her horizons of what she can take and how fast she can judge someone. "Tessa," she offers, still eyeing the woman, as if the handshake is a bond.

A bond broken by how Sarah keeps talking. At some point Tessa's head just starts to sloooowly turn towards the blonde to mouth 'How?' Shaking her head, the Texan takes a deep breath, and upon noticing the boss, the frowns gets professional, and she straightens up her posture.

She gives Sarah a poke on the side of the rib. "Stop drawin' attention!"

Mae reaches out to squeeze and shake Tessa's hand. "Mae." She responds, grinning until she takes her hand back. Her phone starts to buzz so she reaches in her pocket to retrieve it, tapping out a response to a text received. She picks up her drink to sip at it while she's texting, not realizing that she's got to the gooey part of the caramel at the bottom. Yum.

She watches Ruiz order his coffee, putting down her empty glass with a thud. "It drives me crazy when people order coffee that you can't steal. It should be illegal."

Sarah slaps the table, creating a loud ruckus that draws way too many stares that she seems to be completely unaware of. It also makes her sunglasses jump where they were on the table, which appears to trigger her memory into recognizing that they are a thing she has set down. The expensive eyewear is picked up, slid back on top of her head where they belong, so she looks more like the rich socialite who escaped SoCal with Daddy's credit card.

"Chen, you've been replaced. Sutton is my new partner now. We have a thing you wouldn't understand." A beat. "Humor. It's humor. So I need you to go ahead and start patching people up, exchange uniforms, and I'll see you around the fire house." The detective looks away from her partner and towards the paramedic. "Congrats, you've been promoted."

The sudden sigh and frustration from the ADA breaks the plans the Cali-born blonde has of trading up, causing her to sit forward again, raising her eyebrows towards the woman. "There's no off-duty shame, Bennet. You do you. The rest of us will just quietly judge around the water cooler like professionals do. I mean, come on... who doesn't have a tramp stamp, am I right?"

"Heh... no? Just me? You guys suck."

A poke to the ribs causes the tramp-stamped blonde to jump, mouthing 'ow' at something that didn't hurt and rubbing the offended spot. But instead of a scowl, she flashes her best Hollywood smile at her ever-dour partner-in-crime-solving. One that carves dimples into her cheeks. "If I'm not wearing the badge, then anything goes. Everyone knows that. It's written on the bathroom wall in the precint. Along with who to call for a good time."

Ruiz notices the gaggle of copparamedicadas huddled around a nearby table, because how could he not? Sarah and Tessa, in particular, are like something out of a bad spy movie. He blows on his coffee, snaps on a lid, and spends a minute chatting with the sassy barista who proceeds to tease him about his coffee cup size. Then he pushes his free hand into his jacket pocket and wanders closer. Might be the jiggle in her wiggle that caught his attention. Or might be the suggestion that something go in someone's mouth. Conversation that could be construed as dirty: it's like a siren's call.

"Ladies," he greets in a low murmur, followed by a sluuuurp as he invites himself to sit in the remaining chair.

Sutton got the why of the black coffee, not the how. "It's awful. Bitter and hot and foul." She, meanwhile, is sipping a delightfully spiced, icy cold chai latte with whole milk, thankyew, sweet and creamy. Delicious. Sluuuurp. Nooo. It's gone. Her cup runeth dry.

She listens to Tessa's commentary on paramedics. "That's why so many of us have a bunch of casual sex and make really awful decisions concerning motorcycles, alcohol, pills, and firearms." She pauses for a beat, then adds, "Plus I'm one of those people who can tolerate a bunch of cops. I kind of like it, boys and girls with guns and everybody in the building in possession of handcuffs. Makes a person feel..." Sutton searches for a word and ultimately settles on, "Safe." A beat. "Also we have the humor." All the humors.

At last, Sutton mms, "Harry. But everybody pretty much calls me Sutton." When Mae leans into the handshake from Tessa, she watches the woman's profile for a long moment, then turns her gaze back to Ruiz and his large coffee. She unabashedly checks out his ass. She doesn't raise her gaze for at least twenty seconds after he's come over and greeted them. "Javi." What was that about cup size?

Cassidy fishes in her purse and finds more gum.

And also a revolver and a pack of smokes, but she was looking for the gum.

The commentary on her commentary of paramedics has Tessa cough a little. She is not one to talk about other peoples' sex lives, isn't one to judge alcoholism (aka The Bible-allowed vice), and certainly isn't going to laugh at anyone hooked on pills. The woman looks ready to ask if Sutton can name these paramedics on pills if she saw them standing side by side.

She even eyes Sarah to check if the other cop heard it, but between making new acquaintances and blushing some at the mention of handcuffs and a bunch of casual sex, Tessa just clears her throat. "It is a hard profession, I imagine." Still sticking to the noble thing.

Tessa doesn't get the grinning from Mae, that much is obvious, but she doesn't hate it. It is hard to notice, since the frown is the same, but for those who can really dig into the soul of a bundle of furious justice, it is there, bright as day to see. Today, prejudice lost. A real victory in the coffee shop.

When she is told she is replaced, Chen eyes Sutton. "She can't save your ass like I do. She might be able to revive you though. Maybe then you would learn your lesson, Stevens." She shakes her head at Bennet when Sarah tries to lie about off-duty shame, making sure the other blonde knows there is, indeed, something like off-duty shame.

She is about to greet Ruiz when Sarah talks about the bathroom stall and who to call for a good time. Tessa coughs water all over herself, and doubles over, coughing. She waves her hand, signaling her defeat.

"Hello, cough captain."

Mae starts to laugh out loud at her phone as she scrolls through the texts. She leans to the side and calls up to the counter, "Can you make me a green tea with uh.. fuck.. uh.. cream? I don't fucking know. Another sugar frappe too, please?" She holds her phone out to Sutton, not bothering to get rid of the screen of texts, so she's able to see the shenanigans going on. "Put your number in here, Harry. I'll be in touch, soon." The phone vibrates again but she doesn't get a look at whatever the text is.

"Guy." Comes Sarah's reply to de la Vega as he makes his way over and intones his greeting. She tries to match the deepness of it, but comes up short, as women are wont to do. In a more normal voice, the blonde up-nods her chin at the man with the 'large'. "Cup o' Joe to get your night started, huh? Come to slum it with the rest of us? Pull up a chair, I think Sutton's sitting on another two or three she can part with."

The blonde hooks a thumb in the paramedic's direction, turning to look pointedly at Tessa while the other woman checks out Ruiz's hind parts. "See? Banter. Humor. Crude humor. This. This is what partnerships are made of. I found you a mentor. Because if we can't sass about handcuffing each other while talking about sex, drugs, and alcohol while inappropriately oggling a third party? Chen. Baby..."

"...What the fuck are we doing here? What are we fighting to keep safe?"

"Wait." Detective Hollywood whips her head back towards the paramedic. "Is your name 'Harriett'?"

But Tessa is distracting from that question. Now it is the bearclaw-loving blonde's turn to frown mightily, though it looks much less at home on her face than it does the Texan's. Sarah's eyes narrow, her brows drawing lower as she searches her mind for something smart to say on the subject of saving her ass. "Okay. Tch. Okay, Chen. You want to bring that up? Okay. I'm gonna let it slide. I'm hurt. But I'm a forgiving kind of girl. I'm going to just..."

"Write things about you in the men's bathroom. Add your number to the call list. Then you'll be sorry."

"Is that a three fifty-seven L-frame?" This is what captures de la Vega's curiosity, of all things. He's talking about the gorgeous revolver in Cassidy's purse, of course. "How's the pull on double action?" He eases into his chair with his usual space-eating sprawl, one knee casually touching Sutton's while he sips his coffee. The blonde paramedic is the recipient of one rather devastating smile from the veteran cop. Nothing cheeky or overtly flirty about it (well, maybe a little). But plenty of dimple, and those creases he gets at the corners of his slanted-up eyes when he's pleased about something. Of course, a moment later the smile vanishes and he's leaning closer to get a better look at Cassidy's gun. Sarah's nonstop commentary, meanwhile, merely gets a glance from the laconic captain.

Cassidy stares blankly at Ruiz, like what is he even talking about, as she lays the next piece of gum on her tongue. Once that juicy fruit is deposited it's like plugging in the toaster and she seems to suddenly realize what he's talking about.

The blonde with the pink marshmallow jacket looks down into her purse and answers. "Yes. It's pretty heavy" the trigger "I don't really know /that/ much about guns though - so." She lifts a shoulder and picks up her phone. Probably to google 'double action' (Zoiya can confirm).

Who to call for a good time? She must have missed that graffiti. Somebody's gonna be looking for that later. "Just like cops, our professions are two of the most stressful in the world." She has a half of a cinnamon struesel muffin on a plate at her place, but she doesn't seem like she's that interested in it, because the top, the good part, is gone. Only old people eat the bottoms.

"You probably want a green tea with a little classic syrup and some foam, lightly sweetened." She looks up to Mae and mms? Ah, phone. "Sure, babe." Phone taken, she's shortly tappy-tappying in her number. She gets an eyeful of that text Mae just received, pauses in typing to read it, taps it, flicks up with her thumb, reads several lines of text exchange, and then the blonde typey-types out a reply all brazen and without pause. The mobile is turned and offered back.

When Ruiz's knee bumps hers she looks up, just in time to catch the full force of a dimpled grin. Mhm. Sutton regards the man for several beats. "Cuida tu lenguaje." It sounds like she just reprimanded him for something in Spanish, but it comes with a flash of a toothy little smile at the end. At long last, the blonde paramedic looks up and says to Sarah, "No, just Harry. Like the wizard, not the spy." Her words are colored by that lingering smile. "You should put the number on the wall at the Pourhouse. Drunks text those all the time. It's hilarious every time."

Mae claims her phone again, getting to her feet, purse shouldered as she steps away from the table. She makes her way up to the counter, stuffing her phone in her pocket so she can grab the drink tray set out for her. She passes money to the barista, and then turns to wiggle her fingers to the ladies. Ruiz gets a kiss blown in his direction. "You all behave yourselves." She calls out, answering her phone as she strides toward the door. "I'm ordering waffles, I'll be home in five, yes. I'm getting the handcuff key. Christ."

Tessa arches a brow at Sarah, and she looks the blonde straight in the eyes. She opens her mouth to say something, but stops. Whatever crossed her mind isn't worth going into. She nods. "You do that, Stevens, and I will print my boot on your ass." Tessa seems all content to let Sarah have this one.

On the subject of sassing, she eyes Sutton and then Sarah, "I am not goin' to listen to nonsense. I am sorry but that is not my persuasion. I like my humor with a bit of class, not crude, not sexual, not illicit!" Good and approved Christian comedy, okay!?

"Gawd, you are not going to corrupt me," she states one more time, before eyeing Sutton and shaking her head. "I am sorry she is tryin' to enlist you. It isn't personal. She is always like this." And at that, Chen stands, clearing her throat. "It was a pleasure meetin' you, life saver. I'm sure we will see each othe 'round." A beat. "I don't think being a cop is stressful."

Says Miss Blood Pressure of five consecutive years now.

She waves goodbye at Zoiya, and then eyes Sarah, "You stayin' or are you ready to get productive with your day already?"

Is Sarah Stevens going to let on that she knows Spanish? No, of course not. She almost never does. All the better to eavesdrop on things people don't want her to eavesdrop on. Instead, she simply reaches a hand out to nonchalantly collect the bottom of the muffin meant for old ladies to eat and part her lips to shove it into her mouth. Mid-thirties counts as old, right?

And there are starving children in Africa.

At least the act of chewing keeps her from talking for a few moments, granting those present just a bit of blessed silence. Instead of speech, she offers a lazy half-wave at Mae's departure. The dancer is already gone by the time the cop has swallowed enough to say, "Heh. Handcuff key. Eesh. Been there." Because who hasn't, right? That's what the look on her face with her slanted grin seems to ask as she glances around.

"Number in the Pourhouse. Will do. Now I owe you one for the tip." One of Sarah's eyes flashes shut in a wink. That's as good as a handshake, but without all the germ exchange or skin touching. Still seals deals, though. Without even looking at Tessa as she's threatened, the blonde reaches to the side and places a hand on the Texan's shoulder unerringly, as if she has Chen-radar built into her. Only once she's touching her does she smile prettily, turn to look at her, and bat her lashes.

"Don't tease me with a good time."

But with a sigh, the blonde stands, draining her cup and then tossing it in a hook shot towards the trash can. She misses. She also makes no move to pick it up. Instead, she swats Sutton in the arm. "Come by the bull pen sometime and help me deal with this one." Sarah tilts her head towards Tessa. Then she finger-guns over the paramedic's head towards Ruiz. "Cap'n. You two have a good night."

Turning, she slides an arm around Detective Grumpyface's shoulders and turns her towards the door. "Yyyyyno. I'm ready to go back to the boat and marathon The Office from forty yards offshore. How about we do that instead of being that other thing you just said?"

Ruiz ticks two fingers off his forehead to the cops on their way out the door, and is about to reach for the old lady portion of Sutton's muffin, when his hand finds empty air. Because, naturally, Sarah took it. God damn it. He doesn't say a word to Sutton's reprobation in Spanish, just sips his coffee and digs out his own phone to respond to a text message.

Cassidy lets a bubble slowy form and enlarge as she watches the two detectives pack up and walk out. Once it pops and deflates back into her mouth, it's slow chewed and eyes that wander to the only two unfortunate souls still trapped in her vicinity.

"Chatty." a head motion to the blonde who just left.

"She seems to want the best for you, and I think you two compliment each other nicely." Sutton's answers can sometimes turn diplomatic. Who knew? She laughs at the swat to her arm. "I'll drop by for donuts and stay for a chat. Be safe, you two. Chew, Stevens. Chew before you swallow."

Under her breath, she says, "Always keep several keys handy." Must be something to do with Mae, who left moments ago. She watches Ruiz try to swipe the muffin already swiped, smiles at that, watches him pick up his phone, and turns her gaze to Cassidy. "She does seem to be at that."

Sutton, Ruiz, and Cassidy are seated at a 4-top with a couple of extra chairs slid over, now empty.

Marion enters the coffeeshop as two customers leave and looks around briefly before heading to the bar and ordering a cappuccino. They turn and look at Ruiz, Sutton, and Cassidy, before raising the cup in salute. "Evening," they say. "Nice weather for once, yeah?"

A cop, a paramedic and an ADA walk into a- no. Actually, they're just seated at a table, and haven't killed one another yet. The cop, a relatively large Mexican with an equally giant cup of coffee, looks up from his phone as someone else walks in, gaze tracking Marion for a moment or two. He smiles, but it's a bit wolfish. Or maybe he doesn't like the weather. "What?" he asks Sutton, because he knows she muttered something but didn't quite catch it.

The significantly shorter, white caucasian of non-hispanic origin, blonde woman in a large pink parka (Cassidy) also looks over to the voice that commented on the weather.

"Oh? What's it like out there?" Cassidy clicks on her phone and hits the weather app.

"It's funny, I barely notice when the skies are clear these days," Sutton glances out the door toward the beautiful night outside the glass. Marion directs her attention to the fact that, "Damn, could have ridden my Triumph to work today." She rolls her shoulders. "Maybe later tonight."

Still, Medic 24 is nowhere to be seen. Why an on-duty, single paramedic has been sitting in a coffee shop this long without having to take some kind of emergency call is anyone's guess.

Ruiz must be a little hard of hearing, because he asks after her muttered comment. Welp, she goes right ahead and shares it more loudly, elaborated, "I said everyone who fucks with handcuffs should keep multiple keys around their home in case of sexmergencies and equipment malfunctions." She moves to rise. "Would you like a chai, love?" This is to Marion, though she knows them not. "I'm having an iced chai latte."

Marion raises their hand in a polite refusal. "Thank you, but no. Cappuccinos are my particular vice." Their hand goes out for a handshake. "Marion Tsai. Recently returned from Seattle. Trying to get used to a place that's even stranger than I remember it."

Sutton must have trouble with her inside voice. "Don't mind her," he tells Marion, gaze lifting as he tucks his phone away, to regard them blandly. "She has trouble with her inside voice." See? The hand doesn't seem to be offered to him, so he doesn't take it. Though he does comment in aside to Cassidy, "There's a window. Right fucking there." It's starting to rain.

Sutton steps over to take Marion's hand. "Welcome to Gray Harbor, Marion. Tsai is a lovely name. Cappucino is on me tonight, as a welcome by one of a member of the city's EMS. I moved here from Seattle early this year."

"Most people call me Sutton." Her grip is firm, professional, but with a friendly little squeeze at the end before she releases their hand. "Oh, it gets stranger, but it grows on you too." At Ruiz's comments about her inside voice, Sutton merely smiles. "Sorry, pet, I know you have trouble hearing me sometimes." She seems unduly amused by Cassidy's weather app and Ruiz's annoyance with same, but she's headed to the counter with Marion to buy them an Everything's Fine(tm) cuppa.

Cassidy slaps her phone face down on the table and /look/ out the window. She then regards Ruiz, peeved. But it's clear this isn't the first time she's been called out for being an airhead.

"Maybe if I didn't have to do all the thinking for your whole department I wouldn't have to turn my brain off so it can recharge when I'm not working." It's followed with poking forward of her face and a sassy head shake.

The ADA flips her golden locks behind her shoulder and reaches to shake Marion's hand. "Hi, I'm Cassidy." With a smile like nothing just happened.

"A pleasure to meet you both," Marion says. "I suppose this is a bit of a ridiculous question, but would you happen to know a doctor by the name of Abby? I met her here when I was first getting my bearings." They shrug and smile lopsidedly. "I always got asked if I knew other students at UW, and I have a feeling this might be a bit like that."

There's a long pause from Sutton as she thinks through the names at the hospital. Her tee's back says PARAMEDIC, so it stands to reason she knows some GH Memorial Hospital staff. She leans against the counter to order her iced chai latte refill, whole milk, extra ice, and then adds in an order for Marion, leaving them to chime in any special additions or modifications for the drink, and passes over some cash fished out of her thigh pocket. "I've met a cheerful nurse called Abby in passing, but I can't say that I know a doctor Abby. I rarely go beyond the ER or Trauma staff, though."

Ruiz is half listening to the conversation between Sutton and Marion, but mostly minding his own damned business while nursing his coffee and watching the rain out the window.

Marion sits down. "Oh. She must have been a nurse, then. Cheerful, Abby... there can't be that many of them." They glance out the window. "You must see a lot of weird things. As a paramedic, I mean," they amend somewhat hastily.

"Like that Nicolas Cage movie?" Cassidy asks with a little laugh to herself from behind the distraction of Instagram. She grabs her huge coffee cup (bigger than Ruiz's) and takes a sip.

"Oh, I do, yes. Weird stuff, sad stuff, amazing how did they survive that shit stuff. Why is there vomit in my shoes again stuff. So it's a lot like a Nick Cage movie." Sutton takes her change and drops a tip in the jar. She moves along to lean farther down and await her order. "You'll see a lot in general here. Smaller towns tend to bring it out." She says that with an eye on Marion, perhaps due to the hasty addition of that 'as a paramedic' bit.

Ruiz's coffee cup is pretty big. Not that it seems to be helping with his level of alertness. He might also have some coffee cup envy going as he watches Cassidy's sidelong. He doesn't say anything to her, despite the fact that they're alone at the table. He does, however, absently watch Sutton and Marion navigate the coffee line.

"Abby mentioned there were a few murders on Friday the Thirteenth," Marion remarks off-handedly. "I'm assuming that's not normal here, though?"

Cassidy sips her coffee in uncomfortable silence with Ruiz, now, phone down. Exchanging a sidelong look with his. There is a little squint to her eyes and she shakes her head slightly. She's not about to discuss that here. He's safe.

Sutton's haze roams back to the table now and then, watching Cassidy on her phone, Ruiz sipping his coffee. The pink parka draws her gaze a few times, but ultimately it returns most often to the Mexican cop. "There were five? Four? A bunch." She glances from the PD/ADA table and regards Marion for a few beats at their question at the end. Lots of murders not normal around here? Um. Hm. Ummm. "Assumptions are dangerous things, love."

Alison staggers in through the door, her red hair all tangled and frizzy, wrinkled and stained looking clothing adorning her body. She makes her way to the counter to place her order, which she mumbles quietly before being asked to repeat it, then doing so in a louder, but very ragged sounding voice. She pays after digging a few crumpled bills out of her crossbody bag, which she's holding in one hand rather than carrying in the proper manner. The girl's eyes are puffy, nose is red, and generally looks like she's been run over by a truck. She coughs into her elbow for a good 30 seconds or so, before taking a seat, grabbing her drink once it's ready.

Yep. Whole lotta not talking going on at that table. Not like Javier is a motormouth at the best of times; and this, friends, is not the best of times. He meets that sidelong look from the ADA, and squints when she squints. What is she implying? Oh. That. "How's the, uh." You know. "Recovery coming?" Sutton's shot a long look during one of her glances his way, like come and fucking save me. And then Alison rolls in, and he watches her drag her sorry self up to the counter to order, probably inwardly wondering whether he can be re-infected with the flu.

Marion raises their eyebrows and takes a sip of their cappuccino. "Oh. So it is normal, then?" They tilt their head to the side. "Should I invest in some mace? Brush up on judo--oh, she doesn't look too good. Is it the flu? I got a vaccination the day after I arrived..."

Sutton is a medical professional. A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. And she has had this flu. Thusly, she grabs her chai and moves her ass as soon as it's ready/she spots Alison in all her clearly infected glory. "Mace, Kelly's Gym for self defense classes, free once a month, carry a knife under four inches, always check your corners." Bye.

Sutton strides back to the table and puts a buffer of about fifteen feet between herself and the vector in the room. She practically has to sit in Ruiz's lap to do so. Hell yes she moves her chair. "I think my FNG's still on a station run trying to find the carwash that doesn't exist out on the highway past the Platinum. You mind giving me a ride in so I can clock out?"

Alison takes a long sip from her coffee, before letting loose a quiet groan. Ugh. Maybe this was a bad idea. She slings her bag back over her shoulder and drags back out, clearly either not with it enough to notice the sudden alarm from the other patrons of the cafe, or sick enough that she just.. doesn't give a shit. She needs her hot bean water, dammit, even if she can't keep a damn thing else down. The redhead starts up with another coughing fit at the door, into her elbow once more, and then pushes back through it, heading back out in the same direction from which she came.

The more talk there is about unsolved murder, the tighter the skin around Cassidy's eye sockets becomes when she's looking at Ruiz. Sutton is arriving just in time. But Cassidy is the first to break tension. "I need a fucking Kool." She snaps up her purse and strides out.

Does Ruiz mind giving her a ride in? "Only if I get to come with you," is offered without looking up from his phone, which he's just pulled back out to answer a text. To the station. Obviously, he means come in with her to the station. His dark eyes do tick up briefly when the redhead who dragged herself in, starts dragging herself back out again. And then a more lingering glance sent Marion's way as he keeps a bead on them. Cassidy, meanwhile, gets a less-than-friendly smile and a, "Hasta luego," from the captain before he slurps his coffee again.

Marion says, "I really did think Seattle was as weird as it got. Excepting maybe Portland. I was wrong. Thank you for the cappuccino, Sutton. Next time I won't ask so many awkward questions. Promise."

Sutton watches Cassidy bail out, then glances over at Ruiz and his question. Maybe it's a language barrier. There's a brief squint, then she nods. "Yep. We can grab something drive-thru on the way. Sarah ate my fucking muffin." She wasn't going to finish it anyway. The paramedic rises (you can tell because the back of her shirt even says paramedic on it, and yet people still ask her what she does for a living), and takes her drink with her. "You can pay." Oh, generous, Sutton. She reaches for the older man's hand and she rises, turning her gaze back to Marion.

"Ask away, love. As many as you want. I like an interesting conversation, but I'm off in thirty and my luck won't hold with the radio." She flashes a brief, but bright little grin to the dark-haired cappucino-drinker. "You're very welcome. Be safe out there, mm?"

Marion chuckles. "All right, then. Good to meet you, Sutton. I'll see you around."

Ruiz checks his watch, fetches his coffee, and lets Sutton take his hand as she declares it time to go. Which doesn't stop him from taking his time in getting to his feet, mind. He's about to bid farewell to Marion, but they're gone before he has the chance. "Drive thru?" he repeats after Sutton, with a bit of a face. "Fine." And then he rises, shoves his phone back into his jacket pocket, and accompanies her out.

"... It's not a crime to like nubs of chicken fried into batter shapes," Sutton's saying as they exit out into the drizzling night.