2020-04-05 - A Chill Diner Day

It was one of those moments that Yule hadn't had over the past few weeks: time to get his head out of work, out of all of his experiments. He's seated in a booth to one side, lounging, and somehow? He's managed to get a plate of eggs from the waitress who has been tending to him, along with a cup of coffee. Held in his hands is a newspaper, folded over to make it more manageable as the ME lazily browses through the noteworthy items of the day.

It was a dreadful winter and it's been a hard few months, but Esme's powered through it. She's been partially back living with her dad but they've been talking about him moving to an assisted living retirement community type place in Seattle since she can't always be there for him. She may or may not have picked back up her smoking habit but she's trying to limit it and hopefully kick it again. It's her turn for the Grizzly breakfast run again which is a nice excuse to get out of the precinct for a while.

Esme slides the paper with the orders on it to the woman behind the counter who, of course, as the signature annoyed look. Then she takes a peek aroun to see who all is here and actually has to do a double take when she sees Yule. They've both been pretty busy so it honestly feels like ages since she's seen him outside of some of the days she's stayed over at his place or vice versa. A little grin is on her lips as she walks over to him, leaning down to press a kiss to his temple. "Look who's managed to escape their dungeon." She teases gently.

"Detective Wilkenson," Comes the knowing words from Yule, even as he leans in and against that kiss, one finger slipping up to pull down the edge of his paper to peer over at the woman. "I have. Have a seat, if you want. I imagine it'll be a while," It's an all too knowing look cast towards the wait staff who still hasn't moved from where she had slid that piece of paper over, a small scoff of amusement given, fingers carefully folding up that paper down to its smallest footprint. "Glad spring is finally here. Hopefully it'll bring a bit more calm than winter had, yeah?"

"I'm sure it will be. Nice to get out of the office though anyway. Enjoy the bit of nicer weather." Esme agreed as she settled into the seat across from him. A glance towards the woman behind the counter but she doesn't seem so surprised. Then looking back towards Yule, "I'm extremely glad for the change of weather, yeah. Though, I swear there've been more plant-related incident reports coming in recently." She mused. "How've you been doing?"

"Too much work to do," Comes the muttering from Yule as to how he has been, his head wobbling one way and then the other, "Seems like most of the family has found better things to do. Which is good, but," A faint smile curls to Yule's features, one shoulder lifting up into a hapless shrug before he nudges that plate of over easy eggs towards the detective in a silent offering, if she so desires. "After christmas, and February, are always hard. Spring brings with it new hope, however. And dare I ask what sort of plant based activity?"

Esme takes the offering, picking up his fork and snagging a bite of eggs before the fork is set down again. She gives him another bit of a smile. "Yeah, New hope...new leaf...all that." She glanced towards the window a moment as if thinking and then shook it off, refocusing. "Well...there was a thing at the zoo - apparently some new non-native plants randomly sprouted up? One guy swore the thorns on his roses were trying to poke him." Esme shakes her head. "Just weird things...but that's all this town is, right?" Trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice with that last sentence. Weird and terrible, awful things. "Dad and I are going to go up to Seattle this weekend to look at some of the retirement communities. We both think it'll be good for him to be around other people his own age." And Esme didn't want him in Gray Harbor any more.

"Not the zoo again," Yule's head just shakes in time with her own, clearly still not relishing that particular place, small as it is. It's his coffee that he seems focused on, lifting it up to take a long sip from it, while those brown eyes fall into rapt attention on the woman herself. Yeah. This town is full of weird things." It's a momentary glance of sympathy cast towards the woman, both hands curling around the warmth of his cup, before he offers up that, as always, direct and to the point line of thoughts, "How do you feel about it? You going to move to Seattle? I know the reason you came here was for him. And," Well, her mom, as well. Down those eyes flicker to the table, but only for a heartbeat, before lifting back up.

"The zoo is a trouble magnet." Esme agreed with a wry little chuckle. She relaxed back in her seat and shook her head. "I think it will be good for him to get out of this town. Better for his health." Esme had grabbed a napkin from the holder and was idly toying and twisting it. Focusing up on Yule she smiles again, more genuine. "Nah, I don't want to work in Seattle again, let alone live there. I'm going to stay put. Besides, I have other reasons for staying now." She nudges his foot gently with her own.

"Yeah? It's cause of the zoo, isn't it. That is why you are staying," A wry smile curls to the corners of his mouth as Yule's foot nudges back against her own, a low breath pushed out as he watches her. "Yeah. It'll be good for him to be... no there. Safer, and all of that. Not that far of a trip, anyway. If there is anything I can do to help, yeah?" That offer is honest and sincere, a glance cast towards the woman as he takes another sip from his mug, long and lingering before he leans back. "Any interesting cases for me to poke my nose into?"

"Yep, you got me. Definitely the zoo." Esme chuckled, pushing a few strands of hair from her eyes. "It will definitely be safer. And he'll still be close enough that I can go up if something happens. And I won't have to constantly be worrying about him because there will people there to keep an eye on him." She tilts her head some at his question, thinking it over? "Honestly? Not that have come across my desk since I voluntarily put myself on desk duty." Because she'd been in no shape to do any proper investigating . "But I'm feeling better about things now, so going to get back into stuff. Still at a roadblock with that organ stealer but...at least it hasn't killed anyone else. But you know i'll recruit you if something eye catching comes along."

The siren call of an exhaust unconcerned for silly things like state emissions regulations or local noise ordinances growls its way to finality from outside the diner. A rather portly Latino is pushing his way into the diner a short time later. His face was haggard, eyes half-lidded, an expression that made it hard to tell if it belonged to an illicit substance or simply a lack of sleep. Zombie-like, Rekani plods his way to an open table, almost unfurling into the booth seat like a tumbling bag of rubble. He sits for a long moment, staring out the window, lifting a hand to rub firmly, but lazily against scratchy stubble. He seems totally unaware of the Grizzley's standard of service, his own lagging consciousness taking a long moment to notice it'd be a damn long while until someone would deign to bring him a menu.

Esme has finally managed to hassle a waitress into giving her a cup of coffee while she waits for the rest of the precincts order to ever be finished. She looks up as an unfamiliar face comes in to the diner, studying the man for a beat before chuckling softly. "Yeah, I know that feeling." She muses, seeing the man's zombie-like state of sleepiness.

Did Rekani notice? Probably not. He was still waiting for someone to show up with a menu or to order or something. His phone comes out, he checks on something, he sets it down. He checks again. Really earning those Yelp reviews. He takes a quick look around, his face slowly falling into confusion.

Impatient and hungry as hell, he just holds a hand out, one of those gimmicky bear-shaped menus simply slipping off a table near him and into his hand. He opens it.

Yes, he had looked around. No, even if Esme was staring right at him, he hadn't noticed. Yes, right in the middle of the diner, he was too tired and lazy to get off his ass and get himself a menu. Fat kid problems.

Esme looked wide-eyed a moment as Rekani magically pulled a menu to him. She shifted a bit to focus more fully on the younger man. "You know doing dumb shit like that is going to get you in trouble yeah?" Blunt as ever, she leans one elbow on the table, taking a long sip of her coffee and just staring at Rekani. Not that she hadn't done some little things of her own in her home to practice some but all the people she'd talked to have all said it comes with consequences and she got to experience it first hand herself.

Rekani glances up as this time he's actually cognizant of being addressed. He blinks once, mouth hanging just a shade open as he looks at Esme. What was she... He glances to the menu, then back at her.

"What, peeps gonna get mad I got a menu?" He accompanies the remark with a shrug, because obviously he didn't think much of the action.

A short laugh escapes the detective. "No. There's bigger fish than these people," She waves her hand a bit to motion to the diner in general, "That you should be worrying about with frivolous use of that." She takes another sip of coffee. "If you do it often." She gives him a look like she's assuming he might. This also is probably the first time she's seen someone use their abilities so....randomly.

Esme was right, of course. Rekani had never met Gina. Woe be unto him. She was even right abiut his frequency of power use, still it only seemed the warning was taken with a tired grain of salt. He lifts a hand to point at the bags under his eyes, holding the position for a long moment, letting her know he knew just the consequences.

"It already sucks. Might as well use the perks."

Esme kept her gaze steady on Rekani, studying him a moment and then giving a light shrug of her own. She'd done her duty. "What happened?" Brow quirked as she relaxed back in her seat and took another sip of coffee.

"Just... Nightmares... Had em since I was a kid." He finally flags down a waitress with a wave and a instant demeanor change, play-acting at flamboyant enthusiasm. It fades almost the instant she goes to take his order though. Soda, dozen wings, double-stacked burger loaded hangover burger. Side of fries. Now he waits. His attention returns to Esme.

"What happened to you?"

Esme's eyes widen briefly as Rekani lists off his order. Heart attack waiting to happen. To her credit, she doesn't say anything about it though. She only sticks her nose so far into other people's business when it's not a police matter after all. She lowers her gaze back to her coffee for a moment. Fair was fair, but she wasn't sure how much she wanted to share with a stranger.

Then finally back up to Rekani, "I got what I wished for." It sounded hella ominous, even though she hadn't quite meant it to.

Rekani was not a man always so great with subtlety, whether by general life enthusiasm, youth, illicit substances, or any other host of possibilities. Thus, good response is a positive sounding, "Oh, Dope."

His phone briefly distracts him, and a soda arrives so he can sip. "What'd you wish for?"

A wry smile crosses her lips. "Wished for my dad to get better." She finishes off the rest of her coffee, wishing it had a shot of something stronger in it. "He got better, and my mom died." Setting the empty coffee mug down.

Rekani opens his mouth as he hears that, takes a breath, and closes it again. He settles onto his elbows and admits. "Ok, not so dope..." His wings show up soon after and sets into absolutely wrecking them, imminent heart attack or not.

"Not so dope." Esme agreed as she started to stand up. "Guess you know it goes without saying. Just be careful yeah?" She definitely steals one of his fries before making her way to the counter to pick up that finally finished order. "Have a good day. " she offered a more genuine smile to him before heading out.