2020-09-27 - Apologetic Donut

It's been a few days since the disconcerting Dream wherein the acting Chief was a bully, and hentai almost became water cooler conversation. Which isn't to say that it still might not. Having avoided the inevitable for long enough, de la Vega eventually sucks it up and stops by the forensic scientist's office, or whatever most closely approximates it these days. There's a rap on the door and a clearing of his throat. And a box containing what looks like the last jelly filled donut, offered in tribute.

Cecil sits at his desk in a lab coat, his glasses reflecting the lights from his monitor. His hair is disheveled, but it always is. "Come in," he says, and then looks up a beat later. "Oh, chief, come in," he says, and he smiles, as though he's genuinely pleased to see the man who bullied him a few nights ago. He perks up further when he spies the last jelly donut in the box. "For me? Thank you!" It's the little things in life that matter. He takes up the donut with a delighted smile. "To what do I owe the honor?" He's got a sprain boot on one foot, and there are crutches leaning up against his desk.

The boot's taken notice of with a furrowed brow, and there's a hitch in his step before the cop completes his ingress into the younger man's office. "No, for the other forensic fucking scientist who I treated like shit in a fucked up Dream," he mumbles, thumping the box onto Cecil's desk and dropping into a chair with a huff of breath through his nose. A beat. "Yeah, of course it's for you. De nada." He waves a tattooed hand at it, and glances over the lab coat quizzically. Then the crutches. "The hell did you do to your foot?"

Cecil sets the donut on his desk to munch on later (it would be terribly rude to talk with his mouth full), and he says, "When we were running away from the, er, principal. I fell over some rubble. I told the doctor I fell out of bed." He glances down at his hands, neatly folded before him. "I got out, though. That's the important thing. And don't worry about, what happened. Teenagers can be cruel."

"..fell out of bed?" Javier repeats, dark eyes squinting up slightly as he, perhaps, tries to picture this. "How does one break their fucking foot, falling out of bed?" He rifles his fingers through his hair. "You can, uh. Eat. The donut. If you want, by the way." The box is nudged closer. "That's why I brought it."

Something still seems to be bothering him, though. "I thought you managed to get out. I'm sorry. I wouldn't have.. I wouldn't have left you, if I'd known."

Cecil takes up the donut and takes a bite. Jelly are his favorite, and his good mood is palpable. "It's just a sprain," he says after he swallows the bite. "And I doubt the doctor believed me, but he didn't ask any questions." He's quiet for a moment, considering Ruiz, and then he says, "I know you wouldn't have left me, chief. It's all right, though. I got out no worse for wear." He then says, "I don't hold against anyone who they were at that age. And you weren't as bad as the bullies I had back in London. I wasn't exactly cool."

It's clear that the man - for all his gruffness, for all his willingness to kick the chairs and flick erasers at the heads of smaller, nerdier kids - would not actually have left Cecil behind. Not if he'd known. And it's gnawing at him something fierce. Jaw hard, he turns to glance toward the little window that looks out into the hall. He could probably stand to cut his hair, and trim his beard; he's letting himself go a tetch. Not mountain man territory, not yet. But give him a couple of months, and he might be getting there.

"Anyone gives you a hard time, you let me know, yeah?" His gaze roves back to Cecil, and narrows a fraction. He's in his civvies today, as he most often is. Tee shirt, cargo pants. Badge, gun (that nasty Sig, loaded of course). Leather jacket, smells like he went for a smoke break not too long ago, and like rain.

"I will, chief," Cecil says without hesitation. "I'm no glutton for punishment. Although I don't want you to worry about me." He hesitates, like he's thinking about saying something else, but then he decides against it and says instead, "I manage to get out of all sorts of scrapes, and I get out of most of them by not getting into them in the first place. I think I prefer working in the lab to being in the field."

Cecil's watched for a moment or two more, and then the cop pushes back to his feet slowly. "You got something to say, say it," he murmurs. Then chuckles. "I'll try not to worry if you try to keep the fuck out of trouble."

"It's just that I took a little injury the other day catching that killer. Just a scratch. He got me in the neck with his knife, and this lovely woman healed me so that you can't even see I was ever hurt. But it was in the line of duty, and I don't regret that." He looks up at Ruiz from where he sits. "I just thought you might hear about it eventually, so better to know now it's fine." He pushes his glasses up his nose. "I don't want you to worry. I don't want to be any kind of burden, chief. I'd rather make things better for you, not worse."

Catching that killer seems to be a sore spot with the captain, given the look that passes across his eyes when it's brought up. But no lectures seem to be in the offing, today. Instead, he glances at his watch, and moves for the door. "I'm glad you're all right." He doesn't ask what lovely woman, and he doesn't want to know how Cecil would like to make things better for him. He simply watches him for a long moment, a little like an old wolf trying to decide whether this little morsel is worth the energy it'd take to prowl on over and take a swipe at.

Eventually, "I want that report on my desk in the morning." Another glance at the crutches. "Feel better soon." And he eases on out with a glint in those dark eyes as he goes.

Cecil bears the scrutiny with a wide-eyed lack of guile. The old wolf probably wouldn't meet much resistance. He smiles when Ruiz says he wants that report on his desk. "Bright and early, chief," he says. He gestures with his donut. "Thanks again for the donut, and for thinking of me."