2021-06-01 - Things Look Good

And so it is, today, that when she comes into his office it's with her sunglasses off her eyes and parked on her head. She has an iced coffee in one hand and her bag in the other. She opens the door with a push of her shoulder and smiles when she enters saying, "Heeey! There's our favorite police Captain! Are you excited for Friday?"

Her favourite police Captain is nowhere to be found, unfortunately. Instead, there's some Mexican slouched in the Chief's desk chair, donut halfway into his mouth when the blonde walks through his door. His dark eyes tick up to her, and the pastry completes its journey before being bitten into, and chewed on slowly. And then swallowed, before he offers cautiously, "Should I be?" The cop's in his usual 'civilian' attire: faded tee shirt, black jeans, gun and badge suggesting he's still nominally on duty.

"Well, we are just wrapping up here. Provided we don't find any bodies under the floorboards between now and then," Cassidy laughs, "You'll get your clean bill of health. We'll do a press statement. Then I'm gone."

The little blond helps herself to take one of the seats across from Ruiz's desk. "I have to admit I'm somewhat impressed that you've managed to get the department straight." On paper at least.

Bodies under the floorboards. That's a good one. He chortles, and licks some icing off his thumb before reaching over to close the lid of his laptop. His fingertips sit atop it for a moment or two before withdrawing. "Is this your way of saying you actually fucking like me, Bennet? Or is there a catch?" He eases back in his chair to watch her. Scrutinize her, really. And who doesn't love being scrutinized by de la Vega?

"Is that all you care about Ruiz? I'm flattered," Cassidy says in an artificially cutesy voice. "I guess you're okay, sure. From a professional stand point - it's looking good Ruiz. And I'm looking forward to going back to Seattle." So don't mess it up! is left unsaid.

"Javier." The correction's made flatly. Because nobody really calls him by his middle name unless they're trying to irritate him. And she isn't trying to irritate him. Is she?

Now he definitely looks amused, though. "Yeah, your approval is absolutely at the top of my list, Bennet. I've got it taped to my bathroom mirror." He's trying not to smile. "You said you wanted to talk to me, the other day. What was that about?"

"Cassidy," is her own gentle correction, though its offered in a much more pleasant fashion.

The woman looks confused for a moment and then "Oh! I got my question answered. Don't worry about it." She waves a hand to banish the thought.

"This could be huge for you Javier. Running out corruption. Straightening the place up. And soon the public will know it. The AG will know it. I'll be out of here and you could probably even run for Sheriff if you wanted to. A local hero!"

He watches her for a moment or two, curious and maybe a little dubious, at the question that's been answered. But opts not to press. The rest of it though, it doesn't amuse him or confuse him so much as.. well. The look on his face is a tough one to parse. It's a little bit pained, just for a moment. "A hero," he repeats, chortling again. "Do I look like a hero to you?"

A shake of his head, fingers scraped through his beard. "The sooner they appoint a new Chief and let me get back to running the patrol division, the better." He hitches his chin to her. "What's in Seattle for you, Cassidy?"

"Suit yourself," Cassidy says with a shrug. She had gotten a make-up mirror from her bag while he was talking and she's finger-combing sections of her hair while studying her reflection.

She snaps the mirror closed and tosses it back into her bag. "I graduated Harvard, Javier. Grays Harbor County isn't really for me." She's trying to say she's over qualified without sounding stuck-up about it. This is a friendly meeting, after all, and Javier is on her good side for the moment.

Maybe it does, or maybe it doesn't suit him. He leaves that one alone. Instead, "Harvard, huh? Pretty fucking fancy. You must have really pissed someone off to get sent out here, then with the likes of us." Does de la Vega have a good side? Pretty much he talks shit to everyone, whether he likes them or not. Maybe he's just sore because some little blond girl has more education in her pinky finger than he's ever got any hope of getting.

She bobs her head, "Mmhmm... Harvard. Summa cum laude. Top 2% of my class," just to stick a stilleto heel into that point.

"It doesn't really work that way, Javier." Cassidy says with a good humored look. "You take the job you can get and then you take the next opportunity, and so on, up the ladder. Grays Harbor County had an openning so I applied. Then King County did so I applied to that." She spreads her hands apart and shrugs, "/Typically/ ADAs aren't transferred around, you know? But this was important to the D/AG for some reason." She swats the air with a limp wrist, "So don't worry."

"Do I look worried?" Javier replies, dark eyes shifting from his half-eaten donut, back up to the blonde. Then back to his donut. Which he promptly reaches for, and shoves into his mouth. Such a delicate creature. "I've got a couple of reports headed for the Appellate court that I need your autograph on before you go, by the way. And then I think that's it. Going to miss seeing you at the Poorhouse for karaoke, yeah?" He might actually mean that, too.

"Sure. Just leave them in the usual spot." Cassidy and Javier obviously have a 'usual spot' for these things. She standa and grabs her bag. Then she crosses her fingers with an excited close teeth smile. "I'll miss it too, but... Here's to hoping I don't need to stay."

She's poised now to leave and will do so unless Ruiz has anything else. Which is also a shift. Usually she just decides to be out and that's it. This curtesy seems to also be a part of what it means to be on her good side.

"Mm." That's as close to verbal acknowledgement as she's going to get. He even thought about smiling, even if the notion was abandoned about half a second later. Clearing his throat, he pushes to his feet as well. And snags a napkin from his desk to wipe the stray bits of icing off his fingers, before awkwardly shoving his hand out for Cassidy to take. The nuances of social conduct still mostly seem to escape him, it seems. "Good luck," he offers, and this time he actually does try to smile.

Cassidy looks somewhat amused by the attempt at professional conduct. She looks to the hand and reaches for it, giving it a shake. Her grip isn't very firm. Despite her in-office demeanor, it's a rather feminine handshake. Blue eyes that have no reason today to stab holes through flesh lift back up to look at him. Why would anyone ever do anything to make her look at them any other way?

"You too Javier."

Then she walks out.