Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tired and exhausted, Erica had just returned to the precinct from her evening patrol shift. She removed her jacket and her bulletproof vest then placed them both on the chair beside her desk.

“Talk about a long night” Stretching her arms above her head she heard a loud pop from her previously stiff shoulder. About a week prior she had been sparing with one of her fellow officers in their training facility. The wrestling matt had recently been replaced and they were just breaking it in, so to speak.

However, in a moment of distraction, Officer Alling managed to hip throw her and she, being ill-prepared, hit the matt harder than expected. Erica didn’t blame him for it, considering it was her own mistake that led to the minor injury and it wasn’t like it was bad enough to keep her from going into work the next day. It’s just that the two of them had only grappled together maybe twice in the two or so years she’s been employed at this precinct and neither were quite used to their height differences yet.

Either way, she managed to make it through the day without further incident. Nighttime, however, was another story as there were two calls that she responded to, both were instances of public intoxication. Unfortunately neither were inclined to listen to reason and calm down and so after one of them took a swing at her partner, thankfully they missed, they were both arrested and immediately brought in.

The entire ride was them shouting belligerent nonsense in the back seat, throwing every racial slur in the book including some rather comical Shakespearean insults into the mix. There was more than one moment where she was tempted to break check the vehicle to jostle them a bit, but she refrained if only to save herself the trouble of having to clean the back seat of the patrol vehicle if she accidentally made him vomit.

But now it was over, she had survived another day and now it was time to fill out the reports before she could go home for the night and get some sleep. And so, after walking over to the breakroom to grab herself a cup of coffee and several packets of sugar and creme, Officer Griffin took a seat and logged into her computer so she could get this last task out of the way.

About halfway through the second report, a clamoring of noise erupted behind her on the other side of the shared office space. Focused as she was, Erica paid it no mind to the loud whistling or shouting and continued typing away assuming someone probably caught a break on a case they had been working on. She’d find out before leaving and offer her support but her current task came first.

“Hey, congratulations!” Officer Alling approached her from behind and clapped her solidly on the back right between her shoulder blades with his broad hand. The action was startling and made her go tense but after slowly releasing the breath she’d been holding, Erica turned around and looked up at him with a perplexed expression.

“Congratulations?” She repeated with a raised brow. “Is this some sort of prank?”

“Haha, no. You weren’t paying attention were you?” With his thumb, he pointed over his shoulder at the wall mounted TV where the local news was listing off nominations for The People’s Heroes. “You musta done somethin’ good. Seems someone wanted ta show you some appreciation because they just read your name and even pulled your photo off the Facebook Page.”

“There’s a picture of me on the Facebook page?” Erica asked because apparently out of all that explanation that was the only thing that stook. Officer Alling snorted and placed a Fuchsia Star Charm in her inbox as a gift, or prize, she really wasn’t sure.

“You’ve done a lot of good Officer Griffin, I’m glad to see that someone’s notice and is showing appreciation for your hard work.”

A light blush swept across her tanned skin. It wasn’t that kind words were all that rare but being put on the spot like that did make her feel a bit embarrassed. “Thank you. Just don’t let anyone else see you being nice to me, they might actually think you have a heart.” Erica winked at him teasingly and he, in turn, let out another snort like laugh.

“Yeah yeah,” he waved his hand dismissively then left her to her own devices so she could finish this last report and sneak outta here so she could go home and get some much-needed sleep.