I Watch the Lights

by maven

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Third Watch, Monroe and Cruz belong to more mega corps and millionaires that can easily be listed. I'll detail them all in a week or so. If I remember. But no profit being made here, okay?

SUBTEXT and VIOLENCE DISCLAIMER: None although refered to in past tense.

CONTINUITY DISCLAIMER: Post Season Five episode "Surrender". Or maybe actually a lost scene from "Surrender". And isn't that an ER episode name and have these people no original thoughts?

EXPLANATION AND FURTHER DISCLAIMERS: I have no idea. Likely I was subconsiousless dared. Not betaed, not proof read really and I caught one loose/lose.

FEEDBACK, COMMENT AND FLAMES: Email at maven369@sympatico.ca


I watch the lights. Hall light. Bathroom. You can tell the bathroom even a couple of stories because they always put that cheap adhesive plastic over the windows rather than spring for opaque glass. I wait a few, trying not to feel like a peeping tom as her silhouette moves across the window a few times. I wait a few more and then the day catches up and I realize I'm going to need some legal stimulants to stay awake.

There's a coffee place a half block down. No Starbucks but they have something hot and black and full of caffeine plus some plastic wrapped sandwiches that don't look like they're too stale and a rice crispy square. And after one sip of the so-called coffee I figure salmonella doesn't have a change so I grab another sandwich.

This is when I realize I'm camping out in the van tonight.

And about one step more I finally figure out why it took a pry bar to get Bosco away from Yokas window.

I check the bathroom window. Still lit. Check the rest. Still dark except for the puny little one I know shines at the front door. I munch on the sandwich, saving the rice crispy brick until later. I stretch my legs out in the middle of the seat and contemplate how much easier it is to wait outside an apartment in a minivan rather than a cruiser. I saw off a bit of the rice crispy with my teeth and chew it, hoping that the crunchy bits are petrified puffed rice and not tooth enamel. I check the bathroom window. Still lit. Check the rest. Still dark.

I figure this is my night for revelations as I bolt from the van. My subconscious hears the side door slam shut and the dull click as the autolock kicks in. The super is none to happy but my badge in his face gets the apartment open without me having to kick it in. Which was, I admit, my first thought.

His angry muttering is cut off as I shut the door. The shower spray competes with whimpering to fill the silence it creates.

She's huddled in the far end of the tub. I don't bother searching for clean towels, I just kick over the hamper on my way by and grab a few that fall out. She seems oblivious to me as I kill the water and tug on her arm gently. Her skin is icy, new bruises on day olds one. She follows my lead, standing on wobbly legs and I am very careful not to see.

Not to see is a talent kids have. My mom use to complain how I didn't see the dirty dishes or the vacuum or the whatever. But I also didn't see the old guy who exposed himself as we walked to school. Or the 12 year old drug dealers who use to pull our hair or the 15 year old selling herself on the corner that we use to play Barbie with. Didn't see in the locker room the bruises like the ones Cruz's legs and upper arms. Didn't see the scratches where her torn nails tried to scrub away whatever it was that only she could see now.

Don't see is a useful talent for a cop to have. To not see but to notice. To not see but to remember. To not see and to not react because if you react you either puke your guts out or lose it totally.

I use the towels to dry off the worst of it and wrap the cleanest one around her hair. Her bathrobe is hanging from a hook on the door and I don't bother to try to put her arms into the sleeves but just wrap it around her shoulders.

"I'm not use to this."

She startles me and I realize I'd been assuming that she was unaware of me for some reason. "Someone seeing you all naked and wet?"

She laughs and I feel my ears burn at the words that apparently came out of my mouth because we are the only two people here after all.

"No. Vulnerable."

"Yeah," I ask before I could stop myself. "Who was the last?"

She grips the bathrobe tightly around herself and I can hear her back teeth start to chatter against each other. "Which. Naked and wet or vulnerable?"

"Vulnerable."

"Strangely enough. Bosco."

"Naked and wet?" my mouth says before I can stop it.

The laugh is harsh and mocking. "Strangely enough. Bosco."

I snort. "That boy must have hidden depths."

"Not really," she says as she opens the cabinet over the sink and spills three Tylenol 3s into her hand. They sound like petrified puffed rice as she crunches them.

The silence becomes awkward. "I should go."

"Yeah, you should."

I nod. Obviously this partner feeling is one way. "Then I'll take off. If your super asks I found your cell phone and got it to you."

"He always was a gullible fuck up."

"Yeah, well. See you tomorrow."

I'm all the way to the door before she speaks again.

"Monroe? You'll be outside, right?"

I see but do not react because a grin would be inappropriate at the moment. "Of course."

The End

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