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It was always the same, after a long weekend of playing dad, the moment that Damian shut the car door on his eight year old to send him back with the woman that couldn't have hated him more, he went straight to the bar. There was nothing easy about parting ways with his son, even if he wasn't Dad of the Year, but it was harder when he wasn't quite sure what his ex said about him in their time apart. He drank to forget about her more than anything.
Damian knocked on the bar and got a beer as well as a shot of tequila. With a small salute to the bartender, there was no hesitation before he took the shot and washed it down with beer. His face scrunched up and he shook his head back and forth as the warmth of the alcohol spread throughout his body. The bar wasn't as full as usual, which he had no problem with, but he had noticed a face he didn't know.
Waving over the bartender, he offered to buy her next drink, whatever it was that she was drinking. The bartender nodded and not long after, the drink was set down in front of her. The bartender motioned towards him and he lifted his beer, "Enjoy gorgeous. One of us should."
Most people could find Teddy at her office. She spent far too much time there from early mornings to late nights almost every day of the week. Weekends were nothing to her. After all, she didn't know many people, and there was nothing to dedicate to like she could her work. It sounded lonely, in hindsight. It also seemed lonely to drink on her own as she folded over casework.
So she left the files at home and went out instead. Worst case scenario, she could get a decent glass of wine and have an excuse to not answer her phone. But as her first glass ended, another was settled in front of her. From the guy a few seats own, apparently. She looked over at an instant.
To Teddy, he was familiar. With eyes like hers, it was very rare to forget a face. And there his was, flashing in her memory. It took seconds before she considered everything; his image correlated with a blue collar uniform. He was an officer she'd seen at least once on a case she'd worked on. She didn't bring it up.
"Is this enjoyment to you?" She had to ask. Most people wouldn't piece drinking alone with enjoyment.
A little stunned by her abrupt answer, Damian dropped his hand back down to the bar and set his bottle down with it. However, it didn't take him long before he tilted it back to his lips to take a long swig. That was the problem with bars, he never could determine which of the women were actually up for a good time and which seemed a little stiff and rigid. Although, the longer he looked at her, the more he realized that it should have been obvious.
"More enjoyable than my prior engagement was, doll," He gave a half-assed shrug and glanced up at the bartender briefly before finishing off his beer in another long swig. She was drinking wine, seriously, what had he expected? There was something familiar about her, although, he couldn't place where he'd seen her before because she was not his usual type.
Arguably, any woman was his type, but he usually went for the willing ones first.
A line of difficult work had taught Teddy not to judge people by their first actions. Or the first way they spoke. She'd seen some people with the worst attitude in the world end up having the best character. Likewise, the most well-dressed and proper individuals found themselves guilty of murder. A first point of call didn't deserve to be the only point.
Second? Well, that was a little different. Prior engagement. He had no idea he was potentially talking to his greatest ally for a custody battle. She had no idea she could help him, either.
"You deserve thanks for doling out such joy." She said, honestly. His attitude wasn't worth being petty over. Look at her. She rose above this on the daily. Just as well as she rose above pointless, undeserved nicknames. Again, high above. She raised her eyebrows to the bartender, which was enough together his attention; "He sounds like he needs another." She declared, leaving a twenty on the countertop. A generous tip in a thankless job always worked with grace; he had another bottle in seconds.
The way she spoke, so well put-together even in a bar, it made him uneasy as well as curious. He had come across his fair share of people who stuck their nose up at him because he was rough around the edges, but typically they weren't sitting at the same bar at the same hour that he was. Something told him she wasn't doing it just to be pretentious, she must have just been smarter than he was. It didn't take much.
When the drink was set in front of him, the corner of his mouth quirked up and he nodded, "It's much appreciated, but in all the movies I've seen, it's usually the guy that does the buying." Although, he wasn't ungrateful and for all he knew, it could have been the wrong way to learn. "But thanks, seriously. It's been a helluva day," Damian glanced at her again and smiled.
"I haven't seen you in here before, you new to town or something?" Because he liked to believe he knew everyone that he needed to in his line of work. Although, when he was drinking, it was a hit or miss kind of thing. After all, that was his whole point of drinking.
Teddy briefly considered saying she was all about breaking such stereotypes, but she didn't. She might have only been speaking to him for a matter of minutes, but she already knew to pick her battles. Even out of the office, everything was as calculated as the cases she was supposed to be working on. She didn't talk, she just smiled back at him, primarily for how polite he'd just been to her after his very short track record.
"I am, actually." She admitted, her English accent filtering into those words and likely making it obvious to the officer just how new she was. Especially if she didn't recognise him. That said, a lot of foreigners flocked to this little part of America, so perhaps it wasn't as odd as most would believe.
"I'm almost positive I've seen you before, though." She lied. There was nothing almost about it. "I've always wondered; do you always keep your badge on you?"
He was definitely going to blame the slow pick-up of her accent on the shot of tequila. Although, now, it seemed to be banging him over the head. She was very British, which in truth explained a lot. Brits were naturally pretentious weren't they? It was like a part of their culture or something. That, and they only had about six actors that they cycled through for television, but that was as far as his British knowledge went. Of course, he had no intention of saying any of that out loud, so he just nodded into his beer.
He lazily lulled his head back towards her when she mentioned recognizing him from somewhere. It did kind of bother him that she could pick him out of a crowd so easily when he couldn't have done the same. He was trained to do exactly that, why was he so off today? Damian snorted and shook his head, "And here, I was going to whip it out after you had a little more to drink." It sounded much worse than he'd meant, although, the more he thought about it, perhaps it wasn't as unintentional as he liked to convince himself.
"I like to keep it on me for a few reasons, yeah. Easier to keep track of and, ya know, the wow factor when I do show people," Damian shrugged again and smirked. "I swear I should have known your face from somewhere, but I can't place it for the life of me."
Even Teddy couldn't stop the small cringe that crept onto her mouth at his announcement. She at least tried to hide it with a smile. "I can't believe I ruined your big reveal." She replied in turn. She probably should have taken the time to reveal to him that he was incredibly far from her type in every way, but where would be the fun in that?
He was funny, though. She had to laugh at the prospect of wow factor. Then he looked like he wanted to piece together how he might know her. He must have seen hundreds of people in a day, let alone a week. "Sometimes, I think that lack of recognition is the point." Teddy offered honestly. For the most part, she wasn't supposed to be a face one remembered at the drop of a hat. That wasn't the point of what she did.
"I was the legal consult on a case you were involved in last week." She gave into him anyway. Why, she didn't know. It just seemed fair; "We didn't talk, though, so there's no hard feelings."
A legal consult. Well there it was, the tip of the stereotypical iceberg of why she acted so much more professional at a bar than he did. Lawyers were always composed, which was a large part of why he hadn't even considered studying law. Nothing about him was put together, but it seemed to fit her pretty well.
Damian laughed shortly and nodded, "Yeah, well, don't take it personally, I tend to keep my mouth shut while I'm working. Otherwise I might get into trouble." All anyone had to do was ask his ex wife, she'd give a long list of things he shouldn't have ever said. Through the haze of his own thoughts, he knew he should have connected the two for some reason. She was a lawyer, what did that have to do with his ex wife? It didn't come to him.
"What kind of legal work do you specialize in? Family stuff, criminal stuff? Or are you just that good that you do it all?" Because obviously there were some of those around and he wouldn't have put it past her to be that type.
Quickly sensing the length of this conversation, Teddy left her seat and shifted to the available one next to him instead. It didn't seem like he was humouring her with the way he questioned her. Surely he could find someone more interesting for small talk. Then again, it was a dead night in the bar. Maybe she was his best bet.
"You think you've got me pegged already?" She laughed, then, "That's such a cop thing."
And a lawyer thing. But again, she tried not to linger on that too long.
"I moved here for anti-discriminatory cases. Mostly against meta-humans, because - try not to take offense to this - your country is a little backwards with its laws." She explained. But he was in the similar line of work. He must have seen it all the time. Within the break of her own words she was already studying his face, looking for any signs of recognition. Familiarity to the concept. Anything.
Damian's mouth quirked up when she moved closer, more so at her question because she had practically read his mind. "As if you don't think you've got me pegged, too. We're all a little presumptuous in the legal department aren't we?" At least, he'd always thought so.
The explanation of her being in America was interesting to say the least. He couldn't imagine someone wanting to take part in this shit show of a country. Least of all with meta matters. He'd seen his fair share of messy situations in regards to hate crimes and the like. "No, you're right. Ballsy though, coming here to help fight it off." He shook his head before taking another drink, "It's sort of ironic that the metas are named the freaks, but the regular ol' humans are the ones that cause the most problems."
He didn't have any patience for hate crimes. And he was fairly certain that if anyone decided to pull one on him, he'd probably lose his badge for the amount of crazy he'd go on said person. But that's why he drank, to tame the insurmountable amount of rage that boiled inside of him. "How're you liking it here otherwise?"
Teddy looked at him with obvious surprise when he... Was that a compliment? She decided not to think too much about it, considering obvious kindness seemed few and far between. When he continued to speak, it was almost refreshing to hear someone say everything she didn't think she was allowed to.
"Well, I'm here." She replied with ease, "And I have more work than I know what to do with, but I've been told it's not good to spend all my time worrying over people I don't really know." In her mind, that was neither a yes or a no. But it was absolutely part of the job they shared.
"So why're you here?" She asked him. After all, he'd already told her his day was awful.
Damian found her response interesting. He probably should have taken a page from her book, not caring about people he didn't know. However, in his line of work, he cared a little too much about everyone he was out to save. Perhaps that was why in his personal life he pushed everyone so far away, he was too busy caring about complete strangers. He hardly had the capacity for that.
He gave a nod and shrugged, "Makes sense. No use in caring unnecessarily." So he said.
The question, he had to have seen it coming. In the first few sentences he'd told her that he was having a shit day, though to be fair, he didn't think she'd care enough to remember. Looking straight ahead, he tipped back his beer and took a large gulp while he carefully considered what to say. Well, it didn't really matter, actually. "Had to send my son back to his mother's house today. I've found that after eight years, it still isn't easy."
Teddy watched him when he spoke the way she did. She knew she didn't need to answer or try to argue with him, because she knew exactly what he was doing. Just one more common thread, it seemed.
Even she had to admit, when he mentioned how bad his day was, she never expected something like this. It didn't sound like some kind of information he gave out easily, but then, sometimes it was easier to share with a stranger than it was someone much closer.
"That's..." She paused, briefly; "That's a hell of a thing to have on your shoulders." She wasn't one to medicate with alcohol - not openly, anyway - but she wasn't about to stand in the way of what he thought he needed. She knocked against the bartop, raising two fingers briefly. Seconds later, two shot glasses landed before them. She definitely wasn't a tequila drinker, but the snippet of his story was enough to change the minds of most.
"I can't relate to that." Teddy offered him honestly. She wouldn't insult his situation by trying; "But I can listen."
Damian's eyes fell on the two glasses that were set in front of them and at that he had to smile. At least she was willing to help a guy out. Typically when he drank, he managed to stay away from the topic. He'd find someone to talk to about his job, or his dog, something that didn't really weight heavily on him. Something that typically kept him in high spirits even if it was a show. He supposed though that finding a lawyer, he shouldn't have expected an easy conversation.
How to start was another story. What was he supposed to do, dive into his life story? His teeth sunk into his lip, "I'm not really sure what to say. I'm divorced with an eight year old that I only get to see a few times a month. That about sums it up." He laughed humorlessly and shook his head. It was more complicated once the gritty details were involved, but he was reluctant to talk about any of it, to be honest.
The military while it had probably saved his life more times than one, had also aided in fucking it up just as well in the long run. Although, perhaps it saved him from a toxic situation because he'd seen how crazy she could get after they separated.
