kess and sam

Who: Kess and Sam
Where: Nighthawk's diner
When: Mid-morning

Kess was tired, and she almost wished that she was hung over. When she'd woken up that morning, she felt like she smelt like she should be hung over. She hadn't finished working at Babylon until the early hours of the morning - the O'Malleys had seen to that. They'd had one of their 'special' nights last night, entertaining their friends or business acquaintances (Kess didn't know which, and she didn't want to know either) with an open house. It hadn't been a particularly pleasant experience for any of the staff there, since all the punters were 'special guests' and it was very much a case of 'the customer is always right'. Even thinking about it she wanted to make quote marks in the air. Her very thoughts were edged with a bitter sarcasm.

She'd kept herself on the level merely by out talking anyone who made an approach she didn't like, but since the O'Malleys had taken over, she'd had to get used to the groping. Making complaints to her new employers merely brought her to their attention more, and she really didn't want that. So, she'd quietly tended bar, and out talked the increasingly drunk 'guests' - and put up with the clouds of stinking smoke that hung around the place. Not all of it was tobacco either. Again, she hadn't asked - she didn't want to know. All she wanted to do was go to work, come home and be paid.

And she'd been paid - enough to make rent, and enough to mean she could treat herself to breakfast at Nighthawk's - after the world's longest shower, that had left her feeling and smelling a lot more human. She sat alone, in a booth near the front of the diner, having order eggs and bacon, and drinking a cup of strong coffee as she cast her eyes over the newspaper, with it's glaring headline about the serial killer. For once, it seemed, teh city had good news.

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