stay away from me

Who: Cheyenne and Danny
Where: On the streets
When: early evening

The conversation with Maya was still weighing heavily on his mind as Danny continued to patrol the streets, mostly just being a presence in the city today, rather than doing any real criminal work. A few people had stopped to shake his hand, more aware at what he'd done with the serial killer capture since the article in the paper about the ball. Still that didn't keep him from being completely distracted as he strode along the sidewalk.

He couldn't shake that feeling of failure, like he'd just fallen completely short of his goal. Maya hadn't seemed interested in punishing him, but he still wondered if she was disappointed. Or what she'd consider doing to him or his wife if she decided that he'd outlived his usefulness. Danny had agreed to this situation to make it easier to do what they asked without having to do anything directly illegal, only now he found himself wondering if it had been a bad idea to agree to.

The mist continued to swirl and left Danny feeling like the weather was hell bent on reminding him of the turmoil in his head. Reaching his hand into his pocket he fingered the edge of the flask there and started looking at the streets ahead to see where he could duck off to sneak a pull or two.

Cheyenne was still out walking, not that she was paying much attention to where she was headed. She just strode along, head down, coat pulled tight around her as she tried to cling to warmth in the dreary day. She was at a loss. Purely, at a loss. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to do. All she knew was she had pictures of the man who was following her, and...that was all. They weren't even good enough to show to anyone. It could be anyone, some faceless stranger that hovered on the edge of her world.

She only glanced up when she came to a curb, and that was when she spotted. Danny. Fabulous. Just what I need. she thought to herself, and abruptly she turned right around, hoping he wouldn't notice her...but when one was a girl with a shock of white hair tumbling down her back, she was hard to miss.

Given his current state that involved looking for empty alleyways, she probably could have blown past him without him batting an eye, but the change up ahead caught his attention and shook part of his reverie. Waving to a nearby car he crossed the street to catch up with her. "Cheyenne?" he called, knowing it had to be her, even with her back to him. Sure, he had no idea what he was going to say to her when she turned around, but he couldn't avoid a chance that fate had laid out for him could he?

Wincing, and visibly flinching at hearing her name, Cheyenne tried to pretend she didn't hear him as she kept walking. She just did a deplorable job of it, and she knew that, but she didn't want to deal with this right now. Really really not. Because seriously. Jesus. What did he have to say to her, anyways?

Opting not to continue to yell her name as he followed behind her, Danny just picked up his pace to catch up with her. At least that's what he told himself. Really he was just trying to get to a position where she couldn't ignore him. "Cheyenne," he tried again once he was much closer, just half a step behind her.

She jumped this time, and she whirled around, holding a hand out. "Stop following me!" she cried, honestly upset and there was an underlying edge of fear to her voice. "Please, just leave me alone!" She backed up away from him, bumping into the building they were walking past, and she jumped a little at that, too, before she felt behind her and her hands hit the brick. "Please, just leave." she begged, feeling all kinds of emotional and vulnerable.

Danny stepped back half a step at her outburst, putting his hands up in the standard "I mean no harm" sort of way. He'd been a cop long enough to notice fear in people, but Cheyenne was probably past that point of fear. "Cheyenne," he said with his soothing cop voice. "Are you okay?"

"No! I'm not, and you're not making it any better! Jesus, just--go! Pretend you never saw me or met me, or whatever the hell, just stop, okay? Please?" she said, trying to turn and walk off again, even if her nerves were not at all steady, and she was now shaking. This was just bad. All of it.

Her words cut deep, but Danny couldn't just walk away. That wasn't the right thing to do, even if she did want him to leave. Had he really spooked her that badly? Quickly he glanced up and down the street, thinking about the first time they'd met, how she'd been scared then too. Not this scared, but still scared. "Cheyenne, I can't just walk off. That's not right, not when something's obviously bothering you." Another glance over his shoulder before following in her wake again. "He's not following you again is he? The guy you told me about?"

"Someone's following me right now and it's you!" Cheyenne cried, and it was clear from her voice that she'd started to cry. She really couldn't help it, running into Danny today was the last thing she'd needed. She was scared, she felt alone, and as far as she was concerned, Danny was just some unknown that she'd almost trusted there, and then he'd turned out to be a lying creep. Who was apparently following her too. It was all too much, and she angrily wiped at her eyes as tears welled up.

Danny's mouth just hung open a little as he looked back down the street where he'd come from. He hadn't been following her for that long, technically she'd crossed his path, but there didn't seem to be a way to point that out that didn't sound insulting so Danny decided to keep it to himself. Her tears upset him, mostly because he knew they were his fault, but also he was worried about her. That and crying made him a little nervous. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I just..." Danny wasn't sure what else to say.

"You didn't mean to what?!" she cried, rounding on him abruptly. "What exactly? You know you seemed like an okay guy before. Maybe a little uninterested and distracted and whatever, but generally okay. And then we're talking, and you're lying about shit. And you didn't even notice, which tells me that you do that a hell of a lot, that it's automatic for you. And then, when you talk to me again, you start talking about bending rules, and not being able to let things happen again, and how I wouldn't believe you if you told me the truth or--god, I have no idea what the hell you were even talking about! Just that quite obviously, you've been taking a bit too much interest in me. It sounds like you've been following me, and I just--you know what I've already got someone doing that, I don't need a cop who can just tell the authorities that he didn't do anything wrong and I'm just a hysterical woman doing it too. Fuck. Off."

Involuntarily he took a step back when she whirled on him. He wasn't afraid of her per say, but he was rather thrown off by her anger. Not that he was surprised she was angry at him, especially after she categorized his faults like that for him, but he was surprised at how forceful she seemed with such anger. "I wasn't following you," he tried this time, voice soft. "I just ran into you, common thing. It happens. I wouldn't do what you're saying, abuse my job like that. Please, I'm sorry."

"Then what the hell was the bullshit you were spouting about bending rules, and not being able to let anything happen or whatever?!" Cheyenne snapped. "God, do you make sense to you? Do you expect me to just be a stupid woman and not see the huge goddamn holes in your stories? Am I meant to just smile, and nod, and eat whatever shit you decide to feed me?" she asked. "And how the hell do I know that you wouldn't abuse your job like that? Obviously you're a liar and a bad one at that! Who's to say you wouldn't do that too?"

"I'm trying to protect you," he snapped, starting to lose his cool with being yelled at. "For a case I was working on, we found this doll, and no one else would have known Cheyenne, but it looked just like you. Like they had you in mind when they made it. I have no idea where it came from, and only saw it in passing. I'm not even on the damn case, but it made me wonder about your stalker and everything else. I've been scared for you ever since." It wasn't a complete lie, he had seen the doll, and the doll was what had inspired him to take the job. If she pushed again he'd tell her the truth, throw Maya into the equation, but he didn't want to do that, he didn't want to fail that miserably at his task. "I'm not supposed to tell you about case evidence, especially something like that, something they'd keep out of the papers. I couldn't tell you, but I'm putting that job you think I'd abuse so easily on the line to tell you the truth."

"Oh bullshit, they don't fire cops for dropping a little information about a piece of evidence, have you ever been to some of the cop bars around town? They're constantly throwing around stories! And for a doll? What was the case, even, why would you think it had anything to do with me?!" Cheyenne continued, still feeling like none of this even made sense, and he hadn't actually addressed half of what she'd brought up. He just skipped over it like she was meant to forget she'd asked because he didn't have an answer for her. "Stay away from me." she said. She knew she couldn't try and get a restraining order against him, because hello! He was a cop, that just wouldn't fly. But still.

"I've been to every cop bar in town, I've told a few of those stories myself. Here's a tip, they're all bullshit. The stories that are true? No one tells those." He took a step closer, dropping his voice some, which helped it lose some of the irrational tone. "The case is still open, they aren't sure what the guy did. Anonymous tip that someone was acting fishy, standard for neighbors to call in when they hate the people who live by them and guys like me get that shit to follow up on. Only this place...it was just wrong. Reminded me of the serial killer's apartment. So we called it in, the big guns came by and sent us home." Danny paused, bringing back the memory of the doll just sitting in the hotel room, left out so he'd see it. "I have no idea if it had anything to do with you, but it looked just like you Cheyenne. You know your looks are above average, and unique. Not exactly the face everyone uses for a doll."

He stopped, giving up the game. "Look, don't believe me. Just go. I'm sorry I lied to you, you're right I do it a lot and I'm terrible at it. I'm always lying about where I've been because most of the time it's just something I'm not proud of. How else am I supposed to explain away the fact that I spend most of my nights in some seedy bar? And when I'm there, I lie about why I'm not at home. It doesn't change that I was worried about you, doesn't change that I don't want to see you hurt, or that I don't want this bastard coming after you like that other guy went after those other girls." Danny crossed his arms on his chest and stood his ground. Maybe Maya had been right, and he just wasn't cut out for this. He certainly wasn't enjoying it.

Him admitting that he lied a lot and didn't exactly do things he was proud of rang truer to her, but she was still skeptical. What she did know was he probably would have got a lot farther if he'd come out with that in the first place, owned up, and didn't try spinning more lies for her. Because now she didn't know what to believe. She wiped at her eyes, and looked away. "Take a hint from my family. None of them believe me either. Just...go away. Go find the criminal or whatever. Leave me out of it." she said, tone sounding tired and absolutely miserable, as she turned and tried walking away for what, the third time? Something like that.

"I do believe you though Cheyenne," Danny told her, not making a move to stop her, but calling out to her still. "I have from the first moment I met you. It's like you said, you're not stupid. You know your surroundings well enough to know if something's not right."

She kept walking, not answering him. She kept her head down, and tried to block out hearing his voice. She just wanted to go away. She just wanted to be left alone. She didn't know what to think or believe anymore about pretty much anything. So she'd just keep walking.

He didn't feel good about it, the way she kept walking away, leaving him standing there with nothing to say. Danny had really hoped saying he believed her would have slowed her down or at least got some sort of answer. Instead he only got silence. Sighing he watched her go, waiting a few moments before starting after her, intent on getting to his cruiser parked a few blocks down the street, but really just interested in keeping an eye on her.