a walk with an officer

Who: Danny and Cheyenne
Where: the streets
When: Midday

Danny shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Being on patrol when there was nothing going on was easily the worst thing about being a cop. Most of the other guys complained about the millions of other things that they deemed worse, but Danny never bought it. A slow day on patrol was like being on a stake out without the drama and excitement of actually being on a stake out. Which was saying something because every cop knew stakeouts were far more boring than they seemed on television.

Nonetheless, he was on duty and he was parked in his squad car, just watching the midday crowd bustle back and forth, doing God knows what at the start of their new year.

Cheyenne was out for a walk. She had her umbrella over her head, a huge bright red one, which stood out against the grey and black of the rest of the city. She was feeling like she needed air. She'd dreamed the night before, and it had left her feeling strange. She couldn't quite describe how, but 'off' was a good descriptor, if not overly specific. So...out. Out, about, and not at all glancing around to see if she had company following her. Really she wasn't.

Only she thought she did see someone a little too familiar, and so she cut to dash across the street, slipping a little in a puddle as she came between two cars. She put her hand down on the hood of the one that Danny happened to be inside, before she hopped up onto the curb, looking back once more to see if she had lost him.

He'd been drifting, almost half a sleep from boredom when the hand slammed into the hood of his car. Danny had looked up just in time to see the red umbrella, white hair and a scared look in her eyes. Somewhat curious and mostly bored, he got out of the car slowly, calling to her where she stood on the curb, looking back the way she came for...something. "You okay?" Standing up the navy uniform was almost as obvious as the badge shining on his chest.

Cheyenne startled a little, gasping as she looked at Danny--she'd really not seen it was a squad car, or that it had been occupied. Way to go, perception failure. After she saw he was quite clearly a cop, she relaxed a little bit. "God...sorry, yeah..." she said, looking back again, but either she was totally imagining weirdos in the shadows, or whoever was shadowing her had bugged out. "...thought I saw something..." she shook her had to get rid of her distraction and she looked back at Danny. "Must've been imagining things." she said with a light attempt at a smile. She didn't quite pull it off well though.

Danny wasn't fooled. He'd seen people scared before, and this girl seemed pretty close to that. Looking behind him to see if there was anything suspicious he'd missed, he found the street empty, just as it had been before she'd wandered into his car. "Doesn't seem to be anything there," he told her, but his tone wasn't chastising, just stating a fact as if it might help her calm down some.

Cheyenne laughed a little breathlessly, still trying to calm herself down properly. "Yeah, I noticed. Like I said, I must just have imagined it or something...no big deal, I didn't mean to bother you, Sir." she said politely, meaning that. She really hadn't meant to knock into his car and then be a potentially crazy person at him.

"Don't worry about it, I was just waiting for something to happen," he told her politely. Danny spared one more glance over his shoulder, wondering what it is she'd seen her that spooked her so. "Anything I can do for you?" he asked, coming around the front of the car to where she stood. "Do you want to sit down or something, you still seem a little shaken up."

Cheyenne lifted her umbrella up enough to cover him as well. It was just a miserable drizzle, but standing out in it for long enough would get someone just as wet as real rain. "I'm alright, I think. I just...thought someone was following me." she admitted, giving a smile that was slightly frazzled. "It's happened before, no big thing, maybe I just didn't get enough sleep last night." she suggested. Which she hadn't, to be fair, but still.

Danny appreciated that, the way she moved the umbrella to cover both of them. Being a cop, one got used to mixed reactions to the uniform. And unexpected reactions. Sometimes it was the riff-raff that treated you with respect and the rich folk with everything in the world that acted like you were the enemy. "Maybe, but if it's happened before it's not completely unreasonable." Scanning the street again, now from all directions, he still failed to notice anything out of the ordinary. That didn't stop him from being concerned though. Maybe it's because he was born to be a cop or maybe it was something else, but Danny was a sucker for a woman in distress. "Can I walk you somewhere? Or give you a lift?"

"Oh, I was just kind of out for a walk, honestly, I wasn't going anywhere specific." she told him, smiling. "Sweet of you to offer, though. I mean...are you on duty? I'm assuming you're on duty, so you probably don't have time or can't just go for a really random walk..." Even if she wasn't adverse to the idea. She'd probably feel safer if he could, she just didn't think he'd be able to, or want to, really. Most people needed a destination in mind. Someplace to go.

"I am on duty, but I'm on patrol. If you're not headed anywhere specific we can easily walk through my patrol route. It gets me out of the car for a little while." And it would keep him from drifting off to sleep in the car. Sleeping on the job was both unprofessional and would probably yield a new set of dreams he'd not had the chance to blur out with alcohol. It was actually rather ridiculous to try and drag her along or even offer, but here Danny was nonetheless, trying to be a knight in shinning armour.

She smiled, and it was clear she was pleased with that. "Okay, sounds like a good idea to me." she told him. "So...pick a direction?" she suggested, since she had no clue what his route might be. "How long have you been a cop?" she asked curiously, always wanting to know about people. They were interesting, and everyone had a story. She wanted to know that story.

Danny smiled back and went around to the car to grab his coat and hat and lock the car up. Once he was ready he pointed down the sidewalk they were on and lead the way forward. "I went into the academy right after high school, so long enough. What do you do?"

"I'm a model. Sort of. I mean, I am, I'm just trying to get into photography from the other end." she said, wondering if he'd ever seen pin-up shots of her. She was fairly certain the locker room at the cop shop was littered with pin-ups. But then again, a lot of people took a minute to place her. "Do you like being a cop?" she asked. "And what's your name?" she asked. "I'm Cheyenne."

Danny gave her another close look. He'd been thinking she looked familiar but wasn't sure where from, although he guessed it could be from her modeling. It wasn't likely though, Danny wasn't the type to notice those sort of things. "Danny," he answered. "Danny McKinnon. As for being a cop? I'm not so sure I enjoy it as much as I'm meant to do it."

"Meant to? Like a higher calling type of mentality?" she asked, interested. "That's cool. I mean, it's kind of a rough job in this city, isn't it?" she asked, half watching where they were walking so she didn't crash into any other pedestrians, or random bits of debris in the way. "I mean...not that you boys aren't doing your job or anything. Just it's kind of rough, or that was the impression I got." she said, half backtracking when she recognized she might have said something wrong, even before he had a chance to take offense.

"Less higher calling and more it's in my blood. My dad was a cop and even though he was a royal ass, he ended up raising me to be like him. I've been groomed to follow in his footsteps since the day I was born." As much as Danny hated to admit it, there was also a part of him that always wanted to be like his dad professionally. As a kid, being a cop seemed like the coolest job in the world and even in his teens, Danny could recognize that while his father was trouble at home, he was damn good at his job. "It's not the easiest of jobs no, but someone had to do it."

"That's cool, the family tradition thing." she said. "Do you have kids? If so are they going to grow up to be policemen?" she asked as they walked, thinking about the word 'groomed'. She knew she'd been in some fashion by her own family. She was a pretty girl and that had been massively played up, and catered to. Little else had been, really.

Danny winced when she asked about children. No matter how long it had been since he and Janey had stopped trying that didn't make it any easier on him. He knew how badly she wanted kids, he knew he'd wanted them as well at some point. "No children," he answered, leaving off the explanation.

She caught the wince, and she looked sympathetic. "God, I'm sorry, bad topic?" she asked. "No wife? Or is there something where you can't have children?" she asked. "Or don't want them and it's a sore spot?" Being her family had just opened up an orphanage, she was curious about that. If it was not being able to have them, she knew there were tons of kids all over the city without parents.

"Tried with no luck. And now that train's left the station," Danny told her. At some point, adoption had come up between them, but Janey had trouble getting behind it, and their parents seemed against the idea. The option had fallen by the wayside and eventually it was too late to start to consider it. "What about you, married?"

"Really? Aww, that's too bad. You know, my family just opened up an Orphanage. Last night, even." she said, figuring he would at least recognize the name there. "You should look into it. There are a lot of kids who need families." she encouraged, but gently so. "And no, not married. Not even seriously dating at the moment. Or dating at all to be honest. I'm sort of between relationships, I guess." Mostly she was burned out on them, and it was going to take someone special to turn her head.

That was the connection. It wasn't from her modeling directly, but from her family. He must have seen her at some point either with the family members or at their house or something. "I just don't think it's in the cards for us these days, thanks though." His voice was tender, not insulted, but explaining the fact that it wasn't an option. "Being in between relationships isn't a bad thing. It's a nice little break before something else happens and turns the wold upside down."

"Well, you still look young, handsome and capable, maybe kids'll become an option again sometime." she said, smiling. "And yeah, I'm not really complaining about it. I suppose it has been a while, though. I mean, since I even really met anyone I liked enough to consider it." Though there was the pretty girl from the party. Hm.

Danny smiled at the compliment, but only nodded to the sentiment. He was pretty sure the day wouldn't come, that instead it had already passed, but he and Janey had been together longer than most couples their age. "It's best to hold out for someone who's worth the effort rather than just settling because someone's there." Cops were notorious for doing just that in their relationships, especially the longer they'd been on the force. Once you find someone who's remotely close to good to you, you snag it for life and then deal with the consequences. He didn't have the issue, but more than one brother in blue was either going through a rocky divorce or considering it.

"I take it you're happily married then." she said. Which was a good thing to hear, really, people weren't generally happily married, in her opinion. It didn't happen often enough, anyhow. She didn't know if she ever really wanted to be married. It was a decision she wasn't in the least bit rushing, that was for damn sure.

"Just about 14 years, yes." It wasn't entirely a lie. For the most part Danny was content with his marriage. Not being able to have kids made him bitter, and her not being anything more than just Janey as the years have gone by isn't easy, but he wasn't unhappy with his marriage. Nor was he unhappy or living with regret about his affair.

"Interesting." she said. "But good for you." she added genuinely. Then she kept walking, sort of running out of things to ask the guy. And he hadn't really asked her much about her either, so she didn't know if she should offer anything more about herself, or if he just wasn't interested, and that would be rude. Maybe he had to get back to duty or something.

He nodded again, watching the street around them. After a moment or two Danny realized the silence between them had fallen empty and it was probably his fault. "If you don't mind me asking, you mentioned someone following you before? Did you file a report?" It was a nosey question but he was a cop, that sort of thing interested him.

"No." Cheyenne answered him. "Or, I mean, I did a long time back, but nothing ever came of it. So..." She trailed off. so either whoever was stalking her had found out and just changed habits, or she'd been imagining things to begin with. "I was also told in no uncertain terms at the time that if I was going to do what I do, then I had to expect that sort of thing." she added, sighing and rolling her eyes.

Part of Danny wondered if she'd talked to his dad the last time she reported it because that sounded like something he would say. "Well if you really think the same person, or someone else is still following you, you should report it. Come by and find me, we'll take care of it."

"Really?" she asked, looking at him, then she smiled. "Thanks." she added, sounding slightly relieved. "I think most people just kind of think I'm a dumb girl because I'm a model, and even stupider because they all think I'm just a kid." She was nineteen, hardly a child, after all. But people treated her that way far more often than not.

"Even if you were a dumb girl that wouldn't keep me from helping you out. You don't get to pick which victims you like and which ones you don't." It was either right or wrong, nothing in between. "But it is good to know you're more than just a pretty face," Danny told her with a smile.

Cheyenne was wondering if that was meant to be reassuring, and didn't know if it was or not. She decided it was meant to be, particularly since he smiled at her and all, and so she shoved her momentary pause aside and just smiled back. "You remember that." she told him. "Far too many people forget." Or most just never got to know her well enough to know otherwise.

"I promise, I won't," he reassured her, putting a hand over his heart. "Another question for you, does your family know about the stalker? What did they say?" If she was a Walker, he could get in could by helping protect her. Maybe he could get out of a few other things, or pay off his debt to the family quicker.

She made a bit of a face. "They didn't really say much. Mostly just that we're the kind of family that attracts attention in the first place, and with what I do, I'm bound to attract even more admirers." She said. Which was what they'd figured--that it was an admirer. She wasn't so convinced of that, really. It didn't feel like admiration, it felt like someone was being a creepy asshole and following her around.

That news wasn't reassuring to Danny. He'd not been involved with the DiGiovannis long, but long enough to hear rumors about the Walkers. Maybe even rumors about Cheyenne that didn't have her name attached to them. For them as a family to not be overly concerned with her well-being made him wonder who exactly her stalker was and what his connections might be. "You've mentioned it before, but I didn't ask. What type of modeling is it?"

"Hmm?" she asked. "Oh, I'm a pin-up girl. My stage name is Shy Anne, y'know...a play off my name. So I get called 'Annie' a lot at functions where people recognize me from magazines or the fold out someone's got pinned up on their garage wall." she said. Then she waited for his reaction, because people gave all kinds.

"That would explain the creepy admirers then." Danny was pretty sure he didn't recognize her from her photos, but then again alcohol was his vice, not sex. "I honestly can't say I can place your work, but that's probably for the best. Not really my thing, if you understand."

Cheyenne blinked a little. "Place my work?" she asked, "I'm a pin-up girl. And it's fine, I don't expect it to be everyone's. If it was, I think the world would be in trouble." she added. Though she had to admit, he'd be the first guy ever to really not be into anything like that. Maybe he was gay, and just didn't know it, or wouldn't admit it. Maybe he didn't have kids because he just wasn't that into the wife. Who knew. She didn't judge.

It wasn't because he was gay or anything of that nature, it just wasn't something he was into. His dad had been quite the disgusting womanizer in his hey day and Danny, as a young boy, had found it appalling the way he'd treated waitresses and shop clerks then followed it up by beating on his wife or daughter. Another attempt to not be his father and from protecting his mother and sister yielded a sort of 'damsel in distress' complex where he found most women as delicate things that needed a strong arm to watch after them. Ogling them in pinup magazines seemed to go against that. "It would be an interesting world. But the crimes would all be different if everyone was so focused on sex." There'd be significantly less drunks for example, Danny thought, then realized he'd left his flask in the car.

Cheyenne was quiet for a moment. "It's not really about sex." she said. "Or, I mean, I understand for some people it is. But it's about the fantasy. it's about the idea behind something, the sort of illusion imagery creates for whoever's looking. It's a story, one that the viewer fills in the blank for." She kept walking. "It's not quite so cut and dried as just 'this is all material for people to get off to'. If that was all I was doing, there are a few places in town I could be working."

Danny hadn't been expecting that answer, or an answer so well worded. "To be honest, I've never thought of it that way. Consider me enlightened." Turned towards her, he flashed a quick smile. "I still think it's not my thing. Not creative enough I guess."

She glanced at him and gave a light half smile. Well, at least he hadn't just blown off her answer, which some people did do. They couldn't see anything any other way. "Somehow I'll bet you could be very creative. Most people can, if they're in the appropriate frame of mind, or allow themselves to be." she said. "I would think that your line of work doesn't allow for much of that, but maybe if you let yourself indulge when you weren't working, it could be fun for you."

"That would be the problem, Cheyenne," he reminded her. "I'm never not working. Even when I'm not on shift, I'm still thinking, acting like a cop." The only time he deviated was when he was drinking. Of course this line of though just reminded him of the flask.

"Then you, officer, are in dire need of a night off." Cheyenne said. "Honestly. No one can live and breathe their job and not lose it at some point. Humanity wasn't meant to just do one single thing all the time. The brain needs a break now and then." she said, believing that. People went nuts that way.

"If you believe the punks around here, cops are far from human," Danny replied dryly, aching for a drink and starting to feel the irritability following behind the ache. "We all have our ways of surviving, mine just don't involve much creativity." No, for the most part they involved a cold pint or four and Stella in the backseat of his cruiser. Looking up, Danny realized they'd almost completed the full loop of his patrol area and he was shocked that the time had passed so quickly.

She noticed the cruiser too, and smiled. "Well, I hope your life has a change, so that you can indulge in other things occasionally." Cheyenne said. "til then, I see we're back, so...thanks for the distraction and the walk, officer. It was nice to meet you." she said, dismissing herself. She gave him a nice smile, and a wave before she started off on her own again.

Danny tipped his hat towards her before answering. "The pleasure has been mine ma'am. Don't doubt that." He leaned against his car as he watched her walk off. "Cheyenne!" he called after her. "It's McKinnon, Danny. Come by if you still have trouble with someone following you. We'll file a report and try and do something about it."

She stopped and looked back, slightly surprised at the offer. It brought out a bright, warm, genuine smile. "Danny McKinnon." she repeated. "Thank you, I'll definitely do that!" she told him, for once thinking maybe something would be done if she did that. She wasn't sure, hell, she wasn't even sure she could describe someone properly to look out for, but the fact that he called after her to make the offer said to her that he at least gave a damn, and that was a start. It was mroe than a lot of people gave her. It was more than 'It's all in your head!' or anything else. So, that alone made her feel better. Cheyenne was never a difficult girl to please. She kept smiling at him for a long moment, then she winked and waved, before turning to walk off again.

"Just doing my job," Danny offered and watched her walk off. Once she was gone he reached back into the car, retrieving his flask from the floorboard and taking an extra long pull. Feeling more himself again he settled back into his place in the cruiser, noting that their walk had killed a solid amount of time in his shift and before long he could be back on his favorite stool in the pub, drinking to quell the dreams he knew would haunt him that night.