the strangest places [katieee!]

[micah]

The world worked however you made it work. There weren't a lot of rules and strict courses to get from point A to point B. There were creative ways—loopholes, some would say. Micah liked to say opportunity. It had a better ring to it, plus, it didn't make him sound like some kind of crook or a lawyer. Weren't they the ones looking for loopholes? Micah looked for a bend in the rules, or a second equation, rather. Even in mathematics there were often hundreds of ways to solve one problem. Some were a little less conventional and more risky, but it was a method. His moral code was partial to being more open than most. It wasn't some form of psychopathy or anything. Micah had real morals, but some of his right and wrong was determined by whether or not he was caught or how much success he had. He wasn't emotionally stunted; if anything, he was a little more advanced (he thought). Sometimes right and wrong wasn't necessarily clean cut and clear. People had to learn that and others learned that the hard way. Robbing a bank, for instance, that was right unless he got caught, and it was perfectly okay to leave his fiancée to be arrested as long as he wasn't stuck in her place. Micah didn't expect her to stop and wait for him if something happened either. Sometimes people got hurt in the process of a job, but it was either he went to jail or she did and frankly, Micah would look out for himself first. She got burned in the process, but he thought she was a strong girl, she'd get over it. Someone always had to make the tough decisions.

Micah was one of those people.

It was semi-hilarious how he managed to get to the place he was now. Hilarious because it said very little for the people involved. Micah rarely ever got anything through 'wholesome' work. Whatever the hell that meant. The brunette managed to get through life by playing the system. He knew how to play the games and was more adept than most. Someone with his history and his continuing reputation shouldn't have wound up anywhere near the legal system except from the inside. But, it was funny what jobs and money could do for a person; where it could get them. The world was about connections. Who had them and who didn't. It just so happened that he was well connected and smart. The two went together well, although he knew plenty that lacked one or the other. He was actually supposed to start his latest job in a couple of days. The papers were still being worked out, and then he'd go straight into being some assistant under a District Attorney. This job was a little different, it revolved around getting a wrongly accused man out of going to jail. So, he was going to screw around a little. Now, by wrongly, he meant, it shouldn't have been illegal in the first place. The government didn't like when people got into their business and dealt with it accordingly. Well, then there were people like Micah to deal right back. He was being paid by a third party this time, well, his boss was and then the money would be passed onto him. He didn't usually do jobs like this, but it was worth it, he supposed.

Right now, however, he stood outside of the mechanic shop, groaning at the time it took for his car to be fixed. He could have done it himself, but didn't feel like doing it and since he had a little extra cash he took it there. Of course, it hadn't been that long and Micah didn't even check to see what was wrong. All he did was grumble about it. When his phone went off, he sighed and reached into his pocket, withdrawing it. "Micah." Blinking, he listened to the man on the other line and hushed his voice slightly, but not enough because anyone close enough could probably pick up on it. He wouldn't care anyway. He wasn't giving himself away completely. "Look, just get me the papers so I can get it done. And a fool proof ID this time, that last job it was amazing I didn't get myself snagged, all right? Get them to me and I'll pull through. Always do. Bye." He hung up and hit his head back against the wall. What the hell was taking the car so long?

[Deleted]

It was funny how Grace worked. She had been injured; her arms were still wrapped in gauze, as was her gunshot wound. Yet, she hadn't taken any time off of work to rest up and heal. Watching another cop be murdered, that was what got her to ask for two weeks of vacation. It was one thing for her to be in danger, it was another to watch another person in a dangerous situation. And what was she doing with her time off? Playing around in the car shop.

It had been a couple of years since she was here. She had really missed this place. It couldn't be said the other way around though. She stood there, hovering over one of her dad's employee's shoulders. "You're doing it wrong. No, twist it the other way!" she was right, but he wouldn't admit it. Instead, the man got annoyed and told her to go away.

Grace shrugged and grabbed a transmission to work on and went into the waiting area. She didn't have anything on to suggest she worked there; she wore an old pair of jeans and a blue shirt that was already stained up. She sat down in the chairs near where Micah was standing and started playing with it.

She looked up at Micah curiously. She had never seen him before, but that was nothing new. He looked impatient. The wait must have really sicked. "Which one's yours?" she asked. No hi, no intro, just the question. She tilted her head as she asked. He was cute. Probably the wrong type of cute. That was okay, though, because she found the right type of cute already. She was simply making the observation.

[micah]

Slowly, Micah looked over at the woman that addressed him. What was she? Twelve? Oh, perfect. He never liked waiting around. Maybe he just didn't have a lot of patience. That had been told to him before, and he supposed there was some truth to it, especially now when his car was stuck in a shop. It wasn't even an old car! It was new, and if he was anywhere near the lot that he purchased it, he would have pushed it back and yelled at them. But, he wasn't, and instead he was sitting at a carshop because his car liked to just randomly die on him. Sighing, he took a moment before replying to her. "The black Prius." He informed her. He had had the car for little over a month and it was kind of his baby. He had to save up a lot to get his hands on it too.

He really didn't mind the lack of an introduction. Micah wasn't looking for one. He just wanted his damn car. He didn't know how long it was going to take, but he could have been there for five minutes and might have been just as annoyed. The young man didn't even care that he was coming across as annoyed or bitter. He wasn't looking to make polite conversation. Yet, he could pull it off... Sometimes.

[Deleted]

Grace whistled. "Sorry" she said. truly sympathetic, since that was the car with the incompetent mechanic. "If I were working on it, you'd be out of here by now. But eh, my dad won't let me" she held up her arms to explain why. She had to admit it could be dangerous, fixing cars with burned arms. Still, that didn't mean she didn't wish she could.

"My dad owns this place," she added to explain why he had say over whether or not she worked on cars. She looked back down and found the problem with the transmission. "aha" she muttered and she looked up. "Can you hand me that?" she asked, referring to a tool laying at his feet. Even if she couldn't work on cars, she was going to work on something!

[micah]

"That wasn't comforting," Sympathy meant there was something to be sympathetic for. He was going to be there forever, wasn't he? He sighed again, unable to keep track of how many times he exhaled a frustrated breath. He went back to looking up, his head leaned against the wall still. It was going to be one long day. And no matter what spin he put on it, it was still going to be long. When the girl mentioned her dad wouldn't let her, his eyes shot back over to her quizzically. Did she realize she sounded more like she was twelve when she said that? He still wasn't convinced that she wasn't. Optimism wasn't his strong point right now. And it didn't make him the most agreeable guy, but the twenty-nine year old just wanted his car back. When she finally explained why her father had a say in the matter, he nodded. That made more sense and seeing the bandages made it make sense, but he still was more focused on his car.

At her request, he glanced down to see the tool laying there and crouched down to pick it up before walking it over. "Here," he commented. "I thought you weren't supposed to work on anything." He said, and although she said she wasn't supposed to work on cars, he assumed that included parts to cars and everything that went along with it.

[Deleted]

Grace reached up to take the tool from him. "I can't let them have all the fun" she said with a grin. While she chose to not work for a couple of weeks, she couldn't be happy with sitting and doing nothing. And if Jay said she couldn't, well, the nineteen year old would just have to do it when he wasn't around to scold her. She understood that he just didn't want her injuries to get worse, but Grace was too much of a risk taker to abide by her father's wishes.

Her arms itched like crazy. Grace rubbed one of them against the back of the seat. She looked back uo at him and reached in her purse, pulling out her badge. She kept it with her in case she felt the need to arrest somebody. If she did, she would take the person in and then return to her vacation. She wanted to stay away from the PD as much as possible. "When you're used to as much action as I am, it can be hard to just sit around and do nothing." She explained, showing him the badge. "I'm Grace, by the way"