Patrol Car (FOR GRANT)

[jamesthorn]

It isn't a surprise when James is pulled off anything to do with the murder investigation that has taken over the department and the entire town. His best guess is that Grant got stuck with him to keep James out of the way and to keep him sane. So far, it isn't working. He feels like he is just twiddling his thumbs while whoever did this to his family is out there. He wants to take his gun and do a little head knocking because that's the only way you can get answers from some of these people. That's probably why he wasn't allowed to drive either. He slides down in his seat, glaring straight ahead. There isn't much going on around town, and he hates this. 

Comments

[grantmiddleton]

Grant opened the driver's side of the cruiser, purposely getting into the seat a little obnoxiously and shaking the car as he did so. He had a plastic bag hooked on his arm and two cups precariously stuffed in the crook of his arm.

"Okay, coffee for moi," he set his cup in the holder and handed James the other. "Coffee, black, for you. And look James!" Grant dug in the plastic bag and held up an ice cream cone to his friend's face. "Cornettos."

[jamesthorn]

Holding the bridge of his nose with a sigh, James takes the coffee. Only because he needs it to deal with the rest of this shift since he hasn't been exactly sleeping peacefully. "You expect me to eat that?" he asks. Why were the people he works with always buying him food. He didn't understand.

[grantmiddleton]

Giving him a stern look, he pushed the ice cream into James' hand. "I expect you to eat it and enjoy it." Grant unwrapped his own come and ate it in almost one bite. More just to be childish with James than anything else.

[jamesthorn]

James finds an ice cream in his hand before he even knows it, and he just sighs again, put upon. "Enjoy an ice cream called Cornettos? Okay," he says unwrapping it.

[grantmiddleton]

"Stop being such a rich boy and live a little." After tossing his trash into the back, Grant logged into the cruiser's laptop. "Chief wants us to patrol Seashell Drive."

[jamesthorn]

James grits his teeth because he hates being called out on his family name, but the fact is he isn't sure he's ever had ice cream from a gas station before and he's betting there's a reason why. He eats it anyway because once it's under his nose he remembers he's hungry. "Oh how fun," he says, licking his ice cream in a rather pissed off sort of way. "Seashell Drive where all the action is. Whatever, just drive."

[grantmiddleton]

"You're so cute when you're mad. Selfies with ice cream!" Before James could get our of his grasp, Grant had his arm around his head and his cell out, snapping a quick shot. He quickly moved out of his friend's reach to view the picture, knowing all too well James had a mean left hook. "Now that's a keeper."

[jamesthorn]

"Selfies---what the---ffffff" James was manhandled into posing in front of Grant's cellphone. He shoves Grant away after it's over, not too hard, but he's scowling and trying not to be amused by this stupid idiot. "You're a terrible human. Just terrible," he says, shaking his head. "Can we go now?"

[grantmiddleton]

"Why else do you think my grandmother calls me Terrible Human instead of Grant? I'm living up to my name." Grant made sure to quickly send the picture to Alex before he stuffed his phone in his pocket. "Alright, alright, Mr. All Work and No Play." He started up the engine and drove them to their next patrol, parking the car off the road and handing James a speed gun.

[jamesthorn]

Once they stopped, James took the speed gun gratefully. He very much wanted to give someone a ticket or something today. It would probably get rid of the raging headache he had. "Just think. You came back to Siren Cove for all of this..." An empty street with no one to give tickets too.

[grantmiddleton]

Grant knew the speed gun would cheer James up at least a teeny tiny bit. He put on his sunglasses and rolled down his window. "What can I say, I sensed you missed me." He still didn't really know why he came back to Siren Cove. Cops can get jobs almost anywhere. The pay wasn't that great here, but something told him it was time to return.

[jamesthorn]

James snorted, pointing the gun out the window, resting it on the ledge. "I didn't miss you. How can someone miss something that brings distress and annoyance to their lives?" he asked.

[grantmiddleton]

"Because I bring distress and annoyance because I like you and not because I have anything against you or your name, silly. And because I've been in your life for so long, you've been a lost baby lamb all these years without me." He mockingly pat James' shoulder. "It's okay, buddy. I'm here now."

[jamesthorn]

"Were you always this egotistical? Or is this just something new you picked up?" James asked. He would never in a million years admit to being happy that Grant was back in town, but he was. Being a copy didn't make him many friends, and Grant was one of the few that James trusted.

[grantmiddleton]

"How dare you. I was born with it. As a true Middleton is. My mom is very proud of my confidence." He gave James a flashy smile. "You wanna clock a car every two hours or you wanna see something cool?"

[jamesthorn]

James raises an eyebrow at his partner. These types of conversations lead to them getting desk duty. Which couldn't be worse than being sidelined on a murder investigation. "As long as it doesn't involve you flashing that camera in my face again," he said.

[grantmiddleton]

"You drive a hard bargain." Grant started up the cruiser, flipping on the switch for the siren with a grin and taking off down the road toward the opposite direction of town. After about ten minutes of driving, he pulled over into a secluded field where two stacks of hay with targets pinned to them had been previously set up. With the murder investigation and the chief's decision to keep James as far away from it as possible, Grant knew they wouldn't let him anywhere near the shooting range either. People assumed giving James access to shooting something made him more aggressive, but Grant knew better. He knew the worst thing for keeping James calm and away from something was to keep him away from something and away from his natural duties as a cop. He needed a safe way to blow off steam and Grant was going to do whatever he needed to help with that.

He got out of the car and slammed the door, stopping to stick his head in through the open window. "You gonna get out of the car or what?"

[jamesthorn]

James stared out the front window when they stop. He wondered how these targets had gotten here for a second when he realized that Grant had set all this up. He wasn't sure what to think about that. He wasn't used to people knowing him this well, but the truth was he very much needed to shoot something in the face. James climbed out of the car and closed the door behind him. He glanced at Grant across the top of the car. "I suddenly like you a lot more than I did five seconds ago," he said, reaching into his holster to grab his gun as he walked around the car, smirking as he unlocked the safety.

[grantmiddleton]

Grant held his arms open as wide as possible, beaming from ear to ear. "What can I say, I'm kind of a great person. Don't worry, I made them easy for you to boost your self-esteem." He hopped up on the hood of the car, pulling a juice box out of the lunch Alex gave him. "Don't look so happy, Thornton, you'll ruin your image," he called from behind James, his friend's hand on his gun before he's even stepped up to the targets.

[jamesthorn]

James scowls slightly at the lunch in Grant's hands. Alex is a food menace that needs to be stopped, he thinks. Walking over to the clearing in front of the car, he eyes the targets Grant laid out. They are rather simply constructed, but he lets Grant's ribbing slide. Instead, he aims at the left target and pulls the trigger a couple of times. He manages to hit the circle. It's a little off-center, but he feels better. "Please. What image?" he scoffs but then he smirks. He resets his gun, aims, and fires.

[grantmiddleton]

"Your lovely 'his face will break if he smiles' image." Grant now had a child-size bag of fruit snacks and nodded toward something beyond the targets. "Got some good old fashioned empty cans set up further out. If you feel like a challenge." He shrugged. "Or maybe you're chicken, I don't judge."

[jamesthorn]

"What?" James looks at him. "I smile. I smile all the time," he says, turning back to the field. "I don't think you can judge anyway. Seeing as how your a terrible shot."

[grantmiddleton]

"Your smile scares small children." Grant looked offended. "Hey, just because some of us can diffuse a situation without shooting at something doesn't mean I'm a bad shot."

[jamesthorn]

"Hey I looked after two brothers and a sister. Kids love me," James protests. If anything about his family is true, it's that James looks after his siblings.

[grantmiddleton]

"Alright, alright, I'll give you that one." He shifts on the cruiser. "How are they doing?"

[jamesthorn]

James shrugs, taking another round of shots at the target. "They are dealing," he tells Grant. "You know at this point deaths in our family are just another day at the office."