Chapter Text
She heard the notification on her phone as she pulled it out of her gym bag. Caitlyn had texted to let her know that she was on campus and was relaxing before her classes started up. She'd been waiting for the text all morning. She knew Caitlyn had gone in early to meet someone she games with. She was curious to hear how that had gone and hearing that she could call was the greatest thing.
“Hey Mako, is it cool if I give Cait a call quick?”
He gave her a thumbs up from across the gym space that he was ok with that. At the beginning of the week Mako has said that he was happy with her fitness and practice level. This meant that she no longer needed the extra training time while Korra was in her women’s meditation class. She had about a half hour before Korra was finished, which made it the perfect time to call Caitlyn. Mako had suggested that Vi join the women’s meditation group, but Vi was not sure about that. The idea of sitting around for forty-five minutes doing nothing sounded like a special kind of torture.
Outside the weather had begun to steadily change as they headed toward October. The wall was cold on her back when she leaned against it, it sent a shiver through her. She was glad for her hoodie to ward off the chill in the air. Dialing Caitlyn she was struck by how different she felt compared to the end of spring. It was a happy, foreign feeling to experience this kind of excitement around the simple act of calling her girlfriend. She thought she would have gotten used to it since they had made this official but she was glad that she hadn’t. The phone had hardly rang before Caitlyn answered and spoke. The excitement carried through her voice.
“Hey Babe. How are you doing this morning?”
She sounded more awake than she normally would at this time of the day. Vi wondered what she was wearing in this weather. Caitlyn had traded hoodies with her on the weekend claiming that washing it had removed the ‘coziness’ from it. Vi suspected it was more likely that she wanted a hoodie that smelled like Vi rather than laundry detergent. She went back to the image in her head of Caitlyn in form fitting jeans paired with her hoodie. The thought of that caused a giddy bubble to rise in her chest.
“Hi Cupcake. It is so good to hear your voice. I miss you already. I have time to chat while I’m waiting for Korra to finish up her meditation class. How’d things go with your gaming friend?”
Cait's excited tone drifted for a moment before she spoke, something must be distracting her.
“Yeah, she is a nice kid, I don’t know who is more excited, her or Asami. I will tell you about her when I see you. Are you coming over tonight? I can drop you off at training on my way to class tomorrow morning.”
The idea of spending some time together made her smile. Training was not exactly ‘on the way’ for Caitlyn in the morning, but Vi was not going to bring that up.
“Ummm, do bears shit in the woods?”
The sound of laughter filtered through the phone and she hoped things would always be like this. Being able to make Caitlyn laugh was her favorite thing in all the world.
“I know that it has only been a few days, but I miss you so much already.”
To be specific it had been three nights. She missed waking up in Caitlyn’s bed. She missed being able to kiss her and talk to her whenever she wanted.
“You have no idea how much I miss you. Mako showed me a new recipe that I want to make for you. It is delicious. I’ll grab the ingredients and ask Mako to drop me off at your place after training.”
It was a simple noodle dish. And while Caitlyn could get by feeding herself, she was not the most adventurous cook. Her go to’s were toast, or pretty much anything she could do in the airfryer. It was sweet, but there were only so many chicken nuggets she could eat before she had taken over Caitlyn’s kitchen and made her eat real food.
“I am dying for some good food. People in the building are going to start thinking I am having an affair with the delivery guy.”
She laughed at the idea of that. The neighbor across the way had made a comment a few weeks ago about the noise that they had made on that weekend. It had made that elevator ride awkward, but was something they laughed about often.
“Is there something I should know?”
Caitlyn laughed.
“Of course, I am seeing James. He is so dreamy.”
James was around their age, but looked like a stickman had been brought to life and given glasses. When he wore his bike helmet on he looked much like a lollipop with limbs.
“Ok, so noodles and chilling tonight. I love that idea.” There was a noise that carried over the speaker and Caitlyn gasped. She frowned at the phone curious about what could possibly be going on. “Hey Cupcake, what's up? You ok?”
There was no response for a while and when she did respond she sounded surprised.
-
Caitlyn was sitting with her legs tucked up on a bench in the quad. She had missed the sound of Vi’s voice and wished that she was there for her to lean against while they spoke. All she had to do was get through the day though. She would have her girlfriend within arms length by the end of the day. Vi had moved back to Mako’s when school had started. She knew the reason for it, but it made her apartment feel cavernous and lonely. The thought of actually spending time with her made Caitlyn more excited than a kid at Christmas.
A voice across the quad drew her attention. She heard Vi over the line mention noodles, but she was only half listening. A few cops had arrived. There was a student leading them, when they pointed though Caitlyn knew what was about to happen. Vi’s voice in her ear sounded concerned.
Brad was lounging on the edge of the fountain. He had been splashing freshmen who walked by him; if he deemed them unattractive enough. The ones that he thought otherwise of he would call out to with suggestive remarks. It made her glad to have him avoiding her for the most part.
The cops however were not there for his minor predatory show. They spoke loudly enough that they could be heard across the space between buildings. Brad stepped back from them and pulled his hand away from an officer who tried to touch him.
“Vi…” She felt breathless. “The cops are here for Brad.”
There was a sharp intake of breath over the phone.
“Fuck, really?”
She felt distracted and couldn’t form an answer in her head, let alone get one out to Vi. Brad was shouting at the police that they had no right to touch him. It was then that she recognized the officer who took hold of his wrist. There was no doubt that she would not want an angry Lin Beifong snatching at her. She had noticed her hands the last time they saw each other. She looked like she could hold someone with the force of a bear trap.
She noticed students near the commotion had their phones out recording it. There were protests from Todd and to her shock he swung at an officer who, after a short scuffle, had him on the ground and was putting cuffs on him too.
“Vi, shit, they have arrested Brad; but Todd tried to punch one of the officers and they are dragging him off too. Fuck. I didn’t think this would happen to be honest”
Her heart was racing and she felt suddenly sweaty. After being harassed by Brad since school started it was a relief to know that he would not be around any more.
“Cupcake, do you want me to come get you and we can go see Mel?”
A chime went off in her ear and she looked at her screen. It was a calendar notification telling her that her first class started in ten minutes. She shook her head at Vi’s question.
“No babe. I have a class I need to get to.”
There was a groan from the other end of the line.
“Cait, classes can wait. This is serious.”
She knew it was serious, but she didn’t need to do anything except message Mel to give her a heads up about what was coming her way. Or rather what was coming Vi’s way. Mel had been a great ally since taking over her PR; but she was elbows deep in her mayoral campaign. Caitlyn considered whether to tell her or not, but figured she would want to hear the good news.
“Babe, there is nothing to do. Not for me at least.” She began walking toward her first class. “When I see you tonight I will chat over getting you a lawyer. This case is going to be big news.”
There was a noise on the other end of the line that Caitlyn couldn’t make out.
“Cait, I did nothing wrong. Why do I need a lawyer?”
She sometimes forgot that this was all new to Vi. The mention of anything to do with law enforcement and the court system made her defensive.
“Babe, you need a lawyer because you are going to be part of the prosecution team that will be going after Brad. You’re not needing one because you’re in trouble. You’re needing one because we don’t want him getting away with this.”
The sound of a breath brushing against the phone reminded her that Vi was going to need help with this whole thing.
“Cupcake, I don’t know how to do any of this stuff.”
She softened her tone when she replied.
“Hey, hey, Vi, we’re in this together. You’re not alone in this. There is time before anything needs to be done. Lin will get hold of you, but until then all we can do is wait.”
The hallway was busy and she pushed her way through the crowd. When Vi spoke she sounded uncertain of things.
“Cait, are you sure school isn’t going to be too busy for you when this whole thing happens?”
She took a deep breath, knowing that when this did happen she would probably not be getting much sleep. Studying at the same time as being there for Vi while she was involved in a legal battle was a huge ask.
“I love you, we’ll do this together. I’m not going anywhere. Well, for right now I have to.” She tried to sound brighter over the phone to put Vi at ease. “I am heading into class.”
She wished she could see Vi’s face to know how upset she was. She also realized that she hadn’t told Vi that Jinx was her gaming friend. She would need to do that when she saw her later.
“I love you too, Cupcake. Have fun in class. I’ll see you later.”
-
Lin would never not be in awe of estates like this. She had fond memories of spending holidays at her grandparent’s opulent manor. Despite having grown up with access to this kind of lifestyle she still found it foreign to her. Her mother had left home as soon as she could and had raised her and her sister in relative simplicity.
The Kiramman butler was the kind of stone-faced polite that was to be expected. He led her up the stairs and knocked on the door to what she assumed was the mayor’s office. There was a long pause before the butler opened the door for her. She declined his offer of tea before stepping toward the large desk Cassandra sat at.
She ended a call shortly after Lin entered. Had she heard the name Cecil before the call ended. She may have imagined that. Although knowing how tight knit the upper crust was she would not have been surprised.
She took the seat she was motioned to but did not get comfortable. This visit was more of a formality than anything else. As always she was the picture of ‘togetherness’, although Lin thought there was a hint of her edges beginning to fray.
“Thank you for making the time to see me, Lin.” she nodded but did not respond. This was not what she wanted to be spending her morning on. There were a thousand more pressing matters than sitting across from Cassandra. If Cassandra had been at the mayoral office proper this would be a different matter. But her being here felt like she was hiding something. “I do hope that you know that making a scene at the University was not the way to handle this situation. Do we even know if charges are being pressed at this time?"
She wanted to laugh, as she had suspected this was not a meeting to discuss the state of the police force or the warped justice system. Hell, this wasn’t even a meeting to discuss her own daughter and how this arrest may affect her and Vi. Lin considered if it would be overstepping to buy Caitlyn a bouquet of flowers as congratulations for her success in distancing herself from her mother over the past couple weeks. The kid came from privilege, but was a far cry from the woman in front of Lin. It struck her what an asset she would be to the force if she ever decided to step that far from her mother’s shadow.
"With all due respect, Mayor Kiramman, we notified the Brownes and the University that we recommended that the boy stay home today so we could have handled this privately, but were informed that he had gone to school anyways."
Cassandra leaned back in her chair, she took a deep breath as if the response was boring to her. It was striking that years ago when Cassandra had become mayor she had seemed determined to reform the city. She had really put in the work it took to make the changes needed to even the playing fields. When had that goal changed for her? When had she become the person who allowed kids like Vi to be ‘lost’ in the system? As Lin allowed the silence between them to stretch a frown began to form on the mayor’s forehead.
"That still doesn't answer my question, are charges being filed?"
In a different world she hoped that this woman in front of her would be asking that question in the context of protecting her daughter's girlfriend.
"Yes, charges were filed on behalf of the victim earlier this morning."
Sadly this was not that world. The sigh that Cassandra let out told her that.
"Do they have any evidence or is this just a waste of tax dollars?"
Lin let a sneer slip by for a moment. She prided herself on being able to remain impartial when she was working on a case, but this situation was making that difficult.
"Cassandra, you should know that at this point in the investigation I cannot answer that. Paperwork is being filled and the procedural work is underway.” She took a deep breath knowing that this would not satisfy the mayor. “As is protocol we will be opening an investigation into the incident in question as well as to incidents related to this case."
Cassandra gave Lin a hard stare that shifted into indifference.
"With the election coming up, I certainly hope that this will be handled quietly from here on out, so as to not disrupt the normal flow of the proceedings."
Lin was at the end of her patience with this matter. Never in her career had she so blatantly been leaned on to change the way an investigation would be handled. She shook her head as she stood. She did not have time for this. Her mother would not have taken this kind of pressure and neither would she.
"Cassandra, as mayor you should know better than anyone that I cannot make that promise. In fact it is insulting that you would be so brazen as to ask."
Lin stepped back from the desk. She had begun this investigation with the idea that the victim was being less than honest. Sadly she had allowed that to color her opinion of Vi in the beginning. But that had changed. She had often thought that her mother was being a hardass for the sake of being a hardass when it came to the Kiramman family. She was realizing that her mother had not told her the whole story, which was not unusual for the woman. All the same a heads up from her mom would have been nice though.
When Cassandra spoke again it was clear that the claws were coming out along with her true intentions.
"I thought we had agreed that things would be different with you Lin?"
There it was. The backing she had lent Lin had had strings, she had always known this. She had simply wondered when those strings would become apparent.
"Cassandra, I never agreed to anything and you know it. I have never once skirted the law or turned a blind eye for you. All of your indiscretions up till this point have been either well hidden or too small to warrant investigation. But your line of questioning today leads me to believe that the guys over at White Collar Crime would be curious about this conversation."
The mayor leaned forward in her chair, placing her forearms on the desk and glaring at her. The facade she usually wore was gone and all pretenses had been dropped.
"Is that a threat Lin?"
This time around Lin did let out a bitter laugh as she slowly shook her head.
"Any time I have suggested further investigation to innocent people they have encouraged me to look into their lives. Your defensiveness is curious, Mayor Kiramman."
She added in Cassandra’s title in the hopes that it would remind her that she had a larger responsibility than what she had to her family. But considering that she had clearly abandoned her daughter in favor of earning clout with the elites, told Lin more than she could have gotten verbally.
"What's curious is how you think my demand that my civil liberties are not encroached on is a declaration of my guilt. I fear for the state of law enforcement if this is how you approach things."
The way that Cassandra’s words dripped with disdain sent a chill down her spine, but caused her to bristle. More than ever she missed the woman that Cassandra had been during her first mayoral campaign.
"Hmmm, funny you should mention civil liberties. I have heard some curious stories about your access to sealed court records."
Cassandra shot up from her chair and leaned heavily on her desk, the blue of her eyes pieces Lin fiercely.
"Did Mel tell you that?"
Lin shook her head at how Cassandra had just tipped her hand. Mel had told her about it, but she would never mention it. As a confidential informant she was entitled to protection from persecution by dangerous parties.
"Are you suggesting I should talk to Mel about it?"
Cassandra’s nostrils flared as she realized that she had revealed too much. She also seemed to realize that there was nothing she could do to undo what she had done.
"I think it is time for you to leave Detective Beifong."
Lin slowly stepped toward the door before turning to take one final swing at the mayor's pride.
"I should remind you, Mayor, that it is Captain Beifong if you insist on referring to me by my rank."
The door clicked closed behind her, and she was almost surprised to see the butler standing off to the side of the doorway. Through the door Lin heard something glass crash into a wall. Six months ago she would never have thought that Cassandra would lose her temper like that. The butler gave her a small smile as he showed her out. He clearly had a vast wealth of knowledge about the family.