Chapter Text
December 10
"911, what's your emergency?"
"My child is being kidnapped!"
Athena got out of her cruiser.
She stopped on the lawn and saw a girl, no older than sixteen years old, going back and forth with an older woman, probably her mother, and a man attempting to stop the argument.
"Excuse me, someone called 911?" Athena stepped forward.
The woman huffed, turning to face Athena. "Finally!" Her face fell when she noticed Athena. "Uh...who are you?"
"The police, ma'am," Athena answered. "You called about a kidnapping."
The woman scoffed. "You are not a police officer. Where's the actual police?"
Athena blinked. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
She understood the question and felt a wave of anger rush over her.
"She's asking why you're not a white man," the daughter scoffed.
Athena hummed, making sure to keep her temper under control. If she had learned anything from Lou, it was never to lose control trying to figure out the situation and get it under control.
"Well, Ma'am, I am the actual police, and you called about a kidnapping."
"Kidnapping?!" The man finally looked at Athena, then at the woman. "You told them I was kidnapping her, Maggie, what the hell?!"
"You are kidnapping her?"
"Sir, take a step back," Athena said to the man, already reaching for her cuffs.
"No! He's not kidnapping me! I'm not being kidnapped!" The girl declared. "He's my dad, I'm trying to live with him!"
"The court gave me full custody this morning," the man explained. "My ex-wife won't let her leave with me."
"Because you and your nigger have turned her against me!"
"Mom!"
"Maggie!"
Athena's hands clenched then unclenched. "Ma'am, it's not kidnapping if he has custody," she explained.
Maggie glared at Athena. "Stay out of this, you—!"
Marcus sat down across from Athena at the table. He was the only black officer at the station aside from Athena.
"Heard you got one of them calls," he said, opening his water bottle.
"Yeah," she muttered.
"How was it?"
"Well, it wasn't backbreaking bad."
Marcus' first racist call was when he had to deal with a man who was a rapist and racist. Marcus caught him attempting to attack a woman and put a stop to it—or he at least tried to—the man ended up beating Marcus with a metal pipe found in the dumpster and broke Marcus' back.
That, luckily, gave the woman enough time to run to get help, and the man is still in prison to this day. Marcus didn't sustain any more serious injuries; they watched out for him, and he healed within a year and was back at work a few months later. He was only 20 and fresh out of the academy.
This was Athena's first call since moving from LA to Pennsylvania, surprisingly seeing all the hate groups that were here—but it wasn't her first interaction with racists; when out with Bobby, they'd get stares. She remembered their first date; most tables seemed to be staring at them in shock. When she went to the ladies' room and came back, Bobby had told her they had to go before he was arrested for punching someone for what they said about her, and he still hasn't told her what the person had said.
"One should be so lucky," Marcus huffed out a laugh. "So, what's going on with the fostering?"
Athena's face lit up at the change of topic. "We took in these two kids," she started. "The parents are horrible."
"How so?"
"That's why I asked you to meet me here," Athena said. "I need you to look into the parents, Margaret and Phillip Buckley."
Marcus blinked, the last name throwing him off guard. "Buckley?"
"Yeah. You know them?"
"No," he said, shaking his head.
Athena eyed him; she had known him long enough to know when he was lying—and Athena, being who she is, was about to push until her pager went off.
"I'll look into this for you," Marcus promised.
Athena nodded with a grateful smile.
With Christmas fifteen days away, Bobby and Athena wanted to make sure Maddie and Evan had the best Christmas possible. They weren't sure if Margaret and Phillip were actually nice on holidays, and based on the way they were shocked by all the food that was cooked on Thanksgiving—they were not.
"Who knew Christmas shopping for kids would be this much?" Bobby asked as they sat the shopping bags on their bed.
They were safe at the moment. Quinn and her husband David had taken Maddie and Evan to a birthday party, wanting them to be around more kids their age, and that gave Bobby and Athena time to shop, although Athena didn't want them to go without her or Bobby, even if she knew she could trust Quinn and David.
"The price of being parents, baby." Athena laughed.
Bobby let out a sigh. "Do you think that we ever will be?"
Athena's eyebrows furrowed.
Bobby sat on the edge of the bed. "Parents. Do you think we'd ever be parents?"
"We already are," Athena answered. "To two amazing kids." She moved to stand between his legs, and Bobby's hands instinctively found her waist. "Are you having doubts—"
She didn't get a chance to finish the question.
"No! God, no!" Bobby interrupted quickly. "We went into fostering together, and we'll stay through it together. Plus I love Maddie and Evan as if they were our own."
Athena's smile softened.
"They are."
Bobby hummed. "Yeah, they are."
Athena leaned down to peck Bobby on the lips, and the pecks slowly turned into kisses, before they turned into one long kiss.
They pulled back for air.
"You know, they won't be back for another," Athena murmured against Bobby's lips. "You wanna have some fun?"
Bobby didn't need to be asked twice. He stood up, lifting Athena and spinning around, gently throwing her onto the only empty spot on the bed.
Athena giggled. "I'll take that as a yes."
Bobby crawled on top of her. "Definitely." He kissed her hard.
Athena melted instantly; her hands found their way to his hair.
They had just gotten his shirt off when a knock interrupted.
"No," Athena groaned. "It's too early."
"I got it," Bobby said, moving off her.
Athena sat up, standing off the bed. "No, no, it's alright," she said. "I got it."
As Athena approached the door, there was another knock.
"Coming!" Athena said before she reached the door and opened it, her face. "Janice?"