Work Text:
1732 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie stood at 8th Avenue and West 49th Street in front of a yellow barricade, her posting for the night. This was her first time anywhere near Times Square on New Year’s Eve. That was for tourists. Tourists and crazy people. She snorted. Same thing. She wouldn’t be standing here now if she’d had a choice but first-year rookies always got stuck with duty at the Square.
The noise was intense and it was still early. There was a constant vibration of crowd noise that varied in intensity and pitch but never stopped. She hadn’t expected the crowds to have filled in the street this far north already but she’d been instructing people to move on since the start of her shift.
“Faulkner!”
Aggie heard her name being barked above the din and jolted upright.
The scary one--Diaz--was back.
Diaz came to a stop just inside Aggie’s personal space. She scowled. Every line of her body was tense and disapproving. Only the tangle of hair escaping from under her dress uniform hat softened her somewhat. “What did I tell you?” Her gaze bored into Aggie’s.
Aggie shifted nervously from one foot to another. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong. There’d been a lot of instructions, mostly from the uptight one. And half of what she’d said, Diaz had contradicted.
***
1545 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie’d only been alone at her post for a few minutes when Diaz first made an appearance. She scanned the crowd and scowled before glaring at Aggie. “There are only three things you need to know to work Times Square on New Year’s Eve: fear and intimidation.”
Aggie waited for a minute but Diaz remained silent. Aggie succumbed to her curiosity. “What’s the third thing?”
Diaz curled her upper lip until her teeth showed. She snarled loud enough to be heard over the noise of the crowd. Aggie had no further questions.
***
1733 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie stared at Diaz. She wasn’t sure what Diaz meant.
Diaz gestured towards a small child. The kid was clutching an adult’s hand and looking around with huge eyes. “You just smiled at that… civilian.”
“What?” Aggie couldn’t believe Diaz was serious. She must have misunderstood. Or misheard over the background noise.
“You. Smiled.” Diaz crossed her arms across her chest. “What did I tell you?”
“Fear. And intimidation.” She didn’t attempt to replicate the snarl.
“Does a smile instill fear?” Diaz spoke each word extremely clearly. She clearly thought Aggie was a useless rookie.
“No, but…” Diaz uncrossed her arms and took a step closer. Aggie gulped but continued. “She’s just a little kid!” Diaz’s eyebrows rose. Aggie shrunk into herself. “I’m sorry.” She jerked herself upright. She wanted to snatch the apology back out of the air. It didn’t sound very confident. Or intimidating, for that matter.
***
1817 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie scanned the mass of people walking north. She kept her eyebrows pulled together and her teeth clenched. Aggie made inadvertent eye contact with a bystander and frowned. Every muscle in her face hurt. She felt ridiculous but wasn’t embarrassed enough to risk another smack down from Diaz. Movement behind her made her turn around and look towards the crowd in the Square. A middle-aged man wearing a Columbia University sweatshirt lurched towards the barricade. Aggie moved to intercept him.
“Sir, if you leave, I won’t be able to let you back in here.” He stared at her through unfocused eyes and wobbled side-to-side.
“Awww, come on, honey…. I really need to leave. It’ll only be for a minute.” He smiled blearily.
Nobody was taking her seriously tonight. Aggie raised her voice. “If you step past the barricades, sir, you will not be permitted to re-enter the Square at this location!”
“I really need to…” The man’s voice trailed off into nothing. He swallowed hard. “Ne- never mind!” Aggie knew without looking that Diaz was looming behind her.
***
1902 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie shifted from one foot to another. She was only four hours in. Movement caught her eye and she looked west to see Santiago jogging closer. Her brow was furrowed and she was biting her bottom lip. “Faulkner! Is something wrong? Did something happen? The Captain will be so disappointed in me if…” They’d met for the first time only a few hours before but Aggie’d already learned how long Santiago could ramble about high expectations and the consequences, mostly either imaginary or inconsequential, in Aggie’s opinion, for failing to meet them.
Aggie shook her head, making a futile effort to stop the flow of words out of Santiago’s mouth. It took a minute but eventually Santiago seemed to notice the head shaking and changed approaches “If nothing’s wrong, why do you look so angry?”
I’m faking it? Aggie almost said, but bit the words back. She didn’t answer.
Santiago sighed, her disappointment evident in every muscle of her body. “What did I tell you?”
***
1530 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie was supposed to be listening to the intense-but-still-less-scary of her quadrant co-supervisors but the movements and noise of the crowd kept distracting her. She forced her attention back to Santiago only to realize she was spewing out a list of police signal codes that might be needed over the course of the evening. Her mind strained instead to make out words and phrases from the background noise of the mass of people. She kept almost hearing something intriguing. Or at least more interesting than twenty minutes of unnecessary and repetitive instructions.
Aggie tuned back in to what Santiago was saying. “The most crucial thing to remember about working at Times Square for New Year’s is that you are the public face of the NYPD and, in fact, all of New York.” Santagio paced along the sidewalk in front of Aggie as she spoke, tracing a path north-south about three feet in each direction. “Your demeanor reflects on the department, on the city, and on me, as your supervisor, and mentor, for tonight.” She wheeled around to face Aggie. “You have to think of yourself as a host first and a cop second.” Her expression turned serious. “Unless there’s a crime, of course. “ She smiled. “Be friendly, until you need to be fierce. But nice.” She shook her head. “But not a pushover.”
***
1907 hours, December 31, 2014
Santiago was waiting for a response. Aggie stood even taller and answered the question. “I’m the public face of the department.”
“And…” Santiago raised her eyebrows expectantly.
“I should be friendly unless there’s reason not to be?” Aggie felt like she was back in grade school, reciting a memorized answer
“Exactly! Was that little old lady some kind of a threat?”
“No, no, of course not.” Aggie wasn’t sure how to explain. If she would even have a chance to explain. “It’s just…”
“Then you should have smiled. Made sure she understood the NYPD is warm and friendly and here to help!”
At that moment, a young guy in a pink hippo onesie approached the barrier. Aggie smiled at him. “Hello, sir, I hope you’re enjoying…”
Santiago suddenly stepped in front of her. “Okay, buddy, you just keep moving.” The guy halted. His gaze moved between her and Santiago. He looked as confused as Aggie felt. Santiago raised her voice. “Hey, elephant man, I see you again, you and I are going to have a problem, do you understand me?” Santiago poked the hippo’s shoulder.
The color drained from the guy’s face. “Hip- hippo,” he stuttered.
Santiago leaned towards him and spat out a question. “What did you just say to me?”
“I’m a hippo.” He gestured at himself. “No trunk. You said--“
Santiago’s face screwed up in disgust. “Do I look like I give a damn about the details of your freaky life?”
The guy turned and fled. Santiago spun around and grabbed Aggie’s arm above the elbow.
“’Hello, sir. I hope you’re enjoying your night?’ What were you thinking?”
“I was being friendly!” Aggie flung her arms in the air. “You told me to be friendly!” Aggie had never had such a frustrating shift. She was starting to scowl for real.
“Not to someone wearing a costume. You can’t trust anyone in a costume.” Santiago jabbed her index finger in the direction of the retreating hippo. “You gotta shut that shit right down.”
***
2300 hours, December 31, 2014
Aggie’s head was pounding. She was surrounded on all sides by a giant mass of people. She knew they must all be shouting or singing or shrieking individually but it blended together into an enormous thundering racket that she could feel from her feet into the base of her neck. And it didn’t help that she kept having to switch between friendly and scary. She’d spent more time keeping track of which quadrant supervisor was nearby than she had scanning the crowd.
“Faulkner!” Her name rang out in stereo. She looked back and forth between the two supervisors and felt faintly nauseous.
She straightened up, shoulders back. She tried to smile while furrowing her eyebrows and glaring straight ahead.
“What are you--“ The two voices sounded equally outraged. “You’re too--“ Both women’s voices stuttered into silence. They stared at each other for a moment before turning to face Aggie. All four eyes stared intently at her. She flinched.
Santiago spoke first. “You look too intimidating!”
Diaz whirled towards Santiago and stepped right up to her. “What are you talking about? She looks like a pushover!”
Aggie was forgotten. The two women kept arguing about the most appropriate attitude to use on the street. Aggie’d been having the same fight with herself all night and neither side had won out. One thing was certain--Aggie was not a pushover. Smiling did not make someone a pushover. And scowling didn’t make someone a better cop. They should both know better. “Hey,” she said, her voice too quiet to be heard over the noise of the crowd and the argument. She couldn’t believe she was actually about to draw their attention back to herself. “HEY!”
“What?!?” They must have practiced speaking in unison like that.
“You’re both wrong!”
Dual scowls.
Aggie realized she had’t used the best opening line. “Right! You’re both right!” Aggie took a deep breath. “All night I’ve been going back and forth between your instructions, trying not to disappoint your Captain…” Aggie gestured at Santiago and Diaz smirked. “Trying not to be on the receiving end of the wrath of Diaz.” The smirk left Diaz’s face and she looked even more like a moody teenager than usual.
“I was intimidating. I was approachable. And, you know what? You gave me good advice. There’s a time and place for both attitudes!”
Santiago and Diaz exchanged glances but it was Santiago who spoke. “Well, good, then, Faulkner. You’re figuring it out. It’s the start of developing your own style, finding what works for you. We knew you could do it.”
Diaz punched Aggie’s arm lightly. “Good job, kid. Shift’s over. You should head home.”
Aggie watched as the two women walked away. Diaz leaned in and knocked her shoulder against Santiago’s. After a second, Santiago reciprocated. Aggie felt wistful watching the obvious respect and affection the two women had for each other. Then she smiled. She’d find colleagues like that—a work family. And the next time she had to work New Year’s Eve in Times Square, she’d be the experienced one.