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Daisy couldn't name a fear before she met Jon - and honestly she would love it if she still couldn't - but she always understood what they were. At least the general concept, that there were things out in the world that she couldn't explain and would swallow her up given the opportunity. Maybe, in a way, she was one of them, but she didn't like to think about that if she didn't have to. She preferred destroying them, making the world a better place. One day she might have to destroy herself, but she planned to burn that bridge when she got to it.
She senses the vampire before she sees it. It's almost like she can smell them, but it isn't an actual scent, the feeling is just in the same part of her brain. Whenever she tries to explain it to herself - she would never try to tell another person - it comes out jumbled. The vampire is sitting on a bench in the park that Basira and Daisy are walking through. In theory, they're on patrol, but there's hardly anyone about on a chilly Tuesday morning, so they're just walking about. Basira did ask why Daisy was out on patrol, considering she's too high ranking for that sort of thing. There's two reasons - one, Daisy knew there was something weird going on in this park, she just needed to find it. Two, Daisy wanted an excuse to hang out with Basira and she couldn't figure out how to ask her on a date.
The vampire clocks Daisy mere seconds after she clocks it. They lock eyes, and it tilts its head ever so slighty. Whatever it is that helps her sense it, it has some similar intuition for her. Maybe word has gotten around that she kills vampires. Do they talk to each other? Do they have community meetings, a newsletter, vampire Facebook? She doesn't know. She isn't even sure that these vampires are all the same species, if they used to be human or not. It isn't something she considered important to her job.
They have to die either way.
"Why is that guy just staring at us?" Basira asks, stopping in her tracks. Daisy stops a few steps ahead of her - she had intended to walk Basira to her patrol car and circle back for the vampire later.
"He's probably just homeless." Daisy says. She's supposed to say unhoused now but she doesn't think Basira will report her to HR. "Leave him be."
"If he sleeps around here, he might know something about that stabbing from a few weeks ago." Basira says.
Her head is always full of local unsolved cases, even if she wasn't involved in the investigation. That stabbing wasn't fatal, and the victim was reluctant to give helpful details, so it went nowhere. Daisy is surprised Basira remembers it - she's surprised either of them do.
"Leave it." Daisy says. "We've got things to do."
"It'll take five minutes, I'll just ask if he was here when it happened and if he saw anything." Basira steps onto the grass, towards the vampire.
Daisy grabs Basira's hand to pull her back onto the path, but she forgets her own strength. She knows that she is strong and she knows that she can hurt people but she never considers how that could affect Basira. Until she feels Basira's fingers crunch in her hands, and Basira cries out.
"Daisy!" Basira snatches her hand away, but importantly doesn't get closer to the vampire. "Ow, what the fuck!"
"I'm so sorry." Daisy takes Basira's hands back into hers, gently this time. "That was an accident, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"It's- ah, fucking hell." Basira tries to stretch her fingers out, wincing. "I think you broke my ring finger."
"Let me drive you to the hospital." Daisy puts her hand on Basira's back to guide her to the patrol car.
"They won't do anything at the hospital except splint it." Basira says, but she follows along anyway. "I can just do that myself. Plus if I go to the hospital I'll have to fill out an incident report."
"Are you… not going to do that?" Daisy asks.
She glances back at the vampire - it watches them leave from its place on that park bench, but doesn't follow. It will have to wait until Daisy can get to it another time, but now it knows that she knows. If she doesn't come back soon, it might move on. Vampires are hard to track - trust her, Daisy has tried. If it leaves, God knows how many people it could kill before she finds it again and can take it out.
But Basira is more important. Keeping her safe is worth a hundred dead vampires.
"What would I even put in the report? A detective grabbed my hand so hard that she snapped one of my fingers. How lame is that?" Basira smiles a little as Daisy laughs. "Drive me back to the station, I'll splint it, and we can just pretend nothing ever happened. If anyone asks I'll just say I fell over."
"Alright." Daisy agrees.
Daisy isn't used to driving Basira's patrol car - the seat is too far forward and the rearview mirror is at an odd angle, so it takes her a moment to settle in. Basira sits in the passenger seat, nursing her broken finger. It's red and a little swollen, but any broken bone hasn't pierced skin and it looks like only the one finger is injured. From the crunch that Daisy heard when she grabbed her, she suspected that multiple had snapped, but fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case.
It's about time for the school rush, so they get stuck in traffic on the way back to the station. Neither of them speaks for a while, except for Daisy muttering about idiots not staying in their lanes.
"Why didn't you want me to talk to that guy?" Basira asks.
Daisy doesn't have a good answer for her that doesn't contain the word vampires, so she just shrugs.
"I can look after myself, Tonner." Basira says.
Ah, shit. Basira only calls her Tonner when she's mad at her. "He wouldn't have told you anything. It was a waste of time."
"You don't know that." Basira insists.
"I did know that." Daisy snaps in a way she really shouldn't, considering she can't explain herself. And Basira will want an explanation - she's curious by nature.
"How?"
"I just did."
"Tonner, I will file a fucking incident report against you if you don't give me a straight answer." Basira threatens.
"I can't tell you!" Daisy yells.
"Why not!"
"It's Section Seventeen." Daisy hisses. Basira goes quiet. "You know I can't tell you about Section Seventeen stuff."
"Sure you can." Basira says gently. "I've signed the forms, I can know things. I won't tell."
"I know you won't. That's not the point." Daisy shakes her head.
The truth is, she doesn't want Basira to know about vampires because then Basira will have to kill them. Daisy doesn't want her to have to do that. It's not that Basira couldn't stomach it, it's that killing something, even something non-human, changes you. It has changed Daisy, although in a way she can't access within herself due to the blood rushing in her ears, the urge to track down, to hunt, to kill. She doesn't want that for Basira. Because Basira may not be especially nice, but she is good. She deserves to retain some of that goodness.
Basira stares at her. "One day, you're going to have to explain why you broke my finger."
"I will." Daisy promises. "I will."