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Jake walked into the office one morning looking both rattled and incredibly excited. He pulled out his phone and waved it in the air.
“Hey guys! come check out this super scary snake I ran into on my way here!”
Rosa’s interest was piqued as soon as he mentioned snakes. She stood up and leaned against her desk, close enough to Jake to see a photo on his phone of a brownish-gray snake. She scoffed.
“Dude, that’s an Eastern Ratsnake snake, they aren’t venomous and only bite if cornered. That’s nothing. If you ran into a Timber Rattlesnake or something I’d be more concerned, but—“
She was cut off by Jake loudly exclaiming “Woah, woah, woah, Rosa! Where did all this snake knowledge come from!?”
She shrugged, turning to slip back into her chair. “I like snakes.”
To say that Rosa “liked” snakes was an understatement. She loved snakes. She studied anything she could about them. She knew which were the most venomous in the state (Timber Rattlesnake, Eastern Massasauga, and the Northern Copperhead) and the most common (Common Garter, Common Watersnake, Eastern Milksnake). She once got a snake encyclopedia for her 11th birthday, and it was the one birthday gift she ever cared for. She memorized that book, could recite it in her sleep if she wanted to——she was told by Gina that she talks in her sleep——she kept that book under her pillow for years as a kid because it was her most prized possession. She still owned it, and it was located in the bottom drawer of her nightstand. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t read it nightly.
Her only problem is how closed off she was. To be fair, her standoffishness was a safety net for her and an important part of her personality, but her fear of opening up led to her not having long, heartfelt chats with people. Were snakes heartfelt? No, but it was an important topic to her that didn’t come up in normal conversation, which made it heartfelt to her.
The only time she really talked about snakes was during her one-on-ones with Holt.
Being the only autistic officers in the squad, they had a sort of agreement that if one of them got overstimulated or tired of masking or something, they’d meet up in a conference room and just…sit there, often times. Holt was normally the one calling said meetings, and he preferred silence or classical music, to which Rosa obliged. She didn’t care as long as he was comfortable.
When she called the meetings, though…
The first time she had asked him to meet with her, when the whole thing was still pretty new, she had been having a horrible day. Her parents had cancelled plans last minute that she had been preparing for weeks to attend. Her motorcycle broke down on the way to work, so not only did she have to walk in the cold (she hates the cold), she was late to work. Her sweater was itchy and rubbed against her forearms and she was so sure that said sweater would be stained by the end of the day. She had been taking off her task force last minute when she was so, so close to making a breakthrough. By lunchtime, she just wanted to sit down and enjoy her lunch when Jake came in, chasing Charles like a child, and slamming into the table. Her lunch went flying and landed all over her. She didn’t have the energy to threaten anyone and simply ran off to the bathroom to clean up. She hated the feeling of stuff in her face, and she was just covered in black beans. Rice was stuck in her hair.
After 30 minutes of cleaning up, she walked into Holt’s office and asked him to meet up in Conference Room B. Holt, understanding, told her that he’d meet her in a moment. She rushed over to the conference room, closed the blinds and the door, crossed her arms on the table, and rested her head on them.
She didn’t know how much time had passed before she heard the door open, close, and Holt sit down in front of her. He waited a bit to say anything, most likely checking if she was awake or not.
“Are you alright, Diaz?”
She sighed and lifted her head and sat up properly, rubbing her eyes as the light flooded them.
“Just had a bad day, is all.”
He nodded, and she looked away from him, pulled her jacket sleeve down.
“I hear from Peralta that you have an interest in snakes, I take it?”
She looked back at him and nodded.
“Uh-huh. The only birthday gift I cared about was a book on snakes.”
Holt raised an eyebrow.
“Well then, tell me about snakes.”
“What about them?”
“What are the most poisonous, and what do they look like? If I were to come in contact with one, what should I do?”
She thought about that for a moment.
“Top three most venomous in the state of New York are the Timber Rattlesnake, the Eastern Massasauga, and the Northern Copperhead.”
She pulled out her phone and showed him photos of each of them, pointing out their key features and how to define them against other common snakes. She also gave him very basic safety tips.
“If you’re bitten, Call 911 immediately, move as little as possible as not to disturb the area, don’t apply a tourniquet or ice, and don’t try to suck venom out——though that’s common knowledge.”
He nodded. “Thank you for the information, Diaz.”
She nodded and closed her eyes again. The lights were really getting to her. Holt got up and turned the lights off.
“You have 15 minutes left on your lunch break, I’ll come get you when it’s over.”
“Thank you, Captain.” She replied, and drifted off to sleep for an amazing 15 minutes. Maybe her day wasn’t all that bad after all.