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Apr. 9th, 2012 12:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notinthebook There's a certain point in the workday where everything just slows down -- as long as there haven't been any emergencies. It's a very specific, drowsy, four-forty-five in the afternoon sort of feeling, when the sun's started to head westwards and the office feels as dead as a graveyard.
She hasn't worked a nine-to-five in...ever, really, and it isn't hard to tell: she's been fidgeting since four.
Now, she's got a little pile of balled up pieces of paper on her desk, and she's tossing them, one by one, at an empty coffee mug on the floor, under the mugshot measurements.
So far, she's gotten one in.
There are five more scattered around the mug.
Pressing her lips together in concentration, she pauses, moves: the little white ball arcs through the air.
Misses.
(That's number six.)
"Aw, man!"
She hasn't worked a nine-to-five in...ever, really, and it isn't hard to tell: she's been fidgeting since four.
Now, she's got a little pile of balled up pieces of paper on her desk, and she's tossing them, one by one, at an empty coffee mug on the floor, under the mugshot measurements.
So far, she's gotten one in.
There are five more scattered around the mug.
Pressing her lips together in concentration, she pauses, moves: the little white ball arcs through the air.
Misses.
(That's number six.)
"Aw, man!"
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Date: 2012-04-12 03:54 am (UTC)It's a little like trying to remember a dream in every detail, only the harder you think about it, the further the images fade away.
"No one's ever asked me about it before," he admits. "The jobs we have, it's just ... what we do."
He shrugs.
"But I like my work and I'm good at it. I suppose that's really all that matters."
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Date: 2012-04-12 02:47 pm (UTC)He seems pretty content to just leave it at that, shrugging, all the uncertainty falling away from his face, leaving him as good-natured and easy-going as ever.
It's weird.
She remembers every single detail that took her from where she'd started out in the system to living on her own and deciding to become a bail bondsperson: each decision and mistake is burned into her brain.
There was never a time when it was just something she did.
"May as well play to your strengths," she agrees, though she looks at him closely for a moment. "Not a lot of people can say they've got the same kind of job satisfaction."
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Date: 2012-04-12 05:10 pm (UTC)Graham smiles a little before gesturing for her to choose any of the seats in Granny's.
Maybe it should bother him that he can't remember ... anything, really, about how he got to the place he's in now. But it's hard to hold onto that, and it's much easier to let things be.
People passing them by smile and nod, some offering greetings, which Graham returns with equal politeness.
"Did you ever think you'd end up being a sheriff's deputy?"
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Date: 2012-04-12 05:54 pm (UTC)Whatever else might be true, Graham's good at what he does; she wouldn't have taken the job if he weren't.
She laughs as they head towards one of the booths, and she's still grinning at him as they sit down.
"You're kidding, right? That was never even on my radar. I'm used to working on my own and doing things my way. I'm not exactly the first person people think of when they want teamwork. I never really thought I'd have a steady job, just kinda...keep going wherever there was something to do."
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Date: 2012-04-12 06:35 pm (UTC)It's after work, after all. There's no need to be too formal.
"What'll you have? It's on me."
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Date: 2012-04-12 06:43 pm (UTC)"A beer'll work. As long as it doesn't screw with any employer-employee regulations."
What? If he gets to tease, so does she.
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Date: 2012-04-14 06:53 pm (UTC)Especially considering the move he made in hiring Emma, despite Regina's very clear opinion of the woman. Graham more or less tossed the rulebook out the window at that point.
"Anyway, we're both off-duty. This is more like having a drink with a friend."
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Date: 2012-04-14 08:01 pm (UTC)And really, how many rules can a two-person Sheriff's office need?
Ruby comes over to take their order, which is good, because it means she doesn't have to answer his other comment right away. Not that it's difficult, not that it should, by any stretch of the imagination, be a weird thing to say, but...
Well, between the mine and Miami and Mary Margaret's casual little questions regarding the guy sitting across from her, it's not unreasonable for her to cling to the simplicity of that statement, right? After all, they are friends.
The fact that she gets an irrepressible little smile every time she makes him laugh is completely beside the point. "See, that is something the lone wolf lifestyle doesn't exactly provide. I have to say, it's a definite plus."
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Date: 2012-04-15 07:47 am (UTC)Graham shrugs.
"Maybe it's just the small-town-ness of Storybrooke, and the fact that it's really quite hard to walk down the street without recognizing at least one or two people - but there aren't terribly many lone wolves here."
Or wolves at all, but that's another story.
"Think you could get used to that?"
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Date: 2012-04-16 08:48 pm (UTC)She can't go anywhere without people stopping her to say hi, or waving from across the street: people know who she is and where she lives and that Henry's her son (technically) and that she'd moved from Boston to be around him, and it's weird but also kind of nice?
Their drinks arrive, along with a smile from Ruby, and she tilts the bottle a little, tipping it in a thoughtful circle around the flat cardboard coaster.
"I think I'm warming up to it," she says, eyes on him.
The truth is, Graham's been almost as instrumental as Mary Margaret in getting her to stay. He'd offered her a job, he'd kept extending a friendly hand, and now they're hanging out just like it really is two friends out for a beer.
She just ignores that little fluttering sensation tucked below her ribcage, the one that appears when she looks up and sees him smiling.
"Not that I see you out and around the town all that much. Not with anyone else, at least."
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Date: 2012-04-18 04:59 am (UTC)He attempts to ignore it and takes a sip of his beer to recompose himself.
He knows it was nothing more than a passing statement, but lately the company he keeps has been ... making him question a few things.
One of which involves the woman sitting across from him.
"I've been accused of being a little ... overly involved in my work," he starts, eyes focused on the rim of his beer bottle.
"Once or twice, anyway.
"But it's possible another reason is that I just haven't found the right people to be 'out and around with'."
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Date: 2012-04-18 04:22 pm (UTC)For all he teases her about being a loner, it sure doesn't seem like he's exactly in a position to throw stones, but hell, she knows what it feels like to not have people to go out and do things with.
That's pretty much the story of her life.
But now...well, maybe they can hang out. Maybe something like this, a drink after work, could start being a norm. Maybe this is something they can both have, that wasn't there before.
Maybe.
(If Michael's the wrong person to spend time with, does that make Graham more of a right one? Is it even that black and white?)
"I could get used to it."
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Date: 2012-04-21 10:18 pm (UTC)He tips his bottle towards her.
(It's not as though he can't spend time with Emma if he wants to.
[Because he wants to.]
Regina doesn't own him.)
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Date: 2012-04-22 01:42 am (UTC)It's meaningless, really. A drink with a coworker, the simplest thing in the world.
Except that Graham is, in his own way, as confusing as Michael, as confusing as Henry, as confusing as Milliways. Sometimes he seems detached -- friendly, but distanced -- and then sometimes he smiles at her like he's doing now and there's absolutely jack shit she can do to stop herself from smiling back.
Tipping her own bottle, she clinks it lightly against his.
"I'd like that, too."