Of all the things to have to do on her day off, going down the the precinct wasn't something she had been wanting to do. Athena adjusted her shirt so that it showed a bit less cleavage as she approached the building. Black jeans and a pale blue shirt were the fashion for today. Her white and black hair had been pulled back into a pony tail.

Why was she meeting with the cops? Well one of her recent scenes had been a more than they'd bargained for. The injured had turned out to be a mutant and things had gone downhill quickly. Athena wasn't precisely sure weather she'd attacked on purpose or not. The call had been a domestic with injuries on both parties. The husband wasn't too bad off, just a concussion. The wife on the other had had several bruises and a broken bone. Athena had seen things like it many times before but she never really got used to it.

The husband spent most of the time cursing at his wife, cursing at them, and cursing at Athena in particular. She had ignored him with practiced ease. She was just looking over the woman's wounds when something happened. Athena hadn't been sure whether the woman had lost control or just given into rage. Either way there was light and sound and then darkness. When Athena woke up a few moments later the house was a mess, the husband near dead, and the wife just as bad.

Athena had spent an afternoon in the hospital. It took a bit of eyelash batting to get the over zealous officer to go away and let her come by the station later. So here she was ready to give her statement about the whole rotten affair and then go home. Into the station she went.

Hiroshima. That was the only way to describe the case that Jorge had today. Apparently a simple domestic dispute turned into anarchy when someone got pissed enough and actually exploded? Vaporized? Something happened and in the end, both parties were in critical condition. So far the only person who was good enough to talk about what happened was a young EMT that had been there taking care of the injuries.

That was going to be Jorge’s case today. Obviously someone needed to tell them exactly what happened and it seemed that the dubious honor was going to belong to Jorge.

Wooo.

That is not to say that Jorge was already getting prickly sensations about who this person was or that he didn’t want to talk to them. The reality was, though, that the MRC was going crazy right now. With everything that was going after the incident with Gina, Jorge could practically smell the tension in the air. It definitely didn’t bode well for the city or any of it’s citizens.

But, Jorge still had a job to do. So, with determination, Jorge went about his day, filling out reports and keeping an eye on some of his case load that he already had on his desk. Feeling a more comfortable temperature coming on, Jorge had removed his favored brown leather jacket and was dressed down to just a regular black t-shirt and his blue jeans.

Adjusting the badge that was looped into his belt, Jorge signed his signature to some paperwork and glanced at his clock. Hmm, the EMT should be arriving soon…

As Athena had expected the cop shop was busy, very busy. And below the din of the usual suspects was a tension that she picked up on almost immediately. It was the same one she felt at the fire stations. All the emergency personnel knew that something big was going to happen soon and it had them on edge. As she headed through the throng to let someone know she was here, Athena nodded to more than a few familiar faces. Some of them were the petty criminals that were being brought in for one thing or another. Athena had treated some of them at the cops request before. Others were the cops themselves. There was always a chance of meeting a cop at any given scene she was called to. Athena knew a few by name.

As was normal Athena turned heads when she walked through the room. Her reaction was minimal at best. A bare quirk of the lips said that she knew that people were looking at her and that she was glad they got to see someone as beautiful as she was. It was mere fact that Athena was a good looking woman. Denying that out of some sense of modesty was patently ridiculous to her thinking. Eventually her booted feet took her through the throng to the receptionist's desk.

"Hi. Athena Zorya Jones, EMT. I'm here to give a report regarding that unfortunate domestic at the Smith residence."

The receptionist, one Cynthia according her to her name plate, nodded.

"I'll let them know. Have a seat if you can find one and we'll have someone with you soon."

Athena crossed to the nearest set of chairs where a seat had opened up in something akin to a miracle considering the mass of humanity about. A small chuckle left the woman's lips as she sat down to wait.

Jorge glanced at the clock. Huh. She still wasn’t here. The thought crossed his mind that maybe he was wrong about the time she was supposed to show. But a glance at the post-it on his computer showed that indeed the time was correct. She was supposed to be here at this time but strangely enough she wasn’t. Maybe she was just running late? It was a possibility.

Still, he should leave a message with Cynthia to at least keep an eye out for the EMT he was supposed to interview.

Taking his phone from the cradle, Jorge dialed the receptionist’s extension.

“Hullo!”

Jorge winced. She always did have a voice like a high-pitched mouse.

“Cynthia, it’s Jorge. Listen I’m supposed to interview an EMT from the Smith case from earlier today. Can you please let me know as soon as she comes in?”

“…um…I think she is already here…”

Jorge just sighed. Just…sighed. Muttering a quick thank you to the receptionist, Jorge hung up and stood from his seat. God he hoped that the EMT was not waiting for too long. These days Cynthia had been a bit of a headless chicken, fluttering about and not really knowing whether she was coming or going. It was unfortunate since that was a state of mind for a lot of people right now. But there was little else he could do other than just deal with it, like so many of them were.

Stepping away from his desk, Jorge bee-lined it directly for the front of the precinct where Cynthia’s desk was located. He glanced at a passing window and quickly ran his fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair, and combed down the stubble on his face as best his could. There was no reason that he needed to represented the NYPD looking like a complete beast, was there?

Soon as that miniature trip to vanity was taken care of, Jorge stepped out to the foyer and glanced at Cynthia. The young receptionist mouthed a “sorry” to him before she nodded to the seating area. The only woman he could see there was a black-and-white haired woman that, quick frankly, was very pretty. No wonder the majority of the officers and guests couldn’t take their eyes off her. Rude.

He moved over to the woman and gave her a warm smile in greeting.

“Ms. Jones?”

The wait wasn't terribly long. A good thing considering that it meant she didn't need to turn down someone who got enough courage to talk to her. A guy probably about twice her age came out and spoke to the secretary. The secretary waved him toward her. So this was to be her interrogator for the day huh? Athena remained casually seated as he approached. Only when he asked for her by name did she stand up and offer a hand.

"That's me. I'd guess you're the guy to talk to about the Smith case."
Athena snorted in distaste, "Not that I can tell you much but I'm in better shape than the rest so until the Smiths are up to talking I'm the best lead you'll get."

She saw fit to return his smile after that. As far as she was concerned cops were alright. They were both trying to help out in their own ways. Athena didn't think she could put herself out there like cops or firemen did though. She wanted to help people, not get messed up in the process. Athena wasn't that much of a saint.

"Anyway, nice to meet you. Let's get this over with huh? I'm sure your day is just getting started."

>> "That's me. I'd guess you're the guy to talk to about the Smith case…Not that I can tell you much but I'm in better shape than the rest so until the Smiths are up to talking I'm the best lead you'll get."

Jorge smirked at the smile that he received in response from her. She was nice; that should help this interview go by quickly. He would have hated to have had to interview someone who complained the whole time about having to waste their time giving statements. It was a task that few people ever cared to partake in.

But seeing as how she was really one of the only witnesses still standing, he still needed her to talk until he could actually address the two people whom this whole incident revolved around. So, with a smile, he pressed on.

>> "Anyway, nice to meet you. Let's get this over with huh? I'm sure your day is just getting started."

“No idea,” he said with another warm smile before he gestured for her to follow him. He turned and began to lead her back to his desk in MRC office. “Would you like anything to drink? Water? Coffee isn’t all that good but it does its job of keeping you awake through a boring process like this.”

Athena stretched luxuriously before following the detective back toward his desk. This would probably be boring and tedious given how little she knew but that didn't bother Athena too much. For cops she was willing to help. So when he asked whether she wanted coffee or water Athena shrugged.

"Water's fine. I don't need the caffeine right now. I'm plenty awake enough to handle a statement. Learning to handle long hours comes with the territory when you work jobs like ours."

She gave nods to any of the folks they passed on the way back to the Detective's desk. She really was trying not to be her usual sarcastic self. Hopefully the good detective appreciated that. Deciding that perhaps she didn't need to be very chatty yet, Athena kept quiet. Lord knew she'd have to do plenty of talking when they got to the meat of this little interview. So instead she occupied herself with watching the various people they passed.

Interesting people one and all. A mix of cops and criminals with fewer and fewer civilians the deeper they got. The number of people she recognized cut down too. That was something she was grateful for. It sucked when she had to treat a cop.

>> "Water's fine. I don't need the caffeine right now. I'm plenty awake enough to handle a statement. Learning to handle long hours comes with the territory when you work jobs like ours."

“Good point,” Jorge responded with a small smile of his own.

Jorge led the way. In doing so, he noted that the young woman was peering around the offices, waving to the few people that she recognized. He could tell that she really didn’t want to be spending her time here. Who would? To be honest this was not the best of places to just kick back after a long week of working, especially with a job like hers. Apparently she understood that it was a difficult have a job like they did.

He most certainly respected that about her; all the more reason to hurry this interview up and get her back to enjoying her day.

Stepping into the MRC offices, Jorge nodded to the young woman as he pulled out a chair for her to sit in at his desk. At least the top looked reasonably in order so that he didn’t appear to look like a complete and utter slob (unlike most of his fellow officers).

“Have a seat,” he said as he offered her the chair. “I’ll go get that water.” Jorge stepped away and headed for the nearby snack table at the other end of the room; a steaming pot of coffee, a fresh box of doughnuts, a few bottles of water greeted him there. It was always good to have snacks for the hard workers who did their best to protect the city. Procuring a pair of bottles of sealed water, Jorge returned to his desk and placed the bottle of water in front of her before he took his own seat. “Okay, let’s get started, shall we? Sooner we can, the sooner you can get out of here,” he said with a smile.