((OOC: Set at the beginning of May.))

"Yeah. It'll be fun. I figure we can make snacks, maybe a cheese and cracker tray, cookies. And play board games. Maybe try out that exploding kittens game." Amelia rambled into her phone. The line at the bank was long, and she was doing everything in her power to escape it. The phone call with Serena was a great escape, too. Blondie was always the best case scenario, in her book.

She'd been kicking the idea around for a while. A game night with Serena and some of her friends. Cop buddies, mainly. Maybe a couple she had met in high school. Probably about 6 people, total, including Serena and herself. The blonde definitely had not met any of these people, and Amelia hadn't gone into much detail about them, other than the basics. Names, 'from work' or 'from high school.' And so on.

The high school buddies had been some she'd been on her youth soccer team with. One of them had also been on her girls basketball team. Good team players. One had been a striker. The other one had been a great defensive player on the court, good at setting people up for baskets. Amelia had not gone into much detail about all of that. She figured the conversations would be easy, better to let that develop naturally and not to blindside the blonde with a bunch of information about faceless names. These were good people. Mostly. One of her cop friends was well-meaning, but she still didn't quite know him. He was kind of a goof.

Amelia smiled as she talked. "What do you think? I'll help with the baking and snacking. I think a group game night with friends would be fun. And maybe if that went well, we could do one with some of yours."

There weren't many people that could make Serena smile by waking her up with a phone call. Her girlfriend was one of them though. She did her best not to yawn for the start of the conversation, she really did. But it happened more than once, which was pretty damn embarrassing. She'd gone about making a strong coffee while he girlfriend began pitching an idea to her.

Sleepy brain was not a functioning brain. "Sssounds good." She murmured, finishing making the coffee and taking a long sip before adding. "Kittens is a fairly good game when people know each other, but I tend to avoid humour reliant games when I don't know a person very well, I'd probably just end up embarrassing myself." smiling widely she added. "More than I usually do, I mean."

"Who were you thinking of inviting? You don't talk to me about your friends all that often. Are they like, college friends or..." Her brain finished the sentence off with the word 'cops' in her head. She had very mixed feelings where they were regarded. And while she had a lot of respect for them, her opinions on that subject were also pretty mixed.

Valid point, well made. Serena didn't know these people. The last thing Amelia wanted was to embarrass her girlfriend in front of people. That was not very fun. She hadn't thought of that. She hadn't played the kittens game, so she really didn't know what it involved. If it was anything like cards against humanity or apples to apples, it thrived on knowing your audience. Those games were hit or miss. They'd have to hash it out more. Dice games and card games might be easier. Not board games. Well. Certain board games. Monopoly is the killer of friendships. Even that cool banking monopoly that came with the credit cards and card reader, so you never had to deal with cash. And adults probably wouldn't enjoy Sorry! and Mouse Trap very much.

"Good point," Amelia assented.

Serena turned to another topic. The people involved. Amelia held her phone against the side of her head a little closer, concentrating. The line shuffled one step forward. She surged with the crowd. Still a ways to go, but progress!

"A mix. A couple of them, I've known since high school. Played sports with em, and went to classes. Helena and Jess'ca. A few are cops." She said.

Serena sounded tired, which was odd, since she hadn't called all that early in the day. It wasn't even past 10 in the morning. 9:30-ish? She'd wanted to hit the bank early. People don't usually sleep past 9. Unless Serena had stayed up late the night before? Writers often went weird places for their muse. Or gamed. A lot.

Amelia went on describing her friends. "The cops names are Ridley and Patty. Nice people. Patty was actually one of the first cops on the force to take me under her wing." It's hard being a female officer in a male-dominated police force. It was good having someone to commiserate with over difficulties, someone who had her back. "And Ridley is hilarious." She laughed. Such a goofball. Clumsy, but good-natured and outgoing. At first, she'd thought he was an idiot. But he was growing on her.

The line trudged forward. Some more people entered the bank.

She smiled when Amelia agreed. She really didn't need to be embarrassing herself around the stunning brunette anymore than she already felt like she did. Ami was so in touch with things, and cool. And Serena was kind of a massive geek who spent most of her time writing or reading, or failing that training on her own to keep up her level of fitness and that.

She listened intently whilst the possible guests were listed off, trying not to give off any audible reaction to the fact that Ami had mentioned they were cops. Her thoughts on that subject confused and conflicted her the more she thought about it. She was just glad Ami was a serious badass and could handle herself just fine. She only worried a minimal amount compared to the past.

"I'll try extra hard to like her then." Serena chirped. If someone had taken care of Ami when she was still finding her way around with the whole being a police officer thing, she was definitely going to try and force some of those negative feelings further down and be nice.

Ridley? Why was that name familiar to her? She didn't think it was one of the cops she'd known from when her bother was on the force...

It came to her suddenly, along with a pang of something uncomfortable twisting in her stomach. "Ridley, as in the gentlemen your family was trying to set you up with before we started up dating?" She asked, doing her utmost to keep her voice neutral.

Anything Serena had said was lost as Amelia tuned the phone conversation put. Something was happening in the bank, something bad, and her cop senses were shouting at her to be aware. It wasn't a noisy, palpable thing, but rather indefinable, subtle. A silent, nagging feeling that something was off. The room had gotten too quiet, and people were looking over their shoulders, as if they sensed the wrongness too.

In the entrance, outlined dark against the light spilling in through the doors, three men stood. They wore hoodies, and slouched apart from each other, yet the coordination of the outfits told him they were a group. A van idled outside the bank. And we're those black ski masks underneath their hoods? Amelia sensed the other shoe before it dropped.

"Brb," Amelia ended the conversation succinctly, hiding her phone away in a jacket pocket before anyone noticed it. She did not end the call.

As Amelia slid the phone into a pocket, a voice managed to come through all the way to the other end of the call, loud and uncouth.

"Everyone down! This is a robbery!! Hands on your heads." He held his gun above his head, as if to demonstrate. Except his demonstration sucked.

Amelia got down, placing her hands behind her head calmly, if with annoyance. She knew the drill.

Serena's possible undertones of jealously annoyed her. She hated it when she felt something as petty as jealousy, she tried to be open and relaxed with things, especially where Amelia was concerned so when she felt jealousy or any tiny subtext of something like mistrust her emotions got understandably agitated.

The pause in Amelia's usually snappy responses but Serena a little on edge. Was something going on there? Was Ami annoyed by her little pang of confusion and jealousy? The blonde was pretty paranoid about doing something wrong where her girlfriend was concerned.

When instead of responding normally she gave a cut off response and the speaker gave off a level of interference towards the blonde on her end she held the phone out away from her head for a moment, blinking at it. Had she been cut off for some reason? She pulled it back to her ear just in time to hear the loud demands and her heart almost skipped a beat. She knew that her girlfriend was an excellent cop but...

Something inside her still wound up tightly thinking about the brunette in that situation. She quickly shook herself out of her daze, put the call on hold and swiftly dialed 911. "Hello, Hi I'd like to report a robbery, a bank robbery. It's happening right now, I was on the phone with my- she's in there, hurry you have to do something-" Serena rapid fire stammered down into the operators ear for a minute or so.

As she sat there with her hands behind her head, all Amelia could think was "God, I hope Serena didn't call the police." If there were one thing that could outright ruin a bank robbery, it was calling the police. That would turn a quick interaction into a potential hostage situation. The bank was insured for any money they lost. So long as people didn't try and be heroes, it would resolve itself. You often see silent alarms or heroic people foiling robberies on television, but the reality is that in most places, people are instructed not to intervene. No one's life is worth the insured money of the bank.

Amelia paid close attention to every detail as she stayed in place, without making herself obvious. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the three men, took note of height and build, as well as voice and any other notable features like brand of weaponry or type of clothing. Data would be useful in the after party, when the police took statements and put out notices to be on the lookout for X.

If an X-man had been present, they'd have tried to fight. It would have been a bad call. People were listening, and while they were scared, it was an early morning weekday and the bank didn't have more than 20 people in it, counting staff. More might have been in back, keeping out of sight and mind. Security were on the outskirts of the scene, following orders. But it could have been worse. Nobody was having a heart attack. There were no critical health issues like you see in television. It was nerve-wracking and boring.

A man got her attention and had her move to another part of the room, grouping with others. Amelia made certain her cellphone didn't fall out, or make noise in her jacket pocket.

It had been about ten to fifteen minutes since they'd burst in, and she'd never ended the call. Serena would likely have heard every audible command. Though with distance and muffling, it likely wouldn't have been much. Hopefully, the bank robbers would get their money and get out. Then, she could ease the blonde's worries and get on with her life.

One of the men froze where he stood in front of the window, then stepped back out of line of sight. He held his gun low, in the proper way, keeping it pointed away from himself by his leg, at the ground.

"Bad news," he told the lead man. "Just saw a squad car drive past. They're probably setting up a perimeter."

One four letter word rang audibly throughout the bank, echoing off walls. It wasn't 'luck'.