[For Olivia] Jan. 23: just outside the door where it always rains

[girlsolo]

The game of 'I never' is about to get one item harder for Kate to win. Kate Freelander, ex-thief, ex-smuggler, is about to voluntarily surrender some bling that fell into her lap. Jewelry box. Whatever.

But it's not the novelty of it that has Kate's pulse elevated and her stomach in knots when she steps into the IPD Office. She's not even afraid of cops anymore. Two things about the silver bracelet with its blue stones have her holding it like a venomous snake.

One, just looking at hurts. She thought...god, she'd thought Declan gave it to her. That it had been an I love you, an I'm sorry, a please come home, Katie. But he's never seen it before. He didn't give it to her. Now it's weird. Yeah, they're good, but it's still kind of a huge fucking cosmic joke. The first time anyone gave her something like that, something pretty, just for her, and he didn't.

Two, she doesn't know whether someone lost it or someone put it in her jewelry box or what the hell happened, but it feels like payback on the stunt she pulled back in September. It's not even close to the first time she's been stolen from or had her space busted into or whatever. She just. Now she knows. She gets how it feels with to be messed with like she did. Maybe she gets a little more too why Trixa was pissed about how she did it. It was sloppy.

This bracelet's a mindfuck. One that's already taught her a lesson. All she wants is to get rid of it. But first she has to make sure it doesn't belong to someone so she doesn't end up in lock-up. She closes her fingers over it, lifts her chin and walks over to the pretty blonde she's seen around, walks like a Fed, not a cop.

"I need to report a missing item."

*
Title lyrics from Melissa Etheridge's Precious Pain.

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[gonnabefine]

With her patrol behind her, Olivia was mostly taking care of little things around the IPD office, unwilling to leave so soon when there was nothing else for her to look forward to for the rest of the day. And it was still too early to visit the Hub or the Winchester.

She looked up when someone walked in, sitting up slightly in her seat, glad for a distraction. "Okay," she said, taking off her glasses. "What's your name?"

[girlsolo]

There's something kind of soothing about the chick. The way she takes her glasses off is cute. It's like Magnus folding her hands over her paperwork to make sure you know she's paying attention and the voice is kind of Midwestern, friendly.

Kate wouldn't normally pay attention, but she's kind of on edge and it helps. She shifts her weight to her other foot and says, "Kate Freelander," a little defensively. It's the IPD. She's pretty sure they all know her name by now.

[gonnabefine]

Olivia nodded, once, to acknowledge Kate and the fact that she did know who she was. In the grand scheme of things, petty larceny wasn't the worst anyone could do, and Olivia had faced people who'd done much worse.

It was a little ironic that Kate was in the office reporting something missing, however.

"I'm Olivia Dunham," she replied. "What are you reporting missing?"

[girlsolo]

Okay, that's cool. She knows but she's not going to be a dick about it. Kate respects that.

She opens her hand and lets the skin-warmed silver chain and its blue stones spill out onto the desk. "This is," she says as the clasp falls to the blotter. Her chin comes up, shoulders squaring. "I didn't steal it. I found it in my jewelry."

[gonnabefine]

For a moment, Olivia simply looked at the bracelet. There was no reason to think Kate would lie about having stolen it simply to bring it in and claim she found it among her things.

"You just found among your things?" she asked, looking up at Kate before picking the bracelet up. There hadn't been any reports of missing items lately, and she would have noticed someone looking for something that looked so pretty. "Thanks for bringing it in."

[girlsolo]

Kate's shoulders come down from around her ears at the tone of Dunham's voice. There's nothing in it that sounds like she thinks Kate stole it. It makes Kate a little more honest than she probably needs to be, but that usually happens when people trust her.

"Yeah." She tucks her hands back in her pocket. "I thought it might be from my boyfriend. We had a fight, so, you know, but he says he's never seen it. Anyway, it's really pretty, so if someone lost it or whatever, I want to make sure they get it back."

[gonnabefine]

Olivia gave Kate a quick look of sympathy for the explanation, knowing she couldn't have lived with much of dignity intact if she'd been through the same misunderstanding.

She turned the sympathetic look into a decent smile, setting the bracelet carefully back down on the desk before sitting back in her seat. "Thank you. We'll figure out some way to see if we can find the owner. I'll let you know if we do, I'm sure they'll want to thank you, too."

[girlsolo]

"Probably not. They'll just be glad I didn't steal it." If they even believed it. But Dunham's being nice and not in that fakey-fakey way, so Kate quirks her a little smile, the kind that says she knows who she is and what people think and she's not afraid of it.

"If no one comes asking for it in a week, maybe I'll put something up on the bulletin board." Usually when you turn shit in and no one claims it after awhile, they give it back to you. Kate's scored a bunch of sweet things that way but she doesn't want this. She's not going to explain to Dunham that she just feels weird about it, but from that flash of sympathy, Kate guesses she gets it well enough.

"Um, thanks." She wants to say 'for being decent about it' but Dunham probably knows that part too.

[gonnabefine]

"You're welcome." The way Kate smiled made it easy to realize she had personal walls up just like anybody else (Olivia was sure she didn't fool anyone with her own, but as long as they kept someone out, she was okay with that). It was still nice to know that there was something beneath that exterior, and even more to know that there was a real person behind the reports she'd read.

"Do you need anything else?"

[girlsolo]

There it is again. That thing Dunham does and Kate's not sure what it is exactly, but it makes Kate feel like maybe she could trust her if she needed to. Not just on the island, either. There's something kind of solid about her that Kate...likes isn't the right word but respects is as good a word as she had for it.

She just shrugs and, with a little twist of humor, says, "If you figure out a way to get out of her, put me on the top of the list to notify. Otherwise, I think I'm good."

[gonnabefine]

That puts a genuinely amused smile on Olivia's face, despite her complete and utter lack at reaching any sort of answer on how to do just that.

"If anyone figures it out, I'll make sure you're the first to know."