(Untitled)

[needthepractice]

There's a select group of people scattered throughout the Compound today, any of which someone might happen to run into, but only if they know where to look.

In the IPD Office, there's a tall woman with long brown hair sitting behind one of the auxiliary desks and filling out some long-neglected paperwork. She's been putting off her patrol

Comments

[prettywithawill]

There was no doubt about it, the man standing at the bulletin board as the man she was supposed to meet. He was strong, obviously someone who worked out, and stood like a person who could handle themselves. It was one of those things that Skulduggery and Tanith had taught her to recognize so that she didn't underestimate anyone.

"Are you Steve?" she asked, moving up next to him. "I'm Valkyrie. Danny's... trainee. Student? He's teaching me to shoot."

[newkindofcop]

In the time they've been on the island, Danny's certainly acquired his share of young people - adolescents, or even younger kids in some cases - who he's taken under his wing in some way. Steve only knows of about a small handful, but Danny hasn't even mentioned this young woman, which means she's probably a fairly new addition to the group.

He glances down at her, squinting slightly. He might be mistaken, but he's pretty sure there are at least one or two other girls on the island with the same face as hers. Or they could all be the same person. That's also a possibility.

"He's teaching you to shoot, huh? That's either a very encouraging or very frightening thought," he replies, glancing back to the board.

[prettywithawill]

"It's definitely both," she agreed with a nod. "Although I don't actually have my own gun yet."

She considered it only a matter of time. She wasn't sure how she was going to get one, but she was.

"This is mine," she said, pointing to her add on the board where she was asking for advanced and continued combat and survival training. "Danny said you'd maybe be interested in training me."

[newkindofcop]

"Neither does he," Steve admits, feeling the need to point out that piece of information to her. "He's been using mine on occasion." Since Danny had only arrived with a surfboard and the denim shorts on his person, Steve had been their only source of weapons on the island, at least between the two of them. Considering their individual skill sets, though, Danny was the obvious choice to carry the gun, especially since Steve was better at hand-to-hand - and had his knife to use as back-up if the opportunity arose.

"Trying to cover all of your bases, or are you continuing something you started back home?" he asks.

[girlsolo]

Arms crossed over her chest, Kate leans against a tree and watches Steve at the bulletin board. She's curious about what he's putting up, but more interested in the way he lingers and reads everything else. It feels familiar. The kind of thing she'd do because she's got other things she's not wanting to do yet, or worse, nothing to do.

After a few minutes, she strolls over and loops her arm up around his shoulder. Not many people would, but Kate's not most people and either he'll take it as an opportunity to try to flip her and teach her a new lesson or he'll let her. Either works. "Heya."

[newkindofcop]

Steve smiles faintly, barely budging under the addition of Kate's lean when he's already anticipating her in some form or another. "Hey."

He doesn't take his eyes off the board, still finishing his slow read of a sign right in front of him, but his voice is soft as he addresses her, a calm greeting.

[girlsolo]

Kate grins at him and leaves her arm up over his shoulders even though he's a lot taller than she is. She's comfortable with him and if he doesn't want her in his personal space like this, he'll move her.

"How's my third favorite guy--oh, fourth, I forgot to count Zulu." Declan, Will, Zulu, Steve.

[newkindofcop]

"Funny," Steve murmurs, only moving in the sense of turning his head to look at a sign on the far end of the board, though he gives no indication that he's ignoring her. The truth of the matter is that he couldn't be more aware of her presence.

"I guess I should be honored to have made even fourth," he absently adds.

[haolehothead]

Danny hands out one more notice to go on the bulletin board with the rest, shooting Steve a pleased-as-punch look. It's a notice inviting people to a bachelor party in early December, just before the real event comes to pass. "So, when exactly does the celibacy start? How much waiting is enough waiting for you?"

[newkindofcop]

Steve squints at the notice, but sticks it up anyway, tacking it a little farther over to the right from the sign he's just posted.

"I told you, couple weeks in advance. What, were you hoping that was going to change in some way?"

[haolehothead]

"Uh, yeah?" Danny responds with a dubious look on his face. "Consider our lives since we got here, Steven, please, if you will," he encourages with a dubious look on his face. "What's the longest time we've gone without?"

[newkindofcop]

"I don't know - maybe a week, tops? Not to mention all those times you were pissed enough to make me sleep in the other room," Steve points out, feeling the need to remind him but not to rub it in at all, his expression remaining relatively impassive as he glances over another notice.

[sluttylyingliar]

"Babe, you're going to burn a hole in that thing," Rachel says, not quite strolling up. Her ribs aren't really up for strolling quite yet. Although she did get her stitches removed and feels much less gruesome.

She rests a hand on her swollen belly and smirks at the bachelor party notice. "I still can't believe my one chance to dress up like Danny and give you a lapdance is shot to hell."

[newkindofcop]

"You'll get a chance someday," Steve faintly answers, still looking over the board before he glances down his shoulder at her.

"Unless you're planning to give up the dancing once the baby's born. Are you?"

[sluttylyingliar]

"I don't know," she mutters, poking at her stomach. "I say I will but the more pregnant I get...the getting attacked by a toy thing changed some things. Probably for the better."

[newkindofcop]

"Well, you'll never know for certain until after that baby comes," Steve replies, glancing down to her stomach as she prods at it.

"If anything, if it's the kind of scenario where you want to be more of a stay-at-home parent, you could always lighten your load in other ways."

[stormweathered]

Castle hoped that Beckett was bound to look up soon or the looming cup of coffee above her head was going to turn into a dangerous situation in which someone got scalded and someone else got told to sleep in another bed -- and he had a suspicion he knew just who that would be. "Coffee for the overworked?" he piped up.

[needthepractice]

"Right there," Beckett murmured, absently tapping her pen against her empty cup. The hollow sound reached her ears and she glanced up slowly, grinning sheepishly as she finally came to terms with the severity of her situation. "Okay, maybe I do need a refill," she admitted, pushing her chair back from the desk to lean back slightly. They'd set up another chair along the side of the desk, a mirror image of the way he had often sat with her back home, and that alone was a comfort to her, not to mention his dutiful constant of bringing her coffee.

"Thank you," she murmured, reaching out to take it from him with a small smile.

[stormweathered]

Castle beamed away, pleased that he still could find some purpose for himself on the island -- even if he didn't get to be as much of a partner to her as he did before. Or maybe he was more, but in a different way. "My pleasure," he said, dutifully. "So, what are we working on today? Identity theft? A grisly murder?" he teased, knowing it would be nothing of the sort.

[needthepractice]

"Nothing that sinister," Beckett promised, replacing her old coffee with the new cup before glancing back up to him with a sigh. "Somehow I've gotten behind on all my paperwork - which seems impossible, especially here, but it's happened, so now I'm just trying to get ahead to save myself the effort later on."

She paused, picking up her pen to jot down a few more notes. "Everything okay?"