Chapter Text
“Why’d you go into law enforcement?”
Alex looked up from her paperwork. It was a question she’d been half expecting Bobby to ask since she’d first mentioned the year she went into the academy. The date was the kind of thing he’d have known already, but the way it had come up in the course of their investigation had pushed it into the air between them, introducing a kind of permission to ask that wouldn’t have otherwise existed.
“I tried my hand at other things,” she said, “but it’s in my blood, you know? It was time…just something I needed to do.”
Bobby nodded. “You need to protect people,” he said.
She was silent for a moment before she said, “So do you.” She didn’t say the rest of what came to her mind—that his need to protect was to try to set the world right, to make it make sense—because she knew that making sense wasn’t something the world was inclined to do. Instead, she said, “I wasn’t sure what to do after college. I thought about law school for a while, but nothing really clicked. I ended up doing advocacy work with women’s shelters while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
“There was a woman, once, who came into one of the shelters I worked at. I’ll never forget her. She had been beaten so badly that one of her eyes was swollen shut, and both of her arms were broken. I helped her with some forms related to her medical care and talking with her, found out she’d been beaten by her pimp. He’d also beaten her son. Protective Services had taken custody of him, in the hospital, and she was trying to get visitation. She was so desperate to see him—to find out if he was okay.” Alex sighed. “He wasn’t. The boy died from his injuries before she was able to see him again.”
Bobby sat with his elbows on his desk, hands folded under his chin, as he gave Alex his full attention.
“I don’t know what happened to her. She left the shelter when she got the news and never came back. I’d seen and heard some horrible things doing that work, but something about that case changed things for me. I had this need to be a part of taking people like that pimp off the streets. It wouldn’t bring that woman’s son back, but it would keep him from hurting anyone else. I stopped fighting what I already knew—that I was meant to be a cop.”
“Is that why you did such a long stint in Vice?”
“Yeah. I know doing time in Vice is seen as the dues female cops have to pay, and in a lot of ways, it is. But it was something I wanted to do. These women are often preyed upon as girls and then used as teens and adults. Do you have any idea how many streetwalkers have a history of having been sexually abused? It’s staggering.”
Bobby nodded.
A corner of Alex's mouth turned up in a rueful grin. “Of course you know. I forgot who I was talking to for a moment.” She paused. “I knew I couldn’t stop it from happening, but if I could be a part of getting anyone out of that life, it was worth it. Sometimes Major Case feels a long way away from that. But on days like this… What Royce did—murdering Amberleigh and then capitalizing on that murder for years, not to mention selling out his own son—there are a lot of ways to exploit people.”
“That there are,” Bobby said, picking up his pen to continue working through the pile of forms.
They worked quietly for a while before Bobby said, “It was the right choice. You’re one of the best.”
Alex smiled.
A/N: There was a discussion on one of the CI lists I follow about whether or not knowing the year Alex went into the academy (aren’t these little character details grand?) confirms Alex’s age. I don’t think it does. I think of Alex as being around Kathryn Erbe’s age, which means that Alex could have gone into the academy in her mid 20s. I like the idea of law enforcement being her second career. Her family is important to her, and I can definitely see her going into the family business, as it were. But her independence makes me think that maybe she tried something different first. Being a cop is Bobby’s second career, too, but going from the military into civilian law enforcement isn’t too great a leap (many military folks—like my dad, for instance—enter similar or related careers after retirement). I think there’s an interesting story in Alex’s choices. Maybe I’ll revisit it. Who knows? We’ll see what else the writers throw at us this year.