Work Text:
Sharon was dead tired, so tired in fact that she considered calling an Uber. They had worked non stop the last 72h to find those poor kids. It had all ended well, for once but now she was dead on her feet. It felt like 3am but seeing the sun setting, she figured it was earlier than that . Maybe 18-19h? She loved a good rainy sunset, with its pink and violet hues. Well she would not enjoy that show tonight. It was not raining, it was pouring down ! She considered once more not driving home but as everyone knows, the cobbler is always the one wearing the worst shoes… she couldn’t imagine not having her car the next morning so she decided that she’d blast music and air conditioning. Her ride wasn’t long. It would do.
As she was walking in the nearly empty garage of PAB, she got a weird sensation. She felt like she was followed and worse than that, that she was forgetting something. She knew she was being paranoid these days with Stroh escaping just a few weeks ago. She barely slept as it was, always worried he would show up on her door steps. She walked faster, a bit worried. She opened her car and quickly got into it, locking the doors immediately. It usually locked when she started driving but she … she just didn’t want to wait. Harmless paranoia, she told herself. She put the car into drive and started for the grocery store. Being her, she did not see the man running toward her car, nor getting into his car.
She was going crazy. She really needed to sleep. She was sure to have heard someone call her name several times. Oh well. She grabbed another container of soup, put it down in her shopping cart, along her goodnight herbal teas and her yogourts. She was so exhausted that she decided to forego getting fruits and just went to the cashier. Once more she thought she was hearing her name but did not see anyone she knew in the large amount of people waiting like her to pay and go. Outside, it was raining worse than a shower. Water filled up her shoes and she had a hard time keeping her balance. She dumped her stuff in the trunk and ran down to the driver's side. She felt it once more, that presence. God, she was really being crazy. She locked the door and went to fish for her sneakers in between the front and back seats. She was putting the first one on when someone knocked on her window.
She nearly jumped out of her skin. She realized that the véhicule was all fogged. She could only see the outline of a man. Her heart beating crazily in her chest, she snapped the ignition and as the man took a step back she pressed on the gas and left. She looked on her passenger side and noticed what was missing: her bag. Of course she had forgotten her bag, she berated herself. She always kept her credit card in the interior pocket of her jacket, ready for a quick run to the coffee shop. Now she was phone less and, maybe worse, without her gun. She suddenly felt very frightened. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
As she waited expectantly for the light to turn green and leave the grocery shop parking lot, she saw in her rear view mirror the shadow of a man running toward her car. A few seconds later, the car was in line behind hers, a dark suv and a red sedan between them. It was raining so hard that she couldn’t make the brand or the color but she knew it was the same person that had been near her window.
She pressed hard on the gas, her tired squeaking at the green light and decided to change her itinerary to go home. Instead of the big boulevards, she took several small one way streets. She shook her head. Ok, it was official: she was both paranoid and in desperate need of sleep. No one was following her. The streets were empty, probably due to the hour and the bad weather. No car was behind hers. She felt bad. It must have been that poor homeless man that was always near the grocery. She had the habit of giving him bread and dog food for his lovely pet. He must have recognized her. Poor him. She must have scared the living hell out of him. She’ll buy him some croissants to make it up next time.
Reassured, she drove the rest of the small trip to her condo. Like always, she parked in her designated place and opened the door. The light was still flicking, her spot darker than what it should be. She wondered when Mr Jones would repair it. It’s been months now… what a not super super, this one!! She heard a distant plic ploc, rain infiltrating like always near Mr Rampling’s space. It felt eerie but she was quite used to it. She bent down through her door, a knee on her seat to grab her keys. She had the bad habit of always leaving her home keys in the cup holder instead of her bag. For once, she was quite happy about that. She really did not feel like going back to PAB. She wanted to eat her soup, take a scalding shower and go to bed.
As she was rounding her car to get her stuff out of the trunk, she heard footsteps. She looked around, a bit worried and saw on a visitor spot the car from earlier. Her heart started beating wildly in her ears, preventing her from hearing her surroundings like she would have liked. She was not seeing anyone but the car’s lights had not completely turned off, meaning it had just parked. Shit shit shit, she thought to herself. She was pretty good at défense classes, she had knocked down Andy just a week ago but it was quite different to fight with a subordinate, with an instructor and no real pressure. Plus, she knew he let her have the upper hand because he did not want to hurt his back. An assailant might not be that gentle. She resumed in her head her training, afraid about what was about to happen. She had never had to fight face to face. She had used her gun several times but never fought with her hands and fists.
As she was preparing herself, she heard : « Oh Sharon, you’re here! » God what a stupid fuck, she berated him in her head as she was about to puke, her adrenaline going down suddenly. She started laughing and crying at the same time. He was trotting to her, saying: “You forgot your bag at work’’ as Andy came closer he looked at her and asked “are you okay?”
« No, I’m not okay. » she responded, dissolving in laughter and throwing herself into his arms. She’ll kill him later for scaring the shit out of her. For now, she was just relieved. And she had her bag back!