She rose slowly and staggered into the tiny kitchen of her apartment, wagging the empty bourbon bottle. She tossed it in the recycle chute, then got out another bottle, opened it, and poured herself just one shot, which she knocked back. “Mmph,” she grunted then, and turned to the preparation of a high-protein breakfast.
As she cooked the eggs and waited for her bread to toast, she pondered her situation, and what she wanted to happen.
“Divide and conquer,” she suddenly said. “That’s what Uncle Bill always drilled into me. That’s how you get through a group against you. Divide and conquer. I can do this.”
“Hello?” Ames answered the VR call somewhat absently, some two hours later; she had been rubbing her back, which was aching after having to locate where someone had inadvertently parked the mobility chair to ‘get it out of the way’… too far away from her desk.
“Hi, Ms. Ashton?” came the unfamiliar voice.
“Yes, this is Callista Ames Ashton…”
“This is Tabitha Koch,” the woman said. “Listen, I just wanted to apologize to you over certain little scenes the other day. Maybe Nick told you that we used to see each other, way back when, and I hadn’t heard he’d gotten married, so when I saw him, I remembered the good old times, and just sort of… didn’t think.”
“No, I understand,” Ames said, reserved and cautious. “He’d already told me about you.”
“I see. And so anyway, I know he loves you a lot, and so I just wanted to call and apologize and tell you that I didn’t mean anything by it.”
The hell you didn’t, Ames thought, vindictive. He – and Win Peabody, and Pete Stone – know you way the hell better than that, bitch. And now, so do I. What are you up to now? Well, at least you’re out of Nick’s life now. Lee fired your ass. He won’t be running into you any more at all, you little slut.
What she said was, “Oh, I understand. You were just glad to see him.”
“Exactly! And Nick’s a really nice guy, and that means you must be nice, too. So I was wondering if, by way of apology and getting to know you better, I could buy you at least a cup of coffee and a snack? I’m sure, with that growing baby, you’re probably hungry a lot. Besides, it isn’t like I know a lotta people on Sintar any more… I mean, um, you know, I… well, I could really use a couple friends… especially now, what with being out of work…”
Ames pondered the matter briefly. Huh. Maybe she really does want to be nice. If she wants to get back into the IPD, she could be trying to turn over a new leaf, now that she sees she can’t get in there crooked. I’ll give her a shot. What can she do to me in a café, anyway?
It never occurred to her that, while Ames had topped her Academy class in hand-to-hand and martial arts, Koch might have done the same. Or that Koch was laying on the pathos with a trowel.
“Okay,” she decided. “When, and where did you have in mind?”
Soon they had a location and a time – the next day, midafternoon, during Ames’ usual growing-baby second lunch break. They would meet in a little hole-in-the-wall café called the Baked Bean – part of a local franchise which, Koch assured her, had excellent coffee, including decaf, which Ames preferred for the baby’s health. Nanites could do a lot, but she didn’t see the point in stressing them unnecessarily. More, they had delicious baked goods and deli sandwiches, which should satisfy the needs of a rapidly growing baby boy.
“I’m looking forward to it!” Koch lilted on the call.
“Yeah, having girlfriends to hang with is always good,” Ames offered. “Woops, here comes somebody. Gotta go, Tabby.”
“Later, Cally.”
And Ames turned to greet Rassmussen as he brought her the latest forensics report.
That night, as Cally tried to get settled with a restless and very big baby in her belly, kicking and squirming, it never occurred to her to mention the next day’s coffee date to Nick, never mind the fact that Tabby had indicated she wanted to surprise Nick with their newfound friendship – “the old and the new,” she’d said.
It simply wasn’t in her thoughts around getting her poor swollen feet elevated, food in her belly, her back eased, and her bladder emptied – the baby had a tendency to settle its butt right down on that organ and kick her kidneys or stomach. She’d even thrown up once the week before, when little Paul had nailed her stomach the wrong way and induced nausea.
So it never even occurred to her to mention it to anyone until the next afternoon, half an hour before she was scheduled to meet Tabby.
“Hey, Maia, my second lunch break might be a little long today,” Ames called as she headed for the front door of the precinct.
“Wait, wait, what’s up?” Peterson said, coming to the door of her office. “You meeting Nick again?”
“No, not this time,” Ames said, shaking her head. “If you can believe it, Tabby Koch wants to make friends. We’re meeting for coffee and snacks. Well, decaf and snacks.”
“WHAT?!” Peterson almost screamed. The ICPD Investigations bullpen stopped dead as everyone clued in on the conversation.
“Yeah, that’s what I kinda said, when she called yesterday,” Ames averred. “But no, she just wants to get to know the wife of her old boyfriend, I guess.”
“Cally, no!” Roger Armbrand exclaimed. “You know that bitch is trouble!”
“It’s okay, Rog,” Ames replied with a grin. “You know
