Romi

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Angelo looked tired as he sat outside internal affairs, his head in his hands as he tried to juggle a dozen different tasks at once. He'd handed the crime scene off to another sergeant, reporting back to headquarters to make his reports. The scene. What had happened with Broen. Most of all, what had happened with Nick. He was dirty, but he hadn't deserved to die, and watching him go down like that had been awful. He had to check on Jude. He'd already called the kids, letting them know what had happened so they could make their way to the hospital. He wanted to be there himself, but it wasn't happening--not with so much going on.

Jude was safe, and that was what mattered.

He'd already given most of his reports, and at that point was just waiting. He'd already been slapped with two weeks off (never mind that he'd responded to an active shooter situation, complete with hostages, but one of his own wards had been involved) and told to hang out, and all he could do was sit and wait for them to finally dismiss him so he could head to the hospital.

No wait. House first to get the kids, then home.

He was really, really tired.
 

Kait

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"Woof, what a day," said Raphael as he collapsed into the seat next to Angelo. He didn't have as much of a mess to deal with as Angelo, but he would have plenty of work after. The department was pulling him nose-first into this case now. He had a scent to work with, he knew the forest better than most cops, and he'd seen this "Daph" with his own two eyes.

He had some stuff to say, but he wasn't an asshole. He didn't want to just jump straight into it. Not now, with Angelo like this, with his Mini-Me having had such a close call. So he would ease into it, be a friend first - and he did see Angelo as kind of a friend at this point.

"How are you holding up? You look you need someone to fetch you some coffee."
 

Romi

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Puns from Raph felt normal. They felt like... well, like a return to normality. The worst was over. They'd arrested... well, at least a few cops, although no one was quite sure who. It was hard to tell who was on break, and who'd vanished into the halls of Internal affairs. At least some of them had been working with Nick, but as information started to come out--something about literal curses, which made sense with what he'd seen--it became less and less clear what was actually happening.

"I'm fine," Angelo said, reaching up to rub at his eyes a bit. "Tired. I'm waiting for Internal Affairs to sign off on me going home so I can go check on the kids. Can't really handle things, obviously, and with Miller being down..."

Well, Angelo was going to be on his ass for a while.

Probably for the better.

"I need to apologize to you though."
 

Kait

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"To me?"

That was a real surprise to Raph. If Angelo had anyone to apologize to, he thought it was that kid he put in the hospital. Unless Angelo knew something Raphael didn't, or had done something he didn't know about.

"Why?"
 

Romi

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To him. Angelo nodded, reaching up to run his fingers through his hair. He'd deal with Broen later, but Raph? Raph was right there.

"I think you probably noticed," Angelo admitted. "I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around me. You know how adrenaline gets, but even then I was beyond it. I should have been paying more attention to you and Roldan. Like the nose thing - I should have been thinking about what you guys could be doing, not what I needed to be doing. That's my job. It's why I'm a sergeant."

He grimaced at the thought, reaching up to run his fingers through his hair, right at the temple. "It was smart thinking, catching the scent."
 

Kait

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Raphael nodded. Angelo must have been way off his game, or something. And he didn't want to think about all the Internal Affairs somethings it could be. He would just let Internal Affairs handle that.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Higher ups are excited to follow up on that. Dirty or no, that woman's a cop killer. We're about to cry 'havoc' and let slip the dogs of war on those people." Raphael had been sitting on that dog pun for two hours.

But Angelo had provided a good segway.

"I've been meaning to tell you, though. Like I put in my report. I couldn't physically reach that kid, but I was trying to talk him into staying." He gave Angelo a serious look. A kid was in the hospital in who-knows-what condition now, and for all Raphael knew that could have been avoided. And Angelo was the one who pulled the trigger.

To say nothing of whatever being had possessed the kid. Maybe that thing had moral standing. Maybe it died when it could have been saved.
 

Romi

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Angelo winced at the pun, and winced more at what Raphael said after. He wasn't going to ask him not to put it in report. It was already said and done, and even if it wasn't? Angelo hated dirty cops, and that would have stunk of it.

"Probably. Maybe. I don't know. I knew the kid was a teleporter. And Jude..." He grimaced just saying the name. There was a reason cops didn't respond to calls related to people they were close to, and this was it. You couldn't be impartial, no matter how you tried. But in the moment it hadn't occurred to him that Jude would be there, only that it was probably related to Zoraida del Bosque. He hadn't even heard who made the call until well after the fact.

"Jude told me to shoot it. Said I should use the anti-magic gun. Looking back? I should have held off and seen how negotiations went. At the time? I was worried it was going to teleport off and then we'd be chasing it around the city." He wanted Raphael to at least know that much--that he'd been worried, and that had gotten in the way.

"I should have held off."

There was a reason cops didn't do surprise attacks, and this was it.

"The kids are going to be at the hospital. They'll check in on Broen. He..." Another grimace, uncomfortable. "He should be okay. He's got good regeneration, and I'm pretty sure my shot landed squarely."

No mention of the thing that was in him.
 

Kait

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Ah, christ. Angelo knew this kid Broen. That was the bodyguard, too, wasn't he? The one with the tape? Who was trying to convince everyone Nick was dirty?

Raphael was glad he was reporting to IA separately. Even if he didn't personally think Angelo was dirty, every rational part of his brain said he had serious conflicts of interest. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath. None of this looked good for Angelo. Raphael had no idea how this would fit into a narrative where Angelo was dirty, or that his Mini-Me was up to no good, but none of this felt good. Something about this whole situation felt off.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a long, deep breath. Then, he just nodded. Angelo was saying all the right things, at least. Except for mentioning that thing in Broen's head. That was a person of interest, now.

"Did Jude tell you what was possessing him?"
 

Romi

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It was a mess and a half. It hadn't even occured to Angelo that Raphael might even slightly suspect. He knew the conflicts of interest were there. But that had also been part of why he'd gone — because he'd suspected that Nick Miller might be behind it (wrong on that account, but close enough) and had needed to run interference.

"He didn't," Angelo said. "He just told me to shoot him, and then I told him to get to Roldan. But..." He trailed off a moment, staring into space before glancing to Raphael.

"I think that was a Black Wing thing. I think they... I don't know. They're using curses and dark magic, and I think they possessed him, only it ran away from them. They knew he was between them and Zora, and they're after her. Why not get rid of him and frame the whole thing as being his fault?"
 

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Raphael thought about it for a moment. "I guess that makes as much sense as anything else," he said. "I just hope the kid's mind is intact. It'd be nice if we could interrogate whatever was controlling him, but..." He shook his head.

"I don't know anything about possession. So I should probably shut up about it, shouldn't I."

He grimaced. This was a god damn mess on every level, and they all still had a lot of cleaning up to do.
 
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