It was yet another beautiful, early morning in New York. The birds were chirping and you could hear the people getting ready for the day of hard work ahead of them. Everyone sounded so happy. Except for Alistar of course. He was less than pleased to have to get up. He loved his job at the agency and the family mafia of course but he just wished it didn't have to start so early. He was half tempted to just call in sick at the agency today buuut his roomate, Elizabeth Marie, decided to be the 'saint' she is and come into his room to wake him up
She did this everyday since she only left a few minutes before him, and, being his roomate for 5 years, she knows that he has a hard time getting started
"Alistarrrr~ It's time to get up. You have work today" Elizabeth says as she rips the covers off of him
He opens one eye to look at her as he flips her off before closing his eye again
"Cmon Alistar. You have to get up. Do you want me to call your mother and get her to come down here and get you up herself?" She says smugly, knowing he doesn't want to deal with his mother
His eyes shoot open before he gives Elizabeth the death glare. He, very begrudgingly, gets up, shooing her out of his room so he can get dressed. After he puts his uniform on, the smell of coffee fills his nose.
He can't resist so he goes out to the kitchen and grabs a mug, filling it with a nice, warm cup of coffee, and a splash of whiskey
"Really Alistar? Its 8 in the morning" Elizabeth points out, shaking her head
"Hey, it's 5 O'Clock somewhere" he says clinking his cup and giving a sly wink
"Yeah, 5am…"
He quickly downs his cup of coffee and grabs his wallet and house key before heading out the door. Since it's a nice day, and the agency isn't very far from his house, he decides to walk there most mornings
He suddenly realizes that he is very hungry, seeing as he didn't eat the night before. Luckily there's a cafe nearby
While he's waiting in line to get to the counter he notices what seems to be a familiar face. He is tempted to go over and say hi and catch up, but mainly to make sure it's who he thinks it is, but before he can get the chance he gets called up to the counter so he quickly pays for his breakfast and heads out
He hums a cheery tune that he heard on the radio last night as he finishes the rest of the way to his dayjob. That kind of music isn't really his 'cup of tea' per say but Elizabeth likes it so it is often what is filling the house.
Once he gets to the agency he sets his stuff down at his desk and waits for his first assignment of the day. While he goes through the files from the day before he nibbles on his bagel. Soon enough his boss comes over
"McCormack, I need you to check somewhere out"
He let out a sigh "Another abandoned building? With all due respect Mr. Johnson, I think I am capable of much more than an abandoned building. I've been with the agency for 5 years and I know there are homicide cases that need to be worked on, so why won't you give me those?"
"Look McCormack, you're lucky I'm even still letting you work. Don't think I don't know about your little drinking problem. You're going to work the cases I assign you whether you like them or not and if you have a problem with that then you can just leave now. Understood?"
Alistar nods, waiting for his boss to leave before flipping him the bird. He gets up and heads to his patrol car. While he heads downtown he rolls his window down, putting his hand out the window to feel the cool breeze as he drives fast
Once he gets to the location he looks around, noticing how beat up the building looked "Yep. This is definitely a crack house. Or at least somewhere my dad would set something up"
He approaches the door before knocking and yelling "NYPD, open up"
After a few seconds of rumbling around inside, Alistar decides he doesn't want to wait any longer, it's not like he has anything else to do but he doesn't want to spend any more time here than he has to since he will have to spend a large part of his night in a very similar building. He forces open the door, gun drawn incase anyone decides to attack, when he sees the same familiar face from earlier, sitting on the lap of one of the biggest drug lords in the city
They both stare at each other for a moment before Alistar speaks up "Clementine?"
After another second, Clementine whispers a "one moment" to the man she was trying to seduce, before getting up and walking over to Alistar
"Alistar. Long time no see. What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing. One second you're in Hollywood with your aunt and the next you're back home straddling a drug lord. What happened to you Clem?"
"Look I'll explain it all to you later after work okay? We can go get some coffee or go to a bar or something and catch up"
"Work? You're working for these knuckleheads?" He asked in shock
"What? No. Oh god no. I'm a prostitute. He is one of my clients"
"A prostitute? Sweet ole Clemmie is a prostitute. Your mother is going to find this very amusing"
"Wait no! Please don't tell my mother. She doesn't even know I'm back home. No one does"
"You haven't even stopped by to see your mother? Whatever. She's going to find out you're home sooner or later. But for now I'm shutting this down"
He calls for backup to help him shut the entire operation down. After the last cop car leaves, Alistar turns to his old friend
"Look, I gotta get back to work but I do want to catch up with you. Meet me at The Back Room at 8 tonight, okay?"
She nods "Of course. It was great seeing you by the way. Even if it was under these circumstances"
He nods and gets in his car, heading back to the station
After a long day of menial cases from the agency, Alistar finally gets off. He was about to head home so he could freshen up before heading to HQ when he remembered who he was supposed to meet
"So much for getting cleaned up"
He walks to the bar, since it's only a few blocks away, and finds a seat. A few minutes pass and he starts to wonder if she will even show up or if he is just wasting his time. Knowing her, he wouldn't be surprised if she didn't show, which was kind of disappointing. He really did want to catch up with her. Usually he wouldn't wait for someone if they were late but he really wanted to trust her so he decided to stay 10 more minutes
After a few more minutes she finally showed up "Sorry I'm late. I got held up at work"
Alistar made a grossed out face, remembering what she does for a living "Ewwwww"
"Oh grow up. You're, what, 35 now? You should be able to handle sex talk"
"32, and I can handle that type of talk, it's just weird having my childhood best friend talk about that so openly when the last time I spoke to her was when she was an innocent 8th grader"
"God that was so long ago" she turned to the bartender "One scotch please"
"Make that two" he adds "Yeah last time I saw you was 7 years ago. You've grown my dear"
"Yeah. You have too. I remember how you used to look like such a dweeb"
"Oh god. Yeah it was so bad"
They both let out a laugh
"Anyways. Back to business. Prostitution huh?"
"Hey a girls gotta make a living somehow"
"You know I could probably get you a job at the police force with me. It wouldn't be much, most likely a secretary or assistant or something along those lines"
"Thank you Ali, but I'm good. I actually enjoy what I do. It makes a shit ton of money. I've only been on the job for a day and I already have $30. It's a pretty sweet gig if I do say so myself"
"Yeah but besides the money, what's in it for you? Clemmie I know you, we've been best friends since you were 2. You cannot seriously sit here and tell me that you genuinly enjoy fucking random men you don't know on the street"
By then their drinks had arrived
"You know what? Maybe I do. You don't know me as well as you think you do Alistar" she said before quickly finishing her drink and standing up "Thanks for the drink but I need to get home" She walks out the door
He quickly stood up, set the money on the counter, and rushed after her. Maybe it had been years since he had last seen her and maybe he didn't know her as well as he used to but he did know that he wanted to protect her like he had promised when he was little