Coal Mine Street Police House

[Eleri Mortymer]

((Good idea))

As she jogged up the road, brushing her hair away from her eyes, Eleri spotted Captain Wright sitting outside what was left of the station. She stopped when she reached him and seated herself on a piece of rubble nearby.

She didn't say anything at first, but fixed her hair and stared at the floor.

"So... what do we do now?" She asked quietly, indicating the ruins behind them.

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian sighed as he made his way to the ruin of the Police house, just in time to hear Eleri's question, "Right now? I wouldn't say no to getting blind-faced stinking drunk and trying to forget this ever happened for a few hours. Later? Well...." He shrugged a shoulder, "Ma said something about rebuilding but I'm not sure what she meant, or where."

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright, who was still sitting amongst the rubble and generally feeling sorry for himself (given that he had just blown up the only thing that meant anything to him, and that his body felt like it had been put through a meat grinder), perked up at this, and turned to Hadrian.

"...Rebuild?" He asked incredously. "How are we gonna rebuild from this? Station's destroyed. Gone. And there's no way the council are gonna pay to put us back on our feet. Nobody wants us anyway! C'mon, be honest! When you said 'EHPD' tonight, how many people replied 'who?'."

"The city's been waiting for an excuse to sweep us away, and now the station's gone and we're broke, they've got it." Wright got up sulkily, a combination of pain, alcohol and the fact they'd just blown up his livlihood driving him to anger and depression. "You want something to do?"

Wright began to walk away, limping.

"Go home." He told them.

[Eleri Mortymer]

"The city?" Eleri called after Wright, standing up. "This city isn't just its people, you know. The people might not want us, but the city still needs us. A city will always need police."

She paused and waited for her words to sink in.

"And besides, where are you planning to go? Back to the pub? And then what? Spend the rest of your life a stinking drunk, focusing on what was? What kind of a life is that?"

She shook her head.

"You go if you want to. But I won't. I'm staying, and I'm going to do my job. This place needs people like us to keep the order, and I'm not about to abandon them, even if you do. But you go if you want to, and when people ask, we'll just tell them about Captain Nicholas Wright, the man who abandoned his city in its hour of need and drank himself to death."

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian shrugged a shoulder, "Hate to say it bossman, but the lady has a point. Besides, Ma's donated money to stuff before, I'm pretty sure when she said rebuilding she meant the police station specifically. She likes you, for some reason." He grumbled in disgust, sincerely hoping that the captain and his mother would NOT be getting any further than his mother flirting and Wright looking terrified/confused.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright looked at the two pleading with him, and had to admit to himself, they had a point. But, never one to be defeated, he felt he had to point something out.

"Um, actually, I was going to go to the hospital." He deadpanned. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the pub, but I actually think I require urgent medical attention and..."

He trailed off because he already knew he'd earnt The Ultimate Look (a fate only few men have ever suffered, and one even fewer survive), sighed.

"Okay, you're right." They weren't natural words to come out of his mouth.

"...But you asked me what to do and I don't know. Maybe, with funding, we can rebuild. But where do we start?"

He looked at the completely non-existant building.

"...And just what do we rebuild?"

[Eleri Mortymer]

"I'm sure you were, sir." Eleri said, fixing him with a Look. It wasn't quite the Ultimate Look he probably deserved, but they'd all been through a lot so she let him off.

She thought for a while.

"We rebuild what we can. Or maybe relocate entirely. I'm sure we could get a newer station somewhere closer to the city centre, especially with Elizabeth backing us."

God bless that woman she added silently. She didn't dare think about the amount of mess they'd be in without her help.

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian snorted, "Ma'd probably buy the Circle Headquarters right out from under them if she knew where they were regardless of whether or not they were interested in selling. Woman is a force of nature." He complained remembering those days when she told him to tidy his room and those arguments with Fae and his father and the school Headmaster about his little experiments. He suppressed a smile. Good times.

[Nicholas Wright]

"...Really?" Wright asked Hadrian, wicked grin on his face. "I mean, they can't be that hard to find. They must be operating out of a fairly large building and it'd be easy to pick up 'cause there'd be a substantial power dr-"

He paused.

"Oh, you weren't serious, were you?" He realised, looking like a little kid who had just had his Christmas present taken away. He supposed it wouldn't work anyway, the Circle probably had more money behind them than anybody knew...

He kicked a fallen brick and sighed.

"I mean, rebuilding this place? There's nothing left. It'd be easier to just rebuild the old..."

He paused again, and looked up, eyes suddenly alight.

"...easier to just rebuild the old station." He repeated. "We couldn't, could we? I mean, it's a derelict, smashed to pieces, but at least it's still got four walls, unlike this place..."

Wright, for perhaps the first time in a decade, actually looked excited. The prospect of reopening the old station would give them a chance of getting back what the EHPD lost all those years ago.

They could actually be a compitant police force again!

He managed to stop himself and sighed, bringing back old cynicism.

"Nah, it'd never work. Cost far too much to completely rebuild a building that size."

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian raised an eyebrow, "I know you've been living inside a bottle for the last god only knows how long but Ma bleeds the elite fat cats of the world for millions on a regular basis."

[Nicholas Wright]

"Like it inside a bottle." Wright grumbled. "Sometimes you get a little ship." He paused to consider this. "Never drink a ship-in-a-bottle." He advised. "I did that once. Was too drunk to notice. I thought it was just a picture of a ship on the side of the bottle, like, Navy Rum or something. Had a sore throat for weeks..."

"But, what I meant is, even with all that money, who'd wanna spend it on us?" Wright asked. "Your mum might...like....me...." He said the words like they were a foreign concept to him. Which they were... "But that doesn't mean she's gonna spend tens of thousands of pounds on us just like that!"

"Nah, if we're gonna get out of this, I'm gonna have to talk to some kinda stuffy officals. Oh god, they'll probably wear suits. I'll have to wear a tie!" Wright looked utterly, utterly aghast at this thought. "What am I going to do!?"

[Eleri Mortymer]

Eleri sighed. She sure knew how to pick her bosses.

"It might seem unbelievable to you, sir, but some people in this world are actually quite generous and they do like to help people. Especially when..." She glanced at Hadrain in a 'I know, it's embarrasing way', "they like you, sir. And strange as it may be, Elizabeth does. I'm afraid you're just going to have to accept it."

She tried not to laugh at Wright's face at the thought of wearing a tie.

"If it does come to...wearing ties, sir, I'll volunteer to do the talking, if you'd prefer. Although I'd definately reccomend talking to Elizabeth first."

We're on safer ground with her She added mentally. And besides, she seems to find something charming in the Captain's drunken foolery. She smiled and shook her head at the thought.

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat, "If anything happens, never ever expect me to call you 'dad'." He stated flatly, he doubted anything would happen but the look on the captain's face at the thought of it would be hilarious. Hm, maybe he had inherited more than his mother's looks? Nah.

[Nicholas Wright]

There are some men in the world to whom being a father is not natural. These men are people to whom the title 'Dad' sounds as strange and exotic as suddenly being called 'the Prince of Czechoslovakia'.

Wright was one of these people. Hence the look of total terror on his face when Hadrian mentioned it. If he could have, he'd of backed through a solid wall and run away. Luckily, his legs didn't quite work anymore and instead he just sat there looking horrified, before finally shaking it off to talk to Eleri.

"W-well, yeah, generous, sure. But we're talking hundreds of thousands of pounds! People don't just give that away!" He explained. He then considered Eleri's offer of the 'tie wearing'. He was sure there were other things you had to do too, but he never got past the tie. That was the worse part for him. After that, everything at an offical function just became a blur of him being in a tie.

It was terrifying.

Wright also had no real sense of responsibility left, and although it was beginning to be recindled by his newfound employees, he still couldn't help but leap at the chance to dump offical functions on someone who had a manner that was slightly offical.

"Of course, we'd love for you to represent the EHPD if we have to talk to people, wouldn't we Hadrian!?" Wright nodded enthusiastically, determined to get the only other person present on his side.

He knew, in his heart, it'd be his duty, and he'd have to go anyway. But for now, cheerful optimism suddenly seemed like a good idea.

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian shrugged a shoulder, "Sure whatever, but I doubt you'd let me blackmail them into giving us the cash so it probably won't be all that successful." Seriously, the dirt he had on half these rich pricks - true he was rich too but he didn't think he was above everyone else simply because of it, his mother worked for everything she had and Hadrian wanted to follow her example.