"No, it's fine." She shook her head. She was past the anger and the grief of it, and only the hard, smooth nugget of truth at the heart of it remained. It had taken her years to smooth off the rough edges of the memories until she could hold them without getting cut, but she trusted Ezra: he had been solid, earnest, and kind since the day she'd met him on the First Breath.
"The government of the town the FBI is headquartered in - the nation's capital, actually, sort of like Coruscant was the capital of the Inner Rim - had some folks that, well like any government, were more corrupt than most. One of them, the mayor - which is like a marshall, I guess, for you? - had a drug conviction on his plate. So he had the FBI team up with the DEA, which is the Drug Enforcement Administration - to try and find the folks who were making and distributing drugs in his area. John and I were the ones chosen to work the bust: that's what we call it. You wait in a large paneled, unmarked van - about the size of one of those shuttles?" She gestured with her hands. "And when you see what you're looking for, you 'bust' out of the van and arrest the folks responsible."
She pursed her lips, remembering the way it had all started: trying to catch a nap in the back of the van, her head back against the wall, sitting as close as possible to the dry ice they'd placed for coolant. The smell of the men's sweat thick in the small space, the way they'd been so skeptical of her presence until Brigham had vouched for her, then yielded to her expertise.
"The DEA guys were all hot-headed, more used to going in hot than waiting to see what was going to happen. They were all about making the arrest, getting the glory and the front page news, you know? But John and I had dealt with the woman in charge of the drug ring before. She was dangerous - to the point that she'd hide infected drug needles in her braids. Not someone to go in hot with."
cw: drug mention
"The government of the town the FBI is headquartered in - the nation's capital, actually, sort of like Coruscant was the capital of the Inner Rim - had some folks that, well like any government, were more corrupt than most. One of them, the mayor - which is like a marshall, I guess, for you? - had a drug conviction on his plate. So he had the FBI team up with the DEA, which is the Drug Enforcement Administration - to try and find the folks who were making and distributing drugs in his area. John and I were the ones chosen to work the bust: that's what we call it. You wait in a large paneled, unmarked van - about the size of one of those shuttles?" She gestured with her hands. "And when you see what you're looking for, you 'bust' out of the van and arrest the folks responsible."
She pursed her lips, remembering the way it had all started: trying to catch a nap in the back of the van, her head back against the wall, sitting as close as possible to the dry ice they'd placed for coolant. The smell of the men's sweat thick in the small space, the way they'd been so skeptical of her presence until Brigham had vouched for her, then yielded to her expertise.
"The DEA guys were all hot-headed, more used to going in hot than waiting to see what was going to happen. They were all about making the arrest, getting the glory and the front page news, you know? But John and I had dealt with the woman in charge of the drug ring before. She was dangerous - to the point that she'd hide infected drug needles in her braids. Not someone to go in hot with."