When Minali returned to the Watch office, she was surprised to hear applause. Had someone broken the doughnut eating record already? There wasn't a doughnut to be seen, but then there wouldn't be, if someone had eaten them all, she reasoned.

Lieutenant Diamond, her supervisor, appeared in front of her, holding out his hand. "Good going, Detective Burman." He nearly crushed her fingers, he shook her hand so hard. "And Detective Small, too. Biggest drug bust in the history of the Colony!" Diamond beamed. "And we all thought it was drones flying in somehow. Where did you get the idea they were using the prostitutes to bring it in?"

Phil Burman opened his mouth to reply, by Minali got in first. "It was Phil. He thought of body cavity searches. I didn't think it was a good idea at first." She grimaced as she remembered the terror on the girl's face when Phil had mentioned the search as a joke. What kind of prostitute was terrified of being penetrated? Either she'd made a very poor job choice or she had something to hide. Gambling on the latter, Minali had called Phil's bluff and insisted on the search. And hit paydirt. "But it never hurts to be thorough, so..."

Laughter echoed around the office. Minali was glad the girls couldn't hear it down in the cells. They'd be up on minor charges with a night or two in the cells and a fine, no more, but their boss would probably be shipped offplanet to face the authorities on Elysium. Elysium had a zero tolerance policy on drug dealers, and a dim view on sex slavery, too. He wouldn't see daylight again for a long, long time.

"It feels so good to wrap this case up, I'm going for a beer. Who's with me?" Phil shouted. "To the Moon and Sixpence!"

A chorus of shouts told him half the office was up for a drink, it being a Friday night and all.

"You coming, babe?" Phil asked Minali.

She shook her head. "That report won't write itself."

Phil laughed. "After a couple of beers, you bet it will! Come with us."

"No."

His smile faltered for a moment, before he hitched it back up. "All right then, I'll have one for you. You better be home before I am, though, 'cause that bed's sure cold without you."

If anyone in the office hadn't known he was her partner in more than the professional sense, they did now. Whoops and catcalls followed his words as the mass exodus began, leaving only Minali behind.

She slumped down at her desk, wishing she could one day meet a man, any man, whose life didn't involve drinking copious amounts of alcohol at the local pub. From her drunkard father to her equally inebriated ex-husband, her experience with alcohol only led to violence, anger and pain. Hers, more often than not, and she bore the scars to prove it. Back before her dad had drunk himself to death and she'd showed up in hospital with a broken bottle embedded in her shoulder, courtesy of her loving ex-husband, she might have considered going for a drink. One drink couldn't hurt, right?

But her shoulder ached, reminding her that it could.

Sighing, she got to work. She'd rather write up the report, anyway, closing this week with the successful end to a difficult case so she'd have a fresh assignment in the morning. She'd take anything that didn't involve body cavity searches of Titans. She shuddered. Some of those creatures had fur or scales or more orifices than any being should have. Give her Humans any day. At least they made sense, biologically.