"Ray, we have a new case to work on tomorrow." Emily said when Ray picked up the phone.
"Again?" he asked in disbelief.
Emily said, "Of course. Even though we haven't solved Leo's case, we just can't get stuck."
He knew Emily would not like his proposal; that they'd quit together, and that she'd work with him at Vogue. To Ray, she resembles a little bit of Laura's personality: independent and headstrong. All his life, he has been surrounded by women who are far from what society has labeled them to be.
He has been with Emily for awhile now. Even when they were not working, he would sometimes stay at the station just to watch his colleagues work. Emily didn't like being watches; she said it made her self-conscious.
"How do you not get overwhelmed, Emily?" Ray would ask her sometimes. Emily worked at another station. She had the same job; but with different specifications. With Ray, the cases she have to work on are diverse. But in her other station, she worked for children's welfare.
Emily would tell Ray how stressful her job at the other station is. "It must be hard to see the kids going through things even adults don't have to go through," Ray would say.
"I know, and as much as I want to help them, what I can do is very, very limited."
She has worked through several cases. The latest she has worked on was a child whose mother drank during her pregnancy. The child has fetal alcohol syndrome as a result.
"Look at the kid," Emily would show him the child's pictures. "He doesn't have this," she said, tracing the groove below the nose and above the lips.
"Philtrum, isn't that what it's called?" Ray asked, tracing his own. Emily would nod.
The child was initially under the care of his own mother—his father is not in the picture—although he is well-aware of his child's existence. The mother would be on websites that catered to the black market. She wanted to sell her child for a huge sum of money.
Emily's team would regularly visit the website to catch the culprits firsthand. This is what led to their discovery of the child and his mother. After her arrest, they took the child to an adoption center, where Emily and her team would visit him.
While being taken care of in the center, he was sent to a regular school. He had learning difficulties; for the lessons that the other children would take a few hours to learn, he needed days.
He struggled with socializing, too. When the other kids played with each other, he would sit in the corner and play by himself. At first, they wondered if he had autism, but eventually, each one of the traits he displayed were attributed to his FAS.
It took them several months to determine whether he's autistic or not. They would see how excited Zico was whenever he would be in a room with flickering bright lights, and loud sounds did not bother him. He had no sensory issues.
He also turned his head whenever his name was called, and the kid is able to maintain eye contact, especially if it is with a person he usually sees and trusts. Although he preferred being on his own, he liked physical touch.
The adoption center took their time with him. Zico is a patient child despite his developmental delays. He was sent to a school for children with special needs and he has been doing well.
"He's sweet," Emily would say. "He would greet me whenever he sees me, and I think I'm one of his favorites."
Ray would nod, and she would tell more stories about Zico.
"I can't remember the last time I saw him."
"Did you always visit the other kids, too?"
"It depends, if the I liked the kid, then I will. But I did not want to create a, you know, a deeper connection with them. Working for them is already enough heartbreak; I did not want anymore, in case."
Growing up, Emily was always exposed to the nature of her current job. Her father used to work as a cop; until they decided to relocate to the countryside where he chose to raise cattle. Her family loved a private life, where they live quietly and peacefully. Her mother was a housewife and she loved to cook. Emily loved it as well. She would often help her mother water their plants in the garden, and seeing them blossom into beautiful flowers filled her with joy and fulfillment.
She had no siblings; but there was one time when she almost had a brother. Her mother was five months pregnant when a virus circulated around the town, and although they were careful, it was not enough. Soon after, they relocated. Her mother remained a housewife, and her father returned to his original job. Being a cop gave his father a sense of authority.
Seeing his peers respect her father was one of the main reasons Emily pursued her job. She didn't regret it, although there are times when feelings of disappointment would visit her thoughts and a part of her subconcious would tell her to explore more. She always turned these thoughts down low. When she first got her stint in the same station she met Ray in, she was a nervous wreck. She would be in crime scenes, in front of corpses as cold as ice. She was scared, just like what every newbie would feel, but she never gave in to her fears.
Fear is a familiar feeling for Emily. When she was a teenager, started experiencing her own fair share of issues concerning her mental health, but being a cop's daughter isn't for the gentle and the soft. She never seeked professional help for her issues, although she has consistently managed herself successfully.
When she first met Ray, she was intrigued by his personality. He is decent, and remains so, although in the eyes of Emily, he is distant, yet has never waned in his kindness. She considers him as her friend; she only hopes that he feels the same. They talk regularly, they are both well aware of that, but she thinks that there is a side of Ray that he is not willing to share to anyone.
