North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

Don't Be Cruel

"I have told you about my partner on the force. Sam Parker. Good guy. Southern boy. Cowboy hat. Sport utility truck. All the things in the stereotype. He swallowed his pride when I was promoted over him. We had the best case closure rate of any team in Homicide. Any squad in the city. It was not a competition, but at the same time, it was a point of pride. It was not about being in the paper, although it ended up being that too. It was about taking the good old boy network and the Cabal down a notch."

I inserted an affirmative nod. No words because I did not want to interrupt Morgan now that she is talking. I know she has not really had time to fully process this situation, so this is what she has ready. The last thing she needs is me being distracting.

"I did not normally share personal things about my life, especially my sex life, with Sam. He avoided sharing things with me. There are good reasons, starting with the fact we had a professional relationship. A mixed-gender partnership talking about sex is generally a bad idea. Do not make that face: I am not talking about you."

"I did not make a face." I protested.

"You think you didn't. I know you too well." Morgan said.

"OK. Fine. I want to have sex with my partner in crime. Literally in crime. PI's. Get it? Sue me. Story, please?" I requested.

Morgan gifted me with an amused look. "Story: I could not help but know things about Sam's personal life. At one point I investigated him because it turns out there is a downside to keeping some things too secret. That had an upside too though: Part of how I met Angel. And Janie."

"I'd like to meet Janie someday." I said.

"You'd like to take Janie to bed. Trust me on that one." Morgan assured me.

"If you did, I assume I would. We have similar taste in women." I said. "Story?"

"Sam had been married and divorced twice already, two kids, one from each marriage, and he never got to see either of them. His wives cleaned him out and took the kids to other states. He did not want to talk about it. You know why you are smart to insist on your child's relationship with you upfront? Sam's situation. He lost both of his kids. Their mothers made sure of it."

"Ouch." I said, and could not imagine that.

"I did not wish to discuss my unconventional love life with him. For one thing: That was mine. No one else's. The Cabal made my love life an issue, over and over, but that was different. If nothing else, discussing who I was dating felt like pointing out my love life was, for lack of a better word, richer than his. Not a thing I wanted to be doing. Obviously, we came to find out things over the course of the partnership, but it was rarely a primary point of discussion. Sam backed my plays. Sam was always there for me. Our professional relationship was good."

I nodded. I have picked up pieces of this down the years.

"Sam married again, because Sam. Another kid. Third time's a charm, I suppose. His two girls would be about Nakoma's age and a little older. His son is about 10."

Morgan finally looked away from her poor tortured taco. "I was taken aside or received threats in other ways on several occasions. The upshot being told to not date DeWayne. White, upwardly mobile females detectives do not get serious about the nice-looking, yummy, delicious upwardly mobile black detectives. DeWayne wanted to someday make Captain, for example. He never would if he and I remained lovers. This was not a departmental policy, but a small, very influential group of people inside the department that I called the Cabal. These people are like the HPA. They want their white women 'pure'."

Morgan air quoted the word 'pure' and layered in some acid tones around the idea. It is not a new one for either of us. Even before Vampiredom, she had no use for people that think that ethnicity, gender, orientations, etc, matters for anything. We have that in common.