Work Text:
Sklonda Gukgak: Leaving work now, so sorry for the delay. ETA 10:30.
Penny Luckstone: No problem!
When Sklonda pulls into the parking lot at Strongtower Luxury Apartments, she doesn’t get out right away. It was a lucky drive home; she hit all the green lights. Probably the best part of her damn day, honestly. The dashboard clock reads 10:28, meaning she has two minutes before she’s officially later than she told Penny she’d be. Not that it’ll make much difference when she’s an hour later than she said she’d be in the first place, but she tries to be a woman of her word, even when that word changes.
It was really an awful day. Sometimes, Sklonda hates her job more than anything in the world. She became a cop to fight for justice, and it was no easy task. Nobody wanted a goblin in the academy, much less a goblin woman. Sklonda often doubts she would have done it at all if she hadn’t had Pok’s support. But she fought tooth and nail to be at the top of her class, and clawed her way to a rank — not literally, though the temptation was there — and she just…
She wishes it felt worth it, more than it does.
That half-orc was innocent. He was a sixteen-year-old boy from Mumple, with no motive for murder whatsoever. His only crime was being near the site of the murder. Crime enough when your skin is green, a fact of which Sklonda is more than cognizant, but Captain Bacon — notoriously incapable of discerning between green-skinned races — had sworn up and down they had him on the tape, and he’d sent Sklonda to make the arrest.
She shouldn’t have done it. She keeps playing it in her mind, wondering where she could have put her foot down. But Sklonda is just a deputy, and she knows her position is tenuous. If she’s insubordinate, that’s the end of her career. Maybe that would have been fine for a younger Sklonda — a Sklonda with more help and less to lose. But Pok is gone. Raising Riz is now squarely on Sklonda’s shoulders. She can’t lose her job. She doesn’t want to lose her job, because most of the time, her job is good. She puts criminals behind bars, where they can’t do any more harm. She makes the world safer for her son.
And that half-orc kid? her conscience bites back. Are you making the world safer for him?
She’d read him his rights as he’d sobbed and wept, urging him not to say anything without a lawyer. When they’d returned to the station, Captain Bacon had insisted Sklonda interrogate the boy. She’d gotten an alibi within five minutes. Captain Bacon demanded more information. Sklonda demanded they confirm the alibi. Three minutes later, they did. Captain Bacon said it must be an accomplice. Sklonda requested to view the tape. She watched it with him hovering like a gnat by her ear, and when he paused it to indicate where he’d seen the boy, Sklonda had only stared.
Being a half-orc was, of course, their only resemblance. The guy on the tape could never in a million years have been the kid Sklonda just cuffed.
They released him. Sklonda apologized on behalf of the precinct, well aware that the captain would not. He’d only given her a baleful look. And she could hardly blame him for that.
Didn’t make it easier to stomach.
Pok liked to joke that they were fighting the same war on two different fronts. He called himself offense, and Sklonda defense. “If they don’t deal with me,” he’d say, “then they have to deal with you.” Then he’d always make a face, as if nothing could be scarier than having to deal with Sklonda. She’d hit him, and they’d both laugh.
She puts her head in her hands and exhales, hard. The sound of his voice haunts her. She can hear it in this very car.
Gods, she misses him.
Pok would find the silver lining of this fucked-up day. He’d come up with the perfect thing to say to make Sklonda laugh, and she would feel better, not about today, but about tomorrow. The silence in the car is unbearable.
She gets out. It’s 10:30. Her son is waiting upstairs, and she has a babysitter to pay.
Her key sticks a little in the lock, so she has to jimmy it to get it out as she swings the front door open. She steps across the threshold—
“Gotcha!”
—and is immediately tagged by Riz as he darts past her.
“You’re dead!” Riz announces, dancing around. “I gotcha, you’re dead!”
“Mrs. Gukgak!” Penny pops up from behind the sofa, looking ruffled. “Hi! Sorry,” she hurries over to Sklonda, lowering her voice, “I know, it’s past his bedtime, but he really wanted to wait up for you.”
“Oh,” Sklonda says. It is past his bedtime. Well, it’s a Friday night; there are worse things. “No worries.”
“Ha!” Riz dashes past the both of them, this time tagging Penny on the leg. “Got you, Penny! You’re super dead. I’m the winner again!”
“You got me!” Penny says, laughing. “We’re playing Assassin,” she tells Sklonda brightly.
“Ah,” Sklonda says.
Riz, tiny and pajama-clad, runs up to Sklonda. “Mom, I won Assassin five times! No. Six times now! Penny only won one time because I’m a master assassin she says.”
“Wow, that’s great,” Sklonda says, kneeling down. Her heart warms at his expression. He’s so happy to see her. After Pok died, she worried he would never be happy again. She opens her arms, and Riz gives her a hug, his little limbs clinging like tentacles. “You waited up for me?”
“Penny said it’s okay ‘cause it’s Friday,” Riz says. “And ‘cause I’m super cute. And ‘cause I won Assassin five times, which is a lot. I mean six times. But it was only five times before.”
“Sorry,” Penny whispers.
“It’s really okay,” Sklonda says. She hugs Riz for longer than she should, but he’s too young to be one of those kids who resents their parents yet, and she has to take advantage of that while it’s true. She kisses his head with a loud, dramatic smack. He starts making funny noises by her ear, and Sklonda makes a couple funny noises in return, then tickles his ribs to make him shriek with glee. “You had fun with Penny?”
Riz nods emphatically.
“We had a super fun time!” Penny agrees, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Small mercies: Riz adores Penny, and Penny likewise adores Riz. It’s a relief, at least, that when Sklonda has to work late, she knows Riz is in good hands.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Sklonda says, standing up. She’s only slightly taller than Penny at her full height. She bustles into the kitchen, Riz shuffling behind, still making funny noises. “Let me just find my wallet. You ordered pizza with the money I left?”
“Yep,” Penny says. “Leftovers are in the fridge.”
“Did you…clean the kitchen?” Sklonda looks around. She definitely left some dishes in the sink that are not there now, and the countertop smells suspiciously of lemon.
“I was already tidying up,” Penny says cheerfully. “It’s no problem at all.”
“You really didn’t have to do that,” Sklonda says. Riz, babbling syllables, tugs at her sleeve; she ignores him for a moment as she counts out gold pieces. “But thank you. Seriously, thank you for tonight. I’m so sorry I was late, work was…” She exhales and a stray hair blows out of her face. “Yeah. Anyway. You’re my hero. As always.”
“It’s my pleasure, Mrs. Gukgak,” Penny says, taking the proffered gold with deft fingers. “I’m always happy to hang out with Riz.”
Riz stops making noises and says, “Penny’s my best friend!”
“Yeah, you bet I am,” Penny says, crouching down. “But I gotta go home, and you gotta go to sleep, mister.”
“Okay,” Riz says, hugging Penny tightly. “Come back tomorrow! We can play Assassin more.”
Penny laughs. “I’ll definitely see you soon! Bye, kiddo.”
“Bye,” Riz says, dutifully.
“Do you need a ride home?” Sklonda asks.
Penny shakes her head as she retrieves her backpack from where it’s leaning against the couch on the floor. “My mom is coming to get me.” She hefts the backpack over her shoulder and heads for the door. “Goodnight, Mrs. Gukgak!”
“Goodnight, Penny. Thank you so much, again. Have a great weekend.”
“You too!”
When she’s gone, Sklonda inhales, exhales. Leans against the kitchen counter.
“Mom,” Riz says, grabbing her hand. “You wanna play Assassin?”
“Oh, honey, you just played Assassin so many times!” Sklonda crouches low to be eye level with Riz. “I think it’s bedtime now.”
“But…we could play one game,” Riz negotiates. “Super fast.”
“Let’s play tomorrow, how about,” Sklonda says. “Did you brush your teeth?” Riz nods. “Okay. You want to read a story before bed?” Another nod. “Good idea. How about you go pick out what book we’re gonna read, and in five minutes I’ll come tuck you in.”
“Five minutes,” Riz repeats.
“Yeah, see how the clock says 10:38? What’s 38 plus five?”
She can see the gears turning in his head. “Forty…three?”
“Nice,” Sklonda says, ruffling his hair. He ducks his head, pleased. “So when the clock in your room says 10:43, that’s when I’ll be there to read you a story. But only if you’re in bed!”
“Okay,” Riz says. “10:43!”
“10:43,” Sklonda agrees, and watches him scurry off to his bedroom.
She smiles after him. It’s worth it, she tells herself. All of the shit at her job is worth it, if it enables her to have this. She feels warmth tingling at her fingertips, holding the hopelessness at bay, and imagines Pok standing here by her side, watching Riz with pride the way he'd done a thousand times.
“What a great kid,” he’d always say.
“He gets that from you,” Sklonda would say, and Pok would always, always shake his head.
“Trust me,” he’d tell her, with a kiss to the tip of her nose, “he gets it from you.”