Beat The Clock.

September 18 - Clock

The sky was full and bright with stars above Flo as she sat back in her beat up lawn chair, sipping on the last remnants of her beer. The glass bottle felt heavy as she rolled it back and forth between the palms of her hands. The night was quiet and peaceful, but her mind was jumbled with chaos.

"Thinkin' will make your mind rot," replied a gruff voice seated next to her. A smile appeared on her face, thankful for the old man's tactics.

Today was a day of celebration. Detective Florence Adler had closed one of the biggest cases in the past decade, bringing down a serial killer plaguing the streets of San Francisco. It was gruesome the things she had seen, horrific to anyone who hadn't picked a job to bring down some of the worst dredges of humanity. The blood from the crime scene still haunted her nightmares. Still, instead of getting a drink down at the bar where almost every member of her squad was, she had made the trip across the old Bay Bridge to a little house up on a hill, crowded between a rundown apartment building as St. Agnes Catholic Church, to seek the comfort of an old friend.

Flo looked up at the stars, finding the few constellations she knew off hand. Slowly, over increments of an hour or so her muscles had stop tensing. However, the dark shadow of all she absorbed over the years seemed to drag down her shoulders with what felt like the weight of the world.

She tilted her head to the side, staring at her mentor through her dark lashes. His face was placid, his posture calm. She wondered how he had survived as long as he had.

"Spit it out already, girl."

Flo snorted softly. "No rush or anything. Fine. Do you regret anything since retiring?"

Stu sat quietly for a moment as if the question hadn't come up in the first place. Finally, with the sound of crickets in the background, he replied, "One thing."

"What?"

"Missing out all the times with my kids." Stu scratched it bald head, shifting in his chair uncomfortably. "There was always another case, always another lead. I can't even count the number of family dinners and birthday parties and graduations I missed because of the job. If there was one thing I would do over, I'd spend more time with my boys before they grew up."

A quiet stretched between, one of companionable silence known only to those who truly trusted one another. Flo allowed herself to stretch back into her chair and gaze up at the stretch of sky she always seemed to take for granted. Her fingers caressed the pocket watch in she always carried on her person, the old silver feeling cool against the tips of her fingers.

And as the night folded in around her, Stu repeated the same words he'd given her the night he presented her with the watch.

"Never take a minute for granted, girl; 'cause you never get 'em back."