3. Aidan #4
I caught the smile on Mika’s face at something Mav had said. His eyes met mine, and he looked almost sheepish as he dropped his gaze, as though it wasn’t right for him to laugh.
“Really?” I asked wryly, and when he looked up at me, I raised an eyebrow. “Drama queen.”
He huffed and gave me the finger, making me grin as I dropped onto the stool across from him.
I could have sat next to him, of course, if I wanted to be completely out of the way, but…
well, in a way it felt safer. It felt a little dramatic, ironic considering I had just accused him of being the queen of drama, but it also felt right.
We had only just found some measure of peace between us; there was no point trying to act as if we were best buddies when only an hour ago we could barely make eye contact.
There was also a sense of danger that I didn’t want to examine right now, but I felt it was better to listen to that warning until I could figure it out.
“Lord have mercy,” Colin said as he entered the room. “What the fuck did Carter do this time?”
I glanced over and saw him take in the sight of Mika and me sitting where we were and raise a brow. I snorted, but…he had been trying to make it easier on us until we could figure things out. The least I could do was give him a shrug and a nod. He took it for what it was and moved toward the stove.
Only for Xander to appear behind him, looking as big and angry as ever. “That’s because he’s—”
“An idiot,” everyone finished, making me laugh.
“That’s funny?” he asked, and while I wasn’t easily intimidated, the guy towered over me.
“Yeah,” I said honestly, earning a wide-eyed glance from Reno and an amused one from Colin. “And you know, this is exactly what people would love to know about all of you.”
“That their tax dollars are going to fund a bunch of idiots?” Xander asked incredulously, and it was the absence of anger that told me he was genuinely surprised and maybe a little curious.
“Are you kidding me? I mean, I don’t,” I stopped and bit back what I was going to say.
There was no way in hell I was going to admit I had next to no social media experience, not in managing it.
I was a psych dropout who could write pretty when the occasion called for it…
or at least, I’d heard good things about my writing.
All I could see were the glaring holes in it and the nagging sense that something was wrong or lacking that I couldn’t quite nail down.
But I didn’t think that kind of heart-to-heart honesty was going to do me any good.
“Just look at the feedback and response to videos of cops saving someone’s pet pig or doing something ridiculous like falling on their ass in the middle of a call.
Or go back in time and find where people loved seeing things like their leaders dance some modern dance or hanging out with their children in a ‘private’ moment. ”
“Ha, have you seen that one where the cop is trying to get into the house and just falls backward, right on his ass? Cartoon ass fall,” Jake said as he entered with a grin.
I pointed at him. “Like that.”
“They want to laugh at us,” Xander said dryly, and I could hear the warning in his voice.
Which did little more than make me sigh. “No, I mean, yeah, I guess if you want to look at it the wrong way.”
Xander frowned, and I was shot a look of surprise from Jake and heard a soft snort that I thought came from Colin. “Then what is the right way?”
“People might respect you more if they see you as a figure of authority, a nameless example of someone there to save or protect them. But the average person doesn’t trust ‘figures,’ they trust people.
So if you can be humanized, if you appear to be someone they could see themselves liking on a personal level, they feel like they know you.
They don’t, but it gets into people’s heads and they start thinking and acting differently. ”
Xander looked like he was thinking about it and then snorted. “And why do I care if some random dickhead might or might not like us more?”
“Well, two things. As a government employee, it’s important that you get people to like you and your team.
Because I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the news, the government’s name is mud.
So if you want better funding and attention, it’s good if your team looks good to people,” I pointed out, going right for the financial aspect which I knew, as a leader, he’d be concerned about.
“And it’s kind of y’alls jobs to help people.
And if people think this team and all Search and Rescue have a good reputation, then people are more likely to reach out or do as they're told, requiring fewer call-outs that might stretch resources.”
Everyone stared at me, and I heard a whistle behind Xander that I thought came from Cait, but it was Jake who spoke up. “Damn, new guy is making points.”
“You know it’s good points if Jake is putting the pieces together,” I heard Cait say with an affectionate chuckle.
“Hey,” Reno protested. “He’s not stupid…he knew how to use Shakespeare shit.”
Xander glanced at Jake. “You can read?”
Jake grinned. “I know, right? I was shocked, too.”
“I’m talking about you, idiot.”
“I mean, so was I.”
Xander stared at him, and I had to bow my head because it didn’t seem like the moment to laugh. Xander grunted. “New guy is safe, you? You’re getting extra duty tomorrow.”
“Aw, man,” Jake said, but he was still grinning as if nothing in the world bothered him.
I was still trying not to laugh, but a snicker behind me made me turn my head.
Mika’s green eyes met mine, and we both lost it.
The laughter rolled out of me before I could stop it and while I tried to bite it back, there was no chance.
Among it, I felt something else rise into my chest, small but warm.
It meant we were going to be okay, or I was in a lot more trouble than I’d believed.