Take Your Daughter to Work Day

[SharkyTGirl185]

A ten-year-old Meggy Roberts felt a certain jubilation as she ran across the parking lot towards the large police station, her eyes darting around the various police cruisers in the parking lot.

“Meggy! Slow down!” Called out to her father Charles as he chased after her, laughing. 

“But Dad! The station!” Meggy cried out, turning around with her arm outstretched to the police station.

“I know, I know, Junebug.” Charles caught up to her and ruffled her hair. “Here, let’s bring you inside with style!”

With that, he hoisted her onto his shoulder, and Meghan released a laugh as she now felt like a giant. He walked through the doors of the police station, and Meghan was greeted at the front desk, where Officer Burrows was sitting across the desk and looked up, grinning.

“Roberts! There you are!” Burrows stood up and went around the table to greet him. “Thought you were taking the day off!” 

“You know I never take a day off, Johnny.” Charles laughed and pointed up at Meghan on his shoulders. “Decided to make it a daddy-daughter date.” 

Burrows beamed and looked up at Meghan, waving at her, “Well, hello there, little Meggy!”

“Hello, Officer Burrows!” Meghan greeted cheerfully. “Daddy said he’ll take me in the police car!”

“Oh, did he know?” Burrows smirked and looked at Charles, crossing his arms. “He didn’t inform me of this.”

Charles rolled his eyes. “The old lady would bite my head off if I didn’t placate our little girl's whims. Forgive me.”

Burrows sighed dramatically. “Welp, good point there, Charlie. Alright, come on, Megs.” 

“Yay!” Meghan threw her hands up. 

—————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— ——————

Meghan was always treated like a princess here in the station. The other officers high-five her, let her put on their hats, and on good days, ride along in the police cars. So there she sat in the break room, eating oranges and chatting with some cops as her father and his co-workers were having “adult conversations.” Meghan’s mom never liked her dad talking about them around her.

“How’s school, hunny?” An African American cop, asked, sitting across from Meghan.

“It’s good, Miss Weathers!” Meghan cheerfully states, “Mr. Smith said I’m acing Math!” 

“That’s amazing, sweetie!” Weathers patted her hand. 

Next to the coffee machine, Charles was speaking with two other officers: a young Irish cop named O’Blake and a female cop named Bailey. The TV mounted on the ceiling was currently talking about Dr. David Dao‘s assault on a Chicago plane by Chicago Department of Aviation Security officers. 

“How much you wanna bet that they’re gonna riot over this next?” Bailey questioned with an eye roll.

“Ohh, all of it. Even if it was a traffic cop, they’re going to find a way to raise hell on the whole system!” O’Blake threw his hands up.

Charles gruffly scoffed, sipping his coffee. “Look ahead, guys. Shit’s like this is gonna keep coming. First there’s Rodney King, then Eric Garner, now, who knows? They’ll be throwing Molotovs if any Black guy doesn’t get the five-star experience. And then all of us will get demonized.” 

“I had an uncle. Who worked in LA during the riots? O’Malley explained, “He was a frontliner during one of them and got hit in the head with a brick! Concussed for a week!” 

“Jesus, Christ. Did he get any restitution?” Bailey questioned.

“No! No charges!” O’Blake shook his head.

Charles rolled his eyes. “It’s fucking nonsense.”

Meghan looked over at that and furrowed her brows while Weathers glared. “Charles, I think that’s enough.”

“What? Meghan needs to know about the shit some of us have to go through!” Charles threw his hand up. “I mean, I saw the LA riots on the TV back then! Look what happened! A lowlife coasted on being the perfect martyr for the rest of his life; rioters and looters were rampant, and we were made out to be the bad guys!” 

Weathers sighs and looks over at Meghan. “Meggy, dear. Don’t listen to them.” 

“Why did they make the cops look like bad guys?” Meghan asked, confused.

“Because they’re selfish bastards!” O’Blake responded. 

“Jackie!” Weathers warned sternly. 

“Now, now. They aren’t selfish.” Charles tried to quell, holding a hand up. “But a lot of folks don’t know how hard it is. Cops have to risk their lives every single damn day! They don’t appreciate what we do for folks! And. God forbid. They are easy to point at any little situation and throw “racism” around and make it okay to burn down buildings and assault people! Like, you could be a goddamn drug dealer or a murderer, but hey, look! Your ancestors had a hard time hundreds of years ago and are long dead, so you can do whatever you want!” 

“Jesus Christ, Charles, that’s enough.” 

Meghan grew uncomfortable, not exactly understanding what they were talking about. Burrows, having come into the room at that moment, looked annoyed as he looked around. 

“Alright, guys. Enough.” Burrows ordered.

“What, Johnny? We were just—

“What you are doing is making Meggy uncomfortable.” Burrows crossed his arms. “You’re on the clock.”

O’Blake sighed and crossed his arms. “Aye, you’re right. Sorry, Meggy.” 

“Yeah, sorry kiddo. Just the stress of the job is all.” Bailey glanced away.

“It’s okay.” Meghan gave a small smile, glancing down at the floor.

Another cop rushed in, out of breath. “We got a 94C bust down south. Need all units.”

“Oh Christ.” O’Blake chugs down his coffee and places it down the counter, adjusting his hat. 

Charles placed it down and walked over to Meghan. “Duty calls, Megs. Want to have a ride along?” 

“Yes, please!” Meghan grinned. 

Weathers has a weary look on her face. “Charles, I don’t think—“

“Come on, it’s fine!” Charles waved off as he picked up Meghan and placed her on his shoulders. “Come on, Meggy!” 

—————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— —————— ——————

Meghan felt like a big kid sitting in the passenger seat of her father’s police cruiser. She looked out the window, seeing the houses of her neighborhood go by. 

“What are we going to do, Papa?” Meghan asked.

Charles glances over at Meghan, smirking, “A drug bust.” 

“Ooh.” Meghan glances ahead, eyes wide with wonder. 

Charles continued down the street till Meghan found the car up towards a duplex, with several cop cars already there with their lights blaring. A crowd is formed behind police barriers as Burrows and Bailey were calming the crowd down. Charles whistles down one of the new cops. Meghan hasn’t known him much, but she knew he was nice. 

“Yes, sir?” The younger cop quickly greeted.

“What’s happening here, son?” Charles asked, holding his arm out of the window. 

The cop turns over, “Oh, y-yeah, drugs. Some meth. Two Hispanic guys.”

Charles scoffs, “Figures.” He sighed and glanced at Meghan and then gestured, “This is my daughter; you’ve met her before.”

“Oh, yeah, hi little Meg!” He greets. 

“Hi.” Meghan smiled widely. 

The commotion continued, and the three perked up as they saw O’Blake and another cop walk out of the building with two Hispanic men in cuffs, who are now struggling against the two. Meghan hoisted herself up and looked over her father’s shoulder. 

“Not too hard, man!” The man winced as she slammed himself back against O’Blake, making him stumble into the wall.

“Ah! Son of a-” O’Blake growled as he promptly pushed the handcuffed Hispanic man and kicked him square in the back of the knee. 

Gasps came out, and Meghan’s eyes widened as the man fell forwards and planted right on the ground. Burrows suddenly lurched his head forward and saw what happened with shock. Charles craned his head, exhaling out of his nose and smirking a bit. Meghan glanced over at her father, noticing just how proud he looked. 

“Yeah! How do you like it!?” O’Blake yelled, suddenly rearing his foot back, his steel-toed boots glinting as he suddenly flung it.

CRACK!

Screams

“JESUS CHRIST! STOP!” Burrows rushes over towards O’Blake, grabbing from the back of his collar and pulling it off and onto the ground. 

Another cop ran over and helped the Hispanic man to his feet, quickly taking the two men towards one of the squad cars as the crowds roared in anger and hysterics. Charles quickly scrambled out of the car and pushed past the young cop towards Burrows. 

“Get everyone out! Get everyone away!” Burrows yelled at Bailey and the other cops holding the crowd back. 

Charles rushed over to O’Blake’s side, helping him up. “You good, man?” 

“Ohh, yeah, I’m okay.” O’Blake nodded, putting his hat back on his head.

“You. Back in the cruiser.” Burrows glared at O’Blake. “Head back to the station.” 

O’Blake paused and cleared his throat, nodding, “O-Okay.” 

He quickly walked away as Charles shook his head and looked at Burrows. “Don’t tell me you’re going to punish the kid?” 

“Jesus Charles, you saw what he did!” Burrows threw his hand up. “In front of a goddamn crowd!”

Charles scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Come on, it’s not like the guy is going to sue. He had a whole meth lab here.” 

“He just ASSAULTED a cuffed perp in front of a whole ass crowd! What do you think that’s gonna do for us, Charlie?” Burrows leaned in to whisper. 

“Oh what, these fuckers are going to storm the station? Send letters saying, “Free him” or something? That was a criminal.” 

“That was needless force.” Burrows stated.

“He’s young and new.” 

“That isn’t an excuse.”

Charles got a bit angry. “Jesus, Johnny. Why are you being soft to these fucking drug peddlers?! What if your daughter was giving this fucking meth?!” 

“That isn’t the—”

“I sure don’t want that to happen to my Meggy! And who knows! Maybe if there are other drug dealers seeing that, it will deter them. Another fucking lazy, drug-peddling border jump-”

“Charles.” Burrows warned and gestured with his head, “Not another word.”

Charles glanced over at the crowd and saw the glint of a news camera pointed his way, and he turned away, using the cap to cover his face. “Fucking hell. Like vultures.” 

“I’ll handle this. You, get Meggy out of here.” Burrows patted his back. 

Charles sighed. “You got it.” 

He ignored the flurry of cameras and crowd screaming as he went back to his cruiser, patting the back of the younger cop as he quickly crawled into the passenger driver seat and started to drive off. After a moment, he glanced next to him and saw Meghan, close to tears while her head was tilted down. 

“Megs? What’s wrong?” Charles asked softly. 

“Why—why did Mr. O’Blake hurt that man?” Meghan squeaked out, her brain trying to make sense of it all.”

Charles sighed. “That man was a bad man. He tried to hurt people through drugs, Meggy.” 

“But... the man wasn’t doing anything. He was handcuffed. You always say someone who is handcuffed just needs to be brought back to the station.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.” Charles nodded quickly, sighing, “It was… O’Blake was stupid. Okay? He was just being dumb.” 

“Dumb?” 

“Yeah, dumb... he...” He sighed again. “Don’t do that when you’re a cop, okay?” 

“I don’t want to hurt other people. Even if they are bad.” Meghan frowned. “I just want to arrest them and protect others.”

Charles sighed a bit. “Yeah, I know Meghan, just… sometimes, as a cop. You have to do things to protect others. That’s what makes us cops. We have to be willing to bend what people want us to do in order to get things done. Y-You get me?” 

“I...guess I do.” Meghan shrugged a bit.

Charles smiled and patted her shoulder, pausing for a second. “How about some ice cream?” 

“Okay!” Meghan perked up, excited as she started bouncing in her seat.

“Amazing, dear, just…don’t tell your mom what happened. That’s all.” He winked at Meghan.

“I won’t.” Meghan nodded quickly, the memory of the incident already beginning to fade from her head.