Rubbing at his eyes, Austin muttered a harsh curse beneath his breath and sighed hard. He knew he’d felt tired, but tired enough to fall asleep with the keys in the ignition was a new low– one he hadn’t reached in quite some time, or while sober. Shaking his head, he glanced over at Adriana and managed a weak laugh, “I mean, I’m never gonna object to coffee.” And soothing music didn’t sound half bad either.
Gazing up at the sky, Austin huffed another curse word and leaned back against his car. After midnight? Groaning quietly, he scrubbed a hand down the side of his face, “Fuck– a few hours, then,” he answered, still stunned by how easy it had been for him to pass out. When he’d done his fair share of traveling, he’d spent most nights crammed in the back seat of a car instead of a warm bed, but that had been years ago– looking back, he wondered how he even pulled it off; it wasn’t as comfortable as he remembered.
Focusing his attention back on Adriana and the touch of panic in her voice, Austin shook his head, quick to shoot down her worry, “No, no– she’s with my mom.” Thankfully. He nearly blanched just imagining if he’d fallen asleep with Fallon in the car with him. He reached up to shove the wild strands of his hair back and away from his forehead, only for them to stubbornly flop back into his eyes. Sighing, he eyed her again, noting at once that she was still in uniform– which made him worry this wasn’t just a friendly stop. “Shit…I’m not under arrest for anythin’, am I?”
“I could go for some coffee right about actually, if you’re up to it?” The mere mention of her only drug of choice was enough to have her craving the stuff when she didn’t even need to stay awake. It was counterproductive on her part to even offer seeing as she didn’t need the caffeine but maybe he did, and usually Austin would never outright say he needed anything. Though she had a feeling that a new daughter was going to teach him to be humble in asking for that help because he was in over his head. From the bags under his eyes telling of just how much any extra rest was needed to the literal scenario they were in now, parenthood was getting the best of him. As it did many in town and she could only feel for him as she had never really understood first hand what came with the job. However he seemed to be taking everything with stride and was pretty adamant about doing whatever he needed to do for Fallon. And that pretty much trumped anything he would do or not because that love right there was special enough.
Tonight though the extra go go juice might just be needed, or at least the conversations that flow over a cup or two. “You know the diner is still open this late.” Doing all she could but snort since it was about the only hot spot to be at besides the bars and even then the drunks would show up shortly. Brought her back to her patrol days when she’d frequent this late for the inevitable drunk and disorderly charge she could slap on someone after a hot cup. Charming made it too easy that way in being the smaller town it was. Though if he’d been out already a few hours it might be too much to ask even with his mom watching the baby. Mrs. Monroe was not a woman that Adriana wanted to upset and was not about to deepen the older woman’s hatred of her tonight. Not if she could help it.
“Oh thank god.” Sighing a little in relief but hadn’t been too worried about the child. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he’d have let himself fall asleep if she had been in the car. His next question was funny but not out of the question since she was still in uniform and was who she was, a member of the police force. “No, not tonight.” Shaking her head side to side with a slight chuckle. “Unless you want to be but I’m not calling your momma to come get you. I am only about ninety percent sure she’d kill me if I arrested you for something silly like this.”