Officer Sohmers (Orca Bay)

A splash of burnt-orange and distant pink began to color the horizon, marking the sun's descent as some of the heavy cloud cover to the far west began to break. The splash of color would only last a few short minutes before fading into a deepening blue, and it was this gathering darkness that Ryan's headlights cut through as he turned his cruiser down the lane and along the same path that Laurence had taken a little more than ten minutes before. His vehicle slowed as it crawled across the uneven, rain-saturated road, though he didn't offer the usual grimace for the occasional 'ping' of stones being flung up against the chassis and paneling. Tonight, there was simply no room in his mind to entertain his usual frets. Tonight, he had a chance to finally, maybe, make a small difference in the city.

He saw the distant boathouse. And the rain-darkened piers, half of them nearly camouflaged by equally shadowy waters where so many of the overhead lights were burned out or broken. The man's knuckles grew white against the steering wheel. His lips tightened, and his dark eyes focused as he honed in on the task at hand.

And then something else caught his attention. Zoned in on the mission as he was, Ryan's eye for detail would never have let him miss a citizen in need. Though honestly, he'd have to be pretty blind to miss the boy waving his arms and stepping directly into the puddle-dappled gravel lane. Despite a slight pang of irritation for the opportunity he might be missing, the officer made no hesitation as he slowed his ride and came to a stop before the kid.

Hardly before he'd gotten the window all the way down, the boy was giving him an earful and then some, complete with an exasperated roll of the eyes and a tug at his drenched clothing to emphasize his dismay at waiting so long for help to arrive. "Okay, okay, lets slow down a minute." Ryan's eyes briefly flashed past Javier and up the road, but in the spotty lighting of the newer boathouse, and with the bronco parked on it's far flank, Ryan couldn't tell if anyone was there or not. Javier's shivering brought his focus back to the more pressing matter, or so he thought. "You said you called 911? Are you hurt, or is someone else?" To his credit, Sohmers had already put his cruiser in park and hit the flashing lights, with a hand then going for his seatbelt.