Jessica sipped her decaf tea, looking at her father. That was how they were spending the moments after the dinner they shared. It was only a few months since she’d seen him, but it was 3 years since he’d gotten more than a glance of his daughter. Her birthday had been spent training, so he insisted on a simple dinner to celebrate. The little restaurant was a nice place. They cooked with the raw ingredients, and a skilled chef, so the food was delicious. They talked about school, her training, her new job, avoiding talking about the trial, or her mother, or anything even remotely connected.

Of course, now it was just a happy silence. Jessica took the time to really look at her father. He had more wrinkles than she remembered, his eyes a bit more tired. That was likely due to going back to work for his hardware store. He looked so happy. Like he was melting from the warm feelings that practically raised the temperature of the room. It was a perfect moment. The waiter came with the bill, and the moment ended.

Her father paid, Jessica left a tip for the waitress herself, and they walked to the street. Jessica began to feel this dread in her chest, as if she wouldn’t be able to call him tomorrow, as if he was leaving all over again. She wasn’t alone it seemed, since her dad asked, “Wanna come to my place? You're 18, may as well have your first beer right?”

Jessica enthusiastically accepted and they took a bus back to his place. As it turned out he was living above the hardware store. He waved at the young man behind the counter, who waved back, “Hey Carl, who’s the lovely lady?”

“My daughter, paws off Mike.” Her dad laughed back.

He led Jessica to a staircase in the back, and up to what was a really clean bachelor pad. It had a bedroom, and a main room that combined kitchen and living room. A decently sized TV on one wall with a game station and a wall of board games. The main room was well furnished, she sat on the couch, taking in the pictures of their family, but also more recent photos, like her 14th birthday at an indoor minigolf course at the Entertainment Emporium in North End. A picture of her dad at a bar with friends she figured was recent since her dad looked much more like he does now.

Her dad retrieved a beer from the fridge, and twisted it open. He set it on the coffee table in front of her. She thanked him and took a sip. Gagging immediately at the shockingly savory drink, she was handed a face cloth. She wiped the spilt beer off her face, giving her laughing father the stink eye.

“I thought those reactions were just on TV,” She muttered. King was chuckling in the back of her mind, though he had the good sense to be silent otherwise.

“Give me a moment, I have something for you.” Her dad went into his bedroom, and shuffled around for a bit. He came out holding a thick envelope, real paper as always. “I kept getting cards, even if I couldn’t send them to you. Sorry if that’s a bit cheesy, but I wanted to celebrate, even if it’s just for myself.”

Jessica opened the envelope, finding paper birthday cards. Each of these were real paper, not the recycled stuff, but from trees harvested from beyond the wall. Due to how trees slowly age, fabricators had trouble making anything out of wood. You could always tell when wood or paper was fabricated. This was very real and expensive.

Jessica teared up as she read each hand written card, they were filled with well wishes and bad puns. It took about five minutes to read the 3 cards, and she savored every second.

“I’m sorry,” She whispered.

Her dad wrapped an arm around her, Jessica could tell he knew what she was talking about. It was as if he had an ability all his own to read her mind. He pulled Jessica close.

“Your mother,” He said, “Was a hell of a woman, but she made a decision. She made a lot of those. This was just another one that I disagreed with.”

“It was my fault,” Jessica said.

“Bullshit, you’re hurting. That’s normal. I’m sure you wanted nothing but to leave her the moment you could but you still loved her. Not that she deserved it, if I’m honest, but that’s just how your heart works.” He rebuked her gently.

“It’s ok to grieve, but if you start blaming yourself…” He didn’t finish. He was somewhat right, Jessica did hurt. “No more of that talk now.” He continued. “We’re celebrating, and I discovered video games so it’s time to kick your ass in Fantasy Fighter. Got it?”

Jessica wiped her eyes and nodded. A controller was handed to her and the next hour was spent learning how to move her hands without watching them. It was awful, but Jessica forgot her grief for another while.

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Jessica woke up in her new apartment. She insisted on sleeping here instead of staying at her dad’s. She was an adult now, she could sleep in her own place. She was closer to the Bound Department here, somewhere between West End and City Center. It showed when she left her apartment that morning for her first day as an actual agent. The halls were a bland yellow white, the default for plasti-screen walls. They could technically be used to portray anything, but that cost money to purchase designs.

A catchy jingle rang in her ears as the hallway lit up with an advertisement for toiletry kits. Jessica sighed, lovely. Why pay money when you could make it by selling your public spaces for cheap ad space. Jessica knew that her family had lived well, but it never really hit her like her first night without what turns out to be a sound dampening fee paid for the month. She sighed as she walked down the stairs, walking past an old woman who waved and smiled as she walked the stairs one at a time.

“Hello sweetie, you new to the building?” The woman asked in a high pitched accent.

“Yeah, I am. Sorry I have to get to work.” Jessica smiled and moved past the lady.

“Oh don’t worry about it, I’m Marsha, enjoy work dear.” Marsha called down.

Jessica waved behind her as she left the stairwell. She quickly walked past the foyer, the landlord was working the front desk, or reading behind it at least. He looked at his glasses as she passed without so much as looking up. That was probably a good thing. Jessica moved down the street, to the bus stop her glasses told her would get to the Department building.

She looked at her email, nothing new. No news was good news, she hoped. She wondered if she was going to be assigned a work email. That wasn’t covered in the hand books. She sighed, going over her ability’s code of conduct again. She had spent last night memorizing the thing. It was both very vague and also very specific. All in all, situationally helpful at best.

Getting off the bus, Jessica walked to the doors and her glasses updated. She had a line in her vision that led to a locker room, where a locker with her name on it was pointed out to her. She scanned her wrist and saw her training uniform, and a box. She knew what was in there. She took it all to a changing stall and got dressed. A long-sleeve blue top that was tucked into blue dress pants. She put on the belt, and checked the full body mirror. She looked dumb, but sharp and professional. She opened the case. Her badge. There were other things, the special issue body cam and charger, a taser and a dart gun. But it was the Badge that made this all feel real. She also had a more explicit Bound Department ID, but the badge would be worn on her chest while training, or on her belt after she became a full agent. It was just objectively cool, and Jessica allowed the moment of wonder to linger.

Slipping on her armband, the purple clear against the blue uniform, she left the stall, returned her clothes and the case to her locker, then followed the generated path to a large room full of desks. It was loud, busy, and full of agents and more Bound than Jessica had ever seen in one place before. She walked to a desk, where two empty chairs sat. She was prompted to sit and wait for her TA.

Jessica sat in the office chair, and waited. She looked at the screens, which were unlocked and open. She didn’t look, it wasn’t her place. She knew who her TA would be, but she didn’t know what he looked like. Just that he was a veteran of the wall, with 10 years of service to the Department. His name was Thomas Erikson. Sounds like a nice guy.

“Get out of my seat,” A voice said from behind.

Jessica jumped up and saw a grinning pale, freckled face. Orange hair that was probably real if he was a true ginger. He looked like it. He was grinning like an idiot.

“Good, you know how to jump. Glad to see it, sit down.”

He sat in the other chair, and Jessica barely managed to keep her face neutral. A jokester, lovely. Jessica shook herself, a word from King keeping her from judging too harshly. He was still experienced, and a TA. Her TA at that. She could save any judgment she might have for later.

“Jokes aside, we have patrol duty. We’ll be on the edge of Center on the west end, do you know the area?” Thomas asked.

“Uh,” Jessica managed before Thomas continued.

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“Of course you do, you delivered there for a year or so right?”

Jessica blanched, only for Thomas to chuckle. “Chill out, no one cares. I do wonder how many times you actually did so. Your record only has two suspected accounts, nothing confirmed. Good job by the way, means you’re careful. You’ll need that here.” Thomas stood, waving her to follow.

“Since we’ve checked each other’s files, let’s skip the introductions and head out, yeah?” He walked off. Jessica was quick to follow. Taking the elevator they stopped at the secure floor, or that’s what Thomas called it. IT was 3 floors below ground. They walked into the departments armory and Thomas signed out two bags and a car console.

“These are Go bags. When we go out, we grab these first. They have everything needed to close down a crime scene, deal with active shooter scenarios, and various other equipment that I’m told you’ve already memorized, yes?”

Jessica nodded, Thomas grins, “Good, carry them while I transfer the hard projectile to the car.”

Jessica hefted the bags, and walked them to the elevator. They went up to the garage, the same one she came in from the prison. Out a different door and to an unmarked hover sedan. She noted the manual controls and stuck the bags in the trunk with the opening facing the rear. She closed the trunk, and seeing Thomas in the Driver’s seat up front, decided taking the back seat would be a bad idea.

She got in and the belt strapped itself across her chest. Thomas smiled, “Good, you can take social cues. So, what did we forget?”

Jessica blanked, “What?” She had a feeling she would be saying that a lot.

“We forgot something, what is it?” Thomas asked, his grin swapping to a more neutral face.

Jessica thought through everything, patting herself down, going over the few minutes they had spent grabbing supplies. She felt her bodycam. The one that came from her case, with no audio recording. She noticed Thomas didn’t have a bodycam at all.

“Bodycams.” She said, wincing. She should have remembered that.

“To be fair, I didn’t recall it either,” King whispered, making her feel a bit better.

“Good, make sure to pay attention to procedure. A fuck up like that is embarresing and from everything I read, you can’t afford it.” Thomas admonished, then pulled two items from his inside pocket of his suit. Body cams.

“Tomorrow, you collect the gear, don’t forget anything.”

Jessica nodded, attaching the second cam beneath the first. The battery was fully charged so she turned it on, as did Thomas.

“Let’s see what’s out there for us, yeah?” Thomas asked, “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something interesting.”

He pulled out of the space and drove out of the lot and onto the streets. They drove towards West End, listening to the dispatch radio. The device was unlike anything she had seen. A physical device separate from the actual car. She had read about the dispatch radio but to see it sitting on the dashboard was a bit bizarre. Most things were built into the actual vehicle. The radio was separate for security reasons, to keep citizens from listening in and to ensure unauthorized messages weren’t sent over official signals.

Jessica listened to the radio closely, paying attention for anything nearby.

“Where are we?” Thomas asked suddenly.

Jessica managed to keep the instinctive ‘what’ down, instead scanning her surroundings and realizing that she had no idea. They were in an alleyway, between two buildings, probably apartment buildings. Otherwise she was lost. Shit.

“Between Forsythe way and Barrack St.” King answered for her. She thanked him silently and repeated the answer.

Thomas nodded, “At least your Entity is paying attention.”

Jessica blushed, “How did you know?”

“Your file noted that your Entity is more helpful than most, shared senses, etc… You took too long answering to know the answer but just long enough to be told. It’s a good backup, but pay more attention to what’s around you and less to the radio.” Thomas explained as he pulled out onto Barrack St.

“Right, sorry.” Jessica focused her attention outwards, keeping an eye on the streets.

“Don’t apologize,” He replied. “It’s your first day so I’m going to bust your balls. Learn to listen and look at the same time. Don’t apologize for not having skills you had no reason to learn before,”

Jessica nodded, keeping an ear on what Dispatch was saying and her eyes on the road. They were just outside of West End, and it showed. The streets were lined with grass between the road and sidewalk. The lights had an almost antique look, giving the street a gentrified appearance. There were cracks in the paint, graffiti in the alleys, a bit of trash in the street. There were people walking about but few shops. Mostly people walking to and from bus stops.

A radio was suddenly in Jessica’s face, she looked to Thomas whose eyes were on the road. “Call in, we’re starting our patrol route. Our callsign is on the radio.”

Jessica grabbed the radio, which was a small wireless square with a speaker/microphone mesh on the front. She found the talk button on the side, and pressed it. She read the callsign off the radio.

“This is Echo-Gamma-3-4-6. We are 24-30A.” She released the button.

“Echo-Gamma-3-4-6, Dispatch shows you on patrol.” A woman’s voice replied, confirming their status.

Jessica tried to give the radio back but Thomas made no move to take it. “On your belt rookie.”

She complied, clipping the handheld to her belt. Alright. So far so good. Thomas drove a bit below the speed limit, a winding path down the grid-like streets of the city. Thomas told her to keep an eye on the alleys. She looked between the various buildings, spotting dumpsters and the occasional passerby using it as a shortcut. Then Thomas spoke into the radio.

“311 at 15 Free St.”

“Copy EG346. Tell Jim I said hi.” Dispatch confirmed. Thomas pulled up to the sidewalk, a short ways from a convenience store. Jessica gave him the side eye.

He just shrugged, “They have good coffee. Try and use the restroom while we’re here. I’ll grab you a cup.”

“I don’t drink coffee,” She said, Thomas only laughed, “Yet, trust me when I say this job will demand coffee from you sooner or later.”

Jessica shook her head, and exited the car. Thomas locked up and they walked towards the shop while Thomas kept talking.

“The owner gives a discount on coffee to agents and enforcers that stop by, it helps deter robberies.”

“Are there a lot of robberies? I thought the crime rate was low in the Grand City?”

Thomas laughed, “In West End maybe, but the rest?” He wiggled his hand back and forth. “It’s been getting worse. Shockingly, the poorer you are the more likely you are to fall into crime because it’s profitable.”

Jessica shot him a look, “Why is that surprising?”

“It’s not, the ‘shockingly’ was sarcasm.” Thomas explained, “Yes, I’m aware I suck at sarcasm.”

That made Jessica smile a bit. Thomas opened the door for her and pointed out the bathroom. Jessica took note of the shop. A man looking at magazines in the corner, browsing. The coffee machine was by the counter that a middle aged man stood behind. Jessica frowned at the slightly too loud music. She walked quickly to the bathroom. Jessica headed in, leaving shortly after washing her hands. Jessica saw Thomas nodding and talking with the guy behind the counter. Thomas waved her over.

“This is Jessica, Jessica this is Jim, the owner of this fine establishment.” Thomas introduced a man in his forties, a bit younger than her dad. Jim smiled, but it was strained.

“Hello Jessica, How’s your first day with Tommy?” Jim asked. Jessica smiled and replied, “Very good. I’m learning a lot.”

Thomas laughed, “Good,” He leaned in and whispered, “What’s wrong right now?” Jessica froze.

She looked at her TA, but a quick look silenced her questions. Instead, she made to look around but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She thought and suddenly it hit her, she hadn’t taken long but surely grabbing coffee didn’t take this long. So where was it? Jessica took a slow breath. She remembered what Thomas said, about robberies.

“I don’t drink coffee, I told you that.” She muttered, Thomas nodded. Jessica remembered the guy browsing magazines. She sighed, “Great, I totally want to do extra paperwork on Day fucking 1.”

She sighed, as Thomas said, “Wrong job for that rookie.” He put a hand on the dart gun. Jessica just smiled. King agreed that the only reason Thomas hadn’t gotten coffee was because someone was behind the counter and he would have seen them. Everyone was in hearing range.

“To those committing a crime, drop your weapons and kneel before me!” The shout came quickly and clearly. The sound of metal hitting the tile floors rang out as a man stood from behind the counter. Soon, two men knelt before her as Thomas held his dart gun at his side.

The men tried to stand immediately but Jessica was faster, “Sit!” Both men sat. “Lie face down. Stay there.” It was done.

Thomas whistled. “Damn, The next six months are going to be a fucking breeze.”

Shaking his head he pulled cuffs as he read the citizen’s their rights and arrested them. Jessica helped lead them to the car. Dreading the paperwork. Thomas promised to help, “Saved me some trouble, I’d feel bad otherwise.”

They got into the car, securing the citizen’s to a bar that was attached to the roof of the car. She hadn’t noticed that before. Sighing at her lack of attention she went back for her TA’s coffee. Jim thanked her profusely, mentioning that this was the second attempted robbery that month. Lovely. She got the coffee for free and Jessica was quick to leave, already done with the praise. She didn’t feel that she deserved it. It took no effort on her part after all.

The drive back to the station was anything but silent as Thomas had a seemingly infinite amount of questions.

“I’m sorry,” He finally relented, “It’s one thing to read about it, even watch the video but watching it live is unreal.”

Jessica frowned, “What video?”

Thomas blinked, “You didn’t know? The security footage from West End High was leaked. It got pretty popular.”

Jessica blanched, “Seriously?” She whispered, immediately looking it up. There it was, the whole thing. There wasn’t audio, but it was very clear what was happening. She didn’t dare look at the comments.

“Well, shit.” She mumbled, then looked at Thomas. “You don’t seem too put off by it.”

Thomas shrugged, “I didn’t become a TA because I hate Bound. I think you guys have the ability to help or hinder, like the gun on your waist. I just make sure you do the former more than the latter. Not gonna lie though, I can’t imagine the good you could do if the eggheads in the Department lets you.”

“What do you mean?”

This time, Thomas actually looked uncomfortable. “I… Let’s just say there are 2 reasons unbound join the department. To make the city safer with Bound, or from Bound. You don’t become a field agent believing the latter.”

Jessica nodded, already figured that much out. “Thanks I guess, and fair warning, the Director has explicitly stated that she’s going to make my life hell, personally.”

Thomas didn’t respond right away. Then, slowly, he finally responded.

“Well, you’re really fucked then.”