Three-Pointer Interrogation [Tag: Kev Allison]

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Bounce... bounce... bounce.

It was seven in the morning and Madison had a healthy and sleek sheen of sweat to her brow and between her shoulder blades. Her racer-back gym top was loose enough to let her skin breathe but she had been working out enough that no air-flow was going to stop her skin from glowing.

First, it had been the gym. Weights, treadmill and cross-trainer to keep her core muscles and fitness in place. She didn't spend a lot of time in the gym as she had weights of her own at home and did the press-ups and sit-ups required to keep her in the same shape she had been in before leaving for overseas nearly ten years ago. But she did like to come into a gym and really work her muscles once in a while. She had finished that about an hour ago.

Since then, she had been on the court. Booked out for just herself, Madison had been running up and down the court doing suicide drills for the first thirty minutes and now ran around with basketball in hand taking practice shots and dribbling the ball all over the court. She had worked her muscles and was now working her stamina.

After shooting a three pointer from the mid-way line, Madison let the ball swish through the net and then bounce on the spot beneath the hoop. She didn't run over to get it and, instead, headed for the little pile of her things at the edge of the indoor court. A zip up hoodie and small towel were neatly folded with a bottle of water that she had already refilled a few times and her small pile of belongings that would go back into her hoodie's pockets when she was done here.

Taking up the towel, Madison dabbed at her skin, around her neck, and over her bare abdomen - her gym shirt cutting off at the bottom of her rib cage. She took a few steadying breaths as her lungs fought for more oxygen and then took a long and healthy draw on her water bottle.

It was as she was lowering the bottle, however, that something caught her eye.

The side of the court was open to the corridor by several long windows and she felt her detective mind catch on with urgency as she saw the profile of Kev Allison walking by.

Snatching up the towel she had just been using, Madion balled it up tight and chucked it as hard as she could at the side of Kev's head.

Obviously, there was a window between the two of them but the towel made a satisfying slap against the glass - loud enough to get even a deaf person to look up and over at her.

When she had the reaction that she wanted, she waved at the man with an overtly-coy finger wave and then beckoned him inside the court.

She knew that the man didn't know her - had maybe seen her around the station or courthouse on occasion but didn't really know her. Heck, he might not even know her name. But she wanted to get to know him and his intentions towards her little friend Mattie, so she hoped he didn't bypass her wave as the strange happenstance of a nutter, but took her up on her offer to play some one-on-one.

Kev Allison

[Kev Allison]

Seven in the morning and he was in the gym trying to work of some steam, he had been on the treadmill before going a few rounds in the boxing ring. There were those days when you just needed to hit something, he wasnt due in court until the afternoon and he had the morning off so he had decided to do what he had put off for a while now. Working out in a gym, he was used to the military regime of life, work, eat, sleep and repeat with little to no work out time in between though he did his best to stay in shape.

Running was usually what he preferred, if he was alone then it was a case of head phones in his ears with the local radio station blaring before taking a few laps of the city. A bad day usually got better once he had done that as it usually helped him focus on what he was trying to do. Today it was simply to get out of his own head while he had a chance, his case was coming to a close for a murder trial and the verdict was due mid afternoon. It was one of those jury’s where you couldnt even read the decision.

That made him nervous as he had started to reply every argument, every piece of evidence to see if it had been good enough and strong enough to make the state’s case. It was no use now as twelve people were disusing his win or his failure and the life of a man who deserved to be behind bars for life. Working as an ADA for the city had it’s fun points, for one the hours were tough, the pay not so great but the satisfaction of knowing you helped get a bad guy off the street. There was nothing better than that feeling.

He had finished up with punching the living daylights out of a punch bag when he decided to call it a well spent morning. He grabbed his bag as he headed toward the locker room, he filled up his water bottle on the way there. He was simply minding his own business walking down the corridor when he heard the slap against the glass. Instinct took over as he jumped back to see the towel fall off the window followed by the overtly-coy finger that beckoned him inside the court. The woman’s face was familiar but then that to him spelled criminal or cop since it was about the only people he met.

“Jeez you could kill a guy doing that you know.” He said with a grin as he set foot inside the court as he dropped his bag off to the side before going to pick up the towel she had thrown as he tossed it back in her direction. He was dressed in overly baggy shorts and a black t-shirt that was damp with sweat from his work out. Should he really be going to play basket ball with a stranger? Well there were worse ideas in the world and if it kept his mind off work then why not try it. After all it gave him a better workout than he was hoping for so he could see if he was still any good.

Tag: @zen2

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Madison chuckled at Kev's comment as he came onto the court. She wrinkled her face as if to go "naah".

"If your heart is that bad, it could do with the workout." She joked at him and looked down as the basketball she had been playing with crept into her vision. It had rolled from beneath the basket to somewhere towards her right so she swooped down to pick it up. Hooking it under her arm she headed towards her friend's "just friend" and upon getting within a few feet switched the arm the ball was under in order to hold out a hand for him to shake.

She plastered her most winning smile on her face. She had picked up his look of realisation at recognising her but it hadn't been a familiar and easy look. Her guess was that he recognised her features but didn't know her name. Which would be about right as she hadn't known his before looking into him either.

Her wonderful detective reasoning kicked in at that moment and reminded her that this man probably spent the majority of his day dealing with low-lifes - in the same way she did - so identifying herself as one of the good guys sooner rather than later was probably a good idea. She knew from experience that, if she ever recognised a face and not the name, she was immediately wary and tried to imagine their profile in front of a mug shot screen to see if that's where she knew them from.

"I'm Madison Ellingham." She said, her hand held out in friendship. "I'm a detective down at the 21st."

Flipping the ball up and down on her left palm she eyed up the lawyer.

"Was wondering if you fancied a bit of one-on-one?" She told him. "I warn you, I play for stakes."

It was a good job Madison was as confident as she was. There were few women in the world who would mind standing in front of a complete stranger after working out for several hours, wearing her ratty gym clothes and no make-up to boot. But Madison had always been someone who just didn't care what others thought and wasn't trying to impress this guy especially because he was already in a thing with someone else. He was also a little too nicey-nice by the looks of things. Madison preferred the bad boy.

Kev Allison ,

[Kev Allison]

Kev just rolled his eyes when she wrinkled her face, like yeah a full blown heart attack he thought as he laughed and nodded. “You’ve got a point there but I guess it’s you’re lucky day because mines not that bad.” He said grinning as he watched her pick the basket ball up. Nothing like a jolt in the morning to keep you awake he thought and what better than almost having a heart attack to do so. Then again at least he was getting a better workout than he had planned which was always good.

Seeing her winning smile he grinned at her. The recognition was odd but then if she was a criminal then he was sure he would have heard about the unfair sentence. The fact he had done his job and how that affected a life that was so unfairly jailed for any number of offences under the Chicago Justice code. He was used to that barrage of information, either the family of the accused if he won or the family of the victim if he lost and any number of people who had an opinion on things in between.

It was the great part about being a lawyer, he never knew what reaction he would get and from who. Faces to him became a blur at times but then she didnt scream the criminal type to him but then not everyone looked like they might commit a crime, there were plenty of people who seemed innocent enough on the outside and usually those were the worst cases. Kev took her hand and shook it for a moment smiling. “Ah 21st sure I know the place well. Usually get warrant requests from you guys a lot.” He explained.

“I’m Kev Allison.” He stated feeling a lot more relaxed now he knew he wasnt about to play basket ball with someone he had gone up in court against. “Assistant State’s Attorney for Chicago.” Kev watched the ball in her hand for a moment as he nodded and backed up a little to give Madison some room. “Sure, a bit of one-on-one sounds fun.” He said grinning at her as he raised his brow at the mention of stakes.

Great he had a cop that wanted to play for stakes, well this was about to get very interesting he thought as he glanced at her. She was confident which was great considering she seemed like she had been working out already which meant she could be a little on the tired side if she didnt have the stamina. Then again considering the challenge he doubted she didnt have the stamina. “Okay so what stakes did you have in mind exactly?” He asked her curiously. Oh this was about to get interesting.

Tag: @zen2

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"Great." Madison said as she shook the lawyer's hand. Kev was tall and his hands suitably in proportion so his palm dwarfed hers as they shook. She kept her grip firm and her arm strong though, as she always did, and held her own. "It's nice to meet you Mr. ADA." She said politely, already vowing her mind to call him Ada as soon as she felt them to be close enough to do so.

Walking away from him and bouncing the ball, once, twice, three-times, she turned back to assess him, dribbling on the spot. The ball made a loud thwack noise on the wooden floor for the court with every bounce so Madison timed her words around it so as not to be interrupted or misheard.

"Stakes are simple." She told him with a shrug, as she changed her one-handed dribble to bouncing between the two. "You make a basket and you get to ask your opponent a question." Her grin turned wicked. You make a three-pointer throw and it's either an intimate question or an un-refusable dare."

Madison headed for centre court, where any game (one-on-one or otherwise) should start and then threw the ball into the ground, hard enough to have it bouncing back up to head level and then land neatly in her upraised palms.

"Thank you can handle the pressure Mr. Allison?" She asked with a grin.

Kev Allison ,

[Kev Allison]

Kev grinned as Madison shook his hand. Firm grip it said a lot about a person and she certainly was the shy type especially with the use of ADA he thought but then again he had been called worse over the years so he should count himself lucky. “Nice to meet you to Detective.” He said nodding to her, he had the up most respect for cops in the city as in his eyes they did all the hard work before they dropped off a neat or hopefully neat little bundle of work at his door.

He watched her dribble on the spot as he bounced on his toes lightly in an attempt to loosen up a little. Each bounce of the ball he listned to her talk as she gave him the terms of the stakes involved in the game. Well it wasnt like he didnt play for stakes at all, usually his gambling consisted of a good enough case to beat a defence team but still basket ball with a complete stranger how bad could it be?

When he saw her grin turn wicked he winced. “Oh only a three pointer for an intimate question or dare. You sure you want to make that your stakes here?” He asked her deciding if he at least acted confident in his basketball abilities then it might throw her off that he hadn’t exactly played for a while or mostly half a year or so. Funny how time went by and before you knew it time was gone.

Kev followed her onto centre court where the games started as he smirked at her lightly. “Sure I can, but if the lady doesn’t think she can there’s no harm in bowing out now while you still can?” He stated grinning at her as he bounced on his toes again stretching slightly.

Tag: @zen2