Briar Beckett

30. Private Detective. Lesbian.

[briarxbeckett]

onstraypaper​:

.

“Better to prepared,” he agreed. This wasn’t the safest neighborhood, and there were worse to be found in the city. He couldn’t fault her. Carrying a weapon was probably a wise choice. “Try not to commit a murder later, okay? I’d hate to be implicated.” His fingerprints were probably all over the thing now.

He glanced in the direction where she’d been aiming her camera and winced slightly. The people she’d been photographing had disappeared, either into a nearby building or a car, he wasn’t sure. “Sorry. I think you might have missed your window. Will they be back?”

🖤

"I don't make promises I can't keep" said Briar dryly. "Some people are just asking for it." Actually, she suspected there were people who would say that about her, considering what she did for a living and the neighborhoods she spent a lot of time in. Which is exactly why she carried the knife in the first place.

She sighed with annoyance when she realized the people she'd been photographing had disappeared into their motel room. Then she said "Its not that big a deal, I guess. They have to come back out eventually." She would just have to spend more time on this case tonight than she'd originally planned.

[briarxbeckett]

evangeline-morris​:

.

It wasn’t often that Evie swore, but when she did, she could go hard enough to make a sailor blush. “I hope I didn’t hurt you,” she fretted, though she was certain her elbow wouldn’t have reached anywhere near the woman’s face. Her hands rested on her own reddening cheeks for a moment. “But yeah, I could go for a coffee.”

Your third one of the day, Evangeline Georgina, she could practically hear her grandfather chide. 

“I know a good place, if you want?”

🖤

Briar shook her head. "I'm tougher than I look" she assured the other woman. That much was true. Having parents like Dottie and David meant she'd had become strong. Otherwise she never would have broken free from their control after college. She wondered how much David had been involved in this woman's life. She suspected not much, and for that she was almost jealous. Coming out of her thoughts at Evangeline's words, she said "Sure, that would great." It would give her some more insight into this woman's life, at least. If it was a good coffee place, it might mean she had good taste.

[briarxbeckett]

kat-beckett​:

.

Has the world ever felt like it was finally on the proper path as if you’d been waiting your whole life for the other shoe to drop? Kat did, a bit of a hopeful cynic she had a way of creating her own worst-case scenarios, pressing hard enough on the happy surface to create her ripples of her doing. That was how it was with her father, David Beckett. A hopeful pessimist. He was absent, but there was time. Time for redemption, for something resembling the father-daughter relationship she truly wanted, but regardless of this hope there was this tiny insistent voice telling her it would never happen.

 David Beckett was a disappointment as a father and a husband. Part of Kat didn’t want to believe what her sister was telling her. But Briar was a woman of many ways, talents- faults, they all were, but she was not a liar. Her father was, her mother was- they were pretenders of a disgusting degree. They had made Kat a pretender, Briar too in a stifling and horrible way. Hot and angry tears welled up fat and threatening, her fingers curling like a vice into the fleshy part of her palm. 

There was another sibling, another child- did he love them more? Was he proud of them? Did they look like him? Did they know about Kat and Briar? The questions piled up until a migraine began to form like a tension band around her head. Kat took in a shaky breath, blinked away the tears. When she attempted to speak a bitter, choked laugh came through and she covered her mouth and shook her head. “I hate him.” She spoke with deathly ire, “How old is she?” Kat shuddered the thought, “Does our mother know?”

🖤

"I hate him too" Briar said in agreement with her sister. Actually, hate was probably a too strong emotion for what she felt for David. She neither loved nor hated him. Instead, she preferred not to think about him at all, unless she was trying to figure out how to get the remains of her trust fund from him and Dottie. Focusing on them was just so draining, mentally and almost physically as well. It was no wonder years with them had resulted in Kat developing an addiction and both sisters running as far across the country as they possibly could.

"She's 29" she said. That much Briar had managed to unearth about her half-sister while looking into her father's past. "Her mother is one of dad's co-workers." As Briar mentioned the woman her father had cheated on her mother with, her voice took on an extra note of disgust. "She grew up literally in the same city as us. Can you believe that?" The audacity of David to not only father a secret child so close in age to Briar and Kat, but then to have her living so close by. It was a wonder they hadn't crossed paths at some point through mutual friends. Briar wondered if David had somehow been responsible for that as well. He was certainly an expert at manipulating his children, just as Dottie was.

At the mention of Dottie, Briar gave an almost hysterical laugh. "That's the best part" she said sarcastically. "She knew! She knew all these years and stayed with the asshole." She'd probably also played an active part in keeping their half-sister a secret from Briar and Kat, if Briar's suspicions about her mother were correct. And they usually were.

[briarxbeckett]

br-brody​:.

“It was mostly sarcasm.”  He narrowed his eyes a little, knowing he probably had the money to make it work, but not really wanting to.  “Drinks sound good.  The upside is I’m a cheap date that way, too.  On the off-chance I actually win, I don’t feel bad about you buying me a beer.” 

🖤

"Well that's a pity" she said, wondering if he was going to refuse her challenge. But then he agreed to drinks. She resisted the urge to smirk at him. Instead she said "Either you're the nicest guy in this place, or you're setting me up to buy you the most expensive drink on the menu." She was good at reading people and suspected it was the former, but Briar was the sort of person who never trust anyone fully, no matter how honest they seemed.

[briarxbeckett]

27: if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

"To spend less time in college flirting with girls and more time trying to get the novel I was working on back then finished. Because that book sure as shit isn't getting written anytime soon with the way my life is going these days."

Another answer to this question can be found here.

[briarxbeckett]

27: if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

"Not to grow too attached to my parents. Because there eventually came a time in my life where I decided to put myself first instead of doing what they expected (aka demanded) of me, and that's when they showed their true colors by cutting me off, both financially and otherwise."

[briarxbeckett]

onstraypaper​:

.

Grant was on his way home. Though he could technically work from his home office, he made it a point to switch it up a few times a week–library, coffee shops, occasionally the park if the weather was on his side–so the walls didn’t close in on him. He wasn’t standing in front of her camera, but he had been trying to get her attention, as unobtrusively as possible.

“Then I’d hate to interrupt.” The small, wry smile on his lips said he regretted it a little already. There was no shortage of corruption in D.C. Far be it from him to interfere with justice. Then again, he hadn’t needed a private investigator or a camera to know his ex-wife had been cheating on him. He offered the small object that had fallen from her bag. “But I think this is yours.”

🖤

Briar nearly asked him why he was interrupting, if he hated to do it so much. But the words died on her lips at his follow-up statement. Removing her camera from her face, she glanced down at his hand. To her surprise, she saw her pocket knife in his hand. While Briar had never needed to use the blade within for self-defense, she always felt better carrying it with her. Especially in at night in shady neighborhoods like this. This part of Deanwood was neither well-lit by street lamps nor well-patrolled by the local police. "Thanks" she said, holding out her hand to take the pocket knife from him. "I'm no girl scout, but I do like having this on me." She allowed her camera's strap to hold it up around her neck, using both hands to shove the knife back into her oversized bag.

[briarxbeckett]

tanananabatman​:

.

“Yeah. They’re everywhere in California though. Even if you don’t have one, someone you know probably does.” It wasn’t as much of a thing in D.C. Her apartment complex didn’t have a pool, which was looking like a major oversight right now. “I wonder if the campus pool would let me jump in in my clothes,” she laughed, thinking she already knew the answer to that question.

“Oh no, that would be totally inhuman. Air conditioning is a necessity in hundred degree weather plus humidity.” It was sounding pretty nice right now too. Not as fast as water, but better than the sticky soup of Washington D.C. summer. “Did you come to watch the play? I think they’ve done a good job with it this year.” She couldn’t believe the actors weren’t dropping from heatstroke, but that was another issue.

🖤

"Is that where you're from?" Briar asked. What a coincidence that was, given the brunette had grown up in San Diego before moving across the county to attend Georgetown. Then she shook her head. "Probably not, though God knows that pool has seen worse than people in street clothes." Public pools were dirty enough; she could only imagine how filthy one on a college campus filled with horny undergrads was.

"Yeah I can't believe certain people won't use them because they think they're ugly." Briar had a friend back in California who lived in a house that predated central air conditioning. Her friend's mother hated the window models because they were loud and didn't match the aesthetic she was going for. Briar did not miss the snooty people back home who valued appearance over comfort.

At the other woman's question she nodded. "They did a good job" she agreed. "Shakespeare has never been my favorite writer but I enjoyed it." She knew that was probably heresy for an English major, but it was the truth.

[briarxbeckett]

tanananabatman​:

who: open / @districtstarters​ when: late afternoon where: georgetown university quad

Tana was regretting her decision to take a summer class. It wasn’t like she was in any rush to get her degree, but she’d thought the continued structure would help her–and give her a reason not to go home to California and see her parents. But the pace was frantic, and keeping everyone’s makeup from melting for the theater department’s Shakespeare Festival performances was turning out to be a job and a half. She’d pulled out all her usual tricks, but nothing was a match for the heat and the humidity. She missed the desert.

It was late afternoon and she was finally free to go, the last, truncated performance of Much Ado About Nothing playing out on the makeshift stage. She had more makeup smeared on her shirt than on her face, her hair pulled back messily in a giant clip. She sank down against a tree on the sidelines and gulped water from a bottle. “It’s too hot for this. Where’s a pool when you need one?”

🖤

Briar wasn't the sort to feel overly sentimental. But even she had to admit that being back on the campus where she went to college was making her feel a bit nostalgic. She had made plans to meet with an old friend who'd wanted to check out the play. But her friend had to leave early, owing to a minor family emergency.

Once the play had finished, Briar decided to wander the campus a bit, curious as to what had changed since she'd been there last. As she walked, she overheard a redhead nearby speaking. Stopping in her tracks to talk to the woman, she said "Pools are expensive." Certainly too expensive for her to have one built in the yard behind her place in Columbia Heights. "Even more expensive than air conditioning. But there's no way I'm giving up my air conditioning." San Diego got hot at times too, but it wasn't nearly as humid as Washington DC was.

[briarxbeckett]

kat-beckett​:

.

“I’ll leave you to guess.” Winking she nudged her sister, Kat would be a liar if she ever denied the fact that Briar was by far the largest reason for any amount of sanity that the younger Beckett had left. While their lives had been interesting to say the least, Kat had always been sure of her ability to count on Briar. Inexplicably and without fail. Losing her would perhaps take part of Kat out as well. 

“You went and saw mom and dad?” She wasn’t suddenly deaf, the revelation was big enough to warrant double checking. Just in case Kat had actually lapsed into insanity and was having auditory hallucinations. It felt like the only logical explanation for the words coming fro Briar’s mouth. However, if Kat had just shut up and listened for the next few seconds she’d see how wrong she was. The news sunk into the pit of her stomach, bile twisting her in knots, her chest felt like it had been settled with something heavy and unforgivable. “A daughter-” It wasn’t a question, merely a test to see if she could say it outloud. Kat absently twitched her fingers, rubbing her index against her thumb. Her stare was far off- “So an older sister, right? From before mom, before us?” Kat asked, a little whim of hope quivering in her tone.

🖤

Under any other circumstances, Briar would have continued to joke along with her sister. Kat was one of the few people who could get more than a sarcastic comment out of the older woman. But right now she didn't feel much like joking around. Not when she was carrying the knowledge of her father's decades-long betrayal by herself. And while a part of her hated to be the one breaking this news to Kat, she believed her sister had a right to know what she'd discovered. A selfish part of her also hoped she'd feel better once she had someone to share this burden with.

"I did" she confirmed in response to her sister's words. "I figured I had to see them face-to-face." She'd wanted to be able to look her father in the eye when she confronted him, just to see if he could look back at her and lie. But he hadn't even tried when she presented him with the evidence she had against him. She nodded as her sister spoke again. Then she frowned. "No. If only our father was that classy" she said with a shake of her head. "She's younger than me but older than you, from the info I've found about her." A tone of disgust was in her voice. "And the real kicker is our mother has known about this half-sister of ours for years." When Briar had learned this, Dottie's explanation had simply been that Hawthornes didn't divorce. Apparently she thought staying with a cheater was better than having everyone know David had been unfaithful and fathered a child with another woman.

[briannaswriter]

favorite faces → conor leslie

[briarxbeckett]

evangeline-morris​:

.

Evie hadn’t prepared to go out of her house for too long, but her boss’s sudden burst of inspiration had her thinking otherwise. She tucked her phone between her cheek and her shoulder as she made her way down the sidewalk of the firm’s building, papers in opposite hand.

“No, yeah, Georgie. I know. Yeah, I can totally take off the Fourth. You and Peter come out to visit. I’d love to see you,” she assured her aunt into the phone. Despite her seemingly never-ending workload, DC truly had a spectacular fireworks show and it wasn’t something to be missed. “Look, yeah. Yup.”

It was moot to get a word in edgewise when her aunt went off on a tangent. “Mm-hmm. Yup.” 

She slid the paperwork into the firm’s mailbox, said her goodbyes, and hung up the phone. Her fingers slid through her chestnut hair to work it up into a wayward ponytail. At some point, she needed a manicure. Her bare nails had seen better days. 

Evie poked her head out of the office and bumped into someone on her way out. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” she apologized, her hand reaching out to brace the woman before her. “I’m all elbows today.”

🖤

As Briar collided with the other woman, she was unable to let out a laugh as the woman swore. Apparently they had that much in common. Perhaps it was in their DNA. Briar was no scientist, so she didn't know if swearing could be linked to some gene both of them had inherited from David. After a moment she said "I'm alright. It was probably my fault anyway." Most things were. She shouldn't have been following so closely and she made a mental note not to do it again. "How about I buy you a drink to make up for it?" she suggested. Even though she hadn't been planning on running into her half-sister today, she found herself wanting to keep their conversation going. She wasn't ready to reveal who she was to Evangeline, but she wasn't ready to walk away, either. It was definitely a conundrum. And Briar absolutely hated being faced with conundrums.

[briarxbeckett]

br-brody​:

.

Ben snorted.  “I don’t mean to.  I’m not good,” he pointed out.  He was just buzzed enough to shrug in reply to her question, though.  “Maybe.  What kind of interest are you thinking?”  

🖤

She laughed at his words. "If you're not good, how are you going to shark me?" she asked pointedly. She raised her eyebrows in response to his question. "40 bucks?" she suggested. "Or we could just say loser buys the next round of drinks, if you don't want to bet actual money" she added with a shrug of her shoulders.

[briarxbeckett]

kat-beckett​:

“Only one of those things is good news.” Kat rolled her eyes a soft sigh. She’d never thought Dottie and David were in love. Not the way you were supposed to be. Maybe no one ever was, but their parents especially were void of any favorable kind of love. At least as far as Kat could tell. Briar’s demeanor was not missed. Kat watched her sister drink without a grimace. The woman always held an air of seriousness about her now appeared so deathly serious that it made Kat’s skin prickle. Quirking a brow Kat’s nose twitched a silent response before lifting her full glass. Pausing, the glass inches from her lips, Kat eyed her sister, hoping for the joke to come next. Nothing but stretched silence with uncertainty at the other end. Tipping the glass back, Kat swallowed the contents; she hated bad news. With a grimace contorting her features, she set the glass back on the table. “Get on with it before the anxiety makes me puke.”

🖤

"Hopefully the one about me not dying" said Briar. She was doing her best to lighten the mood before delivering the bad news to her younger sister, but she didn't think she was doing a very good job. Briar had always been a cynic, a trait that had become more pronounced in recent years. Whether it was because of her job, or because she was cut off by her parents, or some combination of both, she couldn't say. She should probably see a therapist, but she didn't like the idea of opening up to a stranger.

Once her sister had taken a drink, Briar decided the best way to go about this was to just get it over with. Taking a deep breath she said "I went back to San Diego last week to see our parents about something I found while looking into their past. Turns out our dear old dad has a daughter he's been hiding from us all these years." She paused to take another breath, a look of disgust on her face. "And the real kicker is: not only did she grow up mere miles from us, but she lives right here in DC these days."

[briarxbeckett]

kat-beckett​:

She moved leisurely, pausing the episode of Friends she was staring at less than watching. Then, letting Briar in, she took the bottle with a delighted smile, teasing as she moved towards the kitchen. “What are we celebrating?” Kat spoke, standing on her tiptoes to grab bar glasses from the kitchen, setting the bottle and glasses down on the coffee table, Kat sunk into the cushions patting her seat. “Our parents getting divorced? That would be cause to celebrate.” Kat quipped bitterly, “Or are you dying or something?” She asked half-joking-

🖤

Briar was unable to avoid wincing as Kat asked whether they were celebrating their parents' divorce. That would have been far too normal, considering what Briar had recently learned. But no, apparently Dottie knew all about David's affairs and had not only stayed by his side, but played a role in helping hide the children of said affairs from the public. Sitting down next to her sister on the couch, she said "I'm not dying and our parents aren't getting a divorce." She grabbed the bottle again and poured a large measure of the whiskey into each glass. Then she took a large gulp from one of the glasses, hoping her sister would do the same. After setting the glass down, she said "But I do have to tell you something, so you might want to drink up before I get down to it." Her face was gravely serious now.

[briarxbeckett]

Who: @evangeline-morris Where: Columbia Heights, not far from Evie’s place When: Saturday July 3, mid-morning

After her conversation with Kat the previous evening, Briar had tossed and turned all night. Finally, as the sun was breaking across the city sky, she'd rolled out of bed. After making herself halfway presentable, she'd made her way out the front door and across Columbia Heights towards the place where she knew her half-sister lived. Grabbing a bagel and cup of coffee from a cafe nearby, she stood in an alleyway and watched the front door of Evangeline Morris's residence. She lost track of how long she was standing there for when she saw the woman come out of her place. Tossing the remains of her coffee into the nearest trash can, she began to tail her half-sister, keeping a careful distance between the two of them. As she stepped into a nearby building, Briar waited a few seconds before following her. But apparently she should have waited longer. Because as she stepped into the building, she literally collided with the woman she'd been tailing. Hoping her cover wasn't blown, she widened her eyes in surprise and said "I am so sorry." Briar was rarely sorry, but for once the words were true. She was sorry, because now she worried she'd given herself away.

[briarxbeckett]

Who: Open / @districtstarters​ Where: Somewhere in Deanwood When: Wednesday June 30, shortly after dark

Briar was standing on the sidewalk across the street from a seedy little motel. She’d been following a senator all evening and was now in the process of taking pictures of him heading into the motel to meet his mistress. For all their money and power, these people always dragged their affair partners to the cheapest and dirtiest motels in the metropolitan area. As she was holding her camera to her face, she saw something in her peripheral vision. "I'm working here" she said without taking her face away from the camera. "So I'd advise not stepping in front of me." Not unless they wanted to end up part of what was probably going to be rather nasty divorce proceedings.