"Ma'am, this is a standard stop and search -" the officer finally revealed, but to Sinead, the hesitation in his voice made it clear to her that the balance had shifted. She knew she would never have the upper hand in a situation where the man in front of her was armed, but that didn't manage to remove the annoyance from her voice.<br/>"On what account?" she returned, knowing exactly what the officer had seen to prompt them to pull her over, and knowing perfectly that the officer would never admit to that. "You're having your partner run a search on my for driving my own car past midnight?"<br/>He parted his lips to speak, and out of the corner of her eye, Sinead saw his hand had returned to the hilt of his gun. Unimpressed by it, she took his pause as a cue to continue.<br/>"You're going to waste your time trying to find anything, doing nothing but keeping me from going to work. I'll have to explain to my employers that some officer decided to police me on the simple basis of owning a<span style="font-style: italic">car</span>."<br/>That finally seemed to strike a nerve, reminded by the fact that there were indirect witnesses to the altercation. The annoyance was clear on his face, but his hand left his gun. "Turn off the motor."<br/>Sinead, having been in this exact position before, knew she had won. It was inevitable that a pleased smile grew on her lip as she reached in to remove the keys from the ignition. Without needing him to ask, she handed them to he officer.<br/>Snatching it out her hands with unnecessary aggression, he took the keys and turned around, walking back to his car. Only when he was several yards away, Sinead exhaled some of the tension.<br/>"It's okay," she reassured shifting her stance so that she could follow her remark with a glance in at Tanis. Even later, a smile appeared. "He's going to come back angry, but we're okay."