"Well, I don't want to put any pressure on you here, but—well, we haven't found anything about the girl's parents yet, and we don't know how long it might take…"

He pauses.

"You two seem to get along well. If you both agree… I think it might be easiest for everyone if she stayed with you, for the time-being."

Oh good, this is the better of the possible reasons the cop would pull her aside. "Well, I'd be delighted to. Let's see what she thinks about it, though, her opinion's the one that really counts here."

"That it is."

He leaves the woman standing where she is, and takes the child aside in a similar manner.

"Hey kid," he says, leaning down in a manner he hopes is friendly.

"If I told you we were going to have to find a place for you to stay while we look for your parents, what would you say?"

This is very obviously not a real hypothetical, but sure, it can play along.

"I'd say that makes sense?"

Good kid—he really hates dealing with the less-understanding ones.

"And if I said that Ms. Miller was a person we could choose for that…?"

Oh! She is?

"She is?"

"Well, let's say she is…"

Fine. Right. 'Hypothetical'.

"I'd say that sounds very nice?"

Oh good.

"Then I think I'd say we've found a good place for you." He smiles.

He'll let the two talk that over, then, and go deal with the paperwork.

She sits down next to Mae. "Hey li'l bit. What d'you think of coming to stay with me for a while?" she asks gently. "You'd go back to your parents if they turned up — well if they showed up and turned out to suck I'd pitch a fit — and if you didn't like it we could find someone else to look after you, but barring that, what do you think?"

…

…Okay, so it thought it was going to have a reasonable and well-worded response to this, but actually what it's going to do now is hug her very tight.

Well that gets a grin and a tight hug in return. Also some gentle petting of its back.

"I take it that's a yes, sweetie?"

She's happy to hug it as long as it likes, it's the priority here. If the cops want their chairs back before Mae's good and done, they can fight her.

It nods, still hugging her for what will be a slightly embarrassing amount of time once it's done.

It— just— it thought it wasn't gonna get to see her anymore after this! And it was mostly trying to avoid thinking about it for now, but she's really nice, and then it gets to live with her?

Ok, yeah, it is apparently still not quite done hugging her yet.

Eventually, it will dry its face—apparently it started crying a bit at some point? And somewhat embarrassedly compose itself.

Y'see, this is what she loves about purses. She can just keep napkins and tissue and whatnot tucked into various pockets and pull one out for any eventuality. Out comes a tissue, and she wipes its face and dries its eyes.

Oh, yes please! It gratefully accepts the help drying its face.

"Sorry about that—I didn't mean to…"

It trails off.

She arches an eyebrow and smiles. "You get a pass. Complicated, stressful situation. Strong reactions are normal, sweetie."

She pets its hair gently, careful not to mess anything up. "Since it seems you like this idea, we're gonna have to do some paperwork, and then we're going shopping to get you a whole closet's worth of essentials. Sound like a plan, kiddo?"

It grins and nods.

"Yes please!"

"What do you think of being scooped, Mae? Not dignified enough and you'd rather walk, or fun and cozy?"

It thinks about that for a moment.

"…Maybe not in public, in a police station?"

…It looks down at itself and blushes.

"Particularly if I'm not wearing pants…"