Thanks to my friend Adam who gave me the inspiration for this fanfic.  I don't normally do fanfic, but I so wanted to see Evangelin meet Judge Dredd for once.  So I dropped her down temporarily into his universe:

“Unlawful carnal contact with a federal Judge is six months in the cubes”

Evangelin turned her back on him and rubbed the socket under the eye-patch.

“I didn’t say I was going to kiss you”, she replied, “I said ‘sometimes I would like to.’ Besides, it’s hardly easy for us to kiss, with you wearing that helmet and me this respirator.”

“The city compensated you for the accident well enough.”

“Yes,” she nodded, “so they did.  And being the head of citidef at Barack Obama block is a challenge in its own right.”

“What do you know about the bite fight that happened the other night?”

“All I know is that it relieves the tension in this damn place, tension that otherwise would end up in thousands getting hurt, possibly killed.  I don’t know who’s behind it.”

“Come off it, Marley”, he snapped, “I don’t believe that.  You probably set it up yourself!”

“Fine.  Believe what you want.  Or try the damn lie detector.  You’re dying to, I can tell!”

“You were a judge.  You of all people know that can be bypassed.”

“As do you.  It depends on which questions you’re asking.  And you’re not asking the right ones, Dredd.  Isn’t this what they taught us at the academy?  The needs of the many, and all that?  This bite fight night certainly fills a need.”

“Hardly a decision worthy of a judge who I once respected.  Organising bite fights that currently have 45 citizens dead.”

“Former Judge”, she corrected, “and you keep saying that you respect me only makes me want to kiss you more.  Ever wondered what it feels like, Joe?  To have a woman’s touch”

“No,” he said firmly, “and you’re walking a fine tightrope, Marley.  Watch you don’t slip.  You’re close to doin time.  If I find out you’ve been lying to me about this bite pit…”

“Then you won’t cover for me next time like you just did then; by asking the wrong questions?  Admit it, Joe.  You feel the same way as me.  Barack Obama block is quiet because the people have a way to release their tensions.”

“My feelings , or yours, aren’t important.  It’s against the law.  As a former judge, I would fully expect you to tell the truth to a fellow judge.  You were granted respect this time.”

He stared at her for a long time, and she started right back at him with her one good eye.   

“Finally she spoke,

“There’s more than one way to kiss someone, Dredd.  Without touching them.  Perhaps if I told you that my brief time riding with you were the best times of my life….being a street judge and knowing you were around made the city feel somehow special.  It had a warmth that it doesn’t seem to have now.  I know you would never be intimate with me, and I wouldn’t want that.  But those days…they were special.  And that’s partly because of you, Joe”

“No doubt the Justice department misses your contribution too, Marley.  You were a good Judge.  Don’t ruin that good name now.  I won’t be as lenient in the future.”

“And I won’t be as careless in the future” she said under her breath, but he had gone through the door.”

Her wounded lung took a deep breath of oxygen as she stood in her office and surveyed his departing form.  It would almost be worth the six months in the cubes to kiss him, and see the reaction on that stoney face.  Not that she would do it to him.  He respected her, at least he’d said as much.  And so few of them gave him cause to respect them these days.  The speaker suddenly trilled.

“Commander Marley to the promenade on level 240 please.  Leaper alert.”