Disclaimer: Dick Wolf and NBC own "Law and Order". I don't.

A/N: I randomly thought of this while driving back to campus recently. I'm glad I didn't forget about it so that I could actually write it! :-D

This is the sequel to "The Greatest Thing".

For June, Angie, Linus Roache, and Alana de la Garza.

Discerning Taste

Mike and Connie were having dinner after work with their mutual friend Lacey Bardwell, an ADA in the White Collar Crimes Bureau, and her boyfriend, Charlie Simmons, a forensic accountant who worked at a nearby firm that did a lot of work with the Manhattan D.A.'s office.

Mike had taken two bites of his entrée before launching into an exasperated rant about how work at the Queens D.A.'s office had gone for him that day.

"—it's not as though it wouldn't work, you know?" he was saying. "I've done it before, and it worked just fine! But Monica seems hell-bent on being against it."

He was referring to Monica Cameron, the Queens D.A.

"Plan A is to let her sleep on it. Maybe she'll—"

Just then—

"Onion," Connie suddenly interrupted him, smiling and using her fork to point down at her plate.

"What?" Mike said, stepping off the soapbox, a bit confused.

"You missed an onion," Connie said, again smiling and pointing down at her plate with her fork.

"Oh!" Mike said, catching on.

He took his fork, picked the onion off Connie's plate, and then transferred it onto his own plate.

"Damn, I'm normally so thorough," he said, now smiling himself. "Looks like you got all the green peppers," he added, looking down at his plate.

"Yeah, I did," Connie said, smiling again.

"Okay, normally, I'd think a couple going through each other's food and taking what the other doesn't like off their plate was weird, but with you two, it's just sweet," Lacey said, smiling.

Mike and Connie exchanged smiles.

"I'm just sitting here thinking, 'Wow, we don't even do that'," Charlie said good-naturedly, exchanging glances with Lacey.

"No, we don't," Lacey agreed, smiling at him.

Mike shrugged.

"We're just that comfortable with each other," he said.

Connie smiled at him and patted him on the thigh, and he smiled at her.

Then—

"To be honest, honey, I don't think Monica's gonna change her mind," she then said. "She's not Jack."

Mike sighed and took a drink of beer.

"You're right," he said. "Back to the drawing board."

"You'll figure it out," Connie encouraged him warmly. "You always do."

"Thank you, Connie," he said sincerely.

"Of course," Connie said kindly. "So Charlie, Lacey tells me you were quite the hero in a recent case," she added amiably.

Charlie shrugged.

"The guy hid it well. He was one smart son-of-a-bitch," he said. "It took me and three partners pouring over the books to finally catch what he'd been up to."

"Wow!" said Connie.

"Thanks to them, Emma had enough evidence to offer the defendant and his accomplices plea deals," said Lacey, referring to their coworker and mutual friend Emma Blair, who also worked in the White Collar Crimes Bureau.

"That's wonderful!" said Connie. "I bet she's so relieved! She ranted to us about it a fair few times."

"Yeah, she did. God love her," said Lacey. "But yeah, I'm proud of you, babe," she added to Charlie.

"Nerdy accountants to the rescue," Charlie joked with a smirk.

Lacey chuckled.

"People like accountants much more than they like lawyers," Mike quipped.

Connie snickered.

"Pretty much," Lacey agreed with a chuckle. "That makes you my better half, Charlie," she joked.

"I try," Charlie joked.

Mike smirked, and Connie snickered again.

Lacey smiled.

"Too bad there's no 'Number Crunching Bad-Ass' award," she kidded, patting Charlie on the back.

Charlie snickered.

"Now that's nerdy," he bantered.

Lacey laughed.

"Connie deserves an award for putting up with me," Mike then said.

"Oh, you're not that bad," Connie said. "For the most part," she bantered with a smirk.

Mike gave a small smile.

"But really, Mike? You're a good man, and you know it," Connie said warmly, wearing the smile she saved only for him. "Everyone's flawed. Everyone makes mistakes at one point or another."

Mike gave her a sweet smile.

"See? She understands me," he told Lacey and Charlie. "She completely gets me. And I'm completely comfortable around her. I've never been that way with a woman before. I've never had the bond that I have with Connie with any other woman."

Again, Connie gave him the smile she saved only for him.