"Bowing Out"
A Law & Order: Criminal Intent Fanfiction
Written by Kate "SuperKate" Butler

She'd always loved playing poker.

In the slight, swift, two-second delay between his reading aloud the body of his text message and her response, she thought of poker. A logical game, she'd learned it from her father and his friends at age ten and spent the better part of her middle and high school years playing nickel-and-dime pickup games in study hall. Why, even at her old precinct, before her temporary transfer came in and she was whisked away to bigger and better things, she and her partner would play with the other detectives in their squad, often staying up most the night with their low-stakes games.

She'd always won. Her prowess was acclaimed across the precinct and boldly attributed to a natural talent. Deep down, she realized that wasn't true. Her advantage laid not in a natural, inborn ability, but years of practice. Years of watching her father and his cronies, and then classmates and fellow officers paid off to the point where her instincts were sharpened, serving as a well-tuned machine. She could rattle through ratios and odds in her mind, calculating a good hand from a poor one. She could watch the contours of another face and sense an opponent's next move. Fifteen years of playing poker showed her the best and worst of what cards could be dealt, and trained her to know when to see a hand through – and when to bow out.

This case, the murder of computer programmer Lorraine Kennedy, was as much about the young woman found dead on her sidewalk as it was about him. His needs, his voids, and his dependence all shone through. For once, more than any other time in the four and a half months she'd served as his temporary partner, he'd needed strength from the woman at his side. Unfortunately, that strength remained the one thing she, a useless impostor, could not provide – presently, or ever.

Her poker reflexes tingled, now, burning in the back of her mind as she watched him stare down at his phone, the courthouse hallways quiet around them. The signs, however faint, were finally all in place; he'd begun a sentence with, "Eames would have" before trailing off, he'd thrown a crumpled ball of paper at the empty chair across from him when he'd assumed no one was watching, and he glanced away when he realized the murder they were so wrapped up in was about more than greed, lust, or revenge. "It's about yearning," he'd sighed a few moments after his frustration ebbed, pulling his chair across the space between them, between two desks that would never sit face to face. "He… He misses his partner."

Of course, he'd been right – he always was – and the case had been about yearning.

His included.

"I'll take care of this," she decided, stepping forward as he still gazed down at the display on his cellular phone. His head snapped up suddenly, and she forced a small smile as she took the case file from his hand. "I'll fill out the paperwork and you…" She nodded towards the phone. "You should call her."

Brown eyes sparked, lively and full of life, and for the first time in four and a half months – four and a half long, self-conscious, silent, excruciatingly awkward months – Detective Bobby Goren shared with his temporary partner a bright, full-mouthed smile. A genuinely happy smile, she realized as she hugged the file to her chest; the first, and undoubtedly last, she would earn from him.

"Thanks, Bishop," he replied quickly before whirling away on his heel, his windmill of a trench coat swirling behind him. The assistant district attorney chuckled at the sight the tall man as he rushed off in search of decent cell phone reception, and then nodded his goodbyes and meandered away in the opposite direction.

Temporary major case detective Samantha Bishop stood in the intersection of the two hallways and, poker enthusiast as she was, took the only proper action after struggling for four and a half months with the unlikely hand she'd been dealt:

She bowed out.

Fin.

Standard Disclaimer: Law and Order and all related characters belong to NBC and Dick Wolf. I am simply borrowing them with no intent to, you know, make money. Friends, perhaps, but not money.

Author's Notes: I've always loved the episode "FPS," but I never noticed the grace and dignity Bishop has at the end of the episode, when she bows out and allows Goren to run off and call his partner. It's a rare moment with Bishop, and I really love it. She finally admits defeat. It's beautiful.

They never gave poor Bishop a first name for the show, so I used the actress' first name for it. I know this is cheating, but darned if I can't do a thing about it. It's not my fault they didn't name her!

February 27, 2005
3:47 a.m.