A/N: My first completely Loker/Torres fic and I love it! A little bit shorter than I wanted it to be, but I could not think of anything else to put. And yes, I have a tiara - I'm wearing it now.
Enjoy!
Blink and the person in front of you could be gone.
Blink and your chance with her would be gone.
Blink and time runs out of the hourglass and you're gone.
He sat at the desk casually, running through the tapes again that his boss wanted him to look at. He sat the normal – lying diplomats with a million and one secrets. There wasn't anything more useful worthy of his time? They were working on a case –his boss, his other boss and the new girl- therefore out of the office. He was left with a stack of CDs and instructions to "touch up on his skills." They couldn't even use him, the Ivy League grad, at a bomb site for something he had specialized in. It hurt.
The last CD ran through and he used the pen and legal pad he had found laying around to write down the time on the tape when the person lied and the official "name" of the microexpression or indicator. All in all it was absolutely boring and he wanted out of there. Finally his torture ended and he shut down the computer. Fabulous. He could finally go home. Yawning and stretching, the young man collected his things and went to clock out for lunch.
On his way there, he saw the new girl in her office (how was it that she got an office but he didn't?) and stopped to check in about the case.
"Hello, my little bundle of sunshine!" he greeted jokingly.
She glared at him, her dark brown eyes not bothering to mask her annoyance. "Go away, Loker. Lightman wants me to set up a meeting with a lawyer who might have raped and killed one of his client's daughters." As she looked back at her computer screen, he saw the boredom written so clearly on her face.
"So he murdered someone that he's supposed to be helping? That must be one way to build trust. But why isn't Heidi setting up the meeting?" His voice carried another question, one he got glared at again for.
"He said that I should because I have 'charming abilities.'" She put air-quotes around the words he knew Lightman had said as mockingly as she did. "I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult."
He smirked and sat in the chair across from her. There was silence between them for a couple minutes as her nails clacked against the keyboard keys. No doubt she was typing the world's most persuasive email to this lawyer, to let Lightman come in and ask a few questions, probably to help prove he didn't commit the crime. In the end, though, they always brought out the truth, even when the truth isn't kind to all involved.
Finally, after about five minutes of non-stop typing, she clicked the send button and turned to the man sitting across from her. "So. What to do now?" she asked, feigning innocence.
He grinned. "Lunch?"
They were laughing in the little diner, sitting opposite in high-backed booths. They both had a glass of sweet iced tea and had ordered, as they called them, the best sandwiches in DC.
"I'm serious!" she said, trying to hold back the giggles. "The guy took off his hat and threw it in the river, just because I said that. He had had a little bit to drink that night but it was still a little much." Her half-smile was both attracting and charming him, as was the way she had one hand curled and supporting her chin while the other was only inches away from his. He didn't know if she was doing these things on purpose or if it was only subconscious. "So," she started, a little more seriously. "Tell me about your first girlfriend."
Her smile turned into more of a smirk when she saw his embarrassment. "Wow, you just went to a whole new level of blunt." She gave him this mock-offended look – he had repeated her words in the exact same tone with the exact same facial expression as she had had. He held back a laugh. "But if you must know… Her name was Angela and we were in third grade."
"Aww! You must have been a cute third grader!" she gushed overdramatically. Her eyes flickered from his eyes to his lips before she quickly looked back. But he noticed it and smirked.
"What, are you trying to say I'm not cute now?"
She simply raised and dropped her perfectly manicured eyebrows once before turning her attention to the window beside them. A couple birds were perched on the bike stand out front. They chatted animatedly with each other, but flew away when a car pulled up near them. We're all just like those birds, she thought. Happy with each other but always running from something. Maybe he picked up on her philosophical moment because he glanced out the window at the creatures until they were too high up to see anymore.
Their lunches came right then, interrupting their comfortable silence. The waitress gave Loker a flirty smile, glanced at Torres with contempt as she left to take another table's orders. The two glanced at each other with knowing smirks as they bit into their sandwiches. Something shiny caught his attention and he glanced out the window at a young couple walking with a little girl who had a tiara precariously leaning on top of her head. She followed his look and smiled. "Reminds me of the show Toddlers and Tiaras." When he looked confused, she went on. "It's about three-year-old girls in pageants and their mothers who are obsessed with it. Even if the daughters don't want to, they're practically forced into it." She rolled her eyes.
"Seems like you watch it often."
"Nope. I got all that from just the previews."
"Well previews can be deceiving."
"Somehow I don't think we're talking about the show anymore." He didn't say anything so she changed the subject. "I remember I had a tiara when I was little. For my fifth birthday, I wore it for my princess party."
"How come I wasn't invited?"
"I'll be sure to invite you to my next one. Happy?"
Their conversations started up again, sticking to safe topics like things they had and wanted when they were little, college, and how Lightman could sometimes be the best and worst boss in the world. It was normal. Well it should have been normal, except for the obvious mutual attraction between them that was irritating the waitress. They paid for their individual lunches and left with fifteen minutes of their break left.
Oh, what trouble could they really get into in fifteen minutes? Am I wrong to even ask?
Later that day, when she was finally back from helping on the case, he went into her office. Foster saw him enter and sighed.
"What is it, love?" Lightman asked who had been too busy studying his wall of liars, as he called it, to notice anything except his partner's sigh.
She glanced back down the hallway before regarding him again. "Nothing, nothing at all," she whispered. Somehow, he found her notoriously quiet. He just couldn't figure out what was notorious about it. "I'll, um, see you tomorrow?"
He grinned at her childlike naivety. "Of course."
As they walked past just like old friends, Foster could have sworn she heard giggles being stifled. Must have just been her imagination.
Blink and the time you have to end things right is gone.
So just don't blink.