Author's Note: Written for Chelle's lovely 12 Days of Christmas Challenge at the Caesar's Palace Forum. I would have never considered this pairing without it, but I rather love the idea now. For now, just a first meeting.
Only a handful of hours into her vacation in Miami, Jo Martinez had found a place called Carlito's. She stopped here because the waiter threw her only mild side-eye when she asked for something tall, guaranteed to get her drunk, and neon in color, early enough in the day that some restaurants were serving eggs. The place was virtually dead, just a guy in a garrish shirt, his bald friend, and a sobbing young woman seated outside. Eventually money slid across the table and the older of the two fellows got up, steering the woman out by the shoulders.
Jo got up then. It didn't matter that she had no jurisdiction all the way out here. She was angry enough-and already slightly tipsy enough-to want to give someone a piece of her mind. As it turned out, she didn't have to go very far as the bald man approached her. His hands were slightly outstretched as though he might have to catch her at any moment.
"You alright?" he asked.
Jo shook her head. "None of your business, and I'm not looking for work. I'm a cop." She patted instinctively for her badge, which wasn't anywhere to be found in the lime green sundress she was wearing.
"That's good because I wasn't hiring?" The man let out a short laugh though Jo couldn't imagine what was funny.
"You seemed to be doing just fine with that girl back there." She thumbed in the direction of the table.
"We're helping her with a problem."
"Is that what you call it in Miami?"
The men threw his hands up. "Hey, look, I just wanted to see if you were okay. Long as everything's good, I'm good."
Jesse wouldn't have given her a second thought if he hadn't nearly tripped over her on his way out of the loft. He'd turned the corner and discovered her slumped against one wall.
"Had a little too much?" Jesse asked, tentatively.
The woman groaned, as she pushed herself off the wall. "Are you following me?"
"Seriously? No. My friend lives upstairs. Look, it's late and this isn't that best neighborhood, are you gonna make it back to wherever you're staying in one piece?"
"If it's not the best neighborhood, why do you have a friend here?" she prodded him in the chest, baring a triumphant grin that looked silly in the dark.
"Because Mike's a different kind of guy," replied Jesse flatly. A breath later she stumbled, he caught her. Jess gathered her up and trudged up the stairs. She's too drunk to be terrified, he guessed, because she no longer put up a fight.
"Borrowing your loft, Mike," he announced as they barged in.
"Is she?" he asked.
"Hurt, no. A client, maybe. Found her downstairs, couldn't let her leave like this." And Michael understands because they all have their sore spots.
He set her on the bed, next to water, a multivitamin, pepto-bismol, and an aspirin.
It was two AM and the third time, he held her hair back before she was suitably convinced he wasn't a danger.
It was morning before he learned her name.
"Jo Martinez."
"Jesse Porter."
"Why?" she asked next.
"We help people in trouble. Usually bigger kinds of trouble. Nuclear arms dealers, kids kidnapped, taking out drug lords, or like the woman you met yesterday, scammed by a fake medical treatment ring."
"Vigilantees?"
"Yeah, but we try not to step on anyone's toes, there's just some benefits to not having a badge sometimes."
She thought of Henry, and nodded, with a wince that wasn't just the hangover.
"Careful. Need a coffee?"
"You're a lifesaver, Jesse Porter."
He grinned and handed over a mug. "Now you're catching on."
They sit and sip.
"So, are you in any kind of trouble?"
"No. Nothing like that...just my husband died, last year. And the man who helped me heal, seeing someone else. Silly, I know, but I was just getting used to the idea that I could matter to someone again."
"Jerk."
"No, no, it's not like that. She and Henry, they share something we never could. Do you have any idea what that's like?"
He thought of Mike and Fi, and nodded. "Yeah. I do."