Note: Characters from TV aren't mine, but ones that aren't are.
Also: Sequel to my previous work, L&O IAB.
And: Thank you, Squarey.
"Really?" Sharpie asked his new partner incredulously. "A cop?"
She nodded, half smiled and kept her eyes on the road. "A cop," she repeated.
"I am disappointed, Alexandra," he said with mock severity. "Most disappointed." He scrunched his face in faux-disgust. "That's so uninspired."
Alex's half smile stayed put as she shrugged and kept driving. "It's true. A cop." She cast him a sidelong glance as she expertly avoided some jaywalking pedestrians. "What about you?"
"Oh that's easy," he said breezily. "I would name lipsticks."
Her laugh burst out of her as if it were waiting several long years to be liberated from a tower. He was pleased it had finally lost the rusty sound he'd noticed when he first came on board. A woman like Alexandra Eames should laugh often; it transformed her stern policeman's mug into that of a delighted pixie. Sharpie figured if anything else, his time at Major Case was well spent making Alex laugh.
"If you could do anything," she said in disbelief.
"Uh huh."
"Anything at all," she emphasized, as if he hadn't understood the question.
"Yup."
"You would name lipsticks," she repeated.
"Absolutely."
When the silence stretched on, she laughed again. "You're serious."
"Definitely." He turned to her. "Think about it," he said warming to the topic. "Color and words combine in a marketing synergy that defies logic and beautifies the world – Taupe Tempest, Currant-ly Available, Berry Blitz." He waved his hand emphatically. "I would probably branch out into eye shadow. Genius like mine should not be limited."
She smiled big. He felt like he won the lottery. "You have given this a lot of thought."
He shrugged. "Passes time in the basement." He eyed her closely. "You use neutrals," he declared. "Probably to minimize your delicate features, de-emphasize the feminine." She beamed at him. Odds were good that any other guy saying the same thing would have gotten a not-so-feminine fist to the face, but Sharpie knew he was exceptional. "I bet you would look great in plum tones. They'd bring out the warmth of your eyes while appealing to the cool of your soul, my Aubergine Queen."
She decided to ignore his make up advice but couldn't stop grinning. Her face muscles were going to hurt long before their time together was over. "And Santelli, what would she do?"
"Rockette," he said without missing a beat. "She tried out back in the day, but she was about an inch and a half too tall. She then decided to use her powers of the dance to shake it for the NYPD." His eyes went back to the road as she slowed the SUV and executed a parallel parking maneuver that would make a driver's ed instructor come to Jesus. In Manhattan, this woman was a rare gem of a driver. "Gus would have just double parked and yelled at the Traffic who dared ticket her," he commented.
"There are enough assholes who park like shit in this city. I don't have to be one of them," Alex turned the car off and clipped on her badge as she opened her door. "I also don't need Traffic on my case."
He chuckled as he unbuckled and got out. "Noted. And I will let Inspector Santelli know next time she parks like shit." He clipped on his own badge and the two went to survey the crime scene.