Harold was quietly reading at one of the diners he rotated into his schedule when a large shadow blocked his light. Upon raising his head, Finch was startled to see Detective Fusco.

Lionel smiled. "Mind if I join you? I hate eating lunch alone and Carter has a deposition today."

"Certainly, Detective." Finch said after a slow blink.

Finch watched the large man shuffle into the booth with his pastrami on rye and chips. Satisfied, Harold began reading again.

Fusco chewed silently for a few minutes then tilted his head to read the book's spine. "Huh. Dickens? You got an essay due or something?"

Harold sighed. "No Detective, I'm sure this may come as a surprise to you but I like Dickens. I read for pleasure."

"Ok, ok." Lionel lifted his palm toward Finch. "Hey, I read A Tale of Two Cities on my own: for pleasure."

"Due tell." Finch murmured distractedly.

"Yeah, cause that was the book Spock gave Kirk for his birthday." Fusco nodded as he spoke around another bite. "Figured if Spock thought it was a good book for Kirk, then I might like it."

Finch lifted his head and an eyebrow. "Really? How was it?"

"Hard to understand." Lionel shrugged and wiped his mouth on a thin and cheap napkin. "All those big words and long sentences that you almost have to map out to see what they were trying to say, but I plugged on. By the end, I got the hang of it. I could see what Kirk would like about it. Sacrifice for the greater good and all. But still, not enough sword fights. You ever watch Star Trek?"

Finch quirked his mouth in an approximation of a smile. "Yes avidly, Detective."

"I always wanted to be Kirk." Lionel smiled with a full mouth then winked at Harold. "Bet you wanted to be Spock!"

"Actually." Finch dipped his head in partial embarrassment. "I wanted to be Scotty: hidden behind the scenes most of the time but always pulling the rabbit out of his engineering 'hat'."

"Huh." Fusco pondered this a moment. "Well, after wading through that book I re-watched Wrath of Kahn. Found out Kirk was quoting the end ofTwo Cities when he was talking to Carol Marcus: made a nice bookend. I could totally see Star Trek being the best of times, the worst of times. But I didn't get, far, far better thing, at all.

Harold sat up, warming to his topic. "Well, actually that was a parallel to Spock's sacrifice. Sydney Carton gave his life so that Charles Darnay could live just as Spock gave his life so that the crew could live.

"Yeah but Charlie was only saving one person, Spock saved everybody."

Finch leaned forward eyes bright. "Charles Darnay had a future where, if he lived, many other lives could be saved and improved."

"Huh, so Wrath of Kahn was," The large man paused and thought hard with furrowed brow. " the best of times, Kirk getting to captain the Enterprise again and the worst of times, losing Spock. And Spock sacrificed himself like Sydney.

"Yes, quite." Finch smiled and nodded his head, nearly proud that Lionel worked it out for himself.

"That's cool. Makes the movie, I don't know, more somehow. Like it goes along with a great book that people still read hundreds of years later.

"I agree." Harold grinned.

Notes:This may become a slowly updated work in progress of stand-alone(ish) pieces involving Finch and Fusco.
May eventually turn m/m. I will warn when and if it does.
I am just trying to explore a friendship/relationship between these two. I firmly believe that Fusco and Finch are SCI-FI fanboys.
As I personally started two relationships through Star Trek geek speak (10 year marriage and current engagement) I see no reason for our boys not to do the same.
I might eventually get a beta for this. Lots of uncertainty here. So, if you like this, please give me a holler. Fan mail, asks, comments, whatever. Even ANON if you want.
Originally published on tumblr under managerie76