Make-Up Sex
A New Amsterdam one-shot
by Stessa
Partners… it's like marriage without the make-up sex.
Eva couldn't stop thinking about that comment. She didn't know what it was, but what Sergeant Callie Burnett had said earlier really got stuck in her brain. She had tried to think of other things, but it was stuck. It kept spinning around inside her head now, so many hours later. It was driving her insane, it really was. But she still couldn't stop thinking about it, even if she wanted to. She had never really thought of it like that. She had enjoyed working with John; they had a good partnership and she hadn't questioned that. She had never thought much about it, even if they argued and never agreed on anything.
John was… different. She liked him for it. He wasn't like all the other cops; he was funnier to work with. And all the stories he told her from God-knows-when were interesting. She often questioned how he knew all that, and his answers were usually weird. She didn't really get it, but she knew he was hiding something. Probably his past. Maybe it wasn't as good as he would have liked it to be, but that didn't mean he couldn't share. There was a mysterious aura around him, and Eva liked that.
She just didn't understand what it was with him. Sometimes, when she got home to her lonely apartment at night, she kept wondering about it. What was it about John Amsterdam that was so different? What made him so perfect and likeable even if he wasn't? What made him so appealing?
Eva scoffed to herself and took another sip of her beer. She hated this. She hated that she had no one to really go home to. That was why she loved her job so much; it gave her something to do. And she really gave it her all. She cared deeply for this, and she was going to show her dad and her brother that she was just as good a cop as they were. All this bullshit her father had done this week. Honestly, he had tried to get John to take care of her! No one took care of her. She was her own, and John might be her partner, but he could never watch out for her. She had been ready to kill her father when he suggested that.
She had been thinking 'He did not just say that!' – it was completely humiliating next to John. He would take it seriously and really start looking out for her. She didn't want that; she had a point to prove, and especially in front of John, she wanted to seem strong and independent. And then she of course had told her father off, but the harm was already done. John had gotten it into his head that he had to look out for her. It was horrible.
Eva turned off the lame TV show that had been going on in the background and leaned back in her couch. She hadn't been paying attention to it. All she could think about was John. She did that a lot. She wondered what it was with him that made him so… so… John-ish. He was just an amazing person that happened to be her partner. Because they weren't married, exactly like their boss had so nicely pointed out. She didn't know why, but it really hurt her when she said that. For some reason. Eva had almost figured it out, but she wasn't quite ready to admit it to herself yet.
She nursed the bottle in her hand and stared straight ahead.
She had never been good with guys. She had never even had a serious relationship. She knew that there wasn't anything wrong with her. She didn't look horribly ugly and she wasn't afraid of commitments. Things just didn't work with her and men. And men and her… It didn't, and she had been okay with that; lost herself in her work, fought to make her way onto the top and to get some respect, but it had all been in vain now. Not only because her stupid father had asked John to take care of her, but also because John was making her do things she really didn't want to do.
She liked him.
More than she should, and Eva knew that. She hated herself for it, because she could feel that he was not a guy to get involved with. Not only because they were partners, but because he liked that Doctor and she had a feeling that there had been countless of women in the past. Not that he would ever like her too. It was too far-fetched, and she just wanted to get over him. She felt stupid, and she hated to feel that way. She had got to do something about it. Maybe she ought to date more…
"That's it!" she told herself in a low voice, "You have got to pull yourself together, Marquez."
Eva closed her eyes again and shrunk into the soft cushion below her. It was easier said than done, the pulling herself together part, because John was constantly in her thoughts. Even when she knew he shouldn't be; like now. She had finally gotten home after a case, and now she was stuck thinking about him. She hated how he just got to her, and how he was always present. She didn't know what to do about it.
She groaned, "Damn it, Eva!"
"Do you always talk to yourself?"
Eva turned around in her couch with a beating heart. She could recognize that voice everywhere, but what the crap was he doing there? He scared the shit out of her! Of course she'd never say that out loud to him, but it was the truth nonetheless. He was just standing by the door to her living room, his arms crossed and his hair casually thrown to the side, the way she liked it so much.
"What the fuck are you doing here, Amsterdam!?" she exclaimed, and placed her half empty beer bottle on the coffee table in front of her, before she got out of her seat and stood up to be more on eyelevel with him, "How did you get in?"
"The door was open." John said, while he crossed the living room so he was closer to her, "You really should be more careful, I thought you were a cop." He looked briefly at her before he picked up the bottle from the table. Shaking his head, he asked her, "Should you be drinking this, Marquez?"
She snatched the bottle for him and took a huge sip of it too, "I can drink whatever I want to." She told him, and let herself fall onto the couch again. She had no frigging idea of what he was doing in her apartment, but if it had anything to do with her father, she would kill them both.
John took a seat in the couch too, as far away from her as possible, "I didn't know you liked to drink this." He said. He still had a sneaky smile on his face, and Eva didn't know if she should laugh or cry. It was the most amazing smile she had ever seen, but she still hated that he did this to her. She felt all weird and fussy on the inside whenever he was near her. That day when she had ran after that man and had almost had him, and then John showed up… She had felt angry and relieved and flustered all at the same time.
Angry because she goddamned wanted to hit him for helping her when she didn't need help, relieved because in some weird way she had known that she was screwed and he saved her, and flustered because… well, because he did save her.
"And I didn't know you barge into apartments without knocking." Eva shot back. She really didn't want to deal with his smart comebacks now. It was late, she was tired, she had had a bit too much to drink, and she had been thinking about him all evening; it wasn't a nice combo, that was for sure.
John shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know why I'm here." He told her, and Eva really did appreciate the truth, even if she would have rather liked it if he told her that he loved her, and he only came to say that.
Eva didn't reply. She took another sip of her beer and ignored his presence completely. She wished he would just leave. She wanted to do things to him, she would never speak of out loud. She wanted to do things to him that partners didn't do, that only married people did. She squeezed her eyes tightly and got lost in Sergeant Burnett's comment yet again. Why on Earth would she have said that? Couldn't she just have kept her frigging comment to herself!? It would have saved Eva from a lot of trouble. She wouldn't have thought about it all evening then; maybe she would have watched TV.
Eva knew that that was unlikely. She would have thought about something different about him. Analyzed his every move and comment towards her. She would have seen signs where there was no signs, and she hated herself for that too. Now she was left instead, thinking that they fought like a couple, acted like a couple, and he treated her like his delicate wife who couldn't do anything. They were like a couple in so many aspects, even if they were only partners. They didn't have the make-up sex.
"Did you know that this building used to be a special wing for the hospital?" John pulled her out of her thoughts, and she turned her head to look at him. She knew some sort of information from the past would come up now, and she wondered how it was possible for one person to know so many things, "Yeah," he continued, "they used to put emotional and physical challenged people here because they didn't know what to do with them. They couldn't treat them."
Eva gave him a weird look and bit her tongue; she would make a comment about how he belonged here then, but she figured it would be stupid to start an argument with him, when she didn't even want him there in the first place.
John continued his story as if she was really into it, "Of course they forgot most of them here. People literally died in this building because no one took care of them." He paused and gave her a funny look, "It's kind of maddening to think about."
She was very uninterested in his story, because she practically heard something like this during all their cases, "And let me guess, you studied the history of hospitals once? No," she corrected herself and pointed her finger at him, "you were a doctor once. That's why you know this, and why you like that doctor so much too."
John arched an eyebrow slightly, "I was a doctor once, but what does Sara have to do with this?" he asked her.
Eva resisted to roll her eyes. John was such a smart man. How come he didn't see how much she liked him? Wasn't he supposed to know these kind of things? She had acted jealous more than once when they were both near Doctor Dillane, and yet he couldn't tell. It was so weird. He knew things she had never heard of before and yet he was completely oblivious to how much she liked him. She wished he would just figure it out on his own. It would save her from a lot of trouble; she wouldn't have to figure out how to tell him, and have to think about if he did like her or not. It would make her life and their partnership much easier.
"Nothing," Eva told him instead, "she has nothing to do with this."
"No, come on tell me." John continued, a slight chuckle in his voice. He probably thought this was funny. Well, it wasn't. And she didn't want to talk or think about the potential love of his life. That would just hurt her too much, "I wanna know. Do you have something against Sara? Every time we're at the hospital, you always lash out after her." He gave her a look, "What is it with you?"
Eva shot him an 'I don't care'-look, "And what is it with you, John? You know so much about the past, it's crazy. You always have something to tell me. You're a great guy, but it's weird. And now you're…" she searched for the right words, and when she eventually found them, she lifted her hands to make air quotes, "'taking care of me'. My father told you so. It's annoying the shit out of me, okay? Just leave me alone."
"What?" John questioned; he probably wasn't sure what she went on about, and he looked darn adorable when he was confused.
"What are you, John?" Eva continued and ignored the urge she got in her stomach to just grab him and kiss him, "Are you like some of those people who can see ghosts, is that how you always know so much about the past?" she paused, before adding, "Are you like… are you liked that cute kid from The Sixth Sense? What was his name again… Cody? Corbin… Casper?"
John sighed heavily, "It's Cole." He said, and bent his head slightly to the side, "And no, I'm not like him. I don't see dead people." He looked to the side and swallowed loudly. Eva watched his Adam's apple as it moved, "I just… I know things."
She took in what he said and let it settle in her body while a comfortable silence settled between them. She then nodded slightly, "Alright." She said, and thought about his voice and the way he spoke; there was just something so unique about it, "Fine, you win. But it'll always be weird to me. I mean… you do such weird things… You-you," she locked eyes with him, "you just know things, and people and then you just come here too with nothing to do! It's weird, okay?"
John looked a bit taken aback by the last comment, but she also knew he wasn't too surprised. He knew she had claws, and that she had a temper, "Hey, hey, I just wanted to talk to you." He told her, now with a concerned look across his face, "What is it with you, Marquez? You've been acting so weird."
"Shit happens." She told him. She knew she was being stupid. It wasn't his fault that she was practically in love with him and didn't have the courage to say it. It wasn't his fault that she liked everything about him even when he was being stupid. It was her own doing, and she had to be nicer to him. She didn't like to see him hurt anyway, "Remember what Sergeant Burnett said earlier?" she asked him. Her voice was soft now, and so were her features, "About partners?"
John looked relieved now when she didn't appear to be angry with him anymore, and she didn't blame him. She could get pretty worked up when she really cared about something, "Sure…" he told her, "Partners. It's like marriage. I don't know if I agree with her, though."
She gave him a small smile, "Well I do." She informed him, and offhandedly moved her pointer finger across the mouth of the bottle, "We fight all the time. Like a real couple. We can never agree on anything."
John leaned forward and took the bottle from her, "I'll just take this before it ends up on the floor." He said, and leaned back again, before he continued, "And on some level I think you're right, Eva…" he paused with a thoughtful look across his face, "But marriage is so much more, you know? It's… Well, it's full of all these things a partnership isn't." he paused again, and gave her an odd stare, she really couldn't read, "Or at least it's not supposed to."
She turned a bit around, so she was facing him front on, "What do you mean by that?" she questioned him, now feeling a bit stronger; the conversation was slowly going in the direction it had to go if she wanted answers, "We fight constantly, Amsterdam. You take care of me, even when I say you mustn't. You tell me what to do, I tell you what to do. You always drive the car. We're like marriage."
"Depending how you look at it." John simply said, with a small nod.
Eva sighed heavily; this was getting her nowhere. John probably didn't like her, otherwise he would have told her, "And how do you look at it?" she asked him, gave it one last shot. If he didn't grab this chance with both hands, she knew she should go on as normal – he would never see her the way she saw him.
John shrugged lamely and got out of the couch, "I really don't know what you mean by that comment, Marquez." He said, and finished the last of her beer, "But I'm gonna go now. Thanks for the nice chat." He finished, before he crossed the living room again, and went into the hallway.
Eva didn't bother to follow him out; she kept right where she had been the entire time. She might as well give up. John Amsterdam would never like her. So what if they were partners. It was only professional. And they were good together; they solved what they had to solve. It was great like that. But what wasn't great was what she felt about him and that she had to hide it from everyone. Partners might be like marriage on so many levels, but Eva wanted something different.
"God!" she breathed and hammered a hand to her forehead, "I want the make-up sex!"
John peeked at the beautiful woman from his spot in the hallway. He had a sneaky smile on his face, and it got bigger second after second. He had a tingly feeling in his stomach, and he wondered why he hadn't noticed before.
He wanted the make-up sex too.
First off, I didn't know where to put this, so I just put it here. There's no category for this TV-show on this site, so this was where it ended up.
Second off, I really liked this show the minute I watched it. I thought it was great, and when episode six, 'Legacy' brought that line by Sergeant Callie Burnett I immediately got this idea. It took me a few days to get time to write it, but when I finally got started, it flowed easily.
I hope you like it.
Disclaimer; I don't own New Amsterdam or The Sixth Sense (I love that movie, though).
