TITLE: As Luck Would Have it (pt 3 of 10)
AUTHOR: dustytiger aka Trista Groulx
RATING: M to be safe (or whatever is the equivalent to R)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, and I am certainly not making any money from borrowing them. They belong to NBC their creator and the actors and actresses who portray them.
SUMMARY: what would have happened in the early days had Kim made a different choice?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I decided to use a third party for this one who does not get enough time in fanfic. I hope you liked who I used, I always wanted the show to go into his character more in depth, this is how I like to think of the lieu
Lieutenant Francis Johnson always prided himself on knowing what was going on in his station. The people that worked for him were more the just his employees, they were his second family. Since he prided himself on his abilities as a family man at home, his instincts at work were very good.
He had one of the lowest transfer rates in the department, and one of the longest waiting lists to work for his squad. Although he knew his paramedic supervisor was fully capable of handling that aspect he still felt that the members of the family that were not firefighters were still just as important. It really did feel like going to a second home every morning, and that made it a lot easier to leave his wife and kids in the morning.
He had been watching those two together for the last two months. He had certainly noticed the way they would glance at each other when they thought no one was looking, but Francis was always looking. Normally he frowned on workplace romances; but this one seemed different somehow.
Kim was still a rookie, but she had proven herself to be a valuable asset to the team. She had even warded off the charms of his other rookie, who happened to be one of the biggest playboys he had ever hired. He was still unsure what exactly that particular firefighter's intentions were, although he was a very good firefighter, he too often decided to fit the FDNY model mode better then the dedicated team player.
He had been shocked to see that Kim had been able to ward of his many advances. Jimmy Doherty was not, after all, the kind of man that let something he wanted slip between his fingers, and he had wanted Kim Zambrano the second she walked through that door.
The low cut tank top she had been wearing her first shift might have helped matters. Francis was glad that she had come to work more put together after her first day. He figured that she had just come from the gym and hadn't had time to change into something more work appropriate.
He chuckled to himself each time he thought about that first encounter. He was almost certain that Doherty had never heard the word no come from a woman's mouth before, and he was determined to make her change his mind. Maybe if he put that much effort into changing his ways he might have a chance. But while Kim was telling him no, Doherty was taking full advantage of the fire bunnies who practically lined up to get a chance to sleep with model FDNY men.
It never ceased to amaze him how some women would act around a man just because of his job. Even Francis would get offers once in a while, even though he was a very happily married man, and could almost be the father of some of the women who would come up to him. Some days he go so frustrated he would threaten to go over to the police station and tell them they were prostitutes. Some of them may as well have been.
The one day he had done that Bosco ended up coming over to talk to the girls, and he ended getting so many numbers he didn't know what to do with them. At least most of them ended up leaving him and his squad alone for a while.
But all of Doherty's dimple filled smiles and promises of ecstasy beyond her wildest dreams had not fooled Kim. She saw him for the playboy he was, and was even almost lured in, until Kim's partner had stepped in one night. They hadn't realized that he was still in his office finishing up the paper work when Jimmy had tried, once again, to seduce her but it was all in vain.
Francis was surprised he hadn't choked on his coffee when he heard the young paramedic tell Doherty that he was going on a date with Kim that night. He wasn't sure that something really was going on between the two of them but all the classic signs were there. He however did not want to interfere until he knew for sure, or if it affected their jobs.
Now he was a member of his team who had come a long way from the green kid who had come into his station only three years before. He had had a rough patch as a teenager, but the lieutenant had seen something in the young man he admired and had given him the change of a life time. He had hired the young man when no other station in the city would take the risk. He did not once regret his choice. He was quickly becoming a leader within his field, and was actually surprised to see him slip up a little and fall so hard so fast for his partner.
Usually this kind of affair would bother Francis, but there was something about the budding romance the reminded him of what he shared with his own wife, and dream girl, Ruth. So despite the fact he knew he could step in and reassign the pair without having actually seen anything concrete, he had chose not to.
The last few weeks the pair had seemed distant, but still nothing changed when they were out on the streets together. There was something between them which he could not break apart for any reason. It was too important out there to let it go for something as trivial as what they were sharing. He swore they could read each other's minds at a scene, and that was something you could not train any two people to do, and unless his hand was forced he was not going to change the assignment. That was something that happened once in a life time, and in his field that was something you never broke apart, he could not put civilians' lives at risk like that.
He watched the two of them that morning, and they both seemed nervous around on another. He couldn't place his fingers on it right away. He watched Kim accept her morning coffee, but not thank him for breakfast; that was odd behaviour as far as he was concerned, and he knew he'd have to keep an eye on the situation. He hoped that things had not gone wrong. He didn't want to split the pair up, but this might change how they worked together.
When he went to throw away the coffee cup she had left on the table when they had gone out for a call, he was shocked to see that it was still full to the brim. Kim Zambrano was not the kind of woman who could function without her caffeine fix. Alarm bells were ringing in Francis' head. Something was defiantly going on there and he would get to the bottom of it. Had he not chosen FDNY Francis would have been a detective, he loved when he had a mystery to solve right under his nose.
Doherty had come in late as usual on that Saturday morning, but he did not reprimand the young man. He just wrote it down; annual reviews were coming up soon. The guys on the squad were having a quiet day; they had already washed the rigs and were now relaxing in front of the television. As much as any group of men could relax when sports were on the tube, especially when there were friendly wagers in the mix.
Francis was the type of boss he was always around, always observing but never saying too much. When the medics returned the tension from earlier was still there. That was most defiantly something he would have to keep an eye on.
As soon as Kim came inside, Doherty pounced, it was half time, and he wanted some fun. Doherty had a way of doing the exact wrong thing when boredom kicked in, especially when the opposite sex was involved. He went over and smiled at her.
"Hey Kimmy," he said, grinning at her.
"I've told you I'm not interested," she reminded him, she wasn't as forceful as she normally was, and this was his opportunity.
"I just want you to have a quick ride with a real man. Let me show you my stuff."
She shook her head. "You're lucky I don't report you for this."
"If you're going to report me I'm gonna give you something to tell them about," he joked.
Francis was sitting eating a bagel and sipping a coffee, not liking how this scene was unraveling. He watched as Kim's partner's attention when from wanting a shower to the way Doherty and Kim were acting. Francis had never seen the fire that was in the young man's eyes before. He had, however seen that look Doherty had many times before; and the way Kim was looking and feeling that day this could only end badly for the trio.
All of a sudden Doherty made his move, which was a playful, flirty tackle on Kim, just onto the couch. His hand grazed her breast, which Francis felt was a real accident or he would have stepped in sooner.
"Now you have something to write me up about," Doherty joked, as he was half lying on top of her on the couch.
"It's a shame this is the closest you'll ever get to having me in bed with you Jimmy Doherty," she retorted.
Before Jimmy could come up with as witty of response and he could think of he felt himself being talked to the ground, and not in the loving way he hoped Kim would.
End part 3
End notes: okay if you haven't figured it out by now you didn't watch much of the show did you? I did some research on Lieutenant Johnson and the show never gave him a first name, it's just what I've come across in fic as a name for him and I thought it fit for him