A/N

So sorry for the delay! Freshmen year of college is nuts, and of course now its finals week! Thanks for all the reviews, they mean a lot! Please tell me what you think of this chapter and I'll keep going! And to those of you who also have exams, good luck!

Chapter 4

Nikki smiled when she saw her partner bent over her desk, furiously writing something. Nora didn't even notice as Nikki made her way over.

The skill for zoning out was something that Nikki had always been highly impressed by. The pit was buzzing, people barking orders, asking questions, making phone calls, everyone preparing for whatever op. they were running.

And yet there was Nora, in the center of all of it, working as it nothing was happening, like the world had come to a quiet halt around her.

"Whatcha working on?" Nikki asked, coming up next to her partner.

"Nothing," The blonde answered quickly, shoving the paper into her desk and smiling up at her partner.

Nikki raised her eyebrows but let it go.

"Is everything ok?" Nora asked as Nikki lowered herself into her desk chair.

"Of course, sugar," Nikki shrugged, deciding it was better for Nora not to know that everyone thought she was insane.

"What did Dan want?"

"To ask me the best way to ask you out."

"You're kidding," Nora whined, and Nikki giggled at her discomfort.

"Oh no," Nikki shook her head, "He's very serious." She looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to them; luckily, everyone was occupied.

"I might have been jealous," Nikki whispered, trailing her hand along Nora's thigh, "If I didn't have some pretty solid evidence that he wasn't exactly your type."

"How would you know?" Nora shot back, trying desperately to control her breathing.

"Call it a hunch," Nikki murmured, and then leaned back, returning her focus to her desk.

"So, love, how 'bout you give me the low down on the girls."

"Ok," Nora nodded, shifting into full cop mode, "each girl frequented the Dive on weekends, though, according to their parents, none of the girls ever mentioned each other.

"Yeah, but come on," Nikki rolled her eyes, "You of all people know that you don't share everything with your parents."

Nora glowered at her before continuing.

"Each girl is between the ages of 21- 25, and they all have similar characteristics.

"Molly looks like a younger me," Nikki sighed wistfully, "Oh, to be 21 again. I was quite the partied, sleeping around; oh! Once I-"

"Nope," Nora held up her hand for silence, "I don't even want to know."

"Party pooper," Nikki huffed, "Any who, keep going."

"All four of them disappeared within a week of each other," Nora continued, holding back a grin, "witnesses could place each of them at the Dive before their disappearance."

"How is Sevkov getting them out without leaving any sort of trace evidence?" Nikki wondered aloud, tapping her finger on the desk.

"It wouldn't be that hard if he was smart about it," shrugging, Nikki leaned back in her chair, "they're a bar on the docks; they ship and import beer. It wouldn't be hard to sneak the girls over on one of the shipping boats."

"We searched them," Nikki argued, "Didn't turn anything up."

"Our warrant only allowed us to collect only surface evidence," the blonde reminded her, running a hand through her hair, "We have no way of knowing what was going on beneath the surface."

"Ok, but what about the fact that no one saw the girls disappear? I mean, they had friends, right? Who goes to a bar alone?"

"Lots of people," Nora shrugged, "I used to go to the bar alone all the time. Great way to escape reality."

"Yeah, but these girls don't seem to need an escape. They had good lives. Sevkov only seems interested in pretty girls with money and privilege."

"That explains it," Nora muttered, and Nikki's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Why you're going undercover. You fit the profile completely," Nora said without thinking. The hurt flashing through the brunet's eyes had her regretting her careless words.

"Nik," she pleaded as Nikki just stood up, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

"Look Nora, I get that this isn't what you're used to, but you're just going to have to deal and act like a god damn adult about this."

Without another word, she turned and marched out of the bull pen.

"Shit," Nora muttered, shaking her head. She really needed to relax. Deciding it was better to give her partner space, she pulled out the paper she had been writing and continued on with her work.

"There you are," Nora smiled when she found Nikki sitting alone, staring at a picture of the four girls.

"Nora had finished her work and decided it was time to make peace, so she went looking for her partner. She hadn't been on the first floor, so Nora moved up, hoping to find her in one of the interview rooms. Nikki loved these rooms; she always said they made her feel like a bad ass, unstoppable. Whenever big stuff was going on, Nora could always count on finding Nikki in one of these, centering herself.

And sure enough, there she was; sitting on the edge of the table, looking very much like a bad ass.

"I'm sorry," Nora sighed, coming up and leaning on the tables so that their shoulders were touching only slightly.

Nikki said nothing, just kept looking at the picture.

"Remember when we broke Jessie Dalton in here?" Nora grinned at the memory and continued.

"We worked him for hours over some piss poor drug deal gone wrong. I was just about ready to beat his face in when you remembered his shit crazy mom.

"So I threatened to call her," Nikki smiled finally, much to Nora's relief.

"I'd never seen a 22 year old cry like that before," Nora laughed.

"Remember when I actually called her?" Nikki giggled, and Nora shook with laughter.

"She charged into the station and literally grabbed him by the ears!" Nora managed through gasps, "we ended up having to handcuff her to your desk!"

That did it; they both crumpled, laughing hysterically as they laid down on the table, staring up at the stark white ceiling.

"That was a good day," Nora murmured when they could breathe again.

"Good night, too," the brunette sighed wistfully, raising her eyebrows when Nora glowered at her.

"Yes it was," the blonde admitted finally, running a hand up Nora's arm and grinning.

They chuckled before falling into a comfortable silence. It was nice, to finally have a second of peace, no cops, no questions, no nothing.

"Its not you," Nora blurted out, and smacked her own forehead.

"Damn it, sugar, you really know how to ruin a moment." Nikki rolled her eyes, sitting up and looking down at the blonde, "What?"

"It's nothing."

"Say it."

"No!"

"Nora Christina Delaney, you are going to-"

"Its not you, it's me."

Nikki cocked an eyebrow.

"You're gonna have to elaborate, because right now this is sounding like a bad high school break up."

"No!" Nora sat up, panicked, "Definitely not, no."

"So explain."

"It's just that, you're so assured of who you are, so confident," Nora kept her eyes trained on the wall, knowing all too well that Nikki was staring at her.

"It's one of the things that I love most about you. You are so confident, no one can take that away from you."

"I'm no like that," she continued, standing to look at herself in the reflecting window.

"I'm not confident, I don't know who I am. Hell, the only time I feel steady is when I have a gun in my hand. I'm always throwing myself into dangerous situations because I know if I don't make it back, you'll be fine. You can handle yourself."

"But if something happened to you," Nora looked at Nikki's reflection in the window. The brunet was staring back at her, arms crossed tightly over her chest, Nora saw the way her head was tilted slightly, a signature Nikki position when she was about to give a heartfelt, gooey speech. Well, she was gonna have to wait for Nikki to get her's out first.

"It would destroy me," the blonde finished, scuffing her foot on the linoleum floor.

"Nor, you have to-"

"So much of me is tied to you," Nora turned to face Nikki, cutting her off.

"For so long, I was just a cop. A damn good one, no question, but that's all I was."

"And then you came along," Nora forced herself to look at Nikki, "and everything just shifted. I mean yeah, I'm still a great cop, but Nikki you make me so much more. You make me want to be better. The idea that I could lost that makes me sick. I'm not strong like you, Nik, I wouldn't survive it."

The blonde took a breath and stood up a little straighter as Nikki slid off the table and slowly approached her.

""But that's no excuse for the way I've been acting. I know you can do this, and I'm sorry-"

Her apology was cut off by perfect lips crashing against hers.

Taken by surprise, Nora froze for a fraction of a second before enthusiastically reciprocating, tangling her fingers into Nikki's hair and deepening the kiss.

When the came up for air, Nikki pressed her forehead to Nora's.

"I'm very confident, that it true," she said breathlessly, wrapping her arms around Nora's waist, "Only because I'm fantastic."

Nora laughed and rolled her eyes.

"But hey," pulling back so she could stare at the blonde's steel grey, ever challenging, eyes, "Never think, even for a second, that I don't need you just as much as you need me."

"We're going to crack this case and put Sevkov away, and when we're done we're taking a vacation that involves both of us being naked on a sandy beach, understood?"

"Really, the beach?" Nora whined, and then grinned, "Though I do like the naked part."

"Great, it's a date," sealing the deal with a kiss, Nikki practically skipped to the door.

"So let's get this party started."