'I can be cracked, made, told and played.'

Susan sat at her desk the rest of the day trying to concentrate on her work but she couldn't, she was in such a good mood, she kept drifting in and out of daydreams, closing her eyes and remembering that kiss which she'd never dreamed could have been so perfect, it had been like being kissed for the first time and her heart fluttered as she hummed in the back of her throat feeling her ache, a schoolgirl innocence mixed with womanly lust, could anything be more beautiful.

Edward was a surprise to her, she'd imagined an awkward kiss unsure of each others mouth and how they would come together but instead she'd found him placing the lightest touch of hers, their lips barely even touching, it was sweet, careful and deliberate, a taste of what was really there. Susan knew it had been on purpose, leaving things unsaid between them as she'd fled from the forensics lab bustling past a group of officers that could clearly tell she'd been up to something from her bright red flushed cheeks and nervous jog back down to the filing annex.

"Hey," someone's voice said breaking her from her daydream, "Hey you." Susan looked around and saw detective Bullock leaning through the door, she'd spoken to him a few times before very briefly about something and nothing when he'd come to make coffee, "Computer's free if you want it." Bullock rolled his eyes and left the room letting the door slam shut on her.

Susan had been waiting to access detective Bullocks station for weeks, his had been the hardest to get her hands on, he was either using it or had locked it and gone out on cases and no one knew the password. Bullock's station was a mess of coffee mugs, unkempt files and sticky paper bags from lunches dating back to god knows when, it was pretty disgusting but she decided this was going to have to be the quickest job of her life.
Bullock was hanging around with a file in his arm pretending to read it as he watched Susan over the top

of it with suspicious eyes, Susan knew he was looking at her and pressed her lips into a thin line furrowing her brow, she hated being watched when she was working even if he was doing a pretty piss poor job of covering it up.

"Any news on detective Gordon." Susan threw the comment out to him and he paused staring at her, it had obviously got his back up, she didn't care she didn't really like him anyway, though he was good at his job he always looked like a bum and had a feint hint of dry old whisky emanating from him, did the man actually clean his clothes, Susan felt sick.

"Nothing." He said dubiously, throwing the file on the desk so that it slid across and hit one of her typing hands, "Why do you ask?" Susan guessed he was trying to dig up as much information as possible on his ex partner, Bullock was convinced Jim was innocent.

"My dad used to work with his. We sort of knew each other when we were kids." Susan said trying to concentrate on the screen and get on with things but Bullock just stared at her.

"That right?" Bullock said with a tone that suggested he thought she was lying, he laughed, "Tell me, who's your dad? I knew all the men in the GCPD that every worked here." He leaned on the desk and waited for her to answer, his eyes boring into her skull, she looked up and stared back with a hard look.

"Andrew Lewis." She said coldly and Bullock stood up, no longer holding an imposing stance, he looked away over the GCPD as it buzzed around them.

"Sorry about your dad. He was a good man." Bullock said rubbing his rough face in embarrassment, Officer Lewis and his wife had been shot in their home, something to do with Falcone and internal affairs, there was little known about the case but they had been acquaintances and Lewis had been hard working and dedicated, he never knew he'd had a daughter but if she were anything like him she had her head screwed on pretty good.

Susan just looked at the computer before her, "Don't worry about it." She said coldly.

"Anyways, Gordon's not an idiot, he'll keep his head low until he finds out who framed him." Bullock said perching on the side of the desk and flipping through the brow file in his hand again.

"What about the evidence? I heard it was undeniable." Susan said but Bullock dismissed her comments and walked off shouting to one of the officers across the department and waving the file at him. "Moron." Susan said under her breath.

"Agreed." A voice said at her side, she looked up and Edward was stood there grinning at her no longer wearing his grey lab coat but instead his suit jacket and name badge.

Susan flushed and couldn't help but hold back a smile at the sight of him, she felt giggly and couldn't keep a straight face, Susan pressed her lips together to wet them and stifled a laugh, "Haven't you got important things you should be doing?" She said raising an eyebrow at him.

"Most probably," Edward said holding a clipboard to his chest, "Though at the rate these guys solve crimes and need their evidence I would probably have it all done by now and they wouldn't even look at it for weeks."

Susan gave him a smug little grin, he was so intelligent, too intelligent sometimes for his own good, Susan found it very attractive for a man to be so knowledgeable, she'd never been one to go for brawn over brains. Susan had never realised it at first because of how badly she had been wallowing in self pity about returning to Gotham when she first arrived but Edward was her only source of joy in this place, he'd been there to make her smile right from the first day and now instead of just a friend there was something more, something that actually made her want to stay.

"Finally got on Bullock's mess of a machine." Edward said looking as Susan sat amidst state, a pretty calm in the middle of chaos, she looked frustrated but who wouldn't be sat in all that, it was disgusting.

"I don't know how anyone can deal with...this." She said shoving a pile of papers, mugs and indescribably items aside in irritation, "No organisation, just muck and filth." Susan sneered as she put her hand in something nasty and recoiled, it was red. "Oh my god." She said starting to freak out, was is blood?

Edward watched Susan in her distressed state as she rose from her seat trying to flick the raspberry jam off her hand, he found it cute and at the same time gross, that stuff all over her, 'Oh look, she thinks it's blood.' His dark psyche said sarcastically, Edward shook his head, "Shut up." He said under his breath chiding his dark psyche, getting out a antibacterial tissue from his pocket, taking her hand and wiping it gently. "That's vile." Edward said making sure he got it all, "I'd say about two weeks old, there's mould."

"Jesus Christ. These people are pigs." Susan said watching Edward throw the tissue in the bin with a disgusted look.
"When you two are quite done dawdling about and wrecking my desk I've got important work to do." Bullock said from the next desk along having witnessed the interaction between Edward and Susan, "I'll tell Kristen you've been flirting with other women when I see her." Bullock laughed along with some other officers in the vicinity.

Edward went rigid and felt a cold trickle down his spine at his ex partners name, Edward's smile faded and his eyes grew dark, how dare Bullock mention her name especially in current company, perhaps Susan hadn't picked up on it, he looked sideways at her, no she definitely had, her face was a mixture of shock and hurt, great just great, she was going to ask at some point who Kristen was.

Susan swallowed feeling the blood drain from her and she tried to remain smiling but it was an empty smile, did Edward have a girlfriend already? Why hasn't he said anything? Maybe it was just an inside joke, something they used around the department to ridicule Edward, maybe she was just thinking too much into things but she couldn't stand the thought that Edward might like someone else. There was still so much she didn't know about him.

"Screw this." Susan said shuffling out of Bullock's station irritated, she hated the GCPD. "I've got better things to be doing than trying to sort out this pigsty." She made sure that Bullock could hear her, hopefully the next time she came back it would be clean.

"I concur." Edward said letting her out and following her past Bullock, both of them giving the rough officer them same look of distaste as they passed by. Edward placed a hand on Susan's shoulder and she stopped in her tracks turning to him, "I am a kind of coat that can only be put on when wet. What am I?" He said and watched her half smile with a raised eyebrow.

"Paint...?" Susan answered watching his eyes light up at her very quick reply.

"Yes!" He smiled wider, "How about you accompany me to the Gotham art gallery this afternoon, I've got some final investigations to carry out on the case from the 'fake ' bombing last week."

"Edward, I'm working til five..." She reminded him but he raised an eyebrow back at her continuing to grin, "Are you asking me to play hookey with you?" Susan said quietly so that no one could hear.

"I am." He chuckled, "You game?"

"I dunno, what if we get caught?" Susan said thinking about the laborious workload ahead of her.

"I assure you, I never get caught." Edward said pushing his glasses up his nose, "They won't even miss us, look at them." He nodded over to the department and everyone was going about their business paying them no heed.

"We shouldn't be doing this." Susan said giving in to him with a sign.

"I know," Edward said as he watched the girl succumb to his darker side, "But no one ever had any fun by following the rules."