Chapter 17 Sort of 9x3
Gus was attempting to scrub an unidentifiable stain out of her top, giving up and pulling on her emergency shirt from her locker when the newest member of the 12th precinct's homicide squad entered the locker room.
"Broussard, I'm glad I found you," Jaime said, looking at her intently.
"Hey, Lovato, what's up?" she asked, turning her attention fully to the younger detective.
Jaime studied the other detective. While the woman's posture was open and nonthreatening, there was something about her careful gaze that made Jaime think Gus could read every thought and emotion she ever held. No wonder she had such a high clearance rate.
"I just wanted to make sure…" Jaime trailed off, kicking herself for floundering around her colleague. 'Get it together, Lovato, you spent almost a year and a half undercover with a major Latin gang, you can't let the belle of the ball knock you off your game', she admonished herself.
Gus immediately felt her discomfort and swooped in to rescue her. "I don't know about you, but I need a cup of coffee that isn't mud, wanna walk with me to special vics?" asked with a warm grin.
Jaimie nodded, following after her with relief. Gus waited until after they had gotten coffee and shot the shit with Doyle and Ramirez before gently prodding her. "How much grief are the boys in the pit giving you? Bless their hearts, none of them know their ass from a hole in the ground," she drawled, remembering her trying first days and ever grateful for Flack's buffer.
Jaime shrugged, relaxing, "nothing I can't handle, better than how I left things in Narcotics."
Gus nodded, "yeah, heard about that," she said, absently fingering the scar on her throat from when her cover had been blown, "I'm glad I didn't catch too much hell for it when Shirazi made me," she said with a shudder.
Jaimie looked at her with confusion, "you were undercover, in homicide?"
"Special Vics, twice," she said, gesturing, " that's how Doyle owes me good coffee for life."
"How long have you been with the NYPD?" Jaime asked, she was still trying to separate fact from fiction on her new co-workers.
Gus let out a hearty laugh, "well that is a complicated questions that will require something a lot stronger than coffee, how about we hit up Sully's after shift?"
Jaime nodded, her curiosity growing.
"Did you give the poor thing any background, Don?" Gus asked as they headed to the lab for results.
"Poor thing? I'm sure Lovato can hold her own," Flack replied with a smirk.
Gus raised her eyebrows at him, "I am sure she will too babe, but I know a tough girl act when I see it and that girl is up to her neck and you're supposed to make sure she doesn't become gator bait!"
Flack shook his head at her colloquialism, "you can take a girl out of the swamp," he teased, "what, was I supposed to make her a dossier?"
"At least Lafferty and Thatcher are gone, but Montgomery seems to want to fill their shoes and I am still not sold on Perez…" she trailed off as Flack grabbed the results they would need for their warrant. "I'm going to take her out to Sully's and try to catch her up," she said while dialing one of the judges she had under her spell.
"Just remember not everyone drinks like you, sunshine!" he said with a dimpled grin.
"Lovato came over from narcotics, as you said, she'll hold her own, blue eyes. Don't wait up. Or maybe do," she said with a mischievous smile.
The guys didn't even try to hide their whispers. "Anyone in the pool for Junior's new partner sleeping with his wife instead of sleeping with him?" "Are you sure you don't wanna go, Donny, a little threesome action?" "Avoid Sully's tonight, boys, there is about to be a major coronary event!"
Jaime rolled her eyes and she and Gus readied to leave the pit. Gus turned back, cocking a hand on her hip long enough to say, "simmer down boys, none of you, including Flack, could handle her!"
The pair barely made it around the corner before they dissolved into laughter.
Tucked into a back booth at Sully's with drinks, Gus gave Jaime a rundown on the ins and outs of homicide and its detectives.
"And what's your story?" Jaime asked, taking a long pull of her beer.
Gus took a sip of her bourbon, "short version? My uncle by marriage is head of crime lab, he got me up here from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Mac got me a job with staff psych but wanted me on his team so between him and Don I ended up with my shield. Things were great until they weren't and I took a little unintended summer sabbatical back with NOPD in 2007, it didn't take and I was back up here before fall but had to repay my dues. Mostly with Special Vics because things were, um, complicated between Don and I. And his new partner, who LODD. So complicated that I ended up doing a LEEP exchange in 2010. We both got our heads out of our asses enough that we finally got married last summer, third time's the charm or something, right?"
Jaime was trying to keep up and realized this was definitely the truncated version. "Staff psych?" she asked, curiously.
"Yep, psychologist by education, cop by legacy, hot mess by genetics," Gus replied with a hearty laugh.
Jaime nodded, tracing the rim of her pint glass, "third time?"
"That one will need another round of drinks especially since I haven't even gotten to my time in Special Vics yet," Gus said with a smirk.
Jaime complied, coming back from the bar with another round.
Gus continued to fill her in, the highlights at least, before turning the tables. "Now that you know there is zero judgement here, what's your story?"
Jaime got quiet, fiddling with her coaster. "I only got my shield because I was useful for narcotics. I was under for 17 months this last time when my cover was more or less blown and suddenly I was less useful, but lucky for me, your squad was short staffed and here I am," she said shrugging.
"Your story is a lot shorter than mine, but I am guessing not any sweeter," Gus replied, her head cocked and her eyes soft.
"Oh, I can see the psychologist thing now," Jaime said nodding, "must be helpful with the suspects."
"Most of the time," Gus replied before asking, "any third times for you?"
Jaime took a long drink, avoiding the question, the tiniest hint of a flush rising to her cheeks and the barest of glances towards the bar.
Only because of her dual backgrounds did Gus notice it, following Jaime's gaze to the bartender. Gus took in gorgeous, athletic woman with locs, more than a few tattoos and a tell-tale eyebrow slit. She nodded in appraisal. "Nice."
Jaime set her pint glass down and appraised her carefully. "Nice? That's all you got, Broussard?"
Gus shrugged, "told you, zero judgement here," she paused, "she is hot though."
Jaime smiled, "this make you okay with me and Flack?"
Gus let out a bark of laughter. "Sugar, I was always fine with you and Don. Yes you are a gorgeous, young, firecracker, and my husband is neither blind nor dead; but he is also smart enough to know how his biscuit is buttered. My issue isn't you sometimes being partnered with Don, it is me not."
Jaime nodded before leaning in and dropping her voice, "the thing is nobody at work knows I'm bi…" she started, trailing off.
Gus waited a long beat finally rescuing her with, "I get it, if circumstances were different, I wouldn't want any of those gorillas in the pit to know anything about my love life either. Remember psychologist first? My lips are sealed. You may wanna tell Don though, partners shouldn't have secrets."
"I can't believe you didn't tell me," Don admonished as they were getting ready for bed a few nights later.
"Tell you what?" Gus asked innocently, brushing her teeth, "Lovato is a Mets fan?" she quipped spitting into the sink.
"Ha ha, very funny," he replied, "though that was a good one with the desk today."
Gus smiled wickedly, "I know; who do you think logged into your computer so she could change your screensaver?"
"And just how do you know my login there, sunshine?" he smirked, coming behind her and pulling her into him.
"Well it wasn't like it was that hard to figure out, babe…" she trailed off as Don started kissing her neck, all thoughts of baseball and work vanishing.
Gus lay on Don's chest a bit later, enjoying their closeness, still trying to sort out her feelings on being made a floating partner. She knew Flack was the best detective to train Lovato, and their Loo was right, it would look excellent for future promotions, but it was going to be weird not being by his side every day.
"Back to you not telling me about Lovato having a girlfriend," Don said, kissing the top of her head.
"Wasn't my business to tell, Flack" she said, turning on her side to look up at him, "glad she told you, though."
Don dimpled at her, "yeah, she said you gave her some good advice. She also said something about buttered biscuits that I didn't really understand, but I figured it was either a girl thing or a you thing," he said, pulling her up for another kiss, "still can't believe you helped her prank me though."
"Us girls," she mock glared at him, "gotta stick together around you lugs. Which is why I don't blame her for not being out at work. Remember the registry stunt they pulled when you moved in?"
Don grimaced, "yeah, I swear it still smells like burning plastic in the pit."
"That's just Parker," Gus said, reaching over to turn off the light.
"Thanks for the invite to San Francisco," Gus mock glowered from Mac's doorway having been told by Jo to force him out of his office.
Mac's head shot up from his tablet where was diligently completing his cognitive training exercises, despite thinking it was ridiculous that what amounted to a game could help heal his aphasia. "It was hardly a vacation, Augusta," he replied, clicking quickly out of the program.
Gus walked in and put her hands on her hips, "oh I am well aware, because you don't know how to take a vacation, Mac, and apparently you forgot how to take a 7 as well, because Jo sent me in here to drag you out by the scruff of your neck if I needed to." She held up a palm as he started to protest, "nope, don't even try it, I looked at the case board before I came in. My treat, come on."
She had already turned on her heel and was striding out before Mac could get words out.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell Christine you ate at a place with real napkins without her," Gus teased as they settled in at the restaurant. "How is she by the way?" Gus was forcing herself to remain cordial, she did want Mac happy and she could only pester Stella so much on admitting her true feelings.
"Fine," he nodded, "though I can't say I have seen much of her lately." He set his menu down and leaned in, looking Gus overly carefully. "Speaking of which, I heard about Flack's new…" he stopped, searching for the word, forcing himself to not get frustrated at his lack of recall. It was on the tip of his tongue, and was tickling his brain but it just would not emerge.
Gus could see him struggling, had been questioned by Danny and Don about it; she also assumed it was why Jo had insisted the two have some one on one time, everyone sure he had come back too soon after the shooting. She didn't blame him though, his whole world was work and Mac Taylor did not do bored or helpless well.
She rescued him with a snort of derision and a smirk, saying, "I think we landed on 'assignment'. I'm still not ready to say the P word." Which was true, despite the revelation that Jaime was into women more than men and was happily shacked up with Cree, Gus still wasn't okay with being stripped of the partner title just yet.
"Mentor?" he suggested, thankful for her breaking up his searching and frustration.
"That works too, and I suppose it has its bonuses. For instance, I am not on call tonight so I can order a glass of wine if the server ever actually comes over," she said, looking around.
Mac gave a small chuckle, "why I am not surprised your optimism includes the ability to drink?"
"Take it how I can get it," she shot back, pausing to order as the server arrived.
After the server left, Mac looked at her with a serious expression. "How is Don doing since his dad?"
Gus gave a small shrug, "it's a process, right? He's probably working too much and has good and bad days. More importantly, how are you Uncle Mac?" Her gaze on him was intense but concerned.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be, Gussie?" he said, suddenly interested in the wine list that had been left on the table.
Gus looked at him like he had grown a second head. "Do you not remember getting shot in the back a few months ago; the entire team, including Stella, gathered around your hospital bed worried you might die? This ringing a bell?" She let out a growl of frustration, this man was so stubborn!
Mac shook his head, grateful for the arrival of the food. "I am fine, Gussie, stop worrying, you have enough on your plate."
Gus wrinkled her forehead while digging into her food, "may as well ask me to stop breathing, but okay, I'll quit bugging." She looked up at him, "a lot of people love you, me included, Mac."
"I know, Augusta," he said in a way that told her the conversation was over.