A/N the trial had a good advantage. It's padded out a chapter that wasn't even half a page to three pages. Enjoy!
Renee breezed in without even knocking to find the two of them curled on his couch, surprisingly with files in hand. She grinned when she saw her friend appear. "See, I can work and prepare. I was a workaholic at one point in my life you know." Renee grinned at her.
"Right. Just making sure that you were doing that. Anything good and juicy that I can quiz you about up there?" She shrugged.
"Nothing extremely good. I mean, the case pretty much speaks for itself." Renee took up residence in a chair and faced the couple.
"And there's no doubt that this is our guy?" She nodded.
"DNA puts him with each victim. We found the murder weapon and the missing body parts in the house." Garret said, and she nodded.
"Good. Cause forensics are the one thing that the defense can't tear apart." She grinned.
"Not for lack of trying." Memories of some of the cases she had sprang to mind.
"No, you're right about that." She could tell the Garret was just a little uncomfortable, having one woman curled against him and his ex sitting across from him. The two woman exchanged a smirk as they both realized what they were putting the man through. Ten, fifteen years ago this would have been their idea of fun.
It still was. Although they had grown up some and they weren't quite as childish with it, it still was quite fun to see men squirm thanks to them. And the way Garret was moving next to her they knew that they were succeeding. He kept shifting, and bouncing his leg, looking like the second he could find an excuse to escape he would.
She was half tempted to steer the topic of conversation onto him, but she wasn't that evil It would be the surefire way to end their relationship, she had a feeling of it. And she didn't want that, at least she didn't think she did. She wanted a relationship, but at the same time she kept second guessing what it was that they had.
"Are you two going to say something or are you just going to sit there driving me crazy?" The two women burst out laughing.
"I think that was the desired effect." She said, snuggling closer to him, all the while ensuring that Renee didn't look uncomfortable.
"Brings back fond memories." Renee said with a grin.
"Right. Well, let's reminisce later." Garret suggested and they grinned, refocusing on the case at hand.
While they went over and over the information, Renee tossing probable questions at her, she allowed her mind to wander. Watching her boyfriend squirm had been fun. Her boyfriend. Did she really think him that? It had all started with dinner, that was really just an improvised thing, she had been expecting Aaron to show up and he didn't, and she really did feel bad about putting that food to waste.
And then she had asked him to show her around. That had been fun, and she had kissed him, left him on her doorstep. Teased him into wanting more. And he wanted it. But she was still unsure of what she wanted, if she just wanted a fling, of if she wanted more, if she wanted a relationship.
But being here the two friends with the man between them brought back memories of a happier time when they were a bunch of crazy overworked law students, and then crazy, overworked ADA's who would pass boyfriends back and forth the way the Knicks passed a basketball. There were few men in New York who hadn't dated or heard of the wonder duo. Then as they got older they started getting involved in more serious relationships and the passing of boyfriends ground to a near halt.
She frowned as she remembered the last one to have gone through the swap. If there was one kink in their friendship it had been him. The man that had dragged Renee up to Boston, and the one that had almost torn their friendship apart. She didn't want Garret to be the second. What was the old phrase? Chicks before dicks? Far too true. Eddie had been the one to shatter their friendship, it was only after Renee had realized that she hadn't been trying to sabotage the relationship that the DA had with her ex that they had grudgingly made up.
"Vicky-hello? Let your mind out to wander and it got lost did it?" She grinned.
"Sorry."
"I thought when I started getting the monotonous answers you had your mind on something else." Renee gave her a knowing smirk. "I might as well leave, it's getting close to closing time an I've got some stuff to wrap up at the office. I'll see you tomorrow." She grinned and the two woman hugged before Renee left the two of them alone.
She stayed curled against him for a long moment, just enjoying the feel of him against her. "Garret?" She finally asked looking up at him.
"Hmm?" He met her gaze and she shied back away from him.
"Do you think we're rushing things? Too much of a good thing, too soon?" She could see the confusion in the dark brown eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I think we're diving headfirst into the shallow end. We've known each other for what? Barely two weeks. We've gone out eight of those fourteen days and well, it feels like we're doing all this now and there's going to be nothing left, that things are just going to fizzle out." She could see the concern in his eyes, the trace of hurt.
"So what do you want to do about it?" This was the part she didn't want, this was the part where she had to come up with something to do, something that should happen about it.
"Slow it down a bit, relax. " She suggested, and he nodded. There was resignation in his eyes, he was conceding this to her.
"Alright." His voice was terse, quiet, he was fighting to keep in check.
"Garret, it's not you-" she chuckled bitterly. "Or me, even. It's just I don't want this to be something that's great for a month and then three weeks from now we both realize it was just a fling." She got up and headed for the door. "I like you, I really do, it's just, well, I've had so many bad relationships and this feels like every single one of them, I don't want you to be fiancée number five, engagement number six." She said, walking out, wondering if that really was such a good decision.