Disclaimer: Non est mine.
A/N: Yes, it's short, but it was bouncing around in my head. Inspired by the song line "just to see him smile makes my life worthwhile". Because it's gotta be hard, sometimes, to live with him. Review, please!
Cliché
It's just hard, sometimes, to be his partner, to watch the brilliant man and try to keep up with all his tangential reasoning. It's hard to force her mind to follow his paths, and to reach the same conclusions in the same amount of time. It's a give and take, she knows, because he interprets and tells her and then she deduces and tells him and together they make their way to the truth. But often times, it's more give than take, and whichever side of that she's on, it's draining to work with him then.
It's difficult to appreciate him the way she knows she should. Sometimes, even she can't see past the bumbling detective act he puts on, and she knows that when she can't, he knows, and it hurts him. She also knows that it's that fact which keeps him from expecting her to stay forever. She knows him well enough to know that he's resigned himself to the fact that one day, someone will offer her a better job or worse, a better life, and she'll be gone. She wishes she could convince him that nothing would force her to leave him if he honestly believed she'd stay forever, but she knows that he'll never believe her.
It's hard to be his partner with a family full of cops. Every one of her brothers, as well as her dad, have heard of the unconventionality of Robert Goren. One of her brothers had even had one of Bobby's old partners for a few months. She'd laughed at the stories with everyone else, and then quietly reminded them all that "Creepy Goren" was her partner, and she loved him, so only she had the right to complain about him. And then she'd realized what she'd said, and had pretended she meant as a brother. She hadn't.
Yes, some days it is incredibly hard to be Bobby Goren's partner. And then she'll finish his sentence, or preempt his actions, or back him up on something he'd never mentioned to her, just because she trusted him, and he'll smileat her. She wonders if any of his other partners got to see that smile, and if they knew what it meant, because to most people, it doesn't look like a regular smile. It looks forced, fake. To her, though, it's the real Bobby peeking out from behind Detective Goren. She knows it's the little boy inside him that never quite grew up and spends most of the time frustrated that nobody can see what he sees;he's reaching out to her, because she does see. And as cliché as it sounds, that makes everything else worthwhile.