Flying Under Radar
Disclaimer: Sam, Jo, Smiffy, Mickey, Phil, 'the relief', are all entirely and very muchly not mine. I'm just borrowing them, and will give them back eventually. (maybe)
A fic about a gay bar, c'mon, what did you expect? #sigh# BEWARE: this fic mentions homosexual relationships! If this offends you, learn some tolerance!
Many thanks to loobylu without whom this chapter would have been rubbish, and probably screwed up the rest of the fic. And we wouldn't want that now, would we?
Just in case you've forgotten, and are too lazy to reread the last bit of the previous page, Sam has just leant in to kiss Jo.
CHAPTER THREE
Her thoughts snapping back to reality, Jo could still hardly believe what was going on. Gently catching Sam's chin with the hand that was resting on her shoulder, Jo backed up enough for Sam's face to come into focus properly, and looked deeply into her eyes. Reading the emotion in the clear depths of Sam's eyes, Jo felt all sensible thought leave, and didn't know what to say.
"Hey.." she whispered softly.
Struggling to find a reply, Sam gently nuzzled the hand supporting her chin, before pulling slowly away. Her eyes filling inexplicably with tears, Sam felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her, and knew she had to rest if she was to be able to pull off the undercover job.
"Thanks for your help Jo, hopefully now I won't stick out like a sore thumb at the club tomorrow." Sam began to walk to the door, surreptitiously wiping her eyes on her sleeve as she went.
"Sam?"
Looking up at Jo, Sam dissolved into tears, before she felt herself swept into Jo's strong arms, where she cried as though her heart would break. Whispering soothing nonsense, Jo shushed her and stroked her hair until Sam was calm enough to speak again. Jo had no idea what Sam was babbling about, but she caught the words 'Abi', 'fight it', 'feelings for someone', and 'love her'.
Silently wondering what Sam was so upset about, Jo put the phrases together to guess that Abi was fighting with Sam and Abi's feelings for Hugh the profiler were the bone of contention, while Sam wanted Abi to know she still loves her. Wondering what Sam and Abi's strained relationship had to do with the moment they had just shared, Jo was brought back to the present when Sam recovered her composure enough to talk.
"You do realise you called me Babybear, don't you?" Sam said with a weak smile.
"What? Did I?" Jo asked, surprised.
"Yep, most definitely. You were whispering nonsense, then you said 'It's alright baby bear' and then carried on with the nonsense."
Feeling a little bit embarrased, Jo suggested the explanation that seemed most plausible.
"I was remembering earlier, when you showed me your tattoo, of the baby koala bear, and it just seems to suit you."
"Aww, you old romantic" Sam joked, before shutting up suddenly, remembering how she had embarassed herself not so long ago.
Seeing Sam looking shy and embarrassed again, Jo attempted to comfort her,
"Hey, don't worry about it Sam, it gets pretty intense preparing for undercover work. I was a wreck before I went into Stonewall as a prison officer, and that's pretty similar to police work. This is gonna be tricky, but I'll help as much as I can, I promise."
"Thanks Jo, I guess I'm just overtired and overworked, honestly, I don't know what came over me."
" 'salright, it's what I'm here for."
"Okay, well thanks again Jo, I'll see you tomorrow at the station. We need to go over the descriptions of the dealers we got from Elena, to make sure we know who to look out for."
"Yep, see you tomorrow." Sam still looked fragile, so as Jo left, she casually threw over her shoulder, " 'night Babybear," as she walked to her car.
A sweet smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, Sam watched from the doorstep as Jo drove away, waving as she turned the corner. Watching the now empty street, Sam whispered to the night sky,
" 'night Jo," before finally closing the door.
The next day, both Jo and Sam are worried that the events of the previous day might affect their working relationship, but in fact, they just seemed closer than ever. Briefing the team was pretty quick, as the only person requiring detail was Jo, and she already knew what her role was.
Mickey was to keep watch on the doormen, who are on Giovanni's payroll, as they 'look the other way' when the armed dealers enter the club. Tony, Roger, Honey and Yvonne are to wait around the corner in the police van, as back up in case it all goes wrong, or for when they need to arrest the key players within the Del Vecchio business.
Mickey is dispatched to observe the doormen as they arrive for their shift, while the uniformed backup is given extended refs in lieu of the time they will spend on call later on. Sam and Jo go off to the ladies to get changed into their 'clubbing' outfits. At Jo's insistence that figure fitting clothes exposing sufficient skin will get her into any gay bar in the country, Sam is feeling more than a little self-conscious in her skin-tight jeans and skimpy halterneck top. Using the cool weather as an excuse, Sam refuses to remove her coat until she is in the club, managing to avoid the stares of the rest of the relief as they make their way out to the car. Having no such qualms, Jo strides through the reception in her black knee-high boots, turning the heads of all the male officers, and most of the women too! With her hair done up in an elegant twist, and in her short red dress, with it's dangerously low cut neckline, Jo looks absolutely stunning. Still feeling warm and tingly inside, remembering how Sam's jaw had literally dropped when she had first seen Jo's outfit, Jo didn't even notice the glare she was given by Phil Hunter, or hear Smiffy mutter,
"Going on a date then are we?"
And as for Sam, well, she was having to concentrate pretty hard on looking where she is going, and not at Jo, as it was damned near impossible for her to tear her eyes off of this gorgeous woman next to her. Somehow managing to follow Jo to the car without walking into anything, Sam was silently congratulating herself on this achievement, when Jo fumbled and dropped the car keys. Realising that if she saw Jo bend over to get the keys she would probably end up babbling incoherently for the rest of the evening, Sam dove for the keys, managing to headbutt the wingmirror in the process. Straightening up, Sam was instead presented with a prime view of Jo's stunning cleavage, at eyelevel, their height difference exagerrated further by Jo's stilletto boots and Sam's beaded ballet flats. Blushing to match Jo's dress, Sam handed back the car keys, mentally cursing whichever higher power that had seen fit to torment her like this. Practically running around the car, Sam climbed into the passenger seat and put her seat belt on. There, she was ready, now no more distractions, please!
The drive to the club was pretty uneventful, as both women were mentally preparing themselves for the task ahead. On reaching the club, Jo parked close to the exit, to be sure of a quick escape, should they need it. Searching through her coat pockets, Sam produced an ordinary looking mobile phone.
"I've managed to borrow this from my cousin Ryan. He works for what can only be described as an undercover gadget development team. This looks and functions just like a normal mobile phone, but with one important upgrade. It has a highly advanced camera lens, which allows you to zoom in close on objects up to 100m away, and also change the camera angle slightly. Of course the memory has also been upgraded to store large quantities of these photos. I reckon we could get some pretty incriminating photos of the dealers, if we pretend to be larking about, taking pictures of each other with the phone, but actually catch these guys in the act."
"Wow,any other undercover tricks up your sleeve, or is that the lot?" Jo asked, attempting to suppress a smirk.
"What sleeves?" Sam pouted teasingly, "thanks to you, I don't even have shoulders, let alone sleeves!" Shrugging off her coat, exposing her bare shoulders, Sam sighed. "I suppose we'd better get this show on the road."
"Okay, okay, I can take a hint, I'm going" laughed Jo, opening her car door. Looking back at Sam, she said, "see you in there then Sam."
"Huh?" Sam had inadvertantly ended up staring as Jo climbed out of the car, exposing a good deal of leg as she did so.
Smiling to herself, Jo walked into the club.
Waiting in the car, Sam checked the camera-phone was working, by zooming in on Jo's backside as she walked towards the club. Realising quite how juvenile she was being, she was about to turn the phone off when her other phone rang, making her jump. Snapping it shut, Sam clipped the phone to her belt loop, not realising she had, in fact, saved the picture, and grabbed her phone.
"Sam Nixon..."
"Hey babe."
"Jo?"
"Are you comin' or what? It's couples night darlin', the idea is that we go together."
"What! Couples night? Shit! I didn't think to check if it was a theme night...Sorry Jo."
" 'kay Babybear." Jo said as she hung up.
Marvelling at Jo's quick thinking, Sam scrambled out of the car, locking it as she did so. Walking quickly up to the club, she spotted Jo standing next to a brightly coloured poster advertising 'Couples Night'. Giving Jo a peck on the cheek under the watchful eye of the door man, Sam greeted her 'new girlfriend'.
"Hey babe."
"O'rright" Jo responded lazily. Linking arms with Sam, the couple walked into the club.