Title: Hurricane Katrina
Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns 'em. I invited Bobby to come out and play.
Summary: Eames is on maternity leave. Bishop bails. Who will partner with the infamous Detective Goren?
Rating: K+ (this chap.)
Genre: Humor/Angst (who said they don't mix?)
Reviews welcome.
Chap. 2 - Beauty
Katrina Katayeva was dressed to professional perfection. Prada black pants and matching fitted blazer, cream silk top. No cleavage, no see-through. We're not working Vice here. A pair of Asos double buckle black flat slingbacks were on her feet. When you're 5' 10" you didn't need heels. And a cop can't run in heels. Very minimal jewelry. Small yellow gold hoop earrings and a plain watch, an inexpensive Timex goldtone stainless steel expansion band style. Easier to remove if it got caught on anything. No great loss if someone stole it. A Monet gold tone chain necklace, one that would easily break away if yanked on. No rings. The 2 carat oval diamond engagement ring and matching diamond wedding band were in the safe deposit box. They only attracted trouble in her line of work. Her curly chestnut hair framed her face. Kat long ago gave up the blow-drying routine to make it straight. Took way too much time. Fingernails short, no polish. Makeup was also minimal. A little blusher, eyebrow pencil, lip gloss. Gorgeous model-types needed to play down their looks in this business. The goal was to be pretty enough to be noticed, but not so stunning as to be thought to not have a brain in your head. Katrina Katayeva had perfected the art of going from stunning to just charmingly pretty. It made her professional life much easier.
Kat had spent the preceding twelve hours reading the files for the last twenty five cases Goren and Eames had worked on. She read every report they had written, every scribble, every note. Viewed every video of every interrogation. And she pulled every news clipping ever printed about them. She already knew the big guy's reputation for quirkiness and how he depended on Eames. Observing their synchronicity gave Katayeva valuable insights into what Goren was used to, what he needed and expected from his partner, and what he was capable of. Katayeva was absolutely certain that Goren would reference those prior cases somehow as they worked together. And he would be distressed if his new partner was clueless as to what he was talking about. She wasn't going to be clueless. She just had no intention of telling him that she had reviewed the case files. Let him think she was psychic. She needed to fill Eames' shoes so well that Goren barely missed a beat.
In one hour she'd go face to face with the Wizard of One P.P. It was joked that Goren could get Karl Rove to confess to all the dirty election tricks if he was given enough time in the interrogation room. While other detectives ran away from partnering with Goren, Katrina Katayeva ran towards him. How often in your life do you get to work with and learn from a genius? Not often. Take 'em as they come. So, Goren was difficult; he exhibited odd behavior; he was very in-his-head; and he was big, big as a bear. So what? Kat had five older brothers. They could be difficult and had certainly displayed some odd behavior over the years. The shortest was 6'3", the tallest 6'7". They were all bruisers on the outside, teddy bears on the inside. Big guys didn't intimidate her. She's been dealing with them all of her life.