A/N: I changed Wilma's last name to Carson, as per a review request that she not have Bobby's last name. Enjoy.
When they arrived at Sal's, Wilma made the guys go down to the corner vendor to buy lunch while she shopped and changed. She looked around the store, noting that there was nothing of the really poor quality that she needed to prove her point. Then, she saw her: a woman of about the same height and build as Wilma with the best disguise in the world for the detective.
Wilma sidled up to the homeless woman and started talking without making sure she even had the woman's attention, "I'll give you thirty bucks to switch clothes with me."
The woman looked up, her eyes wide as she eyed Wilma's outfit. "I'm not sure I can go out in public in something that upscale," she scoffed at the designer brands.
Wilma rolled her eyes, "I'll buy you another outfit and you can pawn this one … this is the first time I've worn it so you could still get a couple hundred from the right dealer. Come on, please? I'm trying to prove a point to two very stubborn colleagues of mine."
Finally the woman nodded, "Okay."
"Got a light, man?"
Fin looked toward the woman who spoke. She didn't look familiar, her hands were shaking and it looked like she really needed to get a fix. He shook his head, "Sorry."
"Come on, man," she said, looking up, "I just need a light." The smirk on her face was what alerted him to who it was. She looked different.
He handed her his lighter. "Don't sneak up on me like that, Will," he said as she pulled out a cigarette and lit it up.
"Will? What is it with cops and the need to create masculine nicknames for women?" Wilma said, rolling her eyes while she was secretly pleased that Fin had given her a nickname so soon. Last time she got a new partner it had taken six months for him to give her a nickname.
"I-it creates a balance in their minds," Bobby said as he came up behind them, passing Fin a cup of coffee.
Wilma looked at him with a smile threatening her mouth, "I know that. It was a rhetorical question."
Bobby cocked his head to one side as he studied the woman before him. She looked familiar, but he just couldn't place her in his mind. And what was that about her already knowing something that very few took the time to even acknowledge.
She rolled her eyes again, "Did either of you even bother to read my file before I got here?" The two men looked anywhere but her eyes, guilty as charged of not being prepared. She snorted, "I have a Ph.D. in psychology."
"What was your dissertation on?" Bobby asked, now very interested in this woman.
"The Zodiac and what possible psychological ailments he may have been suffering from to cause him to commit the crimes he did," she replied, her eyes meeting his and noting the emotions flickering behind the brown that she knew so well.
Fin nearly spit out the coffee he'd just taken a sip of at that information, but somehow managed to swallow it. His new partner was a psychologist? A criminal psychologist? This was so not what he'd been picturing when Lt. Ashley had told him he was getting a new partner from Indiana.
Wilma rolled her eyes at the looks she was receiving from both men, "I got a free ride from Brown, okay?"
Both men nodded mutely. Finally Bobby asked, "What'd you do with your other outfit?"
"I traded them to the woman who was wearing this. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I'm going to walk the block and a half to my new apartment and change if you don't mind."
Bobby and Fin shared a quick look before Fin said, "Not without us, you ain't."
Her eyes narrowed slightly in a glare before she abruptly turned around and started walking toward her new apartment building, knowing that they would follow.
Fin shot another look at Goren before following his new partner to her apartment, Bobby close behind him.
Wilma held the door open as she waited for Fin and Bobby to reach the elevator. Soon enough all three of them were inside and traveling up to her fifth floor apartment.
"Why aren't we taking the stairs?" Bobby asked after a moment.
Wilma looked at him like he was crazy, "My apartment's on the fifth floor."
"Oh."
Soon the two men were examining the apartment Wilma had moved into only one week before. Fin was rather surprised that there were no boxes left that needed unpacking, and that the common areas looked like the same person for had lived them in over a year. He promptly came to the conclusion that Wilma had way too much time on her hands.
She eyed them warily before moving into her bedroom to change. "Don't move anything," she said as she disappeared behind the door.
Fin and Bobby looked around her living room while she changed. There was an open file on the coffee table that caught Bobby's eye. He walked over to it and was shocked to find a picture of his father sitting on top of it. Outwardly he appeared calm – almost too calm as he reached for the candid shot of his father dancing with a woman who looked a lot like Wilma.
As he realized whom it was, his grip tightened on the photo, shock coursing through his mind as all the dots connected and he suddenly knew who Wilma was and why she had the same last name as him. Wilma came back out and saw the death grip he had on the picture, and how oblivious Fin was to it.
"Bobby," she said, when she realized he was crumpling the picture in his grasp, "Put it down. It's the only one I have."
When she reached him, and moved to take the picture from his hands, he gave it up – granted somewhat unwillingly. She smoothed the wrinkled corner and put the picture down on one of the end tables that framed her sofa.
"Is – is that your …" Bobby trailed off, unable to complete the question that could potentially change his life so drastically.
Wilma nodded, "Yes. Those are my parents. It's the only picture of my dad that I have."
Bobby's eyes grew distant, as he thought about how young his father looked in that picture, "What year were you born?"
"1968," she whispered, knowing the year would hold a lot of meaning and possibly anger for her older brother.
He nodded, not saying a word as he sat down on Wilma's sofa. "You were named after him, you know," he finally said.
She nodded, part of her noticing Fin discreetly leaving the room to check out her kitchen and call in to the Lieutenant. "I know, Bobby," she whispered. "When my mother found out she was pregnant with the child of a married man … she left New York and moved to a small town in Indiana."
"So … you're my sister?" Bobby asked hesitantly, unsure if this revelation was good or bad. "How – how long have you known?"
"I found out five weeks ago," she answered truthfully. "We can talk more once we get this drug dealing pimp. Let's go get Fin."
Bobby nodded, mutely following the woman he just found out was his baby sister.
---
Wilma dropped into her new desk, tired and exhilarated at the same time. The game had been even more fun than her days in Vice. She wasn't fond of dressing up like a hooker with half a brain, but every once in a while she'd get a john with a mind for 'intelligent conversation'. Here in Narcotics, her mind would actually get to flex its muscles as she interrogated suspects.
"Nice job, Will," Fin said as he plopped down onto his chair, throwing her a soda.
She grimaced as she realized the soda she was holding in her hand was regular. Wilma set it down on her desk and shot a look at Fin. "To what are you referring do, Tutuola? When the bastard ripped open my shirt, or when he tried to knife me once he found out that I was a … how did he put it … oh, yes, 'a bloody pig'?"
"Still," Fin said, shaking his head slightly at her remarks, "You're great under cover. If I didn't know you I wouldn't have spotted you for the life of me."
Wilma smirked slightly, "That's the point, Fin. Now do your paperwork so I don't have to stay any later than necessary."
"Yes, ma'am." Fin wasn't too sure about his new partner and her relationship with Goren, but he really wanted to stick around and find out.
Wilma got up from her desk to go get a diet soda and passed Bobby in the corridor. "Come by my apartment tonight, Bobby," she said softly so the other passing detectives couldn't hear, "I want to talk to you."
He nodded slightly before turning to walk back to his desk. Wilma sighed as she returned to her desk with her soda – it might take a while for her to get Bobby to open up.
Fin shot a look of curiosity at the can in her hand and she just shrugged, "I like the taste better, Fin."
A/N: The last line (minus the 'Fin') was taken from an episode of Stargate SG-1, in which the team goes out to eat, and all the guys order regular cokes, but when 'the girl' orders a diet, she gets the most confused looks from the guys to which she replies, "What? I like the taste better."
Please review, I'll try to get the next chapter out next week.
