Oliver looked between Marlo Cruz and Sam. And back. And still couldn't picture it. For one, Sam Swarek, married?! He had been the guy's best friend for 14 years and never once did that little gem pop out of his mouth. He been in one semi-serious relationship, besides Andy, in the 14 years that Oliver had known him. No way had they been married. "You two were married?"
Frank and Noelle looked about the same as Oliver- in complete and utter shock. Everybody knew Oliver was going to be the first one of them to get married. That was obvious. Jerry, Frank? They had gotten married after, both of their marriages ending how half of the marriages today had ended- divorce. They never could see Noelle married. Or Sam for that matter. "We are going to leave you two," Frank said, ushering Noelle and Oliver out of the room.
For a couple minutes, Sam and Marlo were locked in a staring battle, neither one of them willing to give up glaring at each other. Gail Peck would be impressed at the death glares he was shooting Marlo right now. Finally, Sam relented. "What are you doing here?"
Marlo's eyebrow shot up. "What am I doing here?" Her voice raised a little. "I am at work, dumb ass."
Sam groaned. She always spoke to him in that condescending tone. He hated. She loved it. So she kept doing it. What she did best. Piss him off. He had no idea how she managed to do it, so well. "What are you doing at 15, Marlo? Why here, of all places?"
"Excuse me if I am thinking about my career," Marlo replied.
He crossed his arms against his chest and leaned back against a desk, watching Marlo pace. "You knew I was here!" His voice was raised a little bit. "You damn well could have stayed at 10th. Or gone back to ETF! Anywhere but here."
Marlo continued pacing. "Sue me if I was bored and needed a change. You became a D, there was an opening here. So I took it. I didn't think it would be a problem working with you. But apparently, it is."
"No, you wanted to piss me off," Sam retorted.
That made the newest Training Officer of 15th laugh. "Piss you off? Sam, let's not forget we were married. I know of a lot of other ways to piss you off, than to transfer into oh my God, your division. Wake up! It's the TPS. We were bound to work together at some point. I'm not quite sure how we managed to avoid it until now anyways!"
Sam shook his head. "I just want to see if you can actually be a professional about work. It's apparent that you haven't changed much, because all you want to do is get under my skin."
Marlo laughed quite hard and quit pacing and stood in front of her ex-husband. "Professional?! Says the person who slept with a rookie on an undercover op. Yeah, I heard all about that. Word gets around, Sam. You got suspended for conduct unbecoming. If that doesn't scream unprofessional, I don't know what does. But, I'm more worried about you keeping your emotions in check. You never were good at that."
"Marlo," Sam warned. How dare she bring up the fact about what happened on that Brennan op. "Don't go there. You were never good at hiding your feelings."
She looked at the crowd outside, who were trying to look like they weren't listening in. "You know what, Sam? Balls in your court. If you want to let everybody in this whole fucking division know that we once shared a life, go ahead. If you want to keep it under wraps, I'm good with that. Whatever you fucking decide. But, for right now," she said, walking to the door. "Don't fucking try and talk to me." With that she left, ignoring all the looks thrown at her direction. She kept walking and kept walking into the women's locker room.
Sam sighed in the Parade room, trying to regain his composure. He was so pissed right now. How dare she come in here and think that she owned the place, just because she was transferring in here? Marlo was right, she had a lot of other ways she could get under his skin more. He was hoping she wouldn't be that vindictive and use those ways again. But if she did, well, two can play the same game. And he knew a lot of her pressure points. He got up and when he got outside and saw all of the people staring, he slammed the door behind him and ran up to the D's office.
Traci was at her desk, working when Sam loudly came in. She looked up at him. "How do you know her?"
Sam raised an eyebrow. "None of your business," he replied, sitting at his desk.
Traci chuckled. "Obviously the anger has to do with her. So I am assuming girlfriend?" She took a wild guess. Not that she could see Sam with another girl besides Andy. She really couldn't. Although, Traci had enough experience with relationships to know that obviously, this one did not end well. She knew they were screaming at each other in the Parade room, because everyone was looking at hoping to see a glimpse at the firework show.
He glared at the other Detective. "Fucking ex-wife."
Marlo put her hands between her knees and kept reminding herself to breath. God damn Sam Swarek. She knew their relationship would come up at some point, but she tried to deny it. It would be fine working together, no problem. Ha. The second they saw each other it was game on again. That's the way it always was. And probably always would be.
What was going to suck was the fact that she was new here. No, she wasn't a rookie, but she was new. They would take Sam's side in this fucked up mess. That she got herself in. It was not even an hour into her first shift and she was regretting making the transfer. She sniffed and wiped her eye with the back of her hand.
She heard the door open and a rookie came in. "Uh, Officer Williams said I could find you in here," the woman said tentatively. "I'm Chloe Price, your rookie."
Marlo groaned. Of course her rookie would have to see her at her worst moment. But what the hell, her day was going to hell, so what more could go wrong. She looked up at Chloe. "I'll be there in a couple minutes." She just needed to compose herself for a minute.
She heard the door bang and then open again and Noelle walked in. Marlo looked up finally. "I'd appreciate it if you keep that little piece of news between ourselves."
Noelle laughed. "As much as Oliver is dying to tell someone, he won't," Noelle reassured her. She sat down on the bench, beside Marlo.
"Thanks," Marlo muttered. "God, what a wreck I am."
"First time you've seen him since you guys broke up?" Noelle guessed.
Marlo nodded. "Oh yeah. All this time, and we've managed to never work together. Thank God. I thought it might be a little awkward seeing each other but I didn't think I would end up in a screaming match with him, first thing. But what else is new? Fighting is what Sam and I do best," Marlo said. After a pause. "I guess I should get out there and get my rookie."
Marlo was half way out the door, when Noelle spoke again. "It does get better," she said. Seeing Marlo's look of confusing, she started talking again. "Working with your ex. It does get better after a while."
"I sure fucking hope so," Marlo muttered, leaving the door slamming behind her. She had looked in the mirror before leaving and so far the tears and emotions hadn't made her look that behind. She walked to where her rookie was talking with Dov Epstein. She knew Dov, because she knew Sue. So naturally, she didn't really like Dov. "Price, let's go." And she walked away.
Chloe seemed surprised that Marlo was all the sudden there. "Uh, yeah. Let me grab my bag."
As Chloe and Marlo walked out to the cruiser, Marlo turned to her rookie. "What you saw in there… It didn't happen. You didn't see anything. Got it?"
Chloe just nodded. "Got it."
Sam was looking forward to a night alone. Last night was the first Poker night that they had without Jerry. It was Frank, Oliver, himself, Sergeant Boyko, Detective Jones and a couple other guys from 27th. Sam did actually have a good time, even though Jerry's memory still weighed on his mind, heavily. Lately, more so than before.
And then there was the deal with his lovely ex-wife. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that she was now working in 15 and he'd have to deal with seeing her every… every fucking day. And that would take some getting used to. He had kind of forgotten about that sore spot in his life. Until she came back. He was just glad Andy wasn't here right now, because he wasn't really wanting to explain himself to her. Thankfully, after their first encounter of the day, he hadn't seen her afterwards. He had stayed after shift, working on paperwork, purposely trying to avoid her. Traci had seen right through it.
When there was a knock at the door, Sam groaned. But if it was Oliver wanting something, he wouldn't shut up. So Sam walked over to the door and opened it. His jaw dropped. "What are you doing here?"