Sam belongs to me, Carmen belongs to Aphina and the rest belong to CBS and Mr Bruckheimer
It started on the subway and led straight to my heart
"Every moral has a story
every story has an end
every battle has its glory
and its consequences"
-Glory and Consequences, Ben Harper
"How are you feeling?" Carmen asked.
They were on the crowded 9:15 am subway heading into mid town.
"You've asked me that four times already." Sam reminded her, sipping a steaming cup of tea and scanning the classifieds in a copy of that day's New York Post, a pen in her hand. "and I feel pretty good yet again."
"You're pretty bubbly and cheerful this morning." Carmen observed, eyeing her friend suspiciously. "After everything that happened yesterday, I thought you'd be a little more, I don't know, a little less you. You've got this weird glow to you. Its like..." Carmen's eyes widened. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "You got laid last night1'
"What!?" Sam tried not to blush. "No! I mean, I wish, but no."
"So why are you glowing then?"
"You're imagining things." Sam told her.
"Samantha... don't make me beat it out of you!"
"Okay... I almost got laid last night." she admitted, circling an add for a two bedroom in lower Manhattan. She and Carmen had decided that the only way either of them would afford a place in any part of Manhattan remotely close to work, was if they pooled their resources and lived together for at least a one year lease.
"Define almost." Carmen said.
"What's there to define? It almost happened but didn't."
"Now that's frustrating. Here..." holds a paper bag out to Sam. "Have a donut."
Sam peered in the bag and helped herself to a pink sprinkle donut. "What is it with you and these things?" she asked.
"I'm sexually frustrated too. So spill. Who'd it almost happen with?" Carmen already knew. She just wanted to see if her friend was up to admitting it or not.
"No one you know." Sam replied.
"You sure?" Carmen took her cell phone out of her purse. "'Cause I can call Flack right now and..."
Sam snatched the phone out of her friend's hand. "I just said its no one you know." she repeated.
Carmen grabbed a hold of the other woman's ponytail and yanked on it playfully. "Tell me!" she cajoled. "Tell me! You want to tell me! You are dying to tell me!"
"All right! All right! Shit!" Sam reclaimed her hair. "It was Flack. Okay? Happy that I 'fessed up? Just please do not tell anyone. We want to keep it quiet until we actually see where this is going."
Carmen nodded. "I can understand that. Where do you want it to go?"
Sam grinned and bit into the donut.
"I mean other than in each others pants." Carmen snickered.
"Honestly?" Sam sipped her tea. "I'd like it to go pretty far. I'm majorly in love with this guy, Carmen."
She smiled and squeezed her friend's shoulder. "Does it feel good to admit that out loud?"
"It just feels right." Sam said. "Nothing has ever felt more right in my life."
"That's the way it should feel." Carmen informed her.
Samantha nodded, a bright smile on her face, genuinely happy for the first time in as long as she could remember. She closed the paper and stuffed it into the knapsack resting at her feet. She yawned and looked around the crowded train. People watch. A fall back from the job was the fact that you noticed every little thing other people did. And analysed it if something looked the least bit out of sorts.
There was a guy standing by the doors. Holding on to the over head bar with one hand while listening to his I-pod in one ear and reading a wrinkled copy of Time with his free hand. Fairly tall, a nice muscular build on display in a pair of baggy faded jeans and a simple black t-shirt and black motorcycle boots. Short, wavy near black hair and a couple days worth of stubble on his rugged, handsome face. He was impressive to say the least.
He felt someones eyes on him and looked over. Gave her a small, almost shy smile and went back to his magazine.
"Check out that guy over there." Sam nudged Carmen with her elbow. "He's kinda cute."
"Which guy?" Carmen asked. "And why in the hell are you looking at guys when you've got a massively hot one for yourself?"
"Because I'm human." Sam replied. "Seriously, though. The guy standing by the doors. The one listening to the I-pod and reading Time."
Carmen glanced over. "He's okay." she concluded.
"Okay?" Sam exclaimed. "Girl what is wrong with you! You need glasses! He is more than okay! He's fine! I like the dark and brooding bad ass type."
"Sam, you like a lot of types." Carmen declared and received a hard slap on the shoulder.
"What the hell is that suppose to mean!" Sam laughed. "I just appreciate good looking men! Get up and go over there and ask him what his name is. Say something. Bump into him even."
Carmen looked mortified at the thought. "What is wrong with you is more like it! I'm not like you, Samantha. I can't just walk up to a guy and start talking to him."
"Oh my God! And you say you're from New York!"
"I'm not as easy with those types of things as you are." Carmen reasoned. "You'll talk to anyone."
"Fine." Sam stood up. "I'll go over and talk to him and do your dirty work for you."
"Sit your ass down!" Carmen grabbed her friend by the arm and yanked her back down into her seat. "You're mental! You really are! All that sexual frustration is melting your brain. Keep eating that donut. You'll be fine."
"You know," Sam licked some icing off her finger. "I am determined to have wild, crazy sex with that man by the end of the weekend if it kills me! I am going to toss all my issues out the window and say take me now and I won't care where we are or whose there or nothing!"
"Remind me not to be around you and Flack anytime for the rest of the week." Carmen joked.
The guy over by the doors had come to realize that the two women in the far back, left window seat were non-conspicuously checking him out. He felt their eyes on them and heard their giggling.It was annoying. Immature little girls. Which was too bad because they were both exceptionally attractive. The one with the auburn hair was more his speed. She looked like a challenge. He kept raising and lowering his magazine to get a better look at her.
"He's checking you out." Sam said to her friend, nudging her again.
"Good for him." Carmen responded. She tried not to make it too obvious she was doing the same.
Their stop was announced and they gathered their things and made their way to the side doors. The guy that they'd been admiring was getting off at the same place, and when he and Carmen nearly became wedged together when the doors opened, and she mumbled an apology, he graciously stepped back and motioned for her to go first.
"Hey!" Sam called to him after they were off the train and heading in different directions. "What's your name?"
"Tim." he replied. "But people call me Speed."
"Nice meeting you, Speed." Sam said and then hurried off to catch up to Carmen who'd abandoned her on the platform. "He's even cuter up close." she commented.
"Is that all you think of?" Carmen asked. "You do need to get laid."
"You have no idea." Sam sighed. "Have any more donuts?"
"So how's Sam doing?" Danny asked, plopping down on the couch in the break room beside Carmen. "She didn't come in today?"
"She's down talking to Mac. And Sinclair."
"Uh-oh. That's never good. Bet ya its about the complaint Lindsay filed after their incident couple days back in the locker room."
"Your girlfriend is a fucking bitch, Danny." Carmen gruffly informed him. "She brought that one herself nut not keeping her mouth shut. Sam may be little, but she won't tolerate that shit. Especially when it comes to her brother. She'll die to protect him."
"I know. And vice versa. They're pretty tight. And for the record, Lindsay is not my girlfriend."
"Sorry. Fuck buddy." Carmen snorted. "You've got seriously bad taste, Messer. Your judgement is worse now than in the academy."
"Easy, Devine. Easy. So Sam's all right after the little incident yesterday?"
"She's a little sore and bruised but she's healing nicely. She's getting extra help with that."
Danny cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses.
"You know, don't you." Carmen stated. "About Sam and Flack."
"Flack may have mentioned something..." Danny said vaguely.
"You look pissed. Thought you'd be happy for your best friend. Were you interested in her yourself?"
"A little." Danny admitted, stretching out his legs and propping his feet on the coffee table in front of them. "All this drama with Lindsay...I just..." he sighed and tipped his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. "I just want to be happy, Carmen. Happy and in love and have someone love me. Wholly and unconditionally. I mean, I ain't getting any younger. And I am happy for Flack. I am. He's a good guy and he needs a decent, good woman in his life. Someone to keep him grounded."
"But..." Carmen prodded.
"But I know Flack. Very well, and he doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to steady relationships. I don't think he's been in one that's last longer than a few months. "
"Well, if its any consolation," Carmen said and sipped a cup of coffee. "I think this here is the real deal. She seems pretty crazy about him. "
"I hope it is." Danny said. "I really do. For both of them. Everything they've both been through. I just don't want to see either f them get hurt."
"I'll break both his goddamn arms and legs if he hurts her." Carmen declared.
Danny nodded. "Somethin' about her Carm... I can't quite put my finger on it. I just wanna protect her all the time. You look in her eyes and even though she's smiling and laughing, she looks so sad. And so..."
"Wounded." Carmen finished.
Danny sighed. "Speaking of walking wounded." he said and opened his eyes and turned his head sideways to look at her. "You ever hear from Matthew?"
The name made her bristle. The name that she associated with fear and hate. The ex husband who had destroyed her soul and very nearly destroyed her life. Ended it. "Unfortunately." she said through gritted teeth. "I couldn't have a passive ex-husband, could I? I had to have the bi-polar, fucked up one."
Danny chuckled. "Matthew and that guy Zack are soul mates. They'd get along well. Both pricks."
Carmen laughed. "That's a understatement. And can you believe that even after all this time he still has that ridiculous, nasty tattoo and still goes on and on about Tanglewood being the be all and end all of civilization? Even with that sonofabitch Sonny behind bars. You think they could still be in operation? Have you heard anything recently?"
"I haven't hear nothin' lately, but there's no doubt in my mind that they are still up and running. Sonny knows a lot of people and you can be sure he's lookin' to settle old scores. Did you know Sam used to date a Pelham Bay guy before movin' to Arizona?"
Carmen shook her head. "I didn't."
"She knows Sonny very well. Said she had her share of run-ins with him and punched him in the face once. Can you believe that?" Danny snickered. "She is a feisty little brat, I'll give her that. You should see her with the perps. And she was in interrogation the other day and Hawkes said she blew him and Mac away she was that good. You ask me, Flack's in trouble with that one."
"She's fearless to a fault." Carmen sighed. "Either gonna come in handy one day or get her killed."
"Hope it ain't the latter." Danny said and suppressed a shiver at the thought.
"Hey, guys!" Lindsay greeted cheerfully as she entered the room behind them. Unbeknown-est to them, she'd actually been standing in the doorway the entire time, listening silently and intently. They had unwittingly added to her ammunition.
"Hey." Danny said simply as Lindsay came around the couch. A look of coonfusion and surprise on his face when she pecked his cheek.
Carmen raised an eyebrow and offered a small nod and a polite smile as Lindsay sat across from them.
"What'cha guys talking about?" Lindsay asked curiously.
"Odds and ends." Danny replied.
"Anything interesting about those odds and ends?"
Carmen shrugged and sipped her coffee.
"Thought maybe it was about Sam being down in Mac's office being chewed out by Sinclair."
"All your doing, I assume." Carmen said. "Must make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to have caused someone some extra grief."
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to her yesterday," Lindsay said. "It was horrible and I feel awful."
"Yeah? You're a real picture of misery." Carmen said wryly.
"Besides," Danny said. "We are steering clear of the office gossip."
"I just think its really screwed up." Lindsay commented. "Getting in trouble your first week."
"I think you should just mind your own business." Carmen suggested.
"Well if I was Mac..." Lindsay began.
"Which you're not. Thank God." Danny added.
"... I wouldn't put up with that." Lindsay finished.
"If I was Mac," Danny chimed in. "I'd be tellin' you to shut your pie hole."
Carmen snickered.
"All I'm trying to say is that is that she's having all these problems and now Flack's falling all over, acting like a body guard."
Danny noticed Carmen getting her cackles up beside him. "Lindsay," he warned. "If I were you, I'd stop while you're ahead."
"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if the two of them were already sleeping together." she continued. "I mean, they both seem desperate enough."
"Lindsay." Danny's tone was firm. "Shut your goddamn gate."
"I don't want to hear any more." Carmen announced and finished her coffee and stood up. "Danny, when we're alone, we'll go back to our conversation."
He nodded. Watched her leave the room. Saw her stop outside in the hall and make a call on her cell. Then he turned cold, stern eyes on Lindsay. "You got a real knack for pissin' people off." he informed her.
"Its not my fault you people are over sensitive." Lindsay said. "Do you think I'm right? About Sam and Flack?"
Danny got up from the couch. "One, I think you need to keep your mouth off my best friend. Two, I think you need to stop being so jealous and grow up. And three, I think you need to start pulling your weight around here and be more productive."
"Danny..."
"Gotta go." he said as he left the room. "I'm a busy man."
Lindsay crossed her arms around her chest and pouted.
And plotted.
At the same time Carmen and Danny talked about Tanglewood, Flack walked through the door of the precinct. He'd spent the last hour re-interviewing a witness in a month old murder at a night club in the Bronx who had called to say he remembered more of the incident. The interview had garnered him about as much as he already had from the man. Not a hell of a lot. It had been a waste of valuable time and Flack was not impressed.
And what had started out as a pleasant morning that extended from a more than pleasant night was about to become majorly fucked up at the sight of Gerrard tossing open his office door so aggressively the windows of this office shook.
"DETECTIVE FLACK!" Gerrard roared above the noisey, busy din of the precinct. "A WORD PLEASE!"
"Is there a problem, cap?" he asked.
"You could say that! My office! NOW!"
Flack sighed and reluctantly followed the older man, trying to avoid the looks on the other detectives faces as they watched him pass by. And for a brief moment, he wondered if this uneasiness and slight embarrassment was what Dean Truby experienced the night Mac arrested him mere yards away.
Gerrard slammed the door shut as Flack stepped into the office.
"Sit down." Gerrard demanded.
"What's going on?" Flack asked, knowing full well what or who it was but decided ignorance was his best defence.
"I said sit down, Flack!" Gerrard seethed.
Flack unbuttoned his suit jacket and took a seat in one of the uncomfortable metal chairs in front of Gerrard's cluttered desk. "So what's this about?" he asked casually.
"This is what this is about!" Gerrard slapped a complaint form in Flack's lap. Followed by a report from the ER at Trinity General. "I received a very interesting call while you were out, Flack. From a Zack Turner. An Arizona state trooper. Is this ringing any bells?"
"I've never been to Arizona." Flack said.
"Don't get smart, Flack. You know who I'm talking about. The guy you tackled on the street yesterday. And then paid a visit to at his hotel room."
"After hours." Flack pointed out. "I was clocked out. What I do then is my business."
"You damn near busted his ribs tackling him to the ground!" Gerrard yelled.
"He assaulted a police officer." Flack stated.
"Who interestingly enough, is the new CSI and his ex wife." Gerrard reminded him.
"Fiancee." Flack corrected. "She's his ex fiancee. They were never married."
Gerrard glared angrily at Flack.
"Well they weren't." Flack said. "And what should I have done? Stand there while he slaps the shit out of her? Abducts her? 'Cause that was his plan, you know. He was going to abduct her and take her somewhere and do God knows what sick crazy shit to her. He's been harassing her for nearly three weeks. He came here looking for her. And I just turn my back like nothing was happening?"
"Do you have some sort of knight in shining armour complex, Flack?"
"You're starting to sound like Mac Taylor." Flack commented and saw the rage build in Gerrard's eyes. He just couldn't help throwing that in. Knowing the way Gerrard had tried to screw Mac over Clay Dobson's death and Mac turning the tables. Gerrard despised Mac and vice versa and Flack couldn't resist the opportunity to get one up on Gerrard.
"What is it with you guys and those girls up in the lab? First Messer and that girl Monroe. Then Taylor and Bonasera. And now you! What the hell is Taylor running up there? A brothel?"
Flack cringed in his seat and fought to maintain his composure. "She's my friend, sir. That's it."
"You always go and break into someones hotel room and put them in the ER over night for a friend?"
Flack didn't respond. He just looked Gerrard dead in the eye.
"You're just goddamn lucky he isn't filing charges against you! I talked him out of that! Do yourself a favor, Flack. Stay away from this girl."
"Sir, with all due respect, I can't do that."
Gerrard took a deep breath and exhaled slowly."You know, Flack. You're father never got mixed up with women he worked with. And up until now, neither of you."
"My father just beat on the woman he had." Flack fumed.
"You're father was a hell of a cop and is a hell of a man."
"A hell of a man? Just because he had the most arrest records in his career does not make him a hell of a man. You weren't there. You didn't live with it. Or with him." Flack didn't attempt to hide the vehemence in his voice.
"Don't do this to yourself, Flack. Screw yourself up over some girl that you just want to lay."
"Sir, if you don't mind, I'd rather now discuss my personal life with you. Its just that. Personal. What goes on between me and her is no one's business but our's."
"So you're admitting you and this girl are..."
Flack's cell phone ringing interrupted the tension. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the call display. DET. C. DEVINE it read. It just couldn't be good news. "I have to take this." he said and stood up.
"Don't say I didn't warn you, Flack." Gerrard called after him.
Flack slammed the door behind him. "What's wrong, Carmen?" he asked after he pressed talk.
"You downstairs?" she asked.
"I am. Why?"
"You might want to come up here. Sam just got hauled in with Mac and Sinclair. Danny says Lindsay filed a complaint against her."
Flack sighed heavily and headed for the elevator. "I'm on my way." he said.
"Hell of a way for us to meet, Detective Ross." Sinclair said as he leaned against the front of Mac's desk, arms over his chest, stern look on his face as he regarded the pretty, young detective in the chair before him.
"I wasn't expecting to be attacked on the street and nearly abducted by my ex boyfriend, sir." Samantha told him.
"You do realize that there's going to be some serious ramifications because of this?"
Sam didn't blink. "Good. He deserves it."
"I meant for you and Detective Flack. Zack Turner has filed a complaint with the NYPD concerning Detective Flack's handling of the situation on the street yesterday."
Mac stood behind Samantha's chair, a hand on the back of it. "Samantha was slapped and grabbed around the arm and throat." he informed the Chief. "Look at her injuries. I even had Doctor Hawkes exam her and photograph them for when I personally file charges of assaulting an officer. Detective Flack was merely coming to her defence."
"Mac." Sinclair sighed. "Flack went and broke into the man's hotel roo after hours and put him in the hospital overnight. We're lucky he didn't put the guy in the morgue."
"Should have." Samantha mumbled.
Sinclair gave her an icy stare. "Did you ask Detective Flack to go there last night? Ask him to seek out a little revenge?"
"He went on his own." Samantha replied. "I didn't know about it until later on in the evening." You walked right into that one you stupid bitch, she thought.
"You spoke to Detective Flack after the incident?" Sinclair's eyes narrowed. "He just went there on his own free will. A friend helping a friend. And then called you to tell you about it?"
"He just called me to see how I was." Sam explained.
"And do you think it was all right that he went and defended your honor to that extent?"
Mac straightened up defensively. "Chief Sinclair, I don't like your tone." he said. "Either speak to her with respect or not at all."
"So you're just friends." Sinclair nodded at the idea. "Friends do that for each other."
"Really good friends do." Sam reasoned.
"Let's cut the crap, Detective Ross." Sinclair said sternly. "I want to know the real deal with you and Flack."
Sam remained adamant. And loyal. "He's my friend. That's it."
"Work place romances can be messy." Sinclair said.
Mac shook his head and chuckled. "Did you not hear her? She just said..."
"I know what line of bullshit she's handing me, Mac. I'd hate for anything to ruin the integrity of the number two lab in the country."
Mac fumed. "All this coming from a man that has not only a wife and kids but two girlfriends who work with the department? Now whose handing out the bull shit."
Sinclair stared daggers at both of them and turned and grabbed a file off of Mac's desk. "Detective Ross. I read your career jacket from Arizona. Very, very impressive. Exemplary in fact. Except for the issues with your anger management and anxiety related disorders. You're on both lorezapam and Zoloft?"
"That's unfair." Mac argued. "That has nothing to do with this. She takes medication and it doesn't effect her work."
"Its warranted." Sinclair fought back. "Handle this Mac before its too late. Now. On to matter number two. A harassment complaint filed against you by Detective Monroe. This is a zero tolerance work place. I assume you have a reasonable explanation."
"Yes, sir." Sam held her ground. "She's a constant source dissention and turmoil in the lab and out in the field. She spreads rumours about people, doesn't carry her weight on cases and is just down right a miserable... pardon my language, sir... a down right miserable bitch."
"And you've learned all of this in just one week?" Sinclair asked.
"A week? I learned all of that in one day." Sam replied.
Sinclair's nostrils flared. "Mandatory counselling. Minimum eight weeks. Minimum. If they suggest you need more, you go."
"You can't come in here and bully my detectives!" Mac yelled.
"You've got an attitude problem, Detective." Sinclair said to Sam.
"Sir, ninety five percent of us in here have attitude problems!" she fought back.
"Mac." Sinclair pointed the file at the head of the lab. "You take care of this and make sure she goes! Understand me?"
"I know just the person who can handle this." Mac assured him.
"Let's hope you and I don't cross paths like this again." Sinclair said to Samantha as he stormed out of the office.
"I'm not crazy, Mac." Samantha said quietly.
"No." he agreed "Your not. But he is."
She managed a smile.
"I need you in ballistics today. Its your field. I need you to work on some things until a call comes through."
She nodded and stood up.
"And Samantha..."
She paused at the door.
"We'll talk about you and Flack later. All three of us."
She nodded and left the room.
"Counselling." Flack repeated. "Why?"
"Apparently, Sinclair thinks I'm crazy." Sam said.
They were in the quiet back hall way at the rear of the trace lab. Choice place for those who either wanted to make out or scrap it out. Talking in hushed voices, standing a mere foot from each other.
"You're not crazy." Flack said. "You've got issues."
"That's a polite way of calling someone crazy." she told him.
He sighed. "So you've got problems.Big fucking deal. At least you're not a coke or meth head or an alcoholic like sixty five percent of this department."
"All I know is that I have to go for eight weeks. Maybe more. And maybe it will help in some respects. But it doesn't take away from the fact that that fucking bitch Monroe started it and she's walking around scott fucking free."
"Calm down." Flack said. "No need to go all potty mouth on me here."
"She started it with the Danny and me shit. I wasn't going to let her get away with it."
"So we admit she's a bitch and we move on."
"A bitch! Don, she goes far beyond being a bitch. She gets off on other peoples misery. She's only happy when everyone else is unhappy."
"Then just stay away from her and go about your business.Ignore her. She's not worth it."
"And now that Sinclair put it in Mac's head that you and I are together, we have to go and have 'the talk' with Mac. We're thirty years old for Christ sakes! You'd think it was the end of the world or something."
"He gives everyone who hooks up at work 'the talk'. All he's going to say is that we have to keep things professionally. Not to run things with our hearts. That's all he's going to say. And if it makes you feel any better, I already got the talk by Gerrard."
She frowned. "When?"
"Less than an hour ago he pulls me into the office because your prick of an ex decided to file a complaint against me for busting up his face."
"I'm sorry." she said, shaking her head.
"For what? I went there on my free will and took care of it the way I felt it needed to be taken care of."
"How bad was he hurt?" she asked.
"Busted nose, couple black eyes. Probably a cracked jaw. Concussion."
"So you went Randy Couture on him." she concluded.
"I prefer Chuck Lidell." he said light heartedly. "Must be a Brooklyn girl thing. Liking Randy Couture. Girl that used to work here long time ago was from Brooklyn and liked him too."
"Well she obviously had good taste." Sam said.
"Look, I wouldn't worry about people knowing about us. It's gonna get out soon now that Gerrard and Sinclair figured it out. And if Lindsay catches word it'll be all over this place like the fucking plague."
"Now whose the potty mouth." she teased.
He smiled. He wanted to kiss her so bad. She was so beautiful standing there looking up at him with those golden eyes. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone standing, observing from the end of the hall.
Lindsay.
"She's like a goddamn super spy." Sam complained. "I bet she has super hearing powers and can make out every word we're saying."
"Let's not talk about spies. I've had enough of them."
"I heard you got to play James Bond for a while."
"You hear a lot."
"I have excellent sources. I also heard you look pretty damn fine in a tux."
"You got a bit of a James Bond fetish or something?"
"Cop fetish, remember? But I wouldn't mind seeing you in the tux."
"One time deal."
"I could make it worth your while." she said.
"No doubt. Why don't we tackle the handcuff fetish and gradually go on to the James Bond thing?"
She grinned.
"You're a handcuff girl, huh? Always the ones you least expect."
"I'm a study in contradiction." she informed him.
"Yes." he agreed, a broad smile on his face. "You definitely are."
Carmen was looking for Sam. She needed help in the ballistics lab and Mac had told her Sam was the expert and assigned there for the afternoon. Only Sam was nowhere around.
She spied Lindsay standing at the end of the back hall way. Arms over her chest, watching something or someone intently. When she stalked over to the girl and was going to ream her out for being such a lazy, nosey bitch, she saw just what had captured the girl's attention.
"Like to spy on people, don't you." Carmen commented.
Lindsay nearly jumped out of her skin.
"That looks like a private conversation. Private means without you, Monroe."
"See what I mean about Sam and Flack? The way they're standing so close together and smiling at one another. There's definitely something going on there."
"To me it looks like they're talking." Carmen said. "And you need to stop watching them and get to work."
"I don't get it. What does he see in her?"
"Other than the fact that she's insanely beautiful and crazy intelligent and funny as hell and not some immature little girl that likes to spy on people and spread rumors?" Carmen asked.
"I just don't get it." Lindsay said, shaking her head.
"Grow up, Monroe." Carmen snapped. "This isn't high school. Quit the jealous annoying bitch act and start behaving your age."
"Detective Monroe!" Mac bellowed from his office door at the end of the main hallway. "I asked you to go down to autopsy half an hour ago. Sid is waiting!"
Lindsay sighed heavily and stalked off.
"Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out." Carmen called after her.
Sam had heard Mac yelling at Lindsay and turned to look down the hall. Carmen was standing there now. Smiling and tapping her finger on her watch and mouthing 'Ballistics! Help!'.
"I have to go." Sam told Flack. "I get to go and shoot things now."
"A ballistics expert, huh? Just how expert?"
"I can shoot the head off a pin from a hundred and fifty yards out and disassemble and reassemble over three dozen fire arms in less than a minute a piece. And don't even make me go on about ammunition and explosives."
"I love it when you talk dirty." he teased. "For your birthday, I'll buy you a years subscription to Guns and Ammo."
She grinned. "You're a man after my own heart, Detective Flack." she said.
"If I'm not busy and you're not busy you wanna grab lunch?"
"As long as I don't have to sit on a park bench and eat with my hands." she replied.
"Real food." he assured her. "I kinda lost my way with the vendors."
"I heard about that too." she said.
"You really do hear everything."
"Never underestimate the powers of a woman. You'll call me either way?"
"I'll call you." he promised.
She smiled and gave a small wave and headed down the hall. "Quit staring at my ass, Flack!" she called without looking back.
"I wasn't staring at it. I was thinking about what I wanted to do to it." he corrected her.
She turned and gave him a huge grin and a wink and then continued on her way.
Carmen and Sam were heading to the ballistics lab, discussing her run in with Sinclair and her mandatory counselling when a familiar face at the reception desk stopped them in their tracks.
"That's the guy from the subway!" Sam exclaimed. "That Speed guy! Holy shit he's stalking you!"
"You are so mental." Carmen informed her.
Speed saw the two girls coming and couldn't believe his eyes at the sight of the badges and guns they wore. Last thing he expected from the two of them. The little brunette offered a smile and a warm hello, but the other one ignored him.
"Hey, Red!" he called.
She stopped and turned. "Excuse me?"
"Long time no see. See your as friendly as you were this morning."
"She's the friendly one." Carmen gestured to Sam as they both walked over to him. "I'm the mean one."
Speed nodded. "You two detectives?"
"Nothing gets passed you." Carmen said.
"CSIs." Sam said. "You?"
"In the PI business. Here to see a friend."
"So you're not stalking me after all." Carmen said.
"I ain't the stalking kind, Red. You two know a Danny Messer?"
"How do you know him?" Sam inquired.
"When I was a CSI myself down in Miami, we met at a conference in Seattle. I'm originally from here and we hit it off."
"Why'd you leave Miami?" Sam asked.
"Personal reasons."
"I hear ya." Sam said with a nod. "I just came here for the same reason. So you and Danny are friends?"
"We're pretty tight."
"The good ones are always gay." Carmen sighed.
Sam bit her lip to keep from laughing. "I have some work to do. I'll leave you two alone to scrap this out. Nice to meet you, Speed."
"You too..."
"Samantha." she told him.
"How about I call you mouse?"
"How about I say that's fine?" she countered. "Take care."
"You, too, mouse. Maybe I'll see you around."
"Maybe." she singsonged as she headed off.
"Whose the guy with Carmen?" Hawkes asked Sam as they passed eachother in the hall.
"Just some guy from the subway that's stalking her." Sam replied.
Hawkes frowned. "Think we should call security or something?"
"I think Carmen can handle it." Sam replied. "I need some assistance in ballistics. You busy?"
"Nope." Hawkes said.
She grabbed him by the arm. "You are now." she said.
"She always so friendly?" Speed asked Carmen.
"When she's not kicking someones ass." Carmen replied.
"So what's your deal, Red? Why you so unfriendly?"
Normally she would have punched out any guy that called her any form of a nickname. But this guy was different.
"Who says I'm unfriendly?" she countered.
"Its an impressive you give." Speed said.
"Has it ever occurred to you I just may not like you?" she asked.
"Then why are you standing here talking to me?" he retorted.
She blushed slightly.
"Hey, Speed!" Danny called from behind her. "What took you so long? You get lost?"
"Just making some new friends." Speed said.
"You wish." Carmen snorted and left to chase down Sam and Hawkes.
Speed wathed her go. "What's your friend's name?" he asked Danny.
"Carmen. Why?"
"No reason." he said. "No reason at all."
Okay, I resurrected my darling, Speed. I had to do it for Carmen! He will become an integral part of her story line!
Aphina: It was hot and intimate at the same time. I hope it was clear how much these two care for one another. And I hope you enjoy my Carmen and Speed love fest!
Madison Bellows: lol! such a struggle writing the smut! But now that I'm comfy there's more to come. The e-mails were an after thought. My brother in law's idea actually.
notreadytomakenice: glad you enjoyed!
Bluehaven4220: LOL! it was my first time writing smut! More to come! and the e-mail thing will continue in other chaps. It'll be Sam and Flack's little thing