People Problems
Brenda's viewpoint
I was running late, thanks to an uncooperative murder victim, which had seen the squad called out into the hills to a B-grade movie producer's house that morning. He'd made his money making dreadful horror movies, the kind that David had disturbingly but accurately described as 'torture porn'.
Apparently the producer's killer had decided to recreate one of his movie's more famous scenes with the producer in the starring role. Normally I'd still be there, but Sharon and I had an appointment with HR to disclose that we were together. I'd texted that I was on my way but running a bit late.
Sharon was waiting for me in the hall outside HR when I got there, checking her emails on her iPhone. She looked lovely in a deep blue dress and matching heels, plus a crisp white jacket. She looked great and I thoroughly approved of her ensemble, plus the lilac lingerie she was wearing under it, almost as much as I'd approved of it as she'd got dressed this morning after we'd spent the night at my place.
In a way it was scary, here it was Friday and we were both finding it hard to stay away from each other. We'd caught up for dinner on Monday night as usual, walking back to the car park hand in hand, before having an extended make out session in the shadows. Once home, we'd exchanged texts before going to bed, for a sleep I was finding hard to capture. Thoughts of Sharon filled my head and I missed her next to me terribly.
I'd woken up on Tuesday, determined to put those thoughts behind me, I was supposed to be a senior officer in the LAPD, with murders to solve and criminals to catch, not moping and mooning over Sharon.
The day had turned out relatively quiet, so Sharon's text during lunch was very welcome. She seemed to be a bit lonely too, so we kept up the text chatter through the afternoon, until I'd worked up enough courage to ask if we could be together tonight.
Her answer had been a quick and certain 'YES!', so I'd made my way to her place after work, picking up some delicious Thai take out on the way and ended up sitting on Sharon's couch as we laughed at a cheesy police procedural, picking apart all the mistakes.
We'd ended up in bed soon enough, where we'd spent two hours driving each other into a series of orgasms that left us feeling delightfully happy, followed by a lazy hour and a half of cuddling and chatting.
I told her that I'd missed her, not having her next to me in bed. She'd just laughed and joked that what I was missing was the sex, teasing me mercilessly about it, before eventually quietening and admitting that she'd missed me too. In fact she'd been working up the courage to ask if we could be together tonight when my text had arrived.
I'd been worried that Sharon would think I was being needy, but she'd admitted to the same worries, so we just giggled at each other's silliness, before agreeing that we'd sleep together regularly during the week and as much as we could on the weekends.
We'd eventually fallen asleep snuggled together, my head buried in her neck as I spooned up against her back, my arm held tight against her chest, I don't know about Sharon but I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
Wednesday had been a quick race out early to get home and changed in time for work, I'd been so eager to see Sharon I'd forgotten to bring fresh clothes; next time I was going to bring a change with me so I could spend more time with Sharon before work.
We'd texted back and forward during the day, before Sharon caught an OIS in Valley Division that was going to keep her busy till late. I was a bit sad, until we got a lead on our sniper case.
A mom and pop store reported a break in, with food and other essentials stolen. The burglar had hidden their face from the cameras, dazzling the lenses with a laser pointer before smashing them with a hammer. She'd missed one though, which showed that they were walking with a pronounced limp. A few shots had given us enough of a shot of the face, lit by their reflected torchlight, to identify it as Charlotte Weaver, our sniper.
It was obvious she was still out there, but hiding. Based on how much stuff she'd been able to carry away before anyone could respond to the alarm, we estimated she had about a week's food. That led us to check other stores which had exhibited similar MOs, to find she'd hit another store ten blocks away week earlier. That narrowed the area down some, but it was still a huge area to cover.
By the time we'd wrapped up it was after nine at night and Sharon was deep in her OIS, so we settled for a quick phone call and a few texts, before I headed off to a lonely bed. Thursday had opened around six with a text from Sharon, asking if we could sleep together that night, so I'd rapidly replied that I'd love to, before whizzing round the apartment making sure it was presentable, plus changing the sheets.
Both of us had been busy all day, but we'd agreed to be at my place by seven, with Sharon bringing Tex-Mex for dinner. She arrived with food and a suit bag with fresh clothes for tomorrow, explaining that this way she could sleep in with me, rather than racing home.
Fortunately, I'd been shopping on the way home and bought a toothbrush, plus the same brand of shampoo, conditioner and other shower products I'd seen at Sharon's, if she was staying I wanted her to feel right at home.
We stayed up until about nine, before heading into bed, where we'd cuddled for a while, Sharon admitting that she didn't sleep all that well alone, she wanted to feel me close. I'd laughed, as I felt exactly the same. I'd been worried that I was too clingy, but knowing Sharon felt the same made me so happy I just had to tell her and then show her exactly how much I wanted to have her in bed next to me.
We'd woken up just after six, snuggled for a while as we neither of us wanted to get out of bed just yet, then had a long and not terribly clean shower together before I'd watched Sharon get dressed, openly admiring all those curves.
I was getting dressed as she criticised the contents of my cupboards and fridge, openly wondering if anyone actually lived here, with not a piece of fresh food to be found anywhere, when the phone rang, dragging me off to our late, lamented producer's house.
We'd kissed and headed our separate ways, promising to meet outside HR at one in the afternoon, unfortunately I was ten minutes late, which saw me spilling apologies as soon as I stepped out of the elevator and spotted Sharon.
Fortunately Sharon just smiled and told me she understood, before we made our way in to see Candace Morrell, the head of HR. We'd met before, usually around performance evaluation time or back when Julio had been shot, she'd always seemed both efficient and compassionate and I liked her. We exchanged small talk for a minute or so, before she smiled and leaned forward.
"It's not every day I have the LAPD's two most senior female officers' drop in, how can I help?" Sharon and I exchanged a glance before she smiled and I nodded.
"We're here to fill out the paperwork to report that Brenda and I are dating" Candace's face broke into a smile.
"Congratulations. Does this mean both of you now have a life outside of work?" I looked up to see her eyes dancing. I grinned.
"Maybe, if the citizens of LA cooperate" Sharon's voice was warm and amused.
"And the officers of the LAPD shoot fewer of those citizens in the first place, then yes, perhaps" I looked over at Sharon and smiled. Candace chuckled.
"We can all only hope, though if it happened we'd all be out of a job, I doubt any of us should be thinking of a career change just yet though" As she spoke she pulled several forms out of a tray and fixed them to clipboards before handing them over.
"Pretty standard stuff, disclosure of relationship form, confidentiality form, signing it states that you acknowledge that IA can access the form under some circumstances, all straightforward really"
Reading it, I saw it really was quite straightforward, a lot simpler than I'd imagined. Looking up I saw Sharon glance up and catch my eye, as we shared a small smile.
I rummaged round in my bag for a pen to sign them, then handed it over to Sharon to do the same, before we handed our clipboards back.
Candace placed them to one side and smiled.
"Given whom you both are, I expect this is all a bit redundant but you understand I have to ask. Have you set up alternates to avoid any potential conflict of interest or impropriety issues?" Sharon smiled.
"Lieutenant Elliot will run point on any use of force investigations into Major Crimes while Lieutenant Tao will be lead on their end. Otherwise I can't see our relationship affecting how we work together" I nodded.
"Anyone who's silly enough to think that us being together will affect how we do our jobs, well they obviously don't know either of us at all" Candace made a few notes before looking up and smiling.
"There, all done. Can I offer my congratulations to you both" I smiled as Sharon spoke.
"Thank you, its early days but it feels good" I felt warm inside as we exchanged glances.
"Yeah, really good" Candace looked down at the notes in front of her.
"You mentioned Michael Tao will run things from your end Brenda, does that mean he's turning down the promotion?"
"What promotion?" I was confused; I hadn't heard anything about a promotion. Candace pursed her lips.
"You weren't aware? He'd been sounded out about a promotion to Captain to run a squad in SID. When you mentioned his name I thought he'd turned it down again" I sat there, a bit stunned. He'd turned down a promotion to Captain, not that it wasn't well deserved.
"No, I wasn't aware. You said he'd turned it down again? He'd been approached before?" Candace nodded, turning to her computer.
"Let me see... Hmm. Here we go, yes, he'd been approached twice before this latest offer, declined each time" I was shocked, three times he'd turned a promotion down. I looked over at Sharon, to see her looking at me, one eyebrow raised.
"I didn't know" Candace smiled.
"No reason for you to until he told you, it wouldn't have got to the formal stage where you'd be notified unless he had indicated he was interested. I have to say, your squad's amongst the most stable in the entire department, very few transfers or departures" Candace's eyes flicked across to Sharon.
"It's not just Major Crimes either Sharon, FID hasn't had a staff change in three years, since Jenny Taggart left to have a baby and Mark Rosenberg arrived. I actually have a file full of requests to transfer into both your squads if a vacancy should arise, but one never does"
Sharon and I shared a surprised look before Sharon turned to Candace, shock evident in her voice.
"People want to transfer into FID? You must be joking?"
"Not at all, both squads rate highly on the desirable assignments list for junior and mid-level officers, particularly female officers. The fact that they're led by the two most senior female role models in the department obviously has a lot to do with it, but that's not the only reason" Candace hesitated for a moment, before pressing on.
"Your squads both have very high success rates, your team members job satisfaction ratings in the annual staff surveys are very high, you both have very successful, close knit teams, which reflects great credit on you both" I bit my lip, a little uncomfortable with the praise; looking across at Sharon I could see she was looking like I felt, a little nervous and a little overwhelmed.
Candace must have realised that as she gave us a moment to think. Finally she spoke.
"I understand that it's a lot to take in, but for the good of your officers you should think about encouraging them to seek promotion, outside your squad if there are no vacancies inside them" I chewed my lip for a moment, the thought of someone leaving the squad was…disturbing.
"Candace, this is... quite a surprise, I would never stand in the way of any of my people's advancement, I'm sure Brenda wouldn't either. I just didn't know..." I nodded to back up Sharon, I felt the same way.
"I'm sure neither of you did, interviews we do with your staff as part of the annual staff survey make it clear that your teams respect and like you. Basically they prefer to stay where they are rather than move to a higher rank somewhere else" Candace turned and called up some files on her pc, obviously reading comments from the files.
"Officer stated they would prefer to stay in their current position and await a promotional opening within their current squad … Officer noted that they were happy to decline promotion outside their current squad … Officer stated that they would rather stay at their current position and rank and make a real difference than be promoted to somewhere else and not … Officer stated they want to keep working for a leader they respected, even at the cost of declining promotion"
Candace sat back and watched us both for a moment as we both realised what they were saying.
Sharon looked as stunned as I did, as I dealt with how I felt. I mean I was incredibly flattered that my squad wanted to stay with me, but at the same time I didn't want to stand in the way of the promotions they so obviously deserved.
"Uh, wow. Um, I had no idea" Sharon looked at me and nodded slowly.
"Same here, I didn't realise the situation"
"I'm sure neither of you did, which is why I took the opportunity to bring it up with you. I'm sorry to dump it on you right now, when you no doubt have other things on your mind" She smiled warmly. "But I was planning to bring it up with each of you the next time we sat down, to have you both together was too good an opportunity to pass up" She made a 'what can you do' gesture'. "Sorry"
Following Candace's bombshell, we stepped out of Human Resources and paused in the corridor near the elevators. I looked up at Sharon, all composed and calm, not at all like the passionate woman she was away from work. I kept my voice down.
"Hey sweetie, you ok?" She pursed her lips.
"I suppose I'm working on too many shocks all at once, people actually want to transfer into FID is a surprise, but to learn that my squad's turning down transfers to stay, I'm still coming to terms with that"
"Same here, I don't want to see any of the guys leave, but on the other hand, I don't want to stop them from getting the promotions they all deserve"
We stood there for a moment, I just wanted to lean in and kiss her, but who knew when someone would walk out and spot us, so I contented myself to laying a hand on her arm, getting a smile in return. Sharon's voice was low and warm.
"My place tonight honey? I'll cook"
"That'd be lovely Sharon, can I bring something?"
"Just you, that's all I need"
"At least let me bring dessert" Sharon chuckled.
"Knowing you it'll be chocolate, rich and fattening" I smiled, she knew me all right.
"Gives us an excuse to burn off some calories together" At that Sharon smiled softly.
"Oh honey, I never need a reason for that with you, I'd happily do that all night long" I smiled, her words just made my spirit soar. The elevator dinging brought me back to earth, before we hopped in.
My floor came first, as I walked out Sharon's voice followed me.
"Oh Chief, don't forget our meeting later" I smiled, turning to see her standing there amongst a few other people.
"Thank you Commander, I won't" She nodded, only I could see the mirth dancing in her eyes as the doors closed, her voice just squeaking through as they shut.
"Don't be late" I was left there standing looking at the closed doors, trying to hold in a huge laugh.
The good humour followed me into the squad room, where most of the team was busy. I spotted my quarry at his desk.
Lieutenant Tao, could I see you please?"
"Sure thing Chief" He got up and followed me through into my office, where I asked him to close the door.
"Is everything OK Chief?" I just indicated he should take a seat; I almost took the seat next to him but decided to keep it normal, especially as everyone outside was trying to not be too obvious that they were watching. Sitting behind my desk I leaned forward and smiled.
"Everything's fine thank you Lieutenant, but I need to brief you in on a new development" He frowned for a moment then looked up, interested.
"Sure Chief, what's up?"
"I'd appreciate it if you kept this to yourself for the moment, at least until it might become necessary, but from now on, you will be lead officer in any FID investigations involving members of Major Crimes. You'll be dealing direct with Lieutenant Elliot in FID" He sat there for a moment, thinking it over, before he peered at me over his glasses, in a way it reminded me of Sharon, she did the same thing at times.
"Mind telling me why Chief?"
"LAPD Regulations prohibit an officer being involved in an investigation of another that they are in a relationship with" He sat there for about five seconds, taking it all in, before he put it all together, his voice slow and a bit hesitant.
"You and Commander Raydor...?" I looked at him for a few seconds, before speaking.
"Yes Lieutenant, me and Commander Raydor"
"Wow. Uh...ok, no problem Chief" He paused, obviously not sure if he should ask. Finally curiosity overcame fear. "Um how long, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Friends for a long while, dating for a few weeks, more since last weekend" He smiled, a little hesitantly.
"So is this the reason you've been so happy these last few weeks?" I smiled.
"Yep, when did you first notice anything, if I might ask?"
"We've all noticed you've been happier for the last few weeks, more than you have been the last few years. A couple of people thought you may have been seeing someone, but I think Buzz might have been the only one to put it all together" I looked at him through narrowed eyes.
"Really, what made you say that?" He shrugged.
"He made a comment at the Ball, something about you and Commander Raydor, how if you were any closer you'd be changing your Facebook status" I nodded. That was Buzz; he saw a lot more than he ever let on about.
"Maybe I should promote him to detective" Michael smiled.
"Then who'd film the scene?" I smiled.
"Good point" He nodded, obviously still trying to get his head around what had happened.
"Well Chief, let's hope we don't have to have an FID investigation anytime soon" I nodded, but for entirely different reasons. He went to stand. "If you don't mind Chief, I'll get back to work"
"Thank you Lieutenant" He stood and headed for the door, when my voice stopped him.
"Lieutenant…" Michael turned.
"How long are you going to keep turning down promotions?" He looked suddenly wary.
"Uh…Chief?" I sighed.
"I know. I found out today" He looked at the floor, the desk, the wall behind me, anywhere but at me as I waited. Finally he sighed and looked at me.
"Well, I kinda like it here" I smiled, he really was sweet.
"I know…and I appreciate it. But you deserve to be recognised for the outstanding job you've been doing for more years than I care to remember" He stood there, looking at me.
"Michael, you've been a wonderful member of this squad, but I have to say that you'd be a great Captain too, leading a team of people you could train and mentor and help grow" A pained expression crossed his face.
"Are you saying you don't want me on the squad anymore" I bolted up from the chair in shock.
"Heaven's no!" I paused for a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm messing this up and I'm really sorry" I stepped around the desk and stood there, spreading my hands helplessly.
"I value you Michael, your advice, your insights, I trust you without hesitation and you're my friend. If you were to leave I'd miss you terribly and my door would always be open for you, no matter when or what" I paused to swallow a lump.
"But as your friend, I don't want you to keep turning down promotions that you completely deserve, that you've earned a dozen times over. I want you to be the Captain you deserve to be, getting the recognition that's due to you; I don't want to hold you back"
He stood there looking at me for a moment, he was obviously thinking hard about something.
"Chief…Brenda. I still think I have a lot to learn here" I laughed, both at his words and his tone.
"Lieutenant, who are you trying to kid. I'm the one who still has a lot to learn; who taught me to text and attach photos and such? It was you as I recall" He smiled in recollection. "Next time you get an offer, come and talk to me about it, please? I won't try and convince you to take it, but we can talk about it"
He stood there, silent for a while, before nodding.
"Ok Chief" I smiled as he turned and left the office.
I sat back on the edge of the desk and looked out, seeing each of the squad working away. I'd really hate to lose any of them, but my boys deserved to leave the nest and soar, it was well due and they deserved it.
Didn't mean I had to like it though.