Sharon stood on the corner with Brenda's squad. She'd only seen the Chief at the morning briefing, and she wondered why the blond woman was so withdrawn, why there were dark circles under her eyes. She was pondering this, when a sudden flow of people inundated the sidewalk. She glanced at Provenza, quirking an eyebrow.
"If I'm not mistaken, the Disken's live about a half a mile up that hill." She said, squinting into the distance.
"And if Adrianna was on time like the Disken's said she was, then these," Provenza gestured at the people walking past, "would be her bus-mates."
Raydor watched as Detective Sanchez asked a group of Hispanic women if they knew Adrianna, flashing her photo and speaking fluent Spanish. His earnest approach to this case astounded Sharon. The whole team seemed to have adopted Brenda's empathetic tendencies, even Flynn and Provenza, who, until recently, she'd been convinced were perpetual adolescents, even as they hit middle age and beyond. She took out her notebook, and jotted a few things down, and then followed the team to the park, to ask about Adrianna there. As she observed the team, she saw the Chief's influence in everything they did. They were kind, but keen. They were polite, but persistent. They all conducted themselves with an air of being approachable, but still authoritative. She'd honestly, in all her years of IA work, never seen a team function as such a flawless extension of it's leader. It was a beautiful thing to see in action. She wondered what Brenda would think if she told her. She wondered what Brenda was doing now.
Brenda stood next to Commander Taylor, watching Chief Pope rant and rail about how she was mucking up his meeting with the mayor by treating the Disken's as suspects. Well, the husband, anyway. She was detached from the whole thing, only taking a moment to hiss at Taylor.
"You really need to get your own office, Commander."
"I couldn't agree more Chief." He replied with a smile.
"Remember when this was supposed to be an opportunity for me?" Will groaned, sinking into his chair.
They all turned as someone knocked on the door. Will's secretary let Detective Gabriel into the room, and he had a thin manila folder in hand.
"Yes, Detective? What is it?" Brenda asked, seeing in his face that the news wasn't good.
"We have two more victims." He replied, sighing heavily.
Brenda pinched the bridge of her nose under her glasses, as Pope let his head fall forward on to his desk with a thud. Brenda nodded at the Commander, and the Chief, and left with her detective. They walked back to the briefing room, and he caught her up on the details of the assaults. Entering, she saw that most of the team was back, including Captain Raydor. She smiled at the room in general, trying not to let her eyes linger on the dark haired woman. She noticed with some relief that she was in a pantsuit again. She plucked the photo of Disken off the murder board, and handed it to Lt. Tao.
"Can you please call the lab, and see how much longer we have to wait for the results of Disken's DNA results? Tell them it's for Chief Pope." Brenda turned back to the board, sensing the subtle shift as the Captain stepped into place beside her.
"Chief, do you always use the name of a male superior officer to get what you want?" Sharon asked incredulously.
"Of course," Brenda countered, using her teeth to take the cap off of a dry erase marker, "don't you?" She began to write the names of the 2 new rape victims on the board.
"Detective Gabriel, let's do this in order. Which is the first victim, the one from USC?"
"Lupe Nava. No drivers license, no social, no home address, but we do have a work address. Same zip code as the Disken's."
"Another Nanny?" Flynn said disbelievingly.
"The suspect has a type" Sharon deduced, her voice low.
"But why would she give the hospital her work address, and not her home address?" Gabriel wondered.
"Maybe she's a live-in." Provenza replied, stretching his arms behind his head.
Sharon rode with Brenda to the home of Jeffery Walters, Lupe's listed address. She could tell the woman wasn't ready to engage in any conversation, so she wrote in her notebook, and fed directions to Brenda as she drove. About 10 minutes into the drive, Brenda glanced over at the Captain.
"Cap'n, can I ask you a question?" Brenda spoke slowly, as if she wasn't sure she wanted to actually have a chat.
"Of course, Chief Johnson. I reserve the right not to answer, but you can ask me anything you want." Sharon smiled a bit, in response.
"Are we friends now?" Brenda blurted it out, knowing if she over thought, she wouldn't ask, and she needed to know.
"I'd like to think so, Chief, all things considered." Sharon let her voice drop at the end of her answer, putting more into her answer than just the words.
"Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much." Brenda drove on, not making any further attempts at small talk. Sharon blinked, and pondered pressing the woman on what had prompted that line of questioning, but decided that, if she needed to know, Brenda would tell her. Shrugging her shoulders and sweeping her hair away from her face, she went back to her notebook.
Brenda felt her whole body relax when Sharon answered affirmatively. At least that woman didn't hate her anymore. She didn't know what her future held, didn't know how Fritz factored in at this point, but she had one solid guidepost, and that guidepost was Sharon Raydor. Brenda smirked at the thought. A month ago, she couldn't stand the woman. Arch-nemesis, that's what Fritz had said. Brenda was beginning to wonder if they'd ever really hated each other, or if it had been a mask for the instant chemistry they felt.
Thanks to the GPS system on Sharon's complicated cell phone, they managed to beat the rest of the team to the house. Pulling into a parking space a few doors down, Brenda rolled down the window a bit, and then turned off the ignition. She took her glasses off, and tossed them on the dashboard, rubbing her face with both hands. She pushed her hair back out of her face, and leaned back in her seat. Glancing at the Captain out of the corner of her eye, Brenda could admit to some small disappointment at the pantsuit. Though she was relieved to have a buffer between herself, and those lethal legs, Brenda could still make out the lines of muscle and sinew beneath the fabric. Could still see the slender ankles beneath the hem. The dark colored shell she wore beneath the jacket was scooped low, but not low enough to show anything but those collarbones. Brenda thought about pressing her lips to those delicate bumps beneath the Captain's throat, a small stop on a grand voyage of that incredible body. She flushed, remembering how her body had responded to thoughts of the Captain the night before. Her arousal flared, and she pressed her thighs together, trying to quell the sensations.
Sharon continued to jot things down in her notebook, but as the Chief began to stare, she lost her train of thought. She flipped to a clean page, and just started doodling, to look like she was engrossed in obsessive note-taking. She saw the Chief blush a deeper red than she'd ever seen before, and she watched as the blond woman shifted, pressing her legs together tightly. Sharon understood that gesture all too well. She flipped her notebook closed, and turned towards Brenda.
"Chief?" She asked, leaning in a bit, making her voice dark, and dusky. "Is there anything I can do for you? You look...flushed."
Brenda closed her eyes, flipping between embarrassed, and turned on, and terrified.
"I'm fine, Cap'n. Just thinking, is all." She replied, thinking that would put a stop to further inquiry.
"Thinking about what, Chief Johnson?" Sharon's voice dripped with unspoken promise, smooth and rough at the same time.
Brenda looked up at her, then, and met her gaze directly. The Captain's green eyes flashed, making her even more beautiful. Brenda couldn't look away, those eyes seemed to see inside of her. She'd never looked at the Captain for this long, this head on. The woman was stunning, all symmetry, and complimentary angles. Brenda's breath caught in her throat, and she knew she wouldn't be able to answer, she couldn't look away, couldn't find words.
Sharon reached out, and laid a hand on Brenda's exposed knee.
Brenda flashed back to the last car ride, the bare legs, and she sucked her lower lip between her teeth and bit down, hoping to clear her head. But Sharon didn't stroke, or caress, or do anything except lay her hand on Brenda's knee, and give her a reassuring smile.
"Whatever it is, Chief, you'll figure it out. You always do." She whispered, squeezing Brenda's knee gently, and moving to pull away. Brenda caught her hand, bringing it back to her knee. Sharon hummed at that, knowing that the rest of the squad was going to arrive within the next few minutes. She knew also, that if she started, she wouldn't be able to stop. Touching the Chief now, in the car in front of a suspect's house was not quite the way she'd fantasized. Still, Brenda's skin was so warm. So Sharon scraped her nails gently down Brenda's shin, moving her hand in the safer direction. She held the rest of her body very still, as she moved her hand along the Chief's leg, feeling the softness of her calf, the hard bones of her shin. Brenda sighed, letting her head drop back against the headrest.
"Cap'n. What are we doing?" She asked, huskily.
Sharon wasn't sure what to say. She didn't think Brenda wanted an answer in words. So she slipped her hand back up to Brenda's knee, and then moved it up further, caressing the small bit of thigh exposed just below the skirt. She ran her fingers lightly along the top of Brenda's thigh, never moving any higher than the skirt hem, then let her hand caress the outer side, feeling the slight indentation of the large muscle. She dipped a finger into that hollow, tracing a line from Brenda's knee to the bottom of her skirt. Brenda had been pressing her legs together during this whole encounter, but when Sharon let her hand drift back up to the top of Brenda's thigh, she surrendered, and let her legs fall loosely apart. Sharon let the tips of her fingers ghost along the sensitive skin of Brenda's inner thigh, before returning her hand to the Chief's knee, holding it still. She looked at the blond woman, knowing that this was a turning point, that whatever happened in this moment was going to knock her off the knife's edge she'd been balancing on for the last month. Brenda slowly opened her eyes, and turned to look at the Captain, trying to find a regular rhythm to her breathing before she spoke. As their gaze met, she saw something flash in those clear, green eyes. Saw desire equal to her own, and something more. Something familiar, and alien all at once. She put her hand over Sharon's, holding tightly.
"Cap'n I don't know-" Brenda started to say, but Sharon touched a finger to her lips, shaking her head.
"Sharon. My name is Sharon, Brenda." Sharon whispered, tracing the bow of Brenda's lips with her finger.
"Sharon." Brenda breathed, tasting the name on her tongue.