By 9:30 that morning, Brenda was exhausted. She sat at her desk, looking over the witness statements, knowing that something was off, but her brain wouldn't cooperate. She decided she needed a cup of coffee, and grabbed her mug, headed for the small kitchenette in the building. She'd just put a fresh pot on, when she heard the unmistakable sound of pumps clipping across the lino. She smiled, then quickly pasted a neutral expression on her face, turning to greet the Captain, leaning against the counter. Sharon looked as worn out as Brenda felt, her lush hair pulled up in a messy up-do, a few tendrils curling down around her shoulders, framing her face. She stopped when she saw the Chief, then let her trade-mark smirk ghost across her features.
"Fancy meeting you here." She said, her voice huskier than usual, thanks to the lack of sleep.
"Hmm. It does beg the question, Cap'n, what a nice girl like you, is doing in a place like this." Brenda felt slightly punch drunk, and she cursed the slow-drip coffee machine. No chocolate, and no caffeine, and a day sharing an investigation with Sharon Raydor, with her feelings all out of control seemed like a spot of terrible planning.
Sharon laughed, a low, throaty chuckle, then nodded towards the coffee pot.
"Great minds, it seems, think alike." She moved to stand in front of Brenda, so close she could feel the heat radiating out from her body. She leaned in, leaving just a whisper of space between them, and reached slowly over Brenda's head, snagging a generic blue coffee mug from the cabinet above the counter. She stepped back, moving to the sink to rinse the mug off, her heart beating loudly in her ears.
Brenda was grateful for the counter, letting it hold the weight her shaking knees refused to support. She could feel her body thrumming from that almost-contact, a swirling mist of desire sweeping through her limbs. She closed her eyes, blocking out the Captain, in her red button-down sweater, her tailored, wide-legged black trousers. But Sharon's image blazed behind her eyelids, giving her no escape from her feelings. She slowly opened her eyes, meeting an unblinking green gaze.
"Have you given any thought to last night?" Sharon asked, as she grabbed the pot of coffee and poured some into Brenda's mug first, then filling her own.
"Have I thought about.." Brenda trailed off, still trying to calm herself down.
"The application. For chief. I know you've had other things to contend with, I was just wondering." Sharon slid the sugar bowl across the counter.
"Oh. Oh that. I uh, I have thought about it, yes. I don't know that I—that is to say, I'm not sure if it's.." this time, her words faltered as she reached out for the sugar bowl, and felt her fingertips against the Captain's. She bit her lower lip, hoping to hold back the flood of heat with pain, but failing.
"I had no idea you were so...articulate, this early in the morning." Sharon chortled, as she watched Brenda struggle for her words. "I am astonished by your sesquipedalian nature."
"My sesqui-what?" Brenda was beginning to feel a flash of the old ire rising in the face of the dark haired woman's teasing.
"It means your love of big words." This time, Sharon couldn't hide the smirk, and suddenly Brenda was much closer than she'd been a moment ago.
"I'll tell you what, Cap'n. I'll leave the big words to you, but you can go ahead and talk to yourself, how's that?" Brenda moved to turn, and walk out, but Sharon caught her around the waist, the heat from her hand searing through the thin silk of Brenda's shirt. Brenda inhaled sharply, and looked at Sharon.
"I'm sorry, Chief. I was just having a little fun. I've already had some coffee this morning, so my mastery of language has already been given it's essential AM jolt." Sharon kept her hand on Brenda's waist, too enthralled by the warmth of the woman beneath the cool fabric of the shirt to let it go. They were standing close, too close. Brenda realized the scent of coffee had been completely over-taken by that sharp citrus tang. She looked at the gentle curve of Sharon's lower lip, remembering how deftly the woman kissed, the dark chocolate flavor of her mouth. She suddenly realized they were still in the kitchenette at the office, and anyone could've walked in. She fairly jumped back, her heart pounding, and she tried to give a composed smile, but it didn't quite make it to her eyes, which were dark and flashing with desire. Sharon swallowed hard, and laid her hand on the cool counter-top.
"I know, Cap'n, that you were teasing. I just don't have a sense of humor before 11:30 am, is all." Brenda managed to say this with a straight face, but failed to keep a hint of mirth out of her voice.
Sharon smiled then, and raised her cup in a mock salute.
"I'll keep that in mind. Are you going to interview the owner of the restaurant this afternoon?" The Captain was back to business again.
"Yes, we're probably heading over there around lunchtime. Well, I am, anyway. I'm not sure who I'm taking along yet, most of my team is still out canvassing the neighborhood. Hopefully Detective Gabriel will be back by then." Brenda frowned, grateful at least that the notification part had already been handled.
"I have to speak with him as well. I could ride with you, if your team hasn't returned by the time you're ready to go." Sharon's voice was deliberately professional.
"All right. We can do that. But.." Brenda blinked, considering her words carefully, "maybe we should do the interviewing separately. Just so there's nothing affecting the integrity of either case, of course." She looked at Sharon, hoping her words didn't reveal her unspoken reticence to share witnesses with Captain Raydor. Because although her personal feelings for that woman had bloomed into something all encompassing and unexpectedly wonderful, professionally, she still guarded her cases with all the ferocity of a hungry pit bull.
Sharon smirked, knowing that this was less about integrity, and more about the Chief's total inability to share.
"That's fine. You can even go first." She grinned at Brenda's expression of surprise.
"Well. All right. I'll give you a call around 11:30, sound good?" Brenda took a deep breath, knowing her head would swim with the lingering tang of oranges, but wanting to carry it with her.
"Yes. I'll talk to you then." Sharon headed for the door, feeling the heat of Brenda's gaze as she left.
Back at her desk, Brenda sipped her coffee, and tried not to think of the way that sweater had hugged the Captain in all the right places. How the scoop of the neck had exposed more than usual, letting Brenda's imagination run wild. This posed a small problem, Brenda realized. She had no practical experience to draw from. She'd never had feelings for a woman before, and she'd never gone through the experimental phase that people seemed to chalk up as par for the course in college. She hoped that her familiarity with her own body would give her a starting point, if she needed that information. From the way Sharon had been acting in the kitchenette, it seemed as though the interest was still mutual. So maybe the application for Chief wasn't a gentle let down after all. Brenda set her mug down with a thud, and scowled fiercely at her desk. She had a case to solve. The rest of...this, would have to wait until later.
Sharon listened to her team filling her in on their progress since the OIS last night. Or at least, she tried to listen. She realized that Sgt. Elliott was staring at her expectantly.
"Sorry, Sargent? I missed the last bit of what you said." Sharon said evenly.
"I was just saying that, I think our case is pretty well wrapped up. The officer involved acted appropriately given the circumstances, so it shouldn't be much more than a paperwork case from here on out." The Sargent smiled, and tossed the folder he'd been referencing on her desk.
"Yes. Well. I'd still like to speak with the owner of the establishment, as well as the owner of the mini-mart that the officer was in, before we rubber stamp this one as solved." Sharon couldn't put her finger on why, but something about this case was giving her an odd feeling. That's partly why she'd volunteered to ride along with Brenda. Despite her flagrant disregard for rules and regulations, the Chief had a gift for ferreting out the truth of the matter, and Sharon was counting on those exceptional interrogation techniques to give her an idea of what was triggering her Spidey sense.
"Okay. Sargent Elliot, if you could, take a walk around the neighborhood where the shooting occurred. See if our Officer Taggart was a regular in that area, or if his appearance there last night was an anomaly. Lieutenant Daniels, if you could check our archives, make sure that Taggart doesn't have any other pending FI's, also, if he has closed ones, I'd like to see those as well." Sharon slid the folder that Elliot had tossed on her desk under her arm, and stood up. She smiled at her team, nodding as they went about their various tasks, and then she left the room, taking the elevator up to Major Crimes.
Brenda was frowning at a life insurance policy as though it had personally offended her, when a knock sounded at her door. She looked up, and felt the now familiar tightening in her belly at the sight of the Captain standing there.
"Hi there. Come on in." She said, gesturing towards a chair.
"Thanks. Listen, Chief. I was wondering, if your team had run the financials on both the owner of the restaurant, and the employee who witnessed the shooting? If so, I'd very much like to see the results of that inquiry." Sharon had settled into the chair across from Brenda's desk, crossing her long legs in front of her.
"I believe Lieutenant Tao was taking care of that this morning." Brenda picked up her handset, and dialed Tao's extension.
"Lt. Tao? Yes, I was wondering if you'd gotten the results of the financial inquiries into our primaries?" Brenda listened, leaning her chin in her hand. "Okay. Right. Well, can you bring me what you have so far? I'll get the rest as it comes in, but a start's a start, right? Mmm-hmm. Thank you, Lieutenant. Bye now." Brenda hung up the phone, and looked back at Sharon.
"He's bringing it over. What's on your mind, Cap'n?" Brenda could almost see the gears turning behind the flashing green eyes. She knew the look of a Captain on a hunt, and this was certainly that look.
"I don't actually know, Chief. I just feel like, there's something I'm missing. That this was all too perfect, too by-the-book. Generally, an OIS is a tedious nightmare for FID. The tendency is for the officer to direct the narrative, to make themselves a hero, regardless of actual circumstances. Taggart was very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. And he shot to wound, not kill, which is rare in itself, especially when the suspect is also armed. I don't know what doesn't sit right with me, I just feel, unsettled by this particular shooting, and I would very much like to solve that mystery, before I close this file." Sharon braced herself, waiting for the indignant response sure to follow, about how FID was a danger to officers everywhere.
"You know, I'm glad you said that. I've been looking at it too, and there's something wrong in this case. It's too easy. That's been what's bugging me. It's too easy. I don't trust it when it all falls into place like this." Brenda had leaned forward as she spoke, propping her elbows on her desk, and tenting her fingers.
Sharon was silent for a moment, surprised that they were thinking similarly. It was a rare moment when they were in sync professionally, the insane chemistry between them not withstanding. Sharon was a by-the-book sort of woman, and Brenda seemed to follow her own personal credo of 'don't question authority, because they don't know either', leaving a trail of bent and battered rules in her wake. Lt. Tao knocked on the door then, startling them both out of their thoughts.
"Here are the financials we've got so far. Thing is, these led us to another company, but it's starting to look like a non-existent franchise business. We're still trying to see how the officer is connected, if he is. The owner doesn't seem to be connected to the dummy company, but the employee is." The Lieutenant grinned, and handed the papers off to Sharon, who was standing nearest to the door. He turned to leave, but then came back in.
"Oh, one other thing. The reason the owner can't come down here, is because he's very ill. Terminal cancer. Pancreas. Can't leave the house. He's still lucid, though, so you can go to him." Tao nodded, satisfied that he'd relayed the essential info, then darted back into the Murder room, leaving the two women alone in Brenda's office.
Sharon looked at the file in her hand, and sensed the Chief's displeasure at not being the first to see the results. The Captain moved slowly around the desk, taking a steadying breath before stepping into place next to the Chief. She laid the folder down on the desk in front of them, and moved to flip it open. Brenda leaned forward, pulling her glasses from the collar of her shirt, and Sharon bit her lower lip as that movement gave her a peripheral glimpse at the brightly colored bra the Chief wore beneath her button down shirt.
"So, you're having your team run the officer as well?" Sharon kept her voice even, as she looked over the documents in front of them.
"Yes. Is that going to be a problem?" Brenda couldn't help sounding defensive.
"Not at all. In fact, it makes things easier for me, since I don't have to explain to my team why we're not just closing this case, and moving on. I don't have anything more than a feeling as to why this isn't open-and-shut, but mark my words...this is going to be messy by the end." Sharon turned a page, and closed her eyes tightly as the back of her arm brushed against the soft curves of the Chief, who was leaning over her shoulder. She heard the sharp intake of breath, as Brenda quickly straightened her posture.
"Well. Seems your hunches are usually spot-on, Cap'n." Brenda's voice was almost a purr.
"Indeed, Chief." Sharon kept her hands flat on the desk, her gaze on the paperwork, even as she felt familiar tightening in her belly. She was at a loss, now. Brenda was going to apply to be Chief. So this couldn't happen. But Sharon couldn't see any way out of it, standing this close to her, the gentle scent of her magnolia lotion filling her head, clouding her judgment. Brenda laid her hand on Sharon's shoulder, and leaned in again, letting the curve of her breast press into the Captain's back.
"Look at that," Brenda said, gesturing to a column of figures, "it looks like our star witness has been making regular payments to someone. Wonder who?"
Sharon took a deep breath, overly aware of where their bodies pressed together.
"I suspect the best way to find out, is to start talking to them. We should probably start with the owner," Sharon looked at her watch, continuing, "and it's close to the time you said you were leaving. Shall we?" Sharon moved away from the desk, and the indescribable heat of Brenda's body.
"Yes. Let me just tell Lt. Tao we're leaving, and we can be on our way." Brenda breathed deeply, trying to calm the storm of arousal brewing in her chest. She swept past the Captain, and found Lt. Tao at his desk.
"Captain Raydor needs to speak with the owner as well. So she's going to ride along with me, and take her interview after mine. We'll be back after that. I'll have my phone, if you come up with anything I need to know." Brenda shouldered her bag, and turned to Sharon.
"Let's go, then." Sharon started towards the elevator, her heart beating faster as she pondered an empty carriage.
They waited for the elevator, standing with careful space between them. The doors dinged open, and there stood Chief Pope. He held the door open for them, and watched as the Captain stood aside, and let the Chief go first. Raising an eyebrow at the unusual aura of peace and cooperation between them, he shrugged.
"Going down, ladies?" He asked, his hand hovering over the buttons.
"What? Oh. Yes. The parking level." Brenda's face flushed as she answered him.
"Okie doke. Headed out for a bite?" Will was trying to determine if they'd kill each other before they returned.
"No. Restaurant owner. He's terminal. We're going to question him." Sharon answered tersely, annoyed at the incredulous note in Will's voice.
"Together?" Will furrowed his brow. This was all very out of character, for both women.
"I'm going first. Then Sh—Captain Raydor. Would you like a list of my questions, as well, or is that good enough, Chief?" Brenda said, exasperatedly.
"Okay then." Will leaned forward on the balls of his feet, and glanced up at the numbers on the elevator. 2 more floors, and he'd be free.
As the doors slid open, he looked back at the women, and mock-saluted.
"Ladies." He tossed the word as a farewell over his shoulder, stalking off to the gun range.
The doors closed, and Brenda closed her eyes against the onslaught of desire that washed through her. She took a deep breath, and immediately, her head was full of oranges.
She opened her eyes, and saw Sharon standing closer, close enough to touch. Brenda shoved her hands into the pockets of her blazer, and leaned against the wall. They had to question the owner, and there was the not so small matter of her application for the position of Chief of Police. She had to get herself under control. She would get herself under control. She took another deep breath, and just then, the elevator shuddered, and whined to a halt, as the lights flickered.
Sharon stumbled a bit, catching herself on the door, and glanced back at Brenda. Both women looked up at the number panel. It had gone dark.
"Oh no. Oh no no no." Brenda groaned. "This cannot be happening right now."
"You're not claustrophobic, are you?" Sharon asked, stepping to her side.
"No. No, I'm not. I just can't.." Brenda trailed off as she registered the proximity of the Captain.
"We should see if the phone, the emergency phone, is working," Brenda said, stepping quickly to the small hatch that stored the handset, "let them know that we're here, so they'll fix it faster." She pulled open the tiny door, and reached for the phone, which came away traling a fray of wires behind it.
"Oh no. no no no no no!" Brenda leaned her head against the wall, and let the phone clatter to the floor.
"Chief. Brenda. What's wrong?" Sharon asked worriedly, leaning against the opposite wall.
"Really? You have to ask?" Brenda replied, without lifting her head. Her pulse was beating loudly in her ears, and she felt the slick of sweat on her palms.
"Really, I have to ask." Sharon replied, wondering if the blond woman did have a fear of enclosed spaces, and was just too embarrassed to tell her.
"Oh god. I'm an idiot." Brenda hugged her arms around her stomach, painfully aware of the Captain's indifference.
"Chief?" Sharon replied, moving to stand next to Brenda, laying a hand on her waist.
Brenda jumped as though she'd been shocked.
"You—we... Don't do that." Brenda moved, trying to escape the impossibly warm hand on her waist.
"Sorry. Of course." Sharon stepped back.
"It's just. You.. and I'm going to apply to be Chief, because you..and so I thought that..I mean you must realize..." Brenda whirled around, leaning her back against the wall, and letting her head drop back with a thud. This wasn't coming out right at all.
"I know. You're right. It's entirely inappropriate." Sharon replied, leaning against the opposite wall. Her hands clenched in defeat.
"It is. We should forget about...before." Brenda continued, running a hand through her hair.
"Indeed, Chief." Sharon nodded, meeting Brenda's gaze.
Brenda nodded back, and bit her lower lip, sighing heavily.
Sharon watched, as Brenda's chest rose and fell with her breath. She looked at that lower lip, caught between those straight, even teeth. And her body took over. She crossed the small space in 3 steps, and she put her hands on Brenda's waist. She kept her eyes locked on Brenda's.
"Tell me to back away." She whispered, her voice ragged. "Tell me you don't want this."
Brenda swallowed hard, her body already reacting to Sharon.
"Tell me, Brenda. Tell me what you want." Sharon's breath ghosted across Brenda's ear, and Brenda's resolve cracked.
"Kiss me."