Sharon knew, as she walked down the hallway to Brenda's office, that this was not going to be easy. Probably not even pleasant, but certainly not easy. At least now she knew why Pope had been so resistant to the proposal that he be the one to prep Brenda for this interview. She scowled again at the idea of him giving Brenda permission to do anything. Steeling herself, she knocked on the door to Brenda's office, then pushed it open.
Brenda looked up, and frowned. She'd been standing by the window, her tote-sized purse over one arm, pondering making her escape before anyone came looking. She turned, and blurted the first thing that popped into her head.
"What makes tomorrow better than any other day, anyway?" She cringed internally at how whiny she sounded.
Sharon blinked, slightly overwhelmed at Brenda's legs beneath that terrible floral skirt, and then she got her bearings. Pacing, she pulled her glasses off, and gave Brenda a searing once over, relishing the blush that rose immediately to her cheeks.
"Because tomorrow, the Mayor will have finished interviewing the other 4 applicants, all of whom are male," she replied, leaning her hands on a small conference table, and sweeping her eyes back up to meet Brenda's "and I think you'll make for a vivid contrast."
Sharon knew she was treading dangerously close to a line, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. The subtext just seemed to burst forth, no matter how hard she tried to hold herself in check. She pushed her glasses back on to her nose, and stood up straight, with her hands on her hips. In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought to herself, and continued on.
"I think that we should capitalize on your feminine strengths."
Brenda wasn't so easily cajoled, however, and her retort was sharp and terse.
"Which are?"
Sharon realized flirting wasn't going to make this any easier. She fell back to the familiar routine of antagonism.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Chief, because I have always admired how little you care about…current fashion….and the—that purse," Sharon held her hand out, expectantly, then snapped her fingers impatiently when Brenda failed to hand it over, "the purse. See, this purse helps people underestimate you. Criminals, especially, and that's good. But with the Mayor, he's somebody you really want to impress. So I was wondering if you want to—"
"You know Captain, I have a lot of nice clothes. I just don't like to overdress at work!" Brenda interjected, giving the dark haired woman a once over of her own, arching a brow at the Chanel pantsuit, forcing her eyes not to linger on the delicious expanse of skin exposed by the few buttons that remained unfastened at the top of Sharon's blouse.
"Well, and there's no one that would accuse you of that, but we want the Mayors first impression of you to be as a woman capable of handling a lot of power. To look at you and think something like, "Wow!", Brenda." Sharon leaned back on the desk, and leveled her gaze at the Chief, feeling the familiar tug in her chest as their eyes met.
"Because I'm a woman?" Brenda queried, sitting down behind her desk.
"No. No no." Sharon replied, taking the chair across from Brenda, trying not to think about her lips. "Most candidates for chief run popularity contests, Chief, and you're not especially political, well liked, or even friendly."
Brenda snagged her purse, and began rooting through it, stoically ignoring the dark haired woman sitting across from her, and also the ache in her center that said woman had ignited. She found her compact, and pulled it out, largely to give herself something to do with her hands, so she wouldn't launch herself across the desk, and act on her baser instincts.
"I'm not interested in politics." She ground out.
"No, and so you won't blame the Mayor for the LAPD's budgetary crises, or or publicly demand that he fix it." Sharon watched as Brenda dabbed that atrocious pink lipstick across those talented lips and something in her snapped a little, when Brenda purposefully popped her lips, and glanced up.
Reaching across the table, Sharon took that damnable purse, and tossed it in the seat next to her, then sat heavily back down, before continuing.
"There is a reason that this is a short meeting in the afternoon, because all the mayor really wants to know is how the two of you will get along." Sharon's voice was lower now, as she fought against her desire to kiss the blonde woman senseless. "Think of it as a…chemistry test," she continued.
"A chemistry test, Cap'n, really?" Brenda groaned.
"Yes. To make sure that you two work well together." Sharon answered, shaking her hair back over her shoulder.
"Uh huh. And what happens if I think we work well together, but the MAYOR just decides to go a whole other direction? What will the women of the LAPD think of me then, Cap'n?" Brenda stood up, stalking over to the window.
Sharon flinched, realizing that everything up until this point had been the easy part.
"Sometimes, Chief, it's good to wonder what people will think of you. To think beyond the immediate moment, and examine the future implications of your actions. " Sharon fairly whispered.
Brenda whirled around, pinning Sharon with a fierce look.
"You think I'm reckless." She accused.
"You are." Sharon agreed.
"Not about things that matter. When the rules matter, I follow them, unless there's a really compelling reason not to." Brenda stepped closer to Sharon, her voice softening. "But it has to be a really, really compelling reason. I suppose, though, some people follow rules, even at the expense of everything else. I might be reckless, but at least I'm not rigid." Despite herself, Brenda felt the hurt and anger.
"There's safety in routine, Chief. Surety." Sharon stood, and paced away from Brenda, before turning back. "Besides which, everybody knows, the rebound never lasts. What would have had me do? Stick around until you broke my heart to assuage your own ego?" She burst out, surprising herself.
Brenda's jaw actually dropped, and she blinked twice, trying to process those wholly unexpected words. Just then, there was a knock on her door, and Commander Taylor entered, holding a folder like a shield.
"Little update, Chief." He chirped, looking perplexed as Sharon threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, and Brenda spun around, walking back to her chair.
"Right, pardon me," Brenda nodded to Sharon, and then turned back to the Commander.
"We got our DNA sample from Torres, and it's off to the lab. We also matched fingerprints off his car to those in the victim's apartment. Now, Tao thinks he might've paused outside Judy's building because someone keyed his car while he was inside. We don't know. But we have a problem." Taylor fiddled with his tie, as he spoke.
"What's that?" Brenda sighed.
"Marc Torres is on another date." The Commander had the good grace to look sheepish.
"What?" Brenda cried.
"The young lady was waiting for him on a corner in Larchmont village. We don't know who she is or where she came from. What we do know is that he took her to dinner and a movie."
"Just like Judy." Brenda pushed her hair back from her forehead. "And now?"
"Now he's just parked beneath an apartment building on Melrose. It's not his home address." Taylor shifted his stance, nervously.
Sharon could see Brenda's posture change as she shifted gears, back into her 'detective' mode. Crossing her arms, she leaned against the table.
"Chief, you've already given—"
"One second, one second!" Brenda waved her off. "Commander, under no circumstances is Marc Torres to be left alone with another woman in her apartment."
"Got it. Thank you." The Commander turned on his heel and left.
Brenda shut the door behind him, and turned to face the dark haired woman.
"Is that what you really think?" She asked softly.
"I'm sorry, what? Is what what I really think?" Sharon was having a hard time following the abrupt conversational lane change.
"That you—that we were a rebound? That it didn't mean anything? Is that why you ran?"
"I don't run. I didn't run, Brenda. I just know when to walk away from the table while I'm still ahead." Sharon stared at some point behind Brenda's left shoulder.
"Is that right? Because I'm still here. I'm all in, if you'd like to be dealt another hand, Captain. But I can't promise there will be a seat open at this table forever, so you need to decide what you want to do. And it would be nice if, in the future, you want to change the rules? You could always give me a little heads up." Brenda crossed halfway across the room, and stopped, waiting.
"What, exactly, are you saying. Because you realize that if you become chief of the LAPD, then it won't matter. You can't have a secret tryst with a subordinate officer. Even if other Chiefs have done so, you know you'll be held to a higher standard because you're a woman." Sharon stayed safely leaned against the table.
"Who said anything about secret? I don't do secrets. As it stands right now, you and I work in different departments. While I am technically already your superior officer, the rules that you are so fond of, don't actually forbid our relationship right now, because you don't report directly to me. And if we have a relationship prior to my confirmation as Chief of the whole department, they cannot ask me to end it. But all of that presupposes that I can be honest about our status. It didn't occur to me that you'd want to keep it a secret, if you wanted it at all." Brenda fisted her hands together, skin stretching whitely across her knuckles.
Sharon, for her part, was a little dumbstruck. She uncrossed her arms, and moved a little ways closer to Brenda.
"You would want to…tell people. About us? If there was an us to talk about?" She clarified.
"For heaven's sakes, yes! I learned my lesson about sneaking around with Will Pope. Who, by the way, looks at you like an ice cream sundae. I might have to shoot him, just so you know." Brenda muttered.
"You learn—he what? Are you JEALOUS?" Sharon barked out a short laugh, as Brenda flushed. "You are! Oh my. Well. That changes things, I suppose." She crossed the rest of the way across the room, standing in front of Brenda. "Is there room, at this table, for an overly cautious player, who may have folded too early during the last game?"
"I guess so. But only if we can stop using ridiculous poker analogies." Brenda smirked, before pulling Sharon into a tight embrace. "Now. I do need to go check on things with Taylor." She started to turn away.
"But! The purse! The florals! We have so much work to do, still." Sharon groaned, following Brenda out into the hallway.
"We also have a whole day left." Brenda almost walked into Will Pope, who was storming down the hallway towards the women.
"You! Come here, now!" He barked, pointing at Brenda.
Brenda looked at Sharon and shrugged, following along behind Pope. She could hear the staccato clack of Sharon's pumps trailing the soft click of her own kitten heels.
He pushed open the door of the Media Room, and Brenda saw Taylor and her team sitting there, with hangdog looks on their faces. Sharon stood close behind her, and Brenda took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the sting of oranges, and tried to ignore the immediate flare of desire pooling within. She realized Pope was speaking.
"..so unless you arrested this Dreamweaver idiot for sleeping with his fiancé, which, last I checked, wasn't illegal, you've got nothing to hold him on!" He finished, his face red with fury.
"I gave the order to arrest Marc Torres, not them." Brenda said simply.
Sharon snapped her head around to look at Brenda.
"I was with you! You did not give that order."
"Yeah, and you were not in charge. It was either Taylor or Provenza who made the call to break in without a warrant. So. Why did you think it was worth it to bust in on this couple without enough evidence to hold this guy?" Pope asked.
"You mean besides the fact that he killed his date from the night before last?" Provenza spoke up for the first time.
"Did you want us to let him murder someone while under LAPD. surveillance? Because then we could have held him without any problems." Taylor piped in, seeing a lifeline.
Brenda put her head in her hands in frustration. This was why she didn't hand command of her cases over. Honestly, she loved her team, but without her guidance, they were a diverse parody of the Keystone cops some days.
"But we won't have any problems anyway if you let me just talk to the guy for 10 minutes." She said softly, rubbing her temples.
"I really don't want her involved in this." Sharon said to Pope, quietly.
Just then the door opened, and Frtiz stuck his head in. Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"Uh, excuse me. I just needed Brenda Leigh for one minute?" He looked around the room, noting the close proximity between his ex, and the Captain she'd professed to hate.
Brenda held up her hand in the universal 'one sec' gesture, and followed Fritz out into the hall.
"Hey! What are you doin' in town?" She asked, cheerily.
"Had some things to tie up at the field office here, and I was going to see if you wanted to have lunch, but it looks like you're in the middle of an investigation, so I'll just catch you later." He started to turn away.
Brenda had a flash of brilliance. "Wait! Wait. If you can do me one favor, I'll be free to go to lunch with you, because you'll help me close my case." She smiled winningly.
"What do you need me to do, Brenda Leigh?" He asked warily.
"I just have a short list of questions I need you to ask my suspect in there. That's all. You don't even have to write anything down. Just ask these questions here," she replied, scribbling on the back of a paper she'd yanked from the nearby bulletin board, "and we'll be out of here in 15 minutes, tops." She bustled back into the media room, leaving Fritz standing bewildered in the doorway.
"There! We can arrest Marc Torres in 10 minutes if everyone would just calm down, and let me do my JOB!" She addressed the whole room, but gave pointed glances to Pope, and then to Sharon. "Okay? May I?" She finished sarcastically. Turning back to the door, she muttered, "Jeez. I thought y'all wanted me to be your boss!"
"Gentlemen," Fritz nodded at the men in the room, then, as an afterthought, glanced at Raydor, "Captain." His voice got decidedly more glacial when he spoke to her. He followed Brenda into the interview room.
Sharon leaned against the low slung filing cabinet in the media room, slightly horrified to realize that Brenda and Fritz were sitting very close to one another across from the suspect. She scowled as Brenda grinned at Torres, and introduced herself. Pope came, and stood next to Sharon, close enough that she could smell his aftershave. She could feel his eyes on her, even without looking to confirm, and she knew that his height advantage gave him a clear view down her décolletage. She swallowed back a snort of laughter at the mental picture of Brenda coming in and catching Pope copping a peep, and then shooting him. Then she crossed her arms, pulling her jacket tightly around herself, cutting off the view. That's all she needed, was an OIS with Brenda. Shaking her head, she turned her focus back to the interview, where Fritz was asking Torres a series of questions about his relationship with the victim. Sharon glanced around the room when Brenda began to ask the same series of questions, but then broke into a slow grin as she watched the blonde woman produce folder after folder of evidence showing that Torres had lied.
"Yeah, I lied. But I got a lot of cops in my family, and you don't have enough to hold me. And it's not a crime to lie to the police." The suspect said smugly.
"That's true, Mr. Torres. But it is a crime to lie to the FBI." Brenda replied, gathering up her folders. "So I think now's a good time for us to place you under arrest." She swept out of the room, as Fritz followed behind.
Once in the hall, she turned to him.
"Where did you want to meet for lunch?" she asked.
"Meet? I thought we'd ride over together." Fritz replied, furrowing his brow.
"Oh, you know, I have to prep for my interview with the Mayor tomorrow, for the Chief thing. So I have to come back here after we eat, and I just thought it'd be faster if we took two cars. Where were you thinking of eating?" She fiddled with the bracelet on her arm, and looked up at him.
He stared down at her, and realized that whatever had prompted her to call him a few days ago, was no longer in play. She looked happy. He glanced down at his watch, and then back at Brenda.
"Actually, I'm apparently running a little later than I thought. How bout we try and meet up the next time I'm in town, Brenda? It sounds like you've got a big day tomorrow, anyway."
"That's what everybody keeps telling me. Yeah, we can meet up the next time you come out, just give me a little forewarning next time, and I'll try to clear my schedule." Brenda smiled, and then gave him a tentative hug just as Sharon rounded the corner.
"It was good to see you, Brenda Leigh. You take care of yourself." Fritz said, as he pulled away. He saw the Captain, and realized that the stormy look on her face was directed at him, and not at Brenda. The light bulb clicked, and he smiled a little bit. Walking away from Brenda, he passed the Captain, and paused to whisper to her.
"You take care of our girl, Captain. I'm counting on you."
Sharon turned to look at him, but he was striding down the hall, not looking back. She looked at Brenda, who was watching her with a puzzled look on her face.
"What was that?" Brenda wondered out loud.
"I'm pretty sure that was a blessing, Chief. Now, you have some more prep work to do."