Chapter 6: Ladies Night Out (3.9) 12/5/93

"Rita, walk me through the rest of the plan."

It was a long night. They had been up for hours discussing Jack Pike's background and deciding upon a way to approach this case. After a quick reprieve to rest, shower, and change, the trio was back in Harry's office, fleshing out ideas for a potential undercover assignment to take down Pike. After much persuasion, Chris agreed to go into the Sterling Silver Club as an exotic dancer. Now they had to make sure that the rest of the plan was meticulously executed in order to protect Chris and incriminate Pike.

"Well, it's pretty simple," Rita surmised, "I'll go in as an interested party, which will hopefully grab Pike's attention. He'll set me up with Chris, I'll take the bait, and then once he attempts to blackmail me, we'll nail him."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's back it up for a second. 'Take the bait'? Just what exactly are you saying here?" Harry eyed Rita expectantly. While he was no stranger to the particulars of undercover work, this was Harry's first time working with such a young, attractive partnership. Palm Beach P.D. was constantly full of surprises and Rita's nonchalant attitude disturbed him.

Rita chuckled. "Calm down, Cap. It's not what you think."

Chris had a playful glint in his eye. "No. It's exactly what you think. Rita and I are just too damn good at it." He shot Rita a wink, which did not go unnoticed by their new, yet beloved Captain. Rita just shook her head and half giggled, half blushed.

Harry's jaw dropped. "Good at what?! Please don't tell me that the two of you cross the line on a regular basis to catch criminals. What the hell else am I going to learn about this crazy department?"

Chris grinned. "Yeah, Cap, it's sort of our thing."

Rita playfully hit Chris' arm. "Would you stop it? Cap, don't listen to him. Your blood pressure is going to skyrocket."

"C'mon, Sam, I have a reputation to protect here!"

"And what reputation is that, you neanderthal." Rita turned her focus to Harry. "You know how it is, Cap, there aren't many male/female teams in the department. We get thrown into compromising situations because we are the only partnership that could pass as a real couple. We've used it to our advantage. And don't worry, contrary to what Chris teases, we are very good actors. We've never had to do anything we were uncomfortable with, and we've never crossed the line." She didn't dare look at Chris while she spoke that monologue- the 'uncomfortable' part wasn't necessarily true.

"No kidding... Now I'm intrigued. What undercover gigs have you done in the past as a 'couple'?"

"Well…" Rita seemed shy all of a sudden. Discussing these intricacies with their Captain made it all very real and seemingly less innocent. Even though she had only known Captain Lipschitz for a few months, he had become a fatherly presence in her life. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss with him the nature of their make-believe sexual escapades. Chris, however, jumped at the chance. Rita shook her head in wonder. What was it about men and sex, even when it was pretend?

"There was the Harlan Cameron S&M fiasco, which was the most satisfying bust of Rita's career." Chris eyed her proudly before continuing. "For that one, we just had to dress for the part. Once we made it into their sex dungeon, things went awry and they made us as cops before we had to, uh, do anything." Chris glanced at Rita, purposefully leaving out their first kiss as partners. When she glanced back, he swore he could still feel the electricity tingle his lips. He unconsciously bit his lower lip as Rita explained.

"Harlan Cameron bankrupted my father back in the 60s and ruined his life. Believe me, the karmic justice was grand."

Cap nodded solemnly. While he didn't know Rita's entire past history, Chris had mentioned that both of her parents died when she was a child. That couldn't have been easy.

"And then we went undercover as a married couple to take down George Bingham for murder and charity fraud." Chris once again left out their first and only foray at fake lovemaking as he watched Rita uncomfortably shift in her chair.

"A few months later, Hudson had us go into The Institute for Cosmic Connection as an engaged couple working out intimacy issues. One of their guests appeared to have committed suicide, which we later traced to a string of other suicides connected with the Institute when they were based out of California." Rita sent Chris an affectionate glance as she finished talking. The panic of their bedroom antics disappeared as she remembered their declaration of love after The Soul Kiss.

Chris gazed back with a look that could melt steel. Then, he erupted in laughter, thinking about old times. "Cap, there was a couple there that reminded me of you and Fran. They were a riot!"

Rita's eyes lit up. "Oh my goodness, Myron and Sylvia! So funny!"

Cap, who had been listening intently, finally spoke up again. "What I would have given to have this much excitement during my undercover days. Any other fun escapades?"

Chris grinned. "Rita was a phone sex operator."

"Ah, see- so you posing as a stripper is a great way to pay her back for that mortifying gig."

Now it was Rita's turn to grin. "Yeah, Sam. It's your turn to take one for the team."

Chris grimaced as he remembered what was facing him today. He needed to pay a visit to Rikki to learn the fine art of stripping seductively on stage. And Rita would be watching the entire performance. Double whammy.

"Christopher, at least you'll be parading around a stage having fun while cash is shoved in all sorts of places. Let's not forget the fact that I was almost sold into a sex slave operation last year."

"You what?!" Harry gaped at Rita, his mind reeling back to when he was still in New York. "Wait a minute- the FBI busted up a huge international white slavery operation last year. The Cardells."

"Yep, and you are looking at two of the three people that helped take them down. An FBI agent that we met on a previous case asked us to join her undercover." Chris shook his head as he remembered their close call. "The evening went to shit; Rita was the model up for auction and the agent was outbid. But, with some help from Cotton Dunn of all people, we managed to get through that night unscathed. The FBI of course took all the credit." As attracted as Chris was to Shelby leading up to that case, he could never forgive her for the missteps that almost cost Rita her life.

"Wow." Harry knew how great his detectives were, but their FBI stint wasn't even listed in their files. It took quite a bit to impress him, and he was definitely impressed.

"Ask her how much she went for."

Harry nodded in Rita's direction, his glasses on the edge of his nose.

Rita blushed again and sighed. "1.3 million."

Cap whistled loudly. "Whoa." Harry didn't know what else to say. Rita seemed embarrassed, and he didn't want to further her discomfort with added compliments or platitudes. He decided to redirect the conversation. "Well, now that we've had this little trip down memory lane, are you sure you'll be okay tonight?"

Rita smiled, appreciative of the change in focus. "Yeah, Cap. We've got it handled. We could use you as our backup though. Will you sit in the van and run surveillance? We'd love to have you out there with us."

Harry grinned at his two detectives. While he loved being a Captain, he lived for fieldwork. "You got it."

"Rita, we gotta talk about something." Chris eyed her carefully. He wasn't sure how to go about this conversation, but with a few hours to go before his second performance at the club, it was something weighing heavily on his mind. He wanted to have this conversation yesterday and was almost grateful that Candy had paired him with that crazy lady instead. Tonight was more than likely a sure thing, with Rita as the intended blackmail target.

They had grabbed takeout and were hanging at his place, reviewing the plan before Rita left to get ready. Rita reached over him to grab the container of pork fried rice. She noticed a change in his tone but couldn't quite decipher his mood. Starting a conversation with 'Rita' instead of Sam or Sammy usually indicated that something serious was on his mind. "What's up?"

Chris made a face and groaned. "Poor choice of words, Sam." How was he going to have this conversation with her? Rita looked confused- it was now or never. He took a deep breath. "Listen, what happened at the Bingham mansion, you totally caught me off guard. It was quick, surprising, confusing… well, you remember."

"Mm-hmm... exactly where are you going with this?"

"Well…there wasn't enough time to… react, if you get my drift."

"Aha." Rita finally caught on and cringed. She was equally embarrassed by the direction of this conversation, but she loved Chris for being brave enough to approach her with his concerns. His respect for her caught her off guard at times. No man had ever treated her the way he did. She had never seen him this nervous before; it was actually pretty cute and endearing. She put down the container and reached over to grab his hand in solidarity.

Chris shrugged and laughed incredulously. "Human nature, Sam. I may not be able to control some reflexive reactions later. We are going to have to do a hell of a lot more tonight than we ever have before to make it convincing on camera. If we want Jack to blackmail you, we have to make this look authentic from start to finish."

"I agree. To be honest, I hadn't given it much thought. Maybe I was afraid to."

Chris took Rita's hand and kissed it. "You're my best friend, Sam. You know that I will do everything I can tonight to make this okay for you."

Rita chuckled. "It's going to be more than okay. That's the problem."

Chris nodded but didn't say anything. They were well aware of how attracted they were to each other. However, they decided long ago that they were too important to each other to risk it. Sex was just that: sex. What they had was a bond stronger than either had ever felt before. Sex could ruin their friendship and partnership, and they would never forgive themselves. While tonight would be fake to put on a show, the feelings underneath were very real and scary at times.

After a few moments of silence, Rita spoke. "Listen, I need you to go into this tonight without any inhibitions. Like you said, we have to make this look good. The second we get into that room, don't worry about me, okay? We both know what we have to do. I know you won't do anything intentionally, just like I won't with you. I'm sure there will be moments that blur some lines, but as long as we don't cross those lines completely, we'll be fine." Rita paused for a second, not sure which one of them she was trying to convince. Chris had been looking down during her pep talk; she gently turned up his chin with her other hand to force him to look at her, pools of endless blue encapsulating her soul. "Let's just have some harmless fun, all for the sake of taking down some bad guys." She winked and took a bite of orange chicken from the chopsticks in his opposite hand. Maybe a flirtatious ice breaker was just what they both needed.

Chris laughed as he ate the remaining bite of chicken. "It's a deal, partner." The tiniest bit of orange sauce was still on her bottom lip, and he desperately wanted to kiss it away. My God, he thought, this woman owned his soul. He would never admit it to her, but a part of him was looking forward to exploring what was abruptly cut short at the Bingham mansion.

Rita let go of his hand to start cleaning up dinner. A part of her wanted to lean in and kiss him to really break the ice, but it was too risky. She had to wait until she was in character later when she could explore him in the name of the job. That safety brought her a sense of excitement, which she would never admit to Chris. It was going to be an interesting night.