Title:  Noir Drabble Series
Author: A.j.
Rating: PG
Notes: Mostly Pollylynn's fault.  She mentioned something about John and Liz 
having a Bacall/Bogart feel to their banter.  My brain decided this was both 
interesting and gospel.  Originally posted on Live Journal as a series of 
drabbles.

*** 

"Wittier, please Marlowe.  Wittier."

*

John is watching "The Big Sleep" when it hits him; he talks to Elizabeth like 
that. 
 
The pieces of their relationship rearrange in his head, and at 3pm on a 
Tuesday, he realizes that he loves her. *Loves* her, loves her. 
 
With Bogie looking suave and making racehorse comments to his stunning 
blonde, he looks over at Elizabeth - Lizzie when he wants to make her mad - 
and really sees her. 
 
She is beautiful, funny, and laughing at a very familiar course of banter. 
There is light in her hair and laugh lines by her eyes. 
 
She's his future. And he's strangely okay with that.

*** 

"Sugar won't work.  It's been tried."

*

Elizabeth dreams about John in a trench coat and fedora. It is raining, fog 
and water battling it out with the heater on the windows of a 1952 Packard. 
She is wearing white gloves and watches as his fingers casually dance over 
the wheel and gearshift. 
 
The air is moist and heavy, smelling of stale cigarettes, summer and him. 
John's jaw is square and stubbled, his smile slow and earthy. When he looks 
at her, she feels beautiful and witty and like she could break his heart. 
 
She wakes to the scratchy material of John's pants under her cheek, and 
smiles.

*** 

"You got a touch of class but... I don't know how. How far you can go?"

*

John knows he should stop thinking of her in terms of movie bombshells. 
 
You're not supposed to wonder what your boss looks like in a tight little 
suit, or how her voice would sound purred around a high-ball. 
 
His brain, however? Is not getting the message. 
 
"You realize that was my chocolate bar, right?" Elizabeth's eyebrow is 
arched, body curved towards him. She is sex in a pantsuit and heels, but 
classy. He wants to call her Lauren and kiss her neck. 
 
"You love me because I'm evil," he says and has to bite his tongue to not 
call her 'sweetheart'.

-fin-