Ten Seconds

***

"Are you okay?"

She starts, turning quickly. The ride back to the office had apparently been a lot faster than she'd noticed. They were in the parking garage belowground, the SUV parked and off.

She was really out of it if she'd missed Bobby Goren parking the car. Usually that in itself was a twenty minute process that involved him checking the mirrors and making sure he was exactly so between the lines. That and the fact that he tended to gesture at inopportune moments was why she made it very clear, very early, that unless something happened she would be the driver in their partnership.

But something had happened. Or could have anyway.

"Not really," she says, but only because one of the other things they established very early on that lying to each other was pointless. They never did it unless by omission, and that generally got cleared up quickly. It was just easier.

He nods, but doesn't turn to look at her. She appreciates it.

"Do you want to stay out here for a bit?" His voice is soft in the confines of the dark vehicle. Gentle, almost coaxing.

She knows he doesn't want to lose her again, not when he'd just got her back. She knows this about him, just as she knows that he would probably rip his own arm off and offer it to her if she really needed it.

It would have been a clean shoot. It almost was.

She takes a deep breath, draws the smell of leather and gun oil and her partner into her lungs and lets it go. They have work to do.

"Okay," she said, her voice stronger in her own ears. "We have work to do."

He's smiling when they enter the elevator.

-fin-

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