Work Text:
She was fuming, as she stormed into the locker room, cheeks flushed, fists clenched, nails digging into her skin, her classic temper rising. The nerve of some people, she concluded, mentally tossing around various insults she wanted to hurl at the trainer Russell hired to help the whole team brush up on their court presentation skills. She didn’t need it, she scoffed at him, she had been doing this for years, the evidence does all the work, she just talks. After today’s training session however, she was proven wrong on so many levels. She wanted to dropkick that trainer into the next county for calling her delivery of notes bland and emotionless, that’s how presentations go! Emotions mean nothing to the justice system. Despite her efforts to defend herself, the trainer dismissed everyone but kept her for a few extra minutes to discuss further training. Being the only one asked to stay behind after the lesson, further enraged her.
Topping off the frustration, she finds a piece of paper taped to her locker when she reaches it. She rips it off the metal door in haste, uninterested, but assuming it has something to do with the session this morning, she unravels the entire paper and discovers her name on the top handwritten, followed by a note.
Finn,
That trainer was a jerk. You’re amazing at what you do. Don’t let it get to you. Movie at my place later?
xo- Nick
She stares at the letter, reading it again, three times until she becomes aware of the smile on her face hurting her cheeks. Text messaging be damned. He took the time between his case and training to put this together. She was mentally transported back in time to passing notes in high school and it made her feel smitten. She glances around the empty locker room, half expecting him to be waiting nearby for her reaction and reply.
Giddy, she folds up the letter exactly how he had it, tucking it safely into her back jeans pocket. She closes her locker and rushes back to the layout room where she had been working prior to the break, shifting her notes around for a blank piece of paper. She stumbles as she sits back down on the stool and begins scribbling her reply back to him, hands shaking, butterflies in her stomach as she imagines him defending her court skills to that trainer. She didn’t need to be spoken for, but it was nice to know she wasn’t wrong about being targeted unfairly. She had not felt this way in years, she muses as she finishes her letter to him, folding it sloppily in a rush.
Now she has an excuse to go looking for him, perusing through the lab at a quickened pace, finding him in the computer lab with Henry, going over some DNA evidence. She clears her throat and hands him the note, trying not to grin with such intensity but his dopey look of mild confusion at her arrival only enhances the butterflies in her stomach. She gives him the note, hands shaking, stomach in a nervous knot, and leaves the room without a word, cheeks flushed, heart racing, what was he doing to her?
Nick pockets the folded piece of paper before Henry can inquire about it, trying to remain focused on the evidence in front of him but stealing a glance at her as she vacates the space. When he finishes conversing with Henry, he slips away to a quiet space in the hallway and unfolds her note.
Nick,
Your casual observations are much appreciated. Movie night sounds fun. I’ll bring more popcorn and this time I won’t fall asleep before it's over.
xoxo- Finn
PS- Carrying me to bed was very sweet.
Realizing she had only been half asleep when he carried her to bed and tucked her in made his heart beat faster. It may have only been just last night but it felt like a lifetime ago, like two separate worlds he was living in. One with her completely dissolved from the rest of the world but safe and secure, fun and beautiful, exciting and new, and the one he maintained here on the job, boring, routine, a blockade that prevented him from being with her the way he wanted. But for now, sharing this secret with her, and these letters to hold them over was making him feel giddy, and dare he believe, truly happy. He smiles and tucks the folded letter in his front shirt pocket, patting it gently to be sure it was still there, safe and secure before returning to his work.
And so it began. First the note taped to her locker, then the one she handed him in person. Next came a note in her packed lunch in the fridge. She tucked a note away in the wiper blades on the front of his SUV. He boldly and brazenly slipped a note in her back jeans pocket when they just happened to be standing side by side waiting for a new assignment from Russell. She could feel her face flush red and her knees go weak as she fought the urge to grab the note immediately before someone caught them, biting her lip, butterflies in her stomach, nervous but enthralled by this little game they started. She slipped a note in his jacket pocket that was hanging over the chair in the breakroom while he had lunch. He left one taped to the bathroom mirror when she slept in and was rushing to get ready. It stopped her abruptly and forced her to slow down, taking in his calming words and feeling his sweet demeanor jumping through the page. He was nowhere near her but was making her go weak in the knees.
“Do you want to be loved?”
The note in her hand contained just these simple words. Simple, yet effective in rocking her world on a random Thursday in the brightly lit layout room where she was working and discovered the note from him in her work binder tucked away in her shoulder bag. The sense of being observed overwhelmed her, causing her to glance around the empty silent room, once again expecting him to show himself with a dopey grin on his face. He could have said anything to her, “I love you” I want to be with you” “I can’t wait for us to be together” quite literally any other cliched turn of phrase, but this? An unusual feeling rose up in her chest as she contemplated the note, the words, the intent, the deeper meaning resonating with her soul, something she couldn’t remember feeling recently, or at all. To be loved, of course, to be known? Even better.
She arrived at his house after the shift, carefully entering through the front door with the key he had given her months ago, quietly stepping inside. Sneaking up on him was not the best idea but she wanted to be stealth. Peeking around the corner wall, she found him on the couch, laptop computer open, typing away. Robotically, she crossed the room, dropping her bag on the empty chair, sinking down on the couch, taking the empty space beside him. He barely got his greeting of “Hey” out before she silenced him with a kiss, moving closer as she did, forcing him to tip the laptop to the side, settling it on the couch, replacing it with her in his lap.
“Yes,” she breathed when she broke the kiss and he gave her a confused look until she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, unraveling it and waving his note playfully in front of him.
His grin matched hers, delighted, taking all of her in his arms, fully, tenderly, while the note fluttered silently to the floor.