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rsadelleMaster Post - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
Leighton looked around at the gathering Friday night crowd. If anything, the club was even busier than last week. Word getting around that Saporta was selling product was good for business. Leighton had actually been right about the quality experience people expected. What they were selling was much higher quality than whatever surreptitious deals had been going on under cover of a full club where no one was likely to ask too many questions.
Mike and Michael were out there somewhere with Lieutenant Beckett, coordinating every last detail, ready to come in on her signal, ready to stand down and wait if Saporta didn't, as he'd promised, have a cut for her tonight.
Leighton hadn't seen Saporta yet. She'd been mingling, making sure the clientele was having a good time, doing a shot with Blackinton and Suarez.
"Good turnout," she said to them.
"Gabe's a genius," Suarez said. "He knows how to run a popular club."
Leighton grinned at him. "No doubt about that." She turned to Blackinton. "Dance?" Then to Suarez, she said, "I'd ask you, but I don't know how Lauren would feel about that."
Suarez laughed and waved them away. "You two go. She should be here soon."
Good. That meant she'd be away from her office. Tonight, then, if Saporta would just show up and give her some money. Leighton was done. Done with being Elle Masters. Done with playing to Blackinton and Suarez. Done with Saporta having his hands on Victoria.
Blackinton bowed to her. "Lead on, my lady."
Leighton chuckled and took to the dance floor for a song and a half before Suarez wormed his way through the crowd and tapped her shoulder.
"Boss wants to see you in his office."
Leighton nodded and waved him at Blackinton. "Looks like he's all yours."
They both laughed. Blackinton reached for Suarez and dipped him before Leighton turned away, smiling and shaking her head at their antics.
After the noise of the club, the silence of Saporta's office was deafening. The man himself was behind the desk, a handful of papers and a thick envelope in front of him.
"Your cut of the last week." He held out the envelope.
Leighton took it and lifted the flap to see bills stacked almost to bursting. "Thank you." She tucked it into her purse. No receipts, no paper trail, but his fingerprints on the envelope and probably the cash inside. Her word as a cop. The records hiding away in the cabinets behind him and the desk in his apartment. He was going away for a long time.
"Thank you." Saporta smiled, utterly satisfied with himself and the world. That wouldn't last long. "I couldn't have done it without the extra capital."
Leighton shrugged. "It was a good use of my money. Probably the best investment I've ever made."
"Certainly the best I've ever been a part of." Saporta tucked the papers on the desk into a drawer, turned the key, and stood. "If you'll excuse me, I have a girl to meet. She should be here soon."
*
Heads turned when Victoria walked into the deli, and not just because she skipped Novarro and the line. Even he turned to watch. Good. It was working.
People looked up when she entered the club, and she only had to spend a moment at the door before Saporta was sweeping toward her, Leighton trailing along in his wake.
"Vicky-T," he said, cupping her bare cheek and turning the other so it caught the light, "you have outdone yourself." He kissed her carefully, so she didn't have to tell him not to screw it up.
"That is quite the makeup job you've done," Leighton said.
Saporta put his arm around Victoria's shoulder and turned to face her. "Leave my girl alone."
Leighton put her hands up. "Oh, no, I meant it as a compliment." She smiled at Victoria, not quite the real one she would have gotten outside of this job, but real enough. "I have some friends who might drop by. What does it look like up there?"
Friends. Fuck, yes. That meant Leighton had the money and they could get Saporta. Tonight. Victoria shrugged. "Busy. They'll have to look good enough to get past Nate, but if they can do that, they should be fine." No extra guards, nothing up there to show that Saporta was in any way suspicious.
Leighton smirked at her and waved a hand down her body, a hand Saporta's attention followed. "You should know by now that anyone who knows me is going to look good."
Victoria turned away from her and slipped her hand down to Saporta's ass. "You haven't even offered me a drink. I'm feeling a little left out here."
Saporta's attention shifted back to her. Just a few more hours of keeping it there, and she would be done with this whole thing. "Never that." He led her away from Leighton without even saying goodbye. Good. Things were probably moving carefully enough that he wouldn't notice anything anyway, but having her distract him couldn't hurt.
Saporta's presence cleared them a space at the bar with the same ease it always did. His arm was around her still, his hand hooked over her hip, keeping her close and caged while she leaned in and ordered her drink. He pulled her even closer when the bartender moved away to make her rum and Coke and Saporta's Red Bull and vodka.
"Still can't talk you into trying my favorite drink?"
Victoria put her arms around him. Someone else took the few inches of space that left at the bar, pressing her closer to him.
"There are a lot of things I'll put in my mouth," she told Saporta, "but that's not one of them."
Saporta's smile turned into a leer and one of his hands grabbed her ass. Just one more night. Just a few more hours, and the next time she saw him it would be across a courtroom.
"Is that right?"
Victoria smirked and took their drinks from the bartender. "You'll just have to wait and see."
*
Now that she was out in the club - and Victoria was across the room where she couldn't be a distraction - Leighton could get a better sense of how well prepared they were. Butcher was on the dance floor, and she recognized a couple of cops they sometimes borrowed from Homicide at the roulette table. That meant there were probably others scattered throughout the crowd. Good, it would be easier to calm the place if some of the erstwhile patrons remained unfazed by the raid.
"You're looking unfortunately thoughtful for a Friday night," Blackinton said. Leighton hadn't even noticed his approach, but she turned to him with a smile.
"Just appreciating the results of my investment." Leighton glanced around the club with a more proprietary smile. "Perhaps the bastard's cheating was a blessing in disguise if it got me here."
"I'd drink to that if I had a drink." Blackinton's mouth turned down at the end of the sentence into a playfully mournful frown.
Leighton laughed. "Let's take care of that." She tucked her arm through his. "Surely between the two of us, we can make it to the bar."
"It's a difficult mission." Blackinton hummed a few bars, somehow loud enough for Leighton to hear it. "But should we choose to accept it, the rewards will be immeasurable."
Blackinton kept up the mission game all the way to the bar, alternately ducking low and standing on his toes to look over and through the crowd. Leighton let him tug her along and laughed in all the right places. It was too bad he was so deeply involved in Saporta's operation. She would have liked him otherwise.
Drinks in hand, they left the bar, letting paying customers sidle up to it while they circled their way around the gaming tables. They were watching for different things. Blackinton twice nodded to some of Saporta's lower-level flunkies, who stepped in and asked someone to leave the table. For her part, Leighton was watching for people enjoying themselves. She blew on dice, suggested red or black, made sure people were having a good time.
"You let us know if there's anything we can do to make this place better," she said to one of the Homicide cops.
"I'll do that," he answered with a leer that dropped away when Blackinton put his arm around Leighton and guided her away from the table.
Leighton allowed it until they reached the next table, which gave her ample excuse to slide out of it so she could blow on dice. It was a little like what she imagined being a politician was like, without the kissing babies part.
A few more hours. That was all, and then the whole charade would be over. Everyone else around the table with her would be headed for jail - Blackinton and the croupier - or being warned, cited, and sent home - almost everyone else - and she could go back to her real life.
*
Suarez appeared at Saporta's side and leaned in to talk to him. When he stepped half a step away, Saporta put his hand on Victoria's arm.
"I have to go take care of this. I'll be right back." He closed with a kiss to her unmarked cheek.
"Care to dance?"
Victoria looked for the face that matched the voice. "Butcher, right?"
"Got it in one." Butcher smiled as easily as if he really were just a guy in a club. "Dance?"
Victoria glanced in the direction Saporta had gone, but he'd disappeared into the crowd. "Sure." She dropped her drink onto a table and went with Butcher onto the dance floor.
Victoria was careful never to get too close to Butcher - a little jealousy was Victoria Teague's style, but she didn't want to overdo it - and he stayed away from the makeup on her cheek.
"DJ's one of ours," he said when he did lean in, on the other side. "Has stuff for you."
Vague enough that anyone who'd managed to listen in wouldn't know what he was talking about.
"Good to know." Victoria looked over the room, looking for Leighton. She didn't think Butcher had met her in this guise, which left it up to her to let Leighton know.
"Hey," Butcher said. "I know you have a boyfriend, but we're dancing here."
Victoria brought her attention back to him, then followed the jerk of his chin to her left and caught sight of Leighton near the gaming tables. "Can't blame a girl for keeping an eye out for her man, especially in this kind of crowd."
"It is a bit enthusiastic." The crowd jostling them together proved his point.
It wasn't more than a minute later when Suarez appeared at Victoria's elbow. "Your presence is requested at the craps table."
Victoria threw a mildly apologetic glance at Butcher, who only shrugged in response.
Unsurprisingly, Saporta was at the craps table, laughing and chatting up the guests, encouraging them to raise their bets and getting Leighton, who was standing next to him, to blow on their dice.
"And here's my lucky charm." Saporta put an arm around Victoria when she slipped into the scant space between him and Leighton. She was pressed all along Saporta's body on one side, and there were only teasing touches of Leighton's on the other. The dealer handed Saporta the dice, and he held them out in the palm of his hand. "Blow on this, honey."
Victoria inwardly rolled her eyes, but blew nonetheless and watched as they came up seven. Saporta's grin crinkled the corners of his eyes before he captured her in a thorough, if still careful, kiss.
"That's the way you do it."
While Saporta continued to banter with the crowd, Victoria leaned toward Leighton. "DJ booth," she said, when Leighton was close enough that they wouldn't be overheard.
Leighton nodded, and Victoria turned her body and attention toward Saporta. It would be too strange if she talked to Leighton for very long, and she only had to maintain the illusion for a little while longer.
*
Leighton was waiting for it, so she caught the first unhappy movements of the crowd before anyone else did, and slipped away from the table. The wave of knowledge hadn't hit the dance floor yet, so she wove through people, like the advance guard, until she could lean over the DJ booth and take the vest, shield, and handful of zip ties the DJ handed her.
By the time she strapped on her vest, dropped the chain of her badge over her head, and turned around, the club was in chaos. The DJ didn't miss a beat, segueing into the next song with no reaction. Leighton spared a moment to hope Victoria was close behind her before she skirted the edges of the dance floor and down the short hallway to Saporta's office.
Butcher met her at the door with a nod. "Unis should be right behind me." Sure enough, a pair of uniforms pushed through the crowd into the hallway just as he finished the sentence.
Butcher had a set of lock picks he used to jimmy the door, and then they were in.
"Filing cabinets, desk, computer," Leighton said. She glanced around the room. "Photos on the walls, too, probably. Never know what's going to be useful."
Butcher nodded. "We'll get it. This is your collar. You should be out there." He jerked his chin at the rest of the club.
Leighton nodded back. "Thanks."
The chaos in the main room of the club had reached a fever pitch when Leighton made it down the hall. At a quick glance, she could see plenty of officers, vests and badges on, rounding up partygoers and controlling their attempts to push toward the door, but not Victoria or Saporta. She just had to trust that someone had gotten Saporta, and she knew Victoria could take care of herself.
One of the dealers was edging into the crowd, no doubt meaning to blend in and escape despite the uniform. Leighton caught his arm, twisted it behind him.
"You're under arrest," she said as she grabbed the other arm and pulled ties tight around his wrist.
He twisted to look at her. "But you're the boss!"
Leighton held up her shield and continued. "You have the right to remain silent."
The dealer jerked, but fell silent while she Mirandized him and handed him off to one of the unis to take outside.
The crowd was starting to realize there was nothing they could do and calming down as they figured out most of them were being cited and let go. Leighton worked her way around the dance floor toward the bar. The dealers and croupiers weren't the only people passing product, and the bartenders really would blend into the crowd if someone didn't identify them.
*
By the time Saporta realized they were being raided, Victoria had managed to get far enough away from him that the crowd separating them could seem natural rather than deliberate. Victoria breathed easier once she couldn't see him. This was it. It was all over. A few more hours of cleanup and paperwork, assuming the crowd didn't panic and make this into a total disaster, and she could go home with Leighton, scrub the lightning bolt off her cheek, and go to sleep in her own bed.
It was early enough that the crowd didn't push back when she pushed through to the DJ booth, and by the time she pushed her way back into the heart of the club, the bulk of the club's patrons were trying to reach the exit and she could let them sweep her along until she dropped out of the crowd at the roulette tables.
"There are compartments beneath the tables," she told one of the officers there. She fumbled with the catch until she could open it, revealing cocaine divided up into conveniently small pockets of plastic. "Keep them away from the tables, and get some evidence bags down here."
The officer handed her a bag, a Sharpie, and a pair of gloves before moving away to do as she said.
Victoria snapped on the gloves and bagged the evidence, dating and signing on the line. Chain of custody, and everything had to be clean to stick. There was no way she was letting Saporta and his associates get tossed on a technicality.
The officer came back with two more and a handful of evidence bags. Victoria showed the other two where to look on the tables, and they fanned out to confiscate the drugs. There were probably more in the club - a careful search would find most of it - but this would be enough to send Saporta to prison.
By the time Victoria dropped the last bag into a box one of the officers had brought down for evidence collection, the crowd was relatively calm, filing past the officer at the door without complaint, but it was the sight of Mike, wandering through the crowd to her, that really put the smile on her face.
He spared a moment for to return her quick hug before he reported in. "Saporta and a couple of his guys are in custody. We're letting most of the crowd go with citations or warnings, but we've got a lot of the employees, and we can probably get the rest later. We've got Saporta, at least, and teams took his apartment and Strenge's office and apartment. This is a solid case."
Victoria smiled what felt like her first real smile since she became Victoria Teague. "We do good work." She held up her hand for a high-five. "Have you seen Leighton?"
Mike shook his head. "Not yet. You going to find her?"
The club was under control with plenty of NYPD jackets spread across it. She could afford to let her focus shift. "Yeah." Victoria squeezed his arm. "I'll find you later."
*
Leighton handed one bartender over to a uni and pulled the other out of the crowd. She was getting good use out of her collection of zip ties. The second bartender glared at her, but wasn't stupid enough to speak, and it was easy enough to grab another uni to take custody.
Leighton grabbed a passing Sergeant. "Everything behind the bar needs to be collected. There's probably cocaine back there too."
The Sergeant nodded and radioed for more uniforms to take care of it.
Leighton left him to it, because Michael was a few feet behind him.
"Good work," Michael said even before he hugged her, quick and tight. "I heard Strenge's office held enough paperwork to keep Smith busy for weeks."
Leighton laughed. "Good." She opened her purse. "Do you have an evidence bag?"
Michael produced one from his pockets, and Leighton dropped the envelope of cash from Saporta into it. "Return on my investment." Leighton took the Sharpie Michael handed to her and scrawled her name and the date on the bag. "He's going away for a very long time."
"Keeping the streets safe." Michael stopped looking at her and nodded his chin at something behind her. "I'll take that if you want."
Leighton turned, and handed the bag to him without looking. Victoria was standing behind her. She'd seen Victoria earlier, ridiculous lightning bolt and all, but she hadn't been wearing her vest and shield before. Leighton hadn't been able to touch her before.
They were still in the middle of a raid on an underground club, one where they'd both been undercover, so there wasn't much she could do here and now. She could take Victoria's hand and return the smile Victoria was giving her.
Leighton stepped close enough to speak without being overheard. "I got your notes."
Victoria squeezed her hand before letting go. "I got yours." Then, almost inaudibly, "Love you."
Leighton's heart eased. She hadn't really thought that would change, but they'd been so far apart, even when they'd been at the same craps table earlier, and it hadn't been an easy operation for Victoria.
"Me too," Leighton murmured, leaning even closer. "So much, V." Leighton stepped back and gestured at the club. There would be time - a lifetime of time - for them to be together, and they still had a job to do. "Down to clean-up now."
Victoria nodded, shifting back to work mode just as easily. "I'm pretty sure we got all the dealers." She nodded at the bar. "Bartenders?"
"Both in custody."
"Mike says Saporta is too, and they got Strenge's office."
And there went the last of the tension Leighton was carrying. They'd done it. They'd taken down Saporta's organization.
Michael stepped in next to them, phone held up. "Just came in. They got Hitt too."
"Saporta's supplier," Leighton said in answer to Victoria's questioning look. "There's a good chance this one will go down in department history."
*
Victoria's fingers itched to touch Leighton, but she had to be content, for now, with just the one touch of their hands. There was still the rest of the club to go through and, no doubt, a mountain of paperwork to do, but for all intents and purposes it was over. She was going home with Leighton as soon as they could get out of here.
They separated again, Leighton to check on the progress of Saporta's office and Victoria to weave through the crowd with Mike to make sure they hadn't missed anyone who needed to be arrested rather than cited.
It wasn't long before a uni approached them. "Detective Asher? Lieutenant Beckett wants to see you." The uni jerked his chin upwards. "He's outside."
Victoria nodded and looked around. There didn't seem to be anyone left who wasn't just a clubgoer.
"He wants to see Detective Meester too. Is she with you?"
Victoria pointed in the direction of Saporta's office. "She's back there somewhere."
The uni headed in that direction, and Victoria left Mike writing citations. The path through the club was familiar by now, and there was a good chance this would be her last time following it. She wasn't going to miss it at all.
The chaos of the evening was easier to see in the deli, lights reflecting off the deli cases and the street beyond filled with squad cars and uniforms. Victoria passed through a handful of people in NYPD vests and jackets on her way outside.
Saporta was lined up in front of the deli with Suarez, Blackinton, and Novarro, hands cuffed behind their backs and a pair of unis keeping an eye on them. All four of them gaped at her, but Saporta was the only one to speak.
"Victoria!" That was surprise, and anger, in his voice. Saporta stepped toward her.
Victoria didn't wait for one of the unis to take care of him; she put her hand into the join of his shoulder and shoved him right back into the wall herself. It was the most incredibly satisfying part of the whole bust, and the last time she ever had to touch him.
"Victoria." This time her name was almost a plea.
"I'm sure you know you have the right to remain silent," Victoria said before he could get any farther. She turned and walked away before she could do or say anything else. She could get away with that one push, but anything more would have his lawyer crying police brutality. No technicalities.
Victoria headed toward Lieutenant Beckett where he was talking to Lieutenant McCoy and Captain Wentz halfway down the street, but she didn't get very far before a pair of voices stopped her.
Saporta's yelled, "You bitch!"
But it was Leighton's, "Victoria," that had her turning around, a smile spreading across her face while she waited for Leighton to catch up to her.
"Victoria," Leighton said, softer. Leighton's hand cupped her cheek, her fingers skirting the edges of the lightning bolt.
*
It was stupid, and petty, and Leighton didn't care. She touched her lips to Victoria's unmarked cheek, brief and soft, then to Victoria's lips for a kiss that was exactly what she'd been missing.
Victoria kissed her back, and Leighton could feel her smiling into it. Lieutenant Beckett was still waiting for them, so Leighton pulled away well before she was ready. She couldn't help glancing back to make sure Saporta had seen it, that he understood that Victoria had never been his.
He struggled out of place, only to have one of the unis push him back.
Leighton turned her back on him and followed Victoria down the street to Lieutenant Beckett.
"Detectives." The circle of Lieutenant Beckett, Lieutenant McCoy, and Captain Wentz opened up to let them in. "Good work."
"Great work," Captain Wentz said almost on top of Lieutenant Beckett's praise. "You two have done a great thing for this city."
"Can it, Pete," Lieutenant Beckett said, elbowing Captain Wentz in the side. "These are my detectives, not the press." To Leighton and Victoria he said, "But you did do a great thing for the city."
"Thank you," Leighton said for them both.
"This is why we do this," Victoria said. Probably none of the men could hear the undercurrent in her voice, but Leighton knew her better, and all she wanted to do was get them both out of there.
Lieutenant Beckett looked past them, down the street at the rest of the chaos she could still hear behind them. "You'll have to come into the precinct," he said, and Leighton knew him well enough to hear the apology in his voice. "We'll need you to sign off on everything and write up your preliminary reports before you can go home."
"Always paperwork," Victoria said. Her hand slipped into Leighton's, and Leighton squeezed it for a quick moment before letting her go. "Do you need us here, or can we go get a start on that?"
"Go," Lieutenant Beckett waved them away. "Get one of the squads to take you."
There were enough cars coming and going that it was easy enough for Leighton to commandeer one of them to take them back to the precinct. They only needed a driver, not a pair of unis, so Leighton ended up in the back with Victoria in the front next to a uni who wasn't very happy about being on chauffeur duty and sped off as soon as they were out of the car.
"Paperwork," Victoria muttered as they climbed the steps. "Not why I became a cop."
Leighton caught the door that Victoria had yanked open too hard. "Just a couple of hours of it. He has to let us out of here sometime."
"We could die of old age before then," Victoria said, but that time it was lighter, and she took the steps two at a time, leaving Leighton to follow behind and admire Victoria's thighs in the truly short skirt she was wearing.
*
They didn't die of old age. As itchy as she was to get home, with Leighton, Victoria buckled down and wrote her preliminary report. She didn't have to have all the details yet, and after an hour, she printed it out, signed it, and dropped it onto Lieutenant Beckett's desk. Mike and Michael's reports were already there, even though they'd gotten back after Leighton and Victoria.
Victoria wandered back out into the bullpen proper and perched on the edge of Leighton's desk, hoping the sight of her skirt riding up her thigh would add an extra reason for Leighton to hurry up.
"Almost done?"
Leighton's eyes caught on the hem of her skirt before making their way up to Victoria's face. "Two more paragraphs." They were usually good at keeping their relationship out of the precinct, but Leighton's hand squeezed just above Victoria's knee. "Stop distracting me."
Victoria slid off her desk. There wasn't anything to do but wait. Mike and Michael were having coffee, but she was already too wired for that. She wandered over to them anyway.
"Just because we're stuck here doesn't mean you two have to stay."
Mike shrugged. "We'll wait for you."
"Neither one of us is going to sleep for a while anyway, and Naomi doesn't expect me home."
"You're really not going to sleep if you keep mainlining caffeine."
"Not all of us have the adrenaline of being caught up in the middle of a club raid to keep us going," Mike said.
Victoria elbowed him and looked across the room. Leighton was still working. "You were there too."
"Not like you." Mike caught her elbow before she could dig it into his side again. "Too bad you didn't get to collar Saporta."
Victoria shrugged. "He's off the streets; that's what matters." She grinned. "I did get to shove him against a wall, and kiss Leighton in front of him."
Mike and Michael both laughed.
"He doesn't know what he's missing," Michael said, and that stopped all of them.
"Unfortunately," Victoria said, turning to look at Leighton again, "he does." The last thing she wanted to do was think about Saporta. Lucky for her, Leighton's printer was spitting out paper.
"Victoria," Michael said, and she turned back to him. "I'm sorry."
Victoria shrugged. "It's fine. I'm used to it by now." The smile she flashed him didn't stick very well.
She could hear Leighton's heels clicking across the floor, the rhythm of her footsteps familiar even if the shoes in particular weren't, so she wasn't surprised when Leighton rested a hand at the small of her back. It felt good, to have Leighton's casual touches back.
"I'm going to take Victoria away from you now," Leighton told Mike and Michael.
"Yeah, fine," Mike said. He was trying to be a grouch, but Victoria could see that it didn't bother him at all. "Get out of here."
Victoria turned to Leighton with a grin. "Hear that? I'm all yours."
*
It wasn't that easy, of course. They had to stop in the locker room to retrieve what they'd left there - Leighton grabbed her phone, keys, and Metro card and left the rest for the morning - and Mike and Michael walked with them as far as the subway before letting them go. But then, then they could truly stop being Elle Masters and Victoria Teague, or even Detectives Meester and Asher, and just be Leighton and Victoria, on their way home together.
The subway was quiet, only a few other people out late, none of whom paid the slightest bit of attention to Leighton and Victoria taking a pair of seats. Victoria took the inside seat, and leaned her head on Leighton's shoulder as soon as they were both sitting down. Victoria's sigh matched the easing of tension in Leighton's shoulders.
"Okay?" Leighton put her arm around Victoria.
"Glad to be with you." It wasn't quite an answer, but it was probably good enough.
"Me too." Leighton leaned her cheek on Victoria's hair. "Let's not do that again for a while."
Victoria's laugh was harder than anything Leighton remembered hearing from her before. "Which part? Making NYPD history? Sleeping with the head of a crime syndicate who's still in love with his ex? Pretending we don't know each other?"
"Making NYPD history would be okay," Leighton said, keeping her voice soft. "But let's avoid the other stuff. I was thinking about being apart."
Victoria exhaled and turned her face into Leighton's shoulder. "No," she said, "let's not do that part either." After a moment, she muttered, "Sorry."
Leighton rubbed her arm. "It's okay." The clattering of the tracks took them closer and closer to home, but not fast enough. "You'll have to see the department shrink."
Victoria sat up, turning to look at Leighton. "I know. I know the drill. I've done undercover relationships before."
"I know," Leighton said, and she did. She'd been part of most of those undercover ops, and heard about the ones that were before she and Victoria had met. "But not like this."
"I'm fine," Victoria said, and then her face twisted. "No, I'm not, but it's not-"
Leighton wanted to tell her it didn't matter and pull Victoria to her, but she knew what this kind of op could do to a person, and it did matter.
"I don't want that to come between us." Victoria's hand gripped Leighton's tight enough to hurt. "I love you," she said, as fierce as Leighton had ever seen her. "I want you. He doesn't get to take that away from us."
Leighton couldn't not touch her then, and she put her hand on Victoria's cheek. "No," she said, "he doesn't."
Victoria didn't move away, didn't so much as flinch, when Leighton kissed her. It was different now, better, without an audience, just them in an almost empty subway car. It could have been any night when they'd been out clubbing, except for all the ways it wasn't.
*
At first, Victoria couldn't help but compare Leighton's touch to Saporta's. She'd spent so much time with him, without being able to touch Leighton at all, that part of her had catalogued him as familiar. She shoved that away as much as she could and reminded herself that this was Leighton. This was where she belonged. It was easier after a while, because she'd spent so much more time with Leighton than she ever had with Saporta and because this was where she really wanted to be. Because Leighton's touch affected her in ways Saporta's never had.
They held hands, walking as fast as they could without running, from the station to their building. Their familiar building, the sight of which made Victoria's breath catch.
Leighton had her keys out, which was for the best because Victoria didn't think her hands were steady enough to manage hers.
The apartment was silent, no bark of greeting when Leighton opened the door. That was for the best too; Victoria would have fallen apart if she had been faced with Gizmo's adoration on top of the rest of the things that meant home to her.
Victoria didn't go any farther than the entryway, turning back so she was already in Leighton's space when she'd finished locking the door.
Leighton touched her cheek, the way she'd been doing all night, and this time the simple caress liquefied Victoria's insides. She surged against Leighton, pushing her into the door and kissing her hard. She knew how Leighton tasted, and it was right to taste her here, now, in their apartment that smelled and felt like them. No more Saporta. No more apartment designed for a party girl. Just home and Leighton and everything that was right with the world.
Leighton's arms were around her, holding her close, and then she wasn't kissing Victoria anymore. "V, are you sure?"
Victoria nodded, meeting Leighton's eyes so she could see how much she meant it. "Yes." She pushed her thigh between Leighton's, slipped her hand under her shirt. "I want you. I want you." She moved her hand up, skimming Leighton's stomach, until she could cup the curve of Leighton's breast. "Please," she whispered.
"God, I love you," Leighton choked out, and then she was kissing Victoria, and everything was right again. Leighton stopped being so careful with her; one of her hands found its way under Victoria's skirt and hiked her thigh up. It brought them closer, opened Victoria up to the pressure of Leighton's thigh on her cunt.
Victoria closed her eyes against the fierce rush of pleasure in that. She was wet, in a way she never had been for Saporta. Her body knew that this was Leighton, that she loved her, that she wanted her. That she chose her.
"Love you," she said, skimming the words over Leighton's cheek, into her hair, down her neck. "Love you, love you, love you."
*
Leighton gentled her touch, until she was cradling Victoria instead of grasping at her. "Victoria."
Victoria pulled back enough to shoot her a fierce look. "Leighton, if you don't fuck me right now." She left the threat unfinished, but Leighton had no doubt she was serious about it. And even if she'd had any, it would have disappeared with the way Victoria ground into her thigh.
Leighton laughed with sheer relief. It was really over. They were really together again. They were really home.
"Okay." Leighton skimmed her lips over Victoria's cheek to her mouth. "What do you want?"
"You," Victoria said, and then her hands were between them, at Leighton's waist. "Your pants off for starters."
Leighton waited for Victoria to get her pants unbuttoned before she kicked her shoes off and shimmied her pants down to go with them. Victoria stepped out of her shoes too. They weren't even close to the same height, but Victoria didn't tower over her quite so much in bare feet, and she was more like Leighton's Victoria without the heels that belonged to her cover identity.
Victoria moved her way down Leighton's chest, covering the space her shirt left bare with kisses that only made her want to keep Victoria there. When Victoria moved on, it was to kneel at Leighton's feet, and that wasn't an unpleasant change.
Victoria's hand pushed her shirt up, the gauzy fabric catching around her hands and keeping them from Leighton's skin. The heat of them filtered through the fabric, and it was followed by more heat from Victoria's mouth on her skin. It was her stomach first, brushing kisses that became harder and wetter as they moved down, until Victoria was sucking at the skin just above her underwear.
"You're going to have to do something here," Victoria said. "Shirt or panties."
In answer, Leighton tugged the shirt out of Victoria's grip and leaned away from the door far enough to pull it over her head. She dropped it somewhere - she didn't care where; it was Elle Masters' shirt, not hers - and looked down at Victoria looking up at her.
"You're beautiful," Victoria said. Her hand cupped Leighton's breast and her mouth nipped at Leighton's stomach.
"V." Leighton put both her hands in Victoria's hair. This was hers, theirs. This was her Victoria, telling her she was beautiful and touching her just the way she liked to be touched.
"Leighton." Victoria kissed her stomach one more time before she slipped her fingers under the waistband of Leighton's underwear and drew them down her legs, her hands skimming Leighton's skin the whole way.
Leighton stepped out of them, kicking them out of the way, and Victoria's hands slid all the way up again, one stopping at her hip and the other coming back to her breast. Leighton shifted her legs apart in invitation, and Victoria tipped her head into her hands and smiled up at her.
"Yes," Victoria said, and then her hand was moving again, from Leighton's hip to between her thighs.
*
Victoria could smell Leighton, the familiar scent of her arousal, so incredibly different from Saporta, tickling at her nose. She spread Leighton open as much as she could with just one hand - she didn't want to let go of Leighton's breast, not just yet, not when she could do both - and licked into her. The taste exploded across her tongue as familiar as the scent. It was real. This wasn't just her trying to remember after being apart for so long. This was Leighton's cunt on her tongue.
With one last caress to Leighton's breast, Victoria let go of it and put both hands on Leighton, pushing her thighs apart and spreading her cunt open for Victoria's mouth. Leighton was already wet, and she only got wetter as Victoria licked over her, into her. It had been too long, but not so long that Victoria didn't remember how to do this. She knew what Leighton liked when they were like this. She knew where to lick, where to use her fingers, how hard to push to make Leighton tremble.
"V," Leighton gasped above her. One of her hands tightened in Victoria's hair, and the other one left it.
Victoria looked up as much as she could without moving away from what she was doing. Leighton had slipped that hand into her bra and was touching her own breast. Victoria could feel herself getting wetter just watching it, and that was nothing compared to the way Leighton had to be feeling if the tilt of her cunt into Victoria's touch was anything to go by.
Victoria redoubled her efforts, finding the places Leighton liked to be touched and pressing into her clit. She wanted to make Leighton come for her. She wanted to feel it, to taste it, to know it was because of her.
It didn't take long. She really did know how to get Leighton off, and the desperation of not having been together for so long had to be helping. Leighton cried out and shuddered around her, and Victoria kept touching her all the way through it.
When Leighton stilled and the hand in Victoria's hair stopped holding her there and started pulling her away, Victoria licked all the way up Leighton's cunt one last time and pulled away. The smear of silver on the inside of Leighton's thigh surprised a short laugh out of her.
"What?" The word was slow and lazy, like Leighton couldn't quite get it out any other way.
"Makeup." Victoria pressed her lips to Leighton's thigh just above it. "My lightning bolt is all over you now."
Leighton's thumb stroked her cheek, just under whatever was left on her face. "It's an unusual look. Why'd you do it?"
Victoria almost turned away, but it was Leighton, and she didn't need to hide from her. "I didn't want him touching me anymore."
"He doesn't get to do it again," Leighton said. "You're mine." The simple declaration made Victoria's arousal flare up again.
*
Leighton pulled Victoria up and hugged her close, pulled her head down for a kiss. "Mine," she said into Victoria's mouth, and Victoria gave it back to her.
"Yours." Victoria's forehead rested on hers. "Yours, always." Victoria nipped at her lip. "Fuck me, please. Take me back."
Leighton's breath caught in her chest. There was nothing she wanted to do more. Now wasn't the time for gentleness. Now was the time for certainty, for possession. She shoved Victoria's skirt up over her hips and pulled her panties down far enough that they fell the rest of the way and Victoria could step out of them.
"Mine." Leighton kissed Victoria again, hitching Victoria's leg up over her hip while she did. It put more of their skin in contact, and it left Victoria open to her touch. Leighton wasted no time in taking advantage of it. She slid her hand up the inside of Victoria's thigh and in until she could stroke her fingers over Victoria's cunt.
Victoria wanted Leighton to take her back, so she did. Victoria was already wet to her touch, so she didn't try to get her there, just took advantage of it. She pushed two fingers into Victoria all at once. Saporta had been there, and he didn't get to be again. This was Leighton's.
Victoria's forehead dropped to her shoulder. "Yes," she said. "Please."
"Anything you want." Leighton pressed in, her fingers sinking all the way into Victoria and her palm arching over the rest of Victoria's cunt so she could use the heel of her hand on Victoria's clit. She cupped her other hand around the curve of Victoria's ass to hold her close.
Victoria cried out and ground her hips closer.
"I've got you," Leighton said. She stretched her fingers a little, rubbing into Victoria, feeling her get wetter around them. She set up a rhythm, moving the heel of her hand in soft pulses, turning it a little so Victoria could rub against the firmer side of her thumb.
Victoria said her name, and Leighton kissed her, taking her words and her breath, pulling back and saying, "Mine," just to watch Victoria's eyelids flutter and feel her hips stutter.
"Yours," Victoria gasped. "Please."
"Yes," Leighton said. She rubbed harder, twisted her fingers in Victoria, finding all the places she liked to be touched most. "Come on, V." She could tell from the way Victoria moved against her and the way her eyes were screwed shut that she was close. "Come for me. Just for me."
When she did, her cunt closing on Leighton's fingers and her thighs tensing, she said, "Leighton," sounding as desperate for her as she ever had.
"Mine." Leighton kissed her hard, her hand still moving to draw out Victoria's pleasure as long as possible. Victoria took it for a few moments before she drew back and let her leg drop, which Leighton took to mean she'd had enough. Leighton put both arms around her then, holding her close.
*
Victoria closed her eyes and breathed in the scents of the two of them and sex. Saporta had been good enough to get her off a couple of times, despite the fact that he wasn't who she wanted, but it hadn't left her feeling anything like she did now. Leighton made her come because she loved her, because they belonged to each other. It made all the difference.
"V? Victoria?" Leighton asked, and Victoria realized she was shaking in Leighton's arms.
Victoria's first instinct, from so much time pretending for Saporta, was to tell Leighton that she was fine, but she wasn't and she didn't ever have to lie to Leighton. She slipped her arms around Leighton. "Don't let go."
"I won't." Leighton held her closer, and that was better. She couldn't shake so much if Leighton was holding her still. "I've got you."
Victoria nodded, and buried her face in Leighton's neck. Leighton had her. She was back where she belonged. "Yours," she said, getting Leighton's, "Mine," right back.
Leighton nudged her back a fraction after a while. "Let's go to bed," she said. "It's been a long day. A lot of long days."
Victoria didn't want to, but she stepped away from Leighton so they could move. "Shower first." Leighton was doing a lot to bring her back from the op, but she needed to wash the rest of it off before she could sleep.
"Share?"
Victoria grabbed at Leighton's hand. "Yes." That would be even better, letting Leighton wash it off of her.
They didn't bother picking up the clothes scattering the entryway. They didn't need them, and they weren't in the way. Victoria stopped before they got to the bedroom and squirmed out of her dress and bra. She didn't want Victoria Teague's clothes in her bedroom, the real one. Bad enough that she was still wearing the lightning bolt, although that was better now that she and Leighton were sharing it.
Leighton turned on the shower and stood next to Victoria in front of the mirror while they waited for it to heat up. Except for the lightning bolt, they didn't look any different from how they did before the case.
Victoria watched in the mirror as Leighton kissed her shoulder.
"We can get Gizmo tomorrow." Leighton pulled away, came back with a square of cotton and the makeup remover from the shelf. "Call Anna in the morning and pick him up after work."
"Yeah." Victoria closed her eyes and let Leighton swipe at her mascara. "That'd be good."
Victoria opened her eyes to watch in the mirror when Leighton moved to the lightning bolt on her cheek. Leighton was watching her too, as the last of Victoria Teague was wiped away and tossed into the trash.
The lighting bolt was thick enough that it took two tries to get it all, but that was okay. Victoria was all too happy to have Leighton take her back one piece at a time.
*
Leighton stepped back from Victoria when she was done and swiped the cotton square over her thigh so she could get the rest of Victoria's armor out of their lives. "Shower." She nudged Victoria into it while she got a new piece of cotton and took off her own much less complicated makeup.
When Leighton pulled the curtain back, she found Victoria standing under the spray, her face turned up into it. "You'll dry out your skin."
Victoria smiled faintly. "I think it'll be fine just this once." She turned away from the water, though, and poured shampoo into her hand. "Come here."
Leighton let herself be tugged under the water to be wet down. "I was going to take care of you."
"You can do that next." Victoria's hands massaged the shampoo into her scalp, stroked down the length of her hair.
It was nice, to feel Victoria again. She'd been missing her touch, and now she could have as much as she wanted. She let Victoria have at her, keeping her eyes closed while Victoria rinsed her hair out, conditioned it, rinsed it again. Victoria came back after that with a loofah, her hand trailing in its wake, feeling softer for the contrast.
"My turn," Leighton said after Victoria got all the way down to her feet. She took the loofah away and turned Victoria into the spray to get her hair wet. Victoria's hair got the same careful treatment hers had. "The rest of you now," she murmured. She didn't want her touch to startle Victoria, and her eyes were still closed.
"'Kay."
Victoria stayed relaxed and pliant while Leighton touched her, trailing her hand after the loofah the same way Victoria had. The touch mattered. Skin to skin kept them connected more than anything else could, and they'd been without it for too long.
She had to stop eventually, and once Victoria was clean and rinsed, Leighton turned off the water and opened the shower curtain. "Bed," she said to Victoria to prod her out of the shower.
Victoria stepped out after her and took the towel Leighton handed her. Leighton took it back when she was dry and hung them both up. They took turns at the sink, Leighton letting Victoria brush her teeth and take out her contacts first. She wasn't surprised when Victoria lingered instead of going to bed without her. It meant they could go together.
Leighton turned out the light, and they made it to the bed in the light that filtered in around the edges of the blinds. Victoria lay down with her back to Leighton. Leighton took it as an invitation and spooned up to her, draping one arm over Victoria. Victoria melted into the touch, so it had to be okay. Leighton had missed her so much, and it felt so right to be in their bed together again.
"I love you," she said into Victoria's shoulder. "Always and forever."
Victoria's breath hitched, and she put her hand over the one Leighton had on her stomach. "Always and forever."
*
As primary witnesses in the case, Leighton and Victoria hadn't been allowed in the courtroom for any part of Saporta's trial other than their own testimony. It was just as well; Victoria didn't want to see Saporta any more than was absolutely necessary. She had been a cop long enough - and had enough sessions with the department shrink between the end of the case and the trial - that the defense counsel hadn't been able to rattle her, but she'd still come home from those days in court exhausted and snappish. Leighton had let her be, for which she was eternally grateful.
The day both sides presented closing arguments happened to fall between active cases for them.
"Get out of here," Lieutenant Beckett finally told them - all four of them, since Mike and Michael were also mostly pretending to do paperwork. "Go see what kind of crimes you can solve at the courthouse."
They didn't wait for him to reconsider, just turned off computers, grabbed jackets and purses, and took a car across town. They had a pattern for driving together: whoever's partner was driving took shotgun, and the other two got the backseat. Victoria couldn't decide if it was more comforting to pretend that everything was normal, or if she'd rather have had Leighton next to her.
The best place to find out what was happening was just outside the courtroom, and indeed that was where they found DA Stump, surrounded by his briefcase, a laptop, a junior ADA, and his Blackberry.
"No verdict yet?" Leighton asked.
"No," Stump said, and then he actually looked up from his phone. "No," he said, less rushed. "It's only been twenty minutes." He made a face at them. "Defense's closing took forever."
"Barakat likes to grandstand," the junior ADA said.
"Hurt his chances with the jury?" Michael asked.
Stump shrugged. "Some juries love him, some of them get sick of it and just want to go home. This one looked like it might be more on the sick of him side, but we won't know until the verdict comes in." He glanced down at his phone. "Excuse me."
The four of them drew away a little, making their own bunch in the corridor. There were benches, but Victoria at least was too jittery to sit. All that work, and it came down to twelve citizens who might not be sick of the defense.
"I hate waiting," she said.
"Me too." Mike pulled his cigarettes out of a pocket, tapped the box into his palm and put it back. "Wish you could still smoke in here."
Victoria made a face at him. "Bad enough we have to smell you. I don't want to smell a whole building full of smokers." The familiar argument calmed her nerves a little, and the way Leighton was standing next to her, easy and like she belonged there, helped even more.
*
They'd been waiting for the better part of an hour when Stump started repacking his briefcase. "Verdict's in."
They followed him and his junior ADA into the courtroom. There was the usual collection of reporters and other audience members, people who had to be Saporta's family, Barakat waiting at the defense table. Dueñas was just behind him.
The four of them filed into benches in the back row, Mike and Michael first, then Leighton, Victoria on the outside. Victoria was projecting calm, but Leighton could see the cracks in her demeanor, the tension at the edge of her smile and in the way she held herself. Better to put her where she could get away if she needed to.
Bailiffs brought Saporta in. Leighton could tell the moment he saw them; his face hardened into a mask of anger. Leighton squeezed Victoria's thigh, where he wouldn't be able to see it, and Victoria turned to look at her instead of Saporta.
Leighton kept an eye on Saporta. He glared at them for a moment longer before Dueñas caught his attention and everything about him softened when he looked at her.
"Okay?" Leighton murmured to Victoria as they stood when the bailiff announced the arrival of the judge.
"Yeah." Victoria's hand slipped into hers for a moment that ended when Judge McLynn banged the gavel and they all sat down again.
Nothing about the proceedings mattered until the jury foreman looked down at the slip of paper in his hand and said, "We the jury find the defendant guilty on all counts."
There was noise at the front of the courtroom, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the soft exhale from Victoria and the way she pressed her shoulder to Leighton's. They hadn't talked about it much, but trials didn't always go their way, and Leighton knew Victoria had been worried about this one more than others.
Leighton put her arm around Victoria and hugged her close. The judge dismissed the jury, set the sentencing date, and then it was over. Leighton glanced toward the front of the courtroom. Saporta glared at them again, before he and Dueñas leaned across the rail for a kiss the bailiffs put a quick stop to.
"Ready to go?" Leighton asked, soft enough that it wouldn't travel far.
Victoria nodded and smiled at her. It was a little rough around the edges, but it was there. "Yes."
"We'd better," Michael said. He had his phone out, and he flashed the screen at them. "Lieutenant wants us back at the station. He has a case for us."
Victoria's smile firmed up. "Right back into it."
Leighton bumped her shoulder against Victoria's as they filed out of the courtroom and got a quick grin in response. They both knew Saporta could still get out on appeal, but for now, he was off the streets and they had work to do.
Bonus Material
Art by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dwg
Mix 1: Undercover and Still In Love/It's A Bumpy Road bydelphinapterus
Mix 2: Oceans Won't Freeze byroadmarks
Leighton looked around at the gathering Friday night crowd. If anything, the club was even busier than last week. Word getting around that Saporta was selling product was good for business. Leighton had actually been right about the quality experience people expected. What they were selling was much higher quality than whatever surreptitious deals had been going on under cover of a full club where no one was likely to ask too many questions.
Mike and Michael were out there somewhere with Lieutenant Beckett, coordinating every last detail, ready to come in on her signal, ready to stand down and wait if Saporta didn't, as he'd promised, have a cut for her tonight.
Leighton hadn't seen Saporta yet. She'd been mingling, making sure the clientele was having a good time, doing a shot with Blackinton and Suarez.
"Good turnout," she said to them.
"Gabe's a genius," Suarez said. "He knows how to run a popular club."
Leighton grinned at him. "No doubt about that." She turned to Blackinton. "Dance?" Then to Suarez, she said, "I'd ask you, but I don't know how Lauren would feel about that."
Suarez laughed and waved them away. "You two go. She should be here soon."
Good. That meant she'd be away from her office. Tonight, then, if Saporta would just show up and give her some money. Leighton was done. Done with being Elle Masters. Done with playing to Blackinton and Suarez. Done with Saporta having his hands on Victoria.
Blackinton bowed to her. "Lead on, my lady."
Leighton chuckled and took to the dance floor for a song and a half before Suarez wormed his way through the crowd and tapped her shoulder.
"Boss wants to see you in his office."
Leighton nodded and waved him at Blackinton. "Looks like he's all yours."
They both laughed. Blackinton reached for Suarez and dipped him before Leighton turned away, smiling and shaking her head at their antics.
After the noise of the club, the silence of Saporta's office was deafening. The man himself was behind the desk, a handful of papers and a thick envelope in front of him.
"Your cut of the last week." He held out the envelope.
Leighton took it and lifted the flap to see bills stacked almost to bursting. "Thank you." She tucked it into her purse. No receipts, no paper trail, but his fingerprints on the envelope and probably the cash inside. Her word as a cop. The records hiding away in the cabinets behind him and the desk in his apartment. He was going away for a long time.
"Thank you." Saporta smiled, utterly satisfied with himself and the world. That wouldn't last long. "I couldn't have done it without the extra capital."
Leighton shrugged. "It was a good use of my money. Probably the best investment I've ever made."
"Certainly the best I've ever been a part of." Saporta tucked the papers on the desk into a drawer, turned the key, and stood. "If you'll excuse me, I have a girl to meet. She should be here soon."
*
Heads turned when Victoria walked into the deli, and not just because she skipped Novarro and the line. Even he turned to watch. Good. It was working.
People looked up when she entered the club, and she only had to spend a moment at the door before Saporta was sweeping toward her, Leighton trailing along in his wake.
"Vicky-T," he said, cupping her bare cheek and turning the other so it caught the light, "you have outdone yourself." He kissed her carefully, so she didn't have to tell him not to screw it up.
"That is quite the makeup job you've done," Leighton said.
Saporta put his arm around Victoria's shoulder and turned to face her. "Leave my girl alone."
Leighton put her hands up. "Oh, no, I meant it as a compliment." She smiled at Victoria, not quite the real one she would have gotten outside of this job, but real enough. "I have some friends who might drop by. What does it look like up there?"
Friends. Fuck, yes. That meant Leighton had the money and they could get Saporta. Tonight. Victoria shrugged. "Busy. They'll have to look good enough to get past Nate, but if they can do that, they should be fine." No extra guards, nothing up there to show that Saporta was in any way suspicious.
Leighton smirked at her and waved a hand down her body, a hand Saporta's attention followed. "You should know by now that anyone who knows me is going to look good."
Victoria turned away from her and slipped her hand down to Saporta's ass. "You haven't even offered me a drink. I'm feeling a little left out here."
Saporta's attention shifted back to her. Just a few more hours of keeping it there, and she would be done with this whole thing. "Never that." He led her away from Leighton without even saying goodbye. Good. Things were probably moving carefully enough that he wouldn't notice anything anyway, but having her distract him couldn't hurt.
Saporta's presence cleared them a space at the bar with the same ease it always did. His arm was around her still, his hand hooked over her hip, keeping her close and caged while she leaned in and ordered her drink. He pulled her even closer when the bartender moved away to make her rum and Coke and Saporta's Red Bull and vodka.
"Still can't talk you into trying my favorite drink?"
Victoria put her arms around him. Someone else took the few inches of space that left at the bar, pressing her closer to him.
"There are a lot of things I'll put in my mouth," she told Saporta, "but that's not one of them."
Saporta's smile turned into a leer and one of his hands grabbed her ass. Just one more night. Just a few more hours, and the next time she saw him it would be across a courtroom.
"Is that right?"
Victoria smirked and took their drinks from the bartender. "You'll just have to wait and see."
*
Now that she was out in the club - and Victoria was across the room where she couldn't be a distraction - Leighton could get a better sense of how well prepared they were. Butcher was on the dance floor, and she recognized a couple of cops they sometimes borrowed from Homicide at the roulette table. That meant there were probably others scattered throughout the crowd. Good, it would be easier to calm the place if some of the erstwhile patrons remained unfazed by the raid.
"You're looking unfortunately thoughtful for a Friday night," Blackinton said. Leighton hadn't even noticed his approach, but she turned to him with a smile.
"Just appreciating the results of my investment." Leighton glanced around the club with a more proprietary smile. "Perhaps the bastard's cheating was a blessing in disguise if it got me here."
"I'd drink to that if I had a drink." Blackinton's mouth turned down at the end of the sentence into a playfully mournful frown.
Leighton laughed. "Let's take care of that." She tucked her arm through his. "Surely between the two of us, we can make it to the bar."
"It's a difficult mission." Blackinton hummed a few bars, somehow loud enough for Leighton to hear it. "But should we choose to accept it, the rewards will be immeasurable."
Blackinton kept up the mission game all the way to the bar, alternately ducking low and standing on his toes to look over and through the crowd. Leighton let him tug her along and laughed in all the right places. It was too bad he was so deeply involved in Saporta's operation. She would have liked him otherwise.
Drinks in hand, they left the bar, letting paying customers sidle up to it while they circled their way around the gaming tables. They were watching for different things. Blackinton twice nodded to some of Saporta's lower-level flunkies, who stepped in and asked someone to leave the table. For her part, Leighton was watching for people enjoying themselves. She blew on dice, suggested red or black, made sure people were having a good time.
"You let us know if there's anything we can do to make this place better," she said to one of the Homicide cops.
"I'll do that," he answered with a leer that dropped away when Blackinton put his arm around Leighton and guided her away from the table.
Leighton allowed it until they reached the next table, which gave her ample excuse to slide out of it so she could blow on dice. It was a little like what she imagined being a politician was like, without the kissing babies part.
A few more hours. That was all, and then the whole charade would be over. Everyone else around the table with her would be headed for jail - Blackinton and the croupier - or being warned, cited, and sent home - almost everyone else - and she could go back to her real life.
*
Suarez appeared at Saporta's side and leaned in to talk to him. When he stepped half a step away, Saporta put his hand on Victoria's arm.
"I have to go take care of this. I'll be right back." He closed with a kiss to her unmarked cheek.
"Care to dance?"
Victoria looked for the face that matched the voice. "Butcher, right?"
"Got it in one." Butcher smiled as easily as if he really were just a guy in a club. "Dance?"
Victoria glanced in the direction Saporta had gone, but he'd disappeared into the crowd. "Sure." She dropped her drink onto a table and went with Butcher onto the dance floor.
Victoria was careful never to get too close to Butcher - a little jealousy was Victoria Teague's style, but she didn't want to overdo it - and he stayed away from the makeup on her cheek.
"DJ's one of ours," he said when he did lean in, on the other side. "Has stuff for you."
Vague enough that anyone who'd managed to listen in wouldn't know what he was talking about.
"Good to know." Victoria looked over the room, looking for Leighton. She didn't think Butcher had met her in this guise, which left it up to her to let Leighton know.
"Hey," Butcher said. "I know you have a boyfriend, but we're dancing here."
Victoria brought her attention back to him, then followed the jerk of his chin to her left and caught sight of Leighton near the gaming tables. "Can't blame a girl for keeping an eye out for her man, especially in this kind of crowd."
"It is a bit enthusiastic." The crowd jostling them together proved his point.
It wasn't more than a minute later when Suarez appeared at Victoria's elbow. "Your presence is requested at the craps table."
Victoria threw a mildly apologetic glance at Butcher, who only shrugged in response.
Unsurprisingly, Saporta was at the craps table, laughing and chatting up the guests, encouraging them to raise their bets and getting Leighton, who was standing next to him, to blow on their dice.
"And here's my lucky charm." Saporta put an arm around Victoria when she slipped into the scant space between him and Leighton. She was pressed all along Saporta's body on one side, and there were only teasing touches of Leighton's on the other. The dealer handed Saporta the dice, and he held them out in the palm of his hand. "Blow on this, honey."
Victoria inwardly rolled her eyes, but blew nonetheless and watched as they came up seven. Saporta's grin crinkled the corners of his eyes before he captured her in a thorough, if still careful, kiss.
"That's the way you do it."
While Saporta continued to banter with the crowd, Victoria leaned toward Leighton. "DJ booth," she said, when Leighton was close enough that they wouldn't be overheard.
Leighton nodded, and Victoria turned her body and attention toward Saporta. It would be too strange if she talked to Leighton for very long, and she only had to maintain the illusion for a little while longer.
*
Leighton was waiting for it, so she caught the first unhappy movements of the crowd before anyone else did, and slipped away from the table. The wave of knowledge hadn't hit the dance floor yet, so she wove through people, like the advance guard, until she could lean over the DJ booth and take the vest, shield, and handful of zip ties the DJ handed her.
By the time she strapped on her vest, dropped the chain of her badge over her head, and turned around, the club was in chaos. The DJ didn't miss a beat, segueing into the next song with no reaction. Leighton spared a moment to hope Victoria was close behind her before she skirted the edges of the dance floor and down the short hallway to Saporta's office.
Butcher met her at the door with a nod. "Unis should be right behind me." Sure enough, a pair of uniforms pushed through the crowd into the hallway just as he finished the sentence.
Butcher had a set of lock picks he used to jimmy the door, and then they were in.
"Filing cabinets, desk, computer," Leighton said. She glanced around the room. "Photos on the walls, too, probably. Never know what's going to be useful."
Butcher nodded. "We'll get it. This is your collar. You should be out there." He jerked his chin at the rest of the club.
Leighton nodded back. "Thanks."
The chaos in the main room of the club had reached a fever pitch when Leighton made it down the hall. At a quick glance, she could see plenty of officers, vests and badges on, rounding up partygoers and controlling their attempts to push toward the door, but not Victoria or Saporta. She just had to trust that someone had gotten Saporta, and she knew Victoria could take care of herself.
One of the dealers was edging into the crowd, no doubt meaning to blend in and escape despite the uniform. Leighton caught his arm, twisted it behind him.
"You're under arrest," she said as she grabbed the other arm and pulled ties tight around his wrist.
He twisted to look at her. "But you're the boss!"
Leighton held up her shield and continued. "You have the right to remain silent."
The dealer jerked, but fell silent while she Mirandized him and handed him off to one of the unis to take outside.
The crowd was starting to realize there was nothing they could do and calming down as they figured out most of them were being cited and let go. Leighton worked her way around the dance floor toward the bar. The dealers and croupiers weren't the only people passing product, and the bartenders really would blend into the crowd if someone didn't identify them.
*
By the time Saporta realized they were being raided, Victoria had managed to get far enough away from him that the crowd separating them could seem natural rather than deliberate. Victoria breathed easier once she couldn't see him. This was it. It was all over. A few more hours of cleanup and paperwork, assuming the crowd didn't panic and make this into a total disaster, and she could go home with Leighton, scrub the lightning bolt off her cheek, and go to sleep in her own bed.
It was early enough that the crowd didn't push back when she pushed through to the DJ booth, and by the time she pushed her way back into the heart of the club, the bulk of the club's patrons were trying to reach the exit and she could let them sweep her along until she dropped out of the crowd at the roulette tables.
"There are compartments beneath the tables," she told one of the officers there. She fumbled with the catch until she could open it, revealing cocaine divided up into conveniently small pockets of plastic. "Keep them away from the tables, and get some evidence bags down here."
The officer handed her a bag, a Sharpie, and a pair of gloves before moving away to do as she said.
Victoria snapped on the gloves and bagged the evidence, dating and signing on the line. Chain of custody, and everything had to be clean to stick. There was no way she was letting Saporta and his associates get tossed on a technicality.
The officer came back with two more and a handful of evidence bags. Victoria showed the other two where to look on the tables, and they fanned out to confiscate the drugs. There were probably more in the club - a careful search would find most of it - but this would be enough to send Saporta to prison.
By the time Victoria dropped the last bag into a box one of the officers had brought down for evidence collection, the crowd was relatively calm, filing past the officer at the door without complaint, but it was the sight of Mike, wandering through the crowd to her, that really put the smile on her face.
He spared a moment for to return her quick hug before he reported in. "Saporta and a couple of his guys are in custody. We're letting most of the crowd go with citations or warnings, but we've got a lot of the employees, and we can probably get the rest later. We've got Saporta, at least, and teams took his apartment and Strenge's office and apartment. This is a solid case."
Victoria smiled what felt like her first real smile since she became Victoria Teague. "We do good work." She held up her hand for a high-five. "Have you seen Leighton?"
Mike shook his head. "Not yet. You going to find her?"
The club was under control with plenty of NYPD jackets spread across it. She could afford to let her focus shift. "Yeah." Victoria squeezed his arm. "I'll find you later."
*
Leighton handed one bartender over to a uni and pulled the other out of the crowd. She was getting good use out of her collection of zip ties. The second bartender glared at her, but wasn't stupid enough to speak, and it was easy enough to grab another uni to take custody.
Leighton grabbed a passing Sergeant. "Everything behind the bar needs to be collected. There's probably cocaine back there too."
The Sergeant nodded and radioed for more uniforms to take care of it.
Leighton left him to it, because Michael was a few feet behind him.
"Good work," Michael said even before he hugged her, quick and tight. "I heard Strenge's office held enough paperwork to keep Smith busy for weeks."
Leighton laughed. "Good." She opened her purse. "Do you have an evidence bag?"
Michael produced one from his pockets, and Leighton dropped the envelope of cash from Saporta into it. "Return on my investment." Leighton took the Sharpie Michael handed to her and scrawled her name and the date on the bag. "He's going away for a very long time."
"Keeping the streets safe." Michael stopped looking at her and nodded his chin at something behind her. "I'll take that if you want."
Leighton turned, and handed the bag to him without looking. Victoria was standing behind her. She'd seen Victoria earlier, ridiculous lightning bolt and all, but she hadn't been wearing her vest and shield before. Leighton hadn't been able to touch her before.
They were still in the middle of a raid on an underground club, one where they'd both been undercover, so there wasn't much she could do here and now. She could take Victoria's hand and return the smile Victoria was giving her.
Leighton stepped close enough to speak without being overheard. "I got your notes."
Victoria squeezed her hand before letting go. "I got yours." Then, almost inaudibly, "Love you."
Leighton's heart eased. She hadn't really thought that would change, but they'd been so far apart, even when they'd been at the same craps table earlier, and it hadn't been an easy operation for Victoria.
"Me too," Leighton murmured, leaning even closer. "So much, V." Leighton stepped back and gestured at the club. There would be time - a lifetime of time - for them to be together, and they still had a job to do. "Down to clean-up now."
Victoria nodded, shifting back to work mode just as easily. "I'm pretty sure we got all the dealers." She nodded at the bar. "Bartenders?"
"Both in custody."
"Mike says Saporta is too, and they got Strenge's office."
And there went the last of the tension Leighton was carrying. They'd done it. They'd taken down Saporta's organization.
Michael stepped in next to them, phone held up. "Just came in. They got Hitt too."
"Saporta's supplier," Leighton said in answer to Victoria's questioning look. "There's a good chance this one will go down in department history."
*
Victoria's fingers itched to touch Leighton, but she had to be content, for now, with just the one touch of their hands. There was still the rest of the club to go through and, no doubt, a mountain of paperwork to do, but for all intents and purposes it was over. She was going home with Leighton as soon as they could get out of here.
They separated again, Leighton to check on the progress of Saporta's office and Victoria to weave through the crowd with Mike to make sure they hadn't missed anyone who needed to be arrested rather than cited.
It wasn't long before a uni approached them. "Detective Asher? Lieutenant Beckett wants to see you." The uni jerked his chin upwards. "He's outside."
Victoria nodded and looked around. There didn't seem to be anyone left who wasn't just a clubgoer.
"He wants to see Detective Meester too. Is she with you?"
Victoria pointed in the direction of Saporta's office. "She's back there somewhere."
The uni headed in that direction, and Victoria left Mike writing citations. The path through the club was familiar by now, and there was a good chance this would be her last time following it. She wasn't going to miss it at all.
The chaos of the evening was easier to see in the deli, lights reflecting off the deli cases and the street beyond filled with squad cars and uniforms. Victoria passed through a handful of people in NYPD vests and jackets on her way outside.
Saporta was lined up in front of the deli with Suarez, Blackinton, and Novarro, hands cuffed behind their backs and a pair of unis keeping an eye on them. All four of them gaped at her, but Saporta was the only one to speak.
"Victoria!" That was surprise, and anger, in his voice. Saporta stepped toward her.
Victoria didn't wait for one of the unis to take care of him; she put her hand into the join of his shoulder and shoved him right back into the wall herself. It was the most incredibly satisfying part of the whole bust, and the last time she ever had to touch him.
"Victoria." This time her name was almost a plea.
"I'm sure you know you have the right to remain silent," Victoria said before he could get any farther. She turned and walked away before she could do or say anything else. She could get away with that one push, but anything more would have his lawyer crying police brutality. No technicalities.
Victoria headed toward Lieutenant Beckett where he was talking to Lieutenant McCoy and Captain Wentz halfway down the street, but she didn't get very far before a pair of voices stopped her.
Saporta's yelled, "You bitch!"
But it was Leighton's, "Victoria," that had her turning around, a smile spreading across her face while she waited for Leighton to catch up to her.
"Victoria," Leighton said, softer. Leighton's hand cupped her cheek, her fingers skirting the edges of the lightning bolt.
*
It was stupid, and petty, and Leighton didn't care. She touched her lips to Victoria's unmarked cheek, brief and soft, then to Victoria's lips for a kiss that was exactly what she'd been missing.
Victoria kissed her back, and Leighton could feel her smiling into it. Lieutenant Beckett was still waiting for them, so Leighton pulled away well before she was ready. She couldn't help glancing back to make sure Saporta had seen it, that he understood that Victoria had never been his.
He struggled out of place, only to have one of the unis push him back.
Leighton turned her back on him and followed Victoria down the street to Lieutenant Beckett.
"Detectives." The circle of Lieutenant Beckett, Lieutenant McCoy, and Captain Wentz opened up to let them in. "Good work."
"Great work," Captain Wentz said almost on top of Lieutenant Beckett's praise. "You two have done a great thing for this city."
"Can it, Pete," Lieutenant Beckett said, elbowing Captain Wentz in the side. "These are my detectives, not the press." To Leighton and Victoria he said, "But you did do a great thing for the city."
"Thank you," Leighton said for them both.
"This is why we do this," Victoria said. Probably none of the men could hear the undercurrent in her voice, but Leighton knew her better, and all she wanted to do was get them both out of there.
Lieutenant Beckett looked past them, down the street at the rest of the chaos she could still hear behind them. "You'll have to come into the precinct," he said, and Leighton knew him well enough to hear the apology in his voice. "We'll need you to sign off on everything and write up your preliminary reports before you can go home."
"Always paperwork," Victoria said. Her hand slipped into Leighton's, and Leighton squeezed it for a quick moment before letting her go. "Do you need us here, or can we go get a start on that?"
"Go," Lieutenant Beckett waved them away. "Get one of the squads to take you."
There were enough cars coming and going that it was easy enough for Leighton to commandeer one of them to take them back to the precinct. They only needed a driver, not a pair of unis, so Leighton ended up in the back with Victoria in the front next to a uni who wasn't very happy about being on chauffeur duty and sped off as soon as they were out of the car.
"Paperwork," Victoria muttered as they climbed the steps. "Not why I became a cop."
Leighton caught the door that Victoria had yanked open too hard. "Just a couple of hours of it. He has to let us out of here sometime."
"We could die of old age before then," Victoria said, but that time it was lighter, and she took the steps two at a time, leaving Leighton to follow behind and admire Victoria's thighs in the truly short skirt she was wearing.
*
They didn't die of old age. As itchy as she was to get home, with Leighton, Victoria buckled down and wrote her preliminary report. She didn't have to have all the details yet, and after an hour, she printed it out, signed it, and dropped it onto Lieutenant Beckett's desk. Mike and Michael's reports were already there, even though they'd gotten back after Leighton and Victoria.
Victoria wandered back out into the bullpen proper and perched on the edge of Leighton's desk, hoping the sight of her skirt riding up her thigh would add an extra reason for Leighton to hurry up.
"Almost done?"
Leighton's eyes caught on the hem of her skirt before making their way up to Victoria's face. "Two more paragraphs." They were usually good at keeping their relationship out of the precinct, but Leighton's hand squeezed just above Victoria's knee. "Stop distracting me."
Victoria slid off her desk. There wasn't anything to do but wait. Mike and Michael were having coffee, but she was already too wired for that. She wandered over to them anyway.
"Just because we're stuck here doesn't mean you two have to stay."
Mike shrugged. "We'll wait for you."
"Neither one of us is going to sleep for a while anyway, and Naomi doesn't expect me home."
"You're really not going to sleep if you keep mainlining caffeine."
"Not all of us have the adrenaline of being caught up in the middle of a club raid to keep us going," Mike said.
Victoria elbowed him and looked across the room. Leighton was still working. "You were there too."
"Not like you." Mike caught her elbow before she could dig it into his side again. "Too bad you didn't get to collar Saporta."
Victoria shrugged. "He's off the streets; that's what matters." She grinned. "I did get to shove him against a wall, and kiss Leighton in front of him."
Mike and Michael both laughed.
"He doesn't know what he's missing," Michael said, and that stopped all of them.
"Unfortunately," Victoria said, turning to look at Leighton again, "he does." The last thing she wanted to do was think about Saporta. Lucky for her, Leighton's printer was spitting out paper.
"Victoria," Michael said, and she turned back to him. "I'm sorry."
Victoria shrugged. "It's fine. I'm used to it by now." The smile she flashed him didn't stick very well.
She could hear Leighton's heels clicking across the floor, the rhythm of her footsteps familiar even if the shoes in particular weren't, so she wasn't surprised when Leighton rested a hand at the small of her back. It felt good, to have Leighton's casual touches back.
"I'm going to take Victoria away from you now," Leighton told Mike and Michael.
"Yeah, fine," Mike said. He was trying to be a grouch, but Victoria could see that it didn't bother him at all. "Get out of here."
Victoria turned to Leighton with a grin. "Hear that? I'm all yours."
*
It wasn't that easy, of course. They had to stop in the locker room to retrieve what they'd left there - Leighton grabbed her phone, keys, and Metro card and left the rest for the morning - and Mike and Michael walked with them as far as the subway before letting them go. But then, then they could truly stop being Elle Masters and Victoria Teague, or even Detectives Meester and Asher, and just be Leighton and Victoria, on their way home together.
The subway was quiet, only a few other people out late, none of whom paid the slightest bit of attention to Leighton and Victoria taking a pair of seats. Victoria took the inside seat, and leaned her head on Leighton's shoulder as soon as they were both sitting down. Victoria's sigh matched the easing of tension in Leighton's shoulders.
"Okay?" Leighton put her arm around Victoria.
"Glad to be with you." It wasn't quite an answer, but it was probably good enough.
"Me too." Leighton leaned her cheek on Victoria's hair. "Let's not do that again for a while."
Victoria's laugh was harder than anything Leighton remembered hearing from her before. "Which part? Making NYPD history? Sleeping with the head of a crime syndicate who's still in love with his ex? Pretending we don't know each other?"
"Making NYPD history would be okay," Leighton said, keeping her voice soft. "But let's avoid the other stuff. I was thinking about being apart."
Victoria exhaled and turned her face into Leighton's shoulder. "No," she said, "let's not do that part either." After a moment, she muttered, "Sorry."
Leighton rubbed her arm. "It's okay." The clattering of the tracks took them closer and closer to home, but not fast enough. "You'll have to see the department shrink."
Victoria sat up, turning to look at Leighton. "I know. I know the drill. I've done undercover relationships before."
"I know," Leighton said, and she did. She'd been part of most of those undercover ops, and heard about the ones that were before she and Victoria had met. "But not like this."
"I'm fine," Victoria said, and then her face twisted. "No, I'm not, but it's not-"
Leighton wanted to tell her it didn't matter and pull Victoria to her, but she knew what this kind of op could do to a person, and it did matter.
"I don't want that to come between us." Victoria's hand gripped Leighton's tight enough to hurt. "I love you," she said, as fierce as Leighton had ever seen her. "I want you. He doesn't get to take that away from us."
Leighton couldn't not touch her then, and she put her hand on Victoria's cheek. "No," she said, "he doesn't."
Victoria didn't move away, didn't so much as flinch, when Leighton kissed her. It was different now, better, without an audience, just them in an almost empty subway car. It could have been any night when they'd been out clubbing, except for all the ways it wasn't.
*
At first, Victoria couldn't help but compare Leighton's touch to Saporta's. She'd spent so much time with him, without being able to touch Leighton at all, that part of her had catalogued him as familiar. She shoved that away as much as she could and reminded herself that this was Leighton. This was where she belonged. It was easier after a while, because she'd spent so much more time with Leighton than she ever had with Saporta and because this was where she really wanted to be. Because Leighton's touch affected her in ways Saporta's never had.
They held hands, walking as fast as they could without running, from the station to their building. Their familiar building, the sight of which made Victoria's breath catch.
Leighton had her keys out, which was for the best because Victoria didn't think her hands were steady enough to manage hers.
The apartment was silent, no bark of greeting when Leighton opened the door. That was for the best too; Victoria would have fallen apart if she had been faced with Gizmo's adoration on top of the rest of the things that meant home to her.
Victoria didn't go any farther than the entryway, turning back so she was already in Leighton's space when she'd finished locking the door.
Leighton touched her cheek, the way she'd been doing all night, and this time the simple caress liquefied Victoria's insides. She surged against Leighton, pushing her into the door and kissing her hard. She knew how Leighton tasted, and it was right to taste her here, now, in their apartment that smelled and felt like them. No more Saporta. No more apartment designed for a party girl. Just home and Leighton and everything that was right with the world.
Leighton's arms were around her, holding her close, and then she wasn't kissing Victoria anymore. "V, are you sure?"
Victoria nodded, meeting Leighton's eyes so she could see how much she meant it. "Yes." She pushed her thigh between Leighton's, slipped her hand under her shirt. "I want you. I want you." She moved her hand up, skimming Leighton's stomach, until she could cup the curve of Leighton's breast. "Please," she whispered.
"God, I love you," Leighton choked out, and then she was kissing Victoria, and everything was right again. Leighton stopped being so careful with her; one of her hands found its way under Victoria's skirt and hiked her thigh up. It brought them closer, opened Victoria up to the pressure of Leighton's thigh on her cunt.
Victoria closed her eyes against the fierce rush of pleasure in that. She was wet, in a way she never had been for Saporta. Her body knew that this was Leighton, that she loved her, that she wanted her. That she chose her.
"Love you," she said, skimming the words over Leighton's cheek, into her hair, down her neck. "Love you, love you, love you."
*
Leighton gentled her touch, until she was cradling Victoria instead of grasping at her. "Victoria."
Victoria pulled back enough to shoot her a fierce look. "Leighton, if you don't fuck me right now." She left the threat unfinished, but Leighton had no doubt she was serious about it. And even if she'd had any, it would have disappeared with the way Victoria ground into her thigh.
Leighton laughed with sheer relief. It was really over. They were really together again. They were really home.
"Okay." Leighton skimmed her lips over Victoria's cheek to her mouth. "What do you want?"
"You," Victoria said, and then her hands were between them, at Leighton's waist. "Your pants off for starters."
Leighton waited for Victoria to get her pants unbuttoned before she kicked her shoes off and shimmied her pants down to go with them. Victoria stepped out of her shoes too. They weren't even close to the same height, but Victoria didn't tower over her quite so much in bare feet, and she was more like Leighton's Victoria without the heels that belonged to her cover identity.
Victoria moved her way down Leighton's chest, covering the space her shirt left bare with kisses that only made her want to keep Victoria there. When Victoria moved on, it was to kneel at Leighton's feet, and that wasn't an unpleasant change.
Victoria's hand pushed her shirt up, the gauzy fabric catching around her hands and keeping them from Leighton's skin. The heat of them filtered through the fabric, and it was followed by more heat from Victoria's mouth on her skin. It was her stomach first, brushing kisses that became harder and wetter as they moved down, until Victoria was sucking at the skin just above her underwear.
"You're going to have to do something here," Victoria said. "Shirt or panties."
In answer, Leighton tugged the shirt out of Victoria's grip and leaned away from the door far enough to pull it over her head. She dropped it somewhere - she didn't care where; it was Elle Masters' shirt, not hers - and looked down at Victoria looking up at her.
"You're beautiful," Victoria said. Her hand cupped Leighton's breast and her mouth nipped at Leighton's stomach.
"V." Leighton put both her hands in Victoria's hair. This was hers, theirs. This was her Victoria, telling her she was beautiful and touching her just the way she liked to be touched.
"Leighton." Victoria kissed her stomach one more time before she slipped her fingers under the waistband of Leighton's underwear and drew them down her legs, her hands skimming Leighton's skin the whole way.
Leighton stepped out of them, kicking them out of the way, and Victoria's hands slid all the way up again, one stopping at her hip and the other coming back to her breast. Leighton shifted her legs apart in invitation, and Victoria tipped her head into her hands and smiled up at her.
"Yes," Victoria said, and then her hand was moving again, from Leighton's hip to between her thighs.
*
Victoria could smell Leighton, the familiar scent of her arousal, so incredibly different from Saporta, tickling at her nose. She spread Leighton open as much as she could with just one hand - she didn't want to let go of Leighton's breast, not just yet, not when she could do both - and licked into her. The taste exploded across her tongue as familiar as the scent. It was real. This wasn't just her trying to remember after being apart for so long. This was Leighton's cunt on her tongue.
With one last caress to Leighton's breast, Victoria let go of it and put both hands on Leighton, pushing her thighs apart and spreading her cunt open for Victoria's mouth. Leighton was already wet, and she only got wetter as Victoria licked over her, into her. It had been too long, but not so long that Victoria didn't remember how to do this. She knew what Leighton liked when they were like this. She knew where to lick, where to use her fingers, how hard to push to make Leighton tremble.
"V," Leighton gasped above her. One of her hands tightened in Victoria's hair, and the other one left it.
Victoria looked up as much as she could without moving away from what she was doing. Leighton had slipped that hand into her bra and was touching her own breast. Victoria could feel herself getting wetter just watching it, and that was nothing compared to the way Leighton had to be feeling if the tilt of her cunt into Victoria's touch was anything to go by.
Victoria redoubled her efforts, finding the places Leighton liked to be touched and pressing into her clit. She wanted to make Leighton come for her. She wanted to feel it, to taste it, to know it was because of her.
It didn't take long. She really did know how to get Leighton off, and the desperation of not having been together for so long had to be helping. Leighton cried out and shuddered around her, and Victoria kept touching her all the way through it.
When Leighton stilled and the hand in Victoria's hair stopped holding her there and started pulling her away, Victoria licked all the way up Leighton's cunt one last time and pulled away. The smear of silver on the inside of Leighton's thigh surprised a short laugh out of her.
"What?" The word was slow and lazy, like Leighton couldn't quite get it out any other way.
"Makeup." Victoria pressed her lips to Leighton's thigh just above it. "My lightning bolt is all over you now."
Leighton's thumb stroked her cheek, just under whatever was left on her face. "It's an unusual look. Why'd you do it?"
Victoria almost turned away, but it was Leighton, and she didn't need to hide from her. "I didn't want him touching me anymore."
"He doesn't get to do it again," Leighton said. "You're mine." The simple declaration made Victoria's arousal flare up again.
*
Leighton pulled Victoria up and hugged her close, pulled her head down for a kiss. "Mine," she said into Victoria's mouth, and Victoria gave it back to her.
"Yours." Victoria's forehead rested on hers. "Yours, always." Victoria nipped at her lip. "Fuck me, please. Take me back."
Leighton's breath caught in her chest. There was nothing she wanted to do more. Now wasn't the time for gentleness. Now was the time for certainty, for possession. She shoved Victoria's skirt up over her hips and pulled her panties down far enough that they fell the rest of the way and Victoria could step out of them.
"Mine." Leighton kissed Victoria again, hitching Victoria's leg up over her hip while she did. It put more of their skin in contact, and it left Victoria open to her touch. Leighton wasted no time in taking advantage of it. She slid her hand up the inside of Victoria's thigh and in until she could stroke her fingers over Victoria's cunt.
Victoria wanted Leighton to take her back, so she did. Victoria was already wet to her touch, so she didn't try to get her there, just took advantage of it. She pushed two fingers into Victoria all at once. Saporta had been there, and he didn't get to be again. This was Leighton's.
Victoria's forehead dropped to her shoulder. "Yes," she said. "Please."
"Anything you want." Leighton pressed in, her fingers sinking all the way into Victoria and her palm arching over the rest of Victoria's cunt so she could use the heel of her hand on Victoria's clit. She cupped her other hand around the curve of Victoria's ass to hold her close.
Victoria cried out and ground her hips closer.
"I've got you," Leighton said. She stretched her fingers a little, rubbing into Victoria, feeling her get wetter around them. She set up a rhythm, moving the heel of her hand in soft pulses, turning it a little so Victoria could rub against the firmer side of her thumb.
Victoria said her name, and Leighton kissed her, taking her words and her breath, pulling back and saying, "Mine," just to watch Victoria's eyelids flutter and feel her hips stutter.
"Yours," Victoria gasped. "Please."
"Yes," Leighton said. She rubbed harder, twisted her fingers in Victoria, finding all the places she liked to be touched most. "Come on, V." She could tell from the way Victoria moved against her and the way her eyes were screwed shut that she was close. "Come for me. Just for me."
When she did, her cunt closing on Leighton's fingers and her thighs tensing, she said, "Leighton," sounding as desperate for her as she ever had.
"Mine." Leighton kissed her hard, her hand still moving to draw out Victoria's pleasure as long as possible. Victoria took it for a few moments before she drew back and let her leg drop, which Leighton took to mean she'd had enough. Leighton put both arms around her then, holding her close.
*
Victoria closed her eyes and breathed in the scents of the two of them and sex. Saporta had been good enough to get her off a couple of times, despite the fact that he wasn't who she wanted, but it hadn't left her feeling anything like she did now. Leighton made her come because she loved her, because they belonged to each other. It made all the difference.
"V? Victoria?" Leighton asked, and Victoria realized she was shaking in Leighton's arms.
Victoria's first instinct, from so much time pretending for Saporta, was to tell Leighton that she was fine, but she wasn't and she didn't ever have to lie to Leighton. She slipped her arms around Leighton. "Don't let go."
"I won't." Leighton held her closer, and that was better. She couldn't shake so much if Leighton was holding her still. "I've got you."
Victoria nodded, and buried her face in Leighton's neck. Leighton had her. She was back where she belonged. "Yours," she said, getting Leighton's, "Mine," right back.
Leighton nudged her back a fraction after a while. "Let's go to bed," she said. "It's been a long day. A lot of long days."
Victoria didn't want to, but she stepped away from Leighton so they could move. "Shower first." Leighton was doing a lot to bring her back from the op, but she needed to wash the rest of it off before she could sleep.
"Share?"
Victoria grabbed at Leighton's hand. "Yes." That would be even better, letting Leighton wash it off of her.
They didn't bother picking up the clothes scattering the entryway. They didn't need them, and they weren't in the way. Victoria stopped before they got to the bedroom and squirmed out of her dress and bra. She didn't want Victoria Teague's clothes in her bedroom, the real one. Bad enough that she was still wearing the lightning bolt, although that was better now that she and Leighton were sharing it.
Leighton turned on the shower and stood next to Victoria in front of the mirror while they waited for it to heat up. Except for the lightning bolt, they didn't look any different from how they did before the case.
Victoria watched in the mirror as Leighton kissed her shoulder.
"We can get Gizmo tomorrow." Leighton pulled away, came back with a square of cotton and the makeup remover from the shelf. "Call Anna in the morning and pick him up after work."
"Yeah." Victoria closed her eyes and let Leighton swipe at her mascara. "That'd be good."
Victoria opened her eyes to watch in the mirror when Leighton moved to the lightning bolt on her cheek. Leighton was watching her too, as the last of Victoria Teague was wiped away and tossed into the trash.
The lighting bolt was thick enough that it took two tries to get it all, but that was okay. Victoria was all too happy to have Leighton take her back one piece at a time.
*
Leighton stepped back from Victoria when she was done and swiped the cotton square over her thigh so she could get the rest of Victoria's armor out of their lives. "Shower." She nudged Victoria into it while she got a new piece of cotton and took off her own much less complicated makeup.
When Leighton pulled the curtain back, she found Victoria standing under the spray, her face turned up into it. "You'll dry out your skin."
Victoria smiled faintly. "I think it'll be fine just this once." She turned away from the water, though, and poured shampoo into her hand. "Come here."
Leighton let herself be tugged under the water to be wet down. "I was going to take care of you."
"You can do that next." Victoria's hands massaged the shampoo into her scalp, stroked down the length of her hair.
It was nice, to feel Victoria again. She'd been missing her touch, and now she could have as much as she wanted. She let Victoria have at her, keeping her eyes closed while Victoria rinsed her hair out, conditioned it, rinsed it again. Victoria came back after that with a loofah, her hand trailing in its wake, feeling softer for the contrast.
"My turn," Leighton said after Victoria got all the way down to her feet. She took the loofah away and turned Victoria into the spray to get her hair wet. Victoria's hair got the same careful treatment hers had. "The rest of you now," she murmured. She didn't want her touch to startle Victoria, and her eyes were still closed.
"'Kay."
Victoria stayed relaxed and pliant while Leighton touched her, trailing her hand after the loofah the same way Victoria had. The touch mattered. Skin to skin kept them connected more than anything else could, and they'd been without it for too long.
She had to stop eventually, and once Victoria was clean and rinsed, Leighton turned off the water and opened the shower curtain. "Bed," she said to Victoria to prod her out of the shower.
Victoria stepped out after her and took the towel Leighton handed her. Leighton took it back when she was dry and hung them both up. They took turns at the sink, Leighton letting Victoria brush her teeth and take out her contacts first. She wasn't surprised when Victoria lingered instead of going to bed without her. It meant they could go together.
Leighton turned out the light, and they made it to the bed in the light that filtered in around the edges of the blinds. Victoria lay down with her back to Leighton. Leighton took it as an invitation and spooned up to her, draping one arm over Victoria. Victoria melted into the touch, so it had to be okay. Leighton had missed her so much, and it felt so right to be in their bed together again.
"I love you," she said into Victoria's shoulder. "Always and forever."
Victoria's breath hitched, and she put her hand over the one Leighton had on her stomach. "Always and forever."
*
As primary witnesses in the case, Leighton and Victoria hadn't been allowed in the courtroom for any part of Saporta's trial other than their own testimony. It was just as well; Victoria didn't want to see Saporta any more than was absolutely necessary. She had been a cop long enough - and had enough sessions with the department shrink between the end of the case and the trial - that the defense counsel hadn't been able to rattle her, but she'd still come home from those days in court exhausted and snappish. Leighton had let her be, for which she was eternally grateful.
The day both sides presented closing arguments happened to fall between active cases for them.
"Get out of here," Lieutenant Beckett finally told them - all four of them, since Mike and Michael were also mostly pretending to do paperwork. "Go see what kind of crimes you can solve at the courthouse."
They didn't wait for him to reconsider, just turned off computers, grabbed jackets and purses, and took a car across town. They had a pattern for driving together: whoever's partner was driving took shotgun, and the other two got the backseat. Victoria couldn't decide if it was more comforting to pretend that everything was normal, or if she'd rather have had Leighton next to her.
The best place to find out what was happening was just outside the courtroom, and indeed that was where they found DA Stump, surrounded by his briefcase, a laptop, a junior ADA, and his Blackberry.
"No verdict yet?" Leighton asked.
"No," Stump said, and then he actually looked up from his phone. "No," he said, less rushed. "It's only been twenty minutes." He made a face at them. "Defense's closing took forever."
"Barakat likes to grandstand," the junior ADA said.
"Hurt his chances with the jury?" Michael asked.
Stump shrugged. "Some juries love him, some of them get sick of it and just want to go home. This one looked like it might be more on the sick of him side, but we won't know until the verdict comes in." He glanced down at his phone. "Excuse me."
The four of them drew away a little, making their own bunch in the corridor. There were benches, but Victoria at least was too jittery to sit. All that work, and it came down to twelve citizens who might not be sick of the defense.
"I hate waiting," she said.
"Me too." Mike pulled his cigarettes out of a pocket, tapped the box into his palm and put it back. "Wish you could still smoke in here."
Victoria made a face at him. "Bad enough we have to smell you. I don't want to smell a whole building full of smokers." The familiar argument calmed her nerves a little, and the way Leighton was standing next to her, easy and like she belonged there, helped even more.
*
They'd been waiting for the better part of an hour when Stump started repacking his briefcase. "Verdict's in."
They followed him and his junior ADA into the courtroom. There was the usual collection of reporters and other audience members, people who had to be Saporta's family, Barakat waiting at the defense table. Dueñas was just behind him.
The four of them filed into benches in the back row, Mike and Michael first, then Leighton, Victoria on the outside. Victoria was projecting calm, but Leighton could see the cracks in her demeanor, the tension at the edge of her smile and in the way she held herself. Better to put her where she could get away if she needed to.
Bailiffs brought Saporta in. Leighton could tell the moment he saw them; his face hardened into a mask of anger. Leighton squeezed Victoria's thigh, where he wouldn't be able to see it, and Victoria turned to look at her instead of Saporta.
Leighton kept an eye on Saporta. He glared at them for a moment longer before Dueñas caught his attention and everything about him softened when he looked at her.
"Okay?" Leighton murmured to Victoria as they stood when the bailiff announced the arrival of the judge.
"Yeah." Victoria's hand slipped into hers for a moment that ended when Judge McLynn banged the gavel and they all sat down again.
Nothing about the proceedings mattered until the jury foreman looked down at the slip of paper in his hand and said, "We the jury find the defendant guilty on all counts."
There was noise at the front of the courtroom, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the soft exhale from Victoria and the way she pressed her shoulder to Leighton's. They hadn't talked about it much, but trials didn't always go their way, and Leighton knew Victoria had been worried about this one more than others.
Leighton put her arm around Victoria and hugged her close. The judge dismissed the jury, set the sentencing date, and then it was over. Leighton glanced toward the front of the courtroom. Saporta glared at them again, before he and Dueñas leaned across the rail for a kiss the bailiffs put a quick stop to.
"Ready to go?" Leighton asked, soft enough that it wouldn't travel far.
Victoria nodded and smiled at her. It was a little rough around the edges, but it was there. "Yes."
"We'd better," Michael said. He had his phone out, and he flashed the screen at them. "Lieutenant wants us back at the station. He has a case for us."
Victoria's smile firmed up. "Right back into it."
Leighton bumped her shoulder against Victoria's as they filed out of the courtroom and got a quick grin in response. They both knew Saporta could still get out on appeal, but for now, he was off the streets and they had work to do.
Bonus Material
Art by
dwgMix 1: Undercover and Still In Love/It's A Bumpy Road by
delphinapterusMix 2: Oceans Won't Freeze by
roadmarks
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-21 01:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-21 07:38 pm (UTC)