Jason Richards (![]() ![]() @ 2012-04-30 13:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | 10.06.11, jason, jason and justice, justice |
Stuck in the Middle with You
Who: Justice and Jason
When: Thursday morning
Where: Police Precinct
What: Facing down rumors
Rating: Lots of sexual tension
Justice had had a sleepless night, even with the benefit of a beer and a few shots of bourbon. The phonecall with Jason had left a bad taste in her mouth, and Naya’s advice circled round and round her head, with annoying clarity.
Did she like Jason? Yes. He was gorgeous, of course. But that wasn’t what had intrigued her. He was intelligent, devoted to his family, caring, and he’d made her laugh. That was something she definitely needed more of. How she felt about Jason wasn’t really the part that she was struggling with. The part she struggled with was whether he was worth it. Whether Jason was worth risking her heart again. Whether he was worth the gossip, the rumors.
Of course, if she did as Naya suggested, rumors would no longer be an issue. Maybe there was something to that. She dragged herself out of bed and into the shower, hoping the hot water would both ease her tense muscles, and give her some kind of clarity. By the time she’d showered, dressed, and dried her hair, she’d made her decision. She grabbed a bagel and a travel cup of coffee, shoving her breakfast down her throat as she drove, having taken a quick detour by cab to pick up her car from the bar.
At work, she’d managed to get changed with a minimum of teasing. She still had fading marks on her neck, but at least she wasn’t limping. Hair smoothed back from her face, but left loose, she headed up from the locker rooms. It was early; the daily rundown in the bullpen wouldn’t have started yet. If she was lucky, she could catch Jason before he got too wrapped up in the day ahead.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the double doors to the bullpen, her eyes immediately seeking out Jason amidst the other detectives, the uniforms assigned to their active cases. She scrubbed her hands against her hips, the palms a little damp with nervous sweat. Walking into the room she did her best to ignore a few curious looks, walking straight up to Jason and tapping him on the shoulder.
Jason was having a much better day today. He’d mended the fence with Charlie, and apparently this had even got his two older daughters to bond some. Which was even better. His case was still dead in the water, but the ME’s report was in and he could pick it up after the morning meeting. He needed to track down Justice and apologize. Or not.
He smelled her before she got close, but waited to turn around when she tapped him on the shoulder. The look on the other detectives faces made him scowl a little bit. Not that he cared what they thought, but the last thing he wanted was more BS making Jutsice upset and push him away. “Hey,” he greeted as he turned, smile betraying how glad she wasn’t avoiding him playing across his face briefly. “What’s up?” He wanted to apologize to her, but not with an audience.
Justice took a deep breath. She’d been debating doing this, even as she pushed open the door. She’d wondered if maybe she was better just talking to him, first. But Naya’s words wouldn’t stop ringing in her head, and there was some twisted sort of logic there. Hand shaking a little, she reached up and grabbed hold of him by the back of his neck, tugging him down as she went up on tiptoe, kissing him fiercely. If that didn’t stop the rumors - couldn’t be rumor if it was public, after all - nothing would. And damnit, she wanted him more than she cared about her reputation as a ball-busting bitch. She hoped he realised that.
Okay, that he had not been expecting. At all. Jason didn’t pull back. In fact, when his brain caught up with what was going on, he leaned down so it was easier to kiss her. The catcalls and whoops from his co-workers were easier to ignore than he expected. He was going to catch hell from the LT, but it was so worth it. He wrapped one arm around her waist, pretty much shamelessly enjoying the kiss. Today just kept getting better and better.
Justice slid both arms around his neck as he pulled her closer, laughing a little into the kiss at the chorus of catcalls from the rest of the room. She nipped at his lower lip as she pulled back, her cheeks feeling like they were on fire. Thank god for not having pale skin - at least it didn’t look like she was blushing too badly.
“So...” she cleared her throat, pulling away from him, failing miserably at hiding a smile as she tucked her thumbs into her belt, realising she had absolutely no idea what she’d planned on saying next. Or doing. And now everyone in the room was staring at them. Oh great.
Jason shuddered as she nipped his lip, letting out a rumbly murr. When she stepped back, he reluctantly let Justice go. Now things were awkward and they didn’t really need an audience for the talk they clearly needed to have. “I’ll be right back,” he told the other detectives, taking Justice by the arm and heading for the stairwell. He ignored the comments and such. They were going to ride his case and unlike her squadmates, they probably weren’t being total dicks about it.
Once they were on the stairs, he turned to face her leaning against the wall. “Okay, so,” he began. “I wanted to apologize for being a dick to last night. Especially now. I guess you like me more than I thought. Not complaining.”
Justice followed him, her stomach fluttering with nerves. He’d kissed her back, that was something at least. And then he started apologising. Ok, she really needed to buy Naya flowers or chocolate or somehow giftwrap Gabe and deliver him to her apartment.
“Um...yeah,” she answered eloquently. “You don’t need to apologise. It sounded like you had a rough day.” Which was why she hadn’t let Naya have her phone; he didn’t deserve her quizzing him about his intentions towards Justice.
“And I did a lot of thinking last night.” About how hurt she’d been when he’d snapped at her at first, how much she’d wanted to touch him all day, and felt like she couldn’t.
“I know there’s rumors flying around. I figured...” she shrugged. “If we’re gonna see each other, there’s no point trying to hide it. And I don’t want to.” She hoped he felt the same; if not, it was going to make work incredibly awkward for the next little while.
He had had a rough day. But it hadn’t been fair to take it out on Justice when she called to apologize to him. That had just been wrong. “Today’s been much, much better,” he admitted. Especially after that kiss. Yeah.
Jason nodded and then gave and wrapped an arm around Justice’s waist, pulling her close. “I don’t care if they know,” he told her. “There’s absolutely no rules against it, and so long as you don’t regularly try to suck my face off in the bullpen, I doubt the LT will give a shit either. We’re both good cops. So long as we do our jobs, it shouldn’t matter who we’re dating so long as we behave ourselves on the clock.”
Justice sagged a little in relief as he slid his arm around her, resting her hands against his chest, trying very hard not to think about just how good it felt to have him holding her. That way badness lay.
“I can’t guarantee I’m not gonna freak out and run away at some point,” she warned him. He knew at least a little bit of her history, knew she didn’t trust men because of it. “But I promise to try and talk to you before that happens.” She wouldn’t blame him for not being interested, for not wanting to deal with her many and varied mental hang-ups when it came to relationships. But she couldn’t let him walk into this blind. And she couldn’t pretend like she didn’t want him, didn’t want to get to know him better.
“I can’t blame you if you freak out and run away after meeting my girls,” he joked. “No really, they’re promising to give you a chance. Which leads to what I want to talk to you about. We were thinking of having a big grill out thing Saturday evening. You bring Lucas and Alanna and Chloe’s new boyfriend will be there and we can get all of the awkward introductions over with. Sound like a plan?”
“Um...” She blinked, a little taken aback at the invitation. Well, ok, mostly at the thought of meeting all his kids, plus a new boyfriend, plus throwing Alanna into the mix. “Yeah, ok.” She grinned, just a little. “Just as long as you promise not to let your kids eat mine. Or his girlfriend.” This could either go fine, or spectacularly badly. She was really hoping for the first option...
“Wait a minute. Chloe’s boyfriend? She has a boyfriend?” She frowned, confused. “Since when?” She could have sworn he’d said he was relieved none of them were dating, when they’d spoken the other night.
Jason was relieved when he agreed. “My kids will not eat anybody,” he said. “They will be on their best behavior, because this is them trying to make a good first impression on you. Also, she’s pregnant. They would never attack a pregnant female.”
He sighed, pulling her closer and dropping his head to her shoulder. “Since yesterday afternoon,” he explained. “She brought him home to introduce him. Dimitri. He’s very...polite.” That was really all he could say about the boy.
Justice slid her arms around his shoulders, closing her eyes for a moment, just to enjoy the feeling of his arms around her, how warm he was. She hid a smile against his hair, stroking his back gently.
“And polite is bad because...?” She asked, curious. Judging by the photo he’d shown her, Chloe was quite the beauty - she was surprised more guys hadn’t been brought home to meet her dad. Mind you, having seen Jason when he was feeling pissed off or over-protective, maybe it wasn’t such a surprise.
“You know,” she continued, before he had a chance to answer. “Doing this is not making me want to let go of you and go back to work...” There was a couple of people walking past in the hallway, but the stairs were pretty quiet this time of the morning. And this close, she could see the fading nailmarks on his jaw, breathe in his scent. It wasn’t helping her want to behave.
Oh God, it felt good to be held. Not just because she smelled good. It was just comforting. Especially when he was still stressed out from his case and the mess he’d made talking to Charlie and Chloe’s new boyfriend. He could feel his body relaxing as she rubbed his back. That got a low, rumbly murr out of him.
Polite wasn’t bad. Jason really couldn’t find anything to dislike about the boy off hand. He was very polite, obvious head over heels for Chloe, and seemed to be a nice guy. He was about to point out that was just what he’d noticed about Dimitri, when Justice said that.
“Me either,” he murmured, lifting his head and inhaling her scent deeply. “This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but God I missed you last night.” There was nothing he wanted to do more than curl up with her after his rotten day and just forget it all.
Oh good, and now he was practically purring. That helped her wanting to move. She kept rubbing his back, amused at the soft sounds he was making. She smiled widely at his comment, teeth catching at her lower lip.
“I missed you too,” she admitted. “I was on edge all day at work...” she sighed. “Couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it’d be if I was gonna curl up with you at the end of it.” Still, she’d gotten beer, bourbon, and chicken wings. So it wasn’t all bad.
“Ooh, by the way, you know the bear bartender guy? We need to fix him up with Naya. They were being all oblivious and sickeningly cute at each other last night.” Justice had found it cute, but was too busy being in a foul mood over Jason to really appreciate it at the time.
She was petting him, what did she expect him to do? He couldn’t help but smile when said she missed him and basically wanted the same thing he did. “Yeah, same,” he said. “Maybe we’ll get to try it Saturday night after the barbecue.” He wasn’t bringing her home for anything until the girls got a chance to sniff her out. Which sucked, because the idea of curling up in her arms every night was sounding better and better the more he thought about it.
He did not want to talk about Gabe Cooper or setting him up with the ME. “So why didn’t you fix them up last night?” he managed to actually pretend like he gave a damn. He really just didn’t want to move from this spot. “You smell so good.” Yeah, they were at work. In the stairwell. This was not a good idea at all.
Saturday seemed like a long way away...still, it was better than she’d expected. “I’d like that,” she murmured. She was nervous about meeting his kids, but she couldn’t let that get her down. Jason wanted her, enough to risk upsetting his kids to suggest they date; it meant a lot.
“I tried,” she murmured, a little distracted by the way he was holding her, his soft murmur in her ear. “They were too busy trying to fix my problems to notice...” She slid one hand up the back of his neck, her nails gently scratching at the nape as she threaded fingers through his hair. And tried very hard not to think about the storage closet that was right across the hall from them. God, she wanted to kiss him again so badly.
Jason let out a little ‘heh’. “I have to go in to see Naya for the autopsy report this morning,” he told her, to remind himself and her that they were supposed to be working. “I’ll be sure to say something to her. He seems like a nice guy.” He let out another soft rumble as she started scratching him as well. God, this was so unfair. “We should- get back to work.”
“Uhuh...” Justice replied intelligently, shivering a little at that soft rumbling sound. Her gaze flicked down to his lips, Justice almost leaning in to kiss him. A soft little sound of want escaped her, and she pressed a little tighter against him. This was a hugely bad idea, and it was massively unprofessional, but honestly Justice couldn’t bring herself to care right now. She wanted him, and nothing short of him pushing her away was going to move her right now.
Oh God. He shuddered at that little noise that escaped her lips, groaning in response. Okay, maybe Saturday wasn’t going to be soon enough. “We’re gonna get busted,” he reminded her. He was already going to get it from the lieutenant, if they got caught making out in the hallway, it would be much worse. “This is nuts. I haven’t felt this horny since I was a teenager.” It was just the effect she seemed to have on him.
Justice groaned in frustration, trying to make herself pull away from him and failing miserably.
“Tell me about it,” she murmured. “I went over ten years without having sex. It’s been just over a day and I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin.” He drove her crazy in all the best ways, but right now they were at work, and being this close to him really wasn’t helping.
“...Probably not a good idea if I point out the closet door right behind me, is it?” She murmured, wetting dry lips, her eyes flicking down to his mouth again, her fingers still stroking slowly up and down his neck.
“Well, I’m glad to know the feeling’s mutual,” he admitted. About everything, really. “Yeah, I know. Which might be why we’re so crazy horny.” He didn’t really believe that was the only reason. “Or one of them. You’re making it really hard to think straight right now.”
Oh he knew. He’d thought of it himself. “Yeah, considering your shower couldn’t drown us out?” he reminded her. “I don’t think that’s going to work.” It was a nice thought though.
Letting out another soft groan, this one more annoyed, she slumped against him, forehead against his shoulder. That didn’t really help the situation much; all she could smell was him, all she could feel was his body against hers, his arms around her, holding her close. But if she kept looking at him, she was going to end up kissing him, and that wasn’t going to end well, for either of them.
“Saturday?” She said softly, wondering if she could convince him to escape from his kids for an hour or two before then.
When she slumped against his shoulder, Jason groaned again and wrapped his arms around her tighter. No this definitely wasn’t helping and he was going to have to go to the bathroom to readjust before he got reamed by the LT. He nuzzled her hair gently, trying to be comforting. He wanted to kiss her just as badly, and knew it was a terrible idea.
“Saturday,” he agreed heavily. They really should wait until then, let the girls sniff around her again before he came home smelling like her and sex again. At least, that sounded like the best way to do it. Gently shifting her off of him, Jason leaned down and gave her as long of a kiss as he dared. It wasn’t helping any, but he wasn’t going to leave her without a good-bye kiss. Even if they were working in the same damned building most of the day.
Justice sighed, pulling back as he loosened his hold on her. She melted into the kiss, moaning softly. Damn him, this really wasn’t helping. Clutching a handful of his hair, she tugged gently, a little bit of payback. If she was going to be frustrated and turned on all day, so was he. Breaking the kiss slowly, reluctantly, she pulled back and stepped out of his reach. She smoothed her hair back, trying to look a little less flustered than she felt.
“Saturday,” she said again, firmly. Now she just had to last through two more nights, and two more days at work, without jumping him. God, this was going to be torture. She couldn’t even have a shower without thinking about him.
Jason let out a hungry growl when Justice pulled on his hair. Yes, because she couldn’t feel how frustrated and turned on he was. He got any harder and he was going to have trouble walking. They could figure out some time they could sneak off alone between now and then. When they weren’t at work. And yeah, the shower had become a new place of torture, because he just wished she was there with him.
“I’ll call you later,” he told her. Since he wasn’t going to cut off contact with her completely until Saturday. No way in hell that was happening.
Justice nodded, biting down firmly on her lower lip as she fought the urge to just shove him against the wall and kiss him until they were both dizzy. God, she was ridiculous. She was a grown woman, not a silly teenager with a crush.
“Okay,” she murmured. “Tell Naya I said hi. And, um,” she grinned wider. “You owe her an enthusiastic thank you.” After all, without Naya’s coaxing, Justice never would have walked up to Jason and kissed him in front of the entire department. She took another step back, looking him slowly up and down.
“Go,” she murmured. “Before I forget that I actually need this job and jump you anyway.”