InsaneJournal

"One of the sergeants thinks he’s sneaky."
Who: Will Graham and Sharon Carter
When: Mid July
Where: The Office
What: Random Interaction/Meeting
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete



It was barely afternoon and Will was already done with the day mentally. It had been a long morning. He’d had to come in earlier than usual, for leads that went nowhere, and he was trying not to let his frustration get to him too much. It was just another part of the job, he told himself, making his way into one of the kitchens to get some coffee.

A small voice in the back of his head told him he should really go for the decaf, he’d been trying to make the switch for weeks now, but by habit he reached for a regular cup and put it in the single-serve machine. The familiar whir of the water to boil through already did a lot to take away the stress.

Sharon practically lived on the stuff. It was swill, really. Not that she was a coffee connoisseur, but she could tell the difference between a really good cup of coffee, and the watered down, bitter, disgusting sludge that came out of the machine in the break room. The watered down sludge that she drank six cups of each day.

“Hey,” she said on impulse, moving through the room to find the sugar packets near the machine. Though, the little bin was empty. She frowned a bit, and started digging through cupboards looking for more.

Will instantly felt a very unfounded tingle of displeasure. It was a big station, he ran into people all the time, but he always chose this kitchen because it was more seldom used than the others. Begrudgingly, he took his cup of coffee away from the machine so she could make hers.

“Hi,” he said, offhandedly enough that he hopes it would be the end of any possible conversation.

Sharon was still exploring. It was a big station, like he thought, but she was a curious sort. And she’d decided (somehow) that Orange County was going to be her new home… indefinitely. So she wanted to know everything she could about the station, if she was going to be working here indefinitely. That meant visiting every break room, poking her head into every storage closet.

She stepped up to the machine giving him a smile. A double-take, actually, as she thought she recognized him from somewhere. “Thanks.” She said, meaning… for him getting out of the way. She thanked people a lot, actually. After pressing a couple of buttons on the machine, she had her cup and was back to digging through the cupboards for sugar. She found some packets that were old and crunchy. This just wasn’t her day.

After a moment of watching the woman struggle, Will felt almost awkward on her behalf. He decided to take pity on her and he opened up a drawer near the fridge. Tucked behind some rolled up coffee filters for the now-obsolete coffee pot was a stash of sugar.

“Here. One of the sergeants thinks he’s sneaky, hiding the good ones. I think he forgets he works with a bunch of detectives.”

Sharon turned and gave a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. Or, well, thank you.” She gave him a smile and moved to grab a couple of packets. “There’s a big box down in the other break room. I can’t drink this shit without adding some sugar.” She cleared her throat, wondering if she should have sworn like that. “I’m Sharon Carter.”

Will looked down at his coffee. He was by no means a coffee snob. He wasn’t an anything snob. He knew when he was drinking good coffee, but bad coffee was still coffee and he didn’t care much either way. But then she was introducing herself, and he knew he was trapped for the moment. “Will Graham,” he said, off-handedly.

Both of her eyebrows raised slightly. She looked amused, though. “Will Graham? Your name bounces around my department a bit.” If he was the same Will Graham. Hopefully she wasn’t about to make an ass out of herself by getting everything wrong.

Oh, good. He grimaced a bit and he knew it wasn’t well-hidden. His name had been bounced around even when he was a part of the department. His tendency to keep to himself when coupled with his uncanny knack for his job made him an eerie topic of conversation. Unfortunately, now he seemed to have gained some sort of infamy and his hopes that they’d stopped talking about him were dashed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, hey, no. Ah, crap. I’m sorry. It’s not… Not a bad thing,” Sharon mumbled, trying to find the words to make this conversation go slightly less awkwardly. “...It’s just interesting to have a face to apply to the name, s’all. Uh… so. You’re not in Homicide anymore.” She added, somewhat lamely.

“No, I mean, I’m sorry you have to listen to their shit,” Will said. He was sure that, by now, facts had been twisted into something resembling truth, but it was probably mostly just hot air from people trying to out-do one another. He shrugged and took a long drink from his coffee. “No, I’m in criminal investigations now. Narcotics mostly.”

“That must be a change,” Sharon said, wrapping one arm across her waist as she leaned back against the counter. She lifted her own cup to sip from it. Swill. But the sugar and caffeine would keep her going. She had meetings all day today. “Still working in the field?”

“Yeah.” It was a good change. Will didn’t dislike it. At the end of the day, the job was the same, he was just looking to bust drug ops rather than look for killers. “Yeah,” he said again, in response to the second question. “Partner work now, mostly.”

“That’s good.” It was a similar day, but, of course, different work. Sharon had a great partner. She couldn’t have asked for better, actually. Though she was worried he was going to accept that job at the Agency, and leave her on her own. “It’s good that you’ve found something that’s better for you…”

Will shrugged again. The idea that it was better was probably subjective. He drank his coffee at a much quicker rate than he normally would, finding himself starting to falter under the expectations of small talk. “I guess. It’s not as …” He probably shouldn’t say exciting, he knew. “I find the challenges aren’t as great.”

“Sometimes it’s nice to have it a little easier.” Sharon had faced a lot of that when she had gone from her undercover work to the homicide department here in Orange County. After eighteen months of round the clock work and lies and undercover crap, she was thankful to be in her own skin again. It was a relief, actually, even though the work is still a bit of a challenge, it was nothing compared to what she’d done in New York. “A bit of a break.”

“I guess.” Will never liked having things easy. He was too fidgety. He liked to be doing things. He rinsed out his mug and washed it, then put it back in the cupboard with the other ones. “Speaking of work, I have files to look over.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Sharon nodded once. She should probably get back to… whatever it was she was working on at the time. “Don’t let me keep you. I should be getting back as well.” She added. “It was nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” he said. He wasn’t even lying. Sharon had been one of the better people he’d met around the station in recent years. At least he wouldn’t mind if they had to have awkward small talk at some other point in the future, which was saying a lot for him. “Don’t forget where the sugar is,” Will added, before heading down the hall to go see what his current partner was up to.