What a fine mess you made

[Deleted]

Lara DunCroft

If it was one thing that was bothering James, it was the fact that Chicago was well.. Chicago. It was cold, snowy, and disgusting outside. Then again he had been born in the land of the hurricanes. New Orleans hadn't exactly been a sinless city either so Chicago was more of the same just a hell of a lot colder. Though it hadn't come without its perks. There had been lots of chances for promotions for Jim on his way to where he was. Though Narcotics and Organized Crimes unit wasn't exactly a desk job and he didn't want his team to think that it was. Against orders, he stayed in the field. There was a transfer on his desk this particular morning. Someone from homicide. Lara DunCroft. He was busy going over her files when he took a glance at the clock. He would be expecting her any minute now.

Jim liked to handle things as they came up, nip them in the butt now. Her reputation as a wild card preceded her. Not that the captain thought of it as a bad thing, just that perhaps he needed to keep a close eye on her. Hence, he had already made up his mind that he was going to partner himself with this transfer. Get a lay of how things worked with her and see how to best handle the loose canon so to speak. Yes, he was coming to presumptions based on prior performance but if it was one thing he knew, it was that people generally tended to follow certain patterns. Certainly, she was no exception.

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[Lara DunCroft]

Lara was on her side with the covers pulled over her shoulder, staring at the alarm clock that was due to sound in 10 minutes. She let out a quiet sigh from her nose before she pushed off the covers and stood up, an empty wine bottle rolling onto the floor as she did so. Looking down at the bottle she ran a hand through her somewhat disheveled hair, pushing the stray locks out of her eyes and bent down to pick it up. She put the bottle on the nearest flat surface and sauntered towards the dresser. She pulled out a white shirt and black trousers and put them on before reaching out and picking up her Badge. She ran her thumb over it before she clipped to her belt along with her gun. It was the first time she had put them on in a couple of months and the thought of going back to work was both a good thing and a bad thing in her mind. She ran a brush haphazardly through her hair, which was more than she had bothered doing some days. As she put the brush down and tied her hair back she caught her own reflection in the mirror and paused as she looked at herself and wondered how she could feel so numb yet feel so much pain at the same time. But she pushed the thought away and headed to work. That was easier to do than to think about things.  It was her first day back after taking a couple of month off after the crash. Well she had gone back the day after being released from the hospital, but things didn't go so well...She had come back 'too soon' her superiors said. So now it was her second 'first day' back a couple of months later. This time she had been transfered to another unit though, and been partnered up with a captain no less. Arriving in Narcotics & Organized Crime Lara stopped and looked around, scanning the room for Captain Gordan. On the surface she didn't look like the poster child for immaculately kept appearances, but she didn't look a complete and total mess either, though inside she was. She was more just a little scruffy around the edges with a few stray locks of hair and an loose fitting shirt, but hey at least she was on time. Seeing his desk Lara began walking over to him. The idea of working with a captain wasn't thrilling but at least it meant she was back at work, she couldn't take being at home alone any longer. If she was the chances was that she would do something stupid. So here she was instead... Tag: @gordon . ~*~

[Deleted]

Lara DunCroft

Gordon hardly looked up from his paperwork. Well apparently she was the quiet type when it came to greetings. “I don’t bite.” He pointed to the desk across from his. It wasn’t a completely empty desk but it wasn’t personalized exactly either. He still had a good bit of paperwork to do but it could wait. He had no idea what she loops she ran in or any of the above. He just knew that working in his department he made friends and he made enemies. So he wasn’t exactly the straight line kind of guy but at least he was honest.

There were a few things he wasn’t proud of and he’d at one point been considered a loose cannon himself. He signed off on one of his statements and flipped the page. Oh the mess he was so good at making. Now, he just had to make sure that he’d cleaned up most of it behind himself. That was how it went. He decided it was rude to not stop where he could have a moment and so he shuffled the work onto the side of the desk. “Sorry, in the middle of a mess I made. You can sit down.” He offered gently before getting up to extend his hand. “Jim Gordon.” He decided that maybe introductions should be a thing.

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[Lara DunCroft]

Lara looked where Jim pointed but she chose to remain standing. Well for a few moment anyway as she crossed her arms and watched him write then proceed to shuffle paperwork to the side, before explaining he was cleaning up his own mess. “Sorry, in the middle of a mess I made. You can sit down.” "We've all been there." She replied with a very casual attitude towards the subject. She used to be the by the book type, but her attitude had very much changed in that respect following the accident that hat taken so much from her. She had very much changed since the accident and caring about following the rules to the letter was out of the window now. "Lara." She introduced herself in return, with a handshake. Being her partner and her superior she probably should have given him more than that. But when she introduced herself as Lara DunCroft the majority of people tended to call her DunCroft, so seeing as he was her partner and that she was gonna be around him a lot he just got Lara. She took a seat, slouching down in the chair in a manor that did not line up with her well spoken accent at all, "So you're my new parter huh, Captain?" It was more a comment than a question. One she tried to make with a bit of a smile and a touch of enthusiasm, if you could call it that. She rolled her head from one side to the other looking around the room, and a little at the ceiling in the process. Introductions and paperwork were all well and good, but they were boring and Lara wanted distraction, not boring, "So what do we now?" She asked, looking at Gordan and meeting his eyes. "What are we doing? Where are we going? Are we gonna catch some bad guys, huh?" She asked, moderately enthused. Tag: @gordon . ~*~

[Deleted]

Lara DunCroft

Yeah, they’d all been there in cleaning up messes they made. Being Mr. Follow all of the rules wasn’t really Gordon’s style. He tried to but sometimes the area’s were grey. He’d somehow married himself to the job, so it was only fitting that the rules got to get bent now and again. He could tell that Lara was antsy from the moment she walked into the door. “That’s what happens when hell flies away in a handbasket. You end up sitting shotgun with the captain.” No, he had to take a partner if he wanted to be out in the field. It was safer that way, regardless if he waited for back-up.

What were they doing now? They were waiting. “Wasting time, dotting I’s and crossing T’s.” He really did think that paperwork was a waste of time but it was a necessary evil. “I have a meeting with a CI of mine. I hope you like Italian.” He knew better than to go to Evelyn’s on a full stomach. That woman would try to feed him anyway there was no need to be rude. He could only shake his head when she started asking if they were catching anyone today.

“I don’t know what’s going on today. I just know my CI wanted me to stop by.” Sometimes Evelyn had information for him, and sometimes he had a feeling she just wanted him to stop by. Though he honestly wasn’t sure how Evelyn would take a plus one. He had mentioned that he might have his partner with him when he stopped in, depending on what time she got to the precinct. He’d drop Evelyn a text when they were on their way. For now he focused on his partner. Jim wasn’t so sure that he liked the whole over enthusiastic attitude. It got people in trouble more than it helped.

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[Lara DunCroft]

“That’s what happens when hell flies away in a handbasket. You end up sitting shotgun with the captain.” Lara wasn't sure how much Jim actually knew about her behavior the first time she had tried coming back to work a couple of months ago, it had started whispers amongst some the staff at PD and now there was all kinds of rumors going around for sure. She also didn't know if he knew the circumstances around what had set her spiraling into that kind of behavior or not. Not that she was gonna ask, it was a subject she didn't like talking about so why talk about it when she could take no notice of his comment and ignore it? “Wasting time, dotting I’s and crossing T’s.” A captain that thought paperwork was a waist of time? Maybe being partnered with him wouldn't be so bad after all. He made messes and thought paperwork was a waist of time, they had stuff in common already! Though the only difference was that Jim was sitting there actually doing the paperwork even though he didn't like it. An outing to have a talk with a CI was better than hanging around doing paperwork at least, and Italian didn't sound bad. Lara hadn't exactly been maintaining a balanced diet, it was more like living off vending machines and eating as and when so the prospect of eat some Italian food on the job sound like a good way to spend her first outing in the field on her first day in a new department. "I like Pizza." She replied. He was being rhetorical she knew, but she couldn't resist a little tongue in cheek...though she did like pizza. Pizza and beer, though she doubted he would let her drink on the job. "Ok, so we're going to see your CI." She nodded with a very light smile, "...So we just sit her until then, huh?" Lara had literally just started so she had no reports to write or statements to check over or anything like that, so letting her just sit there with literally nothing to do wasn't the best idea. She would get bored and fidgety and would start wandering around. Tag: @gordon . ~*~