Chapter Text
Pissed wasn’t even the right word. Her legs were burning from chasing down a suspect earlier and the last thing Lexi wanted to see coming back to the office was folder placed on her desk with a note. It was brief, simply stating that she was getting a new case and partner and as her eyes moved down the note she paused reading over the name. Lexi hadn’t had a partner in god knows how long and now she’d be sharing some case with the biggest pain in her ass.
“ You’ve gotta be joking” her arms were folded at the opening of Laney’s door watching as the chief didn’t even bother to glance up from his papers, lips formed into a frown as he sighed.” Howard-“
“ Come on you know I hate working with others”. Lexi had been assigned numerous partners after Garcia’s death and every single one of them transferred within a few weeks until Laney eventually gave up with trying.
“ Yeah well we need all the help we can get on this case it’s...” Laney was silent for a moment his fingers rubbed over his face with tired eyes and only then did Lexi realize how stressed he seemed. “ He’s back....” the words hit hard as Lexi simply starred at her boss with a tight lipped expression before shaking her head slowly. “ I thought we killed him”
“ Yeah well we just found a body earlier, same pattern. No eyes and tongue ripped out, same signature to the tee”.
“ It’s just until we catch this guy Howard-”
“ She’s reckless, has no sense of awareness and-
Laney’s laugh stopped Lexi in a small frown seeing his amusement to her obvious displeasure. “ Bennett may have questionable methods but she gets the job done”.
Lexi pressed on. “ No one wants to work with her”.
“ You aren’t a ray of sunshine either Howard we both know that”. It was clear the conversation was coming to its end with how Laney coiled back into his seat and focused back to the papers on his desk, Lexi had no choice but to sigh in defeat and take her leave.
Lexi took slow deep breaths as she moved over to her desk, feet slowly coming to a stop at the sight in front of her. Bennett was slouched in her chair, feet pulled up on top of the desk like it was her house and not a place of work. Her clothes were disheveled, white buttoned down shirt half tucked in like she’d been rushing and just stopped trying, brown curls pulled up into a sloppy pony tail. Oh and the stain, can’t forget that.
Breathe Lexi, breathe.
“ Sup partner” the way Bennett said the last part was as if she was feeling out the word, unsure almost and Lexi silently walked over picking Bennett’s feet up from off her desk ignoring the way her partner rolled her eyes. “ Look I don’t know what Laney thinks is gonna happen putting us together, but we have two weeks to work this case-“. Bennett all but waved her off as she starred down at all the organized files on Lexi’s desk- and began going through them.
She cringed at the sight.
Bennett was silent as she quickly skimmed through and placed the folders and papers back down ( sloppily she might add) and then nodded her head.
“ Okay”
“Okay?” Lexi raised an eyebrow as Bennet went to place her legs back on top of the desk like they hadn’t just been taken off but Lexi noticed the content smirk on Bennett face almost challenging like and-nope she couldn’t do it.
Her hands shoved Bennett’s feet off this time with more force and to her surprise the woman look at her with amusement and Lexi scowled just wanting to get the whole thing over with. “ Okay we can head to the scene and see if anyone might of seen or heard anything or we can go to-“
“ You hungry? I’m starving” Bennett interrupted standing and grabbing her jacket to pass Lexi who blinked twice. Was this just some weird dream? The shoulder tap from Bennett proved otherwise and Lexi took a step back to regain some sort of personal space that her partner seemed to have none of. Lexi scoffed as Bennet all but started to the door not even bothering too see if Lexi was following (she was) before shouting after her as they reached what Lexi assumed was her car. “ Did you even hear a word I said!?”.
Bennett paused abruptly and tilted her head brown eyes starring at Lexi like she was figuring out something in her head, her brows furred slightly and it really seemed like was pondering Lexi’s words and then just like that she shrugged unlocking the car door. “ Yeah I heard you, food for me because I’m starving and I know you are too”.
Lexi mouth was agape and Bennett all but snickered slightly snapping her fingers “ You good Howard? Relax we’ll head over to the scene but I can’t work on a empty stomach. Food first “. Lexi really had half a mind to just head back inside and take whatever heat Laney three at her but she also wanted the case more than anything and Bennett seemed to know that with the content smirk on her features.
“ You’re insufferable you know that?” The remark didn’t seem to have any effect to her partner who only nodded her head and climbed into the car and Lexi sighed before following suit.
Some fucking partner this was.