helsinkibaby: (Default)
helsinkibaby ([personal profile] helsinkibaby) wrote2014-08-23 08:58 pm

Fic: A Brief Moment (Almost Human, Kennex/Stahl)

Title: A Brief Moment
Author: helsinkibaby
Fandom: Almost Human
Pairing: John Kennex/Valerie Stahl
Rating: G
Word Count:
Summary: Valerie watches as John and Dorian bring a criminal to justice.
Notes: for day 9 at August Rush at [community profile] 1_million_words - John and Dorian doing a perp walk.




Valerie can't help herself - the second the doors open and John and Doran walk through, the killer they've been chasing all week standing between them, her breath leaves her in a whoosh and she feels almost faint, giddy with relief. She pulls herself together quickly, hoping that no-one noticed and a quick glance around assures her that no-one did, that everyone's eyes are on John and Dorian, the human officers applauding, the MXs standing stock still and expressionless. 

Part of her feels like she's being ridiculous. After all, John is a good cop, Dorian's a good partner, and together they're one of the best teams she's ever seen working together. But being a cop is a dangerous job and John's already had more than his fair share of close calls. Valerie's good with patterns, statistics; she knows that sooner or later, his luck is likely to run out. 

She spends a lot of her time hoping that she's wrong about that, because she doesn't know how she'd handle it. 

John's eyes roam the bullpen, glancing over to Maldonado's office first, then moving across, only coming to rest when they land on Valerie. They linger on her for only a second, so quickly that she might have missed it if she hadn't been looking for it. But she was looking for it, so she saw the tug upwards on his lips, the almost imperceptible nod of his head towards her. It's his way of letting her know that he's all right, that there's nothing for her to worry about.  The next moment, he's shouting something across the bullpen to Richard, who replies with something equally snarky and it's business as usual from there on out. 

But that brief moment with John is enough to have her smiling for the rest of the day. 

And later on, he has her smiling for the rest of the night.