Infinity

TITLE: Infinity (10/?)

AUTHOR: Master F&M

FANDOM: Law and Order: SVU

RATING: Everything from PG to R—just like life.

SUMMARY: A Fin fic— to give him a life that the show refuses to give him

DISCLAIMER: L&O: SVU and all its characters belong to Dick Wolf, NBC, and whomever

                          else puts the show out for our enjoyment. I just get to play with them.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sam is a character of my own creation. She does not exist on the show.

FEEDBACK: Please give some. For entertent ent purposes only.

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CHAPTER 10

            Fin sat at his table nursing a drink and waiting for Sam to arrive. He looked around at the
other people in the club, taking in the mixture of races and ages. It was a pretty mellow crowd.
That was one of the things he liked best about The Velvet Blues. There were a few younger ones,
but most of the people who hung out here were at least in their late thirties. A somewhat older
crowd meant a quieter crowd. He’d long since lost his taste for hangouts where it was so loud
you had to shout just to be heard.

            Another reason he liked the club was the music. They always played a good mix of blues,
jazz, and R&B. Fin liked to think he was open to all kinds- rock, rap, classical, even some heavy
metal- but after a long day, this was the type of music he wanted to hear in order to relax.

            The only drawback to the club was that the older of his two sisters, Constantine,
sometimes dropped by on one of her nights off from the hospital. As a nurse, she worked a 12-hour a day, 3-day a week shift. Because she floated, though, Fin was never certain which days he
should stay away to avoid seeing her. Of the two, she was the sister who still gave him the most
grief. She had agreed with their father at the time that it was primarily Fin’s fault that Dorian had
been taken from him. He still found it difficult to forgive her for that, so they had drifted even
further apart. He could just imagine the family gossip if Connie reported back to them that he’d
been spotted having dinner with a young, white girl. Never mind they were just friends. That
wouldn’t matter.

            Not that it was any of their business anyway. He’d told Sam the truth about them living
their lives one way, and he another. He was as proud as any of them to be Black, but it wasn’t
the only thing he was. Unlike them, he didn’t think his life should revolve around his race- or let
it dictate who he should be.

            Fin did another search of the room and found Sam talking to one of the waitresses. She
pointed in Fin’s direction. Sam gave him a little wave when she spotted him and headed for his
table.

            “Sorry I’m late.” Sam hurried over, a little out of breath. “I needed to finish up some
things at the office before I left. Then I got tied up at home. I also like to park a little ways away
from wherever I’m eating, so then I had to walk over, and, well, I’m here. Sorry.”

            She picked up her menu and glanced at the items. “What’s good? I’m starving.”

            “Just relax for a minute.” Fin noted how much activity she seemed to bring to the table
with her. He certainly didn’t feel as calm as he did before she arrived.

            “What were you talking to that waitress about? I don’t know her, but she must have
known who I was.”

            Sam laughed out loud. “Yeah, that. Well, I just asked her if she’d seen a good-looking,
angry Black man, and she pointed you right out.” Her smile broadened before she went back to
her menu.

            Fin managed to change his own smile to a scowl before she noticed. “I don’t look angry.”

            She laughed again. “Have you looked in the mirror lately? You have two looks: angry and
annoyed.” She took a sip from her water then added, &0;al0;although you have smiled on rare
occasions. You should do it more often. It’s nice.”

            “I haven’t seen much worth smiling about.”

            “Well, there you go. George was right. He said it probably had to do with what you’ve
seen working all those years in Narcotics, and now in SVU.”

            “Wait a minute, who’s George?”

            “Huang.”

            “Our Dr. Huang?”

            “He’ll be gratified to know you called him that.”

            “Why were you talking about me?”

  㺼&60;        Sam shrugged. “Just in conversation. We talked about everyone in the unit.”

            The waitress came over and took their orders while Fin took in that last bit of information.
He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of being discussed by a couple of people from the Bureau, and
didn’t think any of his colleagues would either.

            Sam caught the look on his face. “See? Annoyed. Why?”

            “What exactly was the purpose of those conversations between you and Huang?”

            Sam looked surprised. “Just talk. Oh.” His concern dawned on her. “They weren’t
psychiatric evaluations or anything. George and I are friends. We were just talking about people
we’ve worked with. Really.”

            Fin thought back to Sam’s first day at the station house, and how she had referred to
Huang. “So you two are pretty close?”

            “I wouldn’t say close, anymore. But, you know, we’re friends. We used to hang out a lot
when I was still at the academy. I was really interested in the profiling he’d done. We haven’t
spent much time together over the past couple of years, though, but we used to. In fact,” Sam
leaned in toward Fin, “I think he was the one who sent me the information that showed me who
Mark really was. George didn’t own up to it, but he never really cared for Mark. I figured it had
to be him or my uncle. I liked George for it.”

            Fin thought about it for a minute. “Were the two of you ever . . . ?” He left the question
up in the air.

            Sam gave him a blank look. “Ever what?”

            “You and he ever . . . get together?”

            Sam blinked a couple of times before realizing what he meant. “Me and George? Are you
kidding? Don’t you know he’s . . . ,” Sam switched gears sentsentence. “. . . my friend. He and
I are friends, nothiore.ore. Never were.”

            “Hey, I was just asking. Thought maybe he was jealous of you and your ex and wanted to
get him out of the picture.”

            She gave him a huge smile. “That wouldn’t be like him at all. He’s a lot more honest than
that. And sweet as molasses.” She laughed at a thought. “You should hear him do karaoke! It’s
why I nicknamed him ‘G’.”

            “ Karaoke, huh? Sounds to me like maybe there is more.” Fin had been happier when she
was complimenting him.

            Sam rolled her eyes as the waitress brought them their meals. “Let’s just drop it.” She
picked up her fork and looked at Fin’s order. He hadn’t held back. His dinner was enormous.

            “Are you going to eat all that?”

            “Sure. I’m a big boy. Besides you’re paying so . . . ,” he waved his hand over his meal
indicating why he’d ordered so much.

            “Nice. Just remember that when it’s your turn.”

      &;
     “My turn?” he asked between bites of veal. “Aren’t you going back to Baltimore?”

            “Trying to get rid of me?”

            “Nah. I just figured you’d be leaving soon since the case is over.”

            Fin, Munch, and Sam had all been present in New Jersey when Weeks was arrested. The
last member of the group of girls that had humiliated him had moved there after she’d gotten
married. Once they discovered Weeks’ motive, SVU had set up surveillance rings around both
the mother and her daughter. Weeks was caught while trying to snatch the girl after school one
day. He was now sitting in Rikers awaiting a trial hearing, but knowing how the inmates treated
child molesters, Fin didn’t t he& he’d be sitting for long.

            “Actually, Detective,” Sam was saying, “I was thinking I’d stick around for a while. I
could stretch out my reassignment here, or maybe even make it permanent. Who knows?
Besides, it’s been nice being able to see Munch every day, and there’s really nothing waiting for
me in Baltimore.” She gave a brief thought to her father. “ I’m in no hurry to get back.”

 

             She looked up at Fin who had managed to polish off most of the food in front of him.

            “Speaking of Munch, didn’t you tell him I was buying you dinner to repay your tea-making skills from last week? When I told him I was meeting you here, he practically gave me the
third degree. That’s how I got hung up at home.”

            Fin shrugged it off. “I’m not in the habit of clearing things with him. Was it a problem?”

            “No, he was just surprised you didn’t mention it.”

            “Humph.” Fin grunted then went back to his meal.

              Sam smiled as she watched him eat. There is nothing pretentious about this man, she
thought. She tried to cover a grin as he slurped up a linguine noodle. What some would have
considered to be questionable table manners, she found to be quite endearing. He was who he
was. He never tried to be anything else. She studied his face, and took pleasure in what she saw.
She had recognized before that he was good-looking, but it was only after getting to know him a
little that she really found him attractive. He might appear to be gruff and distant, but after their
conversations over the past couple of weeks, she knew there was a much softer side to him.
There was a whole well of emotions just waiting for the right woman to tap into it. Whoever it
is, she thought, is going to be a very lucky girl.

&an>            Fin sat back from the table. “I’m stuffed.”

            “You should be,” Sam answered. “You ate enough to feed a horse.”

            “Hey, I was hungry. And just for that, I think I’ll order dessert later.”

            She thrp hep her hands in submission. “You order whatever you want. I owe you.”
They sat quietly for a few seconds, listening to the music. “You know, “ Sam began, “it was
really nice of you to stick around the other night. You didn’t have to help me. And you certainly
didn’t have to make me your grandmother’s tea. Thanks.”

            “You already thanked me, okay? Besides, what was I supposed to do, just leave you there
looking sick and pathetic?”

            “I wasn’t that bad.”

            “Yeah, you were. All slumped over the bowl, puking your guts out . . . ”

            “Okay, okay,” she laughed. “I was sick and pathetic. All the same, a lot of guys I know
wouldn’t have done what you did.”

   㼠160;       Fin looked at her meanfully before answering. “Then maybe you don’t know the right
guys.”

             Something passed between them in the look that followed. Something that neither one of
them was ready to admit.

 

            Sam drank from her water glass to calm the flutter she’d felt in the pit of her stomach. It
was just because he’d been so nice to her, she reasoned. It had nng tng to do with the soulful
look in his eyes. Or anything at all to do with those dimples that sprang up whenever a smile came
anywhere near his mouth. His mouth . . . Sam shook herself back to the present to find Fin
staring at her.

            Had she seen what he’d been thinking? he wondered. For the second time since he met
her, he had to remind himself that this was his partner’s niece. Just a girl, really. Even if she did
seem older than her years, she still wasn’t much older than his own son. She was off limits. And
a Munch. And probably wouldn’t be interested in anyone his age anyway. Then there was the
whole race issue. And more importantly, she was a Munch. You couldn’t get more off limits
than that. But then why do you like being with her so much? he had to ask himself.

            “You ready to go?” Fin cut the thought short.

            “No dessert?”

#160#160;          “I guess I’ve eaten enough. Let’s go”

            Sam paid the bill and they left. Once outside, Fin asked where her car was.

            “It’s parked about ten blocks away.”

            “Ten blocks!” They started walking in the right direction “Why? The parking’s not that
bad around here.”

            “I know. But like I said, I like to park a little away from where I go to eat. That way I can
work some of it off hiking back to my car.”

            “That ain’t the safest thing in the world to do, especially in this city.”

            “I can take care of myself.”

            Fin smirked. “Why do women in New York always say that?”

            “I don’t know. But this woman from Baltimore says it because it’s true.”

            “Oh, yeah, that’s right. You know some martial arts. So what are you, some kind of
Jackie Chan?” he laughed.

            “I could kick your ass.”

            Fin laughed loudly. “Whoa, girl. Scared of you.”

            “Yeah, well. Just don’t make me hurt you.”

            They walked the rest of the way to her car in silence. This is why, Fin thought stealing a
sideways glance at her. This is whyike ike being with her. He felt comfortable with her. Enough
so that he didn’t feel the need to fill the silent space. He could just be.

            “Here we are.” Sam interrupted his thoughts. “Thanks for the escort.”

            Fin admired her car again. “You have to let me drive this thing sometime.”

            Sam looked skeptical. “Hmm. We’ll see. Want a lift back to your car?”

            “I’ll be all right.”

            Sam smiled at him. “I guess this is goodnight then, Detective.”

            Fin smiled back. “I guess so.”

 

            They each waited, hoping the other would say something more. When neither did, Sam
got in her car and Fin started to walk away. After a moment’s hesitation, she stuck her head out
the car window.

            “He82218221; she called after him. “Give me a ring tomorrow?”

            “Yeah, okay,” he answered casually. Yeah, he thought, already looking forward to seeing
her again. Why not?