drabble #3 (for anonymous)

[bedlamsbard]

Flack has a forensic accounting class at seven in the evening on Thursdays, and he spends the hour and a half hand in hand with either a mouse or a foot-high pile of accounts in file folders. It's a relief, in a sense -- numbers and interrogation are the only things he's ever done really well, and he's not really cut out for the CSI life. It's not that he can't do it -- he manages to surprise himself over and over throughout his classes by how much he's picked up from the lab -- but that he's not made for the life.

Lucky for Flack, he's never gotten a call during his accounting class, although Mac pulled him out of Intro to the Human Body once to go chase down a suspect. Most of the professors at John Jay don't know he's a homicide dick, or even a cop, which is all to the good as far as Flack's concerned.

His partner in forensic accounting is Zoe Rehkopf, who remidns him a bit of Aiden. Not that he'd tell either of them that; Aiden's been spending more time than usual in the range and Zoe just got back from Iraq. Zoe is good at criminology and at forensics, enough that Flack is considering referring her to Mac when she finishes school. Not that Zoe knows he has an intimate connection with the NYPD Crime Lab.

They're going through the accounts of a case the Lab closed the year Flack made detective when his pager goes off. Professor Jakobsen bears down on him with the wrath of God as Flack gets up, pulling his coat off the back of his chair.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To work," Flack says, his back aching where he pulled a muscle when a perp tried to kick him off a building yesterday.

"No one walks into my class and walks out without my permission," Jakobsen snaps. "Are you going to do that in the middle of a crime scene?"

Flack digs his wallet out of his pocket and pulls out his shield. "Well, actually I'm going to a crime scene, so I'll let you know what my boss thinks on that count."

Jakobsen gapes. Zoe looks at him with narrowed eyes. "Any chance you can get me a job?"

"I'll talk to Mac," Flack tells her, and leans over her shoulder to point at the screen as he snaps his badge onto his belt with his other hand. "There's your fraud, right there."

Zoe glances at the screen. "Huh," she says, and Flack grins a little as he leaves the room.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh. Fic! :)

I think your portrayal of Flack doing well in his classes, but not feeling drawn to the work, is a good one. I like the details - the line about numbers and interrogation, the mention of the perp who tried to kick him off a building, and his parting comment to Zoe.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of Zoe - any chance that we'll be seeing her again?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it! I wasn't really sure it worked all that well -- I'm experimenting with this new idea of Flack as hidden math genius, which only shows up slightly in this parti-drabble. And we know he's good at interrogation, we've seen it.

Zoe, hmm. I don't know. She was just an off-the-cuff OC, but you never know, we may see her again.

[(Anonymous)]

Flack as a hidden math genius... hmm. Hidden as in "had some idea of his talents, but chose not to explore them," or hidden as in "But this makes perfect sense... uh, why are you looking at me that way?"

He does seem like he would have been good at math in school. :)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Hidden as in "had some idea of his talents, but chose not to explore them." I've got a piece of a everyone's college experience fic that explains it better:

The first time Flack disagreed with his father to his face was during his senior year of high school while Flack, Sr., was busy bitching out the NYPD's new standards. "If you're gonna have to go to college, you're gonna study something usedful and you're gonna go to John Jay." "I'm studying math," Don told him, "and I'm going to the University of Virginia." When he came back to New York and joined the NYPD, it was to first carefully tape off that part of his brain that gave him perfect equations already gift-wrapped with yellow "CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS" tape. He almost manages to ignore it until he ends up reassigned to CSU, and then he lets equations occasionally run through his head, but never voices them. CSU has all the high-tech equipment a nerd could want; they don't need him.

I'm working on a fic where he actually uses his mad math skillz to solve a case, but it's untitled and in progress. It's a thing I'm exploring. Hey, it could be possible.

[(Anonymous)]

I like the idea. Especially the thought of the team's reactions. :)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I don't know if most of the team would actually react all that much. I mean, they all have their own secrets, why should Flack's be any different? Of course, there's a follow up story...shutting up now.