Chuckles

Part III

Weeks went by, months even, and with officers and cases coming and going Trudy's private investigation had to take a backseat for a while. No real opportunities came along to dig deeper into Chuckles' personal affairs either. The only way to obtain the occasional puzzle piece was through the grapevine of the twenty-first or by watching his reactions to her jabs here and there. But what was thrown at him in hopes of provoking a revealing response mostly just reinforced the mystification surrounding him. The one and only Jay Halstead refused to leave her with any meaningful breadcrumbs. Instead, he became an equilibrist of sorts in dodging her razor-sharp bullets. In other words: he remained a conundrum.

In the end, it was inevitable that over time a routine set in between the desk sergeant and the enigmatic detective. Their recurring procedure went a little bit like this: Platt, in true fashion, continued handing out her witticisms. It was her natural way of communicating with all her work acquaintances after all; besides, she had a reputation to uphold. However, her snarky remarks lost some of their punch, a vast amount of them flattened to roughly the same level as those she riled up her patrol officers with. Direct, honest, biting, yet overall harmless and coming from a place of affection. Though she'd never admit to that last one.

Meanwhile, Chuckles grew accustomed to her taunting. He easily sidestepped anything that might struck too personal, carefully avoided those daring inquiries into parts of his life that weren't work-related, deflecting with lopsided grins, mocking frowns and pouty lips, sometimes just a single cocked eyebrow.

His facial play was something to marvel at. Unbelievably expressive and captivating and probably something that he fell back on a lot whenever he went undercover. What drew her in most about the mimic ricochets was the fact that they were almost always accompanied by one of those sounds that had inspired his moniker in the first place. Trudy realized there was a whole assortment of those, ranging from soft chortles and bashful giggles to sheepish teehees all the way to derisive sniggers and even baying guffaws. However, they all had one thing in common, much rather all lacked one factor: levity. Even the rare startling hearty belly laughs and the sarcastic crowns – she was never on the receiving end of either because Jay was too timid around her for the former, too respectful for the latter, but she had witnessed them when he was with elect coworkers – sounded leery, hollow, sorrowful even. They weren't blithe and unburdened as they should have been, the observation saddening her tremendously.

Nevertheless, the hints of self-consciousness she had picked up on repeatedly in his primal weeks with Intelligence evaporated to being basically nonexistent. At least on the outside. If Halstead was still as intimidated by her offhanded comments as he had been in the beginning, then he did a remarkable job of covering it up. Working in an elite unit certainly did him some good in the confidence department. Evident in the fact that on scarce days he even braved being sassy to Platt in return, the first time of that happening having stumped her quite a lot. That lip really suited him, gave him a youthful jauntiness, a childlike innocence, a boyish radiance that he seemed to have been robbed of way too early in life otherwise. She was admittedly thrilled to see the gloomy and reserved detective come out of his shell and crack open just a bit more around her too.

Alas, in her eagerness to tickle his backtalk out of him, she got too cocky and pushy sometimes. She let especially tactless jibes slip off her tongue, was just a tad extra cynical, and because this was a well-practiced decadelong approach of hers, she always hit her mark with precision and candor. And with that, she unintentionally ripped Jay's recently acquired poise away from him again, two occurrences residing prominently in Platt's mind. Two instances where she deliberately questioned his competence and prodded at his insecurities just because she hoped she could use these moments of carefreeness and openness to pry some private information from someone who couldn't possibly keep his life outside of work any closer to the vest.