BLINDSPOT-REPATA LUV

I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU 2

Zapata and Reade (drabble length) some things need to be said...and
they say them...

Zapata and Reade sit close enough to lean across and kiss; they sit on folded knees, with their knees touching, each basking in the proximity of the other. Zapata says:

"I don't have any more doubts about where I should be-where I HAVE to be. I know that you paid-off that bookie, Reade and that you, Weller, and Baldwin Jones, my old partner at NYPD, kicked his ass, told him he'd better not come back for more. FORTY-EIGHT THOUSAND
DOLLARS-where did you even get that much money!? And he would have: kept coming back-he's done it before. The last time he came for his money, he made me an offer...sex for the 'vig'. I was so DESPERATE...and you stopped him."

"The money's from my Wall Street days." He pauses, unsure of how to phrase his next question: Would you have..." he can't bring himself to continue.

"I can't honestly say NO. There WAS NO LIGHT, Reade-only darkness. I was in a deep, dark hole, with no hope of ever getting out...then YOU showed me friendship, and then LOVE. You showed me that I have value, that I can be a part of life, like everyone else; instead of just surviving,
day by day."

"I was drawn to you from day one, at the academy. At the NYO."

"I saw the way you looked at me. Remember, I flirted...I was attracted; you never made a move!"

"I had a sense that you needed a friend more at that time...a confidant, more than a relationship. And I was right. I thought if I stayed close..."

"About that: I know that you pulled strings to us get assigned there, together. After I found out, I smiled, a real 'shit-eating grin'.

"My Dad's retired FBI..I...had to be near you. I just had to", he says.

"I know that you covered me when I shot Dominic Masters for...what he did to me after I was kidnapped. I realized that I will do anything for you: COACH JONES, the heroin...Once I knew that I resisted giving in to what I was feeling. My past is...unbelievably horrific, Reade. I was sure that if you knew about what I endured, what I had to do to...survive, you would get as far away from me as you could. And I couldn't stand that, I couldn't...it seemed the better choice...to accept that, as always, I'd never have what I really wanted. I'm programmed for that."

"We have some nicks, you and I. SCARS, chunks were taken out of us. JONES...I wanted to take my own life. I knew that you were a kindred spirit, and I can't explain how I knew. I fell for you, even more, when you covered me on that pervert. I would never have pulled myself out of that heroin nightmare, without you. There IS light in you...dim, but still there."

"Thank you for that." She gives him a light kiss on the lips:

LIGHT, but full of meaning...

Reade adds "And programming can be changed. You aren't doomed to the same fate as you were born in. You've proven that: you haven't gambled, or gotten black-out drunk; you excelled at the PD...here in the Bureau. You broke through your own walls to let yourself LOVE ME."