Chapter Text
Whenever Finn sees Liz, it's like there's a dumbwaiter ding going off half in his heart and half in his head.
It doesn't have to be a confrontation. Sometimes he glimpses her through the glass walls as she walks by, or passes her in the corridors. It's anticipation of a fight, he supposes; evolutionary instinct kicking in, a warlike nature surfacing.
Ding! Liz is in view, heading down the hallway. "Welcome back!" Finn exclaims. "You haven't missed much, apart from everyone wanting to talk to you and no one knowing where you are." He holds his phone up to his ear and jokes, "Hi, yeah, call off the dogs and choppers, we've found her and she's alive."
She scowls at him. Mia informs her about Richard, who's currently in Liz's office, staring dramatically out of the big window.
"Don't worry," Finn begins in mock reassurance. He lightly grips Liz's shoulder. It's the first time they've touched since their introductory handshake. Although he was the one who initiated it, the closeness surprises him, just as her head immediately whips around at the contact. He quickly removes his hand, though not his smirk. "We've all been on the receiving end of a Miller bollocking. Usually, he's thoughtful enough to hit you where the bruises don't show."
Finn's eyes follow Liz as she approaches Richard. He remains nearby after Mia has left, busying himself with what's lying around as he watches the pair. Soon, they're laughing together, exchanging what Finn interprets as meaningful gazes. When Richard abruptly leans in and kisses Liz on the cheek, that's when Finn decides to leave.
Later, Liz calls a meeting without specifying why.
“What did he want?" Finn asks. "Tip for a good ramen noodle place? The name of your dealer?” A pause, during which she doesn't deign to respond; he studies her, ready to gauge her reaction, then adds, slyly, “Bit of a hug?”
She looks up for a split second to shoot him a bemused, irritated smile. A mental image flashes of the Commissioner hugging her - in a chaste way, not locked in a passionate embrace or whatever it is that lovers do - and it fills Finn with inexplicable anger. But he's always angry, anyway, especially when it comes to Liz, so he doesn't give it any further thought.
After she pops up on Sky News without warning, Finn Googles her. Liz has bested him this round. He's furious, agitated, and kind of impressed.
He's been spying on her since the day she was hired, but not this intimately, not scrolling through her Facebook profile on his work computer like he is now. Distantly, he recognises that there's nothing to gain from this. Liz is a PR prodigy, so she wouldn't have posted anything she didn't want complete strangers to see - in fact, she won't post anything unless she wants it to be seen. Current crisis aside, most of the information an Internet search supplies about her is just an extension of her fucking brand, a life she's molded into a resume. And he's buying into it.
Finn clicks again, and all of a sudden, Richard is in the picture. He and Liz are sitting together at a press conference, back in happier times; she's turned towards another camera, smiling big and bright, how he's never seen her in real life. For a moment, he wonders if there could be an actual person bubbling beneath the lid, if she might be more than someone constantly trying to be more than. Then he notices that Richard is staring at her as if she's salvation.
Something twists in Finn's chest, sharp and the sobering end of painful. He finally decides to call it quits.