I wrote something about Hank at Buffy's funeral sometime ago and thought you should see it. [link]

Lisa H. asked about Faith/McNulty a long time ago...I started here [link]

" Bunk," Jimmy said, in that serious tone that was the first sign that Bunk's friend and partner had had more than a few too many. "I can forgive you anything. Except Boz Skaggs." [link]

[link]

More about Faith in Baltimore. [link]

It seemed like the whole bar brightened up once Faith walked back in. Even the Butterface from the fingerprint lab had some color in her cheeks while watching the vampire slayer hold court. Faith put her half-full glass of Jack-and-Coke on the old-fashioned wooden bar so hard that her drink sloshed in the glass. “I’m making my way across the country before I go professional,” she told an eager rookie who still probably polished his badge.

Jimmy watched and then came closer. He raised his eyebrows. “No offense,” he asked, and he looked her over in that way Bunk knew his partner thought was sexy. “ But a professional what?”

Her smile was full of promise as she said “What if I told you I’m a superhero?” She drained her glass as if there were nothing but a little water in it.

“Bullshit,” Jimmy replied, but he looked Faith over. “Is there a cape?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Why I asked…” McNulty said. “You have to admit…your arrival here’s a little dramatic.”

“It’s true, Jimmy. You should see what this girl can do with a piece of wood.” Bunk replied.

“I’ll bet.”

“I’ll answer any question…if you beat me at arm-wrestling.”

Oh, dear. Poor Jimmy has no idea what he's in for.

He's not happy till he's working somebody's nerves, but no, he doesn't.Somebody he worked under described him as "addicted to himself," because he's got good brains, but missed out on the opportunities he might have deserved to get a shot at(At which he deserved to get a shot?...well, you can see we haven't got that in common. ) In case you don't know what Jimmy looks like: [link]

In a flash that gave Bunk déjà vu, he takes Jimmy outside again. “You don’t have to do this, Jimmy.” “Like hell, I don’t.” his partner argued. “You didn’t have to bet against me!” “ With three to one odds, and inside information? What the hell would you do?” Even though it did seem unseemly not to back his friend up(and he sort of hated himself for the gleam he got in his eye at all the green piled up on the bar, but this Christmas had been an expensive one, and the debt had followed him into Spring. “I like to think I would…” Something flashed in McNulty’s eye, but then he shrugged. “Probably that, but you’re a punk for making me admit it.” “And after I was so gentle deflowering you as a murder police.” Bunk paused. “No offense, but this isn’t a typical barfly."

Jimmy McNulty had won bets, off and on, by picking out the biggest lunkhead in any drinking establishment, or, at first, out on the basketball court and arm-wrestling them. He was good at it because it wasn’t a matter of size, but more about leverage or centrifugal force or some other scientific principle that he couldn’t say when his mouth was slick with liquor.

He even liked the way her hand felt in his. “Just make me look good and I’ll take it easy on you.” Faith’s eyes glinted. “You just keep telling yourself that!”

She was so fast that the only reason he noticed he was getting pinned was the commotion of the bar patrons. “I could take this easier on you,” she said, her breath against his ear. “I understand guys your age don’t like it when you finish up too fast.”

He had her off-balance, just for an instant, but it felt pretty sweet, even if the smell of her sweat and some old-fashioned perfume(White Shoulders?) was kind of distracting. “I wouldn’t know.”