"You know, not that I don't love work, but remind me again why we're here on Christmas day?"

The speaker, Travis Stoll, shivered, whether that was from the cold, or the glare he was currently receiving from Annabeth Chase was undecided. However, his sarcastic question went unnoticed by the team leader, Perseus Jackson. The twenty five year old simply paced the length of his desk, deep in thought.

Nico sent a glance towards Annabeth, clearly urging her to say something to Percy. After all, she was the one sleeping with the boss. Travis sniggered. It sounded like something off of one of those lame crime scene shows. Senior Field Agent sleeping with the team leader. However, in their unique case it was true, though Chase wasn't the type to just sleep around. Apparently she and Percy had been an item before joining the force, but the fact remained that they were together, and Percy was their boss.

"We're here because there was a murder."

If Percy had been hoping for a dramatic effect with gasps and expressions of shock, he was sorely disappointed. He was met with confused expressions and plenty of blinking, courtesy of the Stoll brothers. Connor, the blunter of the two, decided to speak up, and ask the question everyone had formed in their minds.

"Well what the hell does that have to do with us?" Seeing Percy's glare, he threw up his hands in defense. "What? Oh come on, you know what I mean! It's Christmas! We don't even handle homicide cases, that goes over to the homicide detectives, right Grover?" However, if he was looking for help from the former homicide detective, he found none.

Grover Underwood looked troubled, both at Connor's and Percy's words. "Connor's right. It should go over to the homicide detectives. Unless it's a special case, right Percy?" The leader nodded grimly. "And that's where we come in. Special Cases. And team, if special is measured in money, than this case would be the King Midas of Ancient Greek."

Once again, his words were met with confused expressions. Percy, like all the agents, had to have at least one unique quirk. He happened to have a habit of throwing in random facts about Greek mythology, or using them as expressions. With the expression of the genius girl Annabeth Chase, no one understood what the hell he was talking about.

"He means it's a special, high risk case." The sassy blonde spoke up, rolling her grey eyes as she did so. Percy smiled at his girlfriend, before his expression fell grim again. "She's right. This is incredibly high risk. That's why I've only called a few of you out, and not the whole team."

Now that Percy had mentioned that, the members of the team who were present looked around, and realized he had spoken the truth. "Why can't Clarisse and Thalia and Luke be here?" Grover asked, genuinely curious. Percy sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. Visible through the waves of ebony was a single grey streak. No one knew how the streak got there, all the knew was the streak had been a part of his hair since his teenage years, and Annabeth had one exactly like it. Neither of the field agents would speak about it.

"They can't come, because they don't have alibis."

That made every member present sit up straighter, and instantly become more alert. "Wait, you mean they are suspects?" Travis asked in horror. Percy nodded sadly, looking like he had gained forty years over the past night.

"You're kidding me right." Connor demanded, furious that his friend could even contemplate such a thing. "That's-they're-You've got to be joking!" Percy hung his head, looking like he had personally wounded Connor and the rest of the team. And in a way, by delivering the message, he had. "No, I'm not actually." He said gravely.

It was Travis' turn for an outburst. "Well that's bull! Luke is our half brother! Thalia is your cousin, and Clarisse, well, believe it or not, but we actually give a damn about her every once in a while. She may be some bloodthirsty hound with anger management problems, but she's our bloodthirsty hound! She's an asset to the team along with Thalia and Luke, and when you go around accusing them, it makes you lose your credibility! And what about Will? Suspect him too, huh?"

Percy rubbed his forehead. He knew things would not go over well with his team when he told him the news, but he hadn't quite expected them to act like this. Even Annabeth and Nico had trouble meeting his eyes. Didn't they all see he was hurting just as much as they were? This was his team! He was responsible for the lives of these people, and so far, he was doing an awful job of things.

"No, Will is examining the victim. Look, I know that this hurts you guys. But we're Special Agents. We can't just give up on a case, or not investigate things fully because some of our loved ones are involved. That just means we have to work all the harder to find out who committed this crime! Look, you guys are my team, and I need you to back me up on this!"

"We're only half your team." Connor muttered under his breath, and with that comment, Percy lost it. "Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I just don't give a shit that my cousin is one of the suspects? Look, the fact remains that whether you are my full team or not, you are my team, and you will do as I say! And I say, to hell with Christmas, we're investigating this murder!"

Something Percy had said had obviously irritated Annabeth beyond belief, because her grey eyes turned steel cold, and flashed dangerously. "And how the hell do we know that it was one of them?" She spat out, her words practically coated in venom.

Percy winced. He was seriously regretting his words right now. He loved his career, and he loved his position, but sometimes it was a pain in the ass being Annabeth's superior. She didn't resent him for it, but she was superior over him in everything else, or so it seemed. No matter how much the rest of the team joked about their relationship, Percy cared more for Annabeth than he ever thought he would care for a woman other than his mother. And it seemed that he had now just angered her.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I sure as hell can think of quite a few cases where I didn't have an alibi. We're supposed to investigate substantial evidence with reason and logic. Are we suspecting the rest of the team because 'they don't have an alibi?'"

"No." Percy said gravely. Placing his palms on his desk, he leaned over and spoke in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "We're investigating them because the victim who was murdered could have only been murdered by someone on the force. Because the victim was a part of the force, our Covert Ops branch."

All the oxygen must have dissipated from the room, because it seemed that every member of the team aside from Percy sucked in a deep breath at his words. One of them? Part of their team was gone? Nico was the only one with the courage to speak up. "Who was it?" He asked, his voice hoarse.

"Charles Beckendorf." Percy said, his voice heavy with the weight of the pain. If the reactions and pain were any indication, this Christmas would be his worst.

A/N: I have started another story! Once again, I'm writing AU PJO, but I couldn't resist! I'm currently watching the NCIS marathon, and inspiration struck me. I am a huge USA TV fan, and I realized the characters of PJO would make a fantastic crime scene show! So I decided to write a fanfiction of my own. I apologize for the short chapter, and the abruptness of it, but consider it a prologue!