A/N: Don't own them. Someone way more creative than I has those rights.
A/N2: This is my first shot at a case file. It's been on my mind for a few weeks now, and of course the night before I have a presentation due at work is when I decide to start churning it out. Yay for distractions. Hopefully I'll be able to put out weekly updates, but it depends on the busy-ness factor (which these days is pretty high).
The sudden shriek of a phone in the middle of the night startled Alex Eames awake. Her eyes popped open and she took a deep breath quickly glancing at her dark surroundings, as had become customary for her since the "incident" involving Jo Gage.
The phone blared again and the arm around her waste tightened as she sat up slightly to reach it on the bedside table. Reaching out and making sure the offending phone was her before answering she gave a heavy sigh.
"Eames."
"Detective, it's Captain Ross, sorry to wake you at this early hour." A quick glance at the clock showed it was 3:30 in the morning. "It's okay Captain, I'm pretty sure it's in the job description somewhere that one must be woken in the middle of the night on at least a weekly basis. Anyway, what can I do for you?"
"You've seen the news in recent weeks on the prostitutes being murdered over on the West Side?"
"Yeah." She could feel her bed-mate shifting beside her in an attempt to hear the words coming through the earpiece.
"They've got another body."
"Cap, isn't this Vice's problem? Maybe Homicide's?"
"It is Vice's problem. Your problem is that a guy over in Vice is asking for you. Says he knows you."
"This guy got a name?"
"Paul Kemp, says you two worked together once upon a time."
"Yeah. He was my first partner in Vice. We came up through the ranks together there." And, she thought silently, he was the one who had the distinct honor of telling my husband had been killed.
Forcing that last thought back down she turned her attention back to her Captain.
"Well, he's the Captain over there now and he called and said he's looking for an extra pair of hands. In particular your pair of hands. Since you and Goren just wrapped up your last case yesterday I figured I would lend you out. For now."
"Fine. I'll call Goren and we'll get down there in the next hour. Tell the CSU techs not to disturb the scene please."
"Kemp's just asking for you. Goren can finish up the paperwork from this past week."
"We're partners Captain, we come as a set."
"Fine, Detective, but keep your partner out of trouble."
"Right. Where's the scene, exactly?"
"Near the corner of 33rd Street and 11th avenue. I know it's desolate out by those train yards this time of night, but you can't miss all the lights from the cars."
"Thanks." She flipped her phone shut and placed it back on the nightstand. Rolling on to her back she turned her head to the right where her bedfellow lay.
"We've got a case. Well, I've been requested on a case. But that's neither here nor there, and I told Ross that I don't go if you don't go."
"Would it be too much to ask for eight uninterrupted hours of holding you and sleeping?" Came the tired but understanding reply.
"It seems that way."
"Can that be my Christmas present?" He sounded almost like a young boy with that question
"Christmas is seven months away, Bobby."
"My birthday, then."
"Still two months. Two months too long."
"Maybe when we figure out why they want you on this case and how long it's going to take to wrap it up we can put in for a long weekend and do nothing but lay here in bed?"
"Maybe. But both of us taking a long weekend at the same time? Seems 'suspicious' to me, if you catch my drift."
"I do, but whatever. It's summer, everyone takes a few days and it makes sense for us to do it at the same time. Since, you know, we come as a set."
"When did you start wanting to spend so much time in bed? "
"Just want to be as close to you as I can, baby."
She rolled onto her side again, this time facing him. Pulling his face to hers for a slow, sensuous kiss she smiled. When she moved away for air it came back to her that they now had a case to attend to.
As she pushed herself out of the bed she turned to grin at him wickedly. "I get the first shower, and no sharing because contrary to intuition that will actually take us longer. You get to make the first pot of coffee."
He laughed, and with that she started towards the bathroom.
As she showered she allowed her thoughts to wander to this case that had just been handed to them. She hadn't seen Paul in years. Not since she left Vice for Major Case after Joe died. They hadn't even worked that well together. Certainly not the way she and Bobby did now. But… that was a high bar to set by any standards. And these murders… from what she had read in the papers and from the gossip around the squad room she knew them to be particularly grisly.
The M.E. had mentioned that one of the bodies she had received had been horribly abused, and then gutted from sternum to pubis. That thought alone gave her chills.
Stepping out of the shower and pulling a towel around her body and using a second one to dry her hair she noticed herself in the mirror. Nearing 40, Alex still had the body of a 25 year old. It reminded her that she could still be one of those girls out there working the streets at night.
She knew a lot of those girls from her days in vice. Tried to help them. Still, for some the streets were where both home and work resided. And you can't save everyone. Sighing, she realized she'd have to wait to see what the new day would bring her.
The bathroom door opened and her boxer-short clad partner-cum-boyfriend stepped in bearing the elixir of life. There were days when she thought it was possible that she lived for that first sip of java, and then all she had to do was look at him and see that there was much, much more to live for.
Stepping up on tip-toe she kissed his cheek, gave a breathy thank-you and stepped out to get dressed while he had his turn in the shower.
Sighing, she realized she'd have to wait to see what the new day and the new case would bring her.