This News is Just Tomb Much

Liv came bounding in to the back room where Ravi was watching a black and white film.

"Get anywhere in the pharmacy search?" she asked her boss.

"Yes," Ravi said slowly, pausing his film. "I didn't find anything in Seattle, but I expanded my search and got a match for a compounding pharmacy in Tacoma. They're gonna fax the name on the prescription and then we have our killer. You're welcome."

"Great," Liv replied with a smile and began turning to leave. Ravi felt his heart stutter at the sight. He loved her smile and just couldn't get enough of it. Suddenly, she turned back to face Ravi. "I met another zombie," she continues. Any happiness he felt was forgotten, this didn't bode well.

"Friendly?" he asked, trying to hide his sudden flare in temper and jealousy behind an apathetic mask of indifference.

"Quite," she gave him another bright smile.

"Brilliant! Bring him in," he replied. "Expand our data pool," he says, getting up and leaving the back room, he doesn't truly care about that right now. "Did he have the same pallor? White blonde hair, depressive affect?" he asked, still not actually caring about this other zombie. He only had concerns of one zombie and she's following him into the main room.

"He had really blue eyes," she answered. Her response was way too dreamy for him.

"Interesting. We've yet to encounter a brown-eyed zombie." He began to worry, what if she doesn't like men with brown eyes. His chest ached, of course she would never consider dating him anyways, but it still hurt to think about.

"Might be an empirical regularity," he added gloomily. He continued on before she could notice. Maybe this other zombie is a monster; that would stop her affection from him. "How did he sustain himself? What's his food source?" Brilliant!

"I didn't ask, I guess I wasn't thinking about that."

"What were you thinking about?" He hadn't meant to ask, he really didn't want to know. It was an impulse and regretted not keeping his mouth shut.

"I don't know," she started to say a little too quickly. Ravi immediately looked up at her. "I well, he's just, um…" she trailed off.

"Oh," he replied softly, his heart shattering into millions of pieces. She's just a crush, no big deal, he kept telling himself.

"Was the zombie subject in question hot?" he asked, struggling to hold back a grimace. He cursed himself, again speaking without thinking. He really didn't want to know.

"He asked me out," she stated.

He forced a smile on his face at the news and took on a playful banter. "You liked it," he taunted.

"No! Yes…I don't know," she answered finally. "I kinda thought my love life was over," she continued. He looked down; it hurt too much to look her in the eyes. Grabbing his mug, he walked back into the back room still refusing to meet her gaze.
"What if our hot zombie boy's name's on our fax and he's our murderer?" How he hoped that was the case. Why can't she see that she should be with me and not some pretty boy? I'm good-looking.

"I don't think it will be. I have a good feeling about him," she defended.

Ravi hummed, finally meeting her eyes to give her a doubtful look. "And where exactly is this feeling originating from?" he couldn't help but ask. He hated this other zombie that has entered Liv's life. Major was her past, so he was no longer jealous of her ex-fiancée, well, not completely jealous.

He was supposed to be the man her life now, besides Clive, who for some reason Ravi was never jealous of. Sure, he didn't like when Liv would leave to help Clive, but the detective never showed interest in Ravi's little zombie. This new "hot" zombie had though, and he didn't like that one bit, especially how she was reacting to his display of affections. I want to be the only man that makes her smile like that, he thought.

"I'm never telling you anything again. What, so all zombies are killers now?" she wasn't being mean, not truly, but her saying this made it hard for him to breathe. He felt like someone rammed a blade into his chest.

Luckily, he hears the fax machine and spins around to face it. He begged for it to be the other zombie. "Here's our Keyser Söze now!" Ravi begins drumming his fingers in anticipation. It's going to be him. It has to be that zombie. He can't take Liv from me.

He knows that they could never truly be together. She fears the risk of affecting her partner, but he knows the risks and would be willing to take them if she gave him the chance. However, this other man, being a zombie, could have what he wants with no danger.

"Stop that," she demanded. He immediately stopped his drumming.

"Carson McComb," he read aloud. She gave him an "I told you so" face. This knowledge made Ravi feel sick, it wasn't the zombie. His heart sank.

Liv ran off to pass on the news to Clive.

Ravi, now alone, sat in his office. He forced the tears from surfacing. She's just a small crush, nothing more, it does NOT matter, he repeated this to himself like a mantra.

He decided later that night that he would drink himself sick, drowning out his feelings for his colleague.

Awhile after Liv returned, the zombie bastard himself showed up.

"Uh…I think you got company," he stated, displeased with the unwelcomed man's appearance.

"It's him," Liv said quickly. He knew who it was.

"Ooooh," Ravi said, lacking his usual jovial attitude. He just couldn't muster up the effort when having to see Liv's excitement brought by someone that wasn't himself.

"Shut up or I'll eat you," she whispered angrily. She walked off and he turned away from her and the cadaver separating them. He refused to look; he didn't want to see her running off to the other man. They walked further away out of sight, talking to each other.

Yeah, I'm definitely getting wasted tonight. The pain is just too much.