Title: Magdalene
Synposis: When a woman from their childhood is raped, murdered, and left in the forest surrounding their sleepy little town, detectives Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne alongside officer Katniss Everdeen travel down a dangerous path fraught with secrets and lies. Despite being underqualified and emotionally compromised by their individual relationships with the victim, they will stop at nothing to find her killer.
Peeta Mellark is in love with Katniss Everdeen. Head over heels, positively undeniably in love.
Katniss, for all intents and purposes, enjoys being with Peeta, but she's not about to put a label on the life they've been sharing for the past 7 months. It started as a fling after months of tension and flirtations. It quickly developed into seeing each other every weekend, every night, sleeping over, living together. With each new step though, Katniss grew more and more hesitant, reluctant to make Peeta a permanent fixture in her life. Loving people, she says, is the worst thing you can do to yourself.
The complicated nature of their relationship has left things lopsided as of late. They both want different things, or at least that's what they keep saying. Deep down though, Peeta knows that all he really wants is Katniss and if that means giving up some wistful dreams of a perfect life than so be it. All he really needs is her to be truly happy. He tells himself that every time they argue about something small and unimportant.
Some days though, he wonders if he is losing bits and pieces of himself by altering his needs to fit hers. Or maybe he is forcing her to lose those precious parts of herself. He can't ever decide which is which. He just knows they are floundering in this purgatory between relationship hell and the sappy stage where they were once blissfully content with each other.
Each night though, no matter how hard work or life has been for the day, they find each other. Folded between the downy comforter and soft jersey sheets on her old mattress, they roll up into
this mesh of human flesh, bone, and heartache. He presses kisses into her shoulders and she runs her nimble fingers along his spine. In those moments they are closer to bliss than to losing themselves.
The night the body is found he is pressed against her warmth in the darkness feeling her heartbeat against his back.
Katniss hisses against him at the sudden sound of his phone. He groans and glances over at the dresser. The phone buzzes and shakes across the top of it, white light spreading above it in the blackness. Katniss pulls away as he sits up and uncovers himself. His feet pad lightly across the wooden floor, his gait still drunken from sleep. He runs his right hand over his face, rubbing at his crusty eyes and grabs at the phone with his left.
A quick glance before he answers tells him it is his partner Gale Hawthorne. His eyes shift to the alarm clock, quarter after one, and he presses the phone to his face with a groggy "hello?"
"Mellark?" Gale always asks this when he answers, as though someone else would be checking his work cellphone for him.
"Yeah, what's up? It's past one, you alright man?" Peeta clears his throat and glances at Katniss. She has her pillow over her head and is curled into a ball under the comforter. Peeta closes the bedroom door behind him to let her sleep and goes into the living room.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a call from the precinct. They found a body off Mill Creek Road, want us over there ASAP," Gale's voice is clogged with sleep too. Peeta can just barely hear him rustling around, likely juggling the phone as he slips into his clothes.
"Mill Creek Road you said? Is it Haymich Abernathy? The old drunk finally fall in the creek and drown?" Peeta asks.
They're always picking him up down town and dropping him off back home, no sense in arresting him anymore, he's a harmless drunk and not too big of a public nuisance. They pick him up for propriety more than anything now. Makes the precinct look good and keeps those Sunday ladies happy to have him off the street – get him out of sight but safe, that's what the chief always says. Katniss always gets pissy when she and Finnick get the call to go and get him. Haymitch has taken to affectionately calling her sweetheart and she hates it.
Peeta flips on the light in the kitchen, shielding his eyes from the bright new bulb. He needs to set a pot of coffee on if he's going to be awake enough for this.
"No. It's a woman, some kids makin' out in the woods found her. Bring Katniss, Finnick's off for the night, Annie went into labor. I'll meet you there." Gale hangs up without a goodbye, a typical end to their conversations.
Peeta sighs, a body of a woman in the woods. It sounds like foul play; they haven't had a murder in the village since the eighties. It's going to be a long night.
He glances at the clock on the microwave and decides to add extra water to the coffee pot; Katniss isn't going to be too happy to have her beauty sleep interrupted. As the pot starts bubbling he walks back into the bedroom and kneels down beside the bed.
"Hey, sleeping beauty. We've got a dead body off Mill Creek Road. They need you, Finnick's out for the night," Peeta runs a hand along her shoulder, the patch of skin is just visible over the edge of the blanket.
Katniss groans and pulls the pillow away from her face. "Finnick better be off because Annie's in labor." She sits up roughly and throws the blankets back, dangling her feet off the edge of the mattress.
Peeta smiles widely, "She is." He receives a small smile in return.
She may not want to commit to a full traditional relationship with Peeta, but Katniss isn't completely against happy couples and their growing little families. She loves and supports her partner Finnick. They've been on the beat together for four years. He's like a brother to her. They're all family in a way. The precinct is pretty tight nit, which probably comes from being part of such a small community. Katniss secretly adores everyone, even if her demeanor is surly most of the time. And everybody knows that Peeta treats everyone like kinfolk, no doubt about that one.
"I set a pot of coffee on; if we get dressed quick we can be out of here and to the crime scene in fifteen." She nods. They both pull out clothes. He loves watching her put her uniform on, even though he probably shouldn't. She smirks at him as she shimmies into her pants; yeah, she definitely knows how he feels about the uniform.
"Body huh? Not Haymitch is it?" She asks as they leave the bedroom. Peeta laughs lightly.
"Exactly what my first thought was, but no. Gale says some kids found a woman in the woods, probably a body dump." The coffee pot is bubbling loudly as they step into the kitchen. Katniss grabs an apple off the counter and takes a hearty bite.
"Haven't had a murder since the eighties," she says quietly. She stares at the linoleum for a moment, absentmindedly rubbing the apple between her fists and then she glances up at him. Neither of them mentions her father, but the pained expression that passes between them is statement enough.
Peeta pours them each a travel cup of coffee, adding two heaping spoonful's of sugar to Katniss' cup. As soon as they get into the car Katniss turns the lights on, sending tendrils of flashing light into the night around them. Peeta's always thought it was eerie to see the lights of the squad cars at night.
Mill Creek Road is only three miles from their house, so it doesn't take long to get there. They find the area already lit with stage lamps and quartered off in police tape. Peeta spots Gale and the chief standing near one of the other squad cars. Gale looks tense, never a good sign.
As Katniss pulls up beside them Gale glances over and they can fully see the rigidity in his expression. A sinking feeling settles in Peeta's chest. He nods to the men as he steps out. Katniss sets out to help the other officers set up roadblocks and cater to the forensic team, a group of two measly lab workers from the neighboring county.
"Chief," Peeta greets as he settles next to Gale. He nods to Gale and glances over his expression again. Something is definitely off. Gale's a hardened detective. He worked the beat beside Peeta for three years before they were promoted to detectives two years ago. He barely reacts when he's at work, always down to business and straight-laced.
"Mellark, we've got something big here. I need you and Hawthorne to run through this with fine tooth combs. It ain't pretty and I understand you both know the victim, but we need separation here. I need clear heads, got it?" Chief Cray is a rough and reckless man, but he knows what he's doing much of the time.
Peeta glances at Gale before he nods, "Certainly sir, clear and level-headed. We do that best."
"Good, well I'll leave you to it then; I want full reports come morning. This is going to blow-up in the press and we should probably give a statement," Cray advises. He walks away toward some of the officers with Katniss.
Gale clears his throat and looks down at his fist on the hood of the cruiser; he taps it once, twice, before he looks up at Peeta again. "It's Madge."
And that's all he says. It's enough to make Peeta's insides turn to fire.