Authors Note: I own no one and nothing except for Charlotte and the plot, sadly,I am only borrowing the characters.
Also, thanks to A. Nutter my ever lovely beta, without whom I would still be wondering if my writing was horrible.
It was a normal day for some; birds were singing, sun was shining and guns were shooting. Positioned behind a car with a gun in hand, Will Scarlett smacked his friend upside the head. "Every time, Allan! Must you always speak before you think?"
Allan A'Dale looked over, a grin on his face. "Not bein' funny, but it happens sometimes."
Will just glared silently before muttering, "You're never being funny."
Allan smirked and opened his mouth to make a witty comment when a bullet rang out against the car cutting him off. "Robin's not going to be happy when he finds that you ruined his new cruiser.
"Not so cocky now, are you Officer?"
Allan smirked at the words and Will shook his head no; he could see every gear grinding in his friends head as he processed those words. "No, Allan!" He harshly whispered so the criminal couldn't hear him. "No."
"Come on, I'll buy you a round afterwards; my treat." The shooting had stopped but they were able to hear a faint clicking signaling that the gun had no more bullets. Will shook his head again but Allan had already left the safety of the car to catch the shooter, and when his friend turned to look, he was successfully pinning the guy to the cruiser and handcuffing him.
"Will?"
"Yes?"
"I'm thinking we are going to need forensics here."
"We don't have a forensics branch - wait, why?" Will cut off his sentence to look at Allan as he pointed to a rubbish bin where a corpse lay, half-covered by a tarpaulin.
"Because of that."
"I'm telling you, Djaq, this is definitely left."
"No, its right."
"Listen to me! It's left."
The argument carried on, remaining along those lines. Djaq, the woman who was saying it was right, was short and petite, her cute features only highlighted by her strange accent and dark skin - but if she heard you say that, you would find a different side of her; her short dark hair plus an army-like jacket hardly looked like they belonged in the lab they were working in. Her partner on the other hand, Charlotte, was just hitting five foot six and her black hair was contrasted with a stripe of red; she was dressed more appropriately for the lab with a white lab coat and a pair of black slacks.
"Fine! It's right. That better Djaq?"
"Ha! I win," she grinned, "Again." This only made Charlotte roll her eyes.
The object they were arguing over was an arm bone belonging to a skeleton just a few feet from them.
"All right you two, police just phoned and they want the two of you. Plus, that bone belongs to that subject, who had a severe case of bone deterioration, in which case you both loose." Marian Sheriff dropped a file onto the desk. She was the daughter of Edward F. Sheriff, a well respected man; even in his current state. "Come on, I will be visiting with you. They've set up a lab in there for us."
As they were walking out Djaq looked to her friend. "I hate it there, all they do is stare at me," Djaq mumbled with a small sigh following it. She grabbed a lab coat and slipped it on easily.
"It's just because you are so beautiful." Charlotte sounded it out as she smiled at the frowning woman. The dark skinned woman said nothing but her friend noticed that she was fighting back a smile.
As they entered the station everyone stopped, including a man who was holding a toasted bagel who had been speaking to the Captain, who had no issue with the man who had just walked in. In fact he walked straight over, "My, Marian, you are looking -"
"No, Robin, we are here on business and business alone."
He looked like a kicked dog for the briefest moment before he recovered, "Much!" The man who had been eating looked up, "Take these ladies to the body. I suggest you do not bring your food."
Much looked disappointed and placed what was left of the bagel on a napkin to be saved for later. He motioned for them to follow him down the hall. "Now, we've set up a room for you in the back with -"
"We brought our equipment," Charlotte snapped, earning a confused look from everyone around her; only, Much managed to look a little hurt, even. "Police Headquarters make me jumpy," she explained.
"Anyway," he said with a glare at her. "Officers Will Scarlett and Allan A'Dale will brief you on your body, corpse... thing."
"Did you figure out decomp.?" Djaq asked quietly, Much only looked confused.
"How long the body has been a body for?" Charlotte looked at him. "You know what, we can figure that out on our own. I'll just stop speaking now."
Much opened a door at the end of the hall and took a few steps back while covering his nose. "This is as far as I am going," he stated before he turned to go back down to his bagel and his conversation with Robin. Everyone knew why he left; the smell of death and old rubbish was an explanation all in itself. They could smell it five feet away from the door.
As they entered the room, Djaq was the first to speak. "Did they get all the bones?" Marian nodded to her former student. "And the contents of the bin?"
"I asked them to," Marian stated simply before handing each girl a mask to cover their noses and mouths so they wouldn't breathe germs in as easily. "I still have a class to teach, good luck, girls." Both replied a simple good bye and laughed at the muffled response.
Charlotte sighed. "At least there's still flesh, that's your area, hon."
"And there is still bone, so you can have your fun." As odd as it sounds, they had encountered the lack of both things on their multiple trips to police station, something they never really liked. Djaq frowned only a second later as she attempted to wrestle her hands into a pair of too large gloves. "Did you bring ours?"
"'Course!" Reaching in a bag, Char pulled out a box of latex gloves before handing a pair to the Saracen. "Ta-da." Charlotte tried to do it dramatically, but as always, it didn't work.
"All right, overall check. Recorder on?"
"Check. Everything sterile?"
"Check. Body?
"Check, but don't you think that is quite obvious?"
"Not the point." A playful smile came upon Djaq's features, but before either of them got close enough to learn anything from the body two men came in and introduced themselves as Will Scarlett and Allan A'Dale. They also said that they would be overseeing the 'project' which Charlotte scoffed at and Djaq had to hide a chuckle; the two of them were the best students the Academy had to offer and there was no way in hell that two police officers could tell either of them what to do.
"All right, so, me and Officer Scarlett here were tryin' to catch this perp an' -" It was Officer A'Dale who spoke first, but his friend stopped him. Though Scarlett was the younger of the two he did not act it, in fact, Allan was the one who ended up acting younger.
"Was there any evidence near the body?" Djaq's accent made the others seem plain and almost boring, "Weapons, clothing, even jewelry?"
All eyes were on her until one of them finally spoke. "No, nothing. The only thing was the tarp that the body was covered with and the rubbish." Every word spoken by Will was well-chosen, as if he were scared to say something that would insult someone in some way.
"Did you search the rubbish?" Charlotte asked and both men looked dumbstruck, as if that had never even occurred to them.
"What?" Charlotte repeated the question to Allan who looked at her like she was crazy, "Are you serious? No! We brought it back for you guys."
Charlotte rolled her eyes, but when she was nudged by the shorter woman, it took them only a second to get the same train of though.
"So, you two are to oversee the operation?" There was a slight mocking tone in her voice as her partner fought back a smile.
"Well, yeah, I guess. We found the body but what does that have to do with rubbish?" Allan still had not caught on but the look on Will's face suggested that he, in fact, had.
"Well, boys, grab some gloves and welcome to the team."
Allan's groan was heard throughout the station, and so were the girls laughs.