"Beck Oliver?"

His head swivelled to the sound of the voice, although there were not many possibilities for who it could be. There weren't all that many female voices in this dreary place, and none that genuinely carried that amount of concern for him in their voice. Beck hadn't exactly been at the Station for a while, but honestly, Beck didn't think that anybody would notice. It's hard when somebody dies on a job.

It's even harder when you're engaged.

"Tori Vega..." Tori was heading towards Beck, a meaningful look in her eye, and her stride strong. She still reminded him of how insecure she had been on her very first day, not quite knowing what to do, but just hoping, and praying that nothing went wrong. Generally, that was true most days. They were rarely in direct danger, and they mostly left that to the cops, rather than the detectives. And Tori's confidence had grown. But then there were days like the one that he had to see.

"Actually, I'm going by Victoria now..." Tori forced a little smile onto her face, as he realised that the day had changed her too. It wasn't too hard to see why she'd made the decision, after all, she still held herself accountable for it. And a new name made you feel like you were turning over another leaf, going to be a better person.

"Nope. You're Tori."

Tori gave him a curious look.

"So why are you back anyway?"

Beck wasn't certain why he was back. Maybe he was back to set things right from where they had fallen. Maybe he was here because he needed to move on. Maybe he was here because he missed helping people, and maybe he was here because he missed people. He was tired of seeing nothing in the morning except for the empty bottles of beer, and possibly some girl's underwear, when he couldn't even remember her name. They all paled in comparison to her anyway.

Beck sighed, not able to come up with a decent answer to Tori's question.

"I just am."

"Well, now you are, you need to get back to work." Beck wasn't used to Tori bossing him around. It had always been him doing that. But he had been gone for a while, he supposed, so he followed the girl who was now a competent woman through the station, and out the door.

"Where are we going?" He called as he began to catch up, and jogged to Tori's car, opening the door of the driver's side automatically, and then reverting to the passenger's seat.

"We're going to catch a murderer." Tori's face was solemn and serious as she sat down and put the keys in. There was no room for messing about in a case like this. Tori was probably fed up with having to deal with a guy who probably couldn't remember what he was doing as well, no matter how good Beck had been when he was in the middle of it all. If Beck was in her situation, he was pretty certain that he would have been frustrated as well.

"Who's dead?" It didn't faze either of them now. Dead had been and gone and he had seen more dead bodies than he had ever wanted to, but he knew that one more couldn't hurt.

"Detective Daniels."

"Ryder's dead... oh. Well, he was a nice guy..." Beck started off, feeling that it was bad to speak ill of the dead, especially one that he had worked with for probably the best part of ten years.

"He was an asshole." However, that fact was also completely true, and Tori knew that better than most. He was a sexist pig if ever there was one, and Tori had to bear the brunt of that, Ryder having been her superior officer for most of her life.

"Yes, yes he was." A slight smile made its way to Tori's face and suddenly Beck felt a massive sense of accomplishment. Tori hadn't really smiled at all yet.

The rest of the car ride continued on in silence, Tori determined to get where she was going as fast as possible. It drew him back to before he left, André next to him slamming the accelerator, and him having to grab his emotional partner and tell him to calm down.

"Where's André?" Beck asked, almost as they arrived at the scene of the crime. It was a large house, larger than Beck would have thought that a police officer was able to afford. It was deluxe, with what looked like a fairly good security system, and Beck couldn't have fathomed how somebody got in. But he was sure that he would find that out eventually. The problem was why somebody would have wanted to? He was an asshole, but Beck wouldn't have thought that anybody would have gone to that much trouble because of it.

"My partner's at the scene of the crime." Beck winced a little as she spoke, he honestly couldn't help himself. Of course André was Tori's partner now. He hadn't been to work in months. They would both have to move on. It just didn't seem to click in his mind that André wasn't his partner anymore. And Beck guessed that Tori was André's partner in more than the official way. That wasn't exactly something that Beck could compete with.

But sure enough, once they pulled up to Ryder's house, there was André, obviously waiting for the car, a coffee in one hand. Beck took a deep sigh as he got out of the car, holding the door open for Tori as she gave him he look of an independent woman whose fiancé was standing there watching.

She stepped out with a smile that Beck could tell was specifically for André, and even without moving his head he could tell that André was returning it. He brushed past the two lovebirds, the same way as he would have done when Tori had only just joined the force, and took a step up the drive to the house. Daniels' house was bigger than you would have expected for a cop, and to be honest, Beck wouldn't have been at all surprised if Daniels had been corrupt. If there had ever been a cop that he hated, it would have truly been him. He still remembered the way that Ryder had run away, when everybody else had stood strong. There had been hostages in the building... Tori's sister, friends of André, and her, the leverage that they had on Beck himself. Everybody connected to the police on the bank-robbers case had been in the building, including relations of Ryder, but still he had run away.

It didn't seem fair that scum like Ryder Daniels lived in a place like this while Beck was stuck hauled up in this tiny apartment.

He didn't get much time to admire it however, as the lights cut out. Beck heard the door snap behind him. He groaned a little under his breath, the situation bringing him back into thoughts of old times. And his old detective brain kicked in and told him one thing, chances were the killer was still here. And the killer didn't want him to leave. So that meant two things, either the killer wanted him out of the picture as well, or they needed him out of the way to get out.

He was kind of hoping that it was the second option. He would be such a laughing stock if he was killed on his first day back on the job.

Beck took a step forward, hoping that he didn't inadvertently step on a booby trap. It was difficult, given that he couldn't see in the slightest. He opened his mouth, waiting for a moment, before yelling "You underestimate my shot, and my night vision."

He was bluffing completely as he slid his gun out of his pocket and twisted around slowly, ready to fire at the slightest disturbance, although he probably shouldn't. There was a scuffling in front of him, and suddenly a clang. His eyes were completely blind, but he kneeled and reached down. In front of him was a pair of glasses, and an earpiece. He hesitated for a moment, before deciding that he was more of a worthless cop than he had ever been before if he didn't take the risk.

He reached for the earpiece first, and a very male voice was speaking, obviously in the middle of a conversation.

"So once more Omega. Payment will be received 5:32, K839H182. Are you in?" his voice crackled in Beck's earpiece. Beck paused for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness.

"I'm in." Beck said casually, taking pleasure in almost hearing the man bulk as he realised that this wasn't the voice that he should be hearing. He smirked despite the fact he shouldn't have said it, and stuck the glasses on. Suddenly everything became illuminated. And the killer was displayed loud and clear. The only problem was she seriously didn't look like a killer. And she was on the ceiling.

She dropped down quickly, going for the door, but in a moment Beck's gun was pointed directly at her and he was walking over to her fast.

"Don't move."

He wouldn't be able to shoot the girl, he knew that perfectly well. But the girl didn't know that. He should be able to shoot the girl, given that chances were she had killed, Ryder, but he wasn't.

The girl completely froze as Beck hit the light switch visible now, and ripped of his glasses. The girl had a key in her hand, and Beck had an urge to laugh about how close she had gotten to the door. This girl wasn't an amateur. If the car had been five minutes late, she'd be out of here right now. If she hadn't dropped her stuff, she'd be out of here.

He put his arm on her shoulder, watching her look like a Cat caught in the headlights. And then with the slightest opening of the door, being careful not to let her out, he yelled.

"André, I got her. Who said that I needed to get back into things?"

"No!" Beck's voice was strong and adamant. "You do not get to leave me as the only officer in this station when we have a murderer locked up in the holding cells."

"You won't be the only officer..."

"I'll be the only Senior officer!" Beck interrupted.

"And the murderer is 5'1", a bright redhead with the maturity of a ten year old!" André's voice was pleading. "And I really need some private time with Tori. You wouldn't understand how frantic things have been, given that you completely disappeared!"

"Don't you dare use that against me!" Beck's voice was quick to reply "Did you have to watch the woman you loved get blown to bits?"

He had finally stopped thinking about Juliette, but that honestly didn't mean that André was allowed to throw it in his face. He softened a bit slightly though, given that when she had been alive he had definitely broken a couple of rules to be with her when he should have been working.

André opened his mouth to beg some more, but Beck just sighed.

"Go already then!"

André gulped and nodded, causing Beck to smile a little. He had gotten the fear that he used to cause back, even if it was just a little bit. André headed for the door fast, as if he was scared that suddenly Beck would take it all back.

Beck however, sighed and sat down. The only good thing about this was that it really wasn't likely to be very busy tonight. It was a Tuesday night, all that happened was that a couple of teenager's parties got broken up, and some drunk drivers got brought in.

To be honest, sometimes that seemed like all being a cop ever was.

The moment that he thought it, the phone rang, and there was a hysteric voice yelling in his ear. Beck could barely make out what she was saying but he could hear a few words.

"He... a knife... kill me... scared... he'll come back..."

"Sssssshh... calm down... what's the address?"

The hysterical woman muttered an address, and Beck stood up, heading towards the door. The moment before he left however, he glanced back at the stairway that led down to the cells. He really shouldn't leave a murdered down there on her own. But he couldn't leave a woman crying about a knife and someone who might kill her either.

With one last lingering look he decided to take the risk. After all, nobody had ever managed to escape from a cell before. And his sub-ordinates weren't complete and total morons, despite what they seemed like sometimes.

Oh, he was an idiot.

He was a fast idiot though. It only really took him ten minutes to get to the address, and then he was racing down the corridor, holding his gun out in front of him. He was just about ready to kick the door down as he reached the right apartment. He took a couple steps, and then he was running at door. The moment he reached it, however it swung wide open, and he was inside, struggling to stop his momentum fast. He failed, and fell flat on his face.

The faint whimpering in front of him turned into a little bit of a giggle, and then fully fledged laughter, which dissolved into tears. Getting back up on his feet, he examined the room. It was relatively normal, except for vase shattered across the room, and curtains pulled off their hangers. Not to mention the girl, curled up in the curtains, clutching what looked like a knife in her hands.

He picked himself up, walking towards the girl like you would approach a startled animal.

She glanced up for a moment, and Beck could have sworn that the she flinched just a little bit.

"You okay..." Beck's mind was trying to deduce what happened here. A robbery perhaps? But the problem was, it didn't look like anything had been stolen. An ex seemed more likely, and one with a temper. It wasn't completely unusual for this sort of neighborhood. "It's okay, I'm a cop." He attempted to make his voice as re-assuring as possible, forgetting for jsut one moment that he was in his own clothes.

It was a rookie mistake, and one that he shouldn't be falling into. After all, he may not have been back for a while, but he did have years of experience behind him.

He could have sworn that the girl gave a little smile and a nod. Beck swore he saw her gesture next to her, but he wasn't sure. Hesitantly, he walked over and sat down, talking to her once more. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"He..." The girl began her sentence, but stopped half way in between, purely turning into a sob. "He got drunk... again..." Through her sobs and sorrow, Beck could detect a little bit of cynicism. "But this time..."

This situation almost felt like something out of a tv show. In fact, it felt almost exactly like an episode of CSI. Suddenly, he went from being completely and utterly excepting of the girl to taking hidden glances at her. And for a moment, he could have sworn underneath it all, he saw a smile.

Immediately, the girl was moving, and beck was reaching for his gun. He didn't even have time to wonder what the Hell was happening, before the girl was up on her feet and swinging something at his head.

The situation when he woke was completely different from the one he had seen before. For one thing, the little meek girl crying her heart out was gone. And secondly, he couldn't move, he couldn't move in the slightest. He jerked slightly, not being totally unaccustomed to be tied up. It definitely wasn't one of the benefits of the job, although he did try and make sure his own handcuffs weren't used against him too often.

It took about a minute of squirming for him to realise that he wasn't completely alone.

There was a girl in the room, barely wearing anything, her hair long around her, and almost perfectly curled. She stood there, perfectly aware of his eyes on her. She was amazingly beautiful, with long black hair and blue eyes. Her face showed the slightest of smiles, obviously enjoying the impact she had on Beck.

She was nothing like the woman that he had once knew and loved, but he still felt guilty for... for lack of a better word, checking her out. She walked over to him slowly, and in the corner of his sub-conscious, he realised that she was the same girl he had seen before crying in the broken room.

If he had stopped to think about it, he would have probably realised that he didn't have a clue what the Hell was going on. But his eyes were just held on the eyes of that beautiful woman. She walked over slowly, looking at him both as if he was her prey, and as if they were star-crossed lovers, having been separated for years and having suddenly found each other.

"Hello Officer..." Her voice was teasing as she got closer and closer to him, causing the hairs to stand up on the back of his neck.

Beck finally found his voice amongst all of this, although it was barely more than a whisper. "Who are you...?"

The girl shook her head ever so slightly, just titling it front side to side. "Can't you guess? Your partner sent me. He thought that you needed to relax a little bit. And who better for that than someone like me?"

A hooker. This beautiful woman with looks that reminded him of Snow White from his old fairy-tales was supposed to be a hooker. It just didn't fit in his mind. He could call it an escort, or a call-girl or whatever he wanted to, but she was still a whore. And in his mind, whore was associated with dirty, whereas honestly, this woman looked pure. But he had been deceived by a lot of things today, and if the redhead could be a killer than this girl could be a whore.

The woman walked up closer to him, until her lips were only a moment away from his. He cringed away from her, feeling disgust at himself and her, but God, she was beautiful.

He guessed, most of all, he was completely and utterly disgusted on whoever had ordered this in the first place. What did she say? She said Andre. It was just then that he noticed exactly what was wrong with this situation. He had come into a room with a crying woman, and now there was a hooker standing in front of him. This was not an Andre plan. This wasn't something that he would ever agree to. After all, there was a killer back at the station.

Suddenly the urgency of it hit him. There was a killer back at the station. He was up out of bed, and running for the door. Or at least, that was what he was trying to do. He was actually just itching against the bindings.

"Let me out," The words were supposed to be charismatic, but it came out as more of a grunt.

"But we're just having some fun..." The woman's flirtatious smile didn't even fade for a moment. Her hair hung over his chest now, and he could almost feel her breath on his cheek. He leaned in on an impulse and kissed her, her hands beginning to entwine their way through his hair, and he started to kick his leg free, fighting with his hands as well. His hands came out fastest, given that they were normally the things that ended up tied. In general, it was more difficult this time, freeing himself and still not giving in to the kiss. Even once they were lose, his hands stayed fixed at his sides, fighting the urge to hold this beautiful woman in his arms.

His legs took a little longer, but by the time the girl broke of the kiss with a smile he was pretty much free. He held back his urge to look at the door and bolt, instead fixing a smile on his face, and whispering, in a perfectly audible whisper "Thank you André." The girl's eyes danced with joy, and surprisingly, it actually seemed real. When people faked things, it always tended to be over the top, as if they were trying to prove something. The happiness in her eyes seemed honest, although there was a confidence in her eyes, as if she had done this a million times and she would do it a million more. Beck didn't exactly know who she was, but he imagined he could write essays on what made her tick. But right now, there was a murderer unaccompanied in a jail cell and that was the more pressing than a beautiful woman who seemed to be trying her hardest to sleep with him.

He leaned in to kiss her again, and as she moved towards him, he moved fast. His palm was slamming into her head before she could say a thing, and her head was back against wall. Normal men had the choice of being considerate and being a gentleman, but if he underestimated anybody, then he might be dead in the morning. The girl's look displayed surprise in her dull eyes, and she was pretty obviously no longer conscious. Maybe she hadn't expected him to have met anybody like her before. And after all, it hadn't been a man that shot Rose through the forehead, it had been a woman. Maybe she hadn't held the gun, but it had been her words that delivered the bullet.

It had been a woman who organised it all. It had been a woman that held up the bank and made sure they had the right hostages. It had been a woman with a pretty little smile who ordered them to shoot his fiance when he didn't let them go instantly.

He left the room with only one more fleeting look at the woman who was in front of him today, although he almost wanted to stay.

All in all, it probably only took fifteen minutes to get home, but as he had learned, was learning, and would learn again and again and again, fifteen minutes could mean disaster just about immediately.

It would be years before he could possibly get that image out of his mind. There was that image of the girl, her head on the floor, blood seeping through her head, just as red as her bright hair. His first thought when he made it back to the find her cell unlocked was that she had escaped. But if she had escaped, then she wouldn't be dead.

What made it even more horrible was that it hadn't even been him that discovered it. It must have felt worse for that one girl, who seemed to only be just beginning, although it was a bad feeling for Beck.

This girl was obviously dead. She had simply been thrown against the wall. She was so light that it would have been easy. She could have just been picked up and swung against it. If he was going to find her dead, he would have expected it to be precise, one in the heart, two in the head. But this was bloody, and it almost just seemed like someone had gotten drunk and decided that he was going to break her out and kill her. He didn't exactly know why somebody had killed her, but all he knew was that if he had been there, there was no way in Hell that it would have happened.

Needless to say, it took him a while to get to sleep that night.

Beck tossed himself into bed, not wanting to think about what had happened today and how he had managed to screw up again. It hadn't helped that a woman had literally tied him up and tried to seduce him but he couldn't help but think if he had never left the station, then that girl might still be alive. That girl was a murderer, he knew that, but that didn't stop him viewing her as an innocent girl. It was incredibly difficult to think of the hyper, bouncing girl with her bright red hair that he may have only met for a moment in interviews, being able to kill a member of the police force who had been working years and years.

The so called Caterina Valentine was a murderer, but honestly, she felt like a child. And now she was a dead child.

But what sort of cop was he if this was all it took to keep him up at night. He had seen crimes where it had actually been a child who a killer. But then again, the thought of the ten year old strangling his mother still gave him nightmares. He supposed that the day when he could still sleep after it all was the day he became a much better detective, but a much worse human being. But he still had to try. He reached for the lights and shut his eyes. He supposed he was more tired than he thought, because he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

His descent into sleep was much more pleasant than his awakening, despite all of the stuff occupying his head. He awoke to a shattering white light, and then there was the facer again. The moment he saw the beautiful face, his lips curled into a snarl. She was the reason that Cat was dead that he was questioning his morals on the fact that he couldn't live with her death. The girl however looked completely and utterly different from the first time that she had awoken before everything about her was immaculate, now she was a mess, her hair pulled back into a rough ponytail and her mascara running rapidly down his cheek.

"You," she snarled, and Beck suddenly noticed a gun pointed at his head. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you?"

In hindsight, Beck was pretty sure that there was a much better answer than this available, but he wasn't thinking very fast. "Um... because... um... I didn't do anything?"

Beck distinctly heard the gun being loaded, and he realised that he might well die here. "Go ahead and shoot. Shoot like you shot your friend. I have one question though, why the Hell did you go to the trouble of distracting me just to shoot her?"

As he said it, absolutely everything in the girl just drained out of her. She sat down on the edge of the bed, the gun loose in her hands, and seemed exactly like just a regular girl, who was scared and lonely because her friend was dead.

"Dammit." She cursed until her breath, but it was definitely loud enough for Beck to hear it. And then she glanced at him, looking him up and down, as if she was deciding whether or not she was allowed to trust him.

Maybe in the end she decided that he had a trustworthy face, or she knew that he could be trusted to do what he needed, even if was slamming her into a wall, and then there was the most likely option, which was that she was simply desperate.

But she began to talk anyway. "I wanted to quit."

His lips were locked onto a stranger for the second time that day. The difference this time was that this was a much weirder feeling. And he wasn't quite sure why he was doing it. All he knew was that the man's name was Robert Shapiro, and Beck was here to give him the scare of his life.

Jade's (because a beautiful woman needed a beautiful name) story was improbable, possibly ridiculous, but in the end that was what made him believe her. Well, that, and the fact that he had been forced to arrest a 5'2" redhead for the murder of a cop.

And he knew Ryder Daniels. He knew how easy to kill that guy would have been if he thought he was going to get laid. And he would have to be an idiot to think that Ryder wouldn't have tried his very hardest to get into Caterina Valentine's pants. And if the girl had been seducing him, well it was a dream come true.

But that they had been trained to do all of this, that was a little more difficult to believe. That Jade was a killer, that was easy. And he knew that people got power-hungry. He could imagine that if Jade was a killer, they wouldn't want to let her leave.

He could imagine that killing Cat could be used as a scare tactic. After all, what would they rather do, kill a new recruit who could barely kill a corrupt cop or somebody who had been working for years. But he knew it was possible there were big organisations like this, especially on the other side of the law who would do anything to get whatever they wanted.

What he really honestly couldn't fathom is why he was seducing this man on the word of Jade. He knew her logic. She was going to scare them the exact same way they had tried to scare her. He wasn't going to help her kill though, he wasn't that bad a cop. He was going to help her make a threat. This he could do easily, and he liked to think about it as helping a girl out.

The one thing he definitely didn't like to think about was that he was sticking his tongue down another man's throat. This was the threat that he had to carry out. Apparently this part was his job, because as hard as Jade tried, it was impossible to find her way into this guy's bedroom.

He hadn't been told who this guy was, because apparently he didn't need to know, and that was probably a good thing. He didn't want to end up being shot in revenge. As far as anybody knew, he was just a faceless cop.

"You know, I wouldn't have expected this..." The voice appeared of the man he was kissing... "Although, something's got to be said for a man with that many hair products."

So the gay man thought Beck was gay. But then again, he may have overdone it slightly on the act. He would have thought that this guy would be more used to people trying to get things past him, but maybe Beck was just too pretty for him to care. That was not something that Beck would have ever thought he would think.

The man stopped as they came to what seemed like a brick wall. The man spoke quickly.

"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." And then, like something out of a movie, the wall slid back. The man stepped forward, pulling Beck with him with an eager look of a man ready to get to the bedroom. His finger danced as he hit a couple panels, and then fingered in a code almost faster than the speed of light. With a glance around, Beck could see cameras everywhere and with this sort of technology Beck wasn't surprised that Jade wasn't able to get in. He could imagine that she didn't normally have this sort of problem. Normally it would be her in this position, leading a man to his bedroom with a flirtatious smile. But as many moves Jade tried on this man, there would be nothing that she could ever do. It was almost unbelievable that the partying son of the head of a company which pretty much run through seduction just so happened to be gay.

The moment he was inside the room, he let his jaw drop open, while all he did was search for that little catch. Once it was in the corner of his eye he kissed him once more, steering them towards it. Beck couldn't help thinking how simple it was as he flipped the catch to open the window. Beck would have thought it silly that the man had so much protection if he wasn't in the position of breaking through it right now. The window was diamond-plated and bulletproof, there was no way you were going to get inside from the outside. That was the whole reason Beck was here in the first place. Once he had done it, he let the man pull him towards the bed, simply hoping for the noise to signify that Jade was here.

Just as he began to panic that he would actually have to sleep with a man, there was a gentle thud behind him, and Beck heard a distinct click.

And then everything seemed to happen at once, a loud swear rang out across the room, and suddenly the man was running from the door, glaring at Beck as if he had broken the guy's heart. it didn't stop Beck breathing a sigh of relief as he turned to look at Jade entering through the window, a gun in her hand though.

This was the end of it now. It was all over. She could make a threat and go home. Jade would let them now that she could get to them at anytime. She would let them know that if they messed with her, they would end up dead. And she would be able to walk off free.

Beck could almost hear the words she was supposed to say in his head.

"I have a message for your father." Beck mouthed them as Jade said them. And then it all went wrong. She was going to say more, she was going to make threats, but instead, she pulled out her gun and fired it. The man in front of him dropped down, and all Jade gave was a smile. It was then he remembered that Jade was a murderer. It was her job, to take care of people. She was an assassin, and she was ready to do it for money, so she was pretty certain to do everything she could for her own life.

As if Jade felt Beck's eyes on her, her eyes darted to his. For a moment it looked like she was going to apologise, but then this beautiful woman simply blew him and kiss, and then she was back out of the window.

I'm not exactly sure what this is... well I mean, I know that it's the Crime oneshot for The Topaz Awards challenge. But other than that... yeah, no idea. For clarification, Beck's a cop whose fiance got shot in a hostage situation, so he took a while off. And Jade works by seducing a man, getting him into the bedroom alone, and killing him.

Okay then, hope you enjoyed reading that.

Please don't favourite without reviewing. And that doesn't mean DON'T favourite or review, I'd love it if you did both...

Forever Failing Better

PerfectingImperfections