Partners

A/N – Hello my lovely people! It has been a while and I am sorry for that but life gets in the way sometimes but it is summer vacation soon and I am getting back into the swing of things with this, the start of my new multi chapter Dalaric story. I was in my social psychology lecture the other day, not really paying attention I guess but the lecture was about psychology and law and then I got to thinking about my favourite characters as cops or FBI agents and then this little idea planted its self in my head so I began scribbling down notes on this instead, much to the amusement of my friend. A few notes: it's a FBI AU meaning now vampires or anything but you will see some of your favourite characters still, the FBI frowns heavily on workplace romances so they are trying to keep it between them but that should come across. Anyway enjoy the start of the journey my friends!

**DS&AS**

Damon was hovering in that void of being asleep and awake, he turned over, stretching his arm out as he did, and his wrist came to rest on the hip of his boyfriend. A little more awake now he scooted towards him, wrapping his arm around his waist.

Alaric had felt the wrist on his hip and smiled when he felt the arm tighten around him. As per their usual morning routine he rolled over on to his back allowing Damon to lay his head on his chest, right over his heart before he started to card his fingers through the jet black hair, Damon smiled up at him,

"Morning." He said with a sleepy smile.

"Morning to you too, what time is it?" Alaric asked, Damon raised his wrist to peer at his watch.

"Seven twenty seven, beat the alarm again." He said, leaning up to place a kiss on Alaric's slightly chapped lips.

"Which is not hard these days with the wake up calls at five thirty in the morning." He continued as he leaned across Alaric to disable the alarm.

"Phone calls mean a break in the case De." Alaric told him as Damon made to get out of the bed.

"Yeah I know but fat lot of good they have been, those men are still dead and that psycho is still out there. I'm surprised they haven't called this morning already." He said and just as his bear feet touched the hardwood floor both his and Alaric's cell phones started to ring. Damon grabbed his and headed for the bathroom, closed the door and listened to Alaric answer his cell, he let his ring for another five seconds and then accepted the call, both of them were talking in low voices so they weren't picked up on each others calls.

Once they had hung up Damon opened the door of the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom to find Alaric sat on the edge of the bed staring at his cell, he looked up at him after a few seconds.

"We got another one."

**DS&AS**

Half an hour later they left Alaric's apartment building, taking separate cars they drove to their headquarters. Thankfully when Damon got there, just before Alaric there was no press there meaning that they hadn't got wind of the fact that another body had been discovered, the press were their worst enemy sometimes, like at the moment, causing panic among the public and making the FBI look bad because there was a serial in their own back yard. The body count had been up to three before the powers that be got frustrated with the original investigation team and handed it to his and Alaric's team which had the highest conviction rate in the entire FBI. They had been on the case for two weeks and now the body count was up to five.

After reaching the parking lot Damon climbed out of his car and walked over to the glass doors, his hand on one of the handles he fished his ID card from the pocket of his leather jacket and swiped it against the sensor, hearing the click of the lock he wrenched the door open and stepped inside. He waved to Phil the security guard on his way to his teams' room. Walking inside he came face to face with the victims' board, four pictures hung there with space for the fifth when he was identified, not for the first time he shivered as he walked past it, around the bull pen and up the three steps to the level that his and Alaric's office was on.

Outside Alaric was just pulling into the lot, glancing around he saw that there weren't many cars here yet, his, Damon's, Phil's and two he knew belonged to other agents. They rest of his team weren't here yet, Jeremy lived further out, Tyler even further than him. The other two members of the team, Stefan and Caroline were with the ME examining the location the body was found in and the body it's self, they could be a few hours yet. Climbing out the car after grabbing Damon's wallet from the dash which he had left on the coffee table he made his way towards the building, the rising sun glared off the glass doors and windows now but that was swallowed up by the grey concrete out the exterior walls. He swiped his ID and let himself in the building, Phil looked up from his morning bagel and smiled,

"Ah special agent Saltzman, good morning, you just missed your partner, he got here not long ago." Phil was a portly man with small but bright blue eyes; he always had a smile on his face and a picture of his three kids on his desk and looked very much out of place without a bagel in his hand. Alaric smiled at him,

"Morning Phil, and how many times? Call me Ric." Phil just smiled back at him before returning to his bagel. Ric took the door leading off down a corridor and then continued walking until he got to his teams room. The first thing he saw was the victim board and not for the first time he felt as though a ice cube had slipped down his throat, staring back at him were four pictures of the victims but if you weren't looking closely you could be mistaken for thinking that they were all the same person, they all had jet black hair, blue eyes, pale skin and cheekbones you could cut yourself with if you slapped them. He always tried to distance himself from the case as much as he could and still remain compassionate but that was hard to do when all of the victims looked exactly like the man you were in love with. A loud crash from the direction of his and Damon's office drew his attention; it was followed by some very loud swearing. Wondering what the hell his boyfriend was doing Alaric rounded all the bull pen and climbed the three steps to the upper level in one stride before marching into their office which looked like a bomb had hit it and Damon was stood in the middle of it all, paper coming to rest around his feet, hands on his hips, he looked up when he heard the door open.

"What the hell De?"

"My wallet, I can not find it anywhere!" he shouted looking at his desk as if the missing item was going to magically appear there. Alaric sighed and reached into his pocket.

"You mean this wallet?" he asked, holding out the leather item to his flustered partner. Damon breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes, thank you!" he said, stepping closer to Alaric to kiss him lightly, both forgetting where they were for a moment, thank goodness the bull pen was empty. After they broke apart they stood in silence for a few seconds, surveying the mess before Alaric said,

"You'd better clean this up before the rest get here." Damon arched an eyebrow, his trademark smirk plaster on his face.

"Oh yeah, how you gonna make me?" he asked, threading his fingers through the loops on the front of Alaric's jeans, pulling them even closer but before Alaric could respond they both heard the door to the bull pen open and from their vantage point they could see Jeremy walking in, messenger bag threw over his shoulder, headphones pulsing out some new noise that he called music. Alaric went out to meet him while Damon started picking up the paper.

**DS&AS**

Two hours later and the four agents present now that Tyler had arrived were all doing their own thing in relation to the case, Alaric was at his desk, studying the profile of the murder that the FBI profilers had sent over and was slowly comparing that to the suspect list that had grew significantly since he and Damon had taken over the case. Damon was sat opposite Alaric and was pouring over the witness statements from the other attacks not that there was much to go on. Jeremy was stood in front of a second board which displayed a giant map of the state and was drawing things on it and sticking pins in the places were the attacks had happened and Tyler was researching all the places in a city wide radius that sold the type of rope that was been used to hold the victims, a long shot but they weren't taking any chances. It was around that time that Stefan and Caroline walked into the bull pen, Stefan whistling loudly to get his brothers and Alaric's attention, they joined the rest of the team.

"Okay so myself and Caroline went out to the place that the 911 caller said that they found the victim, it was the same scene, bound, blindfolded and throat slashed, just like the others.' Stefan told him as Caroline looked through a brown folder. Alaric crossed him arms over his chest and asked,

"Any sign of sexual assault?" he asked the younger Salvatore, who looked so different from his brother sometimes it was hard to believe that they were related.

"No, none just like the rest." Stefan told him as he was handed a sheet of paper by Caroline who glanced up at Damon for a second before looking at the board.

"The victim had his driving licence on him, his name is Matt Ryder." Stefan too, glanced at his brother before continuing,

"This is his DMV picture." Stefan pinned the sheet of paper onto the board beside the photos of the other victims and when he moved back the change in atmosphere in the room was audible, they all stared at the picture and Damon felt as if he was looking in a mirror as he stared at the young man who was now lying on a cold slab in the morgue. His eyes roamed over all the features, the black hair, the blue eyes, pale skin and sharp, high cheek bones.

A/N –Well my ducks that is the first chapter, setting up the story and trying to give you a feel of what is to come! Let me know your thoughts so far.

xxx