AUTHORS NOTE: Well tomorrow, 04.11.11, is the three year anniversary of when Lee and I first started talking so we obviously had to have another fic off to celebrate that. Just a little moment to rant and rave about how awesome Lee is and that without her, I'd not be me. I'd be lost in a scary world. The prompt was "greeting" and I loosely met it using my new love for Duncan... Slight warning there's a hint of Burke/Duncan (because I love that pair and you'll never take it away from me) but of course there's my atypical hint of Duncan/Jenny.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters (apart from Jenny).
[Welcoming Duncan]
It was Friday night, the last day of his first week at Maryhill and as he gathered up his belongings to take home with him, he caught sight of a coffee cup lying neglected in the empty bin because no one actually ate or drink in here. He couldn't help but smile as he thought about how he'd invidually met the five members of the small homicide team – each one as different to the next.
i.
"Excuse me, who authorised for you to enter my crime scene..." a gruff voice demanded to know causing Duncan to look up from the dead body and flashing a small at the short, overweight man wearing the long dark trench coat storming towards him.
"That, detective..." he paused allowing the man to state his name and title but the cold glare just remained so he continued, "would be the degree in medical science and the transfer to being your medical examiner," he pointed out pulling out his own I.D card and flashing it to the man. "You can call me Dr. Clarke," he said with a smile, the sarcasm dripping with every word, before slipping the I.D card back into his pocket, "and I call you..."
"You can call me sir," he indicated before pointing down at the body. "Now how about we quit the formalities and you tell me what you've got, son?" Duncan knelt back down before turning to look at the man.
"It's Duncan," he corrected before starting to recite what he could tell from his primary assessment of the body deciding that his first meet with the DCI of homicide could have most definitely gone better but he had been warned by the Super about the man after all.
ii.
"Do you mind if I join you?" Looking up, Duncan couldn't help but smile at a young male detective with piercing blue eyes and short blonde curls. Recognising him from the crime scene that morning, he motioned for him to take the chair in front of him before starting to munch at the chicken ceaser salad in front of him. "I'm DC Fraser," he said holding out his hand, "but please call me Stuart. I hate how formal things are around here."
"Hey, I'm Dr Clarke but I suppose you can call me Duncan," he teased with a smile as he took the proffered hand and shook it. "Can I ask you a question?"
"It depends how personal it is, Duncan. We have only just met." Stuart answered honestly making Duncan realise straight off that he liked the man and could have a solid friendship with him before nodding his head.
"Well I suppose it's personal but not to you..." He stated before looking around him quickly to make sure that who he was about to talk to wasn't about. When he was sure it was safe, he continued. "Does Burke always act like a bulldog that's swallowed a wasp?" Duncan had learnt the man's name after he'd left – one of the uniformed officers had been kind of enough to fill him in on the man's name.
Stuart stared at the man afore him before bursting out into a fit of laughter, one hand clutching his stomach as the other clapped down on the table and Duncan couldn't help but panic about the man's reaction, thinking that he'd got the wrong idea of Burke. "I see that Burke wasn't that open to you being at our crime scene this morning?"
"No. Was he attached to..." He sensed knowing that the medical examiner before him had been a pretty blonde woman that had moved away to get married and have children.
"Oh no," Stuart said shaking his head, "it's just in this line of career, you need to have trust at every level. He needs to trust his lower detective's to have his back no matter what and to do what they're told and then the medical examiner needs to make sure they relay the correct information to him and him only. It's fine. He'll warm up to you, I promise." He said with a smile before taking a drink of his diet Irn-Bru.
"I'm going to hold you to that, Stuart," he said with a warm smile before smiling at him. "So tell me a bit about yourself..."
iii.
"Do you drink?" A voice asked from the door of the autopsy lab causing Duncan to swirl around in his chair and spy the DI of the group – a man the female interns had been bristling about all day – leaning casually against the doorjamb with a smile on his face. "You're new to the team and there's no way better to get to know me then to have a few at the local."
"Are we allowed to drink while there's a case on?" Duncan asked timidly suddenly feeling like the school nerd passing up his only chance to hang out with the top jock because of his nerdy desire to please the teacher – or in this case, Burke – and winced inside at how pathetic he sounded. Robbie laughed moving further into the office before revealing a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.
"I sensed you'd be that kind of man," he moved to sit one of the metal autopsy tables and patted the space next to him, "so I brought the whiskey to us sensing that we could drink one here just to, you know, toast your first day at Maryhill and being unlucky enough to have to deal with Burke on an extremely gruelling case." Duncan laughed as he hoisted himself onto the table next to the man and smiled.
"Thanks Robbie," he looked down at the amber liquid in the glass before turning to look at him. "Do you think I did okay today?"
"You survived Burke on your own," there was a silence as Robbie took a sip of his drink before turning to smile at Duncan. "No one has done better." Duncan couldn't help but feel a shiver of pride course through his body as he smiled to himself before taking a sip of his whiskey.
iv.
Sitting at the bus stop, Duncan mentally cursed the pile of shite metal that he was ashamed to call his car as he stared down at the blackberry in his hand debating whether or not to phone in and explain his situation. He was just about to type in the number to the office when a car horn pipped causing him to look up to see a woman leaning over her passenger side smiling at him and motioning for him to come over. "Good morning, Duncan. I didn't realise you lived nearby or I'd have arranged a carpool with you last night so you didn't have to catch the bus." She said with a huge smile that made him repeat the action – the first one he'd worn all day.
"Just down the road," he said with a shrug before smiling at her. "And I do actually have a car. The thing just gave out on me this morning," he indicated and slid into the seat as she motioned for him too. "You really could have just drove on by."
"I know." She said indicating to get back into the traffic before smiling. "And I know from station house rumours that you'd have been able to stand your own if Burke did get mad at you being late but you're apart of the team now and we take..." she stopped talking for the few moments as she slipped back into the line of traffic, "take care of our team. I'll even pick you up every morning until your car gets fixed and after. Why should we clutter up the car park, right?" She said with a smile, slightly turning to look at him but at the same time still managing to have a gaze on the road.
"Thank you," he couldn't help but laugh. "I don't get how a team so friendly can have Burke as a boss!"
Jackie laughed, "Duncan, Burke's bark is much worse than his bite. I'm sure that someone has told you that once he trusts you, you're in for life. It's just how the older detective's work. They're afraid to trust because of the many years of betrayal. So what made you become an M.E? I hear you were the top of your class."
"I think it was more to piss off my parents at first," Jackie couldn't help but wince at how young Duncan actually was, "but then it became more about helping solve the murder of someone who couldn't talk any more. I've been doing it ever since and I don't think I could ever turn back to normal medicine now."
"Trust me, you've got to be dying to join this team once you're in..." She teased before pulling up at the station – on time.
v.
Moving into the autopsy corridor, he jumped when he saw the pretty redhead psychiatrist turned detective sat outside the door holding a tray with two paper coffee cups. "Why are you sat outside?" He asked standing in front of her, his tall height hovering as he held out a hand to help her up. She looked up at him and he couldn't help but notice her pale expression.
"I'm a homicide detective petrified of autopsy," she pointed out as she took hold of his hand so that he could help her up, "it's just one of those crazy quirky things that make me individual next to the other three, who are obviously more experienced and maturer than I am, detectives that I work with." She took a deep breath and Duncan couldn't help at how fast she'd said that sentence before suddenly watching her shake her head. "Oh how could I forget," leaning down she picked up the tray and held out a cup to him, "one decaf mocha with two sweet 'n' low."
"How did you..."
"I was behind you last night in the coffee queue just before Burke said we could go home and besides, I'm a detective," she said with a shrug as if that explained everything before smiling up at him. "I hope this wasn't extremely rude of me. I mean, you could have a diet that states you can only drink coffee at a certain part of the day or maybe you only got decaf last night because of the time or maybe that wasn't even for you..."
"Detective Scott," he said with a chuckle, "thank you."
Her ramblings came to a halt as she flashed him that wide smile once more, "you're welcome," she stated before taking a sip of her own coffee and then looking back at him. "I hope you enjoy it here, Duncan. It's a brilliant place to work and the team..." She stopped talking as if trying to think of what to say but couldn't find the right words so again she shrugged, "they're the team. I couldn't imagine working any where else because it's..." the sound of her mobile phone ringing ended her sentence as she dug through the pockets of her skirt to find it and sighed at Burke's name. "I best get running. It was nice speaking to you," she promised before answering the phone as she started to walk towards homicide.
Duncan stared after her, a silly smile on his face as he thought about how cute she was – in looks and mannerisms – but when his thoughts quickly caught up with him, he shook his head and moved into autopsy, ignoring the no food and drink rule put down by the other M.E's.
Working here, he could tell, was going to be fun.
