Prologue

November 2003

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of our presentation."

The applause was thunderous as the four students grabbed each other's hands and took a bow at the front of the class a split second before the bell rang. The rest of the class quickly stuffed their notebooks into their backpacks and bolted out of the room a few offering "well done's" and "nice jobs" to the group.

"Hey, nice job you did there." Josh said as he gave a friendly slap to the arm of his group mate Victoria. "Never thought you had it in you. Then again I never thought we'd be doing a theatrical presentation in our English class."

Victoria took off the bright red clown wig and handed it back to a short and skinny dark haired girl. "Never knew I had it in myself. And I would have never guessed Laura owned such a cool red wig." She tucked some black bangs back behind her ear and straightened out her glasses, giving the three of them a grateful smile.

"Wait, Laura, give the wig back to Victoria, we have to take a picture of this for memory." Josh suggested as he pulled out a small camera from his backpack. Laura handed the wig back and though Victoria rolled her eyes she had on a good naturedly smile as she yanked the wig back onto her head.

"I'll take the picture." The other brunette offered.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Come on Andrea, you look just fine in pictures alright?"

"Not today!" Andrea protested. "I've been sick for the past week, I look hideous."

"Alright, fine." It was Josh's turn to roll his eyes as he handed the camera to Andrea before going to stand in between Laura and Victoria, putting a heavy arm over both girls' shoulders.

"Say cheese." Andrea instructed as she peered through the lens.

"Cheese!"

"See you around sometime." Andrea said to Josh as she handed back the camera. She and Laura gave a silent wave to Victoria talking on her cell phone before the two slipped out of the near empty classroom.

"Hey who was that?" Josh asked once Victoria put away her phone. He couldn't help notice the cloud that had come over the girl's face. Some people showed no emotion on their faces, and some people showed everything emotion on their faces through they desperately tried to hide it from the world. Victoria was definitely one of the latter.

"Nothing." Victoria forced a smile as she slung her backpack over one shoulder and zipped up her jacket. "Just an unpleasant reminder from my past."

"Something you'd rather forget, huh?" Josh asked as he held open the classroom door for her.

She contemplated that comment for a second. "Not really, just something I wish I had done differently. Another regret of my life."

April 2004

Adam stretched and yawned as he watched Adrienne close and lock the window above the counter. As much as he loved his job (most days) he couldn't wait to get home. He needed all the time he could get over the weekend to study for his last final exam.

She turned around and caught the latter half of his yawn. "Long day huh?"

Adam nodded and got up from his chair. "Ready for your last final?"

"Oh please, like anybody is ever ready." Adrienne joked. "I'm surprised you haven't crashed and burned with all the late nights you've done so far."

Adam laughed. He looked behind him to the empty indoor pools, out to where the water was beginning to die down and become calm once again. He was thankful he wasn't signed up for cleaning duty tonight. "Is that everyone?"

"Tristan shooed the remainder out a few minutes ago." Adrienne replied. "They're probably still in the change room."

Both Adam and Adrienne's head snapped up at the same time. They gave each other a panicked look. They both knew the sound had come from the upstairs viewing balcony and though neither one of them had heard the noise in real life they instantly knew what it was.

A gunshot.

"Wait here, call 911." Adam told Adrienne. He could see Tristan in the pool area, crouched down head in his arms, obviously having thought he was being shot at. He pushed open the door and sprinted up the steps stone steps and onto the balcony.

The blood was everywhere. Dark, rich, red. Splattered all over the floor in a random array. Who would have thought a single person could bleed so much.

Adam's eyes fell onto the girl. Her eyes were tightly closed; a scared expression on her dead face, one that knew the shot was coming. One side of her dark black hair was matted with an even darker glistening shade of blood. But what was even more shocking was the boy with the blood-stained shirt that was cradling the young girl in his arms, clutching a handgun in one fist. He looked up at Adam. The moment their gazes met, Adam found his voice once again.

"What happened here?" He demanded. "What have you done!"

The detective's footsteps echoed on the metal staircase. He wandered through the various shelves until he found the empty spot he was looking for and slid the paper box into that space. He took a step back and looked at the writing on the rough white surface: April '04. Huang, V. He had come across his fair share of young murder victims, but each one still struck a different chord in his heart. Taking a black marker out of his pocket, he wrote "CLOSED" on the lid of the box.

Victoria Huang was only 19, just finished her second year of University. She was just beginning her life. Who knew what potentials she could have held in the palm of her hand? It was a life that had been tragically cut way too short.

He sighed and forced himself to turn around and walk away. They had caught the person responsible for her cruel murder and justice had prevailed once again. Though it didn't bring Victoria back for her grieving parents and friends, it was the next best thing to know that her killer was going to rot away behind prison bars.

Disclaimer: Usual disclaimer stuff. I don't own any of the CC characters, they belong to CBS.

Author's Note: I don't know exactly what will become of this story, in a way I'm considering this fanfic as sort of an experiment. But I figure since I still have the inspiration to write this story, might as well keep on writing it. If you could please let me know what you think…I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!