Suffer Little Children
By Tracy Wood
Certificate 17 – Graphic Sexual Content – also the story is about Child Abuse, which is a deeply upsetting subject.
Disclaimer: This is fan-fiction, written for enjoyment and no profit will be made from it. The main characters of Mark, Steve, Amanda, and Jesse, as well as Cheryl, CJ, Dion, Alex and Chief Masters are from the series Diagnosis Murder, and as such are property of CBS/Viacom . The other characters, especially Reagan Yeager, her family and Martin Robertson are mine.
I hope that you enjoy this, please let me know what you think in the review section.
Monday
Steve sat in his chair, midway through a Monday morning, trying not to look at all the filing and paperwork that was piled up on his desk, and on Cheryl's desk next to it. There was nothing for it, if the phone didn't ring in the next five minutes he would have to get down to it.
"Hey, Sloan," a voice yelled out, breaking into his thoughts. "The Chief wants to see you, now!"
Steve got slowly to his feet. It was a toss up, which would he rather do, paperwork or see the Chief? Nope, he couldn't decide. With a half smile on his face, he crossed the room and headed to the privacy of his boss's office.
"Ah Lt., Sloan, there you are." Chief Masters said, almost smiling. "Please sit down."
As he did so, Steve noticed a young woman sitting in the other chair. She was small, with dark brown hair and eyes. She seemed extremely confident and completely at ease at the same time.
"This is Detective Inspector Reagan Yeager, she is on secondment from London, while Cheryl is working for Scotland Yard. Reagan, this is Lieutenant Steve Sloan," explained the Chief.
Reagan got to her feet and said, "Hi, I'm really pleased to meet you, but nobody calls me Reagan, please call me Rae."
Steve held out his hand and smiled at her, "I'm pleased to meet you too, Rae, I'm Steve".
"You'll be working together for at least the next six months, so I suggest that you get to know each other a little better, and Lieutenant, try to find her some space on Cheryl's desk!" said the Chief with a raise of his eyebrows.
Steve started, a little sheepishly, to reply, but then thought better of it. He opened the door, and ushered Rae through it.
"Oh boy! He wasn't joking was he?" said Rae, as she looked at Cheryl's desk.
"The Chief never jokes." Steve replied. "And it's not too bad, it's been worse than this," he added defensively.
Rae was just about to reply, when Steve's cell phone rang.
"Sloan here, Oh, hi, Amanda, what's up?" Steve's face turned from a welcoming smile to a hard stare in an instant. "I'll be right over."
Steve grabbed his jacket and was half way across the squad room before he realised that Rae was still standing by his desk. "Rae, come on!" He shouted without breaking his stride. Rae shrugged her shoulders, turned around and followed her new partner out of the building.
As they headed across town in Steve's car, he filled Rae in on the phone call he had received.
"That was Dr. Amanda Bentley, she is a county pathologist and works at Community General. She just called in a suspicious death. Probable child abuse."
Rae gasped. "No wonder you looked grim. How old was the child?"
"Nine, and female. Listen; there are a few things that you should know about Community General, and about me. My father, Dr. Mark Sloan, is the Head of Internal Medicine there and also a police consultant. Amanda is one of my closest friends, and then there is Jesse."
"Jessie? Who's she?"
"He, Jesse is male," said Steve, trying not to laugh.
"Oh sorry, most Jessie's in England are female, or a famous postman's cat," said Rae; "Thank goodness I didn't say that to his face. Sorry, anyway, you were saying, then there is Jesse".
"Yeah, well Jesse, he's my best friend, and also my partner, along with my father, in a barbeque restaurant I own, BBQ Bob's. I'm sure you'll be eating there before the week is out. The three of them tend to tag along on a lot of my cases."
"Tag along? As in help you out!" Rae asked incredulously.
"Oh look, here we are," said Steve quickly, parking in the doctor's parking lot. He got out of the car and started round to open Rae's door, but found she was already out of the car.
"Oh sorry," said Rae, realising what he was going to do. "I'm not used to working with gentlemen."
Amanda was in her hygienically tidy domain when Steve and Rae entered the room. She looked up with a smile at Steve, although he could see that her eyes were sad.
"Hi Amanda, this is Reagan Yeager, she's Cheryl's replacement from London, you remember they're both part of this job swap thing."
Rae held out her hand to the beautiful young woman in front of her, and said, "Hi, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, please, call me Rae, everybody else does."
"What have you got Amanda?" Steve asked, getting down to business, now that the introductions were over.
"Let me just page Jesse, he was her attending physician, and then we can fill you in." Amanda went over to her desk and the two detectives heard the call go out for Dr. Travis.
A couple of minutes later Jesse entered the room. He too looked a little subdued, not his normal bouncy self. Steve knew everybody hated child abuse cases, and when it ended up in murder – well, there weren't really any words to describe how they felt.
"Hey Steve, I'm glad Amanda got through to you. Oh hi, I'm Dr. Jesse Travis, are you from Child Welfare?"
Rae smiled at the tousle haired young doctor, who wasn't that much taller than she was. He has kind eyes and a lovely smile she thought, and then mentally shook herself. Down girl, concentrate. "No, I'm Detective Inspector Reagan Yeager, from Scotland Yard. I'm job swapping with Cheryl."
"Reagan, wow, that's a very American name."
"Yeah, horrid isn't it? My Mum thought he was a great film star. Still, could have been worse, she could have called me Ronald; even though I wasn't the boy she wanted. Anyway everybody calls me Rae."
"Ah, could we get on with the matter at hand please people?" said Amanda; bringing everybody back to the reason they were there. "The victim is a nine-year-old girl, I believe that she was strangled, but I don't know at the moment with what. It certainly wasn't something as substantial as a rope or a wire. The marks are quite faint compared to that, but she definitely died by strangulation."
"Where was she found?" asked Steve, his face was like stone, and his voice was nothing like the friendly one Rae had heard only seconds before. Amanda checked her folder.
"The crossing lady found her partially hidden in an alley behind a dumpster on her way home from her morning duty at St. Mary's school, and called it in." Amanda went over to the small shape on the table and removed the sheet, letting them all see the body of a nine-year-old dark haired girl. Rae let out a gasp, put her hand over her mouth, mumbled something that sounded like excuse me, and rushed out of the room.
Steve, Jesse and Amanda looked at each other, and then Steve said, "Amanda, I'm sorry, I thought she was an experienced officer, I'll be right back." Steve hurried out into the corridor, and saw Rae leaning up against the wall, the movements of her back showing him that she was crying.
Steve put his hand on her shoulder, and to his surprise, she turned around and just for an instant rested her head on his shoulder. Then she seemed to get herself under control and started to pull herself together.
"I am so sorry Sir, please forgive me. If we go back into the morgue, I will explain to the three of you what the problem was, I don't want to have to go through it more than once."
Steve placed his hand on her arm and guided her back into the room. Amanda and Jesse both looked very concerned. Rae put her hand up before they could begin to speak, and took a deep breath.
"The reason I volunteered for this assignment to come to LA, and work with your police department, was because I came out of a rather nasty divorce about two years ago. I have three children, two boys and a girl. The two boys were both old enough to make their own choice about who they wanted to live with, and they decided to stay with their Dad. My daughter, Mara, is nine now and she wanted to live with me. The judge however, took a different view, he said she shouldn't be split up from her brothers, and that my job was far too dangerous, and had unpredictable hours, so Mara went to her Dad as well."
Rae opened her wallet and took a picture out. She handed it to Amanda who did a double take. She silently handed the picture over to Steve and Jesse.
"Now you can see why I reacted like I did. That little girl on the table looks like my Mara. I'm sorry. I promise you I've got a hold of myself now. It won't happen again."
Steve smiled at Rae and then turned to Jesse. "Amanda said you were this little girl's attending physician – Amanda what's her name, we can't keep calling her little girl."
"Hana Marlow, she is, was, nine years old. Her parents went home a couple of hours ago, they are both deeply upset, and wanted to break the news to her brother themselves.
"She last came in 9 weeks ago with a broken arm. It had been broken in two places and there were finger shaped bruises on the other arm." Said Jesse slowly. "I was concerned that she might have been abused and I asked her who had done this to her, she said that she was delivering papers for her brother, when two older boys grabbed her off her bike and stole the papers, they hurt her before they let her go."
"Apparently," said Amanda, "There had been a few attacks like this in the area, and as we had no proof otherwise there was nothing we could do, but the fingerprint bruises were adult size not child size. She said the boys were her brother's age, but he is only 14."
"Her Mum and Dad came in with her," said Jesse, "And they seemed real concerned. I questioned them as much as I could, but as far as I could see they were as horrified as we were."
Amanda touched Rae on the arm and then went back over to the body. She lowered the sheet a little more, and they could see that there were not only bruises, but also bite marks on the body. There were deep bruises on her shoulders and arms, but to Steve and Rae, if Amanda hadn't already told them, it wouldn't be immediately clear how she had died.
"Hana was strangled," repeated Amanda slowly. "I am not sure yet what was used, but it was some sort of ligature, if you look in the eyes you will see that there is petechial haemorrhages on the conjunctiva. This along with the petechial cephalad at the site of the choking leads to a cause of death - strangulation. There are no injuries on the body that would lead me to think that she didn't receive medical attention whenever she needed it, no broken bones that had been left to heal on their own. It is a mystery. She was definitely abused, but I would say that neither her parents nor her brother were guilty of abusing her."
Steve looked across at Rae, who still had a pained look on her face, but she was holding herself in check now. She still had hold of her daughter's photo, and she was turning it over and over in her hand as she listened to Amanda. Suddenly he saw her pull herself together some more and return to police mode. She turned to Jesse and Amanda and began to ask questions.
"Where did you say the body was found?
"In an alleyway just off the sidewalk on her normal journey to school." Amanda said looking down at her notes.
"When she came in the first time, was she scared of her Mum or Dad, did she seem anxious, or did she cower away from you?"
"No, no, nothing like that." Jesse took over. "She held her mom's hand the whole time she was here, she was upset, and obviously in a lot of pain, but that was all. I even got a smile out of her before she went up to x-ray."
"What time of day did she come in? Was it a morning or evening paper round that she was doing? Did her brother see the attack? What sort of injuries did the other paper delivery children have after they had been attacked?" Rae was getting up a head of steam now.
"Whoa, whoa, one at a time!" Jesse stepped in front of Rae to break her tirade of questions. "Right, let me see. It was the afternoon; she helped her brother after she got home from school. He didn't see the attack; he got home from his half of the round and found her at home, crying in pain. I don't know what type of injuries the other children had, sorry." Jesse paused, smiled and then said "Was that all, or did I miss a question in there somewhere Detective?"
Rae smiled back, "No, that was it Doctor."
Suddenly the tannoy blared, "Doctor Travis to the ER, Doctor Travis to the ER."
"Sorry guys, I gotta go, Steve I'll catch you later at Bob's, Rae I hope to see you there too." And with that Jesse rushed back up to treat his next patient.
Rae watched him go, and found herself thinking about those eyes and that smile, he was cute, stop it Rae, let him be, she pulled herself out of her imaginings and turned to face her partner and realised that he was speaking to her.
"… to see what he has to say about this, then we can head back to the station. It that's OK with you?"
Rae tried to cover up the blush she felt creep up her face, and got ready to admit that she hadn't been listening, but Steve was already striding off, she was getting left behind again. Waving a goodbye to Amanda, Rae set off after Steve as he headed toward the elevator.
As she leant against the elevator wall thinking over what had happened that morning Steve's cell phone rang. "Sloan here, no Jess we're still in the hospital, we'll be right up."
"Problem?" asked Rae as she looked at Steve. Or rather up at Steve, he was tall, probably what 6', 6'2", and she had a feeling she was going to enjoy working with him. The elevator stopped before Steve had a chance to answer and Rae saw the sign that said E.R.
"Jesse," Steve called out as he walked down the hall.
"I'm in Trauma 2 Steve, I'll be out in a minute." Rae could hear Jesse's voice; it sounded so different from when she had first met him. Now it was obvious who was in charge. He was giving orders, and instructions in a firm clear tone, and what's more everybody was doing just as he said. Suddenly a gurney with an unconscious man on it was wheeled out from what Rae correctly guessed was Trauma 2 and Jesse followed it, his face full of concern for his patient, and his hair even more tousled than before.
He walked slowly over to Steve and Rae and looking up at them stated in a flat voice, "That was George Marlow, he's Hana's Dad. He slit his wrists; I think we have got him stabilised, but it was touch and go for a while."
"His poor wife," said Rae, looking around to see if she could see her. "Is she here Dr. Travis?"
"Jesse please, and yes, she's sitting over there. She's wearing a yellow jersey."
Rae looked at Steve for a moment, and when he nodded his head she walked over to Hana's mother. "Excuse me Mrs Marlow, may I have a word with you?"
"Susan, my name is Susan." Rae smiled and sat down next to her. She took her ID out of her pocket and showed it to the grieving woman.
"My partner, Lieutenant Sloan, and I are working on your daughter's case, I know this is a horrendous time for you, and I don't want to intrude, but would it be possible to come and visit you at home, maybe tomorrow, so we can talk about what happened to Hana?"
At the sound of her daughter's name, Susan Marlow's face crumpled and she began to sob silently. Slowly she composed herself, nodded and said "You could come at about 10.00am, my son will have gone to school by then." Rae seriously doubted that the boy would be at school tomorrow, but she smiled and said,
"That will be fine, we'll see you then, could you just jot your address down so we know where we're going?"
Susan took the piece of paper and pen that Rae offered her and wrote on it. She went to hand it back, then hesitated and wrote down her telephone number as well. Rae took the piece of paper, and motioned for Steve to join her.
"This is Lieutenant Sloan, he will be with me tomorrow." Steve held out his hand to Mrs Marlow, but she didn't seem to notice it. Slowly he took one of his cards out of his top pocket and handed it to Susan Marlow.
"If you need to contact us in the meantime Mrs. Marlow, you can reach me on the numbers on this card." Mrs Marlow just nodded. She was already back in her terrible nightmare, and Rae doubted whether she saw them leave, or if she had even realised that Steve had spoken.
Jesse came over to them and motioned to Steve. "Mr. Marlow has been admitted in room 235, take it gently OK?"
Steve and Rae both nodded and walked down the corridor, Rae had no idea where she was going, she was just following her partner. Suddenly as if he realised this Steve turned to her with a smile and said "I thought I would introduce you to my father next, and then we can go up and see how Mr. Marlow is doing."
Rae didn't say anything she just nodded, wondering what the father of this tall, softly spoken and evidently very kind cop would be like. Even if she had had a hundred years to work it out she would never have come up with what met her eyes when they entered Dr. Sloan's office. There were about 12 books on his desk that had been made into a temporary fort; there was a hole in the middle through which a water gun was pointing. Across the room was a young boy with a cast on his wrist. He also had a water pistol, and he was trying to shoot at the person hiding behind the books. Suddenly a spurt of water shot out of the vantage point on the desk, which went wide of it's young target, the boy laughed and then shot back.
"Oh you got me!" Said a cheerful voice from behind the desk. A white haired, gentleman (Rae knew you could never describe him otherwise, she wasn't sure how, but she just knew) suddenly looked very sheepish and said "Hi, son, what brings you here? You know Jamie don't you?"
Jamie smiled at Steve and said, "I guess that I have to go now then Dr Sloan?"
"Yep Jamie, I'll be up to see you before I finish today. Oh here, you had better take these with you, I don't think Steve wants to play with me."
Steve smiled and prepared himself to go through the introduction process again. But Rae beat him to it.
"You must be Dr. Mark Sloan, I'm Rae Yeager, and I'm Cheryl's replacement for the next 6 months at least. What were you doing?" Rae held out her hand and smiled at the older man and he took it and smiled back.
"Oh Jamie is having an operation on his wrist in the morning, and he is really nervous, I thought I would just take his mind off it for a little while."
"How kind," said Rae, "Do you do that for all your patients?"
"Well I find that once they get over about 40 they don't want to play cowboy anymore." Mark glanced over at Steve as he said this, and Rae guessed that he must have passed that milestone in the not too distant past, she smiled at them both. Yes, she thought, she certainly would enjoy spending some time with the Sloans.
About half an hour, and a cup of herbal tea later, Rae found herself charging after Steve again as he made his way up to visit Mr. Marlow. "Sir," she called. "Hold up a minute, we need to get something straight, right now."
Steve turned around with a confused look on his face. "What is it Rae?"
"I am here for at least six months probably 12, I hope I will learn a lot from you, and enjoy myself while I am here. What I don't want to do is spend the whole time running after you, because your legs are twice as long as mine."
Steve smiled a broad smile, and Rae's stomach turned over a couple of times, then he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If you find I am going too fast for you again, you can buy me a leash." With that he turned back towards Mr. Marlow's room and walked, very slowly toward it. Rae stuck her tongue out at him and strolled past, looking for room 235.
By the time they reached the room they had both returned to the problem at hand. Steve knocked on the door and heard a faint noise that he took to be permission to enter. Mr. Marlow was awake, his bandaged wrists resting on the bed covers. He tried a small smile, and then looked at the two detectives.
Steve held out his badge, took the initiative and said, "Mr. Marlow, I'm sorry to bother you at this difficult time, but I need to ask your permission to do something." Rae looked over at Steve, and realised that she should have asked him what his line of questioning was going to be. After all this man wasn't a suspect, as far as she knew, what could Steve need that required his permission?
Mr. Marlow also looked confused and said, "Sure Detective, what is it?"
Steve, looked distinctly uncomfortable, but straightened his back and said, "I don't know if you have seen your daughter's body, Mr. Marlow." The figure on the bed seemed to shrink back into the covers as Steve spoke. "Your daughter has bite marks on her body, we don't think that you did this, but I need a dental imprint so that we can rule you out completely."
Rae could see the anger building in Mr. Marlow's eyes. Just as she thought it was going to burst out and envelop them both it seemed to disappear back into his soul. Hana's father just nodded weakly and said, "Anything you want Detective, but I swear to you I did nothing to hurt my little girl. I never even smacked her hand when she was naughty. I loved her with all my heart. Whatever am I going to do without her?" Suddenly loud, sobs filled the room, Steve looked even more uncomfortable, but Rae, put her arms around the small man in the bed and let him cry on her shoulder until he couldn't continue anymore.
When Rae looked around she saw that Steve had left the room, probably to get the stuff to take the imprint she thought. She placed a hand on Mr. Marlow's arm and quietly spoke to him.
"Mr. Marlow, I am so sorry for your loss. I have a daughter of nine myself, and I can't bear to think of losing her. We need to get your help to catch the person who did this to her. Can I ask you a couple of questions?"
"Anything I can do to help you I will, but I don't have any energy left, I would willingly change places with her." He looked down at his wrists, "I thought I would be better off if I could join her, how selfish was that? How would Susan and Josh have coped with my death as well as Hana's? I'm sorry, Detective, did you tell me your name?"
Rae realised, belatedly that neither of them had introduced themselves, "My name is Detective Inspector Yeager, Mr. Marlow."
"Inspector?"
"Yes I normally work in London, we have Detective Inspectors there. My partner is Lieutenant Sloan." Rae smiled slightly and then continued. "Did Hana confide in you Mr. Marlow, did she tell you anything more about the accident she had with her arm?"
"No, no, but she was really excited about getting the cast off tomorrow. There are tryouts for the junior cheerleaders next week, and she had been practising everyday." A sudden horrified look crossed his face and two tears escaped down his cheeks. "I have a pom pom hidden in the trunk of my car for her, now she will never see it. Why couldn't I have given it to her when I bought it?"
Rae didn't know what to say to this man who was hurting so much and was extremely relieved when the door opened slowly and Steve came in with the equipment he needed to take a mould of Mr. Marlow's teeth.
"OK, Mr. Marlow …"
"George, please"
"OK George, this is a horrible process, but I have done it before, so it shouldn't take long. Now, first of all, I need to put this mould on your bottom teeth and you bite down," George looked at the dark grey stuff inside the mould, shuddered and opened his mouth. Steve put it in the right place and watched as Mr. Marlow closed his mouth. Once he had removed the lower mould, the same procedure was carried out on the top ones. About 2 minutes after they had started, Steve had all that he needed. He smiled at the desolate man and said quietly. "A plaster cast is taken from this. We will leave you in peace now Mr. Marlow, this is just to confirm our opinion that you had nothing to do with your daughter's death. I am sorry to have had to put you through this."
"That's OK Lieutenant, just catch whoever did this and tore our family apart. That's all I ask of both of you."
Steve and Rae looked at each other and then nodded to the man in the bed. But he had closed his eyes and they quietly left him to his solitude.
Steve and Rae drove in silence back to the precinct house and returned to the mess that was Steve's corner of the squad room. Rae, who had forgotten about all the papers on her desk sighed and looked enquiringly at Steve. "Alright, I give up, let's both take an hour or so, and try to clear this up a little," said Steve with a shrug.
"Both, both, who said anything about both?" said Rae, but her eyes were smiling.
"Well," said Steve, smiling in return "You seem to have made a mess of your desk already Detective!" Rae didn't have an answer to that, but as she was a person who liked to live and work in an orderly environment she got down to her enforced task willingly.
Almost three hours later, Rae pushed her short hair back off her face, let out a long sigh and looked at her clear desk. Steve smiled across at her from his now shining work area said "Tea?"
"Cup or meal?" asked Rae and looked at her watch 7.00 pm. A look of horror crossed her face. "Oh no!"
"What?" asked Steve, looking concerned.
"I had to go out this afternoon and find another place to stay. I had only two nights booked where I was." Rae sat down with a thud in her chair.
"Look, Rae, this is partly my fault."
"Partly?"
"OK, the filing was my fault, you can come and stay with me for a couple of nights."
"Why Lieutenant this is so sudden!" said Rae with a grin.
"Calm down Detective, I live with my father." But that just made Rae grin even more, she had liked Mark Sloan on sight, and the idea of staying in his house was an agreeable one.
"Should I bring my water pistol?"
"Look it's just after 7.00 pm why don't we make up our report on today's activities and then retire to Bob's and I'll treat you to the best barbeque in town?"
"You have got yourself a deal, boss."
It was half past eight by the time Steve and Rae, now in her rental car, arrived outside the best barbeque restaurant in town. Rae smiled as she went in through the door, it looked just like she had imagined a place owned by Steve and Jesse would look. Friendly and inviting. There was a young blonde man standing by the cash register as they walked in. Steve turned to Rae and said. "Rae, this is Alex Martin, he's a third year medical student at Community General he works with Jesse and my Dad. Alex this is Rae Yeager, my partner while Cheryl's in Europe."
Alex held out his hand and smiled as Rae took it. "Would you like to take a menu? I'm afraid you'll have to sit at the bar, we're real busy for a Monday."
"No problem Alex, could you get me a mineral water?" Rae sat down at the end of the bar and looked at the menu, she wasn't sure what to have, but it was nice to just be able to relax and unwind after her first day on the job.
"Hi Rae, how was your day?" Rae looked up and saw Jesse smiling at her. Five minutes later Steve looked over from where he was waiting tables to see Rae and Jesse deep in conversation and obviously enjoying each other's company. Suddenly Jesse moved away from her and headed towards to Steve.
"Hi buddy, how's it going?" Jesse was grinning happily as he wandered across the restaurant.
"Fine, you and Rae seem to be getting on well."
"Yeah, she's great, look I wanted to ask you something, and tell you something as well." Jesse looked a little embarrassed. Steve smiled over at his friend, he was sure that he knew what Jesse was going to ask.
"The thing is would you mind if I asked her out? I mean, I'm on an early shift tomorrow, and so are the two of you right, so Rae and I could spend the afternoon together, if that is alright with you, I'm waffling aren't I?"
"Yeah Jess, you're waffling, and no I don't mind, she seems to really like you." Steve turned to go, and then turned back, "Ah, what was it you wanted to tell me?"
"Rae said that she is going to be staying at your house for a few days. Have you told her where it is?"
"No Jess, why?"
"Because, I was just talking to her, and she said that one of the reasons she wanted to come to LA is so that she could spend some time on the beach at Malibu. It's going to be quite a surprise for her when she wakes up in the morning." Jess smiled, wishing he would be able to see her face when she saw the view Mark and Steve enjoyed from their deck.
Steve smiled as well, "I'll tell you her reaction Jesse, that is if she doesn't do it first. I won't say anything to her, today's been quite an induction, and she could do with something to brighten her day."
Jesse stopped to chat to Alex for a moment, and asked him not to mention that Steve lived at the beach. He saw Rae wave at him as he turned around again. "Jesse, have you got a moment?"
"Sure, Rae, what is it?"
"It's just that the table in the corner has been waiting for a while, would you like me to give you a hand? I used to wait tables when I was in college."
Jess said nothing, but smiled and handed her a pad. "Consider yourself hired ma'am."
Rae worked the tables for about two hours, it was only when she sat down as Steve put the closed sign up, that she realised that all she had had since she arrived was a mineral water. As he had an early shift Alex had left a little while earlier and Jesse was cashing up as Steve walked over to her. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and Steve turned back, smiling as he opened the door to reveal Mark and Amanda. Rae saw Steve whisper to Mark who nodded and smiled, but thought nothing of it. She picked up a cloth and started to wipe down the tables nearest to her, wondering whether she should ask if they had any food left. Now that she had thought about it, she realised that she was starving.
Mark walked over to her, smiled and said "Rae, have you been working here all evening?"
"Yes, but that's OK, they were so busy and I didn't want them to lose business when I could easily help out. But I must admit, I am getting quite hungry now."
"You haven't had anything to eat?" Mark looked genuinely horrified and turned to his son. "Steve, Rae hasn't had anything to eat since she got here, can you rustle up a plate of ribs and some salad for all of us?"
"Rae, I'm so sorry, it's coming right up." Steve looked suitably abashed as he disappeared into the kitchens, where cooking sounds could soon be heard.
In a little while the five of them were seated around the table with a pile of ribs and plates of salad in front of them. Rae was soon tucking in with the rest of them, and the general conversation returned to the case in hand, and how Rae had enjoyed her first day with Steve.
"Well, I felt so sorry for the Marlow's, they have lost their daughter, and they feel so helpless, and I must admit I felt helpless as well, hopefully we will get some more information tomorrow and be able to help them. I know it won't bring their daughter back, but at least if they know that the monster that killed her is behind bars, it must make the pain a little easier to bear. I'm glad that we're sitting down now, I seemed to spend all day rushing to catch up to your long legged son."
"So, Rae, is the squad room any different to what you are used to in London?" asked Mark with a smile. "Will Cheryl find it strange being over there?"
"Oh some things are different, we don't have those big water coolers that you have, and not all the policemen have guns, but some things are the same the world over I guess. I used to spend hours doing filing in London too." Rae smiled and looked over at Steve and Mark and noticed that Steve was looking embarrassed and Mark horrified.
"Steve, you didn't" said Amanda looking as horrified as Mark.
"What, have I missed something?" said Rae looking puzzled.
Mark smiled at her and said, "You're not the only one who has fallen for the big blue eyes and the just an hour or so speech." Steve hurriedly got up to get himself another soda and Rae, not sure what to do, stuck her tongue out at him again.
The rest of the late evening was pleasant, and Rae was enjoying the company immensely. As she went into the kitchen to take the plates out she found Jesse at her shoulder. "Rae, I was wondering, I know you are on an early shift tomorrow, and that you are off in the afternoon, well I am too, and I was wondering, oh I already said that didn't I?" Rae smiled at him with encouragement and Jesse carried on, "Would you like to spend the afternoon with me, I could show you some of the sights, if you would like, of course I would understand if you don't want to …" Rae reached over and placed a finger on his lips.
"Shhh, Jesse, I would love to spend tomorrow afternoon with you. Maybe we could go to the beach. Could you pick me up at Mark and Steve's place at about 2.00pm?"
Jesse smiled at her, and said, "It's a date."
"Rae, come on, we're leaving," Steve put his head around the door and called out. She picked up her jacket from the bar and walked out, once again following along in Steve's wake. Some things never change, she thought.
Rae followed Mark and Steve home in a little convoy of three, she couldn't see much of the house when she arrived, but she hoped she would get the chance to have a better look tomorrow. Steve came over and took her bags from the trunk and they headed into the house together. Mark stood at the top of the stairs and directed her straight to the guest bedroom. With a conspiratorial smile Steve walked in behind her that's a novelty she thought as she entered the room and put her bags on the bed.
"Is this all there is?" asked Steve, as Rae plonked herself down on the mattress.
"Yes, just some clothes, shoes, a couple of photos, CD player and my Michael Ball CD's. There didn't seem much point in bringing much else."
"Whose CD's? Did you mean Michael Bolton?" said Steve looking puzzled.
"No, I did not mean Michael Bolton, I meant Michael Ball, he's starring in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in the West End of London at the moment, and he's great." Rae looked animated for a moment, but she was so tired that she couldn't contain the yawn that escaped her lips. Steve smiled at her and said,
"I will leave you to your beauty sleep Detective, don't forget, we need to leave at 6.00am tomorrow." And with that Steve left the room, and Rae, suddenly overcome with exhaustion and getting used to living in a different time zone, found it all she could do to crawl into the bathroom before she collapsed into bed.