Title: Feel for the moment

Author: Officer BudBabe

Summary: In order to find a suspect, Detective Inspector Amelia Ryan is sent to Las Vegas to work with the crime lab. Amelia and the Team uncover something greater and more deceitful than they ever expected. Romance/Angst/Action

Pairings: Nick/Amelia

Rating: K+ - Some content may not be suitable for young children.

Disclaimer: This is a non profit piece of fiction written for entertainment purposes only. I only own the character Amelia and the people she works with in England.

Chapter One

XXXX

Trafalgar Square

London, England

Wednesday, 19th January

11:41PM

XXXX

The rain had finally passed over and Amelia watched as her breath rose into the night time air. Trafalgar was just as loud during the night as it was during the day. The rush of the fountains coupled with the shouts of drunken teenagers made it near impossible to concentrate. The lights that were positioned under the fountain seemed tacky and out of place in the traditional masonry.

Amelia straightened as she saw a boy, perhaps aged seventeen, amble towards her. Most of his features were hidden by a baseball cap and his jeans were slung so low on his hips they may as well have been round his ankles. A cigarette hung out of his mouth and he kept taking deep drags on it.

"Alright?" He mumbled, nodding to her. Amelia raised her eyebrows as he sat on the wall next to her and offered her a cigarette. She shook her head.

"How much are you for a coupla' hours then?"

Turning to him, Amelia flashed him a dangerous smile "Too much for you. Now run along, I'm sure you have to be at MacDonald's early in the morning."

The boy tutted and walked off to rejoin his friends "Fucking frigid cow." He muttered "You're in the wrong business love!" He yelled back over his shoulder.

Anyone who told you to be yourself really couldn't have given you worse advice Amelia wanted toretort. The only thing stopping her was the fact that she could jeopardise her cover. Amelia looked down at herself and rolled her eyes. Dressing like a prostitute for work was really not how she had wanted to spend her evening.

Rubbing her hands together to keep the feeling in them, Amelia longed for her warm flat in Victoria Court. Archimedes, her grey British Shorthair would be curled up on the sofa fast asleep in the warmth. The people in the flat above her would be laughing and talking with the guests at one of their many dinner parties. Amelia had always liked to lie in bed and listen to the gentle murmur of conversation, the great gust of laughter, and the jovial chink of wine glasses.

Finally she saw the person she had been waiting for. A tall, grey haired man in a non-descript suit was getting out of his car and walking towards her. Amelia tried to smile alluringly and check she had everything she needed in her bag at the same time.

Without speaking the man walked up to her and took her arm gently, leading her back to his car. Behind her, Amelia could hear the whistles and catcalls of the teenagers. She dutifully ignored them and got inside the car.

XXXX

Slipping inside her flat, Amelia decided she had never felt so spent in all her life. Shutting the door she immediately stepped out of her clothes and left them in a heap by the front door. Walking through the flat in just her underwear, Amelia collapsed on the sofa and fell into a deep sleep.

XXXX

Upon waking, Amelia shivered. Archimedes jumped off her stomach and headed towards the kitchen, signalling that it was breakfast time.

Still in only her underwear, Amelia slid off the sofa and ambled in behind him. Taking note of the time, Amelia poured some cat food into a bowl and set it down in front of her hungry feline.

Wandering into the bathroom, Amelia turned on the shower and waited for it to warm up. Slowly walking around the flat, as if in a daze, Amelia collected a seemingly more or less random collection of objects to take into the bathroom with her.

Standing under the scalding water, Amelia contemplated last night and how this would help them get further on with their investigation. London Crime Laboratory had been working on this case for some time, and Detective Amelia Ryan was head of the operation.

The same Detective Amelia Ryan who stood in Trafalgar square the night before dressed as a prostitute, while another detective sat in a tree behind her and filmed everything that went on.

It wasn't that Amelia had been frightened to take on the undercover work, just slightly apprehensive. And now, as she stood in her shower, trying to scrub away all remnants of the night before, she understood why. The dirtiness she was feeling, even if it was for a good cause, was overwhelming. She had slept with a criminal. He had even paid her. Three hundred pounds he had pressed into her hand at the end of it all. That money was now lying in an evidence bag in her handbag.

Amelia turned off the shower and stepped out into the steam filled bathroom. Wrapping herself in a towel, she wandered over to the mirror and began to trace random shapes in the glass with her fingertip.

Moving as if she were underwater, Amelia walked about the flat getting ready to go to work slowly and steadily. Dressing in black trousers and a white blouse, Amelia pulled her curly brown hair back into a ponytail, leaving a few stubborn corkscrews framing her face.

Stepping outside into the fresh morning air, Amelia suppressed a shiver and pulled her coat tighter around her. Sighing, she began the long journey to work.

XXXX

Amelia sat in silence with the other people on the case, watching the video tape made by Detective Robson the night before. A small wave of laughter ran through the room as they watched Amelia brush off the teenager.

The video finished up, and Amelia was awarded with a few pats on the back for her field work.

The rest of the day went as normal, Amelia spent most of it in the lab trying to analyse blood samples she had managed to gain from her little jaunt with their suspect the night before. Fortunately enough, the guy had been into whips and pleasure from pain and all that kind of stuff.

Amelia blinked her tiredness away as she stared through the microscope for what seemed to be the millionth time that hour.

"Detective?" Amelia turned to see Susan, one of the Admin. girls, stood in the doorway. She looked about apprehensively, as if unsure about what the lab might hold.

"Hi there Sue. What do you need?" Amelia stood and stretched her arms high above her head. Removing her Lab specs with one hand, she motioned for Susan to come closer with the other. The mousy haired young woman stepped forward tentatively, her brown eyes blinking behind bottle thick glasses.

"The Captain wants to speak to you. He said not to come if you're busy, but it's quite urgent."

Amelia nodded "Thanks Sue. I'll go now. This evidence has nothing new to reveal anyway." Without removing her lab coat, Amelia followed Susan through the corridors, being greeted by various friends and co workers along the way. Upon reaching Captain Jameson's office, Amelia took a deep breath and knocked officiously. The knock was met with a gruff 'Enter.'

Inside the office, Jameson was slumped at his desk behind a mountain of paperwork. He looked up and smiled wryly at Amelia "How did last night go?"

"Got the blood samples we needed. The cash he gave me is irrelevant because it's really difficult to lift any kind of DNA off of money. I managed to collect a few carpet fibres from his car because they looked foreign to me. They didn't match the colour or texture of the carpet in the car. I'm just in the middle off processing them."

"Have you found anything new?"

"Well, his blood sample matches the one mixed with the victim's that we took from the crime scene two days ago, but here's the thing, there's another person's blood mixed with that. So in theory, we could place two people at the crime scene, him being one of them."

Jameson nodded "OK, that's something new. Also, it gives us enough evidence to warrant an interrogation. Nice work."

"That's not what you wanted to see me for though, is it?"

Jameson shifted uncomfortably in his seat "No. We managed to get a lead on the spouse of the victim. It turns out he's taken off to America with the cash that his wife left him in her will. Las Vegas more specifically. Normally we would wait until we had solid evidence against him to go all the way out there to perform an arrest, but he's left us with no previous criminal record and no blood sample. It's entirely possible that this is the thirdblood type found at the crime scene.Under the circumstances, I would normally leave it to the Las Vegas police, but they should really have someone out there who's processed the crime scene first hand and has a good knowledge of the profiles we've built up."

Amelia frowned "What are you saying to me, Bob?"

"I'm saying, I think you should fly out to Las Vegas to keep any eye on this guy, get hold of a blood sample and what have you. A bit like a special project, if you know what I mean."

Amelia nodded "And I'll be working with Las Vegas Crime Laboratory will I?"

"Yes. From what I hear they're one of the best."

"How long will I be gone?"

"I genuinely don't know. You could be out there a few days, or a few weeks. However long it takes. We have a budget set aside for whoever wants to take on the task."

"What about my flat, my cat and all that?"

Jameson smiled "We will take care of everything. Someone will be around to look after your cat. You just need to make sure you're up to date on everything. Bills and so on."

Amelia nodded "I suppose there's nothing to stop me from saying yes, is there?"

XXXX

Taking one last look at her little flat, Amelia breathed in the familiar scent, bent down and scratched Archimedes behind the ears one last time. The feline rubbed his head against her knee in an affectionate plea to stay. Amelia smiled and straightened.

"I can't Archie. It's for work. I'll be back soon."

And with that she shut the door gently behind her.

XXXX

Reviews will be hugely appreciated!