I'm just going to quietly leave this here...

"You need to stop being so reckless."

She just smirked back at him.

He lifted an eyebrow. "No, seriously," he added when it became clear she wasn't doing that. "Stop it. One day you'll get someone hurt and then where will you be."

"Oh stop it, Luke, you big uptight prude," she snapped at him. "It's fine. It's almost like you don't trust me."

"Right now I don't."

Her stomach sank to her feet and wallowed. "Um… What does that even mean?"

"It means you're stuck here for a week," he told her flatly.

"I have a case," she nearly shrieked at him. "Are you seriously telling me I can't finish it?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

Her eyes went big, very big, as she stared at him in spluttering disbelief. She couldn't even formulate words. Not one. Every time she opened her mouth to demand he reconsider, that he explain himself, nothing came out. Well, nothing more than jumbled garbage anyway.

"You're going to be liaising for the rest of this one," Luke informed her with a frown. He picked up a folder bound in twine and slapped it into her limp hands. "Jesse will be taking the field with your partner for the rest of this. You get to be his errand boy."

No way, her brain kept stuttering. No way, this isn't happening. He's got to be kidding.

"Don't look at me like that, Becky," he said flatly. "Take that down to the morgue and get caught up on everything. Jesse's taken Ben out now. He'll call."

"I'm not going to be his errand bitch," she finally got out. "No way." Funny how her mouth was finally echoing her brain, the delay time would've been funny in any other instance.

Luke just shrugged. "You should've thought of that before you used your partner as bait."

"That wasn't even dangerous!" she exclaimed. "I was at risk there, not Benji."

Shaking his head, Luke sat down. "The fact that either of you was exposed to more than the necessary amount of danger is unacceptable." He waved a hand at her, letting her know she could leave now.

Still quivering with rage she didn't dare express, she did as he said. Her fingers were white-knuckled on the folder as she headed across the room to her desk. Only… as she got half-way there she realised she no longer had one. It had been commandeered months ago when Benji had arrived and needed a place to do up his paperwork. He was sitting there now, shoulders hunched, nose nearly pressed to the screen of his monitor.

She slumped. "Oh…" she said. Well fine. If she didn't have a desk anymore and she wasn't allowed to work the case, she'd just go hang out with Lilly in the morgue. Although, the more she thought about that, the less appealing the idea became. Still (resisting the urge to flip the bird at Luke on her way past), she headed outside, snatching her jacket off the rack on the way.

A spring shower had materialised sometime since she went in and she grumbled, about it. As with most convenient things, the hospital and its accompanying morgue were right beside the police station here, meaning she didn't have to go far down the street to get in. Of course, the downside to having such an 'opportunely' situated morgue was that she didn't have much of a buffer between her and Luke. Or Jesse now. God he was going to give her so much shit for this.

Stepping into the creepy and cold centre for the deceased, Beca shook the rain from her hair, pulling her jacket just a little closer as if that would help any. The light in the entrance flickered silently. There hadn't been a receptionist here since Lilly scared the crap out of the last poor woman. The desk was still covered in papers and there was a sign in book bound to one corner that she happily ignored.

Still muttering angrily about today's current downward slide, Beca strode down the hall, her shoes clicking eerily against the tiles. Reaching the end room, Lilly's office, she pushed it in. The door still creaked. Lilly should really oil the damn thing; all the whining noises it made were insanely creepy. But then everything about this stupid building was creepy. Just how Lilly liked it.

"Sup, Lilly? I am your… oh…" she cut off, standing stock still in the doorway. That… that wasn't Lilly.

Instead of the tiny somewhere-from-Asia-but-Beca-could-care-less medical examiner, sat a taller girl with brilliant red hair. Her eyes were fixed to the screen in front of her, the light reflecting in a strange white-wash blue across her face. Beca just continued to stand there staring at her.

Finally shaking free of whatever confused spell had frozen her in the first place, Beca knocked on the door frame. The girl looked up. Well… ok not a girl. She was probably Beca's age. Anyway, she looked up and fixed Beca with a piercing electric stare, although she looked a little bit lost somewhere up in her head too. She was probably just as weird as Lilly.

"Hi," Beca said softly. The door swished shut behind her as she finally stepped in. "Where's Lilly?" The woman blinked and Beca was struck by a most uncommon thought that it was a shame to hide those blue eyes for any length of time. She sighed, thinking she'd have to reiterate her question.

"She's out," the woman replied brightly, suddenly seeming to return to the proper plane of existence from whatever other realm she'd just been in. "I'm Chloe, her intern. Can I help you?"

Beca snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that. Nah, I think I'll just sit here for a while and wait. Got nowhere else to be anyway." Suiting her words, she slid up onto the table by the door, swinging her legs.

Chloe nodded and turned back to her desk. "What's your name anyway?" she asked. Very forward, very blunt. She was going to be one of those people who has no respect for personal space or boundaries, Beca could just tell.

"Beca Mitchell," she replied softly, staring up at the ceiling. How had Lilly managed to get coffee stains on her ceiling? "Detective."

Chloe nodded again, this time it was a little vaguer than last time though. "Beale," she said in that same cheery tone from before.

"Huh?"

"My last name. It's Beale."

For a moment Beca just sat in silence, chewing her tongue because this was kinda awkward and weird. Why was today going to pot? Why couldn't it just be a normal day instead of all this bizarre crap?

"So, hey," Beca started, not really wanting to sit in silence anymore. "Why'd you pick this, huh? Not a very nice job is it?"

Chloe shrugged. "I've always been interested in forensic pathology. I did a term at the hospital as a surgeon, but as much as I liked helping those people, it didn't really work for me. At least working with the police means I know I'm going to be of some use and working primarily with people who are already dead I don't have to worry about accidently cutting the wrong artery."

Beca huffed. That was a weird way of justifying it. "Sure," she said, rolling her eyes.

"And you?" Chloe asked, tearing her eyes from the screen to stare at Beca again. "Why a detective?"

She smirked. "Cops and robbers," she said teasingly. "Plus I really like mind games."

Chloe laughed at her. "I'm sure there's more to it than that."

"Not really," Beca told her, shrugging one shoulder. "I wanted to do something in the music industry when I was a kid. But… I dunno, life I guess."

The redhead arched an eyebrow and smiled knowingly at her. "So not living the dream then, I take it?"

"It's better than I thought it'd be. I like to slap cuffs on a bad guy and wave as he's carted off to prison. It's fulfilling."

Chloe just smiled at her and Beca's stomach did a backflip. Maybe she'd had some bad coffee earlier. She should've known better than to drink the slop Benji got for her.

The door swung in again, spilling the little medical examiner into the room. Lilly spared a blank glance for Chloe and then turned her signature flat stare Beca's way. She promptly ignored them both, heading for a filing cabinet where she rummaged around for a while, coming up with a sheaf of crisp white paper.

"I heard you were coming down here," Lilly said so softly it was almost inaudible.

"Yup," Beca replied, forcing cheer she didn't feel. "Liaison at your service. Or 'errand bitch' as I just know Jesse is going to call me all day." She scowled at the floor for a moment before dusting off her fake smile and setting it back in place.

Lilly nodded and passed her the papers. "Is Benji alright?"

Beca exhaled heavily. "Why is everyone so worried about it? Like you all think I'm incompetent or something. He's fine. I wouldn't let him get hurt."

Lilly simply regarded her for a moment. Her expression was the kind of one you'd expect on a serial killer. Just… no emotion. Beca supposed working down in this dreary dungeon it made a sort of sense to be so… empty.

Beca fiddled uncomfortably with the papers in her hands, still not looking at them. Lilly eyed them once and then cast her gaze back at Chloe. "Stay with her," she told her intern, meaning Beca. "Don't let her hurt herself. You, read that and tell me if something doesn't look right."

That last was for Beca and it grated. She ground her teeth together, trying not to let her smile slip. "Sure thing, boss," she said wryly. Lilly left and Beca stuck her tongue out at the closing door. She dropped the paper on the table beside her and cut her eyes to Chloe. "Guess I still have a partner then."

Chloe beamed at her. "Guess so."

I don't know what I'm doing with this here at all. Even a little. It just fell out. I dunno.