THE FOLLOWING STORY IS FICTIONAL AND DOES NOT DEPICT ANY ACTUAL PLACE OR EVENT

August 6th 2006

["You Only Live Once" by The Strokes]

Never before, in the entirety of the universe, had there ever been such a diverse group of friends, who actually enjoyed each other's company. The fact that the cliques were not even part of the discussion seemed to be the best thing about it all really. Popular kids and outcasts shoved into a group of seven.

To be honest, neither of them could even tell you how they came to be friends in the first place. They had all taken it for granted because it was the most perfect thing that they had. Their little meetings up outside of life always made each of them smile in one way or another. Their laughter and empathy towards each other was not forced like it had been with other friends, but at the same time they agreed that they were not the most cohesive group of friends.

The sounds of laughter filled the air as smoke and the scent of alcohol made it abundantly hard to breath without staggering for a few steps.

Taking the blunt from his mouth and blowing out the smoke into the air, Victor couldn't help but grin and look towards Arnold. "Shit man, where the eff do you find this stuff" he asked, trying his best to not break down in a fit of giggles. Without even thinking twice, he passed the joint around the room clockwise to Missy next.

Quite frankly he should have known better than to give the blunt to her. The way she analysed it and inspected it made it abundantly clear that she didn't have the slightest clue what she was actually doing. The way she crinkled her nose and held it as if it was the nastiest thing in the world just made the gang erupt with laughter once more, well everyone except Missy and Julia.

To be quite honest, he had never actually heard Julia laugh. All he knew was that she smiled more than she laughed and judging from the wide set smile on her face, she was laughing the best she could.

"How do I even…" Missy started, knowing full well the process since she had just watched a room full of people do it. The whole scene never got old. "Is this what we're supposed to do for fun?" she asked, slightly confused.

From the corner of the room another voice spoke up. "Lighten up Mis', it's not like it's the end of the world or something" Wallace responded in his rather passive tone. Wallace had always been the outcast that this group needed, the one guy who wasn't afraid to express opinions and actually be someone different for the sake of this group of friends. "S'not like Arnold would intentionally try to poison us."

Once again a light-hearted laughter filled the air. "Yeah, because I have something to gain from killing my stoner friends… well maybe Martina, Julia and Courtney but I have my reasons there" Arnold replied with a smirk planted on his face. The rest of the gang knew he was joking because that's just who Arnold was. Always making jokes and never meaning anything he actually said.

Victor felt a tight squeeze. Courtney had been wrapped around his arm since they had come into this room and he could only assume that she wanted him to say something to defend her. Instead what he did was give a look of clear apathy with a rather boyish smile warming his face. The crinkling of Courtney's eyebrows implied that she was not okay with this. They had been going out for a few months and she really did expect him to stand up for her. Then again, she expected a lot of things from a lot of people.

"Chill out…" Victor spoke in a hushed tone towards her. "It's just a joke, he didn't mean anything by it alright…" Courtney huffed, blowing air through her mouth and blowing strands of dark brown hair out of her face.

Victor thought he had spoken low enough to actually be silent to the rest of the group but he had never anticipated Martina overhearing him. "Yeah Courtney, learn to take a joke…" she replied. Immediately everyone raised an eyebrow at her and turned sharply to face Martina. For the longest time no one said nothing. "What!?" she asked.

Smiling again Julia stood up and walked over to the mini-fridge which was placed up against the back wall. "Dear it's sort of funny how you forget our senior year prank." Just like that, Martina's cheeks flushed the brightest shade of red as Courtney tried her best to keep in her laughter. "That's all right though. You've done worse in your life…"

"JULIA!" Martina spoke, a look that could kill and pierce through the strongest metal. The gangs expressions faded into one of confusion, but Julia just sat there with the same old smug look that she always carried about with her.

For as long as he had known Julia, Victor had known that she was a rather secretive person who was really good when it came to keeping the secrets of others close to her chest. She was a natural blackmailer and secret-finder-outer. Part of Victor was in awe of how he could have done it. He stared consciously at her for a few moments.

"That reminds me, have you told Courtney you got accepted into med school yet…"

Victor winced. He was planning on telling her, but he wanted it to come from his own mouth. Just the sheer fact that he felt like he could no longer feel his arm seemed to suggest it was a bad idea to keep it from her. Turning his face he gave an apologetic look to a rather cross looking Courtney Kang. He always did like it when she looked like she was going to kill someone.

Sighing, he looked over to Julia who was beaming with delight. "Well no, I was waiting for the right time…" Victor spoke, as he reached into his pocket. "Because there are just some things that need time."

The rest of the gang seemed to applaud with congrats and cheers coming from Missy, Arnold, Martina and Wallace. Julia already knew so it wasn't really a surprise to her and Courtney just seemed displeased with the idea. Taking a deep breath he turned towards his girl and revealed a box.

"I was actually hoping to ask this question in private but now that you're here…" Victor started, hearing the baited breaths of everyone else in the room. As soon as he opened the box, on the little padded cushion where there should have been a ring stood one of those sweets in the shape of a ring. "Would you take my ring pop?"

All at once he felt himself falling over from being pushed by Courtney, laughing all the while. Funnily enough, she managed to see the humour in it and so didn't stay mad for long. All it took was the gangs laughter to reel her in. The only one who remained in a state of being pissed off was Julia; she just smiled flakily.


At the bottom of the flight of stairs where she had just fallen down, Julia's mouth hung open, her body sprawled on the floor as if it had just been flung around like a ragdoll through her collision with the twenty or so steps that seemed to lead up to the second floor of her house. Blood pooled on the floor from the back of her head as she struggled to breath, trying her best to say something.

Moments later, two figures came into view in the form of Victor and Arnold.

"Julia?" Victor asked as he loomed in a bit closer, Arnold doing his best to stay in the background of the whole situation as always. On seeing the blood, Victor raced the final few steps and leaned next to Julia. "Julia…!?" he asked, panicking about what was going on. Turning towards Arnold who was still in the background trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he pointed. "Arnold… dial 911."

Leaping into action, Victor did everything that he had in his power to make sure that enough air was getting into her lungs in a desperate hope that he could actually manage to save her somehow. As he bounced rhythm into the girls chest he couldn't help but take short and shallow breaths himself.

"Come on Julia… don't die on me…"


A few weeks after the final scene, the camera pans in to a rainy afternoon. In the distance, a body lies up ahead supporting itself against a grave stone in a desperate attempt to stay alive. With his back against the grave marker, Victor did his best to clutch his chest where he had just been stabbed. From the look on his face, he had taken quite a beating. His nose was broken and his cheeks were flushed with the blood that was running to them.

In one final attempt to note his killer, Victor turned to face the grave stone he was pitted up against and smiled eagerly on seeing the name. Before he could do much of anything, he felt his body becoming limp and swiping at Julia Hammonds name. All he could really do right now was accept his fate in that it was probably the end of the line for him in a lot of ways.

"I'm s-s-sorry I f-failed you."


At the bullpen of Philadelphia homicide, it appeared that the immaturity was running rampant through everyone's minds today. Any excuse to take a crack at Nick was always an excuse worthwhile. Vera had fallen asleep on his chair once again and so Scotty and Kat thought it's be in good fun to make a bunch of paper footballs and ping them at the sleeping Vera. So far there had been a few near misses and one direct hit that had caused the snoring beast to hitch his sounds for a few seconds before gently lumbering back into his sleeping state.

After a while, Lilly looked across and just shook her head with a smile. Honestly, she got the appeal behind all of it but there was just so much on her mind right now that she didn't really have the capacity to put up with it.

Slowly her eyes scanned the room, falling on Jeffries who was busy talking to Stillman and getting a cup of water from the cooler. It was hard to imagine how she had achieved such a remarkable dynamic of friends. She loved each one of them for their individual traits because they made her want to try harder. Soon, her eyes fell upon someone who had walked through the metal detector and was now approaching the bullpen at an exponential rate. Lilly had seen enough cold jobs to know when someone had something that they urgently needed to share with the police.

Without pausing to take a breath the young woman stopped hastily right in front of Lilly. The girl had very short hair, to the point where she almost looked like a pixie in some regards. Her rather fair complexion and her body figure helped to concrete this definition of being a pixie. Before she could even say anything, a flash of her eleven year old self appeared before Lilly. Her glasses were thick and her blonde hair was fairly longer than it was now. Flashing back the girl looked more panicked than ever.

"The people downstairs told me that you guys look at old cases…?" the girl asked, posing the statement as more of a question than anything else. She seemed distressed enough about what had happened and so it was up to Lilly to take the girl since everyone else seemed so "busy" with their own work.

"Yeah…" Lilly answered, outstretching her hand towards the girl. "Detective Lilly Rush." she spoke, using the softest tone that she could muster.

For the first time, a smile crawled onto the girls face as she took the detectives hand and shook it promptly. "Evelyn Washington" For her it was the answer that she needed. "I'm here because… well… something happened and I… I don't know."

Lilly waved her hand to a seat in front of her desk and it didn't take long for Evelyn to take a seat. Soon after, Lilly lowered herself onto hers whilst keeping a steady eye contact with the girl sat across from her. "Okay, let's start from the beginning" Lilly replied. "Do you know where that is for you?"

Nodding, Evelyn swallowed hard. "My brother, Victor Washington, he was found stabbed back in 2006…" she started. "Cops never really found out who did it." Now it appeared that Evelyn was getting upset in a totally different way. Still, she made sure that no tears fell from her voice. From Lilly's perspective it seemed like she prided herself in being a rather contained individual.

Lilly scrawled down the name as quickly as she could before looking back up at Evelyn.

"We can try and look back into your brothers case, but without any new leads it might be difficult" Lilly said begrudgingly as she leaned across the table.

In an instant, Evelyn sparked up again, quickly setting her bag into her lap and diving through like her life depended on it. The whole scene forced Lilly to raise an eyebrow. When she had found what she had wanted a few moments later, she slapped it onto the table in hopes it would bring her one step closer to the person who murdered her brother all those years ago.

There was a letter lying on the table that had just been recently opened. Lilly took a look inside and inside was a small note and a picture. Firstly she took a look at the picture which was clear enough. It seemed to be of a group of 7, all smiling and having a good time with each other. That would have been the only thing of note had there not been two crosses flung through two members of the group photo. There was a girl, whom she did not know, and a man who she assumed was Victor Washington.

Afterwards she picked up the note and observed what it said for a moment. "I am so sorry for my secrecy for all these years, but you should know that I am responsible for what happened to Victor." Looking up, she frowned towards Evelyn. "When did you get this."

After a short pause the girl spoke. "A week or two ago they were mailed to my mom but she's…" With the audible sigh that Evelyn had given, she could only jump to conclusions about the whole thing. "She's not been right since Victor passed away." Swallowing hard she looked back up. "Please Miss Rush, you have to take this case. Victor was everything to us and we never got closure on it. We need it for both of out sakes."

Lilly gave a warm smile. "I'll see what I can do…"