This character sort of came to me in the middle of the night. Weird, I know. It's set from Season 2 onwards and features my new OC, Lily Parker. I hope ye don't hate her!Thanks to Dol for coming up with the name and if anyone comes up with a better summary than my one please pm me I'll credit you for it!
Chapter 1. Far From Home.
Summer had come early to New York City, bringing with it a dry heat that made thousands of New Yorkers paw through their various and diverse bedroom closets for the lightest and coolest clothing they could find. Icecream vendors thanked God, while those unfortunates who sold hot dogs and roasted nuts cursed whatever deity they usually prayed to.
The city was alive, as usual, with the unmistakeable buzz that New Yorkers were used to. They went to work, came home, ate, slept and lived with the sights, the sounds, the smells that were so familiar to them. Summer heightened these, making them more apparent to even the most hardened natives.
For Lily Parker, it was about as far from home as she could be. In her eyes, it was like another world.
She stepped out of her new home on Lexington Avenue, breathing in the smell of the city. For a country girl, there were no words to describe them. They seemed to just float around on the air. The people rushed by, shoving each other out of the way. Commuters were walking quickly, eager to get to their various jobs. Others walked hand in hand, strolling along like they had all day to get to where they were going. She smiled at a woman with pink hair and no less than eight dogs on a leash and thought of what her Grandma would say if she could see this place.
A glance at her watch told her that it was eight thirty. She had half an hour to get to the New York Crime Lab. She consulted the map her mother had handed her before she'd left three days before. Three days of methodical planning and plotting the exact route to take to get to work; three days of putting her little apartment together so that it didn't feel like she was living on another planet. Three days of fighting tears every time the phone rang and she heard her mother's voice on the other side.
"Let's go, Parker," she told herself. "No time for that now. You need to get moving or you'll be late." She thought of the interview she'd had with Mac Taylor, her new boss, six weeks before. He didn't strike her as the type to tolerate people being slovenly. It really wouldn't go down too well if she was late on her first day.
She was staring at the people packed like sardines into the underground train station, wondering how in the name of God she would ever get used to this place.
"Lily Anne Parker," she muttered, taking a deep breath to steady her racing heart. "You sure as hell ain't in Potter Creek anymore!"
"Lady," a grumpy voice said from behind her. "Are you going to get on the damn train or look at it all morning?"
"Sorry, sir," she apologized immediately. "I didn't mean to-"
He was muttering none too quietly about damn tourists and people who held up other people. Lily smiled sweetly at him, tilting her head to the side to study the other people around her. Her cell phone chirped and she fished it out of her bag, smiling as she recognised the number, "Hi, Mama!"
"Hello, baby," Sarah Parker's voice came through the line. "How are you? You all ready for your first day?"
"Mama, I'm twenty six," Lily reminded her mother. "It's not my first day of kindergarten, you know. I've been a cop for four years now! And add to the mix my degree in forensics and psychology and you're sucking diesel!"
"You're my baby girl," Sarah insisted. "Honey, you may be miles from me but you're still my baby. Don't you forget that."
"Ok," Lily smiled. "I'm on at nine. Is Luke up yet?"
"He ate about a half hour ago and went out to help your father with the fencing in the north pasture," Sarah told her. "One of Buck McKinnon's horses got into the barb wire. Poor thing had to be put down on the spot."
"Buck won't like that," Lily said with a grimace. "He'll be on the phone to Cam so fast, poor Cam's head will spin."
"Well," Sarah sniffed. "It wasn't your father's fault. He rode out to check those fences a couple days ago and they were fine."
"Mama," Lily interrupted. "I have to go. This is my stop."
"Ok," Sarah said, mustering up a cheerful tone. "You have a good day, Lily. And don't forget to-"
"Remember the manners you taught me, yes ma'am," Lily joked. "I'll be good. Say hi to Daddy and the boys. Love you!" She disconnected, feeling better now that she'd talked to home.
Sarah would be cleaning up the remnants of breakfast in the big kitchen that was the centre of their house. Her brother Travis would be dropping by soon with Allie, his daughter, so she could stay with her adoring Grandma while he went to work in the local high school. Karen, her sister in law, would already be on her way to Potter Creek Medical Centre. Outside, her Daddy would be cleaning out and feeding their horses and hollering orders to her brothers Luke and Cameron. God, she missed home.
Still, New York would be her home now. She'd applied for the job as Crime Scene Investigator, despite her Mama's pleas not to leave Wyoming and go to a big city. Her argument had been that she'd never get promoted to Sheriff, so she had to take her female butt somewhere else. After completing her time in the Academy, and getting her degree in forensic science and criminal psychology, she'd begun to apply to Crime Labs in all the major cities in the US. Las Vegas and Miami hadn't been hiring. New York had. So had Denver, Philadelphia, Bozeman and Raleigh. She'd finally settled on Mew York and applied, not expecting to get called to interview. Mac Taylor had sat in on the interview and hired her almost immediately.
When she'd asked why, he simply gave her a mysterious smile and said he knew an asset to his team when he saw one, and that her record with the police department back home was exemplary. She'd assisted in solving more crimes than any other officer on the small police force.
She hadn't asked any questions, just packed her bags and moved here. It was the biggest move of her life so far, and even though she had wanted it, she was terrified.
"Are you going to go in?" The burly security guard at the doors of the huge glass and chrome building regarded her suspiciously. "You don't want to try anything, Miss. The fifty fifth precinct house is right over there. One yell from me and they'll swarm this place so fast-"
"I work here," Lily told him hesitantly. "In the Lab. I start today."
"You'll need a badge and a pass," he told her, unimpressed. "I'll let you in today. Good luck!"
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Lily knocked on the door of Mac's office and nervously entered when he beckoned her in. He was sitting at his desk, a woman across from him. Lily smiled at them both and opened her mouth to speak.
"You must be Detective Parker," the woman smiled at her. "Welcome to New York. I'm Stella Bonasera. "
"Nice to meet you," Lily said, shaking the offered hand and looking up at the taller woman. Stella had the kind of willowy figure that Lily, at barely five three, envied in others. Her dark blonde hair curled madly around a striking face with a Grecian nose and green eyes. Lily inwardly admired the sapphire coloured top she was wearing with her black pants. She was instantly glad she'd worn her favourite baby blue shirt and her dark grey pants.
"Stella will show you around," Mac told her. He looked ruefully at the pile of paper in front of him. "I've got all this to do before I get anywhere."
"Come on," Stella told her. "I'll show you to the locker room and more importantly, the break room. Coffee will quickly become your life here."
Lily trailed after the older woman as she showed her the locker that had been allocated to her and the break room. Stella chatted airily to her about home and her family, all the while sizing her up to see how she was doing so far.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, clapping a hand to her mouth. "I almost forgot. Mac has these for you." She handed her a shiny gold cadge and a weapon holster. "I presume you have your piece with you. "
Lily patted her purse and nodded. "Right here."
"You'll need to check that while you're inside," Stella warned. "Mac hates us walking around with them. Most of the staff here aren't police officers. Some aren't entitled to carry weapons. There are only a handful of us who are."
"I'm a First Grade," Lily told her. "I was told it was ok for me to be armed."
"It's fine," Stella assured her. "Just be careful where you- listen to me!" She laughed at herself. "You know what to do."
"Thanks," Lily said with a smile.
A young woman whom Lily guessed to be near her own age approached them. She was tall, slender and had big brown eyes and long dark hair. Stella introduced her as Aiden Burn, another police officer. She smiled politely at Lily, but appeared distracted. "You got a sec?"
"Ok," Stella agreed, peering at her. "Everything ok?"
"I'm fine, "Aiden said quickly. "Nothing to worry about. Just something I wanted to ask you." She smiled as a lean, sandy haired man with glasses came towards them. His light blue eyes looked curiously at Lily, who smiled at him.
"Danny Messer, meet Lily Parker," Stella intoned. "Lily, you've met most of the team now, except for Hawkes. "
"Did I hear someone mention me?" An African American man with a cheerful smile came towards them. "Did I miss a union meeting?"
"No, "Aiden answered with a matching smile. "New girl. Lily, meet Sheldon Hawkes, ME. He wanted to work in the field, although God knows why."
"To spend more time with you, Aiden," Hawkes joked. "I can't keep away!"
Aiden laughed, but Lily noticed that the smile didn't reach her dark eyes.
"Stella?" Mac poked his head out of his office. "We've got a call/"
"Great," Stella muttered, rolling her eyes. "Just when I thought I'd get some paperwork done."
"That's the third one this morning," Hawkes informed her. "This city is just crazy today."
"I'll go ahead of you," Stella said. "Get the basics. You follow on with Mac and take Lily with you."
"Two rookies," Danny joked. "Lucky Mac!"
"You were one too," Aiden chided, elbowing him in the ribs. "Cut them some slack and get your ass in gear."
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Downtown traffic was crazy, thanks to the barricades set up by the police who were trying to control a crowd of onlookers. Lily looked out of the Jeep window in amazement.
"Like what you see?" Hawkes asked. "Are you from here?"
"I'm from Wyoming," Lily said with a laugh. "I can safely say I've never seen this many people in one place for no apparent reason. And the only thing that causes traffic jams in Potter Creek is when one of Jack Mercy's sheep gets out and the others follow!"
Mac blared the horn, causing her to jump with fright. "Get your kits, people. We're walking!"
Lily and Hawkes obediently got their kits from the back of the vehicle and Mac calmly jumped out of the driver's side, ignoring the furious protests of the drivers behind him.
"Hey lady!" A cabbie yelled, incensed. "Tell that old fool to move the damn car or I'll go through it!"
Mac merely reached in and switched on the blue lights, smiling at the man. Lily showed him her badge gleefully. "You were saying?"
"Never mind," he answered hastily. "Carry on!"
"Well thank you, sir," she responded sweetly. "Have a nice day!"
"I haven't' moved so fast since I did my residency," Hawkes remarked. "Is this normal?"
"Missing the ME's office already?" Mac joked. "You were the boss, now you're the rookie?"
Lily was trotting to keep up to them, her shorter legs struggling to match their strides. "Why did you leave the ME's office?"
"Because I wanted a change," Hawkes replied. "I wanted to help solve the murders, not just cut the victims open to have a look inside."
"I hope you like puzzles," Stella told them as they ducked under the yellow tape surrounding the entrance to the building. "She was holding a jar in her hand.
"Is that a brain?" Lily asked, looking inside the jar as Stella handed it to Hawkes. "That's a brain, right?"
Stella nodded. "Sure is. Patrol is searching for more pieces now. "
"Lovely, "Lily said with a grimace. "That's lovely."
"Where's the body?" Mac asked, looking around him.
"Landed on the sixth floor terrace," Stella answered, looking up along with the others.
"The impact must have knocked his brain right out of his skull," Lily said. "How much of it is missing?"
"Judging by this," Hawkes said, indicating the jar in his hand, "I'd say at least fifty percent of it is still out there. "
"Well I've got a shoe that contains about ten percent," a tall, dark haired man with sunglasses announced, coming to join them. "Some of my guys are currently scraping a Jell-O like substance from the pavement. "
Hawkes shook his head. "At this temperature, it'll fry. No point in trying to save it. It's melted."
"I knew this would be a no-brainer for you," Stella said happily as the others stared at her.
"She didn't just say that," Hawkes said after a moment. "Did she?"
"She did," Mac and the dark haired man chorused.
Lily looked at the other man. She guessed him to be about thirty, maybe a little more. Tall, she mused. About six two. Lean. Strong looking. The badge and gun clipped to the belt of his navy pants singled him out as a detective. His white pinstriped shirt and dark blue tie looked neat and professional. He had a confidence about him that made him seem older somehow.
"Hi," he said, holding out a hand. "I'm Detective Don Flack."
"Junior," Hawkes chimed in with a grin. "Flack here is NYPD royalty."
"Shut up, Rookie," Flack ordered with a mock glare at Hawkes. He held out his hand again, after cuffing Hawkes around the ear.
"Lily Parker," she said, shaking his hand. Her heels put her at five feet five, but she still had to look up at him. "I started today. Nice to meet you, Detective Flack."
"Welcome aboard," he said with a grin that showcased dimples in his cheeks. "And it's just Flack."
Lily found herself wondering what colour eyes he had under the shades. She listened to Mac as he told Hawkes to start processing the ground here and ordered her to go with him to the sixth floor. Stella had gone to assist Aiden and Danny in their case after Aiden had called her.
Trailing after Mac into the building, she wished that she had worn a strappy top like Stella's. It was hot!
"This city is crazy today," Flack commented as he stabbed the button for the elevator and muttered to himself about delays. "I don't know if it's the heat or what, but all hell is loose."
"You should be around a farm in spring, "Lily told him with a laugh. "Now that's all hell breaking loose."
"A farm, huh? You from the country then?" He took off his shades, giving her a glimpse of amused cornflower blue eyes.
"Wyoming," Lily confirmed with a nod. The doors opened and she stepped into the elevator ahead of Flack. Mac had gone ahead of them, opting to take the stairs. When they reached the sixth floor, she followed Flack's tall figure out to the terrace, where she got her first look at the body.
"Any id on him?" she asked, crouching down to get a closer look at the man. She remembered who she was there with and flushed, standing up again hurriedly. "Sorry, Mac."
Mac was looking at her, grey eyes sharp with interest. "No, go ahead."
Lily knew that he was testing her. She squared her shoulders and told herself that if she could handle herding thousands of cattle, she could handle one man and a dead body. "Any id?"
"Paul Gisner," Flack told her, lips quirked slightly as he watched her lean over the body, lips pursed. "He's notorious for leaping tall buildings and scaling walls and hero stuff like that."
"Didn't stop him from falling," Mac remarked dryly. "Did it?"
Lily grinned and continued her careful perusal of the body. "Anything else on him?"
"He climbed the Chrysler building," Flack told her, clearly unimpressed. "Apparently he liked the thrill of being on a high."
Lily pulled a pair of latex gloves from her pocket and touched a white powdery substance on the man's hands. "Looks like…"
"Resin," Mac supplied helpfully. When she looked at him, he shrugged. "It helps his grip. You'll find it scattered around. Most climbers keep it in a pouch at their sides."
Lily nodded, catching a glint at the corner of her eye. She reached over and pulled a battered looking cell phone from the victim's hand. "Why would he have a cell phone?"
"He always called his daughter to tell her he got to the top safely, "Flack put in.
Lily looked up at him before passing the phone to Mac and straightening up. "Your officers are on the ball, aren't they?"
"They're good cops," he said simply. "They do their jobs well, we solve the crimes. People feel safer."
"Who calls 911 from halfway up a building?" Mac's voice broke into their conversation and they both looked at him. He held up the cell, indicating the screen with 911 pressed into it.
"He must have seen something halfway up the building," Lily mused. She tipped back her head to look up. "How far did he get?"
"Looks like I'm going to find out," Mac said with a small smile. "Lily, can you finish up here? Hawkes will be up in a minute."
Lily nodded and took the camera he handed her. She began to carefully photograph the body, walking around and around until she was satisfied she'd gotten it from all angles.
"What's a girl from Wyoming doing in a place like this?" Flack asked, then reddened as he realised what he'd said. "Sorry, I didn't mean…"
"It's ok," Lily told him, a grin spreading across her face. "I've got three brothers. I know what you mean." She was swabbing the resin on Paul Gisner's fingertips and taking scrapings from under his nails as she talked, her movements competent and efficient.
Her cell phone rang. Unhooking it from her belt, she pushed a strand of dark blonde coloured hair behind her ear. "Parker? You're where? Oh. Right. Will do." She got to her feet, looking up in amazement. "He's up there?"
"Up where?"
"There," she repeated, looking at the crane lifting what looked like a window washer's platform. "Mac is up there." At Flack's look of abject horror, she grinned. "Afraid of heights?"
"I'm afraid of being suspended in mid air without a harness," he retorted. "Are you done here?"
"Almost," she replied, looking up from her exploration of the victim's crushed skull to see two men she presumed to be from the coroner's office waiting patiently to take the body. "He's all yours, guys."
"That's nasty," Flack grimaced as she scooped up some of the dead man's brain into a jar. "Really nasty."
"It's not that bad," she said matter of factly. "It's part of the job."
"Thank God I don't have to do it," Flack declared.
"Blood's a killer to get out of pants," Lily told him with a resigned glance at her favourite pants. "Oh well. It's the Big Apple. I can always get another pair!"
"Women," Flack said with a roll of his eyes at the men who were lifting Paul Gisner onto a stretcher. "They have a reason to shop in all circumstances."
"You bet your ass we do," Lily grinned. "And I intend to make the most of it!"
Hawkes wandered onto the terrace as she was putting her kit back together. "Sorry, guys, I got held up. Lily, you ok here?"
"All done," she replied with a bright smile. "Mac needs us on the thirty fourth floor."
"That's my cue to leave," Flack said with a grin. "Let you lab rats do your job!"
"He's cocky," Lily said with a frown as Flack exited, whistling cheerfully. "He's what we'd call 'sure of himself' back home."
"He's a good cop," Hawkes told her, following her down the hall and pressing the button for the elevator. "And he's NYPD third generation. His Dad was the Police Commissioner before he retired."
"NYPD royalty," Lily echoed Hawkes' earlier comment. "Blue blood, huh?"
Hawkes laughed. "You've got it in one."
They had reached the thirty fourth floor, and Lily found Mac standing in what looked like a boardroom, with a huge shiny table and leather chairs scattered around it.
"There's no chalk at all above this window," Mac told them. "This is definitely where he stopped. I found blood on the side and a print on the pane where he beat his fist against it." He looked at them steadily. "Paul Gisner was pounding on this window."
"What did he see?" Lily wondered, looking around the room. "It looks clean to me."
"That's what we've got these really cool kits for," Hawkes teased. "So we can see what the rest of the mortals don't see."
"There's blood spatter on this chair," Lily reported a few moments later. "Looks like high velocity."
"Hawkes?"
"There's a little mosquito taking a nap here," Hawkes told an amused Mac. "He's probably waiting for his next meal. They feed in the mornings, I think."
"Relevance?" Mac asked. "To the crime committed in this room?"
"Gun shot residue over here," Lily called out, hunkering down to see the floor. "And there was definitely blood cleaned up from this floor. Looks like scuff marks here." She followed the UV light on her flashlight. "I'm guessing that our victim was murdered here and dragged into that closet."
Mac followed her gaze to a supply closet in the corner of the room. "Nice work. " He went to the closet and pulled open the doors. A body tumbled out, landing with a thump on the floor. "Hello."
"Looks like a GSW," Lily commented. She flushed. "Sorry. Again. I don't mean to barge."
"Barge away," Mac told her. "I'm listening."
"You're testing me, aren't you?" Lily said, narrowing her eyes at him. "I hate pop quizzes."
"Tell me what you see," Mac suggested, his mouth quirking in a smile. "How about that?"
"Gun shot," Lily repeated. She peered closer at the man's neck. "Um, Hawkes? Does that look like a mosquito bite to you?"
"In my medical opinion?" Hawkes examined the tiny mark closely. "I'd say 'oh yeah!'"
Lily eyed the table warily. "I'd catch your sleepy little critter if I were you. He might just be our witness!"
That's what I've come up with so far. I had to rewrite it a little so I could reinvent the character to be a cowgirl instead of the southerner I had originally planned. Please don't hate me! I'm trying to not write rubbish. And please let me know if you like this one.