Hey, everybody! Well, this is the sequel to my story Out in the Open. I don't think you absolutely need to read that to understand this but it might help with references in future chapters. One more thing, I didn't have time to proofread this so I'm sure there are errors. Sorry about those but I need sleep. So I'll let you get to reading now...
Disclaimer: I don't own it, I thought it was pretty obvious but if I have to state it I will.
Beep. Beep. Beep. She rolled over and smacked her bedside table, hitting several different spots before the screeches stopped emanating from her clock. Immediately she pulled the covers from her body, ready for a quick shower before work. But as she rose from the warm bed she felt an arm snake around her waist, effectively pulling her back down, apparently the other person in her bed had other plans.
"Ergh," she groaned, "I have to go to work, it's Monday remember?"
"But the bed's cold when you're not here." She looked up at his face to find him making very good use of his puppy dog eyes, adding an adorable pout for good measure.
"Rick, I have work, and if you don't let me go you know what's going to happen, and you also know that I will be super late if said thing occurs." His only response was to kiss her neck, trailing his lips down until they were brushing the tops of her breasts. A soft moan escaped her as his teeth grazed her pulse point on his mouth's journey back towards her lips, damn him. She knew that he knew perfectly well that he'd won; she could feel his smirk against her skin. When his mouth finally reached hers, pulling her towards his body for a searing kiss, she couldn't resist anymore. Her hands were already trailing along his chest, quickly working their way downward. When another beeping interrupted them; only this beeping was of a much more melodic nature than the last. Reluctantly pulling away she picked up her phone, the source of said interruption, flipping it open and forcefully pressing it to her ear.
"Beckett." Her traditional greeting was said a little more harshly than needed but she couldn't really bring herself to care.
"Oh," she could hear amusement in Ryan's voice, "did I interrupt something?"
"No." She wasn't in the mood for this, offering simple answers was her way of telling him that he'd better get to the point before she kicked his ass.
"Well, we have a body." As soon as he rattled off the address and hung up Rick was back to kissing her body, everywhere. She kissed him once more before quelling her desire and lifting herself from the bed for the second time this morning. She could feel his hands try and pull her back but she was having none of it, extracting his hands from her waist she turned to look at him seriously.
"Murder calls." And with that she was off to the shower, Rick trailing hopefully behind her.
Thirty minutes later, which surprised even her after he had climbed into the shower with her, they arrived at the crime scene. An old, almost ragged apartment building stood in front of the pair as they exited the car and made their way towards the door. Entering the elevator he stood impossibly close to her, running his fingers along her shirt as his hand rested on her lower back. This was the only sort of affection she allowed at work; he was permitted to put his hand on her lower back and nowhere else. Honestly, she had grown to like his hand being placed there, it felt right. In fact, whenever it wasn't there she couldn't deny that her back felt just a little bit colder. A quiet ding alerted her to the fact that they'd arrived on the seventh floor, stepping out of the elevator she strode towards a grey door with a golden 243 printed onto it. Opening the door she caught sight of the body immediately, a slender blonde woman lying face down on the living room carpet. Lanie was already bent over the young woman, studying her head, which seemed to have been bashed in.
"What do you have for me, Lanie?" She asked as they drew closer, Lanie looked up and noticed the pair for the first time. Standing up to address the duo she began to recite her findings.
"Her name's Julie Disario, 22 years-old. Cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head, which is pretty obvious by the state of it. There aren't any signs of a struggle, so she most likely didn't even see the blow coming. She was hit in the back of her skull, suggesting her killer attacked her from behind."
"Time of death?" She asked, as Rick withdrew his hand to walk around the crime scene. Immediately she missed the contact, the warmth that his hand radiated greatly missed.
"Around six hours ago, so at about 11:30 last night. One other thing, she was a drug user, mostly likely heroine. See these marks on the underside her forearm? They're from needles. I can't tell you anything more until I get her back to the lab." Nodding she walked away from Lanie towards the other side of the room where Rick was looking through the victim's shelves.
"Find anything interesting?" She asked, as he picked up a book.
"Yeah," she could almost feel her eyes light up, "she was a fan of my work." He grinned as she smacked his arm, she could just see his ego inflating.
"Perhaps I should rephrase," she raised an eyebrow in his direction, "did you find anything pertinent to the case we're trying to solve? You know, the murder of the girl lying on her floor over there?"
"Hmm," he thought for a moment, "nope." Rolling her eyes she turned to look in the direction of footsteps coming her way, hoping that at least someone had found something.
"Hey, Beckett." Esposito was heading towards her, Ryan not far behind.
"Alright, boys," she could tell by the pride in their walk that they'd come across something of interesting," fill me in."
"She was a stripper at a local strip club called Satin, been working there for four years. Apparently she's been taking college courses online for about a month, guess she was hoping to get out of the stripper life." Esposito said before glancing at his partner, gesturing for him to take over.
"And," Ryan and Esposito exchanged looks as Ryan took over, "we've been talking to the boyfriend over there, Eli, apparently Julie ran away from her home in Massachusetts when she was sixteen. She hadn't talked to her parents since then until two months ago when her dad had called out of the blue, he'd finally found her after six years. Apparently they'd been talking regularly since then."
"Wait," she questioned, "neither of her parents had the slightest idea of where she was? It's kind of hard to just disappear like that, especially when you're only a kid."
"Hey," Rick answered for the two detectives, "if you want to get lost in the crowd, you come to New York City."
"Alright," she directed her reply towards Ryan and Esposito, "I want you guys to bring the parents in, let's see what they have to say. They still in Massachusetts?"
"Yeah," they replied in unison, "Milford, Massachusetts."
"Well, get them up her as soon as you can." She said before turning away and heading back towards the door. Rick put his hand back in its rightful place, on the small of her back. She smiled at the feel, the tingles that filled her body each time he did that.
They'd been dating for four and a half months; she wasn't supposed to feel like a schoolgirl with a raging crush every time he put a hand on her back. They'd been on tons of dates, the press had known about them for three months and that hand of his had done much naughtier things to her body and yet she still felt a thrill rush through her every time he so much as touched her. She had fallen hard for this man, that much she knew for sure. No one else had ever made her feel this way, so free, so amazing, so alive. As they made their way into the car she put one hand on the steering wheel, directing the car out of the parking space, while the other held onto his hand tightly. Normally, after a new case was just started she was in work mode, not even thinking about showing any type of affection towards the man. But for some reason, she couldn't help herself. They rode in silence, each one contemplating the facts of the new mystery. Why had this girl run away, only to end up as a stripper? How'd her parents find her if they hadn't had even the slightest clue to her whereabouts for six years?
Much sooner than she had anticipated she found herself pulling into another parking spot, this one right in front of the precinct. As he opened the door and motioned for her to walk through she was surprised to find that her fingers were still laced with his, each holding onto the other tightly. She quickly squeezed his hand and dropped it, returning her own hand to the pocket of her jacket before offering him a soft smile. Their relationship was different than most, it came with the job she was paid to do and the one he observed, they needed to know the other one was still there. Running around catching murderers was a dangerous business and both of them needed to know that the other was okay, that they were still right there with them. That and the fact that she was sure both her and Rick were still in a slight state of disbelief, even after four months neither could shake the idea that the other might have second thoughts, might run. The comfortable silence still enveloping them the couple entered the elevator and she jabbed the button, as the doors closed he broke the silence between them, a grin spreading over his face.
"I can already tell this case is going to be fun." He was practically bouncing with enthusiasm, a grin on his face that she hadn't seen on a grown man before she'd met him. She rolled her eyes at him, making sure he saw, before leaning into him slightly, turning her head away so he couldn't see the small smile on her lips.
Rick was wrong; this case was not fun at all. They'd gone all day and gotten no leads, nothing to even give them a clue as to who would do this. Julie's parents were coming up tomorrow so hopefully they'd be able to shed some light on what had gotten their daughter killed. After a slow day of nothing but dead ends she'd gone back to her apartment, changed and headed out for a run in Central Park. She needed to work off the frustration that had accumulated throughout the day; even Rick's constant attempts at cheering her up hadn't been working by late afternoon. So he'd agreed to go back to the loft, prepare a nice dinner and wait for her to come on over. She'd told him she'd arrive at around 7:00 and it was 5:45 now, if she was going to get back to her apartment in time to shower and get ready she should be turning back now, heading back in the direction from which she'd come. But as she turned around her eyes widened and she came to a complete halt, standing stock still as the cold November air gusted around her. He was sitting on a bench not far from her, just sitting there staring off into the park. Just as she was about to begin running again, in an attempt for him not to see her, he turned to look directly at her, his eyes widening as she was sure hers had. Damn, she had the worst luck.
"Kate?" The man rose and all but ran towards her, obviously stunned to see her.
"Hey, Will." She offered him a small smile and a much larger one spread across his face.
"Hey, how've you been? I was actually planning on calling you soon. I've been transferred back to New York." After they'd last seen each other they'd gone on a couple of dates before he'd been transferred to another city, essentially leaving her again. Strangely, she hadn't really cared all that much, it was nothing compared to the pain of losing Rick. He'd once again asked her to follow him, and once again she'd vehemently refused.
"Actually," she replied, "I've been great."
"I haven't," he reached out to hold her elbow, "I miss you, Kate. I was actually going to call but I see fate has other plans, I've been wondering if you'd want to go to dinner sometime." Did he seriously not know? She and Rick's relationship had been plastered on every paper and magazine in the city when they'd gone on their first public date, did this man live under a rock or something?
"Umm," she shifted uncomfortably, effectively pulling her elbow from his grasp, "I'm seeing someone, Will."
"Oh, who?" His face fell immediately, a frown taking the place of the smile that had been on his face moments ago. At the same time she felt both awkward and relieved, relieved that it was confirmed that not everyone on the planet was monitoring her love life, even if it made papers not everyone cared, and awkward because this situation wasn't exactly ideal.
"Rick, I'm sure you remember him." She glanced around, trying to look anywhere but at him and the reaction she knew that statement was going to get.
"Wait," she was dead on about the reaction, "you're dating the writer monkey?" He laughed, and her eyes narrowed at him.
"He has a name, Will." She defended, "And that writer monkey happens to be a much better man than you ever were." The laughter coming from her ex ceased only to be replaced with a bit of shock.
"You seriously care about him, don't you? You do realize he's just going to break your heart; he's just a playboy, Kate. He's incapable of love, of anything more than a fling." She felt the anger rising up in her, her jaw clenched and before she could control her emotions, as she so expertly did most of the time, she slapped Will.
"Bye, Will." Venom dripped from her words as she brushed by him, jogging back towards her apartment leaving a stunned FBI agent behind her. Anger was seeping from her, how could he? Will didn't even know Rick, in fact, few people knew Rick as the man she had come to love. Only Alexis, his mother and her had the great privilege of seeing him at his best. Not even her team, his team as well, got to see all of his wonderful sides. Will was wrong, Rick was completely capable of loving her; she knew this because he had proven it to her time and time again. Jogging through the cold air snow began to fall, beginning to lightly cover the ground in a quilt of pure white. She hailed a cab, climbed in and gave the driver her address. Speeding back towards her apartment she called Rick, giving him a heads up that she would be a bit late, though she didn't tell him why. There was no need to inform him of the conversation she'd just had. As the taxi skidded to a stop she threw a couple bills at the cabby, made her way into the lobby and got into the elevator, already forgetting about Will as she thought about the night that lay ahead.
What did you think? You liking the story so far, are you already beginning to hate it? Whatever your opinion may be, in my opinion, you should tell me what it is. Seriously, reviews are my life, they keep me going. So, please?