Thank you to my reviewers and silent readers that, hopefully, will continue to monitor the progress of this story. Remember, reviews make me feel fuzzy and can help me improve my writing. Enjoy the post and please speak up.

Disclaimer: Balkoth owns every single aspect of the plot of Of Gumshoes and Moonlighters. The only reason I can say this so confidentally is that this is, as far as I can tell, an original AU. I'm borrowing the characters that appear in the popular animated series (which was foolishly canceled) and comics known as the Teen Titans.


The Office

Richard Grayson had just pulled his car into the parking lot of a large, multi-office building constructed of ancient brick. To call it his car wouldn't be fair though. Garfield and Richard shared the small blue convertible. On a nice day, the top would be down while the vehicle sped along the freeway. It was autumn, so the top was sealed tightly.

It was a good thing that the trip was finally over because Richard was ready to strangle his partner. He was still annoyed about the message Garfield had left the police, though not enough to change it. Garfield's voice add to the list of reasons that would make murder acceptable in this select case. Garfield couldn't sing to save his life and for the past three hours Richard had endured a raucous single-man chorus of one thousand bottles of soymilk on the wall. Luckily, Garfield had gotten tired and stopped – at negative twenty-three!

Garfield was out of the car before the engine had even been cut. Stretching his arms high above his head, he arched his back until it was against the car's roof and worked all the stiffness out of his joints. Garfield was in shape with a sculpted form of lean muscle. He looked like the average twenty-one year old who didn't get enough food or exercise but he was very healthy and much stronger then he looked. Garfield was naturally tan with a skin-tone obtained by many through use of artificial tanning beds.

Richard killed the engine and got out of the car as well. The building they were currently parked next to was going to be their temporary office. There had been some spare office space on the sixth floor and it had rented out pretty cheap, probably because of the mold in the walls and the leaks in the roof.

Garfield had spent some time, both in Gotham and on the ride to Jump, saying that they shouldn't open up an office while they were on vacation but Richard would have none of it. They weren't on vacation; they were just visiting a less crazy city. Still, Garfield was a good investigator. One thing that made him so good was how unrelenting he was. Thus, he tried to dissuade Richard, yet again, about setting up.

"Come on Dick, we don't even know if we're going to be here that long. Let's just take some time to look around and relax," Garfield attempted the gentle approach while running an olive hand through his short straw-colored hair. That wasn't going to work with Richard. It might work with little old ladies. Never with Richard. That was an interesting dynamic in the relationship between the two. They had the good cop and bad cop routine down perfectly. Richard, being the bad cop, wasn't easily swayed when he set out for something. Garfield, being the good cop, always tried to be nice and polite, a set of traits that was wasted when dealing with Richard. That gave the impression that Richard was the leader. The impression was false: they were partners, both equal in power and salary.

"Sorry Gar," Richard responded while running his own pale hand along his brow and through his messy black bangs. It was one of the many habits that the two shared: the consequence of spending too much time with each other. Richard shrugged once and pressed a button attached to his key ring that popped the trunk open. "We're going to have to at least set up the office by five or we lose our deposit."

Richard could tell that Garfield didn't believe him but he still went around to the back of the car to help unload. Even if Garfield didn't believe him, over the years Richard had learned a golden rule of thumb when dealing with Garfield. They were private investigators, excellent at what they did, and never had two nickels to rub together. If there was even a small chance that their deposit would get lost Garfield would cooperate. Once he found out he had been lied to he wouldn't leave it alone. Hopefully, it would be a few days before he figured it out. Richard doubted he would get that lucky.

"So what floor are we on?" Garfield asked while piling as much stuff into his arms and under his armpits as he could. If it was possible, he was not going to make a second trip.

"Sixth floor, thirteenth door on the right," Richard answered while simultaneously taking delicate equipment out of Garfield's stuffed arms and placing them in a cardboard box that was further in the back of the trunk.

Garfield noticed this and started putting stuff into the box as well. "You could have told me you had a box," he mumbled, mostly to himself. He was feeling a little stupid right about now and Richard could tell. There were some perks to having Garfield around, entertainment value included.

They managed to get everything into the single box, mainly due to some… creative… packing improvisations on Garfield's part. Richard hadn't known that it was that easy to take apart a police scanner. What remained to be seen was if Garfield knew how to put the scanner back together. For some reason, Richard was preparing himself to try and get another police scanner.

The elevator was old and clanky with one of its overhead lights winking at them as it carried them higher and higher. The entire time that they were going up Richard felt uneasy and made a silent vow right then that he would never use the elevator in this building ever again. Richard wasn't what you would call an acrophobic. That title implied a fear of heights. Richard had no problem with heights. What Richard didn't like was falling. He was terrified of falling. It wasn't even falling that bothered him that much. The impact once the fall was over, that was another issue entirely. The elevator was groaning a little too much and a little too loudly for Richard's comfort. He would take the stairs in the future.

Finally, the elevator clanged to a stop and the doors squealed opened, letting Richard and Garfield off onto the sixth floor. Garfield exited quickly and made a sharp right, Richard close behind. "One, two, three, four," Richard heard as Garfield counted off the doors they were passing. He had chosen their office space special for Garfield. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Garfield had no doubt just seen the room number. For their stay in Jump City Logan and Grayson would be operating out of room 666 of the old office building on Hellion Way. Garfield obviously didn't find it that funny. That's what made it so great for Richard.

The office was set up quickly enough, they didn't exactly have that much to unpack and place. Richard was trying to fit the police scanner back together. Garfield might have taken the machine apart but when asked to put it back together it became apparent that actually getting him to fix the machine could easily result in bodily harm for everyone in a one-mile radius.

While Richard was putting pieces together experimentally, like he was testing the fit of a puzzle piece, Garfield was going around the office and familiarizing himself with the room. More specifically, he was familiarizing himself with the view out the window. There was a beach quite literally within a half-mile walk of the building and the extra height granted by being on the sixth floor gave a great view of the ocean. Sure it was too cold to go swimming now but with any small amount of luck they would still be on their vacation come summer.

"Gar, could you set up the answering machine?" Richard asked distantly, as he proved to himself that even if the two pieces he was holding didn't fit on the first try they most definitely went together. They were currently fitting after all.

"No problemo," Garfield said while turning his back to the window.

"Make sure it's not like the Gotham message," Richard instructed while pushing two wires together. He was holding a green and a yellow wire. There were a lot of red wires but he knew better then to touch them. The red wires were the ones that caused explosions, right?

Garfield started laughing quietly and in no time was on the ground clutching his sides as the memory of the Gotham message surfaced in his mind. "Come on dude," he broke down into another fit of laughter, "you know that was hilarious." Garfield swiped a finger along the edges of his left eye to dislodge any tears that might have formed. Richard didn't respond. He couldn't. Not honestly at any rate.

While Richard continued to 'repair' the police scanner Garfield walked over to the message box and hit the record button. "Hello, you've reached Logan and Grayson: Private Investigators Extraordinaire. Sorry, but we're out at the moment. If you could leave us your name and number we'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible." Garfield hit the button a second time and the recording stopped.

They had left Gotham to get away from all the crap that showed up in the city. They had gone to Jump City because it promised to be a quiet and relatively peaceful place, while at the same time leaving them with a little work that could put bread on the table. The message Garfield had left was going to be heard again and again in the near future. So much for peaceful.


Next Update At The Latest: Wednesday, June 28, 2006