Righty-ho! First chapter up, a day or two late. If, perchance, there are actually Mexican food place anywhere with the cheesy names I came up with, No copyright intended I suppose. If the writing seems scatty it may be because I spent the whole time I was writing it singing Eleanor Rigby and A Day In The Life badly. Ah, beautiful songs those, go and have a listen... ANYWAY. Mind wanderings aside, Reviews are more than welcome, one count of mature language at last check, and since I've been watching season one for the past month, I just made up a lab tech... She's a clutz. I feel we share that in common. I like her. I may bring her back in later... ALSO. EXTRA NOTE. I can't be bothered thinking: Hm, is this T? M? M+? for all of the chapters, so they'll al be M. Same with the whole Mac thing. He'll be more important later. Amyxx

Shock Shock

Stella Bonasera cursed under her breath as she huddled under the eye-wateringly bight red awning of her favourite Mexican, Salsa City. The lights were all out and a piece of paper was taped to the door; Closed today, sorry! Written in scruffy longhand. She sighed and tugged her hood over her curly brown hair, scanning the high street. There was a Mexican on every street corner in this district, but most were over-priced or a health hazard. Her eyes fell on a small place across the street, Jalapeño Hut. Seemed alright, and people were bustling in and out. Good, it was open. She hurried across the road, heels splashing through puddles of tinted brown rain water.

"Hello and welcome to Jalapeño Hut. I'll be your waitress today, and my name's Alexandria. Are you ready to order, or shall I come back in a minute or two?" A young girl asked, startling Stella. She looked up to see a girl no more than nineteen stood next to the booth Stella had settled in, smiling at her. The girl was tall and slim, but not gangly. She had short hair barely passing her ears, dyed a mahogany red that contrasted with her deep blue eyes well. Her lips curved up into a genuine looking smile, but her eyes were haunted, tired, world-weary. She wore generic looking black trousers and a white short-sleeved blouse which much have been cold this time of year. A black apron hung around her waist and she clutched a pad of paper in one hand, pen in the other. A cheap name tag confirmed her name.

"The special please. And a glass of iced tea." Stella said, looking over at a large chalkboard on the wall. Anything looked good right about now. Her stomach rumbled in agreement.

"Alright, I'll have that over in just a sec." Alexandria smiled, flicking a long red fringe out of her face. Her eyes sparkled, glittering almost as much as the piercing above her lip. A Monroe piercing she reminded herself, she had learnt that from the Suicide Girls case last year. The girl turned and left, leaving Stella to her own thoughts. As if today hadn't been bad enough already, now Salsa City was closed. She had had to deal with a mass murder/suicide today, in a school of all places. Some psycho had just walked in and opened fire. Fifteen injured, seven D.O.A's, including the shooter. She looked down at the table and saw her hands were shaking. She let out a forced laugh and held them still. This job could mess with your nerves sometimes.

"Here's your fajita and your iced tea, hope you enjoy your meal." The waitress smiled, returning to the table. She seemed to hesitate as Stella looked up.

"Are you alright?" Alexandria asked.

"I'm fine, just stressed." Stella replied, a false smile touching her lips.

"Aren't we all?" Alexandria laughed shakily, setting the food down on the table. Stella didn't notice the tears creep into Alexandria's eyes as she turned away, nor did she see the word Jason inked on the Alexandria's wrist. She certainly didn't realise just how important to her life Alexandria and Jason were about to become.

The doorbell rang. Loudly. Impatiently. Mac Taylor stirred in his armchair, knocking an assortment of papers to the ground. Who could possibly be at his door at this time? A quick glance at the clock confirmed, it was an ungodly hour to be calling at someone's house. He half shuffled to the door, swinging it open with an unwelcoming "What?"

There was no one at the door. The street was empty. Not even the decaying autumn leaves were skittering about; it was as if time was standing still. Slowly, Mac reached for the gun on his belt. A feeling of reassurance swept over him when he found it. He stepped out into the street carefully, feeling the chilly, early winter air biting at his bare feet. He turned to look down the alley to his right, but something caught his eye. He turned to his door, and what he saw made his stomach drop. He tasted the coppery taste of fear flood his mouth. Pinned to his door was a piece of paper, blank aside from two words scrawled in block capitals. IT BEGINS. He shook his head in disbelief. Shit he thought to himself they know where I live now? He remembered Flack saying something the other day, something about never being safe when you're in a job like this. Too right. He fumbled for his cell, not taking his eyes off the note. He didn't look at his cell ass he shakily stabbed the keys, either. He looked down only to press the call button.

"Stella? I need you to come down here and see this. I think we have another nut-job on our hands."

"They what?" Stella gasped, freezing in her tracks. In all her years here, she had never heard of something like this…

"We think the murderer was male… but yeah. He stripped her naked, bound her wrists and ankles like a-" Hawkes took a deep breath and massaged his temples "like a suckling pig then beat her to death. He also ripped open her jaw and stuck and apple in her mouth… we don't know if that was post-mortem or not yet." He let out a long sigh and shook his head, breathing a quiet profanity. They continued towards the morgue in silence, though they both knew they were thinking the same thing. Some people were just… sick. And probably beyond help, considering what the guy had done. Stella hadn't seen the pictures yet, and didn't plan to look any longer than her job required. According to the report Hawkes held; the girl, Chloe Denton, was nineteen and five foot one. Her body was found in central park by a jogger, just there. Right out in the open. A few feet away, a bag from a fast food restaurant had been found with all her clothes and ID in it. Stella let out a quiet sigh, but it sounded much more desperate and frightened than she had anticipated. She had been to Mac's place last night, after some psycho pinned a note to his front door. Everyone was much more sombre today, the air felt heavy with depression. Pushing open the double doors to the morgue, she greeted Syd with a false smile and stopped on the opposite side of the examining table to him, looking down at the body of a young girl.

"You're here about the Denton case, right?" He asked cocking one eyebrow.

"How'd you guess?" Hawkes replied, a small smile cracking across his mask of sullen worry.

"Well, this is quite a case. There was evidence of sexual activity within the last twenty four hours, plus various bruises and defensive wounds that would suggest rape… and then this…" He said, turning the girls head to the left. There was a huge red mark on the side of her head, raw flesh. Flecks of dirt, fibres, what looked like splinters still stuck in it.

"This didn't kill her. It did, however, knock her unconscious; presumably while the attacker was moving her from the primary crime scene to central park. She was still alive at this point. She must have come to while she was in the park, as I found grass and dirt underneath the vic's nails. She was beaten to death, eventually died of internal bleeding when a broken rib punctured her lung. The, ah, extending of the jaw occurred after death, as there was little bleeding where the mouth ripped and no bite marks in the apple itself."

Stella nodded, impressed. "Defensive wounds?" she inquired.

"Oh, of course." Syd said, lifting the vic's limp hand. "Defensive wounds here, here and here. Also, these rope burns and cuts around them? Show she was tied up before death; she was trying to pull them off."

Stella nodded again, crossing her arms. "I'll take those over to tox for you Syd" she said, indicating to the plastic bags containing the rope, materials from under Chloe's nails and hair, etc. Syd nodded gratefully, talking pathology terms with Hawkes. She grabbed the bag and strode out of the morgue, turning down a corridor and into the elevator. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples, feeling a migraine creeping up on her. Sometimes, she forgot why she took this job. She saw death and pain too much, it was making her paranoid. But she helped people, right? That was all she wanted to do. As long as she was doing right by society in a place where so many did wrong, she was happy. The elevator jerked to a halt as the doors slid open. She swept a curl from her face and stepped into the corridor in front of her, the fluorescent lights doing little to help her migraine.

"Sara? You in there?" Stella called, rapping her knuckles on the door of the toxins lab. Sara Jennaworth, a young blonde lab tech appeared from under her desk, rubbing her head carefully. She nodded Stella permission to enter, picking up papers from her desk and trying to organise them a little better.

"Syd gave me these to bring up, for the Denton case. You got much on it yet?" Stella asked, placing the plastic bags on Sara's desk.

"Not much, still analysing. All I've got is over there." Sara replied, tentively poking an already forming bruise on her head, wincing as she did so. Stella nodded, striding over to the table Sara had indicated. Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened and she felt the gears of her brain jump into action.

"No…."

On the table, inside a clear plastic bag, was a brown paper bag, with the Jalapeño Hut logo emblazoned across the side. Stella picked up the evidence bag and turned it around, shaking her head in disbelief. Scrawled on the other side, smudged and slightly faded were the words:

I love you baby! Have a great day. Alexandria x

"We have our first suspect." Stella told Sara, reaching for her cell to call Mac.