Partners

Chapter Three

A/N – Hello my fellow fanfiction dwellers! First off I want to say thank you for all the amazing feedback that I have received on the first two chapters of this story, it really does mean a lot to me! Second, I am sorry for the gap between updates, I try not to leave too long between them because as a reader I hate when someone doesn't update as often as they normally do but it has been finals time, I had a statistics exam and two lab reports within the space of a week but I am finished now and I plan to dedicate a whole lot of the Summer before my final year at university to fanfiction. This chapter is a little longer to make up for the lack of update.

Alaric was stood at the sink in the kitchen of his apartment. As he washed out the glasses from last night he looked out of the window right in front of him to the kids play area that was built into his complex. There he could see Eoin and Bradley, the four year old twins that lived three doors down with their fathers, Tyler and Dylan, who were currently sitting on the bench beside the swing set as they watched over their twins.

Alaric sighed slightly, a part of him had always wanted a family, he grew up in a large one and was the only one out of his brothers and sisters that didn't have kids yet but it was complicated, first of all he was gay and second he was a FBI agent and who in their right mind was gonna let a FBI agent who has received six death threats from criminals he had collared in the last year alone adopt kids? On top of that the only person that he could ever see himself spending the rest of his life with was his FBI partner and not only did he not know how Damon felt about the whole kids thing but the FBI were not keen on partners, let alone heads of a department being in relationships, they would be split up for sure.

However at that moment all thoughts were driven out of his mind as a pair of pale arms snaked around his waist and he felt a kiss on the back of his shoulder as Damon was shorter than him and couldn't quite reach his neck or cheek. He turned around in his arms, grabbing a towel to dry his hands from the bench as he did.

"You didn't wake me up." Damon said as he locked his hands over Alaric's lower back, looking up at him thanks to the height difference. Alaric placed his large hands on Damon's hips.

"We didn't get home till three am and you only got five hours sleep before then so I figured as it was our day off you could do with a lie in." he hold him before kissing his lips sweetly. Damon untangled himself from Alaric and jumped up onto the surface of the island that was in the centre of the kitchen as Alaric leaned against the work surface, facing Damon.

"So now that Sleeping Beauty has awoken.." Alaric said which caused Damon to try to kick him, missing my miles, smiling Alaric continued. "What shall we do with our day off?" he questioned. Damon paused to think for a moment then said,

"I should really swing by my apartment, I need some more clothes, I think the team might notice that I keep wearing the same five outfits all the time and I bet the mail has been piling up. How long has it been since I have been there?"

Alaric opened his mouth to say that it had to have been more than three weeks when both his and Damon's cell phones beeped to alert them to a new text, they both reached for them with dread, knowing that their day off was out of the window. They both read the identical texts in silence and then without looking up Damon said,

"We got another one."

***DS&AS***

An hour later and they were pulling up by an abandoned stretch of country road, as Alaric pulled the Camero over and parked out of the windshield they could see a sea of police and rescue vehicles. There was no less that seven patrol cars, an ambulance and even a fire truck, they could also see the ME van and just beyond that Stefan's Chevy and Caroline's Ford. They climbed out of the car, Damon already pulling on black latex gloves.

As they approached the crime scene tape they flashed their badges to the uniform guarding the line with his clipboard in hand. Damon went right over to the edge of the road as Alaric signed them in; he glanced up at the young man in the uniform and saw he was looking a little green.

"Hey, kid, what's your name?" he asked as he handed the board back.

"Donovan, Matt Donovan, Sir." Matt told him with a slight glance over to the edge that Damon was still stood over.

"How long you been out the academy?" Alaric asked, trying to keep the young officers mind off what he imagined wasn't a pretty sight that awaited him.

"Three months Sir."

"First murder scene?" Alaric questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Yes sir." Matt replied, looking slightly better now he had something else to think about.

"It gets easier to deal with, never stops being hard but it gets better." Alaric tried to reassure him.

"It's the smell Sir." Matt told him and Alaric knew what he meant, even from here he could detect the unmistakable sent of decay.

"Bit of advice, in future carry a cloth with you and spray it with the perfume or aftershave of your other half or someone that means a lot too you, makes it easier." He said as he drew out a piece of black cloth that smelt of the bottle of ridiculously expensive aftershave that Damon kept at his place. As he drew closer to the edge that Damon was still stood at, he clamped the cloth over his nose and drew in one large breath before pocketing it and breathing only through his mouth now, trying to hold on to that sweet smell.

"Hey, what we got?" he asked his boyfriend.

"What have we always had?" Damon said with an unreadable tone, still looking down into the ditch a good twelve feet blow them. Alaric followed his eye line. Below them he could see Stefan and the ME crouched down beside the body in quite conversation, Caroline was about six feet away from them; bend down as she examined something.

"Why aren't you down there already?" Alaric asked, normally he had to grab the back of Damon's leather jacket to stop him rushing into a crime scene. Damon turned to look at him then glanced down to his knee.

"Waiting for you old man." He said with a smirk. Alaric rolled his eyes,

"Its not the five year age gap between us that screwed my knee up, it was the psycho that took a baseball bat to it while I was trying to save your useless ass." He told him. Again Damon looked at him, smirk in place and eyebrow raised as if to say 'if you say so dear.' But he still took hold of Alaric's upper arm and began to guide them down the slope until the ground levelled out and they were beside their colleges and crime scene.

Now that they were closer they could see the full picture, on the ground in front of them was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties, though they couldn't be sure as a good potion of his face was obscured by the black blindfold over his eyes and the lower half of his face was splattered in blood from the large gash that crossed his entire throat, his arms were bound behind him and from the rope burns it was clear that he struggled hard against his binds. Stefan stood up to talking to them; the sunlight that battled its way past the canopy of leaves made his perfect hair glow.

"Hey, so basically the same picture as before, seems to be the same guy." Damon looked at his little brother and then back to the body,

"Do we know if he matches the physical features of our other victims?"

"Just about to find that out." Said a voice from behind Stefan. Still crouched down beside the victim was the medical examiner, Meredith Fell.

She reached to the victims face and carefully tugged the blindfold off and Alaric had to turn away to stop the rush of bile rising in his throat. If he didn't know that Damon was stood next to him, so close that he could feel the heat radiating off him he would have thought that was him lying dead at his feet, his bright blue eyes, glazed over but the look of terror in them still there.

"How long do you think he had been dead?" Stefan questioned. Meredith sighed and then told them,

"Rigor has passed and there is very little insect activity so I would say no more than two days but because of the current heat levels, decomp has started, as you can more than likely smell. Also the blood in his body, well what was left has pooled twice, once on his chest and again in his back, meaning he was killed somewhere else, time passed for the blood to settle and then he was moved here."

"Yeah I got that much from the scene." Caroline said, finally coming over to join them, something leather clutched in her gloved hand.

"there is no disturbance in the leaves apart from where the body was rolled down the slope" she told him as she indicated a path clear from leaves that ran from the top of the hill to the place where the body still lay.

"Also there is no bloody splatter from the throat, meaning that happened in a second location. And this…" she said as she held up what they could now see was a wallet.

"Is the victims wallet which I am guessing fell from his pocket as he was thrown down here, ID says his name is Jake Ryder." She told them as she handed the wallet to Damon who looked at the drivers licence and then to the body, there was no doubt that they matched. Then he noticed something from his vantage point.

"He was wearing a cast recently." He felt the eyes of everyone in the clearing round on him so he motioned to the victim's shoes.

"Notice the left tread patter is more worn, it means he was carrying more weight on that side recently and as he was wearing a shoe I am going to say it was his arm.

***DS&AS***

Five hours later all but Jeremy and Tyler were in the bullpen talking over the case. The other two agents had gone to make the notification to the family, something that everyone in law enforcement hated. They were going to bring the parents in so that Damon and Alaric could talk to them.

Not long after, Tyler walked into the bull pen, his face showing the toll of what he had just had to do.

"Parents are in the family room." He told them as he threw himself into his chair by his desk which was the closest to the victim board which they were all huddled around.

"Where's Jer?" Alaric questioned his agent.

"Bathroom, throwing his guts up." Tyler told him and Alaric could have hit his head off the wall, he totally forgot that Jeremy had never made a death notification before.

"I better go and see if he is okay." Alaric said before turning to Damon,

"We'll go talk to the parents afterwards." Damon agreed, saying he would get together everything that they had so far, knowing that parents would have questions, some that they just couldn't answer.

As he was walking down the hall Stefan caught up with him and after Alaric shot him a questioning look he said.

"Gonna get the parents some water and let them know what is going on, trust me they need to know." Alaric didn't say anything, there seemed to be something stuck in his throat so he just nodded. He knew Damon knew how it felt to get that notice but he figured Stefan would have been too young to remember when two police officers knocked on the door of the Salvatore home and told them that their mother was dead.

Alaric turned right into the men's bathroom and Stefan left into the kitchen to grab two water bottles and glasses and then back tracked on himself and paused outside the door to the family room, making sure his badge was visible on his belt, knowing it was often a comfort to families and then he opened the door.

He stepped into the room and observed the two people in the room; the victims mother was sat on the left hand side of the sofa, her eyes rubbed red, a tissue clenched in her hand, her greying honey blond hair dragged back into ponytail. Her husband was sat beside her, his strong jaw was clenched, his arm around his wife, his bright blue eyes were bloodshot, they both looked at him as he entered.

"Hi, I'm Special Agent Stefan Salvatore, I thought I would update you on what is going to happen." He moved to sit on the chair that was closest to the sofa, placing the water and glasses on the table.

"Thank you." The woman said, reaching out for one of the bottles with a shaking hand.

"In a moment, the two lead agents on the case, Alaric Saltzman and Damon Salvatore will come in to discuss what we know about your sons' case so far and then talk to you a little about Jake and the last time you saw him." The lady nodded her head and her husband spoke.

"Salvatore? You two any relation? Just with an unusual surname…"

"Yeah he is my older brother." Stefan said with a small smile.

"Now I just need to confirm your names for the record." Stefan said.

"Yes, of course, Poppy and Doug Ryder." Poppy told him. Stefan thanked them and then sent his brother a text to tell him that they were ready.

Stefan was making small talk with Poppy and Doug when he heard the door open behind him, turning in his seat he saw Alaric walk in, Damon behind him.

"Mr and Mrs Ryder, these are our team leaders, Special Agents Saltzman and Salvatore." Poppy looked up at them and when her eyes settled on Damon a fresh wave of tears started to fall from her eyes as she sobbed.

"I'm sorry, its just you look so much like Jake." Damon couldn't help but feel even sorrier for them than he already did.

***DS&AS***

Almost two hours later Damon and Alaric left the family room after interviewing the parents, they were now back in the bullpen relaying all the new information to their team.

"Okay then, Jake Ryder, twenty nine, was killed around two days ago in another location and then transported to the dump sight." Damon said, he and Alaric were stood up beside the board as the team sat on chairs and desks around them.

"Two days is the last time that his parents heard from his as well." Alaric told them,

"He spoke to his mum on his phone as he was getting home from work; he was a paralegal at James & Morgan, the biggest lawyer firm in the state. He told her he was going out to meet some friends as soon as he got changed to celebrate getting the cast off his arm from a biking accident around two months ago." Damon took over from him,

"One difference in this victim to the others is that Jake was gay, all the others were straight so it has now crossed a sexuality line but as these killings don't appear to be sexual there is hardly anyway this could be about that, it is just an interesting note. The one thing that does tie all of the victims together is that they were all in bars the night that they were killed so we know how he finds them." Damon told them, he then glanced back to his team to find that they were staring at him,

"What?" he asked, Stefan was the first one to speak up,

"Its six now Damon, six who look like you, I know we looked into it and after we couldn't find anything to link you to any of them we put it on the shelf but maybe we should think about looking at it again?" Damon just stared at him,

"Stefan, what has changed between now and then? Apart from my looks I have nothing in common with any of these guys."

"that's not strictly true, not anymore." It was Jeremy that spoke up,

"the last victim was gay Damon, so are you, we have to consider that." Damon regarded him for a second,

"Maybe, but the first victims weren't so I don't think that it has anything to do with that." Damon paused here and gave a sideways glance at Alaric before continuing.

"I have an idea." Another glance at Alaric, he knew this was not going to go down well.

"Obviously I look like the victims and Jeremy has narrowed it down to bars inside a certain area…" he didn't have to finish what he was going to say, Alaric was already talking.

"No. Absolutely no way, not going to happen! Damon you are NOT using yourself as bait." He wasn't shouting, he didn't have to, everything he was saying was in an adamant whisper but he meant every word of it.

"Ric, I really do not see another option here, he had killed six people, this is the quickest way to get him."

"No. Not you."

"I'm sorry but do you know any other guys my height and build with jet black hair, blue eyes and pale skin? Thought not." They both totally forgot that the team was still there.

"Damon, this is not happening, no." Alaric told him in no uncertain terms, Damon just looked at him.

"What, do you not think I can do it?" he asked with an accusing tone.

"You know that's not it!" Alaric told him, their eyes boring into each other. Damon shook his head.

"I'm not having this conversation with you until you calm the hell down, I'll see you tomorrow." He said and then turned on his heel and walked right out. Alaric started after him, debating if he should go after him for about two minuets before eventually he did. As the door closed behind him Caroline said,

"I hate it when our parents fight."

Alaric made it to the front of the building but couldn't see Damon anywhere; he guessed he had grabbed a cab on the main road as Alaric had driven them both to the crime scene this morning. Right now he knew he had to go cool off so he climbed into his car and sped off home, trying to call Damon every two minuets but it went right to answerphone, Damon was pissed.

Eventually Alaric made it home. He spent the night drinking and trying to call Damon who still wouldn't take his call. About three am he fell into a fitful sleep, he didn't sleep well without Damon there. When his alarm went off at half seven he woke up with a resolve to talk to Damon and maybe open conversation about an undercover operation. He spent the whole drive to work practising out loud his speech to his boyfriend. He was still going over it when he got to the bull pen, looking around he saw his team, all of them but Damon.

"Where's Damon?" he asked Stefan who was stood in front out the board. The panic that set in on his handsome face turned Alaric's stomach to lead.

"We have all tried calling him, he hasn't answered, we were hoping he was with you." Alaric dropped his bag.

"He has him."

A/N – well? What did we all think? And yes I am really doing this to Damon and to the boys but come on, we all know you would have to put a bullet in Ric's head to stop him from getting his Damon back… Let me know your thoughts.