Chapter Three
Don't have any time here left to kill
Don't want to go down like the settin' sun
So let's break out of this town like a renegade
Can't wait another minute
I'm right here ready to run
Daughty - Renegade
Renard had been right, the coffee in the Squad Room was beyond disgusting. Maddie had no idea how long it had been sitting there on the hot plate but she should have known when it had the consistency of tar upon pouring it into her Seattle P.D mug that it wasn't consumable.
"The Captain warned you about the coffee." Nick responded to her grimace at the burned, bitter taste as he peered over the top of his computer.
"He was not wrong." Maddie said, cringing as she put her cup back down on the worn surface of her new desk.
The desk she had been assigned was positioned across from Nick's and had apparently seen a lot of wear and tear over the past few years. She could tell from the chipped right hand corner and the way the top drawer jammed unless you lifted it as you pulled.
Nick cast a knowing look in her direction before returning his gaze to the monitor in front of him. Despite the fact he'd spent the best part of a day with Maddie Hart he knew barely anything about her and he found that puzzling. When he had met Hank the two of them had become fast and firm friends in a matter of hours. The only things he knew about Maddie was how she took her coffee, that she wasn't a fan of Country music and that once she had been stung by a bee.
On the whole she seemed like a proficient investigator, throughout the duration of this case he had stood back and watched her work alongside Hank as he took the role of the secondary. She knew what they were doing, he was sure of that and she embraced it whole heartedly.
When you got a partner you needed to know they had your back and that you weren't carrying dead weight. Maddie was far from dead weight, already she had proved her worth with her deductive skills but there was something else about the female detective that irked him. He could sense something underneath the surface, there was a darkness behind her eyes and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't work out what it was. She wasn't Wesen from what he could tell but then again he had only been a Grimm for a couple of months now, she could be better at hiding it than most.
"Why Portland?" he found himself asking as he altered the trajectory of his chair so he could study Maddie's pale features.
"Change of scenery." she responded without looking up from her case file. "You can ski here, it's charming but not quaint and you have no sales tax."
Those were all good reasons he supposed but they were the type of list you usually saw on a real estate brochure. The cool, crisp tone of her voice indicated that this was something that she did not want to talk about and he wasn't ready to push her on that just yet.
"We..." Nick corrected indicating between the two of them with his right hand. "We have no sales tax."
"We..." Maddie repeated, the way she spoke gave him the impression that the word seemed almost alien on her tongue and Nick didn't have to be a detective in order to figure that one out.
It seemed like such a small thing but Nick had been there himself once upon a time and he understood what it was like to feel alone in the big bad world. Whatever had happened to Maddie back in Seattle had wounded her in a way that was hard to come back from.
"I hate these flashmob guys. It's like they barely have a brain cell living between them." Maddie muttered, closing the manilla folder and slapping it onto her desk in frustration. "I mean if someone text you and said 'Hey guys, let's YMCA on the nearest tube station' would you do it?"
Nick tilted his head and shot Maddie that look, the one that clearly stated his thoughts on the hypothetical situation.
"Exactly." she agreed, shaking her head in disbelief. "These people are idiots with social media disorders."
There was a moment where the two of the processed that thought. Social media was the way that the world was going these days, every time they were on the streets these days you couldn't go two minutes without seeing some kid tapping away on their phone.
"Huh what if we..." Maddie considered the possible idea formulating in her head.
"...accidentally 'left ' the phone in the interrogation room with the kid that was giving me attitude, see if he contacts the person who sent the tweet." Nick finished for her, his face lighting up at the potential behind this option.
It wasn't long until the two of them were down at the evidence locker, checking out the cell phone in order to put their plan into action.
Bees had never been Maddie's favorite creature and at this very moment they were swiftly moving down her list towards the thing she hated the very most. The sound of their incessant buzzing was almost deafening as both her and Nick frantically searched for something to seal up the doors with in this ridiculously tiny office. The glass was already covered with the vicious little bastards as they swarmed all over it trying to find a way inside.
After Doug Shellow had contacted the mysterious Tweeter, the two of them had followed him to an abandoned paper mill in Portland's industrial district. He had met with another member of the flash mob and a mysterious brunette. That was the only glimpse Maddie had been able to get before they were attacked by what seemed to be an army of very pissed off bees. She had lost count of the amount of times she had been stung by the tiny flying insects before the two of them had made it to this singular office.
Her heart was still pounding like a drum in her chest as she dug her hands into the rusty red tool box that had been left on the shelf in front of her. Tools clattered to the floor as she tossed them in every direction, searching for anything they could use to block the cracks in the frame of the door. The stings on the back of her hands were hurting like hell but Maddie couldn't bring herself to think about that right now, she had to deal with the problem at hand because she was positive if any of the malevolent little beasts managed to get in here, her and Nick would end up like their vic back on the street car.
The glass was now covered in bees, their black and yellow bodies writhing all over each other as their legs scrambled to find footing. There had to be hundreds of them, thousands maybe. The sight was beyond terrifying, the thought of being trapped in here for God knows how long made her breath quicken and her chest hurt. The bees were becoming more enraged, induced a constant thrum to radiate through the office like some sort of coordinated mantra. Maddie could barely her herself think above the noise.
Nick was pressing something into her hands, her heart leapt at the sight of the roll of black duct tape Her instincts snapped into action and in a matter of moments the two of them had managed to stick the adhesive over everything that could be deemed a potential entrance point. There was nothing left the two of them could do but wait it out and in the cramped office sitting down seemed to be the best option. They sank to floor into sitting positions along side of another, their gazes fixated on the violent bees going ballistic outside the glass window pane.
"How long do you think they can keep this up?" Maddie asked Nick, sitting cross legged as the back of her head came to rest upon the metal wall they were leaning against.
"I don't know." Nick said resigned as he stared up at the horrid insects crawling across the pane of glass that separated them. "Unfortunately the only thing I know about bees is that they hurt like a bitch when they sting you."
If the two of them managed to get out of this alive they were going to hurt like crazy for the next few days, there was no doubting that.
"I gotta say this is one of the weirdest situations I've been in for a long time." Maddie informed Nick, rubbing the back of her left hand with her palm to try and relieve some of the pain from the vivid, red swelling. "I mean how the hell do you even control bees? Is there a special whistle you have to blow like with dogs or what?"
"I have no clue." Nick stated with a shake of his head, his elbows resting upon his knees. He had spent a lot of time trying to work through this case as both a Grimm and a detective and he found it infuriating that he had allowed himself to become trapped in this position. "But I gotta warn you, we get a lot of weird cases here in Portland."
"That was sort of a specialty of mine back in Seattle." Maddie uttered, closing her eyes for a brief second to vanquish the image of the bees swarming all over the windows. "Never had bees though."
It was true, having a Wesen partner had it's advantages and their case closure rate had been impressive, especially on the cases that other detectives could find no way to explain. They had been branded the nicknames 'Mulder and Scully' for the longest time back in Seattle and she found herself wondering what Craven would have done in this situation.
"How weird are we talking?" Nick questioned, his interest suddenly peaked by this sudden twist of conversation.
"We had a serial killer on our hands a few years ago, she was leaving young men's bodies in cheap motel rooms with their hearts literally ripped out of their chests. It looked like she was doing it with her bare hands." Maddie partially confided, her fingertips tapping out a tune he didn't recognise on her denim covered knee.
She didn't mention the blue glowing eyes that could pierce right through to your soul with just one look or the vibrant red talons that the monster had used to scrap out the vic's insides in order to harvest the hearts. It had been part of a bizarre fifteen year old cycle but in the end they had managed to break it. Seeing something like that had scared the hell out of her but the knowledge that she'd seen monsters before and probably would again had strengthened her resolve.
"Did you catch the perp?" Nick asked, his attention focused on Maddie as she reminisced.
"Yea." Maddie said frankly before meeting his intrigued gaze. "My partner put three bullets in her chest after she tried to do the same thing to another victim. We found him just before the monster managed to ripped his heart out."
That was the short version of it, Maddie left out how the body shuddered and writhed as black blood had erupted onto the floor. The Wesen had turned back into human form a few minutes later to her relief because they had really not felt like explaining why something out of a fairy tale was lying splayed out on the ground.
The term monster seemed like an interesting choice of words for Nick and he found himself wondering if there wasn't a little more to Maddie's story than the other detective let on. He knew she wasn't a Grimm, she simply didn't have the ability in that respect.
"I think they're dying down." Maddie said quietly, her voice snapping him back to reality as she stared at the window pane in front of them.
Nick followed her cool gaze. She was right, the bees were beginning to disappear, there were patches of daylight beginning to peek through the gaps that their absence left. Their dispersal was a relief and the two of clambered to their feet, waiting for the moment that they would be able to get the hell out of here.
As usual a very special thanks to my girl Nat for all of her help with this story. Yet again thank you to everyone that reads this story, it really makes my day!
Random: I'll be doing a few eps in the story so there will be a few more for you to enjoy. I think it's really clear that Renard has a thing for blonds, I think its good for him to acknowledge it to. I apologise if you do find any mistakes in this story :)
Book: Thank you very much for reading and reviewing, I think change can be good for a story and some of the chars. She's just plain old human :)
Vamp: Was this update quick enough for you? :)
