. . .
"Ali, I'm home!" Beth half-sighed as she walked in the door.
Months had gone by and Beth and Alison had settled into a nice routine, especially after Beth had fudged a résumé and became a detective after the academy almost instantly. She hadn't told Alison that bit as she figured it wasn't that important and Alison didn't have to know.
Meanwhile, Alison had resorted to telling Donnie that her mother's sick friend wanted to see the children and she didn't know how much time she had left. She'd told him it was that friend that despised him so he wouldn't want to come along and hadn't given him a set date for return. She convinced him she'd gotten ahold of the kids schoolwork and would continue to school them from home or some elaborate lie like that—Beth wasn't sure of the exact story, she only knew Donnie was dumb enough to believe it.
"Work was killer today and it just—"
Beth stopped as she heard a vacuum start up from the upstairs. She smiled to herself, knowing that Alison probably had earbuds in and couldn't hear her with the combination of the vacuum. The woman would dance a little behind the vacuum and mouth the words to whatever show tune played in her ears. The entire sight was adorable. Beth put her keys in "the thing where they always are" as Alison called it and draped her jacket over a chair before making her way upstairs. With Alison's back to her, Beth saw an opportunity to hug her from behind and she did just that. Alison jumped and quickly switched off the vacuum and pulled out an earbud.
Beth rested her head on Alison's shoulder and smiled before kissing it and whispering, "Hey."
"Beth, you scared me to death!" Alison exclaimed, sighing in relief. She turned around to scold Beth. "Don't sneak up on me like that, I thought you were an intruder!"
"Would an intruder do this?" Beth asked, kissing her on the lips and smiling at her. Alison shook her head and Beth bit her lip and smirked. "Although... I would love to intrude on your personal space, if you know what I mean..."
"Can't. It's family movie night, Beth," Alison reminded her with a coy grin. "Third Saturday of the month, remember? But maybe later... If you're up to it."
"Oh, I'll be up to it," Beth promised with a smirk. She looked around and asked, "Where are they anyway? I didn't see them coming in."
"They're at their friends' house," Alison told her simply, gently pulling out of Beth's embrace to wrap the vacuum cord up. "I didn't know if you needed some time alone with me or not. You seemed stressed lately and I wanted to offer you an opportunity—"
"An opportunity? For what?" Beth asked, pulling her back in before she finished winding the cord up and kissing her. "I'm interested..."
"An opportunity to vent," Alison told her with a chastising smile as she pulled away for a second time to finish the last couple feet of cord. She set her hand on the vacuum handle and looked up to Beth. "Do you need one?"
"Not really..." Beth replied, somewhat skirting around a heavy conversation. She led the way out of the room with Alison and the vacuum in tow. "I vent every night at dinner. Granted, the kids probably hate listening to me, but it's venting all the same. And you listen to me."
"True..." Alison agreed, putting the vacuum away in a closet and following Beth to the kitchen. "So how was work today, Beth?"
Beth cringed, but decided to answer honestly, "Shit."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Why?" Alison asked, motioning for her to sit down.
"Chief was crawling up my ass about missing work too much," Beth admitted with a Cheshire smile and refusing to sit down so she could instead help Alison.
"And have you?" Alison asked worriedly.
"Well yeah. To spend time with you all. Being a detective is taxing..." Beth trailed off. "But I do love it."
"As long as you love it," Alison replied. "But please. Don't lose your job. We'll see you when you get home. I'll even extend the kids' bedtime if you want."
"You mean that?" Beth asked.
"Yes," Alison paused. "I do bend, you know.
"Oh, I know."
"Beth..." Alison chuckled. "I mean I'm not strict... I'm just particular."
"I know and I love your particularity," Beth told her with a kiss on the cheek. "I think that's the first thing that hooked me."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really. And since my opportunity is still open... What do you say we just order pizza later and get down to business now?" Beth asked slyly. Alison smiled and shook her head.
"'Get down to business?' You sure do have a way with your words, detective..."
"It's all in the tongue," Beth winked, taking her hand and leading her back up to the bedroom. "Now come on."
. . .
"Childs!" a man's voice snapped the detective awake from her current state of nodding off. She jumped and sat up straight and set her hands on the keyboard in front of her, attempting to look as if she were being productive.
"Yeah, Lt.?" she replied innocently, keeping her eyes forward rather than daring to look back at him.
"You're not dozin' on the job, are ya?" he asked with his head poked out of his office door.
"No, Sir," she responded with a nod toward her computer screen. She heard his door close behind her and she immediately relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey, Beth."
Beth turned to see Angela strutting over to her with a smirk on her face.
"Hm? What?" Beth asked, raising her eyebrows and waiting for a response. Angela's smirk only grew as she set a hand on the woman's desk and leaned on it.
"You're not even signed in," she told her before straightening her posture and walking by. Beth scowled and rolled her eyes even though she found that her fellow detective was telling the truth. She could hear Angela's teasing tone add, "Sex that good?"
"Fuck you, I was gettin' there..." Beth mumbled, typing in her password which also happened to be the name of the woman she loved the most in addition to who was currently on her mind.
"Sure you were," Art piped in with a knowing smirk as he came over to drop some files on her desk.
"C'mon, Art. Why you gotta be such a hardass?" Beth asked, sliding the files over to herself and opening them. She looked them over as Art stood over her shoulder. "Cut me some slack here."
"It's your favourite thing about me," Art joked. Beth grew agitated at his close proximity and dropped the papers down on her desk and turned to look up at him.
"You need somethin' from me, dipshit?"
"No," Art raised his hands in mock surrender as he backed away.
"Alright. So we've stumbled upon some people who are, what, doin' science experiments?" Beth asked as she continued rifling through the papers. "The hell does this have to do with—"
"Shhh!" Art snapped. "Keep it down."
"Why?"
Art looked around the room to see if anyone was paying any particular attention to them and nobody was with the exception of Angela.
"These people are doing illegal experiments," Art whispered. "On humans."
"Humans? What—"
"Shhh!" Art quieted her again, causing her to realise she hadn't lowered her tone at all.
"They should've just asked us if they could use criminals. We're bound to find some worthy of being tested on..." Beth snidely commented. "What importance does this have to us anyway?"
Art picked up a folder and flipped through it to show Beth a blurry picture of a balding man and a blonde woman with a short haircut. The image, though blurry, struck fear down to Beth's very core.
"Is that...?"
"Ang and I think so," Art nodded, closing the file once more. Beth ran a hand through her hair before reaching for a desk drawer and pulling out a pill container. She'd lowered her doses ever since she'd gotten with Alison, but she couldn't help herself when she was at work. Alison wasn't there, only stress and chaos. Art put a hand over hers and said, "You don't need those."
Beth defensively ripped her hand away and replied, "Relax. Just one, Art."
Art held his breath as he watched her unscrew the cap, dump a single capsule into her hand, and bring it to her mouth and swallow it dry. She then screwed the cap back on, threw it back in the drawer and slammed it shut. He pressed his lips together in frustration and sighed.
"I'm workin' on weaning myself off 'em, alright?" Beth told him once she'd caught a glimpse of his facial expression. "Geez."
"Just... Take a closer look at those files. Get back to me on them. One of the conspirators has a meeting with those two today—in an hour, if I'm not mistaken. See if you wanna look into it with us."
"Alright, I'll take a look."
As soon as she saw him turn his back, she turned back around and opened the desk drawer, searching for the container. Once she found it, she opened it once again, dumped a few pills out into her hand and swallowed them, and closed it once she'd finished. She placed it back in the drawer and opened the files to browse over the names, places, and gathered information.
After about a half hour, she closed the files and stood up. She looked around as she went over to Art. He turned around to face her immediately and raised his eyebrows at her.
"Well, what to you think?" he asked.
"I think we need to check this out."
Art looked over her shoulder and she turned to see Angela staring back. He motioned for her to come over and she promptly did so. She looked between Beth and Art.
"She in?" Angela asked, to which Art nodded with his eyes closed.
"And here I thought we were done with this shit..." Beth muttered, walking over to her cubicle to grab her jacket and shaking her head.
"We will be done with this shit. As soon as we bust them," Art countered, standing up to join the women.
"Anyone up for some Chinese?" Angela asked, holding up a piece of paper with the location of the meeting on it. Beth shrugged her jacket on and pulled her hair out of it as Art straightened his out. Angela nodded and said, "Alright, let's go."
. . .
"That's her?" Beth asked, gesturing to a Chinese woman seated in the corner booth. Art and Angela nodded, keeping their eyes off the woman. "How long have you guys been monitoring this whole thing?"
"Couple months," Angela admitted. "We weren't going to get you involved since the whole Fraternity raid wasn't your idea and you weren't invested in that, but..."
Angela looked over at Art, who picked up where she left off.
"We figured you might want to be included. So we gave you the files and let you choose," Art finished for her, looking at Angela as he spoke.
"So what's this about illegal human-tested experiments?" Beth asked. Art and Angela's eyes widened as they looked at something over her shoulder and immediately picked up their menus and pretended to have interest in them. Without question, she followed suit and dropped her eyes to the print inside.
"Hello, my name is Stephanie and I'm going to be your server today," she heard a woman's voice say. Beth subtly looked up at Art and saw him roll his eyes in anticipation of the whole typical waitress speech. She heard Angela sigh off to the right.
"May I offer you anything to drink besides water?" the blonde asked as she poured them some ice water. "Or are you all set to order? Fountain drinks are bottomless and will be refilled free of charge. Just as a reminder, our soup of the day is our Hot and Sour Soup."
"No, thank you—" Art began.
"We're still looking," Angela hastily added, throwing the woman a smile. Beth rolled her eyes at the two of them and studied her menu closer in hopes of avoiding talking to the waitress.
"And you, Hon?" she asked, her eyebrows and pen raised in expectancy. Beth hesitantly looked up, knowing she was being addressed and shook her head sheepishly.
"No, no thank you," Beth told her politely, forcing the same cheesy smile Angela had worn only moments ago. "I'm not ready yet."
"Alright then," Stephanie smiled, closing the pad and clicking the pen shut. "I'll give you guys some time."
Beth watched her walk away and the three of them simultaneously relaxed and set their menus down. Beth heard Angela begin to laugh.
"Damn that is some scary cyborg shit right there," Angela remarked, shaking her head and smiling.
"Can you tell what she says is scripted?" Art piped in. He looked at Beth and batted his eyelashes. "And you, Hon?"
"Shut up..." Beth shook her head. "She's just trying to make a living."
Art and Angela both shot her the same look and she cleared her throat, ignoring them.
"So what's this about illegal human-tested experiments?" she asked again, looking over at the middle-aged Chinese woman.
"We're not sure, we only know they're being done," Art admitted. He looked at Angela who leaned in.
"But we do know they're being done on a range of people," Angela added, her eyes watching some customers come in. She looked like she wanted to say more, but kept quiet as the customers passed by.
"That's them. There they are," Art cut in as Beth felt a slight breeze behind her from the people walking by. Her eyes went up to the back of the two people's heads, one balding and one blonde.
Aldous and Rachel, Beth thought. They hadn't noticed the three of them sitting in the opposite corner of the restaurant. She held her breath as she watched them make their way over to the Chinese woman, Margaret Chen. The three of them started conversing immediately, but were cut short as Margaret crossed her arms and seemed to begin ignoring them.
"They test on adults, both old and young. Teenagers. Preteens—" Angela started. Beth witnessed Margaret hold up an index finger to Rachel and Aldous as she scooted toward the edge of the booth.
"Children, toddlers, newborns—" Art interjected. Margaret stood up forcefully, as if she were angry, and began walking up the aisle.
"And even those still in the fetal stages of life," Angela finished. "Any unsuspecting people."
A silence settled between the three detectives as their minds went to different places. Art's wandered to the possible conversation that the three scientists or whatever they were were having. Angela's went to how this whole operation would probably prove to be a flop—she could see that the arrangement didn't seem out of the ordinary.
"Well. I'm going to go to the bathroom," Angela announced to them as she got up to leave.
Beth's mind went to Oscar and Gemma, two children who fit the profile of the test subjects—young and unsuspecting—and before she knew what she was doing, she drew her gun, pointed it at the Chinese woman, who was approaching their booth quickly, and fired. The bullet lodged itself square in the woman's forehead, killing her instantly. The woman dropped to the ground and Beth's eyes went to Rachel and Aldous who'd looked up to see the source of the noise. Others in the restaurant began to flee and chaos broke out among the crowd. People pushed past Beth, leapt over the dead woman and fought their way out the door.
"What the hell did you just do?" Art asked, jumping up and rushing over to Beth, who stood frozen in place. Angela, just emerging from the ladies' room, immediately went over to the body, did an unnecessary pulse check and looked up at the two other detectives.
"She's dead," Angela reported and stood up with a sigh. She put her hands on her hips and looked at Beth. "And you shot her execution style. What the hell were you thinking, Beth? This was an unplanned stakeout, not an assassination!"
Beth remained speechless, but dropped the gun to the floor. Her eyes went back up as she saw movement; Rachel and Aldous were calmly getting up and leaving the restaurant along with the few stragglers left behind. They'd seen her. They'd definitely seen her. Beth snapped out of her daze to the sound of plastic gloves slapping against skin and she blankly watched Art put a pair of blue ones on.
"I told you she couldn't handle it!" Angela snapped at Art.
"Angela!" Art shouted before lowering his tone. "Now's not the time. We need to fix this shit—fast."
He knelt down and reached inside the dead woman's pocket and found a cellphone. He turned it so that it was facing up and placed it carefully in her limp hand before wrapping her fingers around it to make it look as if she were about to dial a number.
"What the hell will that do?" Angela hissed, squatting next to him and staring at the phone. She looked at him questioningly.
"Give Beth a chance," Art replied, standing up. Angela shook her head, stood up too, and looked over at Beth who was staring numbly at the body.
"You two can save your own asses," she responded, raising her hands in surrender as she backed away. "I was never here."
"You're bailing on us?" Art asked incredulously. "Unbelievable."
"Yeah, I'm bailing on you two," Angela answered, not appearing to be fazed by her choice. "Didn't see anything. Wasn't even here. What're you gonna do about it?"
Art knew she was right. They couldn't necessarily place her there nor could they afford to make things more difficult than they already were. He would have to let her go and Angela knew that.
"That's what I thought," Angela added triumphantly. "I'm sorry, guys. But this shit is too deep and I'm not about to risk my career for this."
Before either of them could say anything, Angela slipped away and left them with the body and the growing pool of blood. Art removed his gloves and stuffed them into his pocket before taking Beth's hands.
"Beth, we need to get our story straight, okay?" he said to her, hoping her eyes would begin to look more alive again. Uneasily he forced a smile and said, "This is the part where you come out with one of your witty remarks about how nothing about you can ever be straight."
Her eyes remained perfunctory and her face grave.
"Beth, I need you to come back to me. Now's not the time to freeze up," Art stated solemnly. Beth nodded stiffly and Art didn't think she'd returned, but he still had to talk to her and tell her the plan.
"Alright. We're working on another case, remember? The Ramsay thing."
"The Sun Jewelry Heist," Beth replied robotically, her eyes still blank. Art wasn't sure how much of what he was saying was actually going in, but he still had to keep trying.
"Right. With Xan Yip," Art nodded, hoping the plan would formulate and make sense in Beth's head before the cops came. "The racketeer. You with me so far?"
No response.
"You're gonna think you saw Yip. It was Chen, but you swear it was Yip. You even called for her, but she got up and started walking away from you... Evading arrest. You went after her with your gun and when she turned around she was holding that," Art told her, pointing to the cellphone in Margaret's hand. "I didn't put that there, she was holding it. Understand?"
Still no response.
"And you thought that was a gun. That's what you saw. You saw a gun. You didn't see a cellphone. You saw a gun and so you shot her to defend yourself and for the safety of the public. Did you get all that?" he asked, hoping she'd finally react. He saw a cop come in out of the corner of his eye and began to panic. He addressed her again forcefully, "Beth?"
"Detective, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me," the officer told Beth. "We need to get your story—standard procedure."
"Of course, officer..." Beth responded quietly, still emotionless as she walked out with him. Art crossed his fingers and hoped she'd pull through it and give the story he'd just fed her.
"Detective Childs, mind telling me what happened here?" the man asked her once they were outside. He had a pad and pen ready. Her mind flashed to Stephanie's hands holding her orders book and pen moments before the shooting. "Detective—"
"Xan Yip," Beth replied, suddenly springing to life. "I saw her. She's a suspect in a case I'm currently on. The Ramsay thing. She's a middle-aged Asian woman just like the vic and I was just out on a lunch break and I saw her clear as day."
Beth paused to allow the officer to write down everything she'd said so far.
"Black shirt and jeans—same clothes as the victim," Beth reiterated the resemblance. "I know I saw Yip. She was sitting only a few tables away—"
"I'm gonna need the exact location of everyone involved—"
"Right, right—I'll get to that," Beth promised hurriedly. "And I called out to her. I said, 'Xan Yip!' and then she just sprung up and began walking away."
Another pause. Beth listened to the sound of the pen scratching across the paper and her mind went to the background noise of the restaurant. Another waitress had been taking someone else's order. Her pen scratched along the paper too.
"Continue, Detective."
"She was evading arrest, officer," Beth told him with false confidence. "She picked up speed and I drew my weapon. Told her to freeze, but she didn't. Two others were coming in and they bumped into me and when I turned around... I saw her holding a gun."
"A gun—"
"A gun," Beth nodded. "And so I shot her. I shot her to defend myself and for the safety of everyone else in the restaurant... I didn't want any civilian casualties. Only it wasn't a gun, you see... It was a cellphone. A god. Damn. Cellphone."
"So this was all just a misperception," he clarified. Beth nodded. "Thank you, detective. You'll of course need to write an official statement, but this was what we needed; a summary, you understand."
Beth nodded once more.
"Of course, Officer..." she paused and looked at his name tag. Once she read it, she smiled as she said his name. "Holden."
He nodded once and smiled back, though she couldn't tell if it was polite or nervousness. As soon as he left she rushed back to the crime scene to join Art.
"Beth?" he addressed her as she walked in. She took a few long strides and stood by his side.
"Yeah, dipshit. It's me."
"Beth, how'd it go? You look great."
"Keep it in your pants," she joked, trying to hide her derailed core. She avoided making eye contact and instead crossed her arms and stared at the body which was being inspected by the medical examiner. Art stared at her for a few seconds, but decided not to comment on anything. She looked at him, without looking at his eyes, and stated, "I gotta make a phone call."
She walked away and went back outside to breathe a bit. It didn't help as she leaned against the building for support, doubled over, and vomited on the sidewalk.
"Ah, shit..." she muttered, shaking her head and breathing in deeply. She heard footsteps behind her and she froze.
"Beth, are you alright?" Art asked. She relaxed and stood straight up. "Beth?"
"I'm. Fine," she told him with annoyance.
"Really? 'Cause you don't look fine..."
"Yeah..." she sighed. She swallowed hard and forced herself to look into his concerned eyes. She plastered a fake smile on her face for good measure and nodded. "I just... I need to go home."
"That's not gonna look good. Especially not after—"
"I don't care—if it looks good, Art!" she snapped harshly, moving both of her hands sharply as she spoke. She tucked her hair behind her ear and crossed her arms as she took a deep breath and softened her tone. "I just need to go home, okay?"
"Beth—"
"I'm sick, Art. I'm sick," Beth murmured. "I- I need to go home and rest. I don't feel good. Just... Please..."
Art nodded without saying a word and gestured to the open road ahead.
"Go on," he told her. She thanked him and began walking to the cruiser.
"I'll send DeAngelis to come get you," she offered. He shook his head.
"I'll get a ride with one of the cops," he replied. Beth scrunched her face up in disdain. He fixed it by adding, "Or I'll just call DeAngelis myself."
Beth continued walking to the cruiser and didn't stop until she was locked safely inside. She picked up her cellphone and went to call Alison and hesitated. Should she really do that? Should she call Alison and bother her? Beth stared at the little screen in front of her. Suddenly, her phone jumped to life and began ringing in vibrating, which spooked her and resulted in it being tossed to the ground on the passenger's side. She looked around as if anyone had been around to see that and she smacked herself on the forehead and grudgingly muttered to herself for being so jumpy. She bent down and picked the phone back up and looked at the screen to see who was calling.
Ali
Beth sighed and thought about her impeccable timing before answering with the cheeriest tone she could muster at that time.
"Hey, baby!" she exclaimed forcefully into the phone. She wore yet another insincere smile and shook her head at her own corny façade.
"Hi, Beth," Alison replied. "I called to ask how your day is going. Is everything all right?"
Beth balked and tried to analyse Alison's tone. For some reason, she couldn't read it and her guilt was devouring her. Did Alison know something about the shooting that'd happened just recently? How would she know anything about that already?
No, Beth told herself. There's no way she could know.
"Beth?"
But she never calls out of the blue like this unless it's an emergency. You know that, Beth. Her routine—you know her better than that.
"Beth, are you still there?" Alison's voice grew worried and Beth shook her head to clear her mind.
"Yeah," she answered. "Yeah I'm still here."
"Can you hear me okay?" Alison asked, her voice more relaxed now.
"Yes... I can hear you just fine," Beth replied, keeping her own tone mysterious. "My day's been... Eventful."
Beth chose that word carefully, not wanting to raise any alarm with Alison, but not wanting to lie to her either. She could almost feel Alison relax and the image calmed her down a bit.
"Eventful, huh?" Alison repeated. Beth grew more and more uncomfortable the longer the silence between her and Alison lasted. She opened her mouth to speak and fill the gap, but stopped once she realised Alison had decided to speak again in that same strange tone. "Can't wait to hear about it."
Beth didn't reply, for her fear stabbed at her once again. Had someone called Alison and told her what happened and was she trying to get it out of Beth?
No. Someone would've had to break code and release information before they should be, Beth reasoned with herself. You're just being paranoid.
"Honey, are you sure you're okay?" Alison asked once again. Beth nodded even though she knew the woman couldn't see her.
"Yes, Ali. I'm sure," Beth answered.
"Beth, I need to know—are you on the pills again?"
"You knew about those, huh?" Beth asked, ashamed that she'd thought she'd been hiding something from Alison or that she'd even tried. She heard a heavy sigh on the other end.
"Let's see, a few empty containers in the trash... One left in your pants' pocket... Yeah. I knew about them," Alison told her. She took a deep breath before repeating her question. "Beth, I really need to know... Are you on the pills again?"
"No, baby, I'm completely off them," Beth lied. She felt a pang of guilt as soon as the words left her mouth and she just had to say something else in hopes of finding relief. "I love you."
"I love you too, Beth," Alison's tone brightened as she spoke. It felt good to hear her say those words, but she found no such relief. "Hey, one more thing?"
"Yeah?"
"Blow me a kiss?" Alison requested. Beth squinted off into the distance, wondering why Alison had asked her to do something like that.
"Over the phone? Ali, c'mon... You're not serious..."
"Please, Beth?"
"No, no. I can't. That's weird," Beth replied, shaking her head with a small smile. "I'll see you when I get home, alright?"
"Okay..." Alison reluctantly answered. "I still love you, though. Even though you won't kiss me."
"Ali, I'll kiss you... Just in person, alright? Not through the phone. That way I can feel your lips on mine. Sound good?"
"Sounds great," Alison agreed. "Bye, Beth."
"Bye, Ali."
Beth hung up and stared at the phone. She hadn't even told Alison that she was coming home early. She shrugged and started the engine and the drive to the station.
. . .
"Beth? What're you doing home so early?" Alison asked, glancing at the clock as soon as Beth walked in. She rushed over to her and waited for an answer. Without replying, Beth pulled her closer and kissed her slowly and passionately on the lips multiple times. While she kissed her, she shrugged off her jacket and let it drop to the ground before she reached for Alison's ass. Alison slid Beth's hands off and gently pulled away as she breathlessly remarked, "What's gotten into you? Why're you being so affectionate today? Not that I mind..."
"I said I'd kiss you in person," Beth reminded her with a quick peck on the lips and a grin. "I'm just keeping a promise."
"You—" Alison paused and allowed Beth's lips to find hers again. "You never answered my first question."
Beth sighed and replied, "I took half a sick day or whatever you call it."
Beth reached for Alison again and the woman allowed herself to be pulled in by the detective. The cop embraced her tightly, pressing their bodies together. Alison distractedly played with Beth's silky brown hair before gazing into her loving eyes questioningly.
"Why? Beth, you said you'd stop missing so much work. This doesn't count as—"
Beth silenced her with another tender kiss.
"I know. I genuinely felt sick," Beth confessed, sliding her hands back down to Alison's ass and giving it a small squeeze. "Mm, but I'm feeling so much better now..."
She went for another kiss, but Alison dodged it and Beth could see the concern in her light brown eyes.
"You felt sick?" Alison asked worriedly, putting the back of her hand up to Beth's forehead to check for a fever. After a few seconds she commented, "You don't feel hot..."
"That's 'cause you're checkin' all the wrong places, babe..." Beth joked. She moved so that her lips were inches away from Alison's ear and whispered, "Might wanna check a bit lower—or would you like me to check you first?"
Beth slipped her hand down Alison's pants and kissed her softly on the neck. Alison gasped and dug her nails into Beth's clothed back and gripped her hair as the woman teased her and left kisses along her jawline. The detective savoured the sound of her lover's breath hitch and become laboured, which only drove her to please Alison more.
Alison swallowed hard and exhaled before breathily asking, "Are you going to tell me what happened today?"
Beth listened to Alison's heavy breathing, each respiration just short of a whimper. Alison moaned as she slipped a finger inside her folds and Beth felt the heat and wetness encasing her finger as she carefully took the woman's hair down from her ponytail. She raised some of Alison's hair to her nose and smelled it.
"Nothing too serious happened today," Beth told her softly and absentmindedly, more focused on keeping a steady rhythm with her finger rather than talking. "I promise."
She drew out another groan, louder this time, from Alison as she added a second finger and muffled it with a deep kiss, allowing the noise to pass from Alison's lips and past hers, swallowing its bliss.
"Oh really..." Alison replied, her voice husky with arousal.
"Yeah..." Beth whispered, kissing Alison back on the lips. "Really."
"Okay, then. Why did... Detective Bell call me today?" Alison asked, removing Beth's hand from her pants and looking at her seriously. Beth closed her eyes and sighed through her nose guiltily.
"What'd he say?" Beth asked, daring to look at her girlfriend. Alison glared irritatedly at her and put her hands on her hips.
"No. No. You're not getting an answer until you answer my question. Why did he call me today?" Alison demanded to know. Beth rolled her eyes and began walking away. "Elizabeth Childs, you get back here this instant and tell me why he called!"
"I don't fuckin' know! Okay, Alison? I don't fucking know!" Beth replied sharply, turning to face her and throwing her arms up. She raised her voice and continued with a nasty tone. "Maybe I could help you out with that if you answered my fucking question and told me what he said! Did ya ever think of that? Hm? Don't be stupid!"
"Don't you talk to me like that!" Alison commanded, scowling at the cop. Beth threw her hands up again, muttered something, and spun on her heel to continue walking away. Alison rolled her eyes and decided to leave Beth be. She knew from the moment she'd called her earlier that something wasn't right. She just had to wait for Beth to come to her.
