Keats Juniper Remington entered the Crime Lab of Miami Dade. Her days were numbered, she knew, so she made an effort to enjoy each and every minute.
"Good morning, Ms. Remington. How are you, today?" A chipper voice sang. Keats sighed inwardly and turned around to face her nightmare of nightmares. The only person who had the power to threaten her enjoyment...The Personnel Assistant Becky Rogers.
"I'm wonderful. You?" She said with fake sincerity. Becky had been stepping all over her toes for the past week, ever since she'd notified everyone of her pregnancy. Not only had she made it impossible for Keats to do field work until after she'd returned from her maternity leave, but she also prevented her from doing certain lab activities, due to harsh chemicals and such.
All Keats was left with, unfortunately, was a steady supply of paperwork. The least exciting part of the job.
"I hope you've been taking it easy, there." She said in a babyish voice. She pointed toward Keats' tummy and made a childish face that gave Keats the urge to vomit.
"Don't worry. I've been careful." Keats managed to say through the nausea.
"Obviously not, or you wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place!" Becky laughed. Keats did not. Becky hid the laugh by clearing her throat straight afterwards.
"Do you know what today is?" Becky asked. Keats was beginning to despise Becky's condescending tone of voice.
"Oh, surprise me!" Keats gave a forced smile. Becky pulled a white lab coat from behind her back and waved it around proudly.
"I get to follow you around and monitor the safety of your activities!" She squealed. Keats had no idea that a Personnel Assistant was in charge of protoccol for pregnant officers. But then again, according to Becky, there were a lot of things that she didn't know. Keats swallowed a multitude of nasty comments and headed toward the audio/visual lab, the only place she was allowed to go save for one of the offices.
Cooper was fiddling around with a sound bite, trying to take out all the white noise in order to hear the segment properly. Keats came in and sat down beside him. Immediately he tensed up and turned away from her, focusing on the screen. Keats bit her lip and cursed Ryan Wolfe on the inside.
"Cooper...c'mon. There's no need to be weird around me. So what if I'm pregnant? That doesn't change our relationship." Keats said. Cooper flinched as if she'd slapped him and he rotated around his floppy chair to face her. He glanced upward at Becky Rogers and made delicate motions for her to leave. Becky Rogers, however, was nonplussed.
"Becky, do you mind giving me a moment alone with Cooper?" Keats asked. Becky turned up her nose and opened her mouth as if to protest.
"Please, Becky. Just a minute?" Keats turned up her eyes and made her lower lip stick out, hearkening back to the days of childhood. What else would a child respond to better than another child?
Becky was moved by the gesture and stepped out slowly, nodding as though she understood perfectly. Keats cocked her head to the side, mildly amused that her pouting had worked. She shook her head and turned to Cooper. Cooper was visibly uncomfortable.
"Listen, Keats...I don't know if I can handle this. I thought I had a chance with you, and then I find out that you're knocked up by a guy I can't stand. What am I supposed to do?" Cooper exclaimed. Keats immediately felt hurt by his admission, particularly the phrase 'knocked up.' But she figured he had a damn good reason to be angry.
"I'm sorry. I really am. But I can't change any of this, now. The best we can do is move on, Cooper. Can't we still be friends?" She asked. Cooper acted as though he'd been severely offended by the question and rose out of the chair quickly, darting out of the lab before Keats could call out to him. Keats rubbed her forehead in frustration. Damn.
Keats left the audio/visual lab, running to catch up with Cooper even though she had no idea what to say to him.
"Keats, hold on." Someone called. Keats looked over her shoulder and acknowledged Natalia Boa Vista walking briskly up the hallway. Keats slowed and waited for her.
"We have a suspect for the double-murder at the hoagie shop. But you are never going to believe who it is..." Natalia opened a file and handed her a picture of a fingerprint in the puddle of blood. Keats stared at it and shrugged.
"Who?" She asked. Natalia seemed rather reluctant to say, but she took a deep breath.
"Morgan Flannery." She said. Keats' mouth hung open in shock.
"My Morgan Flannery? My ex-boyfriend Morgan Flannery? That Morgan Flannery?" Keats asked in one breath. Natalia nodded vehemently.
"I didn't want to say anything until I was 100 percent sure."
"Hold on...why is he in the database anyway?" Keats asked. Natalia's eyes shifted around guiltily, like she was hiding a secret.
"Natalia." Keats said warningly. Natalia nodded.
"All right, all right. Morgan was indicted on a false charge last year concerning conspiracy. He was accused of loitering money from his place of employment, First National, which turned out to be a set-up. He was framed by another employee at the bank."
"What? He lives here?" Keats felt her brain nearly pop.
"He moved here around the time of your internship and last semester at Miami U. Can somebody say 'stalker'?" Natalia joked. Keats gave a weak laugh.
"So he lied when he told me...well...he never actually told me anything..." Keats began to realize. She suddenly thought of herself as the biggest fool in the world.
"Keats, don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing. He's just one of those people that always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Natalia tried to console Keats as best she could.
"His fingerprint in a gigantic pool of blood? How can that be accidental?" Keats shrieked. A few officers walking by gave her worried looks. Keats sighed loudly.
"What's the matter?" Calleigh Duquesne asked in her fresh southern drawl. Natalia and Keats jumped with a start.
"Nothing." Keats said.
"Yeah, nothing. Just checking out the fingerprints of our prime suspect." Natalia added.
"You didn't tell me he was the prime suspect." Keats whispered. Natalia gave her an apologetic glance.
"I sincerely hope that if you aren't objective to this case, you'll back down." Calleigh said.
"Oh, I'm objective. I barely know the guy. Passing acquaintance..." Keats said. Calleigh nodded, unconvinced.
"I don't want to give anyone the chance to question your work, Junie. I know things are already complicated enough as it is. Congratulations, by the way." Calleigh said, heading on to the ballistics lab.
"Prime suspect?" Keats asked again, twisting around to look Natalia in the eye.
"Unfortunately, yes. We don't have a murder weapon to print, so we just have the shells to go by. He's the only person we've got so far."
"This is rich. Oh, man...what should I do? I have to help him somehow, but I don't want to compromise the evidence. Ugh..." Keats bit the edge of her thumb nervously. She felt a light tap on her shoulder and spun around.
"It seems to me that you have your answer, don't you?" Becky said shrilly. Keats tightened her lips and suppressed a grunt.
"Ms. Rogers, what exactly do you mean?" Keats wondered.
"Well, you're obviously under an extreme amount of stress due to this case. I'm required to eliminate anything stressful from your job because of your delicate condition." Becky explained. Keats furrowed her brows together disconcertingly. Oh, why don't you bite me???
"Fine. There you go, Natalia. Good luck with the case." Keats said, slipping off to the lounge to get away from Becky Rogers. Becky Rogers followed her, and continued to do so for the rest of the day.
Keats entered Ryan's apartment and collapsed onto the sofa with a heavy groan. Becky Rogers was beginning to make her life a living HELL.
"Rough day?" Ryan Wolfe asked, lingering at the front door. He had made sure that their shifts ended at the same time so he could be with her.
"Tell me about it...Becky Rogers is one crazy ho." Keats said with a grin. In truth, she loved their new arrangement. The two of them lived together because Keats had nowhere else to stay on such short notice. But they weren't lovers in the least. Ryan had been sleeping on the couch and whatever conversation they shared consisted of non-controversial subjects.
It amused Keats to think that he was wrestling with himself over the paternity of her baby. She felt that he deserved it for doubting her. Ryan was also fighting with himself over whether or not to apologize. His pride was winning out thus far, but Keats knew it was only a matter of time before they were back together. At least, that's what she hoped.
"Yeah, well. I'm not too crazy about you working anyway." Ryan mumbled. Keats gave a short laugh, wondering if she'd heard right.
"Don't tell me you're one of those traditionalists. Little wifey needs to stay home and take care of the children, etc."
"You know I'm not. If you were a librarian or a doctor then it wouldn't be an issue. But you're a cop. Danger comes with the territory." Ryan said, coming to sit beside her on the sofa.
"Why are you concerned? As far as you know, the baby is Cooper's." Keats teased. Ryan's temper was visibly flaring.
"I've had enough, Keats. If this baby is mine, I want to know. I have a right to know." Ryan grabbed hold of her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. So close that she became nervous and could feel her heart beat faster. She loved the feeling and hoped it would never go away.
"Ryan, don't be stupid." She said, shrugging out of his grip. Perhaps she was a tease, but at least it kept Ryan on his toes.
"Stupid? What am I being stupid about?" He asked.
"Why would you think that I've been intimate with Cooper?" She shot back. Instead of waiting for him to answer, she stormed out of the room. She went into the bedroom that they had shared once upon a time, and slammed it hard behind her. Ryan followed, knocking on the door with fierce rage.
"You promised we wouldn't talk about this!" She yelled from the other side of the door.
"Too bad. I want to talk about it!"
"Well I don't!" Keats said petulantly. She waited for a response and was confused when she heard nothing but silence.
"Ryan?"
She heard Ryan emit a low groan, as though he were in pain.
"Are you okay?" Keats asked, opening the door swiftly.
Ryan was kneeling on the floor, his hand over his eye. His eye? Oh, no...
Keats knelt to the floor beside him, asking him about the pain. She then leapt to her feet and ran to the nearest phone, dialing an ambulance with trembling fingers.
"I'm okay, Keats. You don't have to call." Ryan stood up slowly, removing his hand from his eye. Keats replaced the phone in its cradle near the sofa, warily glancing at him to make sure he was all right.
"What was that about?" She asked. Ryan shook his head and went into the kitchen for a bottle of brew. Keats was hot on his heels.
"You've been having problems with your eye again...why didn't you tell me?"
"Because nothing's wrong!" He shouted, slamming the refrigerator door. Keats stood back, mildly frightened of his heated temper. Ryan saw the look in her eyes and gave a sigh.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell." He said, taking refuge on the couch and flipping on the television. Keats wondered if she should sit beside him and talk to him, or if she should just leave him alone.
"I'm sorry, too. But you have to know how much it hurt me that you thought I slept with Cooper." Keats said, sitting on the arm of the sofa. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
"You know something? It's a lose-lose situation. Either I have to face up to my responsibilities as a father, or else I have to share your past with Cooper."
"Read my lips: I did not sleep with Cooper." Keats snapped. Ryan's expression remained stone-faced.
"I know."
"Hey! Why don't you believ- What?" Keats gave him a puzzled look. Ryan leaned back on the sofa and patted the seat next to him. Keats sat beside him gingerly.
"I've known."
"Then why...I don't think I understand." Keats began. Ryan gave a light shrug.
"I don't know why I said those things. Anxiety? Immaturity? Take your pick." Ryan rubbed the back of his neck.
"Ryan..." Keats began, massaging his shoulders consolingly. After all, she had been through this exact state of mind two weeks before.
"I know that it's hard to take care of babies, and I don't think I'm up to it." He said. Keats tried to hide her disappointment, but she made herself understand his place.
"You don't have to be. Listen: my Aunt Roe once told me that all parents are clueless when they first start out. When the baby comes, the parents know next to nothing. But eventually, as the child grows, so does the experience of the parents. It won't seem that bad, Ryan. Really." Keats said. Ryan glanced up at her.
Without warning, he wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in a tight hug.