He sits in his car reluctant to step out into the night. He'd gone home first to shower and change even though what he'd been wearing all day was perfectly acceptable for this type of event. How many times had he attended drinks in honor of a fallen colleague? He can't put a number to it. The locations differ but the process is always the same. Drinking. Stories told. Laughter and memories. A picture placed on a wall. A way to draw a line under the death and move on. Not to forget but to continue living. A way to avoid the unspoken fear that it could happen to any of them at any time. Dwell on it, let it become your bete noire and you'd soon be looking for another job. Paula. Pacci. Kate. He'd done it for all of them and now it's McC's turn. Maybe one day someone would do it for him.
A buzz from his phone interrupts his thoughts. He flips it open and calls up the text message.
Sparr Cpt owns ldybd snks. B crfl. He smiles and texts back. U McParanoid. Will b crfl.
Typical Tim. It simply had to be a coincidence but there McGee was watching his six. His mind jumps to the memory of his first meeting with Sparr. Checking her out as she walked away. He grins. Both Ziva and McGee had encouraged him to get to know Andrea better and their reasons were sound. Maybe tonight would be a good time to start on that road. Then again there was that babe from Norfolk PD Missing Persons that Phil used to rave about. Into music and movies. What was her name...Lesley something? He steps from the car, locks it and heads towards the bar.
She can feel the eyes on her as she crosses the crowded room to the bar. Eyes that observe her every move every day just waiting for her to slip and fall. Eyes filled with resentment and even hate. Mostly but not all of them male. The eyes of the old timers for whom it is not personal. It's just gender. No woman should be in the police force especially not in the position she's in. It's not right. The eyes of some of the younger generation who have a different problem. Their problem is not her gender but actually her. They wanted the chair and the office she now has. They resent her for being in the job that they went for. She's used to these eyes and watching her six but sometimes it makes her so tired.
One set of eyes is different though. She has no doubt that as she waits for her order to be filled at the bar special agent Tony DiNozzo is checking out her butt. Same as she did his when they first met. He seems a good guy and a good agent and it would've been fun to have a fling back when they crossed paths on the Rowe case. Now however she's looking for something more as she mentioned to agent David this morning. Could DiNozzo now be looking for something more serious too? Tonight might be a good night to begin to find that out.
"Em. Em. Wake up. Need you." A voice is whispering and a hand on her shoulder gently shaking her. Exhausted from being near the end of a double shift she doesn't want to wake. To tear herself away from a very pleasant dream of Brad and lying in his arms. Today is their four year wedding anniversary but sadly it's not him trying to wake her. He'd stayed in the Navy and was currently tending to the wounded at a base hospital in Afghanistan. Not due back for another month. She'd moved into the civilian system and changed her specialty after a good friend had been assaulted.
She sits up, yawns and stretches. "Okay, what have we got?" Her colleague hands her a chart that she flicks through as they leave the room and head to the exam area.
"Patient reports that she was raped. No obvious signs of physical injuries or indications of alcohol or drugs involved. Might be a date rape. Came in alone. She's clearly in shock and not speaking much. Just keeps repeating that she scratched him."
"That's good." Such a small thing but a skin scrapping from under fingernails could lead to DNA. This in turn could lead to a conviction and getting the s-o-b off the streets but first she has a job to do. Her colleague walks on to the nurse's station and Em steps into the exam room.
The woman seated on the exam bench is in her late-thirties. With one hand she is clutching the edge of paper thin gown and tugging it down over her knees. The fingers of the other are tapping on the bench. The gown is slipping off one shoulder making the bite mark there clearly visible. She looks up as the nurse enters but won't meet her eyes.
"I'm here to take care of you. Can you tell me what happened?" The woman shakes her head.
"You told the admissions nurse you were raped?"
The woman nods.
"Okay then. We'll take this slowly and I'll talk you through it." She walks over to a side cupboard and begins to take out the things she'll need. "I'll check you over and take a rape kit. You'll need it if want to go to the police."
"I am the police." Did she speak the words aloud or only in her mind? There's no response so maybe she only said them in her head. Actually going through with this was proving to be much harder than she had anticipated.
The nurse turns from the cupboard back to the woman. "I'm so sorry. I haven't introduced myself. Double shift must be catching up with me." She smiles warmly. "I'm Emma Ingram-Pitt the specialist rape care nurse and you are?"
"I said I am the police. Lieutenant Andrea Sparr. Metro PD. Homicide."