By the time Bella got back to the NCIS office with the coroner's report in hand, she was exhausted. She hadn't felt this way ever since turning. Every motion took an effort like she had just run a marathon. Okay, that might be a bit of an over exaggeration, but you get the point.
Chris was by his desk, holding his head in his palms, trying to block the brightness of the sunlight out, while Sonja was busy in the back where the kitchen of the building was located.
Before checking out what the other girl was up to, the brunette trotted up the stairs to Pride's office to hand the report over to him. All of this was of course in their digital database of the case too, scanned and uploaded by Loretta earlier, but Dwayne preferred the physical thing instead of staring at a screen all day long. Since the files were stored for data security reasons in paper format too (just in case a daring, talented hacker or the end of the world or something decided to erase all their hard drives), and had to be filed away anyway, this didn't really cause extra work. They just had to make sure to get the original reports as soon as they were ready rather than waiting for them to trickle down the system.
"Thanks," Pride mumbled absentmindedly, already scanning through the main points. "Did Loretta mention anything that stood out during the autopsy?"
"Yeah, the murder weapon might not be the kitchen knife after all, the wound looks too wide compared to the ones we do have from the set, but it's possible that the missing knife is a wider model too," she relayed the message. That was a bummer too, but this was what forensic work looked like. You came up with theories, had hunches, then they got proven true or false by the evidence. Though she hadn't given up hope yet, just have to find that damn knife. "And the vic's ID is definitely Staff Sgt. Lyall Brooks, the fingerprints confirmed it."
"I see. Check in with Percy regarding the witness reports, maybe that will get us somewhere," he gave her the next task to focus then turned back to the autopsy report.
"Techs haven't found the knife yet right?" the agent double checked.
"No, not yet," Dwayne confirmed, after which Bella left, leaving him to reading over the report.
She found Sonja still in the kitchen, seemingly concocting something. The smells emerging from the counter – almost definitely only she could be detected by her keen nose – caught her attention though. Bella ventured closer, peering over Percy's shoulder to find that she was crushing and mixing a bunch of herbs. Most of which couldn't even be bought off the street according to Bella's extensive research. Serious witchcrafty stuff.
"Whatcha makin'?" the vampire asked innocently. Though why she bothered to look unassuming, she didn't know. If Sonja was really a witch, or more specifically if she had tapped her powers, then she would already know what Bella was.
"Mom's secret hangover cure that I mentioned earlier," Percy replied without a hitch. Positively not acting like someone who got caught red-handed doing witchcraft.
"Looks disgusting," Bella commented. It really did. "How did she come up with this?"
"I think my grandma taught her," the black girl shrugged, thinking nothing of it. Family "recipes." Sure.
Bella was reasonably sure Sonja had no idea of the supernatural. None of her vital signs indicated that she was lying. Her maternal side of the family most definitely did though. Let's just hope she would never have to meet them.
"Well, if it works… I just pity LaSalle already," the brunette grinned. As far she could tell there was nothing dangerous among the ingredients, they were just tough to come by since most were already extinct species of plants, usually only grown in secret in the greenhouses of specific coven members who then traded their goods within their community.
"Yeah, it's bitter as hell. I had the 'pleasure' to taste the stuff in my teenage years. Not sure if Mom had just left me to suffer through the day with my headache and everything would have been better or worse. LaSalle here though has to work to do, so he'll have to suck it up," Sonja ranted on with an expression somewhere between fondness and good-humored teasing, anticipating his face when he finally downs the magical cure. Literal magic cure, though neither of them knew that.
The way Sonja talked about Chris also told the other agent that there might be something going on between the two, unsaid feelings if nothing else.
"That he does… Hey, can I look through your witness notes without you? Pride wanted us to comb through them together, but I'd like to get to it," the newer agent inquired on her way out, itching to do something, or else she might fall asleep. Might as well be something productive.
"Sure," the black girl agreed with a little laugh at her eagerness.
The job in NOLA was definitely more laid back than in D.C. Not that back there the boys didn't goof off whenever they could, but even their office space here had a much more relaxed vibe than HQ at the Navy Yard. It felt like they were working out of someone's back garage or something, and there was no SecNav, NCIS Director or agents with sticks up their asses to breathe down their necks.
By 2 PM Bella was hungry again, and she had the nagging feeling that she would have to go hunting again soon too. Tomorrow at the latest. She had combed through everything and the only thing standing out to her was the fact that some neighbors had seen a "young lady" come and go from the house for the past couple of weeks. Girlfriend maybe. Though none could give a name for her. Lyall was definitely not the chatty neighbor. All accounts pointed to the fact he kept mostly to himself. But they did have a description: petite, blonde, aged mid to late 20s. A dime a dozen, but still it was more than nothing. And they knew that she had visited the victim just the day before his death in the afternoon.
"Do we have the base gate security camera footage?" Bella inquired out of the blue. If the mystery mistress wasn't from the base, then she had to go through gate security to visit Brooks.
"Huh? Yeah, sure, just ask Plame to pull them for you," Chris waved her off, already resting his head back, too out of it to actually realize that maybe he ought to call the guy since Swan definitely didn't have a way of contacting him.
No to mention that Bella didn't even have the slightest idea who Plame was, but that wasn't going to stop her from getting what she wanted.
"Hey, do you know who Plame is? Chris mentioned the guy in regards to getting the security footage from the base," Bella wondered into the kitchen again to ask the other girl.
"He is our computer expert, I'll call him in a sec," Percy replied helpfully, just about finishing up with her concoction, fishing her cell phone out of her pocket.
A few minutes later Sonja returned to the room to give Chris give his "potion." The word would have made Bella choke on her own spit in surprise if she hadn't already established earlier that Sonja had no idea what she was talking about. How she stayed utterly clueless in a witchy household Bella couldn't even begin to guess at. Maybe when her career choice became evident, they just didn't initiate her. Though that should have happened in the early teens.
As promised the drink of herbs mixed into tomato juice was "bitter as fuck" as their patient had put it, but within five minutes of drinking it LaSalle felt like a whole new man. A black guy in a wheel chair rolled in just then, and as recognition flashed on both of her fellow agents' face, she dared to guess that he was the famous Plame.
"Patton Plame, meet Agent Swan, she just got transferred here," Chris introduced her swiftly, and she bent down to shake his hand, vaguely wondering whether accident or illness caused his disability. The thought that vampirism could easily cure either passed through her mind briefly too, though she didn't entertain the idea seriously. She could never do this to another person.
"Just Bella," the brunette smiled, already getting tired of that phrase. She hated being the new girl, but hopefully, this was the last of the awkward first impressions.
"Triple P will suffice for me too," he smirked at her cockily, which of course caused LaSalle and Percy to roll their eyes at the nickname, then wheeled himself to a computer promptly. "So what do we need, security footage?"
"Yes, in and outgoing traffic from all Belle Chasse gates between 3 and 6 PM yesterday. We are looking for a blond woman, mid-late 20s." Thank god for nosy neighbors, watching your every move. Murder investigation would be a bitch without you.
"On it," the computer guy got onto the task immediately, pulling up the feeds in four separate windows, flash-forwarding them to only stop at when there was a car approaching, pausing it swiftly to see if the driver or any of the passengers met the description then moved on.
"Stop it right there," Bella exclaimed suddenly after couple minutes of fruitless screen watching, pointing to the top right corner window on the screen.
"What? That wasn't a blonde," Patton frowned but backed up the footage anyway.
"No, but her hair is completely covered by a baseball cap," the brunette explained, which soon became evident to others who possessed lesser eyesight too. Was that deliberate on her part? Did she have something to do with Lyall's murder? "Sonja, could you call the base guards, to see who was leaving the base through… Gate C, at 4:42 PM yesterday?"
The time was a little early compared to the witness' estimate of when the girl left, but still, they had to check. Percy got on the phone instantly.
"Keep going with the footage till we know for certain," Chris prompted Plame on, but soon they had reached the end of their estimated time frame and no one else matched.
"Kelly Lambert," Sonja came back with a name and Patton searched for her in the citizen database with the other information they had on her from the gate entry logs.
Her driver's license appeared on the screen, and behold, she was a 27-year-old, blond girl. Bingo.
"Last known address?" Bella inquired then scribbled it down on a note and handed it to Sonja. "Update Pride, okay?"
"Don't you want to tell him? You were the one who came up with the idea how to identify our witness," the black girl frowned. In no way did she want to steal the credit.
The vampire smiled at her kindly for the gesture, but she wasn't looking for brownie points with her new boss. Promotions and other perks were the last things on her mind.
"No, go ahead, I want to check something else first. Take LaSalle with you. Maybe you two could go question Kelly together, hm?" Swan winked at the other girl, at which Chris promptly blushed.
"Come on, Percy," he snatched the note from Sonja and made haste towards Dwayne's office.
Plame regarded the new addition to their team with a scrutinizing gaze for a few seconds.
"Crafty one, aren't you? No one had them so flustered before," he remarked, grinning like a fool. Her fellow agents had a shipper for sure.
"And I wasn't even trying," Bella laughed out. Not that she wanted to go matchmaking.
"So what else are we looking at?" Plame got back to business, glancing at her expectantly.
"Outgoing traffic from 2:45 AM this morning onward. Time of death was around 3 AM but let's leave a margin of error, and we are looking for anyone with a bloody nose, busted lip, or a black eye or something," Bella listed her parameters.
"That's very specific," Patton commented with amusement.
"I have a theory," she shrugged nonchalantly, eyes glued to the screen.
Sonja and Chris came barreling down the stairs a minute later, getting the car keys to head out.
"Have fun, kids!" Bella called after them good-humoredly. Funny thing was that even if you counted her vampire years, she was still the youngest on the team. By a far margin. And physically she would stay nineteen forever. If they had known that technically a teenager was their star agent… "Don't forget to get back before curfew!"
"Very funny, Swan!" Chris shot back sarcastically, but the red tinge of blush that was still somewhat visible to her vampire eyes flared up just a tiny bit, along with his heart rate, matched by Sonja's.
The black girl mouthed at her "seriously?", but Bella was already turning her attention back at the security footage. Unfortunately an hour later, and reaching present time with all videos, there was still nothing.
"Theory debunked?" the guy in the wheelchair tentatively asked.
"Or the perp never left the base. Maybe another Marine," the agent sighed as she thought through what the results could mean, rubbing her temples. She was starting to get a headache, and all she wanted was to curl up under a blanket and sleep the rest of the day away.
"Hey, you alright?" Patton glanced at her with worry.
"Yeah. Could you quickly check the base medical records if anyone came in with a broken nose today?" Bella quickly added. That was a slim chance. The guy had to be really stupid to get medical help, but a broken nose might have been the only thing bringing him there if it was severe enough.
"Give me a sec," Plame fired away on the keyboard. "Nope."
"Oh, well. Had to try. Anyway, thanks for the help," she gave him a small smile. "Gonna update Pride."
"Sure, thing. I'm heading out, but call if you guys need anything else," he waved, starting to head out.
"Do you need a ride or something?" the brunette offered, not knowing how Patton got around.
"Nope. Got my Triple P mobile," the black guy smirked again, waving as he rolled out.
Bella shook her head, trying not to laugh, then headed upstairs.
"Boss?" she peeked into his office after a knock.
"Anything new?" Dwayne glanced up from his papers.
"Just had Patton check for anyone with facial injuries leaving the base after the time of death, but nothing. Thinking maybe the murderer is still on base, possibly a Marine?" the agent reported as she stepped in further.
"The extent of the defensive wounds would suggest the perp gave a lot of trouble to Brooks. Definitely well built, so that would fit," Pride agreed with her.
"There is nothing else to do until the lab results or Sonja and LaSalle come back from the mystery girl, could I maybe head out? I still have to organize my move to the apartment," Bella lied, but she desperately needed to get out. The room started closing in on her, and all she could concentrate on was the steady pulse under her boss's neckline. The urge was getting as strong as if she hadn't been hunting for weeks. Fuck tomorrow, she had to go tonight.
"Sure thing. Oh, you still owe me the address," he remembered suddenly.
Swan hastily jotted it down on a scrap of paper, then bolted out with a haphazard see you tomorrow.
By now it was 4 PM, and Bella relished the open air, the tunnel vision lifting from her senses, but she was still hyper-aware of the humans milling around. Hunting. She had to go hunting. But first thing's first, she had to go talk to Klaus.
As she reached the compound with a swift five-minute walk, Bella had herself somewhat under control, but now the hunger that had been bothering her a few hours earlier came back with a vengeance. The brunette made her way straight to the kitchen and peeked into the fridge to see if there was something that tickled her fancy.
Eggs. Lots of them. She took the whole container out and proceeded to make a huge batch of scrambled eggs. It was almost like a craving.
"Got a big appetite in more ways than one, Sis," someone remarked teasingly from the entrance.
Bella turned around, startled out of her mind. A guy with dark brown hair, loosely resembling Elijah stood there with an amused smirk on his face.
"I'm so sorry, where are my manners? Kol Mikaelson," he introduced himself mockingly with an exaggerated bow. "Though I guess you didn't have yours on yourself either when you were all over my brother as he rushed you to his bedroom."
Fuck, Bella thought internally while she tried to keep a cool outer front. Honestly last night she wasn't concentrating on anything besides Klaus's lips on hers as they made their way into the compound. It didn't even register with her that some of the other residents might have seen them.
"Uhm, Bella. Bella Swan," the girl muttered, turning self-consciously back to the stove to avoid burning her food.
"Yeah, I know," the Original commented off-handedly, leaning against the wall with arms crossed. "Nik won't shut up about you."
"Sorry. I guess?" Bella glanced to her side with an apologetic frown, though some sass did manage to seep into her tone. Seemed like each first start with every member of this family had to be awkward and stand-offish. She didn't really want to prove herself to anyone again honestly.
Kol just laughed heartily.
"Don't worry. You're fine," he winked at her, grabbing an apple from the basket on the table. "Guess I better get your Don Juan then."
With that Kol walked out, biting down on the piece of fruit mischievously. Bella felt like she was pranked, or put to some test, one that she had seemingly passed, but again there was the insinuation from yet another relative that Klaus couldn't possibly want anything permanent from her, and that frustrated her out of her mind. In her irritation, she even bent the fork that she was holding into a curvy abomination of itself.
Bella took a calming breath and sat down at the huge dining table to eat after carefully reshaping the utensil into its original form.
"You came home early, love," Klaus beamed at her as he rushed into the kitchen, kissing her on her hairline to allow her to continue eating without interruption.
"I had a good excuse. I have a faux apartment to move into," the brunette got right into the middle of it, not really seeing a point in trying to dance around the issue.
"You want to move out?" the Original inquired quietly, but that tone could have held anything from hurt to menacing threat.
Of course, he remembered their initial deal, not living together (not even being seen together in public, though that was a moot point now), and their current set up only being a temporary arrangement, until she found an apartment in the city, but honestly he couldn't help but feel disappointed. In the last few days, he thought things had started to change between them. Going somewhere. Last night seemed like proof to that.
"Not particularly… Unless you want me to, of course," Bella replied honestly, finding his face utterly unreadable at the moment. "But I have to give a semi-permanent address for my work file, and that can't be this one."
"You already found someplace then?" Klaus asked, a bit relieved, but still somewhat wary of the situation.
"Yesterday, yes," the agent confirmed, not actually planning on getting into detail as to how she found the place and the arrangements she managed to "negotiate." Not that she worried the werewolf hybrid would disapprove of her blatantly exploiting her vampire powers, but she didn't want to reveal the reason behind that decision. "I wanted to mention it earlier, but then… you know… we got kind of distracted."
The reminder of last night's activities got Niklaus grinning like the Cheshire cat, raw hunger and lust for her evident all over his face. Guess sequels were coming. No, not in a theater near you…
"So what does 'moving in' entail in your understanding?" he asked in sly amusement, hiding his smirk behind his fingers.
"Just taking a couple of stuff over so that if someone wants to come by I can at least pretend to live there. But I wasn't planning on spending much time there," Bella explained, quickly shoving another mouthful of food into her mouth before Klaus could ask something else from her.
"Did you not have lunch?" the Original asked as he watched her devour the plate of food, made from like a dozen eggs.
"I did," she nodded, mouth still full, her reply sounding so innocent, especially with her eyes going wide as she swallowed quickly. "But I'm just so hungry. Have been all day actually. I have to go hunting too."
"Do you reckon you will have space left in your belly for that?" Klaus couldn't help but chuckle at her teasingly, but there was just a hint of concern on his face. She had gone hunting just two days ago, and he remembered well that she usually went much longer than this before thirst became a problem. Under normal circumstances that is. Maybe the confrontation with Lucien was still taking its toll on her.
Bella just threw him a dirty glance, not deigning that question with an answer, and finished off her food finally. She took her plate to the sink, rinsed it off then placed everything the dishwasher.
"Does the lady wish company for any of her errands?" the werewolf hybrid asked coyly if she minded him tagging along.
The agent's face warmed with a smile at the suggestion and took his hand in hers, gently curling her fingers intertwined with his.
"Who knows, maybe I need saving from a big bad elk…" the brunette nudged him lightly.
"Then better have the big bad wolf along your side," he winked at her, blatantly flirting, then leaned into her neck, ghosting kisses all the way from her ear to her collarbone.
"Touché. That was a low hanging fruit," Bella murmured breathily, acutely aware of his free hand roaming higher and higher on her side and back. Her mind was already spinning with hot sex, and she had to actively tear herself away. "Let's get everything done first, then we will have plenty of time for this later."
"I'll hold you to that promise, love," the Original whispered into her ear before releasing her from his hold.
"I didn't expect anything less," the agent laughed, tugging him along towards the entrance of the compound.
Once out in the daylight again, they slunk away into some back alley to get out of public sight and ran at full speed whenever they could. Outside the city, they found a forest with some game pretty quickly. Bella wasn't planning on making this an extended hunting trip for carnivores. Perhaps on the weekend.
Like last time Klaus just watched, not intending to actually partake in her "vegetarian" diet, but Bella couldn't help but notice that his eyes never wandered from her for more than a couple seconds.
Honestly, he might have had a point regarding her stomach already being full with human sustenance, because she became sated much sooner than she had expected. The sensation wasn't particularly comfortable, but she wasn't about to whine about a belly ache. Klaus still noticed that something was up.
"Are you all right, love?" he asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she quickly replied, trying to sound reassuring. "Uhm. How do you feel about a trip to a convenience store?"
"I don't believe I have ever been to one," the werewolf hybrid quipped back cheekily.
"Never?" Bella stared, dumbfounded.
"Well, they have been invented well after my time," Klaus elaborated, humor seeping into his voice, winking at her like he was letting her in on some private joke. "And I always had minions to send for those scarce items I might actually need from such a place."
"Huh. I guess you have a point. Better late than never then," the brunette shrugged, her face lighting up with purpose as she grabbed his hand again.
They say go big or go home. Well, that was actually what Bella did. Instead of finding some corner shop run as a family business or something, she dragged Klaus all the way to the Walmart Super Center at the edge of the Garden District. Might not have been the wisest idea to go into such a crowded place, given her earlier bloodlust, but she was confident in her self-control after the hunt.
Klaus definitely looked like fish out of water, and Bella had to stifle of a laugh, desperate not to offend him. Domesticity was not a good look on the Original that was for sure, but pushing a shopping cart around on his girlfriend's insistence couldn't be called anything else. He was a fairly good sport about it too, following Bella around as she strolled from isle to isle, haphazardly throwing things like toothbrushes, shampoos, and stuff into the cart.
He wouldn't have said anything, even when she placed in a few clothing items in, but then they got to the foods.
"I thought you weren't going to spend time at the apartment," the Original frowned like a child who was denied candy.
"I'm only buying a few non-perishables. Like I said I have to sell it to anyone coming over that I live there. I could always say that I don't really cook, and order take-out for main meals, but I have to have some drinks and snacks or something to make it believable," Bella explained, flinging a few more things in.
The werewolf hybrid stayed quiet for a few minutes, just watching her.
"Why do you bother with trying to fit in at all?" he asked finally, honestly not understanding her reasoning.
"I don't know. I guess habit. I'm still too new to being… you know," the girl shrugged, hyperaware of avoiding the word vampire.
"Don't worry. I am not judging," Nik gave her a tight smile, rubbing her arm reassuringly before tucking her under his arm. And reassured she was.
They were soon done, and Klaus even insisted on paying despite all of Bella's very loud and obnoxious protests. They got some dirty glances, but all in all, they looked like any other squabbling couple. There was an odd normalcy to the whole proceeding.
Despite her bravado, it was nice to be out in the open air again as they made their way back to the compound, much, much easier to ignore the pulse of heartbeats around her.
"Do you have everything?" Klaus inquired, two large shopping bags still in hand as Bella sorted through the stuff in her duffel bags if there was anything in there that she didn't really need and could be stowed away at the apartment.
"Yeah, let's go," she straightened up, holding just a few items that she stuffed into one of the bags, then swung her satchel over her shoulder, making sure she had the keys to the new place too.
Just for appearances sake, they took her truck, Bella driving despite Klaus's protests. In turn, she let him carry her bags upstairs without a fuss. Compromise, the foundation of a relationship, right?
The building itself gave suspicions to the Original, but the state of the apartment rose that one notch further. Federal agents didn't make much money, did they? How did Bella afford the place?
Okay, it wasn't luxurious, super high-end or particularly huge as far as apartments went, but was right on the edge of the French Quarter, and obviously pretty new, or recently renovated – either way a rarity in this part of town – furnished with beautiful, modern furniture, fully stocked with all the appliances she could possibly need. He had a pretty good understanding of the real estate market in the city to know that apartments like this went for around $1,500 if not more.
He took a quick tour to look around while Bella busied herself with putting everything away in the kitchen and bathroom, then cutting off the tags from the cheap lingerie, shirts, and pants to stow away into the dresser.
"Sorry that took so long," Bella sighed with her hands on her hips when she was done, taking one last glance around. She didn't own many trinkets or stuff that could visibly make the place homey anyway, never did, so if anyone asked, she just didn't have enough time yet to make the apartment her home. Not that she planned to.
"Not a problem," the Original smiled at her, then decided not to bring up the issue of her finances. He hoped very much that if she was ever in trouble, she would ask for his help, but being a vampire and all she might have made "special arrangements" to be able to afford the place. "Let's go home."
Bella beamed up at him, giving him a quick peck on the mouth, before letting him lead her out. As she was locking up, another thing occurred to Klaus.
"Do you mind if I send Freya over sometime to ward the apartment? Just in case. And maybe compelling the owner wouldn't hurt either," he suggested. Even if she wasn't going to be here a lot, especially overnight, she would be still vulnerable those few times.
"I already did. If you noticed, you had no problem coming over the threshold," the agent chuckled, especially at his befuddled expression as he recalled their arrival. She wasn't sure if it would work but had the lady who owned the place say the words that "Klaus Mikaelson is welcome in the apartment." Turns out the vampire in question doesn't need to be present for the invitation to work. "As far as wards go, that isn't such a terrible idea. Here," she said, dangling the keys in front of him.
First, he almost wanted to say that as a powerful witch Freya surely could let herself in anytime she wanted, but took the keys anyway. It was a sign of trust. And he would take that in any shape or form he could get it from her.