Fanfiction Chapter 6

"Hey, Jo, you got any ballistics you didn't have before on the body?" Carrie was sitting at her desk, not doing a whole lot when she heard the Medical Examiner behind her.

"Not after my original analysis on the body, that turned out to be pretty routine, I'll find out more when I cut her open, but I did find something on the hair and blood you found. Both belonged to some kind of dog, I'm running more tests to try and find out what kind."

"Could it have been a fox?" a voice from behind them made them both turn around. Roe was stood there, glancing over Jo's shoulder at the ballistics report.

"It could be, I'm running a full check now, we should know by tomorrow." Jo left, and Carrie suggested Roe check on Tanya. Roe seemed to jump at this opportunity and left. As he did so, Carrie felt a hand on her shoulder. She twisted around and saw the smiling face of Al looking down at her. He leaned closer.

"You're still avoiding my question," he whispered. Carrie gave herself a small smile.

"What question," she asked, twisting in her seat to see him properly. "I don't seem to recall."

"Oh you don't recall, huh? That's a first." He flashed her a small smile and planted a kiss on her forehead. "What's all this then?" he asked, gesturing to the paper on the table

"Evidence reports, I'm just going over it to see if any of you mere mortals missed anything,"

"Mere mortal huh? That what you think of me?"

"Well…"

Tanya's Lab

The lab was exactly how it normally was, except instead of being sat on her chair in front of her computer, she was curled in a corner, staring into nothing. The room was almost completely silent except for the occasional sniffle and the background noise of a microwave. He didn't even realise there was a microwave in here. Showed how little he noticed.

"Hey Tee, how are you feeling?" Roe was gentle with Tanya, gentler than he was with anybody, maybe with the exception of Stanley, the cat he has rescued.

"Well, you know, not great but I'll pull through. We hadn't spoken in years but it's just brought it all backup, you know. Now I know how Carrie feels, not able to let go of anything. Not being able to forget." Roe tentatively wrapped his arms around her and she put her head on his shoulder and she cried. Roe stood, awkwardly patting her on the back. Dammit, he really wasn't very good at this. He needed to relax. He breathed in and out and tried to relax. "You OK?" Tanya asked, looking up into his face. Dammit and blast, he thought.

"Yeah, I'm OK." He expected her to pull away immediately after the moment had ended, but she didn't. She stayed in his arms, looking into his eyes. Did she expect him to kiss her? The longer this moment had been put off the more and more nervous he had started to become about this moment. As he leaned down, and she leaned up to greet him, he closed his eyes. As their lips were about to touch and she was so close he could feel her breathing: the microwave started pinging. Tanya sighed,

"My lunch," she said. She turned towards the microwave and went over to it.

"Yeah? What you got?"

"Noodles."

"Nice. I'll let you enjoy that, I should probably get going. See if the team has any more um, leads. In the case." He left the room, nearly tripping over his feet in his haste to do so. As he went to shut the door behind him, he caught a glimpse of her face. She still looked sad, but there was also crushing disappointment and hurt in her face. It made him feel awful. If he was a braver person, he would have gone right back through the door and kissed her until she pushed him away. But he wasn't that person. He wished he was, but he wasn't.