CHAPTER 6
The search for Devon at the Civic Station came up futile. Every person they spoke to, who were actually willing to speak with them, claimed to not have seen Devon for a few days. Their patrol through the local park was no different. Besides the one homeless man who claimed to have pertinent information, they had come up empty handed. Either people hadn't seen Devon, didn't know of him, or where lying.
After what felt like an eternity, they decided to call it quits.
"Well that's two hours I'm never going to get back," Julian said dryly as he and Tara walked down the basement corridor of the hospital in the direction of the morgue.
"That's all on you," Tara shot back good-naturally. "You could tell the guy was 10-96 before he even opened his mouth. Why did you have to engage in conversation?"
"I was just being polite," the taller of the two proclaimed in exasperation. "I didn't think giving him five minutes of our time would result in a forty minute one sided dialogue on mind control and the assassination of JFK!"
"Good rule of thumb, Julian," Tara said through a reserved smile as she tried not to snicker at her friend, "if they're wearing a tin foil hat and mumbling to themselves about conspiracy theories, chances are, they're not all there in the head."
"Point taken." he replied as he pushed open the double doors to the morgue. "Next time I'll let you take the lead on canvasing."
His attention quickly pulled away from his partner as Julian approached the medical examiner sitting at her desk, his voice chipper as he called out a greeting. "Good afternoon Dr. Rosenberg."
"You got anything for us Red or is this another waist of our time?" Tara asked none too friendly as she followed behind Julian toward the medical examiner; eyeing the slim woman. "We're really busy and don't have time for pointless yammering."
Rolling her eyes skyward at the detective brash approach, Willow replied back dryly as she spun around on her chair to face the sour-faced brunette. "Detective Maclay, good to see you too. But, question, if you're here whose running hades?"
Bug eyed, Julian shot a look at the redhead before twisting his head to the side to look at his partner, noticing her nostrils flaring while her jaw clenched repeatedly. He did several double takes between the two, noticing that they were lock-eyed in a silent standoff. Growing uncomfortable, Julian cleared his throat loudly before Tara had time to rebuttal, "ladies, if we could be civil for a moment that would be great."
Ever so slowly, Willow pulled her eyes away from the blue storm clouds raging inside Tara's irises. "Of course, I'm sorry Julian," Willow replied sweetly as she turned toward the male detective, shooting him a pleasant smile. Shifting her position slightly, Willow reached for the clipboard sitting on her desk. "Here are my findings," she said as she handed the clipboard to the male detective.
Julian scanned the first page swiftly before flipping to the next one, his eyebrows drawn down in contemplation. Chancing a glance toward the redhead, he drew his attention back to the document before pursing his lips together. Looking to his friend, Julian held out the clipboard for the brunette to take, hoping silently that she could make heads or tails of the examination file.
As soon as the clipboard left his hand, a shrill sound of a cell phone alarm rang out in the quite room. Bashfully, Julian reached a hand inside of his blazer removing his phone from the interior pocket. Glancing down at the screen he recognized the precinct phone number. Pressing talk on the device, he brought the phone up to his ear and gave Tara a stern look.
"Wallace, go ahead." Julian replied professionally into the receiver. As the person on the other end of the line spoke, the muscle above Julian's right eye twitched uncontrollably. "Damn phone. Harris …. Harris, is that you?"
Even though he was the only one speaking, Julian raised his free hand to his head, using his index finger to plug his ear to block out noise. "Harris, you're breaking up. Harris … hold on a sec, I'm in the morgue, let me find better reception."
Pulling the phone away from his ear, Julian exchanged looks with Tara before turning his attention to Willow. "Are you going to be okay if I step out for a moment?" he asked the duo skeptically, looking between the two.
"Yes, we don't need a babysitter. We are adults…," Tara said disgruntle as she rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Are you?" Julian shot back sarcastically. Against his better judgement, Julian took a step backward away from the two silently fuming women, his left index finger jutting out to point at his partner. "I'll be back in five minutes, behave yourself."
With that, Julian turned on heel and headed for the exit, his loud voice booming in the hallway as he resumed his conversation with Detective Harris.
The two women stared at each other in disdain for several long moments before Tara finally broke eye contact. Lifting the forgotten clipboard, the brunette began to read over the notes. Just as Julian did, Tara quickly scanned her eyes over the initial page before swiftly flipping through the sheets, her own eyebrows pulling together. After several moments of attempting to read the hand written report, Tara let out a loud, frustrated exhalation before tossing the clipboard back onto the table. "I can barely read your chicken scratch, care to fill me in on what all that medical jargon says?"
"That chicken scratch is cursive," Willow replied pointedly as she snatched the clipboard off of her desk. "You know, something you learn in third grade."
"What's your problem?" Tara barked out gradually.
"My problem?" Willow asked perplexed, her right hand coming up to poke the center of her own chest. "You're the one who has the problem. Would it kill you to politely ask for help or to be polite in general?"
"Probably," Tara shot back smugly, a snarky grin spreading across her face. In her best faux polite voice, "fine, can you please explain to me what you wrote down in your report? There are a lot of fancy, unnecessary words in there."
"Since you put it so politely," Willow retorted mockingly. "I'll even use small words so that you'll be sure to understand"
"Cute," guffed the brunette as she placed her hands on the swell of her hips. "But it's pretty simple, no? Knife, stomach, sever trauma, death. Hey look, I summarized your pretentious report in five words."
"I have neither the time nor the crayons to explain this to you Detective…" proclaimed the medical examiner condescendingly.
"That's it," Tara growled through clenched teeth as she slapped the clipboard out of Willow's hand. "Do you want to go? Give me your best shot," Tara encouraged, egging the redhead on to hit her. "Come on, give it to me."
"Okay," Willow replied nonchalantly as she stood up from her chair. Resting her hands on her hips, she looked up into the brunette's ice cold eyes. "I think you're an arrogant, pigheaded, heartless, narcissistic woman whose immense beauty is over shadowed by an ugly personality. And honestly, I'm surprised you've made it this far in life with a friend still by your side."
Taken aback, unprepared for a verbal attack instead of a physical one, Tara looked at the redhead in shock, her mouth slightly opened. "Did you ... are you insulting me?" she questioned a moment later when the medical examiners words finally sunk in.
"I'm not insulting you," Willow stated firmly as she stood her ground. "I'm describing you."
"You know nothing about me," snarled the detective. The redhead's words hurt, stung even, because Tara knew they were right on the money. She had built up this rough-exterior persona over the years to keep those around her at arm's length. Somehow, Julian was the only person to have ever break through her walls, mainly because he was not only persistent but down right determined to become friends during academy.
"Oh, but I do," shot back the redhead. "You're an insecure, scared little girl who gets her jollies off by cutting down those around you so you can feel better about your miserable existence. You're a bully, who more than likely peeked in high school and becoming a Detective was the only way you could stay relevant. How am I doing?"
Before she could process the movement, Tara was lurching towards her. Scared, Willow shuffled backwards, her feet keeping in time with the Detective's brisk movement until she was flushed with the wall behind her. Startled, Willow flinched as Tara slammed her left palm roughly against the cold wall inches above her shoulder, the detective's outstretched arm blocking the redhead from moving.
Stunned, she looked up into the brunette's hardened expression, noticing her irises were completely dilated. In a menacing whisper, Tara leaned forward, "watch yourself, Rosenberg. You're skating on thin ice."
"And if I don't" Willow responded daringly, her own face shifting forward slightly as she stood her ground. "What are you going to do about it? Hit me?"
"Worse. I'll make your life a living hell, "she proclaimed; her nose inches from the medical examiner, as her breath tickled against the redhead's lips.
"Like you haven't already," recanted the redhead. "I loathe working on cases with you."
"Feelings mutual sweetheart," rebutted the brunette, her words were menacing but her tone was anything but. "When I see you, I ..." Tara faltered, she wasn't sure how to proceed. She knew what she should say, something witty and cutting to keep up the allure of her aloof no-nonsense demeanor. But a part of her, the rational side of her brain, was berating her, screaming at her to tell the truth. For once in your life be open and honest about your feelings.
"I just ... you make me ..." She opened and closed her mouth several time, her breathing heavy as she tried to formulate a coherent sentence. She wasn't sure what her next move was. All she was sure about was the unfamiliar feeling swirling around in her stomach from being so close to the medical examiner.
"Make you what?" questioned the redhead, her breathing labored.
"You... you make me..." Tara tried again, her words slowing as she stared straight into the pathologists hunter green eyes, noticing the pupils dialating.
Willow's darkened emerald eyes suddenly shifted rapidly, back and forth from the brunette's alluring stormy blue eyes to her slightly parted lips merely inches away from her own. In baited breath, "are you going to kiss me, or not,"
Tara licked her lips subconsciously as she peered into the medical examiners eyes. Slowly, she lifted her right hand to grip the neckline of the pathologist scrubs, a gesture meant to pull the redhead closer.
"Maclay, what the hell are you doing?!" hollered Julian as he came back into the morgue, his eyes wide in fright as he viewed his partner's threatening stance. "Let go of her!"
Shocked at being caught in such a compromising position, Tara jumped backwards, her eyes shifting embarrassingly from the redhead to her fuming partner.
"Julian, I …" she didn't get a chance to finish as Julian marched toward her, gripping her elbow tightly.
"Let's go," Julian snarled as he roughly shoved the brunette toward the door. He stood in place momentarily watching his partner disappear through the double doors before turning to Willow. "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"
"N-no …. No, I'm fine," Willow stammered as she lifted her hand to her mouth, silently processing what had just transpired. What would've transpired if Julian hadn't interrupted.
"I'm so sorry Doctor Rosenberg," Julian apologized wholeheartedly. In all of his time as Tara's partner, he had never known her to be physically aggressive towards someone who wasn't a perp. He gave the pathologist a weak smile, guilt washing over him for leaving the two alone together.
He waited for a response but when none was forth coming, he gave the woman a slight node before heading for the exit.
"Are you insane?" Julian hollered down the hall, his loud voice booming off the cement walls. "Or are you trying to get fired?"
"You're over reacting Julian," Tara proclaimed as she turned around to stare at her partner. "Nothing happened."
"Nothing happened," he snarled, his face reddening further as he marched down the hallway, his temper flaring "You had her pinned against the wall with your fist gripping her shirt. That's not nothing."
"It's not what you think, really." Tara felt torn. She wanted to tell her best friend that he caught them seconds before making out, that there hostility toward each other was actually months upon months of pent up sexual frustration and that Willow was in no way being harmed. But she couldn't. She didn't want to hurt him.
"What I think is that you were a second away from physically assaulting our medical examiner." He eyed the brunette darkly, daring her to speak. "If she files a complaint ..."
"She won't," Tara mumbled.
"How can you be so sure? Not like you guys are on the best of terms."
"I just do."
"Well, I'm not as optimistic as you I guess." He gave her a disbelieving shake of the head. "If this goes to IA, if they ask me what I saw ... I can't lie for you Maclay."
Julian was done standing in the constricted hallway. He needed out. He needed to distance himself from his partner. Without another word, he walked away, leaving the brunette to trail behind him at a more sedate pace.
