Title: Moving On To Something New
Author: Lisa
Email: lisacheerio_85@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: See part one
Note: Considering I had no idea how to continue this I got help from Alli and Kate – thanks! – and it's turned into a bit of a long continuation...with some more parts! Hehe (This one's pretty short, just a bridge part I guess) :P
The sun was only just visible by the time Mac, Pete, Oscar and Angie had escaped the swarm of police wanting statements, interviews. The sky tinging light purple and the birds out. Anyone would have thought it was a completely different day, a better one. They split the taxi four ways and got out at Stone's place. Homicide had suggested they go somewhere quiet, get some rest, before heading off in different directions. Protection was being arranged even at that moment, but until then...
"Left your lights on?" Pete asked as they all approached Oscar's front door. He turned the lock with his keys.
"It's dawn mate, the country people are awake."
"Ah," he replied as they all forwarded slowly in.
The television was on, water boiling in the kitchen. His father spoke, not looking up.
"Nice to see you're back. Did you free your friends?" He laughed, and it was obvious they hadn't bought the whole 'trapped' excuse he'd fed them when he'd finally arrived home. "Really son, if you were out with Michelle you didn't have to lie-"
"Charlie!" Shirley exclaimed. She'd turned around almost straight away to see the four of them, all looking exceptionally depressed, one of the women – who seemed familiar – on crutches even. Oscar's father turned at that moment.
"Oh hello," he stated, deciding to forget anything he'd already said and start again.
"We were freed just fine dad," Oscar spoke softly, looking over at Mac, who managed a small smile in his father's direction. "I'm not sure if you remember these guys," he started again. "Mum, dad, this is Mac and Pete, and this is Angie."
"Michelle-" Shirley corrected. Oscar shook his head, taking Angie's hand.
"No mum, this is Angie."
"Angie?" She nodded.
"Yeah," was the whispered reply. "Sorry." Shirley shook her head.
"What's happened?" At that moment the phone rang on the kitchen bench. Charlie picked it up.
"Pierce residence," he answered, and Oscar cringed.
"Ellen Mackenzie," was the reply. Charlie looked up and over at Mac.
"I take it you're a Mackenzie?" She nodded and he handed her the phone after she'd hobbled forward somewhat.
"Yes?"
"Name, rank, serial number." Mac rolled her eyes at Pete and he grinned.
"Ellen Mackenzie, Detective Senior Sergeant, forgive me sir but I do not carry my ID with me due to my job. It starts with 912-"
"Good enough." Mac turned from the group, lowering her voice.
"I take it this isn't a social call Commissioner sir?"
"Not at all, you're moving house." Mac cast a brief glance back at her friends.
"Pardon? We were told we would be put in-"
"You'll be given a new location and you are to take your team there immediately-"
"Sir this is too soo-"
"None of that Mackenzie. The Commission's office had received a number of threats before this atta-"
"And still you did not inform us of any possibility?" Mac exclaimed, raising her voice a little higher.
"They were not of a particular nature, but we believe they were connected. Bring your team to Head Quarters; there you will conduct the brief with your own members and some new ones. You will then be given a new location."
"*I* will conduct the brief? Pardon my hesitation sir but I don't know anything- Did you read my statement? I was in a cupboard."
"Yes, with Church. You will tell them what you know, your theories. You will then be backed up by what we have uncovered. It will then be your job to find those responsible before they make another attempt on another section of the force."
"Sir I believe they were acquainted with only our unit-"
"Save it for the brief Detective Sergeant."
"My 'team,' as you call it, are not ready for this. We've just lost a member-"
"Not my problem Mackenzie, and for the record, I take offence to your tone. Be at HQ in twenty minutes or we will come and get you, split you up and take you all your separate ways, and I'm sure you don't want that."
"No sir, it's not necessary," she replied, clipped, angry. He hung up on her. "Prick," she whispered as she reached out over her crutches, putting the phone back on its hook and turning to face the others. She sighed, putting her hand to her forehead. "Mr and Mrs Pierce-"
"Shirl and Charlie hon," Shirley cut in. Mac smiled.
"Is this a social visit for you both? Do you have anywhere else you can go?"
"We just came down to see Cam and Shell," Charlie answered. Mac looked over at Oscar, grimacing.
"I think it might be best for you to return home. We have to get to work on this-"
"What?" Pete exclaimed. "We're not fit-" Mac raised her eyebrows.
"It's out of my hands."
"Even 'you' aren't ready for that!"
"I'm sorry, we're expected at HQ now." Oscar turned to his parents.
"Sorry guys, um, you never heard any of this all right?" They nodded. "We'll come up when it's all over." He looked over at Mac. Would it ever be over? His eyes asked her. She shrugged, looking away.
*
Pete helped Mac steady on her feet as they looked around their new workplace.
"This is bad," Oscar mumbled, stating the obvious. Angie looked over at him, sarcastic in her reply.
"Nice observation Stone!" He shrugged it off.
"Well we've worked in better conditions," Mac smoothed over, looking around. "That's for sure," she added under her breath. A couple of men were connecting the computers up, and one went looking for a power plug or two. The Commissioner approached them. Fancy seeing him here, Mac thought, knowing he was just after recognition to the fact that he was actually doing 'something' to catch these guys.
"We recovered the files from your office floor Mackenzie, it will be up to you to sort through them, to see if anything's missing and so forth."
"I didn't have my filing cabinet memorised sir."
"Bad luck. You'll be working with Gary and Paul helping with your desk over there. It's the big one." Mac smirked. "As I mentioned at HQ, you will still be given light-duty cases we think may help to break the constant investigative chain and also just because you're a good unit, and we have a lot backed up at the moment."
"That's something for Admin to sort out," Mac replied.
"If you're going to be that way about it-"
"Gary and Paul, is it?" She looked over at them. Similarly reminiscent of Stone and Church, except slightly around the wrong way: one tall and well built, the other shorter and skinny. She sighed, turning back to the commissioner. "I hope a lot of these 'cases' you'll be handing us on top of what you expect us to dig up concerning our own situation won't be involving many women? We only have two, and I'm not keen to introduce anything too hard-core to either of them at this point."
"How candid of you. I've noticed that, looks like you'll be in for a bit of extra field work." Angie rolled her eyes in the background.
"Okay then. Are you done here? I need to sort through those files." He nodded, smiling professionally.
"Of course, your desk is at the head of the others. Sorry about the dust, didn't have much of a chance to clean it. Another job for you maybe?" Mac didn't react.
"What about researchers, technicians-"
"From what I've heard Stone is a fine technician and so is Paul. Considering you presented at the brief the possibility that someone employed under you may have been responsible, we're not letting any of your former staff continue on. I presume you will be concentrating on them first?"
"That depends on how I feel I should run my investigation."
"Well run it fast, they're getting edgy." Pete couldn't take it any more.
"Mate, it's been what...maybe 5 hours since all of this? You want it done faster?" The commissioner looked at him blankly as Mac reached back, flicking her wrist at him to back off.
"We'll do our best sir-goodbye." She turned and hobbled past them all back to her desk, stacked with the recovered files. The other three looked at the commissioner, before turning and following their boss.
*
"Church!" Mac called, seated at her desk. She wasn't getting up, too much effort with the crutches. He looked up.
"Yep?" She held up a piece of paper that she read off.
"Your report. 1998. Uh...Lomas?" Pete's brow creased as Angie looked up, answering.
"That little Spanish girl Mac, kidnapping or something...Didn't you accidentally trip over some clay cutters or something?" Pete laughed.
"Certainly did. 'Member?" Mac thought back, not very far.
"Ah right yeah, have any of you found anything about my employees here?" Oscar nodded.
"I got stuff on Pete, Kaye, Bernie-"
"Minor employees?" she corrected. They shook their heads.
"It's somewhere Mac but this is a lot of paper." She put her head in her hands.
"All right, who could have known about that passage?"
"How often did you use it?" Angie asked.
"Not very often. If I was staying late the sink would be closer to get water from than the tea room but- Church?"
"Only when I was spying on you!" He winked. Mac wasn't impressed. "No, uh, not much."
"Did Bernie use it much?"
"I can't say really. I guess when he was staying here."
"So who could have known?"
"Well Mac," Oscar cut in. "We've been working here for ages and we had no idea." Mac grimaced, pushing her chair back and grabbing her crutches. "Where you going?"
"To look around this dump for a moment. Where are the other two?"
"Cleaning the equipment I think."
*
Paul and Garry stopped talking as Mac approached the doorway quite obviously, the old wooden floors making the sound of her clunking along much louder. Mac had managed to sort out who was who. Paul, the electrical guy, was the tall, strong one, and Garry was the leaner, smaller man. Both very different but in undercover, that was probably a good thing.
"Yeah boss?" Paul asked. Mac smiled.
"Mac, please, everyone does." They nodded. "You guys taken a good look around here?"
"Yep," Garry answered. "It's a bit of a dump."
"I've noticed. Are these the police tapes from the scene?" she motioned to the stack of tapes and recorders on the table.
"And what was recovered from your archives." Mac nodded.
"Mind if I take a look?"
"Not at all. All clearly labelled." Mac paused.
"Why don't you two go and talk with Oscar, Ange and Pete, eh? You'll be working closely together. I don't want any rifts." They nodded, getting the idea and forwarding out as Mac took a seat, resting her aides against the desk and inserting one of the tapes into the VCR, watching the television in front of her.
*
Angie looked up and smiled as Paul and Garry entered.
"Hi!" she greeted. They nodded back, smiling slightly.
"Boss sent us out to talk to you all." Pete laughed.
"We won't bite ya. Mac's like that. Need to trust each other. Uh...Where is Mac?"
"Watching some videos," Paul replied. Pete stood, walking off to find her. He knew what she was watching, and maybe it was stupid, but he didn't want her to be watching it alone. "Where's he going?" Angie smirked.
"It's all right, they have a thing."
"A thing or 'a thing!'?" Garry asked. Oscar laughed as Garry and Paul took a seat.
"Just the standard I think."
*
Mac jumped as Pete put his arms around her, leaning against her back.
"Just me," he whispered, leaning his head into hers and looking into the TV, where the young constable was giving commentary to the video camera. "See anything?"
"Mm, they had a key to the locks on the lower windows, yeah? But no key to any of the other doors or file storages or things like that."
"You're the only one with most of those keys." She nodded. "It's something though."
"It's nothing. Really we have less than a chance-"
"Maybe it wasn't as well-planned as they thought, or-" he paused. "Mac maybe they tried to get the keys in the final stages, but for some reason they couldn't." Mac reached up and ran her hand along his arms draped across her collarbone.
"Maybe..." She finally turned her head to look up at him. He managed a smile. "I think it would be good to go back there, look around myself." Pete nodded after a moment's hesitation.
"How about you get some rest before then, eh? We all need it." "Yeah," she whispered. "God knows if there'll be any beds here though!"
"Oh no, there are, uh...down that long thin hallway past the desks. Come on, I'll show you." She nodded, accepting his offer of a hand up.
Mac got out ahead of him and Pete turned back, remembering they'd forgotten to shut down the television and video. He walked forward in time to see Danni's body identified by Oscar formally. Pete watched for a long moment, before switching the screen off quickly. Had they even known she'd been pregnant? Had they cared? Not likely either way he assumed.
"Pete-" Mac stated softly, holding her hand out to him. He nodded, walking slowly to her. "We'll go back. There'll be something there. There has to be."
TBC...
Author: Lisa
Email: lisacheerio_85@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: See part one
Note: Considering I had no idea how to continue this I got help from Alli and Kate – thanks! – and it's turned into a bit of a long continuation...with some more parts! Hehe (This one's pretty short, just a bridge part I guess) :P
The sun was only just visible by the time Mac, Pete, Oscar and Angie had escaped the swarm of police wanting statements, interviews. The sky tinging light purple and the birds out. Anyone would have thought it was a completely different day, a better one. They split the taxi four ways and got out at Stone's place. Homicide had suggested they go somewhere quiet, get some rest, before heading off in different directions. Protection was being arranged even at that moment, but until then...
"Left your lights on?" Pete asked as they all approached Oscar's front door. He turned the lock with his keys.
"It's dawn mate, the country people are awake."
"Ah," he replied as they all forwarded slowly in.
The television was on, water boiling in the kitchen. His father spoke, not looking up.
"Nice to see you're back. Did you free your friends?" He laughed, and it was obvious they hadn't bought the whole 'trapped' excuse he'd fed them when he'd finally arrived home. "Really son, if you were out with Michelle you didn't have to lie-"
"Charlie!" Shirley exclaimed. She'd turned around almost straight away to see the four of them, all looking exceptionally depressed, one of the women – who seemed familiar – on crutches even. Oscar's father turned at that moment.
"Oh hello," he stated, deciding to forget anything he'd already said and start again.
"We were freed just fine dad," Oscar spoke softly, looking over at Mac, who managed a small smile in his father's direction. "I'm not sure if you remember these guys," he started again. "Mum, dad, this is Mac and Pete, and this is Angie."
"Michelle-" Shirley corrected. Oscar shook his head, taking Angie's hand.
"No mum, this is Angie."
"Angie?" She nodded.
"Yeah," was the whispered reply. "Sorry." Shirley shook her head.
"What's happened?" At that moment the phone rang on the kitchen bench. Charlie picked it up.
"Pierce residence," he answered, and Oscar cringed.
"Ellen Mackenzie," was the reply. Charlie looked up and over at Mac.
"I take it you're a Mackenzie?" She nodded and he handed her the phone after she'd hobbled forward somewhat.
"Yes?"
"Name, rank, serial number." Mac rolled her eyes at Pete and he grinned.
"Ellen Mackenzie, Detective Senior Sergeant, forgive me sir but I do not carry my ID with me due to my job. It starts with 912-"
"Good enough." Mac turned from the group, lowering her voice.
"I take it this isn't a social call Commissioner sir?"
"Not at all, you're moving house." Mac cast a brief glance back at her friends.
"Pardon? We were told we would be put in-"
"You'll be given a new location and you are to take your team there immediately-"
"Sir this is too soo-"
"None of that Mackenzie. The Commission's office had received a number of threats before this atta-"
"And still you did not inform us of any possibility?" Mac exclaimed, raising her voice a little higher.
"They were not of a particular nature, but we believe they were connected. Bring your team to Head Quarters; there you will conduct the brief with your own members and some new ones. You will then be given a new location."
"*I* will conduct the brief? Pardon my hesitation sir but I don't know anything- Did you read my statement? I was in a cupboard."
"Yes, with Church. You will tell them what you know, your theories. You will then be backed up by what we have uncovered. It will then be your job to find those responsible before they make another attempt on another section of the force."
"Sir I believe they were acquainted with only our unit-"
"Save it for the brief Detective Sergeant."
"My 'team,' as you call it, are not ready for this. We've just lost a member-"
"Not my problem Mackenzie, and for the record, I take offence to your tone. Be at HQ in twenty minutes or we will come and get you, split you up and take you all your separate ways, and I'm sure you don't want that."
"No sir, it's not necessary," she replied, clipped, angry. He hung up on her. "Prick," she whispered as she reached out over her crutches, putting the phone back on its hook and turning to face the others. She sighed, putting her hand to her forehead. "Mr and Mrs Pierce-"
"Shirl and Charlie hon," Shirley cut in. Mac smiled.
"Is this a social visit for you both? Do you have anywhere else you can go?"
"We just came down to see Cam and Shell," Charlie answered. Mac looked over at Oscar, grimacing.
"I think it might be best for you to return home. We have to get to work on this-"
"What?" Pete exclaimed. "We're not fit-" Mac raised her eyebrows.
"It's out of my hands."
"Even 'you' aren't ready for that!"
"I'm sorry, we're expected at HQ now." Oscar turned to his parents.
"Sorry guys, um, you never heard any of this all right?" They nodded. "We'll come up when it's all over." He looked over at Mac. Would it ever be over? His eyes asked her. She shrugged, looking away.
*
Pete helped Mac steady on her feet as they looked around their new workplace.
"This is bad," Oscar mumbled, stating the obvious. Angie looked over at him, sarcastic in her reply.
"Nice observation Stone!" He shrugged it off.
"Well we've worked in better conditions," Mac smoothed over, looking around. "That's for sure," she added under her breath. A couple of men were connecting the computers up, and one went looking for a power plug or two. The Commissioner approached them. Fancy seeing him here, Mac thought, knowing he was just after recognition to the fact that he was actually doing 'something' to catch these guys.
"We recovered the files from your office floor Mackenzie, it will be up to you to sort through them, to see if anything's missing and so forth."
"I didn't have my filing cabinet memorised sir."
"Bad luck. You'll be working with Gary and Paul helping with your desk over there. It's the big one." Mac smirked. "As I mentioned at HQ, you will still be given light-duty cases we think may help to break the constant investigative chain and also just because you're a good unit, and we have a lot backed up at the moment."
"That's something for Admin to sort out," Mac replied.
"If you're going to be that way about it-"
"Gary and Paul, is it?" She looked over at them. Similarly reminiscent of Stone and Church, except slightly around the wrong way: one tall and well built, the other shorter and skinny. She sighed, turning back to the commissioner. "I hope a lot of these 'cases' you'll be handing us on top of what you expect us to dig up concerning our own situation won't be involving many women? We only have two, and I'm not keen to introduce anything too hard-core to either of them at this point."
"How candid of you. I've noticed that, looks like you'll be in for a bit of extra field work." Angie rolled her eyes in the background.
"Okay then. Are you done here? I need to sort through those files." He nodded, smiling professionally.
"Of course, your desk is at the head of the others. Sorry about the dust, didn't have much of a chance to clean it. Another job for you maybe?" Mac didn't react.
"What about researchers, technicians-"
"From what I've heard Stone is a fine technician and so is Paul. Considering you presented at the brief the possibility that someone employed under you may have been responsible, we're not letting any of your former staff continue on. I presume you will be concentrating on them first?"
"That depends on how I feel I should run my investigation."
"Well run it fast, they're getting edgy." Pete couldn't take it any more.
"Mate, it's been what...maybe 5 hours since all of this? You want it done faster?" The commissioner looked at him blankly as Mac reached back, flicking her wrist at him to back off.
"We'll do our best sir-goodbye." She turned and hobbled past them all back to her desk, stacked with the recovered files. The other three looked at the commissioner, before turning and following their boss.
*
"Church!" Mac called, seated at her desk. She wasn't getting up, too much effort with the crutches. He looked up.
"Yep?" She held up a piece of paper that she read off.
"Your report. 1998. Uh...Lomas?" Pete's brow creased as Angie looked up, answering.
"That little Spanish girl Mac, kidnapping or something...Didn't you accidentally trip over some clay cutters or something?" Pete laughed.
"Certainly did. 'Member?" Mac thought back, not very far.
"Ah right yeah, have any of you found anything about my employees here?" Oscar nodded.
"I got stuff on Pete, Kaye, Bernie-"
"Minor employees?" she corrected. They shook their heads.
"It's somewhere Mac but this is a lot of paper." She put her head in her hands.
"All right, who could have known about that passage?"
"How often did you use it?" Angie asked.
"Not very often. If I was staying late the sink would be closer to get water from than the tea room but- Church?"
"Only when I was spying on you!" He winked. Mac wasn't impressed. "No, uh, not much."
"Did Bernie use it much?"
"I can't say really. I guess when he was staying here."
"So who could have known?"
"Well Mac," Oscar cut in. "We've been working here for ages and we had no idea." Mac grimaced, pushing her chair back and grabbing her crutches. "Where you going?"
"To look around this dump for a moment. Where are the other two?"
"Cleaning the equipment I think."
*
Paul and Garry stopped talking as Mac approached the doorway quite obviously, the old wooden floors making the sound of her clunking along much louder. Mac had managed to sort out who was who. Paul, the electrical guy, was the tall, strong one, and Garry was the leaner, smaller man. Both very different but in undercover, that was probably a good thing.
"Yeah boss?" Paul asked. Mac smiled.
"Mac, please, everyone does." They nodded. "You guys taken a good look around here?"
"Yep," Garry answered. "It's a bit of a dump."
"I've noticed. Are these the police tapes from the scene?" she motioned to the stack of tapes and recorders on the table.
"And what was recovered from your archives." Mac nodded.
"Mind if I take a look?"
"Not at all. All clearly labelled." Mac paused.
"Why don't you two go and talk with Oscar, Ange and Pete, eh? You'll be working closely together. I don't want any rifts." They nodded, getting the idea and forwarding out as Mac took a seat, resting her aides against the desk and inserting one of the tapes into the VCR, watching the television in front of her.
*
Angie looked up and smiled as Paul and Garry entered.
"Hi!" she greeted. They nodded back, smiling slightly.
"Boss sent us out to talk to you all." Pete laughed.
"We won't bite ya. Mac's like that. Need to trust each other. Uh...Where is Mac?"
"Watching some videos," Paul replied. Pete stood, walking off to find her. He knew what she was watching, and maybe it was stupid, but he didn't want her to be watching it alone. "Where's he going?" Angie smirked.
"It's all right, they have a thing."
"A thing or 'a thing!'?" Garry asked. Oscar laughed as Garry and Paul took a seat.
"Just the standard I think."
*
Mac jumped as Pete put his arms around her, leaning against her back.
"Just me," he whispered, leaning his head into hers and looking into the TV, where the young constable was giving commentary to the video camera. "See anything?"
"Mm, they had a key to the locks on the lower windows, yeah? But no key to any of the other doors or file storages or things like that."
"You're the only one with most of those keys." She nodded. "It's something though."
"It's nothing. Really we have less than a chance-"
"Maybe it wasn't as well-planned as they thought, or-" he paused. "Mac maybe they tried to get the keys in the final stages, but for some reason they couldn't." Mac reached up and ran her hand along his arms draped across her collarbone.
"Maybe..." She finally turned her head to look up at him. He managed a smile. "I think it would be good to go back there, look around myself." Pete nodded after a moment's hesitation.
"How about you get some rest before then, eh? We all need it." "Yeah," she whispered. "God knows if there'll be any beds here though!"
"Oh no, there are, uh...down that long thin hallway past the desks. Come on, I'll show you." She nodded, accepting his offer of a hand up.
Mac got out ahead of him and Pete turned back, remembering they'd forgotten to shut down the television and video. He walked forward in time to see Danni's body identified by Oscar formally. Pete watched for a long moment, before switching the screen off quickly. Had they even known she'd been pregnant? Had they cared? Not likely either way he assumed.
"Pete-" Mac stated softly, holding her hand out to him. He nodded, walking slowly to her. "We'll go back. There'll be something there. There has to be."
TBC...