Carter was inconsolable, he broke down over the dead body, and refused to leave her there. Jimmy and Kenny practically had to pry Sue's corpse out of his arms, so that the rest of the medical team could take her to morgue.
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Max met Kenny's gaze as he and Jimmy came back to the station a few hours later. Pale, with dark circles under his eyes, Max ached to embrace him and hold him close to her. Jimmy didn't look much better, and she knew that Carter was home sedated. Everything seemed to be falling apart, her friends were dying, and she had almost died six weeks ago.
"How's Carter?" she asked Kenny quietly.
He turned towards her, with that pained expression in his blue eyes and shook his head. "Not good. He shouldn't have had to see her like that."
Max squeezed his hand under the desk. "I know."
"Kenny, Max," Jimmy called. "My office, now."
They exchanged a quick glance, and filed in. Jimmy sat behind his desk, and the lines on the face were set in stone. He was burying his pain the same way they were, and they all knew that it would take Carter along time to get over this.
"I spoke with the authorities in Green Bay, and they ran these cases through their computers. They've had nothing similar in this area," Jimmy began. "They are rushing the DNA taken from the semen on Rebecca, and Carla is going to send them some from Sue to see if they match. I want you two to find out everything in these women's pasts. Anything that would tie them together, I don't care how insignificant it may seem. Max, are you cleared?"
"Yes," she said. "Trust me, I'm fine."
"Good," Jimmy said. "Both of you go, now."
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Max paced around Kenny's apartment, her mind racing, as he grabbed two beers from the kitchen. They had spent hours that afternoon poring over the two women's histories and setting up interviews for the following day, but nothing seemed to connect them together besides living in Rome and being female. The shock of losing two friends so close together fueled Max's desire to get this guy. She didn't get close to people to easily, and she refused to lose anyone else.
Kenny watched her furrowed expression, and tried not to worry about her taking on too much too soon. I know her, he thought to himself, she'll go after this guy full out even if it kills hurt. Remembering Carter's collapse at scene, and almost losing Max all those weeks ago, he vowed that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her now. He didn't know if he could handle it.
"Have a seat," he said, handing her a beer. "You've worked hard all day, take a break."
Max shot him a look, and let him pull her down on the couch next to him. Popping the top of her beer, she took a long swallow before replying. "I keep thinking about Carter. I don't know how he can deal with this, he was so crazy about her."
"Yeah," Kenny agreed. "You want to go check up on him?"
Max nodded. "I don't think he should be alone. I know Bone's with him, but he might need someone to talk to."
"Let's go."
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"Someone killed Sue!" Matthew Brock exclaimed. "Carter Pike's girlfriend, gross. I heard they cut off all of her extremities, and replaced them with"
"Matthew," Jill snapped, cutting off his litany. "Stop. Now. A woman is dead, show some respect!"
"I bet it was Chuck Dante," Zach said. "He was so mad that his show got cancelled after Max got shot, so he just went crazy."
"Enough," Jimmy said. "Both of you."
"C'mon Dad," Matthew whined. "Who do you think did it? This is Rome, it's probably someone weird, like a midget who lives in a cave with a killer nun, and only eats potatoes. Or someone else just snapped."
"Matthew, go upstairs," Jimmy commanded after his son listed of traits of some of the most bizarre cases he had ever come across. Stress, too much stress, he thought. Small town America, what happened? I'm supposed to be keeping this place safe, and mayors are getting shot, women are being killed, and my own sons think it's some big joke. What is happening to the world?
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"Hello, Your Honor," Max said when Henry Bone opened the door at the same time the Brock boys were coming up with their own murder suspects. "We came to see how Carter is."
Henry eyed the young couple for a moment, and noted that despite the concern and worry he saw in their eyes, they looked quite happy together. At least something is going right, the judge thought.
"He's not good," Henry replied. "On sofa, in the living room. He won't talk to me, so good luck to the two of you. He keeps yelling out for Sue."
"He didn't deserve this," Kenny said, tightening his arm around Max's shoulders. He didn't know that he would have fared much better then Carter if he had lost her.
"Come on in, see if you can do something for him," Bone said sadly, leading them into the living room. "I'll be upstairs if you need anything."
They stood in the threshold, and saw Carter in the fetal position on the couch. He clutched a throw pillow between his hands, and Max winced at strangled sobs that were coming from him. He looked utterly devastated, and like he had lost everything that was important to him. Moving hesitantly, and not really sure what to say, they made their way slowly into the room.
"Carter?" Max said softly, not knowing what to say next.
"We just wanted to see if you were all right," Kenny finished lamely.
He looked up from his misery, eyes blurred by pain and hissed. "All right? Of course I'm not all right."
Max gulped at the venom in is words, and felt Kenny pull her closer to his side as Carter continued. "Why Sue? She never did anything…. I love her."
"We don't why," Kenny started before he was cut off.
"Well find out," Carter raged, leaping from the couch. "I'm never going to sleep again without seeing her…like that! The least you could do is find out who did this! I don't want sympathy! I don't want to talk about it! I want her back! Some of us don't get second chances!"
"Okay," Max said weakly, as Carter collapsed back onto his seat, and buried his head in his hands. "You know that we're here though."
Carter looked up at his two friends, and tried to make sense out of it all. Their arms around each other, providing some comfort to the other. He stifled a moan at never having that comfort again, willing his voice not to shake. "Just find out."
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Silently Max and Kenny entered his apartment after sitting with Carter for awhile longer. Nothing either of them said made a difference, so the three just sat in silence. Bone had joined them after awhile, and Carter eventually drifted off to sleep. Heart heavy, she sunk into the sofa cushions. She studied Kenny, as he collapsed down next to her. He's been so good to me, Max thought as she had for the past few weeks. So protective, even to the point of annoying her. Since the first night she was home from the hospital, they hadn't tried much physical contact besides cuddling together. And knowing Kenny how she did, Max knew that it was difficult for him to do that. For her too, they were both very physical people. With a sudden desire to be held, just be consumed by something besides the sadness and hurt of the past few months, Max shifted so she was facing him.
Kenny turned to look at her, and she took his face in hands as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Max leaned in closer, and brought her mouth to his, gently at first, then with ardent hunger. Throwing her arms around his neck, she pulled him in even closer and devoured his mouth with hers. Groaning, Kenny responded by slipping his hands up the back of her sleeveless blue shirt and lowering his head to her neck. Max let out a deep moan, as his hands found her breasts and he lifted her shirt off. Pulling away slightly, he stared at her body with blatant admiration in his eyes. Max subconsciously placed her hand over the still fresh scar, as Kenny leaned in to kiss her again. Max pushed back his shirt, several buttons popping off as she did. She ran her hand over his broad chest, and slowly began to work her mouth up it.
"Max!" he gasped, as she slipped her hands into the waistband of his jeans and slowly unfastened them.
Grinning wickedly up at him, he pushed her down onto the couch, and he slowly laid down on top of her. Looking into each other's eyes, all Max wanted to was have him touch her. She reached up and ran her fingers through his silky hair, as he worked his way down her torso with his tongue and she pushed his pants off with her leg. She felt her pants slip off, and felt the familiarity of their flesh meeting. Eyes locking once more, Kenny slid into her, and she groaned.
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"I can't move," Max breathed awhile later, as they still lay there naked on the couch. Slowly, she traced the contours of his chest, as he held her. Her body still tingling from being with him, she rested her head on his shoulder.
Fingering Max's growing out hair, Kenny's eyes fixed on the still angry looking scar on her abdomen. Raw, and dulling to a pinkish color, it served him as a reminder of what he had almost lost. Resting his other hand just above the scar, he breathed in that unique scent that was all hers, and just enjoyed that perfect moment of being together.
"Yeah, well, I don't want to move," he said back, leaning in and kissing her again. "I want to stay on this couch with you for the rest of my life.
Max grinned at him, and they momentarily forgot about all that was wrong with the world.
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"Same knife that was used before and the markings are almost identical," Carla Stephenson, Carter's assistant, proclaimed. "I'm going to send off the hair, semen and fibers today, but my gut tells me that they'll match with the others. How is Carter doing?"
"He's a mess," Max replied, averting her eyes from the corpse on the table. It was one thing looking at a dead stranger, but it was completely different when it was a friend. "Not that I blame him."
Carla nodded, her curly hair escaping from her ponytail. "His last time seeing her…Shit."
"Yeah," Max agreed, twisting Carla's report in her hands. "Thanks for the report. Anything else that comes in, let us know okay?"
"Of course," Carla said, heading back towards the morgue. "I want this guy stopped too. For the victims, Carter, and anyone else who might cross his path."
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"The hair, fibers and semen match," Jimmy told Max, Kenny and Skeeter a few days later. "But we all knew they probably would."
The nodded silently in agreement as he continued. "Nothing to tie these two women together?"
"Nothing besides the fact they lived in the same town," Skeeter said. "They weren't anything more then casual acquaintances to each other."
Max's head shot up as an idea sparked in her brain. "But we all knew them pretty well, Rebecca was always with Laurie, and Sue with Carter."
"So?" Kenny asked, not seeing where she was going with this.
"So," Max continued. "That could be the connection, that they're tied to us. Think about it! The tie got closer with the second victim too, it's like who ever this is moving closer."
"It's possible," Jimmy conceded. "And it's the only plausible angel so far."
"So, who's he going to target?" Skeeter asked inevitably, as the phone rang.