Author's note: I came up with this idea when I heard the news that TW had been officially cancelled. This story was originally called "We're Leaving and we're taking you out with us" Enjoy. Oh yah...if you like it, please review and let me know.
Third Watch: Crossover and over
Chapter 1 Faith and Jelly
Faith and Jelly are pulling up to the scene of a car fire. They had been called onto the case because the unit that first responded to the call, discovered that there was a body in the driver's seat, burning in the blaze. As Jelly draws closer to the location, Faith looks over the scene. The car is still smoldering in a parking lot and black smoke is billowing out of the broken windows and white steam is rising off the metal frame.
The parking lot has already been roped off with yellow crime scene tape and there is a large mob of people gathered around. Most of them are dressed formally. She notices that there are three units from the five-five there and they are having trouble keeping the crowd back behind the tape. Men and women, dressed to the hilt, are trying to sneak around the police and get near the burning vehicle. The firemen are trying to hose the car off and there are a few people that seem to be arguing with them and their lieutenant, hindering them from extinguishing the fire completely. There are camera flashes going off at the scene and some strange blue lights.
"What the hell is this?" Jelly grumbles as they walk to the site. "Who are all those people?"
"It looks like the red carpet from hell." Faith notes.
"You think it's somebody famous that's burnen up?" He asks.
"I don't know. Maybe this is just a new form of entertainment for rich people." Faith offers back.
An officer is hollering in frustration at the crowd to get back behind the tape and stay there. Faith and Jelly show their ID to him and duck under the tape. A small balding man in a tux slips under the tape with them and grabs Faith by the arm and stops her.
"Are you in charge here?" he says crossly.
"Get your hands off me and step back behind the line."
He raises his hands and says "Hold on. I'm Doctor Garret Macy."
She snaps back at him, "And I'm a new York City Detective. If you touch me again, you're going in. I suggest you get behind the line...now!"
"I'm sorry. You don't understand, I work in the coroners office. Those firemen are destroying evidence. You need to stop them from..."
"I didn't send for the coroner. Who called you here?"
Meanwhile
Jelly walks up to the argument between the fire lieutenant and a nicely dressed couple. The man is a thin redhead and the woman with him has long blonde hair and she is wearing a formal black dress. The lieutenant is trying to usher them away and as they resist him they are pointing towards the firemen that are putting out the fire and yelling that they need to stop hosing the car down.
Jelly steps in front of the lieutenant and yells at the pair. "That's enough! What the hell are you doing inside my crime scene? Get behind the tape or you're going behind bars." He then takes the man by the arm and walks him backwards with little effort. The woman follows along babbling at Jelly in an annoyingly tiny, whiney voice with a southern accent . "My name is Calleigh Duquesne, and we are trying to work here." But Jelly is ignoring her. "You don't know who you're dealing with." She scolds him.
The lieutenant calls out thanking Jelly for his help.
"Go ahead Lieu. These two won't give you anymore trouble. Let me know when I can get in there and have a look."
The redheaded man says in an overconfident cocky tone, "Look detective, I know you're just doing your job, but I'm afraid you're doing it poorly. My name is Horatio Crane, and I'm..."
Jelly turns, swift and angry and grabs the man by his lapel with both hands and lifts him to his toes. "What the hell did you say to me?"
His eyes get wide and his slow cool attitude turns frantic as he quickly stammers out, "I'm a police officer. I have ID in my wallet. I'm a class three Lieutenant. Let me reach into my pocket and get my ID." The girl that was siding with him slips quickly under the tape and walks away into the crowd, abandoning him.
"You don't act like a class three Lieutenant, you're more like a first class jag off. Take the wallet out slowly using two fingers." Jelly is still holding him up tippy toed.
Horatio reaches slowly into his jacket and pulls out his badge. He folds it open and holds it up in front of Jelly's face. "There you go. See? There's no reason for this to get ugly. I don't like pulling rank, but I must order you to release me." He says patronizingly.
Jelly says, "Well I'll be damned, it's true."
"Yes it is true. I outrank you, so I suggest you unhand me, now."
"I don't mean your rank, I mean...your name is actually Horatio. You look more like a Skippy or a Tad. As for your ID...I'm afraid this is good in the state of Florida but you have no jurisdiction here. So I am going to detain you for questioning right here in the back of this RMP. Enjoy your stay in New York."
Back to Faith
Doctor Garret Macy is still trying to explain himself to Faith. "No one called me to come here, I was already here."
"You saw how this happened?" She waves to an officer nearby to come over.
"No. I didn't see it, I was in the restaurant. But the firemen are washing away all the evidence. The longer they keep hosing the car down, the more difficult it will be to solve this crime. I'm a coroner."
"Yah you already said that." Faith notices over Macy's shoulder, that another man has crossed the police tape and has walked up to the burnt car. He pulls his sleeve down over his hand and pulls the back door open and crouches down out of site behind the car. She tells Macy, "Stay right here." then she instructs the officer to get his ID and don't let him leave until she says he can go. Then she hurries around the blackened car.
She finds a man in a black suit with curly brown hair and a neatly kept beard, leaning into the back seat of the car. He has wiped soot from the back seat onto his handkerchief which he pocketed, and is now scooping up objects off the floor into a small envelope.
Faith pulls her gun and shouts at him angrily, "All right...set the envelope down, place your hands behind your head, and stand up real slow."
He looks up at her and smiles, and in a charming voice he says, "Hello. You must be the detective on this case. I'm Gil Grissom. I'm a crime scene investigator."
"Lock your hands behind your head, and stand up slowly."
"Ok." He says humbly and stands up. "This really isn't necessary. I've been doing this job for fifteen years. I'm really very good at it."
"I've never seen you before. Just turn around and stand still." She growls at him. She slips her gun back into it's holster and pats him down. She feels his wallet in his suit coat and pulls it out. It has his badge and ID inside and she looks it over carefully. "This license is for the state of Nevada."
"Yes. That explains why you've never seen me before. Can I lower my hands now?"
"Do you know that man over there?" She points to Doctor Macy.
"Uh...yes I'm afraid I do. But don't confuse his team of forensic misfits with my crack team."
"What the hell is going on here? Is this some kind of morgue challenge you guys are staging here?"
"No, I assure you this is real. The body in that car is real."
Suddenly a series of flashes go off from the other side of the car momentarily blinding Faith. Jelly runs up to the tall thin woman with long black hair, wearing a black evening gown with spaghetti straps, and grabs the camera out of her hand.
"I'll be taking this." Then he looks around and growls, "Who the hell let the press through? Get her out of here."
"No...I'm not the press." She holds her hand out for him to shake and informs him, "My name is Jordan Cavanaugh. I'm with the medical examiner's office."
Jelly reaches out and slaps a cuff on her out stretched hand. "Yah? Well now you're with me."
A redheaded woman, dressed in a bright red evening gown, walks up to Faith and says, "I'm going to need you to run the plate numbers for me to verify that this vehicle belongs to Doctor Thomas Kirkland. You can reach me at this cell phone number. I'll be at the morgue with the body." She holds a card out to Faith.
"And just who the hell are you?"
"Oh, I thought Gill explained. I'm Catherine Willows and we're with CSI. Uh...that stands for crime scene..."
"I know what that means. What I don't know is why you all have descended on my crime scene and are trying to screw up my investigation."
"We are hardly screwing things up. We were in the restaurant attending a medical investigator convention dinner, and believe me, we do know what we're doing."
Faith rolls her eyes annoyed. "Oh great."
Catherine gives Faith a smug smile and continues, "This event is arranged every year by the chairman of the organization, Doctor Kirkland. We believe that this is his car, and it is most likely that this is Doctor Kirkland's charred remains. He is a dear friend of ours. We were here tonight because Doctor Kirkland was going to announce he was stepping down. You can imagine, I'm sure...how badly we all want to find out what happened here."
"Yah, I'm afraid I can." Faith studies her for a second then places a cuff on her wrist. "That's why I'm gonna hafta bring you in." She grabs Grissom's hand and cuffs him to Catherine.
"What do you think you're doing? You can't arrest us for doing our job."
"No...I am arresting you for interfering with mine. You've just tampered with evidence at a crime scene." She pulls the hanky out of his pocket. "And you two are working together, am I correct?"
She glances around at the crowd, all of them already making speculations on what happened and frantically trying to get near the burnt car with little blue lights and trying to prove their theories. "Alright that's it." She gets on her radio and calls for a supervisor and transport vans large enough to hold twenty to thirty people to come to this location. Then she calls to DK who is starting to roll up the fire hose on the truck. "Leave that out. If any one tries to step near that vehicle, I want you to blast them away from it with that hose."
DK breaks out in a big smile. "Yes ma'am. It'll be my pleasure."
Grissom says, "You're not really planning to bring us all in are you?"
"As a matter of fact I am. You understand, I'm sure...how important it is for me to question everyone involved as possible suspects. And I expect your full cooperation and professional courtesy." She pulls out a note pad and begins writing in it. "So you say this vehicle may belong to a Doctor Kirkland, and that this was sort of his retirement party?"
"Well it was..." Grissom says. "Now I guess you'd call it a roast."