Disclaimer: Guess who owns nothing! Me!

A/N: Enjoy! Sorry it took so long again, I had some trouble with and I went on vacation. Sorry. :P PS You should Review, it makes me happy.

For Inconvenience and Discomfort

Chapter 4: Cruelty to the Deepest Degree

Scarlett and Flack reached the lab and found Mac hunched over the lab table looking at two different sheets of paper. He circled something and stood up to rub his eyes. Scarlett moved further into the room and Mac smiled quickly leaned back down.

"Flack, can you get in touch with the Jericho Terrace and get the guest list for the party that Mr. Dawlton was at?" Flack ducked out of the room and Scarlett moved around the table the look at the guest lists. Several names were circled and scribbled on another piece of paper. Flack came in with another piece of paper and waved it at Mac. He grabbed it, thanked Flack and bent over again exasperatedly. Scarlett looked at Flack and then put a hand on Mac's shoulder.

"Mac, go take a break, your eyes are going to fall out. Go yell at someone, it'll make you feel better." Mac stood up and looked at Scarlett like she had three heads. "I'll take over." She turned Mac around and pushed him out of the lab and waved. He stared back at her before slowly walking toward the break room. Flack laughed and shook his head.

"I guess he's used to having to do most of the work himself. He was just…surprised I guess." Scarlett shook her head and smiled, then got herself busy with the list. She took the names he pulled out and compared them to the new list. Her eyes began to hurt when she found a match. 'Dr. James Edwards'. She continued to go down the list, and he was the only name she had found. She rushed out of the lab and to find Mac and ran into Danny.

"Hey, what's up Slim?" Scarlett grinned at the stupid nickname and waved the paper in Danny's face, smiling brightly. Danny rolled his eyes and Scarlett skirted around him gleefully, leaving Danny laughing at her. She skirted right into Mac, who raised an eyebrow at her. Scarlett blushed at herself and grinned sheepishly. Mac smiled and Scarlett held out the paper for Mac to see.

"Dr. James Edwards." He took the paper and squinted at the name. He pulled back and had a puzzled face on. Scarlett's smile faltered. "What?"

"I know his name from…wait." He turned to go to his office. Scarlett quickly caught up with him and he sat down and checked the name on the internet. Articles came up, praising him and his work and Scarlett's shoulders slumped. Mac seemed undaunted. "Just because he has good work doesn't mean he's a good person. I'll grab Flack and we'll head over to his office to get in touch with him." Scarlett followed Mac out the door, then went to the front of the office to wait for the two men. The woman at the desk scrutinized her and she turned away from her, leaning against a wall. She heard their familiar voices round the corner and followed behind the two taller men out to the parking lot.

"Edwards…isn't that the doctor that donated all that money to the kids organization?"

"Yeah, I think so." Scarlett pushed her way into the middle of her colleagues.

"When'd you get here?" Scarlett glared at Flack.

"I was walking behind you two." Flack smirked and looked down at Scarlett.

"Sorry, I guess I looked over your head. It's not too hard, ya know." She smacked his arm and walked ahead of them. Mac sent Flack a slightly glaring look and sped up to catch up to Scarlett.

Flack skirted around Scarlett to jump into the front seat with Mac. Scarlett rolled her eyes and slid into the back seat quietly. Flack fiddled with the radio, trying to find a decent song when Mac smacked his hand away. Flack retracted his hand to his chest and his face wore an expression mixed of surprise and confusion. Scarlett raised an eyebrow.

"Christ, Flack! You're like my ten year old niece! Pick a damn song and stick with it!" Flack's jaw dropped as Mac huffed and turned back to the road and Scarlett looked between the two men and covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. Flack turned and glared at her and she wiped her mouth and smiled with humor in her eyes before looking away. The rest of the car ride consisted of Flack sneaking glares at Scarlett and Mac rolling his eyes. Scarlett crossed her legs and kept her mouth shut, this was too interesting to interrupt.

They pulled up to the doctor's apartment and Scarlett felt something was wrong. She tentatively step out of the car, into the rain and squinted up to his floor. She followed Flack and Mac up to the building, a little slower than them, still, because of her ankle.

She tried to catch up, but all it did was irritate her ankle, and she stopped and bent down to adjust her shoe. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move and she stood up too quickly to see it and lost balance. She stumbled into a car and craned her neck for the movement in the parking lot. Flack turned around and stared at Scarlett as she cursed and pushed off the car. He raised an eyebrow as she slightly limped past him into the building with a scowl on her face.

"What was that about?" Scarlett glared at Flack and he held up his hands defensively. "Just asking!"

"I though I saw something." She stepped heavily past Flack and her foot slipped on something. She grabbed onto Flack, who looked past her to the floor and almost allowed her to drop into a spilt. She clawed onto Flack and pulled herself up. She looked down to the offending substance, and instead of finding stray rain from outside, there was a trail of now smudged blood. She stepped back towards Flack, who was staring opened mouth at the blood. Mac handed her a few tissues to clean off the bottom of her shoe. She leaned over on Flack to keep balance, but Flack moved to follow the trail. Scarlett hopped unsteadily toward the stairs, flailing noisily. Mac turned with a frown, but quickly turned away, fighting laughter as he watched his CSI thrash around the lobby of this sophisticated building. Flack stood next to Mac, wearing a bemused expression as Scarlett finally landed raucously on the floor, red faced and glaring at Flack.

"She's certainly something." Mac muttered quietly as he continued to follow the blood trail down the hall. Scarlett pushed herself up and indignantly huffed past an amused Flack. He shook his head and followed Scarlett down to Mac.

Mac stood squinting at the larger pool of blood gathered at the elevator doors. Scarlett turned to take in the rest of the scene and observed a door man's desk, currently unoccupied. She moved towards it, cautiously and strained her neck to see over it. An empty seat and an unfinished water bottle sat undisturbed. Odd. Scarlett bent over the top of the desk and strained to see if there were any personnel in the back office.

"Hello?" She called loudly and began to walk around the desk towards the office, her head cocked to the side and her steps becoming more cautious. "Hello?" A quick knock to the door gave who ever warning and she opened the door quickly.

A half naked young woman jumped off an equally unclothed man, scrambling to find clothing. Flack stuck his head over Scarlett's shoulder with an eyebrow raised.

"Can I help you?" The woman said irritably, buttoning up her shirt hastily. She threw her partners shirt at him and he pulled it over his head quickly. Scarlett crossed her arms and leaned into what she thought was the door, but was the much less sturdy and softer Flack. She stood up straight and blushed momentarily. She cleared her throat and moved further into the office.

"You work here?" Scarlett looked around the cluttered office, putting her hands in her blazer's pockets.

"No, we're just hanging out here for fun." This came from the male in the room, Scarlett shifted her eyes to him, raising her eyebrow.

"Detective Dale, NYPD." The young man's eyes widened before his posture straightened a bit.

"Uh…what can I help you with Detective?" The girl squeaked out before glaring at her coworker.

"Have you seen or heard anyone come in during the last couple of hours?" The pair glanced nervously at each other before looking down at their feet.

"Next time, why don't you do your jobs before fooling around?" Flack and Scarlett turned to see Mac glaring disappointedly at the young couple. "Now, what floor does Doctor Edwards live on?" One of the attendants stuttered out an almost incomprehensible fifteen. "Thank you, I trust I'll see one of you when I return back down?" They nodded in unison and Mac turned on his heel, followed by Flack and Scarlett. He pushed the elevator button with a gloved finger and the elevator door opened swiftly.

Mac, Scarlett and Flack stepped in and watched as the female attendant hurry towards the desk. Mac chuckled to himself and pressed the 15 button.

In the elevator, there were traces of blood on the railing, wall and a small pool in the corner of the elevator. Scarlett swabbed a sample and dropped it into her coat pocket. The elevator stopped with a pleasant ding and opened up to a blood stained carpet leading up to a bloody, slightly opened the door. Flack and Scarlett shared a quick glance before Flack led the way out of the elevator. Mac stepped close behind Scarlett, giving her a sense of comfort.

Flack knocked on the door and slightly nudged it open. He slowly took out his gun and Scarlett quietly followed his actions. He slipped inside the apartment, and Scarlett slowly ducked in as well. The haunting sounds of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 filled her senses as it pulsated through the apartment. The air was heavy and the lights were dim, casting a slightly orange glow over the room and her skin. There was a mix of smells in the apartment, a strong lemony smell with a number of different herbs mixed in, but there was something under it, almost metallic. The apartment's colors were neutral and modern, almost retracting the warm feeling the smell and lights set. Flack's gun pointed at the ground, but his wrists looked ready to move at any given moment. Scarlett's gun was heavy in her hands, her wrists feeling limp and unready, even with the fire arm in her hand, she felt vulnerable and uncomfortable. Flack looked back at her with a worried look and she smiled slightly and he nodded.

"Doctor Edwards?" Flack moved forward a bit. "Doctor Edwards? Are you here? This is the NYPD." Mac nudged Scarlett and pointed towards a closed door with his gun and Flack another door. They both nodded and Scarlett apprehensively started towards her appointed door. She watched her two partners move in swiftly with their guns slightly raised. Scarlett swallowed and turned the handle slowly and the door creaked open and the Beethoven's morbid melody vibrated loudly off her skin. She raised her gun a little higher and stepped into the room. A record player came into view, spinning an old vinyl around and the dim lights of candles reflected off the walls. Scarlett reached around on the wall for a light switch, and flicked it upwards, but the light only sparked on momentarily, illuminating nothing. She stepped into the room further and a thick metallic smell assaulted her senses

"Mac…" Scarlett went further, out of the hallway of the room, into the open space. The candle light flickered serenely against the gruesome scene, casting an eerie shadow upon it. Scarlett backed toward the opposite wall, trying to put as much space between her and the opposite wall as possible. "Mac!"

Mac ran into the room violently with his gun readily raised and a dangerous look in his eyes, but when he saw Scarlett, and what she was looking at, he stopped. Stopped breathing, stopped moving, stopping everything.

Mac Taylor was not a person who was often paralyzed in fear, or in anything for that matter. But this was something he had never seen. And never wanted to see. This was cruelty to the deepest degree.

Scarlett's empty eyes scanned the scene, unable to turn away, her face pale and fallen.

Flack joined them, and soon regretted it. He tasted his last meal in his mouth and swallowed heavily. He spotted the unmoving Scarlett fighting her way into the opposite wall. He instinctively went to her as Mac slowly pulled out his phone for back up. He pulled her away from the wall and tried to lead her away but her feet were cemented to the floor.

"Flack, I can't." Beethoven's music faded from her mind as she watched the blood flow out of the twisted corpse in front of her. She watched as the drying blood on the wall dripped down into the brown carpet.

Too Late.

Too Late.

Could we have saved her? Could we have helped her? Could we have stopped him? God Damn it! She felt a heat rising in her, a burning heat that rose up her throat to her mouth and made her want to scream. Then it stopped. The burning dissipated into cold and the screams turned into held back sobs. She watched as an endless amount of uniforms trooped into the room, slowly taking in the sight before them. Some asked to leave, and the coroner came forward to collect the body, or what was left. Mac hung back with Scarlett as Flack gave out orders.

"Are you alright?" Scarlett turned to Mac with glassy eyes and looked away.

"I'm fine." Mac watched sadly as Scarlett pushed through the crowd, away from him. He turned to Flack, who was suspended in mid order, watch her too. He caught Flack's eye and nodded towards her. Flack nodded back and began to go through the crowd to get to her. Mac went to the middle of the crowd and resumed Flack's job.

Flack left to find Scarlett, and ran into Danny on the way out.

"Hey, what's up with Slim? She kinda blew me off." Flack shook his head and hurried past him to the stairway. He ran out to the parking lot and found her leaning against a car staring out at nothing. He walked up to her and settled next to her against the car.

"I saw him." Flack looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She pointed out further in the parking lot. "Over there, behind that car." Her hand dropped limply at her side. "I could've stopped him. I could've shot at him. But I'm an idiot and can't keep balance for my life." She looked away from him, her eyes shimmering in the fading day. "I'm thinking of transferring out. Maybe this isn't for me." Flack's head snapped towards her. He gently turned her head to him and brushed away her tears with his thumbs. Scarlett nuzzled into his warm hands and closed her eyes.

"This is for you. You're brilliant, you know how to handle yourself, you're just having a tough time with this. Don't worry about it." Scarlett pushed herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest.

"What if you're wrong?" Flack grimaced at the muffled question but held a little closer to him.

"I'm never wrong." Scarlett looked at him, her eyes laughing through her tears. She sniffled and pushed off of him softly.

"Thanks." She looked down at his shirt. She let out a soft 'Oh' and put a hand on his chest. "I got your shirt wet." She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." He rolled his eyes and smiled at her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry about it, Kid." He led her over to Mac's car and softly instructed her to stay there until he got back. Although feeling like a dog, she obliged and rested lazily on the car. She watched officers enter and leave the building at different times and she watched the body bag leave the building silently. She scanned the parking lot and found nothing. Flack came out of the building with a pair of keys jingling at his side.

"Mac said it's no problem if we leave, he needs someone to prep the lab anyway. He said to get you something to eat too, so how does pick up from that coffee shop around the corner sound?" Scarlett smiled slight and climb in the car with Flack. She crossed her legs and watched idly out the window as more officers entered the crime scene. Flack started the car and slowly drove away.

"Hey, it stopped raining." Flack turned to answer to Scarlett's idle reply, but was met with her blank, cold stare. He nodded and focused back on the road and she turned back toward the window. She hated her reflection and her red eyes and her pathetic face. She looked away down at her hands. They were still shaking. Damn it. She melded them together in an attempt to stop the shaking, but they only shook harder. Out of nowhere, Flack's free hand covered hers and they warmed her. She looked up to him and he nodded at her, smiling slightly. Scarlett returned it with a small smile of her own and looked away, her hands comfortably covered by Flack's bigger one.

Flack turned back to the road, her frozen hands thawing slowly in his. The dying sun reflected in her eyes, lighting them up eerily. His thumb moved across the back of her hands in circles and he could feel her relaxing in his hands. Her face remained clear of emotion, but her eyes showed everything.

She'll be great someday. She will.