*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz* Edward groaned and turned over on the bed, pulling away from Kristen as he moved his hand around the dresser looking for his cell phone. Once he found it he flipped it open, and with his eyes closed brought it to his ear.
"Hello?" He said groggily.
"Hey Edward." Came a distinctly female voice from the other end. It was Julie from the GCPD. Edward tried not to groan, he knew why she'd be calling him at … What time was it? He looked at the clock. 2:00 AM.
"Hi." He said quietly.
"I hate to ask this, but we need you to come in again. There's been a murder down on 5th and Main and we can't get a hold of anyone else." She said. Edward sighed verbally, and agreed.
"I'll be there as soon as I can." He said.
"Okay. Jim and Bullock are already there." She said. Edward rolled his eyes, of course they were.
"Yes well, Jim is a robot and if Bullock drinks any more caffeine I'm sure his heart will give out soon." He said making Julie laugh before they disconnected the call and he tossed his cell phone back onto the dresser. He rubbed his hands over his face trying to will himself to wake up.
Kristen stirred groggily next to him, opening her eyes and looking up at him blearily. "What?" She mumbled wrapping her arms around him. "What is it? You should go back to sleep, you're tired."
"I am tired." He said yawning and rubbing his eyes with his hands. "But I have to go shower … I got called in." He said yawning again. "Would you mind making some coffee while I get ready?" He asked, his eyes closed again, about to fall asleep.
She wanted to protest. Edward had been exhausted as it was. They'd just called him in on his day off yesterday. GCPD was working him to the bone … But she knew his job was important, and somebody had to do it. Ideally somebody competent. "Alright," she yawned, fumbling for her glasses and getting up. She nudged him slightly when she realized he was about to fall asleep again, feeling terrible as she did. She would frankly rather let him sleep. Shuffling over to the kitchen, Kristen set about making coffee, brewing it stronger than usual. He was going to need it.
Edward showered and got dressed after dragging himself out of bed. He went into the kitchen and grabbed his coffee that Kristen made him, and moved back to the bedroom area to sit on the bed. "Thank you." He said leaning against the headboard.
"Don't mention it," Kristen said, getting a mug of coffee herself and sitting on the bed with him. "You're working way too hard lately, you know," she said quietly, concerned.
"Yeah I'll be fine." He said, though it was times like this he wished he got paid hourly rather than on a salary. The over time would be useful. He finished off his coffee, wondering why Kristen was having one as well, and took the mug back to the sink. He came back to the bed and kissed her on the forehead. "You should get some more sleep."
"I'll try," Kristen said with a tired smile. Though now that she was already up, she doubted she would be able to get back to sleep again anyway. The coffee was a sign of surrender to the inevitable. She might as well try to do some research, see if she could find anything that would help the situation with Rubix. Jim was a good man, but he was as busy as Edward was. Or maybe she should start searching through job opportunities for Deidre. If she stayed 'between jobs' for long enough, that would lead exactly where it always had, and Kristen really didn't want stolen cash or goods showing up in her apartment. "You take care of yourself, okay? Call me when they let you off."
"Okay. I'll phone you later when I get a chance." He said kissing her again before putting his shoes on, grabbing his keys and leaving the apartment.
The next afternoon, Edward was still working without a break. He hadn't even called the night before. Concerned, Kristen went by GCPD to find Edward, still at work, and fast asleep at his desk. She nudged him gently. "Edward," she said quietly. "You've done all the good you can here. This is just ridiculous."
Edward awoke with a start and rubbed his eyes. "I'm off at four … I'll be fine. I have work I need to finish." He said looked down at the papers he had been working on and trying, unsuccessfully to remember where he was.
Kristen shook her head. "You're clearly out of it," she said, seriously worried. "You've worked a 36 hour shift already. Is this really that urgent?"
"Yes, it needs to get done before I leave." He said finally figuring out where he was. "Was there something you needed?"
"Well, Lee had asked about borrowing a console to play some games, but …" Kristen shook her head. "That's kind of the last thing I'm concerned about right now. You should let me give you a lift home after work. I don't think you're awake enough to drive safely."
"I'm fine." He said looking up at her, dark rings under his eyes. "Though I'd prefer my consoles to remain in my apartment. You're welcome to come over tonight and play them if you want. So long as she doesn't mind the fact that I'll be sleeping."
"Okay," Kristen agreed, still worried. "If you don't think it would bother you to have people over … Though I could just move this get-together back a few days. You need to catch up on your rest."
"It's fine." He said yawning. "I can't hear you guys downstairs anyway. And honestly, I'm so tired I'll probably be out like a light."
"Okay, well," she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm leaving you the right to kick everyone out at your discretion."
Edward's work hours were officially getting out of hand. She wondered if it would do any good to talk to Barnes about the need to hire more forensics people. Or possibly getting Lee an assistant medical examiner, since Edward ended up working more in that capacity than was really in his job description.
Edward ran his hand over hers. "I'll see you later." He said smiling up at her before turning back to his work and yawning again.
"Alright," she said, reluctantly leaving him to his work. Something had to give. Otherwise, this job was going to drain the life out of him. She went to go see if Barnes was in his office.
Barnes was sitting in his office and looked up when Miss. Kringle came in. "Miss." He paused realizing he didn't remember her name. "Come in … What can I help you with?" He asked.
"Hi," Kristen said, a little nervously as she went into his office. "Sorry to bother you, but I wondered if anyone's brought it to your attention how short-staffed forensics is lately? There's one guy in that department who has been working 36 hours straight since he was called in at two in the morning, when he'd just slept 5 hours after getting off a 12 hour shift prior, and he's still on the clock until four. That's on top of helping out with examination, which has been doing better under Thompkins, but … could still use more personnel as well."
"I take it this is Mr. Nygma you are referring too?" Barnes asked sitting back in his chair. "Don't look so surprised, it's rather obvious you two are an item." He said using his hand to gesture to the chair in front of his desk. "Please, have a seat."
Kristen blushed slightly, unsure what to make of the fact that her boss knew her love life, but not her name. "Thank you," she said, taking his invitation to have a seat. "You're right, I was referring to Edward," she admitted. "He's very dedicated to his job, but he can only keep going like this for so long."
"I understand your concern … And I have taken into consideration our current staffing problem. I have been meaning to inquire why he is working M.E. with Dr. Tompkins though … If he is not educated to do so?" He asked getting up and moving towards a filing cabinet where all the employee files were. He flitted through the files until he found Edward Nygma's. He flipped through it. "It says here his education is based in forensics …" He said sitting back down. "I'm also curious as to why he has his girlfriend coming down to fight his battles for him. If he wants to go home, he could ask himself."
"That's not …" Kristen realized she'd made a severe miscalculation in coming to Barnes. At worst, she had expected him to just brush her off. She hadn't expected him to listen and then turn what she had said around. "Edward hasn't expressed a desire to leave; he's still busy working was we speak. Like I said, he's dedicated … But I'm concerned because he also looks like he's about to keel over. As for M.E., he's just assisting. They're understaffed, and he helps."
"Do you know who's authorizing him to be down there?" He asked. "I heard there used to be formal complaints about him with the last M.E. when he was unauthorized …" He said. He had looked over Nygma's file before, when he was looking into all GCPD employees, but had found little and had all but skipped over him. Though if he's continuing to assist in a department he is unauthorized to do so, perhaps he'd have to look a bit further into Mr. Nygma.
"All I know is he has authorization now," Kristen said carefully, aware that it would be far too easy to slip and get Edward or Lee into trouble. She wondered at what exact moment this had become an interrogation. "Anyway, wasn't the previous M.E. fired for some pretty shady business? I got the impression he was just worried Edward would see something."
Barnes regarded her for a moment before flipping Edward's file closed. "Tell him to go home …" He said picking up the file and placing it back in the filing cabinet.
"Yes sir," Kristen said, still uncertain of how this had gone. She couldn't quite read Barnes. He always seemed to just vary between degrees of anger and disapproval. "Thank you." She got up to leave, a part of her still wondering if she should never have come in.