Carlton arrived at the office later than usual that morning, he had gone a little deeper into the bottle than he had planned. His head pounded as he walked to his desk, avoiding eye contact with the blonde that sat behind him, but still giving a brief 'goodmorning'. He had nothing more to say to her at the moment, and until he was forced to interact with her – or anyone for that matter, he would very much like to keep to himself. He didn't hide his sour mood well at all, not that he tried to, and Juliet picked up on it right away. She wondered if this was carrying over from the day before, his black eye still showing very bold on his face.

She could not contain the gentle rise of heat that came over her at the sight of him. She had had quite a night, even her subconscious had let go of all rules. She had dreamt about him relentlessly. She stared at him, he couldn't see her, and she wondered if he could feel her hungry gaze burning into his back. But Carlton sat at his desk, unaware of how his presence affected her. He pondered how he would be able to handle Juliet and Spencer getting together. He could ignore it. That was his main plan of action.

"Detective Lassiter, you're finally here," Chief Vick called from her office, "get in here. You too, O'Hara."

The two detectives got up from their desks, Juliet purposely walked a bit faster than normal in order to catch up and get closer to Carlton before reaching Chief's office, "how are you feeling today?" she asked him, "How is your eye?"

"It's fine, O'Hara, don't worry about it," Carlton muttered, not looking at her at all. They reached the office before Juliet had a chance to respond, she felt slightly snuffed by the way he was acting toward her this morning. She wanted him to look at her.

"Good morning you two," Vick began, "Detective Lassiter, is there any specific reason you were so late to get to work this morning?"

Carlton straightened up immediately, nervously fixing his tie, "Sorry, Chief, I felt a little under the weather this morning – bad headache."

Chief Vick raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms but decided to simply say, "Fine, I hope you're feeling better now – next time just call, please, if you plan to arrive later than expected. I don't want to be left worrying about my detectives."

Carlton nodded, "Yes, Chief."

"Well then," she began speaking to the both of them, "I have a new assignment for you two, I just got a call that a body was found not far off of Mist Creek Running Trail, in the swamp. A middle aged woman, she appears to be, but no other information has been figured out. Apparently her body was left in bad shape," Chief spoke softly, "I just wanted to prepare you for that, detectives."

"We can handle it Chief," Detective Lassiter was in full on intense investigator mode, "Come on, O'Hara."

They quickly went to grab their coats, and walked swiftly to Carlton's car parked in front of the station. Juliet felt thankful for the distraction of this case, and then instantly feeling bad about feeling thankful. Because someone was murdered.

"I wonder what the Chief meant when she said this woman was left in bad shape," Juliet said to her partner as they headed out from the parking lot, "I mean, she's dead. Can't get worse than that."

"We will see soon enough, O'Hara, and then we can start to figure out what kind of scumbag just dumps a body in the swamp," His grip tightened on the steering wheel, giving away some of his tension toward the case. Juliet was used to this, she may be more in tune with people's feelings and thoughts, but she had never met anyone else who cared more than Carlton did when it came to catching bad guys. He may not be good with relating or talking to people, but he was damn good at serving and protecting them. Juliet wished others appreciated this unwavering dedication as she did.

She played with ways to start a conversation between the two of them, as the car was heavy with their silence.

"So…how is your head now?"

He glanced in her direction, "it's better now, I took some stuff for it." No more information was given about it.

"I'm glad you're feeling better."

Carlton toyed with the idea, then, to ask her about her date… he wanted to ask equally as much as he didn't want to ask –

"Shawn and I, well I, decided to not pursue a relationship," she offered up on her own, looking casually out the window.

"Oh –" was all Carlton managed to say, his eyebrows raised on their own accord.

"Yeah, I just think – well I feel, things have changed. Anyway," she sighed and looked over at him, "I think it was for the best."

"I'm sorry to hear that O'Hara," no he damned well was not sorry to hear it, "I know you two have been…flirting for some time now."

Juliet laughed at that, "yeah we had been for years, you know. I know you're not upset about this, Carlton, you're hardly Shawn's number one fan. But, for me, things changed. Especially after – " she shuddered at the thought of that night, shaking herself to clear her head of it.

"I know," Carlton did something very surprising; surprising himself most of all. His hand moved from the steering wheel to squeeze her own hand that was resting on her lap. A warm feeling went through both of them at the contact, "Sorry," he drew away quickly.

Juliet looked over at him, her breathing hitched at the mere sight of him, "it's ok. Thank you, Carlton."

The tail end of the drive to the crime scene was much lighter, especially within Carlton, he had a substantial increase in mood after hearing that Juliet O'Hara would not be continuing things with Spencer. He couldn't really believe it. It was no secret that they had had feelings for each other – when Juliet first became his partner he deduced that her and the psychic would eventually move in that direction. But Juliet had changed since then, he saw it more than anyone else. No longer was she the young junior detective from 5 years ago that Carlton was so nervous to be partnered with. She was now an amazing detective in her own right, she was older and wiser and so incredibly beautiful, the way her golden hair framed her face and the way she always smelled so amazing and how perfect her hand felt in his –

Get it together, man.

Chief Vick was not lying about the bad shape the body was in. It was very strange, considering the woman was in a swamp, that she appeared to have been run over by a car. The detectives scoped the crime scene and no ID was found to place the woman. She was dressed in running clothes, which made sense – as she was on the trail. But Juliet and Carlton puzzled about how her body had gotten in that state, her mangled limbs bent in awkward directions, it wasn't a pretty sight.

The body was covered and taken away to the station, maybe Woody would discover something breakthrough-worthy in the case. Despite him being a nut job, he was very good at his job.

The pair searched a little while longer for any clues, but found none, "if she was hit by a car," began Lassiter, "we may need to widen our search – see if we can find any signs of an accident on the roads nearby."

"Good call."

They left the scene and decided to drive around the nearby roads, telling the forensic photographer to call them immediately if anything was found.

"Chief really wasn't lying was she," Juliet stated darkly as they clambered into the car, "her face was hardly recognizable. She wasn't wearing a wedding ring either – I wonder who we will have to break this news to."

"It's a real shame," he muttered in response.

They drove around for a short time until discovering a patch off the side of the road, not far from the trailhead, that had many track marks imprinted into the mud. It looked like more than just an accidental skid off the road, it seemed as if someone had backed up and drove forward multiple times. Grass, dirt and tire prints were scattered onto the road as well.

"This may be the place our victim was hit, the trail opens up into the woods not far down there," Lassiter pointed down the road, his finger moving along the path as he continued, "it goes into the wooded area and heads east, my guess is the swamp is maybe a mile in."

"So you think whoever hit this woman dragged her body a mile down the trail into the swamp? What if they had been seen? This trail is pretty popular with runners – I've even ran it myself before," she added.

"This is just a hunch, but yes. This area seems too torn up to just be someone briefly running a truck off of the road."

The two studied the area a while longer, giving up on finding any more evidence, but content with the discovery. After calling the crime scene photographer the pair decided to head back to the station.

"Yep, this woman was definitely hit by a car," the coroner took on a very serious tone, "and I wouldn't say it was an accident. The body was run over multiple times. She's also been dead for only a few hours, I would guess. But because she was found in the swamp it makes it a little murkier," he briefly paused to see if his joke had landed, it didn't, "my guess is that this happened early this morning."

Carlton stood next to his partner, shoulders squared, his fingers rubbing his chin thoughtfully. The scene they had come across earlier had a higher chance of being the scene of the crime with this news. Unfortunately, the team that they had sent to thoroughly search the area hadn't found a thing.

"Dammit."

Juliet heard the man next to her mumble under his breath, she could tell he was frustrated.

"Thanks Woody," she said to the man across the body, "if you find anything new, please let us know."

"I'll call you as soon as we identify the body," he turned away and got back to work. Juliet appreciated that Woody was being more serious - aside from his tasteless attempt at a joke - she wasn't sure if Carlton would be able to handle the coroner and his oddities in the irritable state he had been in lately. He might follow through with his threats and physically harm Woody.

They spent the next hour going over paperwork until Woody called. The woman's name was Sheila LoMann, she was head surgeon at the Santa Barbara hospital, 42 years old, married for 19 years to Don LoMann, no children, she lived not too far from the station, no past offenses to her name.

"She seemed like a great woman," Juliet looked more into the woman's bio, "she graduated from Harvard medical too," the blonde looked at the hunched form of her partner, he was looking through the woman's information as well.

"Looks like we'll be paying a visit to Donny, here," he stated darkly.

They followed their first lead.

The husband was torn up about the news.

As soon as Juliet had spoken the words that his wife's body was found, he collapsed in shock. If this was an act, he was an amazing actor. Of course, Carlton was still skeptical. Juliet, however, did not believe he was the one who committed this crime. They left after finding out as much information from the man as they could, which, at the moment, wasn't a lot.

Understandably, he was trying to speak through sobs the entire time. They only found out that she went out for her runs at 5:30 AM each morning, she rarely missed one. She would go in from the east entrance, which strengthened Carlton's hunch even more. They didn't get much more from him during the visit, though they instructed him to be at the station in the morning, 8AM.

Even though Juliet truly did not believe that the man had done anything, Carlton still instructed the parole officer assigned to the neighborhood that night to keep special watch over the house, 'in case he tries to make a run for it'.

Juliet didn't argue with her partner, as there was no changing his mind. They drove back to the station in silence, both tired from the long day.

Juliet hadn't had time to think much about Carlton throughout the day, homicide investigations generally killed the mood. Yet, as they walked into the station to wrap up for the night, she became hypersensitive, once again, to their proximity.

She tried to ignore this as they each gathered their things from their desks.

"I'll walk you to your car," the man said suddenly as he turned to face her, ready to leave.

"You don't need to," Juliet looked at him puzzled, her bag hanging loosely from her shoulder.

"Come on, yes I do," Carlton was determined.

"OK."

They walked out front again, together, not speaking. The sun was deeply setting as they were getting out late once again; that fact often came with the job. There was no one else around them as they neared her car.

She walked ahead of her partner and when she reached her driver side door, she opened it and turned to thank him for walking her there; whatever his reasoning was.

She found him close to her, much closer than he usually was. Her breathing hitched as she grew incredibly warm, she knew she was blushing. The look he was giving her was unlike any look she had seen on him before. He was intense, but not in his usual intensely angry way. He just seemed…intense; she couldn't place it.

"O'Hara," apparently her first name still was not appropriate even in this situation, "don't go running on those trails until we arrest the person who did this."

She felt slightly annoyed, she was capable of taking care of herself. She scoffed at him and stated it plainly,

"Carlton, I think I can take care of myself."

To her dismay, her voice shook slightly, if she moved even a few inches they might be pressed together. He couldn't stop it, he moved his hand to brush a stray piece of blonde hair from her face. She could feel herself melt at his touch, her annoyance instantly forgotten.

Whether he was hoping for the following outcome or not, Juliet responded without even thinking. She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew herself against him, her lips claiming his.

He wasn't thinking either. Not thinking about where they were, or that they worked together, or that this was a mistake. He opened up to her instantly, the fingers he had used to brush one piece of hair now tangled in the rest.

The taste of him intoxicated her, she wanted to wrap herself up in this man.

And it ended much too quickly, he tore himself away from her. He had decided to think again. A part of her hated that he had done that; but another part of her knew that maybe, it was for the best.

"I'm allowed to worry about you," he stated stiffly, he avoided looking at her, "Ok, goodnight, O'Hara."

He turned away and walked swiftly to his car, leaving Juliet to wonder what the hell had just happened, and also praying that nobody saw it.

She also wanted to do it again.

Dammit, nope. Not gonna happen.

Can't happen.