New Partner Day
by Bammi & Runner
Disclaimer: No, we don't own them. We don't own the movie either.
A/N: Thanks for your reviews! And this is NOT the first chapter!!! LOL :) So read carefully… :D
Ch 3
First meeting two
When the digital numbers flipped onto 06:00 am the radio crackled to life and started with an announcement:
In New York City's war on crime the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the Detectives of the Major Case Squad. These are their stories.
doing doing
A music piece followed, shaking Bobby out of sleep. He plopped back down in bed... this wasn't how he wanted their first day as partners to start... With him getting a royal headache, due to the play they were airing on the radio, right when the alarm started.
First day... new partner... everything had to be perfect today. He definitely didn't want this to be another missed chance with a partner, he had already been through too many. All he knew about his new partner was that his name was Alex, because he had been too busy to even look into his record. Damn it, this time it was going to work.
After his morning shower he shaved. It was not necessary to greet his new partner with three day's stubble. When he finally was dressed he looked like the prototype of a high profile case working cop: moderately elegant and trustworthy. Yes, he could go like this. He skipped breakfast because he was, yes, kind of nervous and headed for his car.
Of course, first thing, the car wouldn't start. Great! He fiddled around a bit, checked his watch, and decided he couldn't wait. Bobby cocked his head at the car. Seems like I always have car trouble, he thought. He cocked his head again, then shrugged. Oh crap! Now he didn't even have time to walk to the subway, he'd be lucky to make it if he ran.
So he took off as fast as he could, inwardly cursing because he would now be sweaty due to the run, but he had to manage to be at One Police Plaza in time. One last corner, then he would head downstairs. When he rounded it, he ran right into a young woman, more precisely into the leashes of the five dogs she was walking.
Bobby, the woman, both fell in heap, half on top of the dogs, half the dogs on top of them. Next thing they knew, they were all tangled up together, both trying desperately to escape. Finally, they both burst out laughing.
"Sorry," Bobby started, a little embarrassed.
"It's okay," she said, blushing a little.
As both tried to stand up, helping the other, the dogs jumped on them, knocking them both down again. Now both laughed, a little less heartily this time, as Bobby checked his watch again. Bobby started to get up, then sat back down, somehow realizing it was fruitless. At least as long as the dogs used him as jumping board. They tied him up even more and so he was more than a little mussed.
"Wait, wait," the woman pleaded. "You'll never get loose when you wriggle around like that." She tried to calm him down while she disentangled the leashes.
There he went. That was the first time he felt odd, like having some kind of déjà vu, and the thought why he might feel this way crossed his mind.
A bit clumsily he got up again. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "You're okay?" Didn't I say that before?
"Yes. You were in a hurry. Off you go, off."
She shooed him away and he ran to the subway station.
The train was getting ready to leave.
"NO!" Bobby yelled. This is not going to happen, he thought, just making it into the car as the doors slid shut - catching the end of his jacket, stopping him dead. What stopped him just as effectively was the feeling that this actually had happened before. He shook his head to chase the strange feelings away.
Bobby sighed, and started pulling at his jacket. Finally it came loose, or at least the part in his hand. The rest was still caught in the door. Again Bobby checked his watch. Still might make it, he thought. Then catching his reflection in the window, although not exactly the best impression I was trying to make...
During the ride he tried to clean himself up a bit. He sighed at the look at his appearance.
This will impress him, he thought. And I already know what Deakins will say...what? how the hell? Oh, yeah, the jacket. Wonder if there will be another jacket in my locker at the crib.
At his final destination he left the train and sprinted up the stairs, then over to Police Plaza, passing the Five Boroughs sculpture, and heading into the headquarters.
As he entered the plaza, one of the detectives stopped him.
"Hey Goren!" Noticing Bobby's disheveled look, he said sarcastically, "going undercover?"
Bobby was stopped short. Didn't Johnson say that yesterday? He already thought about cleaning the guy's clock, but for lack of time decided against it. Besides, what kind of impression would that make on his new partner? And first impressions did count. He knew they did and he had a feeling that today would be especially important! You never get a second chance to make a first impression, his mother used to say. This day could change his live forever! At least that was what was brewing in the back of his mind.
Taking another look at his clothes, knowing his face was dirty and his hair all mussed, Bobby decided, undercover it is! At least that's where he'd tell his new partner he'd been.
Entering the squad room he looked over to Deakins' office where the blinds were drawn.
Maybe he made it in time? He got the other jacket out of his locker and just stopped long enough at his desk to read one of the notes left there which also was eerily familiar, then he continued to his boss' office.
"Good luck," one of his colleagues mumbled, but not to Bobby but to his own partner. "He'll need it."
Bobby turned to shoot a dead glare at his ex-partners. Good luck... good luck... why was that so familiar? Even worse was the feeling that he knew he was going to need it. Man! this déjà vu stuff is really weird today!Well, my new partner can't be all bad, I think... surely not any worse than any other major case squad detective. Taking one last glance around the bullpen, his eyes fell on Detective Hardass. Oh God! Bobby thought. If he's any indication… this could be bad...
Straightening up he knocked and entered Deakins office.
In his nervousness, he completely forgot about his appearance that wasn't changed much with the fresh jacket, and strode in confidently.
Deakins stared at him. Good God, Goren, can't you even try?
Bobby stopped short, looking at the petite blonde standing in front of him. A jolt of recognition hit him that he tried to hide. He knew he'd met her before. Where did he meet her? He could not remember…
Deakins sighed, "Detective Goren, meet your new partner, Alex Eames. Alex, this is... Robert Goren."
Bobby held out his hand. Very hesitantly, Alex held out her hand in return, squinting in alarm at the dirty mess in front of her.
Suddenly Bobby remembered… undercover. Bad idea! What else…? "Oh, I'm uh... I've had an accident..."
Deakins raised one eyebrow in astonishment. He seems to be quite nervous. He knows this might be his last chance… And what kind of accident may that have been?
Alex on the other hand was quite surprised to hear him stutter.
"Alex just returned from an assignment with Vice, her former squad," Deakins said, when his phone rang. He answered the call and his features became even more stern.
"Your call," he said, scribbling down an address. "Rodgers is already there. Keep me in the loop."
Great! Bobby thought. This one is ours, I can see it now: a junkyard… what? where the hell did that come from? I don't even know the address! "Uh, where exactly is this place?" he asked tentatively.
Alex looked at him. "Does it matter?" she asked.
Maybe not to you, he thought, but it does to me...
"Well, uh, partner, you ready for our first case?" Bobby asked instead.
"Yes, I am," Alex wasn't at all sure she was ready, but she went with it. "So what happened to you?" she queried on their way to the elevators.
"What?" Bobby said, "what do you…? Oh, this…" He actually blushed a little with embarrassment. "My car did not start."
"Your car did not start?" Alex was all but laughing.
"Um… yeah... it didn't," Bobby stammered.
"And that's why you make the impression to work with K-9s, too? Cause you kind of smell like a dog," Alex saw him blush even deeper. She wasn't sure what to make out of him.
She has a good nose, Bobby thought. I'm curious to find out if she'll use it at the scene, too.
xxx
Arriving at the scene and being shown the way to the dead body, they noticed that it was a place with various smells.
"Ah... lots of smells! Now we're getting into my territory!" Bobby murmured. I DID say that before, he thought.
Alex squinted up at him with dismay, as they crossed the distasteful smelling junkyard, approaching the victim's remains. Of course they were used to encounter all kinds of odors when they came to a crime scene, often quite offensive smells, but she never had heard someone talk about that so enthusiastically.
"What do you...ewwww!" She was taken aback. "What are you doing?"
Bobby was kneeling next to the body, his nose almost in the man's face. "Beer," he said and stopped short again. He knew this smell! "German beer, Köstrizer Schwarzbier, by the smell of it," he mumbled, suddenly insecure, because he felt that something was wrong. He pushed the thought away. He could not afford to become distracted.
Eames backed up a few feet. Oh, dear God! she thought. What have I gotten myself in to?
Next moment Bobby searched the suit of the man. Then he bowed closer over his abdomen to examine the stab wounds. Cautiously he poked them with his gloved hand.
"Trying to do my job again, Goren?" M.E. Rodgers teased, and this time Bobby actually jumped up.
"W…what did... you say?"
Both Eames and Rodgers stared at him.
"I was just teasing," Rodgers said, "I was just asking…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, if I was trying to do your job…" Where have I heard that before? Has she ever said that to me before? Now he was getting downright jumpy.
"Cause of death?" Bobby asked innocently. "Never mind, you'll know after the autopsy, and I'm no doubt fingering it."
Again they stared at him.
He took my words right out of my mouth, Rodgers wondered.
Fingering it? Alex thought. Oh my God! He's holding the man's intestines! What have I gotten myself into?
"Uh, Goren…"
"Call me Bobby," he interrupted.
"Sure, whatever... I'm going to be sick!" Alex ran for the nearest trash can.
I knew she was going to do that, Bobby thought vaguely.
Alex spent the next few moments throwing up last night's dinner, leaving Bobby and Rodgers staring after her.
A few moments later she was back. "Sorry," she told them. "I'm not usually that squeamish." She glared at Bobby. She was furious at him, and herself, because he had made her feel, and throw up, like a bloody rookie.
Oh no, Bobby thought. There goes the next one. We might set a new record... 38 minutes, he knew without to look at his watch. How…? He was puzzled. Why do I remember that?
"This," he pulled a card out of the victim's wallet, "explains his liking of German beer. Edgar Schreiber, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany."
"Uh, oh," Alex said, "we'd better be—"
"very careful with this one," Bobby finished for her, surprising himself. "Protocol, you know?"
Alec stared at him. She still did not know what to make of Bobby, if he knew boundaries, protocol. Apparently he did. "Uh, yes. We need to be very careful, Goren…"
Bobby smiled at her, and wondered about himself. "I told you, it's just Bobby, and I understand all that." Oh yes, he did. Still he had this peculiar feeling to relive this whole scene. He tried to remember who they might meet at the embassy… Ambassador Schilling? Why did he know a name? Once more he chased the thought away.. instead of this last line why don't we put something like-- I don't know about this de ja vu stuff, he thought, but I am liking it!!
Eames sighed. "Okay... Bobby." Once again, she was then graced by the most beautiful smile she'd ever seen.
As fast as it had flashed it was gone again. Right the next second he seemed to be at a far distant place, absorbed in his work. Seemed to be! Bobby knew why he had smiled at her like that. To assure her that he wasn't as bad as he might appear. Did it work?
"So, Eames," he said, putting the wallet into an evidence bag. "We have a stabbed diplomat in the middle of a pile of junk, smelling like a German pub. Looks as if someone really did not like him. He was thrown away like an old shoe."
"So where to next, Sherlock?"
If she was expecting a reaction, he didn't get it. He knew she was trying to get to him, a little test to check out those rumors… which certainly had spread from Narcotics through the whole NYPD. He shrugged it off, he was used to it
"I'd say the German Embassy. See what we can pick up from them, where he lived, who he hung out with, where he spent his off time... And then we'll take it from there."
"Sounds like a plan," Alex said. Why the hell is he calling me Eames when he insists on being called his nickname? "And you can call me Alex."
"It is a plan, Eames. Come, let us get over there."
She frowned as he once more called her by her last name but she kept her mouth shut. She would watch him for a while.
She did not know what lay ahead of them.
xxx
One employee of the embassy already awaited them when they arrived there. He guided them to the office of Schreiber's boss, Ambassador Johann Schilling.
"You can do the talking," Bobby offered Alex with a small smile.
For a second Alex stared up to him.. "Don't we need—"
"No need for a plan, Eames," Bobby offered. "We'll just play it by ear."
Well, that'll mean that I'll go ahead. She turned to the ambassador and began,
"Mr. Ambassador? I'm Detective Eames, this is my partner, Detective Goren." They both presented their badges.
Schilling offered his hand. "And what, Detectives, can I do for you?" he said, talking to Alex but looking at Bobby.
"We're here about the... about one of your diplomats, a Mr. Edgar Schreiber. I'm sorry to say he was found murdered this morning."
"This news already reached us, Detectives," he said.
"I know," Bobby put in, causing both Eames and Schreiber to look at him. How did he know?
"Please, take a seat. So we can talk."
"Thanks, sir," Bobby said and sat down in one of the very comfortable chairs opposite of Schiller's desk.
"Well," Alex said, wondering if Bobby was going to say anything at all. "We thought maybe you could help us with... our case."
"Of course," Schilling said, still his gaze fixed on Bobby, "whatever I can do."
Bobby felt slightly uncomfortable. Even though they'd just met, he felt like the guy was always staring at him.
"Do you by any chance know where Mr Schreiber was last night?"
"I'm sorry," Schilling told her. "I don't know his professional schedule and am not at all involved in my employee's personal lives. Perhaps you should check with his secretary... or his driver."
"His driver…" Alex took a note, and Bobby said simultaneously along with Schreiber: "MissWeidhaus will give us all the information."
"Schreiber's secretary, Miss Weidhase, will give you all information you'll need, including his address, an apartment owned by the embassy". Schilling's stare grew more intent, "You know Miss Weidhaus?"
Alex looked at Bobby for an explanation, too.
"Uh, no…I …I think I saw her name…somewhere…" Bobby mumbled. Maybe this de ja vux stuff wasn't so neat after all.
"Thank you, Mr. Ambassador." Alex finished.
Bobby turned in his seat to look around the office. Suddenly he stood again, strolling over to the wall to look at several photos on the cupboard.
"Isn't that you and Mr. Schreiber?" he asked, while Alex was in mid-sentence, "on a fishing boat?"
Schilling looked startled. "Oh... that... Well of course there are various functions we must attend together. That was an official engagement. What I meant was I didn't know him outside of work."
Bobby gave a little half smile and nodded. He knew…just knew somehow he would make points with Eames now. How he knew didn't impress his as much as Eames' next move. Alex looked again at her partner, giving him a little silent thumb's up. Score one for my new partner, she thought.
"Okay, Mr. Schilling," Alex turned again to the ambassador. "You don't associate with your employees outside of work. Could Mr. Schreiber have come to you, as his employer, for some kind of help? Was he in any kind of trouble?"
Before Schilling even said a word, Bobby said to Alex, "smug bastard."
Schilling gave her a somewhat smug look, and Alex looked once again at Bobby. "My dear, that is why we have counselors on our staff, to assist with those kind of things. So, to answer your question, no, Mr. Schreiber did not come to me for help. He did not come to me for money. And he did not come to me for advice about women. He did not come to me all, in fact, we saw very little of each other, even here."
In the meantime Bobby examined a collection of model ships on the shelves. He was just about to pick one up when he was stopped by Schilling.
"What the hell are you doing there?"
"Me?" Bobby answered in a confused voice, already ready with an answer. "I'm just adoring your little ships here." He grinned sheepishly. "When I was in the army a friend of mine was in the marines and was serving on such a ship," he added. "So, you're trying to tell me that you never exchanged some private words with Mr. Schreiber?"
"Dummer Bulle," Schilling mumbled into his nonexistent beard. "Wie oft soll ich es denn noch sagen?"
„Bis wir es glauben können," Bobby replied in German, with some cute American accent.
Schilling looked at him, frowning deeply.
"I don't have to remind you where you are, do I, Detective?"
Alex did a double take. What? He's speaking German? She shook her head, a little smile on her face. Now, she was impressed. She continued on relentlessly.
"Mr. Schilling, I believe my partner asked you a question. Did you or did you not exchange words in private with Mr. Schreiber?"
Schilling was starting to get a little angry. "And I believe I told you, Detective, that I did not see Mr. Schreiber in private. Now, if you have any more questions..."
"Nah," Bobby threw in. "You can't tell me you never talked about something out of the job. Is he married?"
"Yes he is."
"See…!? That's what I meant. You just don't know you did."
His small smile never vanished. It made Schilling nervous.
"We'll be going now, Mr. Ambassador. Und vielen Dank. Sie waren uns eine große Hilfe."
Schilling bid them goodbye and they left.
"What did you tell him?" Alex asked when they were out in the hall.
"I just said, thank you, you've been very helpful." Now he offered her a breathtaking smile. "Our first suspect."
"You count him as suspect?" she wanted to know.
"Right now everyone's a suspect." He grinned, leading the way over to Schreiber's office.
tbc…