Sticky. Sticky air. Hot and quick, brushing against his face. He groaned and rotated his hips. Sharp inhale.
"Holy shit!" Dick coughed violently and turned his head aside. His hands that had been behind his pillow tried to push the weighted object off his chest. A loud bring blared into his left ear, mocking his current entrapped position.
"Dick? Is that your phone?" No, Kory couldn't be there, because this was utter reeking hell and it made no sense for her to be there in his dream. An audible gasp sounded, replacing the ringtone. "Silkie, off! Down! Get down!" The furriness planted a sloppy, wet nose against his cheek- an affectionate goodbye- before bounding away. Finally, Dick put two and two together and his eyes bolted open.
A sleepy-eyed, smiling face and a curtain of crimson hair graced his presence, gazing down upon him on the couch. Kory's couch. He rubbed a hand across his face to wipe away the residue Silkie had left behind.
"Kory?"
"The one and only. I made us some coffee, but it's still in the kitchen," She moved away, much to Dick's disappointment, "How do you like yours?"
"Black." When she turned and wrinkled her nose at the word, he couldn't resist grinning. "What happened last night?"
"You fell asleep after I kicked your ass in the video game."
"Sorry about that."
"Sorry for falling asleep or sorry for me beating you?"
"Mmm… both." He stretched and rose from the couch, stealthily moving across the hardwood to lean against the breakfast bar. Dressed in a pair of cotton shorts and a tank top that was riding up the small of her back, Kory turned from the coffee maker with the two cups in hand. Seeing him appear so suddenly, she yelped and dropped the cups onto the bar, where they rattled and sloshed the caffeinated beverage onto the granite.
"Are you all right?" He smirked at her frazzled state and she eyed him reproachfully.
"I suppose am still in shock from coming in here earlier and finding you and my dog making out on the sofa." She teased and laughed at the misty spray of black coffee as it shot out of his mouth.
"I wasn't making out with your dog!"
"If Silkie satisfies you in that way, you can have him, Dick. All you had to do was ask."
"Wh- what? Kory, he sat on top of me!" She continued to ignore him and sipped her drink nonchalantly.
"Although I will be sad to see him go, perhaps it is for the best…."
"Stop laughing at me, woman." Dick growled playfully.
"Or you will do what?" She leaned in close and he inhaled the scent of hazelnut creamer dancing off her lips as they skimmed across his-
"Phone call from Marty Grimes. Phone call from Marty Grimes." The couple separated frustratedly.
"Duty calls." Kory's dry voice quipped as he visibly swallowed, returning to the living room to answer.
"Detective Grayson."
"It's about time you picked up."
"Sorry, I was… busy. What's up?" Marty's sigh told him all he needed to know.
"Sleeping Beauty was found this morning near the wharf at Bludhaven Harbor."
\/
"At least she's still got a head." Brandon, the resident Quantico liaison, pointed out as Dick and he arrived at the crime scene. If the smell of rotting fish guts wasn't enough to knock a grown man over, the frighteningly serene sight of the gorgeous blonde lying on the mattress was.
"I see you've demoted your housemouse position, at least."
"What the hell you talking about, Grayson?" Dick smirked and moved forward, snapping on a pair of gloves to examine the scene and taking out his trusty Canon to snap some photos.
"As I can recall, the last time we brought you out for a DAS, you ended up dumping that breakfast burrito you had all over the floor. Melinda wasn't too content with working around the stench."
"Mel works with cadavers. What's worse than a dead body?"
"One that tells us nothing." The short, brunette coroner rejoined the men and eyed the victim distastefully, "I had the boys come in and sweep the place, but like last time, no fingerprints and no sign of DNA as of now."
"Then why are we here?" Brandon whined, "You always let them do all the dirty work." Melinda rolled her eyes and sent Dick an exasperated glance, to which he simply shrugged his shoulders indifferently. Brandon's attitude was well known around the precinct for being a bit impatient and a little too forthcoming with anything that was on his mind. Dick figured it had to do with the fact that Brandon's father was a senior officer in the NYPD and didn't have his ass handed to him as many times as it could have been when he was younger.
"Honey, they may have earned a master's degree in forensics, but you two have more street sense than all those minions combined." Brandon smirked.
"See? She thinks I'm smart."
"Statistically, I suppose someone has to." Dick muttered and joined Melinda by the body. "Cause of death?"
"Okay, Rich, I'm good, but I'm not that good. I'll give you a ring when I figure out what killed Sleeping Beauty here." He nodded, snapping a few more photographs for Victor, and then headed out to the wharf. Spotting his witness, he handed the camera over to Brandon and moved on, feeling the saltwater-battered wood splinter underneath his shoes. The dock manager stood at the edge, his eyes straining on the water ahead and heavy thoughts weighing down his mind. At the sound of footsteps, the man turned slightly and shook the hand he received.
"Detective Dick Grayson."
"Sam Boulder."
"Can you tell me what happened this morning, Sam?" Sam's hazel eyes narrowed, as if trying to reel the disturbing scene from the water, like a personal Moby Dick.
"Came in around seven, grabbed a cup of coffee, and was making my usual rounds when I noticed that one of the padlocks was off. It was a clean cut, likely a nice pair of bolt cutters. The door swung open and as soon as I made that right turn…" A visible shudder ran through the workman's body and he ran a grease-streaked hand across his face, "…she was lying there, like some kind of model from a magazine, dressed like one of those princesses." Dick nodded, pressing a comforting hand on the man's shoulder.
"I'm sorry you had to be the one to find it."
"My- my daughter is seven. She likes all of those Disney movies… the ones with the princesses," The hazel eyes filled up with salty tears, "How am I going to go home and read her another one of her bedtime stories if I can't get that image out of my head? That's someone's little girl in there, Detective." His voice lowered to a harsh whisper and if the wind hadn't stopped blowing, Dick would have never caught the words. "What kind of monster could do that to a little girl?"
"We'll find him, Sam, don't worry." Dick moved away, patting the man's shoulder once more before dropping his hand, "One of our officers will drive you home." He couldn't be sure if the man truly heard him or not, but Sam nodded, and Dick trotted back down the wharf.
After he loaded up the gear and bid goodbye to Melinda again, Dick looked back out to see the form of the workman still standing at the end of the wharf, a dark spot on the overcast horizon.
\/
"Tara Markov."
"Hmm?" Dick looked up from his Chinese takeout dinner to the lab-coated form of his favorite coroner, although he would never tell her that. Mel didn't like playing favorites, although Dick could tell that she was beginning to have a soft spot for Brandon, most likely due to his age and naivety.
"Sleeping Beauty's name is Tara Markov. Her fingerprints pulled up in our system."
"For?"
"A conviction back in 2003 on minor assault and trespassing," Victor's booming voice filled the squad room as the monitor came to life with a photo of several hundred protestors standing around a tobacco company, complete with picket signs and banners. "A cab driver almost ran over her after she was pushed off the sidewalk by security. She decked the cabby in the face and he threatened to sue her for 'emotional distress.'" Stepping in from lunch, Marty smirked and eyed the video of Tara beating up the driver and slamming him on top of his hood.
"My kind of woman. Age?"
"Twenty-five. Another pattern to the murders. Amy Winston was twenty-two and the rest were all one year older than the next."
"The question is what age is he going to stop at?" Marty spoke up after the silence following Victor's statement.
"I suggest we not find out and get to him before another princess shows up," Dick grabbed his coat and headed out the door, yelling orders as he went, "Vic, you run all security footage around the dock and check out all the people who signed in that day. Our killer could have stuck around afterhours with her in that warehouse and the mangers never saw him when they locked up for the night. Marty, you help Vic."
"Where are you headed, Dick?"
"Brooding time." The other three members of the team answered in unison before heading off to their own tasks.
"What about me, then?" The F.B.I. liaison called again from behind his desk.
"You can help Mel down in the lab, but don't touch anything without her permission." Brandon looked over to the coroner who stood by Dick's desk.
"And don't throw up all over the floor, either, or I-" Brandon raised his hands innocently and followed her to the elevator.
"I know, you'll kill me and dispose of my body without anyone ever finding me. Sheesh. Give a guy a break, would you?"
\/
The interior of the popular downtown club Yankee Bitch was as it should have been: hot, loud, and thundering with the bass of some new up-and-coming hip-hop mogul. However, Kory didn't need to stand near the entrance long before she spotted the table her friends were occupying. She pushed her way through the crowd, ignoring the unsettling catcalls she received from the sweaty college boys visiting Gotham over the winter holiday break.
"Kory!" The table roared as she arrived and slid in next to Rachel, immediately ordering a gin and tonic.
"Where have you been, girl?" Sarah prodded, her voice high and slurred from the amount of alcohol she'd drained. Next to Sarah sat Victor Stone, her longtime boyfriend and who Kory heard worked for the GPD, as well. Garfield, Gotham Zoo's head veterinarian and Rachel's boyfriend, resided next to Victor with his arm around Rachel's shoulder as he whispered what was most likely a terrible joke.
"Working." Kory responded and sipped her drink. From across the table, Victor tore himself away from his girlfriend and smirked at his friend's new love interest.
"That's not what I heard from Dick. He told me that you guys went out Friday and since he came back performing the 'walk of shame' into work, I'd say it went pretty well." The entire table gaped at the redhead, who shook her head at once in hopes that her friends wouldn't think badly of her.
"It's not what you think-"
"Oh, come on, Kor," Garfield chuckled, "There's no harm in having a healthy sex life." To add to his comment, he squeezed his arm tighter around Rachel, who promptly rolled her violet eyes.
"Like you can talk, Gar."
"Yeah!" Sarah agreed with the animal lover a little too loudly, "We don't care if you've been sleeping with Dick!"
"I'm not having sex with him!" Kory exclaimed heatedly. The table froze, nervously sharing glances before Rachel stepped in.
"Well, no matter what you're doing- or not doing- with him, I'm happy that you've moved on from Weston. It's about damn time, Kory."
"Thank you, Rachel." No one missed the acidity that lingered in their friend's tone.
"So, Kor, what did you guys do on your date?"
"Dick took me to Coney Island," Her green eyes danced in the light of the blue Ellipse droplight from above, "Truthfully, when he told me of the location's name, I thought we would be going to some strange ice cream shop, but it ended up being a glorious miniature theme park."
As Sarah opened her mouth to inquire whether or not the night had ended in more than a simple goodnight kiss, the music's thundering tempo increased, signaling a change in song, and suddenly, both girls were swept away by their boyfriends. Kory quickly lost sight of the four as Victor practically shoved them into the middle of the dance floor. Alone with her thoughts for the first time since she'd arrived, Kory downed the last of her drink and considered going home to feed Silkie and prepare for her morning class. She'd never found the 'club scene' as interesting or fun as her companions.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" A voice to her right caused her to jump with surprise. A beautiful ebony-haired woman stood at the head of the table, twisting the phone in her hand nervously. "Sarah asked me to meet her here for a few drinks and told me her friends would be sitting in the back of the club. You… are her friend, yes?"
"Oh, yes, I am Kory Anders, Sarah's friend. The rest of them are out there on the dance floor." The woman smiled knowingly and slipped into Sarah's seat.
"It does not surprise me one bit. I heard that Victor is quite the dancer." Kory laughed at this comment because if anyone had ever seen him dance, they would know he was everything but talented.
"I suppose you could compare his moves to that of a robot. The music may move him, but it moves him in all the wrong ways." The women chuckled in unison until the newcomer's eyes widened apologetically, the brown irises sparkling against the light above.
"Forgive me, Kory, but I never formally introduced myself. I am Cahaya, Sarah's friend from Boston," The two women shook hands across the table, "She dragged me down here once she heard I was finishing up my Master's in Linguistics and decided that I deserved some more of the teasement since I have not fully captured the American dialect so well, yet."
"You are not from here?" Cahaya shook her head politely.
"No, my sister and I moved to Boston in 2006, after the tsunami hit our home in Indonesia."
"I'm terribly sorry, Cahaya." The dark-haired woman sighed knowingly and the large amount of bangles around her wrists clinked and jangled when she raised her hands in a comfortable gesture.
"It is all right. No harm was done to myself and I am happy for that. What about you? You look as if you are not from here, as well, unless you are one of those 'Jersey' people I hear so much about."
"Trust me, I'm not. I am from a small country called Tamaran." Cahaya's eyes widened.
"When did you move here? Was it before or after the-"
"Cahaya!" Sarah squealed as she reached the table and pounced on top of her friend, who patted the blonde haired woman's back politely. "You two should come dance with us! It's a blast!" Kory wanted to point out that dancing was not exactly her 'thing,' but there was no trying to back out of it now with Sarah's arm wrapped around hers so tightly.
\/
Dick walked the path of a killer. He paced around the room, moving to run his hand along things he believed a killer would have touched, would have looked at and taken a great interest in. Did the Felon ever think of using the rusty saw blade in the corner or did he need to have everything to merely not fall into place, but for him to control where it landed.
Disturbed by the movement of the detective, a slimy wharf rat scrambled out of its hiding place and scurried along the walls of the warehouse and back into the sheer, inky darkness. This was the place a psychopath had chosen for an innocent woman to die. What were her eyes on in her last moments?
Dick glanced around, hoping there had been something that would have kept her at some level of peace, even as she most likely knew what was going to happen. There, slipping through the cracks in the roof, was the dying sunset. It cast an ethereal glow along the ceiling and to the far wall, the orange glow bouncing against the metallic coating.
If Melinda's time of death was correct- which it always was- that meant the girl most likely witnessed the sun setting before she perished at the hands of the madman.
"Who did this to you?" He spoke aloud for the time since he'd arrived nearly thirty minutes ago, "Who brought you to this horrid place and took you away, Tara?" They didn't deserve to be called by their fictional doppelganger's name, the one the Felon forced them to be. Those girls were still people, they still had friends and family and a life. Or they did until the Felon stepped in and blew it all away- just like the fox blowing away the home of those three little pigs.
Dick's question received nothing but the choking of a boat's motor far off into the distance and the call of a stray seagull near the wharf. And when the warehouse spoke no more, Dick pulled himself away and out the door to his car.
The seagull he had heard inside was seated on the top of his hood, grooming himself and snapping his beak at the salty wind. Seeing the dark form stalking towards him, he gave a moaning call and took to the skies, sweeping around the edge of the harbor before disappearing into the churning waves.
\/
Dancing stopped being fun once Kory felt a hand on her waist, pawing at the area where her top met her skirt. She whirled around to show the animal just where he could put his hands when she came face-to-face with a badge. For a moment, her heart skipped a beat, thinking her newfound detective had located her and wanted to dance. However, a quick glance up and she felt the disappointment all the way through her.
"Can I help you?" She snarled at the young man in front of her.
"Hey, now, don't be like that. I was just-"
"Touching me inappropriately when you had no right?" The man narrowed his eyes at her and fought to be heard over the pounding music.
"All I wanted was a chance to-"
"Brandon?" Victor called above the music, "What are you doing here, man?" Brandon's gaze drifted from Kory to his co-worker.
"Thought I would try out a new scene. The Palladium filled up fast with Bruce Wayne and the other socialites of Gotham." Victor rolled his eyes and tugged the man closer.
"Since you have trouble getting some things through that thick skull of yours, I'll let you in on one thing: the girl you were drooling over is the one Dick's been talking about." The agent's heartbeat quickened and his eyes darted around the room for the elusive detective. Had Dick seen all of that? Would he have his ass handed to him right here, right now or would Dick wait until Monday when he had a chance to worry about it the entire weekend?
"Shit. You serious?"
"Dead. You might wanna go apologize fast before she hands your ass to you. Dick told me she's an instructor up at his gym." Brandon glanced back over to the woman in question, who still had her arms crossed defensively against her chest and a pissed-off expression marring her gorgeous face.
"Listen, I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were dating someone."
"And if I weren't? Would you have still tried to frisk me like some kind of animal in heat?"
"…probably." He admitted sheepishly.
"At least you are truthful. I will not inform Dick of this incident, because I'm sure you like your job, correct?" Brandon nodded furiously. "Then you may 'put the moves' on someone else."
Before the current song even had time to change, Kory's quick glance around the club told him that Brandon was hitting on Cahaya, who seemed to be both enjoying it and a little intimidated by the hand he placed upon her arm. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Kory noted that it was nearly one-thirty in the morning and she was to be at work at nine. She quickly bid her goodbyes to her friends and headed out the door before realizing that since Komille had borrowed her car, Kory would have to walk the ten or so blocks to the nearest subway station.
Stepping out of her heels, she deemed that she would rather have glass in her feet than twist her ankle falling into a pothole. Thus she began her trek down the 'Gotham Strip' as the locals called it.
A few blocks from Yankee Bitch, she dutifully noted the black SUV pulling up to the barren curb ahead of her. For a moment, she paused, having watched too many crime shows that always showed innocent young women being abducted into the backseat of a dark model car.
"Kory?"
"Dick?" Narrowing her eyes, she made out his attractive features heading towards her.
"Why are you barefoot?"
"Why are you here?"
"Uh… well, I happened to swing by the club because I heard you were there, but Victor said you left a couple minutes ago, so I was headed home and… saw you. Alone on the sidewalk." His blue eyes traveled down her again, "Barefoot."
"My heels are quite painful."
"Would you like a ride home?" She beamed happily and moved forward to press her lips against his cheek lightly, the same as she had on their date.
"I would love that, Dick."
AN: Chapter Four: "I Want You" by Savage Garden / "Gone Away" by Lucy Schwartz / "Radiowave" by Leslie Mills
Housemouse: A sissy; someone afraid to go on patrol
DAS: Dead at the scene (Thanks, Star of Airdrie, for the correction!)
No, they didn't have sex, either. I wouldn't make our little Kory dive into the deep end of the pool on a first date. But they are adults, so passing out and spending the night at another person's house is acceptable.
You know the drill.