Author's note: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters. This is for the 30 Kisses challenge using list iota. This is AU and has some violence and gore. Theme 9: Inappropriate Timing.

Lady Death and Her Knight

"Good evening, Dr. Trepe."

Quistis smiled at Rinoa who was manning the front desk. "Evening, Rinoa. Where's Hypatia? I thought she was covering the front desk while Sara was on maternity leave."

The brunette grinned at her. "I offered to cover for her since Zell wanted to take her out tonight. I'd get back there if I were you. It looks like it's going to be a busy night."

"Thanks for the heads up."

Graveyard shift at Balamb Crime Lab was always interesting, especially when you were the coroner. Quistis quickly changed into her scrubs and headed down to the morgue. She entered the room to find all the tables full. It was going to be a busy night. Quistis pulled on her gloves and got to work.

"What have you got for us tonight, Lady Death?"

Quistis grinned at the pair of detectives standing in the door. "Your suspicious death was simply a heart attack, Almasy. Are you loosing your touch?"

"Hey, that was the rookie's call, not mine." Seifer shot back.

Quistis just grinned and waved them over to the table. Seven of them who'd grown up in the same foster home had ended up working together as adults. Between the original groups and their various friends and significant others, the graveyard shift almost completely consisted of them. Of course, given that their foster father was the current lab director, perhaps it wasn't surprising that all of them had gone into some part of law enforcement.

She and Seifer bantered over the other two bodies he had sent in. They were oldest of the crew and had always been close, even if some of the time it was close to killing one another.

"So, are you ready to get your butt kicked at the annual PD versus Lab baseball game?" Seifer smirked at her.

"And who has won for the three years, hmm?"

"There were extenuating circumstances!"

"Of course there were." She handed him the autopsy report. "Here you are."

"Thanks, Lady Death. Can I take you out from breakfast after shift?"

She shook her head. "Thanks, Seifer, but I'm taking off now. I've got court tomorrow."

"Rain check then?"

"Of course."

Quistis hated court days. Court itself wasn't so bad, but the shoes that she had to wear with her suit left her feet aching for hours afterward. Those shoes were now somewhere among the potted plans over in the corner. With a sigh, she flopped onto her couch. She had time for a quick nap before heading in for the night's shift. She closed her eyes and let go.

Her cell rang just as she was dropping off. With a curse, Quistis fumbled for her phone.

"Trepe."

"Quistis, we need you to come in. We've got a multiple homicide that looks to be tricky. You're the most experienced medical examiner we have." Cid sounded regretful. "Can you be onsite in a half hour?"

"Of course, sir. Can you give me the address?"

It took her all of five minutes to get out the door. She'd swing by the lab to change clothes and pick-up a department vehicle and then head out to the site. Quistis sighed. It was going to be a long night.

The sinking feeling got worse when she arrived at the scene to find some very green around the gills police officers outside. By the looks of things, it was a more gruesome scene than even they were used to. Seifer met her at the door, his face stony, and she could see Squall just inside with a similar expression.

"You're not going to like this, Quisty. We've got three victims, all under ten. It was pretty brutal."

She nodded, steeling herself; she hated child victims. "All right. I'll give you a preliminary time of death then bring the bodies to the lab for autopsies. I'll put a priority on this."

Despite the warning, Quistis felt the bile rise in her throat as surveyed the scene. Poor little dears. No child deserved to die like this. She took care of the preliminaries on autopilot, doing her best to focus on the science not the full scene in front of her. It was something of a relief to finally zip up the body bags. She looked up to find both of the detectives still hovering.

"Give me three hours for the autopsies. I'll have the preliminary results by then, and any other tests we need will be in process."

Seifer nodded and squeezed her shoulder. Her assistants had arrived with a van, and Quistis supervised the loading of the bodies before heading back to her own vehicle. She started the car with a sigh. This was not shaping up to be a good night. Twenty minutes later, Quistis bit her lip as she gloved up. She hated cases like these. They hit a little too close to home for her. Quistis was well aware that she could have been one of those children on the table.

Her parents had been murdered when she was three, and she had been sent to live with Edea and Cid. When Quistis was eight, she had been adopted by the Trepes. That had lasted all of two years. The marriage had dissolved in a flurry of violence and accusations, and she had been shunted back into the system. And these memories weren't helping her find who did this to these three girls.

Two and a half hours later, she had most of the results. The toxicology report hadn't come back yet, but she doubted it would tell her anything she didn't already know. The results weren't good. The morgue door slid open, and Quistis looked up from the completed report to find not only Seifer and Squall but also their boss, Captain Caraway. Seifer held out a large paper coffee cup.

"We brought you a bribe. It's your regular Chai latte."

She took it with a nodded of thanks. "I have most of the results. What do you need?"

"Cause of death. We need to cut down the list of suspects, so we can find the fourth sister." Caraway spoke. "I trust you can help us with that."

"There's a fourth victim?" Quistis kept her voice from breaking.

"Not yet. Not if we get to her on time. The lab is already working on it." Seifer smiled grimly. "What do you have for us, Lady Death?"

"The cause of death is blunt force trauma for all of them. From the bruising it's clear that they were beaten with fists, not any other objects. All three victims were raped before they were killed. There was at least an hour between each death, and the two younger victims show signs of being restrained." Quistis took a breath. "From the size of the fists, I can estimate the size of the attacker as somewhere between five foot four and five foot seven. These are the full results."

Her hands shook only a little as she handed over the report. Seifer squeezed her shoulder as Caraway and Squall flipped through her findings.

"Thank you, Dr. Trepe." Caraway nodded. "I think this will be a great help."

They headed out, but Seifer paused in the doorway. Quistis dredged up a grim smile. "Almasy, nail this bastard for me."

He nodded. "Will do."

Alone in the morgue, Quistis sought to find something to keep her busy until something new came up to occupy her time.

It was a quiet night in the morgue, and Quistis was grateful. The morning had seen the end of the trial for that awful triple homicide six months ago. Thankfully, Seifer and Squall had found the fourth little girl before she was killed. Still, the trial had been brutal, and Quistis was enjoying having very little to do. She had the radio on, and the late night dj seemed to have the same taste in music as she did.

Quistis hummed along with the music as she worked over a body. Nothing special about this case, just a good old fashion heart attack. However, there was a dispute over the estate and accusations were flying every which way, so a full autopsy had been ordered. Not that she had found anything out of the ordinary. Some of the family members were going to be very disappointed.

She was so caught up in her work that she didn't hear the door open, and it wasn't until Seifer caught her wrist, spinning her into his arms, that Quistis realized she was no longer alone. Seifer simply smirked down at her annoyed expression and pulled her into a dance position. In too good a mood for him to spoil, Quistis simply went along with it, and they waltzed around the morgue.

"What brought this on?"

"I am simply having a lovely night and felt like sharing."

"A lovely night?" Her eyebrow went up at that.

Seifer laughed. "Let's see: all easy cases tonight, Puberty Boy got stuck with all the paperwork, and I got to see Chicken Wuss wade into a pond of maple syrup. And now I have the prettiest M.E. in town in my arms. What's not to like?"

Quistis had to bit her lip to keep from giggling when they waltzed passed the morgue door and heard Irvine comment to Selphie as they were passing by.

"There's just something weird about him romancing her in the morgue."

Ignoring them, Seifer steered her back towards the center of the morgue. "I have a question for you, my Lady Death."

"I'm not helping you start another prank war."

He laughed. "I was thinking about something a little more serious and permanent. Will my Lady Death give her knight her hand in marriage?"

She froze, and then Seifer found himself sprawled on one of her tables by the force of her assent. When Quistis finally let him up for air, he looked a little dazed.

"That was a yes," Quistis laughed.