When Duty Isn't Enough
Author: Firebird
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Neither Hot Fuzz nor its characters, settings etc. are mine. Original characters are, as the name would imply, original and belong to me.
Author's Note: Okay, interlude over; back to the main story. Thanks to Spud for pointing out a couple of errors in the last chapter, and for taking the time to write me an awesome epic of a review – you made my day! I'm going away for a few days, so I'm posting all the remaining chapters of this fic together. Enjoy!
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The days were now noticeably shorter, and the weather was growing ever-colder as winter drew closer. Lily had managed to convince Nick to come mushrooming with her before the season ended, and so they were once again headed to the woods above Brannigan Farm.
"I still don't think this is a good idea, you know," he commented as they headed up the hill, breath steaming in the morning air. "From what I've read it's pretty hard to distinguish innocuous mushrooms from toxic ones."
"Oh, it's simple enough," Lily replied. "If you eat it and die, it was a poisonous one."
"You really do have a completely inappropriate sense of humour, don't you?"
She shrugged. "I did warn you. Although I have to say, I don't think you were entirely honest with me when we started going out."
"Oh? How's that?"
"Well, you told me you were a workaholic who habitually missed dates and neglected his girlfriend, but in the last four months you've missed all of two dates, both for very good reasons, remembered our one-month and three-month anniversaries, spoiled me rotten on my birthday, managed to refrain from arresting my family members, and generally been nothing if not attentive."
He blushed. "Well, you mean a lot to me. And Doris and Danny keep me on the straight and narrow. I told you about the 'Lily Calendar', right?"
She stopped to pick several brown-grey mushrooms, and Nick reached into his pocket for his field-guide to common mushrooms and toadstools of Great Britain.
"Yes, you told me about it. I think it's sweet."
She popped one of the mushrooms into her mouth.
"Lily! I haven't worked out if that one's safe yet."
She clutched her throat melodramatically and pretended to choke. He scowled and ignored her, having finally found a picture which matched what she was eating. Quickly scanning the information he was relieved to note that it was, indeed, non-toxic and safe to eat. He trusted Lily, but he was still convinced that her devil-may-care attitude towards her own safety would send him to an early grave.
They wandered past the brambles, now devoid of fruit, and Lily stopped to pick some more mushrooms. They were identical to the ones she had picked earlier, so Nick assumed they were safe and instead glanced up into the trees, trying to locate a blackbird which he could hear singing somewhere.
"Nick?"
"Yeah?" He turned his attention away from the blackbird and glanced back at Lily. She was staring at something deeper in the bramble patch, out of his line of sight. "Can you see something in there?"
He walked over to her side, following her gaze. The annual die-back of summer plant-life had opened up the undergrowth, allowing them to see farther than they had when they were there before, and revealing a splash of man-made colour deeper in the bushes. Nick felt his heart sink. He had a fairly good idea of what bright clothing might be doing deep in the undergrowth in such an out-of-the-way place, and it meant his date with Lily was about to end on a thoroughly unpleasant note.
His curious girlfriend was already moving closer, pushing the brambles aside with one jacket-clad arm.
"Lily." Something in his tone of voice stopped her in her tracks. He caught up to her, holding his palms out towards her in a stilling gesture, looking her straight in the eye with an expression she hadn't seen him wear before. "Just stay here, okay. Let me check it out."
She nodded, and he moved past her, picking his way carefully until he was able to crouch down beside the worn red sweater and jeans. A quick look confirmed that the clothes did, indeed, contain the remains of a body. He ran his eyes over it, careful not to touch anything. The remains were in an advanced stage of decomposition and had no doubt been there for several years, at the least. Scanning the nearby surroundings, he noticed what could only be a second body lying just past the first. Satisfied that he had seen enough he headed back towards Lily.
He dug into his pocket for his mobile, but was unsurprised to see that there was no reception in the remote spot. "We need to go back to the car," he told her.
"It's a body, isn't it?" she asked, and he nodded.
"Probably more than one. I need to call Forensics to come and check it out. Hopefully we'll have a signal up by the road." When she didn't answer he reached out and touched her arm. "Lily? We need to go." She nodded, and he took her hand. She followed him without protest.
She handed him the keys and he seated her in the passenger's seat before checking his phone again. The signal was faint, but enough that he could make the call.
"Turner, it's Angel. I need CSI at Brannigan Woods. We've found a couple of bodies. Can you get someone up here to secure the scene until they arrive?"
Turner grunted something in the affirmative, and he disconnected and turned his attention back to Lily.
"Are you okay?"
She drew a deep breath. "Yeah, I think so. It's just kind of surreal. One minute we're looking for mushrooms, and the next... It's a bit of a shock when you're not used to it."
"Yeah, that never really goes away." They had been young, he thought, probably just teenagers. Had their parents waited in vain for them to come home? Had their girlfriends wondered why the phone never rang? Had there been a gap in their team photo that year? He closed his eyes. There was little doubt in his mind that these bodies were more victims of the NWA.
The sound of a siren echoed across the still fields, and a moment later a patrol car pulled up. Fisher and one of the new recruits, Constable Jemimah Payton, emerged. Fisher, as always, looked as though he'd slept in his uniform, whilst Constable Payton was crisp and clean without so much as a hair out of place (Danny's response upon meeting her for the first time had been to turn to Nick and remark, fortunately out of her earshot, "Oh my God. She's a female version of you.").
"What's going on, Inspector?" Fisher asked.
"Miss Birch and I were up in the woods and found what appear to be two severely decomposed bodies in the undergrowth."
"Right, well, you'd better show us where so we can cordon it off until CSI can get here."
He nodded. "Lily, you'd better wait here."
He showed his officers to the scene, then left them in charge, promising to write up a statement and bring it in the next morning. As he walked back to the car he couldn't help reflecting on how much things had changed. Once, he would never have trusted Fisher to take charge of a scene, not even with a constable as competent as Payton backing him up. And even if he had, he would have felt compelled to remain at the scene until the last CSI left. But these days he trusted his team to fly solo – and was willing to give them the opportunity to do so.
Lily was subdued on the drive home, and Nick seated her on her sofa while he fixed her a cup of sweet tea. Without thinking about it, he was doing what he would have done for any shocked witness or traumatised victim, but this time it was different. This time the shocked witness was his girlfriend, and he was going through the motions because he didn't know what else to do. He had never wanted this part of his life to touch hers.
"Here you go." He sat down beside her, watching her anxiously.
"Thanks." She sipped in silence, and he saw some of the tension drain from her shoulders. "Nick?" she asked suddenly. "Will you stay here tonight?" She blushed. "In the spare room, I mean."
He nodded. "'Course I will."