Eli and Ria rushed into the building; they were ten minutes late and still counting. Dr. Lightman had wanted to see them right after their lunch breaks, and they didn't think he'd be very thrilled when they arrived so late.
"Don't worry about it," Eli said, seeing the worry on her face. "I used to show up an hour late, and Lightman never did anything about it." Eleven minutes, and now they only had a few more hallways to walk through.
"What was your excuse?" Ria asked. Dr. Lightman's office was only a few feet away.
"I told Lightman I was drunk the previous night, and how I was thinking about how hot…" Ria opened the office door revealing Lightman sitting behind his desk.
"Where have you two been?" he replied just as Loker and Torres stepped in. They could notice the annoyance in his voice.
"Hospital," Loker answered simply. He didn't think he needed to be specific, and sure enough, understanding flickered on Lightman's face. Lightman picked up a folder and handed it to Ria. She glanced through it with Eli peering at it from behind her.
"Here's the case you'll be working on for the rest of the day," he said, getting up to leave the room. "Foster and I have another case to finish, so you'll have to start this case without us."
"Foster's here?" Eli asked, confused. "She wasn't in her office this morning." Lightman left the room, ignoring Eli, who shrugged and focused back on the folder. "What does it say?"
"A ten-year-old boy was murdered," she said without looking up. "His brother was claimed to cause suicide a month ago, and they're wondering if there was any connection."
"So then we're going to pay his parents a visit?" Eli asked, noticing the determined look on her face. Was she always so intent with all of her cases? Not with the serial rapist, or even that case with those rappers, he thought. No, she just showed a look of concentration, and recently she's been agitated over the cases...
"Yeah," Ria answered, disrupting Eli's thoughts. "Should we take your car again?" Nodding, Eli left the room with Ria close behind. They never really worked on a case this serious before without Dr. Lightman and Dr. Foster; Eli had hardy even worked on a case without the whole group since his demotion. Finally, I get to work with Torres again, he thought to himself.
"I'm surprised Lightman didn't put off his other case and start on this one," Ria said. They were on their way to visit Mr. and Mrs. Sanford, the couple they had set off to interrogate.
"Why?" he asked, giving her a questioning look before drifting back to his thoughts. Is there something else, another expression, that Torres is showing? Yeah, that, right there, what is it? The corner of her lips, pulled down a little bit more than usual... sadness, maybe? About what, though? Dupree? Eli shook his head. No wonder why Torres always liked asking around and poking into other peoples businesses. He could see her point there.
"The last time there was a case with suicides, he became completely obsessed over it." Ria said, glancing out the car window. "He wouldn't let us take a break for anything and expected us to have every little detail that he wanted."
Eli nodded. "While you were doing that, I was busy lying to Foster and setting myself up for a demotion," he said grimly, turning into a driveway. "We're here." Unbuckling their seatbelts, the two stepped out of the car and onto the concrete.
The house wasn't that big, yet it wasn't small either. Ria knocked on the door with Eli right next to her, taking in the neighboring houses. Nothing really seemed out of place. It was unusually quiet, but there wasn't anything else to observe. After a minute or so, someone opened the door.
"Hi," Ria said. The woman who answered looked tired and depressed. "I'm Ria Torres and this is Eli Loker. We're from the Lightman Group."
"Oh, thank you for coming. I'm Kim Sanford by the way." Eli and Ria stepped into the house as Mrs. Sanford moved back allowing them to enter. "I'll go get my husband. Have a seat." Mrs. Sanford left as she pointed to a room with two sofas. Ria cautiously sat down; Eli taking a seat right next to her.
Something in the next room instantly caught Ria's eyes-beer bottles. A ton of them, all empty. Eli followed her gaze without paying much attention. He couldn't care less about what she was staring at; he was, after all, sitting right next to her, and it wasn't a very long couch to begin with.
"This is my husband, Rick." Eli looked up just in time to see Kim reentering the room and Rick displaying a smile. A fake smile. It didn't reach his eyes. The Sanford's took a seat in the sofa across from them.
"We're really glad you came to help," Rick Sanford said, biting his lip. Eli knew that would mean something in the world of lie detection, but he was occupied with watching Ria out of the corner of his eye. She's cute even when she's concentrating way too hard, he thought. Get with it, Eli. Stop looking at her and get your mind on the case. No matter how hot she looks, you need to start concentrating.
"You don't mean that, do you?" Ria asked, noticing the man's anxiousness.
"What do you mean I don't mean it?" he said, voice rising. This guy sure has a temper, Eli thought. "My son was murdered. Murdered! Why wouldn't I want to know who did it?" His eyebrows rose along with his last statement.
"You seem to know why you wouldn't." Eli noted, getting a glare from Mr. Sanford. Man, is this guy easy to read.
The afternoon wore on until they had some answers. They discovered that Mr. Sanford had a temper, he showed some guilt when talking about his murdered son, Hayden, and, oh yeah, loved to lie. Mrs. Sanford, on the other hand, was pretty expressionless. The only time she showed something was when they talked about her son, Owen, who had caused suicide a month ago. She showed sadness tinged with some regret, but she didn't show anything when Hayden was mentioned.
"We should go tell Lightman about what we found out." Eli said, starting up the car and backing out of the driveway.
"We could do that tomorrow," Ria replied firmly. "Could you drop me off at the hospital? I want to check on Karl one last time."
"So now I'm a taxi driver?" Eli joked. "Okay, fine. I'll drop you off." Eli paused for a moment, turning the radio down. "Unless…"
"Unless what?" Ria asked, seeing the mischievous grin Loker was giving her. That look that she was way too used to seeing.
"Unless you'd like to go and get something to eat? We did skip luch, after all…" Eli gave her his innocent puppy look.
"Maybe after I visit Karl?" she said hesitantly.
"Okay, sure." Eli pulled up to the hospital.
Ria got out of the car and Eli watched as she entered the hospital.
'Maybe you had her, maybe you lost her to another. To another.'
Eli quickly shut the radio off completely. He didn't need to listen to songs that would only get him feeling sorry for himself. She had said yes, didn't she? Yeah, but only after she visited Dupree, he reminded himself. And more importantly, just as friends…
Author's Note: Thanks for all of the reviews! I hope you like this chapter. There will be more Eli/Ria in the next one. This chapter was mainly to get everything set up for the next few, so it might have been sort of boring. The song used at the end is 'All at Once' by the Fray.
