Part Two

[intheheart]

Title: Part Two
Rating: PG-13. Zack swears when he's in a bad mood.
Summary: Dr. Kendall and Officer Ryan don't get along any better the second time 'round. Also, the plot arrives. Sort of.
Date: 2028
Notes: Yeah, yeah, yeah, creative title, I know, shut up, I suck at them.


"Ryan," Felipe Claro said, and Zack swapped avoiding looking at the crime scene for looking at his partner. Felipe was wearing a grin too broad to bode well. "Got a friend of yours coming in."

"A friend...?" he began, and trailed off when he saw Dr. Kendall picking her way across the dirt, nose wrinkled in disgust. "Oh, hell."

"Not a friend, then," Felipe noted, with an annoying amount of glee in his voice.

The son of a bitch, he knew the whole story. "No," Zack said, and stood up. "Woman can't take a joke and I can't not tell 'em. Hell. What's she doing here?" For that matter, he had yet to find out what the hell he and Felipe were doing here; they were crimes against property, not fucking homicide, or at least they were supposed to be. God alone knew if they'd actually get promoted any time soon.

But the boss had descended from on high and said, "Get your asses to the scene and secure it," and lo, they had gotten their asses to the scene and secured it. Maybe someone would fill them in. Someday. In the not-too-distant future for preference.

Felipe shrugged, still grinning. "Don't see why you're asking. She's got business, hasn’t she?" He nodded at the corpse. "Deady McDeaderson there could probably use a coroner."

Zack felt like rolling his eyes, but didn't-- Dr. Kendall could still see him. "Deady McDeaderson can wait to see a coroner until he got to the morgue like all the rest of the bodies we find. Nobody needed to roust her out of her lair."

Felipe frowned, and opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by Dr. Kendall's arrival. "Officer Ryan," she said, in her precise voice. "What's happened here?"

For a moment, he thought she'd been going to say "What's all this then?" But that would have required a sense of humor. "That's what we're trying to figure out," he told her, staying as civil as he could. Behind her, Felipe was making strange faces and pantomiming something that Zack didn't even bother trying to understand. Who could tell what went on in his head?

"Yes," Dr. Kendall said. "I suppose that is your job." She stepped past him, delicately, and bent over the corpse. "Goodness."

Zack was mildly interested to see that dirt revolted her but blood didn't faze her. But then he supposed that was her job.

"It looks like a hit," Felipe said. He'd apparently given up on whatever he was trying to tell Zack and decided to suck up to the coroner instead. "Professional." It was a shot in the dark, and probably untrue. Zack stared at him, but Dr. Kendall beat him to the punch.

"No," she said, and pointed to some of the wounds on the man's arms. "These are defensive, shallow cuts. Not like the others-- those were probably for fun. You wouldn't see that on a professional hit. Well, maybe an apprentice hit. But they don't use knives, as a rule."

Zack had been about to point out that very same thing. A brief wave of unreasonable disgruntlement flooded him. "They never use knives like this," he said, grumpily. "Professionals use good hardware that makes it quick. As you know, Claro."

"So I'm trying to impress a pretty lady," Felipe said. "Sue me."

Dr. Kendall straightened up. "You don't need to flatter me," she said, crisply. "And you certainly didn't impress me. What was your name again?"

"Oh, here we go," Zack muttered.

"Officer Claro," Felipe said. He looked perfectly confident, but Zack knew him well enough to see the worry under it. "Felipe Claro. I apologize, Dr. Kendall, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Officer Claro," Dr. Kendall repeated, as if trying to fix it in her memory. Then she smiled, suddenly. "You didn't offend me, Officer. People don't do that often. I would simply appreciate it if you would be professional about, ah, trying to impress me."

It was amazing. Felipe was saying something, probably something charming, but Zack didn't hear it. It was just amazing what that smile did to her face. It made her look so much softer.

God damn Felipe, anyway.

"...can tell you more when I've finished the autopsy," Dr. Kendall was saying. Zack shook himself and tuned in again. "I think it's pretty clear that he died of loss of blood due to the throat wound, but those defensive cuts are interesting. They would seem to indicate that the wound was inflicted from the front."

"Revenge, maybe," Felipe mused. "Someone wanted him to know who was killing him, and why."

Dr. Kendall shrugged. "Motives are your responsibility," she said. "I find out the hows, not the whys. I'll send you my report by the end of the day."

"Toxicology screening and all?" Zack asked, feeling nasty.

She gave him a very level stare for a moment. "If it comes back in time," she said.

"We don't actually need your report," Felipe said, hastily. "We just found the body. Whoever's primary on this case is going to want it."

Dr. Kendall tipped her head to the side again as she focused on Felipe. "You're not homicide?" She glanced briefly at Zack as she said this, looking faintly surprised.

Felipe shook his head. "Not technically, but we've been drafted to do all sorts of things."

"Ah," she said, in the tones of one enlightened. "I see. Well, I'll copy you anyway, for interest." She checked her watch with one quick turn of her wrist, and shook her head. "I'd better be getting back to the morgue. Thank you, Officer Claro." She gave Zack one frigid little nod in place of further acknowledgment, then picked her way off across the scene again.

"What the hell was that about?" Felipe demanded, the moment Dr. Kendall was out of earshot.

"It doesn't matter," Zack said, already feeling a bit embarrassed. "Let's get back to the crime scene."

Felipe narrowed his eyes. "No. You cockblocked me, man. That is uncool."

Zack snorted. "Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure. You'd never make it with her. Why the hell would you want to, anyway? She looks about fourteen."

"What she looks is hot," Felipe said. "And not fourteen. More like twenty. Definitely something legal. I can make it with anyone, you know that."

Zack considered flipping him off, but reluctantly discarded the idea on the basis of being in uniform and having eyewitnesses. "Regardless of how hot she is or whether you can make it with her, Felipe, there was no cockblocking. At least not from me. I don't know where the hell you got that particular little delusion, but I decline the invitation to participate."

"She shows up, you start fighting with her right away so's I can't even flirt proper. I call that a cockblock." Felipe looked down at the corpse, and winced. "Christ Jesus. I need a cigarette."

Felipe didn't smoke, but Zack declined to point that out. "Look, you know this. She doesn't like me, I don't like her. It happens sometimes, now let it go."

The other man smirked, briefly. "Will wonders never cease. A woman you don't like."

"Oh, come on, I don't like Paige either. The 'tec here yet?"

"Paige is your sister," Felipe said. "That's different, or it would be if you didn't like her and lie about it, God knows why but I know it to be truth. No, the 'tec is not here yet.

"Taking her sweet time about getting out of bed," Zack muttered, ignoring the rest of whatever Felipe had been going on about. "I swear to God, if homicide drafts us again I'm going to shout at people. I didn't sign up for dead people."

"Yeah, well, you got 'em anyway." Felipe jittered up and down for a minute. "You know who found the body?"

"Some poor sap on his morning jog." Zack nodded over to the poor sap in question, who was sitting in the back seat of someone else's patrol car and shaking. "'Tec called ahead and said to leave him to her, though. We get to sit here and--" he waved out over the alley, "--sing along if you know the words--"

"Secure the scene," Felipe repeated, and sighed. "You know, this morning has been hell on my ego."

"Tell me about it," Zack muttered.

At least Felipe had gotten her to smile.