CSI: Sunnydale
by Rin
CSI: Sunnydale
[reviews]
A/N: This has just been going through my head, and it wouldn't leave me alone. I hope to do a whole season of episodes, with a different case each time. I love CSI: but only the Las Vegas version, so there might be a crossover with those characters at some point in this show. Also, B/W won't be full B/W until a few episodes in...you'll see why.
Here's hoping you like my latest concoction!!!
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The campus was eerily quiet at night, and students knew to be in their buildings by dark. It was an unsaid rule in the town of Sunnydale. The lights from the sidewalk served no purpose, other than to showcase the brave ones that dared venture out after dark. Tonight was no exception. Students could be heard partying in a frat house nearby, while a young girl tries to walk home from the party. She is seemingly cold, as she hugs her arms tight around her. Her blonde hair flips over her shoulder, as she turns at a noise.
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Dr. Willow Rosenberg hated visiting her alma mater under these circumstances. Another dead girl found behind the bushes, no ID, no witnesses. Ever since Willow took over the crime lab, she's found it harder and harder to deal with this violence. She wanted to find the gang responsible for
all these brutal murders, these cases that she couldn't explain. Two symmetrical marks along the jugular, bled to death. This was the fifth body this week, and it was only Tuesday.
Walking under the yellow tape, Dr. Rosenberg started her preliminary search. She was always the first CSI on scene. Her crew had lives to attend to; even her best friend Xander had his wife to go home to in the mornings. Night shift at the crime lab was Willow's choice. Her promotion to supervisor was exactly the type of pay she needed to find a hobby. Now, if she could only find a hobby outside of work.
"Hey, Wills. I got here as soon as I could. Is this the DB?" Xander was putting on his gloves, as he walked towards the crime scene. He wouldn't tell Willow he was only reading comics in the staff lounge back at the crime lab but she knew. Somehow, she always knew what he was doing.
"What's the Dark Knight into this week?" Willow squatted down, as she examined around the body. Her flashlight could only pick up so much.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Xander's smile was all the redhead needed to know. "What's the situation?"
"FDB found in the bushes by a group of students leaving a party. Coroner states time of death was only 3 hours ago." Willow started to scrape under the victim's fingernails for DNA evidence. "She looks as though she fought. There are defensive wounds around her wrists, signs that the victim struggled."
"What about cause of death?" Xander saw the two distinctive marks on the victim's throat. "Another one?"
"We have to wait for the autopsy report from Dr. Giles. He'll be able to tell us more." Willow stood, and ran her flashlight around the area. "Victim was dragged. There are marks from here to the sidewalk but they end there. No shoe prints."
"Did anybody question the kids that found her? Did they see anything? If she's only been dead three hours..." Xander did the math in his head. He was glad Willow tutored him all those years but it was still his weakness. "Well...you get the picture."
"The detectives are questioning them now." Willow looked over where the students were, all looking panicked, confused. "If any of them knew the vic, then we may get lucky."
"Highly unlikely in these cases." Xander didn't mean to sound so morbid but there had been too many of these unsolved cases. "I'm just tired of telling parents and spouses that we couldn't solve the case. It makes us look bad."
"We go on evidence. When there is none, the case is out of our hands. We can only do so much, Xan. You know that." Willow took a deep breath. "Can you handle this scene? The new girl is supposed to be coming in tonight, and I have to get her in the system."
"No problemo, boss. I've got it covered." Xander watched as Willow pulled off her gloves, the same defeated sigh she always had when leaving one of these scenes.
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This place was a bigger maze than the crime lab in Los Angeles. However, Buffy Summers was glad to get out of the big city, especially since she was being promoted to CSI level 3 here in Sunnydale. She was supposed to meet with the night shift supervisor an hour ago. Granted, Buffy was early but she seemed to live for her job. Her sister Dawn could account for that. Buffy didn't have much of a life outside of her job; she'd buried herself in it ever since her mother died five years ago. Her relationships suffered, too. Whenever she had a date, ever since Angel left her, it seemed Buffy just wasn't that interested. She was more interested in the next crime scene, always maxing out her overtime.
"You must be Buffy." Willow had stayed only a few minutes more to hear the testimony of one of the students. Apparently, the FDB had been to the fraternity party that night, and had a fight with some guy. None of the students knew who she was, though, and none of them recognized the guy, either. "Sorry I'm late. There was a 419 over on campus."
"Dr. Rosenberg?" Buffy was told that her new supervisor was loopy, too much of a genius for her own good. The blonde expected the other woman to be short, stocky, wearing glasses and vintage librarian-mode. She didn't expect a well-dressed, attractive redhead to be her new boss.
"Yep. That's me. My office is this way. We can get you started." Willow had the girl follow her down the hall. "I'll give you the tour in a little bit. We have to get your IDs made, and all that poppycock."
"I'm glad to be here." Buffy didn't know what to say to this woman. She didn't seem to stop, always moving. When they got to the office, the first thing that popped out was all the occult and tribal decorations and relics. "Should I be worried?"
"Oh...no. They're nothing. Intimidates the staff from coming in here. My doctorate is in the mundane." Willow dug around her file cabinets, and pulled out all the needed materials. "I'll need you to fill out the basic forms, obviously. When you're done with those, we can get you a badge."
"Goody." Buffy didn't sound enthused. More paperwork. That's all she seemed to do lately.
"You can fill the forms out here. I just need to drop off some evidence for testing. I'll introduce you to everyone eventually." Willow left Buffy to sign her life away to the Sunnydale Crime Lab. It wasn't long after that when the redhead returned. "How's it coming along?"
"Almost there. Just a few more." Buffy felt a little intimidated by this woman. She still looked young, her age if not younger. Signing her name to the last sheet, Buffy took a deep breath. If only finding a house was this easy for her. She was still living in that ratty motel.
"If you'll just smile for the camera." Willow took the blonde by surprise, as a flash ignited. Then, the redhead sat down at her computer, typed something in, and a few seconds later, the printer was running. "You're now official."
"Um...thanks." Buffy didn't even get a chance to smile. She looked like she was being attacked in the picture.
"I'll also need a pint of your blood, fingerprints, and DNA swabs. Other than that, you're golden." Willow really was an odd character.
"You need my blood?" Buffy didn't remember doing that back in LA.
"Basic procedure around here." Willow smiled, and stood in the doorway. "You coming?"
"Oh...um, yeah." Buffy was confused. This woman never stopped for a second. The rest of the tour was the same way. Willow constantly moving, and Buffy struggling to follow. Buffy only hoped that tomorrow would be different.
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"We'll get you started today. You get to shadow me." Willow ducked under the yellow tape again, returning to the crime scene while there was still a little light left. "We had a report of a FDB here last night, Dr. Giles has yet to ID her. No fingerprints or DNA on file. TOD was approximately 9:46 last night, and COD was massive blood loss in the arterial vein. Unfortunately, a common murder rap around here, and we've yet to come up with any suspects."
"None at all?" Buffy was confused. She'd heard there were several outstanding cases here in Sunnydale, and knew the crime lab always needed help but she wasn't prepared for no suspects.
"I know you're CSI level 3 now but we need to get you up to par on the situation here in Sunnydale. We have reason to believe the murders are gang related but we've yet to uncover any evidence suggesting for or against that theory. Evidence is always slim. Last night, we may have cut a lucky break. The FDB was the first victim to show signs of a struggle. Multiple defensive wounds along the arm, and traces of DNA under her fingernails suggest she may have scratched the victim. We're still waiting on Jonathon's results on that."
"So...whoever this killer is, what's his MO?" Buffy was already burying herself in her work. She'd come to Sunnydale for a fresh start, and already she was going back to old habits.
"That's the thing. The victims aren't succinct. They range from young to old, male to female, no specific race or religion is targeted. It's almost as if the murders are completely random." Willow took another deep breath. "This is victim five in only 2 days. Our CSIs barely have time to breathe between cases. It's grueling, frustrating, and we lose more CSIs because of lack of resolve. Your supervisor in LA said you buried yourself in your work. That's not a good idea here. Otherwise, you'll find yourself trapped in their world."
"Whose world?" Buffy didn't expect the redhead to be so forward about the subject.
"The victims'." Willow went back to work, and it was as though nobody else was there. It was about the job now. This victim may have given them their first lead into these murders.
Meanwhile, Buffy just followed Rosenberg's lead, while her mind wandered on the redhead's warning. How could she become a victim? Wasn't she trained in all kinds of combats? Didn't she win the championship in her senior year of fencing? Was her boss truly a lunatic? Were her colleagues up in LA right? Was it a mistake taking this position?
"Earth to Buffy." Willow smiled at the girl's lost expression. "You still with me?"
"Oh, uh...yeah. Just dazed off, I guess. Sorry." Buffy shook her head to clear it, and went about digging for more clues.
"The students that found her remembered seeing her with a guy at the party. We need to get into that frat house. That could be our initial crime scene." Willow had too many cases where date rape drugs were involved in murders.
"I think I can help with that." Buffy smirked. Finally, she could show off for the new boss. 'Why would I need to show off?' Forgetting that thought for a minute, she lead the way to the fraternity house in question, and didn't hesitate with her knock, as she undid a few more buttons on her blouse. 'Flirting, don't fail me now.'
"Can I help you?" The young man that answered the door eyed the blonde up and down. He liked what he saw.
"I think you can." Buffy sent him a flirty smile, and waited until Willow got to the front step. "My partner and I are with the crime lab. There was a murder outside your building last night, and we were thinking...maybe you could show us around? Let us take a peek? It's been so long since I've been in a frat house."
"Um...I'm not so sure that's..." Then again, this girl was hott, and her little 'partner' wasn't bad, either. "Well, sure. We just had a party last night. We're cleaning up but I guess you can come in."
"Oh, thank you." Buffy touched his arm for emphasis, and the two women went inside. "Can you get your friends to stop cleaning up for us? It's a woman's job, anyways."
"Oh, yeah. Hold up." He liked this girl more and more. "Yo, guys! Do something else for a bit. We got this."
"Thank you." Buffy touched his arm again, as the other guys left the main room. "So, heard you had a big party here last night?"
"Yeah. We have lots. You should come to one. They're always a blast." The guy hovered around the blonde, and noticed the cold look from the redhead, so he backed off. "It wasn't too wild. Just drinks and dancing. Nobody underage. We had a guy checking IDs at the door."
"You're not in trouble. We just know the victim was at the party last night. Maybe you've seen her?" Willow took over, and held up the coroner's picture. Buffy was going too far with the flirting, even if she got them in here without a warrant.
"Yeah. She was here. Don't remember her name, though. Came in with some friends about an hour after the party started. She didn't stay long but her friends were here until the end." The guy remembered greeting the group of girls when they came in but was more focused on one particular girl in the group, and didn't catch any of the other names. "You might check with her friends."
"Do you have any names?" Willow took over the investigation. There was nothing out of the ordinary in here, and the frat house only would've been the starting point. The first sign of blood spatter was down the sidewalk.
"Only one...but I'm kinda trying to lay low for awhile, so could you not mention my name?" The guy hadn't planned on calling the girl back after she left.
"What's the name?" Willow knew his type, which only made her happier that she didn't date boys.
"Mary something. I didn't catch her last name." The guy was starting to get distracted and fidgety.
"Do you still have the condom?" Willow was thinking they could pinpoint the friend from her DNA, instead of a campus name search. Mary was too common.
"Am I in trouble here? It was consensual." The guy was getting really fidgety now.
"No, no trouble. We just need her DNA from the condom. It'll help us narrow down the field." Buffy saw where Willow was going, and backed her up completely. "Could we have it?"
"Um...well, it's upstairs. Let me just..." The guy wanted out of there fast.
"So, condom evidence on my first day. Aren't I lucky?" Buffy started to nose around the room.
"You didn't have to flirt with him." Willow didn't realize she sounded so jealous. "I mean... we could've gotten in here just the same."
"The garbage would've been gone by the time we got a warrant, and we really don't have just means to attain one yet. You said it yourself, no leads, no evidence to back up our claim." Buffy was proud she'd found a bit of a lead.
"Here ya go." The guy didn't even bother wrapping the used condom in a tissue, just handed the thing over to the women. "If that's all, we need to get this place cleaned up."
"No problem. Thanks for your time." Willow secured the nasty rubber into evidence, and the two women made their way back to the lab.
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"Whatcha got for us, Jonathon?" Willow walked into trace, expecting her stuff to be done first, as per the usual.
"No go on your condom but we did get something interesting on the fingernail scrapings." Jonathon stood from his chair, and went over to grab the results. "The scrapings held little trace evidence of DNA, as though the strands were decomposing."
"What's that mean?" Buffy stood next to her supervisor.
"It means that the body's DNA is decomposing. Exactly that." Jonathon looked at them both, as though they should know. "It means that whatever this girl scratched was already dead. She didn't scratch your victim."
"You said there was still trace evidence. Did you run it through?" Willow looked over the results with the same puzzled expression as Buffy.
"Of course..." Jonathon handed over those results, and waited for the confusion.
"Forrest Gates? That doesn't make sense." Willow shook her head to clear it.
"What doesn't make sense?" Buffy saw her supervisor's confused look, and knew she was out of the loop.
"Well, Forrest Gates is one of the victims. We found his body last week. I saw him on the autopsy table myself." Willow rushed out with the results in hand, back to her office. She had to look something up fast. Buffy struggled to follow again, and found Willow already typing at her computer. "Yes. I'm not losing my mind. Agent Gates was buried two days ago at Restfield Cemetery. That's on the other side of town from the campus."
"Do we need to call the cemetery grounds man? See if any bodies were disturbed within the past few days? See if there's any link to our new victim, and the old?" Buffy didn't question the 'Agent' part. If this victim was part of the military or police force, Willow would've said something if it were relevant to the case.
"Yes. That's your first assignment on your own. Follow up with me once you've talked to Mr. Mears." Willow stood from her computer. "In the meantime, I'll be looking for our mystery Mary on campus."
"Will do." Buffy almost ran into Xander on the way out the door. "Ooh...sorry."
"It's okay. Um..." Xander hadn't met the new girl yet. Her beauty made him speechless, and for a moment, he forgot he was married. "I'm Xander Harris. You must be Miss Summers."
"Buffy. Nice to meet you, Xander. I'll see ya around." Buffy smiled at the goofy expression on the young man's face but didn't fail to notice the wedding ring on his left finger before she left the office.
"Wowsa! You really know how to pick 'em, Wills." Xander sat down on the couch, and stared at the Orb of Thessullah on the shelf. "So...you'll never believe what Jonathon just showed me."
"I bet I can guess." Willow was already hacking into the campus database.
"You probably can but just humor me." Xander smiled at 'information-seeking' Rosenberg. His best friend was already engrossed in the research.
"What is it?" Willow came up with 72 hits for the first name Mary enrolled at UC Sunnydale.
"I have 4 alleles in common with our not-so-virgin Mary." Xander smirked. It was rare that he got to crack the case.
"Your cousin Mary?" Willow knew it was a long shot but she typed in 'Mary Harris' on the UC Sunnydale database. "A match. Mary went to UC Sunnydale?"
"First I heard, too. Then again, I don't talk to my family. Uncle Rory isn't exactly the best conversationalist." Xander didn't need to remind his best friend about his wedding.
"Xander, this saves us so much time." Willow didn't want to say 'time we don't have.' How cliché would that be? "Okay, give her a call. You two used to be close when she was little."
"She's ten years my junior. We weren't that close." Xander didn't have time to stand up before Jonathon interrupted.
"There's something you should see." Jonathon handed Willow another report. "I tested the sperm inside the condom, and matched it to the database."
"Riley Finn. Two charges dropped. Drunken and disorderly." Willow saw the last charge, and wanted to vomit. She knew his type all right. "Rape. Charges were dropped on these cases? Why?"
"It said insufficient evidence to prove the claim. Seems our Mr. Finn has some friends in high places." Jonathon was proud of himself for going beyond the call of duty. He just wanted to practice with the sperm. It'd been a few weeks since he'd gotten any good evidence in trace, and he wanted to be thorough.
"What's this have to do with our DB, though?" Xander looked from them both.
"Mary was on the receiving end of that condom. According to Mr. Finn, Mary came in with our DB last night." Willow took a deep breath. This was the first time they'd made any strides in these cases, and now there could be a mixed case. "Xander, get your cousin here. I'll get Detective Lockwood. Jonathon, good work. I may have more samples for you. You may get to do a tox screening tonight after all."
"Yippee." Jonathon went back to his station, and left the other two to get the job done. Xander called his cousin Mary, Willow called Kate, and Buffy was still out on assignment. This case was coming together a little well.
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"Mary, we know you were at the frat party last night." Willow leaned back in her chair. Mary was sitting across from her, no longer the shy, dirty Harris kid she once knew. "We have a witness stating you came in with this young lady."
"That's Janice. That's my roommate. She didn't come...oh, god." Mary was getting sick. That was her roommate in the picture, dead. "She...she didn't come home last night. I thought..."
"So, you were both at the frat party?" Kate was known for getting answers around town. She was a tough cop from LA, and Willow wasn't surprised when the two started dating soon after Kate's transfer to SDPD. She was great to watch in action, and the things she did in the bedroom still made Willow blush. They were both professionals, though, and wouldn't let their breakup get in the way of their work. In fact, it was work that broke them up; both were more interested in it than each other. At least, it seemed that way. There was the occasional sexual relapse but that hadn't happened in months. Then again, the relapses seemed to occur when they'd solve a big case, and that hadn't happened in months, either.
"Y-yeah. She left, though. Said she didn't feel well." Mary already regretted that night enough as it was. "I stayed but I don't remember much after that."
"We know that you stayed. We had a used condom given to us with your DNA on it." Willow tried to be gentle. After all, she used to baby-sit this kid with Xander.
"I'm not like that. I don't know what came over me. He was just so nice, and cute, and we were having fun. I don't even remember sleeping with him." Mary was starting to feel sick again. At least now she had answers. "I wasn't a virgin but I...I...Oh, Willow, don't tell my parents."
"Um...it's okay." Willow leaned forward, and patted her hands. Then, she noticed the bruising around Mary's wrists. "What happened?"
"I...I don't know." Mary looked away in shame. "It must've happened last night. They weren't there before this morning."
"Would you mind if we gave you a toxins test? Maybe took some of your blood?" Willow watched Mary do the common thing, and hide her hands under the table. "It's to help us find out what happened."
"You...you think what happened to me happened to Janice?" Mary was lucky to be alive but there was a chance she still suffered a horrible fate last night. "If...if it'll help."
"You've already been more help than you know." It was true. They now had an ID on the victim. "Did your roommate see anybody? Was she into anything out of the ordinary? Had she been acting strange lately?"
"Only at the party. We were there for a while, and she left early. She was acting kinda...scared. What am I gonna tell Mrs. Pendshaw?" Mary had a thousand things running through her head, and only felt slightly dizzy when Willow took her blood.
"Anything else unusual about the party?" Kate watched Willow extract the blood, the concentration on her face. She really was beautiful. Kate couldn't help but wonder if they'd crack this case soon, would the redhead be in her bed again, if only briefly? It was Willow that was too into her work. She always seemed distracted, far off, always thinking on the case. The only time she wasn't was when they made love, which towards the end was few and far between.
"Nothing I can think of. Just a bunch of drunk college idiots." Mary clenched her fist, like Willow told her to, in order to pump more blood into her arm. "What now?"
"We're done here. You can go home." Kate let the girl out, and noticed Buffy standing in the hallway before reentering the interrogation room. "There's a cute blonde in the hallway, looks like she's waiting for somebody."
"Oh, that must be Buffy." Willow picked up her mini-field kit, and joined Kate at the door.
"New girlfriend I don't know about?" Kate arched an eyebrow.
"Jealous?" Willow arched one back, and left Kate to ponder over it. Buffy was cute but she'd already tried mixing business with pleasure once. That mistake was watching them from the interrogation room. "Hey, Buf. Get anything from the grounds man?"
"Nada. He said nothing out of the ordinary around here, whatever that means. I checked it out myself. Still looks like fresh dirt. Then again, our boy's only been buried for two days now." Buffy was bummed that her first assignment was a bust. "It did look like some dirt had been moved but really nothing out of the ordinary. Not enough to dig a grave."
"Okay, so we have a dead man's cells under our vic's fingernails, and he's still buried. Looks like we've got some work ahead of us." Willow held up the sample of blood, and nodded towards the lab. "We'll have Jonathon run a tox on this. I have a feeling something went on at that party that your little lover boy wasn't telling us."
"I was just flirting to get us in." Buffy didn't know why she was so defensive. She didn't like that boy. He was too much like another guy she'd dated in college.
"Uh-huh...well, you may have helped us out more than you know." Willow opened the door to trace, and handed Jonathon the blood. "I need you to run a tox on this ASAP. Make this your priority."
"What about Doyle's mugging case? He wanted me to run the DNA samples he collected from the girl's fingernails."
"Andrew's on fingerprints. From what I understand, they had a clear print on the knife that was dropped. The DNA can wait. I need this tox report yesterday." With that, Willow left the little man to it. They'd grown up together, too, even if they weren't exactly friends.
"Wow. Guess it helps to be supervisor, huh? I'll keep that in mind for future reference." Buffy followed the redhead into her office again. "So...what have we got now?"
"I sent Xander out on a new case. Another DB down by the docks. It's just you and me on this one now." Willow sat down at her computer. No reason to waste time waiting on results. She'd do a background check on Janice Pendshaw. Nothing. The girl had a clean record. Graduated from Sunnydale High last year, started at UCSD this year. She was a freshman. Riley Finn had said they had checked IDs at the door. Mary was a freshman, too. Only her tox report would tell if she had been drinking.
"So...that detective kept giving you a look." Buffy was curious to know what was going on there. She didn't have problems working for a lesbian. In fact, it was one of the deciding factors in her decision to transfer. Buffy was only bisexual but the guys in LA always gave her a hard time about it. At least with a well-known lesbian supervisor, there was a chance that discrimination about sexuality was frowned upon. So far, so good. She just didn't expect said supervisor to be extremely attractive.
"Kate? She's always giving me looks, mostly ones of anger anymore." Willow didn't elaborate, and Buffy didn't push.
"Okay, so I ran the tox screen. Quickly but efficiently. Whatever you were looking for, it was there. Rohypnol was found in her system, along with a strong alcohol undertone. Our victim didn't show any signs of this. She had nothing but anti-depressants in her system, not uncommon for college students these days. What does this have to do with your case?" Jonathon handed Willow the reports, and waited for an answer. If he was forced to push his work back, he had a right to know why.
"This was the victim's roommate. She was your condom DNA we couldn't find in the system. Can you run the DNA in the blood to the DNA from the condom? Just to be safe?" If they had caught Riley Finn in a sexual assault, they had to be one hundred percent certain. They would need complete evidence on this one, evidence that would prove his guilt, no matter how high of friends he had.
"Do you need it now?"
"That'd be helpful, since Doyle doesn't have any dead bodies in his case." Willow let Jonathon go, as she looked over the results. "Mary was drugged. Was it just her?"
"You're taking this a little far, aren't you? Nothing indicated that our DB had any rohypnol in her system." Buffy sat down, and looked over the results herself.
"Then again, our vic wasn't drinking, either. Plus, your frat boy already has two charges on him, one including rape." Willow was straying off the path. She was taking one unsolvable case, and turning it into one she could solve. She knew this but kept ignoring it. There was no logical explanation why Janice would have Forrest's DNA fresh in her fingernails. "Maybe we should try another approach to this."
"Like what?" Buffy cracked her neck to get the stress out of it.
"We have means for a warrant now. They were giving alcohol to minors. That information makes them lose their fraternity license automatically with the college. We can reason with them, scare them a little. There's something they're not telling us. They're hiding something big, and I wanna know what it is." Willow remembered coming into her own in college. She remembered going to a few frat parties with her friends. She was always the girl that left early, too. In a way, the victim reminded her of herself.
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"Look, I already told you everything." Riley held the door closed. His brothers already got on him for letting the 'cops' in the house.
"Well, funny thing is...you lose your frat house if we report that you were serving alcohol to minors." Kate came with them this time. After all, the young detective was the best cop on the force. "So, we wanna know what you're not telling us."
"Look, ladies. This is all some big misunderstanding." Riley let the door open, as the women entered the house. "It was a party. We can't keep tabs on everybody."
"Yeah, well. It's your party, it's your responsibility." Kate watched Willow and Buffy scan the room. "We just wanna know what you're not telling us. We can do it here, or down at the station."
"Okay, okay. Look, we had a party. A bunch of us were wasted, some of us got lucky, some of us didn't, just like every party. If this is about the dead girl outside the house, we had nothing to do with it. We were all inside all night. A hundred or more people can tell you that. After all, you said it yourself. It was our party, our responsibility."
"Nothing here." Willow shook her head. Yet another bum lead. At least they still got the Finn kid on the rape charge. This time with enough evidence to convict him. "Kate, we'll see you at the car. We're going to check out the crime scene one last time."
"Okay, Rosenberg." Kate turned back to the young frat boy, and started reading him his rights. Riley kept protesting but she didn't pay any attention.
Meanwhile, Buffy and Willow walked back outside. The sun had set hours ago, and the night was well upon them. The two worked in companionable silence, a comfort they just seemed to segue into with no problem. One thing was certain: they worked well together.
"Okay. So, the point of origin is right here." Willow stood in the spot where the first blood was spilled. "Then, there are small drops until this point. That's when the victim's dragged over here." Willow followed the path the victim's body must've traveled. The images in her head were playing but the attacker was invisible. That was still a fill in the blank. "It happened in only minutes. She was drained fast. What does that to a person?"
"I do." A voice from the quad caught them off guard, and both women drew their guns. "Put those away, ladies. It only hurts for a minute."
"Put your hands in the air, and come into the light." Buffy thought she'd be the brave one. She was glad she was issued a gun already; she was just surprised she had to use it so quick. It was a month before she even had to think about pulling her gun on a case. This place was definitely different.
"Ladies, ladies, ladies. Don't you know that won't hurt me?" The man stepped into the light. "I'm already dead."
"Agent Gates...but..." Willow dumbfounded. She'd seen his cold, dead body mutilated on the autopsy table. How could this be? "But...you're..."
"Dead? Well...not exactly. I've never felt more alive. Everything's so...clear." Forrest started stalking towards them. He thought them easy prey. "I can smell the fear, the confusion."
"Stay back!" Buffy gripped her gun tighter. She'd seen lots of creeps like this but his eyes were different. They had a...yellow tint to them.
"Ohh...the new girlfriend? What happened to Lockley? She not give it to you good enough? I kept telling you, Rosenberg. You just needed a real man." One of their own, dead and gone, yet standing right there in front of them.
"I said stay back!" Buffy's theories were all wrong. She just thought the detective had hidden feelings for the redhead but Willow didn't seem to show any signs of caring for the other woman. Yet, this former agent was saying the two had a relationship. The enigma that was Willow Rosenberg only deepened for Buffy. However, there were more important matters at the moment.
"Ohh...this one's feisty. I like her." Forrest started taking baby steps. He was on the sidewalk now, way too close for comfort. Right before he pounced on them, Willow let off a few shots, and Forrest fell to the ground. She started to ask Buffy if she was okay but Forrest stood. "Ow. That hurt, ya know?"
"But...I shot you in the chest." Willow was really confused now.
"Nothing there to shoot. I'm dead, remember? Well, undead to be exact." Forrest's features changed before them, and his canines extended. "Now, who wants to go first?"
"HST attacking outside!!!" Riley yelled. It was heard down the sidewalk, as Detective Lockley could be seen dragging the young student away from the house.
"Oh, great. See what you made happen? Now I have to go, or else I'll..." Forrest didn't get a chance to respond, as a jolt of electricity coursed through his body. Soldiers were standing with taser rifles at the ready.
"It's okay, ladies. We've got the situation under control. You can leave now." The leader said.
"I'm not going until I have answers. That man is dead...or supposed to be dead. He's evidence in a murder case." Willow went over to the unconscious body, and felt for a pulse. "What'd you do to him? He really is dead."
"He is a Hostile Sub Terrestrial, ma'am. We'll take it from here." The leader tried to steer Willow away from the HST before it woke up. They had to bag it, and take it to the lab quick. The effects of the taser rifle only lasted so long.
"He's still evidence. I'm taking his body with me, back to the crime lab." Willow was determined.
"I can't let you do that, ma'am. I'm sorry but the government will take it from here." The leader took a deep breath. He was used to people making up excuses in their head for what they saw, not this.
"I'm supervisor of the night shift here at the crime lab. Can I at least take some evidence from this suspect before you government people take him to goddess knows where?" Willow was beyond pissed. This wasn't the first time the government overtook her investigations.
"As you must." If it got this woman off his back, she could take all the evidence she needed. They still had juice in their taser guns if they needed to tag the HST again.
"Thank you." Willow took out her kit, and began taking skin samples, drew some blood from his veins, took his fingerprint, and took pictures. Something was wrong with Forrest's brows. She checked his pupils, and they were bright yellow. What was going on here? It was as though Forrest was...no, it couldn't be. Sure, she was a master of the occult practices but a vampire? That was just folklore meant to scare children into staying home at night. Then again, there was only one way to find out. She took out a pencil from her field kit, and without a moment's hesitation, plunged it where his heart should be. She didn't hear the screams from the soldiers, or feel Buffy's hands on her shoulders. All she saw and heard was dust where her fallen comrade used to be. This wasn't really happening, and she'd wake up any moment now. Buffy's slight pinch to her shoulder told her she wasn't dreaming.
"Ladies, I think it best if you leave the premises now." The leader watched as Buffy escorted Willow back to the car.
"What happened back there? That guy just went...poof." Buffy didn't know what she was seeing, either. It seemed unreal. "I mean. That's stuff you only hear about in stories around Halloween. It's past that."
Willow didn't talk the entire ride back to the lab, and Buffy and Kate didn't push. Riley just sat in the back seat, jaw steeled, hands cuffed, and ready to make his one call to Professor Walsh. She'd get him out of this again. He was her favorite soldier boy.
"I'll be in my office. Take this evidence where it's supposed to go." Willow handed Buffy her field kit, and shut the office door behind her. Vampires. It explained a lot but it still seemed unreal. Was this really happening?
Staring at all the artifacts on her walls and shelves, she wondered if all things she was taught were fiction were actual truth. The ladies in the magick shops where she collected these artifacts seemed to believe them, always warning her about the power the artifacts hold. This changed her entire perspective on things, and she wasn't the only one to see it. Buffy was right there, too.
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A/N: See what I mean? I can't just throw them together just yet. Tune in next time for another exciting episode!! Also, I'm not a scientist by any means, so some of this is faked for intents and purposes. Other stuff, I get from watching too many CSI episodes, and stuff I learned in college. LOL. ;)