CSI: Sunnydale
by Rin
Who Are You?
[reviews]
There was a soft snoring coming from beside her, and a major pain in her neck. The warm body curled up next to hers started to move, and wrap its arms around her. The arms were definitely female, and the hair that tickled her face smelled of fresh jasmine in bloom. That could only be one person: Willow.
Still in a sleepy state, Buffy hadn't quite registered that it wasn't dreamland. The sky outside was dark, and she'd never slept better. Stretching her limbs, she felt the body next to hers shift again, and wraps its arms tighter. When a soft hand started to trickle down her arm, goose bumps rose all over Buffy's body. Her eyes fluttered open, only to see Willow attached to her. For a second, everything was okay...until she realized Willow was cuddled into her. How did this happen?
Buffy tried to cough and shift at the same time but the contented, silly smile on Willow's face made her chuckle a little. It was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. Moving her arm, she tucked hair behind Willow's ear, and outlined her thumb across the redhead's lips. They were so soft, even in their after-sleep chapped state. Sighing, Buffy just laid there for a few minutes, relishing in the warmth her boss's body exhumed. Who needed a blanket anyways?
"What time is it?" Willow's eyes fluttered open, only to find herself cuddled completely into Buffy, her head resting on the blonde's shoulder. Trying not to panic, Willow sat up too fast, resulting in a headache. Rubbing at her eyes, she avoided looking at Buffy. Last thing she remembered was watching movies.
"We need to be at work in about fifteen minutes." Buffy glanced at the clock, and stood from the couch. "I have an extra toothbrush in the closet, and you can use my facewash if you need. I'm not sure there's time for showers."
"Oh...okay, thanks." Willow watched Buffy move from the living room, and disappear up the stairs. Minutes later, she appeared in a new shirt, her hair pulled up in a ponytail, shoes in one hand, and a sealed toothbrush in the other.
"There's a bathroom down the hall, if you need. There's washcloths and extra facewash in the closet." Buffy sat on the couch to put on her shoes, as Willow retreated to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. "We can drive through someplace for dinner, if you want."
"We can have Chinese delivered to the lab." Willow came out of the bathroom, her face and teeth clean but her hair a mess. "Do you have a brush?"
"I think it's cute like that." Buffy smiled, as she pulled a brush out of her purse. "But if you insist."
"Thanks." Willow took the brush, and went about calming her mane but it was still wild. She gave up on it, and handed the brush back to Buffy. "We should get going. Don't wanna be late."
Buffy didn't say anything, just followed the redhead out the door, and got into her boss's car. The entire ride to the lab was made in uncomfortable silence, as neither girl knew what to say or do at this point. It's not everyday you just wake up snuggled to your boss. Then again, Buffy wouldn't mind it being an everyday occurrence, even if she'd never tell Willow that directly. There was too much at stake.
When the girls entered the lab, they went their separate ways, and wouldn't even look at each other. Several people noted the demeanor, and the fact that their boss was wearing the same thing she was the day before and had wild, sex hair. There were all sorts of juicy gossip going around by lunch break.
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The young girl was running for her life but ran right into a dead end. What had she been thinking when she took this shortcut? She knew better than to go down a dark alley at night, especially in Sunnydale.
The shadow that had been stalking her for a while now just stayed hidden in the shadows until it was certain there was sweat beading down the girl's body from fear. It smelled intoxicating, like pheromones calling to its deepest desires. That's when the shadow came out of the darkness, and showed itself as a small blonde woman. The fear smell diminished but only increased again as the blonde woman got closer to her target.
"You look good enough to eat." The blonde woman's face contorted, as she was chest to chest with her victim. Backing the young girl against the wall, she buried her nose in the crook of the girl's neck, sniffing that wonderful aroma. Just as she was about to sink her fangs in, she was yanked back with force only a slayer could muster. Looking up from her spot on the ground, she hissed at the brunette girl standing above her. The girl didn't have a chance to attack before the blonde disappeared back into the shadows.
"Dammit!" The brunette threw her stake at the wall, and it embedded into the brick beside the victim's head. "Oh...uh...sorry."
The brunette heard sounds coming from the end of the alley. Thinking it was the blonde vampire making a run for it, she decided to follow.
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"Where were you this afternoon? I tried to call but just kept getting your answering machine." Kate stood in the doorway to Willow's office. It had been a slow night so far, so she thought she'd pay her ex a visit. The rumors hadn't reached the police department yet.
"Oh...um. I fell asleep early." It wasn't a lie but she knew Kate would figure it out eventually. Besides, it wasn't the detective's business anymore.
"Did you pull an all nighter here again?" Kate's face scrunched in concern for the redhead.
"No. Why would you say that?" Willow tried not to panic. She was hoping nobody noticed the blonde came in with her this morning. It wasn't unusual, since they carpooled everyday but today, the redhead was extra finicky.
"You're wearing the same thing you did yesterday." Kate moved further into the office, and sat down on the couch. "I'm worried about you, Will."
"No need to be. I'm a big girl." Willow started twiddling her thumbs. "Did you need something, or is this just a social visit?"
"I just wanted to see if you were okay. I couldn't get a hold of you, and you wanted me to call about Riley Finn's trial outcome, since I testified today." Kate got off the couch, and moved closer to Willow. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. Just...lots of work. What happened at the trial?" Willow relaxed a bit, when she saw Kate start to play with her thumbs, too.
"We got a conviction but it's not going to hold him long. The bastard raped that girl, and who knows how many others, and he'll walk free in two months." Kate huffed. She hated when criminals got off because they knew somebody at the top. At least this time, they managed to get Finn on something.
"One could only hope that two months is enough time but reality tells us differently." Willow sighed. Two months...that's all he was getting. The minimum rape charge in Sunnydale was five years. This guy really did have high connections. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. No. I don't know. I just...I hate it." Kate closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Another thing I wanted to talk to you about...my dad is coming up for a visit. Now that he's retired, he has more time on his hands, and I think he's bored."
"I'm sure he'd visit even if he wasn't bored." Willow tried to be comforting but it was never her strong suit.
"He still thinks we're together, despite the fact I've told him over and over for the past year that we're not." Kate tried to gouge Willow's reaction to that but it was neutral as always. "He got you a Christmas present, and refuses to take it back."
"You can do it for him. He's still in lala land about us, huh?" Willow swallowed hard. "Is he coming to the office party?"
"I'm not sure. He didn't say how long he was going to stay." Kate was worried for her father. He didn't sound like himself lately.
"Well, he's more than welcome to join us. Maybe he'll finally get that we're not together anymore." Willow started chewing at her lip. She was so wired today. Aside from the great rest she had, waking up next to somebody caused her adrenaline to rush. "I should get back to work."
"Yeah, sure." Kate eyed Willow with worry again. She wasn't as cold as she usually was. Maybe they'd finally gotten past that stage.
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The young girl couldn't believe how close to death she had been. Who was the blonde? What was the blonde? And what about that brunette that scared her away? She was gathering her purse's spilled contents when the brunette ran down the alley. She stopped hearing footsteps, and decided to get out of the alley, shortcut be damned.
She didn't make it far, as pain shot through her abdomen. Looking down, she saw a stake protruding from her belly. Collapsing from the pain, she didn't see the blonde from earlier lick her lips from behind her.
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Buffy and Doyle were assigned the alleyway victim. Willow went to help Xander on his weird drugstore case. As the two CSIs gathered evidence, Buffy noticed a shadow move down the alley. The girl she and Willow had met from the cemetery was standing there, with a look of shock on her face. From what Buffy gathered of the girl during their first meeting, shock wasn't one of the emotions she would've placed for the girl. She seemed so sure of herself. Doyle called Buffy over to check out the blood spatter on the wall. When she turned back, the brunette was gone.
"There's a hole right here. Like there's been something in here. The debris would say it was the stake sticking out of the victim...but how did a piece of wood get lodged into brick like this? Better yet, how'd it get out? This hole is deep." Doyle picked the woodchips from the hole for samples.
"We'll let Jonathon take a look, see if the wood is a match to the weapon." Buffy started taking pictures of blood splatter along the alley floor. Following the trail, it stopped at the other wall. "This doesn't make sense. The trail stops here but there's no blood from there. It's like the perp just jumped up to the top of this building...but that's impossible."
"Stranger things have happened." Doyle followed Buffy's trail, and looked up to the top of the fourteen story building. "Maybe we should check the roof? This is an abandoned building, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Guess we're climbing." Buffy noticed the fire escape, and the two made their way up to the roof. "Okay, now I'm confused. There's no blood spatter at all here."
"It was worth a shot, though." Doyle tried to be the gentleman, and help Buffy down but the blonde was already halfway down the fire escape. "Okay..."
"So...why does it end here?" Buffy was already kneeling by the blood spatter. There were only tiny droplets along the ground, as though it had been licked clean. The body was drained but she had bled through her initial wound in her stomach. The coroner had declared the wound came first, and then the fang. Dr. Giles would be able to tell them more after the autopsy.
"Your mood wouldn't have anything to do with you and a certain redhead, would it?" Doyle had been holding that in since the drive over to the scene. "Word in the lounge says you both came in together, and Willow was wearing yesterday's clothes."
"You forgot to mention the tousled hair." Buffy sighed. She'd been getting this all day from other employees; it was obvious Doyle had been holding it for later. "She came over after her shift yesterday morning. That's all. We wound up eating breakfast and watching Christmas movies."
"Isn't she Jewish?" Doyle was confused for a minute. "That doesn't explain why she didn't go back to her house to change, though. Were the movies that exciting?"
"We...um...sorta fell asleep on the couch." Buffy said that fast, hoping Doyle would drop it. Knowing him, he'd press it, and he did.
"Wait, what?! You didn't tell me this? I thought I was your mate?" Doyle followed Buffy, as they continued sifting through the crime scene. "So...?"
"That's it. We just fell asleep. Woke up just in time to get to work. We haven't talked since we got to the lab. We're kinda doing the avoidy thing right now, I guess." Buffy shrugged, as she attempted to bury herself in her work. "Wait...what's this?"
"You've gotta tell me these things! Details!" Doyle watched, as Buffy got down to the ground, and used her tweezers to pick up a stray blonde hair. "The DB is a brunette."
"Exactly." Buffy put the follicles found into evidence. "Looks like our victim, or somebody pulled out some hairs."
"Could be completely unrelated." Doyle dropped the 'talk' for now, since they were on to something.
"These are fresh. Somebody was trying to fight back." Buffy didn't suspect it was the victim, as the shocked brunette's face entered her mind. She had to find out who that was, and fast. She could be a witness.
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Dr. Giles confirmed that the initial wound wasn't fatal, and the victim's body was drained of blood. After that, he put the body away. 'There's nothing more to see.' He was always weird about the drained victims. Perhaps he knew more than he let on. After she examined the body, Buffy went to check on Jonathon's results from the evidence. Nothing but dead hairs. The follicles at the end didn't produce any DNA, as though they'd been dead for centuries. This was yet another unsolvable case. Buffy was beginning to get frustrated. That's when she ran into Willow (literally) in the hall.
"Oh, uh...sorry, Wills." Buffy gathered her wits, and took a deep breath. "How's your case?"
"Open and shut. We already have a suspect in custody. What about yours?" Willow was in a good mood but instantly frazzled when she noticed it was Buffy. They'd been avoiding each other all day.
"I was on my way to close it. Another one." Buffy sighed. It really was frustrating the amount of unsolved cases they had to close. "Listen..."
"It's okay. We just fell asleep. Nothing happened." Willow was in panic mode.
"I know...but that wasn't what I was going to say." Buffy smiled. The redhead was cute when her cheeks turned blood red.
"Oh." Willow took a deep breath, and tried to apologize behind a bemused smile.
"About that, though...I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was tired. You must've fallen asleep just after me because you were awake last I remember." Buffy swallowed hard. "It didn't mean anything."
"I mean, it's normal for people to cuddle in their sleep, right? It was cold, we didn't have a blanket. There wasn't much room on the couch for two people to lay out like that. I mean, it's completely normal." Willow took a deep breath.
"Normal in my book." Buffy wasn't surprised at the redhead's speedy babble. "What I wanted to talk to you about...is that I saw that girl again. The one from the cemetery? She was at the crime scene tonight."
"She was the victim?" Willow thought the girl could handle herself.
"No. She just happened by, and the look on her face...like she knew what happened, and was upset about it." Buffy saw the confused look on Willow's face, and verified. "She was shocked that there was anybody there, and before I had a chance to catch her, she had disappeared again."
"Did you get a positive ID on the girl?? Did you talk to her at all?" Willow knew how Buffy's mind worked. She wouldn't stop until she figured out who that girl was. It was one of the blonde's hunches, and the redhead knew to follow them. Buffy was a great CSI.
"No and no. I know she saw me, and recognized me, though. Maybe that's why she disappeared this time."
"Or maybe it's because there was a murder. Follow up on it, while there's nothing to do. Check missing teens. She looks too young to be out here on her own."
"I can do that. Meanwhile, have fun getting the suspect to talk." Buffy wanted to pat Willow on the back but thought better of it. At least the awkwardness from earlier was gone.