Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

FAKE First Year Together: A New Day (May)	By : BrittColumbia Category: +. to F > FAKE Views: 14597 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own FAKE, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
FAKE First Year Together: A New Day (May)

Chapter 26

Pairing:
Dee/Ryo

Fandom: FAKE

Rating:    Lemon alert! Do not read this at work. It's just a small, tender lemon. No lube required. But don't
let it get you fired. Hey, that
rhymed! I think my inner poet is trying to get out, and God help you all if it
does.

Spoilers:   To Volume 7

Timing: Set in May directly after Book 7 ended

Summary:
Ryo is coming to terms with the changes in his relationship with Dee, as
well as his new sexual identity. Meanwhile, Dee and Ryo are trying to find
enough evidence to expose a crooked cop. This story explores homophobic
attitudes but is primarily a love story between two men.

Disclaimer:   I do not own FAKE or any of the characters created by
Sanami Matoh (Tina Greenspan is my character, however). I am not making any money from this
work of fanfiction, which is really very sad because I need money to buy a
laptop. And cat food. But cat food will always come before
laptops.

Author's notes:
I had a lot of difficulty with the other scenes because they required
knowledge of and familiarity with medical and pathological conditions and
procedures. But I've got good betas. (Thanks Mtemplar for reining me in and
preventing me from embarrassing myself too badly!) Just so everyone knows, if there are any inaccuracies in
this chapter, they're all my fault because I didn't take all of the good advice I was offered.

Chpater 27 is
already up on my LJ and FYI, it ALSO contains a lemon! http://brit-columbia.livejournal.com/

Thank you to
Bluesimplicity and Mtemplar for the different ways in which you help
me. I'm grateful for your time, energy, kind
encouragement and expertise.

A New Day

Chapter 26

"You're
gonna have to help me with my clothes, you know." Dee sat gingerly on the
bed.

"I
know." Ryo turned away from
him for a moment to lock the door. Even though he had previously stated that he
didn't think Bikky would be back for a while, he still shuddered at the memory
of the time both Bikky AND JJ had burst in on them during that first test drive
so long ago. "Didn't I help
you in the shower earlier?" he added.

"Yeah
you did. But not in the way I
wanted." Dee smirked at Ryo,
but his eyes were hungry as he watched his lover gracefully undress himself.

"Really,
Dee! The kids were here. They would've heard us." Ryo had
removed his shirt and now his hands were on the buttons of his fly. He suddenly became aware of Dee's gaze
on him and he hesitated, slightly embarrassed. "MUST you stare at me like that?"

"Yeah,
I must. 'Cause you're the
hottest thing this side of the Mississippi. You could turn a straight man gay with that body."

Ryo
colored, pleased in spite of himself.
"You're the one who did that," he said shyly, and dropped his
eyes from Dee's face as he lowered his jeans and briefs together.

"Fuck,
I did, didn't I? I must be
good." Dee rested his weight
on one elbow as he watched his disrobing quarry from his vantage point on the
bed, all the while making silent note of which body parts he would lick, kiss
and leave little sucking marks on first.
He added softly, but with a lazy grin, "Hey Ryo, am I good?"

"I
can't answer that on the grounds that you're already conceited enough."

"Get
over here and get me naked, right now." Dee's voice was a throaty growl.

"In
a minute." Ryo smiled at him
and carried his clothes to the chair in the corner.

When
he returned to the bed, he stood just beyond Dee's reaching hands and looked at
him with just a hint of determination in his manner. "Let's get a couple of things straight," he said.

Dee
bit back the clever retort that had automatically appeared in his mind. Ryo seemed to want to take charge,
which was a new thing in their sexual dealings, and he didn't want to do or say
anything that might make his lover retreat into flustered passivity. Not yet, anyway. Ryo was actually
standing in front of him naked without looking more than a little bit
self-conscious, and that was definitely progress.

"What's
on your mind, baby?" Dee was
still trying to touch one of Ryo's lean, masculine hips.

"First
of all, I've got some idea of how stiff and sore you are. I don't want you to exert yourself,
even though it seems to be your natural instinct to grab and pounce, injured or
not. You said I should take the
lead tonight, and I think that's best."

"Okay,"
Dee said meekly, dropping his hand.

"Secondly,
we're not going all the way because I refuse to run the risk of tearing your
stitches, so if you had that in your mind, you can just forget about it for
now. Maybe in a week, when your
stitches come out, we can think about it."

           "Yes
Sir, but I hope that thinking about
it is not the ONLY thing we're gonna do..."

"Dee,
just let me take care of you, all right?"

Dee
was touched. "But I wanna
take care of you too," he said quietly.

"Maybe
later in the week when you're not so banged up. We've got lots of time. Tonight, let's just take it easy, okay?"

"Okay.
You're the boss." Dee
appeared acquiescent, but Ryo suspected it was only temporary.

He
stepped closer to the seated man and murmured, "Let's get you out of these
clothes."

Dee
could see the tenderness in his partner's dark eyes and he instinctively arched
his body toward Ryo's hands.
Whenever Ryo was close to him like this, touching him, it was all he
could do to control himself. But
Ryo was right. He wasn't
physically able to do anything too energetic and he didn't think he should try. He commanded himself to relax and
submit to whatever it was the other man had in mind.

When
Ryo had divested Dee of his clothes and folded them neatly on the chair with
his own, he picked up a bottle of body lotion and returned to where his partner
was sitting. "Lie down,"
he instructed, pulling back the comforter and exposing the sheets.

"Lie
down how?"

"Any
way that's comfortable."

Dee
lay down carefully on his back so that he would not be deprived of the sight of
Ryo. Ryo came and knelt on the bed
next to his upper body, on his un-injured side.

"What
are you gonna do with that lotion, Sexy?" Dee asked in a softly teasing voice, and received a grin
from Ryo.

"Nothing
exciting, so don't get your hopes up. It's just a little massage, that's
all."

"Which
parts of me?"

"I
plan to massage all the unbruised, un-concussed and un-shot parts of you,"
Ryo replied.

"Well,
that'll take all of 60 seconds.
Don't the injured parts get any love?"

"They
get kisses." Ryo leaned down
and kissed a bruise on Dee's ribs, left there by the skinhead he had fought the
night before.

"Does
my dick get massaged or kissed too?"

"I
don't think it would be possible for me to forget about that part of you,"
Ryo remarked lightly, but without looking directly at Dee's face. He busied himself by pumping lotion
onto his hand and then rubbing his palms together to warm it up.

Dee
decided to push his luck further in the hopes of seeing another blush creep
over his lover's features.

"Will
anyone in this room be sucking cock tonight?"

Ryo
hesitated, feeling his face grow warm.
He always felt a little flutter of butterfly wings in his stomach whenever
Dee talked dirty to him like this.
But it was going to be hard for him to keep the upper hand if he allowed
things to continue in that vein.
He stole a glance at the other man's face and saw that his partner was
grinning mischievously at him.

"I
will be," Ryo replied in what he hoped was a firm voice. "Not you. Your job is to
relax. Now stop talking, if that's
even possible." He began
massaging Dee's shoulders.

"Mmmmmm...Baby,
you don't know how good that feels."
Dee appeared to be ignoring Ryo's last order. "And I don't think you realize how good it feels for me when
your cock is in my m--"

Ryo
hastily stopped the flow of speech with a kiss, during which, Dee's tongue
snaked into his mouth and reminded him of all the clever things he could do
with it. After a few moments, he
reluctantly pulled back, but to his dismay, Dee continued speaking, this time
in a husky whisper.

"Your
cock in my mouth..." He pulled Ryo's head down for another kiss--
"Your balls all tight and hot and heavy in my hand..."

"Hey,"
Ryo protested, feeling his control starting to slip away from him.

"Your
cream spilling out all over my---"

"Dee! Stop that. I know what you're trying to do. Now cut it out, okay?
I'm in charge, not you.
What I say goes, at least tonight."

"Okay,
sorry," said Dee, who looked anything but sorry. "As long as you understand that I'm gonna feel like a
total failure as a lover and a man unless you find some Ryo-approved way for me
to get you off tonight."

"All
right. But later." Ryo inclined his head at Dee and
resumed massaging his shoulders.

Dee
chuckled and closed his eyes.
"Got you hard," he said.

"Shut
up."

With
an exaggerated sigh of contentment, Dee settled down to enjoy being stroked and
massaged.

True
to his word, Ryo applied loving ministrations to every part of Dee's body,
right down to his toes. For the
first time in weeks, Dee was able to relax completely. He found himself getting quite sleepy
though, and he fought against it.
He certainly didn't want to risk falling asleep before things had a
chance to get really interesting.

Finally,
when Ryo had massaged, moisturized and kissed every square inch of Dee's skin
that he could reach without turning him over, he turned his attention to the
semi-hard penis that was waiting for him.
First he stroked it experimentally and felt it twitch under his
hand. He added a bit of lotion and
ran just his fingertips over its velvety surface, up and down, around and back
up to the head. A little drop of
precum appeared at its opening; he caught it up with his thumb and used it to
create additional friction. For a few minutes, he explored Dee's rapidly
engorging phallus, tracing the veins with his fingers, feeling the ridge of its
helm, caressing the sensitive place on the underside of the head. Dee's penis was becoming as familiar to
him as his own. It was maybe half
an inch longer than his, with quite a pronounced head. Ryo's own member was slightly thicker
in girth and had a more tapered crown. Despite the minor differences between
their two penises, it had been clear to Ryo from the beginning that they
certainly seemed to respond to the same types of stimulation. He caressed Dee's
balls, gently fondling each one through his sack, eliciting a gasp and then a
small groan from his lover. He
felt a tentative sense of achievement that, even though he was a novice where
gay sex was concerned, he was still succeeding in giving pleasure to the vastly
more experienced man beneath him.
Dee had refused to talk about it in terms of actual numbers, but Ryo
knew that his lover had been with far more women than he had, and certainly,
more men. He imagined that Dee had
performed fellatio possibly hundreds of times; he really knew what he was doing
and seemed to love every aspect of it, too. As for himself, Ryo couldn't say that he loved doing it, but the prospect of giving Dee pleasure
in this way did hold a certain excitement. He just wished he could do it as well as Dee.

"What's
going through your head, baby?" asked Dee, who actually had a pretty good
idea of what his partner was thinking.
Ryo probably didn't know it, but except for when he was in professional
cop mode, nearly every feeling he had was written on his face.

"That
thing you do with your throat... Why don't you gag or choke?"

"Experience,
baby. I'm a cocksucker from way back.
I had to learn and practice, just like everyone. It takes time to overcome the gag
reflex."

"Did
it take you a long time to learn?"

"It
took me a couple of months," said Dee, grinning at Ryo. "But
everyone's different. Why all the
questions?"

"It...It
feels so good. I want to make you
feel that good."

"Are
you sure? Because, let me say
this, you don't have to. I love
the way you do it. The status quo
is just fine with me."

           "Well
it's not fine with me. I like to
be good at things. And I hate it
when you're better at something than I am!"

Dee
burst out laughing, but stopped abruptly when he felt Ryo's hot, wet mouth
envelop his shaft. Well, well,
this was different. The last few
times Ryo had done this, he had always warmed up by licking first, until he had
worked up the courage to take it into his mouth. This time he had skipped the licking and just sucked it in,
quite far, right away. Dee felt the head of his dick pressing for a moment
against the entrance to Ryo's throat, which caused a little spasm there. When Ryo withdrew his head, there was a
slight uncomfortable scraping of teeth and Dee did his best not to flinch. Ryo was aware of it, however, as he
immediately lifted his head and murmured, "Sorry."

"No
problem, babe. Just keep
going."

Ryo's
mouth was back on him, and this time he was using his tongue, and being very
careful with his teeth. Over and
over, he let Dee's penis bump against the back of his throat, until the
inevitable gag reflex occurred. At
that point, he pulled back, licking and sucking just the top two inches for a
while until he was ready to go back down, whereupon it immediately happened
again. Raising his head, he
grimaced in frustration and looked up at Dee.

Dee's
face was flushed with excitement, and his voice, when he spoke, rasped
softly. "For fuck's sake,
don't stop now," he said.
"And that's enough deep-throat practice for today. Just... keep going with your mouth and
tongue, the way you usually do."
He moaned softly as Ryo took the head of his cock in his mouth again and
swirled his tongue over it.
"Use your hand too, if it helps," Dee added between gasps, and
Ryo, taking that as a request, did so.

He
continued in this way, even though the muscles of his neck and jaw began to
ache quite painfully, until Dee's movements under him took on a certain
urgency. His cock hardened and
swelled even larger in Ryo's mouth.
It was throbbing and Dee was frantically patting his shoulders, warning,
"Ryo-- Ryo---"

Ryo
ignored him and let it happen.
Suddenly his mouth was filling with Dee's hot, salty ejaculate. He managed to swallow and breathe
between jets without choking.
There was a lot, but he somehow got it all down. He held Dee in his mouth gently until
all the contractions had subsided, moving his lips and tongue slowly up and
down the shaft, until he felt Dee was quite finished. He did that because it was his own preference when receiving
this kind of pleasure. He had had
a girlfriend in college whom he suspected did not really like doing it, as she
had always jerked her head off him the minute she felt he had finished his
orgasm, and then spat delicately into a tissue. He was determined not to do anything like that with Dee.

When
he finished, he sat up and, wiping his mouth with a trembling hand, looked at
Dee with a triumphant expression.
Dee was grinning at him, but the grin lacked its usual brash edginess,
and Ryo thought he understood why.
He had noticed that whenever Dee had an orgasm, he was temporarily
emotional and vulnerable, incapable of hiding his true feelings behind a mask
of bravado and wit.

"My
Dee," he whispered, letting all the love he felt for his partner show in
his face. "My
lover." He observed the way
Dee's breath caught and his adam's apple moved up his throat and then back
down.

"Ryo!"
the other man cried out and reached out an arm to him. Ryo carefully slid up Dee's body and
found himself in the circle of Dee's right arm, being crushed to a hard, lean
chest, while another hand came up and caressed his hair.

"Dee...Be
careful, you've got bruises here!" Ryo admonished, genuinely worried.

"Don't
ever cut me loose, baby. I know
I'm a pain in the neck, but don't ever leave me, please..."

Ryo
hugged him carefully and kissed his chest, laughing softly to himself.

Dee
was silent.

"Dee,
for two and a half years you've been MORE than a pain in the neck. I've been temporarily demoted twice
because of you. I've had to push
your goddamned car in heavy traffic.
I've been insulted, shot at, and beat on because you couldn't keep your
mouth shut. I have written no
fewer than fifteen apology letters.
And did I leave you? No.
Instead I had to go and fall in love with you and started learning how to suck-- how to become somewhat
adept at gay sex! I can't leave
you, you idiot, however much I may have fantasized about it. I'll leave you when I die and not
before."

Dee
squeezed Ryo tighter and smiled up at the ceiling. "Love you, babe."

"I
know," said Ryo.

"And
it wasn't heavy traffic."

"Yes
it was."

"Was
not."

"Shut
up and roll over."

"What
the hell for? I can't blow you if
I'm face down."

"You
can do that later. First I want to
massage the back of your body.
After I've done that, I'll see about collecting. Deal?"

"Deal,"
murmured Dee sleepily, rolling onto his belly.

&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^

The
sun was well up by the time that Dee stirred. What woke him were the twin breakfast smells of coffee and
bacon. There was also a dull
pounding pain behind the front of his skull, which he thought was seriously
unfair since he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. When he finally felt he could face rolling toward the light
to look at the clock, he did so.
Upon receiving the intelligence that it was five after seven, he
recoiled and burrowed further under the blankets. Seven o'clock on a Sunday morning was WAY too early for
anyone to be up and that evil sunshine was driving knives deep into his
brain. Yet, in spite of all that,
he wanted to get up. He knew Ryo
would be getting ready to leave for the office soon. Neither of them was scheduled to work, but given the recent
developments in their case, it would be necessary to go in. Dee didn't want to stay at home if Ryo
was going to work. He wanted to be
where Ryo was.

Just
then, the bedroom door opened a crack and Ryo stuck his head cautiously inside.

"Dee,"
he whispered.

"I'm
awake," growled Dee sullenly, raising his head and then wincing at the
unholy brightness once more.

"Dee,
I'm just going to head off to the office for a couple of hours..."

"What,
without me?" Dee sat up
rapidly and squinted mistrustfully at Ryo.

"You're
recovering from a concussion and you're not even scheduled to work today! If there was ever a day when you should
stay home and stay in bed, this is it."

"No
way, dude. I'm coming too. Wait for me, okay?" Dee swung his
legs over the bed and looked around for his clothes.

"Are
you sure?" Ryo handed him his
own robe and gave him a doubtful look.
"How's your head?"

"Killing
me. But that's what drugs are
for. Any coffee left?"

"A
bit. But I'll make you some
fresh."

Dee
smiled for the first time that morning and hugged Ryo's robe around
himself. "Thanks baby,"
he murmured and kissed Ryo's cheek on his way to the bathroom. "I'll just have a quick shower and
shave. Back in a few."

&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^

Detective
Tina Greenspan couldn't decide which of the two detectives from the 27th was
better looking.

One
was tall with thick, sexy dark hair he had obviously attempted to slick back
with gel that morning, but strands of it were already starting to hang
intriguingly in his gorgeous green eyes.
She wished she were on terms with him that would allow her to reach up
and push it back off his brow for him.
He was flirty and fun and had already quite openly checked out her
legs. She was glad she had chosen
to wear a skirt and heels today.

The
other one was also tall, but less so than his partner. His hair was a light, sun-streaked
chestnut brown and his eyes were as black as midnight. Detective Greenspan was partial to dark
eyes on a man, but these were like nothing she had ever seen before. Whenever he turned them in her
direction, she felt lost in them, almost tongue-tied. Yet there was nothing provocative in his manner. He was reserved and professional and
seemed to evince no interest in her beyond the case at hand. Since both the mirror and the overt
admiration of just about every male she knew informed her on a daily basis that
she was a woman of above average looks, she felt certain he was just hiding his
attraction to her for reasons of his own.

Both
men were lean and well built, and carried themselves with confidence. She couldn't believe her good luck in
meeting these two fine specimens of manhood just when she had been about to
give up on the dating scene in New York.
She wasn't sure at this point which one she wanted -- perhaps both --
but she did know that it was absolutely necessary that she find a way to extend
this first meeting into two or three, preferably more.

Accordingly
she adjusted her approach so that she dealt with each man differently and in
kind. With Detective Laytner, she
joked, smiled and gave him the eye whenever she was sure that there was no
chance his partner would see. With
Detective MacLean, she met sobriety with solemnity, soft-voiced formality with
an answering gravity. She was
determined to win them both over, using all the means at her disposal. Chief in her arsenal was an hourglass
figure, a shoulder length mass of wavy auburn hair, and a face that had helped
to pay her way through university with occasional modeling gigs.

She
had met the two men at the crime scene earlier and showed them the corner of
the walk-in freezer where the body had been discovered, and now they were back
at the 99th Precinct, reviewing evidence.

"These
items were found in the pockets of his jeans," she said. "Quite a mish-mash. It's our belief that his pockets were
ransacked and then everything was just stuffed back in haphazardly. And there was no cash found anywhere on
his person, except for those few coins you see there."

"Is
this everything?" Ryo asked.

"Yes. Most of these things were found on or
near the body. The only exception
is this." Detective Greenspan
held up a black plastic buckle.
"This was found on the floor under the counter. We don't know whether it belonged to
the vic or not."

Dee
held up the plastic bag that contained the buckle and looked at it. "That'll be from a backpack,"
he remarked and his eyes met Ryo's.

Ryo
turned to Detective Greenspan with eyebrows slightly raised.

"I'm
sorry," she said. "There
was no backpack. Did you have
reason to believe that he was carrying one?"

"Yeah,
maybe," said Dee. "Guy
was a booster. He ripped stuff off
and then packed it around until he could offload it for cash."

"But
it also could have come off a staff member's backpack," Ryo added.

"True,"
she said. "I'll ask Mr.
Oliver if it belongs to him."

"How
long did you say he owned Bam's?"

"Only
six weeks," Detective Greenspan answered. "He's been very unlucky."

"Hey,
do you think we could have his contact info?" Dee asked. "We might wanna ask him some
questions at some point."

"If
you wish to speak to him, I'll set up an appointment and we can all go,"
she replied firmly and then looked at Ryo. "Shall I do that, Detective MacLean?"

"Yes,
please do," he replied gravely, and turned back to his perusal of a small
spiral bound notebook. It had only
one entry on the first page: Meet Cindy at Bams, 9:30 am. The note included the date and the address of the
restaurant. On the inside front cover, he had also written: Property of
Eddie C. Calvetti.

Detective
Greenspan was disappointed in his continued taciturnity. Didn't the man ever smile? She was sure his handsome face would be
absolutely beautiful if he did.

"Not
much in there, hmm?" She indicated the notebook.

He
shook his head.
"Prints?"

"Only
one set. The results aren't back
yet, but I'm certain they'll turn out to be Mr. Calvetti's."

Both
men glanced at each other again, but remained silent. She began to suspect they were holding something back from
her.

"So,
what can you gentlemen tell me about his drug trade activities?" she asked
them.

"It's
all on the rap sheet, Sister," Dee said. "I bet that was the first thing you checked out."

"Well,
I'm looking for the parts that weren't in the rap sheet,
Detective. And since I'm not and
never will be a nun, please don't address me as 'Sister'." She gave him a slightly provocative
look from under her lashes.

"No,
you definitely should never become a nun, Detective," murmured Dee as he
swept an appreciative eye over her physical attributes.

Detective
Greenspan ignored that last comment.
"I'm hoping you fellows can maybe shed some light on why Mr.
Calvetti was lured to this restaurant and then murdered."

           "Looks
like he maybe had a couple of enemies," said Dee, who was fascinated by
the effect that the cool breeze from the open window was having on this pretty
woman's breasts. "He probably
ripped off the wrong guy."

Detective
Greenspan turned toward Detective MacLean and for a moment, she could have
sworn that he had been looking at his partner with annoyance in his eyes. Ah! Perhaps he was just a tiny bit jealous? She seemed to be
making headway at last.

"Did
you have reason to believe that Mr. Calvetti might have been in danger?"
she asked him.

He
hesitated and then said, "Yes, we thought perhaps he was. He was present at the OD death of a
young female a few days before he died.
Unfortunately, he ran away before we could question him."

"What
was it about the death of the woman that made you think he was in danger?"

"We
think that the OD might not have been an accident and that it might have been
meant for him. It's possible that
he knew something that compromised one of his associates."

"Do
you have any idea what that 'something' may have been?"

"Yes,"
Ryo replied, "But it's all conjecture at this point."

"Well,
would you mind letting me in on it?"
Detective Greenspan moved a step closer to him and schooled her features
into a half serious-half earnest expression. "I'd like to help you if I can."

He
disappointed her by moving back almost imperceptibly. "You can help by giving me directions to the
morgue," he said, and the corners of his mouth moved in what was almost a
smile. "I'm not one hundred percent familiar with this borough."

"I'd
be glad to," she said, pulling out her notebook and scribbling directions
to Queens Hospital Center.
"Are you going there now?
I'll meet you there."

"Sure,
why not?" said Dee at the same time as Ryo started to say, "That
won't be nec--"

She
looked back and forth between them, and said, "Excuse me?" There it was again, Detective MacLean's
little glare at his partner. But
Detective Laytner seemed to be looking slightly abashed. What on earth was going on with these
two?

"Uhh...Suit
yourself," said Dee to her, shooting a wary look at Ryo.

"Let's
go then, gentlemen," she said courteously, indicating the door. "And tell me when you would like
to meet with Mr. Oliver. Today? Tomorrow?"

"ASAP,
if you would be so kind," said Ryo.

Detective
Greenspan heartily enjoyed the walk through the bullpen, down the stairs and
out through the lobby. Every woman
in the place stared at her and the eye-candy she was walking with. She was fairly certain she'd be mobbed
with questions later.   She
had to try to get a date with one of them, just so she'd have something to
report.

&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^

"Oh,
is this your 'undercover' car?"
Detective Greenspan directed the question at Detective Laytner, since he
was the one holding the keys.

"No,
this is my personal car," Dee answered proudly.

Detective
Greenspan's opinion of Detective Laytner went down by a few degrees.

"Oh!"
she said brightly. "Well, I
guess I'll see you at the hospital then in, oh...25 minutes? If I get there first, I'll wait for
you."

"Twenty-five
minutes?" Dee grinned at
her. "I took out the old V-6
and put a V-8 engine in this baby a couple years back. We'll be the ones
waiting for you."

"Well,
if you say so," said Detective Greenspan, looking doubtfully at the car
and then bestowing a smile on Detective MacLean. This man, she was certain, would never allow himself to be
seen driving around in a car that was more than five years old, possibly even
seven or eight. And with such a
pathetically juvenile home-done paint job, too! Imagine putting thick white racing stripes on the hood of an
old Chevy Cavalier. It looked like
a couple of kids had done it.

But
the next moment proved her wrong, as Detective MacLean demanded the keys from
his partner and got into the driver's seat.

The
engine made an absurdly loud rumbling sound as he started the ignition. It sounded powerful
and...embarrassing. She gave
Detective MacLean a sympathetic look as he started to back out of the parking
spot. "See you there!"
she called. He nodded
enigmatically in response.

&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&

The
attractive Queens detective clicked along on her fashionable Italian slingbacks
down the silent hall that led to the morgue section of the hospital. Her searching eyes had not seen that
rather conspicuous car in the parking lot, but somehow it just didn't seem possible
that they might have arrived before her.
Oh well, maybe they were here and they had parked behind a van or
something. She couldn't believe
how calmly Detective MacLean had just gotten into the driver's seat of that
appalling vehicle. He obviously
had a good relationship with his partner and didn't want to hurt his
feelings. She thought well of him
for that. Detective MacLean's
stock had been steadily rising with her over the past hour. She hoped he wasn't married or heavily
involved with someone, despite being the father of a child. At least he hadn't been wearing a
wedding ring.

As
she pushed open the double doors to the morgue and felt
both the chill and the horrible smell of the place hit her, she saw
them. They were at the end of the
room, conferring with a morgue attendant.
The cold compartment that Mr. Calvetti's remains had been assigned to
was open and the drawer had been pulled out. She felt a flash of irritation that they hadn't bothered to
wait for her. It was her case
after all, and her jurisdiction.
It would have been more mannerly.
She hid her annoyance by fishing about in her
pocket for the handkerchief dabbed with cinnamon oil that her partner had
taught her to bring whenever she had to view a cadaver.

Detective
MacLean noticed her first and gave her a nod while murmuring her name by way of
greeting.

His
dark-haired colleague looked up then and waved. "Hey there," he said. "Sorry we started without you. We didn't know how much longer you were
going to be." There was an insolent
grin on his face that clearly belied his words of apology. But she didn't care. Her mind was made up. Detective Laytner, with his shallow,
easy ways, was someone she could have anytime. The real challenge was his partner. His was the heart she was determined to
win.

"Don't
worry about it!" She made a
dismissive sound and waved her hand. "At least now you're caught up to
speed, right? We're all on the
same page, I hope."

She
looked down at the corpse with a dispassion that Dee rather admired her
for. She was a tough little chick
with the face of an angel and the body of a porn star, but he had her number,
all right. She had a hunch that
they were working on something big and she wanted in. And she was still young and naive enough to think that she
could use her looks on any man in order to bend him to her will. Dee thought that her tactics would have
probably worked just fine on Ted or Drake. But they ain't here, sweetheart, he thought to himself. It's just us gay chickens.

"What
are you laughing about, Detective Laytner?" She attempted to conceal her
vexation behind the little pink handkerchief she lifted delicately to her nose.

"Don't
mind him -- he's recovering from a concussion," Ryo broke in. "He was hurt on Friday night and
he wouldn't stay home and rest today."

She
turned back to Detective MacLean, her resentment dissipating. That was perhaps the longest sentence
he had yet spoken to her.

"Did
they tell you about the autopsy?" she enquired, thereby dismissing out of
hand the subject of Detective Laytner and his concussion.

"Yeah. Not 'til tomorrow morning," Ryo
said. He shook his head.
"Would be nice if it could be today, though."

"Yeah,
don't you guys at the 99th have any pull?" Dee knew that the slight sneer
in his voice would make her bristle and sure enough, it did. He wasn't
about to forget the way she had looked at his car. He also thought she was the type who would look cute when
she was angry, and he was right.

Stung,
she drew upon her dignity and replied, "This is a special case, Detective
Laytner. Have you noticed the
bright pink color of the vic's lips?
That's because he was frozen solid as a result of being put in the
freezer by whoever killed him. The
freezing arrested the normal process of decomposition, yes, but you'll observe
that he hasn't fully defrosted yet.
No autopsy can be done until that process has finished. And then they'll
have rigor mortis to contend with. Surely you can understand that." Her words had somehow come out in just
as patronizing a tone as the one that Detective Laytner had used toward
her. Although she didn't precisely
regret it, she hoped it hadn't done her any harm with the other man. She spared
a quick glance at Detective MacLean to see if he had noticed, but his face was
difficult to read.

"Ralph
here says his boss estimates the time of death at some time around lunchtime
yesterday," Dee remarked.
"But it may have been earlier since Eddie's appointment was
apparently for 9:30 am. The first
thing your CSI team did when they got there at 5:00
was to mark off the location of the body and get him out of the freezer, as per
instructions from the coroner's office.
At least that was what it said in the file. So it seems to me that there's
been more than enough time for some defrosting. Ralph, my man –" Dee turned
to the morgue attendant. "Didn't you say you guys let him thaw a bit after
they dropped him off here yesterday?"

Ralph
nodded shyly, pleased to be asked for input.

Dee
turned back to Detective Greenspan. "So what makes you think he isn't all
thawed out by now?"

"Well,
I...He doesn't look very
thawed." She vaguely remembered something about
that in the files. Damn that Ruth
for going off on a stupid vacation and leaving her just as a murder case broke
over their heads. She had no
experience with frozen bodies and her partner did.

"How
'bout it, dude?" Dee glanced
at Ralph again. "Is he still a popsicle?"

Ralph
shook his head emphatically. "Not for quite a while. Still got a touch of
rigor, though, which accounts for the stiffness."

Detective
Greenspan shot Ralph the briefest of withering looks

"Come
on, Detective," Dee said to her. "He's not frozen anymore, and we all
know that the forensic docs don't usually let a little case of rigor mortis get
in the way of a good autopsy. No
reason it couldn't be done today."

He
looked at her with a lazy smirk, which caused her to color slightly. She hoped
that the general dimness of the room hid that. Know-it-all bastard.

"Well,
I'm certainly impressed to learn that the detectives of the 27th are able to
influence the schedule of the employees of the city medical examiner's
office," she retorted.
"Do let me in on your secret sometime."

Ryo,
who until that point hadn't been paying close attention to her exchange with
Dee, ascertained that she was feeling slighted. He smiled at her kindly and changed the subject.

"As
soon as you've made an appointment for us all to have a chat with the
restaurant owner, please let us know."

She
conferred upon him her most attractive smile, the one that she knew showed the
white perfection of her teeth and brought out the dimple on the left side of
her mouth. "Way ahead of you
Detective. Tomorrow morning at 11:00
am. At the restaurant."

"That's
great news; thank you," Ryo said, and looked at her with friendly
approval.

This
emboldened her to try once more to get him to let her in on whatever secrets he
was keeping to himself about this case.
She wished he would trust her.
She didn't want to have to use her trump card this early in the game if
it could possibly be avoided.

"You
know I feel it would be in all of our best interests if we were to work
together on this case -- on an ongoing basis," she said. "After all, all three of us want
the same thing, don't we? And that
is to catch the murderer."

Ryo
didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he nodded to Ralph, the morgue attendant, to cover Eddie up
again and put him away. He had
felt inexplicably sad and mortal looking down at Eddie, cold and dead on the
table, even though he had seen probably close to a hundred corpses in his
career. Sometimes he took it hard,
and when he did, it always seemed to be for a different reason. The last time he had been affected like
this was when he had looked at the bullet-riddled corpse of Leo Grant, which
had only been a few weeks ago. He
sighed and pushed such thoughts out of his mind.

"Detective
Greenspan," he said.
"You've been very helpful and we certainly do appreciate you giving
us your time like this. But the
fact is that our case is, as I said earlier, inconclusive. He was the man who had the information
we needed." Ryo indicated Eddie.
"And now we're not going to get any answers from him."

"But
you must know something," she
protested. "Give me a lead, a
place to start."

"I'm
sorry, Detective, but I can't do that today. This case is highly sensitive." Ryo was gentle but firm in his
dismissal and it irked her.

Nodding
at his partner, he added, "We'll be going now. See you tomorrow at eleven."

Seething,
she let the two men get almost to the door before she called out,
"Detective MacLean!"

They
paused and turned around to look at her.

"Yes?" asked Ryo politely.

Tina
Greenspan took a deep breath and played her ace.

"At
what point were you planning to tell me that your son was the one who set up
the appointment that got Mr. Calvetti killed?"

That
certainly got their attention.
Detective Laytner recoiled in angry surprise and immediately dropped his
hand from the door handle. But it
was Detective MacLean's reaction that frightened her. Even from across the room, even in the dim light, she could
see how white his face had gone.
His black eyes glittered with a cold and ominous fury and she felt a
somewhat irrational desire to get behind the nearest autopsy table.

"Who
gave you that information?" he rapped out, and strode purposefully in her
direction. She forced herself to
stand still and tall and face him unflinchingly. Behind him, his partner was eyeing her suspiciously. "Answer me!" The urgency in his voice brought her a
sudden realization that he was merely behaving like a father who was trying to
protect his son. Yet he was also a
cop, and he had no business trying to hide important evidence from her. This was her territory, not theirs, and
her investigation, also.

"I
got a call this morning from a Lieutenant Mike Abernathy," she told him,
and both men's faces registered angry, yet strangely resigned reactions. Detective Laytner swore loudly, which
jarred upon her already nervous emotional state. She hated it when men swore in loud, angry voices.

"What
did he say?" Detective MacLean's voice was quiet and dangerous, and again
she fought the urge to back away.

Despite
her tension, Detective Greenspan straightened and, tossing her hair back off
her shoulders, made a bid to gain the upper hand in this conversation.

"I
think YOU should tell ME that, Detective," she informed him in the calmest
tone she could manage.

All
that did was to cause the flames of rage to leap back into his eyes, but before
he could speak, Detective Laytner cut in.

"Don't
you play fucking games with us, Tinkerbell. This is the man's son you're talking about! Now give it up and tell us what that
fucking bastard said or you're going to wind up in shit so deep that you'll
never get the stink off your career."

She
stared at him, angry and a little afraid, but it was his mention of her career
that decided her. There was
obviously something more to this than she had previously suspected.

"He
said that your son had been heavily involved with Mr. Calvetti and had in fact
acted as some kind of go-between in setting up the appointment at Bam's. He...He hinted that your son, Bik
--Bikky, is it?-- might even have been acting for the murderer."

"That
goddamned lying motherfucking sonofabitch!" yelled Dee, smacking his fist
into his palm. "I'll kill
him! I'll put that fucking
cowardly weasel in fucking traction!
His own wife won't recognize him--"

"Dee,
shh. I can't hear myself
think." Ryo had his temper
under control again, something that always seemed to happen in response to
Dee's losing his.

"Who
else have you told this information to?" he asked the somewhat shaken
looking woman who stood before them.

"No
one."

"Partner?"

"In
the Caribbean. Back on
Thursday."

"Good." Ryo nodded, more to himself than
her. "Please keep this to
yourself for now."

"Is
it true?" she demanded.

"What
Lieutenant Abernathy has said to you borders on libel. You should ask yourself what an
Internal Affairs lieutenant is doing getting even peripherally involved in a
murder case that is not only NOT part of his current job description, but well
out of his jurisdiction. We have
to take this new information to our lieutenant ASAP." Glancing at his
partner, he said, "Come on Dee, let's go. Detective, we'll be in touch."

As
they strode toward the door, Detective Greenspan couldn't help calling out,
"Detective! I'm still going
to need to interview your son!"
But the door swung shut, leaving her alone with the awed and flustered
Ralph. She turned flashing violet
eyes on him and snapped, "What the hell are YOU looking at?" which
sent him scurrying, crestfallen, to the far corner of the room to busy himself
with the rearranging of some instruments.

Outside
in the hallway, Dee caught at Ryo's arm.
"Dude, whoa, slow down, okay?"

Ryo
stopped immediately and looked at him. "Are you all right?" he
asked. He saw that one of Dee's
hands was clutching his injured side and he had raised the other to his head.

"I
just need to sit down for a minute, that's all. I shouldn't have gotten mad like that. My brain feels like it's beating itself
to death against the inside of my skull."

"You
shouldn't have waved your arms around either. Do you think you're bleeding?"

"I
dunno."

"Look,
there's a men's room. Come
on. Do you have your meds with
you?"

"Yeah." Dee patted his pocket and allowed Ryo
to lead him out of the corridor and into the men's room.

Ryo
leaned against a sink opposite his partner, who sat on one of the toilets,
fully clothed. When he had taken a peek at Dee's injury, he had determined, to
his relief, that it wasn't bleeding.

Dee
had just taken two of his prescription painkillers and was waiting for them to
take effect. His eyes were closed
and he sat with his hand lightly pressed against his bandage.

"Do
you want one of the doctors to take a look at it while we're here?"

"Hell,
no! Next thing they'll be checking
me in and running tests and before I know it I'll be stuck overnight. No, just give me a few minutes here and
I'll be good to go."

"All
right. Take your time." Ryo gazed out of the window, which
offered an unprepossessing view of one of the hospital's adjacent
buildings. His brow was marked by
a little frown of anxiety, and despite his pain and fatigue, Dee wanted to
comfort him.

"It'll
be okay," he said.
"We'll bring Bikky and Carol in together and they can make
statements. It has to be done
anyway."

"That's
not what's bothering me," Ryo said. "It's that bastard, Abernathy. If
he only wanted to stir up trouble, he could have made an anonymous call with a
tip. But he didn't. This is cat and mouse. He wanted me to know that he's aware of
what Bikky did."

"Yeah,
you're right," said Dee. "How could he have known that? Do you think Eddie told him?"

"We'll
never know." Ryo sighed.
"Notice how he had no hesitation about using his name. I think this is his charming way of
letting us know he's got the laptop and we've got nothing on him."

"You
worried about Bikky?"

"Yeah,
a little. If Abernathy thinks
Eddie told Bikky about the work he was doing, I wouldn't put it past him to set
Bikky up in some way. And I don't
think he would hesitate to use him against me if he could. But I can't believe he would actually
harm him..."

Dee,
however, thought he sounded a little doubtful about that. He himself wouldn't put anything past
Abernathy at this point.

"We
got more than nothing. We've still
got Shaver. I should give that guy
a call, but first we need to sit down with the Chief and probably the Commish
and work out some acceptable terms."

"Well,
the earliest that could happen would be tomorrow," Ryo said. "There's
not much more we can do on a Sunday afternoon. I'm going to head back to the station to document what we
did today. You, however, ought to
rest."

"No,
I wanna come with you," Dee said stubbornly. "Couldn't we just pick
up the files so we can update them at home?"

"I
suppose we could. Then I could
make sure you actually rested."

Dee
stood up carefully, but looking happy. "Well, let's get the hell out of
this depressing place then."
He leaned in and kissed Ryo's neck. "I'm more than ready for a quiet
evening at home."

Ryo
thought it was cute the way Dee had, for such a long time, referred to Ryo and
Bikky's apartment as 'home', on equal status with his own. "Which
'home'?" he asked Dee. "Yours or mine?"

"Whichever,"
Dee answered. "Home is where you are; that's how it is with me."

Dee
was amazed when Ryo slid an arm around him right there in the men's room and
kissed him passionately. His
normally nervous partner hadn't even looked over his shoulder first. And now he was pulling back slightly
but he hadn't actually let go.

"What
was that for?" he asked Ryo, delighted.

"Because
I love you," said Ryo. "And I don't want you to ever get confused
about that again."

"I
love you too, baby! Does this mean
we're going to have sex again tonight?"

"Dee! You really do have a one-track
mind."

"I'm
just sayin'..."

"The
answer is 'not if Bikky's around. '
And it's a school night, don't forget."

"Aw,
Ryo."

"We'll
have a nice evening anyway, with or without sex. Come on, get a move on."

"God,
you're bossy," Dee grumbled, but he followed Ryo with a smile on his face.

End
of chapter 26
- 25
- 26
- 27
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

FAKE First Year Together: A New Day (May)