Tales From The Badge Series: Under The Shield

style='color:black'>Title:
Tales From The Badge: Under The Shield: Part Two

style='color:black'>Author:
Buffywatcher

style='color:black'>Feedback:
Constructive comments always welcome: href="mailto:Jinxascendant@hotmail.com">jinxascendant@hotmail.com

style='color:black'>Pairing:
S/A

style='color:black'>Rating:
Strong R

style='color:black'>Spoilers:
None, completely AU

style='color:black'>Warnings:
All-Human AU, Violence, M/M relationship, Language, all the good stuff.

style='color:black'>Disclaimer:
Just borrowing them for a bit of harmless fun. All characters, recognisable
likenesses are retained by their owner and accredited license holders.

style='color:black'>Live Journal:
style='color:black'>http://www.livejournal.com/users/jinxwatcher

style='color:black'>Personal Websitesstyle='color:black'>: The NightWatch: href="http://www.geocities.com/stormbuffsinc/lockdown.html">style='color:black'>http://www.geocities.com/stormbuffsinc/lockdown.html
&

style='color:black'>My Older and Non-Spangel works: href="http://www.geocities.com/stormbuffsinc/index.html">style='color:black'>http://www.geocities.com/stormbuffsinc/index.html

style='color:black'>Work Archived Atstyle='color:black'>: The Crypt: href="http://home.att.net/~lubakmetyk/crypt.htm#buffywatcher">style='color:black'>http://home.att.net/~lubakmetyk/crypt.htm#buffywatcher

style='color:black'>Writer’s Notes: For the purposes of this story some details have been changed. Giles
is in his early to mid 40’s and both Liam and William are in their early to mid
30’s. This story takes place in an AU setting and is loosely based on a
Challenge concept by GF for the Forging_Ghost Anniversary Ficathon. This isn’t
the EXACT idea put forth in the Challenge, but it’s my take on the basic idea
and I hope you like it Stony. Please excuse any minor discrepancies or artist
license. As always thanks are going out to GF, MarieC, Luba, and Mera my most
excellent group of Beta/Editors.

style='color:black'>Writer’s Creditsstyle='color:black'>: **Salustra and Pet get the kudos for their invaluable
assistance with the LA Times Office Dialogue Sequence, I couldn’t have done it
without them.** This series and story is loosely based on the FGF Anniversary
Challenge #13 by GF for the Forging_Ghost Anniversary Ficathon and it’s
dedicated to GF and his excellent group over at Forging_Ghost. This story will
contain a brief reference to the movie Seven, starring Morgan Freeman and Brad
Pitt. There are a few partial song lyrics used from *In
order* Dio’s Lock up the wolves, Metallicaow mow man’s lyric, and *shudder* an
excerpt from Barry Manilow’s Mandy. There’s also a slightly twisted and
convoluted Quote from Genesis 2:23, King James Version of the Bible.

style='color:black'>Writer’s Dedicationstyle='color:black'>: For Stony & The Wonder
Twins, Inspiration is the greatest gift of all.

style='color:black'>Distribution:
If I’ve already been given permission to archive my work please consider it
yours if you want it. If I haven’t and you would like to archive it please do,
all I ask is that you email me and tell me where it’s going so I can visit.

style='color:black'>Series Summary: Detectives Liam O’Shae and Wil Falkner join with their former style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Mentorstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>, now
a world-renowned criminal profiler, to form the S.C.U., Special Crimes Unit, of
the Los Angeles Police Department. Sometimes being a hero means just doing your
job.

style='color:black'>Story Summary:
Can LA’s finest track down a serial killer before he claims one of their own?

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>****Reader Warning!! This story contains disturbing imagery
and dialogue and deals with several sensitive issues including sexual abuse
*Off-screen* and graphic instances of mental illness and some religious
references so please use caution before reading this story!!****

sty
style='color:black'> 

*Introspective commentary*lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Story Summary:
Can LA’s finest track down a serial killer before he claims one of their own?

style='color:black'> 

*Introspective commentary*lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Two Days Later: At The style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Stonehengestyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
Bar & Grill

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil isn’t startled by the hand sliding over his leather
rear and into his back pocket. He leans farther forward over the bar and pushes
back against the caressing hand as Liam joins him.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I thought I’d come help you…carry the drinks back to the
table.” Liam breathes pressing his lips against Wil’s ear and leaning over to
nibble the lobe playfully.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You’re not fooling me for a minute; you just wanted to
play with your new present.” Wil says with a husky chuckle as Liam’s tongue
toys with the new piercing in his left ear that matches the simple stud now
gracing his scarred brow.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam chuckles; silently admitting that maybe that had a style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>little to do with it.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Same Night: A few hours earlierstyle='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>No one was more surprised than he, when one of their
witnesses happened to work in a small exclusive shop that featured tattooing
and piercing with handmade jewellery. While Wil worked his verbal magic, he
took the chance to take a walk around the shop and found that he was fascinated
by the thought of how intimate it must be; that moment when that foreign bit of
metal is thrust through welcoming flesh.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He tried not to watch as several patrons took their turn in
the chairs to have their piercings done by one of the several professionals
employed by the shop. He told himself it was just simple human curiosity that
had his eyes following some of the customers as they were escorted back behind
a curtained area where tore…ore…personal piercings were done. The occasional
sudden cry of mingled pleasure and pain tickled along his nerves until his skin
felt so tight and sensitive that the brush of a breeze across it set him to
trembling softly. He can only imagine how beautiful Wil must have looked as his
piercing was done…did he arch like a bow under the painful pleasure so
skilfully inflicted? He’s so caught up in his imaginings that he’s startled by
the hand sliding up his armwly wly up to cup his shoulder, signalling Wil’s
return to his side. He follows the line of his gaze and smiles.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Looking at all the pretty jewellery? Or fancying something
done in ink?” Wil asks quietly, tilting his head just a bit to look up at him
through his lashes a wicked gleam in the depths of his eldritch eyes.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He slides his hand slowly along Liam’s arm, feeling the
muscles contracting and relaxing rhythmically under his caressing palm as he
tries to gauge the larger man’s strange mood. After a moment he smirks faintly
as it occurs to him that maybe he’s not looking with himself in mind. “Something
for me perhaps, Pet?” As he feels Liam’s muscles spasm under his palm and hears
his breath catch, he knows he’s figured it out. “I’ve been meaning to get some
editions done for a while now.” He admits glancing at his watch he notices that
Liam’s shift ended twenty minutes ago and smiles.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He walks over to one of the employees with a currently
empty chair and has a quiet word with them for a few minutes, then comes back
to Liam with a smile and wraps an arm around his waist. Liam’s arm immediately
drops across his shoulders and locks him in place, just as he knew would
happen. He reaches up to purr against his ear. “Show me?” He grins as Liam
reaches across to grab one of the books of available piercings and examples of
work that others have had done. He points to two different pages and Wil calls
the artist over and indicates their choices and allows Liam to choose the
jewellery that will be used himself.

n lan lang=EN-GB
style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam was a solidly comforting presence, holding his hand;
his low cries a strange mixture of pleasure and pain a counterpoint to his own
as the metal thrust through flesh. The rush of nervous energy as first his ear
and then his brow received the swift kiss of pain and the rush of endorphins
into his bloodstream until he felt like he was floating, it was almost
orgasmic. Quaking in Liam’s embrace as he held him and smoothed and eased him
down from the rush with gentle hands and lingering kisses, he felt alive and
loved. It was Liam’s embrace that would comfort him as the last step of their
private ritual was completed. A large piece of paper and a pencil and a few
moments of intense sketching and shading and Liam handed it to the employee
with a smile. It took a few minutes as the employee called one of the tattoo
artists over and they consulted quietly and the sketch became a pair of small
stencils in their capable hands. The whole time Liam kept him close, at least
one hand teasing over his sensitive skin at any given moment, unable and very
unwilling to release him and accept their parting.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>It would be Liam’s hand in his that leads him towards the
raised table that would take the place of the usual tattooist’s chair, his
hands that tenderly bared his upper body. It was Liam who lifted him onto the
table with an easy strength that made him feel like a child, but the thrill
that ran through him at the display was all adult male. Even as he turned onto
his stomach to bare his back to the tattoo artist, Liam’s hands were there,
dancing over the skin of his shoulder blades like maddening butterflies
fluttering against his flesh.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>It was Liam’s voice whispering low and huskily in a ceaseless
flow of seductive praise as the Celtic-styled letters A and W are worked into
the pattern of the Celtic-style cross adorning the small of his back. The
artist is skilled and efficient and the new small additions are quickly
completed and the styles carefully matched and merged, with only the slightly
reddened skin and slightly darker ink of the initials marking them as newly
added. Liam carefully tended the newly altered tattoo himself under the
watchful eye of the tattooist who double checks his work as the bandage is
applied.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>As they stop by the register to pay for the work and to buy
the after-care kits, Liam’s presence and handling were constant as he clung to
him as the larger man paid. He’s not sure how they got back to Liam’s car; his
whole world was focused no farther than the possessively protective man
treating him like the finest china.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>It seemed like the most natural thing in the world when
Liam pulled him against his side and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to
keep him there as he expertly drove them a few miles down the coast to a
deserted overlook and pulled off to park. The meeting of mouths and bodies felt
like coming home. How long they sat there wrapped around each other for long,
lazy kisses that ended only as another would begin, he can’t say, an hour,
three, a lifetime? All that he knew was the sensual duel of tongues and greedy
hands, the whisper of heavenly touches ghosting lightly over the tender new
piercings. The gentle caress of loving hands whispering over the bandage in the
small of his back, they were all he knew, all he needed to know.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>It was only the ringing of first Liam’s cell phone and when
that failed to rouse them to answer it, his own that finally broke the spell of
their hungry mouths and grasping hands. Called back for dinner with their
friends, old and new both, they still found that their world was no larger than
the space they could both occupy. Maybe that’s what being in love is.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Back To The Present: Back At The Bar & Grilllang=EN-GB style='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam reaches past him to pick up the tray of drinks the
bartender slides over to them and Wil shakes his head in mock exasperation.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I can handle carrying a tray with a few drinks you know.”
He says, quirking his newly pierced brow up out of habit, hissing lightly as
the new piercing reminds him it’s there.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam leans down and treats him to a brief but heated kiss
before straightening. “I know that you can
Wil, you’ll just never have to with me around.” Another kiss and the playful
cheering and teasing jibes of the crowd parts them and sends them hurrying back
to their laughing friends at their table.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil melts into his chair with boneless grace. Liam pauses
to set the tray down and hands out the drinks before angling his chair closer
to Wil’s and wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him to rest
against his chest. He’s careful to make sure that he’s not putting any pressure
on the bandage and the tender but precious artwork it’s protecting.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So…I’m thinking that you left a bit out of your
introduction of Inspector Falkner Liam.” Lindsey drawls in a droll tone as he
rolls his eyes at their obviously more than friends cuddling, not to mention
the public displays of affection they’ve been inflicting on all and sundry all
night.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You know all there is to know about Wil that concerns you
Lindsey.” Liam says his voice calm but icy.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“And that would mean what exactly?” Lindsey says, leaning
forward in his seat with his eyes narrowing.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Wil has a PhD’s in criminal justice; he was at the top of
his class at the Academy, served for almost two years as an NYPD Detective
second class. He left the NYPD and returned to style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Englandstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> where
he served in the Royal Marines and the S.A.S for four years with multiple
decorations for valour under fire and eventually he joined Interpol in their
Human Trafficking division. Now he’s here helping us. Anything more than that
is none of your concern.” Liam says coolly, shooting an annoyed glance at the
arrogant prick who looks more interested in Wil than he was before.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So you were a soldier then? Did you see much action?”
Lindsey asks, smiling his most beguiling smile, his eyes flashing briefly with
anger as Wil pointedly yawns and tilts his head to rub his cheek against Liam’s
bicep.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Oh I’m sorry, did you say something Lindsey?” Wil asks
blinking his eyes in a picture perfect flutter of his lashes that comes off as
guileless and innocent, though he is blatantly anything but that. Liam just
sits back, looking very pleased and proud of his lover.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Silence descends on the table as everyone watches Lindsey
stewing when Charles clears his throat and hurriedly says something to head off
his partner’s bad mood.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So you were a war hero then?” He says casting uneasy
glances between a smug Liam and a fuming Lindsey.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“It wasn’t anything that grand really Mate.” Wil says
modestly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“He’s being modest.” Giles says with a chuckle. “The last
time I saw him in uniform he had more decorations than a Christmas tree.” Giles
laughs heartily at the faint blush on Wil’s cheeks. “I believe he was also
invited to a special reception that the Queen herself attended.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I was just doing my job.” Wil mutters cursing as he feels
his cheeks heat and knows that they’re flushed once more with embarrassment.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Anya is enchanted by the display of modesty. “What rank
were you?” She asks, genuinely interested.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“A Lt. Colonel at the time I left the service.” Wil says
quietly but several of the men around the table sit up straighter and take
notice at his declaration.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You’re surprisingly young for such a high rank.” Lorne
says surprised.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Wil was a regular Rhodes Scholar.” Liam says proudly. “He
was one of the youngest on record.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I was just turned fifteen when I was selected.” Wil says
quietly. “I didn’t want to go but my parents liked the idea of having a son
they could show off to friends. I’m sure they would have cleared a special
place on the fireplace mantle for me to sit during their dinner parties.” It’s
clear from Wil’s voice that it’s not a fond memory.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You don’t sound like you had much fun at all.” Winifred
says sadly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“My Mum was a good woman; she always tried to do her best
to accept me as I was and to give me time to be a child before I to gto grow
up. After she passed…my Father remarried a lovely trophy of a wife and I became
just one more asset that he could show off to his friends. He was furious with
me for not staying at Oxfordstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> but I
chose to come to the States instead. Because my Mum was half American and I was
born almost halfway over the Atlantic Oceanstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
betwEnglandstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> and style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>New
Yorklang=EN-GB style='color:b'>, '>, I’m lucky enough to have dual citizenship. I
think that he would have even accepted that in time but when I left Harvard to
get my Criminal Justice PhD and joined the NYPD, he disowned me. Not that it
really mattered because most of the family money is from my Mum’s side and I
inherited that when I turned twenty-one. I haven’t seen him or my stepmother or
their children in over ten years.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well aren’t you special?” Lindsey says with a sneer.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Yes he is, how nice of you to notice.” Anya says sweetly
but her eyes flash dangerously. “And what is the great achievement of style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>your life Detective McDonald? Finding
new ways to shrink your jeans as much as possible? Finding a new way to lounge
that you think makes you look sexy?
Or is it just finding new and improved ways to make it obvious just how much of
a dick you are?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Everyone but Giles looks Anya with surprise and soon
everyone but Lindsey is snickering at his expense while he clenches his jaw
tightly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil leans over and kisses her cheek. “Remind me to never
piss you off, Pet. You’re vicious.” He says with a smile as she grins pleased
with her skilful repartee and he returns to lounge against Liam.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne stops chuckling and clears his throat. “What did you
find out during your interviews today Liam, Wil, anything new?” He says having
decided that a change of subject would be a good idea right now.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Wil worked his magic and we’ve found out that we were
right about all of the men being gay. Luther Oliver and Jonah Samuels, the
second and third victims were well known in their neighbourhood as being
involved. Robert McMahn, the naval officer was also gay but that was a well
kept secret that his commanding officer did his best to cover up. Wil convinced
him to talk to us since it would be a poor epitaph for his life if silence only
buys us more dead victims. While we didn’t find many people that remembered
Simon Parks, the first victim, one of the men we talked to claimed to have seen
him talking to another man the night he died. He confided that it wasn’t
unknown for Parks to turn the occasional gay trick when he was younger, so I
think we can assume he was at least bisexual.” Liam reports, as he turns to dig
into his coat pocket for his small pocket-sized notebook.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We can’nd and anyone willing to own up to knowing Rheed,
the fifth victim but given his lifestyle any friends and acquaintances that he
had have been very scarce in coming forward. However the forensic team went
over his place again and they found several pictures of Rheed in compromising
positions with several different men.” Wil adds as Liam pauses.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We spoke to several people at the counselling centre where
Manuel Santiago worked and it was apparently a little publicised fact that he’d
been involved in a long term relationship with another man. It was apparently
covered up for fear it would adversely affect any future political
appointments.” Liam says after glancing through his notes from the interviews.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“And Councilman Grant was a well known philanderer with
anything that would sit still for him.” Lorne says with a snort of disgust for
the deceased but all too corrupted politician. “Were you able to learn anything
else from re-interviewing the witnesses?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“A few people said that they noticed a stranger hanging
around prior to the victims being discovered and in a couple of instances they
remembered seeing strange cars in the neiurhourhood. I’ve got what descriptions
they could remember but they’re very sketchy on the details and I’m not sure
what we can expect as far as any hits on the DMV database as no one noted even
a partial license plate.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'ere ere was one curious statement though. At the shelter one
of the residents told us that God had struck down Simon Parks for living an
unclean life. That his ‘messenger’ had been sent to make him repent his evil
ways and that the instrument of his wrath had been made manifest. We tried to
get more out of him but he refused to talk any further. I had records run his
name and he has no criminal priors but he does have a long history of mental
disorders but I think he may have seen the murderer and he is just confused the
details with the fantasy in his head about divine retribution.” Wil adds with a
shrug. “Liam put out a bulletin on him; if he’s picked up we can have him
evaluated by county health before we try to question him any further.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I have corroborating evidence on all but two of the
murders that indicates homosexuality is one of the criteria he’s using to
select the victims.” Winifred adds helpfully. “I went over the case history of
the Laszlo case with Dr. Jensen and while it seems our mysterious killer may be
borrowing the Sins angle, he is not
borrowing the method of their actual deaths. In each case the method of death
is violent but that is all that they have in common. Parks bled to death from a
bilateral incision across the throat that severed vital blood vessels. I’d
estimate he was dead within two to three minutes from acute blood loss.
Indications are the body was moved and positioned post-mortem but we discovered
no physical trace evidence in the exam, blood cultures, or scene evaluations.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Winifred pulls her own notebook out and quickly reviews. “Oliver
and Samuels were each killed by a single stabbing blow to the heart from harpharp weapon, possibly an ice pick or maybe even a screwdriver or similar item.
The stabbing wounds made by the tailor’s shears were made post-mortem and again
the bodies were moved and the scene was staged. Given the relative positions of
the bodies I would say they were posed to emulate a lover’s quarrel gone wrong.
Drs. Jensen and Giles concur. We think that whoever our killer is, he’s
interpreting the Sin of Anger/Wrath to be two separate Sins which would explain
the double murder, where every other murder has been a singular occurrence.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>She pauses to read her notes once more before continuing. “ style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Santiagostyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> was
shot in the back of the head and in this instance an almost complete lack of
blood evidence suggests that he was killed elsewhere and then transported to
his office where his body was posed like the others. There was no blood trail
in or out of the office where he was placed so I would assume that he was
allowed to bleed out before he was moved. At the time the body was found, death
was believed to have occurred no less than three days prior to the body being
discovered, however given the unusually hot weather at the time I think we can
actually estimate that at closer to two days. In that kind of heat,
decomposition would have been more advanced than it was.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>She reviews her notes and continues. “Rheed was strangled,
given the injury type; I’d say some kind of a garrotte was used. I recovered
some fibre samples that would indicate that nylon fishing line was used. We
identified the type and manufacturer but it’s amazingly common and is sold in
just about every drugstore, sporting goods, and grocery store in style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Californiastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> it
seems. Without a suspect we have no way to trace their movements to know where
to concentrate a records search on so that will likely be a dead end.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>She continues on with her report. “McMahn the young naval
officer was killed by means of an air bubble that caused a fatal heart seizure.
From my examination I would say that the killer was likely engaged in
intercourse at the time of the injection and remained long enough to be sure
that no resuscitation was possible before posing the body and leaving the
scene. In the Councilman’s case he died of a massive drug overdose, I found a
lethal cocktail of no less than four hardcore illegal drugs in his blood
cultures. Any single one could have been lethal, all four together was just
plain overkill.” She concludes. “I would say from the evidence that we’re
looking at a single murderer.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya and I have completed our profile and it’s fairly
extensive so it would be easier to read it rather than give you all the details
here. We made sure that each of you was emailed sentsent a hard copy of the
profile. It should be waiting in your inboxes for you.” Giles states, sipping
his drink.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We’ve found some similarities to the Laszlo case as far as
the profile but we don’t think this is a true copycat murderer. He seems to
have adopted some of Laszlo’s motivations but he’s obviously deviating from it
as far as his ultimate reasons for what he’s doing. I don’t think that this is
strictly a religiously motivated crime but that religion does play a part in
it.” Anya adds.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“How is the investigation proceeding on your front Charles?”
Lorne asks.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“There is zero evidence of an accomplice involvement in the
actual murders themselves. There is no conclusive proof that there isn’t
however an accomplice helping to plan the murders but there is also nothing to
suggest that there is either.” Charles says balling up his napkin and tossing
it on the table in disgust.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“How is the INS database search coming along Lindsey?”
Lorne asks, glancing at the irreverent detective and scowling slightly as he
notices his gaze is fixed on Wil and Liam in a less than decent manner.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“There hasn’t been much luck yet. We’re not getting any red
flags yet but we’ve got a lot of data to filter through and corroborate and
compile and that will take us a while. There’s always the chance that our
perpetrator also hasn’t been arrested and convicted here in the style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>U.S.style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> as
well so we may not get a hit off the crosscheck of the sexual offenders
database.” Lindsey drones, sounding distracted and bored.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I asked the Bureau to run a similar search and Wil’s got
Interpol doing the same through Scotland Yard.” Giles says helpfully. “He may
not have been caught and convicted here
but perhaps he was overseas so we’re checking on that angle as well.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne looks very pleased with their progress, while it may
be tedious and slow, it’s better than the cold stop they were at before.
Bringing in the new blood was just the shot in the arm that they needed to get
things moving again. He has to admit that he’s been impressed by the many and
varied talents of Liam’s old friends and finds that he likes them on a personal
level as well. He can’t help but marvel at the changes in his usually dour and
withdrawn old friend Liam. It’s like watching a butterfly emerge from its
cocoon. There is so much emotion and feeling between them that they circle each
other eternally, like a pair of binary stars and the light and heat they
generate could power a city with the mere brush of their hands together. It’s
like watching life itself made manifest into these two perfect forms, he’s
never seen two people more alive than Liam and his Wil.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The soft sounds of a soft rock band starting the first of
their nightly sets in the lounge, filters through the doorway to them. Stony
surprised them by handing them a key to one of the private V.I.P. rooms that he
reserves for private parties, special friends and important patrons. It seems
that they’ve made his short list of preferred clientele.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The room is fairly large, housing a large round table with
a semi-circular booth at one end and chairs at the other. The décor matches the
rest of the upscale establishment in vibrant colours and rich fabrics and a
small eight foot by ten foot dance floor is tucked off into one corner. The
lighting is set just high enough to make reading menus and other business type
documents easy but intimately subdued, lacking the glaring harshness of most
restaurant lighting. It’s really a very comfortable room and just the right
size for their small; Lorne glances at Wil, Anya, and Giles all clustered with
Liam at the chair end of the table; but growing group of friends.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne smiles, as the soft music washes over his nerves
soothing them; he knows that it’s likely Wil and Rupert’s influence that has
gotten them elevate to the status of the elite as Stony has embraced them as
welcome remembrances from home. They’ve become fast friends, though from all
the good natured insults they seem to toss at each other these last couple days
he’s rather surprised that they actually like each other. It was a laughing
Giles that took him aside to whisper that the insults were all bluster and for
show, something of a tradition among mates.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne smiles as Wil sips his drink and wonders if he
realises that he’s swaying to the soft rock beat coming through the doors. From
the glow in Liam’s watchful eyes, Lorne’s pretty sure that he’s more than a
little aware of Wil’s unconscious movements. He’s proven right as Liam leans
over and says something in Wil’s ear too low for him to hear but from the blaze
igniting in those glacial blue eyes it must have been something very heated.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil slinks out of his chair with a graceful roll of his
body, gaining his feet with a boneless shimmy and Lorne wonders if he’s double
jointed. He’s already taken off his coat when he came in and quick efficient
flutters of his elegant hands unbutton the black dress shirt he’s wearing as he
strips it off to reveal the blue silk sleeveless tank underneath it. He crosses
to the pegs on the wall and carefully hangs the shirt up, looking over his
shoulder and winking at his captive audience.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He stalks to the small dance floor and picks up the rhythm
of the music with effortless skill, dancing as though there was no one else in
the room. His dancing is fluid and primal, like the pounding beat of a drum
only he can hear as he moves lost to the rhythm of the music. They all watch,
frozen in their seats, afraid to move or speak lest the spell be broken and
reality intrude on Wil’s private worship of the gods of music. Lorne feels
Lindsey’s muscles tensing and relaxing and he knows that any second he’s going
to jump up and join Wil and he’s surprised to feel his hand clapping over
Lindsey’s shoulder ready to keep him from trying it.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>It becomes a moot point as Liam rises, as regal and
powerful as Hades rising from the underworld and where Wil was alone, he is now
complete as Liamlds lds himself to his back. They dance as one, moving and
flowing through the ebbs and tides of the music.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I thought Liam never dances?” Winifred breathes enchanted
at the sight of the pair.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“He doesn’t dance, he communes, and only with Wil.” Giles
says in a loud whisper. “I’ve watched them do this countless times and it never
loses its magic.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>All of them share the sentiment as they watch Liam’s hand
slowly drift down Wil’s chest, over his hip, to curl over his thighs in a
caress as innocent as it is sensually charged. Wil’s arms float up to lock
behind his neck and the women sigh at the sight and the men think Liam is the
luckiest son of a bitch they’ve ever met as they melt together lost in the
music and each other.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Beautiful.” Lindsey breathes.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne glances over to see that his eyes are locked on Wil
and he mentally shakes his head in exasperation. A piece of paper couldn’t get
between Liam and Wil much less someone like Lindsey and it won’t be long before
Liam reacts to the challenge Lindsey is unconsciously projecting. Liam will
protect his relationship with Wil with as much dedion aon and fanatical
vehemence as any zealot when his world is threatened. Lindsey is out of his
league and he’s just too arrogant to see it but he’ll see the light at the end
of the tunnel soon enough, probably at the end of Liam’s fist. For some reason
the thought of the arrogantly brash Detective laid out at Liam’s feet brings a
smile to his face. It’s a lesson that’s been a long time coming and he hopes he
gets a ringside seat.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Eight

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Giles looks away from the case board he’s been puzzling
over for the last hour, as a weary Liam and Wil trudge through the doorway
looking very exhausted. This last week has been exhausting for everyone with
little reward to show for their dedication.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam flops heavily into the chair behind his desk, as Wil
lounges daintily on one corner of it with his free leg swinging slowly like a
cat twitching its tail. They’re both damp from the unseasonably cold weather
and their clothes are slightly mussed and in disarray. They look about as
cheerful as the storm clouds darkening the sky outside.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Not much luck I take it?” Giles says with a sigh.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Almost zero, a few people remember seeing a stranger but
we’ve got only the barest description, not much more than he was male and they style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>think he was about average size with
dark hair. A few people mentioned that they thought they’d seen a motorcycle a
few times which seemed out of place in their neighbourhood but no descriptions,
make, or model that they could remember. A couple of people mentioned that they’d
noticed some local utility company trucks around the time of the murders. We
looked into it and they were there on genuine business and the employees were
in full sight of people at the time of the murders. We’ve got nothing that will
be much help at all Pet.” Wil says disgusted.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam scoots his chair forward and turns slightly to the
side, until he can rest his head on Wil’s lap and sighs as a tender hand
immediately starts stroking his hair, soothing and calming his nerves. Giles
looks on with a paternal concern at his boys and admits he’s beginning to feel
disheartened as well.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Is there anything new on the other fronts?” Liam asks
wearily.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya had a good idea, we know what some of the criteria
are for what he looks for in a victim but we don’t know how he’s managing to
pick these particular victims. She’s down in records getting us some detailed
files on each victim. We can’t find any present ties that connect them but
perhaps there is a past one, maybe some thread that connects them all to each
other and our mysterious killer.” Giles says, turning his gaze back to the
crime board, his brow furrowing once more.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Is something not sitting right Giles?” Liam asks lifting
his head, noticing his mentor’s preoccupation with the board where they’ve
tacked up pictures of the victims and the time line of the murders.

style='color:black'> 

sty
style='color:black'>He slides his chair closer to Wil and accidentally knocks
off some paperwork off the desk. Wil smiles and hops off the desk and leaning
over to pick them up handhands them back with a kiss on the nose that has Liam
grinning happily. Whether it was that Wil picked his papers up for him or just
the close up view of a really stellar class rear, he’s not inclined to say. Wil
curls up on the arm of his chair as Liam wraps an arm around his waist to hold
him securely.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Something has been bothering me about these victims.”
Giles states, his voice sounding distracted and thoughtful. “Their victimology
is unusual. We’ve got the murders starting with a homeless man in a shelter and
ending so far with a City Councilman of no little public notoriety.” He muses.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So we’ve got a killer that can be in a homeless shelter,
but yet not be out of place at a Councilman’s home.” Wil says with a slight
frown. “That is a rather unusual dichotomy as serial killers go. They usually
prefer one general type of victim and few target high profile victims. Our
mystery man has done everything fa hoa homeless man, a politician, a sailor,
and a thief.” He snorts with disgust.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Giles gasps as Wil’s words suddenly make the pieces fall
into place and he knows what has been bothering him about the pattern of killings.
“Wil, you’re brilliant!” Both Liam and Wil look startled. “I know why he’s not
following Laszlo’s patterns exactly!” Giles says with a wide grin. “He may be
using methods of staging the bodies similar to Laszlo’s, but that isn’t the
criteria for how he’s choosing them. He’s following that old nursery rhyme! You
know the one…Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man;
Thief.les les says with dawning wondering. “Earlier Anya mentioned something
about the first and second murders not making much sense in common victimology,
that a homeless man begging on the street and a harmless simpleton that
tinkered for a living shouldn’t have been chosen according to Laszlo’s patterns…that’s
what’s been bothering me all this time. What you said gave me the last bit I
needed to connect the dots.” Giles explains as Wil and Liam join him flanking
him on either side, their clasped hands resting on the back of his wheelchair.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“That bloody brilliant lateral thinking Giles.” Wil says
impressed. “Let’s break it down to what we know.” He leans over and grabs a
pointer and taps the picture of the first victim. “Simon Parks.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Beggar style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Man.style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>” Liam
supplies.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’d say his death was intended to display the Sin of
Sloth.” Giles catches on to what they’re doing.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“The second and third victims were killed together, Luther
Oliver and Jonah Samuels.” Wil supplies again.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Oh boy…Tinker and Tailor right?” Liam offers, grinning as
Wil nods with a smile. “Cool.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya thinks that our killer made a common error and mistook
Anger and Wrath for two separate Sins when in fact they’re actually the same
thing. But since he made it look like a lover’s quarrel I’d have to say her
supposition is accurate.” Giles supplies just as Lorne walks back in rolling
his eyes and looking much put upon, a fact explained by the presence of a
chattering Lindsey strolling in behind him.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Giles quickly explains their breakthrough before Wil
continues to expound on their theory.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Our fourth victim was Manuel Santiago.” He states, using
the pointer to tap his picture.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:bla“Oh “Oh man he’s the hard one.” Liam groans. “He’s the Poor
Man?” He asks finally, grinning again as Wil nods and smiles, very pleased by
his quick thinking lover.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I would say his murder scene was meant to display the Sin
of Envy. He was well known for his views that “Anglo” culture was stifling his
own rich Latino culture.” Lorne says, quickly catching on to what they’re doing
and he preens as three grins reward his intelligent commentary.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“The fifth victim was our street thug Roger “Rocko” Rheed.”
Wil taps the pointer on his mug shot.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“He’s easy, he’s the Thief.” Liam says with a sniff of
disdain.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya…” Lindsey quickly corrects himself as Giles shoots
him a hard glance. “Dr. Jensen said that religion seemed to be a factor; where
does that fit into this scenario?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’ve seen some indications that the killer has some
knowledge of religion and religious practices. Liam and I discussed some of the
quotes, terminology, and other factors in the notes and we’re pretty sure that
it indicates more than a passing knowledge of Roman Catholicism.” Anya explains
to Lindsey. “This may or may not mean that the religious angle is a motivating
factor, it may just mean that our killer is to some extent religious.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“If he’s religious would canvassing the churches gain us
anything?” Lorne asks.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“That would be rather unlikely. The Roman Catholic Church
is a fairly closed circle community with very strict rules that govern it. If
for instance our Killer were to confess anything, I don’t think there would be
any way to compel them to disclose that.”m sam says uncertainly. While he was
raised in the faith, his Mother’s dismissal of every tenet left him with little
truth to cling to and his eventual realisation of his sexuality completed his
own personal journey of religious discovery. The ‘Church’ in his eyes has
always been something larger than life that he has never fully been a part of,
he wouldn’t trade his love for Wil for all of the acceptance in the world. Wil
has taught him that faith has many guises and not all of them can be found inside
the walls of a church or between the pages of a book written long ago.
Sometimes a man has to follow his own star.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil stiffens and his eyes sharpen and ignite and Liam turns
to look at him in alarm as the tension in him is telegraphed across their joined
hands. Within seconds the others notice the pair’s distraction and slowly all
eyes turn to them.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We’ve been blind fools.” Wil growls vehemently. “We’ve
completely overlooked a possibility. We’ve got a series of murders, with crime
scenes based on the Biblical Seven Sins, and we suspect homosexuality and Roman
Catholicism are connected in some way either to our killer personally or to his
motivations for why he’s committing the murders.” Everyone slowly nods but they
still look confused by where Wil’s thought process is going. “Why aren’t we
considering that maybe the killer we’re looking for is a priest?” He asks
quietly. “Or was one at some point.”

sty
style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Fuck!” Liam swears violently. “He’s right, how many times
have we read stories about Catholic priests being defrocked for various crimes
against the faith or scandals that the church is all too quick to cover up?” He
swears again as something else occurs to him. “Remember that homeless man we
talked to at the shelter Wil? He mentioned something about a ‘messenger’ sent
to show Parks the error of his ways or something didn’t he?” Wil looks
disgusted that he failed to put that piece together with his theory and nods. “We
just assumed that he was crazy or misinterpreted something he’d genuinely seen…what
if he was talking literally? I think he witnessed if not the murder itself than
at least the ‘messenger’ that committed it. We’ve got to turn that bulletin
into an arrest on suspicion order right away.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’m afraid that won’t do much good.” Charles says quietly
as he holds up a sheet of paper. “I picked this up from the desk sergeant on my
way up, it’s a report of a John Doe found floating in the harbour off the
docks. From the description I’d say that it’s your witness.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam swears and snatches the sheet and reads it over and
swears again. “It sure sounds like him.”

style='color:black'>p;

style='color:black'>Winifred takes the sheet from Liam and grabs her cell phone
and calls her office and reads her assistant the identification number on the
report and goes silent for several minutes after which she hangs up her phone. “The
autopsy of the body shows no defensive wounds or signs of violence. His blood
screen came back negative for illegal drugs but his blood alcohol level was
nearly three times the legal limit. The general consensus is that he was blind
drunk and somehow ended up in the harbour. The official cause of death has been
cited as accidental drowning. From the condition of his liver, he was a
habitual heavy drinker so there is nothing to indicate that foul play was
involved.” Winifred says.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So how do we proceed?” Lindsey asks frustrated. “The
Church is reluctant to expose its scandals and actively covers them up when one
does go public, how do we find out if we’re dealing with a sexual predator or
some ex-priest gone wacko? It’s not like they’re going to want to admit it!”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We cross-reference any names off your INS database search
with newspaper archives and see if we can get any red flags off of that. Even
if the killer is or was a priest and his crimes were covered up, there’s always
the chance that the story was picked up but a paper. Meanwhile I’ll call some
friends and get them started on a cross-reference search of the INS database
and have them search through channels to see if we can find if any of the names
on your list match any names in the church database. Perhaps one of them will
give us at least a suspect to proceed with and then we’ll see where we are.”
Wil supplies quietly. “The Church is always difficult to deal with in cases of
scandals but I think they may cooperate in order to save lives regardless. It’s
what we’ve got to work with right now; we’ve got to make it work before he
finds someone to fill that last slot in the pattern.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I should go visit Bishop Bianchi, I met him on that case
last year remember? He may help.” Lindsey offers helpfully.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I can head over to the LA Times office and see if I can
get their cooperation in searching their databases.” Charles says, looking
rather excitable and eager to get going.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“No, I think Liam and Wil should hit the Times office.”
Lorne says with a grin as Liam groans and covers his eyes with his free hand. “Those
reporters that cover their crime beat have a soft spot for him.” Lorne says
with a grin as Wil’s brow rises questioningly. “Charles, Lindsey you two get
started on the databases.” Lorne decides finally.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya and I can give you a hand.” Winifred says with a shy
smile at Charles who doesn’t seem to notice.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’ll get in touch with Wil’s contacts and get them started
on a search on their end.” Giles says with a smile, looking over his shoulder
at Wil; who nods with an answering smile of his own in response.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’ll brief the Mayor and the Governor with what we have so
far and then I’ll stop off and have a talk with the Bishop myself.” Lorne
decides. “Let’s move like we know what we’re doing people!” Lorne barks
good-naturedly and everyone snaps into motion. Within a few minutes Lorne, Wil,
and Liam are on their way to their various destinations while the others hit
their computers and the phones.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Nine

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil glances over at a nervously fidgeting Liam and hides a
grin as they rocket down the LA streets, headed for the style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Los
Angeleslang=EN-GB style='color:black'> Times newspaper office.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So tell me about these reporters that Lorne mentioned? He
made it sound like you’re quite the hit with them.” Wil turns his head to watch
the scenery and hide his grin. He knows that Liam’s never suffered reporters
well and used to make every effort to avoid the spotlight.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam groans and looks like he wants to wince. “The
newspaper community calls them the Wonder Twins. They hit the scene about six
years back, working the crime beat for a small local newspaper up in the
valley. They managed to get the inside track on a couple of big name cases
before the big league reporters even knew there was a story to be had. You remember
that rash of baby kidnappings a few years back? They managed to crack that case
wide open and the police were able to arrest the ring leaders of the operation
solely based on their testimony and the evidence they managed to cobble
together in the course of researching the story. You may have heard of them,
Kerri Saldano and Petrastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> Foxx,
their by-line is published in over twenty newspapers the last that I heard.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil chuckles at the uncomfortable look on Liam’s face. “I’ve
heard of ‘em Love. Saldano & Foxx are the golden girls of the newspaper
crime beat and you managed to get in good with them huh?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam glances over at Wil nervously. “Well I kind of helped
them a bit by giving them an exclusive or two that helped them get their jobs
at the LA Times.” Liam blushes faintly at the mention.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“They sound like a party Mate. I can’t wait to meet them.”
Wil says looking over at his lover with a saucy wink that has Liam muttering. “What
was that my Angel…I missed that?” Wil asks with a grin.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I said they’re going to eat you alive!” Liam almost shouts
before looking nervous and embarrassed again.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well they can’t do that, that’s your job.” Wil replies with a smirk and Liam reluctantly starts to
chuckle and relaxes somewhat as they pull into a parking garage by the Times
office and park the car.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:b'>Li'>Liam hops out of the car and walks around to the passenger
side of the car and wraps his arm around Wil’s shoulders and pulls him tightly
to his side. “This doesn’t look very professional you know.” Wil’s grin shouts that
he could care less how it looks.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Maybe not, but it’s where you belong.” Liam says with a
grin as he steers them inside, smiling as Wil slides his arm around his waist
and throws his head back proudly; looking as proud as a King with the world at
his feet to have Liam at his side.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam keeps Wil locked to his side, not letting him get more
than an inch away on the elevator ride up to the reporter floor of the Times
building. The longer that Wil is with him, the greater the need he feels to
reach out and touch him, assuring himself that he’s real and that they’re back
together as they were meant to be. They ignore the rude stares of the people
sharing the elevator with them, as they step out onto the frantically paced
world of a major newspaper’s reporting floor.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil and Liam both see the two women right away. They are
striking-looking, both in their individual ways. The taller of the two is
dark-haired and dark-eyes, with long brown hair down to her hips and slightly
olive skin. She is dressed in a brightly-coloured skirt and a white linen
peasant-style blouse and bold jewellery. The slightly shorter of the two has
strawberry blonde hair to mid-back and hazel eyes that flash fire and is
dressed in a lacy tank top and a pair of jeans.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>darkdark-haired woman is speaking to the other woman in a
rich, honeyed voice, ever so slightly accented. “ style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Petrast'mso'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>, we
simply cannot run that quote without confirmation. So we’re going to have to go
back and beat it out of him if necessary.”

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>Petrastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> sighs
and hops up on the desk bringing Kerri between her legs kissing her softly “Baby,
to hell with that; because if we have to get their damn permission. I’m going
to beat them alright, preferably with my fists.” Petra spies Liam coming with a,
well for a lack of a better word, hot ass man and she whispers in Kerri’s ear, “Baby,
our man has a man and when you look, make sure that you hold your breath.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Kerri turns to look and her breath does indeed catch. She
smiles brilliantly. “Well, hell-looo, Liam. Who is your beautiful and no doubt
charming companion?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam’s steps falter and he makes a small squeaking noise as
his mouth opens and closes, but nothing comes out. Wil chuckles and shakes his
head at his antics and steps away from him to stalk forward to take the hand of
the ladies.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He presses a gentle kiss to the backs of their hands. “The
name’s Wil, Wil Falkner and I’ve been waiting for YEARS to see someone do that
to him.” Wil steps back with a chuckle, returning to Liam’s side.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam drops a heavy arm across his shoulders and hauls him
closer, holding on so tightly that he’s almost lifting Wil off his feet, not
that the slender blond seems to mind much. “This is my partner, Wil Falkner.”
Liam finally chokes out after he regains his voice.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil chuckles and winks at the ladies. “Yes love, we kind of
covered that already.”

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>Kerri smiles and chuckles.style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> “I’m
Kerri Saldano and this is my partner-in-crime style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Petrastyleo-bio-bidi-font-weight:normal'> Foxx.
Pleasure to meet you, Wil. “

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil smiles, charmed by the vivacious pair. “It’s a definite
pleasure to meet you too kittens. Please excuse Liam, he’s still getting used
to having me back in his life, how he got along without me to talk for him I’ll
never know.” Wil winks and hugs Liam as the big man grimaces.

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>Petrastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
reaches out and strokes the side of Wil’s face then Liam’s. She chuckles,
batting her tongue against her top lip. “Liam, Liam, and here I thought you
were charming. Wil’s beating you out baby.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam’s eyes narrow at the innocent touch, but his voice is
pleasant and affectionate with just a hint of insecurity. “I can be charming,
he’s just always been better at it.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil turns slightly to the side so that he can hug Liam and
smiles as Liam pulls him around sot het he’s cradled against his chest, just as
he knew that he would. “You have lots of other talents to be proud of, Love.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Kerri raises an eyebrow. “I can just *imagine*.” She lets
out an evil chuckle. “So how can we help? Or was this just a social visit to
introduce us to Wil?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam growls. “If it had been a social call I’d have brought
a whip and a chair.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil laughs huskily. “Time for fun and games later Lover, we’re
here for a reason; remember?” Wil says chiding his lover playfully.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We need a favour. We’re working on a case and we think
that you may have some information that could be useful in your database.” Liam
says with a charming smile.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We wanted to ask if we could borrow a desk and do some
searching through your back issues.” Wil says quietly, his manner shifting to
be all professional and focused.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Petra chuckles and pulls Kerri back into her chest, now
whispering in her ear, “Meow…I touched Liam’s toy and made him mad.” Then she
straightens intent on making it right. “Of course you can handsome, always,
anything for our pretty Liam, he knows that.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam blushes faintly as Wil leans back to look up at him
and his pierced brow quirks up. “Did you leave a little something out of your
informative speech in the car, Peaches?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Kerri chuckles again. “Probably not.
He just flirts outrageously with us both. Flirting is such a lost art these
days and he does it sooo well.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Yeah, he’s such a slut.” Wil says with a husky chuckle,
lifting up to press a gentle kiss to Liam’s blushing cheek, softening the blow
of the harsh words.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam lifts Wil off his feet and buries his face against his
neck. “I am not a slut; well okay I am, but just for you. How can I do anything
but flirt with anyone but you?” Liam mutters, as his lips press into Wil’s
skin.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil is shocked, but touched. “You mean that
you haven’t…not anyone?” He whispers, choked with emotion as he winds
his arms around Liam’s neck and clings tightly as Liam shakes his head. Wil
croons softly and peppers gentle kisses over Liam’s hair and his grin could
light the room as they snuggle together lost in the middle of the frantically
paced newsroom.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Kerri sighs and rubs her cheek against style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Petrastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>’s. “There’s
something profoundly beautiful about watching two gorgeous men kiss.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You’re telling me.” style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Petrastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> sighs
wistfully.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil lifts his head and looks over his shoulder and winks at
Kerri. “He kisses like an Angel, no joke. I’d give my soul away in a second for
one of his special kisses.” Wil sighs wistfully as he smiles at style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Petrastyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam maa gra growling sound and rears back and seals his
mouth to Wil’s as the blond melts against him with a happy wiggle.

style='color:black'>After several minutes of slow, drugging kisses, Wil
reluctantly pulls back and drops his forehead to rest against Liam’s brow. “Do
I still have knees? I have no knees…” Wil asks and Liam replies with a husky
chuckle.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Petrps Kps Kerri’s hips and she moves out of the way as
Petra hops off the desk and walks up to the two handsome men, to scoot them
towards the elevator, “Go on you two anymore of this and I’ll have to keep you.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You don’t want to keep Wil, trust me!” Liam barks with
laughter. “You should see how much it costs to keep him in the style to which I
want him to be accustomed!”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil leans back and smacks the back of Liam’s head lightly
and pushes off his shoulders, dropping lightly to his feet and curving his hand
around his. “Let’s go tilt at windmills Don Quixote.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil turns to the ladies and smiles brilliantly, his
cerulean blue eyes glowing. “It has been an honour and a pleasure meeting you
ladies. We’ll have to have dinner soon.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Kerri smiles back. “Oh, definitely.
A double date. We can drive them crazy trying to
figure out who is with whom.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil chuckles and slides his hand over Liam’s perfectly
curved rear and squeezes, chuckling as Liam looks startled for a millisecond,
then growls and jerks him closer to lock him against his side with a possessive
growl.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I don’t know *how* they’ll every figure that out.” Wil
says with a grin as Liam spins them around and almost carries him to the
elevator.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil laughs and turns his head to look over his shoulder and
waves goodbye to the ladies as Liam pulls him into the elevator after him. It’s
the last thing he sees as Liam picks him up and presses him between his body
and the wall of the elevator and his mouth dives into his. Fortunately the
elevator is empty for this trip, but they wouldn’t have cared if it was full as
they get lost in their own world of emotion and sensation once more as the
doors slowly close.

style='color:black'>Chapter Ten

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The slightly dishevelled pair tumbles out of the elevator
with a laugh, straightening their shirts as they step up to the archivist’s
desk.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam flashes his badge. “Detectives Falkner and O’Shae, we’re
here to do some research in your archives.” He says with professional
brusqueness. The archivist is an older lady, mid to late sixties, but judging
from her open mouthed amazement, she’s not too old to fall under the spell of
two virile and extremely attractive men. Liam clears his throat loudly and the
woman starts and hurriedly starts shuffling papers on her desk as Wil stifles a
chuckle behind his hand.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Yes Detectives, Saldano and Foxx called to say you were on
your way down.” She stammers faintly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil snickers quietly. “Oh yeah we were on our way down
alright.” Liam elbows him in the side and gives him a hard look and he
straightens up. “But we’re here now, down.” He says with a polite smile,
ignoring Liam’s choking sounds as he follows the woman into the archives. “Did
you swallow wrong Liam?” He asks innocently over his shoulder with a smirk and
a wink as he shoves his hands into his jeans pockets and strolls nonchalantly
after the archivist.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam stifles a curse and hurries after them, catching up as
the Archivist is leaning over Wil’s shoulder at a computer terminal, pointing
some things out to him. He traps the growl of irritation, but something of his
manner must have telegraphed to her and she hurriedly finishes her orientation
speech and skitters away back to her desk.

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>“Shame on you Liam for scaring little old ladies
just doing their job.”lang=EN-GB style='color:black'> Wil says with a snicker as his fingers fly over
the keyboard as he navigates the archival database with almost ridiculous ease.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Yeah well, you’re
not that little old lady’s job, so she can just keep her hands to herself.”
Liam mutters, slipping into the computer station next to Wil and beginning his
own searches and cross-references.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The next hour and a half passes tly tly as the pair slip
into their old patterns of cooperative behaviour with surprisingly little
effort, the silence broken only by the occasional quiet comment between them.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I think I may have something here Wil.” Liam says quietly,
his eyes glued to the computer screen, as he reads a story more than a decade
old. Wil slides his arm around his shoulder and leans over to read it as well.

style='color:black'> 

Scandal Rocks b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>Vaticanstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>lang=EN-GB style='color:black'> As Sexual Allegations
Made by Martin Thompson

No arrests have been made
regarding the allegations of statutory rape and sexual abuse of a minor by a
high ranking member of the Archbishop’s personal entourage. The Archdiocese has
declined to make anymentment on the record or off regarding this matter, other
than to say that they trust God will reveal the truth of this unfortunate
matter. The family has declined to comment about the case citing their wish to
protect their fifteen year old son’s privacy.

This reporter has learned from
confidential sources inside the LAPD that charges against Wesley Wyndham-Price,
Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus are going to be dropped due to a lack of physical
evidence and victim cooperation. A confidential source inside the Archdiocese
has revealed that the Auxiliary Bishop has been transferred to a diocese funded
counselling centre for mentally disturbed adults; located at an undisclosed
location in Northern California. This reporter has been assured that he will no
longer have any contact with underage minors. They declined to answer any questions
about the Bishop’s alleged homosexual activities with his underage parishioner
other than to reiterate the Catholic Church’s views on homosexuality.

One can only hope and pray for the
mental well-being of the teenager in question as the latest line of scandals
concerning abusive members of the Church is swept out from the public eye.
Outrage over the handling of this case is sure to have far reaching
ramifications here in our fair city and abroad.style='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil looks at the date on the story. “This was twelve, almost
thirteen years ago. The boy must be twenty-seven or eight by now. The ex-bishop
must be what in his late thirties or early forties?” He says with a frown, he
doesn’t like to think that the justice system is so lax that an abusive
predator got away with his crime, just by virtue of being a member of the
Catholic Church’s Hierarchy.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I think I remember a little about this story. It happened
right before I moved here, I think.” Liam says frowning as he tries to
remember. “They never revealed the family’s name or what happened after this
story, from what I remember.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil scowls and digs his phone out of his duster pocket and
hits the auto-dial. “Hey Anya, yeah it’s Wil. Can you run a name through the
database for us and see what you get on it? Wesley Wyndham-Price. He was or
maybe still is an Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus for the style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Los
Angeleslang=EN-GB style='color:black'> Archdiocese twelve or thirteen years back.” He
pauses to listen. “Yeah we’re still at the Times; we came across a short follow
up story about his apparent involvement in a sexual abuse case that the Church
seems to have covered up. The name looks English to me though…maybe have
Lindsey run it through the INS Database too. Thanks Anya, we’ll make copies
about what we can find here and then head over and meet up with Lorne. Maybe
his Bishop friend can shed some more light on this for us.” Wil says goodbye
and hangs up the phone, slipping it back into his pocket. “Well done Liam, you
may have just given us our biggest break yet in this case.” He praises
stlystly, smiling as Liam looks pleased and a little embarrassed.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Let’s see what else we can find on our Bishop friend and
lemakemake copies and head over to meet Lorne.” Liam says gruffly, getting his
own phone out to call Lorne and tell him what they’ve discovered as Wil snaps
into action.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Within the hour they’ve printed off copies of anything they
feel may be relevant and having thanked the Archivist and calling up and
thanking the ladies for their help, they’re on their way to meet up with Lorne.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Eleven

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne explodes through the doors and down the steps, anger
radiating from every pore with an equally furious Liam and Wil at his back.
Bishop Bianchi did indeed prove helpful, though forced to do so strictly ‘off
the record’ given the Church never actually admitted to any wrong doing during
the scandal. The Bishop in question had indeed been transferred to an adult
counselling facility in a small town outside of the state capitol of style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Sacramentostyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>. No
further scandals had come to light as far as Bishop Bianchi knew, as the family
had quietly moved away and the newspapers quietly dropped the story, they’re
sure with no little prompting from the powerful Catholic Church. Bishop Bianchi
was helpful though as he mentioned that he remembered hearing that the young
man had apparently run away from his family and no trace of him was found. The
Bishop wouldn’t have thought anything of it, if he didn’t recall hearing some
gossip in Church circles about the disgraced former Bishop Price had been
removed as a Bishop and had disappeared around the same period of time.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Do you think that Price killed the boy that accused him?”
Lorne asks the pair over his shoulder; disgusted and fed up with what seems to
be a never ending stream of evil in the world.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Do you think that he didn’t?” Liam sighs fatalistically.
He wraps an arm around Wil’s shoulders and pulls him closer, shivering slightly
in the chill breeze that’s accompanied twilight. They’ve all been working
double shifts so the night has barely begun yet he’s exhausted and he doesn’t
like the sight of the shadows under his Wil’s eyes betraying his own
exhaustion.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil grimaces and leans against Liam’s side more heavily. “I
don’t want to be sound cruel or heartless, but I can only hope that he did. I’d
hate to imagine what someone like that could do to a boy if he style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>didn’t kill him.” They all look sick at
the very thought of what it could mean if Price kept the boy alive.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>They’ve reached the car and Liam leans against the door and
pulls Wil’s back against his chest, wrapping his large coat around them both,
to cut the chilly breeze out. Lorne leans against the passenger door and wraps
his trench coat tighter around himself.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Charles didn’t find any evidence that there was an
accomplice so we can only hope that the boy just ran away from the painful
memories.” Lorne says finally but he’s not sure that he believes it.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well there’s no evidence he’s working with Price, if
indeed Price is our man, so maybe when we catch up to him we should ask him
about the boy.” Liam replies with a shrug.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Oh I’d say Price is probably our man. Everything that
Bishop Bianchi told us about Price fits into the profile that Giles and Anya
came up with. Additionally, it ties the religious aspect of the crimes and
gives us some understanding of why he’s choosing gay men specilly lly as his
victims. It would also explain to some extent the use of the Sins being his
calling card. I suspect that the secondary use of the nursery rhyme is merely
an affectation he’s used to set himself apart from Laszlo.” Wil says, shivering
slightly but it has little to do with the chilly breeze and the falling
temperature.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil’s cell phone rings and he picks up out of his pocket to
answer it. “Falkner, it’s your dime.” He says feigning a chipper attitude that
he doesn’t really feel. “Hi Giles, no we’re still at the Archdiocese with
Lorne. You did?” He lifts the phone away from his ear and covers the mouthpiece
with his thumb. “Lindsey got a hot off of Price’s name in the INS database; it
seems that he was issued his green card about fifteen years ago when he
emigrated from Englandstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>. The
address for the application was here in style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Los
Angeleslang=EN-GB style='color:black'>.” He pauses to replace the phone at his ear and
listen for a moment before telling them what’s going on. “Anya says records can’t
find anything on Price or the case but that it looks like someone deliberately
removed the records at some point.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne swears and looks heavenward. “The bastard must have
hacked the system.” Lorne holds his hand out and Wil passes him his phone. “Anya
this is Lorne, could you have the computer department lock down the mainframe
please. It’s a pain in the ass, but I don’t want any off-site access until the
tech guys can nail shut and brick over any access holes the bastard is using to
get into the system.” He growls. “Thanks Anya, have Lindsey run a DMV search
and see if he can get a last known address for Price and send some units over
there and take him into custody if he’s there.” Lorne nods and shakes his head
as though just realising that Anya can’t see a nod over the phone and he
flushes. “No, I won’t. Yes I’ll tell them, bye Anya.” Lorne ducks his face
shyly and hands the phone back to Wil; whom disconnects the call and drops his
cell phone back into his pocket.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya suggested a dinner break over at Stony’s place at eight.”
Lorne says rubbing his hands together to try and warm them up. “The DMV search
shouldn’t take long, if they can find an address on Price that is. Since no one
walks in this town, it’s probably a safe bet that he has a car but he must at
least have an ID card.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We can drive over and meet the units when they get us an
address.” Liam answers Lorne, but his eyes are locked on Wil with a quizzical
expression. He can feel the rigidity of his muscles as he rests against him and
he knows that something is bothering him. “Wil, what’s wrong?” He asks quietly,
tightening his arms reflexively as Wil’s cell phone rings again.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil freezes for a few seconds, before slowly retrieving his
phone as Liam and Lorne find themselves holding their breath. “Falkner, it’s your
dime, talk to me.” He says finally bringing the phone
into place.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam and Lorne exchange worried looks as Wil remains still
and silent after his greeting for far too long. After about five minutes he
says goodbye and hangs up his phone, dropping it over Liam’s shoulder to fall
forgotten on the car seat behind them.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:blacWe wWe won’t have to worry about picking up Price.” Wil says
flatly, his voice devoid of emotion.

stylolorolor:black'> 

style='color:black'>“The units picked him up already?!” Lorne exclaims in
surprise.

style='color:black'>“No, a couple of Winifred’b teb techs did.” Wil’s voice
sounds shell-shocked as Liam turns him around in his arms and strokes his hands
down his back, trying to soothe his ragged nerves. “They just got the address
from the DMV and Winifredogniognised it. They picked up a suicide there about
three hours ago. He’s dead.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Are they sure it’s him?” Liam asks gently.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Winifred took fingerprints; they’re waiting on the results
now. Giles is getting a pal from the bureau to put a rush on it. There was a
note apparently. It said something about only God being worthy to stand in
emenement and no man was worthy to thwart the will of God. Charles is on his
way over to the apartment where they found him now. Given the location, he’s
not expecting to find much left as the local scavengers have had almost three
hours to pick it clean.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“How did he die?” Liam asks, stroking Wil’s hair off his
forehead and gently rubbing his cheek with the thumb of his free hand.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Apparently it was a drug cocktail, not unlike the one that
killed the Councilman. Apparently the landlord found him already dead on the
floor when he came to deliver an ultimatum to pay the rent or face eviction.
She’s the one that called 911.” Wil sighs relaxing under Liam’s knowledgeable
hands. “Winifred and Charles will meet us at the restaurant and give us their
full reports there.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We may as well head over there, it’s Minute="20" Hour="19"> style='color:black'>twenty past sevenstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> and
it will take us at least twenty minutes to get there from here on a Friday
night.” Liam decides as he releases Wil and gently urges him to start the walk
around to the passenger side of his car. “Lorne, why don’t you ride over with
us? We have to pass right by here on the way home; we can drop you back by to
get your car on our way home.” Lorne accepts gratefully, he wasn’t looking
forward to the drive on his lonesome.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil grabs his cell phone off the driver’s seat and tucks it
away as he leans over to Lor Lorne lift the seat forward so that he can get
into the backseat. Liam catches him withandhand behind his neck,
stops him from straightening up and leans into the car to kiss him hungrily.
The kiss is forceful and powerful, even as it is infinitely slow and tender as
Liam demands his acquiescence and Wil softens and gives himself over to his
care. Liam smiles against his lips and finally releases him as he feels the
last of the lingering tension leaving Wibodybody. Wil shakes his head in fond
exasperation at the smug look on Liam’s face as he straightens up and he levers
himself back over into his own seat, while Lorne looks on with a grin.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam slides into driver’s seat and starts the car, hitting
the button to raise the top as he does. Within moments the top is in place and
the windows are up, cutting them off from the worst of the chilly winter
weather. He turns on the heater and adjusts it carefully be lie lifting his arm
and holding it up in silent demand. Wil weighs the possibility of refusing for
all of two seconds before he slides over the bucket seat to sit next Liam and
he drops his arm across his shoulders. Lorne snickers and climbs over the seat
and sits next Wil since they’ve left plenty of room in the front seat.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I won’t lecture you on safe driving practices since I
happen to know you were at the top of your class in combat driving.” Lorne says
with a chuckle as Liam drives with only one hand on the wheel but competently
and with no less skill than if he had both hands on the wheel.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I can do all sorts of things better than most men with one
hand tied behind my back.” Liam says with utter confidence and Lorne doesn’t
doubt he could for a second.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Does this seem wrong to anyone else?” Wil asks quietly
after a minute, breaking into a comfortable silence. “This just seems all too
easy and neatly tied up doesn’t it?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I understand what you mean.” Lorne says patting Wil’s
shoulder in friendly support. “The day we finally make our biggest breakthrough
and our suspect ends up dead. It does seem too easy.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Let’s make sure the bastard is really dead before we worry
about how easy it was or not.” Liam sighs with fatalistic resignation; he doesn’t
think it’s going to be this easy any more than Wil or Lorne do.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>They all go quiet and after a moment Wil leans forward and
turns on the radio and turns up the volume.

style='color:black'> 

There’s no back door to heaven

Just a front door to hell, oh

style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>In this
corner of the world…style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>

Now if you turn your back on the
children

Don’t you feel it getting colder?

style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>In your
corner of the world…lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil’s eyes pop open wide as Lorne starts to chuckle at the ‘cheery’
song that just happens to be playing.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Why don’t I just…?” Wil leans forward and hits the
auto-tuner to find the next station with a chuckle that manages to sound rather
brittle and uneasy.

style='color:black'> 

And I cry, to the alleyway

Confess all to the rain

But I lie, lie straight to the
mirror

normal'>The one I’ve broken, to match my
face

The trash fire is warm

But nowhere safe from the storm

And I can’t bear to see

What I’ve let me be

So wicked and wornlang=EN-GB style='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil hurriedly hits the search button again…again…and again,
each time managing to find a sad, dark, depressing, and in one notable case,
clearly evil song.

style='color:black'> 

Morning just another day;

Happy people pass my way.

Looking in their eyes,

I see a memory I never realised

How happy you made me.

Oh Mandy well,

You came and you gave without
taking,

But I sent you away.

normal'>Oh, Mandy well,

Kissed me and stopped me from
shaking,

And I need you today. class=GramE>oh, Mandy!

style='color:black'> 

n lan lang=EN-GB
style='color:black'>Lorne makes a horrible sound not unlike a choked off
gurgling moan as he wears a horrified expression that makes it look like he’s
being disembowelled as his hands jerk up to cover his ears.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Similarly distressed, Wil makes a squeaking sound as he
jerks forward and turns off the radio with another uneasy chuckle. “So…anyone
have any plans for the Holidays?” He asks feigning a bright and happy tone as
he endeavours to fill the silence with something other than brooding. He’s
grateful when Lorne jumps on the topic equally grateful for something
non-gloomy to talk about. They both ignore Liam’s rather affronted expression
as Wil intercepts his attempts to turn the radio back on. Liam is the only man
under seventy that they know who willingly listens to Barry Manilow…but they
love him anyway…when he’s not singing along to Barry’s greatest hits.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Twelve

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>They pile into the restaurant just as the sky opens up and
dumps the rain it’s been threatening them with all day and the three men share
a look of relief. At least something has gone their way today. They smile and
wave at Stony doing his patented Tom Cruise in Cocktail bartender routine
behind the main bar as the jovial Englishman calls out a greeting and waves
them through to the public lounge.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The three shout their thanks and head through; pausing at
the mountain of flesh that is the bouncer guarding the door that Wil’s
nicknamed funnily enough, Mouse.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Hey Mate, how’s things Mouse?” Wil says warmly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Pretty quiet for a Friday so far Little One.” Mouse says
warmly in a very soft voice that is surprising melodic and gentle. He claps Wil’s
shoulder with a gentle hand and steers him inside after lifting a key off the
peg board behind him to ‘their’ private room.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam and Lorne smile at Mouse’s use of his own private
nickname for Wil, and given that it’d probably take three or four of Wil to
make up Mouse’s bulk and height, it’s a fitting one as well. Lorne motions for
Liam and Wil to go ahead to the room, while he diverts to the bar to order some
drinks and appetisers.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He walks back to the room with a tray of drinks and sees
that Liam and Wil have chosen to sit on the bench seating side of the table
this time and are happily snuggled up, talking quietly. Lorne sets the tray
down and strips off his coat hanging it up with a happy sigh, noticing that
Giles, Anya, Winifred, and Lindsey are coming in. He hurries around the table
and slips onto the padded bench on the other side of Wil just as they come
through the doorway. Lorne catches the quiet smile that Wil throws him as he realises
that Lorne must have hurried so that Lindsey wouldn’t have a chance to take the
seat next to him and he smiles back, silently accepting Wil’s thank you.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lindsey scowls as he notices that all the seats by Wil are
taken. He reluctantly plays the gentleman and helps the ladies and Giles off
with their coats, hanging them neatly on the pegs beside the door before doing
his own and taking a seat next to Giles wheelchair; as Winifred takes the last
seat on the bench side of the table next to Lorne.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Anya turns her chair and catches Eve’s attention and the
petite waitress smiles and nods, motioning with her tray as she walks in and
starts setting down some platters of appetisers and some plates and flatware.
Stony’s place does such a high volume of business that there are style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>always appetisers a plenty, ready to be
plated in a special auxiliary kitchen set aside just for that.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“What can I get you to drink and will you be having dinner
tonight? I can bring back some menus if you’d like to have a peek before you
order. Stony’s got somew row roasted Angus prime rib on special in the kitchen.
He’s serving it with your choice of cream of asparagus or vegetable beef soup
or a garden salad, garlic roasted red potatoes or rice pilaf and the vegetable
of the day is a fresh winter squash medley. Of course the fresh bread is all
you-can-eat. We’ve got some terrific stone-ground wheat or a honey baked white
breads this evening.” Eve says with a smile and she unsurprised when everyone
unanimously elects to order the special plus an extra order for Charles.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Eve glances at Lindsey and smiles boldly. “I’ll be sure
that they make the cuts extra thick. I know how you growing boys eat.” Lindsey
looks at everything and everyone besides Eve, but she doesn’t look offended, as
her smile only gets wider. “What about drinks?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam gestures to the bottle of excellent Whiskey that Lorne’s
already brought for them and himself. “I think I’d like some nice, dark ale
with my prime rib though.” Liam decides.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’d kill for a hot cocoa honestly.” Wil admits with a shy
shrug, but smiles as Winifred and Anya quickly agree with the suggestion and
even Lorne orders one.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’ll even toss in some of those little marshmallows.” Eve
says with a grin as she takes down the rest of their orders. She’s headed out
as Charles is headed in so she pauses and gets his order and makes sure that
the prime rib special is okay with him, which it is and she continues on her
way as he stomps over to a chair and falls into it.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>After a few minutes of quiet as everyone snacks on the appetisers
and sips their drinks and unwinds a bit, Liam asks them what they’ve found out.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“The prints came back as a positive match for Wesley Wyndham-Price.”
Giles states, sounding just a little sceptical. “Frankly I’m rather surprised
that he chose to kill himself, it’s rather against what his psyche profile
would have suggested.” He admits to them.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I pushed the autopsy through on a rush. The cause of death
was a systemic shock induced massive coronary, brought on by the illegal drugs
he’d injected. The blood work came back as an almost exact match for the
overdose that killed the Councilman. I had them run some additional tests and
while the DNA testing will take a few more days, the serum typing isn’t ruling
him out as being the depositor of the sperm samples we’ve collected. The blood
profile is fairly rare as Price is a type AB Negative and that occurs in
roughly only one percent of the population, I’m fairly confident that we’ve it
will come back as a match. The body had no defensive wounds, in fact no wounds
of any kind were found and that leads me to suspect that we are actually
looking at a suicide situation.” Winifred reports. “There was something fairly
unusual however. He’d eaten only a short time before his death and rather
sizeable meal at that. It’s rather unusual for someone planning to commit
suicide to stop and bother to eat a meal right before hand. Anya and I
discussed it and it’s possible that he could have been enacting some private
ritual.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Maybe patterned after the last supper or similar mind set.”
Anya offers.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Charles, what did you find when you checked his apartment?”
Lorne asks.

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>“Bare walls.”style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
Charles says disgusted. “The place was picked so clean they even stole the
mattress off the bed.” He looks furious and more than a little upset. “The
landlord didn’t bother to lock the door after the body had been taken away,
though she had been requested to do so by the officers that arrived with the
coroner. I figure by the time they were a block away that apartment was already
being picked clean. Naturally none of the neighbours claim to have seen or
heard anything amiss. It looked like a routine bag and tag job so the unit didn’t
take any special precautions other than to request that the scene be kept
secure for seventy-two hours as part of our standard procedure in suicide
fatalities.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“That’s not unusual for that part of town.” Winifred points
out. “They’ll steal the fillings out your teeth down there if they could figure
out how to.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well it looks like we’ve found our killer.” Lorne says
finally.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Has it?” Wil says quietly, speaking up for the first time
as he exchanges looks with Liam and Giles. His quiet words however have
everyone sitting up and taking notice.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“If Price was our killer, how did he know that we were
closing in on him?” Liam asks, pointing out the flaw in their logic.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Someone or something must have tipped him off or he’d have
no way of knowing that we’d managed to get his name added to our suspect list.
We only found out ourselves not even five hours ago and most of the department
isn’t even aware of what we’ve found out yet.” Giles agrees.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Couldn’t he have hacked into the police mainframe again?”
Lindsey asks. “He did it before to erase the record of the allegations made
against him when he was a Bishop.”

sB
style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Unless he’s been monitoring our system constantly, and our
security measures would probably have detected him if he had, how would he have
known to pick today of all days to check on our progress?” Lorne points out.

style='color:black'>&nbso:p>o:p>

style='color:black'>“Perhaps there’s some kind of a data shunt secreted in the
system?” Charles suggests. “It would automatically transfer relevant data
within its flagging perimeters. We may have alerted him by searching for the
very files he deleted.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Wow there Charley, you sound like an expert.” Lindsey says
managing to sound both unimpressed and slightly mocking.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I have several degrees in computer science Linds.” Charles
doesn’t bother to hide his disgust for Lindsey at that moment. Lindsey throws
his hands up in supplication and reaches out intending to pat Charles on the
back, but he’s surprised as Charles quickly moves out of range with a slightly
panicked look on his face. Assuming he’s just one of those non-tactile types, he
just shrugs and goes back to finding the bottom of his beer mug.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne sees the gathering storm clouds betraying the rising
tension in the room and he would really rather avoid any possible storms inside
for the time being, so he hurriedly changes the subject.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well it seems that we have our killer and he’s neatly
handed himself to us without the messy entanglement of a trial right?” Lorne
sounds more like he’s trying to convince himself than anyone else.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“There are still some inconsistencies that need to be
addressed.” Giles points out. “Something just doesn’t add up in all of this. We’re
missing something, I just know it.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam’s pulls Wil against his side and the blond’s head is
resting comfortably on his shoulder as they nod in unison. The ladies sigh at
the sight and Giles is quic rea reassure Anya by linking their hands as they
rest on the table. Lorne smiles paternally at Winifred and wraps an arm around
her shoulder companionably as the young woman smiles happily at being noticed.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Why don’t we all just relax for one night? Price isn’t
going to be hurting anyone else and I think we’ve earned a couple of hours
respite don’t you?” Lorne suggests glancing around at his friends,
not surprised to see everyone agreeing with his sentiments. He lifts his glass
and smiles as everyone raises their own. “To the best damn group of people it’s
ever been my honour to work with.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Their glasses clinking together make a sound almost like
laughter. “I’ve got a bit of good news that I’ve been saving for the right occasion…which
was going to be after we solved this case, but I think we can all use some good
news right now.” Everyone looks at Lorne expectantly and Wil ducks his head and
presses his face against Liam’s neck as Anya and Giles share a glance and a
quick kiss. “I’ve discussed this with our newest associates and the Governor
and the Mayor and I am proud to announce that our new friends will be staying
on permanently beginning next month.” Lorne says with a huge smile.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam gasps and Wil finds himself hauled across his lap for
a kissing session that has everyone at the table reaching for their water
glasses to cool off. Lorne finally grabs Wil and pulls him away from Liam and
back into his own seat, purely out of fear of possible self-immolation if they
got any hotter.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Be kind to those of us here without their wife would you?”
e tee teases.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Wil, why didn’t you tell me?” Liam asks stroking his cheek
gently.

style='color:black'>“When Lorne talked to us about it, it wasn’t a sure thing
yet. I knew I was planning to stay if you wanted me to and Anya and Giles told
me that they were happiest here with us and that they would stay too if it was
an option. Once Lorne made good his job offer, it was pretty simple for the
Bureau to just attach their service to the local branch office here in town and
they’ll be working for both Lorne’s new project and for the Bureau. It gave me
the idea to suggest something similar to Interpol. I’ve been officially
attached to the Interpol Liaison office division of the California Department
of Justice up in Sacramento, but I’ll be based here as the Interpol
representative to Lorne’s pet project. Lorne’s managed to through together a
pretty sweet deal for all of us.” Wil explains as he nuzzles Liam’s cheek
happily.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned a project…what
project Lorne?” Liam asks looking over at Lorne, a little surpriso seo see that
he’s blushing.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well when I saw how well we were all working together and
able to use our various contacts to maximise our efforts here, I had a little
idea. Wil’s overseas contacts have proved invaluable, as have Giles and Anya’s
connections in the FBI and it seems that we’ve all brought a unique perspective
and set of skills to the group that compliment and enhance each other. I
suggested to the Governor and the Mayor that as style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Los
Angeleslang=EN-GB style='color:black'> is truly inteinternational’ city, one of the
crossroads of the world, that it would be beneficial if we were to strengthen
our ties to the international community and with the government.” Lorne
explains.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“It’s a really brilliant idea and I bet other metropolitan
cities will follow the example.” Anya praises.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne flushes brighter and continues. “I received the authorisation
to go ahead with my project idea. I’ve been calling it the SCU, the Special
Crimes Unit, we’ll be officially attached to the LAPD investigative division
but we won’t be lingling typical cases. We’ll be handling cases that ordinary
channels can’t solve or ones that have the potential for extending beyond what
would be our traditional jurisdiction. Due to our arrangements through Interpol
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and their official liaisons in the form
of Wil, Giles, and Anya, our police powers have been extended as have our
resources. Each of us will need to qualify for the FBI and Interpol active
rosters to be ‘deputised’ as it were but I’m told that we’ll do that easily by
virtue of our careers on record.” Lorne reveals.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Winifred smiles a little shyly. “I’ve been asked to head up
a new forensics lab that will be affiliated with the SCU as my degrees and
doctorates qualify me to be much more than just a coroner. My assistant Xander
Harris will be assuming my position as the head coroner of style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Los
Angeles lang=EN-GB style='color:black'> Countystyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>.” She
says proudly and it seems that everyone starts talking all at once as the congratulations
start flying fast and furious.

< lan lang=EN-GB
style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I guess you’ll need to start looking for an apartment Wil.
I happen to know that one of the condos in my building is coming on the market.”
Lindsey says with a sly glance at Wil.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“That’s nice of you to offer Lindsey, but Wil knows that my
home is his home too and that I want him to live with me. IF however he should choose to find a place of his own, I’m sure
that I can help him find somewhere.” Liam growls, not liking the way that
Lindsey is continually trying to get Wil’s attention.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’ll be living with Liam, but thank you anyway Lindsey.”
Wil says politely. “I saw a for sale sign on the house behind style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>ours…” Wil says smiling as Liam grins at
his possessive use of the word ‘our’. “…Liam, I was thinking that if I bought
that one…” Wil leans closer and drops his voice so that he can’t be overheard.
Whatever he’s said when he pulls back they’re both sporting secretive grins
that have everyone dying of curiosity.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Anya, Giles, I know that you’ll probably want to find a
place of your own like most soon to be newlyweds, but we’d love it if you
stayed with us until you find the perfect place.” Liam offers and the beaming
couple nods happily and congratulations are flying all around the table as Eve,
Stony, and several waiters enter carrying what seems to be an innumerable
amount of trays.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>They ohhh and ahhhh over the delicious looking plates,
platters, bowls, and assorted accoutrements of their eagerly awaited meals.
Hearing the congratulations for the happy couples and Lorne’s new project,
Stony announces that dessert will bethe the house and leaves blushing amid a
rousing cheer in his favour.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The next two hours pass in a happy blur of friends and
family as new ties are strengthened and old ones deepened and diversified. At
one point Wil gets up to accept a challenge from Stony to defend his honour as
the reigning Stonehenge Bar & Grill Dart Champion. With his friends
cheering for him from the crowd, Wil retains his crown and Stony consoles the
unfortunate but good-willed challenger with a free drink and a pat on the back
for a well played game.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“It’s not your fault Mate, me boy Wil there’s laid out many
a man and plays the Devil’s own game of darts I’d wager.” Stony says with a
grin. “Of course I’d have expected nothing less from an Englishman!” The crowd
roars its approval and drinks are raised in salute as someone starts a rousing
rendition of God Save The Queen that quickly spreads
to the whole place, much to Stony’s delight.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil returns to Liam’s side, walking into his arms for a hug,
but the dark glance he shoots at an innocently grinning Lindsey doesn’t escape
his attention.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Are you alright Wil?” He asks, noting the tension in the
blond’s body and the twitching muscle in his jaw and he knows that something
has upset him.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Lindsey’s just being a pain. He keeps pestering me with
questions about my time in the military and making wisecracks about liking a
man in uniform. He’s more tenacious than jock itch.” Wil growls exasperatedly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Lindsey’s a jackass to everyone Wil, he’ll calm down when
he realises he doesn’t have a ghost of a chance with you. If he doesn’t, well
we kill him; it seems a win-win situation.” Liam says with a joking expression
and Wil chuckles and relaxes in his embrace. “Lorne wants to stop by the office
and finish the paperwork for the case tonight before we head home, is that
alright?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Sure Liam, I only had the one glass of Whiskey so I’m good
for the driving.” Wil says leaning forward and kissing Liam’s nose, causing him
to get a case of the giggles for a second. “Charles also asked if we could drop
him off, apparently he caught a ride over with someone earlier.” Wil grimaces
and looks at the more than slightly tipsy Lindsey. “Looks like Lindsey will
need a ride too.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam glances over at Lindsey, who’s knocking back what must
be his twelfth beer of the evening and winces in sympathy for what his morning
is going to be like. “I’d say that’s a safe bet.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Why don’t we all go back to the station and I can take Mr.
Never-Saw-A-Beer-He-Didn’t-Like and Charles home, then come back and pick up
you, Lorne, Anya and Giles? We can drop Lorne off at his car on the way home
like we planned to.” Wil suggests and Liam smiles and nods, pulling him closer
and resting his head on his chest and sighing at the sound of his heartbeat.
Feeling the strain in his lover’s body, Wil steps back and starts to round
everyone up and herds them out to the cars. Fortunately the rain has let up and
the moon’s peeking through the clouds like a shy child playing hide and seek.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil quickly has the group split into the two cars with
Winifred’s help and back at the station within half an hour. Wil stops and
drops Lorne and Liam off before continuing on to drop off Charles and Lindsey
while the others all head into the station.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Thirteenstyle='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam yawns as he signs off on the last line of the report
and wearily gathers his papers and arranges them neatly into the file before
trudging to the Xerox machine and making three copies of everything. He neatly
stakes them together, making a folder for each and tucking the paperwork neatly
inside. He drops one into the inbox on Lorne’s desk much to his Captain’s
disgust as it joins the veritable mountain of paperwork already there.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Gee thanks Liam.” He says drolly.

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>“When you care enough to send the very best.”style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> Liam
snickers as he quotes the greeting card commercial and returns to sweep up
another of the duplicate reports and crosses to his file cabinet and files it
away. He learned a long time ago to keep a copy of all his reports on hand and
it’s saved him a lot of trouble in the past. His brow furrows as he recalls
that it was in fact standard procedure to back up all their computer files with
paper hard copies when he first started with the department. He wonders if
those old files could still be around somewhere and if Price’s case file is
among them. He walks over and sweeps up the last report and heads downstairs to
the records office.

style='color:black'>&;

style='color:black'>He smiles at the bubbly young Sergeant on duty as she looks
up with a beaming smile as he steps up to the window and takes the file from
his hand and adds it to a veritable mountain of similar folders.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Good evening, Detective O’Shae, are you having another
late night?” She says warmly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Hi there Sergeant…” Liam glances at her name badge. “… style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>n lan lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>Rosenbergstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>.” He
replies as he hands over his report. “I had a question…but I’m afraid you may
be a little young to know the answer.” He says with a wry grin. “Do you have
someone that was working here about ten years ago that I could talk to maybe?”
He says apologetically, shrugging sorrowfully if he’s unintentionally insulted
her.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Why don’t you try asking your question and we’ll take it
from there?” She suggests with a smile.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Well I know before we got the new computer filing archive
set up that we used to keep hard copies of the case files. I was trying to find
an old case file from about ten years ago that seems to have disappeared from the
system and I was wondering…”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“If we still keep any of those hard copies here, yes we do?”
She completes his sentence for him. “There are rows and rows of old file
cabinets down in the basement still or so my Supervisor was telling me.” The
Sergeant looks over her shoulder and motions to an attractive older woman. “Lieutenant
Calendar, could we speak to you for a moment?” She requests. “We need a bit of
help.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>She comes right over after shooting a frustrated glare at
the computer she was working on. “What can we do for you Detective?” She asks. “If
it’s about a case retrieval I’m afraid that we won’t be able to get to that
tonight until after this diagnostic is complete.” Her voice is harried and just
a touch frantic. “It’s going to take us a week to get this mess straightened
out, even with Charles’ help this is just a mess, the whole afternoon was a
bust! I’m sorry Detective, I didn’t mean to rant at you, and it is just that
this lockdown of the system has everyone up in arms. We’ve got report requests
backing up and more still that we can’t enter…this has been a lousy week!”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“It’s alright, I understand. I can only imagine how much
paperwork must come through here every day. I actually had a question about an
old case, twelve or so years back is when it initially happened, but I believe
that the case was closed closer to ten years ago. Apparently a records search
came up missing, but as I recall back then there were hard copy backups made
and stored on the premise?” Liam says with a charming smile that has both of
the records officers sighing.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Yes, we still have quite a few file cabinets down in the
basement storage area.” The Lieutenant agrees, opening a drawer and pulling out
a large ring of keys. “I’ve been down there since the move, why don’t I give
you a hand looking for what you need? I’m familiar with the filing codes they
used back then, I’m sure that I can help you find what you want more quickly.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam smiles his thanks and follows the Lieutenant down into
the basement, as she leads him to a quiet corner of the cavernous sub-floor and
unlocks a heavy wooden door and enters. Liam stumbles slightly at the sight of row
upon row of old, metal filing cabinets that probably weigh as much as some
Buicks.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The Lieutenant takes pity on him and smiles. “Why don’t you
tell me what we’re looking for?” Liam briefly runs down the details of the case
and she smiles. “Well we’re in luck, if it was a defunct case than they were
filed in either the defunct or cold case files.” She directs Liam to one of the
filing cabinets and quickly explains how to read the coding symbols used back
then, before heading over a few feet to another filing cabinet.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“AHA!” Liam jumps at the Lieutenant’s exclamation of
success and spins around looking startled and looks on as the woman waves a
file triumphantly. “Here you go Detective.” She says with a smile, holding out
the file and laughing as he pounces on it muttering thank you several times.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam wraps his arms around the file and clings to it,
sneezing as the dust from it tickles his nose. “Thank you very much Lieutenant.”
He says with a small boy smile as he surreptiously wipes his nose.

style='color:black'> 

e='ce='color:black'>“You’re welcome Lieutenant. I just wish the rest of my job
as the senior Records Officer was this easy? Could I trouble you to let us
borrow Detective Gunn again soon?” She asks with a faintly desperate smile.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam looks up from his perusal of the file and blinks
confused by her request. “Borrow Charles?” He asks as
he steps out of the records room, lost in his reading again.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Sure, like this afternoon. He was so great to spend all
day helping us try to secure the system.” She says with a smile as she heads
out of the records room and locks the door once moeforefore heading for the
stairs. “He started out in the Records Department you know, I was sorry to see
him go when he passed his Detective’s exam.” The Lieutenant says mournfully. “I
know that a lot of people were worried about a former hacker working around a
classified computer system, but really who better to stop a hacker than someone
that knows their tricks I always say. It’s why I was glad that we lucked out
when Sergeant Rosenberg transferred in.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam’s head flies up as he reads something that has him
slamming the file shut and grabbing the woman’s arm and turning her to face
him.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“What did you say?!” He demands and his heart freezes over
as the woman repeats herself only to find herself standing there alone as Liam
explodes past her and up the stairs with a cry. “Oh my God!
Wil!”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Fourteenstyle='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam explodes into the room, startling Anya, Giles, Lorne,
and Winifred and scattering them around the room as they try to see what’s got
him so frantic.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Oh god, it was Charles! He’s the boy, the one Price
molested, he’s with Wil!” Liam says panicked, diving for the phone and his desk
and stabbing the number of Wil’s cell phone in frantically.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Calm down Liam, what the hell is going on?!” Lorne
demands. He takes the file that Liam practically throws at him and opens it
paling as he reads its contents. He shoves it off on Anya and dives for another
phone to put out an APB right away.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Anya opens the folder and reads, swaying as the contents
swim before her eyes and Giles pulls her securely onto his lap. “Wesley Wyndham-Price
was accused by the parents of one fourteen year old Marcus Charles Gunn, of
lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and a suspected case of Statutory rape.”
She reads disbelievingly. “He…he was helping him all along?”

style='color:black'>@

style='color:black'>Liam slams down the phone with a virulent round of cursing
as Wil doesn’t answer. He thinks for a moment then dives for the phone again
and hurriedly calls Lindsey, silently praying that he’s still with Wil and the
possibly insane and dangerous Charles. “Oh thank God, Lindsey! Please tell me
that you’re still with Wil and Charles!? FUCK!”
Liam slams down the phone again, hanging up on Lindsey’s frantic cries
demanding to know what’s going on. He ignores the phone as it starts to ring
again, knowing it must be Lindsey. “He said Wil dropped him off over an hour
ago then left to drop Charles off.” He says weakly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne hangs up the phone and dives for the one on Liam’s
desk tersely telling Lindsey what’s going on before he hangs up on him too. “I
put out an APB on Charles and on your car Liam.”

style='color:black'> 

sty
style='color:black'>“He must have taken Wil; he should have been back by now.
He should have been back by now and I didn’t notice. He always has his phone on him, always answers it if he can.” Liam
cries, pain driving him to his knees and sending Anya hurtling off of Giles lap
to curl her arms around him. “Why would he take my Wil?” Liam asks a tear
wrenching its way from the corner of his eye. “My Wil, Anya, he took my boy.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Anya rocks him gently, tears falling from her own eyes as
the pain radiates off the tortured man and driving Winifred to join them in
their huddle of comfort. The two women do their best to soothe their tortured
friend and in within a few moments Liam’s regained his composure and thanks them
both huskily for their help.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Giles, why would he take Wil?” Liam asks worriedly. “What
possible on con could there be?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Giles looks back from where he’s been studying the crime
boards and the look in his eyes chills them all to the bone. “I think we were
wrong.” He whispers brokenly. “I think we’ve been looking at this from the
wrong angle. I don’t think Price was our murderer.” Giles chokes out. “I think
he was the weapon.”

style='color:black'> 

lang=EN-GB style='color:black'>“Oh god!” Liam cries. “Where would he have
taken him?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Liam you have one of those anti-theft devices on your car
don’t you?” Winifred says in a small voice and everyone freezes for a
millisecond.

style='coblacblack'> 

style='color:black'>Liam is on his feet and diving for the phone as Anya sweeps
Winifred up in a tight hug, thanking her over and over for being so clever.
Everyone waits with baited breathe as Liam reports his car as stolen to the
tracking service. He’s hanging up just as Lindsey runs in panting raggedly and
looking like a he crawled the whole way back to the station, slightly unsteady
on his still sobering legs.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“My car’s parked near Zimmer and Russell.” Liam announces
grabbing his coat leadleading the mass exodus from the squad room, catching the
keys that Winifred has tossed to him.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“That’s the warehouse district; we’ll have a lot of ground
to cover.” Lindsey points out and Liam curses heartilyhe rhe realises that he’s
right.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“We’ll have to do a block search, we’ll find the car and
Lorne, Lindsey, Anya, and Winifred and I will each take a direction. Make sure
you all have your phones!” Liam says exploding out into the night and striding
for Winifred’s fortunately very large SUV, sweeping Giles up as he goes and
gently placing him in the front seat. He looks over his shoulder, grateful to
see that Lindsey has swept up the wheelchair and is sliding it straight into
the back and slamming the doors before him and Lorne run for his Firebird.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The others all pile into the SUV and Liam is blasting down
the road before they can all even get their seat belts on. Lindsey honks as the
smaller and faster sports car rockets past them. As Liam pulls the SUV to a
stop, they can see Lorne and Lindsey standing next to Liam’s empty car.
Surprisingly, given the neighbourhood, the car appears untouched. He turns to
look at Giles and Winifred in the back. “If we don’t check in every twenty
minutes, get out of here and call 911.” He orders, he’s pleased to see that
Anya has quietly checked her weapon and has re-holstered it with a sharp nod of
readiness. She’s such a delicately built woman that it’s easy to forget that
she’s also a trained FBI agent and more than comfortable with the thought of
carrying and using a gun. He nods to her and they get out and meet Lorne and
Lindsey, Giles immediately locking the doors after them as Winifred climbs over
the seats to take the driver’s seat.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“It’s been quiet since we got here.” Lindsey says softly,
knowing how far voices can travel among such areas. “We haven’t seen any
movement, but we have to go in suspecting that he may have heard us arrive and
he’ll be expecting us.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I’ve checked the doors I could see.” Lorne motions to the
closest two warehouses. “There’s all locked up tight. I didn’t think it would
be wise to force them until we were ready.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Unless he’s knocked Wil out, I don’t suspect that he could
restrain him and manage to lock the doors after him. Since Wil isn’t answering
his cell phone and Charles taking it from him would surely have alerted him to
trouble, it’s likely that he’s still got it on him. Since he didn’t answer
however, I’m going to guess that he’s managed to knock Wil out or we’d see more
signs of a struggle as Wil’s not one for giving in easily to anything or
anyone. That means all of these buildings could be possible, we’ll each take a
direction and check every warehouse and building in a straight line. G wil will
be our contact point; I want check-ins every twenty minutes. If you find them,
don’t try to take him yourself if there’s a choice. Call in the others, Charles
is unstable and we don’t want to do anything that could set him off. Does
everyone have their cell phones ailesiles’ cell number?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Everyone holds up their phones and Lorne and Anya nod, but
Lindsey shakes his head. Anya grabs his phone and quickly programmes the number
into the memory and points out the relevant keys for Lindsey and hands it back.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Lindsey, you take west. Lorne you go South, Anya you take
East, and I’ll go North.” Liam says tersely. “Let’s
find my Wil.” He growls and strides silently into the night.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Chapter Fifteenstyle='color:black'>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The world is Technicolor pain as consciousness returns in pain-filled
spurts to Wil’s limbs. He keeis eis eyes closed and forces his muscles to
remain limp, the longer he can avoid alerting anyone to the fact that he’s
regained consciousness the better. It will give him time to think and plan a
way out of his predicament. He’s upright, that much he knows, but he’s also
aware that he’s not standing on his own as his legs are buckled underneath him.
He can feel the painful burning of his arm and shoulder muscles and a tight
pinching around his wrists and surmises that som somehow hanging from some
sort of restraints locked around his wrists.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He tries to keep his breathing calm and steady, working his
way through the pain gently, embracing it and letting it wash over him and
through him until the pain breaks like a wave on the shore. He thinks back to
the last thing that he remembers.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>He can observe a dark form partially hidden by the shadows
cast by some tall boxes nearby, leaning against the wall opposite him. He
resists the urge to open his eyes more fully in order to better assess whether
he is looking at a foe or another prisoner. He remains cautious and uses all
his senses to catalogue his surroundings as best he can but even that small bit
of awareness must have been enough to alert his shadowy watcher that he was
coming around. He instantly closes his eyes and makes sure that he stays limp
until he sees what’s going to happen and waits for his best chance to escape.

style='color:bl> 

style='color:black'>He’s barely able to contain the shudder of reaction as a
cold metal traces his cheekbone and he can feel the sharp point of a blade just
lightly tracing over his lips and slowly down over his jaw to his neck. He
fights the urge to tense up and betray that he’s awake, but it takes everything
in him to swallow the instinctual urge to lash out and drive the deadly weapon
away from his vulnerable throat. He is comforted as the blade makes its way
down from his throat but the relief doesn’t last long as he feels a series of
light tugs and hears the soft sound of something hard hitting the floor.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>As the cool night air begins to shiver across his chest, he
realises that the buttons of his shirt are being cut off one by one. The blade
barely kisses his skin as the last button is carefully sent winging its way to
the concrete floor below. The blade returns to trace his arms and within
minutes the tattered remains of his dress shirt is carefully pulled away and
discarded with as much care as his buttons, falling in tattered remnant at his
feet. He can’t stop a shudder of revulsion as he feels the slick sweep of a
tongue slowly up his chest and manages to make it look like he’s only just
coming around, feigning a weak moan and thrashing weakly against his
restraints, surreptiously testing their strength. He lets his eyes slowly blink
open and makes several not completely faked attempts to regain his feet, not realising
how shaky he still was. As he stands and the pressure is taken off his arms and
shoulders his cry of pain is very real in the rush of returning circulation.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Before he can get a look at his captor, he is seized and
suddenly spun around dizzily. His arms twisted cruelly above his head, causing
him to cry out again. To his surprise, a soft whispery litany of comforting
words and gently massaging hands tries to relieve the agony. He shudders as a
lazy sweep of a tongue es tes the tattoo on his shoulder amidst more whispered
comfort that only manages to make him even more upset.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I knew that you were the one. You bear the sign.” The
whispery voice says excitedly. Wil squeezes his eyes shut as his stomach rolls
threatening to disgorge the dinner he enjoyed just a few hours before. He recognises
the voice now and he realises that there are such things as Monsters in the
world, despite all his Mother’s assurances that they were only imaginary. “I
can see why Liam treasures you so William, you are absolutely perfect.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil finds himself spun around again tet tet the rapturous
gaze of Detective Charles Gunn.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I told Father that we would find the one if only we were patient and still, like a spider in its
web.” Charles breathes, bringing up gleaming silver knife to trace the muscles
of Wil’s chest, oh so slowly dipping into every valley and dip. “I knew when
Liam called you a Hero, that you would be the
one, the final portrait in my masterpiece. Father didn’t believe me, no he
wanted us to leave, move far, far away, but I couldn’t leave you, not my
perfect proud soldier.” Charles breathes raggedly as his other hand slides low
across the perfect abs that Adonis could only wish he had.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Char…Charles…what’s going on?” Wil asks
whispers, feigning a confused gullibility, but silently cursing as he’s weaker
than he expected. He suspects that he may be suffering from some sort of
drug as his vision begins to fade in and out in random bursts.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“You are my David, my Pieta, and My Sistine Chapel.”
Charles says with a happy smile and sounding very much like a little boy. “I
searched for years for just the right subjects for my portraits, Father thought
I would never find all of you, but I knew; oh I knew that if I believed you
would come to me. He tried to deny me, to steal my art away, cruel, foolish
Father. He didn’t believe that I had learned his lessons, but I showed him, oh
yes, I showed him. Father’s good little boy, don’t make a sound shhhh, it will
be our secret little Charley boy.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Who…who was your Father Charles?” Wil asks, knowing that
his best bet is to stall for time and hope that someone finds him in time. “What
did your Father do to you, Charles? Did he hurt you?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“ovedoved me, I was a good boy and he loved me.” Charles
says petulantly. “He only hurt me when I defied the teachings, rejected the
holy word of God. Father knows best, yes. I had to show him how well I had
learned my lessons, so I showed him. He wanted to take my art from me, lock
Charley away, he’s been a bad boy, and bad boys must be punished. I couldn’t
go; no I couldn’t, not with my perfect soldier. He was a bad Father, wanted to
take me away, leave my masterpiece unfinished. I’ll finish it, it will be
beautiful.” Charles peeks through his lashes at him shyly. “As beautiful as you
are. Everyone will see and envy me my creation, my masterpiece. No one will
ever look and not see Charley, not anymore. They’ll all see, you’ll help me
make them see won’t you Wil? You’ll show Father once and for all that I am his
good Charley boy won’t you Wil?”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil squeezes his eyes shut tightly and feels a tear scream
its way through his lashes as he mourns for the innocence that must have been
torn and ripped from this man-child so long ago. Whatever was left of his mind
is long gone from this shell of brittle sanity and all encompassing madness.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The knife is back to tracing the skin of his chest, but the
intent is decidedly deadly as the razor sharp edge begins to part the part his
flesh, releasing the crimson benediction of his blood to flow in trickles and
slowly into a stream.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I should have known that you were the one, beautiful Wil.
I heard you call Liam, your Angel; I should have known then that the messenger
had come to deliver you unto me.” Charles reaches around with his free hand to
brush the tattoo on his shoulder. “You bear the mark of His benediction. We
will be immortalised, hung like stars to show the non-believers the true path
to His Glory.” Charles steps away and cuts his shirt away with vicious slashes
that draw blood in several places. “You shall be bone of my bones and flesh of
my flesh. You shall be called man for you are unknown to woman.” Charles chants
as he moves forward, raising the knife high over his head, his eyes black with
madness as he perverts a quote from the Bible.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Wil lashes out, but weakened as he is, there is little
strength behind the kick and Charles keeps advancing and then the knife is
plunging towards his chest as thunder rocks the room with its ponderous echoes.
Wil stares unbelievingly as crimson flowers of blood and tissue bloom on
Charles’ chest and he slowly falls to one knee, the knife skidding away
harmlessly.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Step away from him Charles. Slowly and keep your hands
where I can see them.” Liam orders in a harsh voice as he walks from the
shadows, his gun cradled in rock solid hands and his eyes glinting with a feral
light in the darkened warehouse.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Charles clambers woozily to his feet, rubbing his hand over
the hole in his chest and pulling his hand back to stare at the blood dripping
from it wetly and he actually chuckles. “I am spirit not flesh, I am the
instrument of His will on earth and you will not pervert my will as you did my Father’s foul lie that offends my eyes. I
shall pluck it out!” Charles makes a move to stumble after the knife and
another shot rings out, ripping through his thigh and dropping him in his
tracks.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Don’t make me kill you Charles.” Liam growls, motioning
Charles to move away from Wil. “I don’t want to have to kill you Charles, you’re
sick and you need help.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam cups Wil’s chin and lifts his head until their eyes
meet. “Under this Shield, Wil; vow or no vow, I am still a man of flesh and
bone, your man, and you will always belong to me. That is the only vow that I will never break if it means keeping
you safe Baby. If you’re not with me, safe and loved than nothing else matters.”
Liam leans forward and kisses Wil gently, moaning huskily as he suddenly has a
lap full of love-starved blond energy kissing him like every promise of a
brighter tomorrow is has become the reality of the present.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>The sound of sirens breaks into their private moment and
they reluctantly part with pained groans that have nothing to do with Wil’s
mostly superficial wounds. Liam gets to his feet, easily carrying the slighter
weight of Wil up with him and wrapping an arm around him for support, they
start walking for the nearest doorway. They’re only a few feet away when
Lindsey explodes through it with his gun drawn with Lorne and Anya right on his
heels. They falter as they see Wil’s condition and the crumpled form lying
deathly still across the cold concrete floor.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Do we need an ambulance?” Lorne asks quietly, as Anya
darts forward to slip her shoulders under Wil’s other arm and clings carefully
against his other side, wary of aggravating his wounds.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Not for Charles.” Liam says simply, no emotion in his
voice. “We’ll to to get Wil to the Emergency Room though. None of the cuts
are too serious, but he’s still bleeding.”

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Lorne nods as several uniformed officers pour through
another doorway. “You go take care of Wil; we’ll handle…things…here.” Lorne
suggests with a gentle paternal smile as he steps forward and pats the blond’s
shoulder. “It’s good to have you back safe son.” He says honestly as he pushes
a gawking Lindsey further into the warehouse and away from his fascination with
a half naked Wil and follows after him barking orders.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Liam looks down at Wil and Anya. “Let’s go take care of Wil
and go home, I suddenly feel like I’m over two hundred years old.” Liam says
with a weary sigh.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“Is that all? I feel at least eight or nine hundred.” Anya
says with a brittle laugh.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“I only feel like a hundred and thirty, still the baby,
gotta love me.” Wil quips weakly, practically hanging limply in their hold, the
last remains of his strength beginning to falter.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>“So we do my Lad, so we do.” Liam says softly, looking down
at Wil with pride glowing in his eyes. “Let’s get our boy to the Doctor and
then I vote we go home and sleep for a month.”an>

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'>Anya and Wil agree whole-heartedly and the three friends
make their way out into the gathering night and the warmth of waiting friends.
The monsters have been put to rest for one night at least and the City of style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Angelsstyle='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> can
dream sweetly once more.

style='color:black'> 

style='color:black'> 

Well FINALLY reached the end of
this EPIC tale guys and gals but tune in for the further adventures in this
series which will be sure to follow. Special thanks going out to Salustra and
Pet for their assistance with several of the characters and for their
invaluable help with some of thosee che characters dialogue sequences. And for
GF, I some very special thanks to give for being one of the inspirations for
this story, Have a very happy first Birthday to Forging_Ghost.

Sincerely,

Buff/Jinxi