Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking

[luckyrabbit]

PART 17

Eve had been quiet during the whole drive to the crime scene, Tracey had known her long enough to know that a quiet Eve was not a good thing. She pulled the car to a stop behind one of the many patrol cars on site and sighed. "You okay?"

"I'm not the one who got shot in the head." Was the hollow reply. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Tracey could tell by Eve's tone of voice that there was no room for argument. While Eve ignored the uniforms, who were busy placing evidence markers around the scene, in favour of going to check out the van, Tracey went to talk Senior Constable Harper, who was in charge for the time being.

"What happened?"

"The boys lost him for a bit," He nodded to a downcast Jack and Evan, who leaning against a tree, well out of anyone's way. "and when they found him again, he was like this."

Tracey raised an eyebrow at his simplistic explanation. There had to be more to it. "And how exactly did they lose him? They had explicit orders to stay on him at all times."

"Uh," Harper scratched his head, he didn't want to be the one to dump the boys in it. "Constable Holden was, um, relieving himself when Wilkins left the house." He admitted.

Tracey cringed, Eve was not going to be happy. Not that she was happy about any of this in the first place. "Don't suppose they got a look at who did this." Harper reluctantly shook his head. "F*cking brilliant." Tracey mumbled under her breath. "Okay, I want photos of the whole area, dust the van for fingerprints and then I want everything, and I mean everything, inside that van, individually bagged and tagged for us to go through later. And I want it done in that order. Clear?"

"Crystal." Harper confirmed, excusing himself to go and relay the orders to his subordinates.

"What do you think? Shotgun?" Eve asked as Tracey approached. Tracey took one look at the gore splattered interior of the van and almost gagged.

"Probably a sawn-off." She agreed, getting her gag reflex under control.

"Do you think he topped himself?" Jack. Tracey didn't know what she found more stupid, the fact that he would even consider approaching them at all or the question he asked. She waited for Eve to rip into him and when she didn't Tracey realized that it would be up to her to pick up the bitchy slack.

"Do you see a gun?"

"No."

"Then unless Wilkins' corpse reanimated itself and tossed it after he shot himself in the head, I think that we can rule out suicide."

"Oh." He looked at Eve who was studiously ignoring him. "Listen, I just want to apologize for…"

"Don’t." Eve growled. "We'll talk about it back at the station. Get Rice and get in our car. Now."

"What about the unmarked…"

"Leave it, one of the others can bring it back."

"God, I thought she would never leave." Belle commented as Amanda exited the Diner, leaving Drew and her all by their lonesome. "I mean, I love mum but she can be little exhausting." She frowned at Drew amused smile. "What?"

"You love Amanda." He teased.

Belle blushed and stared at the table top. "Yeah, well…she's been good to me. And she's really been trying, you know. I guess she's not as bad as I thought she'd be."

"Hey, you don't have to justify it to me. I think that it's cool you've gotten the chance to get close to your mother after all of this time."

"Yeah, it is." Belle said wistfully. She knew how lucky she was, especially compared to Drew, who's mother didn't want him and father had died before he'd gotten a chance to really know him. "Hey, about last night…" She said, eager to get off the topic of family before she stuck her foot in her mouth.

"Yeah look, I'm sorry if I came on too strong…" apologized Drew.

"No. You didn't." Belle interrupted. After their disastrous attempt at a first kiss the night before, both had been reluctant to try again, opting instead to try and finish watching the movie, all the while sneaking covert glances at one another. "I liked…I mean if you wanted to try again, I wouldn't…"

"Yeah?" Drew asked in surprise. "Now?"

Belle laughed and swatted at his arm. "Not here. Awkward much? It has to be a special moment. Romantic."

"Romantic? Taylor, you are such a girl."

Belle opened her mouth to teasingly ask him if he was sure about that when Ric wandered in. Belle bit her lip wondering if she could go through with it, it was the perfect oppourtunity after all, she had to take it. She shifted her seat closer to Drew, until she was practically in his lap and brought a hand up to play with his curly dark hair. "I love your hair, have I ever told you that?"

Drew shifted uncomfortably and gave her a weird look. "Uh, thanks?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Belle saw Ric staring at them, and made an exaggerated show of noticing him. "Ric, hey, I didn't see you there." She smirked, resting her head against Drew's shoulder and intertwining her arm around his. "How's Cassie? I heard what happened."

Ric blinked in surprise, after everything that had happened he would've thought that Belle would be happy, not concerned. "Uh, she's going to be fine. Yeah."

Belle grinned at him while Drew stared, trying to figure out if Ric was trying to make a fashion statement, by wearing his backpack on his chest, or if he was so dumb, he genuinely didn't know it was the wrong way round. "I'm glad, tell her I said hi, okay?" Belle chirped.

"Will do." He tapped his hands against his backpack, watching the way Belle turned her attention back to Drew and looked at him adoringly. "Are you two…?"

"Uh-huh." Belle answered before Drew could say anything. "Were just starting out but we're happy, right babe?"

Drew raised his eyebrows at the pet name but decided to humour her. "Right."

"Well, that's great, I'm happy for you." Ric said sincerely, if it meant that Belle was going to be leaving him and Cassie alone he was freaking ecstatic. Belle's smile flickered, this is not the response she'd planned on getting.

"Thanks." Well, what else was she meant to say?

To say that the car ride back the station was tense would be an understatement. Jack and Rice sat in the back, sulking like naughty children who'd just been roused on by their parents. Tracey drove and kept shooting Eve concerned looks while Eve fumed, keeping her gaze fixed on the passing scenery.

Jack and Rice trailed behind Eve and Tracey as they entered the station, they walked like condemned men about to be sent to the gallows. Rice had briefly considered trying to run but figured that it would be futile.

"Who the hell rostered these two morons on surveillance together?" Eve questioned angrily.

"I did." McGrath came out from around behind the counter and in stood in front of her, arms crossed across his chest. A classic defensive stance.

Eve nodded, gritting her teeth. "Okay, I know that basic math skills don't seem to be required for your job, so let me break this down for you. One idiot plus another idiot does not equal a super smart crime-fighting duo!"

"Hey now, that's not fair."

"Isn't it?" Eve snapped. "Let's talk about fair, is it fair that two years of my work just got completely destroyed because one of your moronic constables couldn't hold it?"

"I guess not." McGrath relented, he knew that they'd screwed up, he couldn't deny that. Eve nodded in satisfaction and turned her attention to the two constables.

"You know, I've come to expect a certain level of incompetence from you people but today..." She paused and shook her head ruefully. "Today you have reached a level of stupidity I didn't even know existed. So congratulations," She gave them a sarcastic thumbs up. "you both get a gold star. You should be very proud of yourselves."

Jack had had enough. "Alright, if your so smart, what would you have done if you were me?"

Eve let out a joyless laugh. "Holden, if I were you, I'd kill myself. I want full reports on my desk by this afternoon." And with that, she turned on her heel and entered her office, slamming the door so hard behind her that it made the windows rattle.

With Eve gone, everyone in the room turned to Tracey, who had been silently observing the whole thing. Whenever Peter had one of his outbursts, she had always been the one smooth it over and soothe anyone's hurt feelings, there was no reason to think that that was going to change.

"What are you looking at?" Tracey frowned. "You completely screwed up today, you deserve everything that you get. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to calm her down. Does anyone have any candy?" Blank looks all around. "Never mind."

"So, you're sure that there's nobody home?" Belle asked, gripping Drew's hand as they walked from the Diner to his uncle's house.

"I'm sure. Leah's at work and Dan is picking up VJ and Ryan from his folks. We'll have the place to ourselves."

"Good." Belle pressed herself up against Drew's side and snuggled against him, breathing in the scent of his aftershave mixed with the leather of his jacket. Drew looked down at her and grimaced.

"I know what you're doing." He said quietly, loosening his grip on her hand and pulling away from her. Startled by his sudden shift in demeanor, Belle stopped in her tracks and frowned at him.

"What do you mean?"

"You think I wouldn't notice after that little display. You're using me to make Ric jealous." Belle looked taken aback but Drew just shook his head sadly. "You know Taylor, you could've just asked me to play along, I would've. I don't get why you had to trick me into thinking that you had feelings for me."

"But I do!" Belle cried, and it was the truth, she could see that now, it was like a big curtain had been torn down from in front of her eyes and she could see clearly for the first time in a long time. "Drew, I'm sorry, if you thought that I was using you but I'm not. Not now at least. Maybe in the beginning, I thought that maybe if I pretended to like you, Ric would get jealous and take me back. I thought that that was what I wanted but it's not. I really do have feelings for you, Drew." She admitted tearfully.

Drew laughed happily. He didn't know if he could trust what she was saying, but he wanted to. He wanted her to like him, like he liked her. "Seriously? But what about Ric?" It wasn't a question he necessarily wanted to hear the answer to, but he had to ask it any way.

Belle sighed and kicked at some loose gravel. "I don't know," She admitted honestly. "When I saw him this morning, I didn't feel anything, you know? To be honest I haven't really felt anything for him for a while."

"So why have been so obsessed with getting him back?"

"Because he was mine and Cassie took him from me." Belle looked up at Drew's unimpressed expression and laughed. "Yeah, I know. Totally lame, right? I may be a little over-possessive."

"I guess that it's better I find this out now." Drew smiled bemusedly. "Now I won't be surprised when you go all bunny boiler down the track whenever you see me innocently talking to some beautiful women."

"Dream on." Belle gave him a small shove. "No beautiful women in there right minds would be caught dead talking to you."

"You're right, I always knew you were nuts, Taylor." Drew laughed as the first drop of rain hit his cheek. He looked up at the cloudy sky. "Looks like rain."

"Thanks for that, Captain States The Obvious." Belle commented, letting out a squeak as the heavy downpour began and pushing herself against Drew chest, his arms automatically went around her. By that time they both looked like drowned rats.

Drew smiled down at her. "This romantic enough for you?"

"It'll do." Belle reached a hand around the back of his head and pulled him down into a kiss. Their first kiss, in the pouring rain, by the side of a dirt road. Belle couldn't have asked for more romantic than that.

Distractedly sneaking a peak at the report she was delivering, Lara knocked on the now open door to Eve's office and entered before receiving a reply. "The report on the fire at the caravan park has come in, I thought you might want to take a look at it."

Eve lifted her head from her hand. "What?" With everything that had happened over the past few days, the small fire had definitely been knocked down the ladder of importance. "Oh, yeah." She grimaced, she really didn't want to have to deal with all of that reading right now. "You know what, why don't you handle this part of the investigation." Eve doubted that anything was going to turn up but she couldn't leave the possibility unexplored.

Lara's eyes widened. "Really?"

"You want to be a detective someday, right?"

"Hell yes."

"Then you need to learn this stuff. Go through the reports, review the witness statements." Eve explained. "If you need any help, ask Tracey and if you come up with anything, you think might be useful, bring to me and we'll all go over it together."

"I…thank you!" Lara practically squealed in excitement. Usually Jack was the one who got to run around pretending to be detective. "Where is Tracey anyway?"

"Oh, she's just getting something from the car."

"Oh, okay, so I'll just go and get started." Lara grinned, backing out of the room. "Right now." Eve nodded in amusement and watched her go, thankful to have at least one halfway intelligent constable on their side.

"You look happy with yourself." Jack observed. He'd been relegated to desk duty for the rest of the day, stuck with the, oh so exciting, task of writing up a report on unpaid parking fines for the month.

"Of course I'm happy, I wasn't the one who got someone killed." Lara knew that she should be more sympathetic, Jack was her friend, but the urge to rub it in about his fall from grace was overwhelming.

Jack glared at her. "You know, you're starting to sound like her."

"So? You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It is. I don't know what she did to get put in charge of an operation like this. Even Peter was a better leader. At least he actually listened to what I had to say."

"You're just jealous because she likes me better." Lara said, sticking her tongue out childishly. "Eve is a great leader." Jack's face was a comical cross between disbelief and anger.

"Seriously?"

Lara nodded seriously. "She's like Gandhi." She sighed admiringly. "But with hair. Really pretty hair."

Jack was so shocked, he almost dropped his papers everywhere. "You have got to be kidding me! The woman is a borderline psychopath at best."

"Keep your voice down." Lara hissed. "These walls are thin, you think she's really in the mood for anymore of your sh*t today? You're damn lucky she can't fire you without McGrath's permission."

Jack rolled his eyes and tossed the now completed report down on his desk, he'd had enough of Lara's taunting. "Whatever. I'm going out on patrol."

"Fine. Try not to get any more suspects killed while you're out there." said Lara spitefully.

Jack clenched his jaw and glared at her before deciding that it just wasn't worth it. He grabbed the keys to the patrol car and headed out the door, wondering if Martha would be available for lunch, he couldn't wait to tell her about the day he'd had.

Fingering the almost full bottle of pills she'd found in Eve's bag, Tracey paused in the doorway to the office when she heard Eve's agitated voice.

"I know, Sir, I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say." Eve was deep in conversation, she was gripping the phone so tightly her knuckles were starting to turn white. "You don't have to do that. I can handle it." Eve groaned and ran a frustrated hand through her hair and Tracey was struck by how tired she looked. "You can't do that, I told you…Yes, Sir. I know. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She slammed the receiver down and swore under her breath.

"Everything okay?" Tracey asked, making her presence known. She handed Eve the file that she'd gone to the car to get.

"Thanks, everything's fine." She said, distractedly flipping through the file, deliberately not letting her hazel eyes meet with Tracey's.

"Really?" Eve could tell from Tracey's tone of voice that she knew something was wrong, to be honest she didn't expect anything less from her lover, it wasn't exactly like she was doing a good job of hiding it.

"Uh-huh." Eve smiled, tossing the file onto the table and getting read to put her mask up.

Tracey peered at her, trying to figure out the best way to approach the issue, and said nothing.

"Hey, check out what I found in Peter's desk," Eve said cheerfully, it was obvious that she was doing it to blow Tracey's concerns off. "A watermelon chupa chup! I haven't had one of these for ages." She unwrapped it and popped the lollipop in her mouth. "I know, it's a little tacky to be stealing a dead man's candy, but it's not like he's going to want it and I don't have anything else to eat." She pulled the lollipop from her mouth and waved it around to punctuate her words. "Well, I suppose I could go and get something but then I'd have to go out there with them and I don't want to have to deal with-"

It was an act, a bad one, that Tracey could see right through. She grabbed the lollipop from Eve's hand and tossed it into the bin. "Stop it."

Eve gasped. "My chupa chup!" She cried forlornly, looking longingly at the bin.

"Jesus Christ! Eve, as amazing as you are, you are not superhuman. So stop trying to act like it!" yelled Tracey, finally losing her cool. "Stop pretending like there's nothing wrong and talk to me." Eve looked like she was going to protest again. "Don't even try it, you can't keep doing this! You haven't been sleeping and you haven't been taking your painkillers and for what? You're becoming just as obsessed with this case as Peter was." Noting Eve's shocked expression, Tracey pulled the bottle of pills from her pocket and slammed them down on the desk. "There are way more in there than there should be, you haven't been taking them, have you?"

"No." Eve sullenly admitted.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I…I need to be alert right now, and the pills make my head all fuzzy and then I can't think. I'm okay without them, I can deal." She shrugged nonchalantly and flinched when pain lanced through her shoulder.

"But you're in pain." Tracey said helplessly, her voice cracking. "Do you really think that it's worth it?" Eve said nothing, she just looked sadly at the top of her desk. "You lied to me about taking them last night, didn't you. I knew that you were hiding something." While Tracey was talking, desperate for a distraction, Eve had gotten up and fished her chupa chup out of the bin, pulling off a post-it that had become attached to it. She wrinkled her nose while plucking off a piece of lint that had also become stuck and dropped it back into the bin, deeming it unsalvageable.

"Just tell me what's really going on." Tracey pleaded.

Eve sighed, she didn't want to have to burden Tracey with this. "I just...I can't afford anymore screw ups, I need a clear head right now. I'm under a lot of pressure here...That was my handler on the phone."

"I gathered that."

"He is not impressed with what happened today."

"Well did you explain about Jack?"

"I tried, he didn’t want to hear it." Eve sighed in resignation. It killed Tracey to see her like that, so hopeless and defeated. "The locals are my responsibility, their mistakes are my mistakes. He said that if I don't start getting results soon, I'll get booted off the case. I can't let that happen, Trace. I need to…maybe you were right when you said that I'm getting too involved."

"No, I wasn't." Tracey said sympathetically. "I was just blowing off steam. I didn't mean it."

"Whether you meant it or not, you were right." Eve grimaced, she wasn't usually one for self-examination, usually because when she really took a long hard look at herself, she didn't like what she saw. "It's kind of scary, you know, how much there was of me in Zoe." She mused, going completely off-topic. "How easy it could be for me to just…"

"Don't." Tracey cut her off, she'd been there before with Eve and had spent the next three hours holding her while she cried. "You couldn't really do those things. I know you," She put a finger against Eve's lips when she tried to talk. "I do. And I know that underneath all the snark and sarcasm and bitchiness, you really do care about people. Zoe didn't and that's how I know that you could never be like her."

Eve licked her lips and looked up at Tracey and looked down again, smiling to herself, a light blush dusting her cheeks. "I thought that we had an unspoken agreement not to get all mushy." She had never been able to take a heartfelt compliment and Tracey knew that.

Tracey smiled indulgently and leaned back against the wall. "We do. I promise, from now on, all mushiness shall be reserved for special occasions."

Eve laughed quietly and then the moment was over, back to reality. "Tracey, all my other leads were dead ends, Wilkins was the one. And now…I don't know what to do."

Next time on Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking: Eve catches a lucky break in the investigation and a face from the past has returned, but are their intentions as hounorable as they'd have people believe?

[Oxidizer]

Aaaw! That was really sweet, I loved the Drew/Belle stuff and Eve becoming all vulnerable and Tracey looking after her. Most awesome work Rabs!

Am I right to believe that Charlie will be in Part 18?

[swfc]

Friggin fantastic, Rabs! Loved the entire chapter. Heeeheeee. I totally cracked up when she lashed out at Jack! That totally made my day! I loved how we finally got to see the vulnerable side of Eve and Tracey being the strong one. She totally wears the pants!

Update soon!

P/S: Andy, I bet you're a happy chap over the Drew and Belle scene.

[Oxidizer]

P/S: Andy, I bet you're a happy chap over the Drew and Belle scene.

Damn right I am! And if this new person who's coming in the next part is Charlie, then f*ck! I'm in heaven.

[luckyrabbit]

Am I right to believe that Charlie will be in Part 18?

You would be correct.

I loved how we finally got to see the vulnerable side of Eve and Tracey being the strong one. She totally wears the pants!

She so does. We're going to start seeing a little more of the vulnerable, sensitive side of Eve now . Isn't character development fun?

[Oxidizer]

SQUEEEEEEE! I can't wait! The next part is so gonna be my favourite!!

[swfc]

Character development, especially if it involves Eve and Tracey is

Like Andy, I cannot wait for the next part!

[Oxidizer]

I'm having SACIT withdrawals.

[Cerise]

Hey!

Ive just sstarted reading this Fanfic, cus i read Girl Next Door and The drugs dont work and i couldnt stop myself reading another part of youre Fantastic work!

I love this, the way Zoe and Tracey arnt 'evil' and i especially love the scenes with Zoe and Jack

The only thing that bothers me is Lucas dieing :crying: But better than Zoe dieing...and atleast Macca's down Love it, keep me posted

[Oxidizer]

Any plans for an update or teasers?