The Beginning of the End (Zombie RP) discussion

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The air in the parking lot below the police department smelled of cleaning products, and a hint of gasoline. The only few sounds that had been made this morning was the slight screech of tires on the epoxy coated floor of the garage. One of them had been made by Adam's vehicle, a 2010 Camry, black, used and in need of some repairs. Adam sat in the vehicle for just a few seconds, grabbing his bag filled with case files and attatching his gun to the holster on his hip. The car door closed with a loud thud, and with a press of the controls on his key the car locked itself with an alarm.

Adam swung the bag's long strap over his right shoulder and began walking to the steps that were directly next to a line of police cars. Suddenly Adam stopped, he heard footsteps, and looked back to see who had come into work at the same time. However, the parking garage remained empty, besides the few scattered cars, all was silent. As Adam scanned the space, his right hand slowly went to rest on the hilt of his gun, what was this feeling that he had? Was it due to the constant reading he had done last night of the pending murder case, with a man stabbing his victims to death? Was it just Adam's mind playing tricks and he had only heard his own footsteps? He breathed out heavily, noticing that he had been holding his breath the entire time and continued to walk back to the stairs. As soon as he started walking he heard the distant footsteps again, definately not just the sound of his own. He pulled out his gun, turned around and aimed it at the direction of the sound. His tense body immediately relaxed at the sight of the person before him, relieved to find that it was someone he knew very well. He offered an apologetic smile and put his gun away, "Sorry, I dont know what has come over me this morning...it's that damn murder case," he said, trying to validate the reason for his strange behavior.

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The drive to work that morning had been particularly arduous, three rows of temporary traffic lights and a diversion through downtown Seattle meant that Kate arrived at the station more than a little flustered. She’d parked in her usual spot and taken a moment to check her appearance in the rear-view mirror, fluffing up her hair and sweeping a stray fleck of mascara from beneath her eyes. Beside her - on the passenger seat - were a neat pile of case folders, held in place by a precariously balanced drinks holder and four steaming cups of coffee. Kate switched off the radio and gathered up her belongings, holstering her gun and slinging her rucksack over her shoulder. Coffees in one hand, cases in the other she took a slow amble across the parking lot.

The sound of footsteps caught her attention as she slipped between the parked cars, and Kate quickly spied Mueller by the exit. After years of working alongside each other, Kate could spot Adam a mile off - the shock of dark hair, his familiar walk - easily distinguishable. She clutched the cases close to her chest and picked up the pace, hoping to reach him before the door closed and she had to buzz herself in. Kate didn’t much fancy searching through her purse for her ID badge, it was definitely in there somewhe- Gun! Kate sprang back as she found herself facing the barrel of Mueller’s firearm.

“Woah there Mueller! Little jumpy this morning are we?” Kate exclaimed, somehow managing to keep both the coffee and the cases in her grasp. She watched, brows raised as he put the gun away and listened to his explanation, it was reason enough. “Gets to the best of us,” Kate muttered, before thrusting the cup holder out towards him, “Here, coffee - you clearly need it.”

She ducked through the door after him, and was already discussing the case before they reached the office, “Alex paged me this morning,” Kate said, huffing as she reached the top of the stairs, “They pulled a body out of Elliot Bay around six am, female victim, multiple stab wounds - it fits the M.O for our guy,” Kate paused and reshuffled the cases she was holding, “Forensics should be done by ten so we should probably head down after the briefing.” She gave him a grim smile as they pushed through the doors and into the station. Inside there was already a hive of activity, people queued up by the reception window and officers gathering perps for processing. “Anyway,” Kate said, changing the subject, “How was your weekend?”

The coffee was a warm welcome in this drafty early morning. The air conditioning and black jacket that Adam wore did little to hide the chilling affects of the weather outside. He sipped the coffee slowly, taking precaution not to burn himself and mentally thanked Kate for the regular morning drinks she had brought in over the years. He was relieved it had been Kate who had witnessed his moment of uneasiness. The topic would be dropped, the moment passed, and Kate understood him, this was like how it always was, a level of communication between the two that never had to be spoken outload.

As Kate spoke, Adam shuffled through his memory of all the files he had been looking over, the pictures, the scattered evidence, and the detailed reports. "Ah yes, the briefing, forensics, and not to mention our own reports that need to be submitted by four this afternoon. Typical day at the office," he joked casually as they entered the main station. Adam weaved his way around the people walking around the office and set his bag on the chair behind his desk and placed the covered coffee in an empty space on the desk. "My weekend was somewhat eventful, I decided to go and buy a new microwave for my kitchen, it suddenly stopped working on me. I ran on Sunday, oh and went to dinner with" Adam paused and smiled to himself before continuing, "an acquaintance." He zipped open the bag as soon as he finished talking and brought out the case files, turned on the monitor on his desk and took another sip of his coffee. "All black, with a hint of caramel, you know just how I like it Kate. How was your weekend, besides the time you looked over the case of course," he added in, somehow feeling she would have spent a good amount of time looking it over.

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The department was already a hive of activity when Kate and Adam breezed through the double doors. Across the office their colleagues were typing away on computers, interviewing witnesses and chatting amongst themselves. Through the window at the back Kate could see their Lieutenant speaking animatedly on the phone. David Garcia had taken over the role less than a month before and had already put some welcome changes in place. Kate liked him and admired his drive, but she was yet to get a read on how her partner felt about their new boss. Leaving the remaining two coffees on the desks of Alex Murtata and their receptionist Jamie, Kate settled down behind her own desk and switched on her computer. It flickered slowly to life displaying a flurry of new emails and a note she'd left last week to remind herself to pick up the dry cleaning.

Her brows shot up at Adam’s mention of a dinner date and Kate leaned around her screen, shooting her partner a quizzical look, “An acquaintance huh? Like those last three were acquaintances…” she grinned at him, and reached for the files at the end of the desk. Their open case was top of pile, and Kate pried the folder open as she started speaking, "My weekend was fairly quiet, I went to the gym, Skyped my sister — and I may have spent just a couple of hours reading up on the case,” She gave him a sheepish look.

It was just like Kate to use her weekend time to carry on working and she knew Adam would take any opportunity to tease her about it. Thankfully his mention of dinner gave her some ammunition. “Come on then Mueller, this dinner, do tell.” A smile danced around her face as she licked her thumb and flipped through the report. Finding the page she was looking for, Kate set it aside and leaned forward on the desk, tucking her hand beneath her chin as she waited for Adam to reveal all of the details from his date. She had to wonder if it was with the same girl he’d been seeing before, though if Kate was being totally honest she did sometimes struggle to keep up.

"It was a nice dinner, I took her, Lisa I mean, to that Shuckers restuarant down on University Drive. I know the manager there well so I was able to get a rooftop table. I can take you there one day if you'd like," Adam finished, with a slightly serious offer toward Kate, although he doubted she'd accept. Despite their close relationship, it never advanced further than a business type partnership, still, Adam was careful to leave out the part that the woman did come back to his house afterwards and stayed the night. He wouldn't be seeing Lisa again though nor did he expect a call, she had only been in town for a few weeks for a couple of seminars for her job.

He noticed that she was hoping he'd talk for the remainder of the time about his date before they went into the briefing but that wouldn't be the case. "You know Kate, if you don't want to go with me to a friendly dinner, I have some friends that I think you'd be interested in," he tried to hide his smile, as he walked over to Kate's desk. As he did, he noticed a paper that was on her desk, it was a memo from their new Lieutenant David Garcia. Adam snatched the paper up and turned it around so he could read it carefully. "I never recieved this memo, wait... he is changing the way we file in our work," Adam held the paper in one hand as he pinched the skin between his eyebrows with the other,"I didnt see anything wrong with the old system," he exclaimed to himself but loud enough for Kate to hear. Adam grew in this department with the old Lieutenant, Dan Burns who unfortunately had to retire, so accomadating with the new and younger Lieutenant was going to take Adam some time. It was more of an emotional attatchment than anything, although Adam never would admit it.

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“If those are the friends that were at your barbecue last summer - then no thank you,” Kate said, tossing the file back on the desk, “I’d rather get a dog, heaven knows it’d be cleaner.” She grinned at him as he walked over, spinning her chair to so they were facing each other as he came to stand by her desk. Kate sipped her coffee, raising a brow as Adam took the memo from her computer - the look on his face said it all. He was still missing Burns and whatever odd hero worship had been going on there. It also seemed the changes were yet to be made known to the rest of the department. “What’s the matter, you’re not jealous are you?” She reached up and snagged the memo out of his hand, briefly scanning it, “What’s wrong with the old system, is well…it’s the fact it’s old,” Kate muttered, sticking the post-it to the edge of her screen. “And you didn’t get the memo because you’re not the one organising the changes, count yourself lucky.” She set her coffee down and was just reaching for a pen when Alex Murtata came through the double doors.

Kate shot her a winning smile as the other girl thanked her for the coffee, “I try,” Kate shrugged in response to her life-saver comment. Alex went to set her things down. “Anyway,” Kate said, twisting in her chair to face her partner once again. The smile on her face was devious, “Was that a subject change back there Mueller? About your acquaintance…Lucy?” she teased, “You going to see her again?” Alex arrived back at Kate’s desk a moment later, just in time to join her in properly grilling Adam. It was all good natured, Kate loved to wind up Adam as much as anyone else on the team. She didn’t give away exactly how interesting she found his love life, and how maybe, just maybe she was a tiny bit affected by every story he told about his various dinner dates and rendevous.

Adam smirked at Kate’s comments toward his friends, there was no denying it so there was no way he could back them up on this one. Adam hardly had any friends, more like drinking buddies he would say, they would meet out on Fridays, drink a couple of beers, each of them talking about their own works, some women, others their own wives and carry on with their day. Adam had a reputation with women, he also had a reputation that he liked to not take things too seriously but above all else, he kept his work first and foremost in his mind. “Jealous, I don’t think so, just know you can run to me for help if need be Kate,” he leaned closer to her as he finished his sentence, his words almost in a whisper. He shot back up when he spotted Alex walking toward their direction. His running at trying to make Kate on edge with different topics had run out, with Alex by her side, he felt like he was up against a steel wall. He tried to recollect the last time he had made Alex laugh at one of his carefree jokes, and the memory never came.

He nodded in Alex’s direction when she came over to join in on their conversation. “Morning Alex.” He felt an uneasy sense creep over his shoulder as Kate brought up the conversation of his short term, no relationship thing he had with Lisa. He gulped, his adam’s apple moving in unison, “You can see right through me can’t you,” he replied to Kate’s remark of trying to escape the subject. “And it wasn’t Lucy, her name was Lisa and to answer your question, no, she took a flight out to Boston this morning.” He had met Lisa in one of the police departments seminars that he attended last week, it was to update them on the rules of the city. “And I know what you’re thinking, where did I meet this one this time, well, she had approached me at last weeks seminar and she needed someone to show her around the department.” He raised his eyebrows in justification, and made his way back to his own desk, hoping to escape the persistent questions. He stopped midway however and turned to Alex, "I heard that your team found a lead in our case, thank you for that. Although, I wish we would have gotten to that psycho before another defenseless person had to die. Have they finished with the forensics yet?"

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Kate watched Adam leave with the slightest smile on her face, he’d retreated fairly quickly when Alex had arrived and the subject of his love life had come creeping back again. She wondered if he’d ever be comfortable talking about such things. Even Kate had to admit though, Lisa definitely sounded like an improvement on the last one. What little information Mueller had let slip indicated that his last relationship or fling hadn’t ended particularly gracefully. Kate finished her coffee and returned her attention to her inbox as the other two lapsed into conversation regarding the case, she half-listened as her eyes scanned the most recent emails. At the top was a reminder for the briefing at nine with the agenda typed up below; a run down on what had happened at Elliot Bay that morning, a timeline of events for the Seattle Stabbings and the department’s plan going forward. Kate flagged it and moved on. Team lunch at 5-Point the following day, Kate clicked tentatively accept. Yearly physical review, click, accept. And there at the bottom a message from Garcia. Great job on the update plan Kate, it’s really coming together. If you’re free this afternoon, I’d like to run through the complete process with you. Can you make two?

She’d just accepted the meeting, when Alex came rolling across the floor plate and stopped by her desk. She clicked off her emails, “Can’t complain,” Kate shrugged, slumping back in her chair. “I like his approach. I mean it’s a big change from what we’re used to, but I think he’ll be good for the department.” She followed Alex’s gaze to where Lieutenant Garcia was poring over case files in his office. In his early forties Garcia was one of the youngest Lieutenant’s to ever grace the Seattle Precinct. He was a hard-worker, with an unbeaten case record and an impressive display of medals. And with slick dark hair and a charming smile, he wasn’t bad to look at either. Kate certainly hadn’t missed the way both Jamie and Mel had leered at him when he first joined the department. Her gaze flicked back to Alex, “How about you? Any tirelessly boring jobs thrown your way?” She was of course talking about the filing system. With her penchant for organising everything from her appointments to her pen holder, Kate was the perfect candidate to sort out the mess that was their critical infrastructure.

"Right, Mel always knows how to hanfle these things," Adam made one last remark before turning returning back to his desk. It was neat to say the least, pens in their cup holder, he didnt have any sticky notes anywhere, he would end up losing them. Instead he put all of his notes eaither in his phone or a notebook that he put away in the first left hand side drawer. His keyboard was placed next to a mouse and regular black mouse pad. There was nothing unique about Adam's desk that would signify it was his, his other co workers had pictures of their family, or even just a special item that was propped up. He repositioned his chair and sat comfortanly in it, adjusting it to his proper level to adjust for his height. This was odd, he never had to adjust it since he was the only who sat in this chair, eaither someone else had been here looking at Adam's information or it was as simple as the lifting mechanism was finally giving out after the constant use. Whatever the reason, Adam didn’t give it a second thought and opened up Microsoft, Google Chrome and a folder he had placed on his desktop that kept the files of his current cases.

He got up a third time and opened the blinds to the window next to his desk. He looked for but a moment at the people and cars passing by, knowing that anyone of those people could be part of a crime or planning on one. Adam wasn't paranoid of the fact that danger could be lurking around every corner, he was more of a realist and knew the truth that people were unpredictable. He began to sit at his desk once again, although he now noticed a glate on his screen from the sun that was coming in, he decided just to deal with it and not get up again. Adam searched through the news websites, one of his favorite pass times and saw articles about wrecks, celebrities, break ins, number of people getting sick with a new virus and finally, articles about the weather. Adam closed the screen and opened up his tecent documents and began to prepare for the meeting and autopsy later that day. All the while, taking a few chances to glance up from his computer screen to see Kate and Alex conversing with each other.

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Kate filed away the folders at the bottom of the pile and kept her attention on the most recent case. Her neat script was present throughout, jotted down in margins or underlining important facts they’d uncovered so far. Some might have considered her pedantic, but it helped Kate to keep her focus, to remember the most important aspects of the investigation. She tucked a loose curl of hair behind her ear, balancing the file against her knee as Alex explained what she’d seen on her most recent case. Kate made a face, “Oh Alex don’t that’s awful,” she replied. But her brows shot up at what came next, “Yeah, flirting over a dead body, I'm sure that will really set the mood," Kate said drily, shooting Alex a wry smile. She returned her attention to the case, trying not to think too hard on that fact that both her co-workers were trying to set her up. Did she look lonely or something? Were they concerned that she was spending too much time on her own? Kate wasn't sure, but she decided to push those thoughts from her mind - no use dwelling on something she wasn't about to change.

"Yeah I spoke to my sister on Saturday, she's in Boston, but people are coming down with flu there too," she shrugged, tapping a quick search into the police database for other related crimes. More shootings, a robbery and two cases of arson, no more stabbings - save the one in the bay. Kate frowned and clicked off the page, "It is cold season," she added, thinking back to the conversation she'd had with Louise, "There's always something going around this time of year." On her screen the calendar appointment for the briefing had popped up, warning her that the meeting was imminent. Around the office, other members of the team and a couple of the DEA guys went shuffling into the meeting room at the end of the hall. Kate locked her screen and gathered up her notepad and the case file from her desk. Casting a quick glance at her partner, she crossed to Mueller's desk and perched on the edge, her dark eyes on his bright blue ones. Leaning forward, she murmured in a low voice, "If I bring up my theory about our killer being a physician, you'll back me up right?" It was a long shot, even for Kate who usually had everything down to the last detail. But there was just something so efficient about the killings, so methodical as if every jab of the knife had been made with the intention of causing maximum damage.

As Adam listened to their conversation he replayed the scene in his head of what Alex had described. He had seen things similar, worse and sometimes a bit less bloody but this was the reality of the work they were in. He mentally agreed with Kate when she told Alex to end her descriptive account of the scene, it was enough to have experienced it once and not over and over again. However, Alex's focus was on homicide, she had been working in that field during the time she was here at this police department. Meanwhile, Kate and Will didn't specialize in any particular area, they were police officers that were given specific cases and that's what they did. The topics ranged from drug raids, runaway away fugitives, car and material theft, as well as murder.

Adam had missed the conversation where Alex was offering a set up between an officer she knew for Kate. He had been reading the news, a virus break out was spreading over the continent, no deaths have been reported but people have come in with fever, stomach pains and some have been vomiting. Adam gulped at the symptoms, he hated getting sick more than anything else. That meant for him to stay home and out of work, two things he didn't like. He was always up and about, and he loved his job, he didn't want to miss a day of it. Despite the hard times, despite the stress that weighed heavily on his shoulders when the case was still left pending, he wouldn't trade the job for anything else.

Out of the corner of his eye, Adam noticed Kate walking closer to him. He glanced down at the clock on his computer monitor and realized it was about time for them to head into the meeting. He looked up Kate, her words expressing a request she must have already known that he would accept. "You know as well as I do that the evidence of a surgical weapon might have been the murder's tool. Don't worry, I will back you up," he said, getting up and bringing along his small stack of papers that held the information on the case.

He passed Kate and Alex and followed the assemblyline of men and women that were filing into the meeting room. One thing he hoped would change under Garcia that the meeting location would be changed. It was overcrowded and too small to fit the amount of people that needed to listen in on the debriefing.

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The briefing seemed to take an eternity to get through, first there was the run through of last weeks cases - what had made it into court, the press and the upcoming trials, the closure of three now completed investigations. It wasn’t helped by the stifling temperature of the room, or the fact that they were all sandwiched in side by side. As usual Kate was seated next to Adam, trying perilously hard not fidget too much or nudge him every time she wrote something down. It wasn’t like this was anything out of the ordinary - week after week they’d be sat here trying to take in whatever Garcia or Mel or Randall from accounts had to say. It usually culminated in Kate writing a huge amount of notes that were later dispersed amongst the team when people realised they probably should have been paying attention. She’d already jotted down some thoughts regarding the press release on their murder case, and scrawled a series of slightly illegible notes on the margin of her notepad. It didn’t matter provided she could still read them.

Next came the lawyers with another dig about policy and ensuring everyone was following the guidelines that had been put in place. By the time it got to Kate’s segment on the file system most of the team had well and truly drifted into the realms of ’not paying attention’ and as such Kate chose to breeze through it pretty quickly. The moment she’d uttered her last word the team were on their feet, and making a sharpish exit through the doors at the back. She filed in next to Adam as they made their escape from the bustling room. “Did the team get bigger or the room smaller?” Kate asked with a wry smile, tucking her notes under her arm as they drifted into the corridor. She was just about to suggest another coffee when Jamie came barrelling down the hallway, several post-it notes clutched in her hands.

“Kate! Adam!” she drew them both aside, out of the way of their passing colleagues, “I just got a call in from patrol, they’ve found another body - pioneer square.” Kate shot Adam a brief look of concern before her brain switched into gear.

“Did you get anything else from patrol?” she asked Jamie. The receptionist who was still struggling to catch her breath nodded, and thrust the notes towards Kate. She took them and quickly scanned the contents - female, multiple stab wound - one potential witness. “A witness! Adam we’ve got ourselves a witness!” Kate exclaimed, “Finally!” She passed the note back to Jamie and turned to her partner, “You want to drive?”

As the meeting came to a close, Adam paid close attention to all the details. He had a good memory and despite being too lazy to write notes down like his partner, he would be able to recall the information if need be. Despite Kate's persuasive demeanor of trying to get him to take better care of important infornation, Adam was never good with handling a lot of paper nor did his memory ever fail him. Adam got up from the chair and stretched, allowing for blood to course through his body at a normal rate, waking him up after sitting for so long. Adam smirked at Kate's comment to the size of the room and was just about to add in to the joke when the receptionist ran up to them.

The sound of an urgent case made Adam's body jump into action, walking quickly over to his desk to pick up his keys. "It will be my pleasure, let's take 55th street, that will be the fastest route to Pioneer square." Adam hustled out of the room, excited and determined to get to the witness and to the scene of the crime. The incident had only happened, possibly within the hour. "We may find him this time Kate, let's keep our eyes open, he couldn't have gotten too far." Adam spoke outloud to his partner as he went down the stairs toward the parking garage, his voice jumping up and down as he quickly descended.

He reached his car, pressing the button on his keys to turn off the alarm. As he sat down he looked over to the passenger seat, noticing a couple crumbs from this morning's breakfast bagel. He dusted them to the floor as Kate opened the door to get in beside him. He knew the rules, however that didn't stop him from breaking one or two of them whenever he felt like he could get away with it. He offered a charming apologetic smile Kate's way before turning the key in the ignition, and driving off toward Pioneer Square.

((See you in the next thread??))