[CSI AU]

"I took away the one person she ever loved, so she's going to do the same thing to me."

     -Gil Grissom

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The sound of a car breaking to a stop.

The jingle of the keys being taken out.

The flask being opened, taken a swig out of.

The cocking of a gun.

The disguise of the night.

The door being kicked down.

The woman inside being put at gun-point.

The woman with the gun, crying and yelling.

The police cars wailing outside, looking for the CSI inside.

The supervisor coming out, saving his fellow CSI from insanity.

"I'm not a child, you know?" Aphmau said, huffing in Garroth's car. She had a pout on her face, hugging her arms to her body tightly. Her facial expression gave quite the signs of irritation. Garroth noticed the pulled back hair that Aphmau had as if she was someone who was uptight and not free willed. Maybe she did that because she had went off trying to find Lucinda without anyone else with her.

"No, you definitely are not a child," Garroth replied, hands planted firmly on the steering wheel. The speedometer showed he was doing 40 miles per hour almost as if he was waiting to enjoy the sunset. The sun peeked at the mountains sending orange and yellow waves of color outwards illuminating the two CSIs. "You are more like a rebellious teenager who needs an intervention."

"Yeah, the nice little break in with the rest of PDPD was a very grand intervention," she replied ever so sarcastically. Her arms loosened from her chest with one of her hands moving to her now empty holster. "Look, I'm sorry. I let my anger control me and drive me to go ahead and bust into Lucinda's house."

"The door you broke is coming out of your paycheck."

Aphmau rested her elbow on the inside car side handle. Her cheek rested on her open palm, still pouting as she was embracing her rebellious teenager role. It was like she was 16 all over again. "The police department does it all the time. It doesn't come out their paychecks now does it? Do I need to say aggressively, 'PDPD OPEN UP!' for it to be acceptable?"

"Haha," Garroth said flatly as he hit the brakes in his car to make a smooth stop at the stop light. As smooth as the stop was, they couldn't help but feel the car lunge back a little to stop. The empty roads provided no view of traffic making the duo just stare at the buildings highlighted by the sunset.

It was a quiet scene. Something that would make you appreciate the gentle nature of the city when the city wasn't turned on. Well, until Garroth heard something being twisted open. He turned to Aphmau who was taking a quick shot of alcohol. He had remembered Katelyn saying that Aphmau never drank even if the situation went bad, completely straight-edge.

"You know, Katelyn told me that you don't drink," Garroth said, motioning to the silver flask in Aphmau's hand. She gave him a look and fastened the cap back onto the flask. Her hands moved to under her jacket, tucking the flask away.

"I don't," she muttered, knowing Garroth would probably make a smug comment about it especially after the stunt she had just pulled. "I just--"

"Needed something to take the pain away and become numb?" Garroth faced her resulting in eye contact with one another. His blue eyes matched her brown ones if only for a second in which she showed any sign of vulnerability. "I get it. Maybe that's what made you have such an adrenaline rush; the alcohol. That's why you put her at gun-point breaking down."

The light turned green, making Garroth loose the eye contact with her. He stepped on the pedal, accelerating the car. The road was now a blur at the speed of the car. Aphmau tapped her foot ever so rapidly against the carpet of Garroth's car. She was trying to stop the tears from coming down by distracting herself. Yet, in a cracked voice, she spoke, "Do you know what it feels like knowing that a person in a case you did, the one you felt sorry for, was copulating with your supposed faithful partner? Then...then...she may have--"

"I'm taking you back to the Crime Lab, Emmalyn apparently found another voice on the 911 call and needs you to identify it. She called me before I was informed of your sudden departure from Laurance. Will you be ok--"

"Yeah, I'm okay," Aphmau said, still looking at the window not paying any attention to Garroth. She was still looking at the scenery as if she hadn't traveled this route million of times. The place she was at was full of crime which met she knew this road like the back of her hand. "Whatever helps."

"Don't worry, you'll be with me for the rest the shift. You're not going off on a suspect then I'll hand you over to Katelyn. She requested to take you home so that's what going to happen. She probably would've wanted to pick you up too but she and Travis were still analyzing what they found at your house."

"You sound like we're going on a date," Aphmau joked, trying for a smile to block against the incoming tears. "You know, my husband JUST died so I don't find it appropriate at this moment..."

A blush erupted onto Garroth's face, spreading against the center of his face to the tips of his ears. "T-t-that's not w-what I m-meant."

Aphmau faced Garroth, laughing at his flushed face. "I know it isn't, you doof....Thanks."

"Thanks for what?" Garroth said, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"For saving me from my own mess."

"Garroth!" Emmalyn exclaimed, papers going everywhere as Garroth and Aphmau came into her 'office' in the lab. It was a corner tucked away among the midst of people on microscopes and petri dishes. The papers floated around her as her purple eyes were still as wide as saucers.

"Hi, Emmalyn," Garroth gave a small wave, something the other blonde in the room appreciated. It made her feel a little more comfortable. The sense of familiarity really helped calmed the scientist's nerves. "What do you have for us?"

Emmalyn collected her papers from off the floor, heading over to her computer which had audio files on it. She settled down, placing the papers right next to her. The woman pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she typed away on the computer.

"Okay, so, I got the 911 call in which Aaron called in. Laurance is working on a timeline for it since this seems like such a crucial part in figuring out what happened. Also, I must commend Aphmau," Emmalyn said as she grabbed the mouse, deleting tracks off the call to isolate voices, "You taught your husband police code."

Aphmau looked down at the floor as if it was a sensitive subject, her feet shuffling uncomfortably. Garroth noticed but as he was about to console her, Emmalyn had started the call. It was a deep voice, obviously male and obviously in distress.

"There's a 413, I repeat a 413, on the house of the corner Elm and Lord Street," he whispered into the phone aggressively while stuff was being clattered in the background. There was a cocking of a gun. "It's a woman calling out for my wife, CSI Falconclaw. I have a feeling that this is going to turn into a 420...." The audio paused for a moment as if footsteps were getting louder. The woman was now yelling Aaron's name. "Aphmau, India Lima Yankee."

That's when the call stopped.

"India Lima Yankee?" Garroth questioned, almost as if he was surprised. "That's the code we use for identifying VIN numbers on a vehicle. ILY?"

"I love you," Aphmau said out suddenly, making the duo look at her weird but realized tears were streaming down her face. She stood there deadpanned for a moment.  Then she realized her expression. She wiped away the tears, trying for a smile, "It's text speak for I love you. Seriously, do you two have lives outside of work?"

"I personally like to hide away in the Autopsy room when my shift is over and no one's in the room to read," Emmalyn pointed out as if that changed anything. Garroth and Aphmau exchanged looks with one another, sharing an inside joke.

"Yeah, I heard Kenmur liked to do that too," Garroth mumbled, messing with Emmalyn. He hid his sly smile away from her. Emmalyn was blushing furiously, shaking her head and going back to her work.

Emmalyn's fingers grasped at the mouse, trying to take off the overlapping layers from the audio. "Kenmur has a fiancee, so please do not try anything. So, ummm, Aphmau...did Aaron have a lot of lady friends?"

"He didn't have a lot of friends in general," Aphmau muttered to herself, not realizing she had said that aloud. She gave a shy smile. "Aaron liked to keep to himself. His appearance wasn't exactly the friendliest of ones resulting in not really hanging out with friends but it seems like he was hanging out with people in cases..."

"Well, we don't know that for sure," Emmalyn countered, trying for some sort of hope in Aphmau's mind that her husband wasn't an adulterous son of a gun. Aphmau was not buying it, not one bit. She knew better than to get her hopes up. "There's only one woman on the audio track and it's the woman yelling."

"Which doesn't make sense with copulating since apparently Lucinda was in the bedroom from the...ahem...secretions on the bed sheets," Garroth continued.

"Doesn't mean he couldn't have ordered some sort of smut service," Aphmau crossed her arms, "Can we just continue this?"

Emmalyn nodded, deleting the rest of tracks she needed to isolate the female voice on the track. "Okay, now that I've isolated the voice, I really hope you could identify it."

She played the track once more, hearing the same yelling for Aaron but this time with some additional dialogue. "AAAAAAAARROONN! AAAAAAARROONN! CSI FALCONCLAW?! THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ME. I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MRS. FALCONCLAW!"

"Mrs. Falconclaw...?" Garroth wondered aloud. "Sounds like motive. Seems like Aaron had an admirer. What was he, a guitarist for a huge band?"

"He knew how to play guitar," Aphmau said, spacing out. She shook her head, trying to get herself together. "Well, that isn't Lucinda's voice for sure. Her voice is very sultry, this one just sounds plain...sad."

"Well, in a court, that wouldn't pass," Emmalyn said, "I already tested her voice lengths with this one; not a match."

"Then why were her secretions on the bed sheets?"

"If I knew that," Emmalyn muttered, "You would be out of a job. Anyways, Aphmau do you recognize the voice?"

"I think," Aphmau answered, taking the keyboard from Emmalyn. She typed up a website url after she opened another tab from the audio file tracks. Aphmau pressed the enter button, loading up a website for some attorney with a video attached to the home screen. She took the mouse in her hand and clicked on the video.

"Do you need someone to back you up?" The video said with a woman who looked to be in a pant suit, talking about deals. Aphmau stopped the video before it went any further.

"You can extract this, right?" Aphmau asked Emmalyn who answered with a nod. She backed away from the computer and let Emmalyn do her thing. Garroth looked at her, confused on why she did that. "Her name's Lily Donovan. She used to be my attorney, you know, just in case and she was Aaron's ex-girlfriend. Of course, I didn't know that when she was my attorney but I remembered she went psycho when I told her Aaron and I were getting married."

"Motive," Garroth smirked.

"Motive."

"Match," Emmalyn interjected, looking at the audio bits she put together. "I put the words that matched up with each other as a comparison and certain sounds and bam, we have a match."

"Perfect, we have our suspect," Garroth said, looking at Aphmau.

"But do we have all our answers?" Aphmau asked, staring at Garroth. There seemed to be something glittering in her eyes, the spark of hope she once had.

"Do you have all your answers?"

Aphmau stood there for a moment, giving him a questioning look. She looked down and bit her lip. "Actually, I need to go to the bathroom. I need some cold water on my face to just let everything set in."

"Sure," Garroth agreed letting her out of his sight.

It took Aphmau a little bit to realize the person she was looking at was her. Her eyes were puffy and almost swelled up to the size of a grape under her eyes. The puffiness was also a dark color indicating lack of much needed sleep. Her well-kept image she had put on for show was now gone. The droplets of water rolled down her face as she just stared in the mirror ever so helplessly accentuating her sadness.

After being self-deprecating, she closed her compact mirror, putting it back into her purse in her car. She knew she had lied to Garroth about needing to go to the bathroom but honestly she needed this. Her whole career has been surrounded with death that when death hit close to home, she wasn't allowed to emote.

Death was just a puzzle to CSIs, you don't feel when you're putting puzzles together. But, when do the puzzle stop and the reality start? She needed out of that place immediately if only for a second.

Her hands fiddled with the key in the ignition, starting the car on. As the car started up, another sign alike to the cocking of a gun made an appearance too. The minute Aphmau realized it, she froze up feeling the muzzle at the back of her head.

"I know what secret you're keeping. I'm sure your supervisor wouldn't appreciate it since he's so heads over heels for you."

"Can I at least call him once? I need to just tell him something for a case. It's one wacky case and I need it done as soon as possible."

The person behind her thought for a second then agreed. Aphmau took out her phone, finding Garroth's contact. She wanted for him to pick up the call before she spoke, "Hey Garroth, Sierra Oscar Sierra 427. That's all you needed for the case right? Okay, bye!"

She ended the call, dropping the phone. Her hands went to the steering wheel, taking a deep breath of her own for once. "So, where are we going Venom Scythe?"

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A/N - 2467 words of story needed to stop somewhere. CLIFFHANGER CLIFFHANGER CLIFFHANGER. LAST PART IS NEXT WEEK. But I will be writing more of the CSI AU if anyone is interested *shameless self-promo*. Just saying. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed! Buh-bye!

~Kat