—-    SEE  YA ??

       The morning after several Manhattans was never plain sailing  ---  coffee became life and death instead of a routine preference and one had to rely on the force of a cool shower to shake them to life.  That had been Erin’s morning,  though she’d tactfully evaded the double Paracetamol in fear of a clouded judgement,  TODAY WOULD BE BIG.     Whenever a case involved a child it climbed up the ladder of importance and sat uneasily at the top  ---  cases like this one drew in the press like flies to the remnants of a beer glass in mid-June.  Whilst Erin manned her desk,  crossing off suspects and assembling warrants a suburbanite a few blocks east would be sitting almost identically,  writing for the Chicago Tribune ending at least one of the paragraphs with  ‘ the police have no suspects. ’     Somewhere between phone calls and briefings Erin picked up the perturbed voicemail  ---  Lux,  from Mollies. Yeah, she remembered.  Nimble digits replied with a brief,  yet explanatory text  ( a detective’s special )  –  ‘ 1800. Text me the address. ’     The text was sent just before noon,  about thirty minutes before she arrived at Chicago Med to visit the victim for questioning.

the tired eyes that can’t focus, the bruises that paint his skin, the scars that snake his sore arms could almost insinuate letting his body deteriorate was a priority of bellamy’s. the wear is glaring, but it didn’t reflect the emotional corrosion and turmoil that shook him awake in the middle of the night, plagued his every memory. 

exhausted couldn’t begin to describe the feeling.

          “ before you ask -- “

    she settles in opposite the paramedic, her smile curled into the soft confines of her cheeks. oakley’s gaze is coy, yet the playful glint gives her away. “ yes, i’m SINGLE “ she waggles her left ring finger to prove the lack of commitment, before dropping it to the table. “ no kids, no boyfriend. i have a dog, though. “

    going through the routine, the firefighter knows how these whole things go. all the obvious questions she gets asked at a new firehouse, so she prefers to get them out of the way. “ i’m oakley. it’ll be a pleasure working with you. “

    delicate fingers tress through honeyed locks;     the appendages may be soft, unmarred      – as fit for a woman;     but there are callouses building, blood dirtying the     beds of her fingernails. They have seen death;                   they have caused it.

    but they have also fought it off, time & time again.     they were a woman’s hands, but they did the work                                                                 of a GOD.

    misty eyes travel back to the other,     curious – THOUGHTFUL.

          “ you have been practicing. “     she is most proud of her pupil, but it does not show     outside the pleased tone with which she spoke. it was     hard to read the doctor, thus why many had given up     their attempts to COMPREHEND her -- they treat her like     a mystery, yet she was the epitome of simplicity. others     just did not see it.                   not like lux did.

     There’s a nervous chuckle that leaves his lips at her question, before he lifts his gaze to watch her. She’s not like the other skai people he’s seen in passing, and that on it’s own is enough to spike his curiosity. It's what keeps him up late and what has him up early the next morning, waiting patiently for her to come back to see him. It's nice, to have someone to talk to for once, and he guesses it helps that she’s beautiful, too. “Uh --” His mouth clamps shut when his voice fails him, clearing his throat as he then reaches out instead to place something on the ground in front of his companion. A necklace made of string and a piece of wood he’d carved just for her.. “I-it is to me..”