Jett was seated at his desk, searching through all police files he could easily get to about the V issues. He may have been curious about the real goings on behind the incident that landed him in the hospital, but he wasn't crazy enough to go searching through guarded files on a specific case that he technically wasn't assigned to. Still on light duty, he was putting reports on incidents into the computer and so no one really gave him a second glance for interacting with these files while at his desk. He had finished what he had to enter, but the paperwork still sat on his desk as he looked around. It had gotten late in the time he spent looking through the files. Finally, a call came in.
"Black, I want you to head down towards the river, there's a few dead and I want you to head up the investigation on the scene till Kent and Delassixe can get there."
Jett nodded, and gathered the files on his desk, before turning them back in to evidence, where they would be held. All the data was in the computer now, so it was no worry. He grabbed his keys, and headed on over to the location he was given.
Other police were already on the scene, the area was taped off, and forensics were already at their job. Jett wandered the house a bit, till he came upon the bedroom. There, in the bedroom, a woman and two kids, one boy and one girl, lay in a heap in the corner of the room. Broken glass and blood littered the floor, and near the bed, was a single vial, empty of any contents except a bit of residue leftover from it's former contents. He picked up the vial, and took a little sniff of it. It smelled like blood. Was it theirs? Or was this another case involving V? He pulled a little plastic bag from his jacket pocket, and stuffed the vial in it, before stuffing that into the pocket on the other side of his jacket. He'd wander the bedroom, and look around. There was a photo beside the bed, of the whole family. Three bodies on the floor, four people in the picture. Where was the husband and father of this family? Jett wandered out of the bedroom, and looked around the rest of the house. In the process he bumped into other cops.
"Hey, was the husband/father's body found somewhere else on the property?" He asked as he watched the others do their jobs.
"No, actually. Right now, he's one of the suspects. We have no idea where he is."
Jett hummed in contemplation of that, but at the same time felt a twitch of anger. His brow twitched as he suppressed the feeling, and he walked back to the bedroom. He'd kneel over the bodies of the three in the bedroom, and inspect their wounds. He'd slip a plastic glove on, and tilt the mother's head, glancing at her neck and collarbone, and even slid his hand along her body to see if there were any signs of broken bones or anything else of the like to suggest a struggle or brutal killing. The kids had a few wounds that suggested they were beaten, perhaps with a heavy object. The mother however, he was not able to find the cause of her death. To make sure he wasn't going crazy, he pressed his first two fingers to her neck. She was definitely dead, no pulse. He'd tilt his head back, and shout over his shoulder.
"Were any of you able to decipher the cause of the mother's death?"
He was holding back more anger, as through investigating this, he kept thinking about a father doing this to his own family. His own memories were ripe in his mind, and he was sure they always would be. However, as he thought of the possibility of a husband and father doing this to his own family, he thought back on his own experiences with his own father.
"The fuck....." the words streamed out in a whispered rush of shock when Natalie stepped up to the crime scene. She caught enough of the conversation on her way in to know that it was a family, mother and children, with the father MIA. Snapping on the latex gloves, pushing back the thick dark hair, she lowered to a squat to study the scene. Dark burnt cinnamon eyes moved over each body in turn, her face a blank mask, absorbing the details.
Their faces were hidden for the most part behind hair and blood, their bodies at awkward angles as only the dead can be, because there's no pain, no muscles resisting. She rose to a stand, eyes searching the crew until she saw Jett. "Hey. Clark's on his way...." She was wearing a simple shirt with a wide band of leather around the waist, a pair of worn jeans and heeled sandals, as if she might've been going somewhere out. She couldn't get hold of the babysitter, Jennifer, and rather than bringing Kevin to a crime scene she'd called Caspian to watch him. It wasn't the ideal, but she finally caved.
Seeing this scene made her eyes grow darker, the idea that a father could've been responsible for slaughtering his family was not unheard of, but it made it no less horrific. She wanted to pull out her phone and call the house, see if Kevin was okay, but she knew there'd just be an argument with Cas if she did that, and she was sick of arguing with him. It was better to just work together, and let things settle. Still, there was a small voice whispering in the back of her head that Cas was a tiger. Just how predictable could he be? Walking around the scene, she took in the broken glass, the entire mess before returning to talk to Jett.
"So I heard some of the details on the way in, what have you got so far?" She entwined her fingers together, latex rubbing against latex, and held them in front of her, and old habit of years to keep from touching anything until the forensics scene had completed their duties. While standing there, looking at Jett, she was acutely aware of the family heaped in a corner, and in her mind's eye her brain reconstructed its own images for what happened prior to death. It wasn't seeing a dead body or smelling the scent of decay and blood, it was speculating on the suffering they might have endured prior to the death that incensed and repulsed Natalie.
His eyes were clouded now, as he looked over the mother. Due to his focus on her, and Natalie's arrival and her own words, he didn't hear what the other guys shouted back in response to his question. His own mother was fresh in his mind, yet, he had never known her. She died in childbirth, and so his image of her was always just some pristine woman of perfection. If she had been around, she would have loved him and protected him. The little girl was envisioned as his siter, and the little boy, well .... it was him. And the MIA was his father. It all played out in his mind, though not with the same supernatural spurring and focus of Natalie's gift. It lived out as a dream in his mind. Ticks of anger were pushed back, bottled up within him. A habit he had developed at a very young age. He was weak, and could not handle rebellion, so he quieted himself, and dealt with the pain.
He would rise to his feet, and speaking of pain, a hand moved to the center of the small of his back, before settling back against a wall. Natalie addressed him again. What did he know? All he knew she could probably decipher as well, but he would respond nonetheless. However, his voice would sound distant, and his eyes remained clouded as they were lost in the visions in his mind.
"I can't decipher the cause of the mother's death, but the kids have wounds on their heads, and bloody objects on the floor suggest they were beaten. But the mother..." He trailed off. Maybe his own imagery in his head was hindering seeing something obvious, he wasn't sure. Right now, he was trying his best to keep a hold on the anger.
However, in that state, his anger flashed back and forth between scenes of how he looked at the current scene, and his own predicaments. His own troubles with his own father, and of course, that day when his anger took control of his body and his magic, and brought about him killing his own father and brothers.
Clark entered the scene with a smile on his face and already a pair of latex gloves on his hands. " I feel as though I'm constantly chasing you to these things here Nat." Clark said without much of his usual mirth, in fact there might even have been a little frustration in his voice. this was the second time he'd gotten the call that there was a crime scene after natalie was already on her way to. But that all vanished when he saw the scene before him. "Holy shit..."
Blue eyes lifted to the other detective. he entered just as the man was giving his report to Natalie. eyes scanned the room. there was some broken glass,and the bodies. Eyes went to the floor next. couching down over a lanp post covered with blood."Why where Natalie and I called in on this one? is it related to the V murders from a few weeks back?"
he touched a gloved finers to the lamp post, V was often coagulated in its recriational form. and depending on how fresh the bodies where, it could have been V. tapping his index finger and thumb together to check consistancy he rose and took a deep breath, looking to the pile of bodies in the room.
"Hey Nat, I'm goin in." She knew what the Psychometic meant by that. a blodied glove was removed from the hand, and the detective stepped closer to the mothers body, with any luck she would have gone first. and wouldnt have seen her children die. carefully he pressed a finger to an unblodied spot on the bothers cheek. closing his eyes and bracing himself for the images to come.
(As this is your party Ken, I'll leave it up to you, as to what Clark sees there.)
Natalie removed her gloves when Clark arrived. She'd picked up impressions, flashes, and scenes from Jett's mind. There was pain, loneliness, the human condition. Having turned from Jett to let him deal with his issues, after meeting his eyes briefly, she nodded to Clark. The distant look from Jett, the flat voice, all recognizable in their line of work, especially if you brought a life time of trauma to the table prior to the job. And who didn't? From the looks of Clark, he was no better off. Not quite his peppy self today. Must be going around.
She snapped the gloves and tossed them aside, nodding when Clark said he was going in. She folded her arms and watched Clark as he did his mojo. Sometimes it got violent for him, sometimes it was painful, but whatever it was today, Nat would be there for him. He was her partner, that's just how it rolled.
She glanced to Jett, burnt cinnamon eyes ensuring he was at least functional, then back to Clark. She was in no hurry, though once it was all said and done, she had no intention of hanging around. This entire V controversy was starting to take a very sour turn. She needed a few hours break, a place to breathe without talking to anyone. She needed to watch her son play, feel the life radiating from his small form.
And that's what she was going to do, just as soon as this situation came to its natural conclusion.
The family was close. The kids were always joyous and well behaved. They had many friends in the neighborhood. The father worked a 9-5 job as a lawyer and the mother was your stay-at-home type, always keeping t he place tidy, watching the kids when they were not in school or with friends, and doing the shopping and cleaning. A typical american home, if you thought about one years ago. Kids had excellent grades in school, and always finished their homework. The daughter wanted to be a school teacher when she grew up, and the son wanted to be a cowboy. The mother encouraged her son to be whatever he wanted to be, regardless.
The father had a few successful cases, and got a raise and a promotion, as he landed a big mobster in jail after a lengthy process of finding sufficient evidence to incriminate him. They celebrated, and went out to dinner. On this night, a man approached them, and issued a warning. A warning to not interfere with the family business. The father was not frightened, and promised that they would soon be reunited with their imprisoned friend.
The imprisoned mobster was James Marcone, high up in the chain. He wasn't the Don, but he was one of the Don's personal guards. On this night, they were visited by another; John Cipriani. He was not the one who had threatened them in the restaurant, instead he was that person's chief, his Capo. With him, he brought several vials, filled with red liquid. His subordinates held the father down, and made him watch as he injected this red liquid into his wife, and then into him as well. Both husband and wife reacted to the heavy dosage of V, and argued amongst themselves on trivial matters. In their argument they picked up items in their bedroom, and went at each other. The children wailed with tears, and ran to them to try and stop them, and in the tussle of bodies, the items hit the kids in their heads, and knocked them over. The mother looked at her kids, and the horror of what they had done pierced the veil of the drugged haze enough for her to start crying as well. Suddenly, she began foaming at the mouth, and she fell over with her kids, and convulsed. The husband's haze hadn't lifted though, and he lifted up his own 'weapon' to resume what had been interrupted. Instead, Cipriani delivered a blow over the man's head, dislodging his weapon from his hand. The subordinates carried him outside. The mother's eyes slipped closed, as she stopped convulsing. She would pass out as the man began cleaning the frothed V from her face.
- - - - - -
Jett was still leaned up against that wall, playing out his own version of the scene in his head still. As he leaned there, his eyes were distant, though suddenly they'd go clear again, but would appear darker then they had. A green color piercing out from the veil of brown hair. His lips moved, but his voice was soft, and whispered. If one strained and focused, they might discern what he said. Given Natalie's proximity, that might be the case, but that all depended on how closely she watched Clark in case he needed her help as well.
"You're pathetic Jett... After all this time, I thought you'd toughen up some. But it seems I have to watch over your ass still..."
His head turned to the side, and he grumbled out.
"I never asked for your protection."
"Shut up, you'd be dead many times over if it weren't for me."
"Leave me alone, would you?"
"Sorry, not happening. You need me. Till I can smack into your head what you need to get serious."
Jett lifted a hand to his face, gripping around one side of his face, as if what he spoke to were in some way within his body, and he could just rip it out and throw it away like trash. With closed eyes, he'd groan out as if he were physically trying to do exactly that.
Clark snapped his hand back as if he had been burnt and he jumped back as if the bodies where made of snakes and he where Indiana Jones. His eyes where slammed shut and he turned away, stalking from the corner and leaning back against the wall, both hands on his face while his body physically shook.
The images flooded his mind, right on the forefront. it was like trying to watch eight things on TV using eight picture in pictures. all at once, with all of their volume blaring. of course it was the last few minutes that interested him the most, while he shook, he tried to piece together the bits he could see. his breath was ragged while he tried. his head absolutely splitting with the effort.
It took a solid few minutes before Clark finally opened his eyes again, peering out from behind his fingers for a moment. his breathing slowing then, and the shakes where subsiding, but he seemed to still have a nervous tick. And when the man had been able breath deeply and the ticks had stilled be took a slow deep breath, and looked at Natalie. she could read his mind, and he didn't want her seeing what he just saw. he shook his head, and tried his damnedest to think about something random. first baseball,then breasts, and then baseball played by naked woman and their breasts. anything except what had transpired here just now. While he was thinking very loudly about baseball played by naked woman. he was able to get out
"The Father, was carried out by two men... There was a third. and there was V, three vials." he cleared his throat again, using that to push away the thready quality that had been in his voice. and when he spoke again, it was back to his usual tone."You. Black, right? I want those vials of V found. also, make sure that forensics gets prints from all of the doors as well as their knobs." He sounded strong, but his vision had really gotten to him a great deal. Natalie might have been able to see it.
"Clark...shit..." As he shook, she stood there, more of a presence of comfort than any real help, but she wouldn't leave him to recover alone. . "Either that is kypytonite, or it was bad. Real bad..." In those solid few minutes of recovery, she gleaned enough to give her the impression, but there was more, trickling just beyond her reach, a few more seconds...and she would have a complete picture of what Clark saw. Clark shook his head at her, she nodded her back at him. The moment she picked up naked baseball images, she gave Clark a 'really?' look, but kept sifting through the energy coming from his brain. Then the breasts got bigger and so did the balls, there were home runs and lots and lots of cheering. The jumping up and down variety. She rolled her eyes.
The father was missing, and V, of course, once again was involved. It was time to get aggressive on all this V peddling business. It was already more out of hand than it had ever been in the city. Now families were being murdered.....young children.....it was time. From her angle standing there with Clark, she heard Jett mumbling, glanced over her shoulder making the dark hair bounce in a way that Natalie would not have been happy about. Girlie stuff, not her thing. She watched Jett with a speculative look, then she turned back to Clark. Oookay, that was strange. Jett may have suffered more in that warehouse fiasco than any realized.
"No, Jett needs to be examined, get the medics here, and get him to the hospital." She looked back over her shoulder at Jett, "Don't be arguin' either, you need to be seen..." All they needed was a cop having episodes during an investigation. She heard some of this thoughts, knew that a lot of them were related to father issues. Mother issues, father issues, it was the reason most everyone was screwed up. And people wondered why she was so overprotective and obsessive about Kevin? Yeesh!
"Ok, when forensics is done we can follow up on more..." Not much of one to hang around a crime scene for hours upon hours, Natalie gave an upnod to Jett, then guided Clark out so she could make sure he got home, hydrated and rested.
"Seen for what?!" He blurted out, as he pushed away from the wall, gripping at his face still. After a moment, he would grummble out a bit of anger, and would eventually drop his hand. "I don't need to see a doctor. I came to investigate, I wasn't involved in what happened here."
Jett slipped out of the room, through the hall and out the door. He was only supposed to hold things together till the two of them got there anyway. Why he hung around he wasn't sure, but he didn't need to be there anymore. On his way out, he would stop suddenly.
"Oh yea..." He pulled the baggie out of his pocket and handed it to forensics. "There's two others in there." With that done, he was back on his way out of the home. Once outside though, he didn't head for his car, he looked around, quietly. He needed someplace secure to blow off some .... steam. He could feel those ticks getting harder to contain.
" It's always kryptonite " he said, with a nod and a deep breath. "I guess I sort of am superman in that way." he gave her a a smile then. seeming to have gotten some of his lightheartedness back. how else where you supposed to deal with what he saw. he accepted Natalie's support as they made their way outside. to her look of 'really?' he gave her his usual grin. " Hey, how else am I supposed to keep my secrets... It was almost you, but i thought sports would be more likely to keep you from attacking me." he gave her another grin. it was good to change the subject, get his mind off of the visions. But when the officer walked out without leave to go Clark and then stopped to take evidence out of his pocket his jaw dropped. and he looked over at his partner."Wait a second. did that rookie not only just walk away from us, but also take evidence out of his pocket?"
He was absolutely shocked. you did not take anything from a crime scene, ever. he opened his mouth to stop the boy, his just closed his eyes and shook his head, suddenly weary again. "That boy is going to catch some serious flak once that lab boy in there files his report" he looked up at Natalie again and smiled."How would you like to take New Orleans' most eligible bachelor home with you?" Odds are he'd crash as soon as he got in the car. he really couldn't drive at the moment, in an hour or so, when his vision was his own again though, he'd be gravy.
