#@ ilkkawhat

[deerfests]

🎀 for the fic writing ask game?

🎀 how do you decide when something is done?

For me it's kinda a feeling. If I reach my goal and it feels done, so that I can't think of anything else to add to it... then it's done.

Aside from that, there's editing done. Which is just going over everything to fix it. Thankfully, my boyfriend assists me with it because I suck at it.

[witdiseased]

i see my post on executive dysfunction is picking up again, you guys okay out there?

(haha trick question none of us are okay)

[emmaswanned]

10, 12, 14

10. A console and/or handheld you’ve never played but would like to try

i don't own a switch and have never played a game on it! but they look so handy and cute esp for certain games - like i'd love to play breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom but have just never had the chance.

12. A character you particularly like in the game you’re currently playing

i'm currently playing baldur's gate 3 and astarion is my baby 😭 this is sooo predictable of me and i really went into the game thinking he couldn't possibly be as great as everyone said. well he is. as far as video game writing and acting goes.... this is some of the best. i haven't gotten to the end of his storyline yet but i am. just dying to get there.

14. A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons

i did not play a whole lot of games growing up but one of the random ones we did have was final fantasy: crystal chronicles so the opening song from that game always gets me.

[damngoodbabysiitter]

24 and 42 for spotify wrapped songs?

it's wrapped season!! send me a number between 1-100 and i'll give you the corresponding song from my top songs and my favorite lyric from it ✨

24: Dream Girl Evil by Florence + the Machine

"You like me better in your head"

42: labour by Paris Paloma

"I know you're a smart man, and weaponise the false incompetence, it's dominance under a guise"

[ilariyalavorowrites]

Stalking Me, Stalking You (CSI Nick Stokes) Part three

Imagine: You never saw it coming, you never knew he was there until the moment he struck. For months, this individual had stalking you from the shadows, trying to find a way into your life. Never quite able to but in his mind, time was running out and soon enough you would be completely out of reach. This was the moment to act, to ‘rescue’ you and steal you away.

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, kidnapping, hurt but eventual comfort. Suffering, lots of suffering, slow-moving plot, stalking, obsessive behaviour.

Pairings: Nick Stokes x Reader and Reader x OC (one-sided)

Word count: 3,068 words

Universe: CSI

Reader gender: Female

Part three of ten

Tagged: @just-call-me-the-old-hag @horsedragonllama @space-helen @kneelforloki @flopiboni

Previous / Next

Monday, Midnight

Greg and Morgan sat side by side, as Archie worked his magic on the various clips of CCTV. Each of the three larger monitors displayed different parts of a timeline that had been created by the day shift’s visual and audio tech Franklyn. They watched as their friend exited her known and preferred coffee shop with her piping hot beverage alone. This had been the last place that she had seen when Officer Sawyer had taken the barista’s statement.

“This is the only first clip that Dayshift obtained after the warrant for her finances came through” Morgan stated with the matching report in hand. The short clip showed nothing out of the ordinary. There was no one tailing her, no strange car parked with a window partially wound down with the driver trying to look casual as their eyes trailed after her.

“It confirms the Barista’s statement at the very least” Greg replied as his gaze shifted to the second screen. Archie paused the first clip and then slid the cursor to the play the next one.

All of them were teetering on the edge of professionalism. Trying their best to push aside their personal feelings. They needed to try at the very least to view the evidence collected like any other case. It was going to be a long night especially as Greg and Morgan had been the ones assigned to review what was already there for this shift. 

The plan was for hands on deck over the next few shifts, to hand over the new details and brief the incoming day shift at the end of their night then repeat the process with a fresh set of eyes the next night.

“This one isn’t the greatest quality, it’s a wall-mounted camera from one of her neighbours that was discovered by the door-to-door interviews” Archie stated as the pixelated footage started. Both Morgan and Greg noted the timestamp, it had been captured at 2:30 in the afternoon. 

“This camera will only record when the motion detection is triggered as you both know” Archie reminded them as they all watched as a battered, Silver Chevrolet Cruze drove past. It did not match the make and model of the car that the Detective had, which had yet to be located even with the BOLO that had been put out with all the necessary details. It had vanished into thin air.

Notes from the lead CSI Ava Dane stated that none of the neighbours had recognised the car when they had spoken after reviewing the footage. One neighbour had commented that he noticed the vehicle when he had returned from home at around 3:10 but he had heard tyres screeching loudly about twenty-five minutes later and when he looked at the window, it was gone.

There had been a slight skid mark noted and photographed from outside that particular address which had been run through the system and matched commonly used wheels. It had the first dead end.

“Franklyn managed to recover a partial plate after cleaning up the image, I won’t be able to get much more than that due to video quality” The tech apologised, knowing that this was not what the two of them wanted to hear.

“It’s a start at least” Morgan responded, trying to remain positive as she turned to the next report. Her eyes rapidly moved over the data displayed there. “It looks like the day shift ran that plate, there’s a fair few listed but they eliminated half” 

As her eyes drifted down the page, they stopped over one particular name. As memories of the case that she had worked on came flooding back. The Detective had been waiting for her at the scene. 

Vaughn Mikhailov was a two-bit drug dealer, he and his older brother Artem had been targeted and shot at in a drive-by gangbangers after they had tried to move in on the turf of another local dealer. The initial warnings had been ignored by the pair, and this had led to the car being targeted. Vaughn had been in the backseat, he had barely been clipped by a single bullet in his left shoulder but Artem hadn’t been as lucky.

He had died at the scene, bleeding out whilst waiting on the paramedics. Vaughn had been cooperative to a point, but eventually, he just screamed at her friend when she had in his eyes failed to get justice for his brother.

It was not always possible to reach a satisfactory end to every case, it had been one of those which slipped through the crack when the leads had all run cold. Morgan remembered that her friend had noted that this had not been her first rodeo with either of the Mikhailov brothers.

“The first time I met them was when I was working the beat, I arrested Artem for soliciting a working girl and Vaughn for dealing. Both of them had rap sheets as long as your arm. It's their mother, I feel for each time one of them ends up in court”

There had been sympathy that lingered as she listened, as it turned out their mother had raised both the boys single-handedly after their father had run off. She had tried her best but they had been drawn into the fast-paced lifestyle of wheeling and dealing. As she watched, the detective informed the woman of her son’s death.

“What is it, Morgan?” Greg asked, noticing that Morgan had not spoken and became transfixed by one of the reports further in. He leaned, to see what she had been reading. It was the list of cars compiled by the plate search. 

“Vaughn Mikhailov,” She said looking up to meet his gaze. Greg’s gaze narrowed perplexed as he did not recognize the name. However, before he could reply, Morgan beat him to the punch.

“It was a drive-by shooting case, I worked a few weeks back and she was the lead detective assigned work to the case alongside me” She started, knowing that she would need to give him more than that if they were going to start to seriously look at him as a potential suspect.

“He and his older brother were targeted after trying to move into another dealer’s turf. His brother died at the scene. He was far from happy with how things went but he had a chip on his shoulder as she had arrested him more than a few times in the past” Once she had finished speaking, Morgan waited for Greg to process the information that had been dumped upon him.

“So he held her responsible for not finding his brother’s killer then. Greg asked, Morgan nodded before one last comment. “He had an axe to grind”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday, 4 am

With one hand poised, Nick firmly knocked upon Russell’s closed office door. In a roundabout way, he had expected the text summoning him to the supervisor’s office but not this soon. He had hoped that he would be one way approaching Russell but then again, at least this way soon enough everything would be out in the open.

This was not the way that he had hoped that this conversation would be initiated. He knew that she had already started telling her partner and fellow officers about her boyfriend whenever she had a spare few minutes. She had also scheduled a meeting with HR on the day that she was meant to be returning to work. Nick then would approach Russell around the same time as she would have been seated down with HR. Effectively killing two birds with one stone 

This had always been their plan when things became more serious between the two of them. Multiple discussions had arisen, on when, where and how they approach their collective jobs regarding their romantic relationship and the potential impact on both of their jobs that would need to be addressed and solutions put into place.

She had planned to offer to be moved from Graveyard to Swing or Day if no other compromise could be reached. Where it would be possible for both of them both work the same shift pattern without any issues. Departmental policy had previously torn Sara from the team when her relationship with Grissom came to light, they had wondered how it would have played out for them.

Yes, they were still colleagues working alongside another one, but not under the same direct supervisor. They crossed over for Homicide and Forensic evidence collection and investigation came hand in hand. Without one, you couldn’t have the other.

“Come in” Russell’s voice called from behind the door, bringing Nick back of his thoughts as he pushed the handle and then the door inwardly. “Hey Russell…” He greeted the man sitting behind the desk but what he hadn’t expected was Catherine being in the room, standing off to one side behind Russell.

“Shut the door Nick” Russell continued as he went through the motions of crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him and moved further into the office to stand before the pair staring straight at him.

“I know this is about Detective..” Her name rolled off his tongue, one that had fallen on his lips many times before. “Look, I know that I should have told you..” Nick started to try and explain the position that he had found himself in.

“Nick, I need to know that you’ll be able to recuse yourself if you cross that emotional line where you start to lead your heart, not your head. For as long as you can remain objective then you still work on the case but the moment, that you step over that line. I will remove you and you’ll be treated just like every other significant other or next kin on every other case that had past through this department” Russell spoke with a conviction that could not be ignored or overturned. This was a promise that he would not go back on. 

Nick quickly nodded, happily agreeing with his supervisor’s conclusion. “This will have to be logged with HR and I’ll arrange the meeting shortly”  Russell said before turning to Catherine. “Anything you want to add?” He said, pulling her into the dialogue. Catherine had been quietly observing the short back and forth between the pair.

“Nicky, from here on out, we’ll be watching closer. Please understand, that we want to bring her home as much as you do. Still, we have to follow the rules and ensure there nothing can be challenged further down the line” Her words held a warmth that Nick had felt before, the familial love that had developed and grown over the many years that they had worked together. Once again, Catherine was looking after him, all whilst balancing the integrity of the crime lab and their necessary work on top of that. It was a well-practice balancing act that she had perfected over the last decade.

All it took would be one step in the wrong direction and it would come tumbling back down. That could not happen, no it would not help.

------------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday 2 am

As the night rolled by, evidence was processed, reviewed and reported, with the new findings and avenues to venture down next added to the ever-growing list.

The one initially weak lead that had cropped up early in the shift strengthened as prints from the scene which had been set running whilst the sun was still up bore fruit. Morgan’s theory now seemed more plausible as the same name popped up once more, this could not just be a coincidence in the name of bad blood. 

Morgan turned to Greg, still trying to wrap her head around this as there were still too many variables that did not make a lick of sense. She could understand the steps taken to enact some twisted form of payback by breaking into the detective’s home and destroying everything that she might hold dear. There were no signs of a struggle, no blood splatter or trail to imply that they had been lying in wait for her to return.

With the crime scene photos laid out on the table between them, this felt much like the pieces of a puzzle waiting to be put together to reveal the image displayed upon the box when a handful of key tiles were missing, creating holes in the image. “This isn’t the primary scene, there is no indication that she ever came back. Two separate indications with one connecting factor, her” Morgan said, churning over the thoughts in her head out loud as she tried to make any sense of it all.

“What do we know about Vaughn Mikhailov, beyond his last arrest report?” Greg started before listing off what had been discovered thus far “His prints are all over this crime scene, his car matches the mark and model spotted on the neighbour's CCTV but why would a dealer break into a cop’s home in broad daylight?” He posed the question to Morgan, the blonde’s face twisted in confusion as she tried to gather together a logical answer but found none. 

“How did he find her address? That’s what bugs me unless he tailed her previously but according to the neighbour’s statement” Morgan replied, fishing out the relevant document from the box on her side of the table and turning to the right page. “That car had never been caught on camera before that day and those cameras had been up for more than six months”

“The only way that we’ll get satisfactory answers is that Vaughn Mikhailov needs to be found and brought in for questioning” Morgan nodded her head in agreement, the two-bit criminal had a lot to answer for.

“Brass put has BOLO out on Mikailov’s car”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday, 4:30 am

The blinding flash of blue lights and screeching sirens were not out of place as the convoy of vehicles pulled up in front of the homestead. Its chain link fence had seen better days, half still attached to the poles that marked the edge of the property and the rest lost within the depths of the tall grass that desperately needed cutting. 

The property itself was registered to one Nikolai Mikhailov, the cousin of their prime suspect. It was not out of the ordinary for Vaughn to crash on his cousin’s sofa when his mother threw him out for the third time that week. Officers had called the property in the past, more often than not on matters of public nuisance or disturbance. Nikolai loved to party well into the small hours and was not shy about using violence to silence any complaining neighbours if they dared to call the cops on him.

Detective Captain Jim Brass surveyed the scene from behind the cruiser’s side door and soon found what he was looking for. With the garage door half enough, it was plain to see the car parked within, its license plate matching the suspect’s known vehicle of choice. No lights could be seen from the street as Officers tentatively approached the front door, ready to burst through the door and apprehend whoever was on the other side.

With the fury of valkyries leading the charge, the officers breached through the threshold as calls of LVPD came and went as Jim watched them disappear inside. This had to be it, this had to be the end of the road.

He was not the only one listening in, as the Officers inside cleared the scene. The investigated interest ran through from the bottom straight up to the top. She was one of them

‘419’ The code of a dead body came crackling over the airwaves, a dead body had been discovered. A chill rushed through him as he envisioned the very sight of her lying there, with empty, glazed-over eyes staring up at him as he wondered why.

’It’s not her’ The voice of Officer Mitchell soon followed as Jim released the breath that he hadn’t known he was holding back, then again he wasn’t the only one. Nick stood silently by, with bated breath as Morgan and Greg left with kits in hand. This was their scene now as they had been the ones to discover the connections that led to this.

Hodges stood in the doorway, reading the scene before him. The air was still tense as they all waited for the relief to set in but yet that felt too premature. The lab tech cleared his throat to try and catch Nick’s attention. He watched for a moment then tried a different approach.

“Nick, this was left at Reception for you” Hodges called into the room, as he held out the unstamped manila envelope for the other man to take. Nick Stokes was scrawled across the front in a large and unfamiliar hand. 

Nick frowned, he was not awaiting any post as he took it. “Thanks, man,” He said as he turned it over, inspecting it from every angle. There was nothing about the envelope that stood out, it was a standard A3 office stationery that was stocked by countless suppliers but the question arose of who had sent it.

As he carefully opened the sealed flap and reached inside, Nick quickly found the content. A series of photographs which he slid out. Hodges slid up beside him as he turned over the first which revealed little other than what he already knew to be true.

“Is that…” David questioned at the sight of his friends and colleagues locked in a rather passionate embrace. “Yes,” Nick curtly replied, annoyed at the very prospect that they had been followed and their privacy had been invaded like this as he turned over the next one.

It was the last one that drew a shocked gasp from Hodges, as he shook with a rage that he hadn’t felt for some time. The sight of her bound and unconscious in the boot of an unidentifiable vehicle with the words I WIN STOKES, SHE IS MINE written in bold, block capitals across the top of the image.

Each had focused upon her, she was the object of this maddening desire. A tail had been placed as her routine was documented. He held pride of place in a number of the images, whether he liked it or not.

He was taunting him, this was just his opening move.

[ilkkawhat]

babes do you have the video of Me Scratch going ilkka what 😂 I had it saved but I can’t find it and I laugh everytime I see your username

i do! american nightmare "super effective sales pitch." 😂😂 i still get a kick out of it too

[fascinationstreetmp3]

BEFORE / AFTER GIF CHALLENGE!

tagged by @jerichoes <3 my psd saving habits are all over the place and i recently cleaned up my files too so i didn't have a lot to work with :(

tagging (no pressure and if you've already been tagged just ignore me!!!): @danielsarmand @cuntyarmand @pavus @ncthandrake @ilkkawhat (+ you if you're reading this and you wanna do it! especially since i never know who to tag in these fhfdhg)

[fozzieosbourne]

When @ilkkawhat started following me:

((Big fan of your Ilkka Villi posts!! 🫶))

[frozenmemories1987]

WIP TITLE GAME

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

Thanks for the tag @kallisto-k

I have one doc just titled Kinktober but it has multile subtitles:

The Art of Loving You (Spartacus)

Cheating (Spartyacus)

Defenseless (Spartacus)

Play With Fire (Shannara Chronicles)

Elevator (CSI)

Virgin (Spartacus)

And then there's

Brothel AU (Spartacus)

D/A Fuckbuddies (Spartacus)

Tragedy (Spartacus)

First Impressions (ST Discovery)

And the others are buried too deep to even mention them

Tagging the usual suspects, no pressure

@stormkpr, @guggi04, @katiecomma, @obscureenthusiast, @eddiestattoos

@jencsi, @ilkkawhat and everyone who'd like to do this

[room-665]

tag 9 people you want to know better

tagged by @judyalvqrez 💖

last song: Balance Slays the Demon by Old Gods of Asgard. I set it as my phone alarm. Because of that it'll be the first song that plays when I connect my phone/spotify to my car speaker, so I'll usually let it play on repeat if it's a short drive and I don't feel like changing it.

favourite color: BLUE. Mostly soft blues or more towards the blue-green side like teal.

currently reading: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - still 😅 I think I'm about halfway now, but I had to take a break. Really good book, but I keep googling things and taking lots of notes in the margins. I'm going to pick it back up soon tho!

currently watching: Just started Sorjonen (Bordertown) and it's been really good! I also really like detective/crime drama shows. Plus it has Ilkka Villi 😍 I've also been rewatching Psych again.

last movie: Just watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice last night! I really liked it. I think I'm going to rewatch the original movie today. After that I really want to watch Cuckoo.

sweet, spicy or savory: All of them - but if I have to choose then probably savory. I have to be in the right mood to pick sweet over the other two.

relationship status: In a relationship for the past 9.5 years and it somehow doesn't feel like that much time has passed. Time is weird.

current obsession: ALAN WAKE. I played the second game when it first came out, joked to a friend I would probably be obsessed with the game until at least January, now here we are and it's still going strong. I feel like I make new connections to something in the universe every time I replay. I just did a replay of AW1 and almost done with AW2 because my partner wanted to watch me play them.

tea or coffee: BOTH. I can't choose for this one! Coffee in the morning when I need that caffeine boost, green tea or black tea in the afternoon, and chamomile before bed. My parents have some bees too so I use the honey they give me to put in my teas and it's perfeccttt.

the last thing i googled: "tower of babel" I was talking to my partner over lunch about how I am learning some conversational Finnish (so far I can say Excuse me./ Do you speak English? / I speak English./ I am American./ I speak a little Finnish.) Was trying to make a joke about the tower of babel and had to google it to make sure I was remembering it right lol

tagging (with zero pressure!): I feel like most of my mutuals are mutuals with each other lol, so they have maybe been tagged previously. But - @ilkkawhat @variousblarghblanks @emmaswanned @daevguy @lostinthewoodsomewhere @autisticwriterblog @thedogtorwho @thelastdayalive

[deerfests]

first and last!

no excuses writing meme, askbox version

Thank you for the ask! I'm gonna post stuff from my The Quarry WIP since it's currently in the works the most, but I will apologize for the rough state of it. It's still at the grammatical nightmare stage.

FIRST — the first two sentences of my current project

The shot fired, and Travis flinches involuntarily from proximity to where it landed. Between Laura’s rejection to do it at first and him falling on the ground when trying to take the gun from her, he half expected to be shot by her instead.

LAST — the most recently written two sentences of my current project*

It didn’t even begin to even the scales, but he couldn’t help it. He shouldn’t harbor that fucked up part of himself...

*Luckily I was tinkering with it just before, so it's not the ending lines of the prologue which would make it seem confusing.

Again, thank you for the ask! <3

[spillwayyz]

thanks for the tag @kuppikahvia ✨✨

the rules: put your music library on shuffle, then list the first five songs that come up in a poll to let people vote for their favourite!

tagging @thelastdayalive @catiematie @han-themayor @darkslayed @ilkkawhat @ghulehunknown @downback1 (no pressure)

[emmaswanned]

get to know me

tagged by @unseemingowl! thank you! :)

Favorite colors: blues and greens! i used to lean much more towards blue but now i'm very into green, like my whole living room in my new apartment is green.

Last song: you signed up for this by maisie peters!

Currently reading: nothing because i've been really terrible about reading this year but i've been thinking about picking up jonathan strange & mr. norrell by susanna clarke for ages so i might finally do that so i have something to read over the holidays

Currently watching: i've been watching nbc's new sitcom st. denis medical! it's very much in the vein of the office - so much so that it's a bit derivative i suppose but i really think it holds its own in terms of humor. it stars wendi mclendon-covey and allison tolman, who i really like, so i am enjoying it a lot :D

Currently craving: christmas treats, i suppose, because my grandma just sent me her usual holiday box of treats she sends every year so i am eating her roasted pecans and they are sooo good

Coffee or tea: i really don't like either - i literally just drink diet coke for my caffeine fix lol

Hobby to try: every year for the past, idk, three or four years, i have made it my goal to get back into drawing and it just hasn't happened consistently but i swear this time it will lmfao

Current AU: the only AUs in my head rn are about my BG3 game because i just finished astarion's questline the other day - killed cazador and did not let astarion ascend - and all that was beautiful and perfect and made me cry and i can't wait to see how it all plays out at the end of the game. however because i suffer from a burning curiosity i did create a separate save to see what happens when astarion does ascend. and now i have many little plot bunnies about ascended astarion/spawn tav in my head because i'm a sucker for a terrible terrible tragedy.

tagging @ilkkawhat @judyalvqrez and anyone else who hasn't done this one and would like to! :)

[eddiestattoos]

Tagged by @danhalen 💙

Last song: champions by Kurt Hugo Schneider and Andie Case!

Favourite Colour: purple!

Last book: uhhhhh next question please I can not think that hard right now

Last movie: I almost instinctively said everybody wants some but that's a lie! It was windows on the world (last before that was certainly ews. Twice.)

Last show: caught up on the latest ep of ncis before watching that movie!

Sweet/savory/spicy: think I'm gonna have to say savory at the moment. I ate so many sweets this weekend but I also loaded up on chili and. Was absolutely living my best life

Relationship status: daydreamin'

Last thing I googled: the shoppers drug mart flyer (cause we did not get our paper ones due to crap weather this week) btw shoppers please do better with all versions of your flyer they're very difficult to follow

Current obsession: 911 is losing a bit of its pull right now but I'm still very prone to screaming about them so it's still very much there. Also continuously think about everybody wants some so like. Yeah. It's the brand right now

Looking forward to: going to bed! And a time when my foot feels better

Tagging @buckstattoos @queerprincesseddiediaz @aintgonnatakethis @blogquantumreality @lam-ila @donttelltheelff and @ilkkawhat

[ilariyalavorowrites]

Stalking Me, Stalking You (CSI Nick Stokes) Part Five

Imagine: You never saw it coming, you never knew he was there until the moment he struck. For months, this individual had stalking you from the shadows, trying to find a way into your life. Never quite able to but in his mind, time was running out and soon enough you would be completely out of reach. This was the moment to act, to ‘rescue’ you and steal you away.

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, kidnapping, hurt but eventual comfort. Suffering, lots of suffering, slow-moving plot, stalking, obsessive behaviour.

Pairings: Nick Stokes x Reader and Reader x OC (one-sided)

Word count: 2,528 words

Universe: CSI

Reader gender: Female

Part Five of Ten

Tagged: @just-call-me-the-old-hag @horsedragonllama @space-helen @kneelforloki @flopiboni @maddy-villain @ilkkawhat

Previous / Next

Chapter Five 

Countdown: Four Months Remaining

The rattling of keys twisting in the lock was the sound that haunted you throughout this waking nightmare that you could not call living. It alerted you of his imminent presence. 

He was allowing you a few precious moments to prepare for what he might have in store for the day. Every day had been different. Your jailer kept you on your toes, showing his prize for all to see. For that was all you would ever be, his pretty little pet tightly tethered, never able to wander far from his side, always within sight. Most would simply see an overzealous spouse, trying his best to keep his pregnant bride out of harm's way. 

In light of your present condition, you had been trusted to sleep alone, locked in the master bedroom. A panic button had been recently installed to summon him to your side if such a need arose. Yet as the grains of sand slowly fell into your hourglass, it seemed more likely that you would have to push the damn red button.

He hardly mentioned your ever-growing waistline, only in polite company when it inevitably arose in conversation. He played his part beautifully like a doting father-to-be would. His facade of excitement vanished the second that the front door slammed shut, he could hide his thinly veiled expressions from you. His jealousy shone through, each time his eyes fell on your growing bump housing a life that he hadn’t had a hand in the conception of.

It was similarly a tool to use. You shivered at the thought of what he might do when the time came when your waters broke. The fear had been slowly building with each new day. You still had time. You were comfortably within your second trimester, around the five-month mark. Each new day brought with it surprises and a new round of nightmares as new scenarios played out on your inner silver screen as you slept.

Sleep itself was becoming increasingly more difficult, as your little one liked to rest against your bladder, so more often than not you’d have to get up more than a few times throughout the night. Each new development brought on a new degree of heartache, which reminded you of the fact that Nick should have been here for this. As the flutters and kicks grew stronger, the tears flooded like the bursting banks of a rushing river.

It could be easily explained away, hormones and mood swings of an expectant mother. Nothing out of the ordinary as you forced yourself to smile through the sorrow. The first rays of dawn creeping over the horizon shone through the closed drapes, hiding a large bay window that could not be opened, it had been nailed shut before you had been permitted to sleep within these hallowed walls.

The softness of the bed linen outshone any of the countless sheets and duvet covers that you owned, they were truly in a league of their own. Only matched the most luxurious hotel suites that you had found yourselves walking in, met the sight of the worst that humanity could do to one another. Still, such horror seemed a world away when compared to your imprisonment.

Yet the threat of violence was held by the thinnest of threads. You knew from on-the-job experience that one wrong step was all it took, one misplaced word could turn your world on its head. All of this would always, your continued existence was at his pleasure. You needed to continue to play the dutiful spouse and companion to see another sunrise like this one.

It was such a breathtaking sight to behold, watching as the vivid oranges and yellow dance through your fingers as the morning rays passed through the thin, silky curtains separating you from the outside world. Moments like this made you think of Nick, of gently waking to the sight of him still lost in dreams after a long night’s work. In those moments, he looks younger, the hard lines born from the difficult cases fade away in an instant.

You can easily lose yourself in daydreams of him for hours on end, remembering both the good times and the bad.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------You checked the time on your dashboard, as you turned into the hospital’s main car park. 5:45 pm was displayed on the tiny screen, your shift had been over for the last fifteen minutes. You still had plenty of time to spare since you hadn’t made any concrete plans for the night ahead outside of this stop. You could always call up Lexie, one of the few friends that you had made since starting your new job as you knew, she loved to party and dance away.

She was like you, a single woman living alone in the heart of Sin City. Where you differed was that she would easily go a little too wild and over the edge, as she got lost in the music and whoever she happened to be dancing with. She was a wild card but sometimes you needed to cut loose too. To forget the horrors of the day, the varying degrees of twisted minds that used the Vegas strip as their hunting ground.

As you manoeuvred your patrol car into the tiny space far from the entrance your thoughts quickly turned to the handsome CSI who you’d been crushing hard on for some time now easily making you smile. Nick Stokes was way out of your league, of that you were certain.

However, such thoughts would have to wait. You needed to check in with Lydia. You had promised her that you would come back to visit as she needed to stay in the hospital for at least one more night. You could still vividly picture the awful state that she was found in when you rolled up to answer the call.

She had been the lucky one, Lydia had survived by the skin of her teeth but the ones that came before hadn’t. She had been the last victim in the chain going back a fair few months, the one that refused to die. She had been the first case in which you were taking point, this was your case. 

It had been a few weeks since your promotion to Detective. You had been riding that high through the cases that landed on your desk but they were not your priority like Lydia’s had been. It had been difficult to stop yourself from stepping over the line and remain strictly professional. 

As you stepped out of your unmarked vehicle, before swiftly locking it behind you then crossing the parking lot and heading into the hospital and up towards the ward. The trip through the familiar white, sterile corridors was uneventful and barely took no more than ten minutes. You traversed the same path on each visit. You could get to the ward with your eyes closed if you wished to but you didn’t. As you’d likely bump into many people on your travels that way.

Soon you found yourself choosing to wait for the lift over taking the stairs and climbing up three flights to reach your destination. Your legs ached, from having chased a suspect as they fled from the scene of crime earlier on in the day. There was no way that you were going to take the more physically taxing option. As you watched the floor numbers slowly creep down from 6, a small crowd formed around you. All awaiting going your way, up. You didn’t glance around, knowing that it was likely a mix of visitors and staff. 

5 

4

3

2

It was getting closer by the second, you dared to hope that Lydia had taken the advice of the medical staff to see the onsite psychologist. She had only just started to come out of her shell, more so with each visit. You were seeing a ghost of a smile creep in now and then, in those brief moments of peace. It was understandable that she would never go back to the person that she used to but you wanted to help her find a new balance, a new sense of normal as she came to terms with the trauma that she had gone through. 

The pain would fade, the cuts and broken bones would mend but the mental anguish would linger on. Lydia had been beaten within an inch of her life, her face heavily bruised and almost recognisable. The ding announcing that the lift’s arrival dragged you out of your thoughts of then.

You stepped in, ready to press 3 on the panel but before you could a voice spoke “Which floor?” You turned your head, politely smiling in their direction before answering. “Three please”

Your focus quickly turned away from the kind stranger, you’d give them a second thought as the doors slid shut and the lift began to ascend.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- “As of this moment, this case is now part of an ongoing Federal Investigation” 

Agent Aveline Montgomery confidently spoke to the CSIs standing across from her. She watched as her men rounded up the last of the evidence boxes. This latest victim had surprisingly outlasted all of the prior ones. The pattern had been fixed, as usually by the time the second set of photographs arrived, the women would have already been discarded. According to the profile, he treated them like broken toys who failed to live up to the seemingly unreachable heights of his deluded fantasy. 

This individual had eluded the long of justice for the last eight years, having crossed multiple state lines to abduct his chosen few but the bodies of the murdered women that come before had never been found. He had held onto those failures, as tightly as he had done when they had been alive. The detective had been different, she had played along and survived. She had been his ideal, fitting the mould that all those others had failed to fit into. 

She glanced up at the photographs pinned to the layout board. Each had been taken in a similar vein, softly lighting her oddly intimately. It was as if he had been covertly caressing her form, showing his deeply twisted desires in a few frames. However, they lacked any signs of escalating violence, no fear in the subject’s eyes as her last moments were captured. The final image had always been the same, that of the woman’s broken, dead body. His rage displayed front and centre as his hatred for failure bled through.

Aveline could only imagine the delight that this sick prick must have felt the moment that his chosen victim did not break the immersion. She had theorised that the killer was trying to right a perceived wrong that had been committed. Trying to rewrite a part of their personal history. The others had made him truly face the fractured reality, to face what had gone wrong the first go-round leading them to their deaths.

Aveline had been doing this job for the best part of twenty years but this one could be the cornerstone of her career. She refused to let this one slip any further through her fingers.

“This will be a Joint Taskforce as this perpetrator has knowingly crossed state lines to abduct then murder his victims when they fail to play the role that he has assigned.” She briefly explained, turning her focus back to the silent few, taking their varying facial expressions from left to right. Each told a story, some more openly than others. 

One stood out from the crowd, the victim’s partner Nicolas Stokes, she would have to keep an eye on him. Hoping that he won’t become a problem but then again, she could handle such delicate situations if she needed to. Aveline just dared to think that it wouldn’t come to that. Emotions are already running high, this was a case that hit home for many an officer. It would be akin to walking on eggshells, knowing that the next step could crack a few.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------Another round of bad news, that was all Nick needed right now, further souring his already rotten mood. These days, it was hard for the Texan to be anything other than sullen. What did he have to smile about when his partner had not been found? 

Progress had been slow, as if they were being drip-fed. Tips had been few and far between, and lately, they had all been dead ends until the second set of photographs had arrived only a few days prior. He had been wrapped up in chasing down each lead, hopefully at the possibility that this informant would be the one to lead him straight to you. However, each time the disappointment would quickly set in as reality came down hard, like a ton of bricks when they reached the inevitable unsatisfactory conclusion. She was not home. 

Seeing his name scrawled across another manila envelope was the wake-up call he needed, kicking him into high gear. This time, it had been different. This one had been posted directly to his home address. A fresh lead with the very real chance of a paper trail, it had to lead somewhere. It had been the last chase that he had observed before the Feds had turned up.

Nick stood off to one side as he watched Greg enter the information pulled from the latest envelope into various databases. Mandy had not been able to find any useable fingerprints, only smudges but they still had been logged as a longshot. Hodges’s chemical analysis had been nearly identical to the one for the first envelope.

Each avenue ventured had drawn a blank, Nick couldn’t even bring himself to take a proper look at the photographs. It had just been too difficult, Catherine had swiftly taken charge taking them from him. He had only seen the first image but that had been enough, if he had been anyone else, he might have seen it as a loving candid shot, taken to show off the woman that the photographer adored but that’s not what it revealed.

It was a wild expression of obsession, a gross exaggeration of prideful glee at gazing longingly at his prize from a safe distance. She never knew that he was there, photographing her when she was vulnerable. It was impossible to forget the sorrowful expression on her face as she sat wistfully staring out of a window with a book perched upon her lap, forgotten in the moment.

It burnt him, something wicked that son of a bitch truly had been tracking her every step of the way for god knows how long. A silent observer with a persistent and unhealthy preoccupation fixated upon his partner. Nick had never seen this coming, his imagination could never dream up such an outcome. Yet here he was.

He had been suppressing his steadily growing rage and frustration for the last few weeks as the investigation began to grind to a complete standstill. Now, this latest development would be the final push to trip him over the edge. 

“This isn’t right”

[ilkkawhat]

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