Take-Two [ Tragictrees & Annyeong Bunny ]

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"You look like you murdered someone." Austin commented absentmindedly, opening the door as he spoke, and gagging a little once more- though this time theatrically -when the smell hit him again "Yep! There it is. Still fucking disgusting. Uh, I looked inside earlier, it seems staged. Your thoughts and opinions on my thoughts and opinions are highly valued." He took a step back before positioning himself to try and block the view from anyone else on-looking.

He wanted to tell Lee about the note, but it didn't seem to be a good time. It was in public, after all, and also probably a bad idea. He didn't want the force or chief to know about it, because then he wouldn't be able to work the case any longer, because he would have a severe conflict of interest in something that wasn't a cold case. The only reason he was allowed to play around with his father's murder was because it was cold. that was it.
 
Lee rolled his eyes at the murder joke, and filled his lungs with one last breath of fresh air as Austin opened the door... releasing the odors. Lee felt his eyes water and he clenched his teeth shut, closing his eyes a bit to brace himself. Even as a detective, there was no getting used to that smell.

As Austin went to block the view, Lee leaned over the body and looked for any details. He checked where the dead man's back was leaning against the seat. The body felt as cold as ice, and he saw the the fluids in his body had fallen down to his back, meaning that when he had died, he had been on his back. From his studies in Forensics, it told him that there was no way the man could have been killed in a sitting position, as the fluids would have traveled to his rear and most likely his legs. "Staged." Lee voiced to Austin, agreeing with the said male as he turned his attention to the male's face. He looked to be in his 40's, and his eyes were wide open, as if he had been in shock when he died. Then... Lee realized something.

Furrowing his brow, he grabbed one of the man's hands, seeing that his fingernails had been ripped off and cleaned. Having a hunch, Lee turned and, hesitantly, opened the man's mouth. His breath hitched as he saw that all of his teeth had been pulled as well. Feeling his heart race, the detective cleared his throat and felt his head spin, feeling slightly busy. The man must have been sent as a message... but he couldn't quite prove it. It was merely an inkling of a thought before a more reasonable idea popped into his head. He would keep the other in the back of his mind, however, for safekeeping. Stepping back from the body and inhaling a fresh gulp of air, Lee closed the door and walked to Austin.

"All of his fingernails and teeth were pulled. My hunch is telling me that the victim fought back and might have gotten the attacker's DNA under his nails and in his teeth, so to keep police from identifying him, he killed the man and pulled the teeth and nails. After a bit of cleaning, his DNA would have been gone, and his crime finished. Funny how this guy seems to be smarter than I thought." Lee relayed to Austin, a humorless smirk pulling the corner of his mouth. He kept his eyes on the pedestrians walking along the sidewalks before turning his midnight irises to Austin.
 
"Cool!" Austin silently cursed himself for the way his voice broke slightly. He was a little uncomfortable with whole teeth-pulling thing; he had a weird phobia about things like that, along with drowning. And spiders. Spiders were, of course, the worst of the three, but teeth falling out or being deliberately pulled was up there for sure. "Cool, cool. Great. Awesome, even. Okay, so, why do we think he's here, in the parking lot of my building? You go first. I'm still contemplating."

He really wasn't, of course. He had a good hunch, and a note that was practically burning a hole in his pocket. What he was contemplating was whether or not Lee should be told about it, because on one hand, he grudgingly liked Lee a lot now- he was kind of hopeless when it came to getting attached to people, because although he didn't like to be, it happened easily -and he was weak, and on the other hand, Lee probably had some freaky loyalty to telling the office about the note, because god forbid they didn't follow the law to the t in all other situations than one like the museum. He grimaced, crossing his arms tightly. This is why he hadn't wanted a partner. He probably shouldn't have called Lee in the first place.
 
At the question, Lee narrowed his eyes as he stared at the ground, pulling off the latex gloves. He wasn't sure why it was there, but one obvious fact was that it was put there with the spear that they had been looking for. It just seemed too obvious for the murderer to just leave the body out in the open. Deciding to voice his opinion, Lee turned to look at Austin, noticing his posture and the way he was standing. In that moment, he knew something was off, but decided to wait.

"I think it was put there as a message. Why it was put there, I have no idea, but it feels like something's... missing." Lee spoke slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly as he said 'missing'. After all, the only DNA they would get from the victim was his own, as all other possible DNA from the attacker had been wiped clean. Yes, he had to have been sent as a message, but why? Lee then turned his whole body to face Austin, taking a few steps toward him as he eyed the male suspiciously.

"You're acting weird. What's up?" Lee asked, moving his jaw side to side slightly as he questioned the man. He pressed a fist against his chin and stared Austin down. His body language was off and he seemed to be keeping to himself more than usual. "You're not usually like this." Lee added, and it seemed less worried than it probably should've been. Instead, it was calculating and piercing, curious.
 
"I'm perfectly normal! I act like this all the time." Austin said, a little snippy, hunching in on himself further "Oh, but it might be because a murder happened- or was placed -directly in front of where I live. Maybe it's that! I mean, I don't like having a dead body in a car in a parking lot in front of my home. Would you enjoy that?" He paused, then sighed in a tortured manner "Nevermind. You might. But anyway, back to the point, I'm normal."
 
Lee grimaced at Austin's attitude and stepped away from him, rolling his eyes. "Of course I thought of that, but this isn't normal. I'm not an idiot." the detective snapped, all previous thoughts of curiousness gone as he sent an icy glare at Austin. It wasn't like he was worried or anything, but he felt irritated at the fact that he knew something was missing. Releasing an exhale of frustration, Lee ran a hand through his hair before tugging harshly on his left cuff.

"Forget it. Just tell me what you think so we can move on." Lee spoke icily, any feeling of warmth gone as he turned away from Austin, making his way back to the corpse. Cursing under his breath, the detective leaned against the car and pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated confrontations like what he had just done, and it only made him feel irritated and awkward. This is why he didn't like people.
 
"I will forget it. Thanks for your permission." Austin replied, grumbling. He knew he was fucking up, since he and Lee were close to getting along and this wouldn't help, but maybe that was a good thing. He would've done it sooner or later; better to just rip off the band-aid and get it over with. That didn't mean he wasn't going to act okay with it. He just wouldn't fix it "I don't know. I think it was staged. Maybe we I.D. the guy and find out where he's from, head there. We need to figure out where he was killed. Might be more clues there."
 
Lee nodded in agreement, but it was a curt short nod. He slipped a single glove on and walked to his car. Opening the trunk, he grabbed his small forensics kit, taking it to the corpse. Opening the door, he leaned in with a pair of tweezers and pulled a hair, close to the root in order to get the full follicle. Putting it in a glass tube, he slipped the vial in the kit and zipped it back up. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes, and he looked back to Austin as he slipped his sunglasses back on.

"Unless you drove here, I can drive you back to the department and we can check the DNA. Otherwise, we can just meet there." Lee offered nonchalantly as he slowly turned on his heel and started heading to his car, the kit swinging in his hand. He sighed lightly and bit at the inside of his cheek. He felt slightly irritated and awkward, and he had just started getting used to Austin's irritating personality. Now, he just wanted to isolate himself in a hole and be alone for a few days. Socializing was not his thing.
 
Austin didn't end up driving with Lee. He was aggravated, mostly at himself, and figured that Lee was just as annoyed. So, he didn't carpool. Problem was, he didn't have his car in the lot; he'd left it at the station, since he usually only used it to get to crime scenes, which he drove to from the station. It saved on gas to just leave it there. So, he walked. Or, lightly jogged.

It got him there. Thats what mattered.

And then they got the DNA tests back. Some guy named Oswald Baker; Austin was happy to say he didn't recognize the name, though he only said it to himself, because god forbid he spoke that out loud. He had literally no clue who he was, and if he had, he would've probably felt worse than he did, which was already pretty awful.

"So, where do we go from here?"
 
Lee looked at the results and sighed, scratching at his jaw. He had more or less been ignoring Austin for the past few hours, and frowned lightly taking a glance at the said male. He pressed his lips together and sighed, looking to the ceiling. The man had been identified and a few of his relatives had went to the coroner's office to identify him as well. The last person who had seen him was a colleague who said he was walking home. There were also many eyewitnesses saying that he had often went to a farmhouse deep in the country to brainstorm on writing ideas. He was a freelance writer.

"Let's go to the empty farmhouse, I feel like we'll get some big leads there." Lee instructed, tossing the file onto his desk. He stood from his chair and slipped on a black windbreaker, pulling it over his white dress shirt. For once, it was actually chilly outside. "It'll be quicker if we take one car, so let's use mine." he added moving around Austin to walk out of his office. Heading outside, he pulled the collar up his neck and quickly moved to his car. He waited to see if Austin joined him or not, and started heading to the farmhouse.
 
Austin did follow. He didn't bother to say anything; he figured it wouldn't be appreciated by either party. So, he just took a seat in the passenger side of the car, the note burning a hole in his pocket even more as the ride progressed. As soon as they stopped outside the barn, he practically lept out, not willing to be in there a moment longer. Some of it was Lee's fault; after all, a small bit of Austin that was irrational said that Lee should really be less of an asshole. Most of it was just Austin not wanting to be in a cramped space any longer.

He stared up at the building a moment, before sighing "Alright. Here we are. After you." Usually, he would've gestured grandly, but at the moment, he just stood there, hands shoved in his pockets.
 
Lee watched as Austin jumped out of the car and sighed, following suit. He didn't bother stopping, walking straight to the front door. The roof was caving in, and the place was in shambles. Lee covered his nose as he stepped inside, eyeing the living room cautiously. Something didn't seem right to him, and he knew to always trust his detective's instinct. However, he knew he had a job to do, and there was only one way to finish the case.

The detective slowly moved forward, and his mind was void of anything but cautiousness. Even his irritation at Austin faded. There was dust everywhere, and the sunlight falling through the broken ceiling caught on the flecks, making them obvious that they were everywhere. Carefully, Lee moved forward and scanned the room, not seeing anything suspicious enough to note. He then stopped dead in his tracks, sure that he had heard something from further ahead. "Stay close. Something's not right." Lee whispered as soft as he could, turning to look over his shoulder at Austin. This could be a life or death situation, as Lee knew all too well with murderers, so his first instinct was to keep them both safe.

Slowly, Lee crouched and made his way around to where the noise came from, being sure to walk alongside the wall in order to not make himself noticeable should someone be there. The noise had led down a long hallway, and the ceiling was intact, save for a few holes that let a bit of light in. That much he was thankful for. Lee continued to walk forward, and then, he heard a sudden noise, causing his heart to race, his breath catching in his throat.

"Austin, MOVE!" Lee shouted as he turned and shoved Austin away from him before he was suddenly pulled to the ground. Throwing his fists wildly, Lee made a few hits, his heart pounding in his chest. He tried to see the man's face, but flinched as he saw something shine and make contact with his face.

"Goddammit!" Lee cursed loudly, feeling a hot searing pain against his cheek, knocking his senses out of focus as the world started spinning. He couldn't see anything, only red, and instead of moving to fight back, Lee protected his head and curled in a fetal position as the onslaught of pain suddenly wracked his body. Moaning, he laid there as the man continued his attacks, Lee trying every few hits to kick at the man's shins or crotch, something. He couldn't get him off, he just couldn't.
 
Austin had nothing on his mind, for a second or two when he hit the ground, because he wasn't expecting to be shoved other than I really should've gone first. His glasses had been knocked off, probably cracked now, and he couldn't see shit. He could make out, however, that Lee was being attacked with a knife, and seemed to be having trouble getting whoever it was off. So, Austin decided split second that he was going to do what he did best while on the job. He was going to act impulsively and hope for a good outcome that wasn't him getting stabbed again, or god forbid Lee getting stabbed (possibly also again, but that was to be considered later, when there wasn't a knife-wielding maniac around).

So, he body-slammed the person off of Lee, miraculously not getting sliced in the process.

They both tumbled a moment, and there was enough of a pause that Austin was able to get to his gun, pulling it out. Gun beats knife. Knife was, like, half of scissor, he figured, so countless games of rock-paper-scissors-GUN!-youcan'tchoosegunAustin told him that he was currently besting this person. Of course, he also knew that because a gun was a ranged weapon, and it wasn't as if he could aim that well right now what with his blind as a bat tendencies, but that was entirely beside the point he was making.

And then? The person ran. It was more anticlimactic than he was expecting, but other than waiting a moment or two to make sure they were truly gone, he didn't give it much thought. He dropped the gun, kneeling next to Lee. "Lee? Lee. Shit. Fuck. Next time, I'm going first. All of the next times. I shouldn't have let you go first. Fuck!" He went to touch Lee, then pulled back, realizing it might not be the best idea "Actually, better yet, use me as a human shield instead of pushing me. Idiot. Are you okay? Where did he get you? I don't have my glasses, I can't see much, but I can see red." There was obvious worry, as well as some guilt, tinging his tone.
 
Lee felt as the sudden weight of the attacker had been removed, so he lifted his head. He knew he had been cut badly, as blood poured from his face and down his shirt, creating a small puddle on the ground. He sat up as quickly as he could, turning to see where Austin went. The other male was pointing a gun at the attacker when he suddenly ran off. It felt like he wasn't in reality. Sure, he had been shot and cut many times in the past, but it never got any easier. His mind was in shambles when Austin ran up to him.

He tried to retort, but the pain of trying to open his mouth was close to unbearable. Instead, he scanned the floor, knowing Austin wasn't able to see. Lying a few feet away, the glasses were slightly cracked, but he assumed it was better than nothing, and reached out weakly. He handed Austin the glasses and leaned against the wall, groaning. Holding up his hand, he put pressure on the wound and clenched his eyes shut. There was blood everywhere, and Lee felt like he was going to be sick. He could feel the stickiness of the blood on his fingers and could smell the strong iron scent that came with it.

"My face, he got my face. I can't see how deep it is, but there's so much blood." Lee spoke softly, as he was in a daze. He tried not to freak out about the blood, but he felt that soon enough, he would probably start hyperventilating of panicking, and he knew that he couldn't do that in their situation. "Fuck... Austin I don't know what to do." Lee's voice portrayed the slight edge of panic in his voice as his face began to grow paler, contrasting with the dark crimson blood that continued to flood his vision. It was everywhere.
 
Austin took the glasses, fumbling a bit as he put them on. Being shades, it made everything darker- what he wouldn't give for his normal glasses, in this situation -but they would do. He let out a deep breath, before moving closer to look Lee over. "Okay, okay, you're fine. It's fine. I'm a doctor, remember, Mr. Detective? You might not know what to do, but I live and breath medical knowledge. Or, I did enough to do first aid and hospital stuff." He flashed a small smile, though Lee couldn't see it "Uh, okay, let's see....stitches. I don't have the stuff for that here, but..."

He shifted around in his jacket, before pulling out a small medical kit "Got it. Alright, I'm going to disinfect the wound and clean up the blood, okay? On your hands and stuff too, so it's not gonna be there anymore. Can I touch you, or would you rather me not?" He paused his nervous rambling, before tacking on "This will be easier if I can, but understandable if you're not comfortable at the moment. But, we need to go to go to my office to do stitches, and I don't want you covered in blood the whole time we're driving. Which, I'm gonna be stealing your keys and driving."
 
Lee opened his eyes and watched Austin as he talked. It kept his mind busy and he slowly nodded to his request. He wasn't dumb enough to reject the help, especially when it felt like he was bleeding so much. "Yeah... yeah, that's fine. Do what you have to do." Lee breathed, his heart hammering as his adrenaline continued to spike. He was surprised it hadn't knocked him unconscious by that point, but he was grateful he wasn't. The detective kept his eyes on Austin for a few more moments before turning to look ahead, giving the said male the whole wound to work with.

"I don't know why you said you'd want to be in this position instead. After all, isn't it a detective's job to get hurt once in a while?" Lee thought out loud, talking softly so as not to move his cheek. "I walked in first for a reason." Lee added before closing his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he tried to clear his mind and keep his mind off of the fact that he looked like had walked through the red sea.
 
"Well, I'd feel much better right now if I was getting stabbed, dude. Like, a lot better. So next time, tell me not to be a little bitch and send me walking first." Austin grumbled, moving to get a better look at the wound "Okay, I'm going to disinfect using these wipes. Also going to give you one for your hands, because I have a feeling that's gonna make this a bit better for you. But, this'll sting a bit, so just ready yourself." He warned, dropping a wipe into Lee's hands, before going back to the wound. Then, he carefully began to clean "After this, I'm going to use some medical tape to keep the wound together a bit before the stitches, and then cover it with a bandage with some antibacterial cream. Then, we go to the car, get back to the office, and I get the stitches done. I'll run you through stitch-care after the fact, though. And right now, I'm just gonna talk a lot so you have something to focus on. Feel free to reply! Keeps you conscious. I mean, if you were going to fall unconscious, no amount of talking would really help, but it'll help my nerves."
 
Lee controlled his breathing as Austin continued to ramble. It slightly irritated him, but he was also thankful for the distraction it provided. As the wipe was dropped to his hands, Lee didn't hesitate another second before shakily wiping the hellish color from his hands. The anxiety in his stomach lifted a bit at the relief of not having it on his hands, and he gave a long exhale, dropping the wipe to the ground.

Flinching slightly at the oh so familiar burning sensation of alcohol on his wound, he opened his eyes and clenched his teeth together. He had been taken care of before when it came to wounds, and thankfully, he was more or less used to the cleaning part. At Austin's request for him to reply, Lee turned a bit to glance at the man.

"I don't see why we need to stitch it... isn't just cleaning and patching it enough?" Lee grumbled as he grimaced, crossing his arms over his chest. A small bit of his irrational childish side started to peek through, but Lee was too disoriented to realize it.
 
"Deep wound, it'll help it heal easier and it'll lessen the scarring a bit." Austin applied the last of the wipe, and then patched up the wound "Alright. There we go. So, we're gonna get in the car, drive back, and finish up dressing your wound. You good to get up and walk? Already said I'd be driving, but if you need help, I'm here." He gestured to himself, seeming to be back to dramatics, but the jerkiness of his movements suggested he was overdoing it in hopes of making it a distraction "I'm the perfect leaning height since I'm fun-sized."
 
Lee winced, one eye closing as he moved to stand. He braced the wall, and watched Austin with one eye. The gesture of using dramatics to distract him was what Lee was thankful for. Ever so slightly, despite his pain, Lee felt the corner of his mouth turn up in a ghost of a smirk. Maybe Austin wasn't so bad, as annoying as he was.

Deciding to take up the offer, since he didn't exactly trust his body after losing that much blood, Lee slowly stepped toward Austin, wrapping an arm around his back to brace against him. Austin was a bit shorter than him, but like the other male had said, it did make it easier for him to keep steady. He also made sure not to put all of his weight on Austin, since it would just be unnecessary.

"Here. Let's get this done with. The sooner the better." Lee spoke weakly, using his other hand to pull his keys from his pocket, turning to drop them in Austin's free hand. Letting his head hang a bit, he kept a steady grip on Austin's shoulder, keeping himself balanced. Maybe having a partner wasn't so bad...
 
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