Living in the Past

Sam was all dressed up in a nice black suit, courtesy of the agency that he was working for throughout all of this. He didn't know much about this case that they were having to solve, nor did he know anything about his partner that was being assigned to him, but he was ready for it. He was always ready for it... It was his job and he looked forward to doing it. As he walked into the meeting office, he took note of the woman already here. A woman? He usually preferred males...they were easier to work with in these high-pressure situations. He really didn't like having to deal with girl who would squeal when she encountered blood. He sighed as he fook a seat, not really sure if he was ready for this or not.

Emma sighed as she made sure that everything was ready. Nick was coming over in a little and she had always tried to make everything perfect for him... Lately, it had been less and less perfect...both the preparations and the events. When they had first started together, he had been so sweet. He had a hot temper, of course, but never had she had to worry about it - and she was madly in love with him. But now, it seemed that she had to worry about everything that she said or did! She was scared honestly... He had always had an arrogant side...a side that was mean and came out every once and a while. She didn't know what she was doing anymore - she didn't like him laying his hands on her the way that he was.

@ dancingskiingwriter

Veronica had wondered what the commotion was about when her boss had called her at four in the morning. This was supposed to be her precious time off without having to be bothered by her work. She answered the phone and was told she had to be at work as soon as possible. She groaned before pulling herself off of the bed and got ready before leaving the house. Entering into her office, her boss had a stern look on his face before she sat down in the chair. "So, what's this all about?" Veronica questioned with impatience showing that she did not want to be here. Her boss knew of her short-temper and gave a slight glare,"I will tell you when your partner gets here." She raised an eyebrow - a partner? She had never had to work with a partner before. There was no doubt that she could take care of herself being a vampire and all. Hearing the door knob, she turned slightly to see a male human enter the room. A human? "You gotta be kidding me." She muttered under her breath as she returned her gaze back to her boss.

--

His hands tightened against the steering wheel to the point where they almost turned white as he drove over to her house. It was definitely not one of the finest days for Nick Stradler. He felt all of his anger being pent up without a proper way of releasing it. Nick had never wanted to show his bad side to Emma but there came a time when she annoyed him to no end. She would always wonder why he was in a bad mood or didn't open up to him. To him, that wasn't her business if he didn't feel like sharing it with her. Gritting his teeth slightly, he pulled into her driveway and stepped out of the car not forgetting to slam it with more force than necessary. Nick walked up to the porch before making his presence known by pounding against the door,"Hey! Open up!"

Sam still didn't know what was going on. He wished he wouldn't have had to get up so early and he could be back in bed until a decent hour - but apparently that was possible. He wished that everyone would be a little quicker about opening up for all of this though... He didn't know why everything was so secret until he was with his new partner! It just wasnt fair! No one seemed to care about his sleeping patterns - but he wanted to get another case again, so he really didn't mind. "What's your problem?" He asked, hearing her under her breath. Then he just sighed and rolled his eyes. He really didn't want to deal with a bitch... Why did he always get the annoying partners? Right - he was normally a pushover and didn't care who he got. He liked his job too much to let it go. "So can we get this over with?" He asked to his boss as politely as he could. "No offense, but I really have some sleeping to catch up on - it would be nice if we didn't dilly dally and just told us what was going on!" He smiled lightly, glancing between the two bosses.

Emma didn't hear his knock at first. She wasnt expecting him so soon after getting his text that he was coming over! She thought she had more time than that, so she had out headphones in her ear and blasted some soothing music... Romantic music - music she wished paralleled that of her relationship. It really didn't parallel their relationship at all. When she did finally hear the knocking, she blushed, knowing he would be angry. She slipped the door open quickly, getting out of his way so that he could come right in. "I'm sorry, Nick!" She said in a soft voice, keeping her eyes downwards at the ground. "I didn't hear the door... I was cleaning up - and I didn't really expect you so soon!" She blushed some more and glanced up at him. Hopefully he wasn't too angry. She never knew what to expect from his anger.

@ dancingskiingwriter

"Right. Well, now that you're both here, we can brief you on the case. There was an incident that occurred a few hours that ended with two dead people. One was a human and the other was a vampire. So, you have to cooperate and figure out what happened. A third person was obviously involved, but we don't have much yet." Her boss told them with a slight smile knowing that this pairing probably wasn't going to turn out well. Veronica sighed since this case seemed to be one she could do in her sleep let alone having to deal with a partner. "That's all you know?" She asked since it seemed pretty vague on their part. Her boss nodded before giving the excuse that it was still a fresh case. "The evidence that was collected is downstairs as well as the bodies that we have found." Why would the human government want any part of theirs? It was obvious from their history that they never got along. Glancing over at her so-called 'partner', Veronica decided that he would only get in her way and, if they were to encounter a vampire, he would definitely be dead.

--

Nick was about to turn when she opened up the door and annoying music filled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I've heard that one before." He dug his hands into his pockets as his attitude portrayed that he wasn't buying it for one minute. She probably wanted to keep him waiting knowing that he bothered him. She probably even knew that he was in the bad mood and just did it to push him even further off of the edge. He had the slight urge to just leave her right on the spot for her insensitivity. Nick sauntered into the place before sitting down on the couch and lounging back. "Jeez, turn down the music. I don't know how you listen to this crap." He covered his ears with the pillow that was used to support his back.

Sam was still trying to ignore the fact that the woman sitting beside him was a vampire... It wasnt exactly a comforting fact - as little as a woman alone was, really. He didn't want to work with a woman - and he certainly didn't want to work with a vampire woman. She could probably kill him in an instant - though of course that meant she would at least be less wimpy... To some extent. He expected a vampire woman to be just as vulnerable as a human woman, only with fangs. He couldn't believe that they were having to collaborate - this was just asking for trouble and he rolled his eyes. "So wait - let me get this straight... Because one human and one vampire were both killed, you're making a vampire and a human work together?!" He asked angrily. "This doesn't make any sense to me... Maybe the vampire drank the human's blood - and he got blood poisoning from the venom or what the hell ever -" he offered, not caring if the vampire was offended, "and the human staked the vampire before he could get away. There - case closed." He smirked arrogantly.

Emma knew now that she had pissed him off. She could see it in his stance and it made him shy away from him a little, not wanting him to touch her in case he did anything irrational. "Nick!" She argued as he walked in. "It's not like I would do something like this on purpose - I just didn't hear you, I swear!" She followed him into the living room where he sat on the couch and blushed. "It's not crap!" She said in a weak voice... "It's good music - it's got nice melodies and romantic fantasies that are beautiful! What's wrong, Nick? Why are you in such a bad mood about it?" She took a seat down beside him, not wanting to fight. He had just gotten here... It wasnt right to fight. At the end of the day, she still had feelings for him, didn't she? It wasn't like he had ever really shown her anything but pain...

@ dancingskiingwriter

She couldn't help but let a chuckle escape her lips from the single-mindedness of the guy. If it really were that simple, they would need either of them. They would probably send a rookie to take care of the case. There was something that both of their bosses refused to tell them at that moment and it was definitely important. "Yes, there is a third party out there that...well.. You will see it when you examine the bodies." Veronica's boss glanced over at Sam's before return back to the both of them. "Go on then. The faster you work, the less you have to see of each other." With that, she stood up and made her way down to the morgue they had in the basement. Veronica wasn't wasting a moment that could be used to get away from her 'partner' and, moreover, sleep.

--

Frowning, he turned away from her to face the couch not wanting to even look at her for the moment. "Sure. You know that I hate waiting and you took your sweet time answering the door." Nick growled back set on not believing her lies. He had let her get away with it in the beginning, but he was no longer taking her crap anymore. "The melody makes me want to vomit so shut it off." It really looked like he was in no mood to compromise with anything. Nick had gotten into a fight with his mother over something trivial that ended up with him getting thrown out of the house for the night. "Look, I need a place to sleep so I'm staying here for the night."

Sam was getting more and more annoyed by all of this. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep - he didn't want to have to work with some dumb vampire who asked as if she was so much better than him. She was a vampire - not a princess. He hated that about those vampires... He knew that this wasnt as simple as he made it out to be - there was much more, and he knew that it would be harder. And he had to work with a vampire?! That recurring thought was killing him right now. "That makes a lot of sense - let's go!" He said, jumping up and stretching softly. He wasnt going to waste any time. He just wanted to get rid of this vampire as his partner.

Emma sighed as he turned away from her. She didn't want him to be mad... It was always worse when he was mad. He got angrier... He got meaner and more physical - in ways she usually wasnt comfortable. "I'm sorry - but I didn't do it on purpose! I would never try to make you upset like that..." She finally shrugged, knowing he wasn't going to believe her any time soon. She turned off her music and threw her iPod to the side. "Oh, ok..." She said to him saying he was crashing here... Her parents had a night shift and wouldn't be around. And she wasnt comfortable with him in her room. She wasnt one to put out like that. That worried her a lot.

@ dancingskiingwriter

Veronica had already made it down to the morgue by the time that Sam had joined her and was already examining the bodies. There really didn't seem to be much out of the ordinary for a dead vampire with the maggots and worms. It was completely normal for it to be decaying at a faster rate than a human as well. So, what made this case more special than the other? "Hurry up." She commanded as she continued to look at the dead corpse with little difficulty. Veronica had already been through so many cases that looking at dead bodies no longer bothered her. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary...." She thought aloud wondering if he had come up with anything. Lifting the cloth to look at the torso, her eyes widened before immediately dropping it. That was definitely something she had never seen before. "Okay, this vampire is missing his heart." Veronica felt her stomach churn and her hand went to her mouth. Taking a few steps away, she wanted to clear her head again. The heart was the most important thing to a vampire and probably a valuable thing on the black market since it was so hard to get.

--

He grunted as she finally decided to accept the fact that he wasn't going to believe in her lies. Nick had thought she was smarter than that to try to lie to him. Apparently, he was wrong about that as well. He sighed once the music was off and relaxed the pillow out of his hands since the its was no longer blaring in his ears. If only she listened to him without putting up a fight like she normally did. They probably wouldn't be this way if it was for her arguing all the time.

Sam was annoyed as he got down the stairs to the morgue. He was more than a little annoyed. Why didn't she wait for him? As of right now, they were partners. They had to do these things together! Who knew - maybe she could tamper some evidence...make it look like it was the human's fault - when he was sure that it was probably a vampire problem. Stupid vampires. When he looked over the body, he smirked and grunted in a chuckle as she stated the obvious. "Hell yes - he is!" He said with a chuckle. "I wonder why someone would do that. Why would someone want some stupid vampire heart? I'm sure it's not pure - if they were looking for that, they would take the human heart!" He retorted with a wink. What was going on here? This was certainly an odd case - nothing he had ever seen before.

Emma sighed lightly and blushed. She didn't want to deal with this. How could he always think she was lying to him?! She had never lied to him before - she didn't know why he had to insist that he would always accuse her of doing such a thing! "I'm sorry for making you think that I would lie to you - I'm not lying to you!" She insisted. It was terrible. It sucked... Why didn't he understand her about this?!"

@ dancingskiingwriter

She frowned at him as he seemed overjoyed by the fact that someone.. or something had done this. Maybe he was in a group of people who wanted to kill all vampires. Veronica took a breath before covering the body back up not wanting to look at whole in his chest anymore. "I heard rumors that a vampire's heart is worth millions in the human black market. Although, I don't know if that has anything to do with this." It was nearly impossible for a human to kill a vampire and it wasn't unheard of for vampires to attack each other over food but definitely not for hearts. "L-Let's look at the human body. I think I am done with this one." She tore her eyes away from the vampire before looking over at the human. It was obvious from the marks on the body that she had been drained of all her blood but not without putting up a fight.

--

"Can you just stop talking?" He yelled at her not wanting to hear her voice filling his ears anymore. Nick had come to her house for salvation not to be bugged by his girlfriend which he wasn't even sure why he had at the moment. She wasn't even good for one thing which made him wonder why they had even gotten together in the first place. Nick knit his eyebrows together in frustration before closing his eyes to rest for a moment.

Sam knew that he was annoying her - and he more than likely enjoyed it. It was fun to annoy her... There was something always fun in causing some trouble - especially with a silly vampire like this to lash out or something. "That is absolutely gross!" He said, appalled as he chuckled. "Why would anyone want a vampire heart - what would you even do with that?!" He snorted and then nodded his head. They uncovered the human body next, needing to look over it. Now Sam felt some remorse! This was a human... It was disgusting that a human like this had to be killed...probably because of a vampire fight. "I hate this." He said softly.

Emma cringed as he yelled at her and she sniffled a little. She shrugged and them nodded her head. Not wanting to be near him anymore, she got up, wrapping her arms tightly around her and ascended the stairs. She would take cover in her room for now... She really didn't want to fight with him - and she really didn't want to deal with him being all angry. This wasnt her fault!

@ dancingskiingwriter

Shrugging her shoulders, she had no idea why someone would want a vampire's heart. "Beats me. Guess that's something that needs to be researched." The world was a strange place and people were likely to believe in almost anything if it was a goal they wanted to achieve. Maybe they thought it would make them immortal. Veronica glanced over at Sam that was finally showing some of his more humane qualities. "Yeah, now you know how I felt about the vampire." She retorted back to him. She glanced at her wrists to see that there were multiple bite marks all over her body that started from her neck. "A gang, maybe?" Veronica tried to piece together a hypothesis but nothing was adding up correctly.

--

He heard the door close behind her and sighed another time just wanting to be alone. At that moment, there was nothing that could have made him feel better except for time. Growing up in his household, Nick was subjected to being beaten if he had ever done something wrong. It was the only thing he actually knew from his parents. They had never shown him any type of love before and it emotionally scarred him. The only way for him to get out his anger was to take it out on the person closest to him.

Sam still didn't know about all of this. It just didn't add up. How could someone do something like this? He looked over the bodies with a soft groan. This was the one part that he hated of his job... He hated seeing the dead bodies like this. "A gang - well sure... That makes sense if there was one body - hell, even two bodies of the same species - but two bodies...one human, and one vampire? That doesn't seem like gang-like activity!" He sighed and shrugged. "We need more evidence. We should take a look at the crime scene." He nodded his head. He was going to take charge here.

Emma didn't understand any of this. Why was he so harsh? She had fallen in love with him so long ago - but then he turned into this monster and she hated him... She couldn't bring herself to really hate him, but she hated him as much as she could. She sat cuddled up on her bed, wishing he would open up to her. It didn't make sense. She was open to everything... Why wouldn't he just tell her what was wrong?! She wanted to help him.

@ dancingskiingwriter

"Maybe the other ones got away." She suggested since there could be just one casualty to the scene. Veronica couldn't rule out other possibilities just yet thought and nodded her head thinking it would be best to go the scene of the crime. "Yeah, that would probably be the next best thing." She as she covered the body back up making sure she didn't miss anything else. Walking out of the room, she wondered what could have driven a person to do something like that.

--

Nick fell asleep on the couch after making sure that nothing would bother him about the whole ordeal. Everything was her fault - everything that went wrong in their relationship. Emma was the one who had pushed him to say things that he had never meant to say. She was the one who forced him to use physical force. He started to rest a little easier since he would finally be at peace with his mind.

Sam rolled his eyes. "So what you're saying is that obviously it's a human gang after the heart and this casualty is just one of the gang members?" He asked as they made their way out of the morgue. "Excuse me - but that is one of the most ridiculous things! No one - and I repeat, no one - would ever want one of your vampire hearts!" He said with a roll of his eyes. Stupid assumptions. He would prove her wrong!

Emma finally made her way downstairs, not wanting to fight anymore... She wanted to apologize really. When she saw him asleep, she sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course he was asleep. Of course he could just put all of this out of his mind as if he had never hurt her. That hurt the worst. She sighed and went into the kitchen, starting some dinner. She wouldn't wake him - she would be blamed for that too.

@ dancingskiingwriter

She shook her head since she knew that a human gang couldn't have punctured this many holes into her body. "I meant maybe a gang of vampires. I don't always blame your kind for all of the world's troubles." Even she wasn't stupid enough to believe that this was the work of human. No human had this much power to take out a vampire unless the human had already found the vampire dead. "Let's just stay focused on the facts for now. It's no use trying to piece together something that has missing parts." There were just too many holes in the story to make something logical of it all.

--

Stirring about in his sleep, Nick smelled something in the air that could only appease his stomach. He slowly blinked open his eyes and registered that Emma must have been making dinner for the both of them. She better be making dinner for him, anyway. He sat up from the couch before following the smell into the kitchen and peered over her shoulder. He didn't even think twice about what might have happened if he scared her. "What are you making?" He asked seeming to be in a better mood now that he had rested for a little bit.

Sam nodded his head. He was happy that this vampire wasnt going to blame his kind. Humans were a mostly peaceful species... Mostly. The main problems were with the vampires - and he really did hate them. Hell, mostly the two species didn't get along - so it wasn't like he could be blamed for learning to hate them! "That's good," he said softly with a smirk on his face. "So we should definitely check out the crime scene. Maybe we can figure out that sort of evidence from there - at least it will be helpful somehow!" He always loved this detective stuff. It was fun - and interesting.

Emma jumped a little when Nick appeared beside her. She wasnt expecting him to be awake and he scared her. She flipped over the pork chops that she was cooking and sighed. "I'm making some pork chops and fries," she said in a nervous voice. There was only one pork chop...mostly because she thought he wasn't going to be awake - but they could split it, right?

@ dancingskiingwriter

Veronica may not like working with humans or being around humans, but she certainly wasn't going to blame them for everything. Sure, they were food and could be considered a lower class for being lower on the food chain, but that was basically it. She gave a nod not really understanding why he was getting so fired up about this case. It wasn't like a normal case but it wasn't like he had been a rookie either. Humans puzzled her beyond belief.

--

He saw that she was only frying one of the pork chops and wondered if that was just for him or if she had another one. "That's for me, right? Cause I haven't eaten all day." Nick stated giving the subtle hint that he didn't want to share any part of it. He had a giant appetite and wasn't about to share the small amount of food in the house with her.

Sam led her out to his undercover police car. Yes, he was driving. He wasn't letting a woman drive his car - and he certainly wasn't letting a vampire drive it. "So - what's your thing?" He asked teasingly. "I mean how did a vampire girl like you get into the police business? - aren't you all just too unruly to control anyways?" He joked lightly.

Emma opened her mouth to protest and then bit her lip. "I didn't think you would be awake - I thought I would just let you sleep!" She said softly. "I can check if there's another, otherwise I'm okay with splitting it!" She smiled up at him, hoping that he would be sympathetic about it... He was crashing at her house - he wasn't entitled to anything.