I'm a Lost Cause

Chapter 1

AN: I'm going to try and be better about putting the Trigger Warnings up prior to the chapter.

TW: The following chapter will have mentioning of (but not limited too) guns, knifes, trauma, blood, kidnapping, homicide, bodily fluids, internal organs exposed, orphan, decaying flesh, and etc.  Please read at your own risk. ***

I sat at my desk when the sound of the dispatch radio was going crazy in the corner of the room. She perked her head up at the sound of a 10-54 or a possible fatality in the Brooklyn district, which was the district that I covered with my partner, Bucky. I listened closer as I saw him walk in phone to ear and two coffees in hand, "yeah, yeah got it. We'll head that way."

He steps up to my desk handing me one of the coffees. I go to grab one and he shakes his head, so I take the other. He liked his coffee straight black most days. Me, I liked mine with almond milk and a packet of Stevia. I smile at the coffee hitting my taste buds. He shoves his work phone in the pocket of his dress slacks, "alright we got one. Let's go."

I nod and I stand up. Adjusting the nine millimeter load gun attached to my waistband and following him with the coffee towards the back door. We slid into the blacked out Ford Explorer and headed towards the scene. He looks at me as I reach into the backseat grabbing out a wad of black nitrile gloves in my size and then a handful for Bucky. He shoves them into his suit jacket and says, "Sounds like a robbery gone south up at Cradles Cascade. Neighbor called in the sound of gunshots and hasn't heard from her since it happened. They just made their way into the penthouse. So unsure if it's a true homicide yet. Only a patrol car on scene at the time the call came in to us. We will know more when we get there."

I nod and look at the tall skyscraper and see the numerous cars on the side of the street. I step in behind with Bucky taking in my surroundings as we walk. Beginning to see if anything seemed out of place or anything that should concern me. We arrived at the penthouse and we instantly saw the disarray. It looks like the woman put up a fight. Forensics was already placing numbers everywhere, documenting everything.

"Looks like she was a fighter," I say and sigh when I see her body laying on the ground. Face down in a pool of her own blood.

I kneel down and look at her figure, "we got a name?"

Bucky nods, walking over, "Natasha Romanoff. Thirty five. A widow. Her son is MIA. Age 5. This may also be a kidnapping as well."

I sigh, pulling on a pair of gloves and look at the forensic tech, "hey can we roll her?"

The female nods, "yeah I wanted to leave her where she was until you two got here. I've documented everything so far to that point."

I nod and between her and I, along with Bucky we gently log roll her. I cover my nose with the back of my arm, "fuck, that is-" I try my best to compose myself at the sight before me. The people who did this, they really did a number to her. She had to have fought back the whole time. The woman went down fighting at least...

"That is her insides," the female says and smirks. I glared at the brunette, "thanks MJ, I was just not saying it out loud."

She shrugs but smiles, "oh my bad." She was a spunky brunette and she loved every bit of her job. To play with bodily fluids and bodies all day long; yeah she was crazy.

I shake my head and stand straight looking at where Bucky was just standing, but he's already moved on to something else. He shouts for me, "Ava!"

I follow his voice and see the blood trail towards the closet and then away from the closet. I go to open my mouth to say something, but stop. My ears hearing the sound of what sounds like a child screaming and crying. I look at Bucky, he catches my expression and he raises an eyebrow, "what is it?"

"What? You don't hear that?" I ask and look around frantically. He shakes his head and I sigh, "what was her son's name?" I had always had really good hearing all my life, while Bucky, well, let's just say-he's a man. Do they really listen unless they have too?

He pulls out a small notebook from his back pocket, "Braxton. Are you hearing shit I cannot hear again?"

I nod and walk towards the closet. With my gloved hands I see blood-covered clothes and push them to the side. A small steel door with a small nine digit pad. I look at him and see him knelled next to me. I took a deep breath and looked at him, "what's her birthday?"

"12-03-1986," he says and I try typing it in. Frowning when it doesn't open. I chew my lip and he says, "try 05-29-2016. It's the kids birth date. Maybe that's it."

I tried it and the door opened with a smooth click. The sound of cries hit my ears and now Bucky's. He lets an audible sigh and I reach out for him, "hey Braxton. My name is Ava. Come here, buddy."

He does and I pick him up and pull him out of the safe room. I stand slowly. I begin to look over the small child for any wounds. Bucky pulled his radio off his belt loop and radio out that the child was found. I look at Bucky as I continue to look at the small child, "he doesn't look to have any injuries. Do you hurt at all, Braxton?" He shakes his head, "no. Want mommy."

I look at Bucky and sigh, "I know, buddy." My heart shattering for the small boy who now had no parents and was now officially what we called an orphan...I just hoped he has some sort of family out there to help raise him and be able to tell him how strong his mother was. It didn't take much to assume that the one was strong and a fighter with the way the crime scene laid out in front of us.

He looks at me, snapping me from my thoughts, "he'll still need to be checked out." I nod and we walk him out of the room. I burrow the small child's face in my chest, covering his face so he doesn't see anything. He didn't need to see the blood and trauma that was done to his home and his mother. Bucky follows suit and we step out of the penthouse and he is passed off to be examined further.

I tug my gloves off, crumbling them up in a ball. I shake my head and take a deep breath. Bucky looks at me, "you good?"

I nod slowly, "yeah, just pissed. Kid no longer has any parents. Let's figure this fucking case out."

He nods and we walk back in. I slid on a fresh pair of gloves and we started combing over all the evidence walking through scenarios. I notice something as we walk around the scene, trying to figure out how everything happened. I point up to the cameras in the corner of the main room. He sees them and nods, "well, I'll be damned."

I nod and grab a forensic bag, "she's gotta have a laptop somewhere."

Bucky picks it up and says, "found it." He opens it and looks to see if it's locked, "we'll need to see if we can crack it and go from there. Hopefully were in luck and the bastards that did this kept their faces exposed."

I hold the bag out and he slides it into the bag and zips it shut. We continue our search around the room and collect evidence as we go. MJ with forensics completes taking pictures and collecting samples.

We get back to the station and sit down at our desk and start combing over what evidence we can. Waiting on results from the samples and IT to crack her laptop, cell phone and a tablet she owned. I just hoped we figured out who the bastard was the murdered this woman.