Gods and Monsters

VI

Scotland Yard - Victoria, London

The face in the mirror was hardly recognisable to Peggy as she washed in the station bathroom. Heavy bags hung under her eyes, and her usually full lips looked thin and cracked as she reached inside her pocket and pulled out the small orange bottle of pills. Unscrewing the lid, Peggy took in the note on the side that she had so hastily ignored earlier that morning at Nick's funeral. "Only to be taken once a day". Unscrewing the lid, she was tempted to just swallow the entire contents of the bottle there and then, but the better half of her judgment had her place the lid back on and drop the bottle back into her pocket.

Peggy was shattered, and if she was honest, she really could do with the time off that had been offered to her after Nick's death, but there was no way she was just going to sit down and weep whilst the bastards responsible for Nick's death were still out there. The image of the figure in Nick's garden wouldn't leave Peggy's mind. Dressed all in black in a reflective motorcycle helmet the person had

been indistinguishable, but as soon as Peggy found out who they were she would throttle them. The thought of grabbing the assassin by the throat, strangling them while pounding her fist into their face was oddly satisfying for Peggy. A warmth filled her chest that caused any need for the pills to subside, but also made her feel disgusted at the joy she felt at such violent thoughts.

Leaving the bathroom, Peggy turned the corner and headed back towards the technicians as they finished recovering the audio from the black box, but first she had to get past William Yates as he strolled down the corridor towards her. Could she turn back? Maybe make out she had forgotten something in the bathroom, or perhaps pretend to take a phone call? No, Peggy was a professional and had to face Yates one time or another instead of just speaking to him on the phone.

"Sir." Nodding her head she continued to walk hoping that Yates would reply similarly with a nod or perhaps just a grunt.

"Detective Parker," Shit. He wanted to talk. "Do you have a moment?"

Peggy slowly turned to face him, forcing a smile onto her face. "Sure, but it'll have to be quick. I'm still working on the 616 case."

Yates was slightly taken aback at Peggy's bluntness, but he admired her balls for speaking to a superior like she had. "I understand, but I feel that as your boss I have a duty of care to look after all my officers. You've gone through something that no one should ever have to, and there are a lot of changes going on with the task force so I want to check you're handling it okay?"

Peggy hated this false sincerity that oozed off of Yates. After seeing those newspaper clippings, she knew there was something ever more dishonest about Yates than she had thought before Nick's death. Before he had just been a typical boss; annoying and occasionally harsh, but, at least she could generally keep her head down in paperwork and ignore him most of the time. Now that she was working directly under him that wouldn't be possible too often now.

"I'm fine. Any problems, I'll let you know."

She didn't even wait for a response before turning back and walking down the corridor to regroup with Charlie and the techs, but she could feel Yates' eyes burning holes in the back of her head. Rounding the corner to the room where the techs were listening to the audio recording recovered from the plane, Peggy instantly noticed the main tech at the front rolling his eyes as he listened to Charlie talking about the Philadelphia Experiment once again.

"What've we got?" She asked as she entered the room, relieving the tech from listening to Charlie's ranting.

"Well, Detective Parker, we've managed to recover the dialogue between the pilots just as the turbulence began. Have a listen." The tech replied, flicking a switch to play the audio.