Red Grim

Not In Love

~Gael~

    I've been filling in for Elizabeth for around two weeks now. The M.E is back and is having to fill in for Edward half the time because he's convinced the other detectives to let him help find Elizabeth. I recall Harvey telling me that he's never like this, that he must actually care about her.

    "An hour early, Miss Kringle?" I glace up from checking through the file log. "Its like you come in earlier and earlier every day." She smiles softly. "I'm not new anymore, I understand how this all works," I tease.

    "I know I just-" she trails off and comes to sit by the desk. "Once Elizabeth is back we'll be working the same shifts."

    "Yeah, i'll get to bother you as much as Ed does."

    "You two don't bother me... okay well him sometimes but I know its because he cares."

    "I feel like everyone treats him like he's... inhumane."

    "He made a joke about dead bodies his first day here, I guess at that point everyone was still pretending they haven't sinned." She pushed her glasses up as she smirked. "He just takes some getting used to but he's more fun when he's not worried sick over Elizabeth."

    "Speak of the devil." Kristen and I both jump as Harvey walked in. "Jim suggested we go talk Elizabeth's aunt again. We suspect she has her the whole time because her answer went from 'I haven't seen little Lizzy in such a long time' to 'Elizabeth is fine, she should be returning to work soon.'"

    "So do you know for sure she's okay?" Kristen stood up.

    "We don't," Jim walked in and Ed followed behind him. I stand up, watching Kristen.

From all the time we've spent together I've learned that Kristen and Elizabeth weren't the closest but they were still friends and cared about each other. Kristen isn't much older than Elizabeth but she still feels protective over her.

    "I think she's lying," Ed says. "Miss Mooney is going to send us her dead body or something-  and no offense I'm not down to see that."

    "Jim," another detective that I hadn't met yet stepped in, "Officer Jared Leviathan wants to talk to you."

    With Elizabeth being gone Jared was given time off, it was a very traumatic thing for him to deal with. They wouldn't let him work the case of his own sister, the emotions would get in the way of his work. He was very protective over her and I envied her having such caring family members.

"We better go," Harvey says to Jim under his breath and the two leave the room.

"Are you alright, Ed?" Kristen starts to step out from behind the desk.

"It shouldn't be this hard!" He snaps, "someone was stolen from the damn GCPD and we can't find her?" He kicks the metal cabinet causing Kristen to jump and step backwards. "I'm sorry," he mumbles before walking out.

I put my arm around her, squeezing softly, "he's not mad at you."

She holds my hand against her arm for a moment before nodding, "I know."

"Do you want me to stay?"

"You've been here all night, go home, get some rest."

"I'll be fine, Kristen."

"I will too. You need sleep." She takes over the main seat in the desk and smiles, "but I'm not stopping you from coming in crazy early to come see me... assuming Elizabeth isn't coming back tonight." Her playful demeanor turned back to a worried one. "I wonder what's happened to her...."