Hot in the City

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan wiped his forehead. It was getting increasingly hotter in this interrogation room. He wasn't even doing the questioning.

He was standing off near the corner, leaning against the wall, watching his partner talk to this guy like he was a five year old who had just stolen from the cookies jar. In reality, he had brutally murdere three teenage boys and two adult women. Dismemberments, disembowelments, surgical removal of internal organs...this guy, and ex-surgeon, had done it all. The officers were still trying to find all the parts from the last victim, a seventeen year old flautist in the local high school band.

Ethan Masters, a detective for the homicide unit. He was NYPD, loud and proud, and had been for four years. His life basically revolved around this place, day and night, this was where he was. He was rarely at home, putting most of his time into the cases that they got, which were, recently, becoming increasingly more difficult to solve.

New York city was probably the most crime-ridden place in America, or at least it was in Ethan's opinion. He couldn't imagine what the death to birth ratio was, because was was almost sure they would match each other, if deaths were not higher. Everyone in New York had lost someone to crime. Drug dealing, weapons dealing, mafia, prostitution...there wasn't anything the police, and probably the common New Yorker hadn't seen.

Ethan had a brother. They had not spoken since high school. His brother had been drawn by crime, murder, drugs, sex, all of it. He was part of the reason Ethan had become a police officer.

But Ethan was on probation. He was still allowed in the office, still allowed to look at the files, but he was not allowed to partake in investigations, not allowed to interrogate or follow leads. For two months he wasn't allowed to do anything but watch and listen.

He'd been tossed in the slammer for a night for a police brutality charge that was pretty bogus to begin with. Even though his head of unit had told him point-blank that the charge was ignorant, they had to be safe. He was on probation for two months at the request of the "victim". Ethan wasn't a happy camper, but what could he do?

As soon as he was off probation, hopefully everything would go back to normal, and he would have to watch his movements next time so that no one could mistake his actions for police brutality...

In the meantime, this whackjob needed a conviction bad.

[Peta Miller]

"No, no, that isn't right, <i>twenty-three</i>?" Peta Miller was in waist high with the investigation of several serial murders going on within the city. Although the murders hadn't happened in a few weeks, at least none that they had found, it still was a lot to swallow, a lot of people to bury, and a lot of questions left unanswered. Much like the one she was trying to find out for everyone. Who was doing it.

Peta enjoyed her work, some people said she enjoyed it too much considering her social life was lacking in the department of fun and relaxation, anything social was either talking with her co-workers and other's that were helping her on the case, or when she sought out answers in suspsects or leads. Peta would beg to differ, but of course when she had that moment of time alone at her apartment she would realize that the only outside people she spoke with were her two brothers.

Her experience as a Homicide Detective, six years strong, and one of the youngest in her department, she was at the head of this certain investigation that had been going on for over seven months. The bodies ranged from men to women, luckily no children, yet, and it seemed to progress to more horrendous natures. They had a partial print at the last crime scene, however they hadn't been able to identify anyone matching the print. All she had was a lot of sad families and many headache's followed by long nights and days of work.

It was nearing 1 in the morning and she was still up, working, as usual, drinking her routine large cup of coffee sitting at her cramped desk that had so many crime scene photos strewn about. She was trying to find an MO, but all she had was nothing. It was just random murders. She, as well as, a few other officers were working late, none related to her case. The only thing she had going for her was the twenty-four hour Starbucks down the street and a lot of Excedrin Migraine.

She had apparently missed the last several murder's, her friend from another department located somewhere else in the city, had a few files that were linked to her case. The death toll had gone from 15, to 23, seven new people in less than ten minutes.

[Ethan Masters]

"Jesus," Ethan couldn't help but mutter as he and his partner left the interrogatoin room with nothing more than a smile from the psycho freak still sitting inside. They had his hair, and a handprint at one of the scenes, so they had enough to hold him, but not enough to link him to the other crimes yet.

His partner patted him on the shoulder blade and told him to head home, it was too late for him to be here, and that one more day was off his probation. No one knew better than Ethan's partner how much Ethan hated not being able to work. But it would all be over in a little more than a month.

Ethan went to his desk in the corner to gather his things up, seeing only a few other detectives still working on things, he didn't pay much attention to them until he heard one of the detectives say something about twenty-three. Recognizing the voice, he glanced up to see Detective Miller working hard on something, but seeming to be blown away by whatever twenty-three meant.

Ethan furrowed his brow, but tried to keep his curiosity down. He was already knee deep in the psychopath being escorted to a holding cell, he didn't need to think about anything else.

"Hey, Peta," he said, pulling on his coat. "Get some sleep, eh? You've been working on that nonstop all week."

[Peta Miller]

Her attention was diverted, momentarily, by the familiar voice of one of her co-workers. He had started around the time she did, he had moved up in rank rather quickly, just like she did, and it was very good to know that she had someone to identify with when she felt like beating herself up over stupid mistakes she had committed, knowing that everyone did at some point, having Detective Masters around her age and her starting time it made it seem as if he too had committed simple mistakes. However, recently, his mistake had ended him up in jail and on probation.

She sighed out, hearing him tell her to sleep. For a moment she wondered what that was. She swore if she could she'd get an I.V. drip filled with hazlenut coffee from Starbucks. She looked at up and gave him a breif smile, showing that she was preoccupied in something big.

"Yeah, you, too." She automatically responded. Not wanting to sound like she hadn't cared about his warning she sighed out. "Hard to sleep when you got these kind of people wandering around on the streets."

[Ethan Masters]

Oh, crap, Ethan couldn't help himself. He finished buttoning up his jacket and pulled his bag over his shoulder. Walking over to where Peta was sitting, he peered over her shoulder.

Detective Miller was a great detective. Their relationship was strictly professional, so Ethan didn't know all that much about her that didn't pertain to work, but he did like having another detective around that was close to his age, and that was better than most of the older detectives in their unit. She was a talented woman.

"What is it? Johnson was telling me you were working on a serial case?" he asked, his eyes running over the files in front of her.

[Peta Miller]

She slightly stiffened, she wasn't used to having people stand over her, she usually did the standing, but it was uncomfortable since she had always had a little crush on him since they started working together. Not technically <i>together</I> just....in the proximity of one another. She cleared her throat after taking a long drink of her coffee and shrugging a shoulder.

"I got a guy who has killed over twenty-three people here in the state. I have a few department's in PA saying they have a few murders that look suspiciously familiar to ours." She shook her head and looked up at Ethan, trying not to really admire the view from down below, the small desk lamp throwing the side of his face in shadow and sharpening his jaw already more than it was.

"It is going to be handed over to the F.B.I pretty soon, I can feel it." She scratched her chin and sighed. "Twenty-three. That is one large number."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan grimaced, crouching a little next to her desk, not touching the files. He knew what it was like to have another detective come around and mess in your stuff. If they weren't your partner, it was really obnoxious.

He whistled a little, his brow furrowing even. He could smell her coffee and thought that he might stop by Starbucks on the way home and grab something for himself. He ran a hand through his hair.

"Twenty-three?" he asked. He had thought he'd only overheard fourteen or fifteen not long ago. And some out there? This guy definately got around. He was itching to ask if there was a pattern, some sort of method that she had picked out, but he needed to restrain himself. He was sure he would hear about it once it was solved.

"This city's crawling with all kinds," he said, rubbing one eye and yawning a little. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "I'm heading home. You should too. Hazlenut Coffee ain't gonna last you too much longer," he said, smiling and winking. He patted her on the shoulder. "Night."

[Peta Miller]

She smiled. Why was it when he came around for just a few minute she felt revitalized? He had this aura about hikm that just made anyone feel happy and upbeat, it was unmatched by anyone, especially when her job seemed to be a perpetual downer anymore. She hadn't had a good break in this case in a while, she was overdue for one.

"I hear ya." She said in response. "I'll see you later, Masters." She looked at him with a small smile and quickly allowed her brain to get back on track. She had a few new photos she had to examine. No matter how long she had been there and how used she got to the smell of rotting corpses and the urges to vomit, she never got used to the gruesomeness of the photograph's she had to view of the crime scene. She was just glad she wasn't on that dispatch. She had done it for a while, but work never seemed to get done quickly enough for her. Crime scene was not her cup of tea.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan's apartment was dark when he went inside. Dark and quiet as it usually was when he got home, considering he lived alone. He turned the light on and glanced down as his orange tabby cat came to greet him. She meowed and purred, rubbing up against his leg and asking for food. Ethan grinned down at her, and pulled off his jacket. He tossed it over his couch and then reached down to pick the cat up.

"Hey, Carlisle," he muttered as he sifted through the mail he had picked up down in the lobby. Nothing but bills, bills, and more bills. Yipee.

Flipping on the light in the kitchen, Ethan put the cat down and poured more food into her bowl. She purred appreciatively and then ate as Ethan glanced at the little blinking light on his phone. He pressed the button. Three messeges. Sighing he pressed the play button and listened as he began to pull off his shoes and undress in his bedroom next to the kitchen.

One was from his friend, about some party. The second was a short one from his head of unit about his probation. Ethan sighed, rolling his eyes and nodding as the gruff man explained that even though the charge was bogus, he didn't want to see Ethan working actively on anything just to be safe and not get into anymore trouble than he already was. Ethan walked back into the kitchen as the machine beeped to signal the beginning of the next message. There was silence.

Furrowing his brow, Ethan walked over to look down at the machine. It still said there was one message left. He turned the volume up a little. Finally, after a long moment of confusion, Ethan heard someone take a deep breath on the message.

"Ethan. My love. I know you aren't around at the moment, you are most likely at work, mulling over that probation charge, yes? Tsk, tsk," the voice paused. Ethan's stomach rolled over. He hadn't spoken to him in years, but his brother's voice was unmistakable. It sounded almost identical to his own. "And you should really tell that pretty detective working on the twenty-three murders that she is missing the suspect by a mile. He's right under her nose," the voice paused, and Ethan realized he was holding his breath. "Oh, and I hope you don't mind, I borrowed a few of your old credit cards."

The click on the machine ended the call, and a female voice told him that that was all of his calls. He gave the caller ID one glance before grabbing his wallet to search his cards. Nothing was missing. What was his brother talking about? Credit cards? Ethan searched his memory, but could think of none that he had thrown out without cutting up first.

He checked his apartment over twice, just to make sure his brother hadn't stuck around, then locked his windows and doors. As long as nothing was missing, he didn't see any reason to get worked up about anything. It was probably just his brother's drunken ramblings.

But Ethan fell into a restless, nightmare ridden sleep.

[Peta Miller]

Yawning she felt the burn of tears in her eyes as her wristwatch ticked loudly by her left ear, where she was propping her head at the moment, mulling over the stupid photo's. She was dead tired, but not too tired to go home and not too tired to sleep. She was just in need of some more coffee, but she didn't feel like going out right at that moment. She looked at the new case file that had been sent to her about the exxtra murder's she had received. She didn't want to look at new photo's but it was vital to her case and she was proloning it for quite some time. She was almost contemplating on just going home and worrying about it tomorrow, but knew she'd end up looking at them anyhow. What better place than there at her desk instead of the safety of her own bed.

Another yawn and the folder was open, a small letter telling her about what had happened, or what they think happened, and she was onto looking at these horrible pictures of bodies being chopped up. The good thing was they had included the autposy photo's where they were all cleaned up and all the body parts put back together as best they could. She shivered and looked around, creeping herself out for a moment as she imagined the horror the people had faced while being murdered.

Peta sighed out as she read another note attached at the end of the photo's and a small pastic bag with red taping at the top with black bold letters saing 'evidence'. She saw a small piece of cloth and she frowned. Why was that in there? She figured it was accidental. She sighed out and read over the paper stating that DNA was on the cloth, her chief had asked for it. She nodded, as if she nodding to the man who had sent her the files. She stood up and sighed, closing the folder and holding the baggie with the evidence. She headed down the hallway towards the lab where the late nighters worked. She could smell their complicated formula's and chemicals beofre she even got to DNA. She knocked on the door and saw the young asian sitting on a barstool looking at something through his microscope. She walked in and smiled.

"Hey, Alfie." The man smiled and returned her gesture and asked what he could do for her. "I need you to run this through DNA. It has some blood on it. I need you to cross reference it through our database and any other department. I am trying to get lucky and get some sort of break."

[Ethan Masters]

______

Ethan had slept a little late the next morning, had had to call in and tell his boss he'd be late, to which the old codger had stated he really hated people who were late, and that Ethan was slowly moving up the ranks on his late person hit list. Ethan calmed him down by explaining he'd been up practically all night with that serial killer and that they were close to being able to tie him to at least three of the other murders.

He hung up the phone and finished tying his tie, saying goodbye to his cat and leaving as quickly as he could.

The streets were as busy as they usually were, and he always did, he walked to work. Well, ran, as the case may be. The sidewalks were barely passable due to the people walking, running, jogging to work, everyone trying to get where they were going in a tangle of bodies going so many different directions it was like trying to figure out the paths in an ant farm.

Ethan entered the headquarters building with a biscuit in his mouth and a coffee cup in his hand, his glasses that he used to read perched upon his head. All the detectives were milling around, doing their jobs, some talking and laughing. Ethan could already see one of the detectives drilling someone out in the interrogation room. It was like the work hadn't even stopped from the day before.

Ethan's partner, an originally French man, Loren Deveneaux, was sifting through some of the files on Ethan's desk, his own cup of coffee sitting on the edge and a brown paper bag in the hand that was not shifting through the papers.

"Morning," Ethan said as he moved around the other man to put his things down and glance down at what his partner was looking at. "What're you looking for?"

"Morning, Ethan," he answered absentmindedly before standing up and shaking his head. "Just reviewing that surgeon's file...I need you to take copy of it over to Detective Ferril in the narcotics unit."

"Narcotics?" Ethan asked, picking up the file to see where drugs came into all of it.

"New lead says he was part of a drug ring that was involved in two other murders," Loren explained moving around to his desk, facing Ethan's. Ethan nodded.

"Yeah, okay, I'll get on it right away."

[Peta Miller]

She was still there, she had napped in the break room on the brown leather couch. Luckily she hadn't been bothered by anyone until the coffee machine's started being used by officers coming in and going out. She loved to wake up to the smell of coffee. Peta growned, lifting her head, feeling a crick in her neck. She saw a female officer getting coffee, looking over at her as the white blanket began to move.

<i>"Mornin' Miller. Late night?"</i> Peta sighed out, frowning heavily that she was beginning to spend more time at the office than she was at home. Lukcily she didn't have anyone to go home to, no boyfriend, no children, no pets...

"When is it never a late night?" The woman smiled and took the cup of coffee that had been spit out at the machine. The woman told her to go home and to get some good sleep, but Peta refused, getting up and tossing the blanket on the edge of the couch, fiddling in her pocket to grab .85 cents to get some coffee. Not her favorite, but it was doable. She sighed out and popped the change in, yawning, and waiting for the hot coffee to be poured into the styrafoam cup with the small machine logo on it.

The smell filled the room and she was glad to have more coffee in her system, she could have sworn up and down she was addicted, but she didn't feel like admitting to the problem today. She sighed out as she pushed the door open with her hip and walked out into the busy room, seeing many people wandering around, phone's ringing off the hook, radio's blasting, interrogation's going on. Chaos as usual.

Peta wandered to her desk, seeing the small red light on her phone blinking, letting her know it was ringing. She excused herself when passing two officer's rushing to the phone.

"This is Detective Miller." She said slightly winded from her body not being fully awake. "How can I help you?" It was Alfie from DNA. He siad he had a match and that she needed to get to the lab right away. Without anything else she slammed the phone down, put her coffee of the desk and turned quickly and jogged down the hall towards the crime lab. She was excited, her heart was racing, it was time to finally get that break she had been looking for, what she needed to sleep better at night. She barely acknowledged a few people who said good morning, but she knew they'd understand due to her rushing.

"Alfie, what do you got?" She started asking that question before she even made it into the lab. He was smiling, but not as big as she would have hoped. "What do you got?" She walked over to him and leaned on the high lab table, he sighed out and walked over to the printer where he printed out the DNA statistics.

<i>"I cross referenced, like you asked, with other department's to see if I could get a match. I didn't."</i> Peta frowned.

"I thought you got a match with the DNA on the cloth?" He sighed out and walked towards her with the information sheet.

<i>"I did...I was bored, figured I could go ahead and extend my search through people with minor misdeamenor's..."</I> He paused momentarily to look down at the sheet then up to her. <i>"I ran this at least six times, Peta, but each time it was a match."</i> Peta frowned fearing that it would be her by the way he was talking! She grabbed the sheet he held out to her. Her eyes scanned the paper and her stomach sank.

"Alfie...Alfie...this can't be right."

<i>"Peta, DNA doesn't lie."</I> Peta runned her eyes and sighed out trying to see if her eyes were lying to her.

"Okay," She looked up at Alfie and raised her eyebrows. "Look I got to handle this do me a favor...don't tell anyone about this yet, okay? I gotta talk to the Chief." Alfie nodded in response and Peta turned and headed out into the hallway, her heart was beating quickly and she felt sick to her stomach, from fear and from hunger. She slowly made her way back to her desk in a slow walking manner, as if she were walking to her death. Peta sat down at her desk and looked at the results. How could this be right? How? As much as she wanted it to not be true, it was.

She heard Ethan talking to someone and she glanced over her shoulder. How could he have murdered twenty-three people? How?

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan rifled through the folders on his desk, eyeballing the one he was supposed to take over to narcotics. He glanced up as Detective Miller came into the room, looking a little bewildered. He ignored her, taking a bite of his biscuit and a drink of her coffee.

He needed to take care of a lot of filing today, loathe as he was to do it. Groaning, he pushed his glasses down onto his nose and gathered up the files for narcotics. Tucking them under his arm, he picked up his coffee and headed towards the door, passing Detective Miller as he walked.

[Peta Miller]

Stweing over something wasn't going to do anything for one's mental state when it was already on the brink of destruction. She wasn't running on good sleep, her brain felt like it couldn't fit any more information on these cases anymore, and now she just learned something that was going to devastate everyone, especially her. She couldn't see him as a killer! Not even a freakin' abusive cop. Certainly he upheld the law, he was one of the best they had, it was just a precaution, he wasn't at all a bad person. They were the good guys. But something rubbed her the wrong way, Alfie was right, DNA wasn't unreliable. But DNA wasn't enough to convict someone...not really.

Peta sighed out and smelled him walk by. He always had the same good manly smell, somewhat expensive but sharp and clean, he was the only man she knew who wore it, <i>Curve</i>. She loved it. She had once, once long ago mind you, gone to the local perfume store to smell some cologne for a birthday gift, she had stumbled upon it and realized it reminded her of Ethan. She had bought it on a whim, four months later she wrapped it for the PD's annual Christmas ball with his name on it. Somewhat obsessive, perhaps, but she couldn't help but flirt with him. After a year, she had finally gotten past the hurdle of never being with him. Her attempts were bad to begin with, sure, but still it didn't hurt trying. Thank God she was twenty two at the time.

Peta stood up. She had to tell the Chief, she had to have him interrogated. This was too big to let go. But if he did it...


"Why the hell would he be here at work? Knowing we'd find out sooner or later?" She spoke quickly to her supervisor who was just as concerned as she was. With a disgruntled sigh he knew nothing else, but to go ahead and make an arrest, which was why Peta had been the first person out of the room to go ahead and do it.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan was right in the middle of explaining something to one of his friends in Narcotics when Peta Miller came down to find him, her face stony. Ethan didn't like the look of that face. He often saw the Detective perplexed, angered, even infuriated, but never ever had he seen her that stormy. Not exactly angry, but not exactly happy either. It was a face of a person who didn't know what to believe.

And she was headed straight for him.

Immediately, his problem solving brain went into overdrive. He went over the things he had been doing the past month of his probation. Anything that would cause another Detective to be after his head with a look like that on their face? Besides overworking and stressing about the probation hearing, he could thin k of nothing. Especially nothing that would make Detective Miller look that way.

Once upon a time, she had had somewhat of a little crush on him, he could tell by the little flirting they did. But it had never grown into anything but a comradarie between Detectives. They spoke in the halls, every now and then they got coffee for each other, sometimes talked in the break room, hell, they had even picked up leads and interrogated together. They were as close as Ethan was to any of the other detectives that were not his partner. Sure he didn't eat, sleep, breathe, and live with Peta Miller like he did his partner, but they were on good enough terms.

So why did that look on her face freak him out?

Bidding good afternoon to his friend, he walked to meet her, wanting to ask what her look was all about. He paused and let her finish walking to him.

"Detective?"

[Peta Miller]

Peta sighed out as they came to a meeting in the middle of the room. She looked around the area, trying to get her composure, she wasn't very good at arresting friends, after all this would have been her first. Plus, she couldn't help but try to find him innocent, they had worked together for so long and she had liked him so much! but that was going against everything she had gone into this line of work to do. Normally she'd have on her poker face, a stern look that meant business and no jerking around, but at this moment she didn't know what to think.

She had her hands in her pocket, simply because if she pulled them out she'd have a warrant to take him in and the other hand would be heading for the cuffs. But she wanted to give him a little it of special treatment. She had to, much like those white collared sons-a-bitches that embezzled money. They were always taken out with the upmost kindness, as well as respect, and she felt she could do the same for him despite the charges. Call it biased, whatever, this was Peta's arrest anyhow.

She heard two other blue suits follow her. She wasn't the police so she didn't wear the uniform, she got to wear the snazzy pant suits and the awesome badge on her belt buckle, which was why he was confused as to what brought her there, with arriving company.

"Ethan..." She sighed out, but the cop behind her clearing his throat made things hard. "We found a piece of jacket on one of the last victims in the serial murder's..." Her eyes went to the jacket he wore and saw a small piece missing on the sleeve. It confirmed things even more.

"I'm sorry, Ethan." She pulled out the warrant and grabbed his arm. "We need to go back to the department. I have a warrant for your DNA." She softly grabbed his arm and looked around. "Just come with me, don't make me put cuffs on you."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan was immediately smoking. He jerked his arm away, his brow furrowing down at her. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. What the hell had she just said!? He followed his eyes down to the cuff of his jacket. Indeed there was a peice missing...except...Ethan had certainly not lost it at a murder scene! In fact...he was just now noticing the small peice's absence himself.

"I'm sorry, what?" he said, louder than it seemed Peta wanted to keep things. Ah hell, he didn't care. This was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. His DNA at a crime scene?! He had gone into the police force to stop murders from happening, not commit them himself! He snatched the warrent out of her hand to look at it. Opening the folded paper, his eyes scanned down the page. Surely enough, his name was in big bold print, and there was an order for his arrest and for the gathering of his DNA.

For a long moment, he just stared at it, as if it might change before his eyes. His jaw dropped open. This was impossible. He looked back up at Peta, shaking his head at her, then at the two cops behind her. Finally he swallowed.

"No need for hand cuffs, Detective Miller," he said, pocketing the warrent. He dislodged his badge from his belt, and his gun from his hip and surrendered them to Peta. "I'm going willingly," he finished, pushing through her and the other two. He wanted to know what the hell was going on before he was in up to his knees in charges he hadn't committed.

[Peta Miller]

Peta didn't like the roughness, when he did that an alarm went off in her head. Guilty men acted that way, then agian so did some innocent. It gave her a slight insight to his control and his anger, she had seen his anger before, certainly she worked with him, but she hadn't actually encountered it like she would have a man she arrested. Then again she hadn't arrested him either! She sighed out and gave a weary look to an officer, sure enough if things got bad he'd be taken down, no questions asked. She wanted to be civil, but it was apparent he wasn't so it made her very cautious and no longer empathetic.

They made it to the department in no time, it hadn't been a far walk, but it seemed like an eternity while following next to him feeling the rage he probably felt inside. She walked in and he knew where to go. She pulled off her coat, told the chief and got ready for some hell. The questions would come easily, the harrassment, even easier, she called one of the lab workers to bring down the kit so she could get some DNA to make sure that this was his, although they already knew it, confirmation was a must in this case. She sighed out, rolled her sleeves up and walked into the viewing room seeing Ethan have a seat in the cold room. A man walked into the viewing room, her partner in the case Danny Taylor. He sighed out, holding some file information in a manilla folder.

"Well, he looks mad more than anything. We gotta get this straightened out." She glanced at him, he didn't say anything except nodded before pointing at the door.

<i>"DNA is waiting."</i> She sighed out and walked out into the hall and towards the door. She took the small kit and quickly stepped into the interrogation room, watching Ethan hard.

"Mind telling me how you ripped your jacket?" She knew she couldn't play favorites. This is what it was all about.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan glanced up as she came into the room the DNA kit in her hand. His stomach sank. So they really were looking at him for this. All of sudden, it was surreal. Sitting here in the chair that so many other coldblooded killers had sat in, being asked the same kinds of questions. He glanced at the one way mirror that could be found in every interrogation room in every PD in America. It was staple. It was no secret that there was the boss out there watching. Ethan had stood there with that man plenty of times...

But now it was him. He looked back up at Peta and looked down at his jacket, pushing down off his elbows. He kept his sleeves rolled up so much of the time he hadn't even noticed the rip until it had been brought to his attention. He gave a shrug.

"I roll my sleeves up every morning at the house because it gets so hot in my apartment," he said truthfully. He shook his head and waved his hand vaguely. "You know what it's like around here, there are a hundred ways I could have ripped it and never known..." he paused. He leaned forward again. "I'm saying, I don't know how it ripped. Go ahead and get the DNA thing over with, it tastes awful..." he said, nodding to the kit in her hand.

[Peta Miller]

She glanced at the kit and then up at her partner, who just watched, then back at Ethan She raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"Understood, but I think if I was murdering someone I wouldn't have worn my favorite jacket. Nor would I have bled on it." She pulled the q-tip out of the plastic protector and leaned on the desk. "Open." She watched him stare at her then drop his jaw. Quickly she swabbed his cheek and pushed the protective covering over it and snapped the top and handed it, blindly, to her partner.

"Take this to DNA." She heard him say yes, her eyes never once leaving Ethan. She thought this would be hard, not really, it was quite easy.

"Tell me, how is your blood on the sleeve? Better yet, tell me how it magically appeared, with your DNA, on our victim?" She frowned and pulled out crime scene photos nad pushed them at him. "I doubt there are magic little elves roaming under your bed, pricking your finger and rubbing your blood on your jacket and then cutting it off and laying it on a dead body."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan gave the crimescene photos a glance. He had seen them so many times already, they didn't bother him anymore. He sighed out, he supposed she was only doing her job, but it was so funny how friends turn on friends so quickly in this business.

"First of all, Detective Miller," he said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't have worn my favorite jacket to murder people in. That's just...stupid. Second, I wouldn't have bled on the piece that happened to get ripped off. Third, I certainly wouldn't have worn the torn jacket to work since I was there when they picked that evidence up."

He paused a moment to let her chew on it, then turned his attention to her elf comment. He looked down at the crimescene photos. On one, he even saw a little scrawl of his own handwriting where he had made notes for someone who had asked him to look over the photos and pick out what he could about them. He shook his head. They were brutal killings, and it made him mad to look at the photos and then know that his own friends and colleagues thought he had had something to do with it.

"As for blood on the sleeve, the only thing I can think of was about a month ago I was making dinner rather hurriedly for my partner and I, and I sliced my finger open trying to talk and cut at the same time," he said, shrugging. "Ask Loran, he basically had to get a tourniquet to keep me alive," he paused. "I'm sure my blood got on the sleeve, but I didn't notice it, because I roll my sleeves up more often than I don't..." he chewed his lip.

"Hate to disappoint you, but I can assure you that I don't go around bleeding on things and then putting them on bodies just so that I can have the lovely pleasure of your interrogation, Detective."

[Peta Miller]

She listened, intentively, hoping for something that would allow her allegations to be completely false. She hoped he was innocent, sadly she couldn't just say that. But she figured nobody was in the viewing room and her partner was out. She leaned on the table and looked at him, crossing her arms for a moment.

"It still doesn't explain how exactly that piece of your jacket got onto the body." She sighed. "There wasn't any possible way it just...ripped off when we were at the crime scene." She looked at the photos. There wasn't a good connection, there wasn't any kind of connection for her. Ethan didn't know the vic, he didn't have any ties to her, no real reason. These killings were random, at best, but they had to have gained trust in some form before these happened. They were abducted and there wasn't anything indicating that Ethan had gone to Pennsylvania, or anywhere unless it was for these cases.

"I want to figure this out, you aren't guilty, <i>yet</i>, but you have to admit this is seriously suspicious." She opened a small brown bag and looked at him. "I need the jacket." She swallowed and looked at him. "Tell me...do you have any affiliation with this young woman? Know anyone who knew her?" This had no relativity. There wasn't anyway to make connections except through time tables.

She looked through the files and looked at the autopsy reports, gruesome details, but time of death was definitely stated. She frowned and looked at Ethan. "What were you doing on the night of February 18th?"

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan put his forehead in his hand and rubbed it for a moment before standing and sliding off the jacket, nodding at her words. No, he wasn't saying it wasn't suspicious, it definately was and he would be the first to admit it. But...he just...didn't have the answer. He had no idea how his jacket had been torn off and found on the body. He hadn't been back after the first time he'd been there.

He handed over his jacket and watched her fold it up, and slide it into the bag. He licked his lips and thought a moment.

"Uh...yeah," he said. "I was here with Loren from eight at night till about...four thirty the next morning. Somewhere around there, it was a long night..." he paused, then shook his head. "And no, I'd never met her, and all my friends are contained within the PD...or, I thought they were..." he sighed. "As far as I know, none of my friends knew her either, Peta this ridiculous!" he said, leaning forward a little on the table.

"I joined the PD to get rid of these kinds of people, not become one myself, you know that," he said. "Especially considering my brother's a psychopath...there's gotta be some mistake...you know me..." he said. He was beginning to fear that maybe when worse came to worse, they wouldn't care that Ethan was their friend, their colleague. Someone needed to hang for these murders...the pressure had been on for sometime...he feared they might just hang the wrong man to satisfy those outside the PD...

Christ, he prayed a miracle occured.

[Peta Miller]

Peta looked at him as she clutched the bag with his jacket. How she hung on his words. She didn't know why but she believed him. She knew it was wrong to already think him innocent when everything seemed to point to him, but where was the missing parts? The motive? The weapon? They had a footprint somewhere, but it was useless. She sighed out and nodded.

"I am trying to help you, okay? Look, there has to be something, anything, that can knock you out of this. I am going to go see about the time you were here and take this to DNA. Be back." She stood up, hearing the chair screech across the floor. She headed out the door rather quickly, on a mission to figure this out. They might not be able to pin all these murders on him, certainly not, but one was just enough to send him away for life. She frowned.

"Send him away...jail.." She jogged down to DNA handing the jacket over for further testing, the woman had been shot, it he had done it there would be gun shot resadue, most definitely. She bit her lower lip and headed back to the case file, looking at several other local murders that were done in the same fashion. She need to cross reference the time of death with his schedule. They had to clock in, if it showed he was here at work on the night of her muder, great! They had Loren to back him up. But there was the other cases to consider. Something that tickled her was that she remembered he had meetings with his parole officer at a certain date, two of those dates matched the time that the victims were killed.

The one that helped her most was the one that had happened the same night. It was the night he was rushed out on a call, it was the same time when he was on probation, it was the time he spent in jail, it all seemed to fit. She clapped her hands with joy as she searched the computer system, matching times he clocked in with times of death for a few victims, she was quickly on the phone with his probation officer bugging him about if he had missed any scheduled meetings or if any had been cancelled. So far, it looked good on alibi's, but it wasn't explaining the event of the jacket.

She waited for the results, which were very quick considering she begged for the fast track. She had been gone for almost half an hour when she got the results to know that no GSR was on the sleeve. Relief. She had to take this at a different angle. What if he was being set up? It was a route she wanted to go instead of the whole 'my friend and colleague murdered someone' pathway.

Peta sighed out, jogging back to the interrogation room. She walked in and closed the door behind her, sitting on the desk and looking down at him. She wanted to smile, but didn't, professional's didn't do that in such a setting.

"Do you have any known enemies? Anyone who would want you behind bars? Someone who would love to see you get in any kind of trouble?" She frowned thinking of the people who petitioned outside of the courthouse when the verdict came in on the brutality case that he was just getting probation. The family wanted jail time. They were all enemies, certainly.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan had had his head on the table thinking about the crap that had just gone down. He had woke up late, and known instinctively that this day was gonna suck. And indeed, it had. And seemed to only be getting worse until Peta finally came back in and sat asking him about enemies.

Now, Ethan wasn't sure, but asking if someone was his enemy and would want to hurt him, was much better than asking him if he had murdered a woman point-blank with a shotgun. He sat up, alert now, and raised his eyebrows, listening intently to her. He looked up at the ceiling, thinking hard. He shook his head a moment.

"Well...I mean, you know the family of the guy I 'brutalized'," he said. Was 'brutalized' even a word? He didn't know. He didn't really care at this point either. He shook his head again. "They're the only one's I can think of...I mean..." he wasn't sure if it was even worth mentioning, but he decided that as much information as he could give the better. "My brother's always hated my guts, but we solve that by living in different states and never speaking...other than that...I think your best guess would be any one of the people screaming for jail time on my brutality case...I'm sure any of them would love to see me slaughtered..."

[Peta Miller]

Peta frowned, thinking for a moment. She could check into the people who had probably left nasty messages on his machine or wrote letters. It was worth a shot, and a brother? Who knew. Kinda low. She bit her lower lip and nodded.

"Tell ya what, there wasn't any gun shot res on your sleeves." She bit her lower lip. She couldn't test his hands, that was for sure. "You roll up your sleeves, so don't breathe easy yet, okay? But here, I am going to go check on-" The door to the room flew open and it was her partner. He was gesturing for her to go outside for a moment. She looked at Ethan and told him to hang on, as usual, and walked out. Her blue-eyed model-esque partner stood outside holding some papers, paper's that would lighten something up she was sure.

"GSR might have been neg, Miller," He handed the paper to her. She frowned and looked down at it. Reciepts. What was this? She was quick to ask, but he was faster to answer. "The same weapon that was used on our vic, same gun Ethan Master's purchased twelve hours before the murder." </i>She looked at it. Damn it all to hell! If it wasn't true.

"This is in Pennsylvania?" Her partner nodded. "How? He has an alibi, he was here!"

"Loren said he was here, but he said there was a gap of time earlier that day when they were in opposite sides of the building. He said he lost track of time, but he knew it had been a very long time." Peta frowned and looked at the sheet, studying it.

"We have the atm video, pictures are right there stapled. It was sent to us. It shows Ethan geting money from an ATM in PA. Then transactions show him about twenty minutes later buying a Glock, smae one that was used on our victim, with his credit card at a nearby store." But he didn't stop.

"Then, money being used from the ATM machine, bought breakfast at a small diner, the same diner our victim worked at." Peta stormed into the room not caring about anything.

"Explain this..." She put the paper on the table. "It shows you, twelve hours before her death...you!" She pointed at the still pictures of Ethan. "Here you are getting money..." She turned the page to the receipt transactions given by the credit card company. "Here you buy a Glock! Then you go to a diner, have a nice meal, nice chat with your pretty waitress, you decide to give her a ride home...when you tried to make advancements she fought back, you then killed her."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan stood up and backed off away looking at the pictures. He shook his head, slamming a hand down on the table and picking up the pictures. He pushed it into Peta's face, pointing at the blurry picture that did look a lot like him, but wasn't him.

"That is not me. I haven't ever used that credit card, I don't even know how to get to that diner, damn it!" he yelled, throwing the paper and the files onto the table. He waved his hands to signal everything to stop. "I was here that day, filing in the bowels of Hell, downstairs where they put me because of probation, Loren was up here working on his case, boss was in his office, I drank goddamn three cups of coffee that day to keep me awake!" he yelled.

He ran his fingers through his hair.

"I--I don't care. I wasn't there, that isn't me. I don't know who that is. He looks a lot like me, yeah, but it isn't me..." he paused. "You know what, make this easier on us all. Cuff me, lock me up--I go willingly--and then when someone else is murdered, you'll know you've made fools of the whole squad, how's that sound, Detective Miller?"

Ethan was frustrated. Angry and frustrated. He knew where he was that day, he knew what he had done, and it certainly wasn't go stalk a waitress he had never seen before, and certainly not to kill her and throw a bloody peice of cloth on her body! It was completely irrational...he didn't know how to prove the evidence wrong, it was slowly mounting, but he would have to.

[Peta Miller]

She tilted her head, getting mad that this wasn't going anywhere except to the place she was praying it wouldn't.

"This is looking very bad for you, I hope you know that. We've got your DNA on the victim, we got you in still photo's going into <i>your</i> bank account, we have you using <i>your</i> credit card." She crossed her arms and stared at him waiting for something. "I want you to prove me wrong, I do, I am ready to hear the truth! You have many signs pointing to this woman's murder." She let out a scoff and she sifted through all the papers on the table strewn.

"You going to tell me that someone is breaking into your house now? Stealing jacket's, credit cards, identity?" She raised her eyebrows looking him square in the eye. "Doppleganger, perhaps?"

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan held up his hands.

"Don't try to be cute, Peta. You're looking pretty ugly right now," he said. He pointed in her face. "I'm trying my damn hardest to prove you wrong, it's why I haven't lawyered up, which you know I have every right to do. Plus, no one actually read me my rights, which, as you know, I could sue you for..." he paused, making sure she knew she was going to have her own problems if she wasn't careful.

After a moment, he pushed his finger against the papers and the picture.

"That person, this guy...I don't know who he is, I don't know how he's gotten my things, but I was not at that bank. I don't know how to get to that diner, I don't know that woman, I don't even own a shot gun," he said. "I can't even use a shot gun corrrectly...meaning, I would have a kickback bruise, right?" he shook his head. "Don't have one of those either." He paused. "I don't care what you think you see on that photo. It's real hard for a guy to be two places at once, Detective Miller, God be excluded...I was downstairs filing. Three hours I was down there in the fileroom, and still didn't finish all the filing. I had a thermos of coffee and a coffee cup down there. I didn't even leave to go urinate, let alone muder a girl I'd never seen before in Pennsylvania. I'm sorry, I wish I could help you more than that."

Ethan took a deep breath trying to calm himself down. He felt like he was talking to a brick wall. He shook his head.

"Either you want the truth, or you don't. Now, I could certainly lie to you and tell you I was there, I did shoot that girl, I am a coldblooded killer. But that would be lying to a police officer, which is against the law..." he paused. "Now, you either believe me or you don't. If you do, I propose you try to figure out who that is--" he jabbed a finger at the blurry surveillance picture. "--and if you don't, lock me up, hail the DA, and prosecute me..."

[Peta Miller]

Peta sighed out.

"Fine. Ethan Miller you are under arrest for the murder of Sacha Lynn Rosemoor. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can, and will, be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed." She pulled the cuffs out of hook and looked at him.

"You ask, you receive, Ethan."

[Ian Masters]

You ask, you recieve. Hm. That was good, why hadn't he thought of that one?

Sighing, the man leaned back away from the window of the apartment just across the street from the NYPD headquarters, having spied all he needed to, and made sure Ethan was going to be put back behind those cold bars. Ian raised the blinds and yawned, glancing back over his shoulder as he heard the key click in the lock, and the door to the apartment open.

A tall, handsome figure stood in the doorway. Ian jumped up, stretching and tossing aside his equipment, throwing Ethan's credit card into his suitcase before shutting it with a loud thud and locking it. He glanced over as the tall figure came into the room and the light hit his face.

"Everything finished?" the man said, an Asian man, with ice blue eyes--pulled off by contacts Ian himself had bought--and a pretty body Ian had seen several times, quite a bit more intimately than he was seeing it now, clothed in all the black and dreariness. Ian nodded.

"Yep. He just got thrown into the slammer for the night, at least. Bail will most definately be set tomorrow, and will probably be too high for him to bail himself out because I've drained all his accounts...er...all but one..." Ian explained, pulling his suitcase and satchel off the bed. The man's eyebrow lifted slightly.

"All but one?" he intoned. Ian waved a hand.

"You worry too much, dear. I'm smart for my age, everything's taken care of. When does our flight leave?" he asked. The man shift a little, pulling up his sleeve and looking at his watch. He thought a moment, as if he couldn't remember. Finally he nodded.

"About and hour and a half..." he answered. Ian nodded.

"Alright then, we should get over to the airport to get our things checked and onboard in a timely manner..." Ian said, gathering his things and walking towards the door. He paused by the man to stand on his toes and kiss his cheekbone. He whispered into his ear. "Don't forget to say goodbye to brother dearest. I'm sure he'll be lonely in that cell all night."

[Peta Miller]

Peta was annoyed that within twenty minutes of booking, the news was all over it like flies on crap. The stupid people didn't know how to respect a man's privacy, then again she hadn't been able to think of anything else either. He was just accused, booked, for murdering a woman while on the clock. It didn't seem plausible, at the same time it held water due to the fact he was on camera, he had used the credit cards and atm. Who else knew his pin number? Who else looked exactly like him? Who? Nobody!

Peta stepped out of the shower holding the towel close to her as she dried off quickly, walking to the bedroom to hear the news continuing their coverage of the case. The press wanted him run through the ringer and hung up to dry. They were going to tear him apart. They had already begun to dig into his past, so far that she herself felt immersed by the dysfunction in the family.

She scrubbed her hair dry and bit her lower lip, listening to the woman standing outside of the jail where he would be staying all night, alone, in his worries. They were talking about his brutality case, the protestors, they had gone so far to even interview the man who had been supposedly beaten by him. He said he was happy, which didn't surprise her, but this man was a liar, he had no case against Ethan! It had been based on lies and it had been based on racial grounds and the fact he had more money than God Himself.

"Damn." She tossed the towel off and got dressed. She couldn't do anything but feel horrible for doing what she did to Ethan. She arrested him for crying out loud! Her own co-worker. She knew, somehow, that this wasn't true. This wasn't right.

She walked over to her laptop and typed into the files of his case that had been filed. She was allowed to look at them considering she was head of the investigation, the phone had been taken off the hook and she refused to make a public statement yet. She knew that this wasn't true, Ethan Masters was a good guy, he wouldn't hurt anyone unless properly needing to do so.

Fooling around she seaerched for that brother of his. He had said something about him and she figured it would be wise to look into him, bad blood apparent between these two, but she didn't find much. Not even a picture. She sighed out and looked over at the television in her bedroom, now muted from her annoyance. She wondered how Ethan was holding up, after all this was the second time he'd been sent to jail on things he didn't do.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan had been given the oppurtunity for a phone call, but the only people who he would have wanted to call were part of the police force, and were now his enemies. The only person he felt was on his side, was his partner, who had come to the cell almost immediately after he'd been put in, just to make sure he wasn't alone.

"Ethan, you have to give us all the details...anything that will help us. You know I don't want this to be pinned on you, I know you didn't do this. But the evidence is suspicious..." Loren was saying, waving his hand a little as he usually did when he got fuzzed up. Ethan shoot his head, laying back on the really uncomfortable holding cell bed.

"There's nothing more to tell that I didn't already scream at Detective Miller..." he said, shrugging. "I know the evidence looks bad, and that sucks for me...but that doesn't change the fact that the evidence is wrong. I don't know how yet...I just know that it is."

Loren sighed. Ethan heard his chair scrape across the floor, and he looked over. Loren pushed the chair against the wall and leaned against the bars for a moment. He shook his head.

"I'm on your side, Ethan, and I'm going to stay on your side, even if they convict you..." he paused. "I'm gonna go do some digging, okay? You hang tight. We'll pin this."

Ethan didn't bother saying 'Sure', 'Okay', 'Bite me', nothing. He just turned over and listened to the sound of Loren's footsteps fading down the hall until he could no longer heard them. He had silence now...silence to think about this...put two...and two...

"Oh my God..." he muttered, a thought striking him like nothing ever had before. He never moved so fast in his life as he did to get up and throw himself against the bars and holler down at the hall officer. He whistled, waving an arm outside the bars. "Hellooo! Yoohoo! Officer, I want my phone call."

The officer eyeballed him disdainfully for a moment--Ethan had never met him before--and then got up, walking down the hall with the keys. He unlocked the door and escorted him down to the phones. Ethan smiled at him, racking his brain. He hoped he could remember Peta's number.

Grabbing up the phone, he dialed the number, praying she picked up.

[Peta Miller]

The cell phone rang loudly and she almost fell out of her seat in shock. Why was it so loud for? Right, she was sleeping! She frowned and looked at the clock, it wasn't too late, just 11:34 at night. She was sleepy from the lack of sleep yesterday. She sighed out and sat up, if it was the news she was killing everyone and she'd be sure to request a coed cell with her fellow officer.

She looked at the number on the face of the phone, who the heck was that? Private number? She sighed and reluctantly answered.

"Detective Miller."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan's jaw dropped when he heard it and he did a little victory leap before getting down to business.

"Uh, uh, yeah, Peta? Peta, it's me, Ethan? Look, I obviously had a lot of time to think about this, okay so this is..." he paused to look at his watch. "About six hours of thought, so listen closely," he said. He paused, but not long enough to let her answer. "My apartment, you need to go there, there is a spare key at the front desk, just tell Kyle you're a police officer and he'll give it to you okay?" he paused again, but didn't give her time to answer.

"Okay, in my apartment, in the kitchen is my cordless, okay? I want you to listen to the third messege. It's from my brother, Ian, okay? I got it yesterday when I went home, but I didn't think anything about it because he'll sometimes pop up randomly in my life, make some threatening comment and I won't hear from him again. But, I--I should have paid attention to this one. He says something about borrowing a credit card? I can't remember exactly what all he says, just that he borrowed a credit card, or something. But.." Ethan pasued to take a breath, shaking his head. "But, Peta, I haven't seen him in months. It's been almost a year. If he borrowed a credit card, he had to have broken into my house to get it..." he stopped finally to breath in and out.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me, okay? I know it's late but you have to go over there...okay?"

[Peta Miller]

Peta had never heard so many words in all her life in less than one minute, hell probably thirty seconds. He was talking so fast she was automatically wide awake. But thankfully he had breathed new life into her. She barely said two words to him before she shot up out of the seat she was reclining in, grabbed her keys and wallet, put on flip flops and ran out the door. She told him she'd be there to see him after she went to his apartment come hell or high water.

She didn't care what she wore, although that was skimpy track shorts and a tank top. This was business and it was urgent. If anyone tried to get in her way, she'd literally stomp a mudhole in their behind and walk it dry! She almost killed herself running to the subway station with her metrocard slidiing it through to get onto the right train. She waited about ten minutes before she was rushing up the stairs onto street level and into his apartment, thankfully they didn't live too far from one another.

She ran into the bright lobby and looked at the desk clerk.

"Hi!" She said breathless but with a big goofy smile. "I'm detective Peta Miller. I am needing access to Ethan Masters apartment." A quick flash of her badge and she was running up the flight of stairs, not chancing on waiting forever for the elevator. She made it into the apartment in less then twenty minutes. She frowned, looking around the dark roomn searching for a light. She finally found one, almost knocking it off. She sighed out and wandered to the answering machine, doing everything that Ethan had asked. The moment the beep ended the message her heart was racing, much faster than it had from all that running and all that excitement. She it her lower lip in happiness and took the tape out. SHe didn't want to chance anyone else touching it except her and Ethan.

She picked up the phone and dialed her partner. She told him to check if there had been any recent transactions made on any of Ethan's credit cards. It took him a while and she was dying with impatience. When he came back on the line he said it'd take twenty to thirty minutes before he'd get an update. With that being said she told him to call her cell phone immediately. WIth that, she hung up and quickly left the apartment, failing to even drop the key back off at the clerk.

Peta was hyper, excited, anxious, every emotion one could feel. She needed to hail a cab, and fast. Thankfully there were many tonight, free for her to hop into. She mentally thanked herself for not even changing into something decent. She spat out the address of the jail. It took about ten minutes from the apartment, traffic going quickly, the driver nearly hit two bikers, luckily they hadn't which was good, she didn't need any set backs. She tossed money at the cab driver, telling him to keep the change before she raced into the building, emptying her pockets and almost running through the metal detectors. Grabbing her stuff she walked briskly to the main desk.

"Hi, I am needing to speak with Ethan Masters. I am the head of the murder investigation and I need to ask him a few questions. Now."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan was practically clawing his face by the time he heard the door at the end open and the sound of running flip flops coming towards him. He pressed his cheek against the bars to be able to see who it was, but they were running so fast that in a moment's time, he saw the glorious face of Peta Miller running towards him, the answering machine tape in her hand.

He had never grinned so big before.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," he said, glancing up and down her frame, noticing belatedly how pretty she actually was when she was out of work uniform and a little more relaxed. He shook his head. "You listened to the tape?"

[Peta Miller]

Peta sighed out with a loud laugh, rolling her eyes dramatically, thankful that he hadn't been someone's prison bitch just yet. She was so glad to see that he was still sane.

"Yes." She said trying to catch a breath. How terrible it actually was to see someone you knew on the other side of life, the wrong side if you asked her. She had seen many behind bars, happily so, but to see his pretty little face and puppy dog eyes it was heartwrenching to her. She looked him up and down making sure all limbs were there, although he hadn't even been introduce to the proper cell or attire, that would come a little before his trial, she could see he looked like hell from being in there.

"How are you? You okay?" She didn't really wait for much of a response. She moved closed to the bars, almost pushing herself against them in some way to just squeeze herself in there to not feel like he was the bad guy.

"I have my partner checking your credit cards. If anything is purchased he'll call me. It's gonna take a while, about twenty minutes or so to see if someone is using them." She sighed out and looked at him desperately as if she were madly in love with this man. "I am sorry." She said lowly. "I really am, Ethan. But you know, I had to do this." She bit her lower lip and for a moment a silence was shared, until her phone rang loudly, again. She jumped and grabbed her phone out of her pocket and picked it up.

"Yeah?" She said informally. Her partner talked quickly on the other line and she grabbed Ethan through the bars. Her eyes wide. "Yeah! Okay! Okay, I'll call the DA, yeah. Bye." She looked at him and sighed out, shaking her head as if this were surreal.

"Tokyo."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan's jaw dropped.

"Tokyo?" he exclaimed like he had never heard of that place before. He ran a hand through his hair looking down at the floor. His mind was racing trying to figure out all the reasons his brother might be in Tokyo. He shook his head. "I have...Tokyo? That makes zero sense..." he said, his mind working. Finally, after a moment, he looked back up, redirecting himself back to her statement. He waved a hand.

"You're doing your job, quite well, I might say. I was beginning to think I was a criminal..." he paused a moment. "But now, you can just figure out what the hell is going on..." he stopped glancing behind him a moment before leaning his forehead against the bars. "So...okay, assuming I know what I'm talking about, this gives me some leverage...but I still have to stick around here until bail is set tomorrow, after which I will bail myself out, but they'll probably ground me, I mean, I'm a major flight risk...which means, it's up to you guys to find out what is in Tokyo."

He smiled wide.

[Peta Miller]

Peta laughed and nodded.

"That is what I am doing by calling the DA." She was breathless, happy to see him happy to know he didn't do it! Happy just because, she was happy! She licked the corner of her mouth as she smiled, way too excited about all of this. She was favoring this case, sadly, over any of the others she had going on right now.

"You'll be here tonight, sorry." She gave him empathetic eyes for a moment before going on. "Tomorrow, your bail will be pretty high, don't worry, I got you covered, I think everyone does! Anyway, I am going to call the DA. I am going to Tokyo, all right, to get this settled..." She laughed and shook her head.

"Flight risk, possibly, but with an armed officer by your side and a cute little bracelet, we'll be heading for Tokyo, Japan together, first-class, by tomorrow night." She nodded, pleased with her fortune telling. Of course this could all not go as planned, the DA could simply reject her offer to go chase down phantom brother's in Japan alongside of a man who is still being charged for the murder. But the tape in her hand and those credit card transactions sure do make a great case.

"As best as you can, get some sleep." She grabbed his hand through the bars and gave it a squeeze. "We're gonna clear your name, Ethan, I swear." She let it go and sighed. "Sleep!" She slowly moved away from the bars and smiled.

"Bright and early, you'll see me with a big smile on my face tomorrow in court! Night! Sayounara!" She winked and turned down the hall. Relief was all she could feel.

[Ethan Masters]

Sleep was the last thing on Ethan's mind. His brain, so accustomed to solving cases with his partner, was already working on all possible outcomes. They were dizzying, and he did fall asleep until a good three hours after Peta had left. But luckily, he had put in a holding cell away from the other prisoners, so there was little noise to distract him. It wasa blessing he'd been put here, most murder suspects were chucked in the bin with the other prisoners, but even though he was being suspected of murder, no one in his unit could put him with the other criminals. Even though they were doing his job, the look on his boss's face when Ethan had been taken out of the building had been one of determination. He hadn't thought Ethan had done it, and he had given him a little special treatment because of it.

When Ethan awoke the next morning it was to the sound of a man yelling down the hall at Ethan, that they were heading down to get him cleaned up, changed, in cuffs, and down to the courthouse. He moved quickly so that when the man got down there with cuffs and the key to his cell, he was already up and awake.

He cleaned up, changed into a nicer looking pair of pants and shirt, and was put in cuffs on his wrists and his ankles. His partner had come to pick him up, along with a recruited temporary partner, whom Ethan had only seen on a few occasions and was about as hardnosed as they came.

For the first time in his life--well, second if you counted the brutality case--Ethan was behind the cage in the police car as he was brought to the courthouse, his partner driving and the other man sitting quietly in the passenger side. Loren liked Ethan too much, and vice versa for them to stay quiet the whole ride. Loren looked up into his mirror, watching Ethan's brown eyes for a moment before smiling.

"Bail's gonna be a high, E," he said, nodding a little. Ethan nodded, scooting up a little to put his forehead against the cage.

"Yeah, I know. But don't worry, I think I've got it covered," he said. Loren's brow furrowed, but the courthouse appeared much too soon for him to answer. He parked the car in front--where a crowd of protestors had gathered--and turned in his seat.

"First of all, sorry about all the cuffs...second, stay in between me and David--" he nodded to the man in the passenger's seat, "--because I don't know what these crazies will do. Alright?"

"Sure thing Loren," Ethan said absentminmdedly, his eyes searching the crowd and the courthouse steps for Peta. He didn't see her, which disheartened him a little, but he ignored it and waited for Loren to open the door. As soon as he did, the protestors went even crazier than they had been already. They were hollering for him to punished, angry as hell, but Ethan just stuck to Loren's side and David fell in next to him, escorting him up the steps and into the courthouse.

His eyes searched the faces as he was lead towards the holding cell in the back of the courthouse so he could await his court time.

[Peta Miller]

The place was so croweded she felt she was going to lose a limb, or worse! She had gotten there early, but due to the extremeties that were happening with the protestors, supporters, reporters, everything was a mess and a massive sea of people and Peta was all the way in Egypt by the time she had finally made her way towards the courthouse. She wasn't wanting to head on in just yet, she wanted to see him getting out of the car, try to talk to him, but she figured it would be best to head on inside and get a seat. Most people weren't allowed in due to the violence that could erupt, but those who had access, AKA reporters, she knew it would be hard to get a good seat.

Peta had been inside for more than an hour, early as usual, and it was already packed out crowded and she was getting highly annoyed and very claustrophobic. People were yelling so loudly outside that anytime the doors opened to the court room it would literally echo down the hallway. Of course everytime those doors opened she hoped it'd be Ethan, but she knew he wasn't going to enter that way, not when he was in some serious trouble. Her heart beat lively in her chest. Bail was going to be high, but she was already prepared to take out loans if need be, they had to get to Tokyo and quick! She had talked to the DA and she was allowed to be in charge of him and was allowed to let him go to Japan with her on a lead, without even being tagged with some device to allow people to locate him.

"Crap..." She said to herself seeing that he should be arriving at any moment. She was anxious to see him, she wanted to tell him that all was ready and that they could get the hell out of dodge before anyone picked up on their new information. The doors opened from behind where most prisoners were held an slowly walked in with all their embarassment. Pictures went flashing, camera's followed his every move. She sat up in her seat and bit back the smile of just seeing him. Orange was really not his color.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan squinted against the camera flashes as he came into the courtroom and saw the knot of people on either side of the stands. He ignored the people, rather looking at the judge who was looking over his things. The officer that he had passed earlier picked up a sheet of paper.

"Case thirty-eight, People versus Ethan Masters, murder in the second degree," he called to allow everyone in the room to hear exactly what Ethan was being charged of. The judge nodded and looked up.

"And how does the defendant plead?"

"Not guilty," Ethan stated clearly and strongly. And he knew that somehow that would be proven. His lawyer then faced the People--the prosecuting attorney--in banter Ethan didn't really listen to. He was looking over the crowd, looking for someone. He could barely see anyone because there were too many faces to take in. He gnawed on his lip before his eyes suddenly caught the look of a familiar face.

It was Peta Miller.

Never before had she looked so good as she did right then to him. He nodded at her before turning his attention back to his lawyer. The judge was listening to them talk back and forth about why and why not he should be given bail. His lawyer assured the judge that Ethan was not a flight risk--not entirely true--and that he would be under police surveillance at all times. The prosecutor insisted that due to the severity of the charges, it was too dangerous to let him out on the streets again.

Finally after debate, the judge wrapped it up, setting bail at seven hundred thousand and releasing them. Immediately the press were crying for Ethan to give them a statement. The police officer took Ethan's arm to guide him back to the car. Ethan glanced over his shoulder making a face at Peta to indicate that she should come over and tell him the news.

[Peta Miller]

Peta watched in complete silence, a soft frown on her face as she listened to everyone deliberate and discuss the current conditions that had been raised since her quick phone call to the District Attorney, telling everyone everything that in order to show his innocence, he was to be dragged along with her to Tokyo, Japan. Since she was the reigning officer, she had the power to do anything, and they granted her permission to practically kidnap him. She wanted to grin at the thought, but knew a smile in court over such a thing would not look good on anyone, especially her and Ethan.

His bond was set, and an inner hiss was given, but it was better than a few million. Last case she had the bail was set so high she wondered if anyone could even get a bond that big. She bit her lower lip as he was quickly directed towards the exit. She stood, grabbing her lengthy jacket and small handbag and walked out the door, heading quickly towards the exit to the back where she could speak with him for a moment. She looked up when she walked out of the double doors into the hall, she almost wanted to hit herself. The press was all over her. She refused to make any sort of statement on his behalf. Not wanting to seemed biased that she believed him innocent, preconceived notions were not very receptive since she had made the arrest and was now on his side again. People might talk, people might assume she was having some illicit affair with him which could cost her her job.

Peta jogged down the hall, barely looking over her shoulder before running into Loren, Ethan's partner. He told him that Ethan was in the back, waiting for the police car and that he was wanting to know what was going on. She followed him back, flashing her badge to the officer at the gate. It buzzed and they walked through a large door and into a bright room where, on the right, was the exit door to the back, and on the left...the room where Ethan sat in cuffs. She saw him sitting on a small bench waiting and she immediately let out the smile she had been wanting to give them oment she saw him waddle into the coutroom.

"Hey!" She said happily.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan looked up as the door opened and he stood, smiling at her as she came in. He nodded.

"Hi," he said, giving her a look up and down. He nodded towards the door. "Bail wasn't as high as I thought it might be, eh?" he paused. Then he cocked his head. "You get that permission for escort?"

[Peta Miller]

She sat down next to him and smiled.

"You know me, I am the go-getter!" She laughed lightly and looked at his wrists, then ankles. It was absolutley repugnant to see those shackles on him, but she figured it was her fault to begin with.

"We are heading to Tokyo tonight, like I said," She looked up at him and rolled her right shoulder. "All we got to do is get you back to the big house, get your bond, get some belongins and head to the airport. First class, too." She smiled and almost felt excited to be going there, but when she recalled the true reasoning, it left a bad taste in her mouth. "I am sure you, of all people, are ready for a flight out of the country?"

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan smiled softly, the first really real smile in several hours. He looked up at her and for a breif moment, wondered how he could have never noticed how pretty she was. It might have been that she perpetually wore a frown, or so it seemed, and keeping her hair back as she did made her look much more severe. But with a smile on her face, she was...quite pretty.

"You're amazing," he said, grinning wider. He sat back and nodded emphatically. "You bet I am. I'm just ready for this whole thing to be over with..." he paused. "I know I have to be cuffed the whole flight, but...as long as we get there in one peice and see what the deal is with all of this, I'm ready to be hog tied and hung out to dry."

He stopped as Loren came in, smiling at him. He walked over to where they were and leaned down a little.

"E, we're all ready to take you back to HQ, Daddy wants to talk to you," he said, then glanced at Peta. "You'd better pack stuff you'll be leaving in..." he looked at his watch. "...Four hours..."

[Peta Miller]

Peta smiled, that was good to hear, Loren's command was a blessing and she glanced at Ethan, his words stewing inside of her, making her cheeks blush. When did he get so good looking? Again? She touched his shoulder as she stood.

"Call me when you are escorted back to your place to get your things. We can ride with the blue lights to the airport, instant line cutting!" She laughed lightly, sometimes it was so good to be a cop. She sighed and looked at Ethan's partner and smiled.

"See you later." She walked out of the room and headed back to where she came from, hoping the crowd had died down now that they saw they weren't going to get to see Ethan in chains. The thought of him being in first class, cuffed, was kind of redundant to even being in first-class. If he tried to relax he might lean too far back in his chair and end up having to lean forward if the length wasn't very long. She figured once they got overthe Atlantic she would sneak them off.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan was driven back to HQ where Daddy, aka the head of his unit, gave him a nice asschewing over the whole ordeal and promised that if this was proven true, any prisoner whose bitch he became wouldn't hold a candle to the wrath he woulc bring down on Ethan. And that being said, he promised he wouldn't rest until it was proved false.

Ethan was escorted back to his place and he dressed in a normal fashion so as to draw as little attention as he could. He packed as much as he could without having ninety suitcases while Loren and an armed officer waited outside. Grabbing his cellular device, he dialed in Peta's number and waited for her to answer. She did and he informed her that he was at his place and ready to blow dodge.

When they finished their breif conversation, Ethan checked everything over, then went to the man's apartment across from him--an elderly man whose dogs Ethan took care of when he was out--and asked him to take care of his cat while he was gone, handing over a spare key and thanking him.

Finally, Ethan was ready to be on his way.

[Peta Miller]

Peta had almost, almost ended up packing two luggage fulls, but had somehow kept it in one suitcase that looked like it was about to pop at any time. She bit her lower lip, suprised that she was actually wanting to quickly clean house before Ethan was dropped by. She knew that he wouldn't really come into the building, but it was a thought that bothered her. He might need to use the restroom and if he came into her apartment he'd see papers of the murders every place that had a solid surface. She sighed out and figured it wasn't worth worrying about at that moment, the only thing she needed to worry about was Ethan and his freedom, as well as his innocence.

She headed downstairs in the lobby and waited for the car, when seh saw it roll to a stop she quickly dashed out into the warm temperature of New York and hopped into the car, so glad that in a few moments they would be on a plane in a cool climate away from prying eyes and questioning people to a place that would offer them the information to clear his name. She was excited.

Not much was said on the way to the airport, occassional warnings, ideas, so on and so forth to keep things in line and on track. Plus to let Ethan know that just because she was doing this for him that he wasn't completely off the hook, yet. There was still a lot to do and a lot to solve. She figured she'd spend the plane ride relaxing, but once they hit Japan it was all business.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan's body hurt by the time they got on the plane, he and Peta contained in a special area in the back, away from other passangers, but still very lush. They hadn't said much, there was little to say. People had been staring at them the whole way through the aiport due to his cuffs and shackles. But whatever, they didn't know the whole story, they would judge if they wanted to.

Ethan was finally able to realx a little once he was seated and all was finished and sealed. Sure the cuffs and shackles were uncomfortable, but he would manage. Ethan could practically sleep anywhere, in anything, with any kind of noise going on in the background, the joys of being a heavy sleeper. He was sure that eventually--due to his lack of sleep in the jail cell--he would nod off and sleep peacefully the whole time they were flying.

But for now, he just waited for take off. The sooner they were off American soil, the better. He just felt...guilty there. With everyone against him, and those who were with him...couldn't really be with him for being against him. He glanced over at Peta.

"Detective..." he said thoughtfully. "Have you ever heard that twins--identical, paternal, whatever--can sometimes...feel what the other twin is feeling?"

[Peta Miller]

Peta was annoyed, she was highly agitated with the fact that it took forever to get onto the plane, it took a while to get seated, now it was taking forever to get out of this God forsaken continent! She heard Ethan and stopped glancing at the little safety instructions in case of emergencies while in flight. All of them looked ridiculous, who woud honestly survive a wreck over seas? She looked over at Ethan and raised her eyebrow's, showing interest in what he asked. She frowned, thinking for a moment.

Peta had heard of such things, she and her best friend were like that. Although ESP wasn't exactly an exact science, she believed it and believed that it was possible.

"Sure." She said after a long pause. She frowned after a moment and leaned her head on the cushion, looking at him. "Why do you ask?"

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan shook his head a little skeptically. He had never believed in that sort of thing, not when he was younger anyway. But as he and his fraternal twin had grown up, he had somehow grown to believe it due to some unexplainable things that had happened between he and Ian.

"Well..." he paused. He shook his head again. "My brother and me, we don't talk anymore, but..." he wet his lips. "Even now, it's like these weird ESP things between us..." he laughed a little, leaning his head back and shaking it. "It's crazy I know, I think the stress has been getting to me, but...it's like at the wierdest times I'll feel really scared or really angry or really sad. Emotions that don't fit in with what's going on at that time..." he paused, looking back over at Peta. He shook his head at the look on her face.

"I dunno, it's really crazy. I just wondered what you thought..." he paused. "You have any brothers or sisters?"

[Peta Miller]

Peta watched him, he was so good looking. She hadn't been able to stop and realize this in over three or four years, however long it had been since she came to terms with the fact he just wasn't interested in her in a manner that was nothing but friendly. Even in such a bad situation he remained very together and very calm. She knew she'd look like she'd been through hell had it been her in his shoes. His question made a smile cross her face. She looked at the back of the seat in front of her and then back at Ethan, as if the answer had been in front of her.

"Yes." She responded. Funny, she thought, had they never discussed anything with one another other than things dealing with work? "I have two brothers, one is older, one is younger. Needless to say I was always caught in the middle and got beat up a lot." She laughed looking at him again, admiring him yet again. Pretty eyes, she thought to herself. Funny how she hadn't noticed the small things about him in all their time whilst knowing each other, his cute little beauty marks on his face, small dots that were barely visible, freckles...imperfections that suited him perfectly. She grinned.

"Any other siblings? Sane, siblings?"

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan nodded, listening to her and what she said about her two brothers. He leaned forward a little and smiled. He nodded again.

"Yeah, I have one very sane doctor sis, Adrien-Rae. She lives and works in Washington, D.C.," he said, nodding. "She and I are pretty close, but it's hard to see each other nowadays because of her always working and me always working and such like that," he explained, sitting back in his seat.

Come to think of it, he hadn't talked to her in almost a month. He wondered now how she was doing. He leaned his head against the seat and then looked back at Peta.

"What do your brothers do?"

[Peta Miller]

Peta smiled.

"My brother, Lester," She rolled her eyes always annoyed that his name was so different. "He is a graphic designer for an ad company in New York." She frowned and thought about how she hadn't seen nor heard from him in a long time. "My other brother, who is twenty-one, is currently living with his boyfriend trying to start a small interior design business." She sighed out and leaned her head on the soft chair and looked at Ethan.

It was a nice view to look at him sideways, to admire him up close and personal without having to worry about much at that moment except making it off the ground safely in the airplane. She bit her lower lip looking into his beautiful eyes, more beautiful than she had recalled.

"Lester is twenty-five, dunno if I mentioned it." She grinned, slowly looking away when the intercom listening to the flight attendants give directions. Peta had traveled so many times she though she could stand up there and tell everyone on the plane what to do. She heard the flight attendant telling everyone the safety rules, to have a good flight, and to not get up until the sign above them said so.

She sighed out, not really liking the feeling of getting off the ground, being thrown back in the chair wasn't good for her considering she didn't like the feeling of being constrained. She closed her eyes, nervousness taking over her. She loved flying, loved it, but those first few minutes always caused her to feel sick, nervous, and like she was going to die. She looked up at the call button above her seat, as well as the air vent that you could control. She lifted a hand and turned the small circular plastic vent full circle, allowing air to hit on her face. She let out a chuckle and looked at Ethan.

"Take-off...I don't like it."

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan watched her discomfort, and smiled. He had flown a lot in his time too, and he really didn't like the entire prospect of being thousands of miles above the surface of the Earth, and putting his life, and the lives of others in the hands of a flying hunk of steel.

He leaned his head back and felt the plane shake and shudder as they began to lift off. After what seemed like ninety years they were in the air, and the sign above them flashed that they could take off their belts and could stand up, walk around, whatever they needed to do.

Because he was a "criminal", Ethan and Peta had to be nearer the back of the plane, away from almost everyone, unless they had to come back to use the restroom. Ethan dreaded the first person coming back there and seeing him in cuffs and shackles. He knew the look of fear they would give him, and would go back to their seats and tell their friends or lovers what they had seen. Ethan smiled and looked back over at Peta.

"Over now."

[Peta Miller]

Peta sighed with relief, that took much longer than she recalled, then again it had been quite a while since she had flown. She laughed nervously, a little embarassed by her silliness, she was almost twenty seven years-old she shouldn't be worrying about a plane crashing, especially since New York streets were a lot worse. She cleared her throat and looked over at Ethan, then at his shackles, then back to the front of the plane. After a moment of contemplating she bit her lower lip, leaning on her right elbow, digging with her left hand into her pocket, scrunching her nose as she tried to reach something in her pocket. Her fingers touched the rough edge of the key and it took a few seconds of digging before she finally got the key. She sighed out and smiled, looking at it as if it were a great feat.

"Here..." She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over Ethan and grabbed his hands and quickly unlocked the handcuff's, trailing the long chain down to his feet.

"It isn't allowed, but I am in charge anyway so I think it is rather my decision." She sighed out as she tried to stick the key into the lock's hole and turn it to release him. She figured it wasn't necessary anymore since they were on a plane and he really couldn't run off anywhere. "I figure you should at least be able to fly for forever in comfort. Besides," She leaned up, dragging the heavy material with her, twirling it around to make a secure tie to keep the maintenance in order.

"It isn't like you are going to go hiding on me." She smiled. "Oh," She raised her eyebrows as she stood up and put the cuffs in the overhead storage unit. "I got us a hotel at a really nice place, actually the department did since we needed to remain, slightly, incognito." She sat back down and looked at him with a small grin.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan smiled at her and looked down at his hands in his lap. He thought for a long moment before saying anything, his nerves and karma finally starting to calm down a little bit. After a moment, he looked back over at Peta. Opening his mouth to say something, he decided against it, and just looked around, letting his mind wander.

He couldn't believe he was thinking of pinning this on his own brother. They always said blood was thicker than water. Yet in this case, their blood was so bad, it was quite possibly the thinnest substance known to man.

Ethan and Ian, born the same day, fraternal twins. Ethan had come out after Ian, Ethan having hold of Ian's heel. His mother had always said he was like Jacob from the bible, who had grasped Esau's heel when they were born. And in the same way, his mother had always secretly believed, as God said in Romans, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." His mother always believed God loved Ethan but hated Ian. And looking back, Ethan couldn't blame his brother for turning out the way he was. Looked down on by his mother, and hated by everyone. Ian hadn't ever had it easy--not that their father made it easy for either of them.

Ethan could still remember when they were both fourteen, stumbling upon a box his brother had buried in the backyard. Like a stupid kid, Ethan had dug it up. Inside the box were dead things--birds, rodents, rabbits, frogs, Ethan even thought he saw a kitten. It had scared him so badly that his brother had killed all of those animals.

It should have been a tip off.

His brother, a perfectly likable man, had that one character flaw--he loved death and pain. Loved it to the point of obsession. He especially liked it if he could do it to a human being, watch the expressions on their face. Ethan wished his brother wasn't the way he was. But Ian had always hated Ethan, always wished him dead. Ethan could remember nights following fights between them when he would stay up all night terrified his own brother was going to sneak in with a knife and chop him up into peices.

He wouldn't have been surprised if Ian had done it.

[Peta Miller]

Peta sighed out as she looked at her wrist watch. It was nearing 4 in the morning, the past few hours being lost somewhere in the Atlantic. She was tired, the entire plane was quite, lights were off, save a few reading lights above the seats that happened to be turned on from sleepless passenger's, such as herself. All had been well, the hours seemed to fly by with dinner and an in-flight movie, small chat with Ethan, but it hadn't been enough conversation to last hours. It was like there was a brick wall stopping the two from fully having a nice conversation that somehow pertained to everyday things. They only spoke of the situation they were in, the odd brother, the motive behind it...nothing insightful that would let them relax or laugh. Certainly they had at the beginning of the flight, but it seemed as they neared closer to their destination, the air became stagnant and thick, dread so evident that it hung like a wet blanket.

Peta yawned. She glanced over at Ethan and looked at the side of his face. He was sleeping, however she doubted it was a deep sleep. He had a lot to worry about and she was almost positive with as much worry he had on his plate sleep was more than likely hard to come by. Afterall he was insinuating that his brother, kin, was doing all of this. She knew that in their line of work they had seen brother's, sister's, family members even, do such wretched things, but when one was in that situation to where it was <i>your</i> family member...well Peta couldn't really know what that felt like, but Ethan could and she figured it was very hard to swallow.

The flight attendant walked by and leaned down, asking Peta softly if she wanted anything. She sighed out and rubbed her head.

"Uh, could I have some water and some advil or something?" Peta had enough of this plane ride and she had enough of this case, the death, destruction, gruesome details. She was ready for a break. She wished this trip to Tokyo would hahve been her vacation of choice, but instead they were going to find a killer. This, most definitely, was going to like finding a needle in a haystack.

[Ethan Masters]

Ethan was sleeping fitfully. He couldn't stay asleep for more than a few minutes at a time. When he had finally gotten to sleep for an hour or two, some stupid person slammed the bathroom door so loud it had woken him up.

He had tried all sorts of positions but nothing had worked.

By the time morning came...well, morning as they neared Japan, he was so tired still, and cranky, and just wanting someone to start something so he could pull out his gun and shoot at them. He didn't know how long it would be till they actually landed, but it couldn't be that long, because the Asians on the plane were stirring and seemingly readying themselves to get off. The pilot would get on sometime soon and tell them how long they would be in flight. But as Ethan sat up and groaned at the pains in his back and neck, he just wanted to throw himself off the plane. Now.

[Peta Miller]

The bathroom had been quite the experience for Peta, being unusually tall and somewhat claustorphobic, having to pee was more like an algebraic equation, having to figure out a way to sit and allow her legs to be in her chest, pulling her pants up and washing her hands...what normally should have been less than three minutes, took Peta ten. By the time she had managed to get out of the bathroom, her legs having jammed the door tighter than it should have been, three people were standing there looking at her like she had just murdered their best friend.

"Sorry." She said with a positive smile, but their faces stood sturn with annoyance. She took into consideration how long they'd been flying, how they might not speak english, how some just needed to use the bathroom...still she figured they would get over it. She sighed out and walked back to her seat, seeing Ethan's head moving slightly. She grinned, larger than she should have, glad to see he was awake.

"Morning!" She sat down hard in her seat. She was very chipper, she had gotten some hot coffee a few hours earlier, actually slept better on the plane than she normally would have at home, and was ready to land and take on the world of Tokyo. However, she realized some weren't morning people. Peta took into account that Ethan might not be one of those people. She stopped smiling brightly and cleared her throat, resituating herself in the chair, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"How'd you sleep? We have about an hour left or so till we land. Can I get you anything? Need anything?"