Chapter Five

Friday 6am, Los Angeles, CA

Dee stretched her tired arms above her head hearing her back crack into place. God it had been a long day. She loved her job but usually an 8 hour shift was more than enough and the adrenalin that flowed through her would have her ending up in her gym for a work out followed by a brisk cool down but today she'd just completed a crazy 12 hour shift, having filled in for a sick colleague.

Admittedly most of the day had been the usual craziness of "my son's got his head jammed in a fence" or "my cat's stuck up a tree" to which she had to stop herself from replying "your son's an idiot and should be in the Darwin Awards" and "it's a cat; it got up, leave it long enough and it'll get down - it only does it cause it's so fucking bored lady." She smiled at the thought of being able to say just that.

Then she'd taken that call. Her colleagues had all told her of the calls that wouldn't go away; the one's you thought about before going to sleep and quite often dreamed about but up until now she'd not believed them. It had been the man's voice that had hit her hard. Sure she'd spoken with a lot of distraught men and women, too, over the past few months since her transfer from the post of 999 operator in the UK to her current post of 911 operator, based in LA. It was a two year secondment with her American counterpart swapping LA, CA for Southampton, Hampshire. She only hoped that he or she would like the weather over there and decide to stay, leaving her free to stay in sunnier climes.

Tiredly she logged out of the Emergency Services database and pushing her chair back, reached under her desk for her bag. She'd only agreed to do the 12 hour shift as she was then on five days off. Usually she hated her time off, preferring to be busy but as she felt an ache beginning in her lower back she knew she was going to love the next few days.

She reached for her jacket off the back of her chair and pushed the small but comfy seat in under the desk.

She looked at her colleague, Veronica, who was in the middle of a call and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. Veronica swivelled in her chair to look at Dee who mouthed " bye babe, have fun" as she headed out the door. Veronica flipped her the middle finger, smiling at her and Dee laughed as she shut the door of the busy switchboard behind her.

It was 6am and the sun was already up. She slowly walked towards her car, feeling the nights tiredness sweeping over her. She reached into her pocket to get her car keys and felt the crispness of a piece of paper.

She unfolded it and stared, groggily, at the number she'd written on it

302 555 4224

Shit. She'd written his phone number down and had taken it out of the building, breaking one of the cardinal rules of Data Protection. She remembered at the time writing it as the beginning and end numbers had been her old phone number back in the UK and she'd been quite surprised to see it again, especially as the UK number was now disconnected. She'd really been aiming for the confidential waste bin they all had under their desks for such circumstances but somehow she'd put it in her pocket instead. She contemplated going back in but then she was more likely to get caught then and probably fired, especially if Nerdy Nigel caught her. Ever since she'd laughed at him after he'd dropped a low fat yoghurt all over his PC in the middle of a call, he'd made it his life's work to get her fired. Thankfully their line manager, Brian, had no love for the little shit and quite often turned a blind eye to some of the pranks played on Nigel. He was a nerd who had been too small to join the Police Cadets and this job was the only way he'd ever be in a uniform.

Dee unlocked her car and got in. She was still in the habit of opening the passenger door first as in the UK she and everyone else drove on the left and so for her it would be the drivers side. Her extremely cute, slightly gothic but gay flat mate Simon still laughed about the time he came to pick her up from a night out and she'd climbed into the drivers side by mistake, completely off her tree on alcohol. He'd passed the keys to her and then laughed at the bemused almost cross eyed look on her face as the steering wheel had suddenly come into her focus.

Thankfully she hadn't driven home that night as they'd had to stop twice for her to throw up.

As she drove home in the cool morning air she wondered what Simon would look like. When they had first met after she answered an add for a flat mate he'd had long, flowing, curly dark brown hair that reached almost to the small of his back. He loved to work out and didn't mind when she'd taken to drooling over him after she'd moved in.

"As long as you remember Darlin' I'm into backdoor action, no frontdoor for me!"

She had spent long evenings just staring at his well toned slim physique and all American farm boy, sharp cheek boned features, topped off by his glorious crown of hair. Two days ago he'd come home from his job with it all cropped short. She'd almost cried. If she ever caught the son of a bitch he worked with who had told him he was the spitting image of James Marsters if only he'd cut his hair off then she would be doing time for murder. Simon had been ecstatic. Being gothic he was really into the whole Vampire lifestyle and had recently repainted his room in black and red; more black than red really, and to be told he could resemble Spike with a haircut and a bottle of bleach had been the icing on the cake.

"Grrr Argh indeed!" She thought as she pulled up to the small courtyard of apartments where she and Simon lived.

Entering the small but seemingly spacious two bedroom apartment, she stumbled towards her bed and was asleep before she thought to take her clothes off.