Inception- Friend Maker- Prologue: Bloody Smiles
Title: Friend Maker- Prologue: Bloody Smiles
Author: blacksouledbutterfly (me)
Rating: R/NC-17
Pairings: Various- mostly Gen
Word Count: 1,505
Summary: AU. Their job is to get into the most deranged of minds- and face the most dangerous killers.
Warnings: Mentions of sex, violence and language throughout.
Notes: Chapter index found here. For this prompt at inception_kink.
"People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it's a friend."- Jim Morrison
"Look at his itty bitty fingers."
"He's adorable."
"And look at that smile. He never smiles like that anymore."
"Carefree childhood. This job will take that all away."
"What are the two of you chattering on about?" Mason Eames makes his way across the bullpen, a mug of tea in his hand. He takes a seat on one of the desk and leans over to look at the picture they're gushing over. Working for the FBI it isn't very often that you get to have moments like that, laughing and having fun with each other. Most of the time, especially in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, you tend to be handling such serious problems that you don’t get to smile very often.
"Arthur. As a kid." Ariadne Harrison smiles and holds out the picture for Eames to see, smiles as she shows him that, their co-worker as a four year-old.
"My, my, Arthur. Weren’t you the chubby-faced little whelp."
"Enough." Sitting up in his chair Arthur Kaiser reaches out and snatches the picture out of Ariadne's hand, embarrassment swirling around in his stomach. He should have known that bringing his photo album into the office wasn’t a good idea but his mother had left it in the car when he took her to the airport to make her way home and he hadn’t wanted to leave it there. He had meant to put it in his desk drawer but before he had the chance Ariadne had scooped it up and started to flip through it.
"Aww," Ariadne coos with a small smile on her face. "But you were so cute." Reaching out she puts her hand on Arthur's cheek but he turns his face away, a frown on his face.
"You were," Mallorie Miles agrees as she sits down at her own desk, rests an elbow on the top of it and rests her chin against the heel of her palm. "Absolutely adorable." She knows that saying that will embarrass him and the way he opens his drawer and tosses the photo in proves that but she can't help herself. He was just an adorable little child.
"Yusuf," Ariadne calls out as she sees their co-worker making his way across the room. "You missed it. We were just looking at the cutest picture of Arthur as a little boy."
"I'm afraid the pictures I have are much less pleasant." He doesn’t pause at all as he makes his way across the floor, moves towards the small flight of stairs that leads up to the offices. Holding up the folder in his hand he motions slightly for them to follow him. "Conference room. Dom is waiting for us there."
Ariadne exchanges glances with the others as Yusuf disappears up the stairs and then she sighs, a heavy sigh as she reaches out and grabs her notebook and pen from where she left it on Arthur's desk and then goes with the others, moves in a group towards the conference room.
Dom Cobb and Yuu Saito are already waiting for them there when they enter the room and sit down, Yusuf moving around to lay out folders in front of individual seats. Cobb watches them all as they move through they sit down and take the folders into their hands.
"James Sattler." Yusuf stands at the edge of the table, hits the button on the remote in his hand and a picture of a middle-aged man pops up on the screen, his dark brown hair flecked with gray. He's smiling in the picture, his dark eyes sparkling. "Forty-nine years-old. Found stabbed to death three days ago in his home in Aubrey, Arkansas."
"A week ago they found Andrew O'Rourke, twenty-three, shot twice in the chest. A month before that Megan Collins, thirty-five was bludgeoned to death and Isabel Hernandez, nineteen, was found three months ago, throat slashed." Pausing he leans against the table, looks at the pictures on the screen- James with his gray-flecked hair and his big smile; Megan, her hair a shinning red; Andrew with several of his friends; Isabel at her high school graduation. All so different, different genders, different features, different lives. And all of them dead far before their time.
"Now, no offense," Eames pipes up as he sits back in his seat. "I trust your judgment impeccably, Yusuf, but what makes the police think there deaths are connected."
"I knew you'd be the one to ask that." Yusuf doesn’t sound remotely off put by the question, just watches the British man for a moment before he shrugs his shoulders just a little bit. "You always see it fit to question."
"Wouldn’t want to disappoint."
"Yes. Well," Yusuf continues, turning away from the other man to look back at the screen. "Aubrey police connected the victims because they were all found in their home with no sign of forced entry. And because of this." He hits another button and the pictures are cleared off of the screen, a new one taking its place. O'Rourke can be seen laid out on his living room floor, eyes open and gazing at nothing, his mouth open just a bit where the air left his body when death took him. But what really, really happens to be important about that picture is none of those things. What's important is standing out starkly on the off-white walls- a smiley face drawn in blood.
"One of these was found at every crime scene, Eames. That’s the connection."
"A smiley face?" Closing her eyes Ariadne looks away from the picture. She's seen plenty of horrible things in this room- though thankfully not as much as the others- but sometimes she can't help but be surprised. "Are you friggin' kidding me? Another cheerful thing ruined. They take too many things away from me."
Eames reaches out and puts his hand on hers, squeezes down slightly though his face remains his passive and his eyes never leave the screen
"Victims are all over the map." Mallorie furrows her dark eyebrows as she leans back in her chair, rests her hands in her lap, taps her thumbs against the backs of her hands. "Different genders, ages, coloring, race. Have the police found any connection?"
"Aubrey has a population of only around a thousand people." Sitting down Yusuf lets the remote clatter to the table. "There's nothing but connections with them. If they don’t know each other personally everyone goes to either the same schools, churches, grocery stores."
"Police have no leads." Cobb sits calmly in his seat like he hadn’t spoken at all. "And we all know that the odds of the UNSUB being a member of their community is rather large. None of them want to face that possibility. All of the victims were killed when they were alone at night and were found by friends or family."
"He seems to escalating." Arthur furrows his dark eyebrows in concentration as he looks at the picture up on the screen. "There was a month between the first and second body being found, three weeks between the second and the third but only four days between the third and fourth. If these people were actually killed by one person it'll only be a matter of time before they find another body. A few days at the most."
"Ariadne?"
"Yes?" The petite brunette turns her head slightly to look at Cobb, purposely makes sure that she can't see the picture still up on the screen.
"I know this is a small town but I need you to dig deeper than the police did. Try to find any connection you can between the victims other than living in this town. I want to know everything possible about them. Every parking ticket, any arrests, medical records. Everything."
"Yes, sir." Ariadne taps her pen against her notebook once and then gathers it in her hand as she stands up from the table. She's been working with Cobb long enough to know that if Cobb tells her to research something then she has to get going, get moving. The quicker she gets the information the better.
Cobb watches as Ariadne leaves the room and then turns his attention to the rest of the team. "Wheels up in twenty minutes. And everyone keep in mind that this is a small town. They're not going to like us poking into their lives and accusing their neighbors of being killers. They might close ranks. Keep yourself on guard."
Eames and Arthur exchange a glance as Cobb and Saito both get up from the table and move towards the door. "Well," the British man drawls as he looks at the younger man. "This could end up getting rather messy."
"Yeah." Arthur doesn’t say anything else as he stands up himself. He just looks at the bloody smiley face looking back at him from the picture as he makes his way towards the door and he has to agree with Ariadne.
That’s a good way to ruin a symbol that’s supposed to represent happiness.
Author: blacksouledbutterfly (me)
Rating: R/NC-17
Pairings: Various- mostly Gen
Word Count: 1,505
Summary: AU. Their job is to get into the most deranged of minds- and face the most dangerous killers.
Warnings: Mentions of sex, violence and language throughout.
Notes: Chapter index found here. For this prompt at inception_kink.
"People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it's a friend."- Jim Morrison
"Look at his itty bitty fingers."
"He's adorable."
"And look at that smile. He never smiles like that anymore."
"Carefree childhood. This job will take that all away."
"What are the two of you chattering on about?" Mason Eames makes his way across the bullpen, a mug of tea in his hand. He takes a seat on one of the desk and leans over to look at the picture they're gushing over. Working for the FBI it isn't very often that you get to have moments like that, laughing and having fun with each other. Most of the time, especially in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, you tend to be handling such serious problems that you don’t get to smile very often.
"Arthur. As a kid." Ariadne Harrison smiles and holds out the picture for Eames to see, smiles as she shows him that, their co-worker as a four year-old.
"My, my, Arthur. Weren’t you the chubby-faced little whelp."
"Enough." Sitting up in his chair Arthur Kaiser reaches out and snatches the picture out of Ariadne's hand, embarrassment swirling around in his stomach. He should have known that bringing his photo album into the office wasn’t a good idea but his mother had left it in the car when he took her to the airport to make her way home and he hadn’t wanted to leave it there. He had meant to put it in his desk drawer but before he had the chance Ariadne had scooped it up and started to flip through it.
"Aww," Ariadne coos with a small smile on her face. "But you were so cute." Reaching out she puts her hand on Arthur's cheek but he turns his face away, a frown on his face.
"You were," Mallorie Miles agrees as she sits down at her own desk, rests an elbow on the top of it and rests her chin against the heel of her palm. "Absolutely adorable." She knows that saying that will embarrass him and the way he opens his drawer and tosses the photo in proves that but she can't help herself. He was just an adorable little child.
"Yusuf," Ariadne calls out as she sees their co-worker making his way across the room. "You missed it. We were just looking at the cutest picture of Arthur as a little boy."
"I'm afraid the pictures I have are much less pleasant." He doesn’t pause at all as he makes his way across the floor, moves towards the small flight of stairs that leads up to the offices. Holding up the folder in his hand he motions slightly for them to follow him. "Conference room. Dom is waiting for us there."
Ariadne exchanges glances with the others as Yusuf disappears up the stairs and then she sighs, a heavy sigh as she reaches out and grabs her notebook and pen from where she left it on Arthur's desk and then goes with the others, moves in a group towards the conference room.
Dom Cobb and Yuu Saito are already waiting for them there when they enter the room and sit down, Yusuf moving around to lay out folders in front of individual seats. Cobb watches them all as they move through they sit down and take the folders into their hands.
"James Sattler." Yusuf stands at the edge of the table, hits the button on the remote in his hand and a picture of a middle-aged man pops up on the screen, his dark brown hair flecked with gray. He's smiling in the picture, his dark eyes sparkling. "Forty-nine years-old. Found stabbed to death three days ago in his home in Aubrey, Arkansas."
"A week ago they found Andrew O'Rourke, twenty-three, shot twice in the chest. A month before that Megan Collins, thirty-five was bludgeoned to death and Isabel Hernandez, nineteen, was found three months ago, throat slashed." Pausing he leans against the table, looks at the pictures on the screen- James with his gray-flecked hair and his big smile; Megan, her hair a shinning red; Andrew with several of his friends; Isabel at her high school graduation. All so different, different genders, different features, different lives. And all of them dead far before their time.
"Now, no offense," Eames pipes up as he sits back in his seat. "I trust your judgment impeccably, Yusuf, but what makes the police think there deaths are connected."
"I knew you'd be the one to ask that." Yusuf doesn’t sound remotely off put by the question, just watches the British man for a moment before he shrugs his shoulders just a little bit. "You always see it fit to question."
"Wouldn’t want to disappoint."
"Yes. Well," Yusuf continues, turning away from the other man to look back at the screen. "Aubrey police connected the victims because they were all found in their home with no sign of forced entry. And because of this." He hits another button and the pictures are cleared off of the screen, a new one taking its place. O'Rourke can be seen laid out on his living room floor, eyes open and gazing at nothing, his mouth open just a bit where the air left his body when death took him. But what really, really happens to be important about that picture is none of those things. What's important is standing out starkly on the off-white walls- a smiley face drawn in blood.
"One of these was found at every crime scene, Eames. That’s the connection."
"A smiley face?" Closing her eyes Ariadne looks away from the picture. She's seen plenty of horrible things in this room- though thankfully not as much as the others- but sometimes she can't help but be surprised. "Are you friggin' kidding me? Another cheerful thing ruined. They take too many things away from me."
Eames reaches out and puts his hand on hers, squeezes down slightly though his face remains his passive and his eyes never leave the screen
"Victims are all over the map." Mallorie furrows her dark eyebrows as she leans back in her chair, rests her hands in her lap, taps her thumbs against the backs of her hands. "Different genders, ages, coloring, race. Have the police found any connection?"
"Aubrey has a population of only around a thousand people." Sitting down Yusuf lets the remote clatter to the table. "There's nothing but connections with them. If they don’t know each other personally everyone goes to either the same schools, churches, grocery stores."
"Police have no leads." Cobb sits calmly in his seat like he hadn’t spoken at all. "And we all know that the odds of the UNSUB being a member of their community is rather large. None of them want to face that possibility. All of the victims were killed when they were alone at night and were found by friends or family."
"He seems to escalating." Arthur furrows his dark eyebrows in concentration as he looks at the picture up on the screen. "There was a month between the first and second body being found, three weeks between the second and the third but only four days between the third and fourth. If these people were actually killed by one person it'll only be a matter of time before they find another body. A few days at the most."
"Ariadne?"
"Yes?" The petite brunette turns her head slightly to look at Cobb, purposely makes sure that she can't see the picture still up on the screen.
"I know this is a small town but I need you to dig deeper than the police did. Try to find any connection you can between the victims other than living in this town. I want to know everything possible about them. Every parking ticket, any arrests, medical records. Everything."
"Yes, sir." Ariadne taps her pen against her notebook once and then gathers it in her hand as she stands up from the table. She's been working with Cobb long enough to know that if Cobb tells her to research something then she has to get going, get moving. The quicker she gets the information the better.
Cobb watches as Ariadne leaves the room and then turns his attention to the rest of the team. "Wheels up in twenty minutes. And everyone keep in mind that this is a small town. They're not going to like us poking into their lives and accusing their neighbors of being killers. They might close ranks. Keep yourself on guard."
Eames and Arthur exchange a glance as Cobb and Saito both get up from the table and move towards the door. "Well," the British man drawls as he looks at the younger man. "This could end up getting rather messy."
"Yeah." Arthur doesn’t say anything else as he stands up himself. He just looks at the bloody smiley face looking back at him from the picture as he makes his way towards the door and he has to agree with Ariadne.
That’s a good way to ruin a symbol that’s supposed to represent happiness.