Detective Sean Golden had almost cried the day they had forbidden smoking in the precinct. That was also about the time that people began telling him that he was getting wrinkles between his eyes. So, whenever he got the chance, he would sneak smokes in the men's room, interrogation rooms, even that one time in the janitor's closet. The second time he had gone back there, he had walked in an offbeat cop getting a blowjob from one of the lunch ladies. He had gritted his teeth, broke his cigarette and walked off, shaking the sight from his mind. He was now in the parking lot, leaning against his car waiting for his new rookie partner to finish up handing in some paperwork. The one good thing about rookies, they very rarely objected to becoming their partner's personal pet monkey.

Cole looked too young to already have a gold shield, but the background check had come back clean. There had been an incident at Cole's old precinct, and so was now being retrained with Sean. And what was more, he was too damn cheerful to be such a good detective. Sean was of the belief that in order to become a truly good detective in this town, you needed to be even more jaded than the criminals you were trying to apprehend. When he explained his theory to his new partner, the young man had laughed and taken them out for ice cream.

Det. Sean was a slender, skinny really, man with blonde hair and the kind of blue eyes that absorbed the colours around them. Because of the dark circles around his eyes, the blue usually turned a light lilac. His mop of hair was naturally highlighted, with white blonde near the tips, darkening to corn silk yellow at the roots. His delicate features, full lips and high cheekbones made people think he was weak. The only time he used that was when he was in an interview with a suspect or witness. Women opened up to him, feeling safe, while men thought he was weak, and wanted to brag.

He took one more long drag from his Marlboro and ground the butt under his booted heel. He didn't understand the other detectives that wore dress shoes, or even suits. He wore comfortable dark jeans, an old black bowling jersey with the name Jake on it and well-worn, comfortable boots. He knew, chances were if he tried to arrest someone, they would take one look at his slight build and think they could run. And his commanding officer had reprimanded him for using so many bullets, so now he had to actually chase the suspect down.

His partner finally came out of the building with a wave, pulling a schoolbag onto his back. Sean figured he had food in the bag, in the time he's known the kid, he hadn't stopped eating. How he stayed so fit, he had no idea. Ah well, when his metabolism catches up, he'll regret it. "It's 'bout time you got out here, we have to do a follow up about that kid they found in the park." Sean slammed the car door behind himself, turning the key in the ignition.

Cole looked over at him from his seat, a chocolate bar in his mouth as he buckled his seatbelt. "Mrrf?"

"The ME found a card in his pocket to a clinic over in the poorest part of town. Considering how posh the area was that we found him in, it was probably a body dump. Gotta work our way backwards. We'll start by finding out what he was doing at the clinic. Keep your phone on though, the Doc is gonna call if he finds out anything important." He eased the car out of the parking lot, and took the quickest route to the address on the card.

The clinic they came to was a medium sized two story building, with wire mesh in the glass and bars over the windows. There was a sign with Open 24 hours written in several different languages. He parked the car in one of the few free spaces, locked the door. If I come out and the car's on blocks, I'm gonna shoot something.

"Hi." Cole stepped in front of his partner to speak to the secretary. He didn't think it was a good idea for Sean to do the talking. He had a tendency of making people angry. "We were hoping we could speak to someone who works here. A Mr Kaye la Croix . Is he in today?"

The secretary took the photocopy of the card, looking at it over her glasses. "He might be. What do you want with him?" She asked suspiciously. "I'm sorry, but we don't like cops around here. No matter how... pretty they might be." She eyed Sean meaningfully.

"I understand your position, but we need to speak with this man. We doubt he had anything to do with it, but we are investigating a murder, and this card was found on the body, with Mr. la Croix's name written on it. So either he's here and you will call him out, or he's not, and you will tell me where to find him." Sean was beginning to wish he had finished his cigarette before coming here.

Diana, the secretary huffed, brushed a strand of gray hair out of her face and hit a button on her phone. "Kaye, sweetie, there's someone to see you."

An attractive young man in nursing scrubs came out of the room behind her, tossing some gloves in a biohazard can. "Diana, you know, you could have just turned around, I would have heard you. Is it an appointment, or a walk-in that's here?" He looked to where the woman was pointing, and Sean flashed his badge. "Oh. Hello, may I help you, officer...?"

'Detective. I'm Sean Golden, this is my partner, Cole Mason. We'd like to speak with you in private if we could."

Kaye looked from one man to the other. "I have a full roster of patients. I can't exactly leave them sitting, waiting for me. But my next one is just waiting on results from a test, so you can talk to me while I get the print out."

Sean grimaced but shrugged. "That's fine." They followed the nurse into a second small room.

"Sorry about the mess, but our janitor quit this week and we haven't hired a new one yet." He motioned for them to sit on the hard plastic chairs while he signed on to the office computer. "So, what is this about?"

"A few days ago, you saw a boy, his name was Tony. He was-"

"Thirteen years old, five feet, four inches tall, 119 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes. Tested positive for AIDS." Kaye shot them a weak smile. "I remember most of my patients Detective. What happened to him?"

"We found his body in St. Andrews park last night. He had been strangled. We're just trying to find out what happened to him. You said he was Positive?"

"Yes. He was usually quite good at wearing condoms for work, but he said that one broke. All it takes is one." He shot a look at both the men. "Why are you so interested in him now that he's dead. A thirteen year old prostitute, and no one gave a damn about him while he was alive. But now that his body has sullied some rich person's jogging spot, you want to find out what he dared to be doing there?" He spoke through gritted teeth.

Cole reached forward and placed a hand on Kaye's knee. "It's not like that at all. I worked in Vice for three years, trying to get kids up off the streets, I know what you do for people like him. What we are looking to do is make sure that what happened to him, won't happen to someone else. If you help us, maybe we will get the bastard that did it, and that might save one of those guys out in your waiting room."

"You're right, I'm sorry. I've just had a bad week. Tell me what you want to know." He picked up some sheets of paper from the printer and jerked his head, beckoning them to follow.

"Did he mention who he was with that got him sick?"

"Not by name. He just implied that if it got out, it would be bad. I geuss it got out." He shook his head sadly, then squared his shoulders. "Excuse me a moment."

"Hello there Mrs. Anderson. I got the results back from your test. We have some good news. The baby is perfectly healthy, it must have just been some early contractions."

The detectives sat themselves out in the waiting room, both too uncomfortable to be in the same room as a pregnant woman. While waiting, Sean leaned his head back against the wall, and looked at his partner out of the corner of his eyes. "I knew you were in Vice, but I thought you'd be on the drug team."

"Nah, as soon as I got my shield, they posted me on prostitution. Don't ask me why. I made some good contacts in the city though. A few informants, that sort of thing. But, I'm glad to be out of there. I know it sounds strange, but I prefer being on Homicide. Dead people can't look at me with those eyes, you know, that whole 'why is the world like this?' sort of thing." Cole shook his head and dug around in his pocket for something to eat. "That thing in there, that 'We're all in this together' speech, I perfected that my first month on the job. Maybe it's because I actually believe it. I dunno. Ack, I'm getting angsty now. I'm gonna go ask the secretary if I can have one of the cookies she has at her desk." With that, the younger man pushed off the chair and went to talk to the woman.

Sean's eyes followed after him, one one eyebrow cocked as he tried to figure his new partner out. He wasn't able to think about it for too long before he noticed a tall red haired man stroll in. He was too casual to be a patient, didn't look exhausted enough to be one of the nurses, but he greeted the woman at the front desk like he new her well. Sean took note of him, and tried to ignore him when he disappeared into the office he had been speaking with Kaye in. Waiting for the nurse to finish with his patients was beginning to wear on his nerves, so he got up to read some of the articles on the walls. He had made it through the third write up about the good work the clinic was doing when Cole came over to him, chewing on a large cookie. "Mr la Croix is done with his last patient, the secretary said that he was able to rearrange things so the other nurses could pick up the rest of them. He's waiting for us in the office." He gestured with his cookie.

They found the nurse back at the computer, but the redhead was also there. The two were close, talking quietly over the clacking of keys. Scarlet eyes burning, the taller man whirled up out of his chair. "Where the hell do you get off, coming down here, interrupting people at their work, it's not like-"

Kaye placed a hand on Joe's elbow. "It's alright. This isn't really about me. It's just about the patient I spoke to you about, the young one."

Sean crossed his arms over his chest. It was obvious that this new man was pointedly placing himself between the detectives and the young nurse, like a bear protecting her cubs. Probably more like a wolf protecting his mate. Sean thought, noting the way that they brushed fingers after Kaye slid his hand down from his friend's wrist.

"Okay," Cole rolled his eyes and waved his hands. "We just need to speak to you about a few more things, than we will be on our way."

"Yes, that's fine." Kaye finished what he was doing with the computer, signed off, then turned in his seat to give the detectives his full attention. He scowled at Joe until he sat down as well. "What else would you like to know? I doubt I know anything that would be overly helpful."

Sean reached into his pocket to pull out a pad of paper and a pen, taking notes of any information he could glean from the nurse. "Do you know of anyone, other than the person that Tony caught the HIV from, that would want to hurt him?"

"I'm not sure. He didn't open up to me that much. I don't know how long he's been working, where he even lived."

"Do you know if he was friends with any of your other regular patients?"

Green eyes lit up. "Why yes, he spent some time with two patients of ours." He began digging in the drawer of the desk, flipping through files. "I suppose this isn't exactly a breach of confidence if I give this to you." He handed over a sheet of paper with a name and a photo on it. "Trevor and Seth come in fairly regularily. They are some of the few patients we have that are not social write offs, as some people might put it. Seth actually works with Joe, and Trevor is doing correspondence for his college entrance exams."

The photo was of a small blond, hair sticking out on one side. He looked a good deal younger than he really was. His eyes were somewhat clouded, his smile crooked.

"Blind. Was hit in the head a couple of years ago." a small, sad smile flashed on Kaye's lips. "If you call them, they might be able to shed some more light onto Tony's life. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you more."

**************

There was a stabbing pain behind Sean's left eye by the time they had tracked down the two young men that the nurse had directed them to. Trevor had invited them in, offered them tea. His blind eyes were a pale blue, and he had an easy smile as the detectives introduced themselves.

"Is it alright if we wait until Seth comes home? He went to the store downstairs to get some milk."

Sean nodded, sipping his tea. Cole was having trouble keeping himself from trying to help the boy with the dishes, afraid he was going to hurt himself. He had actually gotten out of his seat to take a pairing knife away from him when the door opened. The man that came in was wearing a dusty green and black jacket. He had dark brown hair and glasses, and stood about an inch and a half above Sean. He looked from one man to the other, and not taking his eyes from them, he gently caressed blond hair, bending in to place a kiss over a sightless eye. "Trevor, why are there two strange men sitting in our kitchen?"

Trevor's eyes widened in mock horror. "There is? Where?" He stretched his hands out, waving frantically for a moment before chuckling softly. He sobered quickly though. "They want to ask us about Tony."

"I was wondering when someone would get around to talking to us. What would you like to know...?"

They made quick introductions, then Sean placed the photo they had of the young boy. "This is him? Alrght, I'm not going to mince words, this boy was murdered. Strangled. We know he was a sex worker, and we know he had contracted HIV recently. So our standing theory at the moment is that he was killed by whoever infected him. What we need to know, is if you could help us track down that person."

"We weren't close with Tony, he just crashed at our place from time to time, if he got chased out the place he usually slept at." Seth lit a cigarette, and began gesturing with it. "No, I don't know where he stayed. All he ever said was that it was with a few other kids, and sometimes the cops would chase them out."

"Where did you meet him?" Cole was writing down everything that was being said in his notebook.

"A diner a couple of blocks from here. We had lunch together. Trev makes friends easily." He glanced down at the boy, his mouth twisted for a moment. "Maybe a little too easily. About a month ago, we took Tony to a soup kitchen that Trevor volunteers at, not too far from the Strip. This big beast of a guy came in after about forty five minutes or so, asking for Tony."

"He started hitting on me." Trevor sneered into his cup of tea. "At least I think he was hitting on me."

"It was more like he was trying to recruit him." Seth placed a protective hand over a slender shoulder. "But he stopped when he saw Tony, and pretty much dragged the kid out of there. We saw him once more, last week I think it was, and that's it."

"What did this guy look like? You said a beast, so what, scraggly, unkempt?"

"Nah, he was pretty well groomed. Maybe six foot six, seven. Shoulder's like a football player. Wore a suit, high quality, but not tailor made."

"He hunched over when he talked to me. His breath got closer when he was talking, further away when he wasn't." Trevor explained.

"If you want my theory, this guy wasn't a pimp exactly, but from what little Tony told us, he might have been higher up in the food chain. A definite predator though."

"So you think Tony was involved in a ring?"

Seth nodded, taking a final long drag from his cigarette and stubbing it out.

"It makes sense." Cole's nostrils flared in anger. "A kid his age is going to be working for clients with a very specific taste, if you know what I mean. And rings are usually safest for clients like that." He wrote a bit more in his notebook. "One last thing, did Tony ever tell you the names of any of the people he worked for?"

"No, all I know is that he did a lot of group work. Entertainment for parties, that sort of thing. And that he was trying to get out of it." And that's what got him killed. It didn't need to be said, they all knew it.

"Thank you for your time." The two detectives rose, and Sean left his card on the table. "If you remember anything else, my personal number is on there, so it doesnt matter what time, just call. Leave a message if you have to."

Sean lit up another cigarette as soon as they were out of the building. He inhaled gratefully, letting the smoke flow out in a long steady stream. "This case is gonna fucking suck balls." He muttered, pushing his glasses up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He grimaced when Cole's phone started chiming. Ignoring the one sided conversation, he finished his smoke.

"That was the ME, they want us to go down and take a look at some things he found."

After slamming his cardoor, Sean tried to work some of the kinks out of his neck. This case was beginning to hit a little too close to home for him. He glanced over at his partner. "You wish you had have stayed in Vice?"

Cole shook his head, chewing on one of the cookies Trevor had given him. "I think I'm going to be able to actually do something with this case."

"Here's hoping."