Mason screwed his face up in deep thought. After a minute or two of deliberation, he finally asked "Flowers, are flowers too much on a first date. Well, maybe date isn't the right word for it. Drink, we are going for a drink"

He got no reply, and continued anyway "I guess from what I saw of Rachel at the morgue, she doesn't seem the type of woman who would be impressed by flowers, does she?"

Still, he received no reply "So.... no, no flowers. That's decided then, no to flowers" he answered his own question.

Mason was already nervous about drinks with Rachel and it was only 8 am. They weren't going out until 8 pm. He shook his head, it had been a while since he'd last been social with a woman, or private for that matter. Since dealing with cancer, he had become a recluse in those areas. He hadn't wanted to get close to anyone, knowing as he did, that he could have very well been dead before romance had a chance to bloom. Now though, since getting the all clear from the hospital, he had a rosier outlook for his future.

Mason washed his hands, combed his wet fingers through his hair and looking once again at his reflection in the smeared mirror. Changing his mind, he said "Flowers, definitely flowers"

A disembodied voice echoed around the toilets "No flowers"

Startled, Mason jumped. His reflection had remained silent, as it had throughout the entire conversation. The snap of a cubicle latch gave the game away. He turned to see a strange sight. Muck, with a wry smile on his face, stepped from the cubicle, walked over to the sink and began to wash his hands. Mason had never seen Muck smile before, not even a flicker of a smile. "And now I have, at my own expense" he exclaimed to himself.

Mason, caught unaware, cleared his throat and nodded at the Detective. "Oh, I, er, thought I was alone in here"

Muck, staring at himself in the mirror, his smile having faded away, said "Yes, I gathered"

With a wry smile of his own, Mason turned to leave. Holding the door open, he asked, "No flowers then?"

"No flowers!" Came the reply.

----------------------

Peel hated tired mornings, almost as much as he hated sleepless nights. And he was getting both. He could feel the desperate ache of sleep deep in his bones. Sleep, that had avoided him the best part of the night. His mind, on the other hand, was fully awake. If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought he'd taken an upper. But he did know better. This was how his psyche always responded to sleep deprivation. It held up its middle finger and told sleep where to shove it. And then it made him suffer the entire day, carrying his weary body like a useless tub of lard. A bloody heavy, useless tub of lard.

In the past, he would have reached down and opened the drawer where he kept the whiskey. He would have poured a slug, not to help liven up his body, but rather too dull his keen mind. Instead, he would have to make do with the bottle already in front of him. Spring bloody water. Peel took a sip and knew that he would need a piss all day long if he drunk much more. He needed a coffee, a strong black coffee.
Without so much as a knock, his office door was booted open and in walked Mason. From the man's mouth hung a brown paper bag and in his hands, he carried two steaming hot mugs of black coffee.

"Curtuswwe uf u assun aidy n thu canheen" Mason mewled.

Peel furrowed his brow "What?"

Mason allowed the brown paper bag to drop from his mouth on to Peel's desk.

"I said, Courtesy of the Asian lady in the canteen. She said you looked exhausted when you held the door open for her this morning on the way in. I told her you always look like crap. She likes you, it's free. She charged me for mine though!"

Peel rolled his eyes at the clown in front of him and said "Suriani"

Mason, having already ripped open the bag, held a sugar coated doughnut up his mouth "eh?"

"The Asian lady, her name is Suriani and she's from Malaysia," Peel said as he sipped the much-needed pick-me-up.

Mason chewed noisily and slurped his coffee loudly "Owe, that's hot"

Peel, without a word, watched Mason demolished the doughnut and slurp more of his coffee before commenting.

"Sometimes you are without a doubt, an uncouth buffoon. Do you know that, hm?"

Mason, starting a second doughnut, said: "Am I?"

"Yes, you are. The rest of the time, you are just a buffoon" Peel watched the doughnut disappear.

Mason wiped sugar off of his fingers and asked "So... what's got you in such a good mood this morning. Someone park in your parking bay again?"

Peel rested his elbows on the edge of his desk and between sips of his coffee, said "You won't park in my bay again, that I can guarantee you. As for what somebody has done to put me in such a good mood, you will have to wait for Muck before I bring you up to date about my mood"

His coffee mug now empty, Peel slid it over to Mason and demanded "While we wait you can get me another, can't you"

Mason scooped up both his and Peels mugs and headed for the door. Peel waited until he was almost out of the room, before adding,
"And while you're at it, get Muck one too. White, one sweetener. I'm sure you can afford it"

------------------------------

There were moments when every woman had the chance to screw with an ex-lovers life, even an ex-husbands and Rachel could see that this was one of them. She liked to wind Robert up, make him a little angry over something inconsequential. She was never overly mean to him, just enough to help satisfy her annoyance with their failed marriage.

"Yes," she thought "The bastard had agreed to divorce her rather than fight for their marriage. She knew that somewhere beneath that thick hide of his, he still loved her, but it just wasn't enough. Robert had been married to the force first. She no longer loved him in that way, but damn, it still didn't stop her from being a little jealous when he did have a woman in his life. Although she thought, it was rare that he allowed anyone that close to him anyway.

So, knowing it would piss Robert off and with no guilt at all, she had said yes to a drink with Detective Mason. The man was a walking cliche, the epitome of a cheeky, charming police officer, but secretly, she kind of liked it.

"God, what the hell was I thinking. He's an idiot, but an interesting one. And he's very good on the eyes" she allowed a smile to briefly visit her face.

Earlier that day, Mason had asked her out whilst leaning over her should. She had been dissected a dead body and had excepted before her brain had, had a chance to engage. Even in the very short time she'd known the man, he had annoyed her.

"Just like Robert used too! Oh god, I hope that isn't my type, annoying and self-absorbed. I hope history isn't repeating it's self"

Rachel knew that Robert and Mason could not be more poles apart. She herself, was more like Robert than Mason.

"So," she thought "maybe that's why my subconscious had, in an instant, said yes. Maybe it's time to see if opposites attract, I guess"

Rachel pondered this as she completed paperwork left from the previous day. If she could get through it all now, she would have time to pop down to the hospital's canteen and have breakfast. And then another day of grind in the morgue would begin in earnest. Once gloved up, she would remain up to her elbows for the rest of the day.

Thoughts of Robert and Mason floated annoyingly around in her head as she put pen to paper. More annoying was that they were getting in the way of her work and that was a 'No No!'

When it came to her duty, nothing was to get in the way. That was how mistakes were made. That's how Court cases were thrown out. Not on her watch, no! Shaking thoughts of men, drinks, and complications from her head, Rachel double downed on the paperwork.

The second her pen touched paper the silence of the morgue was shattered. A chorus of sharp beeps slapped her around the ears, making her jump. Annoyed even more now at being startled, she reached over to the desk phone and tapped a button beside a green blinking light.

"YES?" She barked gruffly into the hidden mic.

A jovial sounding voice sang out "Hi, I have a delivery from St Hughes Hospital. Of the dead kind!"

There was a pause as Rachel stopped writing "A delivery, I wasn't aware we had anything pending?" She queried.

The jovial voice leaped from the speaker "Oh, you won't. Unfortunately, we had a death during the night. Well, early morning to be precise. Old Mrs. Plunket, she slipped away peaceful like, in her sleep. Poor dear. Anyways, here I am, here she is, here we are. Can you buzz me in and I'll file her away and be out your hair, my dear"

Irritated, Rachel huffed, pressed the door release and said in "Alright, push the door open. Put her in, hm, let's see" she checked the roster "fridge 5"

"Okey Dokey, arty chokey" came the jovial reply.

"Well," Rachel thought "There goes any chance of breakfast."

Pushing back her chair, she made her way through the large white swing doors and into the fridge room. There, waiting for her, was a short older man with a large smile on his face.

"Hello, Rachel. I'm Doc, I'm temping at St. Hughes for today. The usual guy is sick. Sort of!" he said, with what Rachel thought was amusement.

She didn't like the look of him, he seemed smug and a little creepy. He smiled too much for her liking. And people who smiled too much were the ones hiding things.

Pointing at fridge door number 5, Rachel indicated where the body needed to go. She approached the gurney as the creepy man wheeled it towards her and reached for the cotton sheet. Before she could pull it back, the body that it covered began to sit up.

Startled beyond belief, Rachel screamed and quickly stepped backward. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and blood ran from her face "WHAT THE HELL"

Another step back and she bumped into Doc "Careful Rachel" he said with sickly venom.

Rachel spun around to stare at him. She instinctively knew she was in desperate trouble once she saw the look on his face. It was blank, yet wicked. The sound of the moving corpse spun her back around to stare in disbelief at the rising body. The sheet fell away to reveal, not an old woman, not Mrs. Plunket but instead a younger woman, a familiar woman. Rachel recognized her. But from where?

The young woman jumped down from the gurney and giggled. With terrifying speed, she wrapped her arms around Rachel and kissed her hard on the lips and said, happily.

"Hello darling, I'm going to kill you, soon"

Unable to move in her embrace, Rachel felt another pair of arms wrap around her from behind. The voice of the creepy man spoke up against her ear.

"My dear, it's so nice to meet you at last. I've only ever seen you from afar, as I watched you. My name is Doctor Harleson, but you can call me Doc"

A cloth was clamped over Rachel's mouth. She could smell chemicals on it and as she settled back on to the gurney, she thought "Chloroform. Ever the scientist aren't I"

She passed out.