Lamb Chop
By April French

"My God, Natalie," Grace sniggered, "your neck looks like it got stuck in a pool drain. Wild night last night, eh?"

Natalie froze; her hand immediately went to her throat, and the scarf she had wrapped around her neck to keep away the prying eyes of her staff, who were always so courteously and inexplicably interested in her private love affairs, and the lack thereof. "Erm... yeah," was all the mortified coroner could manage. She felt her face color up nicely. Grace took shameless advantage of her colleague's embarrassment and tugged the silk scarf down further to look more closely. "Ack! Grace, d'you mind?"

"Not really." The technician let out a low, admiring whistle. "Was it Nick?"

"None of your business," Natalie snapped, moving away. But the blush remained, as did a smile pulling independently at her lips.

"Oh, come on," insisted Grace. She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "You can tell me."

In the face of the friendly smile and insatiable desire for office gossip that is often the curse of the civil servant, Natalie had no choice but to capitulate. She nodded, and blushed again (to her great annoyance).

Grace almost squealed. "I knew it!" she said gleefully, giving Natalie a playful poke. "So?"

Natalie waited. "So... what?"

"Is he good?"

"Oh, no--"

"Come on, girl, I want details!"

"There will be no details given!"

"That's classified information." She thrust a bundle of random papers blindly at Grace. "Here, go bring these to Kochanski in Accounting."

"Sure thing," Grace winked.

"But Nat," she added on her way out the door, "you should really have a doctor check those. I saw teeth marks, and one or two of them look like they drew blood."

Natalie waited until Grace was safely out of the room, down the hall and on the elevator before picking up her phone and furiously dialing.

"Detective Knight," said the man on the other end.

"I am so going to kill you," Natalie vowed.

Nick chuckled. "I told you the scarf wouldn't work on Grace."

"You might've been a little more careful. I could be wearing a ruby necklace."

"Hmm, you'd look good in rubies. And I didn't hear you complaining last night."

A rather goofy grin tried to make itself known, but Natalie refused to be diverted. "These bites are going to bruise--in fact they've started to already."

"They won't become infected, if that's what you're worried about."

"You're sure?"

"I've never seen it to happen." The light bantering tone dropped away. "But I'm sorry if I hurt you, Nat."

A warm feeling rose up in Natalie that had nothing to do with blushing. "It's okay. I'm just really tender tonight."

"Mmm... deliciously tender."

His appreciation was plain, and Natalie shivered. "Umm, we're talking about me here? Not a lamb chop. And you're being weirdly demonstrative," she continued, suspicious. "Please tell me Schanke's not standing around giving you a thumbs-up."

"No, he booked off tonight. Jenny had a piano recital."

"And Cohen let him go?"

"She was disposed to be generous."

"You mean you offered to cover his paperwork." She grinned. "You're such a big mush. Are you coming over tonight?"

"Yes, my little lamb chop with mint--oops, I think someone might have overheard that. People are looking at my strangely now."

"Nick, I swear, if people start calling me 'Lamb Chop' the next time I'm in your office--"

"Don't worry," Nick offered courteously. "I'll kill them for you."

Natalie rolled her eyes and hung up, and wished fervently for the end of her shift to arrive quickly.

~Finis--October 25th, 2007~