Hi Guys! I haven't updated this in forever! I haven't gotten to write for awhile because of finals and summer work and all of that stuff but here's chapter 6!

Chapter 6

"Merlin?" Gwaine slowly entered the detective's office.

"I'm a little busy." Merlin responded as his hands remained vigorously tapping the keys, his face illuminated by the monitor.

"Have you been here all night?" Gwaine entered the room and closed the door.

"I think I got a lead on the case we were working on last month and I was looking into another case we did before that and I've narrowed down some suspects and-"

"Stop! You need rest Merlin, why are you suddenly opening up all of our past cases? What's gotten into you?"

"Just...uh, just doing my job." Merlin rubbed his eyes and went back to typing.

"Go home," Gwaine demanded, "Get some sleep. You can't think well enough to solve these cases when you're this over tired anyways."

"I'm fine." Merlin held in a yawn. He wasn't the slightest bit tired.

"At least let me get you some coffee." Gwaine exited the room and Merlin put his head down on his desk.

"Merlin? Merlin? Wakey wakey..." Gwaine tapped Merlin on the shoulder and he shot awake.

"Sorry, just resting my eyes, the screens bright. Where's that hot cup of coffee you promised?"

"Oh, that coffee? Well, you see it turned into iced coffee after the first hour of your nap." Gwaine sat down. "Merlin, what's gotten into you?" He pulled a chair up and sat backwards, backrest between his legs.

"Nothing, it's nothing. I'm fine."

"Are you sure about that? Because the amount of Qs on your screen says otherwise..." Merlin tilted his head in confusion and turned around to face his screen; Fifty one pages of the letter Q, it seemed he had fallen asleep on his keyboard when he thought he was just resting his eyes.

"Is this about that guy uh...oh! Lowell?" He paused, waiting for Merlin's response but went on when there was none. "Are you two like...you know...a thing?" Gwaine made quotation marks around the word thing with his hands.

"No! No absolutely not!" He was awake now, they were definitely not, nor would they ever be a 'thing.'

"I don't really know what you see in him to be honest I mean-" Gwaine shrugged.

"We're not together. I've been asking him about Marissa."

"Oh yeah! About that! We're bringing him in for a follow up interview and everyone thinks that you should be the one to do it. You're the closest with his and he trusts you so he's more likely to talk."

"No, no I can't." Merlin shook his head. He couldn't see Lowell right now. Not after what happened yesterday. Plus, Merlin didn't believe Lowell to be a valid suspect, how would he interrogate him properly?

"It's already settled. We're calling him in later today so I'd get some rest now so you're ready."

Merlin tried not to let his eyes wander over to Lowell as he stood in front of the interrogation room. Lowell was tipping his chair back slightly and looking up at the ceiling and Merlin shook his head.

"You're going to fall." Merlin slowly entered and approached the table. Lowell leaned forward and the chair was safely back on the ground.

"Is this funny to you?" Lowell looked up at Merlin, more serious than he'd ever seen him.

"No, not at all actually." Merlin had to be cautious of what he said, he didn't want to get fired but he also didn't want to lose Lowell's trust.

"Why am I here?" Lowell crossed his arms the way a four year old would if they didn't get what they wanted.

"They think you have something to do with Marissa's death." Merlin worded it very carefully.

"And you?" he said, looking up through his eyelashes.

"It's not about what I think."

"So you don't then?"

"This is not my interrogation. It's yours." There was an edge to Merlin's voice that he couldn't shake. "Now, we'll start simple; where were you on the day of Marissa's death?"

"At work." Merlin could feel the tension filling the air between them.

"Did you leave at any time?" Lowell looked up for a moment as if the to the question was painted on the ceiling tiles.

"Yes. I left on my break and I left to go home at the end of the day."

Merlin knew what question he had to ask, the question that he had been avoiding all this time. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before asking, "Why were you there when we were examining the scene the day Marissa was murdered? I saw you Lowell. Why were you there?" There was a breath of silence followed by a sigh before Lowell answered.

"I didn't know you saw me." Lowell said under his breath.

"Why were you there?" Merlin's voice grew harder.

"I realize how bad this must look to you-"

"Lowell answer the damn question. I've avoided asking it this long so you've had plenty of time to think up a response. I just want an explanation."

"I was there because someone told me they heard police sirens and I followed them to see if it was someone I knew. That's it." Lowell looked down at the table.

"Look at me." Lowell slowly looked up and looked at Merlin, but not directly into his eyes. Merlin could tell he was somewhere else. "You're lying." Now Lowells eyes moved to look at his directly in the eyes, brow raised.

"What makes you think that?"

"That wasn't the only case you showed up to Lowell." Merlin spoke through his teeth, he was trying to suppress anger that he didn't know he had built up inside of him. Lowell's shoulders dropped and he sighed.

"How long have you known that?"

"It doesn't matter. Just tell me. I'm sick of you dodging every question I ask you." A heavy silence hung between them for what seemed like an eternity.

"Have you ever thought that I dodge the questions you ask me because I want to get to know you but all you care about is getting answers to some stupid case! You can't even open your damn eyes to see the effort I'm putting in here!"

The weight of the silence grew as if it had never been broken.

"What- what do you mean?"

"Ridiculous!" Lowell hopped out of his seat so fast that it toppled over as Merlin remained where he sat, eyes wide. Lowell advanced towards the exit and stood by the locked door.

"Let him go." Merlin said, his voice flat and void of emotion and Lowell didn't look back as he stormed out of the room, leaving Merlin alone in the silent interrogation room.