Disclaimer: Boomtown isn't mine but I thought I'd come over and play for awhile.

1. Arrival

She really didn't want to be here. She didn't even like living in the city. Not even a small one. And where was she? Los Freaking Angeles. Super. Great. Nothing said success like eight years of intensive higher education followed by the worst job she ever could have gotten. Not that she had much of a choice. Well, she'd had a choice. It was just a really sucky one. Then again her entire existence had taken a pretty drastic turn in the wrong direction recently. Maybe this was what she needed, or so she told herself for the three hundredth time. Shaking her head she turned her thoughts in a different direction. She didn't need to have a nervous breakdown while she was walking into her new job. That could wait until she got to her new domicile.

The sounds of typing, shouting, cursing, and good-natured laughter filled the air as she stepped into the police station. The building was sensory overload. Her eyes swept over the place quickly, scanning and categorizing the dynamics of the station as fast as she could. Spotting the front counter she followed the instructions she had been given over the phone as a cuffed junky was hustled past her. She did her best to ignore the smell of his unwashed body as he passed. Maybe it would be possible to get her olfactory sense removed for the stint of her stay here. Or, less dramatically, she could go and spend her entire first paycheck of air fresheners. Adjusting her large purse over her shoulder she nodded to the middle-aged woman sitting at the long, bullet proofed reception desk.

Putting her best polite smile on she greeted the bored looking woman. "Good morning."

"All requested police reports are at the next window." The woman pointed up and then went back to scribbling something down on her crossword puzzle. That was brusque, and looking at the paper up-side-down through the dirty plexi she could see the woman had the wrong answer. That was really going to screw her up later.

She glanced up to where she pointed and saw a few poorly made signs taped above the four windows. She was currently in line to have her mug shot taken. "I'll keep that in mind for future visits. I actually need to get in. I'm the new psychologist, Darcy Fox."

Bored grey eyes came up to her and then narrowed. "You're the new counselor?"

"Yes."

"Uh-huh." The woman looked her over and she already knew what was going on under her slightly graying curls. Despite her conservative black suit and the severe white blouse she looked her age. At twenty-six she had a youthful face and a short bob that accentuated her age. Had she known the direction her life would be taking three months ago she wouldn't have cut her hair this way. She couldn't do anything about it now though, all she could do was keep her head up and plow through. So, meeting the woman's eyes levelly she didn't look away or blink. Eventually, the other woman gave in. "ID."

Digging out her driver's license she slid it under the small hole cut out of the glass and the woman read her information with a critical eye. With a nod she pushed it back. "All right." She hooked her thumb to the left. "Door's over there."

Going to where she pointed she waited patiently to be let in as a bloody man was shoved in by an equally bloody cop. The dark haired officer was mad as hell, and a portly older cop followed him in with a teasing smile on his face. "That was a good catch, Tom."

"I'm not talking to you right now." The younger man growled.

"Now, Tom-"

"Shut it, Ray!"

She sighed. She had a feeling these two would be in her couples counseling pretty soon. She would need to set that up first thing. Next to her, the door opened and she followed the woman inside. "You're going to need a security card to get in and out of the garage."

"All right, but I have to meet Captain Hicks in five minutes."

"In that case come here when you're done. His office is in the east corner."

"Thank you." But the woman had already turned away and she rolled her eyes. Turning, she began to weave her way toward the rear of the large station. She felt eyes following her from every visible area and kept her shoulders straight. She knew better than to show anything other than confidence in front of a room full of cops, detectives, and criminals. If she did she wouldn't make it long here. A low buzz started at the oddity that was her presence as she stopped in front of a battered door with the captain's name on it. She was sure they were all trying to figure out who she was now.

Ignoring them, she knocked firmly and waited. A few seconds later and the door opened. A balding black man opened the door. She met his dark eyes levelly and held out her hand. "Good morning, I'm Darcy Fox."

He took her hand and shook it firmly. She liked that. "Miss Fox, come in."

"Thank you." She needed to get used to that name, like, now. In this place not reacting to it would cause major suspicion. She stepped past him as he held the door open for her and sat in a chair he indicated. He shut the door firmly and sat in front of his cluttered desk. She could never figure out how people worked that way. She preferred a much more structured work environment, one where she could actually find a pen should she have to urgently sign her name.

"How was your move? You came all the way from Wisconsin didn't you?"

"I did. The move was fine but I have a lot of unpacking to do."

"Always a joy." Her lip came up a bit. This man seemed genuinely nice. She was relieved. She hadn't really expected that, had prepared herself for a hardnosed prick to be honest. That way if he was she wouldn't be disappointed. "When did you get here?"

"Yesterday afternoon."

"Well, you're going to have to acclimate fast. Jerry left without much notice and he had several open cases, and a few of my officers need to be evaluated in the next three days." He looked her over. "Director Hass said you were one of the best profilers he had. Is that true?"

"I do have a knack for it." This was an understatement. She was damn good and she knew it. However, it tended to freak people out when she started to analyze them so she tended to keep that talent to herself until someone needed, or ask for it.

"Good. Two of my detectives will want to talk to you as soon as they get in."

"All right."

"Come on, I'll show you your office."

She stood as he did and followed him back out into the bullpen. She was sure everyone had been waiting for them to emerge by the number of people watching to see where she was headed. One would think in L.A. they would have better things to do with their time then track a newbie. Unless, of course, no one knew she was supposed to be here. "Have you told them you filled this position?"

"No."

Right, that was weird. "Can I ask why?"

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "We've been having some problems with I.A." He put the slightest emphasis on 'problem'.

"Ahh." She would be considered part of internal affairs, at least to a certain degree. This was problematic. She would have issues relating to the officers if they wouldn't talk to her to begin with.

"Don't worry too much about it. It's really more of a personal problem with one of the I.A. officers. They should warm up to you in a week or so."

More likely when she proved to be beneficial. She sure couldn't blame them for that. Until then she would be on thin ice. Right now she was an untrustworthy stranger in a place with a complex, and most likely dangerous social structure. She was sure there were at least fifty mini dramas playing out in a department this size at any given time. She'd have to tread carefully with the officers and detectives for awhile.

"Here it is." He indicated the door on the opposite side of the department as his and dug around for the key on his giant key ring. Locating it at last he wrestled with it for a moment before getting it off and unlocking the door. When he was done he handed the rusted gold key to her and waved at the door. Taking that as permission to enter what was now her domain she pushed the door open and repressed a sigh. The place was a total wreck. The filing cabinets were overflowing, there was paper all over the floor, she swore she saw something skitter under a chair, and she couldn't even see the desk it was so covered with stuff of every kind.

The captain must have seen what she was thinking because he laughed. "Maybe I should have scheduled a day or two for you to clean this place out before throwing you to the wolves."

"That's fine." Stepping in, she turned on the light. At least there was a pretty big window even if it was facing the side of a brick building. "I'll take care of it if I could swipe some boxes. It'll make it easier to reorganize."

"Not a problem. I'll have one of the interns bring you a few. They're getting underfoot today."

"Thank you."

He nodded and pointed to the desk. "Those are the new cases. The ones in the left pile are priorities and the blue file on the top has your network name and password. You can change it once you log into the system."

She tried to determine exactly where these piles he was talking about started and ended in the vast wasteland of dead trees. "Okay."

"Make sure you get a security card and garage pass before you leave today. I don't want you getting mugged on your way through the front door."

"Does that happen often?" She asked, half knowing the answer after seeing the lobby.

"More than you would think. It is L.A."

"Good to know." She made a mental note to get a chain lock for her door at home as well as a security system installed. She also needed to locate her gun as soon as possible and hide it in her bedroom.

"If you need anything let me know. I should be in and out of my office all day."

Pulling out her car keys she set her bag down next to the desk, praying no roaches crawled into it, and started putting her new key on ring. "Thanks, I'll go ahead and get started."

"And so you know we'll have your name plate for the door here tomorrow. I wanted to be sure you were here before it went up."

Umm, okay. She was starting to wonder how many psychologists they had gone through if they waited to get nameplates. She smiled at him in false understanding and he turned and walked out. Reaching for the first of the urgent files she began to read as she stood behind her desk. There was no way she was sitting down until she cleared the chair off. She'd just get through these and start on her clean up. She wouldn't be able to work in this cluttered of a space for long or she'd go crazy, again.

She left the door open while she worked to encourage visitors to come and meet her. She didn't get any for almost two hours and when she did they were all business. There was a sharp, short knock and two men walked in. They were detectives. She could tell by the casual way they were dressed and the flash of a badge on the white man's hip. Standing up, because she cleaned up the chair, she held out her hand and smiled at them. "Hello, I'm Darcy Fox."

The larger detective, a tall back man in his thirties that filled the room with his presence, engulfed her considerably smaller hand in his. "Nice to meet you. I'm Bobby Smith but everyone calls me Fearless."

Letting her go the other man, who had kind eyes, caught her hand. "I'm Joel Stevens. Everyone calls me Joel Stevens."

Her lip curled up at the corner. "It's nice to meet you." She eyed the chairs. "If you can find a place to sit feel free." Fearless chuckled and picked up the large box on one of the two chairs in front of her desk. Tossing it to the side it hit the ground with a thump and he folded himself into the chair. She sat down again as Joel made himself comfortable. "What can I do for you?"

"Dr. Fox-"

She cut him off gently. "Darcy is fine."

The tall detective gave her a more genuine smile. "Darcy, the captain tells us you might be able to help us find a suspect."

"I can try. Do you have the report?"

"It's in the system."

"Oh." She spun slightly and opened the blue folder. At least she had already booted the computer up, it had taken a good ten minutes for the poor old thing to come to life. Typing in the information that was requested the computer made a buzzing noise and she felt her eyebrows popping up. "That didn't sound healthy."

Joel laughed softly as she pushed away from her desk to look at the actual computer. She might need to take it apart to fix that. Later. While she looked at it Fearless started to talk. "We seem to have an arsonist on the loose."

"Without looking at anything I can tell you in most instances your looking for a young male. Teenagers are usually the culprits behind most fires."

"We know. We've torn the neighborhoods apart but we aren't coming up with anything. We even have people cooperating with us."

She began searching for a pad of paper and a pen as she answered. "That tends to happen more when they might be in imminent danger." She found a pad but kept digging. "It might help if you took me to one of the houses." She found a pen and hoped it worked as she shook it to get the ink to flow.

"What?"

She began to scribble notes quickly as the system finally opened. "Take me to one of the scenes. What's the file number?"

Fearless looked at Joel. "Take you?"

"Yes. File number." Joel gave it to her and she typed it in quickly. The computer buzzed as the report came up. She scanned it quickly but thoroughly. When she was about three quarters through she asked a question. "Are these people related?"

"No."

She tilted her head and scrolled down. "Are you sure?" She kept reading and then found pictures and looked at them carefully.

Joel answered her. "We can't find anything to link them. We've checked all their houses and credit card reports." Fearless had his eyes on her and she knew he was watching her process things to see what she could do. She didn't mind. She liked knowing how people worked and it was clear to her that Fearless was the more aggressive of the two. At least at the moment. Joel was flipping through his own file and she knew he was trying to confirm what he had said. "No friendships, relationships, business dealings. They don't work in the same-"

She saw the pattern and cut him off as politely as possible. "They all go to the same place."

Surprised eyes shot to her. "What?"

She turned the screen and pointed to a burned blue wrapper. Then she scrolled down and pointed to another and then another. The last one could barely be seen under a part of the wall. None of them had letters. "Where is this wrapper from?"

"Damn." Fearless had leaned forward to see better. "You have a good eye."

She shrugged. "If they all shop or eat at the same place this is a grudge. Guy's pissed and wants revenge. He's probably in his thirties and white. He has a menial job and doesn't get to give orders. He just takes a lot of crap. I'm betting he's in sales or part of a wait staff at a medium class restaurant. He'd have access to their credit cards and then their information. One of your victims might use cash on occasion, that would throw of the financial analysis you were doing."

"How would he get the information from the cards?" Fearless asked.

"Hacker. It isn't that hard. I could get yours in about ten minutes and I'm not even that good at it. These people probably slighted him in some way and he was at the end of his rope. Classic you get yours thing." She turned the monitor back around and scribbled down the age, description, general location he might be in, IP addresses they should check, and her cell phone number in case they needed to talk to her. Ripping the page off she handed it to Joel. "If you need me my cell is on there. It's always on. Sorry I can't help with the paper ID on that receipt. I've only been here for twelve hours. Do you need anything else?"

Fearless barked out a laugh. "If you gave us anything else we wouldn't have jobs for much longer." He stood up and Joel followed. "Thanks, Darcy."

"Sure." They were walking out when she thought of something. "Hey, is there coffee here?"

Joel pointed out and to the left. "Next to the vending machines. I'm not sure you can call that sludge coffee though."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Fearless shook his head. "We'll let you know if we find him."

"Okay. Good luck." They left and she went back to the important files. She hoped they got the guy.

Author Note: Leave me one!