So does everyone forgive me for not updating since December?
sorrysorrysorrysorry

Kuro: Thanks! I'm glad you like it :)

FairyTales And Pixie Dust: I do plan on re-introducing Ratigan! I'm thinking not the next update but the following, so please be patient :) I'm really glad that you enjoy Calysta and Basil's emotions. .. Oh, and bring on the fangirling. ;p

Galimatias: KILLING CALYSTA. Oh dear. I can't imagine the sequel being particularly cheerful if I were to kill her off But now that you've given me the idea heheheh :P Sorry about your nails, but I doubt that this chapter will help. :P

DisneyPrincess: Spiders aren't the only thing that Calysta doesn't like, you'll see. Thanks for reviewing ;)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, added this story to their favourites and added story alerts. Much love.

Basil could not understand for the life of him why his partner was afraid of minuscule spiders when she could look at dozens of bloody corpses without flinching.

Calysta lifted a white sheet from yet another dead mouse, "Not him ", she muttered for what Basil thought could have been the hundredth time. She put the cloth back on the cadaver and gently slid the dead mouse back into the steel floor to ceiling storage unit.

Basil winced.

The British detective rarely needed to deal with the dead, mainly because his cases revolved around stolen items, stolen fathers and the impending threat of the world being dominated by criminal mice. When Basil did, in fact, have to investigate a crime involving a dead body, it was his chubby partner, Doctor David Q. Dawson, who would perform biopsies. Dawson was a surgeon after all. It wasn't that Basil didn't like throughly inspecting the once living, breathing, body of a now decaying creature, it was just that he didn't have much of an opportunity considering his partner was a doctor. Despite the fact that Basil had little practice when it came to the deceased, he was uncomfortable in the morgue.

"Found him!" Calysta said, a little too cheerfully for someone who had just looked over a room filled with cadavers. The dark haired mouse lifted the white sheet to reveal the dead politician.

Mr. LePetit's face looked very different from the photo that Basil had seen in the paper; the politician's eyes were closed, part of his right ear and the tip of his nose had been cut off and his mouth was contorted as if he had died screaming.

"It looks like his heart is missing." Calysta said, using a scalpel to prod at the gaping hole in the left side of the French mouse's chest.

Basil thought he was going to be sick. He gagged and placed the cloth back onto the victim's face, "Out of respect " he muttered almost inaudibly.

Calysta raised an eyebrow quizzically, "You don't have to watch if you don't want to. I've taken care of many bloody animals, I'm used to it sort of."

Basil didn't say a word. He had never seen anything so gruesome.

"But you will be reduced to assistant position." Calysta continued, chuckling, referring to her first encounter with the detective.

Basil scowled and turned away, "It's really not the time to be making jokes, Calysta."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh at your squeamishness. Forgive me."

Basil turned back towards the American to argue that he was not squeamish, but as soon as his eyes dropped to her glove-clad paw using tweezers to inspect the hole, he thought better of it. "Hmph."

The girl giggled as she continued to work on the body. She quickly jotted something down in her black notebook.

Basil snorted and lowered his face mask as he walked around the room, all the while trying to avoid his partner and her work. He inhaled. The strong scent of formaldehyde hit him like a ton of bricks. There was another scent, but Basil couldn't quite pick up what it was.

"Hey, Basil?" Her mouth causing the surgical mask covering her face to move slightly.

He turned his head to indicate that he was listening, but did not look at Calysta nor in her direction in fear of becoming nauseated.

"Thanks for dropping the formalities and calling me Calysta, not Miss Calysta." She said, without lifting her eyes from her work.

Basil barely noticed that he had dropped the honorific. He rarely stopped being formal with others. He even called his long-time partner by his last name!

Before Basil could finish wondering why he was comfortable enough with Calysta to drop the formalities, his ears twitched. "Do you hear that?"

The girl put down her surgical tools and paid close attention to the sound the light brown mouse was referring to, "It sounds like scratching and something else? Sizzling? Also meowing?"

Basil sniffed the air again, fire? His eyes widened.

Ignoring the mangled corpse, Basil ran towards Calysta and quickly grabbed her glove covered hand and dragged her towards the large grey door with an icon of a staircase on it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Calysta yelled angrily while keeping up with Basil's pace and squeezing the hand that held hers. She ripped the mask off her face with her free paw.

Basil pulled Calysta onto the floor as a small explosion caused a metal shelf to fall over and the contents to spill onto the concrete floor. Debris went flying through the air as part of the wall collapsed. The air was thick with dust from the explosion. Calysta glanced over to where they were just standing; fallen bricks and storage units had fallen over the spot where she had just been working. Her jaw dropped.

"Basil, you sav -"

"SSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!" Basil hissed from his spot next to her on the floor as he put a finger up to his mouth to indicate that she should keep quiet. He pointed to the opposite side of the room.

The explosion had caused a hole in the wall. The hole itself was not very big yet that didn't mean that something wasn't trying to squeeze through the newly formed opening. A large pair of green eyes glowed from outside. They blinked slowly, adjusting . The eyes looked into the building and began approaching the morgue. The first thing to poke through the hole was a tuft of brown hair, followed by a blue bow.

Basil gasped; he recognized the creature that was slowly approaching the two mice and squeezing through the opening.

Paws followed the hair bow then a tiny pink nose, whiskers.

Felicia, Ratigan's cat.

"Not... a... sound." Basil said slowly, whispering directly into Calysta's ear. She tensed. Calysta kept a strong hold on Basil's paw.

By nature, prey is meant to fear it's predator; mice are meant to be afraid of cats. However, some are more afraid than others. While Basil kept an eye on Felicia, his partner had squeezed her eyes shut tightly and had started to breathe heavily. Her paws curled into fists, including the one that was still holding Basil's. The detective hissed in pain. He glanced at his partner who was quivering in fear from her spot on the floor.

Basil counted three; claustrophobia, arachnophobia and now ailurophobia. Perfect. Just perfect.

The ground and the still standing shelves shook as the large cat approached the morgue. Felicia licked her lips.

Basil gently shook Calysta's shoulder in hopes to get her attention but to no avail; she was frozen to the spot.

"I.. can't", she muttered almost inaudibly. Her throat tightened as she tried not to cry. She glimpsed over her shoulder only to turn her gaze back to the concrete floor as quickly as she could.

The cat's eyes adjusted to the darkness of the morgue and the creature meowed loudly.

Basil turned to look at the cat; his eyes locked with the feline's. His eyes widened.

Spotted.

I won't lie I shortened this chapter so everyone would be on the edge of their seat until the next update. HA. Next one will be extra long to make up for it ... and will have sweeter BxC interaction. PROMISES.

Thanks to everyone who read this chapter :) Please forgive me for taking so long to update, but I will make an effort to update much more often now that school is out.
THANKS Y'ALL. REVIEW, FAVE, DO ALL THAT GOOD STUFF. xoxo