Author's Notes: To be honest, even with how simple it is, Crimebusters is probably one of my favorite DP AUs that I've thought of just because it's pretty cute and really easy to write, generally speaking. Anyways, this chapter introduces Valerie into this AU, teen detective extraordinaire (who is constantly hassled in one form or another by the three tiny detectives).

The Case of the Pesky Children

Characters: Crimebusters, Valerie Gray, Jazz Fenton

Summary: Suffice to say this was not how she planned to spend her day.

Looking back on it, she probably should have rejected Jazz's pleas, close friend or not. If she had, she wouldn't currently be in this mess, and she wouldn't be on her way to developing one hell of a headache.

The request had seemed innocuous enough- since Valerie had contact with the local police, she should try and hook up Jazz's little brother and his friends so that they could go on a tour of the police station. She didn't much care for the brats, not being all that fond of children to begin with- but this trio really took the cake.

The worst of the bunch had to be Sam Manson, who Valerie swore was less of a child, and more of the physical embodiment of irrational violence. She still had the remainders of a bruise from where the little monster had kicked her in the shins the other day, and she still didn't know the reason why she had done so in the first place. Her friend, Tucker Foley, wasn't so bad- but it was obvious that the small child had a huge crush on her, and Valerie had no idea how to go about dealing with that. She didn't hate children enough to completely crush the dreams of one, and as she had been told by Jazz in the past, she... didn't quite have the art of gracefully rejecting people down (something about all of her rejections being of the completely soul crushing variety, Valerie didn't really see it herself).

Jazz's little brother honestly wasn't so bad- as he was strange. To be honest, he gave her the creeps. Always staring off into space, acting as if things were there that she just couldn't see, talking to himself as if there was another person around- apparently he could see ghosts, and that quite honestly just gave Valerie the creeps. If she hadn't met the kid, she would have been skeptical of Jazz's claim, but having seen the way he acted- well, he was definitely seeing something, at any rate.

Individually, they weren't that bad (except for Sam, she was a hellion, her, Valerie could do entirely without), but together, the three of them were nothing short of a nightmare.

When Jazz had asked her to arrange a tour of the police station, Valerie didn't exactly imagine that she would be the one giving it- and thus would be dealing with those three again. Jazz being with her as co-chaperone... didn't really help matters much.

Five minutes in, and Danny had already managed to accidentally handcuff himself, for starters, and had lost the key. Thankfully the seven year old boy had very small wrists, and they were able to slip his hands through them without too much trouble- once they had calmed him down and had gotten him to stop crying, that is. The lights in the station had flickered wildly as the boy's tears flowed freely, before Jazz had finally calmed him down, managing to convince him that he wouldn't have to go through life handcuffed.

"Your brother throws one hell of a temper tantrum." Valerie said, rubbing her forehead, trying to fight back the dull throbbing in her head that had just begun. Some of the officers were glowering at them- and Valerie gave them her best smile, groaning internally as she realized that they would be likely calling her in for any little thing they could think of to get back at her later.

Honestly, it wasn't like she had become a detective in order to make the police happy- or that she had even intended to become one in the first place. No, Valerie Gray, teen detective extraordinaire, had simply became one by accident, having been in the right place, at the right time (or perhaps it was the wrong place at the wrong time, it was rather hard to say). Although generally in these sorts of situations, police would resent her for taking away their work, for some reason the Amity Park police force largely loved her for reasons she could never fully understand. Police officers from precincts outside of Amity Park sure as hell didn't feel the same way.

"So I've heard." Jazz smiled up at Valerie, rubbing Danny's hair, sparks crackling from the mop of hair as she did so. She handed back the handcuffs to the police officer who had apparently lent them to Danny when he had asked, apologizing for everything. "Are you going to be okay now Danny?"

"Mm." Danny nodded his head slowly, wiping away a lingering tear from his eyes. "Sorry, Jazz. Sorry, Miss Valerie."

"Ah, yeah." Valerie blinked, nodding her head, glancing slightly away from him. At least he was polite, which was more than she could say from the black haired girl who was currently glaring death towards her. "It's fine, it's not like you meant to do that or anything. Are you sure you don't remember where you dropped the key? You must have had it just a second ago."

"No." Danny shook his head, before looking off to his side. "Maybe Cujo can find it."

Again with the supposed ghost dog. Valerie could barely keep her smile plastered on her face. "Ahh, Cujo, was it? Is he good at finding things then?"

"Not really." Danny shook his head again, looking up at Valerie. He was a pretty cute kid if you just went by appearances- but there was something about his eyes that she really didn't like, something that gave her the serious creeps. She didn't like looking into them for very long. "Mostly he's just good at hiding things. Ah, but it seems like he didn't hide the key this time!"

"Maybe it's under your big foot!" Sam shouted towards Valerie, almost seeming to bare her teeth towards her- seriously, what had she done to this child to make her act like this towards her!?

"Miss Valerie doesn't have big feet!" Tucker protested, his eyes going wide.

Well, I kind of do, the teenager in question found herself thinking, before heaving a sigh, taking a step back and pointedly looking down. "No key, see? I'm sure the officers can deal with that matter though. We've only got thirty minutes here to go on this tour you three were apparently dying to go on, and you want to waste it looking for a key?"

"It's a mystery!" Sam huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "I thought a suuuupper smart detective like you would recognize a mystery when she saw one!"

"No, I'm pretty sure a lost key doesn't qualify as a mystery." Valerie noted, crossing her arms in front of her chest, quirking an eyebrow. "Well, maybe to a little kid it does. I prefer to use my talents on things that are actually important- like robberies and murders."

"That's right, Sam!" Tucker said, nodding his head eagerly, before turning to look back at Valerie- and she could have sworn his eyes were almost sparkling. It was so bright, she almost had to look away. "Miss Valerie is a super detective! She can solve any case that comes her way! There's nothing she can't do!"

"No, I don't think I'm quite that great..." Valerie laughed a little, unsure what to do with this kid's praise. It was true that she was pretty talented- and she was completely willing to admit that, she knew full well how great she was- but she wasn't quite as great as this kid was building her up to be. At this rate he'd be crushed if she ever failed to solve a case, or got the wrong answer.

"That's right!" Sam smirked. "She's not great at all! Why, if she's so great, then why can't she find the missing key?" She asked, pointing rather dramatically towards the seventeen year old girl. "I bet the reason she's protesting that it's even a real mystery is cause she can't solve it!"

"Come on, Sam, don't shout." Jazz said lightly, trying to break up the fight before- ah, but one glance over at her friend's face, and all she could do was heave a deep sigh. It was already too late.

"Can't solve it?" Valerie huffed, placing her hands on her hips and glowering at the little girl. "Of course I can! I've solved actual crimes and cases much harder and far more complex than this! You really think a measly little missing key is going to defeat me?"

"Then, let's see you try!" Sam challenged her. "I bet you can't do it!"

"I'll do it alright, I'll do it!" Valerie declared, completely caught up in Sam's pace. "So, Danny, are you sure he handed up they key in the first place?"

"Y-yes!" The black haired boy stammered, startled at suddenly being spoken to again. "I had it, and then I didn't have it anymore!"

"Do you remember dropping it?" Valerie asked him, to which the little boy quickly shook his head. Frowning a little, she considered the options- it probably hadn't gone very far, considering that they hadn't gone anywhere since Danny had gotten a chance to look at the handcuffs and they had already looked underneath all of the nearby furniture before they all realized he could just slip his wrists out of them so...

Her gaze gravitated downwards, pausing as she took notice of Danny's rather oversized sneakers. All of his clothes were slightly too big from him really- she had asked Jazz about it once, and apparently he had insisted on it when they went clothes shopping, hoping that if they bought bigger clothes, he would grow taller quicker.

"Stay still for a second, kiddo." Valerie said, kneeling down in front of Danny, as she reached into the gap in one of his shoes. There was nothing there, so she moved on to his right shoe, and there she felt a rather metallic sensation, the small key had found it's way not only into his shoe, but into a part of the worn out pair of sneakers that had given way on the inside, creating a gap between the lining of the shoes and the sneakers themselves. "Here you go. You probably dropped it without realizing it and got it lodged there while you freaking out."

Standing straight up, she handed the small key over towards the officer who it belonged to, who looked a little hesitant to take something that had been in the shoe of a small child. Valerie turned towards Sam, shooting her a smug look, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "So? Still think I can't solve mysteries?"

"That didn't count." Sam said, shaking her head. "I mean, who's ever heard of a lost key being called a mystery?"

Valerie twitched visibly this time, her temper rising. "You did! Like three minutes ago!"

"I don't remember~." Sam said, turning around. "How much time are we going to waste on this anyways, I want to see the rest of the station!"

Valerie felt the dull throbbing in her head double in intensity, and once again, she wondered why she had agreed to this again in the first place.

She really couldn't stand children.