TITLE: Where My Friends

AUTHOR: Xasphie

SPOILERS: None

CATEGORY: Gen

DISCLAIMERS: Maybe in my next life they’ll be mine!

SUMMARY: Looking around an empty room …

STATUS: Complete

AUTHOR’S NOTES: There is an Optional Part II. I like to think of Part I as complete in its own right, but there is a resolution should anyone wish to read it. Hence the reason it's "optional"!

Originally posted to the SA List March 2004

Blank eyes stumbled in their journey around the empty room. The half drunk mugs of coffee decorated multiple desks. Stacks of untouched paperwork caught in the breeze from the open doors, and fluttered in their places. Chairs sat unoccupied in disordered array. Telephones rang on, unanswered, unwanted.

The sounds of muted conversation in the surrounding corridors became a tortuous instrumental, intruding on the silence.

The street sounds, muffled through the closed windows, maintained their cries, heralding the continuation of life outside.

An uneaten sandwich flung hastily to one side; an apple, browning, where the bite marks had sliced into the flesh; the freshly opened box of donuts ever-present in their domain.

A box containing information pertinent to the investigation held center stage. No longer of interest to those had previously scanned its contents.

The newly acquired leather jacket was still sitting on the peg, where its proud owner had carefully hung it that morning; seeking the admiration of those around him.

Disregarded cell phones lay talking to themselves. Some on desks; some in pockets; one in a drawer.

Desk phones renewed their pleas for attention until the switchboard finally diverted every line.

The abrupt silence was overwhelming.

To lose one officer in the line of duty was almost a given, but to lose …

Unbidden, the unchecked tears streamed down her cheeks as Rhonda left the bullpen for the last time.