Know That I 3/?
Title: Know That I
Disclaimer: Not my characters - except for one or two. The rest of the ladies and gentleman contained herein belong to entities with a higher pay grade. Thanks for allowing li’l ole me to play; I promise to return them as I found them…just like the tools I borrowed from dad when I was a kid. Also, this is unbeta’d so…mistakes are really all me. Sorry about that.
Fandom: Women’s Murder Club - TV show only.
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy for now.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An old college friend of Cindy’s moves to town and shakes things up.
A/N: Super long day and it's not looking to stop anytime soon. So you lot read and enjoy, I'm going to remain chained to my desk to get some work done. Oh, also, this is has only been through one read through from me. I'm sans a beta and well...mistakes are giong to happen. If anyone wants a thankless job and feels like working with me, hit me up PM style and we can talk. It'd be appreciated. THANKS!
Ch. 3 - On a Wire
Lindsay stood, hands on hips, and surveyed the loading bay behind the Hall. A group of techs were lining the area with thick white plastic sheeting. Jeremy Nguyen, a new hire that Claire was enjoying breaking in, was responsible for securing the sheeting with neon green duct tape. The scene, by and large, was entertaining.
“We’ll bring the dumpster here and overturn it in the center of the sheet. Clark and Okada,” the doctor addressed the other two techs that were assisting with this, “I don’t expect to find much if anything else than what was in the suitcase, but I want you to be thorough.”
Pulling a thick black Sharpie from her pants pocket, Claire shuffled over the sheeting in surgical booties and drew three large circles on the tarp. Above each, an ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ were placed and she directed, “Grouping A will consist of irrelevant findings, banana peels, coffee grins, dirty diapers. Group B will be questionable material; I’ll leave you to determine that. Group C will contain relevant material, anything with blood on it, if you find any more parts, a bloody saw. Understand?”
Two heads nodded at the doctor. Claire eyeballed them, gauging whether or not she was going to have any issues. She was counting on it, but hopefully, it wouldn’t be too bad. It wasn’t like she was expecting to get a bunch of evidence from the dumpster, but she’d rather err on the side of caution instead of making a blanket judgment call that could harm the outcome of the case.
“Lindsay,” Claire barked, “Why don’t you wheel the case in with me and I’ll start with that.”
Nodding, Lindsay grabbed the hand cart that held the plastic wrapped suitcase and wheeled it into the bay doors, across the smooth concrete floors and into the autopsy suite adjacent to the labs and Claire’s office.
“Do you want to help with this?” Claire pointed to the suitcase.
“Sure,” the inspector answered, taking the offered gown and gloves. Snapping the gloves into place, Claire assisted in securing the gown at the small of Lindsay’s back. “I don’t know why Jacoby didn’t stay for this.”
A light chuckle left Claire’s lips and she reminded her friend, “Because Jacoby hates this more than Jill. He just hides it better.”
“Hmm,” Lindsay grunted and moved to the top of the cart while Claire took up a spot opposite her.
They gathered the corners of the plastic sheeting and Claire directed, “On my count, one, two, three.” They lifted the tarp up and onto the steel table to the left.
“Go ahead and unwrap it, I’m going to start grabbing some labels.” Claire turned away from the task she had given and went to one of the storage units along the back wall to collect a few rulers, evidence bags, markers and the camera.
“This isn’t going to be any fun is it?” Lindsay groused as she balled the plastic up and placed it on the metal cart.
“Probably not,” Claire agreed and began setting up at the autopsy table. “I’m really not sure what to expect here.”
“First time for everything,” Lindsay reminded her.
“Yes, Lindsay, there is. Some firsts, like this, I could happily live without.” Claire looked between the camera and her friend. “Do you want to remove parts or photograph?” she asked not sure which she would prefer, but since Lindsay was being a sport about this and helping, she’d give the inspector her choice.
“Uh,” the inspector rubbed her hands down her thighs looking between the camera and the now opened suitcase. “Camera,” she decided and picked the bulky piece of equipment up.
“Okay, shoot the open case from a direct angle,” Claire explained, stepping back from the table to allow Lindsay a clean shot. The click of the shutter was loud and grating for the doctor. Stepping off to the side bench, she powered on the small radio and let the sounds of the oldies station fill the space. Dion and the Belmonts soothed some of the woman’s nerves as she gently sung along, “Now people listen what I’m telling you, a-keep away from a-Runaround Sue, Yeah…”
She went back to the table and moved the suitcase to the edge. “One part at a time, Linds. I’m going to remove whatever’s in here, piece by piece, photograph it once I have it laid out, measured and labeled. We’ll move the pieces to one of the other tables and go until we’re done. Okay?”
Lindsay nodded and watched as her friend started in on the first piece, a large semi covered bone. They worked quietly at first, measuring, writing, taking pictures of the contents as each new piece was extracted and cataloged. Mid-way though the case, Claire asked, “Jill in court again?”
“Yeah,” the inspector rasped as she snapped off a series of pictures for what looked to be a partial piece of a jaw bone.
“And Skipper?” Claire looked up from the inside of the suitcase, over the protective goggles she was wearing to get a better read on her friend’s reaction to mentioning her girlfriend.
The lanky brunette’s mouth pinched and she shrugged. “She didn’t tell me.”
“You didn’t really give her much of a chance to tell you,” Claire reminded gently as she hefted a piece of soft tissue and placed it in a stainless steel bowl.
Lindsay’s eyebrow cocked and she hissed, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Now, Lindsay, don’t play dumb.” Claire removed the bowl from the scale while Lindsay jotted down the recorded weight. “I haven’t seen you that…short with Cindy in a while. What happened?”
Lindsay chewed on her lower lip as she thought about this morning. Yeah she was upset, but she wasn’t really sure why. Claire focused back on the suitcase and let Lindsay withdraw, knowing her friend needed time to sort her head on the matter.
The suitcase was nearly empty, the goo lining the bottom held little by way of contents so Claire stripped her gloves and deposited them in the biohazard receptacle, went to the sink and pulled out a large plastic tub and a mesh strainer. Securing the strainer to the top of the tub, she pulled another pair of clean gloves from the box along the wall and snapped them on.
“Set the camera down and come help,” Claire broke the through Bobby Darin’s version of Splish Splash while Lindsay did as requested. “Help me pour this out, there isn’t a lot, but I want to catch anything we can’t see.”
Nodding, Lindsay hefted one side of the case and walked it over to the sink with Claire.
“Slowly,” Claire reminded her as they tipped the right corner of the case down towards the strainer. The fluid poured red, brown and thick, causing Claire to wince at the scent. Stomach fluid was definitely present. She mulled over the possibility of getting a decent sample from the goo. Ten to one, she knew that they would at least be able to get a blood type and they had enough for DNA, but above and beyond that, she wasn’t sure.
As the last of the case drained, she looked down and recognized a few bone fragments in the strainer. Lindsay took the case when offered and set it on the side of the sink. Unsure of their next move, she stepped back and turned to survey the morgue. Two of the four tables held the parts collected from the case.
Claire swept her gaze over her lab and sighed. Her head shook as she said aloud, “I’m not sure how much of this is going to be helpful.”
Lindsay grunted and continued to chew on her lower lip.
“Don’t you have work?” MacKenzie asked curiously as she watched Cindy rifle through a copy of the Register.
Cindy shrugged. “I turned in a few pieces this morning while you were in the shower. Unless Lindsay calls me about the case they caught this morning, my job is done until tomorrow and my editor gets back to me.” The redhead didn’t bother looking up from the paper she was reading over.
None of the contents were unfamiliar. They had the local section which was covered easily. The notable change was the front page story on the upcoming election, but that was national news and it happened early this morning. She wasn’t surprised by the sudden change and the bump in the budgeting story Doug had put together.
She finally set the paper down on the coffee table and looked at MacKenzie whose nose was buried in her laptop. “What about you?” Cindy asked curious as to when Mac was supposed to be starting her new job.
The response to her question was met with a shake of Mac’s head. “Not until next Monday. They gave me two weeks to get moved and settled.”
“You’re moved, settled,” Cindy reminded her.
“Yep and I have all this week to spare.” Mac finally looked up from her computer and set it down next to the paper. “I wanted to get my bearings. I’m not all that familiar with San Francisco so a week to get myself sorted seemed like a good idea.” MacKenzie flashed Cindy a grin. “Besides, catching up with people is an excellent use of my time.”
“Hmm, right,” Cindy droned playfully. “What did your family think about the move?” Motioning over to the mantle where a frame eight-by-ten photo set front and center.
Mac followed Cindy’s gaze and grinned at the photo taken last year in Boston. The last time her and her family was all together. Her sister’s face contorted in a goofy pose while her brother never failed to give both her and her mother bunny ears in any and all family portraits. Her father, the least serious of them all, was striking a pose ala the Incredible Hulk. Her and her siblings all shared the same skin tone and eye color, a surprisingly dominant trait passed down from their father. The russet color of her father’s skin the darkest of them all, while her and her siblings had a lighter tone due to her mother’s European heritage of dirty blonde hair and light blue eyes.
“Morgan’s still in San Diego, Reagan’s here with my parents waffling, so I don’t think either one of them really cared. You know Morgan, any excuse for her to travel was good. I think she was a little upset that she doesn’t have a more reasonable excuse to visit New York now besides, ‘I want to’. Reagan, I think is happy. He says I can take the heat with the rents until he figures out,” MacKenzie pauses and air quotes, “’Figure out what the hell I wanna do when I grow up’.”
Cindy giggled knowing that she could see that coming from Morgan. She was wild when Cindy first met her. “I thought Reagan was going to med school?” Cindy thought back to the duel graduation party their parents held for the pair. He was dead set on it.
“Hmm, commitment issues, apparently.” Mac shrugged. “After four years in undergrad work, he’s having a hard time with committing to double that.”
“But your mom, I thought she’d be all over her son following in her footsteps?” Cindy wondered.
“Mom…” Mac shook her head. “Let me catch you up to speed, Dad’s teaching at Berkley and when he took the professorship there, mom was immediately offered a position at U.C.S.F. She turned it down and wanted to do something else.”
Cindy’s jaw dropped.
“Moms was tired of the hours, of the crap at the hospital and in academia. So she quit,” Mac explained.
“Wow, that’s…Darlene always talked about her job like…”
“Like it was her second husband?” Mac filled in. “Yeah, shocked us too. I mean she’s still licensed, but…” That conversation during her visit home was one that Mac remembers vividly. Her dad, who she knew had put up with a lot from his wife, just stood by and supported her.
“So, uhm, what does she do now?” Cindy lifted her feet up and swung them up over the arm of the couch. Her upper body twisted to lay her head next to her friend’s bent knee.
“She took up cooking.” Mac grinned down at her and adjusted her seating to pull Cindy’s head in her lap.
“Freaking WOW,” Cindy gazed up a little shell shocked from the news.
Mac bobbed her head. “Oh, they said to say hello by the way and that you’ll have to come over for dinner at some point. Dr. Geoffrey St. Hill was especially enthusiastic to have you back in the fold.”
Cindy snickered. “Your dad just wants to have someone to talk to about current events. God knows you or the rest of you trouble makers don’t keep up.”
“Hey,” Mac scoffed, “I keep up.”
“Uh-huh, tell me then,” Cindy poked Mac in the side, “Who are the top two republican candidates for the GOP’s presidential pick. It’s an election year after all.”
Mac’s eyes went to the ceiling and tried to remember when the last time she picked up a paper on her own was. Her lips pursed and she shook her head. “Uh, I know one of them’s a moron…sorry Mormon and then there was that Paul guy, right…?” Mac replied hopefully.
“Yeah, exactly.” Cindy nodded happy that Mac proved her point. “You guys never cared and like, your dad, he’s the only one that’s interested in it so…”
“Yeah, yeah.” Mac waved her off. “Maybe you’ll get to see Morgan again too.” Mac wiggled her eyebrows.
“Oh. My. God,” Cindy groaned. “Are you ever going to let that go?”
Mac grinned and shook her head. “Please, she’s lucky I didn’t rip her lips off.”
Cindy blushed and had the good sense to break eye contact. The first spring break she had ever been on was with Mac, Chelsea and Morgan. While Mac had always been secure in her sexuality, Morgan struggled with her bisexuality and had ended up using Cindy as an experiment one night. “In my defense, she didn’t know and it was one kiss. A peck really,” Cindy protested weakly.
“Hmm, yeah, okay, whatever,” Mac dismissed the argument.
“How’s she doing though? I mean work wise? She seeing anyone?” Cindy asked. Morgan was always kind to her, even after the fluke at Spring Break.
“She’s living the life. I mean really, she’s got this cute little bungalow, right next to the beach in San Diego, she loves her job, sometimes I think a little too much and her love life…well…let’s just say she’s happily involved.”
“Cool.” Cindy beamed.
“And what about, I mean, are you happy, here in San Fran, working at the paper?” Mac queried. Her friend seemed happy, but she was a little leery about the cop. Claire and Jill were good in her book, really good. Lindsay still rubbed her a little wrong.
“Yeah, I am. I mean when I first started, I got stupid puff pieces and crap assignments, but it’s shaped up. The girls have helped with that a lot.” Cindy grinned slyly. “I get the inside track for most of the crime section and it keeps my editor happy.”
“Cool,” Mac parroted back and took a look at the clock. “Hey, since you are going to be free, would you want to maybe take a ride on the Duc? You can pick the destination; just tell me where to go?” MacKenzie offered with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
In the near forty years Jill had been around, she’d seen a lot of advances in technology. A few that rattled off the top of her head were VCR’s to DVD’S to DVR’s. The shift in the forms of musical media, the mp3 format being on her top five list of great inventions. Then there was the rise of cellular technology. It had its moments of pure unadulterated torture, like when she was on a date or in the middle of rough, breath-stealing sex and her cell went off signaling that her electronic leash was tugging her back to the office.
Then there were times when she thought the pervasive nature of cell phones were the best invention ever. There was something just so enticing about receiving a text message with confirmation of a hot date with great potential and the light teasing that she was currently engaged in.
Thus far, Jill really did think that cell phones were a double edged sword.
“Hey,” Claire’s voice interrupted the near manic typing of the reply to her confirmation of plans for an evening out, “Jill, you’re going to walk into something if you don’t pull your nose out of that Blackberry, Miss Thing.”
The blonde was unable to stifle the grin on her face as she looked up at her friend. “I can text and walk at the same time,” she protested half-heartedly, purposefully ignoring an incident last week as she was yelling at a junior A.D.A. in email and nearly got flattened by a trolley.
Claire merely raised her eyebrows and looked at Jill over the rim of her glasses. Not commenting on the blatant lie just fed to her, she asked instead, “What’s got that big ole smile on your face? Court turn out that good this morning?”
“Court sucked,” Jill pouted for only a brief moment and then followed up, “And the smile is all due to my date. Tonight.” She gave a fist pump while her other hand busied itself by slipping her phone in to the side pocket of her purse.
“Well, that’s certainly a grin worthy development. Who’s the lucky suitor that gets to take my Jill out on the town?” Claire queried, curious as to who in the blonde’s colorful past she was trying to reignite something with. The doctor quickly dismissed the notion that it was anyone new, knowing full well Jill would have gushed upon the first meeting.
The grin lessened to a small, shy smile. “I’m, it’s new actually, different.” She set her purse and on a bench not too close to the body that Claire was working on and sat at the stool right next to it. “Uhm, sorry, it’s just that it’s really new and I want to keep a lid on it…at least for a little while,” Jill offered meekly, hoping that Claire wouldn’t take it the wrong way.
She loved her friends. She loved Claire like the older sister she never got and hurting her feelings was right up there with losing a case on Jill’s list of things she hated to do.
“Uh-huh, well, it would be a crime to put a frown on that face. You smiling and being all cheesy is a good thing,” Claire said and let it go. “But just so we are clear, I do eventually want details. Good ones too, not the ones you share with Lindsay.” She smiled and winked at the blonde, whose face tinged red at the jibe.
“I share with Linds,” Jill’s rebuke was half-hearted at best.
“You share the basics, because as much as we love that woman, she has a tendency to go a bit…”
“Insane, over protective, badass when someone’s encroaching on her people,” Jill finished.
“Exactly,” Claire agreed, punctuating said agreement with a scalpel point.
“Speaking of…” Jill trailed off and took a quick look around before continuing, “did you have a chance to ask what the hell her problem was this morning?”
Claire looked at the clock right above Jill’s head and decided now was as good a time as any for lunch. She set the scalpel down and covered one of the many parts recovered from this morning’s scene with a sterile, surgical cloth. Her gloves were snapped off and she disposed of those and her gown in the proper containers. “Come on, Ed made stroganoff and I have leftovers. We’ll eat and catch up.”
“Tell Ed he’s my favorite,” Jill squealed and followed Claire into the office. They worked quickly, pulling the items needed from the fridge and heating their meal up in the microwave kept on top of the small refrigerator.
As they sat down on the couch together, Jill idly wondered, “Is it a health code violation to have this stuff with all that?” Jill waved her fork in the general direction of the autopsy suite. “I’ve always wondered, but…”
“It’s fine as long as there’s no contamination.” Claire took a bite of the dinner she missed last night, savoring the food before she answered Jill’s earlier question. “I asked Lindsay about it. She just clammed up.”
Jill rolled her eyes and chewed. “Well, at least she’s predictable.”
“If we’re going to be honest about our Boxer, I think it was a reaction to exactly what we accused her of being. MacKenzie was touchy feely, she’s known Cindy the longest out of all of us and Cindy was just as equally touchy feely,” Claire summarized before taking a drink from the offered bottle of water.
“So, Lindsay was jealous and poor, unknowing Cindy added fuel to the fire when she showed up to her crime scene with Mac in tow.” Jill tipped her head back and rested it against the back of the couch.
“That sums it up. Although, the way Mac was acting the first night we met her and then the looks she was shooting at Lindsay at the crime scene…” Claire let that thought linger and watched Jill pick her head up.
“I don’t think it’s that. What I do think is that if Lindsay convinces Cindy to see her tonight, she’s going to get a royal ass chewing.” Jill smirked at the thought. Their little Cindy Lou had come quite a long way in learning to manage her friend. In Jill’s book, that was good thing. Cindy, in the year her and Lindsay have been together, had managed to do what Tom couldn’t do the entirety of their relationship.
“I’ll make sure to get Linds a donut to sit on tomorrow,” Claire joked, causing the two to erupt into a fit of giggles while they finished off their lunch.
Next>>>
Disclaimer: Not my characters - except for one or two. The rest of the ladies and gentleman contained herein belong to entities with a higher pay grade. Thanks for allowing li’l ole me to play; I promise to return them as I found them…just like the tools I borrowed from dad when I was a kid. Also, this is unbeta’d so…mistakes are really all me. Sorry about that.
Fandom: Women’s Murder Club - TV show only.
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy for now.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An old college friend of Cindy’s moves to town and shakes things up.
A/N: Super long day and it's not looking to stop anytime soon. So you lot read and enjoy, I'm going to remain chained to my desk to get some work done. Oh, also, this is has only been through one read through from me. I'm sans a beta and well...mistakes are giong to happen. If anyone wants a thankless job and feels like working with me, hit me up PM style and we can talk. It'd be appreciated. THANKS!
Ch. 3 - On a Wire
Lindsay stood, hands on hips, and surveyed the loading bay behind the Hall. A group of techs were lining the area with thick white plastic sheeting. Jeremy Nguyen, a new hire that Claire was enjoying breaking in, was responsible for securing the sheeting with neon green duct tape. The scene, by and large, was entertaining.
“We’ll bring the dumpster here and overturn it in the center of the sheet. Clark and Okada,” the doctor addressed the other two techs that were assisting with this, “I don’t expect to find much if anything else than what was in the suitcase, but I want you to be thorough.”
Pulling a thick black Sharpie from her pants pocket, Claire shuffled over the sheeting in surgical booties and drew three large circles on the tarp. Above each, an ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ were placed and she directed, “Grouping A will consist of irrelevant findings, banana peels, coffee grins, dirty diapers. Group B will be questionable material; I’ll leave you to determine that. Group C will contain relevant material, anything with blood on it, if you find any more parts, a bloody saw. Understand?”
Two heads nodded at the doctor. Claire eyeballed them, gauging whether or not she was going to have any issues. She was counting on it, but hopefully, it wouldn’t be too bad. It wasn’t like she was expecting to get a bunch of evidence from the dumpster, but she’d rather err on the side of caution instead of making a blanket judgment call that could harm the outcome of the case.
“Lindsay,” Claire barked, “Why don’t you wheel the case in with me and I’ll start with that.”
Nodding, Lindsay grabbed the hand cart that held the plastic wrapped suitcase and wheeled it into the bay doors, across the smooth concrete floors and into the autopsy suite adjacent to the labs and Claire’s office.
“Do you want to help with this?” Claire pointed to the suitcase.
“Sure,” the inspector answered, taking the offered gown and gloves. Snapping the gloves into place, Claire assisted in securing the gown at the small of Lindsay’s back. “I don’t know why Jacoby didn’t stay for this.”
A light chuckle left Claire’s lips and she reminded her friend, “Because Jacoby hates this more than Jill. He just hides it better.”
“Hmm,” Lindsay grunted and moved to the top of the cart while Claire took up a spot opposite her.
They gathered the corners of the plastic sheeting and Claire directed, “On my count, one, two, three.” They lifted the tarp up and onto the steel table to the left.
“Go ahead and unwrap it, I’m going to start grabbing some labels.” Claire turned away from the task she had given and went to one of the storage units along the back wall to collect a few rulers, evidence bags, markers and the camera.
“This isn’t going to be any fun is it?” Lindsay groused as she balled the plastic up and placed it on the metal cart.
“Probably not,” Claire agreed and began setting up at the autopsy table. “I’m really not sure what to expect here.”
“First time for everything,” Lindsay reminded her.
“Yes, Lindsay, there is. Some firsts, like this, I could happily live without.” Claire looked between the camera and her friend. “Do you want to remove parts or photograph?” she asked not sure which she would prefer, but since Lindsay was being a sport about this and helping, she’d give the inspector her choice.
“Uh,” the inspector rubbed her hands down her thighs looking between the camera and the now opened suitcase. “Camera,” she decided and picked the bulky piece of equipment up.
“Okay, shoot the open case from a direct angle,” Claire explained, stepping back from the table to allow Lindsay a clean shot. The click of the shutter was loud and grating for the doctor. Stepping off to the side bench, she powered on the small radio and let the sounds of the oldies station fill the space. Dion and the Belmonts soothed some of the woman’s nerves as she gently sung along, “Now people listen what I’m telling you, a-keep away from a-Runaround Sue, Yeah…”
She went back to the table and moved the suitcase to the edge. “One part at a time, Linds. I’m going to remove whatever’s in here, piece by piece, photograph it once I have it laid out, measured and labeled. We’ll move the pieces to one of the other tables and go until we’re done. Okay?”
Lindsay nodded and watched as her friend started in on the first piece, a large semi covered bone. They worked quietly at first, measuring, writing, taking pictures of the contents as each new piece was extracted and cataloged. Mid-way though the case, Claire asked, “Jill in court again?”
“Yeah,” the inspector rasped as she snapped off a series of pictures for what looked to be a partial piece of a jaw bone.
“And Skipper?” Claire looked up from the inside of the suitcase, over the protective goggles she was wearing to get a better read on her friend’s reaction to mentioning her girlfriend.
The lanky brunette’s mouth pinched and she shrugged. “She didn’t tell me.”
“You didn’t really give her much of a chance to tell you,” Claire reminded gently as she hefted a piece of soft tissue and placed it in a stainless steel bowl.
Lindsay’s eyebrow cocked and she hissed, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Now, Lindsay, don’t play dumb.” Claire removed the bowl from the scale while Lindsay jotted down the recorded weight. “I haven’t seen you that…short with Cindy in a while. What happened?”
Lindsay chewed on her lower lip as she thought about this morning. Yeah she was upset, but she wasn’t really sure why. Claire focused back on the suitcase and let Lindsay withdraw, knowing her friend needed time to sort her head on the matter.
The suitcase was nearly empty, the goo lining the bottom held little by way of contents so Claire stripped her gloves and deposited them in the biohazard receptacle, went to the sink and pulled out a large plastic tub and a mesh strainer. Securing the strainer to the top of the tub, she pulled another pair of clean gloves from the box along the wall and snapped them on.
“Set the camera down and come help,” Claire broke the through Bobby Darin’s version of Splish Splash while Lindsay did as requested. “Help me pour this out, there isn’t a lot, but I want to catch anything we can’t see.”
Nodding, Lindsay hefted one side of the case and walked it over to the sink with Claire.
“Slowly,” Claire reminded her as they tipped the right corner of the case down towards the strainer. The fluid poured red, brown and thick, causing Claire to wince at the scent. Stomach fluid was definitely present. She mulled over the possibility of getting a decent sample from the goo. Ten to one, she knew that they would at least be able to get a blood type and they had enough for DNA, but above and beyond that, she wasn’t sure.
As the last of the case drained, she looked down and recognized a few bone fragments in the strainer. Lindsay took the case when offered and set it on the side of the sink. Unsure of their next move, she stepped back and turned to survey the morgue. Two of the four tables held the parts collected from the case.
Claire swept her gaze over her lab and sighed. Her head shook as she said aloud, “I’m not sure how much of this is going to be helpful.”
Lindsay grunted and continued to chew on her lower lip.
“Don’t you have work?” MacKenzie asked curiously as she watched Cindy rifle through a copy of the Register.
Cindy shrugged. “I turned in a few pieces this morning while you were in the shower. Unless Lindsay calls me about the case they caught this morning, my job is done until tomorrow and my editor gets back to me.” The redhead didn’t bother looking up from the paper she was reading over.
None of the contents were unfamiliar. They had the local section which was covered easily. The notable change was the front page story on the upcoming election, but that was national news and it happened early this morning. She wasn’t surprised by the sudden change and the bump in the budgeting story Doug had put together.
She finally set the paper down on the coffee table and looked at MacKenzie whose nose was buried in her laptop. “What about you?” Cindy asked curious as to when Mac was supposed to be starting her new job.
The response to her question was met with a shake of Mac’s head. “Not until next Monday. They gave me two weeks to get moved and settled.”
“You’re moved, settled,” Cindy reminded her.
“Yep and I have all this week to spare.” Mac finally looked up from her computer and set it down next to the paper. “I wanted to get my bearings. I’m not all that familiar with San Francisco so a week to get myself sorted seemed like a good idea.” MacKenzie flashed Cindy a grin. “Besides, catching up with people is an excellent use of my time.”
“Hmm, right,” Cindy droned playfully. “What did your family think about the move?” Motioning over to the mantle where a frame eight-by-ten photo set front and center.
Mac followed Cindy’s gaze and grinned at the photo taken last year in Boston. The last time her and her family was all together. Her sister’s face contorted in a goofy pose while her brother never failed to give both her and her mother bunny ears in any and all family portraits. Her father, the least serious of them all, was striking a pose ala the Incredible Hulk. Her and her siblings all shared the same skin tone and eye color, a surprisingly dominant trait passed down from their father. The russet color of her father’s skin the darkest of them all, while her and her siblings had a lighter tone due to her mother’s European heritage of dirty blonde hair and light blue eyes.
“Morgan’s still in San Diego, Reagan’s here with my parents waffling, so I don’t think either one of them really cared. You know Morgan, any excuse for her to travel was good. I think she was a little upset that she doesn’t have a more reasonable excuse to visit New York now besides, ‘I want to’. Reagan, I think is happy. He says I can take the heat with the rents until he figures out,” MacKenzie pauses and air quotes, “’Figure out what the hell I wanna do when I grow up’.”
Cindy giggled knowing that she could see that coming from Morgan. She was wild when Cindy first met her. “I thought Reagan was going to med school?” Cindy thought back to the duel graduation party their parents held for the pair. He was dead set on it.
“Hmm, commitment issues, apparently.” Mac shrugged. “After four years in undergrad work, he’s having a hard time with committing to double that.”
“But your mom, I thought she’d be all over her son following in her footsteps?” Cindy wondered.
“Mom…” Mac shook her head. “Let me catch you up to speed, Dad’s teaching at Berkley and when he took the professorship there, mom was immediately offered a position at U.C.S.F. She turned it down and wanted to do something else.”
Cindy’s jaw dropped.
“Moms was tired of the hours, of the crap at the hospital and in academia. So she quit,” Mac explained.
“Wow, that’s…Darlene always talked about her job like…”
“Like it was her second husband?” Mac filled in. “Yeah, shocked us too. I mean she’s still licensed, but…” That conversation during her visit home was one that Mac remembers vividly. Her dad, who she knew had put up with a lot from his wife, just stood by and supported her.
“So, uhm, what does she do now?” Cindy lifted her feet up and swung them up over the arm of the couch. Her upper body twisted to lay her head next to her friend’s bent knee.
“She took up cooking.” Mac grinned down at her and adjusted her seating to pull Cindy’s head in her lap.
“Freaking WOW,” Cindy gazed up a little shell shocked from the news.
Mac bobbed her head. “Oh, they said to say hello by the way and that you’ll have to come over for dinner at some point. Dr. Geoffrey St. Hill was especially enthusiastic to have you back in the fold.”
Cindy snickered. “Your dad just wants to have someone to talk to about current events. God knows you or the rest of you trouble makers don’t keep up.”
“Hey,” Mac scoffed, “I keep up.”
“Uh-huh, tell me then,” Cindy poked Mac in the side, “Who are the top two republican candidates for the GOP’s presidential pick. It’s an election year after all.”
Mac’s eyes went to the ceiling and tried to remember when the last time she picked up a paper on her own was. Her lips pursed and she shook her head. “Uh, I know one of them’s a moron…sorry Mormon and then there was that Paul guy, right…?” Mac replied hopefully.
“Yeah, exactly.” Cindy nodded happy that Mac proved her point. “You guys never cared and like, your dad, he’s the only one that’s interested in it so…”
“Yeah, yeah.” Mac waved her off. “Maybe you’ll get to see Morgan again too.” Mac wiggled her eyebrows.
“Oh. My. God,” Cindy groaned. “Are you ever going to let that go?”
Mac grinned and shook her head. “Please, she’s lucky I didn’t rip her lips off.”
Cindy blushed and had the good sense to break eye contact. The first spring break she had ever been on was with Mac, Chelsea and Morgan. While Mac had always been secure in her sexuality, Morgan struggled with her bisexuality and had ended up using Cindy as an experiment one night. “In my defense, she didn’t know and it was one kiss. A peck really,” Cindy protested weakly.
“Hmm, yeah, okay, whatever,” Mac dismissed the argument.
“How’s she doing though? I mean work wise? She seeing anyone?” Cindy asked. Morgan was always kind to her, even after the fluke at Spring Break.
“She’s living the life. I mean really, she’s got this cute little bungalow, right next to the beach in San Diego, she loves her job, sometimes I think a little too much and her love life…well…let’s just say she’s happily involved.”
“Cool.” Cindy beamed.
“And what about, I mean, are you happy, here in San Fran, working at the paper?” Mac queried. Her friend seemed happy, but she was a little leery about the cop. Claire and Jill were good in her book, really good. Lindsay still rubbed her a little wrong.
“Yeah, I am. I mean when I first started, I got stupid puff pieces and crap assignments, but it’s shaped up. The girls have helped with that a lot.” Cindy grinned slyly. “I get the inside track for most of the crime section and it keeps my editor happy.”
“Cool,” Mac parroted back and took a look at the clock. “Hey, since you are going to be free, would you want to maybe take a ride on the Duc? You can pick the destination; just tell me where to go?” MacKenzie offered with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
In the near forty years Jill had been around, she’d seen a lot of advances in technology. A few that rattled off the top of her head were VCR’s to DVD’S to DVR’s. The shift in the forms of musical media, the mp3 format being on her top five list of great inventions. Then there was the rise of cellular technology. It had its moments of pure unadulterated torture, like when she was on a date or in the middle of rough, breath-stealing sex and her cell went off signaling that her electronic leash was tugging her back to the office.
Then there were times when she thought the pervasive nature of cell phones were the best invention ever. There was something just so enticing about receiving a text message with confirmation of a hot date with great potential and the light teasing that she was currently engaged in.
Thus far, Jill really did think that cell phones were a double edged sword.
“Hey,” Claire’s voice interrupted the near manic typing of the reply to her confirmation of plans for an evening out, “Jill, you’re going to walk into something if you don’t pull your nose out of that Blackberry, Miss Thing.”
The blonde was unable to stifle the grin on her face as she looked up at her friend. “I can text and walk at the same time,” she protested half-heartedly, purposefully ignoring an incident last week as she was yelling at a junior A.D.A. in email and nearly got flattened by a trolley.
Claire merely raised her eyebrows and looked at Jill over the rim of her glasses. Not commenting on the blatant lie just fed to her, she asked instead, “What’s got that big ole smile on your face? Court turn out that good this morning?”
“Court sucked,” Jill pouted for only a brief moment and then followed up, “And the smile is all due to my date. Tonight.” She gave a fist pump while her other hand busied itself by slipping her phone in to the side pocket of her purse.
“Well, that’s certainly a grin worthy development. Who’s the lucky suitor that gets to take my Jill out on the town?” Claire queried, curious as to who in the blonde’s colorful past she was trying to reignite something with. The doctor quickly dismissed the notion that it was anyone new, knowing full well Jill would have gushed upon the first meeting.
The grin lessened to a small, shy smile. “I’m, it’s new actually, different.” She set her purse and on a bench not too close to the body that Claire was working on and sat at the stool right next to it. “Uhm, sorry, it’s just that it’s really new and I want to keep a lid on it…at least for a little while,” Jill offered meekly, hoping that Claire wouldn’t take it the wrong way.
She loved her friends. She loved Claire like the older sister she never got and hurting her feelings was right up there with losing a case on Jill’s list of things she hated to do.
“Uh-huh, well, it would be a crime to put a frown on that face. You smiling and being all cheesy is a good thing,” Claire said and let it go. “But just so we are clear, I do eventually want details. Good ones too, not the ones you share with Lindsay.” She smiled and winked at the blonde, whose face tinged red at the jibe.
“I share with Linds,” Jill’s rebuke was half-hearted at best.
“You share the basics, because as much as we love that woman, she has a tendency to go a bit…”
“Insane, over protective, badass when someone’s encroaching on her people,” Jill finished.
“Exactly,” Claire agreed, punctuating said agreement with a scalpel point.
“Speaking of…” Jill trailed off and took a quick look around before continuing, “did you have a chance to ask what the hell her problem was this morning?”
Claire looked at the clock right above Jill’s head and decided now was as good a time as any for lunch. She set the scalpel down and covered one of the many parts recovered from this morning’s scene with a sterile, surgical cloth. Her gloves were snapped off and she disposed of those and her gown in the proper containers. “Come on, Ed made stroganoff and I have leftovers. We’ll eat and catch up.”
“Tell Ed he’s my favorite,” Jill squealed and followed Claire into the office. They worked quickly, pulling the items needed from the fridge and heating their meal up in the microwave kept on top of the small refrigerator.
As they sat down on the couch together, Jill idly wondered, “Is it a health code violation to have this stuff with all that?” Jill waved her fork in the general direction of the autopsy suite. “I’ve always wondered, but…”
“It’s fine as long as there’s no contamination.” Claire took a bite of the dinner she missed last night, savoring the food before she answered Jill’s earlier question. “I asked Lindsay about it. She just clammed up.”
Jill rolled her eyes and chewed. “Well, at least she’s predictable.”
“If we’re going to be honest about our Boxer, I think it was a reaction to exactly what we accused her of being. MacKenzie was touchy feely, she’s known Cindy the longest out of all of us and Cindy was just as equally touchy feely,” Claire summarized before taking a drink from the offered bottle of water.
“So, Lindsay was jealous and poor, unknowing Cindy added fuel to the fire when she showed up to her crime scene with Mac in tow.” Jill tipped her head back and rested it against the back of the couch.
“That sums it up. Although, the way Mac was acting the first night we met her and then the looks she was shooting at Lindsay at the crime scene…” Claire let that thought linger and watched Jill pick her head up.
“I don’t think it’s that. What I do think is that if Lindsay convinces Cindy to see her tonight, she’s going to get a royal ass chewing.” Jill smirked at the thought. Their little Cindy Lou had come quite a long way in learning to manage her friend. In Jill’s book, that was good thing. Cindy, in the year her and Lindsay have been together, had managed to do what Tom couldn’t do the entirety of their relationship.
“I’ll make sure to get Linds a donut to sit on tomorrow,” Claire joked, causing the two to erupt into a fit of giggles while they finished off their lunch.
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