Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Body of Proof and ABC Studios. No copyright infringement is intended.
First of all, I love seeing the stories starting to appear for this show.
Summary: It never occurred to Megan that her paralytic condition could provide a clue to solving not just one but three deaths.
Megan Hunt felt unsure of where she was when she awoke. It was safe to say she was not in her apartment. The worst part. She didn't remember going to sleep. When she opened her eyes, she could make out, in the darkness, Peter's Dunlop's silhouette sitting in a chair just off to the side. Megan realized then that she was in a hospital room.
As if he sensed it, Peter jerked awake in time to see Megan trying to sit up. She stopped when she propped herself on one elbow. He saw in her face the familiar pain whenever her paresthesia acted up.
"Ouch!"
Peter was by her side in an instant.
"Megan, you should lie back down." She did as she was told.
"What am I doing here?" It worried him to see the confused expression on Megan's face.
"What is the last thing you remember."
"I was working in my office. Why?"
"You don't remember passing out?"
Shifting through her memory, Megan went over the past day's events mentally. It was a bit of a jumble. They had been particularly busy with three new unsolved cases that morning.
"No." The very idea frightened and embarrassed her at the same time for seeming so weak in front of other people.
"How do you feel now?" Megan shook her head.
"I feel find. Rested even. What did the doctors have to say?"
"They couldn't find anything that would explain your unconsciousness."
She got quiet and became deep in thought.
Peter pulled out his phone and asked, "Should I call Lacey?"
It was thoughtful of him, but Megan harrumphed, putting a hand on his arm. "Don't bother. Lacey went camping with friends for the weekend."
He held out a helping hand when Megan started to get up. Peter knew nothing could keep her down for long, but it didn't keep him from voicing his concerns.
"Where do you think you are going?"
Megan was half way to the bathroom when she remembered to answer him. "Work. I think I know why I got knocked out."
"You're kidding, right?"
At the Medical Examiners Office, Dr. Kate Murphy, already in her scrubs, was managing the autopsy of three seemingly different cases, without her star ME. It didn't seem odd to her to see Dr. Hunt walk into the lab.
"Megan, feeling better?"
"Yeah," said Megan. "Thanks for asking." She smiled at Kate before marching straight for the refrigerator and removed vials of the blood samples taken from the three bodies in the morgue.
Kate became curious and tried to follow what Megan was up to. "What are you doing?"
Megan used a syringe to extract a minute amount to examine under the microscope.
"Yesterday morning I studied the blood from the last man for some time. What I couldn't figure was why my fingers went numb all of a sudden."
"Aha!" Megan had a look of satisfaction.
"What? What is it?"
"Kate, I now know what the scuba diver, the construction worker and the bus driver had in common." She paused for effect. "They've all been to the dentist recently. Coincidentally, all three had extraordinarily high levels of numbing drugs in their systems, which had not been metabolized. High levels are known to have serious side effects. Each of them shouldn't have gone back to work so soon."
"Well. Why were you affected?"
"For me, the amount I came into contact with was enough to put down a tiger. Combined with the medication I was taking for my parestheisa, it produced an unexpected reaction. No wonder I passed out. It was basically an analgesic. Mysteries solved."
Oddly enough, I only found out last week, I have to get a wisdom tooth extracted. The dentist told me that it will be easy; I won't feel a thing with numbing drugs. This was written well before that. Some premonition I am having.