DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: Teen/PG
SPOILERS: Season 8 Finale Post Ep
PAIRINGS: None
WORD COUNT: 978
SUMMARY: The resulting events of the Season 8 Finale through the eyes of our favorite Assistant Coroner. Post Ep
A/N: I really didn't have any intention of writing a Post Ep this year, and I wasn't worried because there have been some really fantastic ones so far. But this one kind of picked at the back of my head and so I just let it out. Thanks to Guerilla!Beta for sorting me out when I lost my train of thought. And much gratitude to all who read it before posting. Sanity checks are very important for someone like me. ;)
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Driving back to the morgue in an empty van is usually the sign of a bad night, but this time is most definitely the exception. As the lights of the Vegas night pass across the windows of the county van, I have the time to consider my blessings. I am grateful for lots of things in my life, but the big four just became the big five tonight.
My family has always topped my list on the gratitude scale. My father may have been a strict military man, but dragging a family along behind him to every new base assignment meant that there needed to be a strong constant in our lives. Dad was that constant. We never questioned where we stood with him, and we always knew that both our parents were there no matter what life threw our way. In our home the natural order of things went as follows; Family, God and Country. There was never any doubt this was the way things were, and I am very grateful to my parents for everything they gave to us.
Saying that I am grateful for my work sounds silly to most people, but they don't see the world the same way I do. My work allows me to explore not only the human body, but in a lot of ways it also lets me see the human condition in a way few ever experience. I know, without reservation, that there is a God, because I have seen the magic and the mystery of that presence through my work. No two people are completely alike, and yet, inside they share so many similarities as to be a singular entity. What may kill one person another will survive. I have seen the strength and the fragility of human life, and I get to be a part of the process that brings the ones responsible for these deaths to justice. Through my work, I am a part of the grand circle of life, and knowing this, I have developed a strong faith. Without my work, I'm not sure I would have ever made that connection.
If you asked me five years ago if I thought the following statement would ever be a part of my life, I would have walked away. But now… Now it's the reason I get up every day with a smile on my face, and joy in my heart. I am eternally grateful for my wife. She is everything I never knew I needed, and she is also my best friend. We've been friends since high school, but I never took the time to see what was right there in front of me. I have Sara to thank for that one, actually. My car was in the shop and she was dropping me off at the morgue when Sara walked up. After a few minutes of small talk, Sara and I walked inside and that was when she said, "Looks like you found yourself a real keeper there, David." I spent the whole rest of that night wondering why Sara would think we were a couple, but when she was waiting in the bay with that smile on her face in the morning, I finally saw it. We've been happily living for each other ever since.
Coming to the lab every day is not just about the work for me, it's also about the people here. I'm not sure I would have lasted through those tough beginning years without my co-workers, and that's one of the reasons why they rounded out the former big four. They have supported, teased, comforted and inspired me through the entire eight years of my professional life. Dr. Robbins is quite possibly one of the most astounding people in this field, and I have been honored and blessed to have him as my mentor. Dr. Grissom simply is the best in his field, and he's taught me more about the decomposition of human and animal remains than I could have gleaned from a thousand text books. The CSI's here are at the top of their game, and are always willing to lend a hand, both in the field and in the morgue. But more than that, they are my friends. Having them in my life has made it infinitely richer than it ever could have been without them, and I am deeply grateful for their ongoing presence.
However, tonight… Tonight I am most grateful for one thing. I am grateful for the county policy on "conflict of interest." Without that single piece of once meaningless bureaucracy, I would have been faced with a task more daunting than anything I have ever experienced in my life; processing the body of someone I care about. The thought of collecting trace as I stripped his body upon my cleaning table is more than I can bear. The mental image of preparing his body for autopsy, with that kind and gentle face staring back at me from beyond, makes my entire body shudder. Just thinking about all of the steps fills me with a nausea like I've never known before, and I have to grip the steering wheel a little tighter to fight the urge to empty my stomach for the first time since my first liquid decomp.
As I swallow back the increased saliva in my mouth, I count all of my blessings and say a prayer that the image of Warrick slumped over in that car will be washed away from my mind. With the back-up signal on the van going off, I almost missed the sound of my cellphone. Looking down at the screen, I find one of those blessings staring back at me and I answer the phone. "I am so glad you called… No, thankfully, he's gone to the state morgue. Conflict of interest… Yeah, I'm pretty grateful, too."