Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters with the exception of Charlie and Becca.
A/N: Okay, so there it starts, the first chapter of the I don't know how many in this installment. I hope you all like it, I know I enjoyed writing it. Chapter 2 shouldn't be too long.
Chapter I
With a sigh Sara wrapped the scarf closer around her neck as a small cloud of oxygen formed itself from the air she'd breathed out. It had been a good decision to leave the warm heat of Las Vegas, but to be confronted with a snow blizzard wasn't exactly how she'd imagined to spend her days. Her car had snowed in and now she was forced to walk to the campus. The snow cracked under her boots and Sara felt herself shiver slightly. She didn't miss the heat, she missed something though, or someone rather.
But now she was here, her new hometown, or an old one rather, Boston Massachusetts. She walked up the lawn that lead to the front door of the Boston College, her hands in her pockets. A student held the door open for her and she smiled at him in gratitude. "Thanks Charlie," she said gently as she made her way inside, the warmth wrapping around her like a welcoming blanket.
She quickly made her way to her office, hanging her coat and scarf on the coat rack. She straightened her black blouse and sat at her desk. After gathering the right sheets and books for her lecture she got up, gave herself a quick look in the mirror and walked out. With the key she opened the door to the lecture room, turning on the lights and waiting for the students to arrive. After placing her things on the desk at the front of the room, she went to get a cup of coffee.
When she had grabbed a cup she went back to the lecture hall, proud to see that half of the room was already filled with interested students. "Good morning," she greeted them as she walked down the steps to her desk. She put the cup down and turned the overhead projector on. After casting a quick look at her watch, she decided she had a few minutes more to grade their tests from the week before. They had been asking her about those a lot.
Nearly fifteen minutes later she asked one of her students to close the door and swallowed the last bit of her coffee down. "To all the students I've seen in the last semester I want to say, welcome back, and to all the others, I'm glad you could make it to come," she said politely and grabbed the first sheet from the pile on her desk. "The first hour I want to use to explain a little bit more on hair and fiber analysis, then we'll take a short break and I'll let you work on your projects. During that hour I'll be here to answer all your questions. The last hour we'll close off with a little case I'd like to hear your interpretations on."
A hand went up into the air and Sara smiled gently, "Yes?"
"Will we discuss one of the cases you worked on yourself back in Las Vegas?" Charlie's voice raised from the crowd. His black hair was messy and his dark eyes were lined with some extra kohl. He was a silent student, not really popular among his classmates, but he was a good kid and an excellent student.
Sara frowned a bit, contemplating the options. "I could, I'll think of one when you're working in your project groups, agreed?"
Charlie nodded in excitement, "Yes, cool."
After a few theoretical explanations on hair and fiber analysis, Sara grabbed another sheet. The sheet contained pictures of hair samples, shown under the microscope. "Okay, who can tell me what kind of hair the first one is?" She asked and waited for some fingers to rise. "Yes, Becca?"
"It's a cat hair," the girl in the front row answered. She was looking over her glasses, a pencil resting behind her ear. She had been taking a lot of notes throughout the hour and Sara nodded with a pursed smile at her answer.
"Can you tell me why?" She asked as she looked at the younger student.
Becca nodded and placed her pencil down on her lap, nervously twisting it around with her fingers, never liking to be the center of all attention. "The medulla, or the center of the hair, is split up in little pieces, looking like a pearl chain. That's something only found in cat hairs," she explained, a small blush on her face as the guy next to her chuckled a little in his hand.
"Excellent Becca, anything you have to say?" Sara asked the guy next to her.
When he shook his head quickly, a bright red blush creeping up his cheeks, she smiled. "Alright, and this one?"
This time Charlie was the first to raise his hand. "That one is human, probably from a blonde woman, but her natural hair color is brunette," the student said, his eyes sparkling as he looked at his lecturer.
"Yes, this is indeed human. But how do you know it's a women's hair?" Sara asked, interested in his logic behind the statement.
The guy smirked a bit, "I uhm… got a little carried away. I thought because of the obvious many hair dyes, it would be a girl, but uhm… never mind."
Sara chuckled slightly as she nodded, "Yes, never base your conclusions on something like that. The only thing we can determine here is that the hair is human, coming from the head. We can see that in the shape of the hair. Can you tell me how you saw this was human Charlie?"
Charlie nodded, "The medulla in this hair is about a third of the whole hair, if it were bigger it would be an animal hair."
"Excellent Charlie," she nodded and clapped her hands together, looking around. "Any questions?" She asked, and when she noticed everyone was shaking their head, she smiled. With a small clear of her throat she gathered some papers from her desk, starting to hand them out in the first row. "Pass them on to the back please?"
When she had resumed her position at the front of the class she sat down on the desk, crossing her legs. "Alright, I want you all to form small investigation teams of four members and sit together in a group. On the sheet that I've just passed out – or had pass out for me, there's a small list of items, the evidence found at the crime scene, I want you all to write down what you could do with that," she paused for a moment, closing her eyes to stop the headache starting behind them.
"I'll walk you through the case shortly before I will let you at it," she said and looked around the room. "When you arrive at the crime scene you have no idea what you are dealing with and when you approach the crime scene tape and see a colleague throwing down dummies from an hotel roof," Sara started and stopped for a moment, memories flooding back into her mind, penetrating her thoughts.
"Norman 'fell'."
"Wouldn't you if you were married to Mrs. Roper?"
She still remembered how handsome he had looked right there and then, taking pictures of the various dummies that were lying on the ground. His skin was tanned and the black shirt suited him nicely. He was still as handsome as when she had seen him last.
"I don't even have to turn around. Sara Sidle."
"That's me. Still tossing simulation dummies? There are other ways to tell, you know?"
She merely smiled at herself as she remembered everything but shook herself awake to tell them the rest of the story. "Of course there are other ways instead of throwing down dummies," she smirked, "but your colleague is a real scientist who likes to see things. Newton dropped the apple, he dropped the dummies," she said and paused for a moment, remembering those were exactly his words to her. "Anyway, you have all the pictures of the victim and you find out that he was pushed, but you already could have known because he is still wearing his glasses."
Charlie was the first to raise his hand at that. "What does that have to do with anything?" He asked.
Sara smiled at him. "People who want to end our lives are too much of a coward to see it. Most of them take off their glasses so they don't have to see. It's never been proven, but it can help in an investigation," she explained and then clapped her hands together. "Okay, I'll let you all at it, I will be here to answer any questions."
At the end of her class she was amazed by the number of good solutions to the case and complimented her students. "Okay, this was it for today, I hope to see you all tomorrow," she said and smiled.
She returned to her desk to work on grading some more papers as all the students stood up to leave. Except for one. She could feel a pair of eyes burning holes on her, so she looked up. She was greeted by the pair of blue eyes that had been haunting her for the past months.
TBC