There was something oddly peaceful about working with the dead. Sure it wasn't the most glamorous job and sure Phoebe spent more time around the dead than she did with the living but she liked her job. Phoebe had been different from the most of her family in regards to she didn't always know what she had wanted to do with her life. Danny and Joe had always wanted to follow in their fathers footsteps and become cops, Erin had decided in her teens that she didn't want be a cop and instead wanted to become a lawyer. Jamie was just Jamie, he had spent years studying to become a lawyer only to decided after he had graduated that he actually wanted to be a cop. Phoebe had always been different from the rest of her family as she had never really known what she wanted to do with her life. Things had always been so easy for Phoebe when it came to academics, she had always been a straight A student and because she never really felt challenged in school, Phoebe didn't have any real goals in life, no direction of any kind. Not until a conversation Phoebe had with her mother just before the start of her senior year, a few words idly spoken by her mother and then Phoebe suddenly had a direction in life – she wanted to become a doctor. She could have become any kind of doctor Phoebe had her pick of specialities but in the end she had gone pathology followed by a fellowship in forensic pathology. Sure Phoebe wouldn't earn as much money compared to if she had become a cardiologist and gone into private practice. But it had never been about the money as Phoebe wanted a career in something that would challenger her and being a medical examiner certainly did that.

Everyone thought death was the end but Phoebe's job had shown her that death sometimes wasn't all that simple. People didn't randomly die these days, there was always an answers and Phoebe's job was to find that answer. Phoebe liked the challenge but there was so much more to her job then cutting up bodies and rooting around in them and doing tests to find out a cause of death. It was also Phoebe's job to speak for the dead when they were unable to do so for themselves and Phoebe found a sense of nobility in that. Her job certainly wasn't the most pleasant, she had people of all ages on her table who had died in many different ways and Phoebe had a duty to each one of them. Such as the man on the slab right in front of her; Luka Mitchell, he was only 29 years old and had been brought in this morning after being shot in the middle of the subway. Anyone else would have said that he was too young to die but Phoebe knew that you were never too young to die. But a 29 year old gunned down in the middle of a day during rush hour was something else? Who knows what Luka Mitchell had done for someone to do this for him, luckily for Phoebe that wasn't her job.

"You wanted to see me Pheebs?"

Looking up from her clipboard Phoebe saw Danny walk into her autopsy with his typical cop swagger in all his detective first grade glory, followed by a tall woman, rather good looking and a sharp dresser who Phoebe took to be her brother's new partner. How long she was here for was difficult to say as lately Danny had been going through a lot of temporary partners and so far none of them seemed to stick. "I did, but did you bring it?"

"One chilli cheese fries, a hamburger with extra pickles and a chocolate shake just like you requested. Now you going to tell me why you wanted me to come all the way down here?" Danny questioned as he handed over a paper takeaway bag over the table to Phoebe who gleefully took it as she had been really craving chilli cheese fries all morning and she had asked Danny to bring her some on his way down to the M.E's office as she had some interesting developments for him on the Mitchell case.

"Ye of little patience brother, good things come to those who wait and you shall get your answers soon…" Phoebe gently scolded as she took the bag away and placed it on the desk which was situated a few meters away. Phoebe knew better than to start eating in here when Danny was around as he got creeped out by the fact that Phoebe was comfortable in eating in the morgue surrounded by dead bodies. Phoebe didn't really understand because the morgue was like the cleanest place ever, it was constantly being cleaned to the point where she could probably eat off of the floor because the morgue was so clean. Not that Phoebe ever would as even she found that to be weird but she wasn't against eating before starting an autopsy.

"Brother?"

"Detective Jackie Curatola I'd like you to meet my baby sister Dr. Phoebe Reagan." Danny said making the introductions and Phoebe offered Jackie a warm and welcoming smile.

"Reagan? Another one?" Jackie questioned and both Phoebe and Danny couldn't help but share amused glances with each other as responses like that weren't uncommon given that there was several Reagans in the NYPD, one in the DA's office and then Phoebe in the M.E's office. It was pretty unusual to have so many people from one family working within the justice system in New York. People did tend to cross paths with the Reagan at some point given their respective careers tended to meet a lot and so other cops, lawyers and medical examiners would come into contact with them. The Commissioner of the NYPD being their father certainly didn't help with the matter but Phoebe always took it in her stride as you couldn't pick your family and hers were a pretty decent bunch and they were all very good at their jobs. Even if there were occasional instances of someone losing their cool and sticking a suspects head under the toilet, however that was all water under the bridge now or rather water under the toilet as Danny had been able to nail his perp on different case. Things had ended well and Danny had avoided a suspension or an excessive force compliant in his file.

"Afraid so but don't worry Det. Curatola I am the more affable one of the bunch compared to my brother although he would probably tell you that I am the weird one of the family. I'm also the most liked out of us all as people hate cops and lawyers but no one ever hates the medical examiner." Phoebe quipped in amusement.

"Enough already Pheebs, now what do you have for us?" Danny questioned.

"Cause of death for your victim and you'll be happy to know that I am ruling it at homicide." Phoebe responded and she watched as Danny looked at her as if she had lost her mind and she knew what was coming next.

"You called us all the way down here to tell us that the case is a homicide? I could have told you that Phoebe! The guy has four bullets in his chest, of course it was going to be a homicide–" Danny began, fully going off on a rant as Phoebe predicted. Her brother was awfully predictable and was prone to occasionally jumping to conclusions at time and Phoebe used that to her advantage such as times like these. He had assumed that Luka Mitchell had died as result of the gunshot wounds that he had sustained but Phoebe knew not everything was what it seemed. Not everything was so obvious, sometimes you had to look beyond the surface or in Phoebe's case crack open chests and skulls to see what was under the surface.

"The gunshot wounds weren't what killed Luka Mitchell." Phoebe interrupted and immediately Danny fell quiet and Phoebe took this as a sign to carry on and explain the reason why she had called Danny down to the morgue. " You see Danny… This is why I'm the medical examiner and you are the cop as I have the brains and you have the brawn. But back to the point, Luka Mitchell would have most likely survived his injuries if it weren't for the fact that after he was shot, he fell to the ground and hit his head. Cause of death was a ruptured blood vessel at the base of the brain and here is where things get interesting. The vessel was already weakened before the time of death. During the autopsy I discovered that Mr. Mitchell's PH level in his blood was abnormally low, this kind of thing usually suggests renal failure."

"Was the vic in renal failure?" Jackie questioned.

"Well I took a sample of his kidney tissue and I found it to be loaded with calcium oxloate crystal, the oxolates are a tell tell sign of ethylene glycol poisoning. It's very lethal and your victim probably had no clue that he was being poisoned." Phoebe explained.

"Why not? And what exactly is ethylene glycol for those of us who don't have fancy degrees?" Danny questioned and Phoebe smiled, this was the part she loved the most. Explaining how she figured out the mystery of a baffling case. Well this case wasn't that baffling but it certainly wasn't what it had first appeared.

"If your going to poison someone then Ethylene glycol would be a good way to go about it as it is odourless, colourless, easily maskable and has a very sweet taste to it almost like syrup. Ethylene glycol is an organic compound which is primarily used as a raw material in the manufacture of polyester fibres and the fabric industry but it's better know to most people as antifreeze, it's a component of it but you get my point. The impact of his fall from the shooting may have killed your victim but he was running out of time anyway, Mr. Mitchell had 72 hours at most before his body would have shut down had the events of today not happen."

"So he was literally a dead man walking?" Danny asked and Phoebe sighed, she really hated that analogy but it seemed rather appropriate as it seemed like the man on her table had an outstanding appointment to end up on her table.

"Indeed." Phoebe began just as a wave of nausea swept over her and she had to try and force her gag reflex to try and keep itself under control, which was never going to work. The morning sickness was still around and not confining itself to just morning, it was day and night much to Phoebe's irritation and the nausea never seemed to stop. So far Phoebe's experience of being pregnant wasn't a fun one as whilst she loved her job and was used to the smell of death, it seemed that her pregnant self couldn't cope with it. Already Phoebe had thrown up several times because the smell of bleach mixed with death was making her feel ill.

"Dr. Reagan are you okay?" Jackie asked and Phoebe forced herself to smile as she couldn't let anyone know what something was wrong. Right now she was still keeping the whole pregnancy thing under wraps with only herself and her father knowing. Phoebe knew she was going to have to tell her family about the baby and what had happened with Ian as she was soon approaching the end of her first trimester. She was now eleven weeks pregnant and eventually Phoebe was going to start showing the further along she got in her pregnancy. But Phoebe was scared no matter how much she didn't want to admit it as she was going to be a single mom. Both Danny and Erin had been married before they had kids and Phoebe wasn't married. Her boyfriend had taken off because he couldn't deal with this situation, leaving her all alone. Unlike her siblings Phoebe wasn't married and didn't have a partner to help her out and even though her dad told her that she wouldn't be alone in having this baby Phoebe still felt alone. Not to mention slightly ashamed about how messed up her life currently was. She was bringing a baby into the world born out of wedlock and she was worried about what her family would say. Phoebe knew that she was being crazy in thinking that her family would judge and think the worst of her but she couldn't help herself. This was not the way she had planned on starting a family and yet it was happening.

"Yeah I'm fine just feeling a bit light headed as I skipped lunch to finish the autopsy as we're pretty backed up at the moment and I guess my body is catching up to me. Don't worry I'll be okay." Phoebe replied as she started the nausea start to settle down. Phoebe was very much hoping that this would all end once her first trimester was over as she wasn't sure she could carry on like this for the next six months.

"You sure Pheebs?" Danny asked.

"I'm good." Phoebe replied in a reassuring manner more for Danny's sake then her own.

"So we've got a victim who was being poisoned and was days away from dying when he's gunned down in the middle of the subway. Why shoot him if he's being poisoned?" Jackie questioned.

"Maybe they got tired of waiting and decided to speed things up or there is the possibility that we are dealing with two separate people." Danny debated and Phoebe admitted that both of those theories were plausible and even though she was no lawyer, Phoebe had worked closely with the district attorney's office and knew enough about the law to know that if there were two people involved in Luka Mitchell's death then the shooter could be charged with manslaughter as their shooting of Luka Mitchell caused the fall that led to his earth. Then the pensioner could be charged with murder as it was the poison was a critical contribution to how the victim dies. It was rare but Phoebe had heard of cases where two separate people were charged with the same crime. If this case got to trial it was going to be interesting.

"Well since I've provided you with the cause of Mr. Mitchell's death Danny, you don't need my services anymore until you hopefully find the antifreeze used to poison him as I'm not about guess work Danny, I'm about science and facts. I'll send you my final report as soon as I can…"