Dr. Jack Stewart walked into the reception area of Community General Hospital. It looked just like he had remembered it. He couldn't wait to see his old friends Dr. Amanda Bentley, Dr. Mark Sloan and Lt. Steve Sloan again. He smiled as he imagined their surprised faces when they found out that he had turned up out of the blue, it had been so long since he had last seen them.

Jack strolled into the doctor's lounge where Mark was sitting reading a newspaper.

"Well hello Dr. Sloan." Jack called out in a business like tone, "Long time no see."

Mark swiveled around in his seat, a smile widening across his face, "Jack, my dear friend. How are you? When did you get back?" Mark shook the hand of his best friend and patted him on the back.

"Yesterday" Jack replied, "I've finally been able to get some time off work and I thought I'd come up and visit you all. Where are Amanda and Steve?"

"Well Amanda is in the Path Lab as usual", Mark said happily pulling up a chair for Jack, "And Steve's actually at home, he's got a day off and…"

But Mark was unable to finish as just at that moment there was a loud squeal from behind them and someone yelling "Jack" in a high pitched voice. Turning around Mark saw Amanda rush in through the door and bound up to Jack giving him a huge hug.

"Jack" she said again excitedly, "When did you get back? How are you? How long are you here for?"

"Hi Amanda" Jack said laughing, "I'm fine, I got here yesterday and I'm here for a week. And how are you?"

"Oh I'm good" Amanda answered sitting down, "CJ and Dion are great too, they'll be really happy to see you."

Ten minutes later Dr. Jesse Travis entered the Doctor's lounge to find his two friends, Amanda and Mark having a hearty conversation with a man he had never seen before.

"Um, hi Mark, Amanda" Jesse said shyly.

"Hi Jesse" Mark said seeing his young friend walk towards them. "Jesse, I want you to meet a good friend of mine, this is Dr. Jack Stewart" he said gesturing towards Jack. "Jack this is Dr. Jesse Travis."

"Oh, so you're the infamous Jack Stewart I've heard so much about" Jesse said jokingly, "How are you?"

"I'm fine" Jack said, he was a little peeved that this young doctor had

interrupted his reunion with his friends.

"Hey Amanda, did you find out anything about how Samuel Thomas may have died?" Jesse asked, oblivious to Jack's seething glares.

"Oh yeah" Amanda replied, a little dazed. "I completely forgot when I saw Jack. Um, yes, I carried out the autopsy this morning."

She opened up a folder, which had been sitting forgotten on the table. "Let's see, well the on-call doctor last night believed that he had just stopped breathing during the night. Apparently Thomas had suffered breathing problems before and also suffered from asthma. He had had an operation yesterday to remove his appendix and they had been worried about putting him under the anaesthetic but the operation had been a success. However last night when he stopped breathing they decided it must have been a side effect to the anaesthetic."

"I suppose its possible," said Mark thoughtfully, "Rare but possible."

"Well, I thought so too, but on carrying out my autopsy I found that Thomas had cotton fibres in his mouth and on his lungs," Amanda stated, "Which leads me to think that he may have been smothered."

"So you think he was murdered," Jesse said, "But why?"

"I don't know," Amanda said sadly, "Anyway I've got to get this report sent down to the police station. No doubt they will be carrying out an investigation here soon."

"Right" agreed Mark, "I'd better get on the phone to Steve and find out what he's doing."

And with that Mark, Amanda and Jesse left, leaving Jack sitting forgotten in the Doctor's lounge.

************

Lt. Steve Sloan entered Room 225 annoyed. Of all the days for a homicide investigation it had to be on his day off. This was just typical he thought.

"Right" he ordered, "I want a thorough search of the room and find out if anyone saw anything suspicious last night at around the time of the murder. And will someone get rid of that damn paparazzi, this is a murder scene for God's sake, why don't people ever show a bit of Decorum!"

"Ahhh, is that the angry voice of Lieutenant Steve Sloan I hear?" a voice said behind Steve.

Grinning Steve turned around, "Jack", he said giving his friend a quick hug, "What are you doing here?"

"You know what; you're the third person to ask me that today. Can't a guy visit his friends if he wants to without getting the third degree?" Jack said smiling.

"Ha, true" Steve replied, "So have you heard what happened?"

"Yeah, Amanda was telling us this morning how the guy had been smothered."

"Hmmm, we'd better go and find them" Steve said walking out of the room. "Hey, it's good to have you back Jack."

************