Chapter 3: Four months earlier
"Hi Abby, here are the tissue samples Dr. Mallard separated for you."
"Thanks, Jimmy Boy," said Abby, smiling at Jimmy with a bright smile that had to be fake or daily practiced in front of the mirror.
No one can be that happy at that time of the morning. Always cheeky, always happy, Abby was like a butterfly, fluttering in her wings of black lace and fishnet stockings, looking down at the world at the height of her platform boots.
Jimmy smiled faintly at her, but his headache made it more like a grimace instead of a real thing. He had not slept the night before as he now had to cater for his mom's needs too as he had fired the live in nurse the month before and cut down several expenses to make ends meet. He was tired, both physically and emotionally, and it showed on his face.
One of his neighbors had agreed to look after his mom and check her meds during the day, but the nights were cruel as that's when the nausea hit the hardest. So Jimmy was basically working double shifts, one at NCIS and the other bathing, cleaning puke or just consoling his ailing mother.
The saying tightening the belt had acquired a whole new meaning for one Jimmy Palmer.
"You look sick, Jimmy." Abby frowned and stared at the young man, who fidgeted under her stare for a moment, his blue eyes wide open behind his wireframes. "You really should change your diet. I would like to suggest you an egg-lacto-vegetarian one. I'm trying it and I have to say that's great for your skin, eyes, hair."
Jimmy shook his head, staring at one of the several CaffPow cups littering the desk and the garbage can. Sure, a vegan diet plus countless ounces of caffeine laden drink is going to be great to my diabetic organism, he thought.
"Thanks for the heads up, Abby," better to head out, before he said something stupid like telling her that he looked sick because he had stayed the whole night up cleaning after his sick mother.
"You're welcome Jimmy. If you ever need any help with these new diets, just ask me. I'm becoming kind of a specialist on them. I've been reading about vegan culture and there are great things to learn with these no-meat eaters."
"Uhm… ahh… I gotta go."
He left as if he had the hounds of hell after him, leaving Abby looking confused at the door.
"Okaaayyy…" she raised the volume of her radio and shook her head with the beat.
Soon the visit of the young autopsy assistant was forgotten, completely erased of her mind, as different nucleotides splashed in a frenetic rhythm on her screen.