Toledo Ohio – The Morgue

Two men walked into the morgue, one tall with light brown hair, the other shorter and with a darker shade atop his head. They gave each other a glance and walk through the door to room 144. Silently they sidled up to the far desk and talk to the man behind the desk. From the shadowed room across the hall from room 144, Alex and Faith couldn't hear many of the words spoken. Faith heard what she needed, a name. Time to make their move.

"Excuse me, is Doctor Figlavitch available?" Faith moved forward, control exuded through her movements. She continued forward, aware that all the eyes in the room were on her, and stopped just next to the tall stranger.

"Er, are you all together?" The technition stumbled over his words, confused by the sudden intrusion no doubt. Alex slipped into the room and stood in the background of the action, next to the shorter man. Leaning at an angle, Alex gave them both a once-over glance. Tall one isn't my type, but this guy is kinda cute.

The tall one seemed to stutter slightly, too disorientated to know what to say. It was obvious he wasn't here sight-seeing, he probably had the same assumptions Alex did. If Faith doesn't speak, I'll have to think of a way to cover this. Luckily Faith, ever the professional, took it in her stride.

"Yeah, we're from the same uni. Shoemaker corpse, right guys?" She looked at the taller one, perfectly natural and calm. Her partner, the tall stranger, balanced her acting and continued the charade. He turned to the technition and gave him a little smile. He was just as professional as Faith and the thought that she might have met her match made Alex smile to himself.

"What the hell are you smiling at?" The hushed whisper from beside him cause Alex to turn. His smile faded and he muttered some form of response before facing front again. Cute as he was, the shorter one had one hell of an attitude on him.

"So, could you show us the corpse?" The tall one gave his most convincing performance and it seemed to pay off. The technition produced a sheet of paper for us to each sign and he passed it to Faith first. After signing her name she gave it to the two boys and they each added their own names to the list. Alex glanced at it as the shorter one passed it to him.

Faith Evans.

Hector Aframien.

James Barker.

Alex quickly added his own name to the bottom of the list and followed the group into the adjoining room. Faith was standing by the head of Mr. Shoemaker, whilst Hector and James stood by his side. They were obviously using fake names, but then it wouldn't hinder Alex too much.

"Now the newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding." James began. He was square in his stance, strong, calm once again. His partner shifted his weight continuously, uneasy. Faith however was perfectly natural, no pretence or false image, she really was at home among the dead bodies. We have got to get her a life.

"Well there's bleeding and there's ... " Faith paused when the technition removed the sheet. "And then there's liquified goop."

"Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?" Hector obviously never participated much in this kind of talk. Faith seemed to think he was more more the pride, attitude and ignorance side of the outfit, whilst tall and sensitive was more the brains and charm. Though I'm sure he could put up a fight if he wanted to, Faith noted his toned arms, legs and ...

"Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone." The technition showed a look of honest disgust as he glanced at the obliterated eyes. Faith smirked at his reaction, rousing a striking glare from Hector. She hid her amusement and kept a poker face allowing the conversation to glide through the next few minutes without confrontation. A short temper had always been her downfall.

"You ever see exploding eyeballs?" The comment from Hector as Faith's consciousness rejoined the discussion. Her eyes flared in confusion for a moment and then relaxed as she remembered the rest of the conversation.

"That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor." The technition laughed slightly. It was unsettling that somebody who worked this closely to death and saw all of its horrific forms could still laugh about it. Well, not that unsettling considering my life, Faith smirked to herself.

"Think we could take a look at that police report. You know, for ... uh, our paper." Hector's unconvincing lies, which would crumble under close inspection, managed to fool the technition for a moment, until he stood up rather tall and replied in earnest.

"I'm not really supposed to show you that." At which point, James begrudgingly withdrew his wallet from his pocket.