AN: I don't own any of the CSI:NY Characters or any of the show's storylines that I may refer to from time to time, but the rest of the plot is mine.
AN: I had hoped to post this earlier, but when it came down to it I struggled to get going with Hawkes, we don't know a lot about his background. I know somewhere there was a reference to him being a child genius, but I can't remember where! Hope you like this instalment...
7. Hawkes
After Stella and Flack left, Hawkes began cataloguing the papers. "Would you mind if we talked while you did that?" Asked Alex.
"There's not much I can tell you." Sighed Hawkes wondering what would be so interesting about him that anyone would listen.
"A child genius, top surgeon and ex-ME that's quite a lot to start with." Alex shot back quickly sensing he was trying to get out of the discussion. Hawkes phone chose that moment to interrupt. He checked the text message and began to clear the evidence away.
"I'm sorry we'll have to pick this up another time I'm needed at another scene." He told her.
Hawkes disappeared a moment later. Alex wandered the halls a bit and finding no one to question she went to the break room and called Ben, she figured he was still busy with his mystery appointment as she got his voicemail, again. "Hi ... it's me ... I think I've about done for today, call me let me know about dinner." Flipping her phone closed she scribbled a note and went to leave it on Mac's desk.
Next morning she arrived alone on the 35th floor. Danny saw her first.
"Thought this was a film crew, ain't that difficult with no camera man?" He quizzed.
"Ben's on another story and seeing as I'm just doing research at the moment I can cope. If anything interesting comes up I can call him, ... you free to continue our conversation later?" She asked.
"I'm just on my way out, I'll be in court all day." He commented as he stepped into the elevator.
Alex sighed and went in search of her next "victim". By mid morning she was becoming frustrated. The team had either been out or claimed pressing evidence analysis. She knew some of them weren't as busy as they claimed, but what could she do? After pondering things for a moment she decided to give it a bit longer then talk to Mac again, so while she waited she entered the break room. Hawkes was sitting with a file and a cup of coffee.
"Dr Hawkes, now looks like a good time to catch up." She commented cheerfully.
Hawkes shook his head as she turned her back to help herself to coffee. He was tempted to just slip quietly out of the room and head for the morgue, but he wasn't that mean.
"Ms Marsh. I'm really not sure what the Commissioner wants me to say." Hawkes offered.
"Just answer the questions and it will build something we can work with." Answered Alex as she sat down with her coffee dropping her folder on the table between them. "What was it like being considered a child genius and how old were you when you graduated college?"
"My family were very supportive. They never pushed too hard, just enough for me to keep interested and wanting to learn. It seemed to flow naturally."
"What's your family like?" (loveRomance1)
"Average. My sister tells me my niece, she's 11, is going to be just like me, she's always asking questions about my cases." Hawkes deflected the question.
"Isn't that good?" Asked Alex, intrigued.
"Sometimes, but she shouldn't always be asking so many questions at her age." Sighed Hawkes thinking that they may have another genius in the family.
"Didn't you ask lots of questions at her age, maybe you have another genius in the family." Alex commented, then moved on with the next question. "What made you chose medicine as a career?"
"I wanted to help people, to be on the cutting edge of the new treatments that were coming out."
"So why did you leave a successful practice with the living to examine the dead and then leave that for the field?" (backstagespotlight)
"I didn't want to be the guy standing over somebody when they took their last breath so .. took a job in the ME's office. Figured if God had the final say when someone died, I could do something about it if they were taken away too soon." Said Hawkes, repeating what he had told Danny some months before, during a case.
"What made you transfer to field work?" Asked Alex picking up the fact that he hadn't fully answered the question.
"The last few years saw a big change in forensics and while what I was doing was getting some answers, I didn't get the whole picture. ... I guess I was ready for a new challenge, being out on the front lines, collecting the evidence, following the analysis has given me that, I get the whole picture."
"I heard you switched to dealing with dead bodies because you lost 3 patients during high risk surgery, is that true?"
"I was exercising my profession, to learn ... sometimes it's just your time and there is nothing medicine can do about it." He sighed.
"Would you ever consider going back to the hospital environment?" Alex continued to probe, trying to understand the obviously complex character that was Sheldon Hawkes.
"I'll never say never, science is always developing new treatments, new theories, but for now I like what I'm doing, being able to follow the evidence and solve the puzzle of how and why someone died."
"Do you always find out why?"
"Not always and that's the hard thing to deal with; sometimes there is no answer to why and we have to live with that."
"It's said that working the hours you do you don't get a social life, have you been in a relationship since becoming a CSI?" (loveRomance1)
"The working hours are not much different from being a hospital doctor or an ME, so the shifts weren't a big change. We still get a social life just not your normal dinner date type." Hawkes smiled almost shyly.
"Do you think that the women you work with go more for the sensitive doctor than the cops?" (brainDamage089)
"That Ms Marsh is none of the commissioner's business." Deflected Hawkes. Alex let the point slide she wanted to dig a little deeper into some of the cases he'd been involved with since becoming a CSI.
"Have the personal experiences the team have gone through made you all stronger or more wholesome like a family?" (Aphina)
"We had a run of cases last year which hit pretty close to home, Flack got injured on the job, we lost another of our own, this year Danny and Adam were held hostage. Sure it hits hard. We are like a family we work closely together. Any one of the situations we go into could be our last, we need to know each other and how we work. ... Out on the streets we have each other's backs." Reflected Hawkes, images of Aiden and Flack running through his mind.
"Detectives Flack and Messer seem to have bounced back from their injuries pretty quickly, as a doctor does it concern you that they may have gone back in the field too quickly, ... that they may still have psychological scars from what they went through?" Alex pressed, trying to understand them all.
"They had their own doctors to pronounce on their fitness, ... I've not seen any evidence of ongoing issues." Hawkes responded warily.
"I understand you were the one to identify Detective Burn's body last year, what went through your mind at the time and how have you dealt with it since?" Alex asked as gently as she could.
"Since her departure from the lab I hadn't had much contact with her, Stella and Danny saw her a few times, but no one knew she was still pursuing the case against the SOB who later killed her. It started out as any other case would. ... Part of our job is to identify the victim and give closure to the families. Sometimes we have to perform a reconstruction and find something to help identify them. I was doing just that when certain features started to stand out. ... I was stunned, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was only when Mac saw it too that I knew what we had for sure." Hawkes reminisced, his tone flat and lifeless.
"It must be hard when you then need to continue and solve the crime, not have time to grieve, how did you all cope with that?"
"Aiden helped. She left us enough evidence to put Pratt away. We had time to grieve later when we closed the case."
"Are there any members of the team that you don't get on so well with?" Continued Alex.
"No, we all work well together."
"I've heard that you and Detective Flack often disagree." She commented, a small smile on her lips.
"Not disagree, we have different perspectives. He understands the streets, my experience is different, he struggles sometimes with the science. His gut tells him where the bad guys are, we do the analysis. ... Got to give the guy something, he tries." Chuckled Hawkes.
"Do you think he's misplaced working with the CSIs?"
"Not at all, there have been times out there where his street knowledge and police grit get us a break."
"What about Detective Angell? ... She said she worked a few cases with you."
"She's competent and knows how to stand up for herself. She can give Flack and Messer as good as they give her, no doubt about that." Replied Hawkes thinking of a case and her flippant reply to Danny when he realised she was working solo for the first time.
"If you had to pick a case that stands out for you as a CSI which one would it be and why?"
"That's a tough one, there have been a few ... I guess my second one. A surgeon was trying an insurance scam at Grand Central and it went wrong, a little girl was caught in the cross fire, got burned with lye, she was carrying a teddy bear, ... she let us borrow her bear, helped us crack the case, that and J-Lo's butt." Answered Hawkes giving her a grin.
"Do I want to know the connection?" Laughed Alex
"I was on a break watching MTV and J-Lo was on, I realised I'd read somewhere how much she'd insured her body for, after that it all came together, the surgeon had insured his hands."
"We talked a little about the cases which hit close to home how do you feel when someone on the team is on the end of the investigation?"
"What?"
"It's happened quite a lot the last few years, Detective Messer was in trouble with IAB, Taylor himself had to requisition Detective Flack's memo book for a case last year which lead to the release of Clay Dobson, Detective Bonasera killed her boyfriend and you were accused of murder. That must make it hard to investigate when one of your own is involved." Alex pushed a little over the cases affecting the team.
"We were all cleared. Danny and Stella both had IAB clear them, Flack helped put away a bad cop, and the team followed the evidence and proved every case. Mac was innocent of any charges with Dobson, as for me I knew the team had my back and wouldn't give up looking for the truth. Shane Casey set me up, Danny went one on one with the guy and told him the truth about his brother, finally took him down. I'm glad I've got friends out there like them."
"If you could sum up the essence of the lab and the team what would it be?" Alex asked.
"Family." Replied Hawkes firmly. "I'm sorry but my test results must be in so I'd better get back." He continued as he stood up and turned to the door.
"Thank you for your time Doctor."
Thanks to backstagespotlight, Aphina and loveRomance1 for the questions indicated.
Hope you like how this is going -please review... Do you have a burning question to ask one of the characters? Now is your chance... Lindsay next
For those who want a reminder these are some of the episodes which fuel the discussion with Hawkes.
2.02 - Grand Murder At Central Station - Aiden's dismissal/ Hawkes 2nd case
2.23 - Heroes - Aiden
3.01 - People with Money - Angell's first solo case
3.09 - And Here's To You, Mrs. Azrael - Hawke's history
3.11 - Raising Shane - Hawkes arrest
