Disclaimer: We do not own Mutant-X or CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Both are owned by Tribune Entertainment and CBS respectively. Only a few characters and the story are owned by us, Freak@ngel/Frickangel and RK9.
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Rivers of Differences.
Chapter 3
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EMMA hated her picture on the pass. The still capture of herself hadn't satisfied her and she looked discoloured in it. Maybe it was the camera, she didn't remember looking this awful when she took the same sort of picture for the last fake pass. The digital camera must be growing fungi; do digital cameras grow that by the way? "I hate this photo."
Jesse turned from looking at the labs. "Huh?"
"I hate this photo." She repeated.
Returning his attention back to the high tech rooms of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, Jesse shrugged, "It looks like you right?"
Automatically, the red head's eyes rolled. "Boys…" she muttered.
"Hmm?" Jesse sounded oblivious.
"Where are we going?" she aptly switched topics, her eyes looking around more.
People walked by and people ran by, but the two new mutants stopped. "I thought you knew?"
A repeated sigh, "Boys…"
"I didn't say I don't know," He defended himself; "I was just asking."
"And what would that be?"
"Try looking for the two new mutants." He smiled happily to himself.
Grabbing the elbow of his arm, Emma dragged Jesse towards the front. "Let's go."
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"Anything?" Sara asked, her head coming over the top of Nadine's manila folder.
Laying it down and picking up the cup of coffee on the glass table, Nadine shook her head, "Nothing. I'm still running the tire marks through the 'Tread Assistant'. I'll be going in a while to check on it."
Sara chuckled, "All in a life of a CSI. Don't suppose you'll be up for a little walk to the morgue? I bet Doc. Robbins wouldn't mind meeting the new face."
"Preliminary autopsy out already?" Nadine frowned and caught the clock hanging above the door of the break room. "That was fast."
"We do something better," She grinned, "We attend the preliminary autopsy."
Getting up to throw the remaining stale coffee into the metal sink, Nadine tied up her hair with the rubber band that was snapped to her wrist. "I guess maybe the blood and gore would break some sense into the case."
"Glad you feel that way." Pulling away from the table she leaned on, Sara stepped up to the door and spun back to wait for Nadine. Both the women walked side by side to the autopsy room, passing along more glass see through labs and hurried folk.
Each of them carried a specific thought, like a signature that Nadine could sense. And one word could summarize what it was like:
Boring.
Shifting through the crowd, trying to tag behind Sara, the Psionic halted mid-way. Right in the centre of the corridor, where traffic was high, stares and "excuse-me's" slowed down by her ears but completely unregistered in her head, until she heard nothing and only could remember blurs of colours to blob of grey that slid by. There was something, or this time, a someone in the crowd. Someone worth taking note off. Whoever it was had a higher level of thought. Nothing like the puny trails of any normal human. Not like what Nadine could tell.
"Hey!"
Fast forward button thumbed on, the world resumed its normal speed, forcing Nadine to take note of her surroundings again. "Uh…yeah?"
Sara frowned and took two steps closer to her colleague. "You okay?"
Still dazed, Nadine absent mindedly shook her head, "Yeah, sure. I'm… fine."
"I called you at least 4 times, didn't you hear me?"
Whatever consciousness it was, slipped away. "What?" Nadine answered, finally paying attention to Sara.
The brunette eyed Nadine carefully, "Never mind, just lay off the coffee for a while okay?"
Vaguely remembering that she had mumbled something, Nadine continued on with their excursion to Dr. Robbins, the LV Crime Lab's coroner, right on the opposite end of the building where they had been.
Sara dutifully handed Nadine a blue lab coat, and slipped it on herself before pushing the double metal doors. Nadine took a minute to get used to the strong chemical smell before stepping completely in. Sara seemed unfazed. Giving herself a mental note, Nadine made sure to warn Alex about this.
"Hey Doc." Sara announced. "Anything?"
"Ah, Ms. Sidle. What a predicted surprise." The elderly doctor dressed in his medical garment and accessorized with his crutch, pushed his glasses back on his nose with his clean back hand. "And who might this be?" He asked getting a better look at Sara's companion.
"This," Sara explained, "Is Nadine Lang."
The good doctor smiled politely and lifted his bloody gloved hands. A reason clear to Nadine why he won't be shaking hands with his new acquaintance. All Nadine could get promptly from Dr. Robbins was professionalism. No nonsense.
"She's one of two new CSI's here." Sara continued. "Nadine this is Dr. Robbins."
The Asian nodded and smiled back in response.
"Good," Sara clapped her hands, "Now with the ice breakers done, where's our body?"
"Right here." He lifted the pure white sheets stained with blood from the doctor's Y-incision across the chest, revealing the decease's face. Bryan Jemlin.
"Aw, you did without us?"
"Maybe next time."
"Fine then." Sara agreed, "So what's the cause of death? Drowning? Smoke inhalation? O.D'ed.?"
"Whatever you do Sara, don't join Final Jeopardy tonight."
"Am I that far off?"
"Cold. Your Vic died from cardiac arrest."
"And…?"
"And, that's it."
"What just a heart attack? Nothing else?"
"Don't believe me? You can always take a look at the heart for yourself." Robbins challenged Sara and motioned to the bloody red mass on the weighing machine, sitting comfortably in the metal bowl.
"Not much of a mysterious death now is it?" Nadine finally said something.
"Sometimes Ms. Lang, the best mysteries are the least of a mystery." He said bluntly. "Though there was something else I noticed on your Vic. He had hairline fractures on his right Radius and Humerus." He limped over to the light board where the X-rays lay clipped up.
"Hard Force Trauma?"
"I doubt it," he answered almost confidently, walking back. "There wasn't any internal bleeding but it does look more like it was caused from muscle spasm. Probably from a high voltage source."
"How'd you figure?" Nadine chipped in another question.
To answer her, Robbins lifted the sheets higher up exposing the long red cut down his chest just beginning at the meet up of the 'V' below the neck, caused by the doctor's scalpel. He pointed to a medium sized reddish swollen burn on the right forearm. "This," he explained looking up, "Is an electrical burn. With high voltage it causes muscle spasms and force the muscles to contract and thus fracturing the bones."
"Did that cause the heart attack?" Sara had her arms crossed across her chest now.
"This I'm sure of: No. The fracture was pre-mortem, had at least 3 hours to begin the healing process." The coroner ended. "I will be sending in the detailed report later. Maybe then you'll get the mystery you want."
With a nod and muttered a thanks, Sara backed out of the room and Nadine followed suit, Robbins himself went back to work.
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The printer gave a small bleep before spitting out the results slowly to the lab techie Greg Sanders. Alexis swayed back and forth a little, trying to keep awake. On her left, Catherine seemed just as tired.
Greg pulled out the white sheet of paper with the LVPD crime lab intro template stuck at the top. "Well my dears," He said, reading through the numbers and symbols, "Your liquid substance you found on the Vic, is…" He snapped the paper down and smiled, "Just two molecules of Hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen."
"That's it?" Catherine over emphasized on the 'it' word.
"Yup, H20. Were you expecting some sort of Alien Fluid?"
"Maybe just a little more than water, yes." She grabbed the paper from his gloved hands. "Thanks,"
Alexis turned and left with the blonde out of the lab. "Are we disappointed?" she asked.
Still looking fresh in her blue silk top and pin striped slacks even with the fatigue, Catherine answered, "Was hoping to get some sort of lead on anything right now. Hopefully Gris has something," she walked into one of the labs and stared surprised into it. "Where's Grissom?" she asked Nick.
Alexis smiled unconsciously at him.
"Cath!" Nick held the burnt debris high in his hands as he looked stunned at the both women. "Alex…" he said a little more softer and smiled.
"Where's Grissom?" Catherine repeated to the other CSI.
"Two words: Sheriff Mobley."
"Ah." A small spike of gleam went up in Catherine's eyes. "Don't suppose it was just Grissom looking for publicity advice."
"Why would he? He has you."
Laughing, Catherine walked right into the lab. "Keep on buttering that toast."
"Well if you're trying to get something new from me and my lovely dates," he stated, waving his hand over the dark pieces aligned on the fluorescent lit table. "You are going for nothing here."
Sighing Catherine looked down and pushed her blonde strands behind her ear. "Great. And Warrick would be…?"
"Helping Nadine out with the 'tread assistant'." Nick helped.
"I'll be back," Catherine called out as she stepped out into the corridors again, her voice already echoing. Alexis just had enough time to smile a goodbye at Nick and followed her superior. "Do me a favour," Catherine said to Alexis. "Head over to Warrick first and I'll go and meet wi-."
Alexis did a fast whirl to the right before something came crashing into them both. Unfortunately her friend wasn't blessed to possess the feral senses. Catherine went down with the oncoming threat.
"I am so sorry!!!" The red head stood up and dusted herself before pulling Catherine up along to her feet. Still feeling jumpy, Alexis remained in her slightly crouched position. "Are you alright?!"
Finally realizing the lack of danger in the situation, Alexis stood straight and by Catherine. "You trying to catch a train?" The younger CSI asked suspiciously.
"I'm a klutz and I can't refute that! I am really really sorry," Red grabbed Alexis' hand and patted it profusely, "I have to rush this data off somewhere and I'm really sorry!" She ran off without saying anything else while waving her brown envelope in the air and left Catherine and Alexis standing there.
Scratching the spot where Red had laid her hand upon Alexis, whether it was really itchy or not. "That was fast."
"And painful," Catherine moaned rubbing her sore rear end. "Come on, the case isn't getting itself solved."
"It doesn't? Always thought they do." putting it good humouredly, Alexis smirked at the other woman.
"Ha-ha. Very funny." But the smile was evident on Catherine's face. "We need to move."
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"Did it work?" Jesse asked from around the corner.
"I think it did." Emma threw the empty envelope into the trash can. "Hopefully the bug will disintegrate safely as you said." She sounded genuinely worried.
Jesse grinned and reassured "It will. As soon as we're done listening and tracking them two, the bug will receive the self-destruct signal and will harmlessly be absorbed into the body as nothing."
"Come on." Emma said pulling her top straight, "Your turn's next."
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"Sorry." The blonde guy apologized as his hand collided with Nadine's hand just as she reached over the reception counter to collect messages. Sara never noticed if Nadine had said anything in response, but walked off with her just as she distanced herself from the counter.
Sara left Nadine to read her messages as they weaved through the crowd before reaching Warrick at the computer. Tucking away her slips of paper into her lab coat, Nadine looked up as did Sara. "Hey."
Nodding back, Warrick rubbed his red watery eyes and went back to the monitor. Popping into the same room, Alexis traded smiles with everyone before speaking, "Anything?"
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Sara added and looked towards Warrick.
"Your tire tracks," Warrick said, looking at Nadine, "Belongs to an Isuzu SUV Rodeo."
"Great," Nadine piped in rather flatly, "That narrows down the list to ninety thousand drivers. What about the shoe print?"
"Still searching, for the 3rd time."
"Why the repeated searches?" Alexis moved closer to the screen.
Scanning through the list as it flashed before her, Sara crossed her arms. "Not even a close match?"
"Other than it being a size 12 and owned by a male, no nothing."
"Oh whee." Sighing, Alexis stood straight.
"We still need the full autopsy report from Dr. Robbins and Nick is going through the debris if I'm not mistaken." Rubbing her neck, Nadine shifted from one foot to the other.
"Yeah he is, I just saw him. Catherine's meeting up with Grissom now."
"Thanks." Nadine smiled, and it hit Sara that it looked genuine. She had never realized just how much emotionally detached Nadine could be. The Asian CSI patted Warrick on his shoulder and walked out just as Warrick mumbled back something before returning to the 'tread assistant'. Alexis on the other side began scratching her already rather red hand.
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Shoving in another bite of his BLT sandwich, Warrick wiped the crumbs off his mouth with the napkin. Catherine who was seated on the other end of the table, a forkful of salad caught mid way to her mouth, the French dressing dripping slightly from the plastic cutlery. She placed it down softly to flip a page on the case report.
Throwing the folder unto the table with an audible slap, Nick spoke out, "You do know we have nothing on this case right?"
The entire grave yard shift CSI crew were seated at the table of the conference room. The place was a little more crowded with the two new additions of Nadine and Alexis. Even Greg was added into the mix. The guy was becoming quite an asset to the team. 'Who would've thought?' Catherine figured that they had all underestimated their Lab Tech, though he still had a lot to prove himself as a CSI.
"Well in that case," Grissom picked up on Nick's annoyance, "Why DO we have?"
"The debris had nothing." Nick said, disappointed again.
"Suspect is a male with size 12 feet whose shoe imprints aren't in the database." Nadine offered her bit up.
Warrick chipped in his own info, "The tire tracks are though, and it's an Isuzu Rodeo."
"Great," Sara added, screwing shut her Snapple bottle, "We have a type of car, a shoe size and gender. So being in America, that would leave-."
"About 10,000 possible suspects who own a Rodeo and wear a size 12." Alexis played with a potato chip from the silver packet and then scratched her hand.
"If we split that up between us, it'll only be 1,250 to each of us." Catherine smiled sweetly in a sarcastic mode, "We could do it."
"In that case Cath, you can have my share." Nick snorted.
"Aw, where's your sense of adventure Nick?"
"Autopsy report?" Grissom interrupted the playful debate, and it sounded rather impatiently to. Still it wasn't enough to lock out Nick's glare and Catherine's sweet smile.
"Doc…" Sara swallowed a mouthful of her sandwich, "…Robbins was suppose to hand us the full details soon."
"Ask and ye shall receive." The senior coroner walked, or more like limped through the door.
"Amen." Nadine, who was seated next to Catherine herself, whispered before she sat up straighter and pushed her Coke aside. Grissom placed the manila down and sat himself. Realizing this for the first time, Catherine noticed that Grissom is seldom without a folder in his hands.
"What's the verdict Doc?" Greg smiled, "I can take it."
Unable to stop herself from just smirking at the spiky haired tech, but instead Catherine kept silent as both the doctor and Grissom peered over their glasses.
"Jemlin, your victim, had very high levels of Cortisol, Adrenaline, T3 and T4."
Frowning, Nadine pondered, "Jemlin did die of a heart attack,"
"Meaning the heart attack was natural?" Alexis didn't sound very happy, maybe it was the thought of a wild goose chase, maybe it was the rash she kept scratching. But Catherine noticed that it did look like the rash was becoming more of a problem.
"At first glance most would think so, but the high level of all 4 hormones at once didn't raise much suspicion." Robbins pulled out a few 10R photographs. "Still it wasn't until David pointed out something I almost missed." Sliding them across the table, Catherine grabbed one as the others scrambled for the other few. Grissom had a personal set ready for him.
"This one," The doctor continued as he held up his own batch. The glossy picture of the victim's shoulder blades held high, "If you look closer, you note 3 small puncture wounds just at the Scapula." Craning her neck, Catherine managed to get a glimpse of the called out photo and saw the 3 dots set in like a triangle.
"A vampire with 3 canines in a pyramid form?" Warrick shared the particular picture with Greg.
"This are too small to be teeth marks," The doctor had obviously missed on Warrick's little joke.
"Could be a sort off administering agent." Grissom never took his eyes from the printed images. "What about this one?" he pulled one out and flashed it at the others.
Catherine lifted an eyebrow as she realized she was holding unto the particular gem. "That bluish black ring is so not this years fashion statement," The mark about as big as a dime stood out against the deathly pale skin on the base of the neck. "One at the shoulder another at the neck. Any connections?" She thought aloud to Nadine who shrugged and looked back at the supervisor.
"With a diameter of a dime and small needle point. That." The coroner sighed, "I have no idea yet."
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Tossing the empty juice container into the bin, Sara looked up to see Nadine talking to Alexis. She wasn't trying to eavesdrop, it was just an accident. Or at least that's what she made herself believe it was. Besides, it wasn't like they were hiding anything.
"What's with the scratching?" Nadine's red highlights bounced as she swished her head to the side a little.
Alexis kept on doing her bit of easing her rash, "I have no idea, it suddenly just went 'BOOM'. Major rash."
"Ple-ase go and check it out. You look like you're going to take your arm off that way." Nadine snatched Alexis' hand and stopped her from making the rash worse. Taking the swollen red hand into her own, Nadine softly touched it. "What in the world did you do?"
"Nothing!" Alexis screamed in a hushed voice. Sara busied herself with a foam box she was about to ditch, making extra sure that it was flattened. "It wasn't my fault that red haired woman had an obsession with physical contact through hands. Like I would know she had something I would react to."
Letting go off the hand gently, Nadine looked up. "What woman?"
Alexis shook her head. "Some red head crashed into Catherine and apologized with a little too much enthusiasm." She scratched again. "Nothing much, so I'm allergic to something. No biggie."
"Stop it." Nadine gripped the arm once more.
Sara realized that if she spent another 2 more seconds trying to squish box smaller than a trash compactor would, she would need a good explanation why. Dumping it in the trash, Sara breezed out the room and towards the labs.
Again.
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"They're suspecting something Adam." Jesse pointed it out.
Frowning, Shalimar crossed her arms tighter, "Should we get rid of the bugs now?"
Adam tapped the table of Sanctuary's console, "Not yet. We need more information like this."
"From what we can hear," Emma licked her lips and said referring to the last photo shown. Thanks to one of the CSI's they have a pretty good detail of it, "We now know that a sub-dermal governor was used."
"We can't be sure of that." Brennan was sceptical.
"Brennan's right." Jesse backed up, "All we hear are descriptions."
"That's why we can't destroy those devices now." Adam defended his decision. "We need more."
"But why can't we just actually get the two new mutants help?" The feral asked her fiery impatience was rising.
"We can't just barge into their lives, demand they help us out and risk their jobs." Emma answered realizing it.
Merely nodding, Adam let the telempath explain.
"So we let this continue?" Jesse cracked his knuckles, probably an unconscious habit. Something Emma hadn't realized.
"For now, yes." Adam breathed the obvious.
Setting themselves quiet, the team exchanged glances and remained silent.
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Ah, another chapter done. This is long overdue, and RK9 knows that. The girl has been bugging me day and night about this. My cell phone doesn't stop because of it. But it was good or else I would've procrastinated till next year. Hope you like this. I'm trying to speed things up so that we can all get an equal balance of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Mutant X. So be patient ;)
Thanks and do drop a review or two. =^_^=
Regards
Freak@ngel/frickangel and RK9