A/N: Sorry this look a while.Also sorry that it sucks, but I'm setting up for a confrontation, and I wanted to hurry it along so the real plot can start.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. tear
Alexx shook her head. The body that was Hagen was lying, cleaned, on her examination table, but it still had a sickly sweet odor to it, compliments of whatever it was he had been wrapped in. That wasn't her job.
"Stomach contents, Alexx?" Horatio asked from the perch that he most often assumed when watching post mortems.
"Just a minute," she said, opening the body. She expected to have to claw her way through organs, but the sight that met her eyes was beyond strange. "I hate to disappoint you, Horatio," she said, "But there's no stomach to get the contents out of."
"What?"
"Whoever did this was following a pattern to the letter," she continued, "No liver, stomach, intestines, heart, or lungs."
"Interesting. Is that all?"
"Not really," she poked around inside, "Inside of the body is filled with that same mixture he was packed in. My guess would be his head's the same."
"Any incisions?"
"Just a few. Smaller and harder to see than some of the cuts I make. Whoever did this had lots of practice."
"What to the Tox report say?"
"Aconitum uncinatumin the bloodstream."
"Aconite?"
"Poison," she explained, "Also used a drying agent on the exterior, that explains the shriveled look. But...I swabbed him twice, and the results are the same. The drying agent was applied, and the cuts were made, while blood was still circulating."
"Embalmed alive. Thanks Alexx."
"Anytime, Horatio," she said, beginning to examine the head.
"Horatio!" he heard her sweet voice call from somewhere off to the left. God, his knees felt week.
"Yeah, Calleigh?" he said, turning around and bracing himself.
Her face was serious. "Speed and I made out a list of everything we found in that mixture Hagen was packed in. Not your garden-variety herbs, either. He ran a check to see if they were connected."
"They are," came Speed's voice behind them, "Used traditionally in Druid funerals. Be right back!" Speed kept on walking, but there was something peculiar in his gait that made Calleigh think he was headed to the bathroom. She chuckled.
"Interesting," said Horatio, "Anything about a drying chemical?"
"Yeah, natron. Egyptians used it in the mummification process."
"That fits," he said softly.
"What?" she asked.
"Some of Hagen's organs were missing."
"Ugh." She looked away, her face concerned.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, cocking her head, "Are you?"
"Yeah."
There was a quiet moment that passed between them. There eyes were locked in a gaze that radiated things neither of them were able to say or even admit to themselves at that point.
"Okay, well I should get back to the lab," she said, "Eric and I are going to check that muslin for prints. It's not much, but it's all we have to run on."
"Okay, Calleigh. Hey listen, if you get some time, have Speed see what Hagen was doing last night."
"Horatio Caine. Have you got another one of your hunches?"
"I wouldn't call it a hunch," he said, shrugging, "Think of it as a premonition."
She smirked. "Whatever works for you," she said as she walked off.
She was blushing. That sounded stupid, Calleigh, she told herself, This is the wrong time to be thinking about this.