Note: All right, so the place I was looking at for information was a big stinky liar and I am not at all pleased with them. Thanks for those of you who pointed out my mistake, I never would have caught it. You guys rock my socks clear off my feet.
It took a grand total of three hours for the tank to regain its beautiful blue color and the damage was finally tabulated. Only five of the forty sharks still remained, one sea turtle was killed, as were two of the large stingrays. Grissom had Brass get a warrant to put the five remaining sharks in separate tanks for observation, as well as ordering stomach pumps for each. One nurse shark, two sandbar sharks, one Sandtiger shark, and the hammerhead were to be watched constantly until they were retrieved for their stomach contents.
The feeding buckets had been searched and only one other thing had been found: a single finger. AFIS had come up blank on the prints, and CODIS had done the same with the DNA. Luckily, both appendages had come from the same person.
While the nurse shark was having its stomach drained (all sharks that needed to have their stomach contents removed were simply knocked out and then carefully operated on), Meagan had the task of watching the baby hammerhead. The tank it was confined to was only big enough to allow the seven-foot long "sweetheart" to swim in circles. Meagan sat on a metal chair with her clipboard resting on her knee, her fingers twirling her pen madly in an effort to forget her fear.
"You know what's scary? You're only going to get bigger." Meagan said to the shark.
The hammerhead just watched her as it swam up, down, and around the tank.
"You're pretty big now, and you aren't that old. You're still a baby."
The shark thumped its tail against the wall of the tank, causing Meagan to jump in her seat.
"Chill, baby." Greg said from the doorway that led to the hallway.
"Greg! Geez, it's just one thing after another in this room." Meagan gasped.
"My good looks are startling, I know. You'll never believe what they found in the nurse shark's stomach."
"Wow, what a change in tone. What'd they find?"
"A hand, and a wrist complete with a fancy watch."
"Ew. Wonder where they're going to find his head."
"You think they're going to find it? There are still 35 dead shark bodies to go through, it could be a while."
"I don't think so."
"Why not?" Greg asked, sauntering over to stand behind Meagan's chair.
"Just a feeling." Meagan replied, looking up at her colleague.
The two stared at one another for a couple seconds before the hammerhead slammed her tail against the tank again.
"Man alive!" Meagan exclaimed, looking forward at the tank in surprise.
"She's just nervous, that's all. Wouldn't you be, shall we say jumpy, if you were in a small tank with the knowledge that you were going to be operated on next?" Greg said.
"Of course. Um, I'd really like to apologize for what happened earlier when I…"
"Don't worry about it," Greg looked down at his pager, "Looks like I'm up next. Think you'll be ok if I leave you and Baby alone together?"
"Yeah."
"Ciao then."
Greg closed the door behind him when he left, leaving Meagan alone with the shark in the dark, cement-floored room. The hammerhead continued to swim and thump her tail against the tank. Meagan slid her chair backwards a few inches and continued to twirl her pen.
"So I guess I'll call you Baby from now on. Well, Baby, my name is Meagan," Meagan said, "I feel stupid talking to you. You're a shark, I doubt that you can understand me."
Baby whacked the tank in opposition. This time though, Meagan did not jump, she simply stared. For half an hour, Baby and Meagan remained calm in one another's presence. Meagan watched, her thoughts broken only by the pager on her hip that started buzzing wildly. It was from Greg. "A foot this time," it read, "be in here in 10." With a sigh, she got up and put her clipboard down on the chair. She took two steps closer to the tank and stopped.
"Show time, Baby."
Meagan stood at the back of the room in her cover-all scrubs, watching as some shark experts, Gil, and Greg lowered Baby onto the metal operating table, Greg at the tail, Gil in the middle, and the shark experts at the front end. Baby was already sedated, and one of the shark guys was running water over her constantly.
"Now, what makes sharks different than other animals is their teeth," shark expert Millans, the one in charge, explained to Meagan, "Because their teeth are shaped slightly inward, we can't reach in their and pull out anything we happen to grab a hold of in their stomachs. So, what we're going to do is introduce something into her system that will induce vomiting. We had to pull her out of the tank so we could do this, it takes about five minutes and we can't keep them still in the tank."
Meagan nodded, crossed her arms across her chest, and observed quietly. Millans carefully injected a dark yellow fluid into Baby's dorsal fin while the other man hosed her down. Greg stuck close to Baby's tail, keeping her from moving. He glanced at Meagan and a smile played across his face and he winked at her. She smiled back and noticed that Grissom was paying attention. She quickly looked away, reminding Greg that they were still working.
Ten minutes later, Baby was moving uncomfortably on the metal table and the experts were instructing Grissom and Greg on how to get her back into her tank. After struggling to lift the carrier she was placed in, they finally had her moving down the hallway back to her tank. Meagan touched Baby's tailfins as they lifted her and tilted her down back into the water. She twirled around in the tank, sloshing water over the edge and onto the floor in defiance. The five scientists stood in the dark room and waited. Finally, murky water came spurting out of Baby's mouth and the experts switched on the filter.
"Grissom, why aren't we operating on Baby like we did on the other sharks?" Meagan asked, suddenly aware that the process had changed.
"Because that would be obscene!" Mr. McTaney answered from the doorway.
"Where have you been?"
"Out. And you will not operate on this shark."
"What difference is there between this shark and the other four?"
"The other four are expendable, I can get replacements of them just as easily as I can find my own ass. This is a one of a kind specimen! Are you aware that this is the only Great Hammerhead ever to be held in captivity? I will not jeopardize the life of the creature that has put my name on the map! Find your evidence elsewhere, this is my shark, I refuse to let you touch it any more than you already have."
"Then we'll get a warrant." Grissom said.
"Under what pretenses, that there may or may not be a human body part in her stomach? And what good will that do you? That won't get you far. Besides, what you're looking for is the head, and there's no way that this baby could eat an entire human head."
"All we need to do is find half of the head, then we can get Teri Miller in and she can reconstruct the face that way." Greg announced.
"The half we need might be inside of her." Grissom stated.
"You can always find the other half. End of discussion. You will not cut open my Hammerhead. You better pray to God that another shark ate the other half." McTaney argued.
"How do we even know that it was cut in half? Maybe the head is somewhere else." Meagan interjected.
"That's just a risk we're going to have to take!" Grissom shouted. A split second later, Grissom's cell phone rang, "Yeah? Is it that bad? Ok, get it here as quickly as possible," Grissom snapped his phone shut, "It appears that we don't have to operate on your shark at all, Mr. McTaney. They found half of the head."