Disclaimer: I don't own Law and Order, or Law and Order: CI. I'm just borrowing the characters for a little fun.

Feedback is greatly appreciated. I try very very hard not to make my original characters "Mary Sueish" but forgive me if at times they seem that way. Also, Goren is really tough to write! Anyway, even though my writing is imperfect, I hope you enjoy the story anyway. Thanks so much!

Sins of the Father

Chapter One: The War on Crime

Every story has two sides and it's Grace's duty to tell the dead person's. Sometimes the story was found quickly and told a clear story. Other times, like now, it was finding all the pieces of the story and fitting them together. And the sooner she found out Sophie Kapirelli's story the better off she would be.

"Ah good, you're still here, Grace."

Grace looked up to see Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers walk into Trace Evidence with two police detectives that she had seen briefly before. She remembered them solely by the contrast: he was a tall, football-player type while she was shorter and frailer looking. They were a real life Mutt and Jeff. Grace didn't even know their names but Dr. Rodgers had told her that these two detectives were the NYPD's "big guns."

"Grace," Dr. Rodgers motioned to the two visitors, "This is Detective Goren and Detective Eames. Green and Fontana had this case handed off to the Major Case Squad based on your findings. Detectives, this is our resident genius, Dr. Grace Harris."

"I don't know about the genius," Grace extended her hand to the woman first and then the man, "but call me Grace."

Dr. Rodgers excused herself and headed out of Trace. Grace opened her mouth to start explaining what she had found when Goren's actions stopped her. He had pulled a latex glove on his hand and was putting two fingers down the corpse's throat. Without thinking about what she was doing, Grace used her clipboard and tapped Goren's wrist. The large man jumped slightly and gave her a wide-eyed look.

"Don't touch my body," Grace stated. Eames coughed slightly, using her hand to cover her smile. Goren blinked a couple times before taking a step back from the body.

"Sorry," he motioned with his gloved hand, "You were going to tell us what you found then."

Grace felt the heat rise to her face from embarrassment. There was no reason why he couldn't look at the body himself. In fact, he probably was supposed to examine it for himself. At least he took her reprimand well although she should probably apologize later to him. Opening her folder, she handed a copy of her report to Eames.

"Sophie Kapirelli was found around seven p.m. last night by her husband, Marco Kapirelli. He claims he found her in the bathtub with her wrists slit."

A movement caught Grace's eye and she looked up to see Goren had stepped up to the body again to look at the woman's wrists. He saw that Grace had seen him and humbly retreated back. An apology was definitely in order but it would have to wait till later.

"I noticed," Grace continued, "that the cuts on her wrists had been made post mortem and I took a sample of the bath water. In which, I found a mix of red food dye and the victim's blood."

"Do you know how she died?"

Grace shook her head in Goren's direction. "Not quite yet. I still have the tox screen out but I did find fluid in her lungs. So either she drowned and was put in the tub or she could have been drugged or had an allergic reaction to something and then drowned but someone would have had to go through the trouble of setting up the bathtub scene. All I have are theories at the moment."

"Could she have drowned in the tub before she bled out?" Eames asked.

"No, because the water in the lungs didn't contain any of her blood or the red dye. I need to run more tests on the water though. I'll have the results from the tox screen and water sample by tomorrow morning if that's ok."

Eames handed Grace a business card. "Just call us when you have the results in."

Grace nodded and slipped the card into her lab coat. "Will do." She watched the detectives walk out and turned back to the body.

"Come on, Sophie, talk to me."

Eames slid behind the wheel and started the car. Goren got into the passenger side, still writing down notes in his binder. She pulled out of the parking space and into city traffic. Two lights later she heard the familiar snap of the binder and click of his seatbelt.

"Well, any thoughts?" she asked him.

"About the body or the ME?"

Eames stifled a laugh as the scene replayed itself again in her mind. "Either one."

"The ME has me more puzzled than the body."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you notice how she referred to the body as 'her body'? Who gets that attached to a victim?"

"Maybe she knew the victim."

"If she knew the victim then she wouldn't do the autopsy." Goren shifted in his seat. "After she told me not to touch the body, she blushed, like she knew she shouldn't have done what she did."

Eames pulled into the parking lot of Police Plaza. "So?"

"She knew she was being territorial. The embarrassment over it shows she doesn't normally get territorial over the bodies."

Eames hit the lock button on her key chain. "Your conclusion?"

Goren scratched the back of his neck. "I don't have one. Yet."

"Well, let's take care of the Kapirelli case then you can go back to figuring out the ME."