Chapter 6: Faith's Autopsy
Warning: minimally-detailed explanation of an autopsy. You may want to skip if you're squeamish.
A/N: Call me crazy, but I thought it might be interesting to look up what exactly happens during an autopsy. Then I figured why not share the joy with you?
Challenge: #2666 'Conception by Conspiracy' by zoev. It isn't an exact match, but hopefully it's close enough for zoev.
Thanks to my betas: winddancer, tracygate and Gideon.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Stargate characters belong to Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright / SyFy Channel. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Hallway outside morgue
Knowing that Buffy hadn't left Faith's side since she died, Giles asked, "Do you truly feel that it was necessary for us to assume immediate custody of Faith's body?"
Buffy just nodded, "If there is something wiggy going on, I'd feel a lot better if we could make sure nothing happens to Faith until we find out why she died. I'm afraid that if we don't watch her, she could disappear and be just another one of Sunnydale's Hellmouth statistics."
Reluctantly Giles offered, "Well, there is one thing I could do to ensure that at least I could be in the room during her autopsy." This was something from his past that he had hoped never to share with his Slayer – almost as much as he hadn't wanted to tell her about Eyghon…but for a different reason.
"What's that?" she asked, standing up to stretch her muscles.
"I have the training and paperwork that shows I am – at the very least – capable of assisting the medical examiner. That, along with our concerns, might be enough to convince them to let me in," he concluded hopefully.
After thinking for a second, Buffy said, "Wait…I thought you were a doctor in the respect of having a PhD, not an MD?"
"I have both," Giles admitted. "My PhDs are in Linguistics and Archeology; the MD is for the obvious medical training and determining a cause of death."
Buffy scrunched up her nose in confusion. "Why would you need to be able to determine a cause of death? That doesn't sound like something the Council would care about."
"They do if that cause could end the world," he explained their rationale. "Most of my practical studies in that area dealt with supernatural causes, so I may not be able to figure out what killed Faith."
"So do all Watchers-?" she started to ask.
He cut her off with a shake of his head, "Only those who are assigned to a Slayer. Because of the time and money involved, only a small percentage are willing or able to receive that training. Once I finished my rebellious period, I decided that I would study as much as I could to ensure that I could do any job the Council asked of me. It was the only reason they sent me here; the other Watchers who were qualified were otherwise occupied."
Impressed that he had trained so hard, Buffy considered her third Watcher and couldn't quite picture him as a doctor-doctor. "Does that mean Wesley is a medical doctor as well?" she inquired.
Giles replied somewhat angrily, "No. I get the impression that Travers allowed his personal feelings to cloud his judgment when he sent Wesley. There have been enough close calls in Slayer history that it is mandatory for an MD-type doctor to be with the Slayer. Either Travers didn't care to follow procedure, or possibly he knew that since I wasn't going anywhere, I could handle any examination."
"Okay, well…enough of the morbid stuff. I'll stay with Faith's body a bit longer; why don't you go find the ME?" Buffy suggested, not sensing the irony of her words.
An hour later…
Given that Faith's death occurred in the hospital and seemed unusual for Sunnydale standards, her autopsy was allowed to proceed immediately. "Thank you, Dr. Kingston, for allowing me to assist and for Buffy to observe."
Over the intercom, Buffy chimed in as well with a small wave of her hand, "Yeah, thanks from me, too."
"As long as you don't do anything to compromise the investigation," the ME replied curtly. Most of the people he handled were victims of animal attacks or fork accidents to the neck. Having a civilian audience wasn't something he was used to – or liked.
As Dr. Kingston performed the autopsy, he explained the steps for Buffy's benefit. He was used to having a student or two watching on occasion, so it was almost second nature to him. It was easier to pretend she was a potential student.
Pulling the sheet off Faith's body, he said, "The first thing we do is examine the exterior of the body for any marks: both for identification purposes and for signs of foul play." He stated her height and weight for the record, then continued with description, "Very little sign of any scar tissue, apart from a light scar on the abdomen. There are a couple of tattoos…on her left shoulder, a heart with a stick of wood piercing it; on the right posterior hip area, the initials 'FL' and 'BS' along with the words 'The Chosen Two'." Lowering his voice, he remarked under his breath, "How unusual."
Dr. Kingston didn't look up from the table while he noted Faith's identifying marks, but Giles did, only to see Buffy crying silently in the observation booth. He desperately hoped that Faith's death wasn't the result of Buffy stabbing her, or his Slayer would be heartbroken.
"Now…I'm about to make the Y-incision," Dr. Kingston warned. "If you are squeamish, you may want to avert your eyes." He was surprised that the girl only winced slightly at the sight. "Next, I need to cut through the ribcage in order to remove her internal organs. That will hopefully help us determine why she died. Her organs hold a lot of clues." He attempted to cut them, but Faith's ribs were too strong for him. "This is strange," he murmured to himself again.
Giles' eyes widened in alarm; he should have remembered this could be a problem. He was debating with himself whether to suggest to Buffy that she should come in and cut them, but aside from the risk of exposure, he wasn't sure he should do that to the already distraught girl.
Fortunately, Dr. Kingston made it a moot point when he pulled out a bonesaw to remove the stubborn bones. As he removed the organs, he examined, weighed, sectioned and recorded them.
To Buffy's horror, he then sliced off the top of Faith's skull so he could remove her brain for study. She grabbed a nearby trashcan to empty her stomach.
"I want to explain why I'm putting her brain in a solution instead of cutting it for study right away. To reduce the risk of damaging the tissue, it should be put in a solution of formalin for about two weeks before I process it. Once that is done, then I need to talk to her next of kin to see what they want done with it – assuming she has been buried by that point," Dr. Kingston said.
"Actually, she is to be cremated once a cause of death has been determined. Buffy and I are the closest thing she has to next of kin," Giles told Dr. Kingston.
That caused the man to raise an eyebrow. Maybe he shouldn't have allowed them access after all. But the nurses felt confident that the pair had nothing to do with the deceased's passing. "Very well. Next, I will run her intestines, then empty her stomach contents."
Buffy's curiosity got the better of her and she pointed out, "But she's been in a coma for several months."
"It's part of the procedure, Buffy," Giles replied.
Dr. Kingston added, "We need to be sure that nothing is in her digestive tract that could explain why she died." Having seen the bump earlier, he had a feeling he would know what else he would find in her abdominal region.
When the ME cut open her uterus, Giles exclaimed, "Oh dear lord!"
From her vantage point, Buffy couldn't see what her Watcher was looking at. "What? What's wrong?" She started to move towards the door that separated the two rooms.
"Stay there, Miss Summers," Dr. Kingston ordered when he caught her movement out of the corner of his eye. "We can't have you contaminating the area."
"Fine, but tell me what's the problem!" she demanded, clearly agitated. Apparently that answered the question of whether they knew or not.
"She's pregnant!" Giles gasped out.
"What?" Buffy yelled. Then she turned pale and lowered her face into her hands, wondering if Faith had been pregnant before graduation and they couldn't tell because of the coma. "Oh god!"
The ME's next words put those fears to rest, though, "I would estimate she was about 16-20 weeks."
Buffy's head snapped up when she heard his guess. "No…that can't be. She's been in the hospital since May. Oh…ick!" she exclaimed as she figured out what happened. The bile in her stomach threatened to make another appearance.
"Indeed," Giles agreed grimly.
"I'll have to alert the authorities of this so they can investigate," the ME casually mentioned, not realizing how long the young woman had been in a coma. This would mean an investigation into the hospital personnel.
Giles held up his hand to stop him. "Wait…this may tie in with what we were concerned with earlier. I'm not sure if anyone on the hospital staff was involved."
"You mean those twisted freaks…" Buffy growled.
Although the idea made him nauseous as well, Giles couldn't help but remark, "It could account for their interest in her."
"While I'm relieved to hear that you don't think it's my colleagues, I still need to report it," Dr. Kingston said again firmly.
"Can they investigate it quietly?" Buffy asked, not expecting much from the same people who shot at her based solely on Snyder's word that she was a killer.
The ME had a better relationship with them, however. "If you can give them good cause, I don't see why not," he answered confidently. "The hospital would certainly appreciate discretion in the matter."
Buffy looked at the small lifeless body he removed from Faith's stomach and squeaked out, "Was it a boy or a girl?"
"A boy," he replied somberly.
Glancing at her Watcher, Buffy commented, "If we can, I'd like to name him for Faith."
"What did you have in mind?" Giles inquired, moving over to the window to speak with her.
"Richard Connor," Buffy replied confidently after thinking for a minute. "Despite our problems with him, the Mayor was the closest thing she had to a father, and Angel's last name was Connor, I think. He almost reached her after Finch. The two men who were like family to her should be remembered. Sorry, I don't mean to hurt you by saying that, Giles," she added belatedly when she realized how it sounded.
"I understand." Giles chuckled ruefully. "It hurts, but you're right."
While they were quietly discussing the unborn child, Dr. Kingston quietly set the unborn child aside so he could examine it after his guests left; while the young lady was doing remarkably well with her friend's autopsy, very few people could stand an autopsy on a human fetus. Unfortunately, the child could hold some answers he needed about Miss Lehane's death. He would make sure that mother and child were together when their bodies were taken for cremation.
Then he continued the autopsy by taking tissue samples and draining Faith's blood, making comments into his recording device as he did so. He heard them stop talking, so he spoke up to explain his last steps, "Now I'm returning her organs and once that's done, I'll sew up her Y-incision. All that's left after that is to study the samples I took. Her body will remain in our cooler until we are sure that we don't need further samples."
Grateful that it was almost over, Buffy asked, "Can we make sure that nobody can steal her body until then?"
"You really think that could happen?" Dr. Kingston wondered aloud. Who were these people the pair was so concerned about?
Giles explained to the man, "These people deceived their way into the hospital to impregnate a comatose woman; I wouldn't put anything past them to hide the 'evidence'."
The ME considered that for a little while. They sounded like conspiracy nuts quite honestly. On the other hand, how often did somebody die in the hospital of unknown causes…especially in Sunnydale? "Okay. It's rather unorthodox, but under these circumstances, I could bend the rules a bit. I'll label your friend as a Jane Doe; we have enough of those that anyone looking would have to go through half a dozen records to find her. If anyone unofficially asks me what happened to Faith Lehane, I will reply that I think her next of kin had her cremated before an autopsy could be performed. Maybe that will keep them off her trail long enough. But if anyone with the correct credentials asks, I will not lie," he warned.
Nodding his appreciation, Giles gave his own advice, "Please be sure the credentials are real first."
As he finished his stitches, Dr. Kingston gave them one last bit of information, "I will. Just so you know, despite what the TV dramas show you, I won't have the toxicology results for a few days. Until then, I cannot list a cause of death because there wasn't one apparent during the autopsy."
"Thank you for the warning. I would have been pacing the whole time – and probably calling you every hour if you hadn't. Now I'll just call every day," Buffy said with a half-teasing/half-serious grin.
"I understand. Give the police any information you can on the people you think are responsible for her pregnancy, and I will even do DNA testing on the child to help with a criminal case later. That is, assuming the father was a willing participant," Dr. Kingston tacked on. Dear lord, they were dragging him into their conspiracy fantasy now.
Buffy's look turned positively deadly and the ME was glad she wasn't angry at him. "If he was, it will be the last child he has a chance to father."
Watching the pair leave his morgue, Dr. Kingston couldn't help but wonder if he would be seeing a few more bodies in the immediate future if the autopsy proved whatever they were thinking.
A/N: The autopsy steps were taken and paraphrased from: http: /www .autopsytv .com /component/option ,com_tag/Itemid,0/tag ,Steps%20of%20autopsy/. The info on the tox reports came from a webmd article. That sure was a shocker to me, given how fast Abby comes up with answers on NCIS. I decided to sorta split the difference. Normally it would take 4-8 weeks, but I can't leave the questions in the air that long.
TBC…