AN: I don't have any firsthand knowledge of deafness, what causes it, or the deaf community, and am just working from what I've gleaned from different sources over the years and what I could find on the internet, so if there are any mistakes I apologize and if any of them are too glaring just let me know and I'll be happy to try and fix them. Thanks to all who are reading and reviewing and enjoying the story. This is my first real attempt at throwing a case into the mix, so let me know what you think about it. :)

Thanks as always to my betas. Special thanks to printandpolish for some developments that start coming out in this chapter. Scagnetti would have probably languished in the background if p&p didn't love him so much and encourage me to utilize him to his fullest potential. :)

Kaile checked her watch and sighed. Her uncle had asked her to come down to the morgue and she couldn't refuse him, but she was knee deep in her case and really wanted to get back to it. She pushed off from the wall she had been leaning against and idly walked over to some pictures on the wall in between a couple of the ME offices.

"Hello, can I help you?" Kaile turned to face a man dressed like a Medical Examiner who looked to be at least a few years younger than her. He had to be new since she didn't recognize him. She noted the name Dr. Wyatt on his nametag.

"No, I'm just waiting for Dr. Hawkes, thanks." That confirmed it, the guy had to be new if he didn't know who she was. It wasn't conceit, she was just used to being recognized around the Medical Examiner's Office.

"He got a call, he'll probably be out soon." They stood in somewhat awkward silence for a few moments before the man spoke again. "That picture you were looking at? Apparently that's my godson." The man smiled like it was some kind of big joke.

"Godson?" Kaile knew exactly what the guy was talking about, but she was wondering how big of a hole he would dig for himself.

"Yeah. First day here I was informed by somebody that everyone here is considered a godparent to one of those guys," he said, vaguely waving his hand towards the picture of a group of guys in uniforms jovially smiling at the camera, some with their arms around each other's shoulders. "Can you believe that? I haven't asked, but it's got to be some kind of PR thing. Why else would a bunch of doctors adopt some random GI?"

Yeah, that hole was pretty damn deep. "Okay, first? Those guys are Navy, so they're not GIs. Second, they didn't 'adopt some random' guy, his name is Petty Officer Devon Messer. Third, there is a very good reason why everyone on staff here keeps track of Devon, one you probably could have found out if you didn't have your head stuck so far up your own ass. And finally," she said, pulling out her wallet and opening it to a specific picture, her voice never rising but still conveying her annoyance at the arrogant prick in front of her, "he's my cousin," she finished, showing him a picture of all eight cousins.

The guy mumbled something unintelligible, turned and fled. Kaile put away her wallet as she heard a chuckle from behind her.

"Kaile Flack, always the tactful one." Kaile groaned and turned. The day just kept getting better.

"What the hell are you doing here, Scags?"

Scagnetti raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I don't know, just taking a stroll through the morgue because I love the smell and the décor so much. What do you think I'm doing here?"

"Annoying the hell out of me?" Their argument was stopped from going any further by the arrival of the Chief Medical Examiner.

"You guys really need to grow up and get past all this," Sheldon commented mildly as he joined the group. He looked to Detective Deveraux who was standing uncomfortably behind his partner. "I apologize for these two, Detective. John and Kaile have been in a feud of sorts since she was sixteen." The older man turned to his niece. "You really need to get over John catching you making out with that boy that night. He turned out to be quite the loser anyway, didn't he?"

Kaile just smiled tightly at her uncle until he turned away, then shot a look at Scagnetti to make it clear that that embarrassing incident was not behind her continued dislike of him. The look was unnecessary. Scagnetti was fully aware of why Kaile wasn't and likely never would be fond of him. Only he, Kaile and her father knew all of it and it wasn't something they ever spoke about, but Kaile never really let him forget about it.

She mentally shook herself and paid attention to what her uncle was saying. "Okay, so I asked the three of you here because I noticed something interesting about a couple of your cases. I asked the CSIs on your cases to come down here as well, but Lindsay just called to let me know they were pretty slammed and to just have the three of you brief them later." He led them through the bustling morgue over to the body drawers that took up one whole wall. "Okay, so first we have Casey Walker, age thirty, found three days ago in an alley," he read off of the paperwork as he slid the drawer open. Then he moved and opened another drawer two to the left from the first. "And here we have Kaile's Jane Doe, approximate age 25-35, found yesterday, also in an alley."

Whatever Kaile might say about Scagnetti (and she could say a lot), she had never said he was stupid. "They both had their ears messed with," he commented. He looked to the ME. "What, you thinking this is connected, Doc?"

"I wasn't sure at first. Considering both victims were stabbed to death, they both could have had overzealous killers who felt like cutting more than what was necessary to kill their victims. It's happened before. But before I called you all here, I did a little digging." Hawkes crossed his arms over the files he held. "When the two of you identified your victim, you discovered that she was deaf, correct?"

"Yeah," JD confirmed. "We were wondering if the hack job on the vic's ears had something to do with that."

"I'm almost certain it does," Hawkes told them.

"Wait, do you think my vic is deaf, too? That seems like a bit of a leap, Uncle Shel." Kaile didn't mean to put down her uncle's theory, but she wasn't following his logic at the moment.

"Like I said, I did some digging. I went back over the body with Fenton, the ME of record, and looked closer at the inner ear. It wasn't noticed before because it isn't standard for an autopsy, but we believe your Jane Doe suffered from otosclerosis." Hawkes grinned at the blank looks on the detectives' faces. "It's an excessive growth in the bones of the middle ear which interferes with the transmission of sound. I obviously can't be one hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty confident that our Jane Doe was at least partially deaf."

"Shit," Scagnetti breathed, conveying everyone's shared sentiment. "So, what, we've got some sick bastard out there murdering deaf girls?"

"I don't know. But it seemed a little too coincidental for my taste, so I thought you three should be made aware of the possible connection." Sheldon turned and closed the two drawers. "I would like to know how these cases progress and I'll let my MEs know to look for any other victims with ear trauma." He checked his watch. "I hate to run, but I've got a meeting downtown. Let me know if there's anything else we can do to help." He patted his niece on the shoulder and walked briskly away.

Nothing was said for a moment. Finally, Scagnetti opened his mouth. "So, I guess we'll be working together on this." His tone was a bit resigned and Kaile noticed JD raising an eyebrow at his partner's uncharacteristic demeanor. She didn't much care. She wasn't exactly happy with the situation either. That unhappiness led her to make a rather dumb suggestion.

"If you guys are busy, I can just take both cases."

Scagnetti snorted. "If anyone should give up the case it should be you. You're the one without a partner at the moment and you haven't even managed to ID your vic yet."

Kaile seethed. Her previous partner had gone on maternity leave several months before and planned on transferring to something less stressful than homicide when she got back. It wasn't Kaile's fault that she hadn't had a permanent partner since then. And it wasn't her fault that she hadn't discovered the identity of her vic yet. But it was just like Scagnetti to make her feel like it was all her fault. "Screw you, Scagnetti. I was just offering, you don't have to be such an ass."

"Whoa, let's calm down," JD interjected, stepping between the other two detectives. "Let's just back up and start over." He waited till his partner and Kaile relaxed fractionally. "Good, okay, so, have you gotten any leads as to the identity of your Jane Doe yet, Flack?"

"No," she bit out. "She's not in any database, but now that I know she's likely deaf then I have new areas I can show her photo around in."

"Our vic volunteered at a deaf community center. We've already made contact over there, why don't we go with you and see if maybe your vic showed up there at all. The deaf community seems pretty close, so even if she wasn't a regular there, somebody probably knows her."

"You two go," Scagnetti suggested. "I'll go run this new info through NCIC and see if anything pops up." He turned and left before the other two could comment.

JD opened his mouth, but Kaile held up her hand to stop him. "Don't, okay? Let's just go to this center." JD followed as she walked quickly from the room and tried not to notice all the looks they had been getting from the morgue staff.