Adam walked into the lab, smiling wanly at the other techs he passed on the way and reassuring Jane Parsons that, yes, he really was fine now. He buried himself in his work and tried to ignore the world around him. It was only when his stomach loudly reminded him that it was well past lunchtime, that he even considered pausing.
He sighed and wandered down to the nearest vending machine, scanning the selection of sandwiches. He scowled. Was there anything in here that didn't have salad in it? Then he blinked. Where the hell did that come from? His favourite - chicken, lettuce, cheese and mayonnaise on brown - was sitting right in front of him. His eyes drifted up. Beef, salami, ham, sun-dried tomato and olives on white? If he picked the tomato and olives off…
He shook his head. Where the hell was this fascination with meat coming from? Scratch that… he knew where it was coming from. He scowled, lost in thought, as his hands moved almost of their own accord, feeding the money into the machine and hitting the buttons. He bent down and retrieved the sandwich, then turned to the soda machine and used his change to buy himself a Mountain Dew. Shifting the icy cold can in his hands, Adam headed down to the breakroom and flopped unceremoniously, yet suspiciously gracefully, into the nearest chair.
He let out an indignant grumble that he refused to admit sounded more like a growl, popped the top on his can of Mountain Dew and started to unwrap his sandwich. He got halfway through the plastic outer layer and stared. What the hell?! Beef, salami, ham, sun-dried tomato and olives on white?! Since when?! He scowled down at his sandwich, still picking at the plastic wrapping.
"Um… Adam? Man, are you… growling?" Danny's voice from the doorway startled him out of his reverie.
"Huh?" Adam blinked then looked up at Danny, "Growling? Nah… just pressed the wrong damn button on the vending machine…" he shot the CSI a nervous smile that was a shadow of his former grin.
Danny nodded and shot him an understanding grimace, before his attention was diverted by Sheldon, the ME-turned-CSI catching his bespectacled colleague on his way down to the morgue. Sheldon shot Adam a smile, a questioning look in his eyes asking if the tech was okay. Adam shot the CSI a wan smile in return and turned back to his sandwich, absently poking at the layers and shredding the plastic wrapping.
An almost irrational feeling of abandonment swept over Adam as he watched the two CSI's walk away, heading down to the morgue. Neatly laying the bread, tomatoes and olives to the side, he sighed and resisted the urge to follow them, simply for the company. He grumbled to himself, looking around as he tried to find more people, any people, even that freaky new guy in ballistics. He blinked. That was officially bizarre. A week ago he would've locked himself in the men's room for his whole lunch break to avoid Jensen in ballistics.
Popping a piece of beef into his mouth and humming his appreciation for it, Adam still glanced around the breakroom and through the glass walls, looking for more people. He shook his head again, sighing as he lifted his Mountain Dew to his mouth. What was with the sudden need for a room full people? He shrugged; hopefully Hawkes and Danny would come back before he needed to get back to work.
Danny frowned to himself, resisting the urge to look back over his shoulder at Adam as he and Sheldon stepped down to the morgue. Something wasn't quite right… He knew Adam had taken almost a week's worth of sick days, but still… The blonde man pushed up his glasses and turned his thoughts back to what Sheldon was saying to him as they pushed open the doors to the morgue. Danny shot a somewhat dimmed smile at Doctor Marty Pino, who grinned at them from where he was buried elbow deep in a corpse's chest.
"Marty," Sheldon acknowledged, never flinching at the slightly disconcerting sight of seeing the ME's gloved fingers wiggle in greeting through a dead man's ribcage.
Marty's grin grew wider at Danny's pained grimace, "Hey Shel, Danny… I suppose you guys are looking for your results?"
Danny fought the urge to look at the ceiling, "I take it you ain't finished yet, huh, Doc?"
"No," Marty deadpanned back, letting his eyes bleed into their werewolf yellow, "I still have to mark my territory and howl at the heat lamp."
Sheldon snorted with laughter and Danny grinned, shaking his head, as Marty's eyes faded back to their normal brown. The werewolf ME snickered with them, before pulling his hand from the body's gaping torso with a wet, sucking sound. He pulled off the long, bloodied gloves and replaced them with a fresh pair. He picked up the file and handed it off to Danny, before turning back to the body and waiting for the go ahead to give his verbal report.
Danny opened the file and scanned it quickly. The blonde CSI pushed his glasses up his nose, flipped through the photos brusquely and passed the folder off to Sheldon. He nodded to Marty and glanced down at the body, before wincing and looking up at the ceiling.
"Sorry, Marty, but… and don't take offence… I don't reckon I'll ever get used to seein' werewolf victims like this," Danny took a deep breath and forced himself to look back down at the body.
Marty looked at him sadly, "Why would I take offence? As much as you guys hate rapists and serials for what they do to people, I hate the werewolves who do this kinda thing…" the ME shook himself lightly, like a dog ridding itself of excess water, "Okay," he began, all business now, "As you may have guessed, cause of death was exsanguination."
"The throat?" Sheldon bent over the body, looking at the ragged hole where the man's neck once was.
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Marty glanced at the wound in the neck, "But, no, John Doe here bled out from a wound to the…" a scent caught his attention, through the blood and gore of the autopsy he'd just performed, making him shiver lightly and stumble over his words, "… uh… the… the…" he shook his head, all business once more, "… the femoral artery."
Sheldon frowned, "Marty?"
Marty waved off his concerns, "I'm good, Shel, had a blood moment… that's all…" he lied, breathing through his mouth to avoid catching that scent again until after he'd finished his report.
Danny raised an eyebrow, "Blood moment?"
Marty nodded, "Sometimes all this," he gestured to the gore on the autopsy table, "Gets to be a little too much… especially in exsanguination cases… just makes me a little spacey for a couple of seconds until I shake it off," he smiled at Sheldon, "Shel, here, used to call 'em 'blood moments'."
Danny nodded, "Gotcha."
Marty took another steadying breath through his mouth, "Anyway… back to John Doe… Fatal wound likely came from the femoral artery. There are others, but most of those are either post-mortem or flesh wounds."
Sheldon frowned, finally noticing the sheet the ME had covering the body's lower half, "Finally developed some modesty, Marty?" he asked dryly, raising an eyebrow at the sheet.
Marty followed the former-ME's eyes to the sheet and had the grace to look sheepish, "Uh… no. After the initial examination, I… uh… couldn't look at it."
Sheldon's eyes widened, Marty's iron stomach and ability to handle gore were legendary in the autopsy room. If Marty Pino couldn't look at something past the initial exam, then it was bad. Really, really bad. Sheldon swallowed hard and glanced at Danny. The blonde man had gone a shade paler than when he walked in. Marty grimaced sympathetically at the two men and grasped the sheet in one hand. With no hint of his usual flourish, he simply lifted the sheet back and waited.
Danny abruptly went white, then green, then back to white, "Oh fuck me!"
Sheldon gritted his teeth, mouth a thin line, eyes hard, "That… Jesus…"
Marty's own mouth was a hard line, eyes wavering back and forth between werewolf yellow and their normal brown as he laid the sheet at the end of the autopsy table. He tried not to look at the John Doe's lower half but it was like a train wreck. The poor bastard nearly had no lower half. Sure, the fatal wound was in the femoral artery, but there were a lot of nasty places one could put a teeth-oriented flesh wound in a man's lower half. And Marty was willing to bet he'd just seen most of them.
Danny stepped away, unconsciously cupping his own groin and resolutely tilting his head to the ceiling. Sheldon took up the camera, bracing himself before lifting it to his face and taking the necessary photos as quickly as possible. Marty manoeuvred himself over to stand next to Danny. He gazed in concern at the bespectacled blonde for a second, before receiving a confirming nod.
Marty looked over at him, "Personally, I think it was a woman," he said.
The two CSI's looked at him, both still looking slightly ill, "Or a sub," the ME mused, "A very, very disillusioned sub."
Danny and Sheldon blinked at him, making him shift uncomfortably, "What? Even if you had the inclination to go down on your knees for a guy, and the teeth to take a chunk out of him… would you wanna do something like that to him?" he made a gesture back towards the body.
The two CSI's cringed, hands creeping down to cover their groins, before Danny spoke, "Can we change the subject?" he looked back at Marty, "Did you find any trace on the body?"
"No, it was all too busted up," Marty made the mistake of inhaling through his nose again, catching the unfamiliar scent and almost whimpering, a low keening noise forcing its way out of his throat before he could stop it.
Sheldon was at his side instantly, "Marty? That ain't a blood moment. Not two in ten minutes, buddy. What's going on?"
Marty shook his head, allowing Sheldon to lead him over to the small cot in the morgue's office. Danny followed behind, feeling useless, yet not wanting to be left behind. Sheldon sat the shell-shocked doctor down on the cot. He sat down on the chair next to the bed and pointed to another chair for Danny to sit in. The blonde did so, not taking his eyes off Marty and Sheldon.
Sheldon gently poked Marty in the arm, "Marty? You need to talk to me, here."
Marty shivered lightly, "There's another one," his voice was almost a growl, eyes bleeding in and out of yellow.
Sheldon frowned, "Is… that a problem?"
Marty looked up at him, eyes wide, "I don't know who they are, what they're like, whether…" he sighed and his voice trailed off.
Danny poked him in the other arm, wanting to help, "Whether they what, man?"
The normally confident ME spoke in a defeated tone, "Whether they're an alpha or not… whether they're pack or not… there's lots of things."
Sheldon nodded, only half understanding, "Should perhaps you go up there and see who it is?"
Danny interrupted, "Are you sure it isn't just someone who came in for questioning or to make a complaint or somethin'? Ya know, someone who'll be leavin' soon?"
Marty shook his head, still looking a little lost, "No, they're supposed to be here, I can tell," he took a steadying breath, willing his eyes back to brown, "And you're right Shel, I probably should go see who it is."
With the air of a man headed to the electric chair, Marty picked himself up off the tiny cot and headed towards the autopsy doors. Sheldon and Danny got up and headed after him. They both looked surprised when Marty stopped suddenly, abruptly going still, before looking over his shoulder at them.
"Don't take this the wrong way, guys…" he said, still looking nervous, "But can you not follow me… you guys smell like the new one… I'll go nuts before I get past the breakroom…"
Danny and Sheldon both nodded, "Sure, man," Danny said, "We'll wait here, then follow you up."
Marty nodded his thanks then continued through the autopsy doors. Sheldon and Danny sat back down in their respective chairs, both stunned, both trying to muddle their way through the events that had just taken place. Without warning, a few pieces fell into place in Danny's mind. He blinked suddenly.
"Shel…" he drew out, blinking again.
"What?" Sheldon turned to his bespectacled colleague.
"Marty said we smell like the new werewolf, right?" he waited until the dark skinned man nodded before continuing, "Who was the last person we came into contact with before Marty?"
Sheldon frowned for a second, before his eyes went almost saucer-like, "Oh… my… God…"
They turned to each other and spoke in unison, "Adam."