A/N: for disclaimer, view profile. On the upside, I have been offered a full time traineeship so I have been interviewed and have had medical exams coming out of my ears! Thanks to The Congressman who betaed this chapter even though he has exams.
The computer in front of Abbey began to chime repeatedly, signalling the arrival of a video call request. Shutting off her CD player, Abbey accepted the call with a click of the mouse.
A young, reasonably handsome face appeared on screen. "Hello, Ms. Scutio? I am Ryan O'Halloran, Forensic Specialist for the NYPD's Crime Scene Unit," Ryan said, introducing himself. He had deliberately waited for Stucky to go home before this call as he didn't want the Feds to think they were all chirpy, irksome pains-in-the-ass like Mr. Bing Bang Bong.
"No need to be formal Ryan," she said with a smile. "Call me Abbey. How can I help you?"
"Well Abbey, I was about to send the blood analyses off but then I got the news you were going to process the evidence for us; with the better equipment your lab possesses NCIS would be able to do it much quicker after all. If you look into evidence bag Alpha, you will find Layla's undergarments. We found fluids and splinters present within them, likely from the assault. Bag Bravo holds the change our fake Cabbie had given Layla before he raped her." Ryan paused as he consulted his list, eyebrows furrowing in thought. "Bag Charlie, a K-Bar knife that was removed from inside Layla's vagina," Ryan whispered, cringing. Abbey's breath caught in her throat; she had been pulling the evidence bags out of their box as Ryan named them. In her hand she was holding the most blood-stained K-bar, or any knife for that matter, that she had ever seen.
"That's all Layla's? How did she not die of blood loss?" Abbey asked, a horrified grimace on her usual cheerful face.
"Well, according to the ER doctor at Belleview, she had two transfusions of blood and she had been…" Ryan paused to swallow, this was one of his worst cases he had ever had. "She had undergone circumcised too."
Abbey's hands dropped the evidence bag, her hands covering her mouth in a gasp. Female circumcision was illegal in the United States as it was considered mutilation (male circumcision was completely legal and actually used on a large majority in the US). The barbaric ritual was still practiced in many third world countries in the Middle East and Africa though.
"The attending doctor at Belleview said that as he got to her within 48 hours of the incident he has been able to fix some of the damage; giving her a larger hole to urinate from so as lessen the chance of complications, putting her on an IV broad spectrum antibiotics, and has sent her home with a three week prescription of oral antibiotics." He hoped that some good news would bring a smile back to this gorgeous woman's face. She seemed to have a childlike innocence about her, even though judging from her clothes and the – uh – dog collar around her neck suggested otherwise.
"Oh, that's good." Abbey choked out after taking a few minutes to regain her composure. "Now, I have blood samples running through Major Mass Spec, just to confirm all the blood is hers. I'm hoping that the person who did this slipped up and injured themselves, giving us a sample to work with. I am also in the process of using super glue vapour that I think will give us any usable prints off the coins. Major's next job after the blood is finished is analysing the fluids from the underwear and then the splinters." Abbey pulled a black handkerchief from her lab coat and dabbed at her eyes.
"Are you OK, Abbey? Would you like to pause for a minute?" Ryan asked, concerned. He knew how hard rape cases were to deal with, particularly when homicide, missing persons, and narcotic cases were the most common dealt with by NCIS. There were days he struggled to deal with working with the 16th precinct after a particularly brutal case, usually the ones involving kids (plus going through them with Stucky threw another wrench into the equation). However, Ryan enjoyed being able to give the police rock solid evidence to put the perpetrators away for good, never being able to harm anyone again.
"I'm ok; well, I am better than Layla and her son and his friend anyway," Abbey joked grimly, laughing so as not to break down and cry. She stood, slightly unsteady on her feet after taking a big gulp of her Caf-Pow.
Suddenly there was a loud buzz in the NCIS lab.
"Ohhh that's the Major Mass Spec," Abbey said, dashing over to the machine. She grabbed the results and ran back to the computer.
"Ok," she stated, looking over the results, "So all the blood was Layla's as we had suspected but according to the Tox Screen she had GHB, Ritalin, and Valium in her system."
"And yet she was still able to fight back?" Ryan asked, puzzled at how a woman could do so with enough drugs in her system to take down a bull Elephant.
Abbey thought for a moment, grabbing Bert from beside the computer and squeezing him. A long fart rang out and Ryan looked uncomfortable.
"Oh, that wasn't me; this is Bert, a farting hippopotamus," Abbey said, a bit embarrassed, pointing at her stuffed animal by way of explanation.
"Your boss lets you have stuffed animals and wear whatever you want to work?" Ryan asked incredulously.
"The director knows I receive three to six job offers per year, all of which pay up to three to four times as much as NCIS can. So, in hope of keeping me on since I'm so great at my job, I am allowed to wear what I want, have I what I want in here, and listen to death metal music as much as I want. On top of that, the whole building knows that an unhappy Abbey equals a 'Warpath Gibbs' which none of them can handle or even dare to experience. So, naturally, I am somewhat spoiled," Abbey shrugged, blasé about the whole thing.
"Oh, uh, ok then," Ryan replied, somewhat surprised and a little jealous that his federal counterpart had much better working conditions then he did.
"And where is your assistant?" Ryan had noticed no one else in the lab area. With his luck she'd be free or have a decent one while he was stuck with Stucky (the pun was not lost on him) for the foreseeable future.
Abbey frowned. "I don't do assistants, they usually try to murder someone or frame the MCRT team for murder. After two rounds of that, it was decided to just leave me here, alone." Abbey was a little sad at that; she would have loved to have someone with her all the time or even do some of her 24-hour workdays. Sighing, she began to load the fluid samples back into into Major Mass Spec.
Suddenly the lab door flew open.
"Ya got anything for us Abs?" came the well-known voice of Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
"Right on time Bossman. Ryan, this is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, lead field agent for the MCRT. Gibbs, this is Ryan O'Halloran from the NYPD Crime Scene Unit." Abbey chirped, quickly introducing her favourite person with the other forensic specialist.
"Abs!" Jethro said gruffly to his favourite co-worker; he wasn't in the mood for pleasantries.
"Alright, so all the blood was Layla's as we thought, but the K-bar knife and the way it was used does narrow it down a little," Abbey said, reaching for said knife.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, puzzled.
"Well the USMC logo had been filed off, but from the amount of flesh and blood caught in the serrated part just before the hilt, it is a movement taught to-"
"To marines only once they reach Gunnery Sergeant," Jethro continued, cutting in on Abbey's train of thought. "It is an easy way to kill someone, no matter where the knife enters the victim's body. Layla is lucky it was a sloppy job." It always riled him up when a serviceman or woman went bad.