Here is another addition to my Molliarty oneshots. This one has a bit more pathology terminology and is a bit heavier on pathology stuff in general (couldn't resist! :P).
Frozen section is a way to rapidly diagnose something. You take the tissue sample you want to look at and freeze it. You make thin sections of tissue and put them on a slide and stain it. It's much quicker than the traditional method of fixing the tissue with formaldehyde and embedding the tissue in paraffin before making sections. It's the one thing besides autopsies that pathologists can get called in for as an emergency.
Liver transplant frozen section would be done to look at the viability of using the liver for transplantation. There are criteria for approving/rejecting a liver based on the histologic diagnosis.
As always any feedback or comments are appreciated!
Molly glanced at her watch. Only 30 minutes left of call, she thought. This particular call day had been terrible. Normally Sundays were the best days to take weekend call because no one bothered her with anything. She would have the occasional autopsy, but rarely any frozen section pages or rush biopsies to look over. As luck would have it, Molly had been rudely awoken by her pager at 6 for a liver transplant frozen section, which inevitably meant an autopsy for the poor organ donor wasn't far behind that page. It was already lunchtime by the time she finished the frozen and autopsy. Of course lunch had to be delayed because in his usual ill-timed fashion, Sherlock showed up and demanded to look at a body she had done a postmortem on during the week. Molly had to ravenously consume a sad limp cafeteria sandwich during the 10 minutes it took for Sherlock to loudly postulate all of the ways Molly had missed the "true" diagnosis. She cared for Sherlock, but sometimes he was so oblivious to her own stress and hunger.
After he left, Molly sank into her chair and could feel the tension rising in her. To make matters worse, her on and off relationship with Jim had been in an inexplicable off phase for three months, not that she was counting. She hated how he would disappear without any explanation. Sometimes he would send flowers, almost reminding her that he was still watching her. However, the past three months had been completely devoid of any contact. Molly pushed those thoughts aside. Closing her eyes and sinking deeper into her chair, she tried to focus on her breathing. Only thirty minutes left of call, she repeated to herself. Then she could go home, draw a warm bath, and enjoy that bottle of Chardonnay she was saving for terrible call days. No sooner had she begun to indulge in thoughts of relaxation when her pager began emitting shrill beeps.
Molly sighed as she fumbled to take the pager out to silence it. Molly wrinkled her forehead as she glanced at the numbers that stared back at her. They didn't look familiar at all. She hesitantly dialed them waiting for the person to pick up and tell her they had meant to page plastic surgery or some other service that didn't involve her staying late. An unfamiliar man picked up the other line, "Is this pathology?" Startled by the gruff response on the other line Molly responded a bit shriller than she would prefer, "Um, yes this is Dr. Hooper. I'm the pathologist on call. Can I help you?" "Oh, I was just down in the morgue and didn't see anyone. I dropped off a body for autopsy," the strange man replied.
"I was in my office, but didn't a technician help you? What hospital are you with?"
"Oh, I'm with a new place that Barts is contracting with for autopsies. I left the paperwork on the body," he said hanging up quickly.
Molly tried calling the number back, but it rang endlessly. Molly sighed to herself audibly. Of course she would get a crazy autopsy case from some random person at the end of her call day. She didn't even want to think of the endless paperwork she would have to fill out to straighten this out. Never mind the fact that this man had waltzed into the morgue without anyone stopping him. Molly rubbed her fingers against her throbbing temples. "It's okay. I'll do the autopsy and handle the paperwork later," she said aloud. She forced herself up out of her chair and tried to gather inner momentum.
Walking into the morgue, Molly noticed how empty and lifeless it felt with everyone gone. It was 10 minutes before 18:00 on Sunday so it wasn't entirely surprising how alone she was, but it left her feeling unsettled. Molly tied her hair back, donned her protective bunny suit, and gloves. She began to unzip the white bag containing the body. The sight of the body made her gasp. The body was stuck in a fetal position. It's brown wrinkled waxy flesh hung on the sunken form. The hair was an unnatural shade of red. "What the hell is this?!" Molly exclaimed. This had to be some sort of joke from Sherlock she thought. There is no way a legitimate hospital would send this to her.
There was definitely no way Molly was going to cut into the body, but she was going to perform an external exam in the hopes of elucidating the origin of such a strange specimen. Turning the body over gingerly, she noted several deep gashes in the back spanning from the thorax to the abdomen. It was obvious those cuts would have been fatal. The mummified appearance of the body was still incredibly puzzling to Molly. Even more so was the unusual color of hair. It almost looked like the bog bodies she had seen on display in museums. But, this couldn't be a bog body... Molly gasped as the realization hit her. She quickly zipped the bag up and degowned.
Molly rushed back into her office, trembling from the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She shut the door behind her and sat carefully in her chair gripping the edge of the seat. There was only one person who knew that performing an autopsy on a bog body was on her bucket list. How could Jim possibly have acquired one? Molly pushed the thought out of her mind. There was no way she even wanted to entertain possibilities of how he obtained such a precious artifact. There was also no way she was going to perform an autopsy. Just seeing and touching the body was enough to satisfy her curiosity.
Molly quickly searched the internet for missing bog bodies from museums. She let a sigh of relief escape her lips when her search came up with nothing. She fiddled with her desk phone for a while, thinking of who to call. Mycroft would probably think she was crazy and Sherlock would beg her to do the autopsy and let him watch. There was no way she was indulging Jim by calling him about this, especially after he had gone silent for three months. The only solution was to call Greg. He could solve this and help her get the body to a museum where it rightfully belonged.
She picked up the phone and began to dial Greg's number. But the phone never rang and instead she was greeted with a familiar voice, "Hello, darling. Did you enjoy my little surprise?" Molly could feel anger rise in her, all of her frustration in the day finally bubbled to the surface as she erupted, "Enjoy?! How in the hell would I enjoy getting paged for an autopsy 10 minutes before my call was over?! Besides, I haven't heard from you in months and this is how you surprise me?!" After a short silence, Jim coolly responded, "Molls, this was planned a month in advance. How was I to know you would have a terrible day? I thought you would be excited to see a bog body on the table." Molly knew this was as close to an apology as she was going to get out of Jim, but she still wanted to be done with this day. "Look Jim, I appreciate the thought but I want you to get whoever brought this stupid body down here to take it and bring it to a museum somewhere. I'm leaving and I don't want to see this when I come back tomorrow morning." She brusquely hung up the phone before Jim could respond.
Molly fumed the whole walk home. She couldn't believe Jim would send her that stupid bog body. Didn't he know how much paperwork it would have caused her if she had cut into it?! By the time she reached her flat, she was somewhat calmer. When she unlocked her door, she was greeted by the smell of delicious chocolate brownies. She walked into the kitchen to find Jim dressed in a celadon suit with a crisp white shirt and a pale yellow tie. He had her kitten apron on and was bent near the oven his nose slightly wrinkled as he tried to determine the level of doneness of the brownies. Molly was speechless. Jim pulled the brownies out of the oven and looked at her.
He quickly took off the apron and made his way towards her. He pulled her close to him, cupping her chin so he could stare into her soft brown eyes. "Did you miss me, darling?" he asked her. Molly sighed, her anger melted away as he held her. He smelled so nice and was so warm.
"Yes, terribly. Why do you have to leave without calling once?"
"Well you know how my business is. It's hard to take breaks from it when I have things to take care of. I know you don't want to be involved in it so not talking is the best thing I can do..." Jim paused, "for us."
Jim leaned in and kissed Molly deeply. "But for now, my dear, this night is about you relaxing after your horrible day." He took her hand and guided her to the bathroom. "I've already drawn a warm bath for you. The only question is what wine do you want?" Molly looked up at him sheepishly; perhaps her anger had been misplaced. Maybe the paperwork wouldn't have been that bad she thought. "Um… a glass of red would be nice. I don't remember what I have," she replied.
Jim left her and scavenged through her wine rack for the perfect pairing to the brownies. He could hear her climbing into the bath and tried to resist the urge to pull her out of the bath and spend the night how he had originally planned. It was too bad he was going to get pulled away again. At least this time it wouldn't be for three months. Jim made a mental note to have flowers delivered, especially after she was on call. He generously poured a glass of wine and brought it to Molly. He kissed her lightly on the forehead, "I'm going to be busy with work again, but I won't be gone as long." He pulled Molly into him for a kiss. "But I'll get your suit wet!" she protested. "It doesn't matter. I have to kiss you before I go. Leave you something to remember me by..." he trailed off as his lips met hers. He moved his mouth down her neck trailing by her ears and finally settling near her collarbone where he left a prominent love bite. He grinned impishly, "Now you definitely won't forget me while I'm gone." Molly blushed deeply and demurred, "Yes and now everyone will be bothering me about this tomorrow!" He turned to leave and looked back at her, "Don't you think that's what I want?" He shut the door and left Molly's warm quaint flat. Molly sank further into the bath. She was even more frustrated now and didn't know quite where she was with Jim. She nursed her wine and contemplated how she would handle him in the future.