Wrong Time, Wrong Place
A/N: Okay this is a weird bit. I know basically nothing about morgues and how people's deaths are dealt with immediately afterwards... so I hope it's not horribly inaccurate! But it's probably a little creepy perhaps? And Shakespeare's Mistress, I don't think you're a fanfic stalker! Thanks for the reviews!
Seen as though I've started chapter five, I've edited this and added 'to be continued' at the end.
Chapter Four
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The morgue; it was one of the coldest places that anyone could be. Literally. Inside, the air was still and lifeless. When Kerry and Lawson entered, the heavy steel door behind them slammed shut and seemed to suck out what air that was remaining in the building with it. They glanced over at each other, both shuddering involuntarily. It was not the sort of place either of them wanted to be right now, particularly Kerry. The walls inside were painted a light shade of grey. As they walked down the corridor, it seemed to get narrower and narrower, but it was all an illusion. Lawson approached the reception area first. A dark haired, middle aged man was sitting at the desk, looking down at a keyboard as he typed. Lawson cleared his throat to get the man's attention, before introducing himself and asking if James Hansen was there.
The man, whose name tag read Robert Reaves, was dressed in a similar shade of grey as the walls surrounding him. He looked down at a thick notebook that was sitting on the counter in front of him. He ran his index finger across the countless number of names that were written in there, "Ahhh ... yes he is. Just arrived here about 30 minutes ago. Are you here to identify him?"
"Um yes, Kerry is," Lawson answered as he gestured behind him towards Kerry, who took a couple of timid steps forward.
"And you are? The subject's next of kin?" Robert asked abruptly.
Subject??
"Yes, I'm James' mother," once again she fought very hard to hold back tears.
The man then haphazardly pushed forward a clipboard with some paper sitting on top of it, "You have to fill out this form before you can I.D him," he didn't seem to care about the predicament that Kerry was about to be in. But perhaps, both she and Lawson thought, he just had a crap job and being emotionless was his way of getting through it, "It's standard procedure these days. We don't just want anyone going in and looking at dead bodies," he explained to them before picking up the phone and punching in a number.
Lawson and Kerry looked at each other out the corner of their eyes. This guy was a strange one, that's for sure. They backed away and sat down on some chairs opposite the reception. Kerry glanced over the form and slowly began to fill it out. Lawson looked to his left, down the corridor they had entered, before turning his head to look at the other side, which seemed to go on forever. The only sound came from Kerry's fast scribbling of pen to paper. When she was done, she got up and walked towards the reception again. She handed over the form, and Robert skimmed his eyes across it for a few moments, before looking back up at Kerry, "Okay. You can go and identify him. He's in room 6A, which is down the corridor," it sounded like he was talking about a hotel or hospital room.
Kerry took a quick look over her shoulder at Lawson before looking back at the older man, "Okay ..." her voice struggling to find its regular volume.
"There will be an orderly in there to get his body for you!" he called out to them loudly as they walked down the corridor towards room 6A, "And when you come back, I'll need you to fill out a notification of death form!"
Kerry looked down at the ground. She couldn't believe that this was actually happening. She was hoping at some point that she would wake up in her bed and realise that the whole thing was all just a bloody nightmare, "Lawson?"
"Yeah?"
"Pinch me."
"You're not dreaming Kerry," he told her matter-of-factly, before adding with a touch of sadness to his voice, "Unfortunately."
She couldn't help but glance across at Lawson quickly. She then diverted her eyes back down to the ground before he noticed. The seemingly sincere tone in his voice was a little surprising to her. But she shouldn't have been that surprised really. The fact that he was still there with her, instead of back at work with Josh, should have told her that.
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"Hey! It's Stella!" Leon exclaimed as she walked into the operation's room; a few seconds later, Michael followed, "And Michael!" he added, bouncing up and down on his chair.
Stella, who was already in a bad enough mood as it was, turned around to look at Michael, "Who the hell is this hyperactive man?"
Michael decided to 'play along' with Stella, "Hmm I don't know. But it seems like he is on the same stuff that Dom was on that night we were on surveillance at that café. You know, click, click, click, click -" Michael grabbed a pen and started clicking the top of it a lot of times.
"Yes okay Michael! I get it!" Stella interjected, putting a hand over her forehead to try and demonstrate somewhat that she had a headache, "Thanks for that."
Leon was staring at them like a stunned animal who was staring at a car's headlights coming towards it. Obviously neither of those two were in the mood to have a little fun, "So what are you two doing here?" he then asked after a few moments.
Stella closed her eyes. Not knowing that Leon in fact already knew why they were there, she answered him with a heavy sigh, "Josh called us in because Lawson is with -" she stopped when Leon started to grin a little, "Oh, you know! You're a bastard!"
Leon laughed as Stella took a swing at his shoulder.
After that small moment of madness, Stella sat down on one of the chairs next to Leon and started swivelling around from left to right and back again, "So did you know that Kerry has a son?" a silent seriousness to her voice, as she looked Leon directly in the eyes.
"Yeah, she told me a while back," Leon answered, "I don't think she meant to tell me though."
Both Stella and Michael raised their eyebrows. Little was known to them about Kerry's life in general. And they were all starting to get the feeling that that was the way she wanted it to be.
Josh soon poked his head inside the operation's room and told them with some unwritten authority in his voice, "Come on guys. We're going out on patrol. Now!"
Stella and Michael groaned reluctantly, but did what the sergeant said, following him out the door.
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Room 6A was right at the very end of the straight corridor, despite various other doors before it being labelled with higher numbers than six. Kerry wasn't sure whether to knock on the door or not and glanced over at Lawson, who was looking back at her with an odd, but meaningful expression on his face.
After staring immensely at the black door for a few moments, Kerry decided to knock a couple of times. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out heavily, as she heard movement coming from behind the closed door. This was it. The moment of truth had arrived, and it scared her. A lot.
It wasn't long before a man dressed in white opened the door and waved them both in. He had already brought James' body into the room on steel, stretcher like table, and excused himself to give Kerry some privacy. She looked down at the white sheet that was covering his body and closed her eyes. A freight train that only existed in her mind hit her with such force that she actually doubled back towards the door.
Concerned, Lawson looked over at her, "Are you sure you want to do this right now?"
Kerry opened her eyes again, trying to redeem herself, "Yes. I'm sure."
It wasn't the most convincing 'I'm sure' that Lawson had ever heard in his life, but he excepted it, "Okay. Do you want me to wait outside or -"
"No," she shook her head, stepping forward once more so that she was standing directly in front of James. Kerry stared down; she could see the outline of parts of his lifeless body coming into shape through the sheet - his head, nose, shoulders, hands and feet. Silent moments went by, and Kerry was still staring down at him. She just couldn't bring herself to pull the sheet away from his face.
Lawson himself took a couple of steps towards Kerry and stood next to her.
Feeling him standing there, she reached both her hands out to take the sheet away, before snapping her hands back to where they were, "Oh shit ... I can't do it!" she exclaimed out of sheer frustration and slight angst.
"Here, I'll do it," Lawson told her calmly and walked around to the top of the table, "Just tell me when you're ready, okay?"
Kerry took a couple of unsteady breaths and nodded, "I'm ready ..."
He took hold of the sheet with both hands, looking at her again just to make sure she was still okay with it. When she nodded again, Lawson pulled back the sheet.
Kerry's knees instantly gave way when she saw her son's face, and she crumpled down on the floor slightly. Lawson quickly went over to her and helped her get up. It wasn't the first time he had seen a dead body, but the fact that it was Kerry's son made it all the more uncomfortable.
Tears began to run down Kerry's cheeks. She wanted to reach out and touch James' sandy blond hair but she couldn't move her arms. They were locked into place by her sides. She moved her eyes down past his face. Seeing three bullet holes ridden into his chest brought back the chilling realisation that a police officer had shot and killed her son. Anger began building up inside her again, but she tried to tell herself to calm down.
It must have been the training that Lawson did in psychology because he noticed the anger from Kerry's body language and her tightly clenched fists, "I think we should go yeah? Come back tomorrow ... or later today, rather."
She nodded and put the sheet back over her son. Standing there, staring down at him wasn't going to bring him back.
"I'll take you home."
As they walked out the door, shutting it behind them, Kerry said, "You can go back to work then," Lawson glanced at her out the corner of his eyes and started to say something but Kerry cut him off, "You don't have to stay with me. I'm fine. Besides, you've come here to the morgue with me and ... everything else. I ... appreciate that. I really do."
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To Be Continued.