Andy Flynn waits outside the morgue, on a bench, rubbing his hands together as he stares at them. Provenza had alerted him to the identity of the woman on the slab. Tests and preliminaries weren't in yet, or so he believes. He knows Rusty had it bad before, but he can't help but wonder if the boy will only act out with the news. Flynn glances up when he hears the usual gait of his superior, Sharon Raydor. He stands, "Captain, Provenza told me. You tell the kid yet?"
Sharon pauses in the hall, next to the cart of plastic smocks, slowly pulling it over her clothing, "I have not. I want to know all the facts before I present anything to Rusty. Especially when this is what I must...This information is never the easiest to..." She shakes her head a little, leaning her head down to tie the string at the back of her neck.
"Let me help you, Captain." Andy moves behind her, tieing the other strings, "He's technically the next of kin...I don't know anything about this husband, but I believe son is high on the list."
She nods her head slowly, "Thank you, Lieutenant, Yes, I'm aware of his status of kinship. However, I'm at a crossroads whether or not I should contact her parents." She clears her throat, adjusting her hair, "On one hand, it's their daughter and if either of my children were to..." Sharon shakes her head, "On the other, they disowned her when she told them she was pregnant with Rusty. No parent should ever disown a child, regardless of their mistakes."
"Well, maybe ask him." He shrugs, walking past her to the door. "Are you ready for this, Captain?"
"No, but let's go anyway." Sharon sighs, walking through the doorway when he opens the door for her.
"About time you showed up." Morales nods to the two as they enter the room, leaning against another table allong the wall, his arms folded.
She looks to him, "Doctor Morales, what do you have for us?"
"Victim was between twelve and fourteen weeks pregnant, but shows sign of other births. Also bruising in various stages of healing, same with what looks like burn marks."
"She was abused. Have we had a positive identification?" Sharon sighs, unable to look at anything except the young woman's face.
"Sharon Morgan." Morales nods, "Apparently she was arrested about ten years for shoplifting under the name Sharon Beck."
She turns her head away a moment, closing her eyes, "Damn it." She whispers to herself, "Excuse me." Sharon rushes through the swinging door of the morgue. Unable to cry in front of others being her biggest weakness.
"Is she okay?" The younger man looks to the Lieutenant, "Did she know the victim?"
"Uh, something like that." Andy nods, "The kid that she has custody of...this is his biological mother."
"Oh my." Morales sighs, having never seen the Captain so fragile. It came close a few times, but nothing like this. "Should we wait for her?"
"No, it's alright. Is your report finished?"
"Just waiting for a blood screen to come back. I'm seeing needle marks, but they look like they're old. Like she knew she was pregnant and actually attempted to take care of herself."
Andy nods, "Is that all you found?"
"One of the bullets nicked her aorta. She died relatively quickly. Let's put it that way." Morales nods, "This seems pretty..." He shrugs, "Seems pretty cut and dry with mode of death, however, she was very obviously being abused and was a former heroin user, I'm betting."
Flynn watches the man, "Thank you, also maybe it'd be a good idea to get a test on the fetus? Could give us motive for someone."
"Think I just started this job?" Morales raises an eyebrow, smirking. "It should be back within the hour."
"Thanks, Doc." Andy nods to him, walking through the swinging door to see the Captain sitting on the bench, smock still covering her black pencil skirt, and camel colored blouse ensemble. Her one knee buckled together as her toes are spread. He stares at her for a moment, removing his plastic smock. He's unsure if he should say anything, or just give her the information.
"I...I need to tell Rusty." Sharon squeaks out, solving the situation for him. She clears her throat, removing her glasses and folding them up for a moment so she can wipe the tears from spilling over the bottom lids of her eyes, "This is the last-"
"It's part of the job, Captain. Maybe it would be more believable if you brought him down instead. I can tell Morales to clean up the body."
She clears her throat, standing slowly to remove her smock, "That would be...yes, thank you, Lieutenant." Sharon places her glasses back on her face before walking back toward the elevator. She needed to be alone, if only for a moment so that no one could bother her. She runs her hand nervously through her hair before the car stops and the bell dings as the door opens once more to her floor. She slowly walks back toward her office, seeing Rusty smiling with Buzz as they play against one another in a computer game of chess. She pauses in the middle of the room, looking to him, "Rusty, when you're finished with your game, I'd like to see you in my office, please."
Rusty hears her voice, glancing up a moment. He nods, watching her walk to her office, knowing he probably did something wrong. He always does something wrong. That's why no one will talk to him in the murder room. "I'll...I better go talk to her now rather than later."
Buzz nods, watching him get up, "Rusty, if you need to talk after, I'm here." Everyone in the office knew the story and the details. Everyone was walking on eggshells around the boy except for Buzz, who knew Rusty to be ahead of his years, and even considered him a friend.
He nods, then shrugs, closing the door gently behind him. Rusty chews his bottom lip slightly, flopping into the green chair opposite the desk.
Sharon rises from her seat, "Were you finished your game?"
"No, but it's okay. I'll just go play after." He watches as she sits in a seat closer to him, but not too close, "Is this about the frog thing in Sister Alexander's class? She has a mustache and looks like a frog. I was lightening the mood."
She narrows her eyes slightly, but then smiles softly, "No, but I'd love to hear about that story later."
"Okay. Then...What'd I do?"
Sharon sucks her lips into her mouth a moment before beginning to speak, "Rusty, before I arrived to retrieve you from school, I was at a crime scene with the team. A young woman was gunned down in front of a clinic in Santa Monica."
"That sucks." Rusty leans forward ever so slightly, "I was in school, I can't be a suspect."
"That isn't where I was going with this." She shakes her head, licking her lips before continuing, "Rusty, the victim was a young woman by the name of Sharon Morgan-"
"She married him?" He visibly tenses, "She married that bastard?" He stands, starting to pace ever so slightly, his hands balled into fists.
"Rusty...did you not hear me?" Sharon stands with him, "Your mother died this afternoon, Rusty."
Rusty stops suddenly, becoming instantly numb.
"We're going to need all the help we can get from you." She swallows, standing in front of him and unsure if she should hug him or otherwise offer a kind word, "and we need for you to make some decisions as well."
"Is she here?" His voice small and childlike, Rusty can't bring himself to look into his foster mother's eyes.
"Yes, we can go down if you'd like."
Rusty turns moving toward the window. "She was in Santa Monica. She was in Santa Monica and didn't even try to come and see me."
"There's more behind it than that, Rusty."
"He was beating her up, wasn't he..." He mumbled, but she is always able to hear him. It wasn't a question, more of a statement of a boy who was present and had seen it before.
"Yes." Her reply is simple, "She was also pregnant, Rusty. It appears she was trying to clean herself up. She wasn't very far along."
Rusty nods somberly, "You'll um..." He swallows, attempting to hold his tears at bay because he's a man and that's what men do, at least to him they do, or they're supposed to, "You'll come down with me?"
"Of course." Sharon says softly, watching as he uneasily turns.
"I haven't seen her in over a year. What if...what if she doesn't look the same?"
"I don't know what to tell you. We have to take the cards that are dealt." She opens the door for him, following with him as she closes the door behind herself. Sharon matches his pace, placing a hand on his shoulder finally, offering him support.
"I don't really want to be in the same room as a dead body alone." His tone nervous as they step onto the elevator car.
"I'm never leaving your side." She squeezed his shoulder as the doors close.
Rusty stares straight ahead, a million thoughts racing through his mind. Things his mother and he used to do together when he was a boy mostly, before she started with the boyfriends...and then the drugs. The ride is silent with the exception of the mechanical sounds of the elevador. The doors open once more as he steps off, walking ahead of her touch.
"Are you ready? I'll let Doctor Morales know we've arrived." Sharon nods, stepping through the swinging doors once more.
He is not ready. He doesn't believe someone could actually be ready for something like this. He glances back toward the elevator for a moment and thinks about running away, but knows just how much it would hurt Sharon. Rusty's breath catches when he sees a hand waving him inside, which he follows with a gulp.
"I'll be in my office." Morales looks between the two, "If you need me-"
"Thank you, Doctor." Sharon offers him a nod, watching as he leaves. She folds her arms, watching as the young man looks at the body.
Rusty looks down at his mother's face. It seems like it's been much longer than just short of two years. He reaches a hand out and gently touches her blonde hair, now overly processed. He notices her skin is lightly sun kissed and her nails are clean. He smiles a little, "She looks healthy." He says softly.
Sharon Raydor attempts to keep her years at bay, but this is possibly one of the hardest things she's ever had to experience with this young man. She removes her glasses, wiping under her own eye with her knuckle, "Yes. It appears she was trying to clean herself up."
He nods again, "Once she...went dumpster diving for lunch for us...it sounds terrible, but if a steak isn't cooked the way a customer wants it, in the trash it goes and there might be nothing really wrong with it." He tilts his hand to the side, taking hold of her hand, still looking into his mother's face, "She got lunch and a few dinner rolls were in the dumpster too. We...we went to the pier and fed the birds and the fish the stale bread. That was the..." He swallows, not wanting to break down there in the building. "I don't even have...I can't buy her flowers or nothing, I can't..." He clears his throat, glancing up at his foster mother, "What do they do with the bodies when people don't have money to bury them or whatever?"
"I'll take care of it, Rusty." She nods, "You don't have to worry about it. Whatever you want."
"You don't have to do that." He replies softly.
"I know I don't, but I want to. She deserves that much."
"Thanks." He whispers, leaning his head onto the chest of the woman who birthed him, running his hand through her blonde hair once more, "I'm glad I...I'm glad I got to see her here. Ya know."
Sharon Raydor nods, wiping her cheeks once more from the tears that have spilled over her lower lids. "Sure." She manages to reply softly. The sight of the young man in such a sad state causes her great pain. A pain she can feel within the pit of her stomach.
"Can I think about what I want to do? Will they get rid of her that fast?" Rusty asks, nervously.
"No, honey. Of course not."
He nods, "I...She's not going to be alone, is she?"
"Well, my Catholic upbringing, and your Catholic schooling says that this is just a body now. She's already elsewhere...happier and healthier-"
"You said she was going to have a baby and she was taking care of herself. I can tell she was taking care of herself. Maybe she was happier and someone killed her...it was probably Bruce."
"Who is Bruce, Rusty?"
"Her boyfriend. They were together for years...she was with him when they left me at the zoo." He swallows, "I want...I want to know where he is. I want to see his face." Rusty knows he would probably do more than that if he ever saw the man again.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Sharon sighs.
"I need to." He swallows, standing up straighter, "It doesn't matter if you understand or not." Rusty looks to his mother again, "Can I visit her again tomorrow?"
"Of course. She has to stay here until our investigation is over and Doctor Morales releases the body." She watches him still, watches his movements and how gentle he is with his mother's body, "You don't have to go to school tomorrow if you don't want. You can take as much time as you need.
He nods a little, "Could um...could you just take me home?"
"If that is where you would like to go." Sharon nods.
"Thanks." He mumbles, taking a moment to lean over and kiss his mother on the forehead before letting himself out of the room.