Chapter Three

Dr. Maura Isles made her way into the station and down towards the morgue. It was early but she was an early riser. She wasn't exactly nervous about starting as the new Chief Medical Examiner. She was very confident in her abilities. She was anxious though. Anxious to get settled and to set up her office and her new lab to the standards she had come to appreciate while in San Francisco.

Her belongings for her office were being shipped to the station and should arrive later that afternoon. But for now she knew she could start to assess the lab to see how much she would need to change. After that, she wanted to do a complete personnel review so she could get an idea of what her staff was like and start to get a sense of strengths and weaknesses.

If she was honest with herself she was a little bit nervous about starting at a new station. She was aware of her social awkwardness and she knew she was going to have to adjust to a whole new station full of police detectives and personnel who would most likely not quite understand her. She wasn't good in social situations. Even after years of immersion therapy she wasn't the best at understanding sarcasm and various social norms.

It had been her experience that new people would try to get to know her but that would fail shortly after the attempts didn't seem to end the awkward moments. She had a bad habit of rambling when she was nervous and she rambled about very technical scientific facts. In her experience, few people knew how to relate to that so they would tolerate her but not befriend her.

She knew her work was impeccable and she figured the Boston PD would react to her the way everyone else reacted to her. Acceptance of her work and tolerance for her social ineptitudes. It would just be a question of how long it would take for them to realize her work was excellent even though she was a bit odd from time to time. She just hoped they would figure her out quickly.

Her first review of the lab setup and equipment helped put her at ease. The lab was state of the art and she was immediately aware that her operating budget was greater than the one she had just come from. From an equipment standpoint there were not many changes she felt would be needed. In fact, the changes she noted on her walk through revolved more around flow and ease of work than equipment or standards.

She had just started to pull personnel files for the review she would do later when there was a knock on her office door. Curious as to who was knocking this early in the morning she looked up and was surprised to see a tall brunette standing in her doorway. She was aware that there was one female homicide detective in the department but she never made assumptions so she waited for the woman to introduce herself.

The brunette was quite stunning. Long, wildly wavy hair. She had excellent musculature and the doctor could tell the woman was in top physical condition. Maura was close to categorizing her as gorgeous even with the evident swelling and bruising around the supraorbital foramen of her left eye. Maura couldn't help but notice she had a distinct reaction to the woman standing in her doorway.

"Excuse me, Dr. Isles?" Jane asked from outside Maura's door.

"Yes. May I help you?" Maura asked.

"I'm Detective Rizzoli. I'm one of the homicide detectives. Am I interrupting anything?" Jane asked tentatively as the doctor had not yet invited her into the office.

"What can I do for you Detective?" Maura asked not really noticing that Jane continued to stand in the doorway.

"May I come in?" Jane asked.

"Oh of course, I'm sorry. Please. Come in," Maura answered and almost sighed. Her first interaction with a homicide detective and already she had missed a social cue. As Jane entered the office Maura got a better look at the injured detective.

"The laceration above your eye should have been closed with a butterfly stitch. You will run the risk of a permanent scar. Did the x-rays reveal any fractures of either the supraorbital foramen or the frontal bone?"

Jane was a little thrown by this. She hadn't expected a direct medical question. But Dr. Isles was a doctor so maybe it was just her habit. Jane dropped her eyes from the doctor's suddenly feeling a little self conscious as she felt the doctor staring at her. "I never went to the hospital to check for any fractures to either of those things. But I'm sure it's fine."

Maura looked at the injured area again. "That appears to have been caused by a violent strike of some sort. You should have been seen at a hospital. There may have been concussion concerns." Realizing that she may be sounding judgmental and not wanting to upset the woman during their first encounter Maura changed tactics. "Here, sit down," she indicated to the chair in front of her desk.

Surprisingly Jane found herself complying with the doctor's request without really questioning it. She look a seat in the chair and seemed willing to wait for the doctor to assess her current condition. The only thought that ran through her head was not to mention the second wound on the back of her head. For some reason she didn't want to worry the doctor.

Maura walked around her desk and fished around in her medical bag for a penlight. She wasn't accustomed to working on live patients but she was a medical doctor and had done several rotations in emergency medicine. She found the penlight and walked back around and stood in front of the detective.

"May I?" she asked permission before she did anything. Why she did she wasn't sure considering the detective had already complied and sat down in the chair but there was a part of her that wanted to make sure the detective was alright with her taking a quick look.

Jane simply nodded. She was suddenly closer to the doctor than she ever thought she would be during a first initial meet and greet. As she sat in the chair she took in the woman in front of her. She noticed immediately the beauty of the new medical examiner when she had knocked on the door. The woman was breathtakingly beautiful. Long, honey blond hair and gorgeous hazel eyes. Jane now found herself completely enthralled with the doctor. Jane couldn't help the slight shiver she felt as Maura leaned in closer to get a look at her wound.

Maura gently examined the bruising and swelling around Jane's left eye. She was impressed that the detective didn't wince when she was sure that she had pushed hard enough at least twice to elicit a reaction. Taking the penlight she used it to examine Jane's eye as best she could. She stayed focused on what she was doing but she couldn't help but notice the deep brown eyes looking up at her.

"Without an x-ray I can't be certain but it doesn't appear as if there are any fractures. Your pupil has good reaction to stimuli and I can't detect any hemorrhages. I would have recommended stitches for the cut but it appears to be at least a day old now and your best letting it heal on its own at this point. May I ask what happened?"

"I was just on the wrong end of a two by four is all," Jane answered dismissively. "But thank you for checking." Jane's answering of the question had forced her to release the breath she didn't realize she was holding. She shifted in the chair breaking their eye contact. Maura backed off and moved around to her side of the desk and sat down.

"Was there something you needed before I diverted your intentions by checking out your injury?" Maura asked Jane as she sat down. The detective had certainly come to see her for a reason other than having her eye looked at.

"Oh, well I wanted to introduce myself and welcome you to the station," Jane said with a smile. She was still adjusting to how taken she was by the beauty of the ME.

"Well thank you Detective," Maura said with a smile.

"You can call me Jane," she said with a smile.

"Only if you call me Maura," came the reply.

Both women smiled at each other for a moment. Neither really wanting or needing to fill in the silence. Maura found herself in the unusual situation of not feeling a bit awkward. Even in the silence there seemed to be a blanket of comfort between the two. A comfort Maura had never experienced before.

After a minute Jane spoke again. "Alright Maura, there was something else I was going to talk with you about."

"Go ahead," Maura encouraged.

"Have you heard of the Surgeon?" Jane asked.

"I'm familiar in as much as what I've seen from the press coverage of the case," Maura replied.

"We believe we have him in custody. But there is not a lot of physical evidence. Or at least not according to Dr. Pike," Jane said trying not to let her strong dislike of Pike carry in her tone.

"I have not yet had a chance to evaluate or review any of the case files that are currently open," Maura answered.

Jane nodded. "I know. I know today is your first day as Chief but I thought I'd let you know that this is definitely a high priority case. I do know that the DA has been waiting for you to get in place so you can review all of the evidence again. There are a lot of people, myself included, that believe there may have been evidence overlooked. I thought I'd give you the heads up that you may want to take a look at Pike's work for this case."

"I certainly appreciate the information, thank you," Maura said as she nodded.

Jane sat for a few more seconds but then stood up. She extended her hand towards the new ME. "Welcome to Boston Maura," she said with sincerity.

Maura took Jane's hand and felt a jolt of electricity ran through her. She first wondered if Jane felt the same. She then wondered what exactly was causing her own reaction. "Thank you Jane," she managed before releasing the detective's hand and she walked Jane to the door.

"I hope we will be able to work well together," Jane added before she headed out towards the elevators.

Maura watched Jane from her office until the elevator doors closed. "So do I," she said aloud but was speaking to herself. She returned to her desk but her thoughts stayed lingering on her encounter with the detective.

In the elevator, Jane couldn't contain the shiver that ran through her and her thoughts stayed focused on the new medical examiner.

They both had the same thought at virtually the same time.

This is going to get very interesting.

R&I

Maura finished her review of the personnel files and for the most part she was pleased with the staff she had inherited. There was substantial talent on staff that she felt could be developed with the right guidance and management. Staff development seemed to have lapsed towards the end of the her predecessor's time as Chief ME. Maura made several notes on how she would go about working to return that focus.

She also got a glimpse of what the detective had hinted at concerning Dr. Pike. A review of his personnel file and a quick review of the reports and notes he filed showed a distinct pattern of sloppy and often incomplete work. With just a report review she was already calling into question his mechanics and his inability to refrain from reaching conclusions in his reporting. Maura had often found a major fallacy of some medical examiners was letting conclusions, assumptions or preconceived notions dictate how an autopsy would be conducted.

The thing Maura loved most about pathology was the simple fact that it was all about the science. Her job, and the job of all pathologists, was not to assume or guess. It was to examine the available information and evidence and let the science speak for itself. An unbiased examination of medical fact without the allowance for emotional perceptions. Maura understood science. She was comfortable in its certainties. Much more than she was ever comfortable with the humanity of the lives she found she would examine.

Because of Jane's warning about the high priority of the Surgeon case Maura had put in a request for those files as soon as Jane had headed upstairs. She planned to start a review of the files and work after her personnel review. She was just about to start that when she was called up to the office of the Captain of Homicide. An hour later she was back in her office and knew the rest of her day would be devoted to reviewing the Surgeon files.

For an hour she sat listening to the Assistant District Attorney, a Captain and a Lieutenant walk her through the five murders they were attempting to connect to Hoyt. They also reviewed the rape and assault of Cordell as this was really the only crimes they could currently tie Hoyt to. They did a breakdown of the cases and shared their frustrations with the work Dr. Pike had completed to date. They implored Maura to go back and review as much as she could in an attempt to discover any connection to Hoyt she could.

Maura agreed to a complete review of the work to date but she cautioned everyone in the room that her intent was not nor would it ever be to link a specific person to a specific crime. She respectfully explained that her job was to conduct thorough examinations of all the evidence made available to her without an agenda for determining guilt or innocence of a specific individual. The science would direct her examination. All three men in the room at least nodded in agreement with her sentiments.

Maura excused herself to get to work. She took her job as a medical examiner very seriously. She spoke for the dead. She knew there were things she could help find on the bodies of the victims that would aid in bringing the wrongdoers to justice. But she could never enter an examination with an agenda.

Instead, she simply wanted to do right by the victims of this case. To find the clues they each left behind. To bring them each the justice they were entitled to. To help give the families a sense of closure that had been lacking to this point. Five horrific murders and from what she saw in the work Pike had done for the case to date he had certainly not done any of the five justice with his efforts. She was about to change all of that.

R&I

Three of the five bodies for the case were still in the morgue. Maura knew she would be able to redo all the labs and examinations for those three victims instead of relying on Pike's initial work. The first two victims' had already been released and claimed by family. Maura was surprised by this considering the case was still active and an open investigation. She did not understand Pike's decision to release the bodies to the family. She would have to work with the files Pike assembled for those two victims.

She got to work on the file reviews for all five cases. That quickly lead to her need to reexamine the victims that were still in the morgue. She had gotten completely wrapped up in what she was doing and hadn't even stopped for any kind of lunch break. In fact, she had no realization that the entire day had passed as she was diligently processing labs and evidence that she had found was in fact overlooked. It took a subtle throat clearing noise and a light knock to finally pulled Maura's attention away from what she was doing.

"Dr. Isles?" Jane spoke quietly trying not to startle the ME.

"Oh Detective," she said as she looked up. "I didn't hear you enter the lab." She was surprised to even see the detective standing in the morgue. She looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 9 pm. How the entire day had passed she wasn't sure.

"I didn't mean to interrupt but I thought you could use this," Jane said and flashed the contents in her hands to Maura. "I was getting dinner for my partner and I and I thought you may want something. I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten anything all day so I got you a sandwich and some coffee. I'm sorry I don't know how you take your coffee or what you really like for food so both are pretty plain to be on the safe side. But I did ask for an assortment of creams, sugars and some condiments so you should be able to make both at least manageable." Jane placed the coffee, sandwich and extra condiments onto the counter next to her.

Maura was dumbstruck. No one had ever, ever thought enough about her to get her food or a drink simply because she hadn't had anything all day. No one had ever even stopped to notice that she hadn't had anything to eat all day before. Certainly no one who had only met her that day. She couldn't believe it. The gesture touched her deeply. She did not really know how to respond.

"It's Maura Jane," she said with a smile. A smile that lit up the entire morgue. It was the best she could manage for a response. But given the smile that spread across Jane's face it was the right response in that moment.