"What do you mean he's not waking up?!" a worried and irate Jack Hodgins demanded of the doctor.
Booth and Brennan had driven behind the ambulance to the nearest hospital after the shooting. Brennan had stayed until Zack had been taken into surgery before heading back to the Jeffersonian to work the case, having reluctantly admitted to not being able to do anything more there. Booth stayed behind to keep everyone at the lab posted on Zack's condition.
Zack had been in surgery for a few hours before being brought to a room in the ICU, now laying in a bed hooked up to all manner of beeping monitors and tubes. In that time Hodgins had flown out to Michigan to visit and argue with any poor doctor or nurse trying to help his best friend. He knew he was needed at the lab, but had insisted on coming here first. When he'd had his say, he'd go back and do his job. If they needed him sooner they could call.
The doctor held a placating hand up. "The bullet perforated a section of Mr. Addy's liver and his left kidney. Fortunately it did not fully penetrate either organ and we were able to extract the bullet and stitch the damaged tissue. He's stable now and on fluids. His body will replace the lost blood in time. Your friends got him here just in time." he assured him.
"But?" Hodgins pressed.
The man sighed. "However, whether from blood loss, shock, or a combination, he slipped into a comatose state during surgery. Attempts were made at waking him, but to no avail. It can happen in trauma patients as a way for their body to facilitate healing. It's my professional opinion that when he's ready, he'll come to."
Hodgins snorted derisively. "Your professional opinion? Why don't you just admit you don't know squat about what's happening? He WILL wake up. You just do your job and make sure nothing else goes wrong okay?"
The doctor just nodded with a resigned frown, walking out of the room to talk with Booth, who was standing outside the door.
Hodgins sat in a chair by Zack's bed and clasped his hands as he studied his friend. He offered a faint smile even if he couldn't see it. "Hey there buddy. I hope you can hear me. It won't be the same trying to solve this case without you, but I feel like we've got to. If it's important enough for someone to try to scare us off like that. It didn't work, and they made a huge mistake by shooting you. Accident or not. Booth's people are tracking the sorry pricks down as we speak. I'll tell you what else we find out okay?" he promised.
He exhaled a weary breath and and cracked a typical smirk. "You'll be up in no time and we'll be back to doing experiments that piss everyone off." he teased, though there was a strain on his voice that he couldn't quite cover up. He bowed his head. "I've gotta believe that."
—
Meanwhile, at the Jeffersonian...
Brennan, Angela, and Cam had been hard at work the last few hours trying to identify their victim and collect any other evidence they could from the remains.
With Zack incapacitated, Cam was helping Bones with determining cause of death while Angela was working on facial reconstruction to identify their victim.
Cam lifted the skull, still firmly attached to the spinal column, from the steel table, pointing to a series of web-like cracks on the occipital lobe, or the back of the head. "The pattern of these fractures suggests blunt force trauma. But from what?"
"I don't have the evidence to conclude that yet, but look here. There's also evidence of damage to the C-1 and C-2 vertebrae. The injuries aren't localized enough to have been made by a single, precise blow to the skull. More like she sustained multiple blows to the head and the neck was fractured as the force radiated." Brennan replied with a frown as she worked through various scenarios as to how this had occurred. She had a theory, but it was far too early to determine anything with absolute certainty. Besides, it was only a small piece of the puzzle.
"We'll keep working on that. If we can figure out where she was killed we may find clues about who killed her and how it happened. Someone has to know something even after this long." Cam suggested.
Hodgins determined that the body had been in that lake for approximately 10 years before he had left, but hadn't yet examined the clothing scraps for anything that may point to where her body had been before she'd been dumped. If it wasn't Zack that was in the hospital she never would have let him leave. A timeframe with no location would do them no good.
As if reading her mind, Angela peeked out of her computer lab. "I may be able to help with that actually. I got a hit on the sketch I made. I know who our victim is and her last location. You're not going to believe what else I found."
Turns out it's not that easy coming up with all the pieces to the puzzle that is solving a murder mystery. I'm kind of making it up as I go along, and although Forensics is actually my field of study, I'm no expert yet. I tried my best though. The science of the case isn't my main focus in this story, even if it is a major part of Bones. I'll add in enough to keep it true to the show, but my first priority is the mystery as a whole through Zack's memories, and secondly is the relationships between the characters, especially concerning Zack.