Aaron Hotchner came awake, suddenly, feeling the hard surface under his back and opened his eyes slowly trying to remember what had happened.
He opened his eyes until they were just slits and examined his surroundings without moving his head even an inch until he could ascertain where he was.
The morgue, Aaron thought, resigned.
He was in a Dupar Woods, a little town in the north in America. There was only about 100,000 people and that was small considering this was the 23rd century. While there were plenty of small towns dotted around the US most of them had at least 500,000 people, which was still considered relatively small compared to the big cities like New York or Chicago.
Dupar Woods was like walking back into the past where all the buildings looked like you had stepped back in time.
Aaron, well knew that this was on purpose as Dupar Woods was a tourist town. It was the way they survived when so many small towns became abandoned and started to rot after decades and centuries.
Most of the buildings were made with stone and occasionally brick at least the public buildings. As for the houses people lived in a lot of those were built of wood or brick. It was a nice enough town, but Aaron had not expected to wake up in the morgue and now he had to get out of here before the medical examiner or somebody else showed up.
Luckily for him, in such a small town, they were unlikely to have security cameras in the morgue itself because they're crime rate wouldn't be as high as the big cities, so most governments wouldn't waste the money.
The only problem was, he was buck naked, as he had apparently been stripped of his clothes when he was dead. He wasn't even wearing a pair of underwear, much less a shirt and pants.
How embarrassing! Aaron already knew he wasn't likely to find any clothes in the morgue, as he was sure that his had been disposed of by now. They'd probably been thrown into an incinerator to be burned up.
He hoped it was nighttime, as he'd have an easier time getting back to his hotel, if it wasn't in the middle of the day where people would be awake and going on about their daily lives.
He did not want to be arrested for public indecency, especially since he was supposedly dead. If he was caught questions would eventually be asked, as to how he come back to life, questions he didn't want to answer. Aaron sighed and looked around for the closest exit checking the nearest window once he was out of where they stored the dead to see if it was dark enough for him to get out of the building, unseen.
He knew he was lucky he hadn't woken up and one of the cold storage drawers that all morgues had. He suspected that the coroner was about to start an autopsy on him and was probably on break, which is why he hadn't been in cold storage.
He was sure there was going to be a news story about a missing body when it was discovered, so he had a day at the most, and he likely only had a few hours before questions were going to be asked by the authorities and the medical examiner's office.
He would hate to get the coroner in trouble over the missing body, but it couldn't be helped.
Aaron walked down the dark corridor and found a locker room where the employee stored some items and he found a pair of sweats in one of the lockers, which were tad big on him, but they would do and at least he was no longer naked. He hated to steal somebody's clothes, but he wasn't afraid of the germs that were likely on them because he was immortal. Looked like he had been wrong about not being able to locate some clothing, even if it wasn't his own. Thank God, that some employees had kept sweats in their locker probably to exercise in.
He couldn't get germs of any kind as he wasn't able to get sick. He couldn't get a cold, the flu or anything more serious like cancer, schizophrenia, or hepatitis.
Aaron was nearly free of the morgue when the door at the end of the hallway with a big exit sign with illuminated red letters opened.
"What?! exclaimed a tall, beautiful woman with dark hair as that was about all Aaron could tell in the dim light of the hallway. "How in the holy hell are you wondering around? I've got to be hallucinating. You were dead! You were lying on my table! You had no pulse for pity sakes! I was just about to start my autopsy!"
"It's a good thing I woke up then," Aaron said as calmly as possible.
"What are you an alien? Some kind of supernatural being? A god? What are you?! Because what I've seen is impossible," the woman asked.
"Why don't we go somewhere more private to talk?" Aaron suggested.
"What about my office? I deserve an explanation," the woman said.
"Too many cameras, it's not private enough," Aaron answered simply. "It's bad enough that there is going to be a video of me just waking up and getting off your exam table. People don't need any more evidence that I apparently wasn't dead when I'm sure they took my pulse and everything."
"That's not quite true," the woman said. "There aren't any cameras except outside the building, there's never been a need and the sheriffs department isn't about to waste money on security cameras for a bunch of dead bodies that aren't important to anyone in power."
"You mean anybody rich or with political connections," Aaron translated. "Never mind that those that died have family that loved them. They just aren't important in the grand scheme."
"And those with such connections don't care about the ordinary folks, even if it comes back to bite them in the ass," the woman added with the sardonic smile. "If this was a big city, it would be different."
"True, but I'd still rather get out of here, just in case somebody else recognizes me," Aaron said.
"There's a coffee shop about 3 miles from here that I like to go to," the woman said. "They should still be open and it's only 7 o'clock. They close at nine so we have time to talk."
"Fiona's cafe and coffee," Aaron said knowing which coffee shop the woman meant.
"That's the one," the woman agreed.
"May I have your name, my lady, before we head to Fiona's?"
"Dannika Petska," the woman answered.
"That's a very beautiful name," Aaron said. "We need to get out of here though or at least I do."
"Let's go then," Dannika agreed.
The two left the morgue together, Aaron, the duck in his head when Dannika pointed out the camera that was mounted on the door.
"Do you have a car?" Dannika asked Aaron.
"Yes, I do, but it's parked near the hotel where I was staying," Aaron answered, "but I don't have my keys, because they were in the pocket of my pants."
"I'll get your things for you tomorrow so you can at least have your identification and your hotel and car keys," Dannika said. "First, though I want an explanation is why you're up and walking around instead of dead on my table waiting for me to do a autopsy on you."
"I suppose I owe you that much at least," Aaron offered, not at all reluctant to tell the truth for Dannika was his mate something he had realized when he had looked at her, even in the dimness of the morgue hallway. He could still see her well enough to feel that instant connection.
"You definitely do," Dannika told him bluntly. "You should be dead. You were dead, so I don't know how the hell you're suddenly alive and walking around acting as if nothing happened other than you waking up suddenly in the morgue. It's as if this is an ordinary event to you, like it's happened to you 1000 times that you suddenly wake up some strange place and act as if it's nothing unusual at all."
"You'll understand once I explain," Aaron promised, "at least I hope you will."
"I have a feeling the explanation it's going to be extraordinary and stretching to the realm of disbelief," Dannika said.
"You have no idea how right you are," Aaron told her saying nothing else, as the two got into Dannika's car with the driver's side door opening automatically as soon as Dannika approached it. Dannika used the remote to unlock the passenger side of the vehicle and the door opened so Aaron could get in.
~~~Aaron and Dannika~~~
"So you were saying you're immortal?" Dannika asked her disbelief obvious. Despite the disbelief in her voice, Dannika remembered to keep it down, as she didn't want the few people in Fiona's to overhear their conversation.
"Exactly," Aaron said. "I know very well how hard it is to believe, but I'll be happy to demonstrate, but not here in public. We'll have to go somewhere more private for that."
Both of them had drinks Dannika had decaffeinated tea and Aaron had a soda as it was really too late for them to be drinking coffee if they wanted to sleep tonight.
Aaron also had a massive sandwich as he hadn't had dinner while Dannika had, as she had just been coming back after her dinner break to start on that autopsy.
"What exactly do you plan on doing to show me?" Dannika asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The normal way is I take something sharp, like a knife, and I cut myself somewhere non-vital," Aaron explained calmly, even as he took a bite of his delicious sandwich. "The wound will heal much faster than it would for someone who was completely mortal. It will be gone in just a few seconds."
"That's impossible to believe," Dannika said.
The disbelief in her tone was obvious to Aaron.
"I can't blame you for your disbelief," Aaron said with a small smile, his dark brown eyes sparkling with amusement at her disbelief.
"Do you remember how you...you know...died?" Dannika asked.
"My memories are perfectly clear, thank you," Aaron snorted his amusement clear. "Somebody used a stunner modified to kill, which is supposed to be impossible, but I'm well aware that it can still happen, if one is clever with electronics and knows what they're doing."
"That's true, as that's standard stunners have a power limiting chip, but it is possible to remove it without burning out the circuitry if you know what you're doing and have a delicate touch," Dannika agreed. "I don't know what the world's coming to when you can't even walk down the street without somebody killing you when you don't give them what they want, which is usually your link, wallet, watch and whatever other items you have on you."
"The human race has been going downhill for a long time, Dannika," Aaron told her. "I've been around long enough to see that old values have gone out the window, to where people were a lot politer and more honest back in the past, but that started to change in the early 20th century and has slowly changed until a lot of people commit numerous crimes some victimless, but a lot that are not and good, honest people are often taken advantage of."
"And are you telling me that this didn't happen back when you were born?" Dannika asked with an eyebrow skeptically.
"Of course it did, as wherever humans congregate, there's gonna be some crime, even if it's only minor things like littering," Aaron said. "It just didn't happen as much, and also there are certain types of crime that didn't exist back then, because there weren't electronics or other things that come with an advancing society."
"That's fair," Dannika decided.
"Still, you have a point they are certain types of crime that have been around for thousands of years thievery, murder, kidnapping, embezzlement," Aaron admitted, listing only a small segment of crimes as there were numerous ones, but a lot of them had the same basis like hate or greed. Also, a lot of crimes fell into the same category and were just offshoots of the same basic crime. Money was a big one as to why people committed a crime, but there were many offshoots for that particular category.
"So about that demonstration," Dannika suggested. "We can go back to my place at least temporarily, as that would be private and it's the only place I can think of right off hand that isn't public."
"You're willing to trust me not to try to take advantage of you if you take me back to your apartment?" Aaron asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I know taekwondo, Mr. Hotchner, so try anything and you'll regret it," Dannika told Aaron pertly.
"I will remember that," Aaron said his amusement obvious. "Don't worry, I have no intention of trying anything as I'm not that kind of man I promise."
"We'll see," Dannika said sounding skeptical.
Aaron said nothing, as he wasn't about to press his luck, as he didn't want Dannika to report him to those in authority. It might be that those authority wouldn't believe the report and thought that the medical examiner was hallucinating and was drunk or on drugs, but still, it wasn't a chance he was willing to take unless necessary. Besides, the body was still missing and how Dannika was going to explain that he had no idea. He only hoped she didn't get in trouble over it, as it would be his fault if she did.
He couldn't believe he had been killed by a modified stunner no less, and though, he knew that such weapons existed his luck, usually wasn't so bad that he walked into the middle a confrontation between two men.
He just been minding his own business when he walked into the mouth alley to see two men arguing, and while both had stunners held on each other, neither at the moment was firing. He had tried to back away, but his foot had hit a soda can and it had made a noise that had somehow missed the dumpster or perhaps fallen out since the dumpster was overfull. That had been enough for both men to look startled at the sound and to whirl on him. He believed that both men had fired and at least one of the beams had hit him, Aaron knew, as otherwise, he wouldn't have ended up in the morgue.
He didn't really remember much after that, but then since it had been a total surprise, so he supposed that he wouldn't.
The two of them left the coffee shop, which was closing in just a few minutes after throwing away their trash and Dannika took Aaron back to her apartment, which wasn't far from the coffee shop
~~~Aaron and Dannika~~~
