Irene Adler is of dubious & questionable memory. (notonyourlevel) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-06-23 19:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, faith connors, irene adler |
Who: Irene Adler and Faith Connors
What: Package delivery
When: 6/21
Where: Orange County Sheriff's Department HQ
Rating: PG13, medical & autopsy talk
Status: Complete
Irene wasn’t in theory supposed to work today. But, as the phone call at 7am had explained, her boss, the Chief Medical Examiner, was on vacation. And she lived closest to the autopsy facilities, so she was needed. There had been a police-involved shooting overnight, and a young patrolman had been killed. The autopsy needed to be letter perfect, and Irene had managed to make it to the office within a half-hour.
She had begun the autopsy on the young patrolman, but when she’d reached for her bone saw to start the incision into the head, the blade had snapped. Clean in half. When she looked at her notes, she saw that the young man had a plate in his head - some plate, to snap even an old bone saw.
She sighed, getting on the phone and calling the big office in Irvine. “Hi, it’s Dr. Adler up in Tustin ... Right. The patrolman. Could you have a new bone saw couriered to me just for today, by any chance? The damn plate in his head snapped the blade on the old one ... yeah, it was ancient. Still ... Okay.” She hung up, relieved that her colleague had agreed to send a new saw over. This autopsy had to be done before ten, and she never liked to leave a man lying on the table missing organs if she didn’t have to.
Faith had just gotten back from a combination run when she’d received a phone call. She didn’t usually get phone calls from law enforcement, and she had some reasons to dislike them, but taking a saw to a morgue? She could do that. The pickup wasn’t far away - it would be getting the saw to the location in a timely manner that would be the challenge.
And Faith loved a challenge.
In about half the time she’d quoted, she was leaping a fence, and then jogging up to the building.
Irene heard the knock at the outer door, and she buzzed it open. In walked a young woman, probably not much younger than her, looking confident and cocky. Made sense, really; she’d gotten here damn quick. “You must not have been too far away,” she said, getting up. “I’m Dr. Adler; thanks for moving so fast. As you can see, I kind of need the equipment.”
"I just know a lot of short cuts." She pulled the package out of her messenger bag and set it down on a table. She gave her a smile. "Faith Connors." She wasn't sure she wanted to shake any hands right now, though.
“Nice to meet you, Faith.” Irene went over to pick up the package. “If you don’t mind my asking, have you been doing this long?” She didn’t remember her stopping in before.
“I’ve been running goods for a few years now. Did a lot down in San Diego before I moved up here.” She had fond memories of Mercury, and missed the hell out of him.
“But you’re new here?” Irene opened the package, smiling when she saw the unopened box. “Ah, brand new. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to push, I just know all the messengers we normally use. When we have a new one sometimes it ends bad, ‘cause they come in here and freak out when I’m in the middle of an autopsy.”
“Been here two years, just try to avoid law enforcement. Had some bad experience with cops.” She shrugged her shoulder, matter-of-factly.
“Good thing I’m not a cop.” Irene said mildly. “And good thing you don’t scare easy.” She managed a grin. “One time, I had a messenger bringing files from one of the sheriff’s department substations up in Anaheim, but it was late at night, and I’d been called in specially. She came through the door and saw one: the autopsy in progress, with the organ tree lifted out, and two: me in a Swamp Thing costume, since I was coming from a party.” She had to laugh at the memory. “I think I accidentally scarred her for life.”
Faith smiled ruefully. It took a lot to freak her out. "Really only one cop I trust and she's family." She was fond of her twin sister, regardless of some of their falling out. She still tried to keep tabs on her.
"That sounds kind of awesome actually."
“What, me in a Swamp Thing outfit or scaring the crap out of someone?” Irene grinned a little. “I like to cosplay; it’s a nice break from what I do all day. Though I like that too.” She undid the packaging, carefully liberating the new saw from the bubble wrap surrounding it. “Steel isn’t supposed to break, but it will when it’s ancient and hits newer steel. This guy had a plate in his head, and my saw was last replaced in like 1995, I swear.”
“Both.” Faith chuckled. She wasn’t really into cosplay but she did like dressing up for some things. She supposed she could get more into it, if she ever did anything to relax. Protip: Faith desperately needed to do things to relax.
“Just snapped off?”
Irene held up the three pieces of saw blade she’d managed to save. “Hit the plate, did this. It’s a good thing my patients are cadavers and not living people.” Even now, there was probably an oddly shaped hole in the poor man’s head. Hopefully it wouldn’t ruin things too badly.
She wondered if some of the teeth might have gotten stuck in the skull, and part of her was a little curious if that was the case. Not that she really wanted to see dead bodies. She just had a strong stomach.
“I hope that lasts as long as the last one.”
“Here’s hoping.” Irene sighed. “It just keeps coming; I’m sure more shit will hit the fan. Orange County doesn’t have much of a murder rate, but the LA County morgue is so over-extended that sometimes we do extra work. This is the station closest to the county line, so.” She shrugged. She did chuckle a little. “At least your work doesn’t usually involve crime, I guess?”
“Not really. I try not to ask what’s in a package. If it’s not going to hurt someone or make me sick, it’s none of my business.” Faith tried to draw a line at hurting people.
“Well, it’s none of my business, I just mean that you don’t have to hear the weird stories from cops.” Irene chuckled. “You and cops, it’s none of my business, but I have to say, cops have truly fucked senses of humor.”
“So do runners,” Faith said, her grin slightly mischievous. “I give one of my drivers the absolute worse jobs. Living things. If I could move a zombie, he’d get the job.”
Irene had to laugh. “Do you love him or hate him?” It was always one of the two.
“I don’t think I hate him. Not really love. Maybe like a goofy older brother?” She thought about it. He was goofy, older, and she thought he might be a little gay but it was always fun to watch his reaction to that statement.
“I’ve got one of those, but he’s back in Jersey. The only way I can torture him is online. It’s a little bit of hate and love both.” Irene chuckled a little. “He’s an ex-boyfriend, but we’re better as friends.” He was also a DA, and working with a lover was always awkward.
Faith couldn’t picture sleeping with Howard, not in a million years. He didn’t seem to like being touched anyway, and she tended to avoid dating anyway. Mercury had kind of spoiled her on men. “It’s much more fun in person.”
“Probably.” Irene was reaching for the saw’s battery pack, plugging it in to let it charge. “But the money’s better out here, as well as the chance to be a deputy medical examiner, instead of just an assistant back in Newark. Miles complains, but he’s gotten used to Skyping.”
“That’s kind of how I ended up in Irvine!” Faith rubbed at her arm as she spoke. “Mercury decided I needed to run on my own, as it were. So here I am. I like to think I’m making a go of it.”
“Decided?” Irene repeated, unable to stop the frown. This girl didn’t seem passive enough for her to let anyone “decide” what she needed to do.
Well, that had come out wrong. Faith frowned too, trying to decide how to best explain it. “He picked me up off the street, gave me food, shelter, and taught me everything he knew. I couldn’t...just keep doing that. Eventually I had to strike out on my own, so he gave me the business for Irvine and Orange County. Just like that. I mean, he gave me his muscle car and he loved that thing, and told me to come up here to an address, and there was my business, waiting for me. I owe that man...everything.”
“Oh. I see. I’m sorry.” Irene shook her head. “I shouldn’t judge. Just ... you look pretty tough.” She smiled a little awkwardly.
"Thanks. I suppose it needed elaboration, so it's okay." And it wasn't like she hadn't thanked Mercury in some ways she wasn't going to mention. Frequently. "Need to be tough to make it out there."
Irene decided to act like she’d only meant physically. “I bet. A lot of muscle, a lot of cardio. I should work out more; most of the time the only workout I get is lugging huge metal costumes around to cons.” Yeah, she was a huge nerd, oh well.
Faith had meant mental, too. But physical was a large part of it for her. “You go to cons?”
“Yep. A friend of mine got me into cosplay. I like it; I can look a lot more badass than I usually do.” Irene grinned. “I’ve done Rule 63 Colossus, Swamp Thing. I was Black Canary once. My next one is going to be Callisto. Eventually I’ll be Lady Wolverine, but that’ll take some doing.”
“You look pretty badassed already,” Faith replied, thinking about it. She tilted her head. “Lady Wolverine?”
“Rule 63 Wolverine. Whichever. Sometimes people say Lady Gambit or whatever instead of Rule 63 Gambit.” Irene smiled. “Marvel heroes. Yellow and blue spandex.”
“...That’s a thing?” It sounded pretty interesting. “Do you have any pictures?”
“I think I have some of Black Canary and Swamp Thing.” Irene walked over to the cabinets at the back of the room, taking out her phone. She flipped through a few albums before she found last year’s con pictures. “Yeah, here.”
Faith came over, giving anything involving cadavers a wide berth. “Oh those are amazing! You must put a lot of work into these. There’s a lot of detail.” She seemed impressed!
“They take a few months each. Swamp Thing took almost six months.” She laughed. “Came in second in the costume contest. It’s just a fun little hobby.” She didn’t get out all that much - not many people wanted to date a coroner - but at least she kept busy?
“Well, if you’re having fun, that can’t be a bad thing, right?” Faith replied. “But I think you should have won for a costume like that.”
“I don’t know, the girl who won had a Samus Aran costume that looked like, professional. Second was good enough for me.” Irene chuckled. “Maybe my Callisto will win.”
“Samus who?” Faith wasn’t that big on video games. She only recognized the Swamp Thing from a comic someone had at the shop. For that matter, she didn’t know who Callisto is either.
“Samus Aran. She’s from a game called Metroid. She has an all-metal suit, and when I took second, the girl who did Samus came in first because her costume was actual welded metal with all the right stickers and stuff.” Irene smiled. “I don’t have that kind of time, unfortunately.”
Speaking of time. The battery pack buzzed, and Irene took it off the charger, plugging it into the saw. “Unfortunately, I should finish up this young man before the police captain comes barging in here.” She reached for the delivery paperwork, adding a $10 tip to the stated cost and signing with a flourish. “If you’re not a cop person, you might want to get going, but it was nice to meet you, Faith.”
"It was good to meet you too. I enjoyed the conversation, too. I have another delivery though." She gave her a mock salute, and then turned to go, stuffing the paperwork into her bag. "Enjoy your cadaver."
“Best I can.” Irene smiled to herself, turning back to her work.