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Post by avery carina dawson on Aug 19, 2012 14:31:54 GMT -5
outfit!
Avery wasn't sure how she'd done it, but somehow, she'd managed to convince one of the most enthusiastic officers that she needed to go down to autopsy for a school project. Anyone who had ever spoken to her for an extended period of time would know that this was a complete lie, but all Avery'd had to do was spout some bullshit about wanting to learn about the law instead of fighting it and the officer had been all too willing to give her a visitor sticker and some minor clearance powers. She had then snuck past all of the officers that would recognize her, to make sure none of them blew her cover, and was now making her way to the medical area.
She hoped that there would be some sort of atrium before the dead bodies or that they would all be hidden. She had spent the night watching NCIS and CSI in preparation, but she still wasn't sure that she was actually prepared to see another dead body. She was comforting herself with the knowledge that the first one had been a shock and that was why it had upset her--this time, she was actively seeking them out. So she would be just fine. Probably.
Once standing outside the doors, Avery started to doubt herself. Was this really the right thing to do? Sure, she wanted to desensitize herself for real and not just by watching slasher flicks and crime dramas, but did she really want to do it so soon? Gore had never bothered her--she'd been fine with all of the dissections she'd done in high school and the organs Mieke left in her fridge didn't bother her per se--but she'd never been subject to real human gore, at least not on a dead human. The only way she would ever know, though, was to just buck up and find out. Putting her sunglasses on--to ease herself into the body-viewing experience--she knocked on the door.
After a few seconds, she pushed it open and peered inside, squinting in case there was anyone with their innards lying on a table next to them. "Is anyone here?" she asked, voice quiet and echoing. "I'm doing a school project." Best to just keep the lie up.
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Post by zara may sterling on Aug 19, 2012 15:13:06 GMT -5
It wasn't easy to move a dead body all by yourself. Zara was appreciative of the cool breeze that danced over her face as she opened the lowest drawer of the mortuary refrigeration unit, pausing to sigh as she looked down at the blue and purple mottling body on the cold metal slab. She had always hated this part, being slightly claustrophobic herself. Pulling the crisp, over-starched white sheet up and over the face of the cadaver, Zara reminded herself that it didn't bother him, the man who was to be shut away in the small space until the time for his autopsy came -- he was already dead, he didn't care.
The drawer squealed a little as she pushed it until it closed with a bang, leaving the man encased in a shroud of metal to await his turn on the table -- Zara made a mental note to oil the drawers the next time she was free to do so. Removing her gloves to wash her hands at the nearby sink, Zara was deep in thought about the paperwork she was to complete next that she didn't hear the girl entering the adjoining room at first. Drying her hands and stuffing the paper towels in the trash, Zara deftly snatched up her pen from the formica desk in the corner, looking around for her clipboard.
"Now where did you git to?" she sighed, finding herself getting a little frustrated already. Exhausting all of the normal hiding places in the refrigeration room, Zara pursed her lips and slid the pen she was holding behind her ear, sweeping back an unruly lock of red hair as she did so. She did not have time for this, she had mountains of paperwork to catch up on after a bout of sickness earlier in the week. Shaking her head in disbelief at her carelessness, she stalked into the main autopsy lab, stopping dead in her tracks when realised that there was something amiss.
Cocking her head to the side, Zara looked the girl up and down, noting the visitors pass and finding herself utterly flummoxed at the sunglasses.
"Can I help you?" she eventually managed, smiling slightly despite her confusion.
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Post by avery carina dawson on Aug 19, 2012 16:15:00 GMT -5
Avery had to admit that she was surprised that the first person she saw exiting the autopsy area had been a woman. Not because she didn't think that women could or would want to dissect dead bodies for a living--enough time with Mieke cured her of any traces of those thoughts--but because she was pretty sure the pasty guy who'd hauled the body out of the water was the coroner. Still, she tried not to look surprised and edged her way into the room, glad that there was nothing alarming in plain sight.
"Uh, yeah," she said, lifting her sunglasses to hold her hair back so that she could better see her. "I'm here for an art class. We're learning how to draw the human body and I was hoping I could get some real experience instead of just using the internet." At least that could have been true. Luckily for Avery, she carried a small sketchbook in her purse which she pulled out now to make her excuse look more legitimate. She waved it around in the air and then let it drop to her side, pressing her lips together and awaiting judgment.
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Post by zara may sterling on Aug 19, 2012 16:50:55 GMT -5
Zara narrowed her eyes slightly as she processed the explanation that the young woman offered her, a small smirk playing on her lips. Stepping further into the lab, Zara spotted her clipboard on the desk to the right of the autopsy table and made her way to retrieve it, grasping it between both hands and never taking her eyes from the stranger in the doorway.
"I'm not up to scratch with all the rules and regulations around here but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't just be wandering around a restricted area unsupervised." Zara argued, sitting down on the small black leather stool tucked under the desk, crossing one leg over the other and flipping through her papers.
"Besides, and I ain't no artist so pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't the human body look far prettier, y'know...alive?" she added, smiling a little as she began filling in the chart attached to the front of the board. "I'm assuming you ain't ever seen a cadaver before." she added, lifting her eyes to look at the girl. "They don't all look like sleepin' little angels."
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Post by avery carina dawson on Aug 19, 2012 21:59:53 GMT -5
Avery raised an eyebrow. She was both stubborn and a practiced liar and, now that she had her story, she could easily roll with it. There was no way the examiner was going to fluster her. "Sorry, I thought you worked here. My bad. I'll wait for someone who does." Of course she knew that she did work there, being that she was dressed for it. She looked around for a chair, figuring that, even if the woman did make her wait, she could just wait until Mieke got there and then get in with her.
Once she found one, she sat and crossed her legs at the knee, stretching back and resting her hands on the back of her head. "You're right," she said. "It would be much better for me to watch someone dissect a live body. Do they do that here?" She looked around as if she were waiting for someone to whip out a knife and some surgical tools.
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Post by zara may sterling on Aug 21, 2012 10:21:11 GMT -5
Zara was slightly taken aback but attempted to remain aloof. Deciding not to entertain her blatant attempt to rile her, Zara removed the pen from behind her ear and began to fill in her chart. “The chief is done for the day,” she explained, nodding to the crisp, white monogrammed lab coat hung neatly on the back of the door. “So unless you come back tomorrow, I'm all you got.” she shrugged, not taking her eyes from the paper.
“In answer to your question, I think what you are looking for is a surgeon. We don't tend to deal with cutting up the living here.” Zara looked up at Avery. “I have plenty of connections at the hospital if you would like me to put in a good word. I've not long finished my residency there.”
Zara cocked her head to the side and tapped the pen to her lips. “I do have some labs and toxicity screens to run but that is all the excitement that you will see here today. No autopsies until tomorrow but y'all are welcome to stay and keep me company.” she added, shrugging.
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Post by avery carina dawson on Aug 21, 2012 14:48:06 GMT -5
Avery's point had been that she assumed Zara could supervise her--the woman was, after all, there and in uniform--but she supposed this was reasoning with which she couldn't argue. After all, whether or not she got supervised was irrelevant if there were no autopsies being performed. She had also hoped that her quip about the live body dissection would be taken as facetious, like it was meant to be, but she also seemed to have missed that. She figured she ought to be more literal in her explanation.
"What I'm saying is I want to see the inside of a body." She pulled the sketchbook out again and waved it around so that Zara was reminded about how it was for a school project and not just morbid curiosity and a desire to be more comfortable around dead things.
The last thing she said, however, caught her attention and she perked up. "What's a toxicity screen?" she asked. This was not a term that had come up during her crime drama binge.
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