CSI:New York : Who Are You? (Don Flack/OFC fanfic)

Hush

The lab tonight was calming, peaceful and relaxing. But it was everything that Mac wasn't. The silence was unnerving, anything but relaxing. It was all around him, threatening to smother him. Most people would think that during a night shift at the crime lab there would be some peace, a little solitude. Fact of it was, night shift was often the most noisiest the lab ever got. But tonight felt different. There was something in the air. Mac could feel it.

Apart from the distant murmur of police officers, transmission radios and the chatter of the handful of reporters who had remained, the quiet at the Sheridan house had been deafening. No one had talked much, no one wanted to. Everyone had just got on with their work, with an uneasy hush hanging over them. Unable to comprehend what had happened in that house.

Now he was back at the lab, Mac headed towards perhaps the quietest place within the entire building. Autopsy. It didn't matter how hectic it got in other parts of the lab, autopsy was a place of calm. Quiet reflection. But not peaceful. The dead that lay inside the room had experienced anything but a peaceful passing. Mac doubted that even Sid would be on hand with his comedic anecdote relief. There was a time and place for everything and while many were glad of the chance to smile at Sid's often eccentric ways, tonight there wouldn't be any on offer.

He pushed open the swinging doors and saw Sid leaning over the body on the first of three examining tables. Leaning over the second body, was Dr. Peyton Driscoll.

Peyton wasn't new to the crime lab, she'd worked there for quite some time before handing the reins to Hawkes and leaving for a teaching position at Columbia University, ironically in the same borough of Manhattan as the three victims laid out before her. Born in London, educated at Oxford, she had come to the States ten years previous. An old friend and associate of both Sid and Hawkes she was warm, friendly and a highly regarded coroner. After Marty Pino had left for greener pastures and a new position in Miami, there had been a pressing need for another ME at the lab. Peyton had gladly accepted the job, finding that teaching Pathology was far too mundane and routine. She enjoyed being in the saddle too much.

The medical examiner lifted her head and even though she managed a small smile, it didn't quite reach her light brown eyes as Mac came towards the table. 'Hello, Mac,' she greeted him in her distinctly British accent.

'Peyton,' he nodded, glancing at the ashen white body of the teenage boy before her. Jeremy Sheridan. 'Hell of a first day,' he mused.

'That's what I said,' Sid interjected, also glancing at the three bodies before them. Father, mother, son. All three stood silently for a moment, then Sid added, 'Haunting, isn't it?'

Mac only offered a sombre nod.

'You keep telling yourself that it's just another job...' He heard Peyton sigh and Mac saw a flicker of emotion pass over her attractive features, before she looked at him once again. 'Doesn't matter how many years experience you have, it never makes any sense when you see a child laid out in front of you.'

They were professionals. The finest in the field. But they were also human.

Mac moistened his lips. 'Seems ridiculous to ask but...cause of death?'

'Exsanguination,' Peyton replied, pushing down her emotions and getting on with the job in hand. 'Your killer knew what he was doing.' She looked at the young boy.

'All three of them?'

'All three,' the coroner nodded. 'The cuts were deep and clean. Carotid arteries were severed in each victim.' Peyton pointed to the boys throat. 'By the looks of things the killer cut from the front, from left to right, suggesting an upward angle. He watched them...looked them in the eyes as he did it,' she added with a grave look on her face.