It was a slow day. As per usual. Naturally in her line of work most would rejoice at such and yet… here Maura sat absolutely bored out of her skull. Truly death was not something abundant in Forks, mostly the peaceful passing of the elderly nothing at all suspicious about it that required her expertise. Back in California she had been surrounded by people, her assistant , detectives, Lily the young girl who did the make up for the funeral, the coroners who came with the casket. It had all been very ritualistic. Now she was quite alone, having taken on all the positions this place of work needed, any that passed would be sent down to the basement where she was situated usually be a young nervous intern, mostly they would not need her skills as the pathologist already knowing the cause of death and she would be left to fix make up and make them presentable before they were collected for the funeral. Occasional she would be requested to help in theatre when the few surgeons were struggling or receive a call from Seattle requesting some aid.

She couldn’t say she minded the lack of activity, certainly she didn’t wish a mass murderer or strange epidemic to come Fork’s way just to give her something to do at work. But she did have far too much time to think. Sat here alone in the dark lab with the bright white light that gave everything that blueish tinge, when the paper work was done there was very little to do but sit and think and with that came the pondering of her situation. Her family thought her mad, running away from the large city, the busy well paid job and beautiful house for a cottage in a small sleepy town no-one had ever heard of.

She was quite at peace in her morgue. Where most would shiver in horror she sat quite content as if in her own living room. There was nothing to fear from the dead. Truly she had never yet had a case of walking zombies or accidentally having someone alive delivered to her – those were but folk tales. She preferred the presence of the dead, the gentle peace it was far easier then making conversation and the judging looks of the living. Having finished applying the last of the makeup to old Mrs Littman who has passed peacefully in her sleep, she finished with the gentle amount of lipstick – just enough to match how the woman had always worn it thanks to the picture given from the family.
“Ahh – you’ll look magnificent, they won’t know what’s hit them.” She finished, having always been taunted in Chicago for her tendency to talk to her ‘patients’, most here she imagined would consider her mad. It just seemed respectful, to be polite and courteous in the bodies last moment. Certainly she wouldn’t wish for her own lingering body to be maltreated like a lingering chunk of meat.

With a roll of the table and the slam of the door, the beeping of a code only Maura and her faithful computer knew the aged woman’s form was neatly sealed away until it was time to be collected for the funeral. Silently she moved back to the makeshift desk in the corner of the morgue covered in papers, a glowing computer and several draws, an ipod sat on the side plugged into speakers, gentle dorsal tones of a lively track with a catchy beep flittering through the morgue, with a simple sweep of her finger she returned the sound to a more audible level, hands coming to fetch the sandwiches from the top desk drawer brining them to her lips, legs stretched out to rest her feet on a free autopsy table pulled out from the latched door. Truly she had no qualms about eating in the presence of the dead , having even be found lying on one of the autopsy tables when suffering from a sore back – a regular occurrence in this job when she was hunched over a table continually.