"Maison d'ossements"
	06.30hrs The morning had started well, the shrill whistle of the alarm had woken her from her slumbers, and she was reaching for her weapon before she could stop herself. A shower cleared the remaining sleepiness from her eyes, but not the burgeoning ache beginning to make its presence felt in her brain. Breakfast consisted of coffee and two painkillers, perhaps that bottle of wine last night hadn't been such a good idea, she suggested to herself, as she watched the rain beating down on the surfaces outside and sipped the aromatic coffee. The tinkle of the wind chimes that Jordan had given her made her smile, they were beautiful and the first gift she had received in her new house, Paige had given her a lavender candle, she could smell it now, scenting the air, a reminder of something very British. Baz had not know what to bring, and in the end had settled for a bouquet of flowers, she had tossed these into the nearest pot, but after he had left she had found a vase, and these now sat on the counter near to the planter than Gray had given her. Baz hadn't known what to say when she gave him a small brown box, he had shaken it, before opening up to reveal a small stud, she had smiled, and said, "a stud for the boy," he had frowned until she continued "actually it can act as a distress signal or capture a short conversation, I picked it up in Moscow," whether he would actually get his ear pierced, she didn't know, but it would be interesting to find out. To Paige, she had given a T-shirt as well as coffee and a mug to drink it from, while Jordan had received a teapot and matching mug, together with some English Breakfast tea, it had been an unusual experience to be able to buy gifts for her friends and she had found it hard work, not knowing what they liked/didn't like. She debated what to wear for her first day's work, and carelessly pulled out a navy blue suit, together with a pale cream blouse. Her hair, she twisted into a knot and pinned to her head, until the pain in her head forced her to take it down and pull it into a loose tie at the back of her head. Finally, she could delay no longer, she picked up her bag, and laptop PC and headed down to the jeep. The traffic was already heavy on the roads, but nothing she couldn't handle, and she pulled into the car park on Brunswick Avenue with plenty of time to spare. Wolfe Facility 08.00hrs The doors were steel and glass, and she had to wait until Security let her in. Dr Chapman was not in yet, but his secretary, Hazel Spring, came down to meet her and escort her upstairs. "I will get you a pass, so you can come straight in to the labs after today." Saf smiled, "Thanks, I would appreciate that" Hazel led the way up the stairs, and to the second floor. "The offices are the first two floors, the labs take the upper 4 floors, with a lift from the basement storage area direct to the main lab, Dr Chapman, didn't want to work underground." Hazel was talkative, which Saf appreciated, not having much to say herself. Hazel showed her to a small corner office, on the second floor, it was sparsely decorated, just pale cream and with a brown carpet. Hazel apologised, "I am sorry, it was due to be decorated before you arrived, but as you can see," Saf reassured her "It's fine, though I need a computer and some additional equipment, do I request them from you or.." Hazel interrupted, "Just let me know what you need, within reason I can authorise most of your needs, unless you have something expensive in mind?" Saf shook her head, "No most of it will be standard." Hazel, excused herself and left her to arrange herself in the office, saying she would be back shortly. Saf looked around at the office, the desk was a corner unit, with plenty of space for a computer as well as her equipment, she took out some personal objects from her bag, as any normal person would to personalise her working space, but in her case, she felt anything but normal. The photo and frame had been supplied by Gray, of a crowd of people; her fellow research team at the University of London. Another showed, a middle-aged couple, who were her late parents, and a third had been of a beach with a magnificent sunrise. Saf had never seen the beach nor the people, yet she would be able to recite word for word, all the relevant details about the people or places. A good luck charm, she put on the shelf, on the other wall. It was a crystal vase, complete with crystal flowers. She had hated it when Gray had given it to her, and she hated it now, she wondered how soon she would be able to break it `accidentally'. Hazel returned with a technician and a loaded trolley. Saf left the technician to set up the PC, and joined Hazel to deal with the mundane issues of employment. She handed over her work permit, together with written documentation, and received an electronic pass for the main entrance, together with a pass for the labs, for which she had supplied a photograph, Hazel then took her to meet the other researchers who were in. She was given an introductory tour of the facilities by the Deputy Director, Gunter Hoffman, and couldn't help thinking to herself that his speech was similar to the tales of hoffman, which made her smile. The facilities were modern and new, apparently the place was finished, 6 months ago, before it had been housed in the Raritan Bay Medical Centre, in cramped quarters. A private donation had enabled them to build a purpose built facility and it was used by the pathology team at Raritan Bay as a dual facility. Part of the basement was a mortuary, with housing for up to 60 bodies and 4 autopsy rooms. The main lab, upstairs on the third floor, was open plan and where most of the work of the facility was being done, along the back wall were 4 enclosed boiling units, where bones could be removed from their sheath of flesh, the enclosures meant that the smell of boiled flesh could be extracted without the lab suffering the smell; the normal layout would have used hoods to extract the odours, but they weren't totally reliable. The smell was aseptic, but with just a hint of fresh earth and a sweeter overtone of decomposing flesh, not unpleasant, and controlled due to the fresh filtered air. The next floor was full of equipment to view slides of blood, bones, and storage, while the upper two storey's were as yet incomplete. Part of her job was to do research into bone diseases, and injuries involving bones such as knife cuts, bullets etc, and write up papers relating to these, for presentation at conferences which would give the research facility a high profile enabling it to compete for research funding. The other was to create a database to provide a reference library of sides for the other researchers to compare their findings against, most of her work was of a solitary nature and she preferred that, if she had to work with someone else, she might give away her lack of knowledge in her field of speciality. She made her way back to her office, which had been transformed by Hazel, a brand new top of the range computer had been installed, as had most of the other equipment she had requested. A telephone had appeared, and also a line linked it to her PC, so she could send and receive faxes, while another table had been found which held a microscope and contained storage for slides. Hazel had also `invited' her to a meeting that afternoon, where she would meet her fellow researchers, all of whom would be coming including Dr Chapman. It felt strange, a job, during her years in Section 1, she had never had a proper job before. Even at University, she had survived on her allowance, preferring research to employment, now she was facing the reality of employment for the first time in her life. She looked around, the office looked like it had purpose, as well as being functional, the view from the windows were not brilliant, not were they interesting, but they were views. There was a note on the keyboard, username: scwolfe, password: clancy, e-mail address : scwolfe.com. She typed them into the computer and browsed the system, checking her email account, everything that someone in her position would do. The software on the system was what she needed, she had already decided to use Olympus, to create the database; it was one of the market leaders and she had already established that the Wolfe facility had a licence for it, Gray she thought speculatively, had made that enquiry in her name. The rest of the morning, was spent, looking at the reference materials supplied by Hazel, on the background of the Wolfe Facility, as well as signing her employment record, making an appointment with the Medical Centre for a check-up for health insurance. At mid-day, she walked outside into the spring day, a promise of sunshine earlier had blossomed into a warm day, and she found a cafeteria and purchased lunch. She took only 30 mins, aware of the impression she wanted to make, committed, and hardworking, before returning to her office. The pass let her in past Security, who she found out were welcoming now that they knew she was working there. She let herself into her office, and found a parcel on the desk, when she opened it she found two white coats for Lab work, with her name embroidered in navy blue over the left breast and the name of the facility in red underneath her name. A note accompanied them, from Hazel, these will be laundered by the facility, just put them in the laundry chute and they will be returned to you, another 6 have been ordered, and will be delivered to your office when they are ready. Saf smiled, they were friendly, with no hidden objectives or agendas, so different. Everything was different, and so was she. She put the spare coat into the cupboard under the shelf unit, and hung the other on the door. The meeting wasn't until 4pm, so she had plenty of time to look at the data she needed to specify. She hooked up her laptop to the desktop and reviewed the type of data she needed to turn into a reference library. Making notes on paper, she constructed the bare bones of the database. Now it was just a case of getting access to the software on the mainframe and building the schema required. The phone rang, interrupting her train of thought, she picked it up, her mind elsewhere, and heard Hazel's voice, "Sara?" she answered "Yes," and thought she heard Hazel sigh, "sorry, I was busy with something, how can I help you Hazel?" "We are all waiting for you in the conference room," Hazel answered, Saf looked down at her watch in disbelief, it was 10 past 4, she was late, "Hazel, I will be there in two minutes, please pass on my apologies," she hung up and debated whether to wear the white coat, and then thought sod it.. and grabbed her jacket instead, wrapping formality round her to hide her bad manners. She opened the door and found 15 faces staring back at her curiously, waiting to see the person who had kept them all waiting, she cursed inwardly and then apologised "I am sorry to have kept you waiting, but I was engrossed in doing something," Dr Chapman smiled, "always' the curse of the researcher, I have Hazel to keep me in line, and remind me 10 mins before a deadline," Hazel smiled, flattered at the attention paid to her. Saf felt relieved, at the leniency of his tone and for not making a scene. He briefly introduced her to the rest of the staff, who stared at her in curiosity, and then asked her to give a presentation on her work. She was stunned for a few seconds and then smiled, it wasn't something she had expected, but she coped with it. Outlining her work to the group, was a good way of remembering it herself, and she relaxed into her preferred style, when she had finished, she asked if anyone had any questions. There was only one, was she free for dinner tonight, from one of the lab technicians, she shook her head, and smiled. Not saying no and not saying yes. When it fetl quiet and the laughter had died down, Dr Chapman asked her to stay behind as the others left to return back to their work. She remained in her seat and waited for everyone else to leave, when the last person had left, Dr Chapman, Bill he explained, offered her coffee, she asked if there was tea available and he ruefully said not, though he would instruct Hazel to get supplies. Saf smiled, I have some at home, I'll bring it in with me tomorrow. They discussed the research work she was employed for, and she realised how much she had to learn from him, he tested the extent of her knowledge and she was grateful for the time that Paige had spent with her learning the basics. The funding was for 3 full days a week, which she could either spend here in the labs or working from home, he didn't mind, though he would like it if she would send in reports of her research weekly via Hazel. She had made up her mind to come in at least once a week, if only to keep a presence here in the office, and to log the data into the database, so the idea of working from home gave her the freedom of being able to undertake the cases as well as keeping up with the requirements of the SIA. It would make it easier to move around if she didn't have to be in work and her computer at home would be able to handle any calls made to home to `check' up on her. Bill stood up, and she followed suit, "Welcome to the Wolfe Facility, Sara. It's exciting times to be part of a new venture, and we look forward to your research being published. Hazel is already setting up interviews for your clerical needs, she'll advise you when we have someone." Saf smiled, and murmured, "That's very kind of you Bill, but I prefer to do my own work…" He shook his head, "The funding covers clerical help, and I can assure you that Hazel will insist on it." Saf wondered what sort of power Hazel had over Bill, but put it down to organisation, Hazel organised everything so that the well oiled wheels would run smoothly and no-one and nothing would interfere with it. She was dismissed, as Bill walked her back to her office, and she picked up her bag, and jacket. Switching off the lights and closed the door, she made her way downstairs. The security team had changed from this morning and she said in passing "Good Night," not waiting to hear their reply. 18.00hrs She headed uptown towards Edison, into the flow of traffic and made her way to the warehouse training facility. After being in an office all day, she needed some serious exercise and as the darkness fell the rain just got heavier, so running on the track was out. All necessary equipment was stored in the warehouse and she was able to change her clothes and put on a lycra top and shorts. She warmed up, taking time to stretch her muscles and her body, feeling the tightness going. Her first piece of equipment was the treadmill, she started at a walk, and built up the speed until she was running. Now she could lose her mind while her body took the strain, she felt the rhythms of the music affect her the faster the music, the faster she could go. 10 miles later, and she slowed the speed down, back into a walk, feeling her muscles, pulsing at the effort she had put in to the last two miles. It took her a few minutes to cool down until she could stop and get off and then she stretched again, warmer now, more supple. A circuit of the gym, on the weights took care of most of the muscle groups, and she called it a day, she would prefer solitude for the next phase of her exercise. 20.00hrs She showered, and changed, into clean long sleeved t-shirt and pants, packing her suit into a convenient bag, and returned to her car. The traffic was lighter, and she didn't take too long to get home, she opened the garage door as she drove up, she had never had such luxury before. Upstairs, she moved the furniture away from the centre of her living room until she had a clear, square 9ft of space and lit a candle. Taking a seat down in front of it, in the centre of the room, and breathed deeply, slowly, beginning to feel the calmness descend on her, clearing her mind of the stress and turmoil of the day gone by. The more she practiced, the quicker it became, when she could feel herself relax into the meditation, but the candle helped, to concentrate on the flame, to turn herself inside to stretch mentally. She came out of the meditation slowly, and rose softly onto her feet, taking first position and moving slowly into the Taijiquan form of Tai Chi, feeling the flowing movements (parting the horses mane, stroking the rooster, bending the crane), soften into shapes and forms invisible to the watcher. It had been a long time since she had taken time to release her emotions in this way, and as ever when she had finished the routine, she was exhausted, both physically and mentally. She allowed the strength to rebuild inside her, before she moved. Slowly standing, she stretched her muscles, to finish and then padded slowly to the kitchen. When she opened the fridge, she found it empty, of everything except a few bare essentials. So used to having everything provided that having to do shopping was something she had forgotten, luckily the freezer was stocked full of frozen meals, so she found a chicken and pasta bake and put it in the microwave to cook. While she waited for the food to cook, she went out onto the balcony and watched the lights in the bay twinkle in the night; a beautiful view and something she treasured, her independence. It was going to be an interesting time, the new few weeks, but the character she had become, was beginning to grow on her. Return