2gether AU: Be You, be Mine

Chapter 7: What the Hell Is She Trying to Do to My Tine?

TW // CW: Minor character death, mentions of drugs.

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"Sarawat, we have a body."

Sarawat looked over his shoulders, Tine was already looking at him with his hopeful eyes that shouted his desire to take part in solving the case. Sarawat contemplated the possibility and practicality for Tine to join the team as a newcomer. Seconds later, Sarawat nodded, agreeing to whatever Tine wanted. Part of him making that decision was because he wanted to evaluate Tine's capability, part of him making that decision was because they were running low on labour, and part of him just couldn't say no to Tine when Tine gave him those puppy eyes.

"Leave the sandwiches on the table, we will need them later tonight."

Before leaving, Sarawat took his sweater from his locker and followed Tine out of the room. Tine joined Sarawat and Tian as they walked down to the morgue. The adrenaline rush at the back of his throat was so intense that he felt a little bad for the victim's family for being so excited to solve a case. He should have sympathised with his or her family members who were still mourning their loss.

"Is that your newbie?"

Tian asked inquisitively, he hadn't seen many new people around in the crime lab. On top of that, his job as a coroner meant that he usually works with dead bodies. His other colleague, Type, usually works on-field and would bring the bodies back to the lab. Once the bodies were filed into the system, Tian would then collect trace samples and clean the body for further processing.

"Yeah, it's his second week here."

Tine extended his right hand and gave Tian his bunny-like smile. Tian seemed like someone nice. At least, Tine's standards were quite easy to meet, as long as they weren't Mil, they weren't difficult people to deal with.

"Tine Teepakorn Aekaranwong, nice to meet you. Although this doesn't look like an ideal first meeting."

"Tian Sopasitsakun. I hope the fact that I am working in a morgue doesn't scare you away."

Tian shook Tine's hand firmly. It was only their first time seeing one another, yet, Tian already had a feeling that Tine and he would be good friends in the future. They chatted casually as the lift descended to the basement of the crime lab.

"So, what do we know about the victim so far?"

Sarawat hated to interrupt the ongoing conversation between Tian and Tine. Tine looked so happy to meet Tian. But, there were more important things on their to-do list today. Sarawat was sure that they would have another chance to talk to each other soon.

"Female, 20 to 30 years old, no ID yet. Type is still working on that."

"Cause of death?"

"Type and I agreed on a hit and run. Her knees were broken and Type found a diode next to the body. We still need to run some medical tests on her. Her handbag was empty when we found her."

"Good start. Tine, tell Phuak to trace the victim's movement from the crime scene. Surveillance cameras, for now, phone logs and payments trails after we get her ID."

Tian pushed the door leading to the morgue, revealing a changing room for people to put on medical gear before entering the morgue. Sarawat glanced at Tine before handing Tine a fresh set of gears. Bodies needed to be kept in low temperatures to decelerate the decay process, hence, the morgue was colder than the rest of the crime lab. However, Tine seemed like he was adapting to the coolness without any trouble. Well, sweater not needed.

"There was some sort of shards wedged into her knees, the samples are here."

Tian handed Sarawat a petri dish containing the shards he removed from the victim's knees. Tine looked at the body closely while Sarawat examined the petri dish.