Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.
"Dr. Santos," the young orderly said. "The �Jane Doe� has just been identified."
"Thank you, Marty," Michelle said, massaging the back of her neck.
It had been a bad night in the ER. A young girl, probably about 16, had come in with multiple gunshot wounds. It was the kind of shooting0 that made everyone suspect gang-related activities, but for Michelle, it just brought sadness. This was her least favorite part of being a doctor - seeing young kids robbed of life, before they even got to experience it. In medical school they told her that eventually you become accustomed to seeing such things, but she�d been at Cedars for 8 months now, and she knew she�d never get used to it.
Michelle and the others in the ER that night had done everything possible to save the young girl�s life, but it was no use. Her injuries were extensive. She was carrying no identification, so she was tagged as "Jane Doe" by the doctor in the morgue.
A couple of hours later, some friends of the victim came in, and identified her body. She was a runaway kid, living on the streets, and her name was Leah Salinger.
Even though it was not necessarily her responsibility, Michelle walked down to the morgue herself, to make sure her body and her records were properly identified. The doctor on duty had taken a coffee break, so the security guard let Michelle in.
She carefully typed out the name, "Salinger, Leah", on a label that would be attached to her medical records. When she was finished, she affixed the label onto the file folder, and walked over to put it in it�s correct, alphabetical drawer.
As she pilfered through the files, trying to find where Leah Salinger�s file belonged, she came across something that took her breath.
After she put the file in it�s proper place, she shuffled back a few files, and found the one that had surprised her.
"Should I?" she silently asked herself.
Part of her didn�t want to return to that time in her life, but part of her knew she needed to. If it still bothered her this much, just to read the name on the file, then obviously she had not closed the door on what happened.
"This is stupid," she said in a whisper. "Why would I want to read these details?"
She and Danny had been married for six years. She�d gone on to finish college and medical school in record time, and now she was enjoying her first months as a doctor. Danny had left the family business, and Carmen had not tried to stop him. He ran the "Springfield Journal" now. In the beginning, it was a stretch of the imagination to picture Danny Santos as newspaper man, but after a while it became clear that he�d found his niche. Besides, digging up dirt and getting the scoop were two things that he�d always been very good at.
Carmen did do her best to limit the Santos family business to legitimate activities, but it was a long, slow process. Danny maintained a strained relationship with his mother, but contact between Carmen and the two of them was very minimal. Carmen knew that it was futile to protest. She let them live their life they way they wanted, and settled for whatever bit of relationship Danny would give her.
In short, she and Danny were happy. They lived in the country, in the house formerly known as "Reva Bend". No one had lived there since Holly, before her marriage to Fletcher, and the place had become quite run-down. Michelle and Danny really enjoyed restoring the house, and they appreciated the privacy that it�s remote location afforded. Their life together was magical.
That was why Michelle was having such a hard time bringing herself to look inside the file. Why would she want to revisit something that had almost cost her everything? Something that had threatened to keep her separated from Danny forever? In her heart, she knew the answer. As bad as it was, it had brought Danny into her life. And where would she be now if Danny Santos had never invaded her heart?
Slowly she removed it from the filing cabinet. She took a deep breath as she began to open the file that read, "Santos, Mick: Autopsy Report".
Michelle began reading through the list of injuries on Mick�s body. She cringed when she read the description of the injury to the back of his head. True, Mick had been a monster, but he was Danny�s brother, and she wished that things could�ve been different somehow.
�That�s strange,� she thought. �The head injury is listed as �Not Fatal� �.
But, once she thought about it, it didn�t seem all that strange. Perhaps Mick was just knocked unconscious by the blow to his head, and then drowned when he was swept into the water.
She scanned the pages and found where the condition of his lungs was described. To her surprise, there was no water in his lungs, so drowning wasn�t a possibility.
�This has to be wrong,� she said out loud.
She flipped to the back page of the report, quickly finding where the cause of death was listed. Her body began to shake uncontrollably when she read �Gun Shot Wound to the Heart: Self-Inflicted�.
It couldn�t be. That report had to be wrong. There had to be a way to find out if what it said was true.
�The computer!� she said to herself. �Autopsy records are kept on the computer, as well as in a paper file.�
With a swiftness that surprised even her, she made her way to the computer terminal and quickly brought up the files for 1998 deaths. She had to work fast � she didn�t know when the doctor on call in the morgue would return.
She had no trouble finding Mick�s death record. She navigated her way through the autopsy report and found it vastly different from the one in the file. The head injury was listed as �Possibly Fatal� and his lungs were described as �Partially Filled With Fluid�.
�Could it be any more ambiguous?� she thought to herself.
As she suspected, the cause of death was �Drowning� with an explanation of the lack of consciousness caused by the head injury.
Michelle knew the contradiction between the two reports was significant. She suspected that someone intentionally changed the records in the computer, not knowing that there were actual paper files, as well. Which meant, in all likelihood, that they file she�d run across in the cabinet was the accurate one, and Mick had committed suicide.
Her head was spinning out of control. Images of that night flooded her memory. She remembered Mick, the way he taunted her, touched her. And then she saw Danny, standing on the docks the night he was supposed to have taken her life. Is it possible that she wasn�t responsible for Mick�s death? And if she wasn�t, how would that change the way she and Danny were with each other?
�Who would do this?� she asked her self.
The only feasible answer was Carmen. But why? Why would Carmen falsify Mick�s death records? What could she possibly have to gain from this?
She had to know for sure how Mick died. She looked at the signature on the bottom of the autopsy report. Although it was practically illegible, the way most doctor�s signatures are, she recognized the name � Collin D. Wesley, M.D.
Dr. Wesley was in his fifties, and was still on staff at Cedars. As she replaced the file folder in the cabinet, she looked at the schedule to see when he would be in. She was in luck � Dr. Wesley was scheduled to be in the morgue tomorrow morning. Michelle had the next day off. It was her morning to sleep late with Danny, but she�d find a way to come in to the hospital and talk with Dr. Wesley.
The only way to know for sure what really killed Mick, was to talk to the doctor who performed the autopsy. And that was just what she was going to do.
She quietly left the morgue and made her way back to the ER. Her shift was almost over, and she would be home with Danny by 9:00 p.m. She knew she couldn�t talk to him about this yet. What Dr. Wesley had to say was vitally important, and she would not broach the subject with Danny until she had all the information.
�I wonder how I�m going to go home to my husband and pretend like everything�s fine,� she thought to herself, as she turned her car into their driveway.
She could see Danny standing at the door, waiting for her.