A/n: Thanks for your patience as I got this next part done! Things came up (as they do lmao)

At the Coroner's office, I wish I had grabbed my entire winter wardrobe. The place was freezing, Sousa's comment about the heaters causing me to chuckle. When I tried to look at Peggy to see her laughing, she didn't give me the same look back.

Ouch.

"I wish you'd called," the coroner said as he walked in.

"So we'd know to bring long johns?" Peggy quipped.

"So I could tell you not to come. I don't have an autopsy report."

As the coroner lifted the sheet back, Detective Henry talked about this being their best chance. I was too focused on the way the woman looked. Her skin, unsurprisingly pale, was covered in dark lines I figured out to be her veins. It was disturbing, seeing a human being in this state.

Instinctively, I wanted to reach out and feel the veins, but forced myself to refrain. Pour girl was already being stared at like some lab rat, she didn't need to be touched like one, even if she was dead.

"Why the delay?" Sousa asked in relation to the report.

"This isn't a layer of frostbite." He gestured to the body. "She's frozen through and through."

I looked up at the coroner, shocked. "Completely solid?" I asked. "I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing."

"Even with the heat shining on her?" Peggy asked.

"She's only beginning to thaw, but you'll have to wait a bit longer unless you want the autopsy performed with a chisel."

I shook my head. "Absolutely not, that will only hinder things," I said. Agreements were thrown in there.

Then Sousa asked, "Is there anything you can tell us from a visual inspection?"

We got into the rest of it. Luckily for Detective Henry, the stab wounds matched the other victims. Then, we saw her shoes on the wrong feet. An apparent signature of the killer, something the public wasn't aware of.

While Detective Henry was thrilled that we had "his guy," Peggy, Sousa, and I weren't convinced. Maybe the same man killed her, but not today. Not this year.

"Do we know whether the body caused the lake to freeze or vice versa?" she asked.

"No," the coroner said. I wasn't expecting him to know, but then he wasn't done. "And to add to your ever-growing list of things we don't know..."

We all turned and watched as he made his way to the opposite side of the room, ending at a door in the wall behind us. There was a light switch next to it that he reached for. "I can't explain this either," he finished, flipped the switch.

The lights went out and we all turned back to the body.

And it glowed.

"Fetch a chisel," Peggy said.

My heart sank for the girl. "I hope this gives us answers," I said, keeping my grief for the stranger to myself. "This is too strange."

We all stepped back once the coroner came back with the chisel. He got to work and I turned to Peggy.

"So," I started, grabbing her attention away from the chiseling. "How's New York? Everything going well up there?"

Peggy nodded. "Yes, quite well. Actually, we just nabbed Dottie. I was in the middle of trying to interrogate her when Chief Thompson—"

My breath hitched at the name, which Peggy heard. She closed her mouth, regret swarming her face quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

I shook my head and waved her off. "No, no, it's... it's fine. I'm sorry that we interrupted that, I know you were really working hard to find her. Hopefully they don't screw it up while you're gone," I said.

Peggy smiled but didn't say anything else. Of course hearing his name hurt. I didn't think I'd be over him by any means at this point. But I didn't know I'd have such a physical reaction. I could still feel the uneasiness in my stomach, as if Peggy had just told me he was coming down here himself.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by movement. Sousa was collecting a sample from the coroner in a special box (so it wouldn't melt). "All right, let's get this to the boys in the lab and see what they can find."

~~

"That's not ice."

We turned to him. "Then what is it?" Peggy asked, having just finished taking her look at the specimen from the body. It was weird. Cells were frozen and something else seemed to be spreading around within.

"Short answer is I don't know. So is the long answer."

I rolled my eyes, eternally grateful that we had scientists like this idiot on our staff.

"And there's nothing else you can tell us?" Peggy asked, hands moving to her hips.

He looked offended. "I'm doing my best. You field agents, always looking down your noses at us lab techs."

I raised a brow, Peggy was stunned, and Sousa was confused. "Excuse me?"

"Just because we don't carry guns doesn't mean we're not in the SSR."

Sousa was going for a respectful approach. "We value your contributions," Sousa started, and I scoffed to myself, "we're just asking..."

"Then why not invite me when you agents grab drinks?"

Sousa shared a look with me. "Aren't you always invited?" he asked, more to me. I shrugged my shoulder— that was never something I was in charge of. I simply heard about the plans and decided if I felt like going. Sometimes yes, many times no.

We looked back at the scientist (what was his name again?) and he was shaking his head. "No. Never."

Sousa changed his tone. "Well, yes. Of course you're invited, doctor..."

No one spoke for a second. "Oh shit," I mumbled. No one knew his name?

"Samberly."

"Samberly," Sousa repeated, closing his eyes, disappointed in himself.

I leaned over from his right and mumbled to him, "You'd think the Chief of this place would know everyone's name." He gave me a glare and I just snickered as I leaned back.

"What about the glow?" Peggy asked, and I was thankful we were back on topic.

Dr. Samberly got his science-speak out. "The non-native matter is in a radioisotopic form, ionizing the nitrogen molecules in the air and blood to create the luminescence. The only occurrence that could create such a phenomenon is by producing the radioisotope in the form of uranium."

Detective Henry coughed. "What does that mean?"

"She was near a particle accelerator," Peggy answered.

Sousa and I turned inward toward Peggy and she turned to us. "The one used in the Manhattan Project is in Tennessee."

"There's another one in Pasadena at Isodyne Energy," Dr. Samberly said, and we turned back to him. "I applied there, but instead chose to go with the SSR. Unfortunately."

I rolled my eyes. "Grow a backbone," I said as the doctor walked away.

"What is Isodyne Energy?" Peggy asked.

Sousa grabbed his car keys from his jacket pocket and spun them on his finger, landing them in the palm of his hand. "Let's go find out."

A/n: Okay, so do we like this length? I don't want to make extremely long chapters full of all the plot building materials, but I also feel like all of these short chapters are boring in a way. Let me know!! Y'all know I love your feedback :)