She looked at the clock she passed on her way to the lab. 8PM

She loved her job but it weighed that she couldn’t see her son as much as she wanted to. Seth was with a nanny now and Tina hated it but what could she do? She didn’t think she could function in another job and this provided enough money to give her son everything he needed.

She walked into the lab and was once again stunned by the beautiful brown-haired woman. Her curly hair, the wrinkles on her forehead when she concentrated on a little bone, her hands working fast and precise, her eyes shining when she thought she had found something and she had a body to kill for.

Today, she had noticed the woman was slightly different. She was a little insensitive towards other people and tended to hurt the ones she talked to, maybe without even knowing it. Tina could imagine that to most people, Bette seemed cold but Tina had seen a little glimpse of sweetness this afternoon. When they met a little girl, Bette totally changed. The girl was the daughter of the owner of the woods. Bette had been very nice to her and even laughed. Tina tried to make her laugh all day bit nothing seemed to get through. And this little girl said something so simple Tina couldn’t even remember it, and Bette face light up and a cute laugh came out of her smiling mouth. Tina could imagine Bette would make a good mother. Although she was a little weird.

Tina walked further.

“Hey, guys, you’ve found something new?” She asked, she didn’t do all the formal stuff. They were colleagues, they should act like friends.

“A few little cracks in the humerus and the radius but those had already healed before he died.” Bette said, looking up for a second before returning to look at the collarbone for the tenth time tonight.

“Have you found anything in what those people said?” Carmen asked, zooming in on a little fracture that she wrote down on her sheet of paper.

“No, nothing. I can only begin to work again if we find out his identity. Questioning family and friends.” Tina told them.

“Once Alice is done, we’ll find that out.” Bette said.

“Well, I think I’m going to go home, see if my boy is still awake.”

“You boy? Like, your boyfriend?” Carmen asked, she didn’t know anything about Tina.

“No, my son, Seth.”

“Oh, how old is he?” Carmen wanted to know

“Two.” Tina replayed.

“That’s such a great age. My little sister is also two.” The Latina said.

“Nice… Well, I’ll go home now. Bye, Carmen. Bye, Bette.” She said. Her and Bette’s eyes met for a split second and both women felt like they didn’t want to part but they had to. Tina smiled a little smile before disappearing through the door. Bette sighed, shook her head and got back to work. Carmen smiled inwardly; she saw the connection these women shared.

—-