Stranger Like Me

By: Riley

Summary – Nothing can get past Dr. Henry Morgan. He notices everything about everyone that walks by him. He never thought that someone else could do the same.

Dr. Henry Morgan was knuckles deep into the chest of a recently deceased middle aged man when a group of teenagers walked into the examination room led by his associate, Lucas Wan. He briefly glanced up as Lucas approached the table, his eyes taking in the students and teacher as they came to a stop.

"And this is Dr. Morgan," Lucas was saying, motioning to him. "He's our leading medical examiner. Not only is he able to correctly diagnose what has been the cause of death for those that are brought in here, but he can even do it at times without even having to open the body to do so." He leaned towards the students. "And let me tell you that can be very creepy."

"You find that creepy when we have a class filled with high school students coming to visit a medical examiner?" Dr. Morgan replied with a quirk of an eyebrow and a half smile. Lucas rolled his head towards his colleague and gave him a warm smile. Dr. Morgan's lips twitched before he turned to the teacher, who had opened her mouth to respond. "I assume that this is for a physiology class not necessarily including the fact that this is for an advanced class."

The teacher's eyes widened. "H-how did you know that?" She stammered, clearly impressed with how he could've deducted it just from glancing at the students.

Dr. Morgan pulled back from the body in front of him, blood sticking to the fingers of his gloves. He nodded over to the student that was standing right in front of him. He had noticed the notebook that she was holding in front of her. "Physiology is one of the few courses that would have someone visit a medical examiner." He cleared his throat. "Not only is she ready to take notes, but she's clearly not the only one as there are pens or pencils sticking out of the pockets of all of the students, which indicates they're very good students as others would be listening to their music players," he said. "Then there's the fact that there are scuffs on the front of some of the shoes that hold a certain smudge of dirt which is reminiscent of being in the subway giving the idea that you've come from out of the city to get here, and there aren't many cases where students at this time of day, would be out of school." He smiled then motioned to the body that was lying in front of him. "Would anyone care to guess what has caused the death of this one?"

"Don't feel bad if you can't get it right," Lucas said to the students. "He's the only one I know that can do it within a few seconds."

A few guesses came left and right from a heart attack, to an allergy, to head trauma. It wasn't until the last boy that stood at the end spoke up that Dr. Morgan took notice. He looked like a normal fifteen year old boy, shaggy black hair with blue streaks, dark blue eyes, wearing baggy sweatshirt and black jeans. He had been silent, eyes moving over the body, listening to his classmates before he continued. "This man died from a drug overdose," he said.

Dr. Morgan blinked and looked at him for a long moment. "What brought you to that conclusion?"

As the boy brought in a deep breath, he pressed his lips together and dimples appeared in his cheeks. "The skin is flushed a light pink which shows the idea of a height in temperature if not blood pressure. The way his eyes don't particularly seem to be focused, with the eyebrows slightly raised, shows that sleepiness or confusion set in when he was overdosing. Despite the fact that the temperature of the body had obviously risen, again, according to the flushness of the skin, there is no over signs of sweat, which can also come during an overdose. From the way his hand is at his side, appearing to have been forced down after rigor mortis set in, he had chest pain and if I'm correct in assuming, if you open his mouth and take a swab you may find some vomit."

Dr. Morgan continued to stare at the boy; listening to the boy s he spoke. There was something about him, about the way he was speaking and sounding as if he was trying to downplay himself, but knew what he was talking about. He had only ever seen it happen to one person before and that was because it was coming from him. Being immortal, having see so much, he had become so perceptive. A quick glance at someone and he could tell what kind of person they were and more than likely figure out what their plans for that day were.

For example, looking at the teacher, he could tell that she was a middle-aged woman that was looking for a date. The makeup that was put on her face only had a few smudges but she otherwise, cared a lot about her appearance. He could see the wrinkles that were starting to form under her foundation. There were some bags under her eyes that indicated she had many late nights working on her school work and the way she would look at her students every now and then with a smile proves she cared a lot about how she was helping them with their schooling as they continued on with life.

There were a lot of things he got out of her, but this boy…it was different.

"There are no track marks though," Lucas pointed out.

The boy shrugged. "Check the webs of the fingers and toes, more often than not drug users inject there as it's harder to detect. Not only that, but check the heel of the foot, I heard that it was a new spot for drug users as well."

His eyes continuing to be trained on the boy, Dr. Morgan slowly walked around the examining table, removing the gloves that were on his hands. "You, sir, made a remarkable guess."

"No, he's just perceptive," The teacher said.

"No, I'm just smart," the boy replied with a slight smirk.

"You're not modest either," Lucas commented. Sydney shrugged and flicked his hair out of his face but didn't bother to deny the accusation.

"That's Sydney," the teacher continued. "He's a remarkable talent with his perceptiveness, gets top marks on all of his papers and tests. He was really excited to be able to come here today, to meet you, actually."

Those words surprised Dr. Morgan for a moment before he mentally panicked. How much did this kid know about him? Was he ware of his immortality as well? Was he aware that the moment he died his body would disappear and he would appear in the nearest body of water completely naked? And if so, how was that possible if Abram was the only one that knew it? And no one else had managed to come close to figuring out what made the doctor so mysterious. Instead of speaking all of those thoughts, he decided to go with what would make him sound less suspicious.

"Is that so?"

"I've heard a lot about what you've managed to accomplish while here," Sydney said. "I mean, not only are you able to deduce a death just from a few seconds of probing, but you've assisted many cases over the past couple of years."

Slowly smiling, Dr. Morgan nodded. He and Lucas went through the rest of what was to be done as a medical examiner as well as showed the students around the facility before it was time for them to leave. As the students trooped by them, Dr. Morgan caught Sydney's attention.

"You're not an American," he said to the boy. Sydney turned and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Not only is it that you appear to be more tanned than the other students, proving that you live closer to the equator, but your facial features are slightly different than that of an American. There is a slight hint of Asian in your features but it seems to be overshadowed by an Australian lineage. And when you speak, there is an American accent that comes out, however your pronunciations of the letters 'h' and 'o' are slightly different, reminiscent of one that is Australian."

Now Sydney turned to face him completely.

"And if that were the case, it makes me wonder what it is that you're doing in New York and how do you know so much about me," The British doctor continued.

"I already said, I'm really smart," Sydney said, this time he dropped his American accent and replaced it with an Australian one, confirming his deductions. "In fact, I'm actually a part of Mensa. And, like I've also stated, I know a lot about you because I enjoy seeing how well you deduct things."

"But considering you had slight difficulty to hide the 'h' and 'o' in your words it proves that you haven't been using an American accent for long, meaning that you're purposefully hiding your Australian accent and I can't help but wonder why."

Sydney's eyebrows rose and he turned to catch up with his class, hands still in the front pocket of his sweatshirt as they always had been. Dr. Morgan watched him leave, crossing his arms over his chest. He glanced back at the cadaver that sat resting on the table, eyes narrowing for a moment. He was sure the boy wasn't one that could die and come back to life, if he had, he wouldn't be so young. Still, there was something about him that was intriguing.

Not many people were as perceptive as he was and that only came from years of dying and coming back to life, so much so that it was starting to get old. And yet, he felt a little comforted knowing there was someone out there that understood a little bit about what he was going through.

The thought alone comforted him, even just a little bit.

THE END

A/N: I bet you all expected for Sydney to be able to die and come back to life as well. I really didn't want to do that, especially since we don't know who is the one that's chasing Dr. Morgan around other than us knowing him as "Adam". But I thought it would be cool if there was someone that could do the same as he could, but just because he was smart.

Making it a fifteen year old boy I thought was good match. I left it on a bit of a mystery if anyone wanted me to continue it, but for the moment I wanted to make it a one-shot. Also, I don't know if he's supposed to be British or Welsh like Ioan Gruffudd actually is, so I said British. I'll change it if I have to.

Cheers,

-Riles