Hi Everyone, so sorry about the delayed update. I was so overwhelmed by Poohbear-29's superior story, I just felt like mine wasn't good enough. I have since decided to update. I am sorry that this story isn't as good.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of THE GLADES.

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Chapter 4:

Colleen drove down the littered streets. Remnants of the storm that finally hit the day after Callie and Jim's failed wedding were scattered about. She could not help but wish that the clean-up from the unexpectedly weakened storm was the only cleanup she had to face.

She pulled into her parking spot, stepped out of her car and headed toward the lab.

Quietly closing the lab door behind her, the FDLE director dreaded talking to Carlos. She was going to have to walk the fine line between seeing if he was emotionally okay and not interrupting his train of thought on the case. The detective and the forensic pathologist had become best friends so this investigation cut to the quick.

He heard her enter; heard the door slide closed behind her, but he didn't look up from his microscope. If his boss had something to say about how he had addressed Daniel, she could just say it. There was a long pause and Carlos looked up to see what she was waiting for.

Director Manus stood looking at him with her arms crossed.

"Can I help you?" Carlos wanted to get it over with.

She blinked slowly as if trying to keep her frustration in check. "What are you currently working on?"

The question shocked the pathologist. He had been expecting a tongue-lashing and he tilted his head in confusion.

"Were you expecting a different question?" she countered.

"No…. yes… " he took a breath. "I know I was a bit harsh with Daniel. It is just that he seems to be either wandering around and not focusing or frantic."

"Carlos, his way of dealing with this is different than yours. You let him be." Manus paused to let that order sink in before she continued, "now, what are you working on?"

"I don't even know. I have nothing to even start this investigation." He tossed his arms up in frustration and looked up at his boss equally furious with himself. "It is like he was shot by a ghost!"

Both of their phones suddenly rang startling them.

"Manus."

"Carlos."

They both nodded and hung up at the same time. There was a body found in the swamp. Jim's case would have to hold until later.

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The fishermen were probably not where they were supposed to be. They knew this by the stink eye they were getting from the gator hunters who had been shouting obscenities at them for the past half hour. They had not intentionally pulled the bait trap up to scare off the prized gator. The storm had rearranged the waterways in the everglades and they had gotten a bit lost.

Both parties just sat facing each other. The fishermen looked out-of-place and terrified when suddenly, the gator's head bobbed up between them… with a leg in his mouth. A human leg. That was all it took. The fishermen were off like a shot, cell phones to their ear while they frantically called 9-1-1.

The Gator-hunters were less impressed. They had seen this before and were annoyed that other food had taken the gator from their trap. One of them aimed his gun at the ancient amphibian's head but shot wide as it sunk beneath the surface.

"Gall dang it all!"

"We best move to the western side and check the traps there. Those fishermen gonna have this place full 'a cops pretty soon." The grizzled old timer grabbed the bait line and yanked it into the boat as they motored off toward another part of the swamp shaking their heads.

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The image of Jim swinging his golf club on the end of the fan boat swam in front of the forensic pathologist's eyes as he squinted into the sun. But he knew it was only wishful thinking. The 9-1-1 call had brought a swarm of police to the spot the fishermen had described. Forensic divers had been searching under the water for only a short bit and had recovered an arm, the skull and a foot before the guardian gator returned to protect his stash.

Daniel was in his element using his knowledge of Zoology as a distraction from his grief. He already knew the type of gator they were dealing with and the approximate location of his food stash under water assuming the storm had not moved things around.

Carlos had tried to act Jim-like and congratulate him but somehow neither his heart nor the intern's was into it. He had been able to determine that the body they were retrieving parts of was a male and had been there for quite a while. Somehow the alligator had packed it into a hole so securely that nothing had feasted on it except him. It was the skull that the pathologist had found most interesting.

"Can you determine cause of death with just … an arm, head and foot?" Manus was grimacing at the body remnants sitting on the deck in the bright sun.

"Actually, I can say that this guy was shot. Whether that was the cause of death, I don't know yet." Carlos answered. He pointed to the giant hole in the back of the skull and then the smaller, less visible hole in the bone behind the eye. "I think you get the idea." He looked up at Colleen who nodded.

"OK, divers and officers, we need you to continue doing your best to retrieve as much of this body as you can." The director ordered. "Carlos, I want you to take what his here back to the lab and begin your examination." She looked over at Daniel, "Mr. Green, I would like you to join Mr. Gomez in the lab."

The intern looked disappointed to be leaving the swamp but nodded and hopped onto the fan boat they were occupying in preparation to leave.