Senses
Title: Scent Memories
Flavor: CI
Rating: PG-13
Count: 439
A/N: References to “Jones,” “Graansha,” and “Sound Bodies.”
Logan and Goren watched the automatic coffee machine start to brew, steam sputtering and the bitter smell of cheap coffee filling the break room. Logan’s long nose wrinkled and he said, “I still don’t understand why Major Case doesn’t rate better coffee than the same crap we got at the precincts.”
Goren smiled briefly.
“Heard you and your nose made a rookie pass out at a scene today,” Logan said.
Goren’s eyes flickered to Logan, searching for the usual disgust and condemnation he received from others before he remembered Mike was a friend and allowed himself another brief smile. “He lost his breakfast but he didn’t actually lose consciousness…although the ME made him sit with his head between his knees.”
Logan snorted. They continued watching the slow drip drip drip of the coffee machine.
“Doesn’t it get to you, smelling the bodies?”
Goren could have taken the opportunity to discuss scientific studies that closely link scent and memory and emotion; studies that show scents are the most powerful memory trigger known due to their access to the limbic system in the midbrain. This is where scents trigger emotional responses, affect basic drives such as hunger and sexual appetite, change hormonal levels, recall long and short term memories, and produce higher heart rates in test subjects.
He could tell Logan how he thinks of his mother’s Chantilly perfume whenever his snub nose catches a whiff of sandalwood, and he remembers feeling safe prior to her schizophrenic delusions. She never wore perfume during her episodes as she thought They had poisoned the bottle.
He could talk about his father’s English Leather aftershave and the odor of liquor on his breath, and how certain citrus and bourbon combinations still made Goren’s knees tremble remembering his father’s beatings.
And how lavender…the sweet, earthy scent of lavender always flooded his mind with a slideshow of the freshly-bathed petite victims of slimy lawyer Henry Talbot.
He could tell Logan that whenever they go out for drinks after work and Logan orders Buffalo wings, Goren smells the spicy chili peppers and bleu cheese on Ann Lawson’s hands, sees her crushed and bloody body in the parking lot.
He could share the tale of his disastrous date at the city zoo, how the musty animal stench in some of the buildings brought him back to an old barn as he hunched over an unconscious girl...just a kid...who was led to attempt suicide to protect that little bastard Connie.
Yes, it gets to me, he thought. It gets to me and stays with me.
But instead he shrugged and said, “Not really.”
Flavor: CI
Rating: PG-13
Count: 439
A/N: References to “Jones,” “Graansha,” and “Sound Bodies.”
Logan and Goren watched the automatic coffee machine start to brew, steam sputtering and the bitter smell of cheap coffee filling the break room. Logan’s long nose wrinkled and he said, “I still don’t understand why Major Case doesn’t rate better coffee than the same crap we got at the precincts.”
Goren smiled briefly.
“Heard you and your nose made a rookie pass out at a scene today,” Logan said.
Goren’s eyes flickered to Logan, searching for the usual disgust and condemnation he received from others before he remembered Mike was a friend and allowed himself another brief smile. “He lost his breakfast but he didn’t actually lose consciousness…although the ME made him sit with his head between his knees.”
Logan snorted. They continued watching the slow drip drip drip of the coffee machine.
“Doesn’t it get to you, smelling the bodies?”
Goren could have taken the opportunity to discuss scientific studies that closely link scent and memory and emotion; studies that show scents are the most powerful memory trigger known due to their access to the limbic system in the midbrain. This is where scents trigger emotional responses, affect basic drives such as hunger and sexual appetite, change hormonal levels, recall long and short term memories, and produce higher heart rates in test subjects.
He could tell Logan how he thinks of his mother’s Chantilly perfume whenever his snub nose catches a whiff of sandalwood, and he remembers feeling safe prior to her schizophrenic delusions. She never wore perfume during her episodes as she thought They had poisoned the bottle.
He could talk about his father’s English Leather aftershave and the odor of liquor on his breath, and how certain citrus and bourbon combinations still made Goren’s knees tremble remembering his father’s beatings.
And how lavender…the sweet, earthy scent of lavender always flooded his mind with a slideshow of the freshly-bathed petite victims of slimy lawyer Henry Talbot.
He could tell Logan that whenever they go out for drinks after work and Logan orders Buffalo wings, Goren smells the spicy chili peppers and bleu cheese on Ann Lawson’s hands, sees her crushed and bloody body in the parking lot.
He could share the tale of his disastrous date at the city zoo, how the musty animal stench in some of the buildings brought him back to an old barn as he hunched over an unconscious girl...just a kid...who was led to attempt suicide to protect that little bastard Connie.
Yes, it gets to me, he thought. It gets to me and stays with me.
But instead he shrugged and said, “Not really.”