| Any comments, suggestions or questions can be directed to the author. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you found something that you could enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own anything in relation to C.S.I., Alliance Atlantic, CBS, William Petersen, Jorja Fox or any other characters contained herein... I just like playing with them now and then while stretching my writing muscles. And if you think there's any money to be gained by suing me, you're in for a horrible disappointment. |
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| The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline as the family gets ready for a big event. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc. *Rated PG for Most Everyone. |
| LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY |
| Part 6 - "Your Love is a Battlefield" |
| Being put in charge of stirring a pot was not exactly the promotion he had been counting on, but at the moment it was his responsibility to keep dinner from turning into a catastrophe as the every closet, box, file and drawer was being rifled through. Ever since returning from Las Vegas, the entire condo had been turned inside out to satisfy the crazed searches of a very determined man. However, at least he was good about cleaning everything as he went through it, instead of leaving the place in a state of destruction from the purpose of his mission. Geoffrey had witnessed the behavior before, shortly after they moved in together, as Michael dug through every box and bag brought in, looking for a very specific piece of paper. When it was all said and done, every single box had been emptied and put away properly, and Michael found that one piece of paper. And the reason he needed it became a private joke between them. It was the spelling of Geoffrey’s first, middle and last name, as he had scribbled it out on a register receipt after seeing his driver’s license at the bar one night. From that point forward, whenever Michael would start slipping into an anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive fit, Geoffrey would simply ask, “Where’s the paper?” However, in this instance, the joke was not met favorably. He had hoped that Michael would give up the search when he realized the time, but instead of making him stop and take notice, after reminding him about the time, Michael simply kicked into high gear and banished Geoffrey to the kitchen to keep on eye on the stove. When the door bell rang, he knew it was about to get ugly. Geoffrey hollered over his shoulder, “Are you gonna get that?” From somewhere in the depths of the office closet he could hear Michael shout, “I’m a little busy right now!” Before he had a chance to answer that terse comment, another one went sailing through the condo, “Just turn it all the way down and get the door…please?” Doing as he was requested, Geoffrey carefully down the heat down on the stove, wiped his hands on a towel hanging from the oven handle and headed straight for the front door. On his walk there, he shot one last salvo to the crazed man in the back, “Are planning to ransack the office all night, or join us for dinner sometime this year?” His only answer was a loud growl, which he now knew Michael had gotten from his mother. Taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, Geoffrey did as any good Marine would do, and carried on with the mission; time to greet the guests. Upon opening the door, he found no face to meet him, but instincts told him to look down, and that’s where he found the bright smile of the indomitable geologist and environmental crusader he had come to know as a friend. “R.J., the old man didn’t leave you to suffer through dinner with us alone, did he?” As he stepped out of her path, the woman powered her scooter to move forward through the door. But before she could answer and distinctive male voice spoke from the hallway, “Not likely… I’m just on pickup duty. The lady dropped her cane in the elevator.” As he came into the condo, Nick clapped Geoffrey on the back. “Good to see you again, Soldier… It’s been a while, huh?” He laughed at Nick’s frequent taunt. While Geoffrey was no longer a Marine, Nick seemed to enjoy giving him a little grief for his former lifestyle. “Hey, it’s not my fault that all four of us can’t get our travel orders synchronized. Maybe since the both of you are directors now, you could do something about that.” Watching as Nick helped R.J. carefully out of the scooter, Geoffrey enjoyed sending a little of that playful banter back at the older man. Once she was on her feet and secured to the cane, Nick looked back at him and shook his head. “Please… You know Fibbies and you Intelligence boys don’t play well together. That’d be like asking the Indians to tell the cowboys where to pitch their tents. Just ain’t gonna happen, kid.” “And nobody listens to crackpot environmentalists with rocks in their head.” R.J. was never one to leave a volley unreturned, so she gladly joined the match. In unison, Nick and Geoffrey responded, “Who would?” Their comfortable laughter was interrupted when a loud noise erupted from the back of the condo. “ABOUT TIME!” Nick cringed a little and threw a look over his shoulder. “Is everything okay?” With a shake of his head, Geoffrey shrugged, “Sorry about that. His OCD took over and he’s been on a mad hunt for some picture that he needed.” Nick nodded his understanding. He knew full well where that trait came from. As he began to take his seat on the couch next to his wife, Michael finally entered the room. However, he had the phone up to his ear and failed to notice that they had visitors. “Hey Pop… I found them. Call Momma off before she gets lost in the storage room… No, they were in the file with my papers… Because I used them in my senior thesis… Because I totally forgot I’d used them in my senior thesis… Yeah, I’ll make a copy of the disk and send it with the page to Mom… Don’t forget to holler at her. I don’t want her climbing around in tha-… Why is she taking a nap? Is she okay?” Michael started pacing as he continued his obvious conversation with his father. “Why is she pulling a night shift?... Is Lilli okay? Are you sure?... Pop, you know as well as I do that she’s worse than Aunt Sara and Uncle Gil combined about that stuf-… Oh, well, if she did then I guess it’s just a bug… I’ll give her a call and check up later… Because I talk to her ten times a week when I’m not out of the country, that’s why… Nope, nothing’s changed… I can, if you want… Yeah, I’ll get some disks first thing in the morning and do a mass copy…. You’re probably right. It’d be a good idea to have another copy somewhere else… Yeah, I heard, and you can tell her that I emailed those pictures to her this afternoon.” He tucked the phone in between the side of his head and his shoulder as he started sorting through the photos in his hands, still oblivious to the people in the living room. “Yeah, sure, Pop… As far as I know it’ll be both of us. I’m home bound until I can finish my doctoral thesis, but Geoffrey could get called out at the last minute…” Dropping the photos, Michael resumed the pacing as he became frustrated. “No, he’s already put in for the time off, but it’s not really the kind of job where you can always say, ‘no I won’t be there’… No, Pop, it’s not like he’s a doctor, but he’s in a very specialized field, and there aren’t a whole lot of people who can do what he does… Something with computers… I have no idea… Because when he starts talking about it my eyes roll up into the back of my head and I wait for the buzzing noise to stop… No, that was Paddie… I’m the one that set the entertainment center on fire… Right, Spikey Mikey.” Finally turning toward the living room, Michael was shocked to find people in there, and they were staring at him. As the blush began to warm his cheeks, he turned back around and tried to end the conversation. “Yeah, Pop… Look, I gotta go… No, I’ve got company and I need to get off the phone… Love you back… Bye.” Geoffrey watched as Michael kept his back to them for a few more moments before turning around to face the firing squad. “Hey, guys… When did you get here?” “Came in just before the girlish scream, all the way through to Spikey Mikey.” R.J. took great pleasure in the grimace her taunt provoked. “Right… I’ll be living that one down again, I see.” The condo was instantly filled with their combined laughter. Bending down to give R.J. a quick hug, Michael added, “At least I’m entertaining.” From beside her, Nick gave him a clap on the shoulder and agreed, “That you are, kid… That you are.” R.J. brushed at the side of her face as he pulled away and commented, “And incredibly hairy… Did you get mugged by a yak, or what?” “Thank You!” Geoffrey slapped the backside of his hand into the opposite palm with his exclamation. “I’ve spent the last week trying to figure out what that looked like.” Nick pressed his brows together and scrutinized the situation before finally saying, “I was thinkin’ more along the lines of Post-Modern Yeti.” With their raucous laughter in his ears, Michael tried to the play it off as he turned for the kitchen. “Before you all start in about having me shorn like a sheep, I’m gonna finish getting dinner ready.” He gave Geoffrey a gentle shove as he walked past, “You can be their entertainment for a while.” Once Michael was safely in the kitchen Geoffrey sat across from their guests to begin the interrogation. “So, I can see that you managed to survive the introductions with no visible injury… How are you doing otherwise?” R. J. took point in this debriefing. Leaning back with a sigh, Geoffrey began, “Honestly, it was a lot easier than I expected. His parents are amazing, the kids are a blast, and the siblings… Well, I’m still a little worried about meeting the sister after all the things I’ve heard, but everyone else seemed great.” Nick laughed at his description. “Don’t let them scare you… Bethie’s just fine. A younger, slightly bossier version of her mother, but just fine.” With a well-placed elbow, R.J. managed to chastise Nick for his not-so-subtle joke. “You just wait… That kid’s gonna make us all look bad before it’s over.” She turned back to Geoffrey and explained, “Beth is an extremely intelligent, mature, charismatic, and dynamic young lady. She’s also got her mother’s fearlessness, as well as her sense of humor, which is why they all give her so much grief. It’s the only way they can get back at her for all the stunts she’s pulled on them.” Michael leaned out of the kitchen to add, “Danny keeps his hair long for a reason… It’ll be at least another year or so before that ink finally wears off.” Confused by the quick interjection, Geoffrey asked, “What ink?” Nick was laughing too hard to answer the question. Through a barely suppressed grin, R.J. tried to explain, “I guess Danny was giving her a hard time before her prom, and so she put some of her chemistry knowledge to use and whipped up this astoundingly indelible ink. You could use it for tattooing, except that it wears off mostly in the first six months, leaving a faded remnant for about three to four years.” “What did she do with the ink?” Wiping his hands off on a towel as he walked into the living room again, Michael answered, “In nice big letters, right along his hair line at the neck, which was exposed at the time with the fade he was wearing then, she managed to write ‘DORK BOY’ before he woke up.” Geoffrey grimaced at the image that must have presented. “She told me, after I managed to get Danny to stop trying to kill her, that she had wanted to write ‘Super Dork,’ but that there wasn’t enough room on that part of his pinhead to make it readable from far away.” Finally recovered from his fit of laughter, Nick shook his head and said, “That girl has a serious temper… Reminds me a little of someone else.” All three men looked in the direction of their scowling female companion. “I know where you sleep, Stokes,” R.J. said from behind a distinctly raised eyebrow. “I never mentioned a name…so how’s it that you know who I’m, referrin’ to, my dear?” Nick returned a similar facial expression which quickly melted into another round of laughter. “Anyway…” R.J. was obviously trying to bring the conversation back to the topic at hand. “Bethie will be fine, just as long as Michael tells her what’s what. She pretty much takes anything he says as gospel.” Michael blushed a little at her analysis of his relationship with his baby sister. “There’s some serious hero worship that goes on there.” Nodding, Geoffrey admitted, “That’s what Patrick told me. But it doesn’t make me any less nervous about finally meeting her.” “I’d be more worried about Miss Lilli, than I would be about Bethie.” They watched as Geoffrey tensed at the mention of Michael’s favorite partner in crime. As a means to rescue him from the questioning, Michael asked, “Ah, dinner’s almost ready... Can you set the table for me, please?” Jumping at the chance to escape the conversation, Geoffrey instantly got up and went to the kitchen. Once he was out of sight, Michael quietly tried to resolve the issue. “They kind of got into it a little Saturday. Aunt Sara and Paddy had to step in and break it up. It was nothing…really. But, he’s still a little irked about the whole thing.” “What the hell happened?” R.J. was never one to mince words. “Nothing, really. He was playing with Micah,” He could tell both of them were trying to remember who that was. “Jimmy’s little boy?” When they nodded, he continued, “And Micah’s got it in his head that he wants to be a soldier right now, so when he found out Geoffrey was a Marine, he was all over that. Anyway, I guess they were horsing around on the floor, and Geoffrey was playing around at showing him ways to subdue the enemy and-” “And Lilli bein’ her mother’s daughter, probably got a little upset with him and started on one of her anti-war rants, right?” Nick instantly knew what had happened as Michael explained. “So, didn’t y’all get it resolved before you left?” “I thought so… But he’s a little sensitive about that stuff, and I guess it’s bothering him more than he let on to begin with.” Michael looked over his shoulder to make sure he was still in the kitchen before going on. “He’s got such a soft spot for kids, and when she told him that he was damaging the boy’s psyche with his ‘war mongering’ it got to him.” R.J. shook her head in disgust. “Someone should really have a talk with that girl about her ranting. She doesn’t think about what she’s saying, or who she might be hurting when she goes off like that.” “Believe me… A talk was had.” Michael felt a little of the residual anger from the episode still in the back of his mind. “And after I got done with her, Aunt Cath went off. She apologized, and I thought it was taken care of, but when we got off the plane at National, I could tell something was bothering him. By the time we finally got home, I managed to get it out of him, but he’s still pretty upset.” Shaking his head in defeat, Michael finished with, “Not exactly the way I pictured things going, but there it is.” Nick reached out with a reassuring hand on Michael’s knee and offered, “It’ll all work out in the end. Lilli’s opinionated, pig-headed and stubborn, but when she’s finally gotten over that,” Michael snorted at the notion. “She’ll look at what happened and do what it takes to fix it. If for no other reason than because of what you two mean to each other. She’s gotta know that you wouldn’t bring just any guy to the family, and once she adds it all up in that big brain of hers, she’ll come around to the truth.” Standing up, Michael shrugged and said, “I sure hope so… Since she’s gonna be here next week for some NIH medical examiner’s symposium.” R.J. laughed at his comment. “Then you’ve got nothing to worry about, Mike. Your mother will have her walking the straight and narrow so fast the poor girl won’t know what hit her.” When Michael gave her a puzzled look, she explained, “If there’s one thing I know about your Mom, it’s that she works well under pressure, and especially when there’s a deadline on the horizon.” Nick put the final nail in the coffin. “Oh yeah… Otherwise, Lilli would’ve never been born in the first place.” Nodding his head, Michael was instantly reminded of the story about how his mother worked with Aunt Cath to get her aunt and uncle together before any of them were born. It was always one of his favorite stories, and realizing that his mother would never send Lilli out for a visit without putting her straight gave him some much needed relief. However, it still meant that he had to work on Geoffrey, as well. “Thanks… I appreciate it.” Geoffrey finally poked his head out of the kitchen and asked, “Is it safe to come out yet?” “Yes, we’re done talking about you now.” Michael rolled his eyes at the question. With his arms filled with plates, silverware, napkins and glasses, Geoffrey walked passed them and made a beeline for the table. “That’s good, because the timer just went off and these things are heavy.” Michael excused himself to the kitchen as Geoffrey went about preparing the table. Calling into the kitchen, “Hey! Where do you want me to put these pictures?” “Sorry, just put them on the shelf and take them to the office after dinner.” Doing as requested, Geoffrey went back to getting the table ready for their dinner. Within a few minutes the food was being brought out to the table, and Nick began to help his wife from the couch. Not missing a beat, Geoffrey moved from the table, after placing the last napkin, and went to assist Nick with his task. Settling in behind her left shoulder, Geoffrey reached around to grip R.J. below the arms and then lifted her from the couch. Once she was steady on her feet Nick handed her the cane, while Geoffrey held onto her left arm and started walking her to the table. There was no ceremony made about the help he gave, and it all happened without a word, only a comfortable smile shared between the two. Shortly after being introduced to the couple, Geoffrey had slipped into a very familiar interaction with R.J. in regards to helping Nick to get her from one point to the other. It was never anything that was asked or offered, but he noticed that it was not always easy for either of them. His older sister was a nurse, and he had grown up helping her out at the nursing home on weekends. It was simply second nature for him to assist with the disabled. After hearing from Michael that R.J. was not normally as accommodating to people as she had been with him, he worried that he had made a mistake. As they walked to the dining table, R.J. leaned into his side a little and he caught the grateful look she shared with him in the gesture. He no longer worried about it being a mistake, because he knew that she was glad for the help, and for the chance to give Nick a break from his duties. Dinner was its normally rousing success. As always, Michael prepared a fantastic meal for them to share, and the conversations flowed freely. Sitting back in his chair, Nick was regaling them with his latest victory at the FBI. “It was tight for a while, but once we determined the source of the fibers, everything just fell into place. Kidnappers plead guilty, and the parents got their closure after two months of pure hell. Probably one of the best cases we’ve handled in years.” The pride was evident in his words. “I heard a little about that one in a paper someone brought to camp, and I wondered if they tapped your unit for the case.” Michael stood up and started gathering the plates. “Glad to hear that chief of yours has finally pulled his head out of his ass.” When Michael turned for the kitchen, he was met by Geoffrey with his hands outstretched. “I’ll take those.” A knowing smile passed between them before he relinquished the dishware. Returning to the table, R.J. added, “His own ass…yes. But he’s still got it at least partially buried in someone else’s for the time being.” Nick bristled with her pointed comment and worked to change the topic. “The case is done, and my team is working on a presentation for the International Association of Forensic Sciences conference this Fall, based on the methods we used to determine the fibers and their sources.” “I think your cap is starting to look more like a headdress with all those feathers in it.” R.J. picked up on his attempt to move the conversation, but she did not resist the temptation to joke with him. Geoffrey came back into the room with a carafe of coffee and cups with saucers stacked on top of each other. “If they were little feathers, it could just be one of those weird cowboy things on the front.” “You’re not helpin’, kid.” Nick took to the two cups on top and set them out for himself and his wife. “Wasn’t trying to.” He handed Michael the other cups to put on the table and started pouring R.J.’s coffee. “But to change the subject away from work… Have you guys heard about this project Michael’s mother is working on for the big party next month?” R.J. stopped him from pouring with a gentle touch on his arm and asked, “Is that the picture thing she’s doing?” “Yeah… It’s pretty impressive. I got to see several of the finished pages and I couldn’t believe how detailed it is.” He finished pouring Nick’s coffee and moved to the other side of the table. “Well, Steph’s never been known to do anything half way, so I can imagine how far she’ll go for this one.” Nick dropped a few teaspoons of sugar into R.J.’s cup before setting up his own. “And because it’s for Grissom, I bet she goes even farther off the deep end.” Topping off Michael’s cup, Geoffrey finally sat down and concluded, “Yeah… And it seems to have become a family affair, too. I got to see the page that James did, and Sasquatch here is working on something as well.” “That sounds like Stephanie… I know she had me send her a bunch of pictures that we have a while back. And I think she also got some from Angela.” Nick gave her a puzzled look and she elaborated. “Pictures of Sara from when they were in college together.” His nod let her know that he understood. “So, what are you and Jimmy working on?” “I can’t speak for him…” Michael gave Geoffrey a pointed look before getting up from his seat. “But I can show you what I’m doing.” He disappeared into the back of the condo, leaving them to wait for his return. When he emerged from the hall, he cautiously carried a couple large sheets of cardstock. “Momma knew that I had a lot of stuff with Uncle Gil at work, because I have this side project I’ve been working on, so she asked me to do a couple of pages showing him in his work.” He laid the first page in front of R.J. |
| Michael craned his neck to see which one he was talking about. “Ah… Costa Rica, I think. That was the last day we were in the jungle and we came across some tour group that was running the lines. Lilli talked them into letting us join in, and Jimmy took the pictures. It was a total blast.” R.J. pointed at the picture in Nick’s other hand and asked, “What’s Jimmy doing in this one?” “Oh, that’s where he was testing his aquatic species photography system that he was developing with Uncle Gil. He used these little acrylic boxes filled with distilled water and this portable masking background to keep the lighting right, and he could take these fantastic pictures of the different aquatic species that were being studied.” He stood up straight and shook his head. “Little munchkin actually managed to get this thing to work in the jungle by laying it all out on the rocks and using the light reflected off of their surface. Uncle Gil came back with pictures of two species nobody had ever been able to capture before with those little gadgets.” “Jimmy’s always used Grissom’s lab for his little experiments in photography. I remember when he set up those cameras in the physics lab to try and capture the point of impact during all of those force experiments they did in the forensics program.” Nick handed the pictures back to Michael as he added, “But I guess all of you kids used that place as your own personal playground.” Michael laughed at Nick’s analysis of their upbringing. “Yeah, well, we all spent a lot of time with Uncle Gil growing up, and the lab was just a part of that, I guess.” He pointed to the picture of Patrick riding his bicycle in the greenhouse. “We learned about photosynthesis and how to ride a bike in the botany lab. About the differences between species of butterflies, as well as the beauty and art found in their markings. We were encouraged to discover all the wonders of science and life in that place, and when we had questions about anything, Uncle Gil was there to help us find the answers. Those answers came through the experiments, but they also came from just spending time with him.” Putting a comforting hand on his arm, R.J. smiled at him. “It’s definitely a very special place.” She looked over to Geoffrey and asked, “Did you get a chance to see it while you were there?” Dragged back into the conversation, Geoffrey straightened up and answered her question, “Ah, yeah… We took that picture of him when we stopped by Monday morning for the tour.” Nick took a moment to glance at the picture of his aging mentor and friend. Wearing his typical uniform of a dark sweater over his standard golf shirt, he was hard at work behind a microscope, surrounded by the various insect specimens he had collected over the years. Despite the white hair and the wrinkled face, Nick would have recognized the man anywhere. “I’ve gotta admit, it’s an amazing place. And I think every person there would lay down for the guy. I’ve never seen a group of people so devoted to their boss before.” Nodding her head, R.J. agreed. “They have some serious devotion in that department, and I can tell you from experience, that only comes when the director is top notch.” “I just can’t believe he’s still there working every day at his age. Most people would just enjoy what they had and sit back to let someone else handle the work, but he doesn’t seem to know when to stop.” Geoffrey shook his head with the incredulity of the situation. Chuffing at the notion that Grissom would ever stop working, Nick corrected the younger man. “For Grissom, lab work is sittin’ back. I’ve never seen a man more happy than when he could examine a bunch o’ bugs, or test some niggling theory he had bouncing around in his head.” “I swear he turns into a wide-eyed ten year old when he’s performing an experiment.” R.J. added her opinion on the matter. “I once saw him walking a student through a simple chemical separation experiment. And the sheer joy he got from seeing this kid finally understand the process, and how it related to the rest of their work, it made everyone else around him excited about it. His classes, both graduate and undergrad, would fill with waiting lists every single term. But his labs were always open.” Michael nodded at the memory as she went on to explain, “Gil felt that learning didn’t begin and end in the classroom, but that for people to truly learn they needed to put into practice the theories they were discovering. His classes had a certain number of lab experiments that had to be completed every term, but there was no set schedule for anyone to complete them. He used the lab work as a means to judge who was suited for the program and who wasn’t. When someone would be in the lab week in and week out, and the required experiments were done, Gil knew that someone really had a hunger for the work.” “Everybody thinks that Grissom’s completely deficient when it comes to understanding human nature, but the fact is that he’s just the most amazing observer. He notices everything, but the trouble comes when he gets stuck inside his own head and doesn’t do the things that make people think he’s payin’ attention.” Nick gave a perfect summation of his former boss. “I found that one out myself…the hard way.” R.J. laid a soft hand over his as they shared a knowing look. “He doesn’t always say a lot, and you’re often left wondering how he feels about things sometimes, but when it’s important, or you ask him a direct question he’s always there with the answers.” Michael shrugged for a moment and qualified his response with, “At least, he always has been for us kids.” R.J. continued to look over the page as a question began to form. “I know you want to put these pictures from the trip in here, but this is all stuff from the lab. How are you going to figure this in to the theme?” Michael proceeded to hand her the other page with a sly smile on his face. “Like this.” Nick and his wife laughed at the new page as he pointed at the title; And he walks through fields of… A Life’s Work. “That is priceless!” |
| “I’m not quite done with them yet. I had to find the picture from that trip we took with Uncle Gil the summer after graduation. Me, Lilli and Jimmy for two weeks with Uncle Gil in Central America.” Michael reached back to the shelf and grabbed the photos he had been looking for when they arrived at the condo. Passing them to Nick, he continued, “It was one of the best expeditions I’ve ever been on, and Uncle Gil’s last. I thought it would be a good idea to put some of those pictures into the scrapbook. I’m just not sure which ones to use.” Nick began to flip through the pictures as R.J. looked over to see them as well. He stopped on a picture of Michael and Lilli repelling through a waterfall together. “Where was this one taken?” |
| “Some of these pictures look like they pre-date you.” R.J. looked back at Michael. “Yeah, they do actually. A few I got from Mom, Aunt Sara and Aunt Cath, and then some others I found through alternative sources.” Through a raised eyebrow, R.J. shook her head and said, “Not only do I not like the way that sounds, I don’t even want to know.” “It’s perfectly above board. Just something from another project I’ve got going on. Totally harmless…” Michael looked back to Geoffrey for confirmation, only to find him shaking his head with a grin on his face. With a guilty shrug, Michael finally offered, “Mostly, anyway.” |