DATE: November 2006
AUTHOR: LosingInTranslation (AKA Jennifer,
losingntrnslatn)
TITLE: Vicissitudes
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own anything associated with
the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time.
Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: T – Teen (language and adult
issues)
PAIRINGS: GSR & Yo!Bling
pre-established in previous fics of this timeline.
SPOILERS: Sequel to
"Displacement" and "Transitions"
SUMMARY: Everything is changing around
Nick Stokes. Can he deal with it, and how it will affect him in the end?
A/N: This is my own little
take on the things that drive and motivate Nick Stokes throughout his life and
work. Not everyone is going to agree with me on this one, and I can accept
that. This is a serious angst monster fic, so don't expect a whole lot of
fluffiness in this one. However, I am still a GSRshipper, so you'll get a
little breather here and there with that.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: There were many who
helped with this one along the way, so my hearfelt gratitude goes out to them
all. It was a long process and it found a few casualties along the way, but
everyone's contributions really helped to make this an amazing experience.
Thank you all for your help and support!
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I
know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And
if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and
thanks for taking the time to read.
Vicissitudes
vi·cis·si·tude
noun.
1. Mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation
from one condition to another)
2. One of the sudden or unexpected changes or shifts often
encountered in one's life, activities, or surroundings.
3. A variation in circumstances or fortune at different
times in your life or in the development of something; "the project was
subject to the usual vicissitudes of exploratory research."
Chapter 1
21:00 – 2006.12.03
CSI Lab: Break Room
The
regular night shift crew was sitting around the table trading jokes, jibes and
a general feeling of camaraderie between them. Sunday night was the start of a
new week, and the team was enjoying teasing Sara about her wedding plans. They
each had their own ideas of what a wedding between their two favorite geeks
would be like, and no one was afraid to share with her what those were.
“I don’t
know. I figured it’d be one of those quaint outdoor weddings…” Warrick shot
Nick a quick wink before he continued, “…at the Body Farm.”
The howls
erupted from around the table leaving Sara with her mouth hanging open in
shock.
Greg
decided to chime in with his defense of Sara, “C’mon guys, you know Sara
wouldn’t play that way.”
Sara
recovered long enough to say, “Well, thanks, Greg. At least
one per-…”
“I was
picturing the minister at the top of the first big drop on Grissom’s favorite
coaster, and the whole wedding party in the cars behind the bride and groom.”
His face betrayed his devilish intent and the laughter burst forth once again.
By the
time Grissom and Catherine finally appeared at the door, it took the boys a
little while to stifle their laughter.
“I’m glad
to see everyone excited for work tonight,” Grissom spoke over the noise as he
noticed Sara sitting with her arms crossed over her chest and looking a bit
angry. “Well, almost everyone.”
Catherine
felt the need to chime in once her gaze fell onto Sara. “Don’t tell me… The
guys were teasing you about the wedding?” When Sara rolled her eyes to show
that Catherine had hit the nail on the head the blonde only shook her head at
the guys and continued, “Don’t you hyenas have anything better to do?”
Grissom
sensed that they were about to erupt into another fit of laughter, and felt it
was his duty to calm the storm. “Obviously not… And for the record, there will
be no bugs, bodies or amusement parks involved.” He could see all of their
taunts deflate instantly and relief washed over Sara’s face. “In fact, you
should all be receiving your invitations any time now, according to my mother.
Sara and I decided to let her plan the whole thing, since neither of us had the
time, nor the inclination for such an undertaking at the moment,” Grissom
explained, eliciting the desired response from everyone, as they were all
shocked dumb by his admission. “But I can tell you not to make any plans for New
Year’s.”
“New Year’s? Seriously?” Greg was completely surprised by
this latest development.
“Why?”
Grissom looked up from his clipboard, confused by Greg’s shock.
“I guess,
I just figured you guys would be engaged a while, for some reason.” Greg started
to chew on his index finger, his first tell that he was nervous about
something. Greg was still getting used to all the changes around the lab and
with his friends, but the haste of the wedding was not something he had planned
on. Things were changing a little too fast for his tastes.
Warrick
slapped the younger man on the back and said, “Are you kidding? You don’t think
seven years is enough waiting?!”
“More
like eleven, by my account,” a tired voice teased from behind them.
The night
shift all turned in unison toward the door of the Break Room to find the night
shift coroner standing there leaning against the door jamb with a stack of
folders tucked under one arm.
“How do
you figure?” Nick was the one who had asked, since he did not quite understand
her frame of reference.
“Well, I
was actually in that lecture hall when they met, and you’d have had to be deaf,
blind and stupid not to have figured that one out.” When Catherine and Warrick
struggled to restrain their smirks, Stephanie noticed that Sara and her uncle
were blushing slightly. “Sorry, guys, but genius doesn’t keep you from being
stupid. I was just a dumb kid, and I saw it.”
Grissom
shook his head in an attempt to push the embarrassment away.
“Anyway,
I’ve got reports for you guys. And I’m ready with the desert DB whenever you
guys are,” she explained as she dropped the reports onto the table. Catherine
picked through to find hers and then passed the rest to the next person.
When
Stephanie was safely out of the room, Grissom decided it was time to get the
assignments handed out if they were ever going to get through the night. “Okay,
first off, we have good news. After successfully cleaning up the mess at the
Body Farm, the higher ups were convinced to reinstate Greg’s Level One status.”
Greg’s
whole face lit up and he asked, “Are you serious? You mean I’m not a trainee
anymore?!”
Grissom
smirked and said, “That’s right, but it also means that you still have to
complete your final proficiencies for Level Two before you can go solo, so
Catherine will be observing you on this trick roll case over at the Golden
Nugget.” He handed the young man the slip, which he anxiously pulled from his
supervisor’s hand.
“Warrick?” Grissom continued quickly, he was not wasting any time on assignments
that night. “Hit and Run on Charleston Blvd. Vega says it’s a real mess, so you
might want to bring extra coveralls.”
Warrick
took the slip and nodded his head at the suggestion.
“Nick,
Sara?” He had a thick folder for them, which was unusual for a new case. “Seems
the weekend folks botched this one up pretty good, so we’ve been assigned to
clean up the mess and take over the case.” He handed the folder to the two CSIs
and then continued for everyone’s benefit, “DB, found in the
Sara did
not even flinch at Grissom asking them to hurry a case along, and Nick figured
she must have already gotten the run down on the case. He never wanted to think
that Grissom would let his personal relationship interfere with work, but the
situation in which he found himself smacked of preferential treatment. Nick
felt compelled to question him about his haste, “Since when do we rush the
evidence, Grissom?”
Grissom
looked up from his notes and was surprised to find Nick not following the
logical train of thought. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because another shift
screwed it up from the start. It’s in a State Park, so the Sheriff, the Mayor
and the Governor are going to be all over it come morning, and because this lab
doesn’t need anymore trouble between us and the staff over at UNLV.”
Nick
blushed under the scrutiny and felt even more ridiculous for his false
suspicion when he felt Sara kick him a little under the table.
“Now, if
no one else has any questions…” Grissom looked around the table and found
everyone ready to get the day going, so he decided to make his last
announcement. “Good… Ah, I’ve made arrangements for everyone to have Saturday
night off in order for us to have a little party.”
Greg
immediately perked up and asked, “Is this a Christmas party, Boss?”
“No,
Greg… But if you like, you could consider it a holiday party, of sorts.” He
looked to Sara for reassurance to continue. When he found her tender smile, he
had the strength. “We’d like everyone to be at our place about seven PM. It’s
just a small gathering of friends, so please try to keep this to yourselves.”
Suddenly feeling self conscious, he nervously flipped through his notes once
more and then continued, “Okay, I believe that covers it.”
Everyone
pulled out from their seats and began to shuffle out of the room quietly as
they pondered the meaning behind Grissom’s little party.
Nick and
Sara were the last to make their way to the exit. Grissom stopped them, “Ah, if
you guys run into any trouble with the case, just give me a buzz.”
Nick was
confused by Grissom’s implication that they would not be up to the task. “Why
would we need any help?” he asked, his words sounding far more confrontational
than Nick had intended.
“I have a
bit of a background in the geology, and I just happen to have a lot more
contacts at UNLV than either of you.” Grissom could not resist adding the last
part, “And because I also happen to be your supervisor.”
Once they
were out in the hallway, Sara gave Nick a firm punch in the arm, “Are you
looking for a fight tonight?”
Grissom
smirked to himself at overhearing Sara standing up for him. Once he had
gathered his notes up, he tucked the clipboard under his arm and turned to escape
to his office. He held out a faint hope that everyone would be too caught up in
their assignments to pay his little announcement any attention. When he had
made it to his office door unscathed, he sighed as he pushed into the safety of
his office. His relief, however, was to be short lived. Seated in the chair in
front of his desk was Catherine.
“You
didn’t really think I was gonna let you slide on that one, did you?” she asked,
her entire face a question.
“One can
dream.” Grissom moved to close the door to his office.
“Whatever…
Now park it and start talking, Mister.” Catherine demanded, never being one to
mince words.
He made
his way past her, around behind the desk, and sat as he worked up just the
right opening for giving her one piece of the puzzle. “Well, you know how much
you complain about your office?… There might just be a remedy to that dilemma.”
Chapter 2
21:45 – 2006.12.03
C.S.I. Lab: Autopsy Room
The
elevator ride to the Morgue was not a pleasant one for Nick Stokes as Sara questioned
his need to confront Grissom about their assignment. Nick knew that he should
not have taken things as far as he did, but he had been bothered by the sinking
suspicion that he had been left behind for a while. He was desperately happy
that his friends had settled into their respective relationships, but there was
still a part of him that felt jealous of their successes in finding happiness.
And unfortunately, those feelings seemed to be leeching into his work as well.
He knew in his heart that his friends would never let their personal lives
destroy their professionalism, but that green-eyed monster had a powerful
affect on his mind, and so the doubts remained. However, if he was truly honest
with himself, he would have to admit that his feelings of inadequacy were
coming from somewhere he rarely liked to dwell. He had been questioning so many
things since the day he was abducted, and he was not sure he would ever be able
to find the answers to his questions without truly facing those demons.
He was
shaken from his inner turmoil when Sara’s words finally pierced through his
contemplation. “I mean really, Nick… What’s gotten into you lately?” Sara asked
one of those questions for which he had no answer as they made their way to the
Autopsy Room.
“I
honestly don’t know… Maybe I’m just feelin’ like the odd man out, or
somethin’,” he tried to play off his unrest with a bit of humor.
Sara
looked back at him and smirked as they stepped off the elevator and said,
“Well, when you figure it out, will you let me know?” She put her hand firmly
on his forearm before he could pass her and gave him her most dangerous grin.
“Otherwise, I’m just gonna have to beat it out of you.”
He smiled
and shook his head. “Got it.”
When they
finally pushed through the doors to the Autopsy Room, they were both surprised
to find it empty. Stephanie was usually exactly where she said she would be, so
they could only assume that something had taken her away from the Morgue. Nick
pulled out his phone and then said, “I’ll just call upstairs and have her p-…”
Before
Nick could finish David came into the room with a body on his gurney. “Hey,
guys… Can I help you with something?”
Sara
smiled at the man’s pleasant demeanor and answered, “We were just looking for
Steph, and our DB.”
David
stopped pushing the gurney, walked over to the table near the slab and
retrieved the notebook sitting there. “Well, I passed Stephanie going into the
bathroom on the way in, but which DB are you looking for? I might be able to
get you started until she gets back.”
Nick was
able to speak first, “Ah, DB found in the Lost Grin-…”
“Lost
Gringo, got it… Multiple GSWs. Unique wound patterns. Atypical signs of
exposure.” He looked back up from the pad and then continued, “The body’s been
prepped, so the victims effects have been removed, and I’ve already collected
all the trace.” He moved across the room to a small wheeled basket, which he
pushed towards to the two CSIs. “I was going to take it up as soon as I got
back from the hit and run on Charleston Blvd.”
Nick gave
the man a quick clap on the back and said, “We can get that for ya, Super Dave.
Looks like you got your hands full tonight.” Nick gestured at the two bodies
that had been present when they arrived and also the one David had just wheeled
into the room.
“So,
where did you say Steph was at?” Sara was curious as to why the woman was
taking so long if she had only gone to the bathroom.
“Standing
right behind you.”
When they
both turned to face the voice, there was more than just a little surprise on
their faces to see her looking a little too pale.
“Sorry,
but I need to remember not to eat anything Gil gives me to snack on.” Her
explanation made sense to them both, because they had each lost stomach
contents to one of his “tasty protein treats.”
“After
all these years, you haven’t figured that one out yet?” Sara was the first to
jump at the chance to tease her about the slip up.
“I’ve
always liked the freeze-dried and the deep fried ones… But he likes to sneak
some fresh ones in there sometimes, and those are just…” They could visibly
watch her face turn green at the mention of the disgusting bug treats that
Grissom was famous for, and for a second Nick thought she was really going to
puke. “Okay, let’s just not talk anymore about it.”
She
swallowed hard, and as she made her way back across the room David handed her a
paper cup of water to help settle her stomach. She smiled at his kindness and
the two continued about their normal routines. Stephanie slipped on the
headgear and switched on the microphone as she began to explain. “John Doe,
approximately twenty-five to thirty. Weight: two hundred fifteen pounds;
height: seventy-one inches. GSW’s to the thoracic and cranial regions,
approximately thirteen entry wounds on the posterior side and seven exit wounds
on the anterior side. X-Rays show three slugs lodged in the skull and one slug
firmly resting between the second and third thoracic vertebrae. The remaining
two slugs were retrieved when the body was prepped for autopsy and subsequently
sent to Ballistics for analysis.” She stopped and clicked the button once to
pause the recording. “I recognized the wound patterning, but I left the
determination up to Ballistics, just to make sure they got a clean and unbiased
read.”
Nick and
Sara leaned in closer to examine the bullet wounds and he tried to figure out
what had created that pattern when he had to ask, “So, what did you think it
was?”
Stephanie
never got a chance to answer as Sara said, “MAC-10, based on the shot grouping,
and at pretty close range if this stippling is any indication.”
“You’ve
had some experience with them?” the coroner questioned.
Sara
looked up from the body and said through her smile, “Probably from the same
place as you.” Her knowing look brought a grin to Nick’s face and he waited for
her to elaborate. “The MAC-10’s are a favorite of the Asian gangs in San
Francisco.”
“Give the
lady a prize.” Both women got a good laugh at the exchange and Nick once again
felt out of place. “So, if you’ll notice the mottling of the dermal tissue, and
the varying degrees of lividity…” Stephanie waited for them to catch up and
turn their attention back to the body before continuing. “The victim also
suffered from extreme exposure, which is not really uncommon for that part of
the desert, except for the bizarre items we found in the trace elements.”
Nick was
ready with the question that time. “What kind of stuff?”
She
shrugged as she moved across the room to the basket of evidence bags. “Well,
it’s not often you find pinion matter in the desert.” She held up the bag that
showed needles from a tree and small pollen pods as well.
“Makes me
think it was a body dump.” Nick said as he pulled the folder from under his arm
and dug through it until he found the page he was looking for and then read
from it, “And the complete lack of evidence found at the scene would seem to
confirm that.”
“I
wouldn’t count on it.” David chose that moment to cruise through the room to
find a random piece of equipment.
Nick
looked up to see the coroner’s assistant walking through the room. “Wha’dya
mean, Super Dave?”
“Well,
they’re always getting weird stuff washing into that ravine…” He adjusted his
glasses as he dug through a cabinet and once he turned away from it he
concluded, “Kind of why the research team is there in the first place.”
As
quickly as he had appeared, David was gone once again, leaving Nick to process
what he had just said, “Yeah, so what kind of research is going on out there,
anyway?”
Stephanie
had the answer, “Evolution of Desert Erosion.”
Nick and
Sara both gave her incredulous expressions to meet her answer.
She could
only laugh at their reactions as she continued to explain, “The high desert is
the easiest place to study the effects of erosion on not only soil, but also
the landscape in general. Erosion is a faster process in the desert environment
and greatly reduces the time it takes to evaluate its effects, which leads to
more effective research.” When she could see their continued confusion, she
tried to explain it further. “See, it’s like a forced experiment, but with all
the variables of the real world. You can see the actual reactions of nature to
the elements imposing upon it, instead of only being able to recreate specific
factors of each element or natural reaction.”
Nick
looked to Sara and she appeared to understand the concept, so he just nodded
and hoped she could explain it to him later. He decided to steer the
conversation to something that he could grasp and so he asked, “Okay… So,
what’s our time of death?”
Stephanie
seemed to snap back into the case at hand in an instant and pulled her face
shield back down and grabbed her scalpel before answering. “I have no idea.”
That
caused a laugh from the two CSI’s. “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
Nick teased and then asked, “So, why can’t you give us a TOD?”
“Too much
exposure… And that’s what’s weird.” She pulled up one leg and showed them the
odd mottling around the back of the left calf. “This is not the kind of thing
you see purely from desert climate inversions. It’s almost like this guy was
flash frozen or something. But whatever it is, it makes getting a realistic
time of death impossible.” The coroner then made quick work of the Y incision before
she added, “Well, for me anyway.”
“What do
you mean, Steph?” Sara winced as the incision was made, but she was dealing
with the sight much easier than she had in the past. Nick realized that she
must have been working on her problems with autopsies in the last few months.
“Oh,
well, based on the research they’re doing, and with the video and stills, I bet
the research team would be able to give you a better frame of reference on time
of death…” She continued about her work, not stopping to explain herself to
them. “Plus they can give you some info on all the soil samples and other
matter we found on the body. Hodges won’t be able to do much more than give you
a generic type of soil, but I bet their people can tell you where it came from,
and maybe even help you find the primary scene.”
Nick
shook his head at the idea and asked, “How could they do that if we’re dealing
with a body dump?”
Stephanie
looked up from her work and gestured for them to look at the victim’s back as she
pulled the body up to its side, “Right here… Do you see the plant matter in the
wound?” They both found what she was referring to and realized that the wound
did contain a small amount of what appeared to be pine needles and bark.
“According to David, that park also has some mountain areas, which include some
stretches of pinion. Might be your primary scene, but either way, it’s worth a
good look.”
Looking
to each other, Sara and Nick had to agree that she was right. “Before you put
the body back down…” Sara reached for a pair of tweezers from the tray beside
the slab and asked, “Can I get a sample of that to take to trace?”
“Beat you
to it…” She pointed in the direction of the basket and said, “Collected pieces
from each wound and sealed them up. I also made sure David took pictures of
each wound, since the previous team didn’t get much in the way of evidence
collection in any phase of this case.”
“Yeah, we
heard that already.” Sara took the folder from Nick and started looking for
something else. “So, is there contact info for the professor in charge of this
research team?”
Having
already gone back to work, Stephanie answered her off the cuff, “Just call the
main number and ask for the head of the geology program. And I’d be prepared
for some fun over there.”
Nick was
intrigued by her comment and asked, “Why’s that?”
Shrugging
at the question, she responded, “I’ve just heard some real horror stories about
those people. Real hard nosed, no nonsense, and a little caustic from all
accounts.”
Sara shook
her head and asked, “Don’t you ever have good news anymore?”
Chapter 3
22:00 – 2006.12.03
Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino:
Room 1538
For the
entire ride up in the elevator, Catherine was sure she was going to slap the
junior CSI beside her if he did not stop bouncing around. She understood his
excitement at his first real case since his unfortunate demotion, but she was
in no mood for his antics after her talk with Gil. She was still trying to
digest the bomb he had dropped on her, and dealing with Greg Sanders was not an
ideal situation for concentration.
When the
young man spun around again, in a display of joy, she could no longer restrain
herself. “Greg, are you trying to piss me off now?”
He looked
back at her with a sheepish grin and shrugged as he said, “Sorry Catherine… I’m
just really excited, I guess.”
They had
finally arrived at their floor and she decided it would be good to admonish him
one more time before they met up with the detective on the case. “That’s fine,
Greg… But we’re professionals here, and you’re typically dealing with a living
vic on a trick roll, so make sure they know you’re a professional, too… Okay?”
“Got it.”
He took one deep breath and managed to at least project a calmer façade. Catherine
rolled her eyes and started down the hallway.
It only
took a moment to find the right spot, because out in the hall Det. Sofia Curtis
was giving instructions to a uniform. When she saw them, she smiled and waved.
“Hey guys… I think you may have just pulled the best case tonight.”
Catherine
had been on a lot of trick rolls in her time, and they were never the best
cases. “Very funny.”
Sofia
bowed her head, a decadent smile playing across her face as she said, “Oh yes,
it is that as well. Just, ah, try to keep from laughing out loud though.”
Catherine
scrunched up her face at that comment and looked at Greg, who was equally
confused. But as Catherine thought about it, she realized that she had never
gotten that woman’s sense of humor.
The two CSI’s
made their way into the room. Upon breaching the door, they instantly noticed
the overwhelmingly sweet and fruity smell. They were met by another officer who
tried to explain the call. “Housekeeping found the guy when they got around to
this room tonight… I guess this is one of their lowest priority areas. Anyway,
they found the jam jars all over the floor and started picking them up before
they noticed the guy on the bed.”
“Great.”
Catherine’s mood had just gone from bad to worse once she knew their scene had
been contaminated. She looked to Greg and asked him, “So, what does that mean?”
“It means
we gotta get prints from housekeeping to rule them out, and our scene just got
harder to process.” Catherine had to admit that Greg did seem to be fitting into
his role as a CSI much better now. She decided that maybe his demotion had
finally caused the young man to step up on the maturity scale.
“I got
statements from both of ‘em and the hotel’s bringing up copies of their work
cards. I also took and bagged both of their shoes and made them leave their
cart behind.” Catherine nodded to the uniformed officer.
“Nice
work… So, where’s our vic?” Catherine was anxious to get this thing rolling in
the hopes that she would have time to talk to Gil some more before the end of
the shift.
The
officer cracked a smile and pointed over his shoulder with his chin. “Ah, still
in there… We’re waiting for a locksmith to get here.”
Catherine
shook her head and asked, “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
He was
unable to contain his laughter anymore and answered as he chuckled, “Not even a
little… This guy is gonna have a hell of a time explaining this one.” He moved
to the side to let them pass and added, “Holler if you need anything.”
Greg
gestured for Catherine to go in ahead of him and he quickly followed her into
the room. As soon as they made their way through the entryway and rounded the
corner they were instantly rewarded with the sight before them. Catherine saw
the look of sheer panic on the face of their victim. His arms were hanging from
chains that appeared to be attached to the odd, anemone looking, metal wall
fixtures. He had on a type of leather shorts and some kind of studded leather
harness across his torso. All over the sheets and his body there was spread
some kind of brightly colored gel. That was when Catherine remembered the jam
jars that the officer had mentioned and understood that the sweet smell was
coming from the jam that had been spread on the man and everywhere else.
Greg, however,
was not as methodical as Catherine in his assessment of the scene they had
happened upon. He took one look at the horrified man before him and exclaimed,
“Holy Shit, Hodges!”
Chapter 4
11:00 – 2006.12.04
UNLV Earth Sciences Building:
Laboratories
Nick
stormed through the corridors of the UNLV Earth Sciences Building like a man on
a mission. He had a cellphone up to his ear as he walked and proceeded to carry
on an exceptionally animated conversation with the person on the other end of
the line.
“Look, I
don’t give a crap about university politics, the color of the sun or how much
quartz surrounds the average gold mine, and at this point I don’t care if I
ever find this gnarled up old professor, but if one more person sends me on a
wild goose chase today, I’m gonna lose it, Sara!” He threw his arm in the air
as he spoke, even though Sara would not be able to see the gesture. “No, I
understand that we can’t get anywhere on this case without this clown, but I am
past the point of carin’… I’m tired, I’m frustrated and dangit I just want a
straight answer outta someone ‘round here!”
He
stopped in his tracks and hung his head as he waited for his partner to finish
talking. “Yeah, I know, and I should have let you come over here, but I figured
it wouldn’t take me but a few minutes… Okay, but you don’t gotta gloat… You’re
already home, aren’t you?” Nick shook his head and swore silently in the empty
hallway. “Awright, I’ll try one more time to find this guy and then I’m calling
it a day… Yeah, best smile and all… Thanks… Did you have any luck with that
stuff?... Great!... Looks like we’re battin’ a thousand on this POS case… Yeah,
will do… See ya tonight.”
Closing
up his phone, Nick looked up to the ceiling with his eyes closed, took in a
deep breath of air and let it out slowly as he tried to calm himself before
going to the tenth place he had been sent that morning. However, despite his
efforts, he still felt frustrated from his experience on the college campus.
Some of that frustration was showing in his body language as he pushed through
the doors to the lab he had been directed to by the last person he had found.
He looked
around the room, hoping to catch sight of someone who could point him in the
right direction for the professor in charge of the research site. But, the only
person he found was a young woman in the back corner of the room. As he rounded
a series of counters, he could see her more clearly, and that was when he
noticed that she was sitting on one of those electric scooters for the handicapped.
Clearing his throat as he approached the woman, he continued to walk towards
her and when she looked up from her work he spoke. “Hey… I’m Nick Stokes-…”
“I’m
right in the middle of something…” She interrupted him and then returned her
attention to the laptop at her side. “All the classes are full for next
semester, and we don’t have a ‘rocks for jocks’ class in the curriculum. Try
the Life Sciences Building.”
Nick
could not help but feel like he was being dismissed without a second glance. And
he was also a little ticked that she had pegged him as a jock. “I think you
have me confused with someone else. I’m with the-…”
“Not
really interested… I’ve got things to do, so if you don’t min-…”
“I do
mind… Quite a bit, actually. So, if you can spare me about thirty seconds of
your supposedly precious time, I need to find the head of the geology
department and someone downstairs said I could find him up here.” Nick had
finally reached his breaking point and decided to unleash his ire on this
incredibly rude woman.
She
looked up from her work once more, took her glasses off and let them hang from
the beaded cord that draped around her neck. She fixed him with an icy gaze and
asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“A Dr.
R.J.,” Nick gave a pained and stilted pronunciation of the last name in his
notes, “Dis-my-sox?”
The woman
shook her head in disgust and Nick thought he saw a white line that trailed
along her jaw, but her loosely hung, raven hair obscured most of his view. “How
many times have you said that name like that?”
Her
question shook him out of his anger for a moment, and he wondered why she would
have chosen that as the question to ask him. “I don’t know… Feels like I’ve been
shuffled around by about fifty differnt people this mornin’ tryin’ to find this
guy.”
“Next
time, try learning how to say someone’s name before you go about butchering the
shit out of it.” Her candor had him reeling a little. Even after working with Catherine
for years, he was still thrown whenever he heard a woman use obscenities. When
she put her glasses back on and began to type something into the laptop, he
thought for sure he heard her mumble, “What a jackass.”
“Look,
however you say the name, I need to talk to this guy, even if I have to get a
subpoena to make the guy come out from whatever rock he’s crawled under.” When
she looked back at him from over the top of her glasses, he actually felt a
little chill running down his spine. Her glare was practically spitting nails
at him, but he was not about to back down. “I’m with the Las Vegas Crime Lab,
and I have official business to conduct with the professor.”
“Day-may-zo.”
He had no
idea what she had said and had to ask what she meant by it, “What?”
“You’re
supposed to pronounce it ‘Day-may-zo.’” She sat back in her seat and crossed
her left arm over her middle to catch the right one, which was lying on her
lap. “What did you need?”
“I have
to talk to the doctor about something that happened out at his research site
recently.” When the woman began to give him another look of disgust and shook
her head, he fought to understand what he had said that she seemed to find so
offensive.
Before
Nick could challenge her physical response to his question, there was a voice
calling out from behind him. “Hey, Doc!”
Nick did
a double take between the young man speaking behind him and the woman seated
before him. “I got the rest of that footage from the canyon cams downloaded to
disk for that detective guy. I also got a hold of the ranger station, and Byron
and Danny said they’d be sure to do a daily quick check of the cabin until we
can go back out there.”
Horrifying
realization spread over Nick’s panicked face, as he finally understood why the
woman was being so hostile towards him; she was the doctor.
“Oh yeah!
Before I forget, Sandi FINALLY got
that bastard at NOAA to give up those satellite images of the Mohave. She said
she’d have ‘em for you when she gets done with your one o’clock lecture
period.” The young man nearly walked right into Nick and then looked up to find
him standing there. “Dude! Sorry, I didn’t see you there, man.”
Nick just
nodded and the man walked around him to hand the professor a disk case and some
folders before moving through the other doors and into another room.
Nick
slammed his eyes shut and tried to push out the anger as his embarrassment
welled up to the surface. He struggled to come up with something clever to say,
but it just was not there, so he went with a little old fashioned groveling.
“Look, I am really sorry… It’s late and I’ve been shuffled all over the place
for the last hou-…”
“I’m not
interested in your excuses, Mr. Stokes.” She once again returned her attention
to the computer screen. “I have work to do, so if you don’t mind?”
Nick’s
embarrassment was quickly replaced with anger at the woman’s dismissal of him
and his questions. “Look, Miss… I’m investigating a homicide here, and I think that
you can spare a few minutes over a man’s life.” She looked up from her computer
once again, but Nick did not give her the chance to rebuke him once more. “I
have some soil samples from the victim that need to be identified and I was
told you and your people are the only ones who can do that… I also have some
problems with the time of death and was informed your research might help us
get that information as well. So, if I can get you to take a look at these, the
people of Las Vegas would appreciate your time.”
“I’m
curious…” He watched as she set her jaw and he could once again make out that
faint line over her face. “You come in here, butcher the shit out of my name,
assume that because I run the project I must be a man, rudely interrupt a
delicate experiment, and then take up my valuable time, with which I am trying
to save millions of lives, and then you have the fucking nerve to be indignant
with ME?!
You son of a bitch! Who the fuck do you think you are?!”
The young
man who had exited the room suddenly poked his head back in and asked, “Ah, is
everything okay in here?”
Nick
instantly felt like an amazing ass, but before he could do anything the doctor
threw the disk case across the table with her left hand and spoke again. “No,
it’s not… Would you like to escort this asshole
out of my lab? NOW!”
The man
quickly moved to show Nick out the door and looked something like a scared
rabbit for a second.
Once they
were out in the corridor and out of the line of sight for the doctor he spoke, “Hey,
dude… Don’t sweat it. You just caught her on a bad day, man.” He handed Nick
the disk case he had grabbed off the table top and then explained, “Here’s the
video your detectives asked for, and if you need us to look over anything, just
leave it with me, dude.”
The man
seemed to be genuinely concerned with what had happened in there and Nick felt
comfortable asking him what he did not understand. “So, is that typical
behavior, or do I just bring it out in her?”
The
younger man laughed out loud with his question and then answered, “Nah, dude…
There’s a reason Doc works with rocks… It’s ‘cause they don’t care how much she
yells and cusses at ‘em. And the rest of us are just used to it.” He gestured
at the folder Nick had tucked under his arm. “Wha’cha got there, man?”
“Oh!” he
pulled the folder out and said, “We found a bunch of soil samples on the victim
and we were hopin’ you guys could help us out on identifyin’ them.”
He took
the folder and then held out his hand to shake Nick’s, “I’m Boone, by the way.
I run the field unit for the Doc and I’m the resident climatologist for the
team.”
“Nick
Stokes, Crime Lab.” Nick returned the gesture and they shook hands. “Hey, we’re
havin’ trouble determinin’ the time of death and our coroner thinks that you
guys can help out with that, too.”
The man
screwed up his mouth to one side and said, “Well, that would be Doc’s area,
since I don’t even think Sandi could pull that one off. But let me see what I
can do.” He flipped through the pages as though he was searching for something.
“You got a card in here so we can reach you after she cools down?”
Nick
started patting himself down to look for one of his cards when he finally
remembered that he had a few in his wallet. He pulled out the wallet and
thanked the young man, “Hey, thanks, man… I appreciate it, really.”
From the
lab they could hear the woman hollering about something and Nick shook the
guy’s hand once more. “Good luck with that… And sorry for kickin’ up the
tempest for ya.”
Boone
only shook his head and turned back to the lab saying, “If it wasn’t you, it
would’ve been somebody else… At least this was a new variable.”
Chapter 5
20:00 – 2006.12.04
C.S.I. Lab: Processing Room
“Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrgggghhhhhh,”
Nick’s exclamation was only matched in a display of frustration by his posture,
with his fists planted into the counter and his shoulders hunched over.
“No
wonder this got pulled to nights,” Sara said as she flopped the folder she had
been looking through onto the counter top beside Nick. “Did they do even one
thing right out there?” She shook her head in disgust at the mess they had been
entrusted to clean up and said, “We’ve got no choice… We have to go back out
there and hope we get lucky.”
Though it
would have seemed impossible, Nick’s shoulders slumped even more. “I hate it
when you’re right.”
Sara
nudged him with her elbow and teased, “C’mon… It can’t be that bad.”
Nick
rolled his eyes at her comment and then set his jaw when he answered her challenge.
“Trust me… It can.”
Her face
became a question when she sat down on the stool with her arms crossed over her
chest and asked, “You mean there is someone else on this planet immune to your
charms?”
When he
grabbed at the bridge of his nose, in a gesture she knew marked his
frustration, she reached for another folder and flipped to a specific page.
“So, I take it this Dr. Desmaiseaux is not a pleasant person?” The name
practically sang when Sara said it.
Nick
looked up at her with surprise and asked, “How’d you do that?”
She was
taken aback by his question and had to ask for clarification. “Do what?”
“You said
her name perfectly. How’d you know how it was pronounced?” Nick was impressed
that Sara understood the complicated name so easily.
“Four years
of French in college for the elective language credits… I’d already taken Latin
in high school.” Nick laughed at her answer, because he could not think of
another person who would have chosen Latin over French for their language
requirements in high school, and then turned around and taken it as an elective
in college. “And besides, I think there was an obscure French writer with that
name… I’m pretty sure Grissom has some of his works at home.”
Except Grissom, of course, he thought with a smirk.
Before
either of them could continue the discussion Judy poked her head in the
doorway. “Do you think you guys could start picking up your messages when you
come in the door, please? I am not a messenger service, ya know.” The
diminutive woman was attempting to chastise them for their error, but Nick
always had a hard time taking anything Judy said seriously. Hard to be afraid of a pixie, he
thought.
Sara
reached out and took the two stacks of messages from the woman and apologized,
“Sorry, Judy… We were just trying to get a jump on our case… Must have slipped
our minds.”
The look
Judy gave her showed that she was not buying the excuse, not one bit. However,
her annoyed expression still looked a little too cute to be effective and she
simply left the room before Sara’s smirk turned into a laugh.
“Am I the
only who finds it hard to keep a straight face when the ‘Lolipop Guild’ is
trying to stare you down?” Sara’s question was the first bright spot of his day
and he could not contain the laugh that sprang forth.
Nick
chuckled at her attempt at humor, but he was too far down inside his own head
to really enjoy her joke.
With
another devilish smirk on her face, she looked down at the report and asked
Nick about the latest gossip in the lab. “So, have you talked to Greg about his
big trick roll case yet?”
Nick
shook his head and said, “Nah… He tried ramblin’ on about somethin’, but I
wasn’t really payin’ attention.”
“Haven’t
you noticed how quiet it is over in Trace?” Sara was determined to get him out
of his funk.
“Yeah,
didn’t Hodges just have a vacation? How can he be out again?” Nick looked up
and noticed Sara’s sideways grin. “Wait a sec… Are you tryin’ to tell me…” He
looked around to see who might have been listening and then leaned in to
whisper in a conspiratorial manner, “Hodges was the trick roll?”
Sara
nodded and gave him a raised eyebrow. “Cuffed, jellied and all.”
Nick
dropped onto one of the stools and cut loose with a hearty fit of laughter
before he leaned back and let out a big sigh. “Thanks, Sar… I needed that.”
Sara
tried to appear nonchalant by flipping through her messages when she asked,
“So, are you ready to talk about what’s eating you yet?”
He
dropped his chin at her mention of his recent unease, but he really was not
ready to go into it, so he tried to deflect her attention. “Right now? I’m
still a little ticked off about this mornin’.”
Her face
returned to its questioning appearance and she asked, “What? You mean getting
the run around at the-” She stopped mid-question when she came across a message
from the assistant lead from the research site about her request to visit the
site. “Well, looks like we gotta get the Doc’s permission to head back to the
crime scene.”
Nick
looked up with dismay and said, “You’re kidding right?”
Sara
knotted her brow and asked, “No… Why is that a problem?”
He winced
and explained, “Well, let’s just say that things did not end well over at UNLV
this mornin’.” Her scowl told him that he had better elaborate. “I sorta
screwed up.”
She
slammed her eyes shut before she looked for a better answer. “Screwed up how?”
“Well,
first off… She’s not a gnarled up old man… Though after our interaction, I’m
still holding to the gnarled up description.” He tried to find a good way to
spin it to his side of things, but even he knew that he was in the wrong on
that one. “And she’s got a mouth like a trucker.”
“Sometimes…
It’s the only appropriate way to speak to some people.” She put her hand on her
hip to emphasize her next question. “So, besides insulting her by automatically
thinking she was a man and obviously butchering her name, what else did you
do?”
He winced
as he said, “I might’ve said somethin’ about getting a subpoena to make her
talk to us, and maybe I got a little hot under the collar and said somethin’
about this bein’ about a man’s life and she should have some respect…or
somethin’.”
Sara’s
hands went to her face and drug them down over her cheeks as she said, “Damnit,
Nick!”
“Look, I
know I screwed up… I already said that, but-”
“But
nothing!” Her arms were thrown out in a gesture of extreme irritation that Nick
instantly recognized. “Do you have any ide-” She was interrupted by her pager
going off, she looked down at the message, and then shut her eyes against the
information contained there.
“What?”
Nick’s voice betrayed his worry.
“Well,
here’s your chance to fix this mess.” She threw the pager at him, gathered up
their notes on the case so far, and started for the door.
Nick
looked down at the screen and his whole body cringed when he read the message:
Rock Doc is here…
& U Btr HURRY B4 she jets!
Nick
swore to himself and ran out of the room to catch up with Sara at the door to
the stairs. There was no time for him to come up with anything eloquent to say
to Dr. Desmaiseaux, so once again his only option was groveling.
As they
raced down the steps, he hoped to be able to muster the nerve he needed to get
through his next encounter with the bristly geologist. But that hope was short lived
when they reached the doors to the Autopsy Room and he felt his stomach turn to
lead at the look his arrival had elicited from the woman. Her expression made
it painfully obvious to him that she was still fuming from their previous
meeting.
Fortunately
for him, he had Sara and Stephanie to act as buffers this time around. At
least, that was what he hoped would happen. When Sara started talking, he
breathed a little sigh of relief.
“Dr.
Desmaiseaux?” The woman gave a slight nod and Sara continued, “I’m really
sorry, but I wasn’t aware you were stopping by.”
“Well, it
wasn’t really my intention, but I was flipping through your lab report and
something caught my attention.” With her left hand, she opened the folder and
turned to the page she was referring to and then continued, “The plant matter
found in the man’s clothing was unusual.”
Sara
moved closer to examine the page she had turned to and said, “Yeah, we’re
thinking that the body may have been dumped at your sight an-”
“Not
likely, since the site is so remote… No, it’s more likely that it washed into
the ravine from somewhere else.” She bent over stiffly, retrieved the leather
briefcase from the scooter basket, placed it on the table and struggled to
remove another folder from it with her left hand. When she brought her right
hand up to the steady the folder pouch as she dug into it, they could not help
but notice its mangled appearance. “If you’d have found that stuff in his
shoes, I’d get it, but stuck in his clothes would be highly improbable.”
She
handed Sara a vegetation report for the Lost Gringo Mountain Recreation Area
and upon skimming through it, she realized the woman was right. The pollen pods
they had found were from a variety of tree that carried the pods at the tops of
its height, as they were what made up the canopy of a pinion forest.
“Are you
suggesting this guy came through the canopy?” Sara asked processing the
information.
The
doctor shrugged with her left shoulder and asked, “Well, they did find him with
a harness… Which is what didn’t make sense in your report…” She pointed to the
inventory list of personal effects and asked, “My field supervisor told me the
guy had on a ripped jumpsuit and a pretty serious harness rigging, but there’s
no mention of it here.”
Sara’s
shock must have been obvious to everyone in the room because Stephanie felt
compelled to ask her about it. “What is it, Sara?”
“What
harness? There’s nothing in the report about a harness.” She started flipping
through their notes and Nick tried scanning through his mind about the case.
They both came up empty in regards to a harness on the body. “Was there a
harness when he got here?”
Stephanie
picked up her own report and skimmed over the inventory of items that had been
removed from the corpse. When she found nothing, she went to her office and
started looking through a binder on the file cabinet. The next thing they heard
was her own brand of exclamation with the slamming of the binder. “Son of a
motherless sheep!”
When the
coroner re-entered the room, the scowl on her face was enough of an indication
that her humor had turned off, but when she picked up the phone it was
confirmed in her voice. “Judy?... Would
you please get that worthless excuse for a human being, Talbot, back here ASAP.
And then get Doc Robbins on the horn for me, please?”
Sara
watched her with apprehension as Stephanie grabbed at the back of her neck and
stretched her chin up in the air in an attempt to ease the tension that had
obviously landed there. “Problem?”
“Yeah,
bonehead Talbot cut the thing off and dumped it in the waste bin for
incineration. Didn’t want the decomp smell in the room.” Stephanie’s head shook
with her frustration, “Luckily, Ricky noted it in the inventory register.”
The doctor
seemed somewhat amused and hazarded a comment about the situation. “Do things
always run this smoothly around here?”
Stephanie’s
half-hearted smile was almost feral when she said, “Only on the weekends… For
now.” Her last remark was dripping with the threat of danger. And since she had
become, by default of attrition, the second most senior coroner in the morgue,
that danger was very real.
Sara took
that as her opening for their request and she jumped in head first. “So, as you
can see… We are dealing with a serious learning curve because of the previous
team’s deficiencies. And we were really hoping to be able to get back out to
the scene to try and salvage this case.”
“And you
already heard from my assistant that the sight was closed and you’d need my
express permission to go out there, right?” The woman was quick and to the
point.
“Yeah,
and look I know that this is a huge imposition for your team, but we really
need to get this one closed. So any help you could provid-”
“No need
to beg… My assistant and I are planning a trip out there for Wednesday morning
to repair some of the equipment that was damaged in that last storm, and to fix
the mess left by your people.” She added her last comment with a dark look that
she fixed on Nick.
Nick had
purposely remained silent through the entire exchange, in an attempt to keep
from getting on the woman’s bad side any further. However, with her pointed
look in his direction, he knew that had failed completely and it was time to
come clean. “We’d be happy to assist in any way we coul-”
“Highly
doubtful, but you are both welcome to ride out there with us to get what you
need.” She withdrew a card from her jacket pocket and handed it to Sara with
her left hand. “Be there no later than seven AM, and dress appropriately. It’s
rough terrain and we’ll be out of range of most everything out there,
especially cell service.” She returned the briefcase to the scooter’s basket
and then had another thought, so she added, “And we don’t have the capacity to
pack out invalids. That’s what the rangers are for.” Her gaze was squarely set
on Nick as she spoke that last line and he felt the chill of her words.
He
listened, with his head down, as the scooter whined out of the Autopsy Room.
Stephanie
was the first one to speak, after she heard the familiar bell of the elevator
doors closing, “Damn! I know it’s the morgue and all… But THAT was cold.”
“Right,”
Nick had no snappy comeback for Stephanie’s analysis of the situation and chose
to leave it at that.
Thankfully,
Sara came to his rescue. “So, did she have any other insights into the case
before we got here?”
Stephanie
seemed to be shocked back into reality with a start and she immediately grabbed
for her notebook. “Yeah, in fact she thought that your primary is probably
about two hundred feet up from the base of the ravine, based on the plant
matter we found in the vics wounds. And the soil samples seemed to confirm it
as well.”
Sara took
the notebook from Stephanie and looked over the notes the coroner had made.
When she came to something of interest she handed it to Nick while pointing at
the item. “What’s this about the mottling from the exposure?”
“Oh
yeah.” Stephanie slapped her forehead in an all too familiar gesture. “She said
that based on their data, there’s no way there would have been such a
significant risk of exposure, based on the presentation on the body. It would
have required substantially lower temperatures to have caused the mottling we
saw on the extremities.”
“What
data are they using?” Nick had finally recovered enough to participate in the
conversation.
Stephanie
handed him a printout showing temperature, barometer, dew point and wind
direction and velocity readings from six different weather stations. “They have
a bunch of weather stations set up in the area surrounding the site to gauge
what really happens over the course of their research in terms of weather. And
from their data, there weren’t any temperatures coming even a little close to
being able to cause the kinds of exposure damage to the tissue on this body.”
Sara was
looking over Nick’s shoulder to see the data in question. “So, what you found
in the autopsy shows a more drastic form of exposure?”
“Yeah,”
she reached over the table and removed a folder to hand to her before
continuing. “I found indications of third degree frostbite along the
extremities, and that there was enough time for thawing to begin before the
TOD.”
They both
looked through the coroner’s notes, but Nick was still a little confused. “How
can you tell this guy had started to thaw?”
The
coroner walked closer to the two CSIs and turned the pages of her report to a
series of photographs detailing the area of frostbite. “You can see here that
the swelling and hemorrhagic bullae had already begun to form in places.”
Stephanie then turned to another page and said, “And then there’s the
opacification of the corneas.”
Nick was
shaking his head at that symptom and commented, “Yeah, but that happens when
the body has been out there for so many da-”
“Completely
different pathology… This is the kind of thing that happens during exposure to
extreme temperatures while the heart is still pumping, and not the simple
clouding that occurs post-mortem.” Stephanie was quick to shoot him down on his
supposition.
“Well,
the only thing this is accomplishing, is giving us something to work with once
we have some kind of idea what the hell happened out there.” Sara grabbed up
all the reports and turned back to thank the coroner. “Thanks for calling us
down and this,” she held up the autopsy report, “but it looks like me and Nick
have a lot of video and trace to wade through tonight.”
Sara and
Nick were already walking out of the room when Stephanie called back to the
pair. “Glad I could help.” They were about to push through the doors when she
turned back and said, “Hey, do I need to bring anything Saturday night?”
“You’re
still making the dessert right?” Sara turned back to face the woman with her
question as Nick watched the exchange with interest.
“Yeah,
Linds is coming by Friday to help me, and to stay out of trouble. But I’ve
gotta work some Saturday, so I wanted to make sure Thomas knew what to have
ready before he picks me up.”
When she
spoke, Sara noticed that Stephanie seemed even more tired than she did up in
the Break Room earlier, so she made a mental note to bring it up to her later.
“Nah, I think we’ve got everything else under control, since we still have your
serving platters from the last time.”
Stephanie
laughed and said, “Yeah, and obviously I’ve really missed ‘em, since I hadn’t
even thought about ‘em since I loaned them out.”
“Awright…
I’ve got sisters and I know where this conversation is goin’, so I’m outta here.”
Nick pushed through the door and left Sara and Stephanie laughing at his
parting remark.
“I better
follow him, see ya later.” Sara finally left the room and Stephanie took a seat
on the stool by the table and got back to work.
She sat
there for a few moments, until the silence became too much. “Okay enough with
that nonsense.” She picked up the remote control beside her on the table and
the room was suddenly filled with the sounds of Bizet’s Carmen. “Should’ve figured it out when I always liked the murder
scene best.”
Chapter 6
16:00 – 2006.12.05
Grissom/Sidle Home
Sitting
cross-legged on the couch, completely surrounded by printouts, brochures,
flyers, pictures, folders and a couple of notepads, Sara Sidle tried to make
her way through the wealth of information before her. She chewed on the end of
a pencil for several minutes as her eyes scanned through the specifics of one
location. When that one had been determined inadequate for their needs, she
dumped it into the “no” pile within the trash can at the end of the couch, and
moved on to the next location.
As her
frustration level started to rise she let out a sharp breath before she called
out to the room’s other inhabitant. “Gil?” She chose not to wait for a verbal
acknowledgement and went on, “Are you sure we should be looking in Summerlin? I
mean, it’s just so, so plain.”
Without
taking his attention away from the computer screen, he casually called out his
answer. “Well, the neighborhoods are safe and the houses have all the amenities
we agreed on, so yes, we should.”
“Okay,
but why aren’t we looking outside of town again?” She moved another location
into the circular file.
“Because
neither of us wanted to spend all of our time commuting into the city every
day.” He shook his head at her question, but not because of the question
itself, only that he had now answered that same question about six times
already.
“So, why
is it that I am over here doing this by myself again?” The slightly annoyed
tone in her voice was crystal clear.
That got
his attention and he chuckled as he stood up from the desk. “Because I was just
getting my grant letter in order, so that I might give you my undivided
attention.”
He
crossed the room to the couch and found her looking up at him as he leaned down
to kiss her tenderly on the lips. “And now that I am here, what would like me
to look at?”
She
pointed at the small pile of maybes at the end of the coffee table near his
easy chair, “Those over there are the maybes.”
Gil maneuvered
around the land mines of piles spread around her to take his seat in the
recliner after grabbing up the maybe pile. As he sat back, he noticed a pile
sitting under her shoe. “What are those?”
She
leaned over the edge of the couch to follow where he was pointing on the floor
and noticed the pile of rejects she had placed under her shoes. When she
answered her shoulders shrugged, “Those are the asshole realtors I wouldn’t buy
something from if my life depended on it.”
He
smirked at her response, but felt a need to remind her of the use of foul
language. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yes, it
was… If you’d talked to them, you’d understand.” She dropped another packet
into the “no” pile before adding, “And if you so much as breathe on anything
from the Rockford Agency, I’ll be looking for an apartment, alone.”
He was
shocked by her comment and felt compelled to ask, “And this would be for…”
“For
telling me not to worry my pretty little head about the asking price and that
he would only talk figures with my husband just before he tried to grab my ass
in his office.”
“Excuse
me?!” That time it was Gil’s tone that was unmistakable; he was beyond angry.
Sara,
however, was still dealing with her own anger over the incident. “If I so much
as get wind that he’s involved in a property we look at, I’m gonna be out of
there so fast…”
“Sara,
when did this happen?” he spoke through a clenched jaw.
His voice
finally pierced through her own rage and she realized that he was quickly
turning red. “It was this morning, and I’ve already dealt with it, so don’t get
all worked up.”
“How did
you- What did you-” He was struggling to work through his rage and his words
would not come out easily. “Who wa-”
He was
stopped from saying anything else when he felt her hand underneath his chin as
she lifted his gaze up. “I took care of it, and I’m fine.”
He was
still angry, but the reassurance he found in her eyes helped him to push it
aside, for now.
He sat
back in the chair and she moved his arm out of the way to take a seat in his
lap. “Is this protective thing going to get better or worse when we aren’t
working together anymore?”
With that
simple question, his anger was immediately turned into embarrassment and he
dropped his chin to his chest, “Sorry.”
She wrapped
her arms around his neck and leaned her head against his to ask, “Should we
talk about this now?”
“I
suppose we’ve put it off long enough,” he said as he released the breath he had
been holding since being caught. “Unfortunately, I am always going to worry
about you.”
She
smiled and held him a little closer. “And that’s what makes you great… I just
don’t want it to get so bad that it creates problems for us.”
“Tell you
what… If you can promise me to always be careful and not take unnecessary risks,
then I will do my level best not to be an overprotective Neanderthal… Deal?” He
could feel the smile that spread over her face as she pressed her cheek into
his and held him just a little bit tighter.
“I think
I can live with those terms… But only if you promise me not to get so caught up
in your experiments that you forget I am living in the same house with you.”
With
that, the battle of the promises was on. “Agreed, but you have to promise that
the days of the triple shift are over.”
“Okay,
but you can’t take off on a moment’s notice to consult on some bug case without
talking to me first.”
“Fine,
but that means you will be running out of vacation time before the end of each
year in order to travel with me from time to time.”
“Sounds
good to me, but you have to swear that we take at least one real vacation a
year; no cases, lectures, experiments or consults involved.”
That one
concerned him a little and he raised his eyebrow to show his concern. “Does
that inclu-”
“No, we
can still see bugs, just so long as they aren’t on a corpse.” Once again, they
were thinking on the same wavelength, and he smiled. She took that as the sign
that their discussion was over and kissed him on the lips to seal the deal.
“All done?”
“With the
big stuff,” he commented.
His
answer did not bring her any comfort and she fixed him with a questioning
glare, but his attention seemed to be far off. “Gil? What is it?”
He took
in a deep breath and decided that there would probably never be the perfect
time to bring up the topic, so he made his choice and forged ahead. “There is
one thing we still haven’t finished clearing up.”
She
looked closely at him, trying to figure out what he was referring to, and when she
was unable to come up with an answer she asked, “And that would be?”
“Children.”
For such a simple word, its utterance caused all of the air in the room to stop
moving in an instant. Her silence told him what he already knew, that she had
not thought anymore about the topic since the conversation they had after
Stephanie had first brought it up to them. “We still haven’t resolved that
one.”
She
fought against the shock and the nervousness to find her voice again, but it
was not an easy feat. Eventually, she was able to swallow back the lump that
was closing off her throat and managed to squeak out, “I guess not.”
He
watched as she began to wring her hands and it made his heart sink that he had
caused her pain again. Gil wrapped his arms around Sara and pulled her closer
to him. “Sara, I’m not just making these changes for me… I’m doing this for us
and for our future.”
She
heaved a deep sigh and said, “I know, and believe me when I tell you how much
it’s meant to me. It’s jus-” Her voice failed her again, and his heart clenched
at the sound of the sob she struggled to keep inside.
“I’ll
drop this, for now… I just need you to promise me one thing.”
She
nuzzled down into the crook of neck and whispered, “What’s that?”
He leaned
his head against hers and asked, “That you’ll start thinking about it, and
we’ll talk about it again soon?”
As she
rested against his chest, he could feel her tension ease a bit and then she
simply said, “Yeah, that’s fair enough.” And his own tension began to melt away
with her agreement.
They sat
that way for several minutes, until an urgent message from Gil’s stomach
reverberated throughout the room. “Well, I guess we better figure out something
to eat, huh?”
His face
warmed with his embarrassment as she slid off of his lap and stood up. “Yeah,
so I’ll get started on the food…” He looked around the room at the mess and
asked, “What should we do with all of this?”
She blew
out a full breath of air and then turned to help him out of the chair, “I’ll
get this cleaned up, and sort through it all later…”
He came
to his feet and then wrapped his arms around her. “Are you sure you don’t want
some help?”
Draping
her arms around his neck, she smiled and said, “I’ve been thinking… Maybe we’re
doing too much all at once. I mean, what with the new job, my shift change, the
holidays, your mother, the wedding and dealing with the team this weekend.” She
leaned her forehead into his cheek and continued, “I just think we’d be moving
beyond the overachiever range and into insanity mode if we try to find a house
during all this.”
Gil
craned his head back to get a good look at her face and then he smiled at her
expression. “As seems to be a trend lately, you’re probably right.” He was
rewarded with the sparkle in her eyes and the crooked smirk on her lips.
“Besides, once I get back from D.C. next month, I’ll have a lot more time to
devote for a proper search.” He fixed her with a salacious tilt of his eyebrow
when he made his next comment, “Among other things.”
Her lips pursed,
as she tried to suppress the full out smile that was threatening to emerge.
“For some reason, that thought both excites me and scares me to no end.”
Gil was
having a hard time understanding her comment and his face showed his confusion
when he asked, “How is my searching for our house excit-… Oh…” The reason
finally made it through his thought process and he blushed at her suggestion.
Deciding
that their current line of conversation would likely lead to them being late
for work and very hungry, he chose to change the subject quickly. “So, food?”
She
inhaled sharply, sensing his decision to calm things down, she kissed him on
the cheek and turned out of his arms with her request, “Sounds good… Something
light though. I’ve still gotta make it into that dress in a few weeks.”
He gave
her a disapproving glare and said, “Sara, I seriously doubt that will ever be
an issue for you.”
She
smirked at his assessment of her dietary habits as she started cleaning up the
all the real estate information. Sara was actually relieved to have been able
to shelf the house hunting for the time being, and not just because of the
idiot she had dealt with that morning. There were just so many changes coming
about in their lives, and she was fairly certain the stress and strain of
finding, buying and then moving into a new house was a recipe for disaster by
adding it to everything else.
As she
was shoveling the last of the brochures into a banker’s box she had a question
on her mind. She called back into the kitchen, “Hey, Steph wanted to know if we
needed anything for Saturday night.”
“We still
have her serving dishes, so I can’t think of anything.”
Slapping
the lid down on the box, Sara stood up to admire her work and gave a crooked
smile. However, the smile was short lived when her mind moved ahead to Saturday
night. “So, how do you think everyone will take the news?”
She
watched as he blew out a heavy breath in response to her question, and she had
worked her way towards to kitchen when he finally spoke. “Well, Catherine
already knows about the whole business with Ecklie.”
Sara sat
down on the stool closest to him and pressed her eyebrows together when she
asked, “And how did that go over?”
He
shrugged as he turned to toss a few egg shells into the trash. “Better than
expected… But I suspect the full impact hasn’t hit her yet.”
“Do you
really think Burdick and the Mayor will take your recommendation?”
“They
really don’t have a choice with my supposed leave of absence happening at the
same time.” His hands were vigorously beating the eggs in the bowl as they
continued their conversation.
“Did any
of them question your decision to take so much time off?” She was chewing on
her lip with her nervousness.
“Ecklie has
been rather determined to interrogate me on the matter, but I’ve managed to
slip through all of his traps.” He had a devilish sneer on his face with his
admission, and Sara had to admit that it was also a very sexy look for him.
“Well, my
requests have been accepted, too…” She swatted him on the backside playfully,
“Thanks to my terribly understanding supervisor.”
He gave
her a crooked smirk and then asked, “So, did you have any trouble with the new
day shift guy?”
“Not at
all.” She reached onto the cutting board he had brought out and stole one of
the mushrooms when he had his back turned. “Seems like a real decent guy and he
agreed to keep it quiet until the transfer is complete.” When she popped the
mushroom into her mouth, he gave her a sideways glance and shook his head. “He
also said that he already has someone wanting to move to nights, so it came at
just the right time. And he has a new person starting the first, so he won’t be
short-handed while we’re gone either.”
“Do you
ever feel like timing is on our side…for a change?” Sara laughed out loud at
his question and he managed a quick chuckle as he worked at chopping up the
veggies for their omelets before she had stolen them all to eat.
“We’ll
see how we feel about that when you go out to D.C. for a couple weeks without
me.” She had meant it as a joke, but when she saw him drop the knife to the
cutting board and his shoulders drooped, she knew it was weighing heavily on
his thoughts.
She stood
up from the stool and moved closer to him. Standing directly behind him, she
wrapped her arms around his midsection and rested her chin atop his shoulder.
“Sorry.”
He patted
her clasped hands where they rested over his shrinking belly and then leaned
his head to hers as he spoke, “I suppose I’ve been trying to forget about that
aspect of our new life.”
She took
in a deep breath and blew it out slowly before she said, “Hey, we’ve gotten
bigger things sorted out already… This is just one more puzzle for us to figure
out…together.”
He smiled
so broadly that she could feel it as they stood there together in the kitchen,
and they both knew that everything would be just fine.
Chapter 7
06:55 – 2006.12.06
UNLV Earth Science Building:
Parking Lot
Nick had intended
on getting there earlier, but both he and Sara had gotten stuck in a little
impromptu safety meeting courtesy of their favorite assistant director, Conrad
Ecklie. The man really did have the worst possible timing.
The whole
ride over to the campus, Nick had pushed the bounds of safe driving, and even
managed to garner a few choice words from Sara about his future inability to
give her any grief about her driving. It was nearly seven in the morning, and
Nick was doing his level best to be onsite and out of the car by the prescribed
time, even if it killed him.
They
practically screeched into the parking lot at exactly five minutes before the
hour and he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
However, upon seeing the Doc sitting in the passenger seat of a UNLV pickup,
glancing at her watch impatiently, the burden had quickly been dropped back
down squarely onto his shoulders once again.
As Sara
stepped out onto the asphalt to speak with the Doc and her assistant, Nick
tried to distract himself by taking a look at the trailer hooked up to the
university truck. There were three,
dusty and well used, red ATV’s strapped down to the equally dirty flatbed
trailer. He also noted there were several metal cases tied down in the space where
a fourth ATV would have rested.
He
watched as Sara began a rather animated conversation with the Doc’s assistant.
Eventually, his curiosity got the better of him and he stepped out of the
vehicle to join them and to take his lashes for his earlier behavior.
Sara
turned to see his approach and gestured for the assistant to turn as well
before she said, “Hey, Nick… Did you know Sandi was the Doc’s research
assistant?”
Nick
tried to search his mind for the woman’s face and name, but he was coming up short
of an answer when the woman removed her large floppy hat to reveal a head full
of very long, reddish orange hair and said, “Does that help?”
That was
when it dawned on him. “Super Dave’s fiancé?!”
She shook
her head at Sara and just laughed, “Why is it no one recognizes me without the
hair?”
The voice
from inside the truck answered for her, “Because it’s hard to see anything
else.”
Sandi
shrugged, realizing that it was a rather obvious physical trait. “Anyway, I was
just explaining to Sara about those boneheads you guys had come out to the site
when we found the body. I felt like I was watching the Keystone Cops, or
something.”
Nick
switched straight into investigator mode. “So, you found the body?”
She
pulled her hair back up into the hat and put it back on her head before
answering, “Ah, no… That was Boone. I was still at the cabin getting the data
readings ready to cart back to the lab when he radioed in about the body.”
“But, you
were there when the crime scene crew showed up?” Nick started taking down some
notes on his pad.
“Well-”
She was
cut off by the obviously irritated voice of the professor. “Do you think we
could do the interrogation after we get to the site? It’s already getting
late.”
Nick sucked
it up and prepared to make his apologies. “I’m sorry, Dr. D-”
“Whatever…
Sandi, we need to get that meter fixed and we need to get back here before my
meeting, so let’s go.” Sandi grimaced when she turned to the CSIs as she tried
to play off the professor’s rudeness.
Nick
walked away, clenching his jaw and desperately tried to hold his tongue as Sara
and Sandi made apologies for their respective traveling companions. When Sara
reached their truck, Nick was already inside and turning red with his anger.
“We’re
gonna follow them out, so stick close.” He nodded, and she could not help but
add, “We can’t afford to lose ‘em, ‘cause I’m not sure they’d wait for us.”
He put
the car into gear and followed closely behind the university vehicle, but he
was unable to keep his tongue any longer. “I can’t believe that woman… I mean,
really… Was what I did so bad? Really?”
Sara was
not going to answer him, thinking it was a rhetorical question, but when she
found him staring at her, she figured she had been wrong. “Well, let’s review…
You were pissed off after getting the run around, and we both know how charming
you can be when that happens.” Nick grimaced at her assessment, but motioned
for her to continue.
“And of
course there was the whole name butchering incident, followed immediately by
the sexist assumption she was a man.”
Nick had
to stop her there, “I am not a sexist!”
“All
evidence to the contrary.” Sara had meant it offhandedly, but she also knew
there was a little truth in that statement. Nick had very specific ideas about
the female of the species, even if he did try his best not to show it, most of
the time.
“What the
hell’s that supposed to mean?” Nick looked genuinely shocked at her remark.
“You want
a list?”
“Yeah, I
do.”
“Fine.”
Sara set her jaw and got started, “The hooker, the pyro, the whistle, the
nurse-”
He
stopped her before she went any further, “Wait, wait… What about the nurse? And
which one?”
Sighing, Sara
rolled her eyes and answered, “Does it really matter? You treat beautiful women
one way and all the rest differently. You have a different way of acting
towards me, that you would never do with Warrick. You see Catherine as
subordinate to Grissom, even though they are BOTH your supervisors.” Nick was having a real tough time
stomaching her assessment of his personality. “Face it, Nick… It may not go all
the way to discriminatory, but you ARE
a sexist.”
Searching
for a response to her statement, he was at a complete loss for words, because
he was totally unable to deny any of her declarations. The only thing that his
mind could register was that he probably owed her an apology. “Sara, I’m s-”
She held
up her hand to stop him, “There’s no need to apologize. It’s just who you are.
It’s just that other people may not be able to see past it the way I do.”
That
confused him, so he asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well,
you’re not a pig… It’s just that you have your mind on a certain bent; that
women should be different than men. I don’t know, maybe it’s just a Texas
thing, but you aren’t doing it out of some macho power trip. You just seem to
have some warped view of what women are, I guess. I know you mean well, but
sometimes it can piss me off. But when it’s all said and done, I know your
heart’s in the right place, and I can look past the stuff that bugs me because
we’re friends.”
“And if
we weren’t friends?” He was not sure he wanted to know the answer, but he had
to ask.
“Then…”
She fixed him with one of those dangerous looks and said, “I’d probably have
left your butt back in that lot and road out with them alone.”
Nick
smiled uneasily and kept right on driving, but his friend’s words weighed heavy
on his mind for the rest of the trip.
Chapter 8
08:00 – 2006.12.06
Lost Gringo Mtn. State Rec. Area:
UNLV/EPA Desert Erosion Research Site
When Nick
watched the university truck pull off onto a large clearing at the side of the
park service road his whole body stiffened. He was about to have to deal with
the professor face to face once more, and he just knew it was not going to be
good.
Sara
immediately jumped from his truck and went to where the professor’s assistant
was standing at the back of the trailer. They were obviously hitting it off
well, and he assumed it had something to do with her friendship with David.
Nick had always been fond of the coroner’s assistant, but they had never really
struck up any kind of real friendship. As he watched the two women laughing and
unstrapping equipment, he tried to prepare himself for a morning with the
professor.
Opening
the door to his truck, he carefully slid out onto the hard scrabble ground
below and kicked up a little dust in the process. He ambled over to the trailer
and laid a hand on the upright ramp at the back of the trailer.
He was
about to ask what he could do when the professor limped around the side of the
other truck. “Careful leaning on that ramp… The catch isn’t always tight.”
Nick immediately
took his hand off of the ramp and stared at it like he had been snake bit, but
the professor seemed to pay him little mind. He took one more steeling breath
before asking, “So, what can I do to help?”
The
professor hollered, “Stand back,” as she dropped the lever that had been
holding the ramps upright and they came crashing down onto the ground.
They all
jumped away from the trailer in an instant, but before anyone else could say
something Sandi took the initiative. “Christ, Doc! Would you quit that?!”
Nick had
originally thought the trick was being played on him, but Sandi’s outburst and
what he thought was a smile from the professor made him realize it must have
been a running gag. She cast another look at Sandi and said with a careful grin
on her face, “I guess the catch is working today.”
“Whatever…
It wasn’t funny the first twenty times you did it, what makes you think it
would get better with repetition?” Sandi hauled the large metal case off the
front of the trailer and dropped it onto the ATV with the short-bed on the
back.
“Watch
it… That meter costs more than your hatchback.” The professor shot over her
shoulder as she slowly made her way back to the front of the truck.
Nick took
the time to more closely examine the ATV’s. All three were different, with one
being the standard one person recreation vehicle he had used back home. The one
Sandi was loading up with equipment looked like a scaled down, short-bed, four
wheel drive pickup, but it still was only good for one person to ride. The
third one, however, was rigged with an odd looking seat on the back end of it.
It appeared to be air-cushioned with some kind of shock absorber along with an
interesting harness. He deduced that it was probably for the professor, since
he found it difficult to believe she could operate one of the ATVs with that
bad leg of hers.
While he
was sizing up their transportation for the day, he failed to notice that Sandi
had come up behind him until she put a hand on his arm and said, “Hey, Nick…
You want to unload the first two ATVs for me, please?”
“Huh? Oh,
yeah, I can do that.”
Nick
climbed up onto the trailer when Sandi had another thought, “Ah, you have used
an ATV before, right?”
“Oh yeah…
We got a bunch of ‘em out at my folks place.” Nick climbed onto the short-bed
ATV and cranked it up.
The
professor came back around the truck carrying a series of radios and looked up
in time to find Nick sitting atop the short-bed carrying her precious piece of
equipment and he could tell instantly that she worried about the logic of
having him operate the vehicle. He smiled and revved the engine quickly to
drown out any attempt she might have made to dissuade him from moving the ATV
and then slowly backed it down the ramp onto the desert floor in one smooth motion,
without so much as rocking the equipment strapped onto the bed. He parked it,
and left it to sit there idling as he moved to next ATV.
As he
jumped up onto the trailer again the professor asked, “So, you’ve used these
before?” Nick only smiled as he kicked on the modified ATV and revved the
engine to keep it going. The professor dropped her gaze and he could tell she
was suppressing the desire to make a rude comment. He had to wonder, as she
moved back to where Sara was standing, if she and Sandi had not also had an
interesting discussion about behavior patterns on their way to the site.
Once all
the ATV’s were ready to go, and all the equipment loaded up, Sandi handed out
helmets to each person. As Nick was about to slip his helmet on the professor
stopped him and said, “You might want to plug in your radio first.”
Nick
looked down into the helmet and found that there was a headset inside the
padding there. He looked around the side and found the jack for the radio unit and
plugged it in as he examined the controls for the radio. Not seeing a talk
button, he had to assume they were voice activated and then he found the
microphone tucked up into the face shield of the helmet.
Having
gotten everything on the short-bed adjusted for his comfort, Nick looked up and
noticed Sara having a little trouble with her helmet. So, he walked over to her
and asked if she needed any help. While he was readjusting the headset inside
of her helmet he watched the professor getting up onto the modified ATV with
only a little balancing help from Sandi.
He
observed as she leaned back onto the ATV from the air-cushioned seat and pulled
herself up into the seat using her left arm and hoisting herself into position
by gripping what looked like a handbar welded to the side. It was an
interesting maneuver, but it seemed to do the trick. During the whole thing, he
noticed that Sandi did not balance the professor with her right arm, but
instead keeping a hold on her side. When he saw her tuck the right arm into her
overshirt and pull the shoulder harness strap over it he suddenly realized that
there was something wrong with the arm.
Before it
was over, Sandi had placed the professor’s right leg into an odd looking
stirrup and tightened a webbed harness over her lap as well. He had to wonder
why she would go through so much trouble just to go out to a field research
site, since it obviously took a great deal of effort only to get her there. Out
in the desert, with nothing around for miles, he also had to wonder about the
sanity of having someone with so many physical limitations on the field
research team at all. The whole thing just seemed far too dangerous for his
comfort, but he was currently in no position to voice his concerns.
Sara
noticed that his attention had been closely attuned to the professor’s actions
and she nudged him with his elbow. “Didn’t your mother teach you not to stare?”
Nick
whipped his focus back to Sara and said, “Huh?... Oh yeah, sorry... I was ju-…
Nothin’.”
Sara
smirked and then whispered, “Let me guess, you were wondering why she even
bothers if it’s that much trouble?”
His face
immediately betrayed his shock at having been caught, and a blush flagrantly
passed over his cheeks. “I’ll give you a hint… Because guys like you think like
that.”
Their
exchange went no further when Sandi walked up to inspect the device attached to
the back of Sara’s single person ATV. As she was checking to make sure it was
securely fastened to the back Nick became curious as to why it looked like they
had attached a road grater to the vehicle.
“Hey,
Sandi… Are we plowing roads with that thing?”
His
question was met with a condescending laugh from the professor. “Not hardly…
Soil compaction is a huge factor in changing the face of the desert landscape.
So, we do our best to keep the soil at existing compaction densities by only
heading out single file and trailing the grate on the last vehicle. We also use
two alternating routes to reach the site.”
“So,
compacting the soil… From like trucks and stuff?” Nick was really trying to
understand the work they were doing out there.
“Various land use practices that involve trampling or off-road
vehicular use can cause soil compaction and results in decreased rates of water
infiltration and increased soil erosion rates. We’re experimenting with this
area for a recoverability practice, since it demonstrates a controlled zone in
which there is little to no moisture present through the flats here. In some
places, fifty years later, a single incursion of a vehicle continues to impact
the area it has left, making it devoid of even lichen growth. This is just one
way we’re trying to reverse the effects of improper land use.” The professor
obviously knew her stuff, and Nick had to admit he was impressed with her dedication
to not only studying the desert environment, but also working to correct damage
already done.
“And I wish I could say that will be the end of the lesson today…
But I’ve taken this trip with her too many times to even hope.” Sandi winked at
Sara and Nick as she made her way back to her ATV and then called over her
shoulder. “And just like the lady said; single file, Sara in the rear. We’ve
got just over four miles to the site and I really don’t want to have to listen
to Doc if she misses her meeting today, so let’s get going.”
They all
mounted up and did a quick radio check before motoring off to the West of the
roadside pulloff. The terrain was a little smoother than Nick had anticipated,
but looking ahead he could tell that it was not likely to stay that way.
They had
been going for a good twenty minutes when they started to approach an arroyo
and he heard the radio crackle in his ear. It would appear that the lesson was
just beginning.
“Those are dry stream beds,
commonly called arroyos. They’re typically formed by the violent storms that
flood the desert environment: sometimes sending thousands of liters of liquid
through a single arroyo in a matter of minutes. Actually, more people die in
the desert from drowning than from heat exposure or dehydration. Those flash
floods are quite common out here because the water really has nowhere to go but
out, and in a hurry.”
The next
few minutes were quiet again, but then Nick noticed a strange sight off to
their right. At first glance he thought it was some kind of NASA probe, but he
decided it would be a good way to make points with the professor by noticing.
“Is that some kind of reading station off to the right?”
His
headset crackled again with her response, “Good
catch… It’s actually one of the eleven climatology stations we operate onsite
that feed data to the USGS. They work off solar power and transmit wind
direction and speed, precipitation, humidity, air and soil temp, as well as
barometric pressure via that antenna linked to the GOES-4. The USGS has these
stations all over the country in an attempt to better catalogue U.S.
climatology data. There are a few privately held stations as well… Run mostly
by amateur climatologists and quite a few environmental activists. However, the
USGS prefers to use their own station readings, in order to prevent any
possible political bias in regards to the actual data reported. But so far,
even the private data is sticking to the official record as well and telling a
fairly compelling story.”
The
scenery was all starting to blend together for Nick and he was having trouble
following along any longer, so he was really glad when Sara decided to pipe up
with a question of her own. “Hey, what’s
the significance of the soil changes at the base of the watersheds, but not
beyond that?”
Without
fail, the professor had an answer for that as well when the radio popped off
again. “It’s called an alluvial fan and they’re pretty common to the Mojave Desert and the
California portions of the Sonoran Desert. They’re formed through geologic time
where an arroyo or wash drains a mountain, depositing the detritus in a
semicircle at the canyon's mouth. Much of it’s been washed down during
torrential summer downpours. In the Southwest these detritus skirts or pediments
are frequently called bajadas. The substrate is coarser, with larger rocks on
the upper bajada and then the finer ones are found at the lower elevations.”
Nick was
getting a forced crash course in desert geology, but he was beginning to find
the information somewhat relevant to his work. He had been a surprised a few
years back when he had found a woman in the desert; the victim of drowning.
Nick and the detective had a tough time grasping the fact that anyone could die
of drowning in the desert. At the time, Greg had given him a quick lesson in
rainfall around the Vegas area. He racked through his brain trying to figure
out what that term was that Greg had used, because he figured it would help him
not sound so much like an idiot. “Hey, I had another case a while back and we
were talking about something called the ‘mountain shadow effect.’ What exactly
is that?”
“I think you’re referring to rain
shadow deserts…”
Nick was wrong, because he was yet again proven a fool. “Rain shadow deserts are formed because tall
mountain ranges prevent moisture-rich clouds from the reaching areas on the
lee, or protected side, of the range. As the air rises over the mountain, the
water’s precipitated and the air loses its moisture content. A desert is formed
in the leeside, or shadow, of the range. And yes, this area is the prime
example of a rain shadow desert.”
It was Sara’s turn again when Nick heard her voice over the radio,
“So, if there’s little or no
precipitation in this area, what kind of erosion are you studying? Wind?”
“Well, while little
rain does fall in the deserts, they do receive runoff from ephemeral, or
short-lived, streams fed by rain and snow from adjacent highlands. These
streams fill the channel with a slurry of mud and commonly transport considerable
quantities of sediment for a day or two. That phenomenon is very similar to
what happens with man-made erosion, and by studying the natural process of
sedimentary erosion, we’re able to predict the patterns of man-made wastewater
disposal erosion and then we can prevent much of the damage that’s been done to
our country’s waterways and aquifers.”
Nick was finally starting to understand just why the professor’s
work seemed so important. She was trying to preserve the environment in a real
and effective manner, using the principles of erosion she was studying in a
controlled, but natural setting. And the fact that someone had turned her site
into a crime scene actually made his stomach turn.
For the rest of the ride to the site, Nick listened to the
various snippets of conversation, but his mind was occupied with other things.
And he had to wonder if Sara had picked up on his mood change, because she
seemed to take over the question side of things at about the same time. Of
course, she could just be interested in the professor’s work. She is just a science nerd after all.
Chapter 9
08:45 – 2006.12.06
Lost Gringo Mtn. State Rec. Area:
UNLV/EPA Desert Erosion Research Site
After what
was probably the roughest four and a quarter miles of Nick’s life, they finally
arrived at the research field site. There was a solid, walled shelter that
looked like it was sitting up on a series of milk crates. He imagined it had to
be a sweat box for anyone working inside there. He also spotted various
weighted tripods throughout the small canyon, on top of which, he assumed, were
a series of still and video cameras. Nick noticed a few more of those reading
stations at different points throughout the canyon. All in all, it looked like
a fairly high-tech research site.
“Surprised
by all the gadgets, Mr. Stokes?” The professor called from the shelter as she
reached up to remove the padlock, with her crutch dangling from her left arm.
“A
little, I guess… Just seems like you’d be worried about leaving all this stuff
lyin’ around.” He walked around the back of the short-bed and started removing
the straps from the equipment as he spoke.
The
professor laughed at his suggestion that the equipment would be stolen. “Well,
first off, you saw how hard it is to get in here… Plus, the stuff is on
twenty-four seven, so they’d be caught on video, since all this stuff transmits
straight into the shack and then to a satellite uplink. And then…” She dropped
the crutch back down and leaned against it as she pointed up at the structure
off in the distance on the east face of the mountain bordering the canyon. Nick
noticed that her right hand was covered in jagged scars as she pointed west,
and then she said, “That Ranger Lookout Station is pretty visible to the site.
Rangers are there quite a bit, plus that’s where the radio relay station sits
for this area.”
Nick
realized he had just caught her in a lie, “So, that whole bit about this place
being out of reach was something of a stretch?”
Her half
of a grin was pinched and she shook her head when she said, “Only when we’re
onsite… That four and a quarter mile stretch is completely blind. And if
something’s gonna happen, that’s where it’ll be.”
“Fair
enough… So, where do you want this thing?” Nick patted the piece of equipment
on the back of the short-bed.
“Just
leave it.” The professor looked over her shoulder and called to Sandi. “Sandi!
Why don’t you take them to the site and show them the way up the ridge?”
“Gotcha!
Lemme just finish with this thing.” Sandi was busy pulling some brush out of
the front end of the modified ATV.
“Leave
it… I’ll get it when I’m done.” At the professor’s word Sandi stopped and began
to stride over to the short-bed with Sara following close behind.
“I left
the grips on the fender,” Sandi said as she reached the shelter. She stretched
her hand up to grab the bar the professor had just unlocked and pulled it out,
which caused the whole sidewall to drop to the ground with a horrendous metallic
crash. Nick and Sara were both clutching their hearts and ears from the shock,
but Sandi and the professor only had their heads turned with a finger in one
ear.
Without
missing a moment, the professor started up the ramp created by the fallen wall
and called over her shoulder to Sandi again. “Just make sure you take the bunny
slope up… I don’t want any mishaps out here.”
Nick
grimaced when he saw Dr. Desmaiseaux looking directly at him when she had
spoken that last line and he had to turn away to hide his frustration. He
watched as Sandi grabbed a pack off the back of the short bed and motioned for
him and Sara to follow her to the ridge.
Nick
trailed behind the other two women as they made their way through the small
canyon. He had been shut down twice in the same day by the same woman, and for
a guy who prided himself on his charm and chivalry, Nick Stokes was feeling
beaten.
When they
reached a cut in the slope of the canyon wall Sandi stopped them and asked,
“Okay, make sure your shoes are on tight, your packs are balanced and anything
you might need on the trek up is in your pockets and not the pack. This trail’s
not really a trail, so much as a string of footholds along a rock face.” Sandi
was checking her own boots and pack as she spoke and Sara followed her lead.
Nick took
a moment to look up along the cut and then had to ask, “So, this is the bunny slope?”
Sandi
laughed at his question and said, “Oh yeah… The only other way up is hanging from
a rope and dodging falling rock from the person over you.” Sandi moved over to
check Sara’s pack for balance and then added, “Don’t mind, Doc… She’s got a lot
going on and so a sparkling personality isn’t really high on her list of
priorities.”
Nick looked
up from where he had leaned over to re-tie his boots and asked, “Sparkling?”
A broad
smirk crossed Sandi’s face before she responded, “Okay, so she’s a raging bitch
most of the time, but it does serve a purpose.” The look in Sandi’s eyes as she
explained further made Nick nervous. “At least she doesn’t throw things
anymore… I’ll take the occasional string of expletives over the sailing of
another laptop into the rocks any day.”
Sara was
not able to contain her own laughter at Sandi’s statement. “I sure hope you’re
kidding.”
“Not
hardly… I think you can still find pieces of it behind the shelter over there.”
Sandi continued her casual inspections by checking Nick’s pack as he stood up
and looked over towards the shelter where Dr. Desmaiseaux was pulling equipment
off the short-bed. “Thank God David was able to salvage my hard drive.”
“Wait… It
was your laptop?” Sara was shocked with the revelation.
“Oh yeah…
But in her defense, I was about to replace it because it had gotten so
temperamental. And besides, after David spent a whole week working to save the
data I had in that hard drive, I knew he was a keeper.” Sandi winked at Sara
when she added that part, causing the other woman chuckle.
Sandi
looked satisfied that everyone was finally ready to make the trek up the canyon
wall. She slapped her hands together and said, “Okay, enough mush… You guys
ready to go?” She found a pair of anxious expressions and she smiled. “Okay
then, one foot in front of the other, single file…” She pulled out a length of
rope and tied hand holds in it, handing it to each of them as she walked to the
front of the cut trail. “Hold on to this and use the rest of us to
counter-balance if you lose your footing.”
“Ah,
where did you guys find the body?” Nick worried they were forgetting why they
were out there.
“I’ll
stop when we get there… He was wedged into one of the crevices about half way
up.” Sandi spoke as she made her first steps into the cut.
Sara
followed right behind her and Nick pulled up the rear. The footing was tricky
and he found himself staring at the ground more than looking ahead, just to
make sure he did not trip and take all three of them down with him. He could
not imagine that thin as a rail Sara or the lanky Sandi had enough substance to
hold him back from falling if it happened. He also did not need another
incident for the professor hold against him.
He had
been so busy watching his own feet that he failed to notice the two women had
come to a stop and he came face to backpack with Sara. “Whoa there, cowboy.”
Nick
caught himself before he fell backwards and blushed immediately. “God! I’m
sorry, Sar.”
Sara just
turned to him and smiled, which instantly put his fears to rest. Without saying
another word to him, she turned her attention back to Sandi and asked, “Which
way?”
“Over
there on your left, about ten meters… You’ll be able to see all the scuffs from
the litter and all the footprints.” Nick’s face showed his disappointment and
Sandi added, “Sorry, but they were already lifting him out by the time I got
here. But, I did make sure Boone took some pictures before they got there.
Should be on that disk you got from him.”
Sara and
Nick walked the ten meters to the body site, made a quick scan of the area,
took some reference shots for their scene sketches, and basically came back to
the trail with nothing more than they had arrived with that day. It was very
disheartening for both of them and Sandi could see it in their expressions as
they returned to the trail.
“So, I
gotta re-set a seismometer up top on the ridge… You guys want to come up with
me and look around?” Nick could tell that Sandi was trying to give them
anything she could and he had to admit that he was curious if they would find
anything.
He smiled
at the young woman and said, “Yeah, that would be great… Who knows, maybe we’ll
get lucky.” He was glad to have a chance to look around some more, but if Nick
was completely honest with himself, he just did not want to go back down into
the canyon, alone, with the professor.
They were
on their way up the trail once more and Nick continued to focus on his steps,
but also on the distance between himself and Sara so he did not make the same
mistake again. The time seemed to get away from him, because before he knew it
they had cleared the trail and were now standing atop the ridge enjoying a
quick drink of water.
Sandi
immediately set to work on her seismometer adjustments as Nick surveyed the
ridge and Sara applied some additional sunblock to her face and ears. Nick gave
her a sideways grin as he watched her slather on more of the cream.
“Laugh
all you want, but I don’t tan, and I am not about to be sunburnt at my own
wedding.” Sara continued her work as he laughed outright.
He moved
to stand beside her and put a hand on her shoulder when he said, “Don’t worry,
Sara… I’m sure you’ll have already peeled by then.”
“Don’t
even joke about that, Stokes.” The glare she shot him only made him laugh
again, and he started walking along a grove in the ridge top.
“Joke
about what?” Sandi had quickly rejoined them.
“Nothing…”
The look Sara shot him told him all he needed to know. “Hey, Sandi… All kidding
aside, what’s going on out here that’s got the Doc all worked up?”
Sandi
blew out a sharp and exaggerated breath and then she said, “Where do we start?”
It was obviously a rhetorical question as she began to answer it herself. “Ah,
we’ve got the Dean of Science trying to muscle in on her grant money, the
annual progress reports for the federal service, Boone’s masters being put on
hold because of some bogus departmental political garbage, rehab from the last
surgery, running a major research project as a second job, and oh yeah, a dead
body in her research area. So, why would she be on edge?”
“Sounds
like fun… What kind of surgery?” Nick noticed that Sara was staring at him with
a surprised expression, but he had no idea why.
“Nothing
major… Doc just has a bad habit of wearing out her spare parts. Woman’s got
more metal in her than my hybrid. And I wish I was exaggerating.” Sandi laughed
at her own joke and Sara tried to join her, but she was still giving Nick a
look.
“Spare
parts?”
“Huh?”
Sandi was crouched down and digging through her pack as she answered him. “Oh yeah,
Doc’s pretty much held together through the grace of Dow Chemical, Alcoa
Aluminum and God almighty. Of course, after getting bounced off a semi-truck,
she’s lucky to even be drawing breath.”
“Bounced
off a what?” Sara and Nick were both shocked at her offhand remark, but it was
Sara who spoke up.
“Ah, Doc
was in a pretty nasty motorcycle accident with a semi about ten years ago;
before I knew her actually. End of my freshman year I was looking for an
internship and my advisor had worked with her before the accident, so he
recommended me for her project. Haven’t left yet, and she’s even my sponsor for
my Ph.D. That accident did a number on her in a lot of ways though. I mean, she
was always confrontational, but afterwards it was like she lost all patience.”
Sandi started securing her pack again as she spoke. “I saw it in her field
notes, but the best way to see it is the tapes.”
Nick was
transfixed with the story and felt compelled to know more. “What tapes?”
Sandi
shrugged and said, “Research tapes… You deal with a bunch of college punks all
the time and you have to spend some time editing out the antics from your
research tapes. Before the accident, Doc and her fiancé were the biggest of the
pranksters, but afterwards, Doc’s sense of humor got really dark.”
Sara took
another drink and remarked, “I didn’t know the Doc was married.”
Nick
watched as Sandi blanched with Sara’s comment. “Ah… Um… The Doc’s not married.” Sara’s gaze shot up to
Sandi’s and Nick watched as the woman practically whispered her next words. “He
ah, he was…he didn’t sur-…survive the accident.” She shook her head sternly at
the pair beside her and said, “And if you value your life, I’d forget all about
him.”
They both
took the warning for the solemn truth and dropped the issue. Nick decided to
look around the area again, hoping to get his mind off of the information he
had just been given. As he cast his gaze toward the trees off in the distance,
something caught his attention.
“Ah,
Sandi?”
She
looked up from her water bottle. “What’s up?”
“How much
foot traffic does this ridge get?” He was walking slowly towards the item that
caught his eye as he spoke, careful not to miss anything along the way.
“God…
None really.” She looked around the area and watched as Nick stalked off towards
the trees. “It’s been month’s since I was up here, and I think Boone had to
reset the weather station system a few weeks ago, but nothing else has been
logged since the last time I was up here.”
Nick was
nearly to the item when Sandi spoke the last words. Bending down to examine the
piece of torn material, he had not realized that Sara was right behind him
until she handed him the camera over his shoulder. He looked back to find her
digging for her forceps. “Thanks, Sara.”
He clicked
off a few shots after dropping the marker down and when he turned back, Sara
was reaching for the camera and handing him the forceps and a bindle. He
reached out and grabbed the material, holding it up for both of them to see.
“Looks
like ripstop material… Like a running suit maybe.” Sara was dead on with that
analysis.
“Yeah…”
He sealed the bindle and started scanning the area further ahead.
Sara beat
him to the next piece. “Over here!”
He walked
the ten meters over to where she had wandered along a strange looking path on
the ground. “More material?”
“No,
looks like some plastic, but it’s not melted or very degraded at all, so it
couldn’t have been out here long,” she said as she snapped off her reference
pictures before she tucked the camera back into the side of her pack and then
went for the forceps. As she was digging, Nick walked up beside her and handed
them back to her. “Oh, yeah.” Her casual smile reminded him just how much he
enjoyed working a scene with Sara. They might be competitive, but it had never
really been a bad thing, even during that whole promotion nonsense.
Nick
looked back down at the ground again and was trying to make out what it was
they were following. “What do you think this is?”
“What?”
Sara tried to see what he was referring to, but only found him looking at the
ground. “You mean the ground?”
“Yeah, it
looks like some kind of trail… See the disturbance in the rock patterns?” He
was gesturing at the disheveled rocks and dirt when Sandi came silently up
behind them.
“Probably
the wash path of your body.” Both CSIs nearly jumped out of their skins when
she spoke. “Sorry, too much time in the desert.” She tapped at the smooth and
supple rock hound shoes she was wearing using her opposite foot. “I’m
stealthy.”
They both
shook their heads at the joke, and the three of them began to follow the swath
in the dirt to see if they came across anything else. As they were walking, a
warm breeze began to waft down from the treeline. Sara and Nick continued their
forward march towards the trees and closing the distance quickly, but Sandi
stopped and started looking across the sky.
Nick
suddenly found something glinting off in the trees and was about to mention it
when Sara pointed in the same direction to show that she had seen it as well.
Sandi, however, looked preoccupied as she scanned the distant horizon. As the
two CSI’s were about to inform her of their discovery, a signal flare exploded
overhead.
“Crap!”
Sandi turned to Nick and Sara with a terrified look on her face. “Whatever you
have is all you’re gonna get. Make a run for the edge… NOW!”
Sandi
took off at a dead run, but Sara and Nick were standing there in confusion
until Sara caught the scent of ozone in her nostrils at about the same moment
that Nick did and they both took off in the same direction Sandi had.
When they
all got to the canyon’s edge, Sandi made Nick take the lead and she took up the
rear, telling them to stay low and be very careful with their footing. She then
added that while speed was important, so was getting them all down there in
one, unbruised and unbattered piece.
When they
finally made it down the slope, Nick was surprised to find out how quickly they
had made their descent. But then he looked back up at the top of the canyon to find
some very angry clouds moving in quick.
His other
two companions were calling to him from fifteen meters away to hurry it up and
he wisely took their advice. Once they reached the ATVs and the shelter, he
realized that all three ATV’s had been packed up and were idling as they
arrived.
“All
right. Saddle up and get the hell out of here… The barometer is dancing like a
drunken Irishman, so we’re in for a good one.” The professor took the pack off
of Sandi’s back with her left hand and tossed it into the shelter.
Nick and
Sara strapped on their helmets and tightened up their own packs as they
prepared to jump on the ATVs. As they got ready to light out of there, they
noticed Sandi and the professor arguing about something.
“You
ladies think we can save that for when we get back to the trucks?” Nick thought
he was being funny, but the look he got from Dr. Desmaiseaux let him know she
was not of the same opinion.
“Why
don’t you just worry about keeping up when you haul ass out of this canyon.”
Sandi shook her head at Dr. Desmaiseaux’s comment and started putting her
helmet on as she walked away from the professor.
Nick and
Sara exchanged concerned looks as Sandi climbed up on the modified ATV alone
and the professor started towards the equipment shelter. “Ah, what’s going on?”
“You’re
getting the hell out of this canyon before the floodgates open up.” Her face
told him she was not kidding, but he was not able to comprehend what was really
happening.
“And
you-”
“Can take
care of myself until the storm clears… Now get moving.”
He simply
could not help himself when he exclaimed, “No way!”
Sandi
tried to explain, “Nick, it’s really not-”
He
immediately jumped off the short-bed ATV and ripped his helmet off, cutting her
off with, “We all came out here and there’s no way I leave anybody behind, so
what’s the problem?” Looking around at the ATV’s he could see that they were
carting out a lot more stuff than they came in with, but that was still no
excuse in his mind for leaving someone to fight off the elements: certainly not
someone in her position.
“That
equipment needs to be packed out safely, and I can ride out the storm in the
shelter so there’s no need for you to get all n-”
“No way
I’m leaving you here in that sweat box with that monster storm barreling in.”
Nick was not about to back down from his position.
Dr.
Desmaiseaux’s face began to fill with rage as she spoke, “Since when do you
have any say in what happens on my fucking site?”
“This is my
investigation and I’m responsible for everyone here and I am not leaving anyone
here under these circumstances! Especially someone who can’t fend for
themselves.”
The
professor’s expression sailed straight past rage and right into full blown
fury. “Fuck you! I’m better off out here than you any day of the week! Now, get
your ass on that ATV and get the hell out of here before you put everyone in
danger, you moronic son of a bitch!”
“Cuss me
out all you want… I am not leaving you out here.” Nick took his back pack off
and began to cram some of the things from the short-bed into it until he ran
out of room and called for Sara to toss him her pack. She hopped down from her
ATV, handed it to him and put his pack on her shoulders.
By the
time he had cleared a large section from the short-bed he pulled the tarp off
of the gear that it had been covering and laid it out in the back of the ATV to
act as a cushion and then walked over to the professor.
He looked
over at the professor and said, “Let’s go.”
“I am
perfectly capable of staying out h-”
“Do you
have what you need?” He saw she had a bag slung over her shoulder and decided
that he was not going to wait for her to answer. “Well, you can come back for
anything else.”
“GO!” She
plopped down onto the edge of the shelter ramp and made her intentions to stay
well known.
“Fine… We
do this the hard way.” He handed Dr. Desmaiseaux her helmet and then leaned
over and picked her up, gently putting her over his shoulder and striding over
to the ATV with a string of colorful expletives trailing behind him.
“Get your
fucking gorilla hands off me you goddamn bastard! I will not be manhandled by a
retarded, piece of shit, fuckwitted asshat! Now put me the fuck down!”
Reaching
the ATV, he complied with her last request as he carefully dropped her onto the
tarp so that she was resting just behind his seat and her legs were sitting
next to each other, but slightly hanging off to the side of the bed. He reached
down and tucked her feet into the side of the bed and removed his jacket to act
as another cushion. She continued to insult his parentage, intelligence and
manhood as he secured her to the ATV.
Once he
was satisfied that she would not get loose with the straps and cords he had
fashioned he jumped back onto the ATV and then turned to her and said, “If you
turn to the left a little you can hold on to my worthless piece of horseflesh
to keep from bouncing around too much.” His last remarks were heard quite
clearly by the other two people present, since it had gone out over the radio.
They both had to suppress their laughter as they watched the professor putting
her own helmet on just as they all peeled out of the site.
Chapter 10
11:30 – 2006.12.06
UNLV Earth Science Building:
Parking Lot
Finally reaching
the campus, Nick had spent the majority of the ride trying to figure out what
possessed him to have behaved in such a brutish manner back at the research
site. He was concerned for the professor’s safety, but he had to admit that he
had been shown in numerous ways that she was more than capable of taking care
of herself, so his reasons were still unclear.
They had
truly hauled ass back to the trucks, but were not able to outrun the rain. When
they had gotten about halfway back to the trucks, the rain had swiftly
descended upon them making the rest of the journey an even larger nightmare.
Nick had always heard a flash flood was one of the most violent forces of
Mother Nature a person could witness, and what he saw on that ride had proved
it in spades.
Instead
of a bumpy and dusty ride back, it was wind-blown, rain-soaked and mud-flying
the whole rest of the way. A few times Nick had to hold onto the handlebars
with a death-grip and make some quick decisions to keep from rolling the ATV
into one of those streams that were forming around him as the water began to
flow out of the canyon.
By the
time they had reached the trucks, the ATVs were completely covered in mud and
so were three of the four members of the crew. All four were completely
drenched from the downpour and they looked like a group of drowned rats as they
managed to get all the equipment into the covered UNLV pickup for fear more
rain exposure would destroy the items.
And so
they left the site in their two trucks and worked their way back to the campus.
Nick got the distinct impression that he if he was not before, he certainly was
now, a persona non gratis in the eyes of the professor. At some point the
university truck had pulled away from his vehicle and he had to assume they
either knew a faster way back, or they had lost him on purpose. Considering the
scowl on the professor’s face as she got into her truck, he was putting his
money on the latter.
As they
were finally pulling into the parking lot at the Earth Science building, Nick noticed
Sandi talking to someone in a sleek, tricked out, midnight blue pickup. The
rain had stopped and so the professor’s assistant was leaning against the
driver’s door when she caught sight of their arrival.
When
Sandi waved at them as they turned the corner, Nick watched as she moved away
from the mid-sized pickup and it peeled out of the lot. Nick tried to catch a
glimpse of the driver, but the speed with which it left the parking lot told
him everything his eyes had failed to register. Must’ve been the Doc, he thought as he pulled into the spot next to
the university truck.
“Hey,
guys… Get lost?” Sandi winked at the two through Nick’s window and he hung his
head down with just a hint of shame showing on his face.
Once
again, it was Sara to the rescue. “Yeah, well we didn’t realize it turned into
the Indianapolis 500 out there.” They both got out of the truck with Sandi
laughing at the comment.
“Sorry
‘bout that… Doc was worried about getting cleaned up before her afternoon
meeting.” Sandi reached over and put a hand on Nick’s forearm to stop him
moving towards the other truck for his equipment. “Hey, thanks for that.”
Nick was
shocked at the gesture and was having trouble processing what it meant. “What
about?”
Sandi
grinned and looked down at her feet a moment before she said, “Look, I know
R.J. can be a royal pain in the ass, and what she said out there was way over
the line, and if you value your life I wouldn’t make a habit of it, but…she
isn’t good with limitations; real or perceived.” Nick gave her half a smile to
show he understood as Sara came around to his side of the truck.
The tall,
lanky research assistant regarded them both with an uneasy smile and continued
explaining, “Even if she won’t say it, I will. Thanks for getting her out of there…
The meeting this afternoon is crucial, and I had run out of ideas for getting
her offsite. I really wasn’t looking forward to having the Rangers go out after
her and running the meeting myself.”
Sara’s
brow was creased when she asked, “She wanted the rangers to come out and get
her?”
Shaking
her head as she explained, “Oh yeah, once that arroyo floods, those ATVs are
practically useless. The rangers have these special off-roaders or the horses
to get in there for emergencies.” Sandi flipped open the truck topper and then
turned back to give them a sly grin as she finished, “But, while those guys
practically worship R.J., that’s a lot of wasted man-hours retrieving one very
stubborn and ill-tempered scientist trying to prove a ridiculous point.”
They both
chuckled at her remarks as they reached in to retrieve their cases and packs.
Sara, however, could not help but make a comment. “Yeah, well, I suppose it
would depend entirely on how they
worship her.”
Nick
audibly gasped at Sara’s salacious comment, and then blushed furiously as he
took the cases from her and quick timed it to his truck. He was completely
aghast at her using such a sexually charged comment towards someone in the
professor’s condition. And upon the moment she uttered it, his mind suddenly
made the connection that Dr. Desmaiseaux more than just some abstract resource
of information on his case, or some disabled person for him to worry over, she
was actually a living breathing woman. He was suddenly very ashamed at his own
behavior, because he had let his preconceptions get in the way of his work and
his actions.
Chapter 11
21:00 – 2006.12.06
C.S.I. Lab: Breakroom –
Assignments
Nick was
busy nursing his third cup of coffee since he dragged himself out of bed that
night, when everyone else began to descend upon the Breakroom. Warrick and Sara
were busy talking as she tried to explain to him about some math equation that
Lindsey had been struggling with, but it was so far over his head Nick felt
like his eyes were glazing over. Greg was deep in conversation with Catherine,
and he figured it had to do with their case, since Greg was supposed to be
presenting it to the team during assignments. Nick was still having a hard time
keeping the images of Hodges trussed up in a hotel room out of his head, so he
pushed the sounds of that conversation out as well.
By the
time Grissom finally arrived for the night’s briefing, the caffeine had finally
started coursing appropriately through his veins and his mind.
“All
right, let me get a run down of where everyone is at, please?” Grissom
carefully sat down in the seat at the end of the table. “Warrick… Where do we
stand on the sex assault in Sunrise Manor?”
Warrick
shrugged him off and said, “Slam dunk… DNA on epithelials, blood and semen was
a match, witness statements have him running off, photos show the bruising and
the arresting officers got his clothes from the trash in the alley… And the
final three pointer? Her DNA on him at the time of arrest. Dumb ass hadn’t even
taken a shower yet.”
Sara shot
him a disgusted look and said, “Wish they were all that easy.”
“Tell me
about it…Makes me sick thinkin’ about those guys runnin’ the streets with
regular folks.” Everyone in the room gave their own audible agreement to his
statement.
“Okay then…
Nick, Sara… We’re getting some real pressure from the Governor’s office to get
this DB in the desert case closed before the press gets involved. Where are you
at?”
Sara
looked over at him, and he knew that meant she was letting him take the lead.
While he was grateful for her confidence in him, he wished she would have taken
control and saved him the embarrassment. Clearing his throat, he forged ahead,
“Ah, well, Trace is backed up right now, so… We’re ah, waitin’ on the analysis
of the materials we found at the site. We’re definitely looking at a dumpsite
instead of a crime scene, but the elements have probably destroyed any hopes of
finding the original site. As it was we almost got washed away ourselves.”
Grissom
cocked his eyebrow and shot Nick a dangerous look. “I heard about that.” Nick
stiffened at the implication he had put them in danger, but Grissom let him off
the hook. “And I heard you did quite a number taking control of the situation…
Don’t worry, Nicky. I’m fairly certain that any of us would have done the same
thing.”
Nick knew
there was a but in that statement, so he just waited for it. “Though I would
hope it could have been done with a touch more sensitivity.”
Nick
shrunk down in his seat a little when he answered, “Got it.”
“So,
what’s your next step?”
“Well, we
planned on going through our notes and putting all the photo evidence together
in the hopes we can get a general direction for the primary crime scene.” Sara
gave him a firm nod and held up the additional disk she had obtained from Sandi
as he explained.
“That’s
only going to get you so far, since neither of you are familiar with the area.
And you’re going to hate this…” Grissom gave him a worried expression as he
continued, “You are going to have to make peace with Dr. Desmaiseaux, since she
is the only person able to help you with that.”
Nick
visibly grimaced and asked, “Can’t I just go down to the USGS and talk to
them?”
Grissom
chuckled, took his glasses off and then smirked, “That would work… If she
hadn’t been the person who surveyed that park before it was to be
commissioned.”
“You’ve
GOT to be kidding me?!” Everyone in the room laughed at Nick’s reaction.
Once
their laughter subsided and Nick buried his head in his arms on the table,
Grissom continued. “And now… For the moment we’ve all been waiting for… Greg,
what about your case?”
“FINALLY!!!” Greg’s enthusiasm was a plus on
this case, and everyone had been dying to find out what really happened on his
“trick roll.”
“Calmly,
Greg… While your second first case,
might be thrilling, we need to give the victim
the proper respect.” The giggles spread out over the room, because everyone
knew who he was referring to in this case.
“Fine…
Okay, our trick roll, wasn’t really a trick roll, after all… Seems the victim, had acquired the assistance of a
certain professional and while their
arrangements were being carried out the victim
made an unwelcome overture and she bailed on him, mid-act, and thus leaving him
incapable of removing himself from the room in time. The housekeeping staff
called PD upon finding the victim,
and since they spoke little English, the victim
was unable to enlist their assistance before they called PD. All charges have
been dropped.” Greg was practically vibrating after giving his official statement.
Grissom
was not about to let him suffer, so he gave him leave. “Okay, now that the
official report is out of the way… How about the real story?”
“THANK YOU!!!” Greg was practically bubbling over
with enthusiasm by that point. “So, looks like Hodges hired a pro to indulge in
some jam-slash-leather-slash-bondage fetish he’s got. Paid her five hundred
bucks to truss him up and pour the stuff all over him, and then some. I guess
she laid out some ground rules before hand, about no funny business. Like THIS
didn’t count?! Anyway, I guess he crossed the line and she totally bailed! But,
she left him with his wallet and all his personals AND the keys to the cuffs!”
Greg was laughing right along with everyone else at that point, so it took him
a moment to recover long enough to finish. “Anyway, seems he could’ve reached
the keys himself, IF he’d have been
paying attention. Instead he waited there like a bonehead until housekeeping
showed… Insult to injury, when Sofia got there, she called the locksmith,
because she didn’t see the keys either! So, when Catherine and I got there we
spotted them right when this great, big, burly locksmith guy got there. He
wasn't exactly happy being called out that late. But when he found out he wasn't even needed,
that’s when he really let loose. It was SO AWESOME to see that weeney get
taken down a few pegs!”
Warrick
chose that moment to make his own interjection, “Or at least down from the
wall.” And his comment got their laughter going all the more.
They were
just starting to get back to normal when someone poked their head in the room
carrying a report. “Nick, they said this material was a rush…”
As soon
as they heard the voice, the stifled laughter was too much for anyone not to
notice. “Yeah, so you’ll ah, have it tomorrow.” And with that, Hodges quickly
left the room, just as the laughter erupted again.
“Okay, on
to business, please?” Grissom waited for the last vestiges of the laughter to
die down. “It’s not a busy night, but looks to be a logistical nightmare.”
Grissom was running his hand over his chin and Nick knew that signaled there
was something frustrating him.
“Don’t
worry, Gil…” Catherine held out her hand for the slip in his hands and said,
“I’ll take the aggravated assault out near Nellis. That should put me far
enough away from the Pike for everyone’s comfort.”
Grissom
gave her the slip and looked at her from over the top of his glasses, “Thanks,
Catherine…” He flipped through to the next slip and said, “Warrick, you’re
going to have the B&E in Henderson. Sara and Nick, you’ve still got your
case to work, and Greg…” The youngest member of the team looked up with hope.
“You’re with me tonight.” Shrinking away from the thought, Grissom looked quite
pleased at having changed the mood. “Suspicious circs at the Pike.” Grissom
handed Greg the slip and got up from the table.
“Oh, and
one more thing…” Once he was sure he had everyone’s attention he continued,
“Let’s try to keep things on an even keel around here, please? I know there
will be a great pull towards certain jokes and pranks being played, but we do
still have to work together, so try your best, please.” Grissom turned and left
the room with his last words.
With him
safely out of the room, Sara took the initiative to say, “Well, he didn’t say
we couldn’t do anything, right?” The evil glint in her eye was enough to make
everyone start laughing again as they headed out for the night.
Warrick
shook his head with a sly grin on his face and said, “Girl, you been spendin’
way too much time around Steph.”
Chapter 12
09:00 – 2006.12.07
UNLV Earth Science Building:
Offices
The plan
was a surprise attack. Nick had decided after he and Sara had reached another dead
end in the case that he was going to have to follow Grissom’s suggestion and
enlist Dr. Desmaiseaux’s help in locating the primary crime scene.
Unfortunately, he had two things working against him: that the scene would be
useless because of the elements and the time that had passed, and that the
professor appeared to despise him with every fiber of her being.
Originally,
he thought it might be better to just have Sara head over to the campus and try
to unruffle the woman’s feathers, but ultimately, Nick knew he needed to fix
the situation himself. As he walked up the stairs to the third floor of the
Earth Science Building he tried to work out a plan. When his foot made contact
with that last step, he knew the only course of action that was liable to provide
any positive results was for him to grovel, beg and apologize.
He made
his way across the hall from the stairwell and placed his hand over the knob.
Taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, Nick made ready to throw
himself on his sword and beg for mercy.
The
handle turned, and without thought he walked through the door.
“Have you
ever heard of knocking?” Her voice was low and not pleasant, and when she
looked up over her glasses at him her facial expression morphed into something
akin to a raging beast. Nick almost thought his eyes were playing tricks in
him, because he could have sworn he saw steam coming out of her ears as her
face turned a unique shade of pissed off. “I guess they don’t teach etiquette
around the cattle drive campfire.” There it was; the perfect slight on his
background. It was the one thing that had been missing from her tirade at the
research site.
“I’m
sorry… I didn’t realize these went right into the offi-”
“Or
reading, apparently… The name in big letters on the door didn’t give it away?”
Nick turned around to see her name, in reverse, stenciled across the glass of
the door and he slammed his eyes shut as he counted to ten and worked on
controlling his anger and frustration.
“Dr.
Desmaiseaux, I am very sorry… I obviously wasn’t paying enough attention when I
walked up to the door.”
“How many
hours did it take for you to figure that one out?” His face betrayed his
immense confusion at her question and she removed her glasses and let them
dangle from the cord around her neck. “The pronunciation?”
“Oh! Not
long, actually… French wasn’t really stressed growing up in Texas, so I had six
years of Spanish. The two don’t really share a lot of pronunciation rules.”
“Y el español era una clase más fácil cuando usted lo sabía ya.”
His eyes opened a little wider when he realized she had just spoken perfect
Spanish. “Und Deutscher ist für einen faulen Esel zu hart.”
“I have a feeling I’ve just lost another point, huh?” Nick watched
as she shook her head and then replaced her glasses and got back to work.
“Why are you here?”
Nick shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to keep from
getting snappy by taking another breath before he spoke. “I ah, we, I mean,
needed a little more help with the case.”
“Makes me wonder how you people get anything done when you have no
idea what you’re doing.” That one hurt, and Nick winced from its bite.
Nick put on his best polite smile and tried to behave the way his
mother had taught him when he decided to take another tack. “Look, I know you
and I got off on the wrong foot, Dr.-”
“Isn’t hard to be on your foot when you’ve got it crammed down
your throat?” She continued to flip through the papers on her desk as she spoke
with an uninterested tone.
“Right… So, we were hoping you could take a look at what we’ve put
together in the way of trying to find the primary crime scene. We think we have
a few possible areas, but it would be invaluable to us if you could see to it
to help us narrow that down to somethin’ more manageable.” He pulled the thick
folder out of his satchel and then returned his gaze to the professor as she
completely ignored him. “Would you mind taking a loo-”
“Just leave it on the chair… If I have time, I’ll take a look.”
And that signaled the end of their conversation as she swiveled in her chair to
regard the computer terminal behind her. “I assume you can show yourself out?”
Nick dropped the folder into the chair and then turned to leave
the office. As he was about to step through the doorway, he heard her mutter,
“No deje la puerta golpearle en el asno en la salida.”
Chapter 13
23:00 – 2006.12.07
CSI Morgue: Dr. O’Halloran’s
Office
Nick was
still beating his brains trying to get an angle on his case as he made his way
down to the morgue. He was hoping he could go back over the body and find some
different answers, but mostly he was just trying to delay the inevitable;
having to meet with Dr. Desmaiseaux for another slam session.
Sara was
still working on the videos and photos from the research team, and he had
already seen more angles of that desert canyon than he had ever thought
possible, so he went off in search of a different view. He thought that he
might try to pick Stephanie’s brain about the body and maybe get her opinion
about what to do in regards to the professor.
When he
pushed through the doors of the morgue, he noticed that Stephanie was not
working on a body at the time. As he thought about it, he realized it had been
a slow week for DBs, and knowing Stephanie’s normal speed, he assumed she had
finished with everything already.
He
noticed some movement over in the office and made his way across the room when
he heard her voice call out from the other side of the doorway. “If you’ve got
a body, get out.”
Nick
poked his head in and found her lying down on the couch with her arm thrown
over her eyes and her legs hanging off the opposite arm of the small couch. He
had to chuckle at the sight, which caused her to peek out from the crook of her
arm. “Oh, it’s just you.”
“Well,
that’s the kinda greetin’ every man dreams of.” He stood in the doorway with
his hands on his waist and smiled.
“Save it
for the girls at the club, cowboy.” Her voice was filled with fatigue, and Nick
grew a little concerned, since he had not heard her like that since her brush
with death earlier that year.
As he
looked around the office, the office he once had to process in a hazmat suit, a
shiver ran down his spine. “Hey… You okay?”
She moved
her arm off of her face and rubbed at her eyes over the bridge of her nose.
“Yeah, I’m fine… Just not sleeping very well.” She gave him a weak grin and
asked, “So, what did you need?”
“I don’t
wanna bug you if you’re no-”
She
dropped her feet to the floor and brought herself up into a sitting position as
she cut him off, “Look, I’m here, you’re here, and you obviously need
something. What’s up?”
“My DB
from the desert…” Nick shifted a little uncomfortably in the doorway under her
slightly aggravated gaze. “We keep running into dead ends, and I was thinking
about maybe taking another look at the body… Maybe I mis-”
“Didn’t
miss anything… And I just got the final report back from the copy service.” She
was about to get up from the couch when Nick stopped her.
“I’ll get
it, where is it?” Nick looked for his cue from her, but instead she stood up
and went to her desk to retrieve the CSI copy of the report.
She
turned and handed it to him, “Here.” Then she crossed in front of him and
dropped back onto the couch.
He looked
down at the report in his hands and away from her gaze when he mumbled, “I
could’ve gotten that for you.”
“And I
can get it for myself, too… You think I need you rummaging around on my desk?”
That was
the last straw for Nick. “Sheesh! Do I have something tattooed on my forehead
making everyone jump down my throat this week, or what?!”
Stephanie
leaned back at his sudden outburst with a shocked expression on her face. “Whoa
there, big fella… Who peed in your Post Toasties this morning?”
Nick cringed
when he realized what he had done and squeezed his eyebrows together with his
hand. “I’m sorry… I ju-”
“Why
don’t you try explaining where the hell that came from, instead of some
half-assed apology?” Nick looked at her with his mouth hanging open.
He was
surprised at his snap at her, but her response had really shocked him.
“Have a
seat and spill it… Obviously bottling it up isn’t helping.” She had a point,
and with resignation playing over his face he grabbed one of the chairs and sat
down.
“I really
didn’t mean to jump on your case… It just seems like every time I turn around
this week, someone is rippin’ me a new one and I can’t figure out exactly why.”
“Wouldn’t
have anything to with your new friend, the professor, would it?” Nick was starting
to think his thoughts were either transparent, or she was psychic. “And before
you go thinking I have some great insight here… I heard about what happened at
the field site.”
That was
at least a little relief, because he thought Sara had probably told her about
the incident. And then he got nervous, because that also meant she had probably
told Grissom about it as well.
“Yeah, we
had dinner with David and Sandi before shift, and she said it was not exactly a
pleasant experience for all.”
Nick visibly
relaxed at her explanation. However, his curiosity was getting the better of
him and so he asked, “What did she have to say?”
“The
highlights? Something about you almost being late, getting caught in a real
blower and then…” She gave him one of those sarcastic looks and continued,
“there was the part about you going caveman and throwing the Doc over your
shoulder like a sack of potatoes.”
Nick
groaned at her description of the incident and banged his head back against the
wall. “Man!” He expelled a lung full of air and then said, “I don’t even know
why I did it, ya know?”
“Male
bravado?” Stephanie commented as she laid back down on the couch.
“Why
would you say that?” Nick was genuinely curious as to her opinion of him and
the situation.
“Because
it’s who you are, I guess.” She threw her arm over her eyes again as she spoke.
“What’s
that supposed to mean?” He was beginning to think everyone he knew thought he
was a sexist jackass.
“It means
you have a different set of rules for different people.” She paused for a
moment and tried to formulate the rest of her response. “Like with the report…
You decided I must be ill, and since I’m a girl, you felt a need to look after
me for some reason… I’m not ill and I have never bought into the delicate female
myth. Maybe that works where you come from, but not me.”
“That’s
so not fair! I have five older sisters, and there is no way I could have
survived if I had been even a little sexist. And my mother’s a lawyer for cryin’
out loud.” Nick was getting riled up at the inference.
“Were you
told to always get the door?”
“Yeah.”
“Were you
taught to always take care of a woman?
“Of
course.” Nick shrugged that one off like it meant nothing.
“Then by
default, you think a woman can’t take care of herself in any situation.” Nick
was shaking his head at her deduction of his beliefs. “Just give me a second to
explain… My folks, they got married late in life, and my Mom had been on her
own since she started college. She had to fight for everything she got and she
made sure she had all the skills she needed to succeed in a man’s world. My
Pop, he was orphaned as a kid, and spent his first years in a Catholic
children’s home, until his sister was adopted by another family. When they
found out she had a little brother, they took him home, too. His adopted mother
was a business woman, and her husband had a private law practice that he
operated out of their home. So, he grew up around not only a strong woman, but
also a man willing to care for his children.” Nick thought about how Stephanie
maneuvered through life and the difficult world of forensic pathology and he
understood a lot more about her because of her family history.
“I was
exposed to a family model that showed me the power a woman could wield and the
caring nature of men. But at the same time, I saw that my father was also a
powerful man, and my mother was just as caring. They were equals, and I never
had to question that. I also never had to question who was in charge, or try to
work one against the other, or which one cared about me more, or which one
liked me more.” Stephanie hit on something that struck a nerve with Nick.
“So, who
was the disciplinarian in your family?” Nick was using his own family model for
parental roles.
“Disciplinarian?”
Stephanie removed her arm and cast a puzzled glance at him.
“Ya know…
When you got in trouble, who nailed you for it?” Nick was having trouble
understanding why she was asking that question.
“In
trouble? I don’t know that I ever really got in trouble… Well, not any real
trouble anyway. But Uncle Gil was the one who usually had long talks with me when he’d find out I had been causing mischief
at school.” Stephanie winked at him and then said, “Of course I was a pretty
weird kid, and the only people who ever raised their voices to me were my
teachers when I would question what they were saying… I was hell in Sunday
school class.” Nick had to laugh at her joke, and it helped to lighten the mood
a little.
“Maybe I
should have come to your house to stay, then I wouldn’t be catchin’ so much
hell right now just for actin’ like a gentleman.” Nick chuckled at his own
joke, but when he looked at Stephanie she was not laughing.
“You
think hauling someone off against their will is being a gentleman?” Nick was
shocked at her question and he blushed when he realized the impact of what she
had said. “No wonder you only date Barbie Dolls.”
“What’s
that supposed to mean?”
“You
know… The sex pot-slash-brainless Betty Crocker types I’ve seen you with: all
style and no substance.” Even lying down, Nick could tell she was shrugging off
his question.
“C’mon…
That’s not true.” Nick was shaking his head again.
“Let’s
see, there was that flight attendant, the blackjack dealer, the nurse from the respiratory
wing when I was in the hospital, that meter maid from traffic, the other nurse
from God knows where… Was she really a nurse, or did she just have the clothes
for some reason?” Her loaded question made Nick’s jaw drop in total shock. “And
that’s just since I’ve been in town… I hear you had some more colorful dates before I got here.”
“Okay,
obviously my personal life is everyone’s fodder around here.”
“Please,
this building is worse than ‘Peyton Place,’ and you know it.” There was no
argument for that one, and Nick knew it as well as anyone.
“Well, if
I’m such a sexist asshole, then why do you even bother?” His tone was sharper
than he had intended.
“Because
you aren’t an asshole, you’re just deluded.” That gave Nick a chuckle, and so
she continued, “Look, I don’t think you’re a bad guy, the whistle incident
aside, I just think you’ve got some pretty outdated opinions about how women
should be treated. And I think you date women who are not as keyed in to the
feminist mind on purpose.”
With his
head shaking again he had to ask, “I don’t understand that… What d’you mean?”
“Well,
you date these bimbo types; not usually educated, no strong personalities,
pretty on the outside and not much going on besides that. They’re never gonna
threaten your motives, and they play into your condescension as a way to wiggle
into your life, somehow.”
Nick
could not help himself, he had only one thing to say, “Wow…”
“Sorry,
man… I just call it like I see it.” She sat up on the couch again and then
said, “I mean, it’s not like it makes you a bad guy, Nick… It just makes you a
guy I would never have gotten to know if we didn’t work together, and because I
did get to know you, I can see past those things that piss me off.”
Nick
chuffed at her comment and remarked, “Sara said almost the same thing to me
this week.”
Stephanie
gave him a sly grin and said, “So, if two of the smartest women you know say
something, don’t you think you should pay attention?”
Nick
winked and then said, “Could just mean I work with a couple rabid feminists…”
Nick got up to leave at his final remark and was glad to have at least ended
his conversation with Stephanie on a friendly note. But he had a lot of things
to think about.
Chapter 14
23:55 – 2006.12.07
CSI Lab: A/V Lab
“Aaaaaarrrgggghhh!”
Nick
entered the A/V Lab with a sideways grin at hearing Sara’s verbalized
frustration. “That bad?”
She
turned quickly and fixed him with a steely glare. “Hey, don’t shoot the
delivery boy.” Nick handed her a cup of coffee as he took the seat beside her.
Sara
sniffed over the top of the cup and made a disgusted face. “Eww… No coffee for
me.”
He reared
back in amusement over her response and asked, “Since when?”
She shook
her head and took a swig from her water bottle before answering. “Trying to cut
down on the caffeine.” There was the faint trace of a smirk playing on her face
as she answered him, but Nick decided he had enough on his plate to worry about
without whatever it was she had going on.
“Whatever…
It’s your funeral.” He pulled up to the terminal and leaned in close. “So, have
we gotten anywhere?”
“We have been scanning video all night,
while you have been shooting the
breeze with Steph.” Her pursed smile let him know she was only kidding. “So,
did she have anything new for us?”
“Just the
final autopsy report.” He handed her the copy he had been given and watched as
she started leafing through it. “She did determine that the exposure noted on
the body couldn’t have been caused by the nights out in the desert. Her
theory’s that the level of exposure is consistent with the high altitude
exposure found with rogue skydivers from time to time.”
“Skydivers?
Well, that would explain the material we found on the ridge.” Nick gave her a
questioning glare and she explained, “Hodges was just in here… That material is
most commonly used in drop suits.” She got a devilish look on her face, and
then added, “And Hodges is allergic to strawberries, so you lost the pool.”
“Damn! I
was countin’ on that one, too.” Nick shook his head in disgust, but he quickly
moved back into the case. “So, I guess we have PD track down some leads at some
area Skydiving schools?”
Sara
shrugged and turned back to her video, “I’ve already got Vega calling around in
the morning.”
Nick was frustrated
at his lack of participation in the case and had to ask, “Is there anything I
can do here, besides piss people off?”
She cast
a sideways look at him and smiled when she replied, “Well, you’re not bad to
look at.”
“Thanks,
Sara… That’s a real big help.” He slumped back in his chair and crossed his
arms over his chest in resignation.
“Okay…”
Sara pushed back from the console and regarded him with an angry expression.
“What the hell happened in the morgue to have you looking so morose now?”
“Nuthin…
Not really.”
“Right.”
He shook
his head and said, “It’s nothin’ really… Just that Steph said some things I
wasn’t real happy about, but I can’t really say she was wrong either.” He
looked up into her eyes and realized he was not getting out of there without
spilling his guts. “She just seems to agree with the rest of the world that I’m
a jackass.”
“’Cause
you’re just such an unlikeable guy.” She made a noise that signaled her sarcasm
and then added, “Please, Nick… No one has ever thought you were a jackass.”
“The
professor?”
“Yeah,
well, she doesn’t count… She has her own issues, and she strikes me as one of
those people that never takes the time to look past her first impressions
anyway. You either meet her on her grounds right out of the gate, or she
doesn’t waste the time.” Nick looked at Sara in complete shock and she noticed
his expression. “What?”
Shaking
his head to clear the fog, he answered, “I just thought you liked her.”
“I didn’t
say I didn’t… I happen to think she’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,
but that doesn’t mean she’s perfect by any stretch.” Sara shrugged off his
disbelief as though it were nothing.
“So, what
I did out there, you don’t have a problem with it?”
“Are you
kidding? The Neanderthal approach is never my first choice.” He looked a little
defeated at her response and she continued, “I know why you did it, but that
doesn’t mean I agree with it, especially since we have to work with her. You’ve
put us all in a bind because you decided she threatened your manhood.”
“Wait a
minute… I did not think she was threatenin’ anything, except her own safety.”
“And you
were qualified to make that decision, how? By virtue of your gender?”
“Ouch…”
Nick tried to take the slam in stride, but it cut him deep. “Does everyone around
here think I’m a sexist?”
“Haven’t
we already had this conversation?” Sara was trying to figure out where he was
going with the conversation and that was when it dawned on her. “Stephanie
called you on it, too… Didn’t she?”
“Yeah…
And somethin’ else about my datin’ preferences.” His shoulders were drooping
down with his mood.
“You mean
your Barbie Doll fetish?”
His eyes
shot up and he jumped to his feat with his anger. “What? Are you two runnin’
some kind of tag team on me? What is this, slam Nick week?!”
“Whoa…
Where the hell did that come from?” Sara was surprised at his display of anger.
He
slammed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw, trying to get a grip on his anger
before he spoke again. “Sorry… It’s just… She used the exact same term when we
were talkin’.”
“I
wouldn’t be surprised… I bet we took the same gender studies class with Dr.
Hainline at Berkeley.” Nick’s embarrassment flooded his face as she explained
the commonality between the two women.
“Man… I
never even thought about that. I’m sorry, Sara.”
“Don’t
sweat it… I think everyone forgets that I had a life before CSI.” She chuckled
at the notion, and Nick tried to join her, but he was still reeling from the
fact that his friends saw these things in him.
“Look, no
one thinks you’re a bad guy, Nick. I think most people just chalk it up as a
cultural thing, and in some ways it is, I guess.” She laid a hand over his
shoulder and tried to offer him some comfort. “But in the end, you don’t think
any less of me just because I’m a woman. I just sometimes think you have three
classifications for women: the ones you date, the ones you admire and the ones
you pity.”
“Wow…
That makes me sound like such a…”
“Guy?”
Sara cast a sideways grin at him and he had to chuckle at her analysis. The
laughter kept him from letting it sink in too deeply. There would be time for
that later.
“Now,
help me chart the progress and document the times so we can try to narrow the
timeline down a little more. Archie’s already cut together a single video showing
the body itself.” She nudged him a little with her shoulder and he smiled
cautiously before nodding his head.
Chapter 15
08:00 – 2006.12.08
UNLV Earth Science Building:
Geology Lab
Striding
up to the geology laboratory door, Gil knocked quietly on it. When he looked up
a young woman with a mass of striking, reddish blonde hair waved him inside.
“Dr.
Grissom! I didn’t know you were stopping by.” Her warm and inviting smile was a
welcome treat after a long shift.
“Well, I
had another meeting on campus and I phoned Dr. Desmaiseaux to see if I could
get a preview of her newest report.” They exchanged a quick handshake and Sandi
gestured for him to follow her into the next room. “It’s good to see you again,
Sandi… Stephanie tells me the wedding plans are going according to schedule.”
“As long
as my dissertation is approved next month, I should be presenting in February
and FINALLY have my Ph.D.” She walked him through the lab as they spoke. “And
I’m starting to think David is more excited about it than I am.”
“Well,
that’s because he has more riding on it.” Dr. Desmaiseaux spoke from the other
side of the lab as she heard the pair enter the room. “Dr. Grissom…” She rose
from her stool and began to cross the room using her crutch. “I’m glad you had
some extra time this morning.”
“Well, I
have to admit, I am anxious to read about your findings on climate
differentials in the Sonoran Desert.” As the two began speaking, Sandi quietly
slipped back out of the room. “I have a sneaking suspicion your conclusions are
going to change a great many things in my own field.”
“Improvements,
not changes, Dr. Grissom, only improvements. It should give you the opportunity
to date things with much more precision in the future, IF they approve my findings.” She remained guarded about her
research, and Gil found that to be refreshing, when so many in the research
field tried to bully their theories onto others.
“Judging
from your previous field work… I have no doubts in regards to its veracity.”
They
walked into the next room where there was a table and some chairs, and two
copies of an official report waiting for them. Being his normal self, he pulled
out a chair for her and then waited for her to be seated before taking his own
seat.
“Thank you.”
He could sense a slight bristling in her speech in reference to his gesture,
but he had a reputation for his genteel behavior. However, his greater
reputation came from his equal treatment of all people, so she was able to
accept his gesture without any outwards signs of irritation.
“I also
wanted to stop by and thank you for your assistance while we work the case from
your research site. You’ve certainly upped the learning curve for my team and I
think that knowledge will be of great value to them in the future.” Gil was
laying it on thick, but he knew that sometimes you had to play to a person’s
ego in order to achieve a goal. In this case, his goal was more cooperation
between the university and the crime lab.
“Yes,
well, they do appear dedicated to their work. And obviously Ms. Sidle has been
taking lessons from you in how to engage a scientist and play to their egos.”
She gave him a sly grin and he held his hands up in mock surrender.
“You
caught me… But seriously, Sara is actually quite an accomplished scientist
herself. She was close to finishing her doctoral work in theoretical physics
when she was bit with the forensics bug.” He tried to take some of the beaming
pride out of his description of Sara, but it was difficult for him under any circumstance.
“You and
those puns… Good to see you’ve managed to keep your sense of humor in such a
demanding and draining field, Dr. Grissom.” Dr. Desmaiseaux obviously had an
immense amount of respect for the man.
“Recently
re-discovered, actually… Had a bad patch there for a while, but I managed to
find it again, with a little help.” His look became wistful as he spoke, and he
knew exactly where that help had come from.
“Yes,
well good luck to you both.” Gil looked at her with a questioning glare and she
replied, “Sandi told me about your impending marriage.”
“Oh
right… Hadn’t considered that angle…” He nodded his head to show his
understanding. “Yes, just a few more weeks now, but thankfully someone else is
handling all the arrangements, and all I have to do is show up.”
“Best
way, really… Are you having it here in Vegas?”
Her
expression was slightly pinched and Gil understood the reasons for it so he
worked quickly to change the subject. “Ah yes, no sense having it anywhere
else, really… So, I hope we can count on your further assistance with the case,
because the timeline and the original scene are still a mystery to us.”
She sat
up a little straighter and said, “Yes, well I have the data and photos from
your people, and I was just finishing up this report before I went over them.
We’ll probably go over them at the site this weekend… Get the whole team’s
input.”
“Sounds
like a solid strategy and thank you for the time you’ve given to this. I know
it may not seem important on the surface, but your expertise is invaluable in
this kind of investigation. Plus, there is the added benefit of expanding
forensic science into the realm of geology and climatology.” Gil was doing his
best to make the prospect worthwhile to the woman.
“Definitely…
And besides, if the entomologists and the geologists can’t get along, there’s
no hope for the rest of science.” She gave him a sideways grin and he chuckled.
“That
reminds me of the one about the Dung Beetle that was carrying around a dirt
clod…”
“Oh God!
That one always cracks me up.” They were both laughing heartily as she began to
explain the findings in her report. Reassuring them both that there was always
hope for science.
Chapter 16
08:00 – 2006.12.08
Nick Stokes’ Pickup
It had been
a week long tournament of pain for Nick Stokes. He had found out that even his
friends considered him to be a sexist. But more importantly, he was learning
that he was starting to believe it himself.
The part
that was bothering him the most was that he could not think of anything he
would change about the supposed problem. He truly believed that he should
always offer his protection to anyone around him, but especially women, because
he simply could not see anything wrong with the way his parents had raised him.
They had always taught him to be polite, to respect his elders, to always do
his best, to look out for his sisters (even though they were all older than
him), that he should always be a proper Southern gentleman around women and
girls, but above all else he was always supposed to help those less fortunate
than himself. He just could not find any fault in the things he had been taught
as a boy.
If his
friends wanted to fault him for old fashioned values, then he resigned himself
to that fact, because he had no intentions of going against his upbringing.
However, finding out that people considered him a shallow man when it came to
his romantic interests really shook him to the core.
As he
drove home, he thought over the list that Stephanie had given him of his
various relationships since her arrival in Las Vegas, and the problem was he
knew she had missed a few passing dates along the way. He found himself having
trouble reconciling that part of his life to the things he had been taught by
his parents. Stephanie and Sara had both been right; he did date women that
never had a hope of challenging him.
He had
often told himself that he was just checking out the field, because he was not
yet ready for a serious relationship. Now, he had to wonder if that was really
true, or if he was just trying to rationalize his own ridiculous behavior.
Nick
never wanted to think he was such a superficial person, but the truth was he
did date Barbie Dolls; gorgeous women with plastic personalities. When he
pulled up in front of his condo he was ready for a sleepless day of
contemplation. He just hoped he could get his head on straight before Grissom’s
little party Saturday night, otherwise he knew he would be facing the third
degree. He had just under thirty six hours to get his act together and put on a
good face for the holiday party, or whatever it was Grissom had going on. As he
walked in the door, he quickly wrote himself a note and pasted it to the front
door, reminding him to pick something up to take to the party; just like his
mother had always told him. Never show up
empty handed.
Chapter 17
08:55 – 2006.12.08
UNLV Administration Building:
President’s Office
As
Grissom walked into the austere furnishings of the UNLV President’s office he
was greeted with the smiling face of the man’s secretary. “Dr. Grissom?”
He nodded
and said, “Yes, I’m here for a nine o’clock appointment with Dr. Daeke.”
The woman
smiled a little broader and said, “Of course, Dr. Daeke is expecting you. If you
don’t mind taking a seat a moment, I’ll let him know you’ve arrived.”
Grissom
nodded, but as she disappeared into the private office he remained standing. If
she was just going to come right back out and get him, he was not about to sit
down into the low-rise, leather sofa. And he was right, as she immediately
returned to the outer office and motioned for him to go inside. He smiled and
proceeded through the door.
He was
greeted by the booming voice of the university’s president. “Dr. Grissom! I am
so thrilled you were available for a meeting.”
The
sprightly, older looking gentleman met him midway through the office with an
enthusiastic handshake. “I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear that you
were finally joining us in academia, Dr. Grissom.”
Grissom
was hoping he still had an arm when the man was finished, because at the
current rate he was likely to shake it off and start beating him with it at any
moment. “Thank you, Dr. Dae-”
“Please,
please… Call me Donald.” Grissom nodded and the man finally released his death
grip from around his hand and gestured for him to take a seat.
Once
Grissom was firmly seated, the older man had a question, “Is there anything I
can get you, Dr. Grissom? Coffee, water, tea? Anything at all?”
“No, I’m
just fine, thank you.” If there was one thing Gil Grissom detested, it was the
ridiculous fawning that people in positions of authority perpetrated as they
attempted to win a new prize. It was even worse now that he appeared to be the
prize.
He
listened patiently as the man droned on and on extolling the virtues of a life
spent in academia and all the fine things the University of Nevada: Las Vegas
had to offer him, but his mind was not truly focused on the obviously prepared
speech. No, he was thinking about the rather emotional conversation he had with
Sara about the offer he had received from the Jeffersonian a few months back.
He thought about how he had to convince her that people were always trying to
lure him away from field work, or to their own labs and that he had routinely
turned down offers on a nearly monthly basis for numerous years.
And now,
as he sat there pretending to listen to the university’s best pitch man sell
him on a tenure within their system, he realized that for the first time in his
career, in his life, that his reputation was a benefit, instead of a burden. He
had worked long and hard, and sacrificed so much of his life and happiness to
achieve this status, and now he was going to use it for all it was worth. He
now had a reason to change his life. He had a purpose to his life that extended
beyond science, and for the first time he was ready to place happiness over all
other things. However, unlike most men reaching his station in life, it was not
only his happiness he was concerned with, and for the first time in his life he
was putting the needs and hopes and dreams of another over and above his own,
gladly.
For all
of his espoused brilliance, the man really was a slow learner, since it took
him fifty years to finally figure out what made him happy. True, he had always
found joy in the work, but it did not keep him warm at night, or chase the
nightmares away, or fill him with such an empowering feeling of happiness just
by staring into its eyes. No, he had found his key into the kingdom of lasting
happiness, and it had come in the guise of a tall, lithe, brown-eyed beauty of
a woman who loved him with all of her heart. And she made sitting there in that
office listening to the overzealous administrator blathering on about the
things he could do for UNLV and the things they could do for him worth every
single excruciating second.
Eventually
the man began to wind down, and Grissom’s attention turned outward again. “But
I’ve rambled on long enough, Dr. Grissom… Please, tell me what we can do to
convince you to head up our new forensic science graduate program?”
The side
of his mouth turned up into half of a grin and said, “Before we go into that…
May I ask how you heard I was leaving the lab?”
“Oh! Of
course… I was in Washington for a conference and had lunch with an old pupil of
mine, Dr. Goodwin from the Jeffersonian Institute. When I told him of our plans
for a forensic science program, he of course wished to gloat about having
acquired your talents for his organization’s work.” The man gave a woeful
expression when he added, “Had we known you were considering a career change, I
can assure you I would have been on your doorstep in a moment. May I ask what
has changed your perspective?”
The smirk
appeared on his face subconsciously as he answered, “My life, actually… I’m
about to be married and it has been the impetus for a great many things of
late. However, I’ve also grown disillusioned with the slightly skewed political
nature forensic work has taken on in recent history, and I thought my knowledge
would be better served helping to develop new techniques and perhaps in
training a new breed of forensic scientists in the process.”
“And that
was precisely the reasoning behind the development of a graduate program in
forensics here at UNLV.” The man was practically beaming at having found a
perfect segue way into his pitch again. “So, again I ask, what can we do to
convince you to join us?”
Grissom
took in a deep breath and pursed his lips into a contemplative gesture. “First,
it would have to be a position of limited involvement at the administrative
level. I am not an administrator.”
“Oh, but
of course! What we are looking for is someone to develop this program, help it
to grow, tend to its research and advise students along the way.” The man was
becoming a little more excited than Grissom was comfortable with, but he
continued with his requirements.
“I also
would not be willing to walk away from my fellowship at the Jeffersonian.”
“Most
certainly… It will be a great privilege for us to have one of their fellows on
our staff as well.”
“And I
would need a great deal of flexibility for my lecture and consultation
schedule.”
“Absolutely!
Having a touring member of our staff is an amazing recruiting tool.”
“If I
were to house my lab here at the university, the school would have to fully
fund it, and that includes any grant writing and administration of that lab.
One of the main reasons I am leaving the crime lab is my distaste for
administration.”
“We have
the appropriate people for that type of thing, and you could conduct your
experiments without ever having to worry about all of that.”
“But
probably the most important, I would need complete and utter autonomy from the
university system. That includes all research, curriculum and degree granting
through this program… Nothing that I develop in this time will ever be the sole
property of the university. I would, of course, grant the school rights of
co-publication and full reference to the location of the work, but it still
belongs to me.” Grissom knew his final condition would be the deal breaker for
sure, so he fully expected the meeting to be over quickly at that point.
“Hmmm…”
The man rubbed a finger over his temple as he worked through the specifics of
Grissom’s terms. “It might take some coaxing from a few of the board members,
but I honestly believe we could pull it off. If I can do it, will we have a
deal?”
Grissom
sat there in complete and utter shock. He never expected them to agree to even
half of his demands, and here they were nearly resolved to each of those
deciding factors. Grissom struggled to retain his composure and forced the only
answer he could come up with. “I’ll, ah, have to discuss it with my better half
before I can commit to anything, of course.”
The man
rose from his seat and put his hand out for Grissom to take as he said, “Well,
then I won’t keep you any longer…” Grissom stood and they shook hands with his
parting words. “I’ll let you get home and I have a board meeting to put
together.” He led Grissom to the door and then asked, “Now, you’ll let me know
as soon as you and your bride have made a decision?”
“Yes, of
course… And thank you for the consideration.”
“Oh, the pleasure
has been all mine, Dr. Grissom… All mine.”
Chapter 18
16:00 – 2006.12.08
Willows/Brown Home
Catherine
walked in through the garage door and was instantly knocked over with the
aromas of a home cooked meal being prepared in her kitchen. She smiled when she
realized that this was just one of the benefits of her new life. Before her
mind could drift to those other benefits, she called out to alert the house’s
other inhabitants of her return.
“I’m Home!” She dropped her purse and the
DVD’s onto the counter as she yelled.
“You
don’t have to yell.” Lindsey was suddenly standing right beside her and moving
towards the stove.
Catherine
was clutching her heart with her fright, “Jesus, Lindsey… Don’t sneak up on me
like that.”
The
teenager laughed at her mother’s reaction and then turned to pick up a spoon
and stir the concoction on the stove. “Sorry, Mom… But it was kinda funny.”
“Yeah, a
real laugh riot… You only took two years off my life. Hey, I thought you were
gonna be at Steph’s today.”
“Yeah, me
and Tiffany helped her with the dessert and then we bailed, because Steph
wanted to get some sleep.” When Catherine leaned over her shoulder to get a
look at what she was doing, Lindsey bumped into her with her hip.
Catherine
swatted at her daughter, who seemed to be in a rare good mood. She was going to
have to investigate that one further but first… “Where’s Warrick?”
Lindsey
gestured over her shoulder with her chin towards the bedroom. “He wanted to
jump in the shower before dinner.” She glanced down at her watch and then said,
“Probably done by now… Mr. ‘It doesn’t take more than twenty minutes to take a
shower, ever.’”
Catherine
chuckled at her daughter’s jibe as she walked down the hall towards their bedroom.
She was eternally grateful that her daughter had been so accepting and
accommodating of Warrick’s addition to their little family. The only one who
had balked at the relationship had been her father, but she understood that he
would always be uncertain of her choices in men, given her track record.
However, once he saw how happy she was, and how Warrick looked after “his
girls” Sam had finally come around.
When she
entered the bedroom, he was standing in the doorway to their bathroom toweling
off his head. Bare feet and wearing only a pair of workout pants, she stopped
for a moment to admire the view as she leaned against the wall next to the door
and leered for a moment longer. For many years, that was the only view of
paradise she had the privilege of seeing, and seeing it now reminded her of all
that wasted time. As she studied the well sculpted lines of the muscles across
his back, she involuntarily sighed at the vision, causing him to turn and
notice her welcome presence.
“Hey,
that was fast.” He smiled at her and the warmth of that small gesture touched
her all the way to her core. Tossing the towel into the hamper he walked to
where she was standing and wrapped his arms around her before kissing her
sweetly on the cheek. “No traffic?”
She returned
the embrace, pulling him even closer so that she could feel the heat of his
bare skin as it pressed into her. “Nah… I just used the lights and sirens.” He
looked down at her with a disbelieving glare and she cracked a smile. “No…
There wasn’t any traffic, but I took the side streets, too.”
He smiled
at her admission and said, “Three times the mileage, half the time to get
there. Ain’t that a shame?” He was shaking his head as he finished, then he
turned her away from the closet she was beside, kissed her again (that time on
the lips), winked and reached into the closet for a shirt.
She could
have watched him dress, but decided the bed needed to be straightened up
instead. As she was pulling the comforter back up to the head of the bed, she
wondered how they had so quickly moved into such a comfortable and domestic
relationship. She was leaning over into the middle of the king size bed,
struggling to put the pillows into the right position, when she felt his hands
close around her hips.
“Need a
little help?”
When she
turned around to see his expression, she had to laugh. “You keep that up, and
it’ll ruin all this work I just did.” She stood back up and turned in his grasp
so that she was facing him.
Before
they could get any farther, there was someone else standing in the doorway,
“Hey guys… Oh god… Can’t you at least wait until I leave?”
The
looked at each other a moment longer and both of them mouthed, Teenagers.
“What did
you need, Linds?” Catherine was the first to turn away and glare at her daughter.
“Just
wanted to let you know Tiffany and her Mom are on their way, so I’m gonna bail
on dinner, if that’s okay with you guys.” Catherine could see that Lindsey
already had her backpack thrown over her shoulder.
She
immediately turned to Warrick to find out what had changed about their quiet
night. He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and said, “Sorry, I
forgot… When they dropped her off this afternoon her Mom asked if Linds could
spend the weekend with them out at the lake.”
“And I did
my homework, except for some reading, but I’m taking that with me. Besides,
Tiff and I are in the same English class and we were gonna get through it
together, because we have a test on Monday.” Lindsey was practically begging by
that point. “Plus, Warrick already told me that I can’t get into trouble, no
boys without Mrs. Taylor around, and he has a friend with the park rangers so
he’ll check in on me if he even THINKS
I’m doing something wrong. Mom… He even called the guy this afternoon to tell
him to watch out for me… Can you believe that?!” Lindsey was talking with the
speed of light and Catherine struggled to keep up when they all heard the
honking of a car horn.
Warrick
used her confusion to leave her side and walk over to Lindsey as he grabbed his
wallet off the nightstand. When he reached in to grab a couple of bills,
Lindsey immediately tried to snag them from him, but he held it up and out of
her reach. “Remember, this just is a loan against your allowance… So, don’t go
gettin’ any bright ideas, Missy.”
He
started to bring his hand down again, but when she reached for it he quickly
raised it again, eliciting a standard teenage eye-roll for his efforts. “Okay,
okay… Slave labor for a week, I get it.” She grabbed for the cash as soon as he
brought it down within her reach and then she lurched at her mother to plant a
quick kiss on her mother’s cheek. “Thanks Mom! Thanks ‘Rick!” She was halfway
to the front door when she hollered back, “See ya Sunday night!”
Catherine
was still in a state of shock at the scene she had just witnessed as Warrick
leaned over to get an eye to eye look at her face. “Hey… You okay with this?”
Her mouth
was hanging slightly agape when she finally came back to her senses. Shaking
her head to clear away the last of the fog, she huffed and said, “I have no
idea what just happened.” She looked up and saw apprehension on Warrick’s face
and she had to admit that it only endeared him to her even more. “Did you just
do what I think you did?”
“I went
too far, huh?” He ran his hand over the side of his head and groaned. “I’m
sorry, Cath, but the woman was there and I guess she thought I coul-”
Catherine
reached up and put a finger over his lips to stop him from continuing. “Shhh…”
She pressed her palms into his stomach and looked up into his eyes saying, “You
did fine… Really.” Leaning her forehead into his chest she sighed and then
said, “I’m just not used to having this, I guess.”
Warrick
wrapped his heavy arms around her shoulders, pulling her in tightly and kissed
the top of her head. “Having what?”
She
smiled, turned her head to rest her cheek against his chest and sighed, “A
partner?” They both chuckled at the statement within a question. “I’ve been
doing this by myself for so long, Warrick… Even when Eddie and I were still
together it was just me. So this…” She moved her hands over his chest, down his
sides and wrapped her arms around his waist to hold him to her, “is all new to
me.”
Slowly
bringing his right hand across her back to her shoulder and then sliding it up
her neck to her chin he pulled her gaze up to his. “Well, then I guess we both
better get used to it, because I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
They
would have stayed locked in the kiss that followed for some time, had the phone
not started ringing. Catherine wound her arms up around his neck and said, “Let
the machine get it.” And he smiled at her insinuation until they both heard
Lindsey’s voice calling out from the answering machine.
“DON’T FORGET THE STOVE, YOU SEX
MANIACS!”
Warrick
squinted his eyes shut and grimaced as he turned away and went for the kitchen
muttering, “Definitely your daughter.” Catherine was too busy falling back onto
the bed in a fit of laughter as he trudged into the kitchen to say anything.
Chapter 19
19:30 – 2006.12.08
Grissom/Sidle Home
Consciousness
was battering around inside his brain as he fought to stay asleep, but
eventually Gil knew it was of no use when his bladder also started making its
intentions known. As he painfully extricated himself from the soft and warm bed
he noticed that there was not even a flicker of light coming through the
window, which meant he at least got a decent amount of sleep for a change.
His mind
was only vaguely aware of the actions of his body as he made his way into the
bathroom without switching on a single light. Movement coming from pure
instinct he made it through the motions and quickly dispensed with his most
pressing physical needs.
Not even
bothering to put on his robe and slippers, he shuffled out towards the kitchen
in his pajamas and bare feet. The moment his feet came into contact with the
cool, stone tile floor, Gil realized his error and had to fight the shiver that
ran up his legs and into his back. That shiver managed to shake loose a yawn
that overtook him and he had to rub his face with one hand to make the tingles
go away.
That yawn
had brought him fully into the land of the living and that was when he heard a
soft, melancholy, acoustic melody wafting into the hallway from the living
room. He stopped to try and identify it by the music, but then his ears picked
up a wavering voice delivering the tender lyrics.
Words
are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy
are drifting through my open mind
Possessing and caressing me.
A sleepy
smile played over his face as he listened to the Beatles sing the chorus. He
smiled, because he had not wanted to get the “Let It Be… Naked” album, for fear
it would tarnish his beloved memories of their music. But, as was often the
case, Sara had led the way and purchased it for his last birthday, promising
him that he would not regret it. And as was also a frequent occurrence, she was
right. The stripped down tracks, straight from the recording studio had
revealed a much different album, and though he may not have appreciated it in
his youth, it was fast becoming his favorite now.
The words
were so much crisper in this alternate version, and he also enjoyed that fact
that he could share this music with Sara. She had remarked that she had bought
it for him, but it was also to replace the disk she had worn out in her car
from overuse and the Nevada heat.
When the
next verse began, his smile widened as he realized how true those words were to
his life at that moment.
Sounds
of laughter, shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe.
Making
his way to the couch, he found Sara engrossed in a journal and softly murmuring
the words of the song to herself, lit only by a single lamp. She was leaning
her back against the arm of the couch with her knees drawn up to her chest as
she read, and she was completely oblivious to his entrance. Or so he thought.
As he
leaned down over her head to lay a kiss there, she looked up and smiled.
Completely taken over in the moment, he kissed those smiling lips through their
combined smiles.
“Mmmmm…”
She wriggled up her nose a bit and added, “Morning breath.”
In
another life, he might have taken offense to her comment, but in this one he
knew she was just giving him grief. She dropped her feet to the floor as she
turned to look at him. “And still in your pajamas?”
“Yes,” he
turned and trudged into the kitchen for his coffee. “There is an order that
must be maintained.”
She
giggled at his comment, and the way he moved across the cold floor in his bare
feet. “And that order would be?”
“Bathroom,
Sara, coffee,” he poured the cup of waiting coffee and started his way back to
the couch with the cup to his lips as he tried to bring on the day. He sat down
beside her, he put an arm over her shoulders and then continued, “Sara, food,
Sara, shower, and…”
“So, that
makes me the intermission attraction in this routine?” She cocked her eyebrow
as she snuggled into his shoulder.
“No,
you’re pretty much the attraction all the time… But the human body cannot live
on Sara alone.” She lifted her face to his and gave him a stronger kiss than
their first one of the day. When she finally pulled away, his face morphed into
a devilish glint. “But I might be convinced to test that theory.” He was
rewarded with her own salacious grin.
“I take
it you slept well?”
“Almost
didn’t want to wake up, but…” He held her to his side a little tighter and
said, “it was a little chilly in there.”
“Wait a
minute, you were the one battling me over turning the thermost-” She was
stopped in her tirade by the look on his face telling her that he was not
referring to the temperature of the room, so much as the temperature of their
bed. “Oh.” She blushed furiously and he felt a warmth spreading through his
chest. It delighted him that he could still cause the blush to rise into her
cheeks with his words and looks. “Well, you haven’t been sleeping well all
week, so I thought I would let you sleep today.”
“Which I
appreciate, but we have so much left to do before tomorrow that you should’ve
gotten me up before now.”
She
shrugged him off and reached out for the forensics journal on the coffee table
and then leaned her back into his side to continue reading. “I already did the
shopping.”
“What?”
He was shocked at her initiative, but he also wondered just how late she had
let him sleep. Squinting at the clock on the VCR and seeing that it was half
past seven, he was relieved to know he had not slept the entire day away, but
that raised another question. “How long have you been awake?”
She
glanced at her watch and shrugged again, “Since two… I had an appointment this
afternoon and I did the shopping when I got done. Picked up your package from
the post office, put the groceries away and then I went to the gym with
Warrick. Got back here a little before six, took a shower, fixed something to eat
and then parked it on the couch until you showed up.”
The
warmth that had started to spread through his chest grew as he listened to her
recount the events of her day. He had never imagined that domesticity would
agree with him in such a way, but that was just one of the many beautiful
things he had come to love about his life with Sara. He took another sip from
his coffee when a thought entered his mind. “Package?”
She
chuckled at the boyish tone of his voice that came out with this question.
“Yeah, from Amazon, so I hope they finally got you your latest werewolf DJ
book, so you’ll stop whining about it.”
“Hey! I
ordered it a month ago, and it still hadn’t gotten here and I’ve been dying to
know what happens next.” Before he realized it he was sitting on the couch with
a ridiculous pout on his face and Sara was laughing at him.
He put
the coffee cup down on the table and got up from the couch in a flurry,
dropping Sara onto her back with a THWUMP.
“Hey!”
He
quickly shuffled over to the breakfast bar, but he did not see the package and
he turned to her. “Where is it?”
She was
belly laughing by that point and he walked quickly back to the couch, nearly
stubbing his toes on the coffee table as he launched at her. “Where is it?!”
His hands were tickling at her sides and she was thrashing around atop the
couch and giggling madly, gasping for air.
“Gil,
stop, please HAHAHAHAHAHA, no stop, HEHEHEHEHE, oh god stop! HAHAHAHA I GIVE!
UNCLE!!!” He stood up from the couch and looked down to see she was completely
flushed from the tickle torture, her breathing coming in heaving gasps. When
she started to calm down and had still not given him the location of the
package he brought his hands up in a menacing gesture. “Nonononono… It’s right
here.” He watched as she retrieved a small, wrapped rectangle from between the
cushions of the couch.
She
yelped as he snatched it from her grasp and then ripped through the wrapping
before dropping back onto the couch. Seeing the book, he knew it was the one he
had been waiting on, but ever the detective he wondered how it had gotten
wrapped, since he surely had not ordered it gift wrapped for himself. “Sara?”
“Look
inside.” She smiled in that way that always made him feel like a melted puddle of
goo and he turned to the first page of the book; nothing. “Keep going.” He
turned the next one and found the title page, but this time he noticed some
writing just above the author’s name. When he looked over at her again, she was
holding his glasses in her hand. “Go ahead… Read it.”
He put
the glasses on and looked down upon the title page. Hand written above the
author’s name was the following inscription:
Gil-
You must be a big
fan to have someone
go to so much
trouble to get my signature.
Enjoy it in good
health!
Her
signature followed the inscription and he nearly ruined the whole thing when a
tear fell down his cheek onto the page. Fortunately it landed below the
signature and he was able to dab it up. When he looked up at her that time, she
placed her hand on his cheek and smiled. “I hope you aren’t mad… But I
cancelled that order on Amazon.”
“I don’t
u…”
“When I
was talking to Thomas about trying to find out if there were any signings, he
called a friend from college. Turns out he works at that publisher’s office,
and he called in a couple favors to get her to sign it.” He drew her up into
his embrace, and after a while, she managed to choke out. “I guess this means
I’m forgiven for canceling the order?”
Pulling
back, he nodded his head and said, “Something like that.”
“Oh , and
Stephanie says ‘thanks a lot’ for getting her hooked on ‘em now, too.”
He
laughed at the thought of Stephanie reading anything about werewolves, since the
girl had long held an unnatural fear of canines almost since birth. “Now, THAT is funny.”
“Yeah,
Thomas said it was pretty ironic, what with her not even able to be in the same
room with a tea cup poodle.” He could feel her chuckling into his neck as she
nuzzled in his embrace. Resting his chin on top of her head, he was not ready
for her sudden jerk away from him. “So, if the aforementioned schedule holds
true to form, then you are in need of some food?”
Taken
aback by the speed of her actions, it took him a moment to respond. “Ah, yeah…
Yes, that would be the next thing on the list.”
She
jumped up from the couch and started towards the kitchen. “So, what are you in
the mood for?”
“Oh,
well… I’m not sure I really want any-” His mouth stopped working the moment he
looked up to find her standing at the edge of the kitchen holding a very
familiar white box and a delightful smile playing across her face. “Well, now
that you mention it… I could go for one of those muffins.”
“More
coffee?” The look on her face told him this was going to be a very good day
off.
“Yes,
please.”
When she
reached the couch she had the carafe of coffee and the box of muffins from
their favorite European bakery. After she set them down on the coffee table,
she had her back to him and he was unable to resist the temptation it offered.
Pulling her back onto the couch and into his arms, she yelped in surprise, but
it was quickly stifled by his passion filled kiss.
“Mmmm…
According to the list, food was supposed to come before that.” Her smile beamed
up at him and he could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. Sara was the only
woman ever able to cause that particular reaction in him and he loved her all
the more for it.
“Yes,
well, I’m trying not to be so stuffy… Someone told me I had too many routines.”
He winked at her and she laughed at his playful expression.
They
settled in for a pleasant breakfast, as they leaned into each other and read
from their respective materials. It was one of those quiet moments that they
both appeared to enjoy whenever they could. Sara would lean her back into his
side, usually with her knees drawn up to her chest, sideways on the couch as
she read. He had been surprised by what a voracious reader she was, going
through one or two books a week, in addition to at least a dozen different
professional journals and three newspapers. It seemed that she was determined
to never be behind the curve when it came to current events or her field.
However,
there were two things that shocked him about her reading materials. One was the
fact that she had never stopped her interest in theoretical physics, as she
routinely corresponded with her old professor at Berkeley about a series of
equations he was still working on. Of course, he also remembered the day he
thought he would stump her by giving her a mathematical problem involving the
melting time of a pile ice shaved from a hockey rink. When she worked the
entire thing out, in her head, as they were standing in front of the pile
shocked silence was all he could offer. The other item that he found intriguing
was her wealth of knowledge when it came to the realm of prose. She seemed to
know many of the French poets he had long admired, and gave him the names of a
few others. She knew all the classics and showed him the world of the American
Romantic Poets, but especially Edna St. Vincent Millay. He had, of course, come
across some of her work in the past, but when she took down the woman’s
biography from her bookshelf he was shown the vast and decadent world of the arts
in the United States during the twenties and thirties and the one woman who
seemed to always be in the center of that world. When he began to read her
poetry again, it held new meanings for him and became unbelievably powerful. It
was just one of the many wonders they had shared with one another during the
course of their relationship.
With the
muffins eaten, and after he had drained the last of the coffee from the carafe,
his mind began to drift to their week. Normally, they would spend their last
waking moments at the start of their weekend decompressing from the week, but
he was late getting home because of his meeting and Sara had been through a
very long week, so she had simply fallen asleep the moment she got home.
Unconsciously, as he thought about the week, he heaved a deep sigh.
Sara
closed up the journal she was reading and tossed it onto to the coffee table.
When she scooted down the couch and threw her legs over the arm, he looked down
to find her head lying in his lap and lips pursing into that quirky smile of
hers. He gave her a sideways grin and set his book down on the couch. “Yes?”
“Don’t
give me that… You’re the one who gave the ‘let’s talk’ signal.” Her quirky
smiled moved straight into a smirk as Gil bowed his head at her observation.
“Am I
really that transparent?”
“Only for
someone that can see through you… So, what would you like to talk about?” He
smiled that time, and laid his left arm over her midsection as his right hand
involuntarily moved to stroke her hair.
“Well, I
had that meeting yesterday…”
“And?”
“They
caved on every single item.” He delighted in seeing the surprised look on her
face with his statement.
“Even the
ownership stuff?!”
He tilted
his head to side and shrugged, “Essentially… Though he did say he would have to
convince the board of trustees on that point, but he was very positive it could
be done.” He smiled to himself with the memory of his meeting.
“Wow! So,
we wouldn’t have to keep all your critters at the house after all?!”
He
chuffed at her conclusion, “Is that all you care about?”
“No, of
course not.” She took his hand into hers and held it up as she laced her thin
fingers through his meaty ones. It looked as though she was comparing the
differences in them, turning his hand over to see it from all angles. “I was
just hoping to keep work and home from being the same place, ya know.” She
looked up at him with a smirk, “I kinda like having you all to myself when
we’re at home.”
He could
not help smiling back at her, and then pulled his hand up to take hers to his
lips. “Then I guess it’s settled… If they agree to all the terms, then we take
it?”
Sara
quickly sat up and whirled around to face him as she asked, “Since when do I
get to make those kinds of decisions?!”
He
laughed at her shock and reached out for her left hand, bringing it to his lips
once again. “Since you put that on.” He watched as the blush rose up on her
face with his suggestion.
“Well
then, in this case… I’m going to defer to your judgment.”
He gave her
the raise of his eyebrow as he said, “That would be setting a dangerous
precedent.”
She
leaned forward and then ducked to the side of his face, saying, “Oh yeah,”
before sucking his earlobe into her mouth for a moment.
The
sensation was enough to make him realize he was in a lot of trouble in the
future.
“Huh?” He
was rewarded with her giggle in the same ear and then she pulled away with a
smile on her face.
She got
up off the couch and took the breakfast items off of the coffee table, walking
towards the kitchen she called over her shoulder, “So, what all did they offer
you?”
“Writing
the graduate program curriculum, associate selection, office, fully funded
laboratory, and lots of little minions to do my bidding… Pretty much the brass
ring.” He realized he was actually pleased with himself over the whole
situation. He was about to be an accredited fellow of the Jeffersonian, a
tenured academic and a pure scientist. It was like heaven on earth for a man
like he used to be. And the man he had become was happy that he could continue
his work and still stay close to his family. It truly was the best of both
worlds.
Hearing
the water running in the kitchen snapped him out of his musings and he chuckled
as he looked at his watch. “I think that has to be a record or something.”
She
called out from the kitchen, “What?”
“You made
it almost a whole hour before you had to put those dishes in the dishwasher.”
When she
spun around to glare at him from the kitchen, he knew he had gotten her. “Hush
you.”
He got to
his feet, looked down, and realized he was still in his pajamas. “Shaking his
head he thought, What would my mother
say? That thought reminded him of something. “I forgot to tell you… I
talked to my mother this morning, and she is not going to be here for two
weeks, like she planned.”
“Why
not?”
He walked
towards the kitchen to stop the hollering through the expansive room. “She had
forgotten about a gallery show that she had arranged for this month, and so she
won’t be here until Christmas Eve.”
“That
sucks… I was hoping she could look at a few of those neighborhoods we were
thinking about.” He moved even closer, as he stood directly behind her at the
counter. “Since we won’t have all the creepy crawlies around, we might actually
be able to convince her to stay with us in the near future.” She rocked her
hips and bumped into him with her backside to tease him a little further.
“I still
don’t understand that one… I had them all when I was a boy and she never said a
word.” Gil moved to the side as she nudged him out of the way while she wiped
down the sink and counters.
“I’m sure
there was more to it, Gil… I mean, it was probably quieter at Steph and Thomas’
place.”
His face turned
into a question as he looked for the answer to that comment, “I don’t
understand how that could be tr-” He stopped when he saw the raised eyebrow on
her face and then it suddenly dawned on him. “Oh… Right, quieter.” His cheeks
felt warm and he had to look down at the floor, which was when he remembered he
was not only in his pajamas, but he his feet were bare. In response to being
seen, his toes wiggled up into the air to greet him.
“So, how
was your week?”
Sara
shrugged and let out a sigh as she answered, “For me? It wasn’t so bad, but I’m
a little worried about Nicky.”
“Yeah, I
got the distinct impression that he had not smoothed things over with Dr.
Desmaiseaux when I saw her this morning.”
“I didn’t
know you were meeting with her, too.” Sara continued her tidying up as she
spoke.
“Yeah,
she’s about to publish a report that I’ve been keen on getting a look at, and
she was kind enough to offer me a preview and a glimpse of her source data.” He
scooted up to the top of the counter when she came at his feet with the
Swiffer. “It’s fairly compelling stuff, in terms of its consequences to the
field of entomology and anthropology. My colleague in D.C. told me about the
work when I asked her about the good doctor.”
“Did she
say anything about the scene with Nick?”
“No… In
fact, there was a conspicuous lack of even mentioning his presence, even when
she commented about you. Which, by the way, she was very impressed with you, my
dear.” His smirk told her that he felt a certain amount of pride in that knowledge.
“Well, I
am an impressive woman.” There was a dangerous glint in her eyes as she spoke.
“No
arguments here.” He winked at her and she went back to cleaning the floor.
“Anyway, she was going to take your report out to the site this weekend and go
over it to see if she could shed some light on your primary.”
“Oh good…
I forget to even ask Nick what she had said when he went back out there. I got
so wrapped up in the maps and video last night.” Sara was removing the cleaning
pad from the floor mop as she spoke.
“Well,
hopefully she’ll have something for you on Monday.” Gil leaned back against the
cabinet and thought about what he still had to do that week. “And since neither
of us has brought it up yet… What do we have left to do for tomorrow?”
“Well,
I’ve already cleaned up, Thomas and Carter are bringing over the table thing
and the chairs, and I did the shopping this afternoon…” She looked around to
see if it would give her any clues about any additional cleaning there, but she
found none. “So, other than getting up early and cooking, the only thing left
is to drop the bombs and hope to hell the nuclear winter doesn’t take too long…
Oh! And you need to go get the dry cleaning… I didn’t get to that today.”
He
laughed and shook his head at the jumble of details she had offered up to him.
“So, you left me the easy stuff?”
“Hey,
I’ve already had to traipse around the desert and break it to Nick that he’s a
sexist and a bimbo junkie, I think the least you can do is handle the rest.” She
sank back into the door of the fridge with her last statement.
“Well, it
was about time someone did.” Sara shrugged at his offhand comment. “I just
can’t believe no one has really called him on it before.”
“Steph,
but that’s just how she is, I guess.”
“True,
but he still managed to charm his way out of that one, mostly.” Gil shook his
head in disgust. “I suppose I can’t really fault him, it was the way he was
brought up, and he doesn’t do anything overtly sexist with malice, but I can
see where someone like Dr. Desmaiseaux would bristle at his behaviors. And
though he has come a long way, he still has some work to do if he’s going to
get away from his past.”
The smirk
on Sara’s face as she shook her head intrigued him. “What’s that about?”
“Oh nothing…
I was just thinking, how bizarre it is that we both think so much of Nick, even
with his faults.”
“It is
the mark of true friendship… Otherwise, you’d have given up on me a long time
ago.” The corners of her mouth turned up at his remark and he had to look down
at his dangling, bare feet to break the trance. “So…” He hopped down from the
counter, “Since I have to get the dry cleaning, I suppose I should put on
something other than pajamas, and perhaps take a shower.”
“That
might be a good idea.”
As he was
about to pass her on his way out of the kitchen, he leaned over and gave her a
chaste kiss on the lips. Walking away, he glanced at the calendar on the side
of the fridge and noted the date which reminded him of something. “Do you need
me to pick up your prescription when I grab the dry cleaning?”
Sara had
already moved on to tidying the dining room when she asked, “What
prescription?”
He
stopped his path down the hall and turned to respond, “Well, the drugstore is
right next to the cleaners and since Sunday will be the tenth, don’t you need
your monthly refill.”
Sara
regarded him with scrunched up eyebrows. “I’m lost. I don’t have a prescription
due.”
“Sara…
Your birth control?” He was a little agitated that she had somehow forgotten.
“OH!” She
had a funny look on her face, and then screwed up her smile when she said, “I
thought I told you… I had an appointment this afternoon.”
He felt
slightly embarrassed by her answer, knowing that he had obviously not been paying
enough attention to her when he woke up. “I’m sorry… So, you have something
else? Did you tell me you were switching?”
She
reached for a small bag that had been sitting on top of the refrigerator and
placed it behind her back as she sauntered over to him with a salacious
expression over her face. “Well, actually, I think you were the one who’s been
suggesting the change.”
“Okay,
now I am confused, because I honestly do not recall-” He stopped talking when
she reached him at the entrance to the hallway, and raised her eyebrow as she
brought the paper bag to the front to hand it to him.
He held
it a moment, almost afraid to look inside, but he had no idea why. She smiled
and said, “Though, I may have to go back to the store, since your mother isn’t
going to be here as long.” That comment sent his curiosity soaring well over
his apprehension and he opened the bag to view the contents.
Not being
able to believe his eyes, he blinked twice, and then looked back up into Sara’s
waiting gaze. She tipped her head down to peer inside the bag and then looked
back into his eyes. Gil shook his head and asked, “I don’t understand… Are you
okay?”
She
smiled brightly and it looked like she was trying to stifle a giggle. “Oh yeah,
perfectly fine: head to toe.” When his face began to wrinkle up with his lack
of understanding she finally burst with a laugh. “Oh, don’t worry so much, the
doctor said we only had to do that for a month or so, until all the other stuff
works its way out of my system.”
He
reached into the bag and pulled out one of the boxes of condoms and said, “So,
why these?”
Sara gave
him a look of obviously mock surprise and said, “Oh, I’m sorry… I thought you
were the one who wanted to start this thing… But if you’ve changed your mind, I
can just stay on the pill and we’ll forget all about kids.” Sara grabbed the
bag away from him with a devilish grin on her face and turned as she pretended
to walk away.
His mind
exploded with understanding in that instant and he grabbed for her and the bag,
at the same time. “Oh, no you don’t!” He had her wrapped into his arms as she
was laughing and smiling so brightly he thought there was a sun in his grasp.
Turning her around, he was so overcome with joy he was incapable of speech in
that moment. This was just the thing that was going to make the next day worth
it all. His future was now as bright as the smile he was attempting to kiss off
her face, and he knew his routine was completely shot for the day as they
staggered back to the bedroom.
Chapter 20
23:30 – 2006.12.08
Willow/Brown Home
The soft
music of the DVD menu had cycled through at least a dozen rotations by the time
Catherine stirred from where she had snuggled under his arm as they got
comfortable on the couch for the movie. When she lifted her head, she heard
Warrick’s sharp intake of breath as he too woke up from their obvious nap.
Laughing,
Catherine laid her cheek back down on his chest. “What an exciting pair we
make?!”
Warrick stretched
his arms up over his head and let out a huge yawn. “Arrrrrrhhhhhhh… Man.” He
blinked his eyes a few times, lowered his arms to rest around Catherine’s
shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “I think it had more to do with the
movie… I know it was supposed to be a great film, Babe, but it’s a little
slow.”
She
chuckled a little and looked up at his face. “Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t take
movie recommendations from Sara, huh?”
His
laughter reverberated through his chest and tickled the side of her where it
rest against him. “Outside of the occasional music recommendation, Sara is not
the source for anything in the realm of pop culture.”
Catherine
slapped lightly at his chest as she got up from the couch. “Not nice… True, but
not nice.”
He grabbed
for the remote and ejected the DVD as he sat up and tried to stretch out his
back a little more. “So, do we chance another movie… Or did you ask Grissom to
recommend something?”
“Ha! You
only ask for Gil’s advice on the four B’s.” Catherine walked around the couch
with their glasses and went to the kitchen.
Warrick’s
face betrayed his confusion, and so he had to ask, “The four B’s?”
She came
back out of the kitchen with a bottle of beer in each hand. “Yeah… Bugs,
bodies, baseball and Bach.” They both broke out into a hearty round of laughter
at the truth of her words.
As she
sat back down on the couch, she did so by sitting with her knees butterflied
and her ankles crossed. The two took long draws off of their respective bottles
and settled down from their laughter. Warrick was the first to break the new
silence. “So, what did you weasel out of Grissom about this party tomorrow?”
Catherine
nearly choked as she tried to finish swallowing her drink, and Warrick knew he
had struck a nerve, so he just waited for her to recover. “Ah, what do you
mean?”
“Oh
please… Like I don’t know you went straight to his office and beat him down
until he spilled the beans.” Warrick shrugged off her attempt at playing down
her interaction with Grissom. “So, what’s going on, and should I be worried
about those rumors that’ve been flyin’ around about Ecklie.”
“Well, I
don’t know what would constitute worry for you, but…” She took another drink
from the bottle and then turned around on the couch, dropping her feet to the
carpet before she was able to finish the sentence. When she sensed his glare
set firmly into her profile she finally broke. “Okay, okay… Yes, Ecklie’s being
made the head of ID.”
“Damn!”
Warrick shook his head at the notion that someone with no talent, no loyalty
and no spine could succeed in the ranks of the police department, an
organization that thrives on those qualities. “So… Grissom’s gonna be the AD?”
He watched as she stiffened with his question, and he had to wonder why.
He did
not have long to wonder. “Well… Not exactly.” She glanced over at him and saw
the confusion and curiosity on his face. She took in a deep breath and made
ready to drop a bomb of her own. “Gil sort of recommended me for the job.”
His eyes
went impossibly wide with her statement and it was his turn to nearly choke,
just on his own tongue. “What?!”
“And for
some reason, he’s pretty sure they’re gonna take his recommendation.”
“Wow…I
mean… Ah…” Catherine was becoming unsettled by his shocked response to her
news.