A month in the lives of two csi's.
The slowest week in historie
It had been one of the slowest weeks in decades for the Las Vegas CSI Nightshift. All members had finished their paperwork, even Gil Grissom, the supervisor, had found his desk after going through the stacks of paperwork that had filled his desk up to three nights ago. With all the paperwork out of the way, no courtroom appointments and no current cases, Grissom had found time to submerge himself in one of his old-time favourite pastimes: doing experiments which had formed and prodded in his mind for some time now. However these experiments now had to rest, so Grissom found himself with literally nothing to do in the break-room for the second night in a row. And even the break-room that had always provided him with a forensics magazine, newspaper with a crossword or colleagues to finally talk to, was sorely lacking on all three accounts today. Yes, there were forensic magazines, but he had already read them all in the passed week, as had Sara done, Grissom was certain. Yes, there were newspapers with crosswords, however they were already solved, one half by him and the other half almost certainly by Sara, he knew, just knew it was her.
One of the reasons he knew this, was because he had seen her do crosswords on at least one occasion. Plus his other co-workers were not at all interested in crosswords. Besides they had all done other things. Greg had taken several games to work when he had finished his paperwork and had no old cases. He had felt bored and had seen that also Nick and Warrick had run out of things to do. So Greg had taken monopoly, clue and a set of cards to work next night, just in case there was nothing to do. This was three days ago. Grissom had asked Greg when they had talked two days ago. That was the third thing Grissom did in the break-room: talk to his co-workers, however they had run out of things to talk about yesterday.
Grissom looked around in the break-room, the TV was off ("There is nothing on" Catherine had said), there was no music (We couldn't agree on what to listen to" Greg had explained), the games Greg had brought were scattered around, but nobody except Greg, who was laying out patience, was playing ("We already played the first three hours of shift and we played yesterday shift and the shift before that." .Nick had told him) the coffee pot was empty and turned off ("Nobody wanted coffee, and since we don't have to keep awake nobody put in the effort to make some." Warrick had clarified) and the cupboards with the cups were cleaned ("The book couldn't keep my attention for longer then 5 minutes and I wanted to do something so I cleaned the cupboards and mugs." Sara informed him , without him even asking for an explanation). Grissom glanced at Sara after she had told him of the cleaning. Greg, Nick, Warrick and Catherine were al seated around the table; Greg was playing patience, although Grissom had already seen two cards pass, that he could easily have played; Catherine was reading a magazine although her eyes frequently travelled to the clock on the opposite wall and Warrick was nodding off on his chair while Nick was rearranging the contents of the monopoly game. But Sara was seated or rather lying on the couch in the corner, surrounded with books. Grissom watched her for 10 minutes in which she discarded two books after two minutes, angled a nearby bag with her foot, taking out several more books of which she pushed away three books after merely looking at the title and throwing the last book on the ground after a five minute read. Grissom understood her comment earlier immediately, she couldn't seen to focus on reading, or anything else for that matter and neither could he or any other member of the team. Grissom decided to walk around the lab to see how the lab rats were coping with this week.
When he stepped in the hallway he could hear various kinds of music coming from almost all labs. Archie was watching something on internet, he commented that he had cleaned up his computer an had all the paperwork done, but he was starting to get bored even afted Days had given him something to do that was done within five minutes. Mia in DNA had used the extra time to clean, just like Sara, but had finished this a couple of hours ago and was now reading a magazine called Cosmopolitan, because she had read her professional literature for this month. Bobby from fire-arms had test fired all firearms in possession of the lab and catalogued all striation marks on these bullets, just for the sake of doing something. Hodges from Trace was dancing, Grissom decided he didn't want to know, so he moved on quickly to Jackie at fingerprints. She had taken a leaf out of Robbie's book and fingerprinted everybody in her vicinity to frighten boredom away. It wasn't working, Jackie sighed. Down in the morgue doc. Robbins was the only one not complaining because he had finally found time to finish the book he was reading.
Convinced of the facts that this was fastly becoming the slowest week in history and that everybody even the lab rats were becoming stir-crazy, Grissom walked back to the break-room. Upon entering his cell phone rang, five exited, expectant and hopefull faces turned to him. "Hi Brass." Grissom answered, confirming the thoughts of his co-workers.
"Hi Grissom, how is everything?"
"Slow, do you have anything for us?"
"No, I just thought I would give you a ring. See how you're doing."
"Well, I'm fine, just very very bored, like every single person in the lab. This place has never been this clean and paperwork free, Even Ecklie admitted that when I came in this night." Grissom looked at his co-workers, who had realised that there was no case; Warrick nodded off again, Catherine resumed hypnotizing the clock, Nick was reorganizing the clue game, which was apparently the last game, seeing the stack of games next to him, Greg was staring at the patience game completely missing the solution and Sara was staring at him, with her beautiful brown eyes. Grissom mouthed a "I'm sorry" to her and she simply nodded and continued to look at him. Grissom suddenly felt the urge to send everybody home, wrap his arm around Sara's shoulders and take her home. Back home he would cook diner and afterwards they would recline on their sofa with a nice glass of wine. Grissom was so lost in his thoughts that he had missed Brass's comment.
"I'm sorry Brass, what did you say?"
"I said that the criminals might have gotten smarter and only commit crimes during the day, because the nightshift CSI is too good, they never get away."
"If that is the case this week should have happened a couple of years ago."
"That is true."
"Well I'm going to have to do something before someone here commits murder out of boredom or just to give the others something to do. Bobby from firearms fired all firearms we have here and processed the bullets just to have something to do. And nobody is save around Jacky because she fingerprints everybody, because she is bored out of her mind."
"Okay you guys need to do something. I'm gonna go 'cause I've got paperwork to finish."
"Ah, right, all paperwork, even that from my desk is done. See you Jim."
"Bye Grissom." With a smile on his face Grissom closed his cell phone. He looked straight at Sara who started to talk: "We know everything you just said is true. So what are you going to do?"
"I'm sending you all home. Keep your cell phones on, just in case we get a case."
"Fat chance." mumbled Warrick from his spot in the chair.
"Well we are in Vegas, maybe tomorrow the tables will turn." Grissom replied with a smirk. Everybody sniggered at his remark, grabbed their stuff and piled out of the break room. Grissom walked to Sara who was gathering her books. "I'm going to tell Eckley what I've done, I'll see you in the locker room."
"Sure, see you there." Sara returned to the job at hand and continued to fill her bag with the books she had taken from their home.
Five minutes later Grissom entered the locker room. "There you are. Did everything work out with Eckley?" Sara was seated on the bench rummaging around in her bag. "Yes but let's go quickly before he realizes that he agreed with me." Grissom turned to his locker and grabbed the stuff he needed. He opened the door for Sara to pass and when she had, placed his arm around her shoulder while the locker room door closed behind them.
When they got home everything happened just as Grissom had fantasized it would go. While he made diner Sara put away the books and his bag. When Sara was setting the table, after feeding Bruno, Grissom realized he liked living with Sara, he liked seeing her rummaging around the house, straightening the curtains, clearing away things that were lying around, all those small things that made this feel like home.
During diner they discussed all kinds of things. Sometimes they would pour over cases, but since neither had cases, this topic was off the table. But often the conversations started with a question Sara had regarding bugs or something else she had spotted in one of the many articles or books she read or Grissom would have an idea for an experiment and run this passed Sara to gather her ideas on it. They were either on equal ground on a topic or one would educate the other on something they had read or studies previously, but they were always listening to each other and let the other be him or herself. They had never felt the need to judge or ridicule the other. They were together and that mattered to them.
"Sara, this friend of yours that was coming over, when would she arrive? Grissom asked while they sipped their wine and watched Bruno chew on a bone. "She would be arriving tomorrow midday, with all the luck she was having." Sara replied, Grissom turned to her and showed a thoroughly confused face. Sara laughed and explained: "She called yesterday around three, remember we woke from our sleep, because of her call?"
"Oh, right, I fell right back to sleep."
"I know. Well she was waiting to board the plane, but with all the strikes she didn't know if she was going to get the connection to the next plane. If she had, she would have arrived tonight, but if she didn't and she was having quite a lot of bad luck she would arrive tomorrow, around noon or even three."
"Is she gonna call so we can pick her up?"
"No, she told me not to worry, she would find her way herself. She didn't want to deprive me of any more sleep. Right now I wished she would call. It would give me something to do, this is most possibly the most boring week in history."
"I know, even the labrats are at a loss for something to do. Brass reckons it's because the criminals know they are not going to get away with it with this CSI nightshift."
"Wouldn't this have happened a couple of years ago if that was the case?"
"Precisely what I told him. Still it is a compliment." Replied Grissom, leaning in to kiss Sara. He lifted the wineglass out of Sara's hand and placed it on the table. "Come on, let's walk Bruno and go to bed." Hearing his name, Bruno lifted his head and trotted after Grissom and Sara who were heading to the front door.
"He, Bruno, let's go for a walk, what do you say?" Bruno barked happily in reply of Sara's question. Ï thought so, come on let's get your leash. There we go." Sara clipped on Bruno's leash and hooked her arm in the arm Grissom offered. And so the neighbours saw them take off, like they had done before: two crime scene investigators who worked at night, but always took the time to walk their dog together in the early morning, and when they returned the curtains in the bedroom would close and they would sleep, preparing, gathering energy for the gruelling night ahead.
