Why Do They Think They Can Fool Us?
A/N: Second fanfic. Please R&R!! Sara is still here, because I want her to be here. rolls eyes Re. Hodges' charm thing-I don't think he's charming, but Wendy obviously does. I expected this fic to have longer chapters, but this one just ended up being short. I guess that's just the way I roll.
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI. It belongs to TPTB. (I'm going to start using TPTB a lot, since I just found out what it stands for)
Shift had just started, and the CSIs were in the break room, waiting for their assignments from Grissom. "Alright, Cath, you, Warrick and Nicky have a 444 out on the Strip. Under regular circumstances, we wouldn't need three of you at an officer involved shooting. I was about to pull you off for my case, Nick, when I heard the cops repeat the body count. 7 dead, 11 injured," Grissom said, not raising his eyes from a clipboard. Catherine sighed. "7 dead? Honestly, if it's another trigger-happy rookie…" She trailed off and headed out with Warrick. "Greg, you have the backlog from last week." Greg grumbled, "Why is it always me? You could go get Ronnie. She's newer." Grissom replied: "It's not a question of who's newer, Greg. That backlog case with the dead singer is complicated. I need you to review it." Greg rolled his eyes, and slouched off. "That leaves you and me, Sara. We're doing the 419 over at that kindergarten in Henderson."
Warrick, Nick, and Catherine were driving to the crime scene in his Tahoe. Catherine was bitter. "Ugh, yet another officer involved shooting. I swear, nowadays people are just joining the cops so they can threaten baddies with guns." Warrick was slightly more optimistic. "Ah, look on the bright side, Catherine. At least you don't have to do Greg's backlog."
Greg tried to cheer himself up by brewing his favorite Blue Hawaiian coffee. Normally he loved working solo, even in the lab, because it meant he could blast his music as loud as he wanted to. Not tonight, though. Halfway through "Feel Like Makin' Love", Wendy had walked in and yelled at him. Without Greg's music bursting everyone's eardrums, the hallways of CSI seemed eerily quiet. As part of his new political campaign, Ecklie had taken Bobby, Archie and Mandy out in the field. Henry was on sick leave. That meant only Greg, Wendy and Hodges were in this wing of the building. Greg decided to have a peek at what they were doing.
"A dead body at a kindergarten? Wow, Vegas is really changing," Sara said. She and Grissom were en route to the Young Minds nursery and kindergarten, where an anonymous caller had reported a dead baby girl, dumped by some bougainvillea bushes.
After two wrong turns, Warrick, Nick and Catherine had finally arrived at the scene of the 444, a dark alley off the Strip. There were three ambulances there, for treating the wounded; and a coroner's van, for transporting the already dead. "Is the shooter dead?" Nick asked David Phillips. "No, he's alive and well," David replied, raising his eyebrows. "Usually, shootings like this, cop kills himself. Not this one. Brass is taking his statement over there." Catherine called to Warrick and Nick: "Nick, you go see what Brass' got, and collect evidence off the cop while you're at it. Warrick and I will process the alley." Nick saluted and headed for Brass. Warrick and Catherine started snapping photos and putting evidence markers down.
Greg's eyes widened. He had stuck his head around the corner to see what Wendy was up to in the DNA lab. Now he was staring Wendy and Hodges, who were doing some hardcore flirting. Wendy was batting her eyelashes, and Hodges was turning on his charm thing. Greg slowly backed out of Wendy's lab and sat down at his own desk. He pulled the casefiles closer, and sipped his Blue Hawaiian as he looked them over. God, he thought. This case is so boring. Greg nodded off, re and re-re reading the same sentence, when suddenly he froze. "What's that?" he muttered. "It can't be." Reading out loud, Greg said: "…The poison might have been administered through his tea. Annie Simonovic: Wait… I remember he said something about the tea tasting like almonds. I thought it was really weird, since it was bergamot tea and I didn't add anything." Greg frowned. "Almonds? How can this be?"