Upside Down, Chapter 1

Note: All of the Chapter titles will be song titles, but may not necessarily contain the lyrics to that song. I don't own the show or any of the characters, nor do I own the lyrics.

Adam Ross yawned as he stared at the computer screen, more tired than he had ever been. He had decided to watch all of the Godfather movies the night before with Detective Don Flack and CSI Danny Messer, who he had become friends with over his time at the lab, and didn't end up sleeping much at all, just here and there. They had started a little late because Lindsay Monroe was moving her stuff into Danny's place and it took longer than expected, but Adam didn't care. It was the most fun he had had in a while, and reminded him of when he was a kid and he would pull all nighters having movie marathons. He'd spend the whole day after puking from too much popcorn and trying to sleep, though he'd never like naps or took them past preschool. He closed his eyes to remember when he fell asleep. Was it during the second or third movie?

He snapped out of his daydream as the computer dinged, signaling that CODIS found a match to the fingerprints Danny found at a crime scene. Another yawn escaped Adam's mouth as he called Danny and informed him of the latest discovery. When he shut his cell phone, he groaned, realizing that it was only 10:30 AM. It wasn't just the sleep deprivation; today felt very long in particular. Mac Taylor, his boss and head of the lab, had been trying to figure out how the budget could afford to keep Adam and the other six lab techs, while getting the DNA machines the lab had waited on for six months already. Stella Bonasera, Mac's right hand woman, was dying for the machines, and she had nothing against Adam; in fact, they were becoming good friends in the past few months. It's just that they would put the lab very technologically ahead, and so many cases were pushed aside because they didn't have the time or enough people to process evidence fast enough. Still, Adam was a little hurt by Stella's push for the machines, but he knew he had to let it go and it couldn't afflict his job, so he did just that.

Sheldon Hawkes, ME turned CSI, came in with a hard drive for Adam to process just then. Adam took it, glad to take his mid off his pending job status with more work. "This was found plugged into the victim's computer. The suspect may have had something on there he didn't want our vic to read, so look thoroughly." He noticed the circles under Adams eyes and laughed. "Wild night Adam?"

This comment didn't amuse Adam, and he frowned as he snatched the hard drive and stuck into the computer. A number of documents popped up almost instantly, including an email between the lead suspect and the vic an hour before the murder. "Great, we can interrogate him now. Thanks Adam!" Hawkes called behind him, already heading out the door and dialing Mac's cell phone number.

"No Problem!" Adam yelled, but Hawkes was too busy filling in Mac and Danny at the same time to notice. Figures, he shrugged as he sorted all of the documents and started to go through them more carefully. Once he finished that, it was 12:40, the right time to take a lunch break, he already drank three cups of coffee today, but gulped down a fourth as he headed to the break room for the leftover Chinese in the frig. Hopefully no one had claimed it yet and he could snag the extra Singapore noodles and kung pow chicken for lunch, not wanting to go out and get something himself.

Kendall Novak, a friendly and pretty lab tech, was already on her lunch break and finishing off a PB & J and looking over a case folder when Adam walked in and dashed for the frig. "Hungry much Adam?" She giggled as he collected his findings, grabbed a fork and plopped down next to Kendall.

"Very Funny." He smirked as he stuffed a forkful of Singapore noodles into his mouth. Truth was, Kendall was pretty funny, and he had had a huge crush on her ever since she arrived in the lab last year. Their conversation varied from the case they were working on to the Yankees game two nights ago to the fact that Flack looked hilarious today because Danny and Adam drew all over his face last night and he still didn't know. While they talked, Adam realized he was subconsciously moving closer and closer to Kendall. She smiled at a joke he made and he noticed how beautiful her smile was. He also noticed how pretty she was today, how she seemed to glow today in particular, even though he thought she was pretty every day. She was very sweet when Adam explained his angst over his job status and was very good at comforting him.

"What do are you doing tonight?" she asked with her head slightly tilted to the left.

"Nothing. What are you doing tonight?" Adam stuttered slightly as he spoke, from drinking too much coffee. This obviously amused Kendall because she chuckled while he spoke.

"The same. I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight." Adam was surprised; a girl had never asked him out before. She leaned towards him so that their heads were almost touching. In that moment Adam felt strangely calm. Just being close to Kendall made him forget about all of his fear and anxiety and made him smile. His whole life he'd been terrified to go out with a girl. They always made him nervous and he would do something awkward like spill something on them or slam into a door. But Kendall was different. He wasn't afraid to say yes.

"I'd love to." Adam replied as he leaned his head towards her, going in for a kiss. His mind should be racing at 1,000 miles per minute, but it wasn't. All he thought about was kissing Kendall. In that moment, nothing else mattered. Although Adam wasn't very good at kissing or romantic stuff, he stayed as calm as humanly possible. His ran his through Kendall's hair just slightly, and she put her hand on his shoulder. The tension was killing him, so he decided to speed it up a little bit. He closed his eyes and went in for the kiss of a lifetime.

Just as their lips touched, someone walked up behind him and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. "Adam Ross?" A young female voice asked. Both Adam and Kendall sighed as they looked up. But what they saw before them was something neither of them expected, especially not Adam.