Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of 'CSI:NY' they belong to Anthony E. Zuiker and CBS. Author's Note: Night Shift Mischief is BACK! Now, I've read 'Ghosts of Manhattan' and they didn't say ANYTHING about the lab being haunted...or is it?
Mac Taylor didn't know what he was thinking, leaving Danny and Lindsay in charge of the lab while he took a red eye flight to Chicago to assist with a parole hearing he'd been a part of on the beat back in the Windy City, but he trusted that his team had the common sense, the decorum and the professional ethics to not let the lab fall apart in his absence.
On the night shift.
On Halloween.
Then again, he thought as the elevator doors closed, this may have been the worst idea I've ever had…
At least Jo was there to keep them in line.
"Eyeballs," Jo said with a grin. "Definitely eyeballs."
"That's a GREAT idea," Lindsay enthused. "Danny, peeled grapes would work great for that. Lucy's class would LOVE it."
He leaned back in his office chair. "I never pegged you for the spooktacular type, Jo," he admitted. "But these are some great ideas for Lucy's kindergarten Halloween party."
"I've had to do more than my share of Halloween classroom parties," Jo admitted. "You'd be amazed what you can steal from Martha Stewart and Oriental Trading."
"How do you think Lucy is with your sister?" Danny asked Lindsay. Lindsay's sister Nicole was in the city for a visit, and when Danny and Lindsay had gotten called in for yet ANOTHER night shift (chair jousting. Hawkes's idea.), she had agreed to babysit.
"I'm sure she's fine. Nicole brought Dora and Winnie the Pooh to keep her niece occupied." Lindsay replied. She sighed. "Four more hours to go."
"How are things coming on the Bates case?" Jo asked her. She shook her head. "I never thought there'd be a Norman Bates accused of murdering someone while they were in the shower."
"Art imitates life," Danny pointed out with a smile. "And they're mostly wrapped up."
"Who's on call down in the ME's office tonight?" Lindsay asked her husband.
He thought about it. "Marty. And Sid, I think."
"Full house?"
"More like empty nest," Danny said. "I heard Sid complaining he had nothing to dig in to this afternoon."
"Thank God for small favors," Lindsay said. "I swear to God, if Flack calls in tonight, the next dead body he calls in will be his own."
"Zombies?" Danny queried. At Lindsay's confused look, he laughed. "Well, that's the only way Flack is gonna call in his own DOA, isn't it?"
She shook her head. "You like this Halloween crap way too much."
"Boo!"
Jo, Danny and Lindsay jumped six feet out of their skin. Jo turned to see Sheldon Hawkes standing behind her. He chuckled. "Jumpy tonight, are we?"
"Sid's next project," Danny muttered, and Lindsay bit her lip to keep from grinning.
"Just wanted to let you know that Jeannie out at the front desk ordered pizza for us. It should be here pretty soon and it'll be in the break room." He checked his watch. "In the next ten minutes, or it's gonna be free."
"We'll be there," Danny said, and his friend waved and disappeared down the hall.
Hawkes ducked into DNA where Adam was rocking to Michael Jackson on his iPod. He tapped the tech on the shoulder, and Adam jumped nine feet in the air.
Hawkes shrugged. "I must have that effect tonight," he said. "Just wanted to let you know that the wheels are in motion."
Adam set his iPod in the pocket of his lab coat. "Sweet!" he pronounced. "This is gonna be awesome. If I can't be out LARPing tonight, this is the next best thing!"
Hawkes raised an eyebrow. "You. Are. A Nerd."
"Yes, but I am a nerd with a lot of kickass ideas," Adam countered, and Hawkes laughed. He couldn't disagree with that.
"Aaaanddd….done!" Lindsay pronounced, closing the casefile in front of her. She glanced up at Danny as she shut her computer down. "Pizza. I crave pepperoni. Are you coming?"
"Yeah I'm good," Danny said. They stood up and Danny let Lindsay go by him and out into the hallway.
"Is the pizza here?" Jo asked, poking her head out of her office.
"Yup!" Lindsay said. "Coming with?"
"I heard pepperoni," Jo replied as she followed them. The three of them had gotten all of three steps before they realized something.
"Where is everybody?" Lindsay asked. The entire 35th floor was well….dead quiet.
Then the lights went out. Danny jerked in surprise. The emergency lights came on-a dull shade of orange. "Someone replaced the emergency light bulbs?"
"They thought the eyes adjusted better to orange than blue or red," Jo said. "Just one of the many budget cuts from Sinclair."
"Figures," Lindsay muttered. "What the hell is going on?"
Danny saw something in the glass next to him. "What the-" He took a step forward.
Nothing was there.
"Does this happen often?" Jo queried. "This isn't like, new lab tech hazing, is it?"
"No, that was the dead body your first day on the job," Danny shot back. "No, this is new. I think Hawkes and Adam are screwing with us."
Jo accepted that. "All right then," she said. "So what's the objective?"
"Scare the hell out of us?" Lindsay suggested. "It's kind of working."
A low growl sounded behind them, and Jo whirled. "This better be a joke," she warned. "Because my service piece is in my locker."
They turned the corner past Reconstruction. A long piece of yellow crime scene tape was stretched from one corner of the hall to the other. "Do not cross." Danny rolled his eyes. "Obviously we're not supposed to go this way."
"It's the shortest route to the breakroom," Lindsay pointed out. "If it's just Adam and Hawkes, what are they gonna do to us?"
Danny nodded. "Good point. He ducked under the tape.
Something reached out of the door of Reconstruction, missing him by inches. He fell backwards, landing hard on the tile.
"Jesus!" he swore, scrambling backwards on the floor.
"What the hell?" Lindsay grabbed him by the shoulders. "Who the heck was that?"
"Fuck that!" Danny said. "I'm not going in there to find out!"
"Guess we're going the other way around, huh?" Jo said, and neither one of the others argued.
Inside Reconstruction, Hawkes stood flush against the cabinet, holding his breath until Danny, Lindsay and Jo passed by. He set down the severed pigs' foot and grinned.
He poked his head out, saw the hall was empty, and disappeared into the darkened lab.
Jo's favorite place in the lab besides the break room was the A/V lab. The monitors and the chair were just so cool.
But as they passed it in the dark, it almost looked a little ominous.
WAY ominous. The usual Crime Lab screen savers that usually dominated the screens were replaced with skulls, flashing images of gnarled trees, red moons and gravestones.
"Nice touch," Jo said approvingly, trying to keep the tension out of her voice.
The next thing she heard made her hair stand up on edge. "Come into my parlor, Detective Danville," a scratchy, disembodied voice commanded her.
She blinked. The skull on the screen…was talking to her. In fact, it was looking right at her!
"No way," Jo said.
"I'm not listening to some skull on a computer screen," Lindsay agreed. Her hand found Danny's, and she gripped it so hard her nails dug into his palm. He bit his lip to keep from yelling.
"What's the matter, Jo?" the skull asked threateningly. "You're not…scared, are you?" The skull opened its mouth and something flew at them.
Jo, Danny, and Lindsay all ducked. A loud chittering sound filled the air, and Danny looked up.
Bats. On all the monitors. A 3D screensaver program. The disembodied voice began to laugh ominously.
"Hawkes, you're a dead man!" Danny threatened. "And Adam, you're next!"
From their position safely in the breakroom, Adam glanced up at Hawkes. "He doesn't really mean that, does he?"
Hawkes laughed. "Naw, man. Besides, he'll be less pissed at us after what's gonna hit them next. He's never liked Blake much anyway."
Lindsay's cell phone rang, making all three detectives jump. "Jesus," Lindsay swore. "Hawkes, what the hell?" she demanded.
"I don't know what you're talkin' about," Hawkes replied. "Are you guys coming or what?"
"After we navigate this little haunted hellhole you've created!" Lindsay replied.
"Hurry up," Hawkes shrugged. "The pizza's almost gone." He hung up, leaving silence. Except for the dark laughter emanating from the A/V lab.
"Screw them both, I've had enough, and I'm starved," Danny announced. They stepped past the elevator.
The elevator dinged, announcing the arrival of…well, something.
"Hell, I don't even want to know," Danny muttered. "But I suppose we have to play along?"
"Hell with that," Lindsay echoed him from earlier. "Let's just go."
"Too late now," Jo replied, as the elevator doors slide open.
"Sid?" Lindsay asked, as the elderly ME staggered from the elevator. His hand shot out to catch his balance on the door frame, and came away smeared with blood. He threw the hand back up to his neck. "Sid, what the hell?" Danny demanded, as his arms shot out to catch him as he fell forward.
"W-working late," Sid stammered. He was freezing. "Was all by my-myself, when h-he came out of n-nowhere!" He dropped to his knees, and Jo reached forward to catch him. She and Danny helped him lie on the floor.
"What the hell happened?" Jo asked him.
"H-he bit me," Sid groaned. "I-I, oh God…" His eyes went wide, and focused blankly on something behind Lindsay. "T-there!"
Lindsay screamed as something grabbed her from behind and growled in her ear.
"Lindsay!" Danny yelled. The creature behind her was hideous. Pale as latex, wild eyes, a dark scar down his face, from his ear to his chin. Their clothes were ripped and torn.
"Give me blood!" it howled, and cranked Lindsay's head to the side, preparing to bite.
Hawkes heard Danny yell, heard Lindsay scream. He looked over at Blake, who was knee-deep in extra cheese. "Blake, if you're not..." Hawkes turned to Adam in alarm.
"Then what the hell was that?" Adam replied. He dropped his piece of pizza and the two of them disappeared from the break room.
"Give me blood!"
Then Danny saw the flash of orange through the tattered clothing.
"Marty Pino, you son of a bitch!" he barked, reaching over Lindsay and tackling the night shift ME to the floor.
The two of them hit the tile hard, and Marty burst out laughing. "Jesus, Messer, you shoulda seen the look on your face!"
"Danny? Lindsay, Jo?" Hawkes and Adam came sprinting around the corner. "We heard screaming, what the…" Hawkes trailed off as he took in the sight in front of him.
Adam laughed. "Damn, Marty, nice!" He laughed. "God, that's so much better than Blake faking getting shot in Ballistics."
"Yeah, this is definitely better. Puts our idea to shame," Hawkes agreed.
"You two!" Jo hissed, turning to the lab tech and the doctor.
"H-hey," Adam protested, throwing his hands in the air. "They thought that up all on their lonesome!"
"I'm afraid so," Sid said from the floor as he sat up.
"Damn you, Sid," Lindsay bit. But then she had to smile. They all knew the ME was a little eccentric but… "Where'd you learn to act like that?"
He smiled. "Marty."
Everyone present laughed.
"I heard someone say pizza," a voice said from behind them.
Every person jumped. Adam grabbed hold of Hawkes' arm.
Don Flack looked at them innocently from the stairs. "What?"