Between Two Points
Disclaimer: If it's familiar to you, it doesn't belong to me
A/N: This isn't a WIP, I've actually written the whole thing already. I'll post a new chapter every so often, as long as people like it. This is my rookie fic, so please tell me what you think. Enjoy!
~*~*~*~
Chapter 1 – Catherine, Jr.
The break room at CSI. Catherine and Warrick sat on one side of the table, Nick and Sara opposite to them. Kate, Catherine's niece, sat next to Sara. Kate had just graduated from college and moved to Las Vegas from the east coast so she could work with her aunt. They were making small talk over coffee, getting to know Kate, who was going to be interning at CSI.
Warrick was flipping through the sports page, Sara was reading a forensic journal, and Nick was peeling an orange. He silently offered Sara a half; she accepted it without looking up from the article she was reading. With her nose still in the journal, Sara said to no one in particular, "Did you know that blood evidence in 32% of murder trials . . ."
"So Kate," Warrick interjected, trying to change the subject before Sara went into one of her ramblings, "you wanna be a CSI just like your aunt?"
"Yep. It must be destiny or something," Kate said. "I was even named after her. Katherine with a 'K' though."
"Don't tell me you were also once an exotic dancer," Warrick teased.
"Warrick!" Catherine gave him a shocked look as she playfully slapped him on the arm.
"What, you don't think I could have been one?" Kate teased back.
"Kate!" Catherine looked at her niece, even more shocked.
"What?" Kate smiled innocently at her aunt.
Nick was trying to look busy by picking out the seeds in his orange slice, pretending not to be amused by the conversation. "Well," he said as if to himself, "it's not like it's implausible…"
"Nick!" Catherine turned to give the other male CSI a look. She was across the table from him and couldn't reach his arm. "Sara," she ordered. Sara, still engrossed in her journal, punched Nick in the arm without looking up or losing her spot on the page.
"Don't encourage these guys," Catherine said to her niece.
Nick got up to throw his orange peels in the garbage can. "You're worried about me and Warrick?" he said to Catherine. "We're the least of your problems. Greg works here, remember?"
"Oh, right," Catherine remembered, a little dismayed.
"Who's Greg?" Kate asked.
Warrick laughed, "Oh, you'll know when you meet him."
"So seriously," Nick said, changing the subject as he sat back down. "You really wanna be a CSI?"
"Definitely," Kate said. "And I owe it all to Aunt Catherine."
"So when do you start the academy?" Sara asked, finally looking up from the journal.
"Next fall. I just got my bachelor's in Criminal Justice this past winter. I graduated a semester early, but they wouldn't let me in the academy for this spring because my final transcripts wouldn't have been ready in time."
"Bummer," Sara said.
"Yeah, but that's okay," Kate said cheerfully. "If I didn't have these six extra months, I wouldn't be able to work here with my favorite aunt!"
"Hey, don't try to be kissing up now," Nick teased. He turned to the rest of his co-workers. "As an intern, isn't she in charge of making coffee and going on food runs?"
"That's just what you'd want, huh Nick? A personal slave?" Sara joked.
"Excuse me, but I refuse to be anybody's personal slave here," Kate said, playing along with their joke. After a short beat, she added, "Well, except maybe Warrick's . . ." she teased Warrick with a flirty look.
Warrick raised his fist in triumph. "That's my girl!" He pointed at Nick, as if to say, Ha! I won! and Nick smirked back at him, defeated.
Sara rolled her eyes, getting tired of listening to the guys being guys. "Where is Grissom?" she said impatiently. "He's three minutes late."
"Sorry, that would be my fault," Kate apologized. "When I went in to talk to him earlier he said that my paperwork had arrived late so he had to finish it up before I could start."
"First shift didn't even start and you're already causing problems, huh Junior?" Nick scolded sarcastically.
Kate gave him a puzzled look. "Junior?"
"Yeah, as in Catherine, Junior. You said you wanted to be just like you're aunt. You have the same name and everything. And it's not like you denied the stripper thing," Nick teased.
Kate smiled. She knew her internship was going to be a blast. She would be working with her favorite aunt, not to mention two flirty, incredibly hot co-workers. She wondered how Sara, or her aunt for that matter, were able to focus on their jobs. Before any more inappropriate thoughts could pop into Kate's head, Grissom burst into the room, obviously in a hurry.
"Sorry I'm late," he apologized to everyone. "Paperwork." He turned to Kate. "Ready for your first case?"
"Bring it on," Kate replied eagerly.
"Okay, well you're in luck. Got a big one, I want all of us on it. 406 in Summerlin.
"Why do you need all of us on one burglary?" Sara asked, a little annoyed.
"Summerlin." Catherine answered, as if the reason was obvious. Burglaries in the upscale neighborhoods were always more complicated. More things to steal, more important people to steal from.
"Exactly." Grissom said. "Dinner party, lots of big wigs, friends of the sheriff's, you get the picture."
Sara still wasn't satisfied. "Yeah, but just because –" she started to argue.
"Oh, I forgot to mention," Grissom interrupted as he turned to leave. "One DB. Which was apparently not the burglar." He left for the parking lot, leaving Sara frustrated and the rest of the team a little confused as to what exactly just happened.
Warrick was the first to move. "Well, let's roll," he said, as he got up from his seat and headed for the door. "I'm driving."
"No, I'm driving," Nick countered, as he got up and followed Warrick.
"Says who? I called it," Warrick answered back.
"I says. Your Denali smells like fish," Nick replied.
"It does not," Warrick argued. It's my new air freshener. And it's not fish, it's 'Outdoor Pine.'"
"Yeah, 'Outdoor Pine' with a side of fish," Nick continued. "Forget it, man. I don't wanna smell that."
They continued arguing as they started down the hall. Catherine and Sara rolled their eyes. Kate smiled. "Hey guys," Catherine called to them as the ladies followed them down the hall. "Why don't you both drive? We can't all fit in one car!" she yelled to them, but they apparently didn't hear.
"Are they always –" Kate started to ask.
"Get used to it," Sara said.
The team pulled up to the extravagant Summerlin estate. Warrick exited the driver's side of one vehicle, Nick from the other. The rest of the CSI's piled out. They all silently made their way under the yellow tape, into the house, and up the stairs to the master bedroom, the primary crime scene.
"Whoa," Kate said as they all entered the bedroom, shocked by the lavishness. "This is three times as big as my entire apartment."
"Hell, that closet is three times as big as my apartment," Warrick replied, gesturing toward the huge walk-in.
Grissom ignored their comments and got right down to business. "Cath, Nick, Sara, Kate, process the room. Warrick and I'll take the body on the balcony." Grissom headed toward the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony, with Warrick on his heels.
Catherine turned to the rest of the team. "Well, let's do it. Divide and conquer?" she proposed.
"I'll take photo duty," Sara offered.
"I'll start with the bed," Nick said.
"You would," Sara quickly retorted. Nick gave her a look; Sara gave him one of her looks back.
"Okay, well I'll tackle that closet," Catherine said.
"What should I do?" Kate asked, a little overwhelmed.
"Uh, why don't you start dusting? Champagne bottles and glasses are everywhere," Catherine suggested.
"Okay."
The team went to work. Kate looked around the room and decided to start with some champagne bottles and an ice bucket on a nightstand near the bed. She opened up a jar of fingerprint powder and soon became engrossed in her dusting, so engrossed that she didn't even notice Nick had made his way from the other side of the bed and was examining something on the wall near Kate with his flashlight. He bent down to get a closer look. "Hey Kate," he called to her, since she was the closest one. "Take a look at this, tell me what you think."
Kate, a little startled, quickly turned to see where the voice was coming from. She was on her knees dusting a champagne glass on the nightstand, and when she turned, her face ended up at eye level with Nick's rear end. "Everything looks great from here," she smiled.
Sara, who was further away but within hearing distance, tried to stifle a half laugh, half scoff.
Confused, Nick turned his head to see if they were looking at the same thing, and quickly stood up when he realized they weren't. He smiled, embarrassed. "Um, it looks like grease or something," he managed to mutter.
"I think it's petroleum jelly," Catherine said, coming towards them from the closet. "I found some on the closet door handle too. Take a swab. Maybe we'll get lucky and get some epithelials. I mean, someone had to have put it there, right?"
"Yeah, but why is it all over the walls?" Nick asked, confused. "I followed this trail from the other side of the bed over there."
"Oh, c'mon, Nick. Lubricant? Bedroom? I'm sure that's nothing new to you," Kate teased.
Nick smiled and tried to think of a comeback, but couldn't. He went to grab some swabs from his kit.
"What are you doing?" Catherine whispered to her niece, referring to Kate's flirty comment.
"Dusting for prints," Kate replied.
"You know what I mean," Catherine said. Kate gave her an innocent smile. "Rule number one," her aunt continued. "No flirting on the job." Catherine left to finish up her work in the closet.
"Sorry," Kate said as she smiled to herself. She couldn't help herself.
After Nick collected the samples from the wall, he started to inspect the bed sheets, but his mind was elsewhere. Was Kate actually flirting with him? Or was she just joking around, like she had in the break room? And this was on the job, which Nick thought was a little bold. Not that he didn't enjoy it. Kate seemed like a nice girl. Smart. Easygoing. Not to mention pretty cute. Even though he was partial to redheads, no guy would walk away from long, flowing blonde hair. And she certainly knew how to let loose. Unlike Sara, who took her job way too seriously and never knew how to relax. Nick stopped himself. What am I doing? He thought to himself. I'm working! And it's Catherine's niece! He tried to get Kate out of his head and started focusing on the bed sheets.
Sara, meanwhile, was forming a completely different opinion of Kate. She pretended not to care one way or the other about Kate's blatant flirting, but she frankly thought it was unprofessional and totally inappropriate. She hoped that Catherine told her niece that crime scenes were not places to fool around and have fun at. The last thing they needed was for some intern fresh out of college to make a careless mistake and ruin their whole case.
Still, Kate was Catherine's niece, and out of respect for Catherine as a co-worker and a friend, Sara decided to try and keep an open mind about Kate. At least for now. She figured that Kate's flirty personality was probably due to nervousness on her first day, and also immaturity. Besides, she thought, Greg was the same way whenever he talked to her. And she didn't dislike Greg for it. She hated to admit that she even liked it. What girl wouldn't? Greg was harmless anyway, and Sara knew he was too timid to ever take action. She figured that Kate was probably the same way. Although, Sara reasoned, Kate was Catherine's blood relative, who was once an exotic dancer…
But whatever. Why should Sara care if Kate hit on Nick?
~*~*~*~
Good? Bad? Let me know!
Oh, and about the whole intern thing, I'm pretty sure they don't just let people off the street come in and work as a CSI without training. But whatever. That's why it's called fiction. =P