Summary: A new intern/lab-tech has come to the lab, while the team is still in grief from the loss of Holly Gribbs. The team is a little less than welcoming because of this, except for her fellow lab-rat Greg Sanders, who becomes the first person she's ever let into the wall that she has built around herself. GregOC.

Disclaimer: Do you think I'd be writing fanfictions if I owned CSI? Trust me, I'd be writing the show, getting rid of all hints of GS, and placing myself in it somehow…anyway, yes, obviously I don't own CSI or anything else. I don't even own this computer, it's my dads…I do own my character though. And my storyline. So no stealing, got it?

Spoilers: The Pilot episode obviously…uh…can't think of any others at the moment, but if there are, I'll be sure to list them.

Rating: PG-13, and that's just so that I can swear or curse if I'm in the mood. No sexual stuff, I don't think. If there is that is more than PG-13 (unlikely) then I'll move up the rating.

Author's Notes: Yes, I noticed that there didn't seem to be a lot of Greg romance fics out there. There are certainly lots of Greg angst fics, and, I'm sorry, but I got quite tired of them, so I thought I'd write something different. If there are any spoilers that I forgot to mention, someone please tell me? Thanks! Please Read and Review!! If this sounds too much like my other fanfictions, someone please tell me that also…

Internal Romances

How do you get the caramel inside the Caramilk chocolate bars? Thought the young woman as she munched on a chocolate bar on the way to her new job. This was the only non-nervous thought that she'd had so far, and it seemed rather out of place. She gulped, accidentally swallowing the piece she'd been chewing on too early and nearly choking, but managed to get it down. That was close, she nearly became one of the bodies that she would be spending her time studying and doing tests on.

Well, technically she wouldn't really be studying the bodies. Although she was technically an intern, the mayor had informed her, when she'd been employed, that she would be hanging out in the lab for 'an undetermined amount of time'. Although she hadn't heard much, she'd heard rumours that something had happened to the last person hired to work in the lab, so they were taking no chances. She still didn't know for sure what it was.

Finishing her chocolate, she shoved the wrapper in her jeans' pocket for later disposal, and yawned, drumming her red-painted fingernails against the steering wheel, whistling a random tune as she waited for the light to change from red to green. When it finally did, she flipped her wavy blonde-streaked brown hair out of her face as she turned left, heading towards the Las Vegas Crime Lab. It was currently nearing eight o'clock at night, and the shift would be starting in about an hour. She wanted to get there early so that she could find out where everything is before anyone else got there.

She pulled into the parking lot, glad that she'd found it without much difficulty. Parking her car, she climbed out, rubbing her dark blue eyes to get the dust out of them. She locked her car, then walked towards the doors, nervously straightening her jean jacket, which was unzipped, revealing a red T-shirt underneath. After taking a deep breath, she pulled open the doors, walking up to the receptionist, who, luckily, seemed to have known she was coming and directed her to sign in on the clipboard, which she did, signing her name neatly:

Amanda Terries

Yes, that was her name. Amanda Terries or Mandy for short. After signing in, the receptionist, who's smile seemed plastered on, gave her a locker number and a key, and she thanked her and started down the hall towards where the woman had said to go. Down the hall, last door on the right…or was it left? After thinking for a moment, she turned right, and found herself nearly walking into what was obviously not the locker room. In fact, it appeared to be the supervisor's office, Gil Grissom, where she was supposed to go after finding her locker.

She quickly did an about-face; heading left, and found herself walking into the locker room, and, surprisingly, not alone. There was already a brunette, who was pulling on some running shoes and looked up, no smile on her face. "Hi, who are you?" She asked, rather coldly, and Amanda was a bit taken aback, but recovered enough to answer.

"Amanda Terries, new intern/lab-tech." She answered, smiling widely in the hopes that this would provoke a friendly response out of the other woman, but was sadly disappointed as the woman didn't even smile, or even hold out her hand to be shaken.

"Oh, so you're the new intern. I'm Sara Sidle, CSI level 3…guess that's your locker." She indicated the empty locker, then started towards the door. "I've got to go, it was nice talking to you." Although she said it, it was rather hollow, and Amanda had a feeling that she hadn't meant it. Wondering why Sara was so cold to her, she decided not to dwell on it. Maybe she was just having a bad day. Finding her locker, she checked it out, then placed her small handbag inside it, closed it and locked it, pocketing the key.

Remembering where the supervisor's office was, she knocked on the door, and was rewarded by the sound of someone shifting inside, and then the door being opened, revealing an older man, who for a moment appeared confused, then it seemed to dawn on him and he went stoic.

"You must be the new intern…Miss Amanda Terries, right?" He, at least, seemed a little less cold than Sara had, but he acted more like he didn't care much at all. His hair was tinged with grey, she noticed, although he couldn't be older than his forties, and she wondered if this CSI business aged you before your time…She nodded her head in answer to his question.

"That's right, Amanda Terries, or Mandy for short." She felt rather as if nobody she'd met so far really wanted to meet her, they were just being formal and polite. Maybe this had something to do with whatever those rumours had been. Grissom nodded, looking through the file in his hand, which she saw had her name on the cover.

"Well, you'll be working with our resident lab-rat, Greg Sanders, but he won't be here yet. I'm surprised that you're here yet, after all, shift doesn't start for another…twenty-five minutes." He commented, glancing at his watch and raising an eyebrow. Good, he seemed to be warming up to her…at least a little bit.

"I just wanted to find out where everything was before everyone else got here…" She explained, shrugging. "I mean, I'll be spending most of my time in this lab, it seems, so I might as well know where everything is…" She trailed off, not wanting to say too much. She didn't actually like to get extremely close to people, because then they usually wanted to learn more about her. She didn't like having people know too much about her.

He was nodding, and closed the file. "Well, that's good, because you've left just enough time to go talk to Jim Brass, the head of homicide…he's the one that hired you…" She nodded, and followed him as he walked out of his office, taking a moment to survey the various jars that were littered around it. Lots of bugs…not her favourite type of creature…

"I'll show you where stuff is along the way." He said over his shoulder as she followed him. "There's Greg's lab, which will also be your lab now. You specialize in DNA, I believe it says here?" She nodded, although he wasn't looking at her. "Good, than you and Greg will get along well."

They continued along like that, with him pointing things out and her trying to keep up with everything. They stopped outside one of the offices, which had the name Jim Brass on the outside, and Grissom knocked. The door was opened by a stern-looking older gentlemen, who ushered them inside, although he looked like he would much rather not talk to them.

"The new meat, eh? Amanda Terries, I believe?" She nodded, without saying anything. This man definitely screamed police officer, and she felt immediately intimidated, which was not a feeling she particularly liked. "Well, Miss. Terries, you are an intern, but, as I'm sure our kind mayor has told you, you will not be going out into the field in the immediate future. I'm sure you haven't been told why, and I'm not going to tell you. You'll find out in due time."

She just nodded, feeling annoyed at not being told anything. Grissom watched the exchange, waiting to see what was going to happen. Brass continued on after a pause for breath. "I don't have much else to tell you, except mind your Ps and Qs, because you were on borrowed time before you even got here, you understand? So don't mess up, or it'll be on your head." She nodded, willing herself not to physically lean away from him, as he was definitely trying to intimidate her.

He nodded at Grissom, who quickly gave a nod towards the door, indicating that she should leave, and she exited gratefully, glaring at the closed door for a moment, hands on her hips, then left to head towards the lab, which Grissom had pointed out earlier. As she passed by the break room, she paused, noticing that there were four people hanging out, including Sara. She stood in the doorway for a moment, uncertain whether to go in or not, when Sara turned around and noticed her.

"Hey, Amanda, right?" She asked, causing the other three to turn around, revealing a brown-skinned man, with brown hair and blue eyes, ((A/N: I think…)) a slightly older woman with strawberry-blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and a muscular dark-haired man with dark eyes. Amanda nodded, and all of the three stood up to introduce themselves, although it didn't seem as if they really wanted to, they just were trying to be polite.

"Hi, Catherine Willows, you must be the new intern…" She saw glances exchanged between the four of them, with the brown-skinned man looking down at the floor, then sticking out his own hand.

"Warrick Brown…nice to meet you…" It sounded hollow, but she tried to smile and act like she hadn't noticed. Finally, the last man came forward; the only one who seemed to have an at least semi-genuine smile on, holding out his hand, which she shook after dropping Warrick's.

"Nick Stokes…welcome to the team." She smiled, and introduced herself.

"Amanda, Amanda Terries…you can call me Mandy…" She smiled at the others, but it faded as there was an uncomfortable silence, and she shifted from foot to foot. "Er…do you guys know if Greg's here yet?" She asked, but before anyone could respond, a voice came from the door.

"Someone call my name?" She turned, as it was the only voice so far she'd heard that was cheerful. Seeing the unknown girl, he sauntered in, his lab-coat undone, revealing a button up shirt with a rather unusual design, which she found interesting. "Hello, hello, I don't believe we've met. Name's Greg Sanders." He stuck out his hand, which she shook, smiling softly.

"Hi, I'm Amanda Terries." She said, letting her hand drop down to her side, smiling, and was glad when this time there wasn't an uncomfortable silence.

"Oh, so you're my new partner-in-crime." He swung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in the general direction of the lab, someone managing to make it quite casual. "You've got a lot to learn, my little grasshopper, and I'll be sure to teach you everything you need to know." She glanced over her shoulder at the four other CSIs, who were all rolling their eyes rather half-heartedly.

"So you're the masta?" She asked jokingly, to which he solemnly nodded, opening the door to the lab with a flourishing bow.

"Yup, and welcome to your training room, my little grasshopper." He added as she stepped into the lab, through the glass doors, looking around at all the machinery, obviously fascinated. She recognized all the equipment, of course, but she'd never really gotten to use it in school. They didn't have the money to get enough for everyone, and she usually was stuck watching the other students while she took notes.

She turned around, to see what Greg was up to, and she saw that he was glancing out each window, as if making sure that nobody was coming then turned to her, heading towards the desk. "Make sure nobody is coming." He whispered, and she raised an eyebrow, but glanced out each window, and nodded when she saw no one coming. What did he have up his sleeve?

He kneeled down to a drawer underneath his desk that she hadn't even noticed before, and pulled it open, revealing a can of Blue Hawaiian coffee! "Oh man, you've got Blue Hawaiian here!!" She said, wistfully and obviously a bit too loudly as he shushed her and slapped a hand over her mouth, glancing out the windows.

"Shh! This is our little secret, eh? Just between us interns." He said, smiling mischievously and returning the coffee to its drawer, shutting it. "If the others find out about it, they'll try to steal it. You're not the only one who loves coffee. Now…they should be heading off on their assignments soon, so we'll have the lab to ourselves. We can enjoy it without worry about being found." She grinned, feeling rather that she was going to enjoy working with Greg.

"So, Amanda, since we'll be working together, tell me a bit about yourself." He asked, and she turned away, looking at the machinery, trying to think of a way to avoid the question.

"You can call me Mandy." She said, first off, then continued. "This is a PCR machine, right? Polymarase Chain Reaction, used for examining very small samples of DNA." She said, as an attempt to change the subject, which he picked up on.

"Ya, that's right." He stood up, and started walking around the lab, pointing out the various machinery, and deciding not to push her into talking about herself. Some people didn't like to talk about themselves right away, and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. "Oh yes, and just to warn you, I may be a bit territorial at first. I'm not used to having to share my lab, but with you, I'll make an exception." They exchanged grins, and then they saw the five CSIs head off down the hallway and out the door. The mischievous look on Mandy's face was so much like his own that they both had to laugh as they fished out the coffee and the coffee pot, turned on the rock music, and relaxed.

((reads the introductory chapter Wow…I actually made a really long chapter…Oo…I'll try to keep up this length, but no guarantees…Please Read and Review, I'd appreciate it!! Next chapter will probably be up soon!!))