Part of the Job

Season Ten (One Shot)

Author: Lolly4Holly

Rated: K+

Pairings: Wedges – David Hodges and Wendy Simms

Summary: Wendy's first day as a CSI.

A/N: My first pure Wedges fic. This is the first time I've ever written a Wedges story, I thought their little relationship going on during the show was kinda cute, so I tried my hand at some hetro fic for a change. I don't not like hetro (very bad English there J), just I've never written it before! I hope you like it. :D Don't forget to leave a review!

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or any of its characters.

Warnings: Minor spoilers for Season Ten. Gory references to the cases and adult relationships.

Chapter One: Screw Up

As she approached the doorway of her first crime scene, Hodges' words rung constantly through her head, keeping her distracted from the task at hand. Her stomach was in knots, her palms were sweating and the cold midnight air of Las Vegas was giving her chills. How was she supposed to concentrate with all of this going on?

If you can't imagine yourself out in the field, how do you expect Ecklie to?

The words ran through her mind again. The more she thought about it, the louder she could hear his voice just repeating the simple phrase over and over again, to a point where it was beginning to drive her mad.

Realising that she was still standing on the front yard of her first crime scene where she was actually getting to investigate it, Wendy soldiered on, taking it a few steps at a time towards the entrance of the house. The officer on scene gave her a soft smile, but it was more of a mocking smile as in 'Keep going Rookie' rather than the kind one of someone actually trying to help her out.

Wendy had been called out in the middle of the night to her first crime scene, and she was absolutely terrified before she had even seen her crime scene. Back in San Francisco she worked the day shift, but the night shift life in Vegas seemed to suit her more. She had barely seen the city during the day, but when she did, it didn't look right. Vegas was a night city, and she was now part of the night shift crew.

"Concentrate." She muttered to herself, realising she was beginning to think of things that were completely un-case related. It was her first crime scene, she had to focus.

Pulling her flashlight from her kit, Wendy slowly moved it across the blood drops on the floor, trying to judge their direction from her position, but with a shaky hand and watery eyes, it was hard to tell.

Her hand holding the flashlight was trembling with fear as she took two steps closer towards the small lifeless body of the angelic looking little girl. She couldn't have been older than five or six and someone decided to end her life in the most horrific way.

Wendy stood over the body, unable to look the child directly in the eyes as she saw all the blood pooling around her small head like a halo. How could somebody do this? She asked herself. The blood she could handle. All night at the lab she'd be processing blood, but they just had names. The blood didn't affect her because it was just a name or a case number, she didn't see their face or know how they died, she just saw the blood vial with the name printed on the side.

This was all a little bit too much reality for her to handle.

A sudden feeling of nausea started to wash over her. She couldn't throw up now though. If Ecklie found out she threw up on her first real crime scene, he'd never let her leave the lab again.

Wendy took slow deep breaths, sucking back her feelings and emotions towards this poor little girl so she could concentrate on the case. There had to be something! She told herself as she looked around for something that could be vital to solving her first real case out in the field, and to keep her mind off the nauseous feeling that was still rumbling through her knotted stomach.

"Wendy?" Greg's voice startled her. She straightened up, clutching the torch in her hand tighter to keep it from trembling. "Did you wonna start in the bedroom?" Greg suggested, seeing her pale complexion, even though the room was almost pitch black; barely illuminated by the flashing red and blue lights from outside along with their faint torch lights pointing towards the floor.

Wendy was relieved to take the bedroom. It was the lesser of two evils in her mind. She lifted her kit into her hands then carefully made her way through the house with the plastic booties around her shoes to not destroy evidence. She wanted to do everything by the book today.

No screw ups.

Wendy lifted her camera from around her neck to photograph the body of the child's mother. The fair haired young woman was beautifully entwined in the silk white sheets that lay on the bed. Her skin was spotless, perfect even. It seemed wrong for such a young woman to be taken well before her time. Even more wrong that her child had suffered at the hands of her killer too.

Wendy took photographs of every angle, along with close ups. She pulled her tweezers from her vest to retrieve a hair from the victim's mouth. The first time she completely missed it, grabbing nothing but air as her hand was so shaky. She held the tweezers tighter this time, lifting the hair to eye level to look at it.

"Damn it!" She cursed as the hair suddenly fell free from the tweezers. Not good! Not good! She panicked as she tried to find it on the white sheet.

Ah ha! She pulled an evidence bag from her vest this time, carefully picking up the hair and placing it straight in the bag, being sure to seal it tightly. Stupid hair won't get the better of me. She declared to herself then looked around for anything else that could possibly come in some use.

But she was so focused that she couldn't tell what was potential evidence and what was just crap.

Like this picture frame? She asked herself, kneeling down to pick up the tiny shattered pieces of glass. Was it broken in the struggle? Or did someone just really not like this dog? She asked herself, jumping as the floorboards creaked.

"Nick." She smiled up at him.

"Hey." The Texan spoke softly, noticing how jittery she was. "Have yah found anythin'?"

"Well, I-I found a hair in her mouth... I mean the vic's mouth. And this picture frame was on the floor. I think there's a print on this glass." She noticed as the blue and red lights from outside hit it at an angle, revealing the slight ridges of a print.

Nick looked at her expectantly, not wanting to blurt the answer out to see if she could figure it out for herself.

Wendy began to feel a little nervous the more he stared, but as she realised what she had just found, she remembered what the logical thing to do right now would be, "Right! So I should print it." Duh! She rolled her eyes at herself.

"Don't worry Wendy; it's very hard to screw up on your first day." He gave her a reassuring smile before he head back out to help Greg with the other body.

Asshole! What'd he have to go and jinx me for? She huffed in annoyance. As if I wasn't nervous enough!

Wendy cautiously knelt down with the glass in her hands, pulling the print kit from her kit beside her. She carefully dusted the top of the glass, specifically the side she was sure the print was on then stuck down the print tape, hesitant to pull it off in case she messed it up and it was their only lead.

"Ouch." She winced as the glass shard cut through her latex glove into her finger. She hadn't realised how tightly she was holding it. She struggled to pull the print tape off as her blood trickled down her finger, wincing in agony as it slid a little deeper from her struggle. "Shit!" She shouted in anger as the glass fell from her hands, shattering to pieces as it hit the ground.

Nick and Greg immediately appeared at the door to see what was going on, worrying it might have been the suspect returning to the scene.

Wendy slowly raised to her feet with a regretful look on her face. She dare not look straight at them in case they were completely disappointed in her. All the recommendations they had given her to join them in the field and she screws up her first piece of evidence and contaminates the crime scene with her own blood.

Damn it, why can't I ever do anything right?

Wendy leant against the hood of her car back at the crime lab, contemplating on everything she did wrong today. Nick and Greg told her not to blame herself as she did manage to retrieve the print... just! And they could easily exclude her DNA from any they found in the room, but she was still humiliated.

"Hi!" A sudden voice startled her.

Wendy looked up sharply as Hodges slowly approached her. She looked tired and her eyes were almost bright red from her almost crying over her failure, but she refused to let the tears spill. "Hey," She smiled up at him, turning her head slightly to brush the tears beneath her eyes, being cautious not to smudge her makeup. "What are you doing down here?" She inquired.

"I was on my way home." Hodges stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets, looking around the almost empty parking lot before he turned back to her. "Wen, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She nodded, giving him a deceitful wide smile to mask her humiliation. "So, what are you doing way over here?" Motioning towards his car down the other end, "Did you forget where you parked?"

Hodges shook his head. "I wanted to see how you were, after your first time out. Ecklie said there was an accident."

Of course he heard. She moaned to herself. He's always sucking up to Ecklie; he's bound to ask every little detail of my failure!

"I thought you'd have gone home." He sheepishly spoke.

"Nah, it was just a little cut." Pointing to the small bandage that was wrapped around the top of her finger, she sighed in disappointment once again. "My first crime scene and I contaminate it. They're probably working out the easiest way to fire me right now."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault," He struggled to lighten the mood. "Greg Sanders peed in the urinal at his first crime scene. I've seen the others files too, I can share you some of their mistakes if it will make you feel better."

Wendy shifted aside on the hood of her car, motioning for him to lean against it beside her. Hodges nervously complied with the action, resting his hands on his thighs. "So," She started, turning her head to face him. "What are some of the others mistakes?"

"Well Catherine Willows worked a crime scene related to her own father, not to mention the fact she used the DNA lab to find out if he was really her father. Oh and Nick Stokes slept with a girl the night before she turned up dead. I still think he killed her, a piece of evidence that Sanders happened to examine exonerated him." Hodges rolled his eyes as he had never liked the young ex-DNA lab rat since the moment he was accused of trying to kill him. As if! I certainly wouldn't need a lab explosion to kill him anyway. Hodges grinned evilly to himself then turned his head back towards Wendy, continuing to try and cheer her up. "Gil Grissom let's his emotions take over him on more than one case. You know that lady Heather, he was having this whole thing for her, even after her daughter was found murdered. He's the reason that she's not in jail right now. Oh and he also caused possible contamination on another for the FBI..."

"How do you know all this?" She interrupted with a curious smile on her face.

"It's my job to know."

"Yeah right!" Wendy laughed for the first time all day.

"They may all look like they know what they're doing, but deep down they're only human Wendy. Just like you... and me. We all make mistakes."

"You don't consider yourself human?" She laughed, happy to have the laughter instead of the feelings of doubt inside her. "You know most people in your situation," She cast an eye towards him. "I know we've only been... well I don't wonna say . . . dating." She looked at his shocked reaction. "I mean we are sorta... right? We kissed over a week ago now." She glanced down at her finger, nervously picking at the bandage. "There's a certain thing... comforting thing, that someone in your situation would offer to their..." She looked round at him again, wondering how much more rambling it would take for him to get what she meant. "Would you just hug me already!" She snapped at him a few awkward seconds later.

"Uh..." Hodges looked at her slightly confused then pulled her into his arms. Wendy laughed against his shoulder, resting one of her hands on his back.

"Thanks." She spoke softly into his neck.

"You're welcome."

Wendy closed her eyes against his neck, feeling better already. He may not have been the most affectionate person in the world, but he certainly gave good hugs.

She returned to work with Nick and Greg a few minutes later, taking one short trip to the ladies to check her makeup wasn't smudged from her tears. Nick gave her the list of incoming calls from the victim's house to go through, to see if there was anything strange. Glancing down at the sheet in front of her, she noticed that the household called for pizza six times in the space of two hours.

Either they were really hungry or they kept screwing up their order. She thought to herself.

Going over her crime scene photos, Wendy couldn't find a single picture with a pizza box anywhere. She rushed off towards the layout room where Greg was sat piecing together a broken bottle to collect prints and DNA from as the bottle was used to cut the little girls neck open.

"Hey Wendy," He glanced up at her from his work. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah, I found this, I don't know if it's weird or not so I thought I'd run it past you." She set down the list in front of him. "See this number?" She pointed to the ones she had highlighted in yellow. Greg nodded, wondering why she would need to run it past him anyway. "It's the pizza delivery service number, the household called the number six times in the space of two hours." Greg nodded again, looking up at Wendy for her explanation. "Well there weren't any pizza boxes around. I checked the trash at the crime scene like Nick said, but there wasn't any in there either."

"Good lead," Greg nodded to her, giving her a smile of approval. "Wendy, you didn't screw up, so don't worry about it. You gotta have more confidence in yourself." Greg assured her then pulled his cell phone from his pocket to call Brass about the lead. "Hey Wendy, do you think you could go down to autopsy and find out the child's cause of death?" He politely requested.

Wendy nodded, reluctantly turning on her heels to head off down to the morgue. She dreaded seeing the child's body again, especially being cut open by Doc Robbins. It just seemed wrong for such a small little girl. She didn't know how the Doc could just cut into a small child like that and feel nothing.

Wendy cautiously walked towards the autopsy table where the Doc was looking at a bruise on the side of the mothers face. She gulped down the hard lump in her throat as she approached the table, quietly clearing her throat so he'd look up at her.

"Wendy," He smiled warmly. "Here to find out your victims' COD?" Wendy could only nod as she was too nervous to talk. Doc Robbins retrieved his notes from the other table, setting his glasses on his nose to read through them. "The daughters COD was due to exsanguination." He walked round to the other table, pulling back the sheet from the little girl's body.

Wendy slowly walked round to join him, feeling that familiar nauseous feeling in her knotted stomach as she approached the dead body.

The Doc slightly turned the girls head to reveal a large cut. "Looks like she was hit with something sharp round the side of the neck..."

"Hit? It wasn't cut?"

"No, it's more of a chopping motion." He pointed out to her.

Wendy nodded as she held her stomach as she struggled to hold down the acidy feeling inside of her.

"I found some bits of glass in the wound. I sent them up to trace . . . a child this size would have bleed out very quickly. The mother," He hobbled back around to her table, retrieving his notes for her. "She died of ligature strangulation; see the bruise pattern around her neck?"

"Yeah." Wendy nodded; remembering the curtain tie she found on the floor looked just like that. She realized she could get the killers epiphyllous off the rope, as long as he wasn't wearing gloves. "Thanks." She smiled, quickly heading off as her acidy stomach started to bubble even more, giving her terrible discomfort.

Wendy rushed off towards the ladies room in case she really was going to throw up, but as soon as she took a few calming deep breaths, she felt so much better and calmer. She never had a problem before, but then again she had never seen such a small child killed in such a brutal manner before.

Wendy quickly splashed her face with some cold water then got back to work, informing Greg of the cause of deaths before she went to test the rope for some DNA. Brass managed to get her a warrant to test everyone's DNA at the pizza place as no one would own up to calling the house.

Wendy was determined to find her killer so she got all the DNA samples back to her lab, going through them one by one to try and match them to the sample she found on the rope. She soon found her match, she wished she hadn't, but she had.

Wendy wandered off towards Nick and Greg's office, lightly tapping on the door with her knuckles before she walked in.

"I found our killer." She announced, gulping down that annoying lump in her throat before she said the next part. "It's the little girl's father." Her voice croaked as she couldn't believe it herself.

Wendy sat in the observation room as Nick and Brass questioned the father of the little girl, who also happened to be the owner of the pizza place. They were waiting for Mandy to confirm the match of his finger prints on the piece of glass that Wendy had found, and thankfully not destroyed. They already managed to match the hair to his, but his lawyer was demanding more as their evidence was contaminated.

Wendy cursed herself again for making such a clumsy mistake. If that man walked because of her screw up she could never forgive herself. Ecklie never wanted her to go in the field and this gave him yet another excuse to keep her in the lab for the rest of her career.

Not that she didn't enjoy it; she was just looking for more adventure in her life.

Wendy jumped as she looked round at the door opening. It wasn't Ecklie coming to yell at her like she thought, it was Hodges; her pseudo knight in shining armour with coffees in his hands. "Hey," She smiled warmly at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Ecklie told me..."

"Why am I not surprised," She interrupted with a groan of disappointment. "What did he tell you then?"

"Ecklie told me you found your suspect, I was going to say." He handed over one of the coffees to her, leaning on the table beside her. "I wanted to come and check you were okay."

She looked at him surprised. "You? You came to check on me?"

"I can be a gentlemen." He smiled round at her.

Wendy struggled not to laugh, giving him a wide smile. "Thanks... you know you're really starting to get this boyfriend thing down." She immediately bit her lip as the words tumbled out of her mouth.

"I'm a boyfriend?" He inquired; more of a statement then it was a question.

"There are certain... boy friendly qualities about you, yeah." She nodded. At least I didn't say I love you, that would be harder to cover up. She groaned at herself. She didn't want to seem this needy, this early on. They hadn't technically gone on a real date, let alone kissed since the last time in the lab.

Hodges just half smiled, sipping his coffee slowly as they watched the rest of the interrogation. It was like a bad police drama show. They knew the guy was guilty, they had all the evidence to prove it, even the look on his face proved it, but the lawyer was telling his client to remain silent, which only made him look even more guilty.

Clearly the lawyer knew he was guilty too, but why would he let the killer of a six year old girl walk?

"Money." Wendy mumbled to herself.

"Huh?" Hodges questioned, not sure he heard her right.

"This guy's gonna get off of killing a six year old because he owns this damn pizza place and he can afford a lawyer to keep him out of jail. That's royally fucked up!" She growled angrily.

Hodges looked at her surprised; he had never once heard Wendy swear in the lab. One day as a CSI and she's bad mouthing already!

"How can someone chop their daughter's neck open like that then leave her to bleed out while he goes and rapes and kills her mother in the other room?" Wendy asked no one in particular, she just wanted to get it out there in the open.

"Wendy!" The Texan's voice called from the doorway. "We got him, a witness came forward identifyin' him as our guy and Greg found a bloody t-shirt in the pizza place that belonged to him. It's the daughter's blood." Nick informed her.

Wendy sighed in relief. She thanked Nick for telling her then watched Brass reading the murderer his rights as they dragged him off to a jail cell.

"So, if I'm a boyfriend," Hodges looked round at Wendy. "Did you want to come over mine?"

"I'm not vulnerable enough to sleep with you." She chuckled, climbing off the table. "And I thought you said you were a gentlemen?"

"I am. I meant... to watch television. We can watch television? Would you like to come over mine to watch television with me?" He started to nervously ramble.

Wendy stuffed her hands on her hips, trying to think. "Is that your gentlemanly version of a date freak boy?" She laughed as he turned his nose up at her.

"I don't know, is it a date...? Screw up." He teased her.

"Uh... Loser!"

"CSI wannabe!" He playfully retorted back.

"Geek!" She smiled at him, tapping her fingers against her arm. "Okay, so what are we gonna watch on the television, freak boy?"

"I don't know, Clumsy. I have to feed Kobe first." He pointed out to her, climbing off the table. "I'm sure we'll find... something to watch." He grinned round at her.

"Alright, you're on freak boy, but I'm driving." She insisted, stepping out the door first as she led the way towards the crime lab parking lot. She was more curious to find out what kind of place Hodges lived in then she was to find out what was on the television...

Originally uploaded 23rd May 2010 – Edited and Re-uploaded 27th December 2010 with a 1,000 word difference.

Let me know if you liked it or not. This is my first attempt at writing WEDGES, I never liked them before, but after that kiss in the lab, I think they're one of my new fav couples!

Please Review!

~ Holly