Light in the Dark
Disclaimer: I don't own anything of CSI, characters or anything. Ok, with the exception of Ahmaryllis.
a/n: First story, go me! A recent review noted a couple inconsistencies in the story so I either fixed them or changed them a little to do with later plot revelations.
It was another busy afternoon at the CSI headquarters in Las Vegas. People running around examining DNA, comparing fingerprints and answering telephones. Only one thing was amiss. All the CSI's- Grissom, Sara, Nick, Warrick, Catherine and the CSI in-training, Greg- were there. For the past two days there had been no crimes-no crimes on their shift anyways. No robberies, no murders, no suicides or anything. Something was bound to happen, it was only a matter of time.
Greg stared at the walls in the break room and contemplated random thoughts. They shouldn't call it the night shift. he thought absently. After all, our shift begins at noon and ends at 2 in the morning. mind you, I guess it could be called the 'night shift' considering that it's in the afternoon... his reverie was broken as he watched Sara get up and go into Grissom's office. I wonder what that's for? All the CSI's thought.
"Gris, I'm bored." Sara complained. "It's been too long to go without working. I need, I think we all need, something to do." Grissom looked at Sara with a pained expression. Even he needed some excitement. Surprisingly, he was missing Greg's loud music that blared whenever he worked. There had been nothing for the rambonctious lab tech. November 7 the calender said. Grissom sighed once again.
He was about to say something when the phone rang. Grissom quickly picked it up.
"Grissom, CSI lab." he listened intently and took hasty notes. When he hung up, he went straight to the break room, with Sara in tow, to where the rest of the CSI's waited with bored indifference. "Alright, we have a rape and quadruple murder case. The person raped a 19 year-old girl then killed her parents and two older brothers. Warrick, Sara, Catherine and Nick, divide yourselves between the four bodies. Grab your kits and head towards the vans. I'll deal with the technical stuff. Oh, and Greg? You're coming too."
"Great! And what exactly am I doing?"
Gissom stared at him and simply said "Baby-sitting duty."
Geg opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it and silently followed his boss out of the room and to the vans.
As usual, the crime scene was a mass of reporters, policemen, paramedics, curious neighbours, flashing lights that illuminated the night sky and lots and lots of yellow tape.
"You know, all the yellow tape and put me off the color yellow." Greg said absently to Warrick. The latter looked at Greg, then to his shirt which happened to be sporting bright yellow hawaiian flowers, then back to Greg's face. He chose to say nothing.
"Greg!" Nick beckoned him over. Greg sighed and slowly made his way over to his friend. "Know what you're doing?" Nick asked.
"Baby-sitting duty, whatever that means. Most likely the neighbours' squabbling kid."
"Close, but no cigar. You're watching 19 year-old Ahmaryllis Smial. The one who got raped. She's in shock and won't speak or respond to her name."
"Probably what the raper called her. Interesing name though."
"I agree. It's taken from amaryllis which is a name of a flower."
Greg cocked an eyebrow. "And you would know the names of flowers...why?"
Nick got tongue tied and began flustering his reasons but instead switched back to the topic of the case. "Disregarding flowers, Ahmaryllis is the most important thing right now."
"Coming from flower boy over here."
Nick gave Greg a dirty look but continued filling him in the facts. "She also won't let anyone, especially males, come near her. She's over by that tree, the one near the bird bath. Rather unforunate that it happened today. Records say that it's her 20th birthday in two days."
Greg looked over and saw a figure sitting against the big oak tree, tracing the intricate pattern on the bird bath.
"I take it you sent me because of my dashing good looks?"
Nick smiled. Greg never failed to amuse him. "There's another thing that I want to tell you. Ahmaryllis is acting...oddly. She won't go with the workers from the rape shelter. She got defensive by pulling away and wouldn't follow them. Also, she isn't displaying the normal signs of a rape victim. Usually they're crying and screaming but she's just in shock. Ahmaryllis is also being a bit of a pain."
"A pain? How?"
"Well, she keeps shooting rocks and bits of dirt at passing officers. It's just not normal for a rape victim to do that."
"Point taken. She's not displaying the usual signs of being raped, except for not letting males come near her, and being a pain by flinging objects from the crime scene. I'll go talk to her."
Greg fixed his hair, did a quick breath check and went over to Ahmaryllis. She was a pretty little thing with intense dark blue eyes and long black hair that, to Greg's delight and probably her parents horror, was streaked a vibrant shade of orange. She was wearing stained sweat pants and an overly large 'I Love Las Vegas' t-shirt. Greg figured that they were someone else's and the previous owner obviously didn't want them. She looked like a scared 5 year-old child, which was normal as she was still deep in shock.
There was something else that caught his attention. The records said that she was almost twenty, but she didn't look it. In fact, she looked like she was twenty-five. Something about this case was wierd, but Greg couldn't place his finger on it. Something was wierd indeed.
He sat down about two feet away from Ahmaryllis. She made a move like she was going to shuffle away from him but instead looked Greg up and down. He seemed alright. This stranger didn't try to get close or ask ucomfortable questions or offer her unwanted assistance. In fact, he was kind of cute with his crazy hair, screaming Hawaiian shirt and his kind, caring face. Ahmaryllis decided to stay where she was.
"Um, my name's Greg, Greg Sanders, official Lab Techie at the CSI lab. Is there any name that you would like to be called? I mean, Nick said that you won't respond to your real name so..." Greg trailed off and noticed that Ahmaryllis' face, already red and blotchy, was becoming more so as she began to silently cry. He dug in his pant pockets and came up with a Kleenex for the girl. He offered it to her and a fine hand with bright green nail polish came out to accept it. She blew her nose and was thinking about where to deposit it. "I can take it if you want." Greg offered, but Ahmaryllis had something else in mind. He watched and wondered what the girl was up to.
Ahmaryllis rolled the Kleenex up into a loose ball and dunked it in the bird bath. She squeezed most of the extra water out of it and admired her handiwork. Greg realized what she had made and smiled. A spitball. Dry enough enough to fly straight without being weighed down, but wet enough to soak the victims' neck and clothes. She took careful aim and threw it right at Nick.
Said CSI jumped as the Kleenex hit him in the neck and after fishing it out of his jacket, looked at the direction of whence it came. Greg pointed at Ahmaryllis who had a ghost of a smile on her lips. Greg was starting to like this kid.
Eventually, Grisom gave the order for all CSI personnel to head back to the lab- Ahmaryllis included. Once there, they figured out what to do with her.
"We would send her to a relatives house but there's no Smials' in Las Vegas, Nevada or anywhere in the United States." Grissom said
"We can bring her the rape shelter. They can deal with her until she can go out and find a place to live." Sara suggested.
Nick shook his head. "We already had people come to try and take her but Ahmaryllis refused. Anyways, she has nowhere to go after that. We checked her records and found that she was living at home with no car, no other house and no enrolement in university or college."
"I did a quick check of her emails and there has been nothing incoming or outgoing for weeks." Catherine said, "She wasn't talking to anyone from where she used to live. And speaking of that, the Smials' just recently moved from New York City. I don't think there's anywhere else for her to go."
There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone tried to avert each others eyes. Greg spoke up.
"She could stay with one of us. I mean, she can't go anywhere else. Unless it's against the regulations or whatever. I think it's a good idea."
Grissom massaged his temples. Why do all the hard cases end up night shift? he thought. "Alright. Since this case has special circumstances, the way we'll deal with this will have to be a bit out the ordinary. You guys decide between yourselves who'll take her for this night and this night only." He paused and then added, "Unless other circumstances arise."
"I think either Catherine or Sara should take her." Warrick said. "After all, they are girls."
"I would love to take her, but I'm not sure how she would deal with Lindsay." Catherine said. All heads turned to Sara.
"I...uh...take care of Ahmaryllis? I don't think I could...." She trailed off.
"Greg." A voice said. Everyone turned to see that Ahmaryllis had spoken at last.
"You want to stay with Greg?" Warrick asked, somewhat surprised. Ahmaryllis stared at her shoes and nodded. "Greg? What do you think?" Greg looked dumb-struck. He had been volunteered for baby-sitting duty, and now he had a kid with the mind of a ten year-old on his hands! What was this world coming to?
"Sure, why not. I'll give her space. Actually, I don't feel comfortable about leaving her alone in the house and the shift only just started a few hours ago." Greg checked the clock which read 8.28. "on second thought, it started eight hours ago. But there's still evidence that needs to be analyzed..." he trailed off on his pointless arguing.
"Greg, take leave for the night. I'll call you later. Take Ahmaryllis to your place. Let her sleep, watch TV and do whatever. Don't worry, you'll get paid for tonight. We can deal without you for now." Greg was surprised by this unexpected sympathy from none other then Grissom.
"Ok, Ahmaryllis, let's go." They went out to Greg's car and the he drove them home, Metallica blaring to keep Ahmaryllis awake and to annoy the neighbours.