Note From the Author—Okay, so this is the first chapter of my new story Stays In Vegas. I ask you to please be patient with me as I have never in my entire life attempted to write a crossover. I have also never even dreamed of attempting a CSI fic for fear of being at the mercy of the show's amazingly loyal fans. So I ask everyone to realize that this may be a bit off until I find a rhythm. I also know there will be lots of characters to follow but I love them all so they will all be included here and there. Only a few will be featured exclusively. You may also notice the distinct absence of Miami. I don't watch it so I don't feel comfortable with trying to write them. I hope you enjoy this, and feedback is always appreciated; although I'm not so receptive to criticism for the sake of being bitchy I welcome anything constructive.
Disclaimer—I don't own the characters of CSI and CSI: NY. Would that I did
They stepped into the bright light of mid-day Las Vegas, a very interesting crew considering their surroundings. The team from the New York City Crime Lab had arrived some twenty minutes previous for a conference they all thought was completely ridiculous. But they all knew it was necessary so they dealt. They were dressed in a range of different styles; two men in jeans and nice shirt, one in jeans and a henley, one in a suit, and the other in jeans and a t-shirt. The women in slacks, nice tops and high heeled boots looked just as out of place amongst the daisy dukes and halter tops that surrounded them. None of them particularly wanted to be there, but the chief had left no question as to them attending, so there they were. At least they could try and enjoy themselves in the process.
"Man, it's hot out here," Danny commented, tugging at the neck of his henley.
Flack laughed. "Man it was hot at home. Besides if you had dressed better it wouldn't have been an issue Messer."
In a t-shirt, Flack was the only one of them even remotely dressed for the weather and Danny looked him up and down. "What are you even doing here, remind me again?"
"Even New York's finest deserve a vacation once and a while Dan." He sent a wink in Stella's direction. "Gotta love it."
Surveying the team, Mac shook his head, allowing a small smile. "If you two are finished…" He nodded to the shuttle that would take them to the hotel. With everyone still talking, their bags were loaded in. Then in some sort of bizarre Crime Lab conga line Mac, Stella, Flack, Danny, Lindsay, Hawkes, Adam and Kendall loaded into the shuttle for the beginning of a very interesting trip.
When they arrived at the hotel there was some incredibly vocal protest, largely from Danny, about the guys and girls having to stay in separate rooms. "I feel like I'm back at summer camp. It's completely ridiculous."
Mac shook his head. "I think it's just as ridiculous as you do Danny, but it's the rules. Tell you what, as long as nobody back home finds out you can play musical rooms as much as you want."
Keys were exchanged, changing hands rapidly until they ended with an arrangement they were satisfied with. In the end Flack and Stella, Danny and Lindsay, Adam and Kendall, and Mac and Hawkes ended up sharing rooms. As everyone headed upstairs in the elevators Mac turned to find the cute little girl at the counter grinning at him.
He shook his head and returned the smile. "Sometimes I feel like I'm running a dating service."
Upstairs in their room Stella was carefully unpacking when Flack snuck up behind her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he smiled when she leaned back against his chest. "Wanna play hookie?" he asked.
"You know I can't," she told him. She turned in his arms to kiss him. "But I certainly wish I could."
Flack pulled her close against him with a grin. "I hope you know that I plan on monopolizing as much of your free time as possible."
She returned the smile. "You won't hear any argument from me, but for the moment I've got to go."
"Go on, I'll see you later."
"Bye." She pecked him on the cheek. "Try to behave yourself."
"Don't I always?"
After a pointless kick off session Adam and Kendall split off for a lab session and Mac was pulled away for something to do with leadership. Though she couldn't help thinking the whole thing was a complete farce, Stella looked for seats for all of them in the field seminar. She saw a pretty open row and led the group over, sliding in next to what appeared to be another team. As she sat she looked over at the beautiful strawberry blonde next to her and noticed she looked about as happy as the rest of them to be there.
"I take it you appreciate this whole thing just as much as I do," Stella commented.
The woman turned with a smile. "You would definitely be right." She held out a hand. "Catherine Willows, Las Vegas."
Stella took the offered hand. "Stella Bonasera, New York."
Catherine nodded. "So your team was forced into this too?" she asked.
"Yeah. Mac, our boss, railed against it. He said it was completely pointless but in the end…" She shrugged.
"Sounds like us. Grissom hated the idea but we had even less of an excuse since it was close to home."
"You have a lot of your team here?" Stella asked.
"Pretty much everyone; Grissom got shuttled off to some leadership thing and the lab rats are doing their thing but the rest of us are here." She turned and nudged the man sitting next to her. "Nickie pay attention."
Nick was too busy staring at another CSI whom Stella was amused to find was Lindsay, who had yet to take her seat. Finally, when Catherine elbowed him in the stomach Nick turned. "Yeah?" he asked, and Stella heard the faint lilt of the south in his voice.
"Nick Stokes, this is Stella Bonasera from the New York Crime Lab."
Rather than shaking hands over the top of the other woman, Stella offered up a small wave. "Nice to meet you, but I think it's only fair to warn you that the girl you were just checking out is incredibly attached," she told him with a smile.
The grin he flashed her was quick and reminded her of Don. "Thanks for the heads up, and it's nice to meet you too."
Catherine went down the line and introduced the other two men with her. Stella found Warrick Brown's blue green eyes entirely disarming and his manor polite if a little guarded. Greg Sanders was what could only be described as, to coin one of her friends' terms, adorkable; and she found that she liked him immediately.
Stella managed to snag the attention of the rest of the team and introductions went out again. "Sheldon Hawkes, Danny Messer and Lindsay Monroe, this is Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown and Greg Sanders from the Las Vegas Crime Lab."
Hellos and waves were exchanged all around before they all settled in as the speaker started towards the podium. "We should talk afterwards. I'm always interested in hearing what goes on outside the world of Las Vegas," Catherine told her.
Stella smiled. "We'll plan on it."
After a mind numbingly dull hour the Las Vegas and New York teams practically stumbled out of the conference room. Seeing that Stella was still next to her, Catherine smiled. "I think I need a drink."
"I'm up for it."
The rest of the teams peeled off to do God only knew what before the next session they would be forced to sit through and Stella and Catherine headed for the bar. They both found that it was easy to fall into conversation about crazy cases, the higher ups, Mac and Grissom, and the rest of their teams. They were both happily sipping drinks and praying the next session would never come when Flack appeared at the door. Stella waved him over and Catherine smiled.
"I take it he's one of yours?" she asked.
Stella laughed. "He's mine in a manner of speaking. He's a detective that we work with on a pretty much constant basis. We've also been dating for almost a year."
Flack reached the table about the time of that particular declaration and smiled. "Hey." He bent and kissed Stella softly. "How did it go?"
"Horribly. What have you been doing all afternoon?"
"Absolutely nothing and it was fantastic." He turned that hundred watt grin of his in Catherine. "Hey."
Catherine smiled back at him. "Hi. Catherine Willows."
"Don Flack, nice to meet you." Flack looked back over at Stella. "Since you're in the middle of something I'm going to go see if I can find Danny and Hawkes."
"I believe that's him with two of my guys," Catherine told him, pointing towards the door. Sure enough Danny was walking in with Nick and Warrick and the three of them were chatting companionably. When they made it to the table Danny Stella introduced Flack and Catherine regarded the men with a smile. "It seems everybody's hitting it off."
Danny grinned. "Yeah it seems. Montana found Kendall and they managed to drag Adam into shopping but I ran into these two and escaped."
"Well the next session starts in a few minutes so we should all probably head in that general direction, much as I hate to admit it," Warrick chimed in.
Catherine's eyes caught his and held before she nodded. "We'll finish our drink and meet you there."
Stella's eyes met Flack's for a moment before following the others out. When they were gone Stella turned back to the table. "Warrick seems like a nice guy," she said casually.
"He is, and a great CSI."
"Married?"
Catherine smiled. "I can see where you're going. He was married, and let me tell you a lot of my fantasies went right down the drain when that happened. It didn't work out between them and he went through a really rough patch. He's been good for a while now but we just haven't gone there."
She nodded. "I can understand that. Would you still go there if you could?" Stella shook her head. "I'm sorry I'm prying."
"No, it's fine. It's actually nice to be able to talk about it with another woman. I would go there in a heartbeat but…" She shrugged. "I don't know."
"Well, you never know what could happen. I guess we should probably get going to the next hour of pointless ranting."
"You're right. When it's over I'm sure I'll need another drink."
Stella laughed. "I get that feeling too. Maybe we can all grab a bite to eat afterwards."
"Sounds fantastic. Now on to the torture."
Note From The Author—Okay, all will be explained later, but for now I'll say I'm setting this roughly two years in the future and yes Danny and Lindsay are together. I certainly haven't forgotten his recent asinine transgressions but like I said I will go into that a bit later.