My story in the "dictionary challenge" on the forum "CSI Miami: The Challenge Corner". The story has to center around the word chosen randomly in a dictionary.
Word: Ink
As usual the only person still in the lab at almost nine in the evening was Lieutenant Horatio Caine. And as always he was working with paperwork; probably forgetting how late it was and that he should be heading home. He was just about to sign his signature on a rapport when... the pen stopped working. Or rather it ran out of ink.
With a sigh Horatio threw the pen in the trash and then grabbed one of the others pens he had on the desk. Again he couldn't sign his signature because the pen had no ink. Frowning Horatio picked another pen and got the same result once again.
Since when had he ever run out of useable pens?
He checked his pockets but found no other pens. So the only thing to do was to check the lab to see if anyone had left one he could use. Horatio left his office and went to the DNA lab first. He found four pens and none of them had ink in them. He then went to the fingerprint lab and got the same result.
No ink.
He was starting to get frustrated and checked the trace lab and documents lab, but found no ink in any of the pens lying around. Finally he reached the ballistic lab and found one pen that worked. He went back to his office and had just signed his first name on the signature line when... again, no ink was left.
While growling and muttering something incoherent Horatio searched the break room and receptionist's area, but could find no useable pens. He couldn't come up with a single good reason as to why all of the pens in the entire lab had suddenly run out of ink. The Lieutenant decided that there was nothing else to do so he went home; thinking he could bring a pen from work in the morning.
The next morning he arrived back early and was surprised to find Eric already there. Even more strange was how startled the younger man seemed to be when Horatio showed up. They said good morning and Horatio went to his office. He finished the signature from the night before and was about to continue checking the rest of her paperwork. Something was bothering him though... why had Eric been acting so strange?
Horatio, whom always trusted his gut, went to find the young man. Eric was standing outside the locker room listening with his ear against the door. Horatio approached him.
"Eric?" He asked.
"Oh hi H... um..."
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"Eric." Horatio said and raised his eyebrows.
"Just playing a prank on Ryan." Eric shrugged innocently.
Horatio could hear the faint sound of a shower running and someone humming from inside the locker room. Eric was smirking and obviously waiting for something to happen.
"Do you have any idea why none of the pens in this place has ink in them?" Horatio asked.
"Yeah. And soon you'll know why too." Eric grinned.
The shower was turned off and the person behind the door (obviously being Ryan Wolfe) was still humming.
Then there was a scream!
"MY HAIR!"
Eric laughed so hard that he doubled over on the floor. Horatio frowned and opened the door. There in front of the mirror in his locker stood Ryan Wolfe with blue hair. He was so angry his face was red and if it had been possible there would have been smoke coming out of his ears.
"ERIC!" He yelled.
Eric stood up and ran away as Ryan Wolfe with only a towel around the waist chased him around the lab. Horatio picked up Ryan's shampoo and looked inside. Blue as ink.
"Eric was right. This explains why there were no pens with ink around." Horatio mumbled.
Luckily for Ryan Wolfe the ink was easily washed out of his hair.