A/N: This is a re-write of the first story that I submitted to fanfiction (actually, it's the first CSI story that I ever wrote!). It has actual cases, and it is one of my favorites. I will put the first four chapters up now just to set the scene, and then I'll put one new chapter up a night, or as quickly as I edit them. Although the first chapter is… non-traditional, the rest of the chapters are as traditional as they come. I hope you like this story!
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Disclaimer: I do not own any part of CSI or its characters. That honor goes to the good folks over at CBS.
Title: The View From Above: The Horse, the Stars, and the Bull
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"I don't understand," Joan sighed to herself, swiveling her head to look first up one side of the corridor, and then down the other. "They think that they know everything, when in truth they really know nothing about the way that the world really works," she continued her vigil of the building, studying the wall in front of her. "Dreary. Plain and dreary." The interior of the lab left something to be desired. Of course the various offices had pictures on the wall, but the pictures were mostly scientific: the cardio-vascular system, a skeletal system, the periodic table of elements, proper crime-scene procedure, and her all-time favorite, the different stages of insect development. Very few people had family pictures displayed on their desks, and the scientists behaved as if they were, well, scientists: very clinical, succinct, and to the point. Their desks reflected this personality.
As Joan repositioned herself to watch the technicians and crime scene investigators move in and out of the various labs, she once again sighed, as the chug-chug-sputter-chug of the air conditioning system kicked back on. "Another hot night in Vegas; too hot, if you ask me," she muttered to herself. Humans always acted crazy in the heat. "Mark my words, there will be crime and chaos in town tonight," she added with her third sigh of the night.
Before Joan could finish another thought, however, her favorite CSI walked over to the computer just down the hallway. "So perfect," she said to herself, glancing over at Sara Sidle. "And so tough. Too tough, I suppose," she added, scratching her leg. "No human being should have to endure what she has had to endure." In the past six years, Sara has had to face her deepest, darkest fears: Abuse from her past, problems with alcohol, failed relationships… Sara was a work-a-holic, and Joan knew it. Sara was here more than the rest of them, because she had nowhere better to be. Or so she thought.
A couple of minutes later, another of her favorite graveyard shifters arrived: Nick Stokes. Nicky, as Joan lovingly called this particular CSI, had an even worse six years than Sara: guns pulled on him on several different occasions, a stalker, and being buried alive. No fun. Joan could not understand how Nicky was still functioning, especially because he had a difficult time talking to his co-workers about what happened. "And the funny thing is," Joan mused to herself, "Neither Sara nor Nick realize the power of friends. Friends can move mountains, friends can comfort you in a time of need. Friends can make the bad times seem better, and friends can make a horrible day seem that much better—with a mere smile." But Sara was always in her own little world, and Nicky? Well, Nicky just didn't know how much he actually needed a friend.
Joan sighed once more, until she noticed the boss-man walking in, with the one who wanted to be the boss-man trailing behind him like a lost, little puppy dog. "What do you have for me, David?" Grissom asked, turning his head to glance in Hodges's direction.
"Nothing yet, but I'm working on it. You'll be the first to know when the results come in."
"Good. Keep me posted," Grissom said, as he glanced at Warrick and Catherine working together in the layout room, Sara on her own sitting in front of a computer screen, Nick staring at nothing while leaning against one of the tables in the break-room, and Greg, bopping his head to music that only he could hear.
"I have assignments," Grissom then announced, gathering his team together around him in the break-room, and holding the tiny slips of paper up in the air. "It's going to be a long night," he told them all, giving each of them a hard-look before moving on to the next criminalist. "Sara, Nick, and Greg, you have a case over at Excalibur. Catherine and Warrick, you two head over to the Rocking Horse."
"And you, Grissom?" Catherine asked with a little twist of her lips, brushing the hair out of her eyes.
"I have a date with destiny," he gave her a rare grin. Sara threw him a quizzical look, as he added, "At the planetarium."
"And I have my own work to do," Joan muttered to herself, crawling back up the wall to her favorite corner of the ceiling. Getting her eight arachnid legs moving, Joan began to add to her already large and intricate spider web.
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TO BE CONTINUED