In Honor of Edmond is a 12 chaptered CSI fanfiction, written collaboratively by the members of this community. A challenge was issued 3 weeks ago, and 11 authors came together, each writing a chapter from a distinct viewpoint, and one brave soul editing them together.
The Edmond is Edmond Locard, the famous pioneer of forensic science. In the story, Grissom organizes a scavenger hunt to honor Locard. Each chapter comes from a different author, as well as a different CSI team member's point of view.
This story is rated Teen, and contains spoilers through Season 6. As a group, we'd like to thank velocityofsound because she has great legs (and worked her butt off, bending over backwards to help us out with this), and the incomparable Mingsmommy for taking all of the chapters and making them mesh.
The Authors and their contributions are as follows:
Introduction – CSIClue
Chapter One: Brass – dragonlord1776
Chapter Two: Warrick - AussiRayne
Chapter Three: Catherine - Smacky30
Chapter Four: Nick – Kristen Elizabeth
Chapter Five: Archie - LosingInTranslation
Chapter Six: Greg - jenbachand
Chapter Seven: Hodges - geeklove4eva
Chapter Eight: Super Dave - Tos-Lover1
Chapter Nine: Sara - plkphoto
Chapter Ten: Grissom – Cropper
Finale - CSIClue
We hope that you have enjoyed this little experiment in group writing. We'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave us a comment. Thank you for taking the time to read this project and have a great day!
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CSIClue starts the team on Grissom's excellent Edmondian adventure.
As they waited for assignments in the break room Sara was the one who noticed the circled date and notation on the calendar; she lightly tapped the page, ignoring the Far Side cartoon above it and mused aloud.
"Um, guys? We've got something on the calendar for today. E. L. Looks like Grissom's printing. Evaluations maybe? Evaluation levels?"
"Nope. We're staggered through April this year," Nick replied, not glancing up from the issue of Sports Illustrated he was thumbing through. Warrick came over to look past Sara's shoulder. She flashed a grin up at him that he returned before studying the calendar himself.
"E.L. Could stand for Evaluation Levels. Or Evie Lowenthal," he rumbled.
"Or Elvis lives," Greg offered from his lounge point in the chair opposite of Nick. This brought a snort from Warrick and an eyeroll from Catherine, who was cleaning out her purse near the trash can. She carefully dropped old receipts and gum wrappers out as she spoke.
"This is Grissom. Think outside the box. WAAAAAY outside the box."
"Who's Evie Lowenthal?" Sara demanded of Warrick, who merely smiled knowingly and rubbed his chin.
"Oh hey, wasn't she the one with the snake?" Nick piped up, finally setting his magazine down and shooting a grin across the room. Warrick still said nothing and Nick continued. "Fifteen feet of boa and a G-string—"
"Live boa, not feather, and yeah, she was WORTH noting on a calendar," Warrick replied with a knowing smile. Irritated, Sara rolled her eyes at this masculine aside and glanced at Catherine, who was equally unamused.
"I don't think Grissom would stick Evie on the calendar."
"While she was fairly intriguing both as a herpetologist AND an ecdysiast, no," Grissom announced from the doorway. Everyone glanced at him in surprise; Sara caught the full charm of his smirk.
He came into the break room and looked around at the assembled group. "The initials on the calendar belong to one of the founding fathers of our profession, Edmond Locard, and it seems only right to observe his one hundred and thirty-first birthday with a little exercise in evidence collection."
"Observe it as in, how?" Greg wanted to know. "Dust a cake for prints?"
"Yeah, well if you find hairs or other trace, I'm not eating any," Catherine snapped.
Sara grinned and kept her gaze on Grissom, who had produced several envelopes from the pocket of his jacket. He held them up enticingly, and his smile held mystery. "I propose—a scavenger hunt."
This brought several groans, albeit of a good-natured variety. Warrick shook his head. "Griss, you know we already have enough to do in the course of a night without going on any wild goose chases, even in the name of Locard."
"Did I mention there's a prize?" Grissom added, cocking his head slightly. The room fell silent; Nick had set down his magazine, and Sara noted that even Greg was paying attention.
Catherine put her hands on her hips. "I'll bite—what's the prize?"
"An extra three days of vacation for the competitors who manage to bring in the two items listed in each of these envelopes."
The array of emotions across the assembled faces ranged from delight to deep suspicion. Sara spoke up quickly. "Is that just for the first one in, or is it for anyone who completes the hunt?"
"It is for everyone who completes the hunt. You have this shift, and this shift only to collect the items. If you succeed, you win—simple as that. But there are rules," Grissom replied calmly. "And if you break them, then you're disqualified."
"What are the rules?" Catherine demanded. Grissom shook his head. He pulled a piece of paper out from the assignment clipboard under his other arm and began to write.
"Competitors first—if you're in this, there's no teaming up, and that includes using people in the lab who aren't part of the Hunt. I need to know who's signing up."
The assembled group looked around and slowly Nick stretched and came up. He took the pen from Grissom and grinned as he signed his name. "Three extra days of vacation sound mighty good to me. Worth huntin' down whatever trinkets you've got listed in those envelopes anyway."
"Yeah, I'll play too," Warrick agreed, to be followed by Greg and Sara, who shot Grissom a lovely smirk. Catherine picked up the paper and looked over the names.
She glanced at Grissom. "You're competing too, right?" When he hesitated, she added, "Because I'm betting you can't beat the rest of us."
Grissom shot a quick glance around the room, and the smirks he saw were enough to make him purse his mouth slightly. "Is that what you think?"
"It's what we'd like to try and prove," Greg admitted honestly. Grissom lifted his chin and took the pen, signing his own name on the list.
"Fair enough. All right, the rules are simple: Number one, you cannot buy any of the items on the list. You may trade, borrow, rent them, but they cannot be purchased. Number two, you must obtain the items yourself—no asking someone else to get them for you. Number three, no substitutions—A scoop of Seattle's Best coffee is not a scoop of Starbuck's coffee."
"Amen to that," Greg muttered. Grissom shot him a quelling look and continued.
"All items will be registered with Judy, who will log them in with time and person. This brings us to the discretionary clause."
"Discretionary clause?" Catherine echoed.
"Meaning you didn't get official permission from Ecklie for this game, did you?" Sara murmured, eying Grissom with quiet amusement.
He went slightly pink. "Conrad has always been less than enthusiastic about extraneous activities in the line of duty," came the concession.
"All the more reason your butt needs to be on the line with us," Catherine told him firmly. "If we go down, we go down as a group, Fearless Leader."
A cough from the doorway caught everyone's attention; Archie, Hodges, Dave and Brass were standing there, each of them looking interested.
Grissom sighed. "The grapevine has picked up speed over the years."
"Three days is three days," Brass responded. "Vacation being the gold standard around here. So what's the deal? Can anyone get in on this goose chase?"
A quick look around the break room, and Grissom gave a reluctant nod, his gaze lingering sharply on Hodges. "All right, but we're holding it to this group of ten and no more." He reiterated the rules for the last four players, and glanced around. "Any questions?"
There didn't seem to be any, and Grissom gave a nod. Carefully he laid out the sealed envelopes on the table. They were numbered from one to ten; Grissom re-pocketed two others as everyone gathered around.
"Take your pick," Grissom offered.
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