CSI: To Scale

Written By LockBox22

The case was simple; reconstruct the house that has suddenly blown apart. A gas leak was the official cause as per the fire department, but the evidence suggested otherwise. The only problem was that they needed houses to blow up to prove that something other then gas had been involved.

The second problem was that instead of just choosing a few abandoned houses, Gil Grissom had decided to take one of his CSI's back to college. Warrick Brown sighed again as he walked into the break room. It sucked.

Not that he hated college, but enough time had been spent in school for him and taking an all day trip out to one of the colleges wasn't exactly his idea of an afternoon well spent. The itch he had been feeling most of the week was getting worse; he wanted – no, needed- to be out on the field or in the lab doing something productive.

He yanked the coffeepot off the warmer and poured the warm, liquid caffeine into a travel mug. Going on almost twelve hours, he needed the boost. Noticing his motions, the other CSI in the room – Nick Stokes- looked up from the newspaper he was reading.

"Where are you going?" Nick asked, noting the travel mug.

"With Gris. We're going to meet some kind of model professor at the university." Warrick said, turning around; mug in hand. He took a quick sip and winced at the heat.

"Which one?" Nick asked taking a bite of his wrap.

"A Tyler Jamison." Warrick replied. "Should be real fun." He said rolling his eyes. The two men looked up as Catherine Wills entered the room.

She took one look at Warrick. "Uh, oh. I know that face." She said, placing a hand on the back of the chair in front of her. "What's up?"

"College professors." Nick replied with a knowing nod. "Gris has him going back to school." He grinned and ducked back behind his newspaper as Warrick made a face at him.

"Tyler?" Catherine asked looking from one man to the other.

Warrick nodded. "Apparently, he can help us with our building situation." He shrugged catching sight of the nightshirt supervisor, Gil Grissom, as he walked past the break room. The other man motioned to Warrick.

"Later!" Warrick waved on his way out the door.

Catherine turned to Nick. "He?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Should we have told him?"

Nick grinned. "Nah." He replied. "I just wish I was there to see Rick's face when he finds out who Tyler really is."

o0o

The ride to the University College campus was quiet. Warrick knew that his boss wasn't keen on small talk and he wasn't in the mood to joke about the game or something of the like, so they sat in silence. Grissom finally spoke once Warrick placed the Tahoe in park. "Grab your kit; you'll need it."

Warrick frowned, but had been working with Grissom long enough to know to listen to the older CSI. They walked into the University and Grissom turned right. Warrick followed through the halls, avoiding and sometimes shoving through students. Grissom turned right suddenly and Warrick followed as his boss entered an office without knocking.

The first thing that caught his eye was how small the actually office was. The only redeeming feature was the large double French doors on the back wall. He assumed they lead out onto a patio, which was unusual. The second thing that caught his eye was the cluttered desk. The only occupant of the room sat on the carpeted floor; papers, books and a laptop were scattered around her. A smartphone lay beside the computer. She stopped typing and looked up as they entered the room.

She had dark brown hair, dark eyes and wore jeans with a light blue t-shirt. Warrick thought she was quite attractive. Probably a student or intern. He thought.

"Gil!" She called getting off the floor to give the older CSI a hug. Grissom wasn't a tall man, but the women just came up his shoulder; petite and cute. The day just went up a notch in Warrick's books.

"It's good to see you again, Tyler." Grissom said returning the hug.

Warrick was sure that his jaw was on the floor. He had thought the professor would be a balding, older man with elbow patches on his suit jacket. She was far from that. She was young for a start; almost too young for her title to be taken seriously.

Tyler turned to him. "You must be Warrick." She said holding out her hand. "Tyler Jamison."

If Warrick had any doubts to her identity, they were put to rest with that statement. "Yeah, Warrick Brown." He said taking her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." She replied with a quick smile before turning back to Grissom. "I got the files you sent over." Tyler said brushing her bangs behind her ear. "You didn't give us much time to finish."

"I'm sure anything that you came up with will be fine." Grissom replied with a smile.

"Come on back." Tyler walked to the double French doors at the end of the office and pushed them open to reveal a huge workspace.

Warrick looked around the huge room in awe. It had a warehouse feel to it with a concrete floor and beams holding the ceiling in place. A couple of students were doing to finishing touches to two of the four waist high models of their crime scene.

"Wow." Was all Warrick could say as he glanced around the room. He turned to Grissom, but the other CSI wasn't there any longer. He was inspecting one of the scale model homes closely.

"Thanks, guys!" James called to the students. "You can get back to class!" She turned to Warrick with a smile. "Let's get to work." She said.