Chapter 1: Part 1

Point of View: Tara Winters, narrative

The Beginning

"Tara Winters?", the man calls out. He has deep brown curls, just graying at the temples. He has a scruffy beard, and he didn't seem like the socially-inclined type.

"Yes, that's me Mr., um..."

"Grissom, Miss Winters. No Mr., before it either. Just Grissom.", he says casually, "Now, I understand that you are interested in the position of DNA analyzer?"

"Yes, I am sir- I mean Grissom" I said warily. I know he can tell that I am nervous, I have been told that while most people wear their emotions on their sleeves, I wear mine in my eyes.

"Well, you are the only person who applied for the job, and you have a perfect application, so we are going to give you the job." he said happily. "Greg Sanders, the former DNA analyzer, will take you on a tour."

"Thank you Grissom.",I said as I thought Wow, that was easy. I bet that doesn't happen often.

A young - and quite sexy I might add - man walked up behind me and I turned to look up at him. He was quite tall, about 5' 10" I assume, compared to my height of 5' 3". He sifted one hand through his spiky blonde-and-brown hair and shook my hand with the other.

"Greg Sanders, field worker", he says with a grin.

"Tara Winters, nervous.", I said as I regretted my dumb joke.

"That was almost as bad as some of my jokes!", he said with a chuckle as he gently elbowed me."Come with me, I'll show you around."

He told me about all of the employees and rooms, as if we were in a museum. It actually did look like a museum, though. Everything was behind glass, the people working like ants in an ant farm. I looked around, but it was a lot to take in all at once. He shows me around the DNA lab, and I felt like one of the ants. Busy, busy, busy little ants. I loved it here.

"So, what do you think?"

"Huh?", I said, slightly startled as I completely lost my train of thought.

"What do you think of the lab? Pretty overwhelming isn't it?"

"Yeah...", I sighed.

He pored over me scrutinally for a second, as if he were trying to X-ray my clothes or something. I gazed back at him uneasily.

"Do I have something in my teeth?", I asked half-joking.

"No ...you are just really prett- um pretty overdressed", he said hurriedly. And I knew what he was going to say, and he knew that I knew it too, because he blushed. "Um, let's move on.", he said nervously. I saw his reflection in the glass wall as he winced, obviously regretting his attempt to compliment me.

"You are pretty decent yourself" I said, not really the shy type when it comes to guys.

"What?", he replied, sounding genuinely lost.

Maybe he wasn't trying to compliment me. Crap, now I made an idiot of myself , I thought. But again I saw his reflection in a glass wall as he smiled ear to ear. Thank god for glass walls.

He guided me all through this place, as I tried to make a mental map of this building.