Title: Pen Pals, iPods, and Britney Spears
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, iPods, or Britney Spears, they're just fun to play with.
a/n: This is my response to trialia's challenge from YTDAW. It had to include a letter from someone's pen pal (NOT and email), an iPod, the line "You didn't think I was really going to do it, did you?", one of Sara's necklaces, and a holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving...you choose). This was the best that I could come up with! Enjoy!
"Hey, Sara," Greg called to his brunette co-worker, "Did they ever find your necklace?"
"No," Sara replied, disappointed. She had lost her favorite necklace a few weeks ago, and she still hadn't found it. It was given to her when she graduated from college.
"Oh," Greg said. He, like everyone else at the lab, had been looking all over for the necklace. Sara had rarely been seen without it before it went missing.
"Yeah, I have no idea where it could have gone," she said.
"Well, you might still find it. One time, in college, I found my lucky boxers in my freezer, shoved behind a box of frozen chicken," Greg said, encouraging Sara to not give up.
"Well, I'm sure that those boxers have also been many other places, too, Greg," Sara said, slightly grossed out at the thought that someone would actually have a lucky pair of boxers.
"Yeah, well, he probably still has his mother wash them for him," said Warrick, entering the room, "Oh, and Sara, you got some mail."
"From who?" she asked.
"I don't know, I don't read other people's mail, unlike some people I know," he replied, looking accusingly at Greg.
"Hey, I have never read your mail," said Greg, lying through his teeth.
"Then how the hell did the letter my mother sent me end up all over the lab, before I even read it?" Warrick asked him.
"You know, there are some truly cruel people out there, Warrick," Greg said, barely keeping a straight face. Just the memory of everyone calling Warrick "War-war," a nickname his mother had made up for him, for an entire week was enough to make Greg burst into laughter.
"Yeah, I know, and one of them is sitting right in front of me," Warrick told him.
With those words, Greg decided that maybe this was the time that he should start to make his exit. Warrick, too tired to deal with him, let him off this time.
"So, who's your letter from?" Warrick asked, turning his attention to Sara, who had been reading her letter.
"Oh, it's from my friend, Judy. She's been my friend since high school, but she lives in Seattle now, but we're still pen pals. She owns a few restaurants there, but she is taking some time off for Easter, and she might come down here to visit," Sara said, completely forgetting about her missing necklace that had been the topic of conversation only a few minutes ago.
"Oh, that's cool," Warrick said. It was kind of weird for him to think of Sara hanging out with her friends. She always had seemed so alone.
"Yeah, so I'm going to write her back and tell her to come down anytime. I might take a few days off, but I'll have to talk to Grissom first," she said cheerfully.
"Oh, well, I hope you have the chance to meet up with her sometime," Warrick said, "Oh, jeez, I'm supposed to be meeting someone in five minutes. Sorry, Sara, I gotta go! It was nice talking to you!"
"Yeah, ever since the shift change, I haven't seen you too much. Talk to you later 'Rick," she called after him.
She read over the letter a few times before going to talk to Grissom about taking some time off. Nick had already left for Texas to go visit his parents, so the lab would be slightly shorthanded, but she was only planning on taking off for a little bit.
"Hey, Gris, Cath," she said, walking into Grissom's office. Catherine was in there talking to him.
His office had been covered in stick-on Easter eggs and other decorations by the old night shift a few days ago. They had decided that it was time for Gil to get into the spirit of things, and, although Easter had passed, none of them had taken them down yet.
"Hi, Sara," Catherine said, "Um, I gotta get going, I'll talk to you later, okay, Gil?"
"What was that about?" Sara asked Grissom, a bit taken back by Catherine's abrupt departure.
"Oh, nothing," Gil told her. They had been talking about Sara. Catherine still wasn't too pleased with her telling her off a few months ago, and she was still getting on Gil to try and "control the attitude problems that his team has."
"Uh, I was wondering, do you think that I could maybe take a few days off?" she asked him nervously. Grissom would know something was up; it had been a long time since Sara asked for time off.
"Yeah, sure, why?" he said.
"Oh, just a friend is coming in from Seattle, and I haven't seen her in a while," Sara told him, "She should only be coming in for two or three days, so I shouldn't miss too much."
"Okay," Grissom said.
"Thanks!" Sara replied happily. She called Judy and the two friends figured out a good time for her to come. She was going to fly in tomorrow, Tuesday, and then leave early Friday morning.
Sara woke up the next morning full of energy. Last night at the lab had been pretty slow, so they all left early which allowed her to get a good night's sleep. Judy was going to take a cab from the airport to Sara's apartment.
After taking a jog, a nice, warm shower, and some breakfast, Sara sat in her living room and waited for the doorbell. She had only been sitting there for a few minutes when it did. She jumped up and ran for the door.
"Judy!" she said, opening the door to see her friend that had moved away so long ago.
"Sara!" Judy replied, immediately dropping her bags and hugging Sara, "Wow, it's been so long since I've seen you!"
"I know!" Sara replied, "Oh, here, let me help you get your bags."
"Oh, thanks," she said, struggling to carry her suitcases.
"Can I get you anything?" Sara asked, once all the bags had been brought to the bedroom where Judy was going to be sleeping, "Soda? Water? Anything to eat?"
"No, I'm fine. So, what have you been up to?" Judy asked.
"Nothing, just working. I like this job a lot better than the old one, but they recently split our team up, so it's been different."
"Oh, well, I was actually planning on coming here to try and see if I could open up a restaurant down here somewhere. I'm also planning on opening a few in California," Judy told her.
"Wow, that's great!" Sara said supportively.
"Yeah, the others have been doing really well, so I figured, why not?"
The two women chatted on and on as if they were still in high school. The three days went by surprisingly quickly and they were both sad when Judy had to leave.
"We'll have to do this some other time!" Sara said, helping her friend bring her stuff out to the car.
"Yeah, you'll definitely have to come to Seattle sometime!" Judy said, climbing into the back seat, "Bye, Sara!"
"Bye!" Sara called to her as the car pulled out of the parking lot. She couldn't stand outside to watch the car leave too long, though; she had to get ready for work.
"Hey, Gris," Sara said as she walked into his office later that day. It was still covered in Easter decorations.
"Oh, hi, Sara," he said. There was a small object in his hand, and he seemed very confused by it.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing, I just can't seem to figure this thing out!" he said, frustrated.
"What is it?" she asked, hoping that she could be of some assistance.
"This iPod that I got for Easter is so confusing!" he exclaimed. Usually, Grissom was very good at setting up software and televisions and other sorts of electronics, but this iPod was giving him a headache.
"Here, let me help," Sara chuckled.
"Okay," Grissom said skeptically.
In only a matter of minutes, Sara had installed all the software Grissom needed onto his computer. She had also showed him how to put music onto it, and how he could use it as a disk so he could put notes and addresses into it, as well.
"Well, thank you, Ms. Sidle," he said, surprised that Sara knew as much about iPods as she did.
"Your welcome," she began to say, when all of a sudden, Warrick burst into the room, dressed like someone who works at Hooters, except he had a wig of gray hair. He started into his own, high-pitched, out of tune rendition of Lucky by Britney Spears. He only got halfway through the first verse before Greg came in behind him, laughing so hard that he was about to pee in his pants.
"Ha! You should've seen the look on your face when he came in, Sara!" Greg said through his laughter, "Warrick, my man, you were hilarious! I can't believe you actually just did that!"
"What, you didn't think I was really going to do it, did you?" he said.
"Well, I had my doubts," Greg admitted, "And Grissom, you played your part perfectly!"
It was starting to become clear to Sara that they guys had probably been pretty bored over the past few days, so they just decided to do something incredibly stupid that would turn out to be something incredibly funny.
"Yep, just another crazy day in the life!" Sara thought to herself. Although her time off with Judy was fun, she was just glad to be back at the lab.