Disclaimer: Don't own it. If I did I'd have a better computer.
Spoilers: Season 7 Vegas and Season 3 New York
A/N: Haven't written anything in a while. Had Internet connection issues. First CSI: Las Vegas fic. This is from Greg's point of view.
It was my night off, and I had spent most of the day in court, testifying. Which was why I should be sleeping right now. Except that I was having trouble sleeping of late, had been ever since that night. The night that I killed a kid, however unintentionally. That bothered me more then the attack itself. It was slowly eating up inside, and the civil suit his family filed against me wasn't helping either. Enough to make anybody lose a little sleep, right?
Abandoning sleep, I settled down on my couch and turned the TV on. I grinned as the familiar yellow sponge was talking to his pet snail. Lucky, my own pet, jumped into my lap as I also turned on my police scanner, just in case. Lucky and I watched Spongebob when I caught part of something on the scanner …explosion, possibly a Meth lab. The sponge would have wait.I scribbled down the address as the dispatcher gave it. It sounded like my friends would need a hand processing, and my knowledge of chemistry would be useful on this case.
I quickly dressed and headed out to the car, mentally thanking Warrick for his lecture from what seemed like a lifetime ago. My kit was fully stocked and all ready in the car, along with the rest of my equipment. You'd be surprised at how much trunk space the old Volvo had. I climbed into the driver's seat headed to the scene. I reached the address and maneuvered my car around the news vans that were already arriving in droves, much like vultures at the remains of some unfortunate animal out in the dessert.
I got out of the car, taking in the devastation the explosion had wrecked on the eerily quiet neighborhood. What was left of the house stood before me like a ghost. It looked like a relic from an old war movie.
"Greg? What are you doing here?"
I turned my head to face Gil Grissom, my boss. "Isn't this your night off?" He seemed surprised to see me.
"Heard it on the scanner. Couldn't sleep and thought you could use a hand." I shrugged. He looked like he was going to ask me something else, but just then, one the department Denalis pulled up. My friends Nick and Sara got out.
"Hey, Greggo. Surprised to see you here." Nick greeted me.
"Hi, guys."
"Isn't this your night off?" Sara, my friend and partner was equally surprised.
"Beats the hell out of watching Spongebob Squarepants in my underpants." I deflected her questions with another lame joke. They already worry about me enough. I'd rather keep my recent insomnia to myself. I had told Grissom because he'd figure it out anyway. He's funny like that.
Sara laughed as Nicky informed me that was an image he'd rather not see. Gil rolled his eyes.
"We've got work to do. Nick, Sara, you take the perimeter. Greg, you're inside with me." Great. Grissom wanted to corner me anyhow. Don't get me wrong, I liked working with him and usually learn a lot from the guy, but sometimes he makes me feel like one of the bugs he studies. And I knew he wanted to talk to me alone to make sure I wasn't on the way to becoming an insomniac.
"Be careful. The house is still kind of unstable." Grissom seemed to sense that I didn't really want to talk about it. We processed in silence for a while, bagging anything that looked important, and getting lots of samples that I was going to have to processes with Hodges later.
Suddenly, I spotted what looked like a teenage male DB. It looked like he died from an overdose. It seemed like such a waste. Yet another kid had lost his life to some chemical creation that claimed to make you feel good. I called Gil over. Grissom shook his head. I kept silent, knowing cases like were what really got to him, and I didn't need him taking frustration out me yet again. I've had that happen one too many times to give him a reason to yell at me. These cases bugged me too. I was determined to put the person responsible behind bars.
Grissom called the coroner, while I went through the guy's pockets, find a wallet that gave his name as Matthew Clark. I showed my boss, who would most likely be giving his family the bad news. Something off in the distance caught my attention. A second DB was lying not too far away, with blood visible from where I was kneeling. I told Grissom and walked over, noting obvious stab wounds. Gil followed me as Super Dave (one of Nick's silly nicknames) processed the first body.
"Think the explosion was to cover up the murder?" I asked, my tone neutral.
"Makes sense." Grissom agreed.
Just then, an airplane roared overhead, triggering a collapse of the already unstable building. The sound vibrations were just enough to shake whatever was holding up the roof loose. I instinctively dropped to the floor, protecting my face with my hands.
Then, as the dust settled, I could feel something had scraped my hand on its way down. Terrific. Now my hand hurts and I'm bleeding all over the evidence.
"Greg?" I opened my eyes to see Grissom standing over me. He helped me to my feet. Behind me, Super Dave was dusting himself off. He seemed unhurt, though very badly startled.
"Are you okay?" My boss' voice brought me back to reality.
"Mostly." I showed him my injured hand as we walked outside. Sara and Nick ran over.
"What happened?" The Texan was just as confused as the rest of us and twice as worried. Gil just shook his head and called for a medic to stitch up my hand. One of them walked over to us.
It was Hank, Sara's ex, and despite being a paramedic, he was a jerk. "What's up?" I showed him. Sara also took a look at my hand.
"Ouch." She said with sympathy.
I'm not sure what Hank injected my hand with, but within minutes, I could barely feel it. Hank then got to work on my hand. Meanwhile, he tried to start a conversation with Sara.
"How have you been?"
"Fine."
"I'm sorry."
"You should be." Sara didn't want to talk him, she wanted to string him up by his toenails, which I would be okay with, except the paramedic was in process of stitching up my hand.
"Sara, please don't shoot him till he's finished with me." I again used humor to defuse the situation. It must have done the trick, because she laughed. Hank rolled his eyes and finished with my hand.
"Just don't tear out the stitches and you'll be fine." I thanked him and walked away, trying to collect my thoughts when a bit of motion in the debris drew my attention. I ran over, thinking that some else hadn't been quite as lucky as the rest of us. It was boy of thirteen or fourteen trying escape from the pile.
I yelled for Hank and pulled the boy free. The kid seemed pretty weak, and I noticed some burns that had clearly come from the original explosion. A shiver ran down my back images of the accident in the lab a few years ago that had left me with a few similar burns.
I pushed the old, frightening memories aside. I had a job to do, and now a potential witness or suspect. Hank and his partner rushed the injured boy to hospital seconds later. I walked over to Grissom. I needed to find the asshole responsible for this mess.
My boss seemed to be having an argument with whoever was on the other end of his cell phone. "I guess I have no choice." he said, sighing, and hung up the phone, Grissom then called Sara, Nick, and Brass over to him.
"I need to go to court for a case. One of you has to run this investigation. Grissom paused. I figured he would give it Nick, as he was technically senior to Sara, and they had both been CSIs longer than me.
"Greg, you're running this one." I was more surprised then both of the other CSIs put together.
"WHAT?!" Nick and Sara clearly weren't expecting this. I felt like I was in way over head.
"Are you sure?" There had to be some kind of mistake.
"I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't. You can do this. I would also like remind you that you are up for promotion, and I want to see what you're capable of. If you need me, just call."
"Really?" I just needed to solve the case. While a promotion would be nice, that's not why I became a CSI.
Just then another SUV pulled up. Three guys climbed out and walked over to where we were standing. Brass seemed recognize the one that was in charge, the guy with dark hair, hazel eyes, and had an air of command around him. The look in his eyes told me he was not someone to mess with. He seemed vaguely familiar, as well.
"Mac Taylor. It's been a long time." Jim said, by way of greeting. "What brings you all the way out here?" Now I remembered. We had met once before.
"Chasing a drug dealer, and murderer. This was the last know address." Mac introduced his two colleges. "This is CSI Danny Messer. He indicated a man of about average height, with short blond hair and cobalt blue eyes, who was also wearing glasses. The man nodded in greeting. He looked around warily, and seemed ready to bolt any second.
"And this is Detective Don Flack." The taller man gave a would-be friendly smile. His dark hair contrasted with his bright blue eyes. He seemed cautious as well, but not nearly as jumpy as Messer.
I remembered meeting Taylor a long time ago, when my family lived in New York. I had been fourteen or fifteen at the time. I wondred if he would recognize me without the braces. A lot had happened to me since then.
Jim interrupted my thoughts. "Well, CSI Sanders had just been handed the case, and we need to finish processing."
He briefly made introductions as Gil left and we got back to work. When Brass told my name, I saw the recognition in his eyes, but he didn't say anything yet. Of course, I was also completely covered in dust, and it looked like I was in way over my head. Which doesn't make for a good impression.
However, people have a tendency to underestimate anyway. We got back to processing the scene. Nick, Taylor and I returned to process the inside of what remained of the house. Dave finished processing the bodies and headed back to the morgue. Sara and Messer worked the perimeter, but didn't find anything.
Nicky spotted a bloody knife that was probably the weapon used to stab the second victim. With luck better than what we had already had, we could get the killer's prints from it.
Mac and I got more samples of the drugs and chemicals somebody had cooking up. We also collected the equipment, hoping for more DNA and fingerprints. There was a fair chance that our suspect had been busted before.
Don and Jim were comparing notes outside, and deduced we were after the same man.
On the way back to the lab, Mac finally decided to talk to me. He looked at him. "Didn't expect to run into you again."
"And you think I'm in over my head."
"Not sure yet." He grinned. "You were pretty helpful last time we met. And your boss seems to have confidence in you, or else he wouldn't have put you on a high profile case like this."
"Guess so." I thought about it for a moment. "Ecklie's not gonna like this."
"What's an Ecklie?" Mac was confused.
"A professional ass kisser with a very shiny forehead." I spotted our usual diner with the Denalis out front, and pulled into the lot. I was starving, and in need of a caffeine fix.
Mac was still trying to process my Ecklie comment when we joined the others at our table. They were drinking coffee and going over what they had found at the scene.
Nick, Danny and Sara glanced up from their coffee and made room for Mac and me. A waitress walked over to me. "Usual?" She asked. I nodded. Taylor raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. I guess the old greasy spoon was not exactly where he expecting us to eat often. He ordered breakfast and we went over everything that we had.
"Sara and I found a car. We're trying to track down the RO now." Nick was saying. "It's got New York plates, so could be our suspect. Flack and Brass are working on it. Car's on it's way to CSI now." At least my friends didn't seem interested in giving me a hard time.
"We've three victims, one that's still breathing." Sara added. "The kid you found is at Dessert Palm. Hank said that the doctor will let us talk to him in a few hours."
"I'll head down there with Brass in a little bit to get a statement." I told her. "Mac, why don't you head down to morgue and see what Doc Robbins has to say for our other victims " He nodded.
Nicky added "I also found a knife at the scene. It's our probable murder weapon."
"Danny, and Nick, see what you can get from it. Also, process the stuff we got from the lab." Danny gave Mac a questioning look. Taylor offered a nod of agreement.
"You should be able to pull prints." Evidently Messer wasn't thrilled with taking orders from what looked a rookie CSI. Danny didn't realize that while I may be the newest CSI, I was no rookie. In his eyes, I hadn't been on the job long enough to have proven myself. I really didn't care what he thought, but I did have get him listen to me, and that was going to be interesting. Suddenly, I wished Gil had handed the case off to somebody else, anyone else. But I need to work with what I had been given.
"I'll also take a look at the drug evidence collected, and see if it matches the New York case. The chemical structure should be unique." With my experience, I was best suited for that job. "Then I'll give Sara a hand with the car."
We continued to go over details, comparing notes from the New York drug case, and finished breakfast.
We then made the short drive to the lab and set to work, Nicky going straight to morgue, and Sara to the garage. I went into the trace lab with my samples to see Hodges dancing badly. Just to be sure that I wasn't imagining it; I snapped a quick photo to blackmail him later before making my presence known.
Hodges almost had a heart attack when he realized I had been watching. I doubt he would bug me for a while. At least on purpose. I wasn't really in the mood to argue with him, however. I wanted to find out what went on in that house. Two people had died and a kid was in the hospital. "Could you please run this through the GCMS? I need the chemical breakdown ASAP unless you want the entire lab to see you dance."
"I guess running a high profile is going straight to your head. Just don't forget you used to be one of us."
I rolled my eyes; I had more important things to do then pick a fight with David Hodges. Funny, not long ago I would have probably yelled at him, wind up getting us both in trouble, and accomplishing nothing.
He could run the samples while I went to talk to the lone survivor at the hospital. Brass was waiting at the car. "So, the boss thinks you can handle being in charge for once."
"How am I doing so far?" I knew Jim intended to make sure I didn't screw this up.
"Not too bad. You're going to have to talk to Messer at some point."
"I know."
We sat in silence for a moment. Then, I changed the subject. "Flack have any luck on the car?"
"Actually, yes. RO is their suspect. The guy's name is Vincent Thomas. The NYPD is sending over his file as we speak. And now you're defiantly doing better. Asking the right questions, at least." His answer gave me some confidence.
We pulled into the parking lot and a nurse told us the boy we were looking for was Adam Clark. I looked at Brass. "That's the same last as the guy that ODed." Jim looked at me.
"He could have been there to find his relative."
"Let's find out." I opened the kid's door. The boy seemed younger than his thirteen years.
"Hi, Adam. My name is Greg Sanders, and this is Capt. Jim Brass. We're trying to find out what happened to you." I got straight to the point. From personal experience, I knew that he wouldn't want to talk for long.
The poor kid looked at me with haunting blue eyes. "I really don't remember much. I was just t-trying to find my brother. I followed him." Brass and exchanges glances. I waited for him finish before breaking the bad news.
"The place looked like some crazy scientist lived there." That fit what I had seen from before the collapse.
"What happened after you followed him in?" I needed to get him to keep talking. Adam seemed kind of edgy. The kid way most likely just upset, trying to process exactly what had happened. "What was the next thing you remember?" I wasn't really expecting much.
"I smelled something weird. Then, everything just … exploded. The next thing I remember was you finding me."
Something about his answer seemed off to me, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
"I have some bad news about your brother…"
"He's dead, isn't he?" Adam was fighting back tears.
"I'm sorry." I didn't know what else to tell him. We just sat in silence for a moment. Something still wasn't quite right, but the boy could just still be in shock. Either way, we weren't going to get anything else until we had a better understanding the crime. Which meant we needed to get back to lab and see what the evidence showed.
Brass and I left quietly, and talked in the hallway. "You believe him?" Jim asked.
"I don't know. Something about what he said didn't feel quite right." I paused, wondering if Brass got the same feeling. "Could be nothing, but the way he answered, seemed almost too specific." I thought about it. When the lab accident happened, I wasn't that sure of exactly what happened until well after the incident, after Warrick and Catherine had encouraged me.
Brass was quiet the whole way back to the lab. My pager went off as we pulled into the parking lot. It was Hodges. Apparently he took my threat seriously.
I went to trace lab. "What did you get?"
"Most of your samples matched the New York case. I had the tech fax over his report." He paused.
"And the other?" I knew David had something.
He handed me a sheet of paper. "Same as the rest, with one extra ingredient." I looked at the report.
"That explains why everything went up in smoke. Thanks, Hodges."
My cell went off as I walked away. "Sanders."
"Hey, Greggo." It was Nick. "We got a print off of the murder weapon. Ran it through AFIS, but nothing kicked out. Doesn't match either of our vics. "
"Thanks." I hung up the phone and stopped outside the layout room, where Danny was going through the stuff we got from the house. "You get anything?"
Messer glared at me. "Most of the prints came from the stab victim, and a couple from Matthew Clark. Found a few unknown that match the murder weapon."
I looked at him. He obviously resented me running this case. "So our stab vic is most likely the cook and probably your suspect, and whoever killed him blew up the building.
"Thank you, captain obvious." Messer rolled his eyes.
"What is your problem?" Inexperienced or not, I wasn't going to take this from anyone.
"How the hell does a rookie become the primary on a case like this? Why not put someone with seniority on this?" Those blue eyes narrowed. Messer obviously didn't think I could handle the case.
"I didn't ask for it. If you have a problem with that, I'm sorry. All I know is that somebody needs to figure this out, so somebody can go to jail. My boss trusted me to do it. You should, too. I may not be most experienced, but I'm not exactly untried, either. I've broken more than my share of cases wide open."
Nick chose that moment to walk in. "What's going on?" He eyed Messer threateningly.
"Nothing I can't handle myself." I stalked off, only to run straight into Ecklie.
"Sanders, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"No." The look on face was one the most ridiculous expressions I had ever seen. I fought back laughter as he recovered from the shock of my answer.
"The sheriff and the media need something."
"Then maybe you should leave him alone so he can go find it." I looked up to see Det. Flack. Ecklie glared at us both before walking away.
"Thanks." I looked at him. "So did you come here to annoy our lab director, or you have anything else for us?"
"Just to confirm the stab vic is our suspect. We knew that he was running drugs, but he ran before we could bust him."
I thanked him again and headed off to give Sara a hand in the garage. We found a few hairs that looked like they came from Matthew Clark, and sent them to DNA to confirm.
In the meantime, Sara and I grabbed some Hawaiian Blue, put on Led Zeppelin and tore that car apart, to discover more drugs. I sent them to Hodges, who matched them to what we got from the house.
Taylor came in a while later. He looked at the car, which was now in pieces. "You guys are through, I'll give that."
"What's up?"
"Just got back from the autopsy. Nothing that we didn't expect. Vincent died after being stabbed twelve times."
"Defiantly a crime of rage, then." I had figured that much.
"Also tox confirmed Matthew ODed on Vincent's drugs."
I had a funny feeling that we needed to visit Adam Clark again. I grabbed my cell to give Brass a call.
"We need to talk to Adam Clark again, and we need to get his fingerprints."
"You think he's a suspect?"
"He does have motive, and was found at the scene." I paused, hoping that I was wrong. I was all set to take down some drug dealer and right now our best suspect was a thirteen year-old boy who had just lost his brother. For some reason that brought to mind Aaron James, the brother of the kid I accidentally hit and killed that night. I felt sorry for him, but what was I supposed to say? I still felt terrible about what happened to Demetrius James, but I had no choice. I couldn't just do nothing.
Brass met Mac Taylor and me out in the parking lot. We headed back to Dessert Palm in silence.
The three of us entered his room cautiously. Adam looked up from his bed. "I was expecting you."
I kept my tone neutral. "I need to get your finger prints."
"To rule me out or confirm your theory?" The kid knew something was up.
"We found some unknown prints at the scene."
"I already told you that I was there. Of course fingerprints are at the scene."
Taylor spoke up. "A few of those prints match the one we found on the murder weapon. We have to look at all possibilities."
Adam sat up and looked me in eye. "Fine. Those prints you found are mine."
Keeping my voice low, I asked one more question. "Why?"
Those frightening blue eyes had me. "I saw what that bastard did to brother. He took everything Matt had. First his money, and he changed. He just wasn't Matt anymore. The drugs took his life. I couldn't let him destroy anyone else's life, and family."
I nodded, understanding why. "Did you destroy the house as well?"
"I had to. The other ones would have come and taken over, making more."
I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. The boy had destroyed the house with himself inside it to stop them from simply destroying more live and families. I had solved the case, but was not happy with I had uncovered.
We all returned to the lab, where I tiredly finished my report for Grissom and the DA. I knew that I should just go and get some sleep, but I didn't think sleeping was an option. I had been working for about an hour when Sara walked in.
"You okay?" I knew Sara was worried about me, trying to be a friend.
"I guess." Feeling kind of depressed, I grabbed the file to put on Grissom's desk on my way out.
"Want grab a cup of coffee somewhere?" That was probably a safer option then what I had mind for rest of the evening.
"Sure." We walked past Gil's office. "Just hang on sec." I opened the door and completely ignored Grissom's Billy Bass announcing my entrance. I was surprised to see that the boss himself was hiding in there.
"Solved the case." I recovered from my surprise and handed over the file.
"You did a good job." I offered him a weak smile. "Thanks."
"You okay?" My boss was still concerned.
I saw Sara waiting for outside the door. "I will be."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please tell me what you think. I hope to write about Greggo's adventure in New York soon, so keep an eye out for it. Please Review, and thanks again!