Chapter 2: Going Ballistic
Walking into the Miami Dade Crime Lab, Vanessa Jones placed her sunglasses on the top of her head. She calmly walked toward the reception desk and asked for Lt. Caine. Taking a seat Vanessa closed her eyes letting the feel of her new home wash over her. Miami was nothing like the islands. She dreamed of her previous home until a calm whiskey voice broke her from her reivere. "Ms. Jones?" a red-headed man questioned looking at her. " Yes you must be Lt. Caine" she said shaking his hand.
They spoke for a few moments before Horatio lead her the one of the lab's conference rooms where the rest of the team was waiting. Taking a deep breath Vanessa squared her shoulders and put on a smile and walked in behind Horatio to meet the rest of the team. Walking in she noticed the looks on their faced. They were tired and worn, sorrowful and angry. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ms. Vanessa Jones our new ballistics expert." Horatio said.
"What H are you crazy! Do you not remember what today is!?" a tall dark Cuban man said standing up and slamming his hand on the table. "Yes Eric I do. But I also know that we will not solve anycases without a ballistics expert and that this is the only day Ms. Jones was able to get a flight from the Caribbean." Horatio said calmly. Speaking up Vanessa asked a question that once asked she wished she never had. "Excuse me but what is today?" "Today is the day my wife, your predecessor died. She was shot in the line of duty." Eric said glaring daggers at Vanessa, who despite her slight discomfort stood her ground.
"I'm sorry. If I would have known I would have picked another day to come. However I would appreciate if you would stop glaring at me." Vanessa said. Eric huffed and walked out of the room banging his shoulder into Vanessa's as he left. Vanessa closed her eyes and took deep breaths before opening her eyes once again calm. "Does anyone else have any objections to Ms. Jones?" Horatio asked the remaining members of his team. They shook their head no, but Vanessa could tell that they meant yes. "Mr. Wolfe please show Ms. Jones to the ballistics lab" Horatio said walking out of the room to find Eric.
Ryan led Vanessa toward the elevator explaining where things were in the lab and what they were. She could tell that he was tense with her taking over the gun lab. In the elevatorthey stood next to each other but did not speak. Vanessa stood her ground unmoving when they entered the gun lab and Ryan told her not to change things around. Ignoring his comment she began to change things around to suit her. The process took an hour, and she still needed to go through Calliegh's old cases to see what needed to be done, as well as catch up on this new case.
Wlaking to the break room Vanessa poured herself a cup of coffee, and sat on the sofa with the file for the most current case on her lap. A few moments later Eric walked into the break room. "Hello" Vanessa said kindly to him. Looking in the direction of the voice, he sneered when he saw it was Vanessa. Rolling her eyes Vanessa decided not to stoop to that level. "Anyway I was reading through the case file and it looks like the husband was the murder, Calliegh recorded that there was GSR on his hands and clothing..." Vanessa said getting cut off by a very rude Eric.
"Yeah I know. Ryan and I interrogated the suspect and he confessed, he's being taken to booking right now. So all you need to do is sign off on the report like a good little replacement." Eric said. "Excuse me! First of all don't you ever again in your life speak to me like that again in your life! Second I'm not her replacement, I'm a professional ballistics expert who has a job in the best crime lab on the east coast. Thridly I will not just sign off on her report until I recreate all of her experiments concerning the case!" Vanessa screamed at Eric getting the attention of everybody with in earshot or who had a view of the lab.
Before long there was an audience around the breakroom watching and listening to the full blast arguement of Eric and "the new girl". Eric was attempting to cuss Vanessa out saying things that would make pirates blush, but Vanessa kept up with and surpassed him saying even worse things that would cause a pirate to pee in his pants and run home to his momma crying. Not many people let alone a woman could keep up with Eric Delko, let alone surpass him. Just as Vanessa punched Eric with a concerdably good right hook, judging from the bruise that was rapidly appearing on Erics cheek and the astonished look on his face.
Just as she was about to throw another punch, Horatio stepped into the room and gently grabbed her between the two he said what he needed to say and dismissed Vanessa first. The crowd outside the breakroom parted as she walked out cursing and huffing all the way back to the ballistics lab, her stillettos clicking hard all the way.