A Haunted Crime
Chapter 2: Lions, tigers and Hodges, OH MY
"Can you draw me a map to this place…it's like a giant maze." Nick decided to take Andy on a little tour of the lab before they headed out to the crime scene.
"Yeah, you'll get used to it. Hey come in here." Nick gestured to his left. They walked into a room with walls of glass. The room was filled with expensive equipment and three people sitting at the island in the middle looking over results. "Hey guys, I don't mean to interrupt anything but I wanted to introduce you to Andy. The new CSI. Andy this is Wendy Simms-DNA, Henry Andrews-toxicology and Mandy Webster-Fingerprint Fanatic." They gave her a tiny nod or a smile when their name was called.
"Ah! Mini Stokes! It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Mandy said with a smile.
"From Nick?" Andy asked
"No…since this is your first day, you are the topic of the day." Henry answered
"So far I got 3 different accounts of what you look like. Oh and just to let you know someone got a hold of your transcript." Wendy warned her
"Good to know."
"And made copies…and…distributed them throughout the lab."
"Hodges." Nick, Mandy and Henry concluded at once.
"Most likely." Wendy agreed
"What's a Hodges?" Andy asked looking a little confused.
"He's the trace tech. Let's go pay the Hodge man a visit."
"Uh-oh. See you guys around." Andy waved as she left the room with Nick.
"Bye." They replied to her as she left. "She's cute." Henry added
"Now I want to warn you." Nick said in the hallway leading to Hodges lab. "This guy is super annoying, super aggravating and a super suck up."
"Well I guess everyone has to be super at something."
"Yeah well this guy is super at being an ass." Nick pointed at a dimly lit room to his right.
"In here." Andy entered the room to see a middle aged man crouched over a telescope. Nick cleared his throat and the man turned around looking annoyed.
"I'm not a miracle worker Nick. My time is money. I assume you are Andy. It is a pleasure to have another Stokes on our team. And despite what you heard about me, I can be a very likable guy once you have the full David Hodges experience." She looked at Nick with disbelief and he gave her an 'I told you so' look in return. The sound of Nick's pager bounced off the walls.
"Hey I'll be right back Grissom wants me for something. Be nice you guys, I'll be back in a second."
"So what the 30 second rundown of all that is Andy Stokes?" Hodges asked as Nick walked out the lab.
"Well…My name is Andrea Lynn Stokes, I am Nick's little sister. I graduated from Yale with honors in Chemistry. I drive a red PT Cruiser, I like toast, my favorite color is green and I just met you and already I find you annoying."
"You got 10 more seconds." Hodges said looking at his watch.
"I'm not a miracle worker"
"You know, you remind me of…" Hodges was cut off by a man that Andy recognized from the break room introductions but couldn't recall his name. He was wearing a lab coat so that must mean he works here in the lab.
"Hey Andy, I finished with that evidence from the case you and Nick are working on I'm busy so you should come look at it now…"Andy gave the man a suspicious look then caught his game.
"Oh right! Of course, the evidence. Sorry Hodges I got to jet, I'll see you around though." She walked to the man who handed her a folder and told her to just follow him. He took her down the hall into a room with several big plasma screens and several smaller computer screens, and some fancy equipment.
"Man I hate to be you on a slow night." Andy muttered sarcastically.
"Slow nights are my specialty." He smiled, "I'm Archie Johnson. The A/V Tech." He said holding out a hand.
"Andy Stokes, CSI, but you already knew that." She said as she shook his hand. "Thanks for getting me outta there."
"You have no idea what I saved you from. He doesn't know how to stop talking."
"And I will forever be in your debt." She walked over to the nearest computer screen. "What is this?"
"As I said slow nights are my specialty." One of Archie's role playing games was on pause mode. He had busted written all over his face.
"We came, we saw, we conquered. And if the taste of victory is sweet, the taste of virtual victory is not Sweet 'N Low, nor the bullets made of sugar." Andy recited as she admired all the equipment.
"You did not just quote Fox Mulder?" Archie asked in disbelief.
"I take it you're an X-Files fan?"
"That's from First Person Shooter." Archie said giving Andy her answer.
"Season 7 episode 13" She confirmed
"My favorite episode." They both confessed at the same time. They both laughed and caught each other's eyes for a second.
"There you are. I've been looking for you." Nick called from the hallway. "Let's roll!" Nick stopped at the doorway with Greg on his heels.
"Well thanks again for saving me. I'll see you around." She waved to him and followed Nick and Greg out.
"Yeah you will." He replied as she was out of earshot.
"I thought you were assigned to another case?" Andy asked Greg
"Grissom told me to come with you guys. According to SuperDave the house is huge." Greg had taken the courtesy of brining Andy's kit with him so she didn't have to run back to the break room and he insisted on carrying it to the Denali. He even opened the car door for her. Nick couldn't help but notice. It wasn't that he didn't think Greg was good enough for his sister, but if Greg started dating Andy then there would be no swapping girl stories anymore. Because whenever Greg would tell one of his stories he would know who the girl was, and he would have to break Greg's face. And as said before, he liked Greg and would hate to have to hurt him…or his ego.
"Who is SuperDave?" Andy asked intrigued
"The assistant coroner." Nick answered from the passenger seat.
"Jeez, how many more nicknames do I need to remember?" She muttered to herself as she climbed into the big SUV.
With Warrick Driving, and Nick busy trying to find a nice way to tell Greg back off his sister, the small talk in the SUV was mostly contributed by Andy and Greg, who let slip that he is also a big X-Files fan. About 6 minutes into the drive Andy asked the million dollar question. "So where is our crime scene anyway?"
