Chapter 2: Porclain Dolls, GCR, and...Hodges?
In all my years of living I have found nothing more interesting than watching CSIs scramble about other people's creations, especially mine. The two eldest move warily about, yet they are most involved in their work. The blonde one, I think is not one of them, no, a mere detective loafing about. Ms. Brunette is beautiful, although unconventionally. Porclain; they'd break easily...
The third one catches my eye; secure and confident in her surroundings. She is my favorite, and rightfully has been since my first creation. Oh, those pleasant memories! She has not the beauty of the previous two, but her charm has always sufficed. A fine finish to my collection, I should think. What a grand piece of art I will have. Surely, it will be vastly improved once the final piece is put in place.
He would be jealous, but I ask myself, how can one be full of envy when one is involved in the art itself? But Doctor will be happy. Oh yes, with his encouragement and help, I shall be the best.
xxxx
A stroke of luck had interfered with Nick Stokes's life, and he was more than aware of it. He was grateful. If Ecklie had not been fired for an incident with Grissom's antfarm, Grissom's eventual retirement, and Warrick's transfer to Dayshift, Nick would never have head of Grave. He found it all quite surreal, even after five years of being supervisor. Nick loved his new office, it had been Cath's previously; the thought of working in Grissom's was just too damn creepy, too many bad memories would resurface. And the fact that he would get one of Britain's best CSI's to work in his shift was icing on the cake.
His once Hershey's chocolate hair was now peppered with gray, and the laugh lines that existed on his face were more prominent than years before. That lovely smile was still blindingly white and his body was still droolworthy. The only negative thingin Nick's life was his inability to find himself a stable and worthwhile relationship in the past twelve years. He didn't know what it was, but the women of Las Vegas, and even in the remote parts of Nevada, seemed to ignore him, or at the very least, treat him like their gay best friend. It had first started with Sara and Catherine, but as the years crept by every member of the female sex he had known simply brushed him off as "Nicky", "Pookie" or "Hon"; it was revolting at the very least.
Nick had grown to be more solemn following Grissom's sudden departure from the lab. Granted it was not the first time his esteemed mentor had departed from the lab, but its air of finality had stricken the hearts of all that knew and loved Gilbert Grissom. The repercussion left him and his friend Sara Sidle reeling with hurt, even slight derision towards their former teacher and boss. Catherine Grissom, having noticed the new attitude of the lab, then took action in hiring a new CSI. Being only Gundersohn's second day on the job, the outcome of this decision had not come fully into effect.
Now sitting at his desk, Nick contemplated whether or not Gundersohn's working with Sara was such a good idea; at first meeting, he thought Max more of a social butterfly and the mixing of her with the somewhat socially-impaired Sidle might prove disasterous.
However, his doubts came to suprising halt when he heard the giggling of Sara and Max coming down the hallway.
"I'm serious, Sara. Tom actually worships Dr. Grissom; I swear he's got some kind of statue he prays to somewhere. You should've seen his face when I broke up with him and told him I was leaving for Vegas...wait a minute, I think I have the snapshot somewhere in my office...You've got to see it; it is a CLASSIC!"
"God, that's brutal," Nick heard Sara snicker.
"Brutal punishment for the most deserving."
Nick couldn't help but shudder; Manhaters! But Sara wasn't really a manhater, she was too busy smooching Greg Sanders to hate anybody, let alone guys.
The eventual knocking soon came upon his office door, to which he sarcastically replied;
"Come on in , ya damn harpies!"
Both came strolling in, their hair wet, smelling of citrus. Sara stuck her tongue out at him, but Max was the first to vocally reply.
"Smartass,"
He smirked at this, but soon resumed his more serious composure, "You guys are quick; two hours earlier than expected. Did SuperDave come early from his meeting?"
Max looked to Sara, her eyebrows raised, "SuperDave?"
"Coroner."
"Aaahh...okay," then turning to Stokes, " That and we called Willows and Geraldo to get their lazy butts over to the scene; Curtis got sick and had to leave, and we needed the extra help."
"It's your second day of work, Gundersohn, and you're already abusing the rookies, sheesh."
"Like you wouldn't, Nicky?" answered Sara, " We all know how much fun it is to pick on Lindsay, and I was just showing Max a little fun, since Sofia ditched out on lunch."
"Speaking of which," Max began, "How about you, Grissom, Sara and I discuss the case over lunch, since we two were so deprived of it earlier?"
"Fine, but I'll have to check up on Cath..."
"EEEEEKKKKK!!!!!!! MY EYES! MY EYES!" the girlish scream could be heard throughout the lab, sending hairs on end to everyone that heard its wretched noise.
Max cringed, she thought for certain that her ears would bleed from that horrible sound, "What in God's name was that?!"
Nick got up from his desk, "Not again...seventeenth time this week" he mumbled as he hurriedly passed the two women, heading out of his office, towards the screeching disturbance.
Sighing, Sara followed suit, "Come on, we'd better go follow Nick."
"What was that?!"
"Hodges."
xxxx
David Hodges lay in fetal position, his eyes, he thought for sure , would go permanently blind. Catherine had gone too far this time, way too far.
"Hodges, get your wimpy ass up from the ground, man."
"Oh thank God you're here, Nick," he gasped, "You have to tell them to stop; it's doing permanent damage on my health."
Sara scoffed, "Honestly, Hodges, do you ever think of knocking on Catherine's door before you come barging into her office? God, I'm starting to think you actually like interrupting them..."
"Well" he got up from the floor, "I shouldn't have to knock, because what she and Grissom are doing in there technically isn't even allowed!"
"Hodges, do me a favor and keep your mouth shut, while I go talk to them, okay?" Nick knocked the office door gently, then entered after a moment.
Max ran up to Sara, "I just met up with Willows; apparently, when she went off to drop off our stuff to Trace, no one was there."
Sara glared menacingly at Hodges, "This is Hodges, Max and he's also the reason why Trace is empty."
Her face was in disbelief, "That's Hodges? He's the reason my ears are still bleeding?"
Hodges couldn't really come up with a snide comment at the moment; he was too busy staring at the new CSI. In the milliseconds of spotting her, he had already decided that he would woo her and make her his life mate. Drool slowly came out of his mouth, as he was now daydreaming about her in a less than innocent light.
"HEY! EXCUSE ME?" Max yelled at him, "ARE YOU AWAKE IN THERE?!"
"Huh? Oh sorry! Umm..I'm David Hodges, " He gave a lusty laugh, "And you are?..."
"Max Gundersohn," she was a tad bit squeamish from the very sight of him.
"May I call you 'Maxine'?" he slithered.
"No, 'Max' shall be sufficient," she turned to Sara for some sympathy, but her friend was too busy looking just as disgusted as she was.
The office door had now opened, and Nick came out, followed by Catherine Grissom and her now-retired husband, Gilbert, both looking quite happy with eachother. Gil Grissom, now in his mid sixties, had lost a significant amount of weight, shaved, and looked quite like the Grissom in the pilot episode in the first season of CSI. Some would even go to such lengths as to say that he looked quite like he did back in 'To Live and Die in L.A.' Catherine, now in her late fifties, looked more ethereal than in previous years. Her hair was that of silver and white, and her beauty had advanced even more so.
"Dr. Grissom," Max beamed, now glad she could redirect her attention on someone else, "What a pleasure to see you again! I see you've lost some weight and shaved! It's nice to see you looking so unlike Kris Kringle. Last time we met, I thought I'd buy you some milk and cookies. Quite handsome, don't you think so, Sara?"
"'Kris Kringle'?" Nick couldn't help but blurt out, "That's awesome!," then quickly covered his mouth, realizing that Catherine's face was turning red.
Sara couldn't really say anything but "uh...", fearing the loss of her job, and Hodges just smirked, as usual.
Gil, his face pale with shock gave a somewhat girlish, "Aahh...Why are you here?" his voice was was filled with dread and fear.
"I work here now, and coincidentally, Dr. Grissom," said Max, " I have your old office to work in. Would you like to see it?"
"No...aahhh...um...I mean, no thank you, Ms. Gundersohn," He straightened up his rumpled shirt, and looked to his wife, "Catherine, honey, I've got to go back to the University...I've...uh...got a class to teach. Goodbye, all." Glancing quickly over to Max, he shuddered, then nearly ran out the building.
Max gave a frustrated sigh, "Well, at least it wasn't as bad as the first time I met him."
"Gundersohn, what the hell was that?" Catherine fumed.
"Honestly, ma'am," she answered, "My theory is that he thinks I'm one of the undead; it's the only thing that fully explains those looks of his."
"Are you serious?" asked Nick.
"Completely. I don't understand him; he was nothing like this when Thomas and I were at the Entomology convention up at London. Then again, Entomologists tend to be calmed by their own kind..."
"You know what? Why don't we all forget about this little episode and get some lunch," said Sara.
"Sounds good, Sara. And Gundersohn," Cath warned, "Stop scaring my husband."
Nick deadpanned, "Sure Cath. We'll just stop by the Catholic Church and see if Father Pepe will do a little exorcism and...Ow! C'mon, that's not fair!" he grabbed his soon to be bruised arm.
Max's fist was still clenched, " Smartass."
Hodges piped in, "I'll drive!"
"No," Max sternly corrected him, "You will stay here and work on our evidence"
"Fine," slowly he walked backed to Trace, thinking of ideas to win over his newest conquest.
xxxx
The four of them sat in the old and familiar booth in that old and familiar diner where cigarette smoke filtered the air and truckers filled every other seat.
"So, what you're telling me, is that we may be dealing with a serial killer?" Catherine gently sipped her coffee.
"That or an accomplice," Max finished, "The case that I was in charge of, we found the guy and put him away for life. Everything in today's crimescene was just too familiar to be coincidental; the evidence, the bodies themselves, they all just struck a chord with me."
Nick took a bite out of his pancake, "Couldn't it be a copycat? Or just an over-enthustiastic fan?"
"No way. No copycat or fan could've done this. There was evidence there that wasn't on the media's report."
"Like what?" Sara asked.
"My team never told the media about the missing hairs, the corpses' positions, or thoses gashes on both their torsos."
"I'll get the sherriff to talk to the head of forensics at Edinburgh," said Catherine, "See if they can send us the evidence collected from your old case. I wanna have Hodges compare it to what we have, just to be safe, and make sure we don't have an old serial killer on our hands."
Sara's cell rang as she chewed on her organic whole wheat, low-carb toast -in other words, reader; cardboard. Answering with the cardboard mush still in her mouth, "Sidle...Hodges...okay, great. We'll head over there in approximately thirty minutes. What?! Okay, okay, I'll make sure to tell her that, bye," She turned to her friends, "Hodges is done analyzing the DNA."
"Holy crap!" Milk almost spilled out of Max's nose, "What is he, The Flash?"
"No...Why are you so suprised?"
"Well, DNA usually takes a couple weeks to a month to process."
Cath scoffed, "Not in Vegas, baby."
"But don't worry; we're not nearly as fast as the guys in New York and Miam," said Nick, "Those guys act like they're on frickin' crack when it comes to DNA processing."
"Those guys are more about theories anyway," finished Sara, "Oh and Max, Hodges left something by your office."
"Oh, great," Max's face was tired, "He's gonna be a handful, isn't he?"
"Man," Nick laughed, "You have no idea."