Disclaimer:All characters belong to CSI and are not mine - I'm just borrowing them. I promise they will be cared for and fed and watered and returned in pristine condition (although only when Jorja Fox signs back up...) Until then they are mine to play with as I like…
The idea for this came from the final scene of season 6 opener 'Bodies in Motion'.
Also I had forgotten to put in my previous chapters that I also do not own 'The Peppermill' or its 'Fireside Lounge'!! Please forgive me!! I have rectified it now! I also don't own any of the other Casino's mentioned.
Author Notes: I am afraid I have never been to Las Vegas (even though I am dying too – although I would be scouring the streets for William Petersen and go home sulking if I failed to meet him!) So I am making up most of what Vegas is like from what I have seen on CSI and travel shows and in a guidebook!!
Thank you so much to everyone who is reading this!! Especially those who are taking the time to review and to put me on their story and favourite alert lists. I am so honoured. THANK YOU!! Rianne xXx
Stars in Motion.
By Rianne.
Chapter Three.
Rust, that was the only colour to describe Vegas in the late afternoon. The air was filled with a rustic glow more suited to leaves in the autumn than the colourful lights of the casinos on The Strip.
They gave up on their taxi half way down Las Vegas Boulevard, the traffic at a standstill, and even the lull of the car's AC was no temperance to their impatience. Tumbling out onto the sidewalk, suddenly swamped by a wave of heat, they found themselves not far from the Stardust and all immediately and automatically secured their sunglasses into place. Blinking harshly against the low sun. Vampires accustomed to working the night shift.
Grissom couldn't resist a small smile, which twitched the corners of his lips, as he looked around him into the swirling crowds of tourists. They were a curiosity to him. The gambling and the sunshine drew them in from all corners of the world bringing with them their entangling conversations, in their differing tongues, languages, and dialects. Their laughter and animation was intoxicatingly exciting to him and anyone else who just let the ripple of their surroundings flow over them. They buzzed about him, all creating an insect-like hum in the air which accompanied the way they danced, swerving and ducking in and out and around one another down the crowded concourse.
Their coloured rainbows of tasteless, garish clothes like reflections of the beating of natural light flickering down from huge hotel complexes. The sun blasting off so many reflective surfaces at once as to blind and stun. It wouldn't be long before the sun kissed the sand far out in the desert and the City burst into gaudy neon sparkling light. Sharpening its alien existence against the beautiful quiet of the vibrant red dunes that stretched as far as the eye could see from the crumbling edges of the desert oasis.
His grin spread as excitement began to fill him, he couldn't even remember the last time he had been out like this. He wasn't out to help someone drown their sorrows at the bottom of a whiskey glass he was out in honour of a celebration. It felt good and he wanted to remember that.
Warrick and Nick fell into step beside him as they headed North along the Boulevard.
Ahead of them the Stratosphere's Big Shot blasted up into the abyss-like expanse of brilliant blue sky, the desert wind wafting the passenger's screams down The Strip towards them, as they plummeted back to earth, catching Grissom's attention.
Seeing what had caught Grissom's interest, Warrick broke in with a definite, "No!"
"What?" Grissom came back, turning towards him, picture of innocence, knowing full well that he was busted.
"I am not riding on any more coasters with you… and definitely not tonight. Plus…" He paused for effect a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "I've got responsibilities now." He punctuated his sentence with a shrug of his shoulders that made Nick slap his arm, hard.
Through his laughter Nick managed to mouth 'responsibilities' in mock horror at Grissom as if it was a dirty word and he a fourteen-year-old boy.
Music swelled around them each time they passed an entranceway. Rock, Muzak, Classical, Big Band, Slot Machine. The sounds swirling into the air in an uncoordinated symphony that segued with ease into its uncoordinated surroundings.
The pyramid peak of the Luxor. The Statue of Liberty. The Eiffel tower of the Paris Casino thrown into violent contradiction with its giant hot air balloon. The pirates and cannon blasts of Treasure Island. Egypt one minute, then New York. Paris in a heartbeat, Venice the next, then the middle of the ocean on a pirate ship.
A place that had barely existed a century ago, and had no history whatsoever, had instead stolen pieces of everyone else's identity in order to create an entirely new one. The wonders of the world all in one Technicolor place.
It was noisy, vibrant, interesting and for the first time in a long time Grissom was thankful that he had his hearing back. To think he might have missed out on this crazy concerto! Missed out the way he had almost missed out on so many things.
Almost missed out on Sara.
For a flash she was right there before him, his huge beaming smile mirrored on her beautiful face.
All because he had been afraid of what he would loose if he tried. The surgery might have gone wrong; he could have been left deaf or if not completely without his hearing still considerably worse than before. Left to remember the pleasure of what he had lost.
And Sara…
He'd told Dr. Lurie, in a voice he hadn't recognised as his own, that he could not take the risk that he had, give up everything he had worked for, his solitude, his uncomplicated existence, even if it was for someone young and beautiful… someone he could care about… did care about.
Yet he had finally done it, taken that plunge, had the surgery, kissed Sara, and in both cases he had received nothing but pleasure for his courage.
How much he had to be thankful for, how much he had which he had taken for granted before now.
Like this City. He tilted his head upwards towards the towering buildings as they stretched up into the brilliant blue cloudless sky. It was funny how little of the details you noticed living in a place all the time. To tourists the place could bring them to their knees figuratively and financially, but it took moments like this to remind some Vegas residents that they lived in one of the most interesting, and admittedly tasteless, places on earth.
"Hey!"
"Hey, earth to Grissom!"
He slowed, turning back to find both Warrick and Nick a few paces behind him, staring with curiously knowing smiles on their faces.
"So…who is she, Man?" Warrick joked tilting his chin up, with no honest idea that his question fell quite so close to the truth.
"Huh?" Grissom could only respond with a single syllable his eyes growing wide, in what the guys luckily deemed confusion.
They couldn't know!
He knew that during her early days in Vegas, Sara's obvious crush on him had been the subject of many surreptitious conversations and he would hazard to guess even a few bets, but surely they couldn't know already?
Sara hadn't told them about spending time with him… had she…?
She couldn't have told them about their dates, wait…did she even think that they were dates? He had seen it as a date. Did she realise that in taking her to breakfast that that had been his intention?
But no, no, it wasn't like her to be indiscreet. She cared for the guys, but any information she gave them was either wheedled out of her or given in tauntingly brief snippet-like details so as to drive them crazy. She knew how to play them that was for sure. And him on many an occasion too, as he had strained to hear as much about her private life as he could all the while pretending not to care as the unwelcome pangs of jealousy had twisted his insides.
But wait… Warrick was still talking… Still trying to gauge why he wasn't as… as 'Grissom' as he put it, as usual.
And now Nick…
"Come on Griss, you can tell us, you've certainly been sneaking off at the end of shift a lot recently, and smiling a lot more, and…" Nick drifted off, both palms slightly raised, as he ran out of examples to define the changes in his boss.
They were reaching and they knew it.
But they had all noticed the change in him, heck he had even noticed the change in himself. He should have known he'd never get it past these guys.
Grissom cocked his head and with a raise of his eyebrow he employed a technique he had picked up from a certain Ms. Sidle, he simply smiled at them and said nothing.
"Awwww, come on!" they both complained in unison. Watching helplessly as Grissom stepped on in front of them and continued to walk along, a new swagger to his gait. Completely in control. When truthfully he had just been unable to look at them anymore without breaking into laughter!
Now they'd be really curious!
"You Sir!"
The voice broke him out of his triumph.
Turning Grissom found himself face to face with a man.
0000000000
If reckless driving could be a cure for what ailed you Catherine Willows would be just so damn fine right now that she couldn't see straight.
She swung the heavy weight of her SUV with abandoned motions, careering around every corner and was leaving braking in the hands of the driving God's it seemed.
All she could think about was the look of utter disgust that had crossed her daughters face moments before she had shot her down with such ease.
It was her own fault she knew that.
She had been so set on raising her child to be a strong woman that she had unwittingly turned her own child against her. Just great. She was always the one who had gone on and on about rights and power and not letting anyone talk down to you or tell you what to do. Except she had forgotten to add that 'your mother' was one of the very few people you did need to listen to. That and the Law.
It was her own fault. She had only wanted to save her daughter from some of the disadvantages she had been forced to endure as she had grown up. Yet she had somehow managed to turn her only child away from her at a time in her life when everything was difficult for a young girl. Teenager. The word even had an ugly tone to it. A dirty spitting sound to the syllables.
It was her own fault.
She worked too much, tried too hard to put food on the table, a roof over their heads, and send Lindsay to the best school.
'A place with tighter reigns' she had told Nick a few weeks back. Yet it seemed she was nowhere near in control.
She was handing down all her worst faults to her child.
Forced into stopping at a red light she lowered her head to the steering wheel, just her eyes peeping out between the gaps in the circle of leather as she stared at the red glowing before her, willing it to change to her advantage and suddenly she didn't know what that was anymore.
Home, she wanted to get home. Yet the lab often felt more like home to her these days. She spent most of her time there after all. Which was just perfect after all that she had said to Grissom about his workaholic tendencies and his lack of a personal life. At least the lab was simple. She could see why it appealed to him so much. There all the problems could be solved, well eventually solved, with machines and tests and high-tech equipment. Rational, calm, clinical.
She longed for that simplicity in her private life.
Yet she couldn't resist the part of her that craved the fast paced excitement of causing trouble, of dating two men at once, of dancing barely concealed for more men that she could count. Of actually having the power for once.
The power that recently had slipped so easily through her tenuous grasp.
She'd been somewhat demoted when the team got back together, she had lost Warrick, although not hers exactly she still felt the sting of missing the boat, she had created a distance between herself and Lindsay which was becoming so big as to be unfathomable. Eddie had been killed, she had discovered that Sam Braun was her father…
Yet she had survived, as she always did.
Behind her a car horn blasted violently.
"All right!" she growled back at the guy waving angrily at her in her rear-view mirror.
The light was now on green and obviously had been for a while. Or maybe not. Vegas wasn't known for its patient drivers.
She threw the car into gear and screeched wildly to the left, hearing the wheels spin and wanted to be anywhere on earth than here right now.
By a simple twist of fate she actually made it home in one piece. She pulled her car into her slanty drive and cut the power savagely.
Dragging her purse and her discarded suit jacket from the passenger seat she dragged her body out of the cool of the air-con and slammed the door behind her. Beeping the car locked she didn't even look back as she headed for the house.
It was quiet inside. The only noise the faint bubbling sound from the fish tank filter that Lindsay had promised she'd clean last weekend.
Dumping her belongings onto the counter she leaned nearer to the bubbling blue, which was actually more of a murky green on closer inspection, and tapped against the glass by a fish that floated belly-up on the surface. Another dead thing. Just what she needed.
It was too quiet. She could hear her own breathing. The frustration aching through her body making her respirations heavy and more like sighs.
The trail of destruction seemed lead all the way through her house right up to her daughter's bedroom. Homework, clearly not finished, on the kitchen table, an ice cream tub lit in a pool of sunlight. She lifted the lid already knowing that she would find a pool of sour milk.
She followed the trail. Expensive school uniform, and some clothing so skimpy that she definitely did not buy for her daughter, all draped and thrown across the living room chairs. Finally she came to a pause in the doorway of Lindsay's bedroom as she took in the desolation. Somewhere beneath all the discarded clothing, makeup, magazines and plates and cans of soda she could just make out the pretty carpet and bedding she and Lindsay had gone together to pick on the last mother and daughter day they had managed to share. It seemed like a million years ago. It couldn't have been more than a few months.
That was it. She sighed heavily as she fell against the doorframe unable to even withstand her own weight.
She no longer had the patience for bath and calm relaxing evening she had been dying for.
To hell with that!
Stalking back to the kitchen, kicking her shoes in two different directions, she threw open a kitchen cupboard and drew out a bottle of red wine. The good stuff, she had been saving it.
To hell with that too!
Uncorking the bottle between her knees in the most guttural fashion she finally dragged the stopper out, flicking back her hair with the motion before filling herself the biggest glass she had.
Her trail to her bedroom unconsciously imitated her daughters as she let her clothes fall away as she moved.
She felt as rebellious as Lindsay.
Damn, it was no wonder Lindsay was the way she was. She was her mother's daughter through and through!
Passing the CD player she flicked the power on, twisting the volume high, not caring what kind of music spilt out, she just wanted to have something to fill the empty space.
The wine was loosening her up somewhat and she couldn't help but shake her head at herself in the hallway mirror. Half naked and rumpled, her hair rippling.
And the wine was good. Not what she usually drank, but it was dark and rich and sinfully powerful. It was perfect for her mood.
Taking the glass and the bottle with her into the bathroom she slipped nude into the scalding spray of her shower, groaning as the water slammed against her tense shoulders. Tilting her face up into the power of the spray.
That was a way to better.
But the wine had its pull. She rushed through her ablutions, the scent of her expensive shampoo filling the enclosed space. She turned the water off with a jerk. Shrugging a towel from the rack she circled herself with the soft fabric and then grabbed her deep red liquid and headed for her closet. Beads of cooling water trailing down the back of her heated spine from the tendrils of her golden hair making her shiver.
Underwear was easy, only the best, something sexy and lacy and black.
Taking a deep, long, cool sip she dragged out her favourite tight black jeans, and a black low cut top. Heels, hmmm…
She wrinkled her nose, oh to hell with that too. She selected her sexiest, and of course most evil pair.
Her heated curlers were lightening quick to reach temperature. Either that or time was slowing down just for her, or maybe the wine was actually working.
New make up, slightly glittery, slightly smoky, pretty sexy, splash of musky perfume.
She didn't need another invitation. She knew where they were going. She didn't need to call them.
Calling a cab instead she came to stand before the hall mirror again, glass still in hand.
She looked good.
Damn Warrick and the awkwardness. He could get over it if she could. He was the one who had moved on after all.
She needed this. She needed to get out, drinks, maybe some dancing. Her friends.
She had to change this crappy day. These crappy last few weeks.
Yes, this was just what she needed.
0000000000
"Oh…No," Grissom shook his head rhythmically, backing up, slow quick steps.
"Yes, you Sir, you're perfect,"
"I…er…" Grissom raised his palms towards the man who only advanced towards him unrelenting. He was still shaking his head, trying desperately to avoid eye contact.
The crowd gathered were all looking at him now. He couldn't believe this. What about him always drew attention like this? Why him? Didn't he just scream socially awkward?
"Yeah! Go on Griss!" Nick joked, pushing him forward and into the centre space the Magician had created for his act.
He found he couldn't even glare at Nick, even when he thoroughly deserved it. This was possibly going to become a problem.
This was the karma he got for not confessing to them about his new lady friend!
"Excellent!" Cried the Magician theatrically, placing a hand on Grissom's shoulder, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our volunteer! What is your name Sir?"
"Gil!" Shouted Warrick cupping his palms against his lips so the sound travelled from over the top of the crowd, where he and Nick stood their laughter open and delighted, as Grissom tried to make himself small, willing the ground to swallow him.
"Ah, Gil!" the Magician smiled, tilting his head at Grissom, drawing a silk scarf out of thin air.
Then with a click of his fingers he opened his palm and a white dove flew out of the scarf fluttering up into the air to land with a calm swoop on the Magician's arm.
With a flick of his hand the dove disappeared as quickly as it had appeared to a resounding applause from the crowd.
"Alright now Gil," he said focussing upon him as he reached forward drawing a box of playing cards from behind Grissom's ear.
Holding the box up to the audience he then tipped the cards out, passing them to Grissom he instructed that he check that they were a regular pack of cards. Grissom felt the crowd lean forward as he checked through the pack, confirming that they were in fact genuine.
"All right, I'd like you to pick a card for me." The Magician requested. "And don't worry about being secretive, it's not that kind of trick." He told the interested crowd.
Selecting the four of hearts, Grissom was then handed a pen and instructed to write his name across the card.
In big letters he scrawled 'GIL' before handing the card back, his curiosity finally slightly awakened.
The Magician then slid the card back into the middle of the pack. Sticking out slightly so they could check it was the same card.
They checked and it was, and was held up to the audience.
Then the cards were shuffled again, and placed back in the box.
Then from behind Grissom's other ear the Magician drew out a nickel.
This too was signed by Grissom as the Magician explained that the nickel was going to help them find Gil's chosen card. The coin was then wrapped in a small square of tissue paper. Then held up for scrutiny. Then the coin wrapped in tissue was placed on top of the box of cards.
The Magician turned to the audience, " Does anyone have a light?" he asked.
Several seconds of rummaging later a lady produced a square green plastic lighter from the depths of her handbag.
Passing it to the front the Magician took it, and with a dramatic flick he set fire to the tissue paper in a flash.
"Fire in the hole!" some one in the crowd, who sounded suspiciously like Nick Stokes, cried.
The crowd leaned ever closer, watching as the tissue paper around the coin burnt and with it the heated coin burnt a small circular hole through the cards as well as the box. The coin fell into the hole quickly burning its way through the layers of cards.
Blowing gently on the box the Magician then opened it and tipping out the cards the Magician showed off the signed coin, and then the circular hole burnt almost the whole way through the deck, but as he took away the burnt cards and finally reached the first solid, unburnt or scorched card he lifted it up for scrutiny.
The first untouched card was in fact Grissom's signed Four of Hearts!!
The crowd burst into applause!!
Grissom grinned like a little boy!
The Magician bowed as the applause quietened. "Let's hear a round of applause for my assistant, Gil!"
The crowd clapped again as Gil dipped his head embarrassed once more and tried to edge back towards the safety of the crowd.
"May all your dreams come true Gil." The Magician saluted him before disappearing into the crowd himself in the blink of an eye.
They are starting to already.
Grissom couldn't help thinking as he returned to where Warrick and Nick were waiting. He approached them shaking his head warningly at their elated grins, with as much false anger as he could!
They were so going to get it.
But he just couldn't keep a straight face; he tried so hard but he couldn't resist and just had to laugh right along with them, covering his face with his hands, as he groaned aloud.
When they finally caught their breath and Grissom found he could form words again he breathlessly stuttered, "God, I hope this place isn't much further!"
Following Warrick's lifted arm he saw that they were just a few feet away.
"Thank goodness!"
The dark interior looked so inviting right now. Sliding through the doorway, past a heavyset bouncer dressed all in black, they headed down some stairs into the dim cool interior.
Grissom couldn't hide his look of surprise as he took in his surroundings. It was much nicer, and classier than he had expected.
Nick, catching his expression, couldn't help but tease with a Cheshire Cat grin. "Don't worry Griss, the strippers are coming later!"
And Grissom could do nothing but stare at him as his jaw dropped a little, unsure as to whether or not he should believe him!
