Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

Author's Notes: Okay, I know Grissom's birthday isn't in January but just pretend it is. There's bound to be a bazillion of mistakes just because my brain is fried from keeping track of ten little camp-goers all day, so I'm sorry!

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and terrific suggestions/corrections (and I promise I'll try to revise some of the mistakes at a later date). This is my first CSI fic that I'm actually "publishing" and no one has edited it or reviewed it, so if the characters get a little out of character, my deepest apologies.

Feedback: Wouldn't hurt. :)



CHAPTER FOUR: Tougher

Emily drove the now familiar route to the crime lab with a smile. She had spent the majority of the past day and night sleeping. She hadn't realized how out of whack her body had been. Now, with fifteen hours of sleep under her belt, she felt new. Her Golden Retriever puppy had required three runs and a bath. She had gone grocery shopping. She had cleaned her apartment. She had soaked in a bath. She was ready for a crime scene.

She arrived at the police department and paused in her car for a moment. She saw Ecklie two rows and seven cars over, fumbling with his keys. She grinned. She didn't care what he said; she would never work with him again.

Once inside, she found Catherine and Sara in the break room. She entered shyly. Catherine looked over and smiled. "Hey, Emily."

"Hey," she replied, looking at both of them. "What's going on?"

Sara had seen Emily approaching the break room. She didn't want to like her. It wasn't that Emily rubbed her the wrong way or anything, she just had a certain feeling deep inside that nothing good could come out of this new condition. Emily appeared to have won over Grissom already. Catherine was warming up to her as well. Yesterday, she had overheard Nick, Warrick, and Greg talking about her. She had overheard them talking about her, even Catherine, plenty of times. It was sophomoric, she knew, but she was slightly jealous of the attention the new blonde was getting. She forced a smile and replied, "We were just talking about Grissom's birthday."

"Is it coming up?"

"Two weeks," she said. "We're trying to decide if we should all get separate gifts or all chip in for something."

"Maybe we should throw him a party at work," Catherine suggested with a glint in her eye. "We could embarrass the shit out of him." She laughed at Sara's pointed look and said, "He'd have our heads on a platter."

"Hey, speaking of heads, did you hear what Nick did to Greg?"

Emily continued to listen to their playful banter. An ache developed inside of her. She wanted to be a part of their team, their clique. She wanted to belong to a group of such diverse and yet compatible people. She wanted to join in on the light topics, planning birthdays and gossiping, and help with the dark matters, solving crimes and getting through the webs people weave with their stories.

Nick stuck his head inside the break room and said, "Let's go, ladies." He flashed Emily a grin and waited at the door to walk her to the layout room. Catherine and Sara continued to joke and Nick asked Emily questions about where she was from.

As they walked into Layout Room 2, Catherine said, "Hey, Nicky, I hear you tortured Greg."

"Who me?" he grinned. "Couldn't be." He, Catherine, and Emily all sat down.

Sara laughed and took a seat at the table. "I saw him when I got here. His hair is a lot shorter, Nick."

"I didn't do it that short. He went out today and got it touched up a little. The kid was asleep; I'm not that mean."

"Yeah, you just took a big chunk out the back," Warrick stated upon entering the room.

"Don't forget the ones on the sides."

Catherine shook her head. "You're one of his best friends-"

"And play pranks on each other we shall," Nick stated as he grinned like a fool.

"All right, it's work time," Grissom said, walking into the layout room. "No more of this Nick playing tricks on Greg talk. I hope you all enjoyed your mandatory twelve hours off because we have two new cases."

"On top of the other three." Sara ventured warily, hoping she was wrong.

"Correct," Grissom said. "Sara, Catherine, Warrick. There is an unidentified 420 waiting for you at the MGM Grand."

"Cause of death?" Warrick asked.

"Strangulation."

"With?"

Grissom smiled at Catherine. "If you find it, share it." Catherine rolled her eyes and took the piece of paper. He continued, "Nick, Emily, you're with me. Reported breaking and entering with two DBs in Orange Grove. That's as much as I got. Let's go."

Grissom, Nick, and Emily arrived at their crime scene fifteen minutes later. Nick pulled his silver case from the back of the Tahoe, as did Grissom, and surveyed the scene. A few spectators were standing on the streets. The house and yard was roped off with yellow police tape. Detective Jim Brass stood on the sidewalk between their house, 3621 Blossom Lane, and the next house, 3625 Blossom Lane. He was speaking to an elderly woman who was clutching her robe about her.

Grissom turned to Emily and handed her two white gloves. "Don't touch anything, but wear these just in case. Just observe, got it? Don't move anything around." She nodded and followed the two men up the front walk. They entered the house and quickly made their way to the back where the family room was. It was there that they saw the broken window and the two dead bodies.

Nick said. "Sometimes I wonder if people should just stay in a locked room when they're being robbed and not try to save their belongings."

"That would go against human nature to protect yourself and your family," Grissom said. "And your materialistic belongings." Grissom noticed a framed picture on the mantel. "They had daughters."

"I think I found one of them," Emily said softly. Grissom turned his head and frowned. She pointed with a gloved finger to the hall closet to their left. A pool of blood was seeping out. Grissom approached the closet and flicked the light switch on the wall. He opened the door slightly. He peered inside and sighed. He looked up at his two companions and said, "You found both of them."

About half an hour later, Emily said, "Okay, so let me get this straight. Whoever breaks in through the window. Whoever then proceeds to kill four people but only hides two of them. Whoever bolts. Why hide two bodies?"

Nick, who was kneeling beside the dead body by the fireplace, shrugged. He asked, "Why would 'Whoever' stab two and shoot two?"

Grissom replied, "Some killers like variety, Nick." He surveyed the area around the window and motioned to Emily. "Emily, come over here." She approached him and he asked, "Have you ever taken a picture before?" She gave him a pointed look and took the camera from him. He pointed and said, "All the surrounding carpet and the window sill."

"You already took those pictures, Griss," Nick pointed out. He moved to dust fingerprints off the hearth.

"And I still have pictures that need to be taken. Emily needs to practice," he replied, returning to the bodies in the closet.

The three worked diligently, Emily observing and snapping pictures whenever told, Nick dusting and collecting, Grissom directing and collecting. After a quick briefing from Brass, they headed back to the crime lab. As Emily delivered bags of evidence to trace and DNA, Nick spoke softly with Grissom.

"She didn't flinch once."

"I noticed," Grissom nodded.

"I thought she was going to throw up," Nick confessed.

Grissom and Nick entered the layout room. Grissom gathered the film and remarked, "I have a feeling, Nick, that Emily is tougher than she seems."

Emily entered Greg's lab and saw him checking out his reflection in the window. She smiled and said, "It's not that bad, you know."

He turned around quickly and blushed. "What are you talking about?"

"Please, I saw you checking yourself out." She rested the bags on the counter top and said, "Really, it looks fine."

"You heard."

"I think everyone heard," she confessed apologetically.

Greg groaned and nodded to the bags. "Orange Grove case?"

"Uh-huh." She handed over some of the small yellow packets and said, "Grissom told me to tell you to rush it."

"Well, you tell him that I told you I can't make the machine go any faster than the company made it," Greg grinned. "Come back in an hour and I'll see if any magic happened."

She paused at the door and commented, "It looks good."

Greg met her eyes and nodded slowly. "Thanks." He watched her depart and he got to work. It was definitely a plus to have Emily around. She wasn't too bad to look at, first of all, and she had potential to be a beneficial part of the team.

But she was still a girl, a child really, compared to the rest of them. She was ten years younger than Nick, Warrick, and Sara. He wasn't sure how old Catherine was, but he was assuming Catherine was fifteen to eighteen years older than her. Grissom, he knew, had found a student in Emily. Sara would always be his protégée, but she was beginning to come out from under Grissom's wing, leaving a place for someone new.



Please tell me if you liked it or not :)