A/N: thanks for the reviews. I realized that I was a little negligent on the next chapter with the ducklings reaction to the TARDIS thanks to you guys. I'm going to go back and revise. But this chapter doesn't yet get there, so, enjoy!
Bad Move
Sara entered the scene to find Grissom alone with the body, kneeling beside it contemplating the scene. "What's going on?" Sara asked. She had received a call from him a little while before asking her to come and help on the Tangiers case. He hadn't elaborated but something in his voice had told her it was something big. "And where's Warrick? I thought this was his case."
"I sent him to help Catherine. It's ours now," he said simply, without taking his eyes from the body.
"Ok… why?" she asked with a bemused smile. He was acting a little odder then normal today. It was strange for him to kick someone off a case without a good reason and she couldn't see what was so special about this case at first glance. She hadn't gotten any information on what was going on, but she could see how old the guy was, this seemed like a no-brainer.
"Because I don't think this is an entirely earthly case," Grissom said as he pulled back the sheet to show her the bloody puncture marks on the man's chest. "Look familiar?" he asked.
Sara looked down at the body for a few moments before saying, "No. Should it?"
Grissom cocked an eye brow. "Don't tell me that every time you get to work at Nellis, you haven't perused the top secret reports and mission files?"
"Sorry, I'm usually a bit more interested in messing around with all of alien technology," she said with a smile.
"Hmm. Well I have been reading some about their Atlantis project and found some very interesting things."
"Atlantis is the base they have in the Pegasus Galaxy, isn't it?"
Grissom nodded, "They have had people working out there for about two years now. Apparently they have a completely different alien enemy in that galaxy. One who feeds upon humanoids and drains their life though their hand," he said as he hovered his hand over the bloody marks on the body, showing that the punctures lined up with his fingers.
"It never ceases to amaze me all of the different forms of life and technologies that are out there," she answered as she realized exactly what the implications of this were. "Have you called the SGC yet?"
"Yes. I faxed over the crime scene photos to General O'Neill. He wants us to keep this under wraps until they get here."
"He's coming to Vegas again?" Sara asked.
"Yes, but he wasn't sure what he was going to do yet or who he was going to bring with him. Apparently there is a little to discuss before they come charging in. They aren't entirely sure how this alien, the Wraith, got to Earth and they are going to have to track it down."
"So what until then?" she asked. Grissom opened up his mouth to answer when he was interrupted by sounds of raised voices outside. They exchanged a glance before they moved to the door and looked outside.
As they looked the short way down the hall to where the elevator was, they saw a man with a cane talking rather loudly with Brass who had just showed up himself.
"Come on, you mean you're gonna keep a cripple out of his room without any explanation about what's going on?" the man demanded.
"Sir, I don't care if you're the King of England, no one is allowed up here until it has been cleared," Brass said as he placed a restraining hand on the man's shoulder.
"Come on man, I've got rights. I should get to know why I'm being kept out of my current place of residence," he said while trying to push past Brass.
"Excuse me," Grissom said as he walked over to where the confrontation was. "What's going on here?"
"That's what I want to know," the man with the cane said.
"I gathered that, Mr…." Grissom said, waiting for the name.
"Dr. House," the man replied harshly.
"Dr. House?" Grissom said more to himself than anything. "There has been a murder in one of the rooms and we need to make sure that our scene is not contaminated. That is why we cannot allow anyone else up here," Grissom explained.
"Well thank you. At least someone has the decency to answer questions. Who was it?"
Grissom looked at House for a minute before he turned to Brass and said, "Do you mind if I speak to Dr. House alone for a moment?"
Brass stared at Grissom like he had two heads. Grissom just gave him the "trust me on this one," look.
Brass nodded and let House pass. Grissom turned and led him to the room where the murder had taken place. Sara, who had stayed near the door, went in and pulled the sheet up over the body so House wouldn't be able to see it.
As soon as Grissom and House were in the room, the CSI closed the door and said, "I think it would be best if you don't touch anything in here,"
"Yeah, wouldn't want to make myself a suspect now," House said sarcastically. He was sure that he already had done just that by demanding to know what was going on. That was the only reason he could see for this guy to want to talk to him.
"So, you're a doctor then?" Grissom asked casually.
"Yeah, I thought that whole Dr. title before my name was a bit of a give a way."
"Are you aware that the man killed was also a doctor?" Grissom asked waving his hand to the covered body.
"Well I thought I asked who it was that was killed, but maybe not. So no, I didn't know. Though it's not all that surprising. There's a medical conference going on here this week and this floor has been booked full of doctors."
"What kind of medical conference?" Sara asked.
"The kind where a bunch of overly pompous doctors get together to show off and try to impress each other for a week," House answered as he rolled his eyes. He really hated these conferences.
"Dr. House, we just want to know why one of your colleagues has been killed. Don't you think you could answer our question directly?" Grissom said patiently.
House thought a moment and answered. "Nope, not good at direct. This is about as good as you're gonna get."
Grissom raised an eye brow before he continued. "When did you arrive in Vegas?" he asked.
"About an hour ago," he answered. "Is that direct enough for you?"
"Yes, thank you. So you weren't here yet when the murder took place around three hours ago?"
"I think that's what it means when I say I got here an hour ago."
"Dr. House, do you know this man?" Sara asked as she held up the evidence bag with the driver's license in it.
House looked at it. He thought maybe he had seen the man at some point, but there were no real bells going off in his head. "Nope, never met the man," he answered.
"So you don't know what hospital he worked for then?" Sara pressed.
House glanced at the license again. "I would assume it was one in Maryland, considering that's where his license says he's from. But I'm sure you bright criminalists could have figured that one out without my help."
Grissom cocked an eye brow again as he studied the man in front of him. There was something about this man that didn't feel right. Under normal circumstances, he would have mentally put this guy at the top of his suspects list, but not with this being a… foreign case. He shook his head slightly to himself before he said, "Alright, thank you Dr. House. I'm going to have to ask you to give Detective Brass your contact information in case we have any more questions for you."
"Yeah, in other words you think I'm suspicious and you want to be able to keep an eye on me," House said as he made his way back to the door. As he reached for the knob he couldn't help himself. "I noticed that you only showed me a picture and not the actual body, is there some reason for that?"
Sara and Grissom exchanged a look before Sara answered, "The body is in pretty bad shape."
"And yet there isn't any sign of blood around," House said as he opened the door. He continued to himself as he walked out, "Normally a body that has become unrecognizable has a tendency to have lost a lot of blood."
He closed the door behind him, leaving Sara and Grissom to exchange another look. "What was that?" Sara asked.
"I have no idea," Grissom admitted. "But I think we need to tell the General about this when he gets here. I don't trust that guy."
Sara nodded in response.
House walked down the hall and put up with the contact information that Brass wanted and then left. As he was going back down the elevator, he was wondering what in the world had possessed him to go up there and harass the police for anyway. He certainly didn't need to land himself in the middle of a murder investigation considering everything else that he had to put up with right now.
He reached the lobby and nearly ran into a hotel worker on his way into the elevator on his way out. "How about you watch where you're going!" House snapped to the younger man. If House had to take a guess he would put the man at about ten years younger than himself. Short blond hair and a long narrow face.
"Sorry sir," the man said, though he didn't sound sorry in the slightest.
"Aren't you a little old to be a bell boy?" House asked as the doors began to close behind him on the other man.
The man simply shrugged before the doors closed all the way. House shook the encounter off and continued on his way back to the TARDIS. He had more important things to do than bother with strange bellboys and murder investigations.
"Thanks General, we'll be expecting you soon then," Grissom said into his cell phone just before hanging up.
"He's on his way?" Sara asked.
Grissom nodded as he said, "O'Neill and three members from Atlantis left the SGC and are on their way. Shouldn't be more than an hour before they're here."
"Ok, well what are we going to do then?"
"Only thing we can do. Keep this scene closed off and no one else gets to see it."
"What about Brass? He's probably getting rather suspicious why we won't so much as let him in or why we haven't had the body sent back to the lab yet. David has already wrapped up his thing; by all rights the body should have been out of here a while ago."
Grissom shook his head. "We're just going to have to come up ways of stalling. Maybe I can convince Brass to go run a background check on that Dr. House."
"It's the best lead that we have so far," Sara answered. "After all, we have no idea what a Wraith looks like, do we?"
"No, I haven't seen or heard anything about their appearance. They may be just as human looking as the Goa'uld or Jaffa."
"So for all we know, that doctor might be a Wraith," Sara concluded.
Grissom nodded as he went to the door to go and ask Brass to run that background check. This was going to be another interesting one…
