DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI
This chapter is set after the holiday. Just a bit of a friendship bit with the other CSI's. One more to go after this! Review please!
"So, wait, there was nobody on Venice Beach?" Catherine was confused.
"It wasn't Venice Beach. We don't know how we ended up there." Nick explained.
"Yeah, and then this freaky music started playing and nobody could find where it was coming from." Greg added.
"Are you guys making this up?" Sara asked.
"No, trust me, it's all true." Nick said, putting a hand on his heart.
"And then we got lost on the beach and we couldn't find our cars, and we had no cellphone signal..." Greg carried on.
"So we saw land up ahead, and we all got some crazy idea that that was California over there." Nick finished.
"Why would you think that?" Grissom asked, pushing his glasses down onto his nose.
"We thought we'd driven onto a bridge somewhere and were on an island." Greg admitted.
"So what, you just swum over there?" Catherine questioned them as if talking to a suspect.
"It was way too far for that. We had to go on surfboards, two to a board." Nick told them.
"But why would you go all the way to a place you didn't know?" Sara inquired.
"There was nothing but sand for miles. as far as we could see. It was like being in the desert, except there was the ocean. Either way, we thought we were never going to get out." Greg tried to explain.
"Just how far away was this island?" Catherine asked.
"It took us over two hours to paddle all the way over there." Nick told them.
"So then what?" Sara said.
"We get to the island and we literally all fall asleep right away we are so tired. And when we wake up the boards have floated away and..." Greg begun.
"We realise it's not the mainland, but a deserted island." Nick finished. Greg mimed smacking a drum set with his hands, saying ba-dum-BUM!
"And then we start to panic." Nick laughed.
"So how did that helicopter find you guys?" Sara wondered.
"Kelly built some wierd connector thingy using a laptop, a phone, hair slides, a stick, a metal can and some lightning. It was awesome." Greg remembered.
"And this 'thing' accomplished what?" Grissom inquired, looking interested.
"We got phone signal and we called for help." Nick explained.
"And that's why the helicopter thing came." Greg added.
"Woah. So other than that, how was the trip?" Catherine smiled.
"It was awesome." Nick replied.
"Yeah. We went to disneyland." Greg grinned.
"Don't tell Lindsey. She's been bugging me to take her there since she was old enough to talk." Catherine groaned.
"Well it was great." Nick assured her.
"Yeah it was. We went on that new rollercoaster thing, jealous Grissom?" Greg asked mockingly.
"Rollercoasters in Disneyland are no better than rollercoasters in Vegas, Greg. It's just the atmosphere that leads you to believe they are." Grissom enlightened him.
"Yeah. The happiest place on earth and all that." Greg agreed.
"Walt Disney himself said "Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money."" Grissom quoted.
"And Greg sung "It's A Small World After All" the rest of the holiday." Nick put in, laughing.
"Hey, I was just trying to give you guys a bit of variety from all the musical compilations of Henry and Mandy." Greg said, asif deeply hurt.
"Henry and Mandy were singing?" Sara asked.
"Yeah. The whole time."
"Hey, everybody quiet a minute... Yep, they're still singing now. Soemthing else from West Side Story."
"What I really want to know is, what's up with Hodges?" Catherine asked quietly, looking around to check that he was nowhere near.
"I was talking to him today, he seems...different." Grissom agreed.
"What did you do to him Greg?" Sara asked.
"Me?" Greg asked, feigning innocence and shock.
"Yes. You've been talking about how he annoys you for ages. Did you finally try to teach him a lesson?" Sara asked.
"No way." Greg denied, shaking his head.
"That is not true. You dyed his hair green." Nick grinned at the memory. Saldy, he'd died it again, back to black. And now, there were no grey bits. He actually looked pretty good.
"Greg!" Sara gasped, hitting him on the arm.
"Thta was... unfortuante. I didn't know he took such long showers! It was just supposed to be kind of blond-ey. He left it in way too long." Greg protested.
"Still, dying somebodies hair isn't a very nice thing to do." Sara said disaprovingly.
"Whatever." Greg sighed.
"Now you even sound like him." Nick laughed.
"Hey, did you hear about Leonard?" Grissom asked them.
"Swing shift supervisor?" Nick checked.
"Yes, him." Grissom confirmed.
"Ugh. Him. And I used to think there could be nobody worse than Ecklie." Greg shuddered.
"His team finally got sick of his crap." Catherine told them.
"They killed him?" Greg whispered.
"You've been reading way too many murder mystery books." Nick sighed, rolling his eyes at Greg.
"Or else I've jest been working too hard." Greg insisited.
"It's your first day back. And I think your third coffee break." Nick replies, looking at his watch.
"Hey. I was having blue hawaiin withdrawal symptoms." Greg said, hugging his coffee cup to his chest.
"What, every ten minutes?" Nick asked.
"Carry on Catherine." Greg said, pulling a face at Nick.
"Anyway, they started pulling pranks, not turning up to work, loosing evidence." Catherine explained.
"That's going to get him in trouble with the Sherriff." Nick said, whistling out.
"So he fired his whole team, as well as a few lab techs." Sara added.
"Our techs?" Greg asked.
Swing shift didn't have any specific shift, they just worked whenever, so both sets of techs would process stuff for them.
"No, it was dayshift at the time. We're rehiring most of them, but not the team because technically, they messed up." Grissom explained.
"Yeah, that is a very immature way of dealing with their problems." Greg agreed, causing Nick, Sara and Catherine to laugh.
"Coming from you Greg?" Nick asked.
"Leave me alone." Greg pouted.
"It's just a funny thing to say." Sara smiled.
"Look, if you see a dead guy, and you're dead too, you still say he's dead don't you?" Greg reasoned.
"If you're dead, you don't say anything." Grissom reminded him.
"You know what I mean." Greg sighed.
"Did Leonard get fired too?" Nick asked.
"Eventually." Sara nodded.
"Good." Greg said.
"Yeah. A retired undersherriff, remember Buckley?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah" said Nick, at the same time as Greg said "No."
"Before your time Greggo." Catherine smiled.
"Yeah, since I'm so much younger than all of you guys." Greg smiled, running his fingers through his hair and pulling his 'supermodel' face.
"Yep, our little baby CSI." Sara said in a fake lisp.
"I'm a level three, just like you guys." Greg protested.
"Hey you said it." Catherine reminded him.
"What about Buckley?" Nick asked.
"He's coming in to take over swing for a month or two. We're going to have to do some serious juggling and rehiring around here." Grissom explained.
"They're also sending in guys from the Reno lab to help us out with our case load." Sara added.
"Cool." Greg nodded.
Then Grissoms pager beeped.
"Got a 419 in Fremont. Anybody want it?" he asked.
"Me and Nicky still have to finish up the arson case." Catherine said, getting up and putting her empty cup in the sink.
"I'll take it." Greg offered.
"Yeah, I'll come too." Sara said.
"Great. I'll be in autopsy with those remains we found in the foundations of that house." Grissom said, picking up his case file and getting up.
"Have fun." Catherine smiled.
"Don't I always?" Grissom asked.
"We better get going Cath." Nick said, getting up off his chair.
"Yeah. Brass is interviewing the guy now."
"See you guys later." Nick said, nodding at Greg and Sara.
"Let's get to Fremnot then." Sara smiled.
"Okay then." Greg said, as they both got up and deposited their coffee cups, Greg pausing to inhale the blue hawaiin aroma and promise it that he would be back. Sara rolled her eyes.
"I'll drive." she said, as they headed down to the car park.
"You always do." Greg sulked.
"True. But hey, what's this I hear about you owning a Ferrari?"
"A red Ferrari. Lola."
"Why am I not surprised that you named your car?"
"You're just jealous."
"Bring that to work, then I'll let you drive."
"Yeah, I don't think Grissom would approve of me turning up to a crime scene in a sports car."
"Probably not. But when does he ever approve of you Greg?"
"True."
"How are things going with you and Grissom by the way?"
"Really good."
"Great. Mind if I put on RocknRollFM?"
"Go ahead. Just not too loud."
"Thank you Sara. Nobody else would let me play it all week."
"If you had it that loud, that's not really surprising! Turn it down."
"Good?" heasked, turning the music down.
"Tolerable." she smiled.
And then they drove to Fremont.