DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: M - Mature (language, sexual situations, adult subject matter)
PAIRINGS: GSR & Yo!Bling pre-established in previous fics of this timeline.
SPOILERS: Sequel to "Displacement", "Transitions" and "Vicissitudes" - Number 5 in the Discovery Series
SUMMARY: Sometimes, the best way the deal with the changes all around you is to stop fighting and evolve in response to them. GSR/Yo!Bling/Nick-OC
A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter done. I got attacked by Beelzabunny a couple times and I had to put some time in on my Geek Fiction Smutathon entry, too. Thanks for the patience and I hope you enjoy it.
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Chapter 36
06:30 – 2007.02.01
Las Vegas Country Club
Nick stood up and stretched out his back as he blew out a heavy breath. When he looked down at his watch, he cringed and knew exactly why his body felt like it had been tied to the back of a charging horse; twelve straight hours of processing the golf course explosion scene. Nick hated "all hands" cases, and this was the capper of them all. There was nothing quite like an explosion at an exclusive country club to bring the brass out in full force.
The other factor contributing to his general displeasure with the situation was the fact that while they had spent twelve hours processing the scene, they had yet to reach the epicenter of the explosion. There was so much collateral damage from the massive flash-fire which erupted on the golf course that they had an astounding volume of evidence to process. When they arrived on the scene, they were forced to wait as the fire department worked to put out the fire still burning on one of the water hazards closest to the utility area, which appeared to be the source of the explosion.
He worked side by side with Mel all night, and they determined the flash-fire must have set off a chain-reaction of mini explosions extending throughout the area bordering the epicenter. She commented about the use of dangerous chemicals for fertilizers so many times over the course of the night, that he had gotten the very clear impression she was something of an environmentalist. She and my sister Rachel would get along great.
Several times he noticed that she was collecting samples of the soil and swabs of any liquid they came across as they worked toward the center of the explosion. It led him to wonder if she was collecting evidence for the case, or to prove that the club had been violating some EPA standard.
The fact was, he was very impressed with her techniques and knowledge over the course of working together, but this case proved she truly was an asset to the team, and most likely the lab as well. She seemed to have an innate knack for keying in to the most obscure and minute piece of evidence in each of the cases they worked. And most of the time, those items turned out to also be the most valuable in closing the case. The only thing she really seemed to lack was more confidence in her work, as she was constantly seeking out the approval of those around her. In a lot of ways, she reminded him of himself… Once upon a time.
Nick took another chance to stretch his back as he surveyed the whole scene. When his eyes landed on Blake and Greg on the other side of what was left of the golf cart repair shed, he squinted in an unconscious gesture as he tried to figure out why they looked so animated. Mel looked up from the box of samples she was sealing and followed his gaze.
She tossed out her casual analysis of the scene before them. "I don't know what it is, but those two seem to be butting heads a lot lately."
"Is that so?" Nick realized that since he had been working with Mel in the field, he and Greg had not worked a single case together. As he thought back over the previous couple of weeks, he realized that Blake seemed to make a concerted effort to pair off with the rookie whenever he could. Nick began to wonder if Blake thought he was going to have a chance at becoming Greg's mentor. Fat chance!
Nick knew that without a doubt, Greg would always look to Grissom in that respect. Greg might be willing to learn things from other people, but his hero would always be Grissom. And Nick had to admit to himself, he felt much the same way. He might owe a lot to Catherine for the years they worked together, but when it came to advice or guidance in their field, he would always think of Grissom first.
Nick was shaken from his thoughts as he heard the strained voice of their former lab rat. "NO FREAKING WAY!" When he turned to see what had happened, Nick saw (even from that distance) that Greg's face had turned a lovely shade of pissed off.
Nick handed Mel the evidence bag he sealed and took off at a trot to see what kind of trouble was brewing between those two.
""Forget it! There is no way I'm going to violate about fifty different protocols to do it your way. Which, by the way, is quite possibly the most idiotic thing I have ever seen!" Greg had managed to amp himself into a frenzy by the time Nick reached the remains of the repair shed.
"Hey Greggo… What's up, man? I can hear you all the way to the clubhouse." Nick put a reassuring hand on his young friend's upper arm and waited for his answer.
However, Blake apparently had his own ideas about how the situation was to be handled. "Stokes, this is between me an-"
"It was between you two… But when the whole department and the club staff is listening in, it becomes everybody's business. So, why don't we try to cool things off a bit and take another approach." Nick watched as every nerve in Blake's body tensed up, and Greg bit back about twelve things he planned on saying. "Now, I got no idea what's goin' on between you two, but I do know that an 'all hands' crime scene is no place to play it out."
They were all given a little reprieve when Nick's pager went off and he looked at the display screen for the message. "And there's no time to worry about it now, either." He looked up at Greg and said, "Warrick needs you to start running some of this evidence back to the lab… They just got a fresh crew in to start processing. And Blake-" Before Nick could finish, the other man's pager also went off. "And I bet that's Cath for you."
Blake looked down at his display screen and nodded his head. "I gotta get to the PD and help Brass process some guy they just pulled in for questioning."
Everyone nodded together and then they started to pack it up for their respective tasks. Nick went back to Mel and shook his head when she laughed.
"I feel like a babysitter some nights."
"Yeah, well, sometimes…they need it." Nick laughed at her analysis and then his pager went off again and he cringed at what was next. When he looked down at the display an amused smirk appeared in the corner of his mouth.
"Good news?" Mel asked as she got back to work on a bit of debris she was attempting to liberate from the soil.
Nick turned the pager around to show her the screen and that was when she saw: "Thnx Man… U R0xr!"
She chuckled and shook her head as she said, "Is that guy ever gonna grow up?"
"Let's hope not… Things'd get pretty borin' around here if he did." Nick's sideways smile accompanied his comment as Mel reluctantly agreed with his assessment.
They went back to work and continued to make their way into the epicenter of the explosion. Slowly, they collected each and every bit of debris, working inward on a grid pattern and careful not to miss a thing. They switched back and forth on collection and sealing duties, to keep both of them from getting burned out.
When Nick's cell started to play the Joan Jett hit "I Love Rock N' Roll," he stood up to brush his hands off on his jacket, and pulled off his gloves before reaching for the phone. However, it was too late, because Mel heard the ring and was already laughing. He blushed and said, "Excuse me a sec," as he turned away from her to take the call.
He walked a couple of paces away to afford himself a little privacy. "Hey, what're you doin' up so early?" He looked down at his watch to verify the time and saw that it was still early. "You're kiddin' me?...When did you leave?...Caught the last flight again, huh?" His voice became a little softer as he spoke and Mel could tell that whoever it was, was obviously someone with which he was comfortable. She tried not to eavesdrop, but she was an investigator after all, and the whole lab had been buzzing about what Nick was doing with his spare time.
"So, are we still on for this weeke-…Okay…I was just checkin'…No, I got it all set up and ready to go…Not a problem. Besides, I kinda like it out there…Haven't had a bad time yet…Hey look, I'm at a scene right now, so can I-…Yeah, okay, gimme a call when you get back…See ya this weekend." He waited as the person on the other side of the line finished talking and then closed up his phone. Mel could tell he enjoyed the call from the way his shoulders relaxed during the brief conversation.
She was about to make a comment about his obvious change in mood when he turned around, but what she saw on his jacket stopped her cold. "Stokes… Don't move."
He stopped in mid-motion and used his eyes to survey the ground around him. That was when he spotted the problem. His eyes looked over the discolored marks on his jacket, and the tiny holes that were already forming in the center of each mark. "What the hell?!"
Mel shook her head as Nick watched her set her jaw. "DAMNIT! I can't believe I didn't put this together before now!"
"What?" Nick was confused by her outburst.
"Sodium Hydroxide! Why the hell would they be using lye on a frigging golf course!" Nick finally understood where her line of thinking had taken her.
"Now slow down, Mel… We gotta wait until we've got all the evidence in and-"
"Yeah, yeah… I know, but you have to get that jacket off before it starts eating through the rest of your clothes." She walked up to him and made a twirling motion with her hand. "Turn around and I'll take it off."
"I can take my ow-"
"Without gloves on? I don't think so." He finally relented and turned around. She started to pull the jacket over his shoulders when she added, "Besides, it's gonna take a helluva lot more than you in a t-shirt to get my motor running."
Nick blushed at her insinuation and fought to come up with an appropriate comeback. He was at a loss, so he just said, "I'll try to remember that for future reference."
She decided to go easy on him and dropped his jacket into an evidence bag. "Hey, let's make a run to the Tahoe and drop this stuff off… That way I can grab my chem kit and we can find out what's really involved with this mess."
After they arrived at the truck and started to pull everything out to finish processing the scene, Nick took a look at his clothes. He thought about the presence of lye in the area outlying the point of explosion and made a decision about the rest of the scene. "Mel, let's suit up for the next run."
She scrunched up her face and asked, "You really think so?"
"We got no clue what was really in that groundskeeper barn… I say we suit up, collect a few samples and then send the HazMat guys in there for the rest." Nick had already retrieved their hazard coveralls from the back of the Tahoe. With the small one outstretched to Mel he added, "I'd rather be safe, than sorry… Ya know?"
She appeared to think over his suggestion for a moment, but then she quickly nodded her head and agreed. "Yeah, if it's even one of the things I'm thinking it is, we could get in too deep before we know what hit us." Mel took the coverall from him and immediately stripped down to her skivvies and started to wriggle her way into the suit.
Nick only blushed slightly, but he was not able to stifle the little chuckle that escaped him as he watched her. "What's so funny, Cowboy?"
"Just, ah, not used to someone so anxious to get into a coverall before." Mel realized that she had forgotten where she was again, but she laughed at his obvious discomfort.
As she pulled the zipper up to her neck she shot him a raised eyebrow and said, "Then you should see me get into my dive suit." That got the red to come up in his cheeks a little more to her liking, and then she giggled. "Sorry, but I've spent so many years having to change into a suit of some kind in the most bizarre situations, that I don't even think about it anymore. I didn't mean to embarrass you, really. I just don't really give a shit about baring a little skin in the name of efficiency." Nick nodded as he tried to regain his composure when she added, "Besides, you ever try to get into a dive suit, in the dead of winter, with twenty cops standing around and NOT expose yourself? It's totally pointless, so modesty was just something I learned to live without. And it makes you really popular with patrol."
Nick laughed at the thought of a bunch of grizzled cops standing around speechless as a CSI stripped to their skivvies at a scene. He could only imagine how quickly the guys down at PD would be jumping to call out CSI after that happened the first time. "Ah, do me a favor…for future reference?" She shrugged as she pulled the breath mask over her head and rested it on her chest. "Have one of us work as a shield from now on… Vegas isn't exactly as easy going as Seattle… You're likely to start a scene of your own with a stunt like that."
She chuckled at his admonition, but she came back with. "Hey, might be the fastest way to pay off the rest of those student loans." Nick only shook his head as he pulled the coveralls up his legs.
"Or get you into a different line of work." Nick finally managed to get the better of Mel with the somewhat shocked look on her face, but she quickly recovered as she gave him a wink and smile.
"Point taken, Boss."
They went further into the point of origin for the explosion and found a few more items of interest for their investigation. Nick oversaw Mel's collection of some more trace samples before he finally gave her the signal to clear out. The closer they got into the epicenter, the more Nick began to think Mel might have been on to something about the source of the explosion. It was glaringly obvious that the explosion was chemical in nature, but they were going to have to let the HazMat guys finish up the scene. They had everything they needed to prove their case either way by that point, and after a little more than thirteen hours on the scene, Nick needed a shower and decent cup of coffee.
When they reached the lab, it was obvious that tensions were still running high between Greg and Blake. Nick was sure something had been building up for a while, because he never knew Greg to take offense to anything very quickly. But no one was in any kind of shape for resolving the situation. And since Blake was finishing up with Warrick down at the hospital, Nick decided that the best thing to do was to send Greg home. He and Mel were taking the first overtime shift, and someone needed to have a fresh head once the results of their tests started coming in, so the logical choice was to have Greg get some sleep, and come back later.
The two worked side by side, cataloguing and preparing all of the evidence for processing and by the time they were ready to start running the whole batch through trace, they realized it was too big a job for just one person. Nick also possessed little faith in the ability of their day shift chem tech. As much as he despised Hodges, at least the little worm could get the work done, and done right. Mel decided to pitch in and help get all of their chemical analysis done. Having been a former lab rat herself, she was the natural choice. As Nick watched her cart the last box of samples into the Trace Lab, he flipped open his phone and called in a favor.
"Hey, Henry… I didn't wake you, did I?...Awesome…Hey, Man, you heard about the explosion right?...Well, looks like some kind of chemical deal…Yeah, lots of trace, lots of mysterious liquids…You think maybe you could come in a little early and put some of those mad scientist skills to work, Man?...No worries, Buddy. I'll get the overtime approved…Yeah, you know how that dayshift monkey is, right?" Nick knew there was always one way he could get the chemist to come into the lab, and he was not above using it to the full advantage. "Yeah, so I've already got Mel in the lab runnin' samples, but there's just too much for one person, ya know?" Nick was fairly certain he heard the other man's pulse begin to quicken through the phone, just at the mention of the new member of the CSI team. "So, you think you can come in and give her a hand?...That's awesome, Henry. Thanks for steppin' up, Brother." As Nick closed up his phone and started to lay out the other evidence on the table, he chuckled to himself and said, "Like takin' candy from a baby."
When Nick had finally finished putting everything together, cataloguing each and every piece, and checking on Mel's progress shortly after Henry arrived, he looked down at his watch and groaned; he was twenty one hours into a shift. He chuffed at the knowledge and said (to no one in particular), "Wouldn't Sara be proud."
"About what?" Greg's characteristically chipper voice came from the doorway when Nick turned to see the revived CSI.
"Just that I've managed to stay up this long without whinin'."
Greg grinned at his joke and then slipped in beside him to get caught up. "So, where are we at with this thing?"
Nick took a deep a breath and launched right in. "Tons of trace materials… And at last count, I think Mel and Henry had ID'd about seven different flammable chemical components. Sara is trying to get us an inventory of the stuff being stored in that barn from the country club, but the office was damaged in the blast, so we might have to wait until tomorrow when the city inspectors finish determining if the structure is safe."
"Gotta love the bureaucrats, right?" Greg looked over his shoulder towards the Trace Lab and asked, "So, you had Henry come in to help Mel while I was gone?"
"Yeah… No way that dayshift character could handle even half that load, and I knew Henry had been off last night, so he'd be fresh and eager to help." Nick noticed that the little green-eyed monster had appeared on Greg's shoulder as he watched the two working the evidence from a distance. "But, hey… Why don't you go in there and see if you can get Mel to stand down for a little while? I bet she could use a break, ya know?" Nick was beginning to understand why his mother always thought he would have made a decent lawyer; he really was good at convincing people to do things with ulterior motives.
"Yeah, I should get her some coffee or something, too, huh?" Greg turned to Nick with a wide grin and a sparkle in his eye. "Thanks, Man… You really are the best." And with that, Greg practically skipped out of the Layout Room.
As Nick watched the younger man leave, he could not help but chuckle at the scene. That was how Stephanie found him, full of mirth, as she commented on the departing Greg Sanders. "And people say I have too much energy… What did you do…promise him a new puppy?"
Nick shrugged and said, "Close… I told him to go help Mel." Stephanie laughed outright at his obvious joke.
"Nice… Good to know that some things will never change." As she walked into the room Nick noticed that she was still wearing a lab coat. Stephanie normally walked around outside of the morgue in just her scrubs, not being one to advertise exactly who she was, so he thought it was odd to see her in the coat.
As she came to stand beside him and looked over his shoulder at the table, he finally understood the reason for the change in wardrobe. The coat slipped open just enough for him to recognize that undeniable clue as to her present condition. He clicked his jaw to the side and then said, "Nice coat."
She instantly looked down and realized what he was really referring to, blushed and gave him a playful nudge with her elbow. "Watch it… With all these hormones, I'm no longer responsible for my actions."
"You don't have to tell me… I've got five sisters. And I thought they were dangerous before they got knocked up." Stephanie laughed at the joke and it served to lighten Nick's mood a little. He knew how sensitive most women were about their appearance during pregnancy, and he also knew from experience that it was always best to tender everything with a little humor.
Stephanie pulled out the stool beside him and rested on it for a moment. "So, I'm here, and David has all four bodies ready to go… You wanna observe?"
"Four?" Nick was confused, because he only knew of three fatalities from the explosion.
"Yeah, David brought the head greenskeeper in about a half hour ago… He didn't make it." Nick blew out a breath and shook his head at the new information. "Warrick was going to stop in to update Catherine, and then he's gonna meet us down there."
Nick nodded his head, and stood up to leave. He locked the doors to the Layout Room before he followed Stephanie to the morgue. As they passed the Trace Lab, Nick noticed that Mel was still hard at work, but with two doting assistants instead of one. He shook his head and chuckled as he walked by.
When they reached the morgue, Nick found David just finishing up with the prep on the last fatality. The assistant coroner looked a lot like Nick felt at the moment. That was when he realized the poor guy had been going at it all night and all day.
Stephanie walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder when she said, "David… Go home. Sandi's gonna kill me as it is."
"No worries there… She's on high alert for the presentation. I'm not entirely sure she's even noticed that I haven't been home yet." David shrugged it off and was about to turn away when Stephanie held up a stack of pink note sheets.
"I think you might want to check the battery on your phone." He took the notes and immediately reached for his phone. The timid look on his face told Nick who the notes were from. "Go home, David."
He shyly nodded his head and walked back to the office. Nick chuckled at the sight and then Stephanie walked to him and said, "She's been trying to get him home for the last six hours. She even called me at home to ask when he could leave. That's why I came in early."
Nick looked around the morgue and asked, "Where's Doc Robbins?"
"Visiting a college with his daughter. Be back tomorrow." Stephanie blew out a hard breath and said, "So…no sense waiting for Warrick. Let's just get started."
By the time Warrick finally got back from the hospital and briefed Catherine, they had already started the preliminary autopsy on the second victim; the young greenskeeper. Nick and Warrick went through all of the effects David removed from the body as Stephanie began to open him up.
"According to Sofia's notes… Jason Hannity… Part time greenskeeper…" Nick read off the victims statistics. "Horticulture student at WLVU… Nineteen years old… Organ donor."
"Not enough left donate." Warrick shook his head as he looked over at the slab Stephanie was working from. "So, what's a kid workin' part time at a golf course cuttin' grass doin' in the storage barn in the middle of the afternoon?"
"Are they morning or night cutters at this club?" Nick looked up from the notes to ask his question.
Warrick flipped through Brass' notes and found the statement from the manager of the course. "Morning… Different section every day at four AM."
Nick slapped the folder he was holding against his thigh and exclaimed, "Nothing about this case makes any sense!"
"You think that's bad." Stephanie's voice came from behind them and they both turned. "Check this out." She used her forceps to retrieve a large swath of fibrous material from the gaping hole in the young man's chest.
Warrick squinted at the material and tried to figure out what it was, but came up empty. "What is that?"
Stephanie shook her head and looked over at Nick. "Obviously somebody's getting pampered." Nick smirked at her implied meaning and garnered a dirty look from Warrick.
"And that's supposed to mean what?"
Stephanie shrugged as she dropped the material into the bag that Nick held open for her. "Just that it's obvious you aren't making your own coffee anymore." Warrick hung his head once he understood her joke. Stephanie continued, once he had caught on, "It's a chunk from a stack of coffee filters."
"Which means…" Nick did not get a chance to finish because Catherine came into the morgue and finished it for him.
"It looks like Jeong's little theory is starting to pay off." She had in her hands a thermos and handed it to Warrick as she passed him on her way to the other side of the room. Nick and Stephanie shared a conspiratorial chuckle as they watched the handoff.
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"DAMNIT!" She continued to be consistently frustrated as she processed all of the trace samples from the explosion. Mel had just found the eighth different chemical component from the scene. There were just too many chemicals for her to come to an irrefutable conclusion and she was quickly running out of patience.
"Another one?" Greg looked up from the microscope as he asked the question with which he already knew the answer.
"Ammonium Nitrate… Like that's a fucking surprise at a golf course." She put the printout on the stack with the others with great reluctance. "This is getting ridiculous! How the hell am I supposed to figure out what they were making in that friggin' barn if they have EVERYTHING UNDER THE GODDAMN SUN IN THERE?!"
At the end of her outburst the printer began to spit out another report. Henry timidly took the sheet off of the printer and held it to his chest. "What does it say?"
He looked over at Greg for reassurance, but he only shrugged noncommittally. Henry took a quick peek and then looked back at Mel like a frightened rabbit. "I-I-I I'm not sure I ah, want to say." She regarded him with a very serious death glare and he said, "Number nine… Trichloroethane."
"Gun cleaner? They had gun cleaner? Why the hell would a golf course have GUN CLEANER?!" Mel's anger and frustration had reached its height.
Greg cringed, closed his eyes and then barely spoke, "Because they also have a trap and skeet course."
"AAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!"
That was the moment Nick chose to come back up to the lab. "Looks like I got here at a bad time."
"If you're here to tell me about a tenth chemical component, then turn right back around." He could instantly tell that she was serious.
"Okay, then I won't… Henry, Hodges will be here within the hour." Nick watched as Henry showed signs of relief and disgust all at the same time. "Mel… I know I can't make you leave, but I can make you take a break. There's a couch in the break room, and it has been used by many before you." He walked up to her, laid his hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You need to shut your brain down for a little bit, Mel… You're not gonna be any good to me fallin' down tired. And I need you good if this turns out to be what I think it is." Mel looked up into his eyes and nodded her head. She knew he was right.
"Awright then… Greggo, you're with me. I need to get back out to the scene, and there's no way I should be drivin'." Greg perked up and leapt from his seat.
"Henry… As soon as Hodges gets his scrawny butt in here, I need you to get back in toxicology. Steph's gonna have some samples for you to run ASAP, okay?"
Henry smiled and nodded eagerly, "You got it, Nick."
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When they finally made it back to the lab, Nick knew what he needed about the chemicals being stored in the barn, and about the employees at the country club in order to start putting all of the pieces together. The only thing he still needed was the chemical analysis.
He had taken another nap in the Tahoe as Greg drove them back from the club. They spent about five hours combing through all of the invoices for the groundskeeper's supplies. They knew every single chemical that was supposed to have been stored there, and it would be the things not on that list that were going to turn the tide in the case.
As he and Greg walked into the lab, they were immediately assaulted by Hodges. The man looked practically ashen from fear. "Stokes… Can I have a word with you about this partner of yours?"
"Hodges, I ain't got time to play around tonight… Have you finished running those samples?" Nick knew he was being short with the man, but it was nearly four in the morning and almost two days had passed since the time he originally clocked in, so his patience was seriously at an end.
"That's what I need to talk to you about…" Hodges looked around to see who might have been listening and then said, "If you have a problem with my work, then I think you should have the decency to tell me to my face and not bring some kind of ringer in here to show me up… In my own lab, no less!"
"Hodges… I don't have a problem with your work. I have a problem with your work ethic and with you. When we have an all hands case, why is it you go home right on time while everyone else is putting it to the screws to get things done? I called two people this afternoon to come in and get these samples crankin'… You never even responded. Henry was here so fast he made my head spin. YOU didn't bother to come until I asked Catherine to call your sorry butt in herself. So, save your paranoid ramblings for somebody that gives a damn and get the hell outta my way." Nick was so angry by that point, when he pushed past the aghast lab tech he failed to notice the quiet round of applause his tirade managed to garner.
Nick popped his head into Warrick's office and said, "I'm ready when you are."
Warrick looked up and saw the red in his friend's face, so he had to ask, "You okay, Man?"
"Yeah… Hodges." Nick rolled his eyes as he answered.
"'Nuff said… Hey, what's this I'm hearin' about a beef between Blake and Greg out at the club?" Nick reluctantly walked into the office and pushed the door closed.
"Greg's not really talking, but I'm getting the impression Blake's trying to take over as Greg's mentor, or somethin' like that. Mel says he keeps contradicting stuff that Grissom showed Greg how to do, and Greg's been less than receptive about it." Nick shook his head and added, "I think Greg's takin' this whole thing a lot harder than we figured. Maybe you and Cath need to have a talk with Blake. Tell him to lay off the little guy?"
Warrick heaved a sigh at Nick's analysis and nodded his head. "Yeah, I can see that now… I'll sort it out. Thanks for the heads up, though." Nick nodded his agreement and they both relaxed a bit before Warrick got up from behind the desk. "All right, I've already got everybody else in the break room… Just waitin' on you." Warrick grabbed a couple of folders and walked out the door after him.
When they walked into the break room, everyone was indeed ready to go, and as Nick sat down, Mel handed him a cup of coffee. He could tell that she had not gotten a whole lot of rest, if any at all, but she was still motoring along. They were the only two on the team that plowed straight through the case from start to finish.
"All right… Nick's got point on this one, so let's see what he's got." Warrick immediately deferred to Nick, and he was grateful for the confidence.
"Mel… How many chemical components did you end up with?"
She passed him a copy of the reports and said, "Nineteen."
"Go ahead and list them off and let's see what we've got." Nick took out his inventory report and prepared to check off the items one by one.
"Okay… Acetone, Alcohol – both ethyl and isopropyl, Ammonium Nitrate, Anhydrous Ammonia, Ether, Freon, Hydrochloric Acid, Hydriotic Acid, Hypophophorous Acid, Iodine, Lithium metal, Methanol, multiple phosphates used in fertilizers, Red Phosphorous, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium metal, Sulfuric acid, Toluene, Trichloroethane, and finally…there were faint traces of diesel fuel." Mel looked up from her list and found a smiling Nick to meet her recitation. "What?"
"How faint were the traces of diesel?"
She shrugged, "Not enough to suspect bomb making materials were involved."
"Sounds in line with what I found."
"What did you-" He slid the inventory list across the table to her and the same smile spread over her face.
"And what if I told you the HazMat guys also managed to recover a significant amount of aluminum, melted glass, metal pails, the remains of several hot plates and enough blasted out gas cans to fill a dumpster, to go along with the same trace materials on the kid found at the epicenter, and the chunk of coffee filters we found embedded in the blast wound on his chest?" The smile had managed to make it to the faces of Greg and Warrick with his veiled question.
The information that the two had uncovered finally began to dawn on Blake as he said, "Damnit! A freaking Meth Lab?!"
"Seems our boy the horticulturist changed his major last semester." Warrick handed over the young man's school record when he added, "He apparently decided that the phrase 'better living through chemistry' might apply to him… Too bad he was a C student."
Blake chewed on that information for a little while and then he nodded at Nick and Mel. "Great job, guys… That's the last thing I would've suspected from that mess."
Nick looked over at Mel and said, "Helps having a chem tech workin' with ya sometimes… Especially one that doesn't have her nose buried somewhere dark and dank."
They all laughed about his obvious jibe, but more importantly, they were just happy to be done with that case. No one was more happy about it than Nick and Mel. It had been two days of marathon CSI work, and they were both dead on their feet. They really needed the long weekend they had both been promised. And with any luck, they would both enjoy it, too.