Part one
May 1998- Stanford, California
The parting of ways
Jenna felt so far away from him and it hadn't even been a full twenty four hours since everything Greg had planned crashed down on his head. Physically she was sitting right in front of him on the lawn overlooking the pond on campus. Greg was sitting behind her, resting his head on top of hers, his arms wrapped around her waist, holding both her hands in his. Mentally, he knew she was miles away trying to understand why he was hurting her this way.
"Way to go you moron. You finally break up with Dana and start dating the girl who's been crushing on you since she saw you at work two years ago, and Dana comes back on your doorstep about two months later saying you knocked her up. At least you're finished with school so you can support your offspring," thought Greg. His grip tightened on Jenna.
"Jen, you have to know I didn't want or mean to end things with you like this. I never meant to hurt you either. If I had known Dana was pregnant, I wouldn't have ended things with her and started seeing you. You can't begin to understand how sorry I am," said Greg. He felt her sigh and she started pulling on her hair. It was one of her stress tells. How often had he seen her do it when she was studying or on hold at work. He had always thought it was cute. Now he was the cause of it and he hated it.
"Are you going to marry her?" asked Jenna. Greg felt like she punched him in the gut.
"I don't know, I wanna be there for the baby and if marrying Dana is what I have to do to be there...then yeah," admitted Greg.
It felt a little like a death sentence. He had planned to go with Jenna to San Francisco. To start his career at the San Francisco crime lab. She was supposed to start her internship at a local marketing firm this fall and finish up her degree here at Stanford. After that...well she did have family Vegas and well he wouldn't mind following her. Or maybe he could have talked her into going to New York with him. Or Miami. I really just wanted to be with you.
"Som man reder sa ligger man," said Jenna looking at him. Greg had to smile. Her Noreginian needed some work, but at least she tried. Unlike Dana who never listened to anything I told her about who I was. Was she really that hot that I didn't see how horrible she really was? Yep.
"So you remember my family history?" asked Greg
"I'm part Italian, part Mexican and the last time I checked a woman, so according to my mother I'll never forget anything," Jenna looked back at the pond trying to reorganize her thoughts. "Greg are you sure she's not yanking your chain. Dana hated seeing you happy." Greg sighed.
"Dana wouldn't joke about this," Jenna nodded and looked at him again.
"If I hadn't have been such a coward telling you how I really felt you wouldn't be in this mess," said Jenna. We could play the blame game all day long on this one. You could have told me. I could have seen how things were going with her. Either way we ended up here and it really sucks for all of us.
"I could have ended things with Dana sooner, but sadly I was thinking with my head and not the one on my shoulders," admitted Greg. He pushed some of her hair away from her face. "Jen, you're like the closest thing I've ever had to a best friend." Jenna raised an eyebrow and her brown eyes looked skeptical.
"You... Mr. Popular…I'm the closest thing you've ever had to a best friend?I know you're trying to cheer me up, but…"Greg cut her off.
"I'm serious; I've had friends', but they aren't like you. I have fun with you. You make me laugh. You've always been there to listen to me," Greg reached out and took Jenna's hand. "I don't wanna lose my best friend now, are you sure you wanna go back to Vegas? You could stay here for the summer. I'm sure Dave would be more than happy to let you keep working for could see about getting your apartment back. I just...I don't want your life to derail like mine is because of this," said Greg. One of us should be happy and I would like it to be you.
"It's just for the summer, then I come back to finish my Bachelors. I can still call you right?" asked Jenna, sounding nervous and looking back over to the pond. .
"You can call, write, email me anytime you want. Dana can't control who I talk too," Greg said. He got in front of her and made himself look into her eyes.
"I'm sorry that I've hurt you," said Greg. Jenna's eyes clouded over and she hugged him.
"I just wanna stay here a little longer," said Jenna. She closed her eyes and put her head on his chest. Greg closed his eyes and held her close.
I won't forget the way you smirk right before a prank goes off on Barb, I won't forget that you sing at your desk while you're on hold or when your bored, that you make amazing red velvet cupcakes, that you prefer Coke to Pepsi and I won't forget how great it felt the first time I kissed you in the stairwell after Dana and I got into that huge fight…and I won't forget all the other little things that made me crazy about you, thought Greg listening to Jenna sniffle into his shirt.
Las Vegas-2005
Greg pulled his car to a stop and yawned. He was still trying to get used to early morning call-outs. He had just crawled into bed at 5 am when his phone went off. On the other line was Grissom telling him to rise and shine.
"Hard to rise when you haven't even laid down," Greg said fighting back a yawn.
"I promise the overtime will be worth it. We have a DB in a bakery kitchen; Bakery is called Torta Dei dolci. A few blocks north away from the lab, you can't miss it. When you get there make sure you see me first," said Grissom. Greg fought back a groan. He had just finished a case with Sara involving drugs smuggled in a bunch of bakery goods. At least the baked goods weren't part of the melted body goop you accidentally swallowed.
"Sure," said Greg hanging up with Grissom. He was grateful for Warrick's advice about making sure your clothes and kit were ready for such occasions. He didn't think he had the mental ability to put a kit together right now after barely shutting his eyes. Greg threw on a clean shirt and jeans, grabbed his vest off the sofa and was at the scene ten minutes later. Greg got out of his car and grabbed his kit from the back and went to find Grissom. Greg ran into Nick first thing.
"Hey man. How long were you out?" asked Greg.
"I think I got three hours of sleep," said Nick. Greg looked around the neighborhood and saw next to the bakery was a women's clothing store and the shop next to it the windows had been soaped over. Still if felt out of place in this area.
"Wasn't there a drug factory a few blocks from here?" asked Greg. Nick shrugged.
"Gentrification. Push the homeless back a few blocks, fix some potholes, add your indie book store or quaint local bakery and watch the market turn around," said Nick holding a door open for them. There was a little sign on the door that read "Pardon the mess. We're a work in progress." That's an understatement, thought Greg.
The main area was still clearly being worked on. The walls had been painted a bright white, but there was still painter's tape up indicating more work to be done. There was a small section of dark wooden tables with chairs. Boxes had been shoved to the side needing to be unpacked. The counter also had the same dark wood with a huge section meant to display baked goods. Boxes were also behind the counter with dishes, linens and menus. Clearly they weren't ready to be open yet, but it was clear they were heading that way.
They went into the kitchen and Greg was a bit thrown back by the smell of sugar and blood. David, his assistants, Hodges and Grissom were around the body. The victim was a woman, maybe in her late twenties with the back of her head caved in. A bloody rolling pin was next to the body.
"I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say the cause of death was blunt force trauma," said Phillips. Phillips started looking for an ID on the victim with no luck while Greg pulled out his camera and started clicking photos of the rolling pin, the body and the blood splatter on the floor and counters. There was also what looked like vomit on the floor.
"Did the victim throw up?" asked Greg while Nick started looking under some of the counters to see if he could locate a purse or ID.
"The owner said she lost her breakfast. I say it was coffee with frosted shredded wheat," said Grissom and Greg felt bad for whoever found the body. Way to turn the neighborhood around. Phillips pulled a thermometer out of the woman and made some notes.
"I'm going to place the time of death around 1 or 2 this morning," said Phillips. Grissom had already taken photos he wanted of the body and gave David and his assistants the ok to move the body to a bag and onto a stretcher.
"Sara is going to be here in a little bit to help process the kitchen. Nick, I want you, Greg and Hodges to talk to the owner and staff that found the body. They are upstairs in one of the offices, which is through that door, to your right and up those stairs. Take their statements, along with DNA samples, hair and fingerprints. Bring the owner down here when you're done. I need to know about the security system and how someone could have gotten into the kitchen without tripping an alarm. And hopefully someone here can ID the victim for us," said Grissom
"Why the hell would you break into a bakery kitchen, unless they keep a safe down here," said Greg. Nick was looking through a purse he had found under a baker's rack; it was real black leather and a pearl clasp.
"Maybe she had the munchies," suggested Nick handing Grissom the purse that had no ID in it either.
"That's silly, if she wanted food it's in the display window out front," said Hodges. Nick and Greg shared a look while Grissom replied.
"No Hodges that's plastic and foam for display, now go watch Nick and Greg work. Nick and Greg go work," said Grissom. Greg and Nick headed for the offices.
"Why is Hodges here?" asked Greg with a moan. Seriously this day can just stop now.
"Because god likes to punish both of Sanders and because it's my turn in field rotation," said Hodges.
"Swear you two need to get married, maybe you can even get a cake from here," said Nick admiring a fake five tier cake with a castle theme from the window display.
"I'd rather drink bleach," said Hodges.
"It can always be arranged," said Greg heading up the stairs and into the office.
A group of six women were huddled together sitting in either chairs or on the floor. One woman who barely topped 5'4 was wearing blue jeans and a short sleeve gray shirt showing off a natural tan with her brown hair, half was up in a ponytail and the rest went past her shoulders talking on the phone while sitting on a desk, but had her back to them.
"No, it's alright you don't need to come today. I gave you today off yesterday afternoon, I think the shop is closed today anyway. I had to move everything from here to the shop in Henderson." She paused and sighed deeply. "Yeah people are pissed off, but not much I can do about it….no I told the suppliers we had a gas leak and I'll start calling customers later on, so unless this makes the papers I think it's going to be ok business wise," said the woman with a very nervous laugh.
Something about her voice and that nervous laugh triggered something in Greg's brain, but he blamed it on lack of sleep. My brain is screwing with me. Another woman with short dark curly hair and a rather curvy frame looked up at him and her eyes widened in shock and her face flushed red. Oh shit. Please god let Nick not have noticed that and if she's here then...of shit.
The woman nudged the other woman on the phone and nodded her head in the direction of Nick Greg and Hodges.
"The 5-0 is here," she said and there was a rather hostile tone in her voice. Why are you giving me shit? What did she tell you? The woman on the phone nodded.
"Ok. Lissa I have to go, just take today and act like a slacker college student and not the over achieving intern I hired. Bye sweetie," she hung up the phone and turned around. Greg felt himself go red in face and one look at her told her she was just as flustered as he was. She offered Nick a handshake buying for time.
"Jenna Bianchi, I'm the owner."