Chapter Rating: Probably PG, but I'm gonna say PG13, just to be safe.
Chapter Title: How Long – Inspired by a Dream song...I think what I'm gonna do is put my chapter titles into song titles, like I did with a couple old stories. The only way I won't is if I can't find one to use.
AN: The poll for my readers continues...which criminal should I bring back? Paul Millander, Nigel Crane or maybe even both? Review me with your thoughts...I have a plan, I just need an accomplice for the criminal. So far, one person wants to see Nigel, and one person wants to see Paul, while one wants to see both. Hmmm...LOL, Enjoy...
~~
Marah, Harmony and Neleh walked into the Las Vegas Crime Lab, each with a look of equal apprehension on their faces. Sure, this was what they wanted to do, but the place looked like something out of a horror movie. The halls were sort of narrow, and very gently lit, with florescent lights, which gave it an eerie effect. "We're supposed to find someone named Gil Grissom..." Marah looked around.
"Gil Grissom...what the hell kind of name is that?" Harmony asked. "Damn..."
"That would be the name of our new boss..." Neleh flashed Harmony a glance, telling her in fewer words to shut up.
"Oh...uh...right..." Harmony glanced down the hall. "Well, we're not gonna find this guy just standing here, are we?" she shook her head at her friends. "Let's get a move on, chiclets..."
"Chiclets? Is Alison rubbing off on you? Thank God we got you outta Oakdale while it was still safe..." Marah flashed Harmony a concerned glance, referring to Harmony's step-sister, Alison Stewart, a rebellious seventeen-year-old, with a hell of an attitude.
"Alison thrives on causing trouble...that's not me...I just thrive on making people so irritated that they wanna burst. But they can't burst at me, because I'm too cute!" Harmony smiled at Marah, knowing this would get on her nerves.
"Heh...heh-heh..." Marah rolled her eyes, and glanced at Neleh, who was stopped before a room.
"Ahem, guys...Gil Grissom's office is right here...maybe if you were actually looking, and not battling the stupidity of Alison, you'd have seen that..." Neleh scoffed, and knocked on the door.
"Come on in..." a man's voice, sounding sort of deep and a little scratchy, came out of the room. "I've been waiting for you three...I'm Warrick Brown."
"Marah Ryan..." Rosana nodded a hello.
Neleh shook Warrick's hand. "Neleh Snyder."
Harmony mumbled, "Harmony Munson..." and just stared at Warrick.
"I'm supposed to show you around...Grissom's office looks like something off the Discovery Channel, shall we go somewhere with a little less sci-fi freakiness?"
Marah looked around the room. Dead bugs and freaky leaves covered the walls. Someone needs a hobby...she thought. Unless his hobby IS bugs and stuff...ew, now that's just freaky. "Let's..." she nodded.
For the first time that day, Harmony was absolutely silent. It took Neleh's dragging her out of the room, to actually get her to move. "Har, let's follow the nice man, now..." Neleh cleared her throat.
Harmony's jaw was almost on the floor. "Holy hell, Neleh! Look at him!"
"Yes...he's attractive, now let's get your butt moving, as so not to be TOO obvious that you have the hots for him..." Neleh dragged Harmony across the hall by the arm.
"Hots? Who said anything about the hots?" Harmony blurted out, then noticing Marah and Warrick turning around, and looking curiously at her.
After a couple seconds, Marah shook her head. "Right...as you were saying, Warrick...so...Grissom has an obsession with bugs?"
"Yeah...when we were solving this case about some magician dude..." Warrick explained. "He had an epiphany about the case while looking at some moth..."
"Weird..." Marah raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, some moth that when it unfolds itself, it looks like an owl's head..." Warrick told Marah, shaking his head. "It's really cool, though..."
"Oh, yeah, I've seen those before..." Marah nodded. "What are they called again?"
"Owl's Head Moths?" Warrick asked, with a snicker.
"Unorthodox, much?" she laughed, then turned back to Neleh and Harmony. "Uh...hold on, we have stragglers..."
Warrick laughed. "Speed up, there...you're about to miss the first stop...this is the filing room, and these divine people Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle...these three are our new colleagues, Marah Ryan, Neleh Snyder and Harmony Munson..."
Marah, Neleh and Harmony waved hello to her new coworkers, and smiled. "I'm just a lab geek, but I'll be seeing a lot of you, so yeah..." Marah explained.
"Oh, that poor child is gonna be working with Greg?" Sara asked, shaking her head. "I send you my pity beforehand..."
"Uh, ok?" Marah shrugged. "Thanks in advance?"
Sara and Grissom laughed, waved goodbye and went back to their filing work.
Marah glanced curiously at Warrick. "Who is Greg...?" she asked, with a shrug.
"You'll find out when we meet him...this is the A/V room...and these two are Archie Johnson and Nick Stokes," Warrick nodded an introduction.
Neleh's jaw dropped, and her eyes widened at the sight of Nick. "Uh...hi..." she immediately introduced herself to Nick. "Aryana Snyder..."
Harmony cleared her throat, and glanced away from Warrick for a second to say, "Harmony Munson..."
"Hi...I'm Marah Ryan..." Marah waved to Nick and Archie.
"Nice to meet you..." Archie nodded a hello to each of the girls.
"I'm looking forward to working with you..." Nick grinned. "I tell ya what...how about I help you give the tour? I'm done here anyway..."
Neleh suddenly realized how Harmony felt when she saw Warrick. "Uh...oh my God, Har..."
Harmony screeched out something relatively similar to an; "I KNOW!" and jumped up and down with Neleh. "This is, like, PARADISE or something..."
Marah shook her head, and walked with Warrick and Nick, still talking, to their next destination. "So, Nick...are you from Texas or something...?" she asked, referring to a slight drawl in his voice.
Nick nodded. "Austin...I moved to Vegas when I graduated college, when I heard that they had one of the best investigative teams in the US, because I felt I'd contribute to it..."
"Whoa..." Marah grinned. "It's good to be a mere lab geek at times..."
"Why do you say that?" Warrick asked, curious.
"I'd get pushed aside, and stuff...Leh and Har are really good at this stuff, but I freak out at the sight of a dead body..." Marah laughed.
"Ah, reminds me of Greggo..." Nick nodded with a laugh. "You and he will probably get along pretty well...even though, he's kind of eccentric..."
"Aren't we all?" Marah asked, with a grin.
Warrick pointed to the next room. "You're gonna want a surgical mask...and one of these..." he handed each of the girls a hospital gown.
Nick took one down from the wall, and put on his surgical mask. "Welcome to...Goth Central..." he stated, and opened the door.
"Ooh, mortuary..." Neleh looked around. "Cool!"
Nick chuckled a little. "You sound so happy..."
Dr. Al Robbins peered up from the dead body. "Hello..."
"Oh, hey, Dr. Robbins...these are our new colleagues, Harmony Munson, Neleh Snyder and Marah Ryan..." Warrick introduced everyone.
"Aah! He said my name first!" Harmony screeched. "Oh...right...uh, hey, Dr. Robbins..."
"Nice to meet you girls..." he nodded a hello. "Maybe one of you can help me with this..." he lifted the blanket from a body. It's Nick's case, but he can't seem to figure out the point of entry of the knife, or the point of exit...and neither can I..."
Neleh strode over to the table and took a quick look at the body. Within six seconds, she had it. "Right here...the incision right under the Adam's apple is the entry point, and the point of exit is right here..." she pointed to a spot in the center of the victim's back.
"How can you tell?" Nick asked, joining Neleh at the body.
"Well...see the right curved grooves right here?" she asked, knowingly pointing to a curve in the wound. "They suggest where the knife or whatever weapon used was curved to exit from the back."
Nick examined the wound, then looked at Dr. Robbins. "You know, I think she's right..." he nodded. "Wow...good work..."
"Now all we...er...you have to do is figure out who could get so close as to do that..." she grinned, and turned on her heel, walking back to Marah and Harmony, with a look of pride and enamour on her face.
"Thanks, Neleh..." Nick smiled.
Neleh nodded, with a huge smile on her face. "Anytime..." once Nick looked away, she grabbed Marah and Harmony's hands, and screeched in a soft voice. "He said my name..."
"Chill, Leh, chill..." Marah put her hand on her friend's shoulder, now noticing Harmony staring at Warrick out of the corner of her eye. "Oh, man...lovesick CSI's...we're gonna get fired within the first week, you know?"
Harmony sighed. "You think I care?" she asked, her head tilted a little.
"Can we get outta here?" Marah sighed, and asked Warrick and Nick. "I'd like to have my lunch stay in me for a little more than an hour..."
Warrick laughed. "Let's go...we have to show her to her niche..."
"And her partner..." Nick nodded, with a slight chuckle. "Let's go..."
*
Greg ran a hand over his hair, and sighed. This isn't working...I've tried every damn blood sample they left me in the file, and none of them belong to any of these people...he thought. Maybe there's one they missed. He told himself, his eyes getting heavy, and his head dropping to the desk. "Sleep is definitely my friend..." he told himself, nodding off for the first time in three days.
Red and blue lights flashed around everywhere Greg looked. He was surrounded by unfamiliar people, all standing in his house, in his living room, and the only one he knew was screaming at the top of his lungs at him. "She's gone, Gregory, and it's all your fault!" a masculine voice filled his head. "You'll never see her again. What did you do to make her do this?"
"Nothing!" twelve-year-old Greg told the older man. "Nothing, dad...I just..." he sniffled. "I just came home to find her...and..."
"LIAR!" his father resonated, making the hair on the back of Greg's neck stand up straight. "WHAT did you do to her?"
"Nothing!" a tear hit Greg's cheek. "Nothing, I swear!"
"Tell me, or you'll be parentless!" his father held a gun to his head.
"Dad...I didn't do anything...honestly, I didn't!" Greg fought with his dad to keep the gun from his head. "I didn't do anything to mom!"
The sound of a gunshot filled the room and-
"GREGGO!" Nick shouted. "Dude! Get up!"
"Huh? What? No, I didn't do it! I..." Greg looked frantically around the room. "Oh...uh, hey, Nick..."
"The dream again?" Nick asked, knowing.
Greg nodded, sighing. "Anyway, what's up?"
"Oh...new employee time..." Nick tilted his head toward Marah, Neleh and Harmony. "These three are Neleh Snyder, Harmony Munson and Marah Ryan."
Greg stood up and smiled at each of the girls. "Greg Sanders. Nice to meet you..."
Marah tried to avoid acting like Neleh and Harmony, but thoughts of him immediately filled her head. "Nice to meet you too..." she smiled back at him.
Neleh and Harmony nodded a hello, and smiled at him.
"Which one of you is my new partner?" Greg asked, scanning each of the girls.
Marah raised her hand. "Guilty as charged..."
Woo, I'm gonna have some fun with this one...if I can only stop my dreams...Greg thought.
~~
How long 'til I'm not just dreaming?
How long 'til somebody cares?
How long 'til I meet an angel,
And give him my heart?
Where can I start?
How long 'til I fall in love?