Chapter Three: A Long Awaited Rest

Julie watched as Greg step over piles of clothes and papers, on his way to show her the room she'd be staying in. She was horrified. Sure, she wasn't the neatest person there was, but this was insane. She followed his hopping steps, and wished she wasn't so polite. If she were more like her mother, she'd bend down and pick every last piece of clothing or paper up. Thankfully for both Greg and herself, she wasn't like that, though. If he was like other unorganized guys, he would flip if she even touched one of his precious floor ornaments.

She glanced out the window to her left. Archie and Bonnie were standing outside. On her way inside, one of Bonnie's suitcases had popped open and almost all her clothes and CDs were strewn all over the driveway. Archie cordially offered to help her clean it up, while Greg showed Julie into the house.

She looked up at the man showing her around. He was attractive, that was for sure.
His brown hair definitely had that 'don't care' look to it. That had always been a pull in to Julie. They did look exactly opposite, though. While Julie's look was honed to a t, Greg's was kind of that 'fortunately rolled off the right side of the bed, and didn't do anything improve myself after my shower' look.

"Do Bostonians really have that accent?" Greg asked, after drabbling on and on for about two minutes straight. "Or, is it just over-dramatized on TV?" Obviously, this was a random question, and Julie wondered where in Greg's head it came from.

"Excuse me…?" Julie asked, shaking her head slightly.

"I asked if all people from Boston had that accent, you know, like the one they give people from Boston on TV?" Greg rephrased his question.

In all honesty, she felt like a nine-year-old child, who had never exited the state they were born in, was questioning her. "Well, do I have 'that accent?'" she asked, with a slight grin on her face, tilting her head a little to the right. She wanted to see how well Greg handled jokes.

"Well, no…" Greg shook his head, answering Julie's question. "But, I didn't know that you were born in-…" he trailed off, feeling quite like an idiot. He looked coyly at the floor, and then back up at Julie, apologetically.

Julie grinned wider, and pursed her lips. "I'm not…and most people back at home do have that accent. So, it's not over-dramatized," she explained to the blushing Greg. "Felt like an idiot, for a second there, didn't you?"

She had the same sense of humor he did. This made Greg a little more comfortable about the fact that she would be staying with him. "Yeah, I did…" he nodded, opening the door to a small room, with a bed, dresser and a couple other things here and there. "Here's your room."

Julie surveyed the room. "It's nice," she said sincerely. "And, by the way, thank you for letting Bonnie and I stay here. Where will Bonnie be staying, anyway?"

"Oh, I assumed you already decided…" Greg looked a little surprised. "We only have three bedrooms, so one of you will have to take the couch…" he told her.

"Bonnie snoozes, she loses…" Julie winked at Greg, and sat on the bed, setting her suitcase down. "I am so relieved, man!" she told him. "It's great to know that we won't be the only ones under twenty-five around here…" she started to put her things onto the bed.

Greg grinned. He felt the exact same way. "Yeah, I know what you mean. So, Griss said he met you at a forensic entomology convention or something?" he asked, a little surprised that someone as pretty as Julie was a forensic entomologist. He felt kind of rude asking, but he was curious.

"Yeah," Julie kind of expected this question sooner or later. "Shocked that someone our age actually has interest in F.E.?" she asked, flashing Greg a comforting grin. When Greg nodded, she continued. "I always loved insects when I was little, and when I started to get older, I started to get into forensics. I still loved bugs, though, and wanted to combine the two, and bah-da-boom…in came forensic entomology," she explained, taking out her CD collection, then putting everything else back into her suitcase.

Greg sat down in a chair, about three feet away from the bed. "Did Grissom always talk condescendingly to you when you met him?" he asked, leaning back.

"No, actually, he was quite respectful…" she shook her head. "I found him to be the most interesting F.E. at the convention. The rest were all snotty, and looked down on me, just because I was only twenty-two at the time."

"See, that's lame…" Greg shook his head. "People are unbelievable…" he rolled his eyes, and his lip curled a little. "They think all people our age are consumed by 'The Real World' and Eminem. No, we have lives aside from TV and music, people…"

"Exactly!" Julie nodded in agreement with Greg. "Finally, someone on the same frequency as me!" she flashed Greg a toothy smile.

Greg thought he was going to melt into a puddle. She was wonderful. He wondered if this was the real her, or just some stint she put on, to make people like her. If it was, she was damn good at it. Too bad it wasn't going to be her working alongside him. He could definitely look at her twenty-four/seven for three weeks in a row.

Julie was actually becoming attracted to someone in Vegas. She was utterly shocked, but then again, looking at Greg, how could she not be attracted to him? She wondered what the next three weeks living with him would be like. It would definitely be interesting, that was for sure.

~~

"I am so sorry about this…" Bonnie blushed, bending down to pick up her treasured John Mayer CD. (Author's Note: Small reference to me…I'm a full-blown John Mayer bopper, LOL!) Thankfully to her, it hadn't come out of the case, so there were no scratches. "This is so embarrassing…" she closed her eyes for a second.

"Don't worry about it," Archie shook his head, nonchalantly. "Happens to the best of us," he picked up a couple shirts that had fallen close to the suitcase, and set them inside. "Why did you pack so much, though?"

"We're going to be here for three weeks…" she explained, picking up her make-up bag, and hiding it underneath some clothes. She didn't want Archie to see that she had brought make-up to a criminal investigation. "I just wanted to be adequately prepared, in case we got some time off, and got the chance to go out or something."

"Time off?" Archie laughed, and looked at his watch. "I just got home for the night-er…should I say…morning, right before you got here, and it's five-thirty! I still have a pile of security tapes to look over, and not only are you going to be working with me, but Greg too!" he explained, sort of rudely. The initial charm of this guy was definitely fading. Sure he was cute, but the rude tone-of-voice in that last statement had diminished some of the attractiveness.

Bonnie shrugged the rudeness off as being overtired. She definitely knew how that felt, so she decided to let him off easy, unless it happened again. "Yeah, I should have figured that out, I'm sorry…" she put another CD back in her suitcase, along with her John Mayer CD.

Archie winced, suddenly noting the rudeness in his voice. "I'm sorry, too, Bonnie. I'm just tired, that's all…" he explained, not being afraid to admit he had been wrong. "I'm usually not that rude."

When a guy could admit he was wrong, that attracted Bonnie even more. She shook her head, and smiled at Archie. "It's no problem, I know how that feels. Overworked, and underpaid, right?" she asked, with a grin.

Archie nodded, closing the suitcase, after putting the last item of clothing back into it. "Tragically underpaid…" he lifted the suitcase that they had just refilled, while Bonnie took the smaller one. "I'm assuming you're sleeping on the couch?" he asked, thinking she knew about the arrangement.

"Huh? Oh…I guess so…" Bonnie had no idea, but frankly, she didn't care, as long as she had a place to rest her head. "Thanks, by the way, for letting Jul and I stay with you guys. I hope it's not too much trouble or anything."

"No, it's not a problem at all," he shook his head, opening the door for Bonnie. "You can keep your things in the room with Julie. That way Greg won't get into them in the middle of the night…"

"Huh?" Bonnie turned around ant looked at Archie, after going through the door, a little shocked at that comment. "You're kidding, right?"

"Greg is about twelve in spirit," Archie shook his head. "His fun side, though, tends to bring mine out a lot more. If it weren't for him, I'd probably be the oldest souled twenty-three-year-old in existence…" he explained to her, a smile crossing his face.

Bonnie laughed, as Archie showed her to the room where she could leave her stuff. When he opened the door, all she could do was laugh. Julie was already asleep on the bed, while Greg was about asleep in the chair. "Well there, it's definitely five a.m.," she looked at Archie.

He nodded in reply. "That'll be me in about twenty minutes," he laughed a little, as Bonnie set her things down. "Did you bring your own blanket, or do you need one?" he asked, as he watched her take out a pillow.

"Uh, I kind of need one, if that's ok," she whispered, walking out of the room, and closing the door as she approached Archie.

"I wouldn't have asked, if it wasn't," he grinned, turning to walk to the closet. "I'll be right there. Try to get over all the piles of clothes, if you can…" he laughed, as he maneuvered around some of them himself.

Bonnie laughed a little, and went to the couch. His charm had definitely been restored, and multiplied by about ten. She looked around. On the fridge, about twelve different takeout menus, and a couple memos to themselves. She bet herself that the fridge was probably full of Chinese food and pizza. Not that she was one to talk. Her own fridge strongly resembled this one. Archie returned from the closet, and set a blanket on the bottom of the couch. "Before you get all settled in, are you hungry or something?" he asked, secretly hoping for a no answer.

"No, that's alright…" she shook her head. "Thanks for asking, though. You can go on to bed," she smiled cordially at him.

"I don't think I've ever been so grateful to hear those words…" he laughed. "Goodnight, Bonnie," he said, as he turned to walk to his room.

Bonnie chuckled to herself, mumbled a quick, "Goodnight, Archie," and within two minutes, she was asleep.

~~

"Gil Grissom!" Julie yelled. She had been trying to get Gil's attention for the past twenty seconds, quite unsuccessfully. "YO, GRISSOM!" she shouted, as she waved her hand in front of his face and snapped her fingers. "You in there?"

"Huh?" Gil looked up from his table, looking quite tired, and very confused. "Oh, hi, Julie," he casually stood up, and offered Julie a handshake.

Julie raised an eyebrow. "Ok, I was expecting more of a hug, but sure…" she shook his hand, but then moved in and gave him a hug. "How have you been?" she asked, looking up at the older man. He was twice her age, and they acted very different, but they had a lot in common, and got along well.

He hugged her hack, and smiled a little. "I've been doing ok, how about you?" he asked, looking down at Julie, a smile on his face. She may have been half his age, but he respected her intellect and passion for forensics. Julie Myers, for a twenty-three-year-old, was quite the professional, and quite the respectable young woman.

Julie broke free of the hug, and nodded, as sort of an answer to his question. "I've been hanging in there. You of all people know how insane the job can get…" she flashed him a quick grin, then looked back at her friends and colleagues. "This is the rest of my team. You know Jason and Susan. This is Destiny Abbot and this is Bonnie Fletcher…they kinda need to know where they're supposed to be…" she tilted her head toward the rest of the team.

"Oh, right…well, you, Julie, are supposed to be right here with me, so, you can get started looking at that beetle, while I find someone to show these guys around…" he explained to her, as he walked toward the rest of the Boston team.

"What, exactly, am I looking for?" she asked, sitting at the table, and looking at the small beetle. "And why am I looking at an Australian Sand beetle, when we're in the middle of Las Vegas?" she looked up at Gil, and raised an eyebrow. (Author's Note: If there is such thing as an Australian Sand beetle, woo, lucky guess for me! If not, I made it up, LOL!)

Gil flashed her the typical Grissom grin. "That's for you and I to figure out, Julie," he nodded to her, as he left the room. After a couple seconds of silently walking down the hall, Grissom looked at Jason. "Jason; Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown are in the break room, which is right there, waiting for you," he signaled for Jason to enter a room to their left. "They'll take you to the scene, and you can do a prelim…"

"Prelim?" Jason asked, seeming a little surprised. "You waited for us to get here to even start with the investigation?"

"No," Gil shook his head and laughed a little. "YOUR prelim. Nick and Warrick already have a suspect, but you haven't even seen the scene yet, and they need your help to see if there's any like evidence in either case…"

Bonnie looked at Destiny, smiling because Jason had flubbed up in a conversation. That was a severe rarity, and she was sort of glad that it had happened to him for once, rather than to her.

"Oh, and we're going to need your beeper and cell phone number, in case we figure anything out, and need to beep or call you," Gil explained, taking out a pen and a piece of paper.

Maybe this trip isn't going to be so bad after all, Bonnie thought, a huge smile crossing her face. With the combination of Archie Johnson, and someone who was smarter than Jason Elder…this trip was going to be heaven on earth to Bonnie Fletcher.