Chapter 2

It was Darla Harrison's first day as a CSI one. In her former life she had been a nurse until a murder case lead the team to the hospital where she worked. She practically solved the case for them, which impressed their fearless leader to say the least.  She was given a crash course in forensics against her will. She loved being a nurse, she loved the challenges and connecting with people, it was her life. But all that was gone now. Now she was in charge of dead bodies, which seemed to stack up like cordwood in this town. And now, her first case- one simple "smash and grab" as the veteran CSI's called it. It's when a thief breaks a jewelry display case, grabs what he can, then flees.  It was simple and boring to them but she had not yet reached that level of thrill seeking.

As was customary with newbies she was assigned a more experienced CSI to walk her through things, answer questions, and generally be her shadow until she was broken in. CSI 3's hated this baby-sitting but it was necessary so they usually did as they were told. This time the CSI who drew the short straw was Nick Stokes. Yes, they actually drew straws-for such hardened criminalists they could use a little cheese with their whine, especially Nick; that endearing man-child type who never really gives up his teen years. He was one of the bigger thrill seekers of the bunch, always trying to nab that solo run on a triple homicide where he could look like the hero. And yet here he was in the car shadowing a neophyte on a smash and grab; he was not happy.

"Why does Grissom do this to me?" he started to complain.

"Do what?" Darla asked.

"Put me in charge of you on a smash and grab when I could be on real cases. He never lets me run solo cases. The last time I asked he said 'process'."

"Huh?" she said, looking puzzled.

"We were working a case, Sara came in on her day off and he sent her to a murder case-solo. I asked if I come in on my day off do I get to run solo. All he said was 'process' you know, the evidence? He blows me off all the time and now this."

"Do you think Dr. Grissom has a personal vendetta against your career?" she quipped.

"Great! A newbie and a smart ass to boot."

"Well, at least it won't be boring." She reassured. "As far as the usual trainees I'm smarter, older, and have more experience-in life, I mean. If it's any comfort, nurses don't like to train student nurses, residents and doctors don't like to train med students, it slows them down and most of the students are young and book smart. They think they know it all and that makes them arrogant. But coming from three generations of nurses I took the Charlie Brown approach- 'the more I learn the more I learn that I have more to learn'. They liked that; they liked me. I was the best student in the class, graduated with honors. Not bad for a high school drop out, huh?  

"Nope, not bad at all, and I do feel comforted just being able to talk to someone about this. Thanks."

"Anytime."

"You did go back to high school, right?"

She laughed and gave him a smile. "Of course I did ya idiot!"

"Ok! Ok! Just making sure." He quipped as they pulled into the parking lot of the jewelry store-the site of the smash and grab. 

They walked into the store and up to the manager, a well-dressed woman in her 40's.

"Hello." Nick began. "I'm Nick Stokes from the crime lab, this is Darla Harrison."

Darla shook hands with the manager while Nick just went to work.

"Let's take a look at the scene." He said, guiding Darla over to the jewel case. 

It was a mess-glass everywhere, jewelry gone, jewelry broken, and spots. There were spots on the glass and carpet.

"Start with the carpet." Nick said, handing her a swab.

She took the over-sized Q-tip and kneeled down to collect the sample.

"Now put a few drops of this on the swab." Nick handed her a bottle of phenothalen.

She put the liquid on the swab and it turned pink.

"What does that mean?" he asked, in a teacher sort of way.

"Oh my God!" she replied "the carpet's gonna have a baby!"

Nick bent over laughing.

"It's blood." She chuckled.

"And?" he was trying to regain his composure.

"And that means whoever did this-ahem, excuse me, the 'perp'- cut himself or herself."

"Very good, now swab the glass on the case where the other spot is. You're just collecting this time, the we'll take some pictures and check the E.R's."

"Why the E.R.'s?"

"A cut this deep needs stitches, Miss 'I-used-to-be-a-nurse.'"

Darla shot a razz berry in his direction as she flipped back her very long red hair and stood up from the jewel case.

"What I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted is that if I had done this I would just wrap a towel around it because if I went to the E.R. someone like you might be looking for me. But that's just me."  She smirked.

He smiled. "True but we must explore everything."

"Explore? Like the Crocodile Hunter? 'What we've got here is a jewel thief. Watch out boys and girls, Danger! Danger!'"

"You got a million of 'em don't ya?"

"I'm just trying to keep my cool."

"Let's get these back to the lab, then I'll buy you a late dinner." He put his arm over her shoulder as they walked back to the car.