Chapter 3

Maybe two or three days went by and nothing turned up.

At the lab, Darla sat down in the break room drinking coffee and reading a magazine. Grissom peeked his head in.

"Hi Darla."

"Hello, Doctor." She replied.

"You can call me Grissom, or Gil if you want."

"Ok Grissom-or-Gil." She smiled.

He lifted one eyebrow.

"Why is your jewelry heist taking so long?" he asked.

She took a sip of her coffee and shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. The blood work is going through the lab and the E.R.'s haven't reported anything but they get about 50 forearm lacs if it's a slow night. People love their steak knives."

He paused for a moment. "Yes, they do. Well, keep trying but don't take forever."

"Got it." She resumed flipping through her magazine when she realized he was still standing there, saying nothing.

"Did you need something?" she asked.

"What are you reading?"

"Nursing journal, there's some articles about comfortable shoes and one about hearing loss. A guy in Denver has some remarkable treatments for Otosclerosis."

"Could I borrow it when you're finished?"

She closed the journal and handed it to him. "Take it. I've read it twice already. It's the latest but I'm a fast reader."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

He left and Darla was finishing her coffee when Nick walked in.

"We've got nothing. Nothing in CODIS, nothing in the E.R.'s, nothing."

"So what happens now?"

He sighed. "We go to that late dinner I promised you and we read the notes from the witnesses."

The view from the hotel was lovely. Darla could see the whole city through the giant window. She had been to big cities before-St. Louis, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami-but she was a small town girl at heart and this was unlike anything she'd ever seen. It was beautiful. She looked away from the window and over to Nick. Sure he could complain too much and if vanity ever became an Olympic event he would do his country proud but there was something else, underneath all that, something gentle and passionate not just with work but with everything. She felt safe around him, something she had not felt in a long time. Maybe it was meant to be that she got her life uprooted and her career changed. Maybe she could live with it, with him. She saw him look up and she averted her eyes.

"Are you going to help or just admire the view, of the city that is."

 Damn it! He had seen. What now? Think damn you think! Her internal voice said.

"Give me part of the files."

"How was your dinner?" he asked, handing her some papers as she sat down.

"Oh, it was wonderful."

"Yeah they got good food here. See anything in the files?"

She took a sip of her soda and gazed down at the file, something caught her eye.

"This description, it's from the manager?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, she was the only one to get a good look at him. The description sounds familiar."

"In what way?"

"I can't talk about it here. Can we go someplace else? Maybe take a walk?  My house isn't too far from here. "

"Tell ya what, we'll take the car and drive around for a while and I'll take you home. This shift's almost over anyway, thank God. I've already had to pull a double this week because of you."

"Oh, there's the Nick I know and love."

Oh no, did you say "love"? What's going on with you? You must be tired or crazy. 

Nick called out. "Check please."