Author's Note: Ok, rather than have Leila on the field, I'm going to put her behind the scenes. It'll be easier for me to make a crime scene that way.
To my TOD readers: thank you to my two reviewers. It means a lot to me that you like the idea for this story.
To my FD.N readers, if I have any: I need some feedback to know whether or not you want me to continue posting this. What do you guys think of it?

Chapter One: Until I Met You

--Two Days Later--

Leila pulled into the Las Vegas Crime Lab parking lot, right behind Sara and Nick. She'd been preparing herself for weeks--months even, for this day to come, and now that it was there, she was far from prepared. All the pep-talks she gave herself over the past few months, through her chemistry, physics, human biology, forensic psychology and forensic science classes and term papers. Even with all her qualifications, though, only just before she'd boarded the plane to Las Vegas, she'd convinced herself that she was going to be fine and now, all her confidence was gone. She was as nervous as a bat in the light. Sighing, she got out of her car and looked at the building. She looked back at Sara and Nick, who were just getting out of their own vehicle, and decided that she'd wait for them to get to her before continuing on her journey.

Sara looked at her younger sister, knowing immediately why she had paused on her way inside. "Lei, you need to relax. Believe me, Grissom knows you're qualified. I made sure I showed him your degrees and all of that," she explained with a gentle touch on her shoulder.
Nick nodded and chimed into the conversation. "As soon as a spot opened up, Sara kept boasting and prodding for Grissom to hire you..." he laughed a little. "He had to give in, especially since you're far more qualified than all of the other applications he got!"
Leila let out a slight laugh and nodded. She was so thankful for Sara and how much faith she'd always put in her. In Sara's eyes, Leila was the smartest girl in the world, and she could do anything. In Leila's point of view, though, that was Sara. Leila had idolized Sara since she was fifteen, and Sara was just beginning as a CSI. Ever since, Leila had become fascinated with forensics and forensic science, and that was what she aspired to do with her life. She watched the door to the building apprehensively, just praying to buy herself a little more time; maybe for the door to fly onto the other side of the building magically. "So, you're sure that Grissom--"

Sara's shoulders slumped and she rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath through her nose. "Leila, everything is fine. You know, you must have some anxiety disorder or something like that..." she rolled her eyes as Nick, like the gentleman he was, opened the door for the two women.
Nick joined Sara in poking fun at Leila's nervousness. "Really, it's not like anyone's foot is gonna come out of thin air and magically trip you as you're talking to Grissom in his office or anything like that..." he laughed and stuck his foot out to trip Leila. Thankfully for Sara and Nick's relationship, Leila got along well with Nick. Over the past couple days, they'd pretty much exchanged life-stories, and a couple humiliating stories about Sara, having a quick mutual laugh, much to Sara's dismay.
Leila noticed Nick's foot before humiliating herself, and hopped over it, giving the older man a light shove in the shoulder, toward his fiancée. "No, but if you have your way, I'll trip before then, am I right, Nick?" she glared at him playfully. "Plus, if you're anywhere in the near vicinity, how can I be sure someone won't trip me?" she winked at him and turned her head to the right, seeing three people she'd never seen in her life. They passed right by she, Sara and Nick, though, with only a wave. "Who were they?" she asked as they waved back.

Nick shrugged and looked at Leila. "Those were three of our coworkers. The one with the grayish blonde hair was the supervisor, Gil Grissom," he did a swooshing motion across his hair, then brought his hands back down to his sides. "The guy with the foofy fro? He's also a criminalist, his name's Warrick Brown...and the Korean looking guy? That's the audio-visual technician, Archie Johnson..."
Leila let out a slight laugh at Nick and shook her head. "Supervisor...audio-visual technician--how about you just say the boss and A/V tech? You treat me like I don't know abbreviations, Nick..." she joked and looked to Sara, who was joining her in her laugh.
Nick rolled his eyes, scoffed and pointed to Grissom's office, showing Leila the right way to go. "You wanna go talk to Grissom before anything. That way, he can give you your assignment..."
Leila headed in the direction Nick pointed and rolled her eyes. "Ok, assignment...now it sounds like I'm a double agent..." she heard Sara laugh in the distance, as she looked at the office door. "Dr. Gilbert Grissom..." she read silently to herself. 'Gilbert...?' she thought as she stifled a laugh. Slowly and nervously, she knocked on the door, only to be greeted with a smiling--female--face with a set of sparkling blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair.

"Hey, you must be Leila Sidle..." the new face flashed Leila a smile. "Sara's sister, right? Wow, you can really tell you guys came from the same mother..." she let out a slight laugh.
Leila laughed and nodded. "Yeah, I'm Sara's sister...may I ask who you are...without seeming rude?" she bit her lower lip, knowing she'd just sounded rude, although she was trying not to.
The woman laughed a little and shook her head. "You didn't seem rude, it's ok," she held her hand out for Leila to shake. "I'm Catherine Willows...I was just excited to meet you, because Sara talks about you so much. You know-how smart you are and everything..."
Leila blushed and looked at the desk, where the man she'd just found out to be her boss sat, then looked back to Catherine. "Nice to meet you, Catherine..."
Gil glanced at Leila over the frames of his glasses and smiled. "Nice to meet you, Leila--I'm Gil Grissom," he flashed her a comforting grin, trying to let her know that she didn't have to be nervous.
It didn't make much of a difference. Leila was going to be nervous, no matter what any Gil Grissom or Catherine Willows did to try to make her feel at home. So far, everyone she'd seen, except for Archie, who she had yet to actually meet, was at least ten years over her own age, and it didn't make it easy on the nerves to know that. She nodded a thank you to Grissom and waited for instructions.
Grissom looked at her with the same grin still on his face, and looked at Catherine. "Hey, Cath...can you show her around the lab or something like that? Or, even find Greg so he can show her around? She needs to see the lab, so she can know where to go for future reference..."

Catherine got a devilish grin on her face. "Sure...I'll find Greg and he can do it...he's on his break right now anyway, and I'm on a double murder...alone, so I'm swamped..." she looked at Leila. "Come on, let's go find Greg..."
Leila looked confused, and wondered who Greg was, but she didn't want to make a big deal, so she just looked at Grissom and smiled. "Do you want me to come back here afterward so you can put me on a case or something?" she asked, hopefully.
Grissom looked slightly surprised at Leila's question. "Didn't Sara tell you?" he asked, feeling sorry to disappoint the younger woman. Once Leila shook her head, Grissom sighed and continued speaking. "You're not working on the field...you're working in the DNA lab with our DNA tech, Greg Sanders..."
Leila was taken aback a little. Sara had failed to mention this to her, but she probably should have figured it out, since she took all behind the scenes science classes in college. It didn't bother her, though, as long as she still had some part in busting criminal creeps. "Oh, ok...well, that's cool..."
Catherine looked at Leila, a little surprised at her calmness with being demoted, so to speak. "Ok...well, let's go find Greg...it'll be good for him to give you the tour, since you're gonna be working with him on this and everything..."

Leila nodded and followed Catherine out of the lab, passing Sara on the way out and displaying a slight glare her way. "Sara, we need to talk when shift is up...I just found out where I'm working..." she stuck her tongue out at her sister. "And it's not on the field..." she curled her upper lip.
Sara nervously bit her lower lip and took a deep breath. "Sorry, Leila...I just thought that if you know you'd be a DNA tech you wouldn't come work with me..." she frowned.
Leila rolled her eyes and continued to follow Catherine to whoever this Greg guy was. She wondered if Greg was another thirty or forty year old that would make Leila feel insignificant, but as they approached the DNA lab, a smile crossed her worried face. 'Death of Seasons' by AFI was blaring from the radio, and she knew that if anyone over the age of thirty listened to AFI, they had to be cool. But as Catherine opened the door, Leila was taken completely off guard. Not only at how much louder the music was, but at how good looking whoever was listening to it was.

Catherine looked at Leila, hoping she'd be as horrified by the music as she was, but instead, Leila sang along, word-for-word. "Greg..." Catherine spoke, although her voice was drowned out by the screaming of, 'writing with sickness, thrown into banality.' So, she spoke a little louder. "GREG!" she screamed, making both Leila and Greg jump a little.
Greg jumped sky-high and whirled around. He looked Catherine dead in the eye and reached over to turn his radio down. "Can you please...PLEASE...not do that? I'm begging you. I'm really jumpy..." he looked over Catherine's shoulder at Leila and blushed. "Who is that?" he asked Catherine with a sheepish look on his face.
Catherine stepped aside and allowed Leila to face Greg. "Greg, this is Leila Sidle, our new DNA tech...your partner. Leila, this is Greg Sanders..." she introduced the two younger colleagues. "Greg, we need you to show Leila around the lab, because I'm sort of swamped, and I need to leave the lab to do an interview..."
Greg nodded and flashed Catherine an embarrassed look. "I'm sorry for snapping at you...I'm just jumpy. I have been ever since...you know..." he explained, knowing she'd understand what he was talking about.
Whatever was meant by what Greg had just said went right over Leila's head, but somehow, Catherine understood it. "It's ok, I understand. I kind of expected it, to be honest. Greggo...just watch yourself, ok? Just show Leila around..."

Greg nodded and looked at Leila as Catherine left the room. "So...your name is Layla...kind of like that Eric Clapton song?" he asked with a grin. This girl was beautiful, and in Greg's eyes, beautiful took a lot. There were seven stages of looks in Greg Sanders' eyes, and Leila, unlike most women, reached the highest stage. Each woman he'd dated in the past had only made it as high as stage five. The stages went as follows, stage one: repulsive, stage two: sickly, stage three: ugly, stage four: okay, stage five: cute, stage six: hot and stage seven: beautiful. Leila had passed all his preconceptions and made it all the way to stage seven. She had sparkling brown eyes, an adorable button nose with a piercing on the right side, a beautiful pair of glossy pink lips, with a hoop piercing in the bottom lip, long brown hair, with perfectly placed blue and blonde highlights in it; she was basically the image of Sara, only with a little more punk edge to her. Greg liked that punk edge, though.

Leila shook her head. "L-E-I-L-A...my mom wanted to name me Layla, but my dad isn't too much of a Clapton fan so he said hell no..." she let out a little laugh. Greg was really gorgeous in her eyes, too. The way he kept his hair so unkempt, it almost looked as though he just rolled out of bed that way, but the way he smelled, she knew he had to have taken a shower. Walking beside him from the DNA lab, she took in everything, from his brown eyes to his insecure way of carrying himself. How she was expected to work beside him without being completely distracted was something Leila would have to figure out in time.

~~

Author's Note: Look for some Leila/Greg flirting in the next chapter. Then...the story gets interesting.