Thicker Than Water
G/C
By Bexster
Disclaimer – As before, but a little less bored now…
Starting off slow I know, but bear with me…
2
Catherine was still there, the lab work had been taking longer than expected. Grissom walked into the break room and found her sitting at the table, a plate of cold pasta sitting next to a large pile of work.
"Gris, I'm beginning to think that there's nothing to find."
"The evidence is always there to find, Catherine."
"I know that. It doesn't make it any easier." She pushed a pile over to him as he sat in the chair next to hers. "There are connections that only go so far. Both sets of victims have been a mother and daughter in single parent families. There are no connections between them other than that. They have no connection to the two crime scenes, which themselves have nothing in common. The suspect has taken valuable property, electronics, that sort of thing from each of the victims' houses. The only other thing we know until the lab results come back are that they were all killed with the same weapon."
"Well then we're going to have to be a little patient. If you've been looking over this since I left and you're no closer, then you should take a break," he told her, moving to pour her a fresh coffee.
"You're right." Catherine sighed and leant back in her chair. "How was the flight?"
"Good, they came in on time. I left them sleeping."
"Ah, sensible. So why did you come back? Shift is over."
"I wanted to see how you were getting on." He brought over two mugs of hot coffee and sat back at the table. Catherine picked up the mug between her hands and closed her eyes, savouring the heat. He watched her, and wondered whether this time he could tell her. He'd always wanted to because every year he wondered how much longer he could keep the secret inside of him. But every time he said nothing, because he didn't know how she would react. He didn't want to alienate her, and he thought he would if she knew.
He hadn't realised that she had opened her eyes to look back at him.
"You look lost," she told him. He smiled back.
"Yeah, a little."
"Want to talk about it?" He paused, knowing it would be so easy.
"Sorry." He shook his head. "Not now."
"Well, you know where I am when you're ready."
"I know." He turned back to the work on the table and picked up a loose sheet. "I'll go see how Greg is getting on."
"I'll be waiting," she replied as he left through the door.
They'd made a breakthrough on the second crime scene – Greg had discovered that there had in fact been two people present at the scene, not one. The small prints that they had left had been matched in the database and teams were on their way to question them. Grissom walked out to his car, planning on checking in on the two teams before heading home, when he saw someone leaning up against his bonnet.
"How did you get here?"
"Cab. There's a lot of them."
"Right." He gestured to the passenger door. "Coming for a ride, Maggie?"
"Sure, where are we going?"
Grissom got into the car, and waited until the girl had done the same. "Going to a couple of field sites to check on some progress."
"Cool." He started the car and drove off. They sat in silence for a while as they negotiated the traffic.
"Is your mom still asleep?"
"Yeah. She worked all of the last two days. I don't think she has slept since Saturday."
"Then why don't we go out and get breakfast after this. Let her get some rest."
"Sounds good." The silence enveloped them again. He glanced across at his passenger. Maggie had always been an intelligent child, and she had proved it to everybody when she got accepted for her degree two years earlier than normal. This summer she was due to graduate in Advanced Criminalistics. Grissom remembered how excited she had been when she rang him to tell him of her acceptance. "Uncle Gil!" She had all but shouted down the phone. Grace had blamed it on all of the books he had sent her when she was younger on ballistics, fingerprinting, tracking techniques, and blood spatters. He had told her that at least she hadn't grown up with a healthy interest in bugs.
"I've asked Catherine and Lindsey over for dinner tonight."
"Good. I've been looking forward to seeing them again." She turned to face him. "Uncle Gil?"
"Yes, Maggie?" She was far too serious for her age. College had made her grow up far too quickly, and Gil knew she had missed a lot by being so studious. Grace had said that she lacked a few social skills.
"Lindsey misses her dad a lot. She tells me when she writes to me."
"I know she does." He'd been dreading this conversation.
"I wonder what my father's doing now. Where he's working, what he does. What do you think?"
"I don't know what he does," he told her, keeping his eyes glued to the road.
"I wonder who he is."
Grissom kept silent, waiting for her to continue, but she didn't. There were other things he wanted to know however.
"What else do you think about sweetheart?"
"Whether he ever realises I exist. If he does, I wonder if he knows I think about him."
"If he knew he had a daughter like you, he knew he'd be the luckiest father in the world." He watched as she smiled.
"Will you come to my graduation?" she asked, confirming the previous subject over. "I have a spare ticket."
"Well, I don't know…" He tailed off with a smile.
"Aww, come on. It's because of you that I ended up doing this."
"I thought you enjoyed it."
"I do, and you gave me that interest. Come on. I'd really love it if you came."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Good."
They turned into the crime scene and parked up the car. Grissom walked past the line and into the house, Maggie following close behind. Nick was back in the kitchen and greeted the two when they entered.
"Don't I give you enough work, Nicky?" Grissom asked as he walked over.
"I'm only in need of the overtime." He looked back and saw the extra visitor. "Well hello there, Maggie. Haven't seen you for a long time."
"Hi, Nick." She brought herself to Grissom's side. "You're still working hard I see." Nick pointed his brush at Grissom.
"Watch it. You're beginning to sound like him." He laughed and gestured over to the back door.
"We've found a large pile of what looks like the stolen items from the vics. We've sent them back to the lab to see if we can match them up." He paused. "I've found something you could take a look at." He pointed around a third of the way up. "Fresh mud mark on the door. We've found tracks outside, but the mud should be on the outside of the door and the floor. Not the inside, and not way up here."
"Interesting." Grissom placed his glasses on to take a better look.
"He kicked it shut," Maggie stated from behind them.
"What?" Nick asked.
"Did you find prints on the outside handle?"
"No, nothing discernable."
"Then he was probably carrying something, had his arms full and used his elbow to open the door which would probably rub off any existing prints. Then when he got inside, he pushed his foot back into the door to shut it."
Both of them stared at her, shocked expressions on their faces.
"What?"
"Get out of here, Maggie," Nick joked.
"Did you guys think I didn't actually learn anything while I was at college?"
"I think she wants a job, Grissom."
"Well, if you don't hurry up Nicky my boy, she can have yours."
Nick looked up at his semi-serious face and eventually decided that he was joking. Just to be on the safe side, he got up and went to look for more prints.
