7- "Guess Who's Here"
Graduation was a half a month away. Greg and Taña had just arrived at a party, and she had excused herself for the bathroom when all of Greg's friends magically appeared out of nowhere and sat with him on the couch.
"So, any luck yet with the missus?" His friend, John, sat with a smirk on his face.
"Man, where do you come from? You're cramping my style." Greg replied, immediately having blood rush to his face.
"Your style is permanently cramped; don't lay the blame on me. So, what about the walrus? Has she said it yet?" John smiled, in an evil way.
"Man, you are so evil. I'm starting to think about not doing this... this is going deeper than I thought."
"Greg Sanders, class clown, actually is falling for the walrus? No way, man."
"Shut up, I am just rethinking this whole... thing."
"Then stop, but then you lose the bet."
"I can't stop... I'm in too deep."
"Whatever man." John got up and walked away, just as Taña came back.
That night, Greg took Taña in his car and was heading home from the party when he said, into the silence, "I think I'm falling in love with you."
Taña snapped her head around to look at him, "What?"
"I love you."
"Greg, this makes no sense, and I think you are holding out on me. Why did you just one day ask me out? I'm not exactly the most popular girl in school..."
"I'm not popular either. C'mon, I am in the Science Club..."
"But you're funny. Everyone thinks you're funny. You fit in anywhere. You don't love me."
"Yes I-"
"No you don't. Because I don't love you. I can't love someone I don't understand."
Taña had always been odd in that way. She always could understand him, almost look through him. He was falling in love with her. He hated to admit it, but he was.
That night was different than the rest. They both fell in love that night.
Then graduation came. Then they parted.
The next night "dawned", and everyone pow-wowed in the lab before assignments were given. Greg and Taña sat in opposite corners of the room, and immediately everyone noticed the bad vibes.
Warrick and Nick sat in between them and smiled nervously. Catherine shot them a look and they sat in the silence, waiting for Grissom.
Nick couldn't take the silence anymore, "So, uh, Taña, ready to work out in the field?"
"Anything to get away from Greg," She said simply, killing any hope for conversation, and supporting their suspicions of a bad relationship between Greg and Taña.
"She's been here for a day and she already hates Greg. She learns quickly," Catherine whispered to Warrick, causing him to break out into unsuccessful tirade of hiding laughter.
"Okay, I so heard that," Greg said, causing everyone to finally break out into laughter, even Greg, who smiled crookedly.
"Hello my fellow CSIs, and profiler. Today is going to be fun-filled. Nick, you got a robbery over at a jewelry store on the strip. Warrick and Catherine, you got a 'suspicious smell' over in a condominium."
"A what?"
"Decaying flesh, so they say. You got to find the source. I think it's going to involve breaking in walls."
"Wait, Catherine and Warrick get to break in walls, while I get to dust for prints over at some jewelry store?" Nick said.
"Life isn't fair, Nick. Our profiler and I have a floater over at the Zoo, found in some back animal tank."
"What about me?" Greg asked, standing up.
"Nose goes!" Catherine smiled, and immediately everyone's fingers flew up to their noses.
"Guys, that doesn't really boost my self-esteem, the fact we do this every time." Greg moaned, then smiled, "Besides, it won't work, 'cause Grissom lost, and he's the boss."
Grissom had lost. Taña looked from Grissom to Greg and said, "Is this how you guys really solve your problems? 'Nose Goes'?"
Everyone smiled at her.
"So?"
"So, at the Bureau, we play 'Paper, Rock, Scissors'." She answered back, and everyone grabbed their coats and Grissom smiled at Greg, "Ready for your first dead body?"
"Bring it on." He said, then shot Taña a look, "Besides, a DB will be better company than this profiler."
"Shut up Greg, and that's an order," She shot back, and they walked out bickering, and Grissom paused at the door and gave everyone in there a look.
"At the rate these two are going, I am never going to have children."
Catherine waved him out, "That's why I only had one."
Sara awoke with a slight snort. She had fallen asleep in the break room. She groggily lifted her hand and looked at her watch. It was 8:00 pm, time for her to start heading home.
She decided to walk over and say goodnight to Sara and Nevina. As she was walking, she had a gut feeling that something was wrong. She started to run, and as she rounded the corner and saw a crowd, she realized it was correct.
She ran up and fought her way through the crowd of employees who had gathered. She was so used to it, so used to seeing it that it had become invisible, but it stopped her: crime scene tape. Almost out of habit, she was about to lift it up and go under it, but she forced herself back; she wasn't a CSI anymore.
As if in a daze, she looked up towards the tank and saw three amazing things: an unknown woman who was standing back, observing people with a very Grissom-like look on her face, Greg Sanders interviewing a somewhat disgruntled looking Zoo employee with a CSI badge hanging off of his neck, but the most surprising of all: Grissom. The man she had been unwillingly dreaming about. The man she couldn't forget, despite many tries.
How could she be in love with a man she hates?
Taña was standing back, watching people, especially the crowds, since the murderer was most likely a member of the Las Vegas Zoo staff. They were all crowded around the crime scene tape, but one jumped out as being totally suspicious: she was totally calm.
She was a pretty brunette, who was standing totally still with a very unreadable look on her face. She was staring at Grissom's back, with a look so hard that Taña was surprised Grissom didn't burst into flames.
"Hey Greg," she said, and motioned for him to come towards her. He excused himself from the interview and walked over. She said, "I've got you a suspect for your floater right there. She is in the crowd, staring at Grissom, totally calm. That is your killer right there."
Greg squinted to the crowd and said, "Who are you talking abou- whoa."
"I know, anyone could peg her as the murderer..."
"No, it's Sara."
"Sara?"
"Sara Sidle."
"Sara Sidle? The CSI level three who quit before my arrival who trained with Grissom in San Francisco? That Sara Sidle?"
Greg shot her a confused glance, and she batted her eyes at him, "I've read extensively into her file, along with everyone else's in Quantico. Imagine what I know about you."
Greg smiled nervously, and said, "Who woulda guessed she would wind up at the zoo?"
"Yes. How convenient, and somehow it winds up being a crime scene."
"I didn't mean it like that. You may have read stuff on Sara, but you don't know her," Greg said, and then ran up the ladder to talk to Grissom, who was bending over the bloated DB as David the coroner was examining his wounds.
"Hey Grissom, guess who's here..."
"You know, senior citizens, though slow and dangerous behind the wheel, can serve a purpose. Don't you go dyin' on me!"
-Dumb and Dumber
