Title: Careful, He May Harm You
Author: Elory
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Careful, He May Harm YouGrissom approached the tomato warily. Its precarious position on the table's edge meaning it could fall at the slightest movement and Grissom really wanted to preserve the perfect blue thumbprint on the near surface of the red fruit.
There had been an anonymous call out to an all-night convenience store and when the team had arrived they had found the owner dead and the entire store trashed. The intruders had also vandalised the place writing some very unsavoury comments about the victim on the walls with paint.
"Grissom" boomed the voice of an over-excited Greg, ecstatic to still be allowed out in the field after last week's catastrophe with plaster casting.
"Damn it, Greg" Grissom cursed as the unexpected noise caused him to jump slightly and knock the table resulting in the tomato falling from it and into a bucket of foul smelling liquid. "What have I said about yelling at a crime scene? Greg, a crime scene is a sensitive environment and must be treated with respect, not with behaviour more suited to a child's playground. Now quickly reach into that bucket and carefully remove the tomato you caused to fall into it." Grissom ordered, directing Greg towards the red plastic pail.
"Eww, it stinks. Why can't I just pour it out?"
"Because I need to preserve the evidence as much as possible, if it still even exists. Now hurry up, I don't want to risk any further disintegration."
"Oh god this is so gross" Greg whined as he lowered his hand into the murky water. "It's all slimy and it's leaking into my glove" he shuddered as he finally withdrew his hand, and the tomato.
"Quick, place it down on this sheet." Grissom fussed as Greg put the tomato down and was pushed out of the way by the older scientist as he proceeded to investigate how much damage had been done.
"Oh, babe." Sara sympathised as she struggled to suppress her mirth at the sight of Grissom walking through the front door. "Tough day." She managed to get out as she lost her battle and burst into laughter.
The front of his shirt was stained and the fabric stiff with whatever had dried on it. There was a large scratch running down his left forearm and his hair and beard were covered in what looked like cake crumbs.
Grissom continued to enter the room and, though had yet to say anything, it was fairly obvious to Sara he was struggling to contain several emotions, anger seemed the most predominant.
"Here" she said, "sit down" as she steered him away from the living room and the antique rug and newly purchased sofa and into the marble floored kitchen and a wooden chair. "I'll make you a coffee and you can tell me what happened before anything else explodes." She giggled, earning her a death stare from her dishevelled partner.
"I take it you were working with Greg again?" Sara queried as she poured freshly brewed coffee into a mug, adding an extra spoon of sugar before handing it to Grissom.
"That boy will be the death of me, if he lives that long." Grissom sighed as he gratefully accepted the hot coffee. "I just don't think he's CSI material…let me finish." Grissom requested as he predicted Sara's negative reaction to his comments. Placing his coffee on the table, he stood and began to pace around the small dining nook as he continued.
"Greg is a brilliant scientist and technically he's without fault, well except for moulding!" which earned a groan from Sara as she recalled the arduous task of removing plaster from her hair and having to throw away one of her favourite tops.
"Then what's the problem?" Sara asked, puzzled as to where Grissom was going with this.
"He has absolutely no common sense." He stated as he picked up his coffee and resumed his pacing, pausing every few seconds to take a sip. "It never occurs to him to that silence is one of the best tools in evidence collection. That to walk is sometimes the fastest way to get where you're going. I'm at my wits end Sara, so far we've been lucky and he's managed to avoid completely destroying any evidence. Even so, if details of some of his incompetancies were to make it to trial we'd be in trouble."
"Did it ever occur to you that swinging a half-full cup of coffee would likely result in it spilling all over the floor?" Sara teased as she removed the now empty cup from him and returning to the kitchen threw a towel to Grissom so he could mop up the puddle at his feet.
"Sorry" Grissom muttered with embarrassment. "But it doesn't change what I said. What I need to know is how do I tell him?"
"Grissom this is his dream you're talking about. Becoming a CSI is pretty much all Greg talks about lately. He's bought books and videos about forensics, he's really serious about it."
"Why do you think this is so difficult for me? But the fact of the matter is that unless Greg undergoes a serious personality change then he'll never be suitable for crime scene collection. As hard as it is to deal with sometimes dreams don't come true."
"And sometimes they do." Sara whispered softly as she pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Sometimes they do." Grissom echoed with a smile. "I refuse to work with him on my own anymore." Grissom stated and watched as the smile on Sara's face grew at the meaning behind his words.
"I'm sure we can work out a schedule." Sara grinned as she hugged her grubby lover. "Now why don't you go get cleaned up and I'll take you out for brunch."
"Maybe you should make that dinner." Grissom joked as he caught a glimpse of himself in the hall mirror.
She chuckled as he picked debris from his beard.
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