Disclaimer: We do not own the world of Mutant-X or even CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its characters. Both are own by Tribune Entertainment and CBS respectively. Although some of the characters and the story is owned by frickangel/Freak@ngel and RK9.
************************************************************************
Rivers of Differences.
Chapter 1
************************************************************************
Between the shiny floors and the light blue-ish tinge of the fluorescent lights, Alexis Lim walked down the CSI building, searching for her superior. Taking two rights after her last three lefts, she pushed back her shoulder length dark brown hair behind her ears as she smoothed her black baby-T with her free hand. The office loomed closer.
"I'm telling you Gris, we don't need another CSI officer in here. Especially not some newbie over."
The Asian woman stopped and listened. She didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she couldn't help it when her sensitive hearing would pick up little tid-bits of this sort. It comes in handy when hearing out for information. From the available glass window of the slightly ajar door, Alexis could make out a rather well built dark haired man bending over the desk looking straight at an older man seated behind the same desk.
"I mean it's not like we have time to baby-sit this new guy."
The one he had called 'Gris' took off his glasses and stared back just as intently. "Well it's not singular Nick, it's plural."
"As in guys?" Nick answered back disbelievingly.
"You want something from Grissom?"
Alexis whirled behind and paused to study the speaker just before she smiled at a petite blonde lady. "Well, I'm supposed to report to him. I mean to Grissom."
"Well than knock," she replied politely.
Deep breathes in; Alexis rapped the door and pushed it slightly, poking her head in at the same time. "Mr. Grissom?"
Nick took two steps away from the desk.
"Yes?" Grissom answered her hail.
"Alexis Lim?"
"You the new CSI?" The blonde asked as she squeezed past Alexis.
Giving more space for the woman to walk through, Alexis answered, "Uh…yeah."
Grissom gave Nick a meaningful look. "Meet the new 'Guy' Nick."
Suppressing a small chuckle that was escaping, Alexis held out her hand at Nick, "Hi."
Jerking awake, he pulled out his right hand from his khaki pants and extended it to her. "Hi, I'm Nick Stokes."
"Catherine." The blonde woman jumped in with a small smile etched on her pretty face. "Catherine Willows."
The smell of formalin wafted through her smell senses, forcing Alexis to survey her supervisor's office. Little bits, of what Alexis suspected what used to be brains, swam in a bottle of rather murky liquid. What creature it used to be owned by wasn't something she wanted to know. There were more bottles, but she didn't even bother thinking about it. "Sheriff Mobley-."
"Sent you," Grissom interrupted, "I know."
The rather burdened silence floated amongst them until Catherine shattered it. "Nick, why don't you take our new colleague to the break room?"
Something that looked like a very uncomfortable expression flashed across Stokes' face. "Uh…sure." He walked past her to the door. "This way."
Alexis smiled at Willows and Grissom, who still had a face of steely emotions, before turning behind with Stokes. The corridors were walked by with other CSI's. Some with lab coats while others in plain clothes, most of them nodded towards her and greeted Stokes while a few were too busy getting their eyes too stuck to their clipboards to even notice if the sky was falling much less other homosapiens.
"Coffee?" Stokes offered the dark liquid to her, paper cup already in his hand as she sat in the break room.
"No thanks." She declined after looking at how the drink sludge in its pot.
Filling the cup for himself, Stokes sat in a chair far away enough for her not to bite him. He fidgeted in his seat as he sipped his hot beverage, not saying a word.
"Am I really that un-welcomed?" She spoke up, at the same time confessing that she had eavesdropped on the earlier conversation with him and Grissom.
He nearly choked on his coffee. "What-? I mean…no…you…heard us?" he wiped his face with a free hand. "I didn't mean it."
"I'm no newbie."
"That's not what I meant, I mean-. When I said it, it was-."
"I was moved from the SFCL." She explained, hoping to erase whatever clumsy CSI image Stokes had built of her in advance. She was good at what she did.
He sighed and placed the cup on the wooden table. "The last time we had a new CSI on here, she died on her first case."
Alexis swallowed hard, 'So that's it' she thought. Opening her mouth to speak an apology, she was interrupted.
"Nick?"
He turned, "Yeah?"
Willows smiled and looked at Alexis. "The other new CSI is here." She announced.
Feeling a little relieved at the interruption, Alexis walked out the break room and trailed behind Willows as well as Stokes by her side. The labs on her left were pretty much silent with the work of the technicians, as each concentrated hard on their work. Looking into whatever world of microscopic fibers, hairs and any unidentifiable substances. Grissom stood in the scene as the threesome stepped into a conference room. He stood there, his eyes on the yellow like folder.
"Gris." Willows interjected his concentration.
The folder was laid to his side with the usual stoic face for company. Seated in one of the chairs, Alexis noted a woman with her back towards her. The stranger had originally dark hair but highlighted with streaks of red. Her legs crossed, top leg tapping the bottom one as her fingers on the table followed the sort of annoying rhythm. 'No it can't be!' Her mind screamed out, as she placed the image with a mental memory.
"Our second new CSI: Nadine Lang." Grissom introduced, "Ms. Lang has been moved from LACL."
Lang stood up as her familiar Asian features showed itself to Alexis.
"Two women?" Stokes let out.
"Was that a chauvinistic remark?" Lang shot back, her strong voice cutting through. An all too regular voice Alexis had often heard.
Alexis caught the smirk she saw Willows give Stokes as he stumbled through an explanation. Even Grissom had looked from above his glasses to give Willows two arched eyebrows.
"Maybe we should save the debates for later?" Grissom said, saving Stokes more humiliation. "There are two more CSI's, which would be Sara Sidle and Warrick Brown. Both who are out on a case."
"You both can just hang around 'til there's a case. Which I'm sure there will be." Willows added.
Alexis glanced at a silent Stokes before back at Lang. 'Oh boy' she thought as the other CSI gave her a knowing smile.
************************************************************************
Willows was wrong. There wasn't a case plus Brown and Sidle hadn't been back. Stokes had taken her on a tour while Lang was escorted by Willows herself. Seemingly, Stokes was too embarrassed to be with Lang. Alexis could understand. Lang was the type of person you wouldn't want to mess with. She had the stubbornness of a mule and the mouth that she could cut anyone down to size with. Walking out into the very early morning, Grissom had allowed the two new CSI's to get home an hour before the graveyard shift ended. There down the street of the CSI building, was a green jeep. The passenger door was swung open as Alexis stood next to it with the owner seated in the driver's seat, her hand on the steering wheel while her face looking directly at Alexis.
Sighing, Alexis glared at Nadine Lang. "What do you want?"
"What?" she answered. "Didn't think I would leave you behind now would I?"
"If you followed me all the way here why not?"
"This time I had nothing to do with this." She replied seriously. They remained like that for at least a minute before Alexis finally hopped into the vehicle. "Finally."
Slamming the door, the passenger turned to look at Lang and flashed the natural sepia eyes of hers.
"Oh don't you dare flash at me my dear sister."
In unison the two sisters burst out laughing. "You know Dean; you had me scared for a moment." Alexis called on her twin sister. They were fraternal twins and Nadine, or Dean called by Alexis for short, was just 2 minutes older.
Starting the jeep and putting it into gear, Nadine drove on. "Really, I didn't ask for the transfer. It was out of my control." She pointed out. "Apparently, the LVCL needed someone with my expertise."
Alexis knew exactly what Nadine had meant. Ever since they were young, Nadine had this ability to sense emotions. Even if the person had left the room. The movie would play to her in a sort of flashy way, at least that's the way her sister had put it. An echo was the way she had labeled it as. But Nadine wasn't the only 'special' one. Alexis started noticing her own ability to just jump higher, flexibility and to run faster. This wasn't much until she started having the night vision, heightened senses and of course the ever present eye flashing. Her side of powers was good when she had to track down evidence at a crime scene. Nadine on the other hand, could tell how the killer was feeling and where he had touched, moved and even his actions. Interrogations were a breeze for her twin.
It was a secret between the two of them. Not even their parents knew.
"Do you think we should tell them?" Alexis thought aloud.
Turning at the next bend, Nadine shrugged, "What? That we're related?" She shook her head. "Maybe not. After all, they had never asked and it's not like we look in anyway related either."
Nadine was right, they both have extremely different personalities and in the physical sense as well. Her sister was taller and a little more blessed with the serious look, while Alexis although shorter, was better built and had that maniacal smile that would scare any, well uh, maniac.
"Besides," she continued, "I like the mystery."
"So how's mom?" Alexis asked, changing the subject.
"Probably the same as dad, and who is…?" the red head stopped at a traffic light.
"Fine." She answered the question before it was asked.
"You think that after 20 years they would at least talk to each other." Nadine complained. "I mean it was divorce, not a vow of silence."
Alexis shrugged. It was never a good idea to get Nadine excited about this, especially when she was the driver. The thought of two divorced parents and being separated from each other where each of parent had one of the twins sounded like something from a drama movie. Hence the twins' different last names. Which weren't actually last names, because for any Chinese, their last names weren't their surnames and-.
The car jerked, causing Alexis to be awakened from her thoughts.
"Sorry," Nadine apologized, "Wrong gear." The car moved past the green light.
Maybe it was coincidence, or maybe it was twin telepathy (which could be, considering that Dean is a telempath) but it was never planned that the both of them would be doing the same thing.
Crime Scene Investigating.
Now here they were in the Las Vegas Crime Lab. This could be a good thing, or even a bad thing.
Alexis was hoping for the later.
************************************************************************
Nadine slipped the keys into the ashtray-turned-key holder with a metallic 'clang' before pulling off her thin purple vest and throwing it on the couch. She took in the smells of a freshly cleaned apartment that she was living in, alone. Staring at the sunrise from behind the glass sliding door, Nadine's smiled a little as the maid's image flickered on.
The rather elderly woman slid the vacuum over the carpet. She knocks it over. She dumps it into a trashcan. Hopes that Nadine won't notice.
And she was right, Nadine wouldn't have noticed.
The small, choppy movie ended as Nadine made a move for the trash can she had seen earlier. Dropping to one knee, she pulled out pieces of the porcelain figure her mother had given to her. Small sputters of chuckles escaped her tiny smirk as she let loose the pieces back into the can. It doesn't matter; she had never liked it anyway.
************************************************************************
Authors' note: So how's it people? It's for fun and we know that there are a lot of plot holes but we don't really care. It's a fic that we wanted out of our systems. If you're wondering about where MX is, well I promise you they will be in this fic. No doubt about that. Just be a little patient.
My sis and I are huge fans of CSI and Mutant-X so we decided to start a fic on it and we're even starting up an RPG for it to! Crazy huh? Well if you're interested just email me. There's actually a lot the both of us would want to say but we thought getting up the first chapter was more important than our useless banter. That would be reserved for later.
Regards, RK9 and Freak@ngel/frickangel