Implied Connections
Chapter 3 – Your mission, Mr Bond…
By: Braidless Baka
Disclaimer: Yes, I now own Greg! Muwaha! *twitch* Or not, whichever works O_o;; Nor do I own the great song by Avril Lavigne, "My World", that Greg chucks into the CD player. Well I do own it… but not the copyright O_o;; So… umm… There ya go, I guess O_o;; Oh yeah, 'Mission Impossible' and the James Bond movies aren't mine either – not that I would want the James Bond movies…
A/N: Just in regard to the statement that I should have more "case chapters" I'm warning y'all that there're no case chapters until around chapter 6 or 7. I do a lot of character set up.
~~~~~
Rachel Simmons, Grissom realised when he came within eyeshot, was going to be one of their younger members. Tall, and pretty, with long, blonde hair. She had her back to himself and Nick, talking animatedly to the receptionist and seemed confident, which was always good. There was, however, no caution to her stance, which was worrying. Almost like, Gil thought distractedly, she was being deliberately confident. Perhaps afraid of being found out? But of what…?
Or maybe he was going over the top, and psychoanalysing everything down to the tiniest detail again. Which was infinitely more likely.
Nick was the first of them to speak, evidently having met her before going to hunt down his supervisor. "Ms Simmons?"
She turned towards them, and looked a little flustered. She hadn't seen them coming, but still… she looked a little too flustered. "Call me Rachel, please."
"Ms Simmons," started Gil pointedly ignoring her request for the moment, and suddenly aware that he had his 'dealing-with-suspects' voice on. "I hear you're our new hand on the nightshift?"
She nodded, offering her hand to shake. "Rachel Simmons," she said, as Gil took it, a little cautiously.
"Gil Grissom," he countered, releasing her hand. "Nightshift supervisor."
"Ahh, you're my new boss?" She paused with a smile. "Well Mr. Grissom, I've heard lots about you."
"I'm sure that, whatever it is, it's not true," he said, attempting some good humour and practising those people skills Catherine insisted needed work. The revelation that he'd been heard of disturbed Grissom somewhat. It would disturb him from anyone, but someone he'd never met before saying they'd heard of him seemed a little dramatic. "You ready to start now?"
"Ready when you want me," she replied, smiling that over-confident smile.
Grissom paused slightly, wondering where to go with this next. "Well, Ms Simmons-"
"Rachel," she interrupted. "Please call me Rachel."
"Rachel." The word was a consent, not a submission, but anything to make his life easier. "I'd appreciate it if you'd pair up with Warrick Brown, if I get Nick to take you to the break room and you can meet him there." He paused, watching her for a reaction. She only nodded, indicating she understood. "Are you okay with that?"
"I'm fine with anything. You're the supervisor after all."
He was used to his CSIs being… he paused, trying to think of the right word… 'human' was one that sprung to mind. Not automatic. If she was trying to make a good impression, she wasn't entirely succeeding.
"Well Nick, if you would?"
Nick nodded, having hardly spoken until now. "Okay, break room right?"
"Yes, Nick. Break room."
With that the supervisor left, leaving Nick with Rachel. A pause lingered between them before Rachel broke the silence. "Are we just standing around all day?" Her words were punctuated by a light chuckle, characteristic of embarrassment.
Nick, suddenly realising that he'd just been staring at her, laughed as well. "Hey, let me show you around."
"Like a guided tour?"
Shaking his head, Nick continued the laugh. "Something like that. Come on," he continued, beckoning to her.
~~~
The evening had worn on, slowly but surely, for Greg. By now he had his stereo on, and was nodding his head unconsciously to the beat. Maybe tonight wasn't going to be such a bad night after all. Sara was suspended, that was definitely a bad thing. However, it was something that would be worked out in time. It wasn't half as bad as the knot in his stomach had told him it would be. And he'd already pulled himself out of dayshift's rubbish, a decent way into his own already.
Grinning, he suddenly wheeled across the lab on his swivel chair, having decided to change the music. There was one there that he wanted to listen to, one of the dayshift techs must've left it. He picked up the CD case, and looked at it for a while before popping the cover open and pulling out the disc and skipping straight to track ten.
Please tell me what
is takin' place,
Cuz I can't seem to find a trace,
Guess it must have got erased somehow,
Humming to himself, he put the track on repeat, and proceeded to skid back across the lab, towards the printer, which was spitting out a piece of paper as he arrived at a halt. He pulled it out almost before the printer had let go of it, and scrutinised it, as always taking advantage of being the first to see results.
It was blood from the Spring Valley case. And, surprise, surprise, it wasn't Sara's blood. Nor was it the victim's, nor did it bare even the slightest resemblance to the victim's DNA. So, nope, it wasn't the blood-relatives either. However, as Greg well knew, just because this evidence didn't implicate blood-relatives, it didn't mean that none of the evidence would.
Please tell me what
is takin' place,
Cuz I can't seem to find a trace,
Guess it must have got erased somehow,
He smiled a little at the irony, as the track hit the end and started up again just as he was thinking the same thought. "Not bad," he murmured, turning to take in the CD player appreciatively. "Not bad at all. We may get to know each really well, my friend."
"Hey, Greggo!"
Blinking, Greg turned to see Nick leaning in around the doorframe, a pretty blonde standing behind him. He turned in the swivel chair, his feet barely touching the floor. "Hey, what can I do ya for?"
"Thought you'd like to meet Sara's temp." He beckoned the blonde in. "Rachel Simmons."
Probably cuz I
always forget,
Everytime someone tells me their name,
It's always gotta be the same.
"Rachel, huh?" Greg cocked his head slightly, taking her in and building up an impression of her. Then he stood, peeling off one of his gloves and offered his hand to her. "Greg Sanders, local labrat."
"Nice to meet you," she said, smiling warmly at him. She was, noted Greg suddenly, being a very smiley person. Although that wasn't a bad thing, but it was a strange thing.
"Competition?" he said aloud, looking to Nick for confirmation. Nick of course, being Nick, got it instantly and nodded. Rachel, though, didn't.
"I'm sorry?"
"Just you're…" Greg indicated his own mouth to stress his point. "You're grinning a lot. Making me look bad. I'm a labrat, but I'm also a part-time clown." He smiled slightly, and shrugged, before pulling the glove back on. "Oh Nick, while you're here, I've got something for you."
"Oh, yeah?" Nick moved forward, instantly interested, and taking the offered piece of paper without comment.
"Not Sara, but there's no CODIS match, which is something I seem to keep saying today." Greg took a sigh of breath in thought. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get me some comparisons."
"What's his name? Bond?" said Rachel, smiling, but perhaps not as much as before.
Greg noticed this, but hardly skipped a beat. "Nope, Hunt, but close. Very close."
"It was a Mission Impossible reference," said Nick, almost apologetically.
"Oh, I see." Rachel paused uncomfortably. "I'm not a movie buff, you'll have to forgive me."
Greg shrugged, his opinion of Rachel suddenly becoming a little 'off'. "Hey, no worries. I'm the strange one that nobody pretends to understand. Right, Nick?"
Nick nodded with a smile. "So they say."
"Wish they'd stop saying it," said Greg, still grinning, if just until the guest, quickly turning invader of his personal bubble, had left. He turned, still sitting in the chair, to take another page out of the printer to scrutinise it. "Ruining my rep."
"What rep?"
"Ahh!" replied the tech, turning back and waving the paper at Nick scoldingly. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"As a matter of fact-"
"Out!" cried Greg suddenly, getting up and theatrically shooing them. "Out of my domain! You're invading my air!"
Nick shook his head in amusement. "Fine, fine, I'll extract myself from your 'domain'."
"Great, go on, shoo!"
Rachel tried to stifle laughter at the tech's antics, and was failing miserably. "Well," she said with a chuckle. "Great to have met you Greg. Maybe I'll come back and penetrate your domain again sometime."
"You do that I'll have to throw something at you!" He then lowered his arms, smiling. "No, seriously, whenever you like. Just not if you wanna harass me for results. Although bribing is good. Be sure to come if you want to bribe me!"
Nick shook his head, and beckoned to Rachel to follow him. "Come on, we don't want the attention going to his head. He might escape or something." He raised his hand to Greg in a farewell, which Greg returned, then turning back to his work thoughtfully.
In this head my
thoughts are deep,
But sometimes I can't even speak,
He raised a suspicious eyebrow in the direction of the CD player. "Psychic CD machines? There's something you don't see everyday."
Take some time,
Mellow out,
"I'm ignoring you."
Can't help it if I
space in a daze,
My eyes tune out the other way,
I may switch off and go in a daydream,
"Hey!" It suddenly struck Greg that he was alone in his lab… and talking to a CD player. That… was not good. "I'm still ignoring you." Shaking his head, he turned back to what he was doing, humming along with the song, and even singing along at some points, having already learned the chorus.