Title: Manufactured Catalyst
Author: FatesFolly
Summary: When a complicated case forces the CSI team to call in a criminalist with a speciality in criminal psychology, this stranger uncovers just as much about the team as the crime and forces them to re-evaluate relationships. (Casefile with eventual romance.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing (aside from Charlie and this plot). I just innocently borrow with good intent to return physically unharmed. (Mentally unharmed I can't guarantee.)
A/N: Since this plot is a bit AU, I'm going to say that it takes place between "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom" and "Formalities", leaving the team still together, Greg still needing to pass his final proficiency and Grissom's "guys who got away but I eventually caught" tally at two for two.
Chapter 1 - A Hole in the World
There's no such thing as the perfect crime. That's what Gil Grissom was thinking as he sat in his office, staring at the same set of case files that he'd been pouring over with a fine-tooth comb for the past two weeks. Every criminal left behind some evidence: a drop of blood, a minuscule fiber, a single flake of skin that identified them as who and what they were. More important, the evidence never lied. All you needed to do was find it. Naturally, that was often easier said than done, but this was almost to the point of being ridiculous. Two weeks, three murders, all unsolved. The grizzly nature of the homicides and the fact that all of the victims where prostitutes was causing the media to give the murderer the title "The New Ripper". Splashy headlines reading "Jack is Back" and "Ripper Strikes Vegas" were plastered on the front pages of newspaper and solemn-faced newscasters droned monotonously about the dangerous new criminal that continued to elude Las Vegas' finest.
A sudden knock on the door to his office caused Grissom to look up from the autopsy result he had been studying. The form of Detective Jim Brass was standing in the doorway, holding a thin manila folder. "Am I interrupting?", Brass questioned, raising an eyebrow at Grissom's intense expression.
"Well that depends." Grissom replied, adjusting his glasses.
"On what?" Brass held the file out slightly, offering it to the other man, almost hesitantly.
"On whether or not that file has any new information on our mystery killer." Grissom's voice was calm, although it held the slightest hit of the strain that the entire team was feeling.
"It has something that should help your investigation." Nodding with satisfaction as the proffered file was taken and slowly paged through, Brass continued. "I took the liberty of calling an old colleague of mine from New Jersey. I remembered him mentioning a criminalist with a speciality in criminal psychology last time I talked to him, and thought that might be useful with this 'Ripper' case."
"Now just a minute. My team is totally capable of uncovering the evidence on our own without any outside help." Grissom narrowed his eyes, although his natural curiosity got the better of him and he opened the file, angrily leafing through it.
"I figured you'd say that. But just look at some of those credentials. Pretty impressive." A smug smile played on Brass' lips as he watch Grissom's expression subtly change as he read some of the papers. "If nothing else, it would be a fresh pair of eyes."
"And the Camden Police department is just going to lend this Charlie Kennard to us?", Grissom asked apprehensively.
"If you'll look, it won't be the first time Charlie has worked for another city. Pretty impressive career for only being on the force six years."
"So when can this Charlie get here? I'll assume that it will be at least 24 hours? During which, might I add, we could find the piece of evidence that will solve this case." Grissom's voice continued to be doubtful, obviously still not totally convinced.
"Actually, Chuck booked a flight as soon as I called about this. Seems that this case is of particular interest. Your new criminal psychologist should be here in about 4 hours." Brass' face now had a slightly smug smirk on it.
"Well, good to know 'Chuck' is enthusiastic." Grissom stood up from his desk brushing past Brass as he made his way out of his office. "I should tell the rest of the team to be expecting a new member..." Turning back around for a moment, he quirked a brow at Brass. "And I'd think you'd know better by now thank to buy into the media hype about 'the Ripper'." Without another word, Gil Grissom strode confidently down the hall.
"I can't believe that Grissom is just letting some criminalist from New Jersey onto this caseཀ" Catherine Willows was visibly enraged, standing up angrily from her seat at the break room table. "Does he not trust us? I mean, this is our caseཀ"
"Calm down Catherine." Nick Stokes said in his casual southern drawl. "I'm sure Grissom trusts us. Like he said, this is just another pair of eyes. Probably just background noise just so that we can say that we're doin' everything that we can."
"I don't know man...this Charlie guy could be a real trip. I mean, a psychiatrist... That's a whole different methodology we're talking about." Warrick Brown shook his head a few times. "I gotta go with Catherine on this one."
"I trust Grissom. If he thinks that this guy can help us, then maybe he can. And if he's too cocky, then this case should knock him down a few pegs." Sarah Sidle give a slight shrug of her shoulders, although her eyes were flashing with traces of doubt and annoyance.
"What I want to know is why we need someone from New Jersey. That's the armpit of America. I mean, aren't there enough brain docs here in Nevada?" Greg Sanders looked up from a book he was reading in preparation for his final proficiency test.
"An' why do we need a DNA analyst turned CSI from California G?", Nick countered, chuckling.
"Touche." Greg replied, holding up a finger to illustrate his point.
Nervous laughter erupted through the group, obviously a much-needed break in the thick layer of tension that had settled since the case started. However, the mirthful sound quickly ended as a sharp wrapping was hear on the door to the break room. Catherine, still standing, was the first to go and open the door. However, Nick was the first to greet the figure standing in the doorway.
She was short, only about 5'2", and rather slim, although it was hard to tell with her choice in clothing. She was wearing a black blazer and matching knee-length skirt, although rather than a dress blouse and pumps that would have completed the professional look, she was wearing a black "Led Zeppelin" tee-shirt and cherry-red high-top Chuck Taylors. Her hair was dark auburn color, wavy and a little past her shoulders, falling into her eyes which were framed in a pair of neon-green, cats-eye glasses. Chewing on her bottom lip, she had one hand on a battered black messenger bag which was sling over her shoulder and obviously filled to capacity. Her grey-green eyes darted from side to side nervously, although she remained facing straight ahead.
"Hi there, can I help ya?", Nick asked, his naturally friendly demeanor shining through.
"Are you Doctor Gilbert Grissom?", the woman asked, her voice edgy yet monotonous.
"Uh, no. Nick Stokes, Las Vegas Crime Lab. Actually, Grissom is a bit busy right now...ya can leave anything ya need to deliver to him at the front desk." Nick held out his hand in greeting, at the same time gesturing to the desk at the main entrance to the building.
Totally ignoring the proffered hand, the woman looked Nick in the eyes. "No. I need to speak with Doctor Grissom personally."
"He's actually waitin' for someone right now. If ya need to make a report, ya can do that at the front desk as well. Or ya can talk to one of us." Nick offered the woman a warm smile, not seeming to be put-off by her brash mannerisms. After all, a lot of victims were often rude when dealing with police. And if she was here to deliver some new specimen of insect...well...a little spunk was more than expected.
"You don't understand. I NEED to speak with Doctor Grissom RIGHT NOW." The woman's eyes never left Nick's. "I need to deliver several things to him and file more than a few reports. I also need to get started with...well, I can't even begin to list everything that I need to get started with." She glanced down at her watch, a well worn digital purple Timex with more buttons that most alarm clocks. "I'm already twenty-seven minutes behind schedule. And I even factored in an extra hour and forty-three minutes for the flight down from Jersey..."
"Wait, wait." Catherine held up her hand, walking over to the other woman. "Did you say 'Jersey'?" A look of slight confusion combined with sudden understanding crossed her pretty features. However, before she was able to continue, another figure appeared in the doorway.
"I see you've met Charlie Kennard." Grissom's expression could only be described as knowing smugness. Looking between the obviously flustered though fairly placid, newcomer and the rest of the team, he continued, "Charlie, this is Nick Stokes, Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown, Sara Sidle and Greg Sanders, my team." He pointed to each team member in turn as he introduced them. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Charlie Kennard."
Giving everyone a curt nod in greeting, Charlie turned to Grissom. "Doctor Grissom, I'm now thirty-one minutes behind schedule. I'd really like to get started as soon as possible." Face still fairly void of emotion, she gestured to a cooler outside of the door. "And I have a few things that I need refrigerated."
"Food?", Greg asked, absently leafing through the large book in his lap.
Turning around casually, Charlie replied in her edgy, monotonous tone, "It's the frontal lobe of a Cebus albifrons. Essentially, a monkey brain."
The silence that followed was deafening.
A/N: Okay, first fanfic. Hope that I have the characters down enough to make this believable. Don't worry, there won't be any romance between Charlie and any of the characters. She's just a carefully crafted plot device. She was created before Aisha Taylor's character Mia Dickerson was introduced into the series, so any similarities are just proof that great minds think alike. Or something.
(Also, some minor changes have been made from the original posting. So this is version 1.1)