Visiting Vegas

Standard disclaimer applies to everything.

A/N: I have nothing against Buicks.


"But this isn't Clue, so it probably isn't that simple." I stated.

"But, Melanie, Clue isn't simple. I always guess wrong." Sarah said. "I mean, I get all the info I can, but in the end I'm always wrong."

"Well, you just need to-"

"Why don't we focus on the important thing here," Melissa interrupted. "Like Kelly and Aubree and the fact that they aren't here."

Sarah and I hung our heads. "Yeah… I guess that's more important than Clue results… Anyway, I still don't think it could be so simple. I mean, anyone with even two brain cells would at least think to possibly shake it up by sending her brother to do the dirty work."

My friends pondered this a moment before nodding their heads in agreement.

"So what are we gonna do? We haven't received a 'be quite or your friends will get it' kinda note, so are we not supposed to talk to the cops or can we just go ahead and help?" Daniel raised a very good point.

"Well, I am going to not be quiet." Melissa stated firmly. We looked at her.

"Great. You have fun not being quiet." Sarah said.

"I mean, I'm going to cooperate. I'm going to talk to the cops. No keeping quiet here," she clarified. We nodded.

Nick emerged from the guys' room and began on the living room thing. Another ten minutes and he was standing with us waiting for Greg to finish. Another ten minutes and he was still standing with us and waiting for Greg to finish.

"Nick…" Brass said, leaning his head towards the door Greg had gone through.

"Yeah," he answered. He turned and walked over to the door. Sticking his head in, he said in a slightly loud voice, "Greg! Aren't you done yet, man? We've still got the car and spa to do!"

"Hey," Greg's voice came back. "I've got a question for someone."

"Don't touch it," Nick said as he went in.

"I'm not going to mess anything up. I just don't understand it." Greg's voice faded as Nick drew closer, rendering the need for increased volume unnecessary. We couldn't really hear what was being said but we could tell by the tones that did carry back that both men were confused. Pretty soon we heard Nick again. "Hey, Brass? Come here for a sec, will you?"

After giving us a stern look that very clearly said 'move from this spot and you'll be cuffed in seconds,' Brass stepped through the door and joined the mass of mystery waiting in the room beyond. And then he was back, giving us each a look of annoyed curiosity.

"Okay, which one of you changed the sheets?" he said almost disbelieving. "And why?"

Oh, crap. I mostly just blinked at him. Everyone else was looking at me, so I guess it was pretty obvious it was me. So I gathered my thoughts and said, "That would be me." Brass raised his eyebrow at me. Oh yeah, the 'why' part. "Haven't you seen what's on public sheets? I'm talking serious gross out. I can't sleep on- ew, gross."

Brass was looking at me like I was crazy. Then he shook his head. "Well, come back with me and show the CSI's where you stashed the normal sheets."

Following him, I allowed myself a secret smile. I got to see more Nick and Greg. Mwahaha. It was actually pretty weird to see them standing over my bed with their gloves on. They were all professional and it was like, whoa. So my secret smile died a bit. But it couldn't die completely because I mean, it was Nick and Greg, after all. So, as they watched I went to one of the cupboard/drawer things and opened the bottom one. Inside were stuffed the offending sheets. Nick moved in to collect them, while Greg started in on my nice, not gross new ones. I watched sadly, hoping sheets didn't cost too much in Las Vegas. I guess Greg must have noticed that I didn't look too thrilled with the disappearing act my sheets were trying out so he said something.

"You know, bringing your own sheets is a pretty awesome idea. And they're great colors." He smiled at me as he stuffed my sheets in a bag.

At first I wasn't sure what to think. I mean, not everyone thinks that bright orange and bright blue sheets go together. But then, it was Greg. So I smiled back. "Thanks. The cashier asked if I was color blind when I bought them." Greg snorted. "I think she was serious, too." My brow furrowed as I pondered why she would ask that. Whatever. Greg liked them. I smiled some more. I think it was beginning to turn into a silly grin.

"Are you?" he asked.

"No. I have great color sight. Just not so good vision. What about you? Th- erm. Yeah, what about you?" I mentally smacked my forehead. I'd almost said 'they never said on the show.' Can you believe it? Oh, man.

"Uh, no, I'm good. Blue equals blue and all that." He was looking at me funny. Oh, man. He finished writing on the seal/label thingy and turned to find Nick in conversation with Brass. So he turned back to me and asked, "So what do you do?"

I wasn't ready for a continuation of our conversation, so it took me a moment to catch up. "What do I…? Oh, like my job." I nodded my understanding. "I'm a doctor. Mostly."

"Mostly? How can you be 'mostly' a doctor?"

"Well, I just finished my internship a few months ago. So I'm still just kinda getting started. So I'm mostly a doctor."

"I see. I guess that's kinda like me being mostly a CSI." He nodded his understanding at me. His hair was so cute.

"Yes, exactly! You're building a foundation, I'm building a foundation." And this topic was officially exhausted. I tried to come up with something less complicated to talk about. "What's your favorite kind of music?" Lame, I know.

"Rock. I really dig Marilyn Manson."

"Really?" I tried to act like this was news, but it was hard. So I talked. "Have you seen the video for (s)AINT? There's this guy in it that has a smile a lot like yours."

That got me another smile. Yay. "Have you been checking out my smile?"

"Among other things." I replied cheekily.

"Oh really?" He smiled some more. "And what do you think?"

And the silly grin officially entered. I was about to answer when Nick walked over.

"Okay, you two flirty birds. Greggo, we're done here." He turned to me. "You wanna call that valet now?"

Still grinning I nodded. So we all filed out into the living room thing where I picked up the phone and called for Bjork.

"…five minutes? That's fine. …… Okay, thanks!" I hung up. "They'll have Bjork right out. Do you need someone to come with you? To identify it?"

"Yeah, sure." Greg said before Nick could even open his mouth. "That'd be great."

"I wanna come." Melissa said.

"Yeah, me too." Daniel said.

"I'm coming, too." Christie said.

"Sock," Dante added.

So the four of us trooped off to the elevator with our three investigators. It didn't hit me until we were all in the elevator how silly this was. It actually caused me to giggle.

"What?" Daniel asked, poking me.

"Well, I was just wondering," I started, looking around at us. "How many tourists does it take to i.d. a Bjork?" And I giggled again. Melissa rolled her eyes and Daniel gave a weak smile. Nick, however had to raise his hand to try to cover his smile. And yes, I realize it was a shameless play on the old 'how many dogs does it take to screw in a light bulb' but I couldn't help it. I mean, FOUR of us to say 'hey, yeah, that's our car'? Overkill if you ask me. Anyway, I thought it was funny. There was no time to expound on this though, as we had reached the ground floor and Bjork was waiting. We swept out of the elevator and into the lobby. Of course, we ended up being three minutes too early for Bjork so we stood around outside waiting, like most everyone else. Only we were more special because we had Brass with his spiffy badge and the two luggage lugging CSI's. So of course we were cooler than your average tourists.

"Uh, is that your van?" Nick leaned over and asked. He was pointing to the big red monstrosity rolling towards the curb.

"Yep, that's Bjork!" I replied cheerfully. Then I had a thought that made me pause. "You aren't going to have to take it in, are you? I mean, we could always get another car, but…"

"Don't worry. Unless we find something suspicious, you can keep it." Nick assured us. "Greg, you wanna take the front?"

"Sure." He moved off around the vehicle and opened the driver's door.

Before heading off to his own search, Nick turned and asked, "Can you give me some kind of seating plan? You know, who sat where?"

"Sure," Melissa piped up. "Aubree sat in the back seat next to the window, Kelly sat next to her. Sarah was next to her and Daniel was on the end, for leg room and all. Josh sat next to the window in the middle seat and Emily was next to him. Nikki was next and I sat on the end. Kinda. Melanie was driving and Christie sat shotgun."

Nick smiled at her. "Thanks." And off he went to pick up hair and look for suspicious materials.

While they were occupied, Melissa and I needed to talk. So….. "If you'll excuse us, we need to use the little girls' room…." And I grabbed her arm and pulled her away. Linking arms we went back inside.

"Oh my gosh, you'll never believe it! Guess what!" I burst out some what quietly.

"What?"

"I- oh my gosh, I can't believe it!"

"What?"

I turned to her with a stupid grin on my face. "You'll be so proud of me." She gave me a don't-make-me-hurt-you look so I continued. "I flirted with Greg."

She stared at me. "You what?"

"I flirted with Greg," I repeated.

"Oh my gosh! You flirted? But I thought…"

"But remember, you taught me." I faltered. "Well, you tried… But, look it finally sank in! And GREG of all people!" We were both practically jumping up and down.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so proud of you! Tell me everything!"

So, forgetting we were supposed to be in the restroom, we sat down in the lobby and proceeded to rehash everything I had said to Greg. Then everyone trooped back in and we were caught.

"I thought you said you needed the bathroom." Daniel said suspiciously.

"Uh…. So did we, but it must have been the sun because as soon as we got back inside we were fine." Melissa said. Good thing, too, because I was too busy with a half silly, half guilty grin on my face. I could tell Greg knew what we had been talking about because he was obviously trying hard not to smile.

I think Brass just gave up on us because he gave us one of those half smiles and said, "We'll be in touch."

As soon as they were gone, Melissa and I started laughing like there was no tomorrow. Daniel was like 'okay….'

"Can we get back to the room now?" Christie asked.

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead." We followed her back to the elevator.

Getting in she demanded to know what that was all about. I eyed her. She'd probably either get mad at me or roll her eyes. Depended on her mood. I was hoping for the eye roll because there was really no point in yelling at me. I opened my mouth to say something, but Melissa beat me to the punch line.

"She flirted. With Greg."

And now I was blushing. I'd been waiting for that since I saw him. Thankfully Christie only rolled her eyes and called me crazy. I laughed. Melissa laughed. Daniel shook his head at us. Christie tried not to smile, but I could see it lurking there beneath the surface. I laughed again.

Upon arriving back at the room, we found that the others had devised a plan of action. Basically, we'd keep worrying about Aubree and Kelly and carry out our plans anyway. Brilliant, wasn't it? The only problem was that none of us could remember if we had any plans for that night. So we decided to start anew. We decided to head over to the Liberace Museum! Yay! So we called the valet to have them bring Bjork back out. Fortunately for them, they hadn't put Bjork back yet. So we all trooped to the elevator and through the lobby. Outside, Bjork sat large and shiny. We piled in and Christie pulled out a map. Heck, it was close. We found our mark and set off was

Ok, now I'm not one to judge, but Liberace was scary! The museum was filled to bursting with big scary sparkly things. I think this guy had a rhinestone fetish… And his clothes! Geez, he had bigger collars than Elvis and all those capes! Gosh. I was sure I'd have nightmares for a week. Some of his pianos were pretty awesome though. I'm not exactly sure how he could concentrate on music while sitting at some of them, but they were cool. Melissa and Daniel were falling in love with them, that's for sure.

"Oh my gosh, Daniel! Look at that one! It's practically a picture!"

"Check out that one, Fish! It's… it's…. wow."

And so on and so forth. Most of it scared me. And Christie. And Nikki. I think Josh was pretty unmoved, but that's not unusual. Emily and Sarah were having lots of fun laughing at the clothes. I couldn't wait to get out of there. Eventually (like three hours later) we did. Sarah, Daniel, Melissa and I wanted to walk the three miles back to our hotel, so Christie and the others hopped in Bjork and left us. The four of us set of at a leisurely pace, just strolling merrily along. Well, maybe not exactly 'merrily,' but close enough.

"So… Love monkeys… What's new in your department?" I inquired. "Who won that golf game?"

"Uh… She did."

"Yes, I did. And I don't cheat." Sarah's voice was very firm. Obviously we didn't wanna go there.

"Hey, random fact, did you know that the word 'golf' is actually an acronym?" I said, hoping to lighten the mood. "It stands for 'gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.' Betcha didn't know that."

"And you learned this where?" Melissa said.

"Back in high school. The girls in the office and I were trying to win something off the radio and Rae found this trivial info sight that had the answer as well as other stuff." I shrugged.

Daniel and Sarah snickered and Melissa just rolled her eyes. Like I said, it was a random fact. They just didn't seem to appreciate it. So, ignoring them I took to humming a spiffy song.

"Hm... hmm. Hmhmhm. Hmhmhm…. Obsession, you're my obsession…. Hm. Hmhm." I was very happy with my song and Melissa started talking to Daniel and Sarah, so everything was good.

"So what's that you're humming?" The voice was right behind me.

I practically jumped out of my skin in surprise and turned around swinging. I mean, it was Vegas after all and I was not about to become some homicide statistic. Then my turning head brought my eyes around and I saw who I was swinging at. And that practically made me jump out of my skin again as I tried to stop my fist from connecting with that absolutely perfect nose. Yep, it was Greg. And Nick. Whoo! Double hotness!

"Augh…" I said oh so cleverly. "Sorry," I covered. By now my three friends had turned around to see what was going on so I had an audience. I was red with embarrassment.

"Good reflexes," Nick said with a smile. Great smile.

"Yeah, 'cept it was me she was reflex-ing on," Greg said with a grin. Fabulous grin.

"Yeah, well, Vegas, baby. Not exactly the land of sunshine and butterflies," I said. "So what are you doing here? I figured you'd be doing something really scientific-y with my sheets."

We all started walking as Greg replied. "Naw, we're done with them for now. They're clean, although there were some pretty nice epithelia on 'em."

"Were you checking out my epithelia?"

"Among other things." He replied with a crooked grin.

I had just opened my mouth to say something when Melissa interrupted.

"So what are you doing here? Not that I'm complaining or anything…" she trailed off. It was a fair question. I mean, two CSI's just didn't randomly show up for no reason. Right?

"Well…" Nick said.

"Actually, it was Nick's idea. We were just driving by when we saw you walking and Nick said we should stop and walk with you." Greg said.

"Yeah." Nick agreed. "Can't have too much back up when your people are disappearing."

"That's so nice!" Melissa said, smiling at Nick. The two of them started talking about something or other.

"So, what were you humming? We covered my music taste kinda, but what about you?" Greg was inquired.

"Oh it was, um, Obsession, by… um… Animal, Animush, Animotion! That's who. I love the 80's." I grinned.

Greg was about to say something back when suddenly some random jogger guy ran by and bumped into Melissa. Hard. And he didn't even say sorry. Totally thrown off balance, she toppled off the curb and into the road.

"Gosh dang it!" She said in a frustrated manner. She turn back towards us when this huge car, a Buick, I think, came careening down the road. From the far lane came the sound of screeching tires as someone slammed on they're brakes. This huge black puppy had bounded out into traffic and was heading straight for Melissa. Drawing near, the dog launched itself at her. The rest of us watched in horrified slow motion. The careening Buick getting nearer and nearer, the huge puppy flying closer and closer. Its front paws connected with her legs at mid-thigh, causing her to stagger a bit. The dog, motionless now, just stared up at her looking for all the world like a confused eight-year-old. And the Buick was still getting closer.

"Mel!" Daniel said loudly.

She looked up and saw the car almost on top of her now. She bent down an scooped the puppy up. Well kind of. More like smlooshed it towards the curb as she turned to step onto the sidewalk. It didn't really work very well. Girl and dog tripped over each other and kinda flolloped onto the sidewalk and out of the Buick's path. It swept past and both Melissa and the puppy were unharmed.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Whoa, that was close." She shook her head as if trying to clear it. "Whoa. What about the dog?"

Nick stood up from where he'd been kneeling over the dog. "Yeah, he's fine. Newfoundland puppy."

"Aw, he's so cute!" I bent and picked him up. It wasn't really that easy because he was big. So it took a few attempts and lots of gathering before he was actually in my arms and up. "Look at him! He's so fluffy!" Every moved in and was petting him. He licked Melissa's hand. "He likes you best, Fish. I bet he was trying to save you!"

"No way," she said, petting him more.

"I bet he was! Oh, you have to keep him. What are you gong to name him?"

"Name him? I can't keep him! We're in a hotel!" she protested weakly.

"Is that it? We can sneak him in easy. Come on, you can't just leave him out here. He might get hit by some other evil Buick."

I could see that she was caving, but the puppy himself sealed it when he licked her chin. "Oh, fine. We'll keep him."

"Yay! So what are you gonna name him?" I jumped up and down.

"Uh…."

"Oh, name him Jebadiah!" I said eagerly. "We can call him Jeb for short!"

"Wha-"

"Great! It's settled then."

Melissa set him down and we started walking again. We just had about a mile to go and it was completely uneventful. We talked, laughed at the puppy, and had an all around good time. But then we were there. And Nick and Greg had to go.

"So, uh, maybe I'll see you around. Investigating and stuff." I said, scuffing my green clad foot of the ground.

"Maybe in the Stratosphere lobby… at, oh… five? On Monday?" Greg said back with a smile.

"Oh? You seem pretty sure about that."

"Yeah, I am." We smiled at each other.

Once inside the elevator, I started wiggin' out. Man, oh man! Greg, the Stratosphere, and me! Whoo! It took me a few minutes to realize that the puppy was with us. No one even stopped us to say 'hey, no fuzzy black puppies allowed.' Melissa and I hi-fived. Then we were at our floor and out of the elevator. As we approached our door we noticed a piece of paper taped to it. Daniel move to pluck it off.

"Don't touch it!" I said. "It might be evidence!"

Sarah turned to me. "Evidence of what?"

"I don't know."

Daniel read it from the door. "'Don't talk to coppers. Otherwise your little friends will get it.' Wow. That sounds threatening."

"Bugger. Go call Brass or somebody," I told them. "I've got a plan."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Oh, great."