Moving On

Disclaimer: Are any of you surprised that I don't own the rights to CSI? I'm not.

Chapter Six

Sara's flight into Denver arrived right on time. She gathered her luggage and scanned the crowd for Lucy, who was going to pick her up.

"Sara! Hey, over here," a voice rang out.

"Hi Lucy," Sara smiled, recognizing her new friend.

"It doesn't seem like it's been two weeks already," Lucy grabbed one of Sara's bags, "how were your last couple weeks in Vegas?"

"Relatively uneventful," Sara said, "thanks again for everything."

"No problem," Lucy smiled.

"How have things been here?" Sara asked.

"Not too bad. We're actually in the middle of a serial murderer case right now," Lucy sighed, "I'm sure you'll get filled in on it."

"Well that sounds like a great place to get started out," Sara said.

"I actually think Fred is looking forward to getting a new pair of eyes on the evidence. And your lab is known for a high solve rate. We're feeling pretty lucky to have found you," Lucy explained.

"I was feeling pretty lucky to have found a new job so quickly," Sara laughed, "so I guess it's a win-win situation."

"I hope you will like it here," Lucy loaded Sara's luggage into her car, "Denver's a good city, but I'd imagine it's really different from Vegas."

"I have the feeling Denver's a little more tame than Vegas," Sara told her.

"Are some of the stories we hear, about the crazy stuff that goes on there true?" Lucy asked.

"Well I don't know exactly what you've heard," Sara said, "but probably. I've seen lots of weird things. We had one case where we found a dead man in a raccoon suit. There was a whole convention of 'furries'. It turned out his death was a case of mistaken identity, he was shot by a man who thought he was a coyote and then he was accidentally hit by a car. And there were lots of cases even weirder than that."

"I don't think we've had anything quite as odd as that here," Lucy shook her head.

"It might be a nice change of pace to have less bizarre cases. I suppose no crime is normal, but it seems like all the weirdoes converge on Vegas," Sara said.

"So, I got most of your stuff a couple days ago and put it into storage. We can stop there so you can pick out the things you need until you find your own place," Lucy explained.

"Okay," Sara agreed, "I really appreciate you letting me live with you. It saves me a lot of trouble. I can start working right away because I don't have to worry about where I'm staying."

"Hey it's not a problem. It might be fun having another girl around," Lucy told her.

"I've lived alone for the longest time," Sara said, "I don't think I've had a roommate since college."

"For the most part I haven't either. Once I had a friend staying in town, but she didn't last. Said the weather was too crazy and headed back to California," Lucy shook her head, "personally I like the way the weather is around here. It can be 70 degrees one day and there can be a foot of snow on the ground the next. Where else can you get such a variety of weather?"

"Is it really that crazy?" Sara asked.

"Pretty much. Our motto is 'If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes'. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but we do get a variety of weather. We had a blizzard back in March of 2003, earlier in the day it had been warm, but rainy. Woke up the next day and found two feet of snow on the ground. By that Wednesday, the whole city of Denver was shut down," Lucy smiled in memory, "we must have had nearly four feet of snow total."

"Wow, I haven't seen much snow in a long time," Sara said, "do you get a lot of heavy snow here?"

"Not in town. We get snow all winter and spring, but it's usually only a few inches at a time and it almost always melts in the next day or two," Lucy assured her, "snow doesn't stick around here long."

"Well that's good," Sara laughed, "I don't think I'm built for snow."

"Oh you'll get used to it," Lucy smiled, "I guarantee it."

"That's reassuring," Sara shook her head.

"It's really not that bad, you just have to know how to drive in it mostly. Don't drive like a maniac and you're fine. I swear half the people in Colorado drive faster in the snow than they do in the regular weather," Lucy laughed.

"Are you sure you're not trying to scare me away?" Sara asked.

"No, really, you will love it in Colorado," Lucy promised.

Sara rode to work with Lucy as she hadn't received her vehicle from the department yet. Lucy didn't mind taking her in early so Fred Mayer could give her the basic tour of the crime lab and get her ready for her first day at work. Sara was working the nightshift in Denver, so she was already adjusted to the hours.

"Welcome back to Denver Sara," Fred grinned upon spotting the newest member of his team.

"Hi," Sara said.

"So you survived your last few weeks in Vegas I take it," Fred joked.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Sara asked.

"Yes you are, ready for the grand tour?" Fred asked.

"I am," Sara smiled.

"Okay, well I don't know what your lab is like, but there's got to be the same basic stuff," Fred started, "DNA lab, trace lab, layout room, all the fun stuff that we need. I'll introduce you to our techies and everyone you need to know. For the first several cases, I'll make sure you're not working solo. Just until you get the hang of how things work here. I wouldn't want you getting lost in an unfamiliar city anyway."

"It took a while to get used to Vegas, now I get to learn a whole new city," Sara said, "but that's part of the new job in a different city."

"I hope you'll like it here, and I suggest that if you don't have any cold weather gear, go buy it now because you'll need it. Of course you'll have coats and everything provided for when you're on the scene, but I suggest you get your own for when you're not at work," Fred advised her.

"I'll be sure and do that, I'm not used to very cold weather," Sara laughed.

"I would imagine not," Fred said, "the desert doesn't exactly bring snowstorms to mind."

"No," Sara agreed, "it definitely doesn't. Sometimes it was cool enough to warrant wearing a coat, particularly in the mountains, but mostly we didn't need to."

"Ah, you'll adjust to the weather here, I mean as much as one can adjust to this weather, it's a little bit on the unpredictable side," Fred laughed.

"I know, Lucy was telling me all about it," Sara said, "not looking forward to the snow."

"We also have approximately 300 days of sunshine a year, it's just not always warm," Fred smiled, "you'll be okay. I imagine your first snowstorm will be fun, but after that you'll be fine. This is our DNA lab. I see the nightshift tech isn't in yet, but this is Diane Harris, the daytime tech, so you may work with her sometimes."

"Hello," Sara greeted the woman.

"Hi, you're Sara?" Diane asked.

"Yes," Sara nodded.

"I figured, you're the only new person around here right now, it's not quite time for the new class of rookies yet," Diane explained, "at least you'll be a little ahead of them by the time they get here."

A/N: Well with Spring Break, I'm finding more time to write, so don't let yourself get spoiled by the more frequent updates ;). Because next week, it's back to classes and little time to write. Thanks as always for reading/reviewing. And the stuff I said about Colorado weather is from experience, I have lived here for about 15 years now.

Thank you to the person who pointed out Sara would have seen over a foot of snow. She went to Harvard, not Yale (at least according to her Personnel profile on CSI page). I totally forgot about that when I when I wrote this chapter.