Chapter Seven: Confrontation

Greg let out a sigh as he made his way to the table. Before he could get there though, Candi came up along side him.

"You mind if I sit with you guys?" he asked.

Sara, who had just sat down at the table, nodded, sliding in against the window as Greg sat down next to her. Candi took a seat across from them.

"This is really amazing," Candi started, taking a bite of the meatloaf on his plate. "Who would have ever thought that no two fingerprints are alike!"

"Yeah, really," Greg muttered with a small smile. "Fingerprints 101, CSI's best friend."

It was their second class, and they had done nothing more than take notes, once again. Greg and Sara had cut back on jotting down the ideas given to them by their instructor, who had felt it was a good idea to review basic knowledge. Still, they had four hours until class would end.

Sara, learning from last time, had made a salad the night before, bringing that for lunch. Luckily enough, the small potluck set out today had a wider variety of food, so Sara had also gone through the line as well.

She was about to take her first bite when Candi reached over and pulled her plate away. "I can't believe some people," he said, "such pigs, taking all the food and leaving a lady with nothing but side dishes."

He said this as he started piling some of his own food onto her plate. Sara watched, speechless as Greg tried his hardest not to laugh.

"Don't worry about me," Candi continued, "I have enough to spare. I eat more than most people, but I'm still growing, you know, I need my strength. This is the most critical time for development, well, the second most critical, I mean, considering when you are in your first several years of life. But you can't really control that time, it's all up to your parents on what you eat. This is the first critical time you choose for yourself. I hope you don't mind your meat being rare."

"Actually," Sara said calmly, "I'm a vegetarian."

"Really?" Candi laughed as he pushed her plate back towards here. "My sister's a vegetarian too, and you won't believe this." Candi leaned forward, whispering as if he had a secret. "She refuses to eat any kind of meat!"

"No way," Sara said slowly as Greg choked on his drink. "You okay?" Sara asked him.

Greg nodded, "Yeah," he responded, using a napkin to wipe the coffee off his chin.

"It's so odd," Candi continued as if nothing had happened, "She hasn't eaten meat for years now. I keep telling her she needs to get to a doctor, I mean, it has to be some horrible kind of disease or something, in order for someone not eating meat."

"I know what you mean," Sara sighed, looking at her plate. "I'm not really that hungry, big breakfast."

"I didn't have any" Candi admitted, "not enough time; have to get as much sleep as possible, need to be fresh and ready for class. Can you believe I've only taken 53 pages of notes so far?"

"Only?" Greg wondered, watching the young man.

"I know, I know, it's really bad, I should be paying more attention, but there's so much information. Hey, we get out to do field work next week; do you think I can be with you guys?"

"I think they pick the teams," Sara spoke up quickly, twirling her napkin in her fingers.

Candi nodded, "Well, if they don't, can I?"

Sara was reluctant to nod, but finally did so after a short moment. "Sure, I don't see why not.

"Great," Candi chimed, "um, you'll have to excuse me for a moment, but I need to use the little boy's room," he said, holding up a finger.

"Thanks for that information," Sara said ironically as he left. Next to her Greg burst out laughing, unable to hold it in any longer.

"You have got to be kidding me," he said to her in between laughs. "This kid cannot be for real."

Sara shook her head, "I'm scared to ask. Either he's a complete idiot, or an undercover stand up comedian." She let out a sigh, watching as Greg picked up her plate, placing it at the end of the table.

After class the trio made their way back to their cabins, flashlights in their hands. Any day that they had classes were pretty much shot, you went to class in the dark, and left the class in the dark. And this was really dark, not like the dark back in Vegas. Come to think of it, it never really got dark there, unless of course there was a power outage. There were so many lights in that city, at least around the strip. Once you got further out, it became darker, but for here, this was pretty much black.

Candi had talked non-stop on the way back; Greg was far more than grateful when they came to the path that led up to his cabin. However, Candi wasn't done talking just yet.

"Then my mother left my father after my father found out my mother was having an affair with the next door neighbor. Which is odd because normally it's the other way around, the father leaves the mother, or the mother leaves the father…well, whoever finds out that the other person is having an affair is the one to leave first. In this case, my case, the person having the affair left the other person."

Greg barely listened, blinking in the dim light. He could barely see the young man's face, but it was quite evident that he wasn't going to stop soon. What was worse was that the temperature was dropping; Greg shivered as an icy blast of wind hit them from behind.

"Candi?"

The three shined their flashlights up the path to see an older man walking down towards them.

"Hey Frank," Candi waved towards the approaching form.

"What are you doing out here? You have testing tomorrow," the man asked, shining his own flashlight on the threesome.

"Just talking, we're not causing any harm," the young man started, but Frank cut him off.

"You have plenty of time later to talk, right now you need to get inside and get some studying done. I'm not covering your ass again if you're not ready for the test."

"Okay, okay," Candi complained, "I'll catch you two later I guess," he said his goodbyes as made his way up the trail. The older man turned to him.

"I'm sorry you got stuck with him," he apologized, "Candi's not the brightest crayon in the box, but he's virtually harmless."

"You are?" Sara asked, moving a step closer to Greg as another blast of wind threatened to knock them down.

"Detective Randolph, I work with the Denver Crime Lab," he shook their hands.

"Sara Sidle, and Greg Sanders," Sara said in reply, "Las Vegas Crime Lab."

Randolph nodded, "If he's ever a bother for you two, just let me know. I'm in charge of him while we're up here. Sometimes he tends to get carried away."

"Is he really working to be a CSI then?" Greg wondered, shivering still.

They could barely see him nod, "He's trying. Don't think he'll make it, poor lad, but then again if it wasn't for his father then he wouldn't even be here."

"Why is that?" Sara wondered.

"His father is the head detective of the lab back in Denver; he's threatened to sue us for discrimination if we cut him off. So Candi applied for the position, we let him take it, and he's been working hard and doing a fairly good job, only problem is he doesn't remember much for long. It seems like we have to sit him down every week and reteach everything to him. Boss sent him out here just to get him away from the lab for a while. Place is behind and Candi's not too much of a help in those situations."

"Does he have any medical problems?" Greg asked.

"None that his records indicate, rumors say that his father wiped them out due to embarrassment. There has to be something, but then again we all have some sort of problem. Candi's not a bad kid; just he's had a hard past life, no one there for him. Father too busy working, mother could care less."

"If he wants to hang around us at times, we don't mind," Sara told Randolph, "as long as it's not all the time, or around dinner."

Randolph laughed, "I heard about that, I'm sorry. I'll explain it to him tonight."

"You heard about it already?" Greg asked, laughing as well.

"Yeah, news travels fast in this town. You'd be surprised. Anyhow, I need to get back and make sure he's actually doing something constructive, and you best get inside before you freeze on the spot there."

Greg nodded thankfully as they turned away. The wind was bitterly cold against his face as the two trudged on in silence. There were advantages, and disadvantages to having their cabin on the outskirts of the town. It was a lot quieter than the ones closer in the middle, but as in this situation, it seemed to take forever.

They were halfway there when another set of flashlights came up from behind them. The two ignored them, not thinking much, until a voice called out to them. With a groan, Greg turned around to see who it was. He was freezing, the wind was blowing stronger now, and he could no longer feel his hands and feet.

"You two the Las Vegas CSI right?" one asked.

Greg nodded, shining his flashlight on their face. He didn't recognize either of them, but that wasn't odd, there were over 300 people at the convention, and they had been here for only four days.

"Can we help you?" Sara asked; it was clear that she was cold from the sound of her voice.

"You're the two that we taken hostage right?" the other asked, obviously excited.

Greg was taken aback, "What business is that of yours?"

"We were just wondering, what exactly happened. They got away, that's obvious to see. Are you afraid they'll come after you at all?"

"We're done talking here," Greg told them sharply, pulling Sara along with him.

"Some CSIs," the first one muttered, "Can't even protect themselves against a couple of robbers."

Greg could feel Sara tense under him, but he held firm, "Don't," he warned, continuing his forward motion.

"We're not done," the first man said, but the two ignored him.

As soon as Greg felt Sara relax under his grip, he let go of her arm. It was only a second later that she was on the ground, face first in the snow. Greg spun around immediately, pushing back the man who had shoved Sara to the ground.

Before Sara could even get to her feet it had broken into a full fledged fight. It didn't last long; long enough to throw a few well timed punches from both sides, but that was it. By the time Sara was moving in to help, two other men broke into the scuffle.

Greg felt himself literally picked up and hauled back a few feet as he continued to thrash. The man holding him was obviously quite stronger, and he could barely make someone holding the other man back.

"Calm down kid," the man holding him back said. Greg recognized it as Randolph. The man must have heard them and come running.

Greg took a few deep breaths as Sara came up behind him, placing a hand on his back, trying to help him relax. He had dropped his flashlight in the snow, so it was rather hard to make very much out.

"Gentlemen," he heard someone speak, "There will be no fighting on these premises."

Greg finally recognized it as Larry, the detective they had met a few days back.

"Get to your cabins, if I catch you fighting again you will all be sent back home, and this will be reported to your supervisors who will follow with punishment, I can assure you."

Randolph patted his shoulder, letting go of him, "You okay?" he asked.

Greg barely nodded, but it was enough for him. He watched the two men leave, still angry. A bitter taste in the back of his throat made him feel sick.

The next thing he knew, Larry had come over, grabbing him roughly by the arm and dragging him towards the cabin. He stopped after a few feet, dropping his voice to a whisper.

"You are a certified CSI, I expected more out of you than this."

"It was in self defense for crying out loud," Sara said, coming up. She had overhead him; something Larry hadn't intended.

"I don't care who started it, the two of you set an example for all the other trainees. Is this what you want them to see?"

"Take it easy Stiles, some of those trainees that you're trying to protect, are pretty hotheaded. I'm fairly certain these two know better than to go around picking petty fights," Randolph interjected, retrieving Greg's flashlight from the snow.

"Fine, but next time something like this happens, walk away, don't engage in a fight. I will file a report to your supervisor if you do. Am I making myself clear on this?"

"Yes sir," Greg muttered, watching the young detective walk off.

Randolph handed him the flashlight, watching him for a moment. "You sure you're okay?" he asked again.

"Yeah," Greg muttered. "I'll probably feel it the morning. Come on Sara, let's get going."

Sara nodded her thanks to Randolph before running to catch up with Greg. The two didn't talk as they climbed the steps, stomping their boots to knock off any extra snow before entering.

Greg immediately sat down on the couch after removing his boots. He didn't take anything else off; the cabin still carried an icy chill. Sara took of her hat and gloves, hanging them on the rack near the door when she stopped. There was blood on the floor, which surprised her.

She knew that Greg had taken a few good hits to the face, but none of them had caused bleeding. Randolph had made certain of that. She looked over to where he was sitting, he had said nothing since, nor had he moved since arriving.

Sara quickly made her way over to the couch, sitting next to him. Only then did she see the gash on his hand, clear through his glove.

"Greg," she told him softly, "you're hurt."

He gave her a questioning looked, following her gaze to his hand. He lifted up slightly, and for the first time Sara saw the white gleam of bone under the cabin lights.

"I don't feel anything," Greg muttered softly as Sara reached over, pulling back the torn fabric some. Greg winced, "Okay, I felt that."

"This is bad Greg, we need to get it looked at."

"It can wait," he told her softly, "I don't feel like going out again tonight."

"It can't wait," Sara argued, already pulling her boots back on. By the time she had pulled on her own gloves and hat, Greg still hadn't moved. His hand was bleeding more freely now, as the blood began to circulate back through his frozen limbs. Sara grabbed his boots, helping Greg slip them on, and tie them. When she was finished, Sara offered up her arm, pulling Greg to his feet.

He winced slightly, following her out the door as she grabbed her flashlight. Despite what he had said earlier, his hand was really starting to hurt now. Adding that to being cold, tired and upset, it did little to help his already miserable mood.

TBC

I know I said R2R would be here, but I've been so busy as of late, will post them when I can, but I love the responses! You guys are awesome!