Chapter 9 – Warrick works it out!

Disclaimer – Don't own CSI, don't own nothin'!

Notes – The story is coming to a head. This chapter is set right after 'King Baby', so beware the constant spoilers and dialogue (including stuff from the series 4 episode 'Assume Nothing').

Out of all the CSI's in Las Vegas, Warrick Brown alone had some idea as to what Greg was doing. This was due mostly to a conversation he'd had with Catherine Willows, until recently his colleague, now his supervisor.

Warrick, of course did not have a problem with this. Catherine was a good friend, and a natural leader. He had certainly known worse superiors, even supposing a wish would have put the entire team back together again under Grissom's command.

What Warrick DID have a problem with, and had for some time now, was that Catherine was not a day-shift supervisor as she deserved. Warrick had always done his best, again unlike the other CSI's, to stay on Ecklie good side, but sometimes it was just impossible. This was one of those times.

He had always figured that old Griss just didn't know how to be diplomatic, how to handle Ecklie properly. Now he knew better. There was no 'properly' where that old kiss-ass was concerned. He'd learned that the hard way, along with the others...

Not without effort, Warrick, sitting alone in the break room, turned his mind to the problem at hand. Greg. For the last month or so, young Greggo had been acting kind of weird. Well, weirder than usual, anyway...

The last few times Warrick had seen him, Greg had been kind of tense, on edge. In fact, he'd looked almost frightened. Warrick, picking up on this, had asked Greg if he was okay. Greg's only response had been a distracted "Sure" that had privately scared the shit out of Warrick. He'd never known Greg to be so...quiet. So...subdued...

No, he recalled, there had been other times. Once, when Greg had frozen up on a case long ago, where a bus had careened off the road, killing damn near everyone on board. It had taken him a while to recover, especially when he'd heard that the driver had been a fatality.

And, of course, there had been the lab explosion...

Warrick had realised that if this was the basis of comparison he was using for Greg's current behaviour, it must be something pretty big. Now, of course, he knew what...

The conversation with Catherine that had opened his eyes had been about thirty minutes ago, in the break room. Yesterday they had closed the Bruce Eiger murder case, and he, Nick and Sara had gone out to Tut's Tomb to celebrate. Warrick had liked that. It reminded him of when they were all one team, long before the days of Ecklie's anal regime...

He'd entered the break room three hours ago to discuss the case with Catherine; in particular to find out if any damage had been done to her career over the video card stolen from her camera.

"Hey Cath. How's it going?"

"Slow, dull, and with free paperwork, just the way I like it. Oh, and night shift have a nice juicy murder case on their log. With Day shift, it's a multiple homicide. Y'know, I remember when I used to love this job."

"Yeah, I hear that. Listen, ah, how did it go with Ecklie over the missing photos. Or don't I want to know?"

At this point Catherine's expression had turned thoughtful "To be honest, Warrick, I don't know how it went. He saw the shots on the news. I told him they were mine, and he just said he'd get a warrant for them and the name of the informant."

Warrick was relieved, yet puzzled "He didn't raise hell over it?"

"Raise hell? He didn't even raise his voice! It was so weird. It...was almost like he was covering for me."

Warrick was temporarily speechless. But only temporarily.

"Whoa, hold it. Stop the world; I want to get back on here! Ecklie, Conrad Ecklie covered for you?"

"Yeah. He was even polite."

"Okay, now the world officially makes no sense!"

"Tell me about it. Hey" Catherine suddenly looked a little grossed out; "you don't think he's...hitting on me...do you?"

Warrick took a brief, unwilling moment to imagine Cath and Ecklie sharing a light supper together and felt like kicking Ecklie in the ass, and vomiting. In that order.

"Wait, isn't Ecklie married?"

"Come on, Warrick, like that's gonna stop him!"

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, do you know if Greg's got anything on his mind? You know, anything we can help with?"

"Greg. Boy, do he and I need to talk..."

"What do you mean?"

Catherine faltered. The guilt was eating her alive inside. It was no good. She had to tell someone! Warrick knew how to be discreet, had always understood what the others might not. It was time to let him know.

"Warrick...Greg asked me to do something, back when Sara got suspended, something which I would NEVER have done under any other circumstances...I still don't know why I did it..."

"Why? What did he ask?"

"He told me...hell, he practically begged me, to tell Ecklie that Sara should get disciplined further."

It took a moment for Warrick to absorb this information. "GREG! Greg Sanders, formally of DNA, asked you to take Ecklie's side!"

Catherine's face was tight, her expression grim. "Yes."

Warrick wasn't at all sure he wanted to know the answer to his next question, and it suddenly occurred to him that he needn't ask it. He already knew that Catherine had done as Greg had asked. That was why Ecklie was covering for her; because he thought she was on his side!

Warrick gave voice to the biggest question in his mind: "Why? Why in the hell would Greg ask you to do that?"

"I don't know! I don't know, Warrick!" Catherine's voice cracked slightly on the last 'know' "I just...he said that Sara's whole life depended on it..."

Whilst Warrick was processing this information (not without effort), Catherine hastily wiped her eyes and forced a noncommittal expression onto her face. The reason soon made itself clear. Nick was striding towards the break room, wearing his trademark black leather coat, black t-shirt, faded Levi's, and a very familiar scowl.

Oh yeah, Warrick knew that look. Eyes fixed dead ahead, jaw set, just about every muscle in his face tightly clenched. That look meant Nick was pissed. Great, thought Warrick, just what I need right now. Cath's upset, Greg's jerking us around, and now Nick looks ready to solve his problems through the fine old tradition of Kicking Ass.

"Hey, Nick, how's it hangin'?"

"Great."

Real convincing, Nick. "Seriously, man, what's up?"

Nick poured himself some coffee. "Ah, it's just there's a lot of stuff goin' on that I can't figure out."

Warrick and Catherine both knew that for Nick to be this mad, it went further than that, but it was a start. "Maybe we can help" Cath interjected. "We are scientists, after all."

Nick's expression softened a little. "Accumulation of events, I guess. Sara getting suspended, Ecklie micromanaging the shifts, and Greg playing some dumb-ass practical joke on me."

Warrick tried to stifle a grin. This ought to be good. Ever since Nick and Greg had met, they had always tried to one-up each other, but it was always harmless stuff. Greg had stretched the limit once by mixing pink hair dye with Nick's shampoo, but it was never something the other couldn't bounce back from.

Nick saw Warrick's 'cough' for what it was, and his expression hardened again. "This isn't funny, man! I could get two weeks unpaid leave for this!"

Warrick's smile vanished. This WAS serious! Cath sobered up too. "Why? What did he do?"

Nick hesitated. He'd never been good at confessing mistakes, but he'd learned the hard way that it was better to confess to the right person than have the wrong person figure it out for themselves. He braced himself, and turned to Catherine, addressing her directly.

"I...er...I messed up. Bad."

Catherine tilted her head to one side, as she usually did when hearing a suspect confess. "How's that?"

Nick swallowed. "When Sara and I were processing that toy box from Bruce Eiger's mansion, Sara got a call from Grissom telling her to meet him somewhere. Then Greg came in saying that Clarice Robertson was here to see me..."

Warrick was tickled "Isn't she that cultist or something...?"

"Don't start. Any way, I just...freaked out, I guess, and I..."

"Hold it. I think I can see where this is going." Danger rumbled ominously in every syllable when Catherine spoke. "You're saying that you left evidence unguarded to go and hide."

Nick pressed on awaiting the explosion "From a girl who wasn't there at any time."

The explosion didn't come. Instead, Catherine leaned back in her chair and put her hands to her face. "Dammit, Nick! I left evidence alone for a while on the same case, and look what happened! Warrick did y...Warrick?"

But Warrick was gone.

Warrick was almost running down the corridor, heart pounding in his chest and a horrible suspicion growing in his mind. His eyes were now wide open. If Sara and Nick had both left the evidence alone, then there was a strong possibility that...

He found Sara in the trace lab. "Sara. When you were processing the toy box from Eiger's play pen on our last case, why did you leave the evidence lab?"

Sara was slightly fazed by this weird question, but wasted little time answering. "Uh, Greg called me and told me that Grissom needed to see me. Total lie; Grissom was too deep in conversation with Sophia to even realise that...Hey, where are you going? Hey, Warrick!"

It was then that Warrick knew. Suddenly, and unmistakeably, Warrick knew. He bounded out of the trace lab and rushed back towards the evidence vault.

That was when he heard the gunshot.