A few days later, Carmen was beginning to fit in a little better. She sure as hell was more confident. She had just finished working on a case with Grissom. The body of a 15 year old boy was found next to an above ground swimming pool after a party. Turned out he and a friend were horsing around, and the boy got thrown over the side where he smacked his head on a rock. The few kids that were still at the party panicked, and told their parents they wanted to leave. When asked where the boy was, they said he had left earlier. All the parents had been intoxicated to some point, so they believed them. It wasn't until the next day when the friend's dad went to mow the lawn that they discovered what happened.

Even though it was obviously an accident, they still needed to know the exact story. So Carmen interviewed each of the kids until one little girl finally told her what happened. Later when she asked the boy's friend, he began crying, saying it was an accident. The girl's story backed him up, but he was still in trouble for not telling anyone. It was up to Captain Brass now to figure out how and what to charge to 14 year old with.

When everything was said and done, Grissom congratulated her on a job well done, and bought them both bagels and coffee for breakfast. Carmen liked Gil Grissom. She thought he was sweet. She was getting along well with everyone, actually. But there was one person she just couldn't seem to feel comfortable with. She never took the time to learn the woman's name. Carmen never did that with people she didn't like. All she could remember about her was that she looked like she got kicked in the teeth by a horse. That gap was the only thing that made her register as a person to her. Other than that, she was just mean. Carmen had done nothing (that she was aware of, anyhow) to offend the gap-toothed CSI. But for some reason, she was nasty to her.

'Oh joy,' Carmen thought, looking at the assignment board. 'I get to work with toothy today.' She looked across the board to see who everyone else was paired with, and smiled inside when she saw she was working with two people today.

When she reached Grissom's office, he was sitting alone, reading something. Occasionally he would look up from the massive book, and examine a bug encased in a glass jar. She almost didn't want to disturb him, but he was the one that paged her. So she knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Grissom called, not taking his eyes off the insect.

"Hey Mr. Grissom. " She said as she entered the darkened office. The only light was coming from a desk lamp, and the computer screen.

"Oh hi Carmen. Please, sit down." He said, motioning to the chair across from him.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you. I wasn't able to get a hold of you before, so I decided to come in a few minutes early." She sat down and looked inside the jar. A large spider was sitting in the center, legs curled against it's sides.

"Actually, " Grissom said, closing the massive book, "That's why I paged you. I wanted you to come in a little early so we could talkabout how things are going for you out here. Besides, you're not disturbing me. I was just looking at this Nephila Clavipes I found." He held up the jar for her.

Carmen looked inside, her eyebrow arched. "A golden silk spider?" She lowered her glasses to her nose to get a better look. "I thought they were only found in South America?"

Grissom lowered the jar a little, and looked at her with surprise. "Yeah, they are. That's why I had to catch it." He turned the jar around in his hands, a smile creeping up on his face. After a second, the smile had turned into a look of confusion. "Wait a sec... H-How did you know that? On your resume, it said you were a toxicologist before you decided you wanted to be a CSI."

Carmen smiled sheepishly and glanced up from behind her glasses. "It's...Kind of a hobby of mine. I love studying insects. I have since I was a little girl.I just didn't want to make it a profession." She caught Grissom's gaze just as the smile had begun to return to his face. Carmen had quickly fallen in love with that smile, and wished she got to see it more often.

He went to say something, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. He shook his head, and the smile was gone once again. They both looked towards the door as Sara strode in.

"Hey Gris. And..uh... What's your name again?"

Carmen swallowed a vicious growl that had begun to rise in her throat and said sweetly, "It's Carmen."

"Oh, right..." She gave her the once over and moved to stand by Grissom. "So, I got that paper work from the case the other day. The boyfriend confessed." She handed Grissom a bundle of papers"

"Good. Less work for us. Did you get a copy of this down to Brass?"

Sara nodded, her goony gap-toothed grin threatening to show.

"Good." Gil placed the bundle of papers next to his computer. "I was uh, just about to ask Carmen here how everything is going so far."

Carmen hesitated a moment, thinking about what to say. She couldn't tell Gil she was having a problem with...What was her name? Oh yeah, Sara... Because she was standing right there. She searched her head for something to say, anything at all. "It's...Um...Going ok so far. Nothing really to uh...Complain about." She fidgeted in her seat, pulling at her shirt sleeves.

"You sure everything's ok?" He looked kind of concerned.

"Yeah. Everything's fine." The fidgeting had stopped. "I just haven't been sleeping too well lately, that's all. I'm kind of tired."

"Oh. Alright then. As long as things are going good for you, that's all that matters."

Carmen nodded quickly. She wanted very much to get out of this conversation. After a moment of extremely awkward silence, her wish was granted: Gil's cell phone rang.

He looked at the call ID and answered, "Grissom...Uh-huh...Ok..." He jotted down a note on a piece of paper.

Carmen let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. 'Saved by the cell phone,' she thought. The saw Sara glaring at her from the corner of her eye. 'Oh jeeze, what did I do now?' She rolled her eyes, her sight falling on Grissom taking notes and talking on the phone. A few seconds later, he hung up.

Both women looked at him with strange faces. Sara's seemed to be anticipation. Carmen's looked extremely nervous, yet with a tinge of relief.

"They've got a body down over at Saratoga Commons. 17 year old girl, tied up in a ditch..." He looked at his list of notes he had just written on the desk. "Visible gun shot wound in the chest..."

"Alright, what are we waiting for?" Sara said happily. "Let's go!"

Grissomshifted the gigantic book on his desk and placed the insect specimen on a shelf. He looked to Carmen and said, "When we get back, I'll let you feed her." He flashed her a smile.

Carmen returned the gesture and replied, "Awesome. I can't wait."

Sara looked at the both of them with an almost...Disgusted look. She then said very dryly, "Maybe I can help you catch it's dinner." Gil raised a curious eyebrow at her.

Carmen realized she was in the middle of something bad, and looked for a quick escape. "I'll go get the kits and put them in the truck," she said quickly. She pushed past Sara and headed towards the lab.

Back in his office Grissom asked, "What the hell was that all about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Gil. We're past that phase, remember?"

Gil pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sara, she likes insects...So do I. It's a common interest. Doesn't mean anything." He returned the book to it's spot on the shelf.

"Doesn't mean anything! Then what was that doofy smile all about?"

"Sara, what doofy smile?"

Sara huffed and threw her hands in the air. "We'll talk about this later. We have a case to work on." She stormed out of the office and down the hall.

When she reached the truck, Carmen was about to close the back hatch.

"I don't know what you're trying to do, but it's not going to work!" Sara screamed.

"Excuse me?" Carmen turned around calmly.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about! And if I see you trying anything again..." She was now nose to nose with Carmen, grinding her teeth and speaking through the gap. "You'll be out of here so fast, you won't even know what happened." She went to the other side of the truck and flung open the door. She jumped in with such force that the Tahoe shook for a second. Then the door slammed shut.

Carmen stood bewildered for a moment, then closed the hatch. She was going to say something to the psychotic tooth-inator, but caught a glimpse of Grissom in the reflection of the window.

"Hey Mr. Grissom?"

"Carmen, you don't have to add the Mister...But yes?"

"I...Um...Have to talk to you about something."

"Ok, when we get back, we'll talk. I hope nothing's wrong."

"No, no...Just something I have to ask you, that's all."

"Alright. When we feed Shelly later, you'll have my full attention. Right now, we gotta go."

"Ok, no problem."

They both got into the truck, and headed out to the scene.