Grissom got off the phone with Greg and walked back to Nick. He had an odd expression on his face that Nick couldn't help but ask about.
"What's up, Griss? Why the funny look?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about Nick."
"Yes you do. Was that Greg you were talking to?"
Grissom replied with a sigh, "Yes, it was. How could you tell?"
"You have a tendency to get weird looks on your face after you talk to Greg and right now, you have that 'should I trust Greg?' look," Nick replied with a shrug.
"I have a 'should I trust Greg?' look?" Grissom asked with concern. "Dear Lord, the boy's getting to me."
"So?" Nick pressed. "What was that about?"
"I told Greg that we were done the scene and I asked him if Kristen has anyone to stay with while we continue this investigation. When he said no, I asked him if he knew if any of the CSIs could take her in and he volunteered himself."
"Ah. Now I understand the look," Nick said with realization.
Nick and Grissom put their kits in the trunk of the Tahoe and continued their conversation as Nick drove them back to the lab. When they arrived, Catherine, Warrick, and Sara were still gone. They went their separate ways, Nick to Trace and Grissom to his office, and waited until the others arrived.
Soon the others returned with evidence from the desert scene. Sara found Nick in Trace, Warrick went to the break room, and Catherine found Grissom in his office.
"So, I saw Greg leave with that girl. Is she gonna be okay?" Catherine asked while standing in Grissom's doorway.
"It appears that she has a fractured arm but the doctors will fix that soon enough. All her injuries appear to have been sustained in the car crash so they should heal quickly."
Relief flooded Catherine's face when she heard the news. She had just turned to leave when Grissom spoke.
"Greg's taking her in."
"Excuse me?" Catherine asked, wheeling back around.
"I needed someone to watch her while we continue the investigation and he volunteered himself."
Grissom was looking at the papers on his desk as if they were the most exciting things in the world. Catherine walked over to his desk; put her hands on the papers he was staring at and leaned in close to his face.
"You're letting Greg take care of a sixteen-year-old girl?" Catherine asked with as much venom in her voice as she could muster.
"He promised me that I could trust him and he got very defensive when I questioned him," Grissom replied with a slight edge to his voice.
"Well, I don't know if we should trust him. He's still a teenage boy at heart…and in the way he acts. Griss, you have to promise me that at the first sign of trouble you bring her over to my house. She can stay with Lindsey and me."
Catherine continued to stare down Grissom until he nodded his head in agreement. Catherine then turned on her heel and walked to the break room to have a coffee. She poured herself a cup and gave Warrick a small smile. When she was done, she went to collect the evidence from the desert murder to start processing it.
Meanwhile, Nick had told Sara about Grissom's phone conversation. To say the least, Sara was almost more shocked than Catherine was. She knew first hand how Greg flirted with all the females in the lab and she could easily imagine him hitting on a teenage girl. She tried to give him a little credit, though. Maybe he would realize that he was likely ten years older than she was and would refrain from acting like a teenage boy. On the other hand, Greg repeatedly acted childish for his age, which wasn't even that old. Finally getting over the initial shock, she went to find Catherine to help her with the other evidence.
Greg and Kristen arrived at the MGM Grand hotel and went up to her room. Greg stood in the doorway as she hauled her suitcase onto the bed to start packing. She had some trouble opening the drawers but she managed pretty well. As she packed, Greg finally had a good look at her. She was wearing a white tank top with green and orange straps and trim, dark blue jeans with a matching belt, and a green wristband that had a large red star on her left wrist. She had light brown hair that was longer than shoulder length, large blue-green eyes, and a shy smile. As Greg had guessed correctly, she was 16 and going into grade eleven. She was tall for her age and had long legs that looked even longer in her jeans. She was very thin but not disgustingly so. Greg took all these things in and decided that she could be a model if she wanted to be. He then realized that that was what he liked about her. He had a thing for models. After a few more minutes, she was finished packing and ready to go.
"Do you need help carrying your suitcase?" Greg asked, eyeing her big suitcase.
"Nope, it's got wheels," Kristen replied with a smile.She grabbed a backpack off the bed, threw it over her shoulder, grabbed the handle of the suitcase, and walked over to where Greg was standing.
"You got everything?"
"Yup. So, um, are we going straight to your house now?" Kristen asked nervously.
"Yeah, we can drop your stuff off and I can show you around but I have to go back into work after."
"Can I go back in with you?" she asked, scared of being by her self after the accident.
"I'm not sure." Greg answered, aware of her fear. "I could ask Grissom if you can come in. Hold on a sec."
Greg pulled out his cell phone as they walked toward the Tahoe. He dialled Grissom's number and waited for him to answer.
"Hello?" Grissom answered.
"Hey, Griss, it's Greg. Um, can Kristen come into work with me? She doesn't want to stay at my place alone."
"Hmmm, I guess so, Greg, but make sure you work as hard as you normally do. We can't afford you messing up."
"Don't worry; I'll work as hard as usual."
Greg hung up his phone and took out the car keys. He put Kristen's stuff in the back of the Tahoe and got into the driver's seat. Once they had started driving, Greg told Kristen that she could come into work with him. She acknowledged him with a smile and a faint "Thanks" before returning to her usual position of staring out the side window. In the background, she could hear Greg singing along to the radio but he sounded very far away. Her mind had returned to the horrible accident that had occurred only a few hours previous. She couldn't believe that her parents were dead; that everything had not simply been a terribly horrific nightmare. Silent tears began running down her face unbidden. She continued to think about her parents, allowing the tears to fall. What was she going to do? She was only sixteen and had no older siblings with which to stay. She didn't know how she was going to tell her friends or what she was going to do about school. All of these seemly unanswerable questions flooded her brain adding to her pain. To distance herself from these thoughts she tried to think of Greg. To Kristen he seemed the type who was completely mystified by teenage girls. She didn't want to make things more uncomfortable for him than they already were so she decided that she wasn't going burden him with her problems. With that settled, she become more aware of her surroundings. She noticed that they were passing by a neighbourhood of apartments and soon realized that they were probably nearing Greg's place. She quickly wiped her eyes and tried to look as if nothing was wrong.
"Well, we're here. I'll go grab your stuff."
They had pulled up in front of a fairly nice apartment complex with a pool to the right of it. Greg's apartment building was the most well kept compared to the surrounding buildings. Greg handed Kristen her bags and walked to the front door and unlocked it. The lobby was small but pleasant with a smattering of plants and a couple benches to sit on. They walked over to the elevator and when they entered, Greg hit the number six button.
"Just as a warning: my apartment is kind of a mess," Greg mentioned guiltily.Kristen gave a short laugh.
"Don't worry. My room is always a mess. I'm used to it," she assured him.
"Well if you're sure…"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Really, it's okay."
"Alright," he responded but he was still unsure.
When they got off the elevator, Greg led the way to his door and unlocked it. He went in first because the entrance way was small. Once his shoes were off Kristen brought in her luggage and took off her shoes.
"I guess I'll give you a tour, then? Well, this is obviously the living room, this is the kitchen, the spare room -you'll be staying there, my room, the bathroom, and the cold room. I'll give you a couple minutes to get everything settled and then we gotta go." With that, he left her standing in the doorway to her temporary room.
The room had a carpet that looked rarely walked on, a single bed with sheets and pillows already on it, a bedside table with a clock, and a small colour TV. But Greg had been right; the whole apartment, aside from this room, was an absolute mess. Kristen actually didn't mind. It made her feel more at home than a clean house would have. She dumped her bag and suitcase onto the bed and went back to the living room. Greg was waiting for her while eating an apple.
"Want one?" he asked, indicating the apple.
"Uh, sure. I haven't eaten in a bit. Thanks."
"No problem. We have to leave now but you can take that into the Tahoe with you. Just don't tell Grissom." Greg winked and gave her a goofy smile before ushering her out of the apartment.
Back at the lab, all of the graveyard shift CSIs and all of the lab techs now knew that Greg was taking care of the girl from the desert. All of the CSIs were worried about what Greg was going to do and if he could handle the responsibility. They all hoped that he wouldn't go and do something stupid but they weren't too optimistic. Sara and Catherine were discussing whether or not he was going to flirt or some other such thing. Sara was convinced that Greg was going to because he acted just like a teenager and had this irresistible urge to flirt with the opposite sex. Catherine wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but she, too, was expecting the worst; that's why she had made Grissom promise to send the girl to her house if something went wrong. Nick and Warrick were talking about how Greg could get out of hand and they were slightly disturbed that he might try something with a teenager. All in all, the lab was very tense while they waited for Greg to get back.
The opening of the break room door startled them and they all turned to see who it was.
"Hey guys. Miss me?" Greg asked with a smile.
"Oh, yes, of course," Sara replied sarcastically.
"No need to get touchy. I brought Kristen back with me."
"Who's...? Never mind. Hey, Kristen," Nick said.
Kristen waved shyly from beside Greg. She wasn't entirely comfortable with the others yet but she knew they'd be okay enough.
"Hi, Kristen. I'm Catherine Willows. This is Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, and Warrick Brown."
"Why are you guys all in here? Isn't there stuff to do?" Greg asked.
"Grissom told us to wait for you. Who knows why," Nick remarked.
"Thanks Nick," Greg said sarcastically.
"Greg, you and Kristen can go process the knife for DNA. Oh, and Greg, it's Mia's night off so Grissom says you have to work the DNA on this case," Catherine instructed them.
Greg and Kristen went to the evidence lockers and grabbed the bag that held the knife. They went to one of the layout rooms and pulled out the knife. Greg grabbed a bottle of luminol and sprayed it along the length of the knife until the edge of the blade fluoresced. Greg then swabbed the blood and put the swab away. He then turned the weapon around and saw a speck of blood on the handle. He swabbed that blood too then put the knife away. Kristen was bursting to ask Greg a question and finally spoke.
"Greg, what are you doing?"
"Oh, right, sorry. I sprayed the knife with luminol which causes blood to glow then I swabbed the blood so I can take it to DNA," he explained.
"And why would there be blood on the handle?" she wondered.
"It's usually because the killer cut him- or herself while stabbing the victim. Anything else?"
"Yeah, how do you know how to do DNA typing?"
"I used to be the DNA lab tech before I became a CSI. Now let's go process this blood."
Greg led her out of the layout room and to the DNA lab.
"This is probably gonna take a bit so we might be here a while."
"Are you going to do PCR or RFLP?"
"Whoa, what? How d'you know what the processes are?" Greg asked Kristen confusedly.
She shrugged and replied, "I read too much. I think DNA typing is interesting."
"O…kay. Anyways, I'll probably do PCR because it's faster and more accurate. Oh! I see Mia left the cd player here. Now it's time to remind everyone of what it was like when I still worked in the lab." Greg grinned evilly and turned the volume way up on the stereo.
Greg blasted a Marilyn Manson cd while Kristen looked at the break room with concern. Grissom soon left the break room with a weird expression on his face.
"Uh oh."
"Uh oh what?" Greg asked.
"Uh oh that," replied Kristen as she pointed at the oncoming Grissom.
"Greg, what on earth are you doing?" Grissom demanded.
"Well, I have to work in the lab for most of this case so I thought I might as well be at home while doing it," Greg explained simply.
Grissom rubbed his temples in exasperation. He knew he should've taken the cd player when he had had the chance.
"Fine, but only for today."
Grissom walked away looking very annoyed. Greg got a silly grin on his face and turned down the stereo a bit.
"That's the reaction I was looking for. Grissom's so predictable."
"Do you do that often?"
"Do what often?"
"Annoy him."
"Yeah, it's fun. But I stop when he gets really ticked off."
"Greg, you really are an interesting person."
"Thank you muchly."
Kristen laughed, "Muchly? Wow. You really are interesting."
"I try. Being different is what I live for."
A/N: Hey, people! Right now, I really need your help. If anyone has any ideas as to what should happen could you please e-mail me or something? Thanks!