Work vs. Play
SaraNick GilCath
Chpt 1
Sara Sidle and Nick Stokes were standing impatiently in the DNA lab with Greg Sanders who was finishing up with some DNA off a queue-tip. They had no luck with any part of their case, and both CSI's were getting over-tired and restless. Greg, as usual, had some satisfying results.
"Well," Sara barked, "whatda ya got for us?"
"Well," Greg barked out even more furious as to mock the already stressful and exhausted overworked Sidle, "I was going to tell you that the crap was in fact the fathers so unless you have something else you're hiding from me, I think we haaaaave our killer," ending his tone with a drum roll.
Sara was thinking how relieved she was because now she could focus more of her attention of helping Gil with case.
"Great, now we can finally go home and get some sleep… I'm not used to working the double shift."
Sara smirked almost as if to say 'damit it's home time.'
Nick joked, "What Sara, are you not tired, or do you not have a life out of work?"
"Ha!" Sara laughed brushing the unnecessary comment off, "I do too."
Greg ended the setting with a cough and, "well I have one more thing to do then I might catch some shut eye too. See-ya!"
Then Nick followed short after him, leaving Sara alone. Giving out a big sigh, she decided maybe it was time to leave her home away from home and visit her REAL home.
Meanwhile Gil was in his office with Catherine working on another long and tiring case. It was so scorching hot out that both CSI's were wearing shorts and tees.
"Another dead end!" Catherine blurted out in her frustration.
"There's always a clue, Cath, we just haven't found it." Gil reasoned.
"Yeah, but what if there isn't? It's like we've looked under every stone, ya know? What if it's just not there?"
"Listen, go home, sleep, eat, see Lindsey, and come back tomorrow… you've already worked double shifts like everyone else… maybe that will help?"
" Sigh Jeez. I almost forgot about that, and you?"
"Me? I look for Sara and find out what's on the jean jacket Brass found at the victims cabin."
"Okay, but keep me updated if you find anything new," Catherine insisted.
Gil walked out his office to find Greg approaching him.
"Hey, Gris, any… thing… you need me to process? Anything at all?"
"Greg if this is about that raise it's not gunna happen."
"Okay, okay, I know when to stop… but seriously…"
"No Greg. Nothing. Seen Sara?"
"Uh huh, she was in the DNA lab, but I think she left. She may've actually gone home."
"Really?"
"Mhmm, well if you don't need me I'm leaving."
"Yep."
"Sara," Gil enlightened to catch Sara on her way out, "you're…leaving?"
"Why? Something need my attention?" Sara seeming thrilled of the thought.
"The jean jacket, from the vic's cabin," he was reminding Sara.
"Oh, yes," she whispered as she came animatedly towards her boss, "I'll get right on it," as she swiped the bag of evidence out of his hands. Then she strayed off into her office and got deep into her evidence. She left Grissom thinking that she better get on it because if she doesn't, he'll have a miserable cold case file on the corner of his desk to deal with.
That's when Catherine popped into Gil's head. It was only for a second but it was a feeling he had never felt before. He wondered what it would be like to be with her, to hold her. I mean, everyone knew the two always had something special that made them closer, but he never thought of himself…with… her before.
The Next Day
"Still haven't gone home yet I see. Heh, I knew it." Nick joked.
Sara smirked.
"Yeah," Sara becoming more serious, "well I've been up all night finding out who this stained jacket belongs to. Do you know how many suspects this could turn out to be? So far it was down to any guy at UNLV that lives in the… uh… lower class dorm rooms. The size indicates maybe 250 pounds, more or less. But only 17 meet those criteria cause they are the only ones who have access to the cabin where the murder took place. "
"Nice," Nick complemented, "I'm impressed. I'll go do a DNA analysis on it. Get it out of your hair so you can get back to work."
"Thanks, and then we'll get Grissom and Catherine n' get a warrant for DNA samples from the 17 students."
"It looks like their case is finally picking up!"
"Hey Cath. Let's go see what Sara has for us." Gil casually addressed towards Catherine as he was walking towards Sara's office.
"Alright."
Catherine picked up beside Gil and walked with him catching speed as they went.
"Hey Gil. Something bothering you? You seem a lil… on edge this morning."
"No. I just… didn't get much sleep last night, that's all."
Gil wasn't lying. He only had maybe a couple hours of sleep because he was too pre-occupied with Catherine on his mind…
"Hey Sara, did you find anything interesting?"
"Wouldn't say interesting Gil, but I have cut down the list down from… a lot, to seventeen," Sara flinched as she said seventeen, hoping to hear his satisfaction.
"Okay, fill me in."
And she told him the standards of the seventeen men, finishing with, "and I just told this to Nick, who left to the DNA lab for the stain."
"That leaves us with getting a warrant for DNA samples to see if we can get a match."
Sara hated it when Gil read her mind.
"Right," Sara said sarcastically, but meaning it.
After they had the warrant
Catherine and Grissom drove the black CSI Tahoe meeting Sara and Nick at the UNLV who were driving a NLVPD cruiser.
"Gil?"
"Yes Catherine."
"I know there's something; you haven't said a word to me all day."
"I told you, I'm tired."
"Well I thought you went home to sleep, why didn't you?"
"Don't you think I tried?"
"What does that mean? Hey, don't get mad at me, I'm just trying to help."
"Sorry, but it's really nothing. If it was something, you'd be…"
"… the first to know, I know," Catherine interrupted.
"Hmmm," Grissom sighed, "Were almost there."
Meanwhile
"So... get the DNA test results back?" Sara made conversation.
"They weren't finished processing so I left them with Greg."
"Why didn't you stay until they were done? We really don't need four of us for this."
"You don't want me here?" Nick laughed.
"I didn't say that." Sara pleaded innocent.
"Hah, I wanted to give you some company." Nick half joking, half serious, shrugged the comment off.
"Ohhhh… I see. Mhmm… I understand. I needed the company."
"Well I know being at work is company enough but…"
"Ok, ok, you win."
Grissom parked on the gravel road avoiding the atrociously parked vehicles in the parking lot. Dorm room facilities don't always tend to have the most decent parking skills. He didn't want the newly painted Tahoe to get nicked.
"Good choice." Catherine compromised an extra block or so for a hundred dollar repair fee.
Then they waited for Stokes and Sidle after settling that it best to wait until all the CSI's were their.
When Nick and Sara pulled up behind them, clearly noticing why they chose to park a distance from the easy access parking lot, all them got out of their vehicle and met up as they efficiently walked towards the 'ENTRANCE' sign at the front of the building, and after they confirmed Catherine had the warrant they entered the building, keeping pace as they referred to the front office.
Pulling out their badges, Gil introduced his associates.
"I'm Gil Grissom from the crime lab, and this is," pointing at them individually, "Catherine Willows, Sara Sidle, and Nick Stokes. You are aware of what happened last week?"
A man sitting behind his desk, still ruffling around some papers, and looking very distasteful, finally raised his chin, just to nod and seem to completely have left the conversation, as to say, 'And that's all I have to say today, thank you and have a nice day', when not even meaning the last part.
"Sir," Catherine said, "Were here to get DNA samples from seventeen of your students who are possible suspects."
"I see," the man finally tuning in, "Well normally I would say it would ruin our universities rep; however," taking an unnatural long breathe, "Since the man who died was a good enough janitor, you have my permission to…"
"Excuse me Mr….?"
"Starsh"
"Mr. Starsh," Sara implied in a distressed voice, "but we need you to please call down these 17 individuals down to your office," she said handing Mr. Starsh a piece of white, lined, paper.
"I see. Well would you mind using the classroom at the end of the hall; I have a lot of work that needs done, and that's very important to me. Now across the hall theirs another office, labeled secretary… you see?"
"Yes," everyone quite annoyed by his ignorance. "We all see Mr. Starsh." Nick volunteered.
"Good. Tell her I said she can call them down to the room at the end of the hall," next throwing the paper across the table carelessly.
"Thank you for your time."
"Likewise."
Everyone was thinking the same thing, and more than that, everyone knew everyone else was thinking the same thing. Mr. Starsh was very bossy, and acted as if he had a choice in the matter. However, no one, knowing their place, said anything after leaving his office.
Nick, followed by Sara, followed by Gil and Catherine exited his office and quickly entered the secretaries office, feeling relieved to be out of such an unwelcoming room. They were quite relieved to discover Mrs. Yolvank, despite her sometimes hard to understand accent, was much more pleasant to be around.
Catherine started this time by introducing herself and her colleagues. Then she handed her the paper and explained it to her.
"Yea! I will-a do dis right away. You may wait in dee classroom-a at end of dee hallway. Thanks."
"Thank you Mrs. Yolvank, for your co-operation."
No sooner than five minutes they entered the room, where there were sixteen well groomed, rather flummoxed looking students anxiously waiting what would be said.
"Where is our lucky number seventeen?" Nick asked
"I'll go see." Gil replied by leaving the crowded room, back towards the secretaries office.
Sara decided to continue nonetheless. "We're from the crime lab. You are aware of the murder in the cabin house. Are you not?" Sara made clear.
They all nodded.
"You also all have access to this cabin."
They nodded again.
"Okay, good, then all we need from you now is a DNA sample only to confirm your innocence, if you are in fact that. We also need to have a fingerprint from each of you to compare it to one we already have."
No one put up a fight or even questioned. They all seemed to understand the circumstances and reasoning behind getting a DNA sample.
Catherine finished with a 'thank you for your co operation' and a 'thanks for your time,' before rushing out to see where Gil was and why he didn't return. When she reached Mrs. Yolvank's office she realized Gil was speaking with her. She waited for him to leave because she could see he was already on his way out.
Gil looked so antagonized; she almost forgot how he was so quiet before.
"This can't be good," Catherine assumed out loud.
"And it's not. Looks like lucky number seventeen moved without notice."
"Then how do they know he moved?"
"He left a note in his dorm room saying he had to leave for an urgent unknown reason. The note was found yesterday morning at 10 by his good friend, Geoff. He broke in cause they were concerned he was missing so many classes. They thought he would be back soon, said the secretary, so she told the teachers he wasn't feeling good so he wouldn't get suspended from school."
"We were just on a roll…and now were back where we were."
"Hey! We are much farther ahead. We know the name of our possible killer, and sixteen others who have given us a DNA sample. What we need to find out is where seventeen… or Mr. Ron R. Helmington is."
Gil filled in Nick and Sara while Catherine went to wait in the car. Then Gil went to meet her.
Sara bagged all the evidence and labeled each one by their sixteen first and last names. Then she gathered them all together and Nick followed her back to their NLVPD cruiser, where they drove back to HQ. Catherine and Gil were not far ahead of them.
"So," Nick began, "what is Sara thinking?"
"Sara thinks someone's avoiding their life time in jail."
"So you think Ron did it?"
"Well it seems that way, since all the others were so willing to help, and how he suddenly has an urgent situation where he has to move away without giving any notice, whatsoever."
"You put up a good argument."
No sooner were they already back to the crime lab talking to Greg Sanders about the sixteen DNA samples that needed testing.
Meanwhile
Gil and Catherine both sat in the Tahoe, but Gil didn't drive. Instead he just sat there.
"Gil," Catherine was stern now, "I know there's something the matter now tell me what you're being so weird about!"
"Catherine?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't mean to sound abrupt but have you ever wondered what it would be like if we got together?"
"You mean as a couple? Yeah… I mean, of course I have Gil. What are you saying?"
"What I mean is…"
"What?"
"Catherine, would you… do you… Catherine, will you have dinner with me this Friday night?"
"Gil, I would love to, but I think, for now, we should keep this to ourselves, ya know?"
"Okay, I was thinking the same thing. We don't want everyone… we don't want this to get in the way of our jobs."
"And face it. Once they know… it will be hell!"
"Hah! My thoughts exactly."
And that's the end of chapter 1! I hope you like it.