Disclaimer: I own nothing as usual, and neither does witch.
Here's chapter 8 for all the impatient and patient people! Enjoy, folks!
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Chapter 8
The constant shuffling and fidgeting of Greg Sanders had pretty much unnerved Grissom from the moment the wet young man had appeared in the house. His obvious nervousness had further worried the older man, who had by now figured out that something was wrong.
Well, he hadn't gotten to his position by being an unintelligent man.
"Greg," he said patiently, "Just tell me what the problem is."
The lab tech shuffled his feet again, and muttered something unintelligible.
"Louder, Greg," said Gil again, though with less patience.
Greg swallowed, and blurted, "I made a mistake with the DNA results!"
Grissom was momentarily confused, but soon figured Greg was talking about the results of the paternity test.
"You mean…?" Actually, the supervisor wasn't sure what Greg meant.
"I mean, I mixed up the DNA samples that you gave me. I made a mistake in processing them." Greg looked miserable by now – a rare sight to see indeed. "Which ultimately means – Lee Nha's killer is not Jason's father, and….I've been running your DNA through CODIS since yesterday."
Grissom sat down very suddenly, missed the bed and hit the floor.
Oh, shit.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Greg's inner voice screamed as he helped Grissom sit properly on the bed. Oh, damn, please don't fire me! I'm just the simple messenger!
Everyone in the living room heard the loud "thump" and looked at each other. "Hey, I don't mean to bother you two, but is everything ok? What was that noise? I told you to stay off my stuff, Greggo!" Nick yelled from the living room.
Greg yelled back, "Nothing man, we're cool! I didn't touch anything!", although his mind was screaming something else. He turned back to Grissom. "Are you okay? Are you hurt or bleeding?" Greg tried examining Grissom to see if he was hurt, but Grissom pushed him away. "Look, Grissom, I'm so sorry. You know I usually don't make mistakes and I promise it won't happen-"
Cutting off Greg's apologies, Grissom's strangely calm voice asked, "Greg- I'm the father, aren't I?"
Now Greg's voice seemed strangely calm, too. "Yes, sir."
Grissom sighed, and sat quietly for a minute, which only made Greg fidget and mumble even more. Finally, in a quiet voice, he said, "Well, I'm sure the rest of the team would like to know the news as well. I will also have to call Child Services." As Grissom said that, his mind raced as Greg's did a few seconds ago. How on Earth am I going to take care of a kid I just met? Something in that last statement however, gave Grissom courage. He knew he could trust the team with the news and knew that they would help him through any predicament the same way he would help any of them. With that, Grissom stood up and walked with Greg back into the living room.
Warrick saw the looks on their faces and asked, "What's up, chief? Greg, what did you do that's making you so jumpy?"
Grissom answered before Greg could begin protesting. "Greg made a mistake with two samples of DNA, but it's all right as he corrected everything before things became messy. It could happen in any lab, so I'm not mad, but the new results bring us some very important issues. As many of you have suspected, Jason's father is not Lee Nha's killer. We need to find out a name for the female DNA found at the crime scene. As for the rumor mill saying that I'm Jason's father, well, let's just say that for once… rumors can be true."
Grissom finished his speech and allowed the news to sink in. Greg breathed a sigh of relief in the news that his job was safe, but mentally berated himself and promised to never do it again. He did, however, allow himself a little gleeful smile when it hit him that he was the first to know that Jason was Grissom's son. Small victories, he thought.
For Nick, it was now his turn to feel bittersweet. Yes, he was happy that Jason now had a father - and what a better man to be a father than Grissom - but it also meant that Jason couldn't stay with Nick. He knew he would have to keep his mouth shut about that last part. He could imagine Grissom's lecture about staying objective, listening to evidence versus listening to the heart, etc.
Collectively, the team wondered why their boss wasn't mad with Greg. He usually didn't have much tolerance for mistakes, especially when dealing with DNA. But, the news of an unknown son would shock anyone, even the emotionally-absent Grissom. He did let Warrick drive when he saw Lee Nha dead, after all. Individually, however, their thoughts raced on different tracks. Catherine simply smirked as her suspicions were proved correct. Women's intuition is very powerful. Warrick thought of who won and who lost the bet in the "Jason and Grissom Pool", and Sara just sat dumbfounded, her lower jaw slightly hanging. Only Brass broke the thickening silence. "Are you going to give him chemistry sets for his birthday like you did with Lindsey?"
They all jumped when a small voice asked, "Who's Lindsey?"
A rather rumpled-haired Jason stood in the doorway nearby, blinking sleepily at the group.
Catherine grinned and motioned for Jason to come to her. She knew that she was the best-qualified person in the room to break that news to the boy. "Lindsey's my daughter, Jason. She's nine. You want to see a picture?"
Like most parents, she had tons of little pictures of her pretty, blue-eyed daughter in her purse.
While Jason obediently admired the picture of Lindsey, Catherine looked at her colleagues' faces. Most were still recovering from the shock. They had to tell Jason what was going to happen to him - no, scratch that - Grissom had to talk to Jason. It would have to wait, however, considering Child Services still has no knowledge about Jason's parentage.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Warrick and Nick decided to take Jason to a nearby park to get some fresh air. The others needed to discuss the case.
Brass offered one idea: "We might be able to convince a judge to order the women in the neighborhood to give a cheek swab. We might find a match to the cigarette."
Sara piped up. "You mean a DNA dragnet? I've heard of those. It might work, considering not too many women live there."
"What, is it a gay community?" muttered Catherine.
Since they were all pretty tired, it was the only idea any of them could think of at that time. They all agreed on it as a plan and headed off. Brass left to grab a judge while Grissom called the day shift advisor to give the assignment. Catherine went home to wake up Lindsey and Sara headed to the park to update Nick and Warrick. After that, they all went home to crash, even little Jason, who should have slept long enough as it was. But losing your mother can have strange effects on you, especially if you're a child, and Jason fell asleep again with no trouble at all.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
The rookie tech sighed and for the zillionth time that day, swore to make night shift pay dearly for what they'd requested him to do.
"A what swab?" The woman looked ready to smite him where he stood.
The night shift needed to match DNA from a stupid cigarette to one of the women who lived in the same area as their vic and a judge actually signed the paper allowing them to do it. The day shift supervisor gave the assignment to the rookie "for experience". Yeah right. The others ran away with lame excuses and I was left in the dust. As Stewie would say, "Damn it all to hell!" He'd barely started when one indignant, pissed-off lady called her lawyer, who, in turn, called the media. The vultures were attacking everything while the tech trudged from door to door asking for samples. In a way, he didn't blame them. The dragnet was voluntary, but it was almost a Catch-22 situation. If they complied, they did lose their right to privacy since their sample would always be on file. It didn't matter if their DNA matched with the DNA on the cigarette or not. On the other hand, if they didn't agree, it made them look guilty. All the women felt forced to give a sample. The tech wondered how the dragnet would help when DNA would be swamped and behind on their work for weeks.
It still didn't change the fact that a certain Miss… he checked the sheet… Redman… wanted to kill him. He calmly replied, "A cheek swab. To compare DNA found in a murder scene."
She was rather pretty, his type, and had he met her under different circumstances, he would've asked for her number. He sighed again as he remembered his friends' warnings about how he shouldn't work for the crime lab due to all the psychos one might meet.
Annie Redman glowered and growled, "You have a snowball's chance in hell in getting a DNA sample from me, asshole. Go invade someone else's privacy." That said, she slammed the door and the slighted tech could hear the deadbolt lock sliding into place.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
After she told off the tech, Allie knew she had to act quickly if she wanted to kill the brat. She grabbed her gun and climbed out and down the fire escape to escape the vultures at the front of the building. Newly orphaned kids have to go through Child Services and luckily she had a friend who worked there and owed her a favor.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Jackie Alderman hit enter on her keyboard again and said, "Allie, I'm sorry, but there is no record here of Jason Chang Xiao Siong. He's not in the system. Listen, just wait a while. We've been swamped and cops call all the time for new cases. Maybe he's one of them and he'll show up when we get around to him."
Allie began pacing the small space in the cramped office. She bolted in the office with fake tears, making up some cockamamie story about how her best friend died and left instructions that Allie should take care of her kid since the husband was always drunk and couldn't take care of the kid. Jackie bought the story, but it was useless if the kid wasn't in the system. He really was becoming a pain in the ass. How many orphaned kids are there in Las Vegas anyway? How many were of Chinese heritage with blue eyes and were on an assassin's list of people to kill?
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Jason sat on Grissom's couch and Grissom began to tell his tale, hoping the kid would understand. "I have to tell you something, Jase," he began, wondering how he could phrase this so the little boy would understand.
"What?" Jason looked up at him trustingly, the blue eyes he had inherited from Gil wide in his little face.
Gil felt a surge of…something, deep inside, and nearly chickened out.
"Jason," he forced himself to say, "What do you know about your father?"
Jason looked up at him instantly. Grissom had apparently captured his attention.
"Nothing much," he replied. "Mom didn't like talking about him. She only told me that he was an American, and that she loved him very much."
Grissom swallowed hard at that. Lee Nha had loved him? Well, he had loved her too…if he'd been able to find her that time he returned to China, things might be different.
Before his thoughts could take him any further down that road, Grissom looked his son squarely in the eye and said, "Well, Jason – I'm your father."
Jason looked at him wide-eyed, prompting Gil to start explaining. It took little over an hour to highlight his story – his and Lee Nha's – and explain to Jason that he would be living with Grissom now…as a family.
"What about Nick?" Jason asked instantly. "I like Nick."
Nick. Well, of course he would like Nick. Most kids did, he was good with them. He'd had plenty of nephews and nieces to practice on.
"Well…Nick has his own home to live in," he replied, his tone gentle. "But you can visit him whenever you want."
The little boy thought that over, then nodded slowly. Getting to his feet, he padded over to the rather surprised entomologist and gave him a hug.
"I love you, Dad," he mumbled against Grissom's chest.
Tentatively, Grissom hugged the little boy back, letting Jason snuggle into him – but when he opened his mouth, he found that he couldn't repeat Jason's easy words to him…at least, not yet.
After all, they both had miles to go before they slept…and miles to go before they slept.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Heh, couldn't resist the Robert Frost bit at the end...forgive me. I'd just gotten back from English Literature tuition when I typed that. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed that...and witch and i will now work on Chapter 9. Wish us luck, everyone!
RK9.