Chapter I

Black Buttons

Nick furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?" he asked as he walked to Greg.

Greg pointed to the white label below a terrarium, "Latrodectus indistinctus. Button spider. Griss told me that it has a powerful neurotoxin. I wonder if it's still here." He said as he took a picture of the label.

Nick watched Greg peer inside the terrarium with a flashlight. "You go ahead and look." he told Greg. He walked around the room checking every nook and cranny, he took a picture of the pool of blood before the door, it led to the couch at the far end of the small room. The couch itself was darkish brown, and it was practically torn apart. Foam was puffed up at the tears and was stained with blood. The tears caught his eye, three tears were always parallel to each other and inbetween was approximately a one centimeter gap. At one particular tear he found a black thread, carefully he removed it and placed it in a small evidence bag. He looked at the wall… the blood spatter shows that it hit the wall from the couch up. He noticed a small void between one point to the other, quickly he took a pic of it.

"I can't find it… honestly, I don't even know what it looks like." Greg sighed as he leaned back. His eyes dropped to the floor. "Hey." He muttered, at the wooden floor lay a barely visible shoeprint. "I found a shoeprint." He said to Nick. "Though, I'm not sure if we can lift it in one piece."

Nick walked over to Greg, "We can lift it." He told him.

Moments passed until Nick finally took hold of the equipment used to lift prints like these. He placed it over the print and slowly he activated it. Short bursts of static lifted the dust from the floor and kept it in place. Nick removed the sheet and showed it to Greg, "I told you we can lift it."

"Can you tell me who it belongs to?" Greg grinned.

"I can't but it can." Answered Nick.

XXX

Happy that he was accepted in his old but new job, he tours himself within the lab. He has been in this lab for hundreds of times when he was little, but things change. Everything looked different but the air was always the same… one place always caught his eye when he was little and he wondered if it was still there. He walked down the halls that were lighted by cold white lights, past the other CSI's checking their faces if he knew anyone.

He had walked for a distance and stopped in front of a door. He scratched his head in thought, trying to remember if this was the room that he loved to stay in and stare at the bottled specimens all day. He turned the knob and stepped inside, his guess was right, the room was dimly lit and it took time for his eyes to focus. It was a maze of shelves, skillfully he maneuvered past the shelves and noticed someone sitting by the table at the far corner of the room.

"I didn't know that this is now an office…" said Reiji. He squinted his eyes to get a better view of his face he laughed in surprise. "Hey, it's teach!" he laughed. "Can you still remember me, Grissom?"

"Reiji Zephyr." Grissom said, still keeping his eyes locked on to a small bottle at the center of his desk.

Reiji chuckled softly and rested his palms on the desk, "How'd you guess?"

"I know…" replied Grissom. "You were the only one of my students who talk with such enthusiasm like yours."

Reiji sighed, "Some people say it's annoying. But me's me. What are you watching?"

Grissom looked up at him and wiped his glasses clean, "A black button spider." Answered Grissom. "I found it on our victims collar. Black buttons are only native to South Africa…"

"And you're wondering how it got to Vegas?" Reiji mused as he leaned over to look at the small bottle, "It's dead."

"And dry," Continued Grissom "its fluids are all gone."

"Cooked under the sun?" asked Reiji. "You think it bit the vic? Just asking… I haven't even seen the body yet. So… I'm just asking."

"You know what? Why don't you go to the morgue for me and see. The coroner will brief you."

"I don't know where the morgue is…"

Grissom told Reiji the location of the morgue… as soon as Reiji left Grissom returned to the dead arachnid on his table.

Reiji walked out of the office with a grin plastered on his face. Quickly he strode down the hall and headed to the morgue, he passed someone. He stopped abruptly and looked back, she looked familiar to him. The urge to follow her was strong that he gave in, he followed her like a shadow… far has he traveled till he found out that it wasn't her. He sighed deeply and turned around to head back to morgue. Embarrassed at himself for following the wrong woman. He lifted his eyes and gritted his teeth in annoyance. Couldn't believe that he himself was lost.

XXX

Nick handed Greg the sheet that contained the shoeprint, then he in turn examined the two dozen glass cases, in which all were shattered. "Careful where you step, Greg. There might be a bug underneath."

"I will" replied Greg.

Nick saw one of the cases, specifically the one at the most center, had traces of blood residue at its edges. Carefully he took a swab and placed it in a container.

"I bet the murder weapon was some kind of claws… you know… like Wolverine."

"Wolverine?"

"The guy form X-men with the titanium claws."

Nick didn't bother to answer. But he speculated the same thing.

"Never mind I said that…" said Greg quickly. "You know what I think? The vic steps in the room… the suspect may have waited inside or he knew the vic since there was no sign of forced entry. He attacks the vic, vic panics and tries to run away to the couch. He gets attacked there, tries to escape, and somehow he dies in the center of the room and gets dragged away to somewhere we don't know…"

"We don't know yet." Corrected Nick. "But why break all the cases? With all this blood there are no footprints but the one we lifted. No signs of more than two people. There are a lot of disturbances in the room, either shows that the vic gave a fight or it was this way before."

"Neighbors heard nothing… and saw nothing. How about the security cameras in the driveway?"

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(A/n) Reiji is my Original Character that I always use in my fanfics. He plays a major part that the other guys can't have since they don't match the needed personality.

If you manage to see any flaws or happen to know what some chemicals or the tools they used are called… please tell me so I can correct it quickly.

It's so hard to do this… I'm simply a novice when it comes to this… I think it shows…

—pazaway-tiger