Chapter Nine

Homeward Bound

The flock of eagles landed gracefully in the in the parking lot of the LVPD crimelab, their wings spread out behind to slow themselves. Their riders dismounted, yet the eagles remained.

"Well Nicky," Grissom said, turning to look at the lab. "Welcome home." He smiled.

"Yeah, that's great…hey, uh…I gotta go. I gotta, erm…use the facilities."

Grissom stared at him blankly. "What?"

"You know! Use…the facilities…"

More blank stares.

"Oh for Pete's sake Grissom! I gotta go pee!"

"Oooh…" Grissom exclaimed as a sudden look of understanding dawned. Nick placed Poncho on his eagle's back and stalked off humming chitty-chitty-bang-bang under his breath. Grissom watched him go and Sara, Greg, Liz, Mindy, and Molly followed him. Grissom turned around once they were gone, to find Catherine and Warrick side-by-side, whispering fervently to each other.

"Swapping secrets?" Grissom asked, stepping up beside them. Catherine gasped suddenly and Warrick's calm composure changed for a split-second when he jumped.

"Er…well…Gil," Catherine began. Grissom could almost see the gears turning quickly in her head.

"It's no use lying to him Cath. You know he's got a built-in polygraph in that head of his." Warrick said to her before turning to Grissom. "Griss, Cath and I were thinking about moving back with the eagles. I mean-- we got these three orphaned eaglets, and somebody has to stay to protect them from crazy broccoli-induced shootings thanks to people like Sara. Besides, I speak eagle, remember? Who else is better equipped?"

Warrick let out a heavy sigh and Catherine was biting her lip.

"Well?" Catherine finally said after a minute of awkward silence.

"What?" Grissom asked, shrugging his shoulders.

"Do you approve?"

Grissom looked Catherine in the eye then turned his gaze to Warrick and back again.

"About you guys heading out into the wilderness to 'rough it' with the eagles on a mountaintop, yes, I approve greatly." He eyed them again. "Of anything else…I don't know if I'm that sure…I'll let you decide."

Catherine smiled, then reached up and gave Grissom a tight hug around the neck.

"Bye Gil," she said. She walked over to the eagle where the three baby eaglets (for Poncho had hopped over and joined the other two) were sitting on the back of an older eagle.

"See you later Griss," Warrick said, nodding at him and shaking his hand. He followed Catherine and mounted a different eagle.

"Bye!" Grissom said, waving at them as their eagles took off. The other three eagles followed them quickly, flapping their great wings and screeching.

With a final long look as the eagles headed off, Grissom turned and entered the crimelab.

Grissom entered the breakroom five minutes later to find Liz, Mindy, Molly, and Greg at the table. Sara was rummaging through the mini-fridge and Mindy seemed to be pouting about something-or-another, tapping a pencil against the table in a slow march.

"Where are Catherine and Warrick?" Liz asked once Grissom walked in, unaccompanied.

"They went to live with the eagles," he said solemnly, then turned to Mindy. "What's with her?"

Sara pulled out of the fridge, her back to them as she set something on the countertop and began to prepare it. "Liz told her that she couldn't follow Nick into the bathroom so she threw a temper tantrum and now she's pouting."

Sara then turned around and in her hands was a plate with a healthy stack of asparagus on top, smothered in cheese. She sat down across from Liz, next to Greg, who sat across from Mindy.

"Given up on broccoli, huh?" Grissom acknowledged, nodding at the new assortment of vegetables.

Sara nodded then said, after biting the head off one stalk of asparagus, "I'm not really a fan of having horrible gas."

"But why asparagus?" Greg asked her innocently.

Sara stood up so abruptly that her chair flew backwards. Her eyes were wild, her grip extremely tight on the plate and spork she was using. "MINE!" she snapped, hustling over to a far corner where she began to gobble her food so quickly it was amazing she hadn't choked.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Grissom posed the question as if Sara bursting into hysteria were an everyday occurrence.

She straightened than noticed that her mouth was gorged with asparagus. She turned away from the group, her cheeks flushing, and worked at finishing her bite.

"It's not like I like Nick anymore anyway…" Mindy said suddenly, still fidgeting with her pencil. "I bet he's gay. He's not married and he doesn't have a girlfriend. All the good looking ones are gay."

"Mindy!" Liz reprimanded sternly, sending her a warning glare.

"Well it's true!" She was quiet for a minute as Grissom sat down next to Liz. "I bet Grissom's gay too. But since he's your ex, Liz, I suppose he might be bi."

"Mindy!" Liz shouted, smacking the woman on the back of her head.

"Hey!" Mindy narrowed her eyebrow at her, her lip sticking out. She set her pencil down, still glaring at Liz. Then her gaze turned to Greg.

"Are you gay?" she asked him.

Greg raised an eyebrow and Sara began to snigger.

"Uhh…"

"I knew it. It's hopeless. I'll never find a good-looking guy that's not gay." Mindy wailed, threw her hands up, then set her head on the table, shaking with false howls.

The group clapped their hands to their ears as Mindy continued to howl.

"Hey!" Greg shouted above the noise, "Hey Mindy! How'd you like me to show you how not gay I am?"

Mindy stopped and sniffed, raising her head up from the table surface.

"W-What?"

"Why-don't-I-show-you-how-not-gay-I-am?" Greg said, quick and simple.

Mindy's mouth tipped into a smile.

"Okay."

"You're not serious!" Liz cried, her mouth hanging open along with Grissom and Sara's.

Greg looked offended. "I am too serious!" Then he winked at Liz's stunned expression.

Mindy's smile was humongous, and her crooked teeth were highly visible.

"Come on Mindy. I know the perfect spot." Greg stood up and exited the room, Mindy following very close behind.

The room was quiet.

"Umm…" Liz said after several tense moments, "Who else is as concerned about this as I am?"

Everyone, including Molly, raised their hands.

"Okay, right through these two heavy, silver doors is just the perfect spot." Greg said proudly, smiling.

"Oh really?" Mindy raised an eyebrow, her face devious. "You know, I was just kidding about that 'all the good looking ones are gay' thing. Sure, a lot of them are but you do come across the occasional straight good-looking ones…" Her voice lowered and she grabbed the front of Greg's shirt. "Like you…"

Greg was quick to start smooth-talking his way out.

"Uh-uh Mindy. Wait until we get inside. Ladies first,"

Mindy let go of his shirt, still smiling, and swept through the two silver doors. But before she should get out the words, "You want to make out in the morgue?" Greg had slammed the silver doors behind her and stuck a chair beneath the handles.

"Oh no…Why are you smiling? What did you do? And why are you smiling?" Liz sprung the barrage of questions on Greg as soon as he stepped into the room. "And where is Mindy?"

Greg was grinning, his hands in his pockets and rocking on the balls of his feet.

"What did you do?" Liz pressed further, standing up with her hands on the table.

"Something…" Greg said slyly, looking around at them, still smiling.

"You didn't make out with her, did you?" Liz asked, closing her eyes as if to pray.

Greg shook his head and Liz's face cracked into a smile.

"What did you do?" she asked, more eager this time.

"I sort of…put her somewhere…" He looked to each of their faces.

"Where?" She had never looked this happy.

"Molly knows." Greg said, nodding at her.

Liz's mouth dropped open. "No way!" she cried. She clapped her hands to her mouth and laughed through them. "No way!"

"You shut her in the morgue?" Grissom asked, disbelievingly.

Greg's grin was smug.

"Don't you think you should go get her before she starts screaming and we have Eckl—oh wait, he's dead." Sara said.

"I'll go get her anyway…" Greg said, turning.

A few minutes later, Greg was back, Mindy tagging behind him. But she didn't look like Mindy. Of course, her hair was the same and her eyes, and her everything to the point where it was obviously Mindy, but her mouth was set grimly and her broad shoulders sagged. Her eyes seemed dimmer than usual and she looked rather depressed.

"Mindy?" Liz said tentatively.

She grunted, then in a low voice she said, "I see freaky dead people…"

Liz's eyes widened and her mouth smiled again.

"GREG! I could KISS you!"

Greg opened his mouth to say something, but a sudden high, sharp, heavily accented, British voice spoke first.

"This is absolutely preposterous! My entire identity, character back-story, and what not—plagiarized! I can't believe this! I feel violated!"

Everyone in the room swiveled their heads toward…Molly.

"Y-You-You talked!" Liz gasped, her eyes widening even further than before.

"Well of course I talked! What did you think, I was going to go around grunting and saying 'I see freaky dead people!' for the rest of my life? For goodness sakes…of course not…Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. I'm going to have to change my look and personality and my label. I'm now the sleek sophisticated Molly Turner—English extraordinaire."

Mindy grunted.

"Help me wipe this hideous makeup off…black eye shadow, hideous. And black lipstick? What was I thinking? Hand me a tissue will you Elizabeth?"

Liz did so, staring transfixed at Molly.

"Er…well, Molly. You'll have to put new makeup on in the car because we have to go back to the airport to catch that flight back to Chicago. We have to make sure Jason hasn't blown anybody up."

"Oh bother…" Molly rubbed the tissue against her black lips. "It won't come off. I think it's been on there so long it's stained on."

"Molly!"

"Oh, yes, yes, right. Alrighty then. Farewell my Las Vegan counterparts! Until we meet again! Cheerio!" Molly stepped out of the room, waving the tissue behind her. Greg waved Mindy out after Molly so the Las Vegans were alone in the room with Liz.

"Well…I guess…this is goodbye. Grissom," Liz nodded at him.

He returned the gesture, saying, "You're an excellent CSI Liz, and you're a great supervisor for your team."

Liz smiled, "Thanks, and I'm sorry about Mindy being so hassling."

Grissom shrugged. "No worries."

Liz turned to Sara and nodded at her, "Sara, goodbye."

Sara smiled at her, keeping her lips closed so as to not show the mouthful of asparagus. She swallowed her bite then said, "See you some other time. I'd like to come to Chicago maybe one time, to see what your lab is like."

"It's not much." Liz then turned finally to Greg. "Thank you Greg. I can't thank you enough for getting Mindy to actually shut up!"

Greg smiled at her. "So…er…about that kiss…"

Sara suddenly began to choke on her asparagus, and a loud beeping noise filled the air. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Greg dashed over to Sara and began pounding on her back. Grissom and Liz held their hands to their ears, their faces scrunched against the noise.

"That's my car alarm! Mindy or Molly must have set it off! Bye everyone!" Liz shouted above the racket.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Grissom waved at her as Liz stepped out of the breakroom door.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Liz opened her eyes to her alarm clock blaring. With a heavy groan, she raised her hand and let it drop heavily onto the off button.

"Uggh…" she moaned, standing up and catching sight of her hair in her vanity mirror. It was a wreck.

She trudged into the bathroom of her apartment to get ready for her the uneventful day ahead, trying to contemplate her extremely odd dream, wondering what all the broccoli was about and if it had anything to do with the leftover barbecued pork from her parents' house that she had eaten for dinner last night.

After her shower her hair looked better, so she quickly towel dried it, dressed in a light blue shirt and jeans and put her hair in a ponytail.

"Better," she said to herself. Then she grabbed her keys and purse and headed out the door.

Once getting through the heavy Chicago morning traffic, work was just as she had expected it to be: paperwork, paperwork, Mindy annoying the hell out of her, Molly doing nothing but grunt, and Jason coming close to blowing up the entire lab. Why she hadn't fired any of them was a mystery, but they were good CSI's despite how their general personalities proved them to be.

In her office, Liz gawked only half-heartedly at the gigantic stack of overdue supervisor reports on her desk. There were messages on her telephone from the leading homicide detective, Detective Jamison, each holding information about three different cases. Liz quickly got the information about the cases into a casefile and handed them out to Molly, Mindy, and Jason.

Then she was left alone with the paperwork. Fun. It would probably take all night.

Just as predicted, Liz stayed late that night. Mindy, Jason, and Molly had all checked in for the night. Mindy had collected her paycheck and was at the moment in the locker-room, getting something or another before leaving. Molly was who-knew-where and Jason had already gone home.

Liz sighed heavily, milling over more papers, when suddenly her phone rang. 'Please be that hot guy from the coffee-shop I swapped numbers with…please oh please oh please…'

"Hello? Chicago Crime Lab. This is Supervisor Elizabeth Keller speaking, how may I help you?"

"Liz?"

"My God, Grissom?..."

THE END

A/N: I'm gonna miss you guys! It has been SO fun to write this story! Maybe I should eat leftover barbecued pork more often, hmm? ;) I hope you laughed as much reading it as I did writing it! And I appreciate everybody's reviews! They were wonderful and inspiring:)