Chapter 9
As she drove home, Alex realized that she was famished. She decided to stop at one of the 24-hour cafes that littered Las Vegas. She had just ordered when her cell phone rang.
She smiled; it was Greg. "I didn't expect to hear from you so soon," Alex answered.
"I didn't expect to call so soon, but the situation has required it," he replied.
Confused she said, "What do you mean?"
"Look towards the door," he told her.
She looked up and saw him standing at the doorway. She smiled. "What are you doing here?" but she hung up before he could answer.
She playfully pointed at him and mouth the word "you." He feigned shock, placing his hands on his chest and mouthed the question "Me?" She motioned for him to come.
"Are you stalking me?" She chided as he got to the table.
"Of course I am!" he responded. "Great minds think alike."
"Great stomachs, too," she laughed. He chuckled too. Oh no, she thought, he likes my corny jokes!
They ordered some food and shared some more laughs. Alex knew they couldn't avoid certain topics and sure enough, they came up.
"So, what do you do?" Greg inquired.
"You have to promise not to laugh and promise you'll still like me," she said sheepishly.
"I promise!" Greg said. There's not much you could say that would make me not like you, he thought. "Cross my heart."
"I'm a forensic accountant with the FBI," She mumbled quietly.
"A forensic accountant?" Greg was surprised. "That's awesome!"
Now it was Alex's turn to be surprised. "Really? You don't find it totally geeky or intimidating?"
"Intimidating, no. Geeky, yes. But I like geeky. Plus, I'm a geek myself. I work for the Las Vegas Crime lab as a CSI." Greg responded.
I knew this was too good to be true, she thought to herself. He works with Grissom. In fact, Grissom is probably his supervisor. This cannot be good. She instinctively frowned.
"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the sudden change in her facial expression.
"Sorry, got a bad taste in my mouth," she lied. "It's nothing." She smiled again. She decided she wasn't going to let this new information stop her from at least making a new friend. She wasn't even sure if Grissom would want anything to do with her after they met, so why should she let him stop her from Greg? Besides, she wasn't sure where things were going with Greg either.
"So, how did you get into crime scene work?" She asked, continuing their conversation.
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As Alex and Greg had begun their evening many hours earlier, the night shift of the CSI crime lab was just starting work.
Grissom was sitting in his office, when Sara walked by. He called out to her, but she didn't stop. He walked to the doorway and called after her. "Sara, can I see you in my office?"
She turned to face him, "Is that an order from my supervisor or a request from my friend?"
"A request from your friend," he replied.
"Then I decline, I have work to do," she started to walk away.
"Fine, then it's an order from your supervisor," Grissom said.
Sara turned back around, looking annoyed. She rolled her eyes and went into Grissom's office.
"I wanted to explain about the other day," Grissom started.
"It's alright," she was irritated. "Like I said before, you don't owe me—"
"Sara," Grissom interrupted. "Let me speak. You deserve an explanation."
This somewhat pacified Sara. At least he thought enough of her that she deserved an explanation.
Grissom continued, "I know what you must have concluded from the evidence that you found, but sometimes evidence can be deceiving.
"Alexandria is not my girlfriend and there is no way I would ever propose to her. She's my daughter."
Sara had much the same reaction Catherine did; she was shocked. She knew she must have misheard him and responded with the only logical thing she could make out of his sentence. "Alexandria had your daughter?"
"No, Sara," Grissom correct, "Alexandria is my daughter."
Sara was speechless. She sat there, her mouth hanging open. "Grissom, I'm so sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. Does anyone else know? How come you've never mentioned her?"
"No apology needed. We are trained to follow the evidence, Sara, and that is what you did," Grissom responded. "I've never mentioned her because I only found out recently myself. And yes, Catherine knows. I'd like to keep this at you two for now."
"Ok," Sara nodded and got up to leave. She understood that Grissom was a private person. This information was need-to-know only. At least he thinks I need to know, if only by default, she thought, feeling some relief knowing there wasn't someone else, at least not for now.
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Bright sunlight streamed thru the window as Alex slowly opened her eyes. Her head was throbbing and she felt like crap. I must have had more to drink than I realized, she thought as she rolled over looking for the alarm clock. She spotted it on her left and squinted to see the time. It was eleven a.m.
That's when she realized something wasn't right. Her alarm clock was on the right side of her bed not the left and the sunlight was all wrong. Her bedroom window faced west, not east. There shouldn't be that much light if the clock was right. Oh shit! Where am I?
