A/N: Hello, again folks. Okay, I'm trying to keep Kate from sliding into the 'Mary-Sue' category, so if she starts slipping a little too far into perfection, let me know. If Greg and Grissom seem a little OOC, it's because try as hard as I could, I could not get into their heads. So, sorry in advance. Also, Grissom may be socially inept, but in my opinion, he's a natural gentleman. If you disagree…tough.

A/N #2: I have no idea what it looks like from CSI to the morgue, so there's a little creative license there.

DISCLAIMER: While not particularly stating any proprietary rights, I am forewarning you. The first part of this deals with some serious issues and is probably not the best for some of our more sensitive readers. So, if you are in any way squeamish about certain things, please tread carefully.

Kate arrived at eight the following night, trying desperately to stay awake. Rearranging her biological clock was easier said than done. On top of that, she'd gotten a call from Jason at about eleven in the morning, waking her up from three hours of sleep. While she'd patiently listened to Jason babble on about how cool the day shift was and how much fun he was having, after five minutes, she's accidentally fallen asleep on him. Opening the doors to the building, Kate recalled with a grin the livid tone of Jason's voice when he'd called her back later that day. Shaking her head, replaying the enraged rant from him, she waved to the other secretary and headed back to one of the rooms where she could see Nick and Greg drinking coffee. Hesitantly, she made her way in, heading for the coffee pot; last night and the previous day had been murder on her biological clock and she needed anything with caffeine badly. Nick noticed her beeline for the pot and raised his own in salute. "Welcome to the Night Shift."

Kate grinned wryly at him as she poured a hot cup of sludge in her Styrofoam cup. Greg looked up and grimaced. "No, no. Let me get you some of the good stuff. You deserve it after having to put up with Catherine for half the night."

Kate opened her mouth to object to the playful insult, but just shook her head instead. Guys. Greg set his own mug on the table and walked over to a second, more hidden pot. The smell was enticing as he pulled out another cup and poured some of the brew into it. With a devilish grin, he held it out to Kate. "Try that, Madame."

Kate grinned and took the cup, taking a sip. A warm, almost cinnamony flavor swept over her taste buds as the coffee swirled around in her mouth. It was absolutely delicious. "Wow, Greg. This is really good. Your own special brew?"

"Yes ma'am. Only the best for Las Vegas' finest." Greg grinned again and went back to his own coffee.

"Isn't it awesome?" Nick asked, not looking up from the sporting magazine he was reading.

Kate took another sip. "Oh, yeah." She smiled, tentatively sitting down in one the chairs, still sipping the divine coffee. This was cool, her just hanging out with the team like this; it made her feel-just for a moment-like she was really part of something. She took another sip of her coffee; aside from tasting wonderful, it gave her a much needed energy boost. The break room was small, quiet with a nice couch and a couple bookshelves full of books and magazines and well worn forensic journals. She turned to see Nick watching her curiously. "What?"

"How was it last night?"

Kate shrugged. "It was all right. Staying up till the wee hours of the morning was kind of weird, but hey, I'm a high school student, I'll live."

"What grade are you in?" Greg piped up.

"I'll be a senior this coming up semester."

"What do you plan to do after you get out of high school?" Nick asked, setting his magazine down.

"UNLV." Kate answered automatically, she'd been planning this since freshman year. "I'm planning on following in my dad's footsteps."

"What's your dad do?"

"Well, now he's an anatomy professor, but he used to be a coroner and that's what I want to do." Kate watched the two closely, gauging their reactions. Everyone else she'd told that to either wrinkled their nose in disgust or looked at her in absolute amazement. Greg's eyebrow rose for a second, but he just shrugged and went back to his coffee. Nick was watching her passively. "Sounds cool. I mean, that's a definite difference from the career plans of most girls your age."

"Oh, you mean the," she sat up straight, flipping her hair around in a perfect imitation of most high school girls, "the ones who like, who want to be like, models and like, clothing designers, and like, all that?" She asked, raising her voice to a nasal pitch.

Nick grinned and laughed. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Grissom came in, holding assignment slips. He peered curiously at Kate through his reading glasses for a moment and Kate was worried she might have to introduce herself all over again. But then, Grissom nodded as if remembering. "Kate." He said to himself. "Internship program."

Kate nodded in affirmative and he continued heading to his seat at the head of the table. He seemed completely unperturbed to have a person who'd only shown up the night before sitting quite comfortably at his table drinking coffee, talking with the guys. Kate liked him already. For a moment, the three of them sat in silence waiting for Catherine and Warrick to appear. As if summoned by their very thoughts, Catherine came sweeping into the room, followed closely by Warrick. They'd been speaking softly to each other as they came into the room. Grissom looked up from the paper, observing them over the tops of his glasses as they sat down.

"I'm glad you two decided to grace us with your presence." He said sarcastically.

Warrick just shook his head. "Sorry man, traffic jam on the way."

"Fine. Catherine, what's your excuse?"

Catherine just gave a flirtatious smile, completely impervious to her boss' grumpiness. "Sorry, Gil. Sara still can't drive, so I had to get Lindsey over to day camp."

"How is Sara?" Nick asked concernedly.

Catherine grinned again. "Doing fine. Can't wait to get back to work. Doctor says she'll probably be able to come back in about a week."

Kate felt her brows furrowing. This was the second time someone had mentioned a person named Sara. From what small information she'd gathered from Catherine and Grissom's repartee the night before and this little tidbit, Sara was one of the team but was out with an injury. She made a mental note to ask someone about it later. Grissom returned to his paperwork. "All right, Warrick, you and Catherine are working that homicide right?"

Catherine nodded. "Yeah, we're going to finish the lab work and Vega's bringing the suspect down for questioning."

"Okay. Get started on that. Nick, you'll be working the DB on the other side of town." He looked up. "Greg, you and I will keep working on the Gregory case." He turned to look at Kate, "Kate, while they do that, you'll be helping us with our case."

Kate sat up, eyes wide. "Really?" She asked eagerly.

"Really."

Now that everyone had their cases, they left in a hurry. Catherine headed out first, followed by Warrick, Nick not far behind. They disappeared down the hall, laughing and talking. Silently, Grissom gathered his papers and rose, not checking to see if his two protégés were behind him; it was automatically assumed that they would know enough to follow him. Kate was up first, Greg right beside her. They fell into an easy step behind the older man, Greg starting an casual conversation with her. She liked the young man even more than she had the night before, he was quirky and had a wonderful sense of humor, but underneath, Kate could sense a particular peace to him as well. Behind all the silly humor and off the wall jokes was a guy who could be calm, just didn't feel like it. For a moment, they walked along in silence as Grissom walked a few steps ahead. Kate slipped her hands in her pockets out of habit. Suddenly, she was hit with a sudden thought.

"Greg?" She said.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Who's Sara?" Kate asked curiously. "I hear everyone talking about her, but I've never met her."

"Oh," Greg grinned, as if suddenly embarrassed by something. "Sara is Sara Sidle, a CSI who also works here. About a month ago, she was on a case and she slipped down a flight of stairs."

"Why's that funny?"

"Oh, I'm not laughing at that. Just a nervous habit. Anyway, you'll probably be meeting her when she comes back to work next week." He stopped for a moment to look at her. "I think the two of you will get along pretty well. You both are the only people to have ever stood up to Catherine in a bad mood and lived."

With a laugh, Kate grinned, realizing that Catherine seemed to be the butt of quite a few good-natured jokes. But, she made a mental note not to make any herself, she had the most uncanny bad timing and would more than likely end up making one as soon as the blonde walked into the room.

Grissom paused at a particular lab and turned back to the two. "Greg, I need you to check out Trace on the bottle and DNA. Kate, are you okay to come in the morgue?"

Kate nodded. "Sure. My dad used to be a coroner, so I'm okay with all the dead bodies." It felt slightly redundant repeating this information, but she had a feeling she'd be telling it quite a few times before this internship was over. Grissom nodded and turned to continue walking. Greg gave her a little salute before entering the lab. "Hodges!" She heard him say with false cheerfulness. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the same man with the drawn face looking up at Greg with disdain and annoyance. Smirking, Kate turned back, her eyes following the soft blue of Grissom's denim shirt. She took a few big steps to match pace with the older man; while Grissom didn't acknowledge her presence, she noticed he slowed his walk by the tiniest bit to accommodate her. While this would have surprised any LVPD CSI, Kate simply noticed it and smiled, glad there were at least a few gentlemen left in the world.

The two walked quietly through empty, winding hallways and Kate prayed Grissom would accompany her back because there was no way she would remember the route. Kate wasn't someone who needed to fill the quiet with chatter, she was perfectly comfortable floating around in her own thoughts until she reached her destination. But, she would talk if she had a question on her brain.

"What's the case?' She asked, wincing slightly as her voice reverberated somewhat in the vacant hall.

Grissom checked the file in his hand. "Uh, rape homicide. Woman was found out in the desert, shot execution style, beaten, raped both sexually and with a foreign object."

With a sigh, Kate cast her eyes downward in instinctive respect. While she knew this was the way of the world, it didn't stop it from hurting. Without realizing it, she sent up a silent little prayer that they would be able to help this woman rest in peace.

Finally, they came to a halt in a little hall lined with metal gurneys and small chairs. A set of double doors was on each side of the hall. Grissom opened a door to their right and pulled out two white lab coats. He handed one to Kate before putting one on himself. Slinging it over her shoulders, Kate snorted in amusement when the hems of the coat came just below her knees. She'd endured teasing most of her life, she was always the smallest, shortest kid in her class, but after about twelve years of mockery, even she found it funny. Grissom didn't notice her wardrobe difficulties, he was already pulling open one of the double doors. Inside, Kate quickly figured out it was an autopsy room. An older man with close-cut white hair and beard stood over an autopsy table, looking over a body. Kate recognized him immediately. Dr. Al Robbins; he'd been on night shift for as long as she could remember, he and her dad, the day and night of the morgue.

Kate grinned, seeing an old friend. "Hey old man." She said before she could think about it. Grissom, who'd been heading for the table stopped suddenly and looked back at her in surprise. He opened his mouth, more than likely for a rebuke towards Kate's impudent statement, but before her could, Dr. Robbins just laughed.

"It's okay Gil, I've known that little monster since she could barely walk." He said genially. With a warm smile, he grabbed the crutch that was never far from his side and made his way over to give Kate a hug.

Once they were finished, Kate almost laughed at the confused look on Grissom's face. "My dad used to be head coroner on days."

Grissom nodded, now understanding. Dr. Robbins walked back to the autopsy table, Kate and Grissom following. He picked up a piece of paper attached a clipboard and checked it. Grissom got to the table before Kate, blocking her view. Rolling her eyes, Kate quickly sidestepped the supervisor and almost collapsed. She knew that face. She knew the woman. Kate's stomach tightened into a little ball and her throat suddenly felt like a pound of sand had been poured down it. All sound seemed to fade out and her vision was reduced to the pale, bruised woman on the table. Wendy Gregory.

"Oh, God." The words slipped out before she realized it. "Wendy." Her voice seemed faraway, as if she were hearing it on a television set three rooms away. Wendy Gregory. Used to babysit her in the neighborhood she used to live in. Straight-A student, valedictorian of her class, full scholarship to UNLV. It was almost surreal seeing her like this. Her skin was pale as a sheet of paper, and she could see the lines around her eyes. Though she couldn't have been more than thirty years old, she looked a good ten years past that. The world had not been kind to her; that much was obvious.

She could hear Dr. Robbins voice just barely over the ringing that seemed to be in her ears. "Tox came back with traces of cocaine and alcohol, double the legal limit. Track marks, looks like she's been a user for quite a while. Definite signs of trauma. Major lacerations on the cervix and vaginal area. Traces of something left behind, sent them to Hodges for analysis. Cylindrical shaped bruises along her back, it looks like the perp beat her with something about two inches in diameter. Fractured ribs…"

Brain on autopilot, Kate felt herself moving quickly backwards, uttering a quiet apology before she stumbled out of the room. Tripping on her own feet, Kate lurched forward, spinning unintentionally until her back met a wall. She clapped a hand over her mouth as her body tried to react the only way it could after seeing something like that. Fighting the intense nausea down, Kate sobbed silently into her hand. She shook her head, trying to get her thoughts in order. It seemed like the entire room was spinning. Flashes of memories played in her head; she hadn't seen Wendy in almost eight years, but suddenly they were just coming in waves. Normally, she was a very controlled, composed person; it took a lot to get through to her and this seemed to have done the trick. Slowly her hand dropped as the initial wave of panic wore off.

One of the doors opened and Grissom came rushing out, looking panicked. He looked around for a moment until he spotted Kate sitting on the floor.

Ignoring his protesting knees, Grissom knelt to check on the intern. It had scared him quite a bit when he saw her face go a dead white and watched her hightail it out of the room. From what he'd gathered from the girl, she seemed to be someone who didn't usually do that and he needed to know how this was getting to her. Kate looked up at him, her eyes distant and watery. She smiled tremblingly.

"I'm sorry," She croaked, "I didn't mean to run out like that."

"Well, why did you run out like that?" Grissom asked concernedly. He knew this was more Catherine's area of expertise, but she wasn't there at the moment, so it seemed to be up to him to figure out what had the young intern wound so tight.

Kate sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I, just…I…I know…her."

Grissom's brow furrowed. "Who, Wendy Gregory?"

Kate nodded. "Yeah. She, uh…she used to babysit me, when I was…" She took a deep breath, "When I was little."

That would definitely explain her sudden reaction to the case. Grissom sighed, moving himself into a more comfortable position; this certainly complicated things a bit. While Kate was just an intern, objectivity ruled this world, he couldn't have someone letting their personal feelings push through. Especially someone who wasn't an employee of LVPD; the defense would have a field day if an intern messed up a case because they had an emotional attachment to the vic. Instinctively, he placed his index finger over his upper lip, pressing down slightly as he thought.

This was it, Kate knew it. This was when she got thrown out of the program; it was just her second day and already she'd let a senior CSI get hurt and had completely lost it when they put her on another case. She could almost see the wheels turning in Grissom's head as he sat beside her. Kate closed her eyes, cursing herself for losing it like that. The anger at herself was in all honesty completely irrational, she knew that, but that didn't stop her from berating herself for not being objective. The two warring voices in her head drowned out all other sound; she was only jolted out of her internal criticism when she heard someone shouting her name. In surprise, she turned to see Grissom watching her curiously.

"Did you say something?" She asked, trying to ignore the voice in her head telling her to chalk up one more infraction.

Grissom nodded. "I asked you if you could handle this or do you need to be on another case."

Kate blinked in surprise. Was he asking what she thought he was asking? Was he actually giving her another chance? She'd probably been one of the worst interns in the world in the span of maybe 30 hours and here he was, giving her another shot. For someone who was used to always messing up, someone who was used to everyone shooing her off somewhere else, this was mind-blowing. As she got over the shock of the idea, Kate considered Grissom's question. Hesitantly, her mind wandered back to the image of Wendy on that table, and her stomach threatened to revolt. Robbins' words came back to haunt her, "Track marks, looks like she's been a user for quite a while." That mixed with the latent memories of Wendy from when she was little just didn't seem to mix well. She knew there would be too much a risk of her emotions playing off each other; there was no way she could even handle the thought of not catching Wendy's killer.

With a sigh, Kate shook her head, putting a hand to her forehead in a sign of defeat. Despite Grissom's well-intentioned words of comfort, she still felt like a loser, like a wimp. It was humiliating almost, and she didn't know why. It almost felt like it was humiliating that she'd been caught experiencing emotions. Thought most people didn't know it, she had this sort of fascia that she put up around herself. She didn't cry openly, she didn't let things like this get to her. Vaguely, she heard Grissom's cell phone click open and the sound of a button being pressed.

"Catherine, it's Grissom." There was a pause. "No, nothing's wrong." Grissom chuckled lightly. "No, no she didn't." Kate had a suspicion that comment was directed towards her. "There's been a change of plans. Can you come and get Kate? I think it'd be more fruitful if she saw a little bit more of the lab before she came down to the morgue." Another pause. "Because I'd feel more comfortable if she were with you than Greg. Okay, all right. Fine." The phone clicked closed and Kate looked up at Grissom. His face was passive, but she could swear she could see his blue eyes twinkling.

"I've got to get back in there," Grissom spoke as he pushed himself to his feet, "Catherine will be here in about five minutes."

Kate, who had the heels of her hands pressed deep in her orbital sockets, just nodded. A door squeaked, swinging open and closed, leaving Kate to recover by herself.

High-heeled boots clicked loudly in the empty hall as Catherine walked quickly down to the morgue. Click-click. Click-click. Click-click. Her footsteps seemed to reverberate against the plain, white walls. Absently, Catherine wondered what Kate could've done for Grissom to send her off the case. Had to be something big, Grissom was unusually tolerant of most things, as long as they got the work done. Contaminated evidence maybe? No, Grissom would've told her that. More than likely, Kate wasn't really ready to handle the sight of a dead body. Then again, she did pretty well with the stiff in the store. Catherine mulled this over as she stepped into the Morgue. Two sneaker-clad feet were poking out from behind a sheet covered gurney. Curiously, Catherine very carefully walked forward, bending down to get a better look. Getting past the gurney, she blinked in surprise seeing Kate sitting there, looking absolutely miserable.

Oh, great, was Catherine's first thought, what's Grissom done now?

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