Title: Noise and Audiotape
Authors: Kristen999
Category: Angst / Post Episode
Spoilers: "Grave Danger" and "Bodies in Motion"
Disclaimer: All rights belong to CBS and all their fine writers. Please don't sue. This is just for fun.
Summary: It's a heavy burden to bear, to be an AV Tech. Post one shot to "Bodies in Motion".
Notes: Will not be the last of several bunnies in my head. Not betaed.
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He entered the lab like he always did. With a smile, energy to do the job, and the satisfaction that the layers of sonic anomalies that he studied helped people. It wasn't near anything as high tech as being an engineer for NASA, a tech consultant for the Sci Fi network ,or for any other special effects department. No he tinkered with his stuff at home and brought his A-Game to the work everyday.
People counted on his keen ear, his skills at detection of audio variations, little cadence changes in backgrounds, voice, or white noise. It was never just static…there was always something hidden.
The same was said for his skills with manipulation. Images often concealed clues behind photos and surveillance footage. He saw and heard death every day, but never touched a body whose warmth seeped out as the blood ran cold.
His life consisted of just digits, codes, plastic tape, and lines.
Once in a while he wished he just had a slide to analyze, or a sample to identify. Sometimes the voices and the moving pictures were something that he could not disassociate with…erase like his tapes, or manipulate out of his head. Not when it was his duty to memorize, dissect into layers, and isolate those little things.
"Breathe fast. Breathe slow. Put your gun in your mouth and pull the trigger. Anyway you look at it..you're going to die here……Okay?..."
Archie's hands clenched into fists above the keyboard. His breath had hitched in his throat, the pumping of blood echoed in his ears despite the headphones.
He stared at his read outs…looked at the stress tests of the audio waves. At first…well he didn't know what to expect. Wasn't sure.
When Grissom came barging into his lab, an expression as serious and as intense since well, since the night Nick was abducted, he had no choice but to accept the plastic zip lock baggy that contained an almost mangled cassette.
"I want you to analyze the message on the first side."
Archie flipped the tape around, noticing the scorch marks, and the cracks in the plastic. He knitted his eyebrows, and looked over at the stack of other projects he had to do.
"I've got like to B&Es to study before—"
"This gets top priority. I need to know if you pick up anything off of this.Anything out of the ordinary." Grissom's eyes bore into his.
Grissom's mouth was clenched closed and his body held rigid.
Archie placed the tape into the machine and his fingers brushed against the play button.
Grissom's hands halted his, ceasing the action.
"Use your headphones. Don't let anyone else listen to this tape."
Gil Grissom's voice was low, firm, and borderline deadly.
Archie Johnson almost gulped.
"But—"
"It has to do with the Walter Gordon case."
The AV tech eyes drifted back over his machine. The entire significance took on a whole new meaning. For once it was silent in his lab. His eyes roamed back to his supervisor's steely expression. Grissom's mask faltered and it slipped back to a sense of normalcy.
"You understand?" Grissom asked.
Archie nodded his head slowly.
Grissom left him alone and he swiveled around in his chair and wet his now dry lips. It was never the Nick Stokes case…never the abduction… or kidnapping…just the Walter Gordon case.
Archie pulled his lab coat tighter around him. He nervously looked around and plugged into the headphone jack. He rewound the tape to record the message digitally to analyze as well as to preserve the precious contents.
Five hours later, and a lot of cloak and dagger, he had pulled out a tiny additional voice that wasn't easy to pick up at first. Archie's headphones hung around his neck; and he stared at his smooth hands.
"Put your gun to your mouth and pull the trigger…"
Stop.
That voice, that evil, cold blooded voice, lingered his brain. He had taunted Nick…encouraged him to blow his brains out. Gave him an "out" of the misery and torture that he afflicted on the young criminalist.
He shook his head. No, it wasn't a mercy gesture. It was just one more mental mind game.
It took weeks not to wake up from those haunted images without sound. He felt like he owed the CSI at least the idea that someone would always be with him…even if Nick never knew it at the time.
Each member of the Team sat with him from time to time. Keeping visual, trying to gauge Nick's slow deterioration, or just look on in awe at his amazing resolve and inner strength.
Archie had taken breaks from time to time, but always, he remained in silent vigil.
His eyes flicked back to his machine as he hit play again.
"Hi CSI Guy."
Stop.
He chewed on one of his manicured nails…Gordon never thought of his victim as anything but some civil servant. Nick was never a person or an individual. Just a way to inflict pain. Gordon could ever understand the depths of the family that he had slowly tore apart that day.
Or maybe he did.
Archie looked back at the screen, the colors separating all the oddities of the recording. He kept looking over his shoulder. It wouldn't bode well if Warrick or someone else came in and startled him like early.
He saw Gil Grissom approach his domain again. His shoulders set, his demeanor… hopeful?
He replayed the message again for the supervisor, letting him hear the last part…the newly discovered clue. Grissom wasn't surprised at the results. He was all ready analyzing and mulling over the theory that Walter Gordon had an accomplice.
It was an uneasy feeling.
Archie looked over at him. "You know Nick recorded a message on the flipside of the tape. You want to—"
"No. This is between you and me." Grissom had cut him off again.
Archie felt helpless…..again.
The voice was more intelligible, but they were still empty handed. Grissom strolled out of his lab. He was met in the hallway by both Warrick and the subject of the now secret investigation. Archie watched in his chair as Grissom smiled at both men. He had heard about Warrick's marriage through the grapevine.
Another repercussion of the "Walter Gordon Case".
Nick glanced his way, always personable and friendly as he wandered over.
"Hey man, Grissom keeping you late?"
Archie smiled. "Just a bit."
"Where are you going?" he asked.
Nick got that giddy grin again. "We're going to celebrate Warrick's newly found love and commitment."
He chuckled. "Have fun."
Nick smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder. "Well, don't work too hard dude."
"I'll try not to."
Archie was left with Nick's retreating form.
He sat back down solemnly in his little chair, and contemplated his environment. With all of his million dollar computers and advanced hardware, his task was at a standstill. He watched as Gil Grissom walked with the two CSIs down the corridor. Grissom went on every case with Nick nowadays. The young criminalist never worked on anything without being under Grissom's watchful eye.
Even now, the supervisor had walked alongside Nick, almost too close. As if he thought Nick might slip away again. The mere fact that Gil Grissom was going to hang out with Warrick and Nick after work… at a bar, was a miracle in itself. Just a powerful reminder about the continued ripple effect.
Gil Grissom didn't hang out. But then again..he was with "his guys".
Archie took out the tape and slipped it into another evidence bag. He had asked Grissom about the flipside of the cassette, but he wanted to get permission about dissecting it. His reaction had been quick and almost panicky.
Archie sealed it up. He knew why. He had not told the supervisor that he already listened to it. Archie now possessed the audio to a dying man's last words. The heartfelt message to his parents, his thoughtfulness towards his team mates that he knew were trying to find him, and a personal note to a boss, that he longed for acceptance and respect from.
He was glad he'd never have to replay that personal note to the supervisor, but Archie wondered if maybe Grissom all ready listened to both sides of the tape. He wasn't really surprised by the second voice, and he was sure he was trying to protect Nick from any further invasion of privacy.
Or maybe he didn't want anyone else to hear to screams that had been captured, as the tape device had slipped from Nick's grasp, the recording still going, as the man had been attacked by fire ants. Archie opened up a vault where he kept various items. This evidence would not be logged like the other items from the case.
Archie Johnson shed his jacket, and headed outside of the confines of the sterile environment. He would never be able to look at ants, Plexiglas, or green glow sticks ever the same again. The nightmare had slowly faded away, but now with a new voice and the addition of a small audio track to a silent horror movie. He didn't think the ghost of Walter Gordon would ever dissipate. Archie just hoped he could sleep tonight without the newly discovered cries that complimented the images of a struggle he would like to forget.
He sucked in the night air, and peered upwards towards the sky. Sometimes he wished that the fantasy worlds he liked to visit in books and movies could replace cruel reality.
end