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Chapter 4

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"I don't care what it takes, you find him and tell him to get his ass back here now! He has a responsibility to this city and to this lab. We're short-staffed on two shifts, graveyard is backlogged more than a hundred cases, and Sidle was due to be replaced two weeks ago. If he thinks he can just disappear, he's sadly mistaken... Oh, and Catherine, you be sure to tell him that if we weren't so short-staffed right now, I'd fire his ass!"

"No, you wouldn't," she challenged. "Carvallo'd have your ass on a platter before you could even get the words out, and don't think for a minute that I haven't tried to get in touch with him. He won't answer his phone and if he's at home, he's not answering his door either."

"Then you had better try harder. I don't have to remind you how this works, do I?"

She sighed in response.

"Good, because it would do the city a disservice to lose such a talented individual." An evil smile crossed his face as he watched emotions rage within her.

"You bastard," she breathed, clearly battling to restrain herself. "You self-absorbed, egotistical, pig-headed, sniviling little bastard!"

At this, he laughed. "Good show, Catherine! And such an extended vocabulary!"

"You don't even what to hear my full vocab-"

"That's enough!" He cut her off and stood before her, his look trained to kill. "I thought you'd've learned from Sidle's mistake: I don't tolerate insubordination. Don't forget, Ms. Willows, you owe me and that means that I hold the cards. You find Grissom and get him back here, or it'll be your ass on a platter."

Catherine stod still, challenging his stare and trying like hell to keep her composure. For a moment it seemed she would withstand the battle, but the pressure became too much and when she knew she couldn't last much longer, she spit at his feet and left without a word.

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Two days later, while she waited on her evidence, Sara decided to take a personal tour of the Quantico lab. Twice the size of the Vegas lab with twice the equipment, there was something new around every corner, and every bt of it fascinated her. The DNA lab was separate from the chem lab, the morgue was separate from the X-ray room which was separate from the autopsy room, all of which were filled with equipment she had only read about in books.

But as she neared the back of the lab, and consequently the end of her tour, there was one room that held her captive. A woman had just walked into the ballistics lab with evidence from a case. Sara watched as she handed a young man in a wheelchair, who looked to be about Greg's age,two separate bindles and a highly powered rifle that had been found in a suspect's home. As the lab tech took the evidence, he noticed Sara in the doorway.

"Can I help you?" he asked, somewhat coldly as the other woman brushed past her.

Sara blushed. "Uh, no, sorry... I - I'm new here, and was just looking around... Ballistics always interested me because of the physics, and I was just admiring your lab."

"Well, admire quietly, I have work to do." He wheeled around and over to his workstation, taking the evidence from his lap to spread on the table top before him. As he opened the bindles and dumped their contents, Sara unconsiously inched forward, her curiousity getting the better of her. Out of the first bindle dropped 3 shell casings. Moving one to a microscope and another to the scanner, the young tech ran the casings through IBIS while making a comparison to a casing from another scene. Proclaiming a match a moment later, he turned to the other bindle. Sara leaned closer to see a large bullet fall into the tech's hand.

"Wow," she said. "BFB-"

The tech spun at her, effectively cutting her off. "Yes," he hissed, "a big freaking bullet. Is that all you damn interns know how to do? Go around harrassing all the real agents in this lab with all your newly learned vocabulary?"

Taken aback by his comment, Sara furrowed her brow. "I'm not an intern, I'm-"

"Look, I don't care who you are or where you're from; Just get the hell out of my lab so I can work!" Wheeling his chair back to his station, he heaved a sigh of fruustration before returning to his analysis of the bullet.

Sara backed out of the room, irritated but not really angry at the man. If anything, her pride was hurt, but she reminded herself that this was not her first less-than-warm welcome here. More than once she'd been greeted with cold stares and whispered remarks. Taking a glance back before heading to check on her own evidence, Sara sighed. While the young tech may have momentarily reminded her of a combination of bobby D and Greg, he definitely had an attitude reminiscent of Hodges.

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Catherine sat at the break room table staring at the phone in her hand, a silent war raging within her. Looking at the name in her phone book, she wondered what he was doing right now. They all knew that he was upset; Sara had left without a word to any of them, and three weeks later, they'd still heard nothing of her. Now Grissom had disappeared. It had been four days since anyone had seen him at the lab, and Catherine was worried. If she knew Grissom (and after 15 years of friendship, she knew him well), something like this was likely to throw him into depression, and a depression for Grissom was not a good thing.

On the other hand, if she couldn't get him to come back...

"Hey Catherine, you all right?"

She turned to see Warrick staring at her from the doorway. When she put her head down on the table in response, he came in and took the chair next to her.

"What's been thrown at you this time?"

Her response was muffled: "Ecklie."

"Now what does he want? Hasn't he done enough?" His soulful voie was colored with anger.

"Aparently not," she sighed. "He certainly enjoys playing puppetmaster..."

Warrick's head snapped up, not liking the sound of that comment. Choosing his words carefully, he asked, "What do you mean? ..." When she didn't answer, he continued. "Cath, what's going on? Is everything alright?"

She hesitated, looking around as if to see anyone was watching nearby. Speaking softly, she explained. "He thinks I owe him for giving me the promotion. He keeps hanging it over my head so I'l do things for him, saying that he can take things away just as easliy as he can dish them out. At one point he even threatened to-"

"He threatened you!" he exclaimed, clearly shocked that even Ecklie would go that low.

"No," she said quickly, "not me. He knows better than that, but he threatened all I hold dear, and he knows what that entails..." Her voice was shaking, and though she tried to cover it up, Warrick knew she was scared for her daughter. Worried for a woma who was rarely rattled, he tried to calm her.

"Look, Cath, you can't let him get to you. Ecklie's an ass, and this is exactly what he wants... Be the bigger person; go to Brass."

She shook her head. "He'd find out... Besides, who's going to believe me? I've had to be such a jerk to people throughout this whole thing, especially to Sara, not because I wanted to but because it takes all the blame off of Ecklie and makes it look like it was all me-"

Warrick held his hand up. "Whoa, slow down... I believe you, remember? Besides, they believed me when I had the judge all over my back." Laying a hand on her shoulder, he continued. "Go to Brass. He'll know what to do, and before you know it, we'll catch the bastard and it'll be over."

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...TBC...

A/N: please review! this story is still in its manuscript stage and is not yet officially finished, and i need to know what you think before i can finish it! please review!