Haunted Christmas Ch.7

Author Note: Again, I realize there's been a delay in posting this chapter, but it's almost exam time here (and RL's been crazy as usual).

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. The songs used are All I Want For Christmas (Mariah Carey) and Highway to Hell (ACDC).

Sara squeaked and jumped backwards. Grissom merely raised his eyebrows and walked into the attic. Granted, the object staring at them was considerably larger than life, but he saw no real reason for alarm. Sara's skin tone, on the other hand, bore a close resemblance to a pair of latex gloves.
"Griss, what the Hell is that?" she hissed, not looking away from it.
"Well, Sara, I would assume that it's an oversized model of a tarantula," Grissom said calmly, stating the obvious without really answering the question.
"I see that," she retorted, having gotten over her initial fright. "What I meant was what is it doing here? In the attic? Staring at us?"
Grissom frowned slightly; Sara could almost see the wheels turning in his head.
"Well, we know the former owner was interested in butterflies," he said, unable to look at Sara. "Maybe he was studying spiders as well."
Sara frowned. "Catherine could have warned us about this," she muttered under her breath. Ever since the Debbie Marlin case, Grissom had seemed a little strange about butterflies ever since then, even going so far as to throw away the two butterfly prints that used to hang on the walls of his office. Sara had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the fact that Debbie Marlin had borne an almost uncanny resemblance to herself.

Greg had his head buried in a microscope with his headphones on (again). The volume must have been up all the way, as that was the only explanation Warrick could come up with for the song that Greg was belting out.
"All I want for Christmas... is you!" he wailed at the top of his voice as he looked up to get another slide for comparison. Catching sight of Warrick, he changed his words. "Hey momma, look at me-- I'm on my way to the Promised Land, I'm on a highway to Hell." Stopping before he launched into the chorus, he tried to act cool.
"Hey man, I've got those DNA samples you needed," he said, trying to act natural.
"So that's what you listen to when you think nobody's around?" Warrick smirked at him. Greg was gonna pay for this one.
"Would it help if I said I was just in the holiday mood?" Greg asked hopefully. "Cuz I'm sure there's a good explanation for what you think you just heard."
Warrick rolled his eyes. He was in no mood to listen to Greg try to weasel his way out of this one. He was far more interested in getting Catherine to stand under the mistletoe with him (without Greg's sarcastic commentary).
"Look, Greggo, just stay in here for the rest of shift, and I won't tell anyone," Warrick said. Except maybe Nick, he added silently.
Greg could see where Warrick's thoughts were going, and he groaned inwardly. The last thing he needed right now was word of this getting back to Grissom. Speaking of Grissom, where was he?
"Hey, where's Grissom, anyway?" he asked casually.
"Oh, you didn't know?" Warrick was surprised. Greg usually knew everything going on in the lab. "He and Sara went to check out a haunted house, but technically he took the night off."
Greg groaned to himself. So much for his chance with Sara and the mistletoe.