Okay, yeah I figured the first chapter wasn't proofread very well. I apologize for that. Usually I'm a complete perfectionist when it comes to that, but I had to go somewhere. Hopedully this is a bit better.The summary was about both chapters...this is where the lemons come in to play, if that makes things less confusing.
"Greg…Sara." They both turned toward the break room door a bit jumpy at the sound of Grissom's voice, worry that somehow hehad gotten word of the day's incident through the lab gossip.
"What?" They both asked in unison.
He sounded rather enthusiastic. "Hope you're in a good mood…"
"Why, what now?" Sara asked annoyed. She could tell already this was going to be a long day.
"Decomp…found by Lake Mead…DB unidentified."
"No…no. I've never done a decomp before! Isn't there anyone else, like…Nick…Nick would love to do it!" Greg unconvincingly tried to bargain his way out. He knew how bad decomps could be. Sara had tossed her cookies in the nearest trash can and had to take five showers in one day to get the smell to go disappear.
"No, Nick is busy with his own case…as is everyone else on shift, except for my two lucky CSIs right here." Grissom gestured to them both, rubbing it in. Gil handed over the paperwork and Sara took it, though not without a sigh and one angry look before leaving.
"Breathe through your mouth, not your nose." Sara warned before pushing open the heavy door to the coroner's office, followed slowly behind by Greg. "What are we looking at for today? Duffel bag, tool chest?"
"Golf bag." David walked over to the table and unzipped the bag. "The bones appear adult size." He pulled out a skull and what looked like the Tibia, at least part of one. "I think this is a gunshot wound." He pointed to a hole in the side of the scull. "And it looks as if this bone was severed port-mortem. Possibly to make the body fit in the bag. Just a guess." His voice came out in an odd nasal tone as the smell became increasingly worse as they went on.
Greg struggled to keep from breathing through his nose, reacting to the stench greatly. Though she'd done this before, Sara had to turn her head for a quick moment to control her stomach as well.
"Any personal items for identification?"
"Looks like a jacket…" He took it out of the bagand set it on the table. "…and, oh, a wallet."
"Would a driver's license be preserved enough to get a name."
"The lab should be able to get something."
"What else is in there?"
"Not much more than bones."
"There should be more, like…like organs or something." The rookie questioned.
"Not in a decomp, all that's left is…"
"Soup." Sara finished.
The coroner tipped the bag enough to let the brownish thick liquid pour out on to the wash table. Greg reacted by covering his mouth...a big mistake.
"Whoa, Greg. You okay?" Sara sounded quite concerned with all of Greg's coughing.
"Oh yeah, in through the mouth, out through the nose…in through the…what the hell did I ever do to Grissom!" He yelled,and for once made Sara crack up.
"You can take this stuff to the examining room and process it for further evidence."
Sara packed the items into bio-hazard bags as the coroner washed the soup down the drain and packed the bones for cremation.
"Someone told Grissom, I just know they did…was it you Sara?" He spread the jacket out on the table.
"No…I didn't. And even if I did he wouldn't punish you with decomp duty." She looked through the wallet. "I can't get ID off this; we need to send it to the lab."
"Why did I ever want to get out of the lab? Why…stupid…stupid."
"From the looks of the jacket, I think it's a woman."
"Or a very feminine man, this is Vegas, you've seen how oddpeople in this city can be."
"No, I'm pretty sure this is a woman, Greg...Is this a matchbook or something? If the lab can find something on it, we can get a location of where she might have last been."
"Did you tell Nick about earlier? Don't, please don't, he'd have a field day with it." He didn't seem concerned about work at the moment, more so about what his friend would think about him first having to meet someone on the internet and then finding out she was actually his co-worker.
"Why, don't want him to get jealous because you were out with a woman?" She threw back the same kind of comment he gave her earlier.
"Sara, what have I told you before? Nick and my relationship is complicated." He said to her with a serious look on his face. Sara tried not to laugh, but once Greg started to she couldn't help it. "Oh!" He yelled. "Clothespin!"
"What?"
"I need a clothes pin!" He coughed, trying to plug his nose.
"Why?"
"Don't ask questions! Just get me a damn clothes pin!" He ran across the room, pushing his way past Sara to the garbage can behind her. He then stunned the black plastic bag lining with his digestive pyrotechnics, while Sara just stood over him laughing. She crouched down beside him, placing a comforting hand on his back, thinking better than just making fun of him. He'd never done this before, she knew first hand how rough it could be.
He stood back up, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his lab coat, and smiled down to Sara, trying not to show his embarrassment. He was a guy...guys weren't supposed to do that.
"What are you looking at…back to work!"
Greg walked back from just dropping off the new evidence with Mia at the lab, and met up with Sara in the hallway.
"I smell…like death." Greg announced. "I just about made Mia pass out. I changed my clothes…which I'll have to burn…oh, my favorite shirt." He closed his eyes in mourning.
"Uh, have you thought of a shower?" She fanned the smell away from her face.
"Did you?"
"Yes. Grissom will let you take a few minutes out of your work day to save the noses in this lab. So go…de-smell yourself."
"You know, Sara…you still smell." Sara didn't seem too pleased. "But you…wear it well."
Jane-doe: still smell?
Lab-rat: 3 showers later, I still smell like a can of tuna in the hot Vegas sun.
Jane-doe: lemons
Lab-rat: what?
Jane-doe: Grissom told me to use lemons in the shower, it works
Lab-rat: I'm desperate. I'll try anything
Jane-doe: Why are you still talking to me?
Lab-rat: Why wouldn't I?
Jane-doe: the diner, you walked out on me
Lab-rat: I did not
Jane-doe: did too
Lab-rat: you seemed angry
Jane-doe: no I was just thinking
Lab-rat: why
Jane-doe: you were right
Jane-doe: I'm going to ask him one more time, he says no, I'll forget about him.
Lab-rat: when will you ask?
Jane-doe: when he's in a good mood
Lab-rat: you seem a lot different now than in person
Jane-doe: so I'm easier to talk to when you can't see my face?
Lab-rat: that's not what I meant
Jane-doe: I know
Lab-rat: I thought you were someone completely different
Lab-rat: you seemed so nice, but at work you're…
Jane-doe: not the most pleasant person to be around
Lab-rat: or other choice words
Jane-doe: I've got to go
Lab-rat: I have a date with some lemons
Jane-doe: do u still want to talk to me on here?
Jane-doe: now you know I'm not who you though I was
Lab-rat: of course
Jane-doe: or you could use the phone
Lab-rat: I don't know your number
Lab-rat: you refused to tell me when I asked before
Lab-rat: oh god I smell
Jane-doe: good luck
Lab-rat: you too
Jane-doe: what?
Lab-rat: Grissom
Lab-rat: --has signed off--
Greg got up from his computer and retreated with the two lemons that had been sitting on the counter for a near month to the bathroom once again. Third shower is supposed to be a charm...right?
The next morning, Greg sat on the break room couch reading, when Sara walked in. She paused slightly before walking over behind him and bent down to his level.
"What are you doing?" Greg asked, setting down his surf magazine.
"You smell like…cheap cologne…" She took another whiff. "…and orange glow furniture polish."
"I ran out of lemons…so I used oranges before coming to work."
"Lab has something on the DB." She said, holding back her laughter.
"Okay so the match book was from a wedding…a Janet and Steve Cohen."
"Look up missing persons report." Sara advised, looking over Greg's shoulder to the computer database in front of him.
"But anyone at that wedding could have had that."
"Not when the wedding is a month from now."
Greg typed the woman's name into the computer and waited for a hit. "Janet Morgan...soon to be Cohen, last seen two months ago."
"And does Steve play golf by any chance?"
"See you tomorrow, Cat." Greg heard Sara say as she was walking down the hall after shift.
"Sara!" Greg yelled, running down the hall. "Sara." He didn't stop in time and ran right into her, knocking her bag off her shoulder and all its contents to the floor."Sorry." He apologized, bending down to pick up her purse and car keys that flew out. "I'm so sorry…here."
"Greg…what!"
"Are you going to ask him, huh…are you?" He asked, overly excited.
"I thought about it…but I don't know. I said only once, and I don't want to mess it up."
"Now just go down to his office, knock on the door." He demonstrated, overly exaggerated and sashaying like he, for some reason, assumed all women did. "Then when he opens the door, just smile and casually ask him if he has any other suggestions for decomp smell because the lemons are just not working for me…Greg. Then you bring up dinner."
"You…you know, that just might work." She said, surprised. "And I am taking dating advice from you who had to look the internet to find women and most likely can't even remember his last real date because it's been so long." She shook her head as she continued down the hall towards Gil's office. Greg watched her walk away a quick moment before he headed to his car.
Greg walked into his apartment and threw his jacket on the same chair as he always did. He grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry's out of the freezer. But instead of heading over to the computer, he took a seat on the couch in front of the television.
He knew there was no use with the computer. Sara was the only person with whom he ever talked. His guess was that she'd be too busy to type back. Plus, he had taped Saturday Night Live three days ago,but he hadn't gotten the chance to watch it yet.
Ten minutes into the program and half a pint of ice cream later, he heard a knock at the door. He paused the tape and walked over to answer it, his ice cream tagging along.
"Sara?" He asked confused as he opened the door, his voice muffled by a mouth full of ice cream. "He said no?"
"No…I didn't ask." She answered, though not too disappointed. "But I come baring gifts." Greg just stood in the doorway, not saying anything. "Can I come in?"
"Oh yeah, sure." She brought out a basket of lemons from behind her back, but not before hitting it on the door frame, dropping a dozen or so lemons all over the kitchen floor.
"Lemons…you brought me lemons." Greg laughed before he got down on his hands and knees to pick them up along with her. "Thanks."
"Well…I thought you could use them one way or another."
"You're saying it still hasn't gone away? I still smell." He put the last of the lemons back into their basket.
"Um…just a little bit." She confessed picking a hand off the floor to measure the amount with her thumb and index finger.
"You didn't ask Grissom…why?" He sat back up, propping himself up with his arms behind him.
"I don't know."
"Come on."
"I don't know." She did the same.
"You chickened out didn't you…admit it…" He continued to mock her with various chicken noises. But Sara couldn't let that happen...of course not. His obnoxious squawks were ceased by a brush of Sara's lips against his own, then another brush, until he was leaning so far backward that…"Ouch!" He hit his head on the black and white tiles.
"Oh god!" She said down to him. "I'm so sorry." She apologized, running her fingers down his jaw line.
He didn't answer, but kissed her again. "I do too remember my last real date…it was with you." He rolled over, placing Sara on her back and himself sitting above her. "Sara?"
"What?" She looked up to him.
"Now this here…" He kissed her neck. "…this is the kind of thing we don't tell Grissom."
"Our little secret?"
"Exactomundo!"