Disclaimer: Not mine.

Hacking it

"Grissom!"

Sometimes Gil Grissom wished Conrad Ecklie would know about his hearing problems. That way he could pretend not hearing him when he called out to him. But it was only in situations like this when he'd rather be pulling legs off of his favorite spider than be spending time talking to the assistant director that he wanted his hearing problems to be public knowledge. Slowly, he turned around to face the man who he'd rather avoid the rest of his life.

"Yes, Conrad."

Inhale and exhale, he told himself while he prepared himself to listen to yet another complaint of his all time favorite person.

"CSI Sidle agreed."

"She did!"

Genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, surprising, isn't it?"

A strong urge to disagree for the sake of disagreeing came over him.

"Not really, she is loyal to her friends." He didn't even have to lie.

"That she is."

"Yes." Really surprised this time and unable to turn around and walk away Gil Grissom remained glued to his position.

"You know Gil..."

Already regretting not walking away, he started his breathing exercises again.

"CSI Sidle said I couldn't hack it in the field."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it, Conrad." Now he was lying.

"No, she did and she was right."

His interest was piqued now.

"The first case I worked was in California, 1983, CSI one called to a B&B, wife killed her husband after being abused for many years."

"The first case we worked always remains with us." He said wondering where this was leading.

"No, I couldn't handle it. They pulled me off the case after that first night. Never found out the name of the family, but the girl, the daughter...It was heartbreaking Gil."

And here he was thinking Conrad Ecklie didn't have a heart.

The case, though, sounded vaguely familiar.

"The girl had her father's blood all over her, but it wasn't that sight that still makes me sick to this very day, her eyes, big brown eyes looking at me from the corner of the room, they still haunt me at night, every night."

"CSI Sidle was right, I couldn't hack it in the field."

Too shocked to say something he just stared at Ecklie.

"Shocking, huh?"

Yes, shocking indeed, Grissom thought while he watched Ecklie turning around and walking away.

FIN