As I promised...another chapter in the same week...I'm also going to be out most of the weekend so it was either now or I'd have to wait until next week to put up another chapppie and since I promised...well, here it is.Ok, aside from that little tidbit of information, I'd like to thank csi-sam-sanders (yeah, the old Greg's coming back! Party!), Munchken (more on Adri's inner turmoils in this chapter) and CatherineLouise (Adri started slipping last chapter, now it seriously gets noticed...) for reviewing and now...on to chapter 5!

I don't own CSI or anything related to it...I just own Adri...that's all.

Chapter Five
Noticed

Greg walked out of the evidence room with a slight pep in his step. He hadn't felt like his old self in a long while...he was opening the door to his car when Sara walked up to him.

"I heard you asked the girl out..." Sara said.

"So?" Greg asnwered. "My personal life didn't matter much to anyone before..."

"Why'd you do it? You know I asked for another chance at us," Sara said, meeting his eyes.

"I know...but I only asked Adri out as friends...I barely know her Sara...I just wanted to get to know her better somewhere that isn't in this building or talking over case files that need to be translated..."

"What about the whole day at the airport?"

"We got to know each other but that wasn't really much of what we talked about...look, I'm not going to tell you what we talked about because it's something I promised to keep between us, just like I asked as well."

"But...?"

"About a second chance at 'us', I'm thinking about it..." Greg said as he began to get into his car. "See you tomorrow Sar..." Greg said as he started the car and drove off. Sara just stood there thinking about what he said.

That night...

Greg pulled into the Lab's parking at seven sharp. Adri had called his cell beforehand and warned him that she'd be late and Greg told her not to worry about it since she had given herslef a half hour window on purpose just in case this would happen. After ending the conversation, Greg kept occupying himself with other things as he tried to think of the whole Sara situation although he still had no idea of what to do. He did want to go out with Sara but he knew where he stood when they talked last night. He was at the same rank as her work, not higher...he still needed to think more to see what he wanted. He looked around and saw that Adri's car was already there and he found it odd since she said she was going to be late. Curiosity overwhelmed him so he approached the car carefully to see her figure in the front seat, throwing her cell phone angrily to the passeger side. He got closer to the driver's side and tapped Adri's window, scaring her. She rolled down her window as she noticed that it was Greg.

"You scared me!" she cried.

"Sorry...it's just that I saw you throw you cell from out here and you seem preocupied about something..." Greg answered as he noticed a bruise under her left eye. "You ok?"

"I swear...I'm going to start charging you for asking me that..." Adri said as she turned off the car. Greg managed a small smile which began to disappear as he noticed a darkening bruise on her right arm.

"This time I really meant it Adri...that eye of yours doesn't look good..." Greg said as he tried to move Adri's face closer to his to get a closer look. She dodged his hand and pulled out a mirror from the center console and took a look.

"Shit..." she whispered. She reached to the compartment on the passenger's side and pulled out a makeup bag.

"You need ice..." Greg said as he opened the car door.

"I'm fine...I just forgot about this..." she said as she pulled out some unknown makeup to Greg and started to cover up the bruise.

"What happened?" Greg asked as she closed the bag and opened the trunk.

"It was an accident. I must've fallen asleep where I was earlier and something landed in my eye. I'm fine."

"Adri, something isn't right...could you just tell me?"

"No," she said as she turned off the car. "Now get out of the way, I need to get out."

"No!" Greg said firmly as he stood his ground. "Something in my gut tells me that there's something wrong and that it's been like this since yesterday..."

"It was just some minor accidents Greg, that's all..."

"But you just said you didn't want to tell me if something was wrong or if everything is all right..."

"Look Greg, it's already seven fifteen and we've got letters to sort through...I wanna be done with this international dude..."

"So do I. But Adri, I'm worried. Something doesn't add up..."

"Greg, I'm fine...trust me, okay papi?" Adri said sweetly. Greg remembered hearing that word before and it came back to him quickly. Aside from meaning father, it was also a pet name used among Latina girls to their boyfriends or guys they were drawn to, at least, that's what he remebered. Greg smirked at the pet name once he remembered it and Adri realized what she said.

"Fine," Greg said as he reached out to try and touch the eye but she moved fast and didn't let him touch her face. Now something is seriosly wrong in this picture...Greg thought as he opened the car door for Adri. Why won't she let check how the bruise is?, he kept thinking as she closed the window and locked the car.

"I was gonna get my bag out of the car but nevermind...I don't really need it..." Adri said as she reclosed the trunk. "I'll pick it up later if nescesary..."

"You sure?" Greg asked as he raised an eyebrow, he wasn't going to let it go that easily.

"Yes," Adri persisted. "I'm fine Greg. Let's just get to the letters...last night I was thinking about them and I think I'm on to something..."

"All right then," Greg said as he walked ahead of her and opened the door to the Lab for her. She just shook her head at the galant action Greg took since it was and act to get her to talk.

"Thanks," she said as he began to walk beside her. "We should check on Mia and see how the hairs are..."

"Yeah..." Greg said as they made their way to DNA. "Anything Mia?"

"None of the hairs match..." she said rather irritated. "That went nowhere!"

"Actually...you aren't thinking out of the box...did any of them have anything peculiar?" Adri asked. Greg caught her train of thought and grinned. Mia then looked up and gave Adri some print outs.

"Only a few of the hairs came back with seven allels(dunno if I spelled it right)in common with one of the vics...they all came from the same writer, the Italian victim," Mia said. "But that's confusing..."

"But Adri has a point...you're staying in the box and not thinking about any other possibility..."

"Oh really," Mia began, she had been having a bad day and part of her anger, she was taking it out on Greg and Adri. "What do you have in mind Sherlock?"

"Well, they met over an internet service and they began to write by snail mail after a while that they knew each other," Greg began. "He could've asked for a lock of their hair and they sent out flase ones to trick him..." Mia furrowed her brow as she began to think of the possibility.

"Probably...but get to work on the letters...it's all we have now..." Mia said as she sat down.

"Right," Greg said as he began to make his way out. Adri was about to do the same thing but Mia needed to ask her something.

"Adriana," she called out. Said girl turned around, confused.

"What?" she asked in response.

"Be careful...he's a charmer..." Mia warned.

"No worries...he's still a little bummed on the whole stood up thing..." Adriana replied.

"Really?" Mia asked. "He looks fine to me..."

"Well...Sara asked for a second chance and I shouldn't be talking about this...just keep it between us all right?" Adri asked with a helpless sigh.

"Don't worry...I will," Mia said with a smile.

"Thanks," Adri said as she made her way out of DNA and on to the evidence room where they had been working on the night before. She opened the door and stepped in, slightly nervous. "Sorry I took so long, Mia needed to ask me something..."

"It's ok..." Greg said as he looked up. "Better?"

"Greg, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm ok..." Adri said as she sat down on the extra chair he had brought in for her and got to work. Before she did though, she scanned the dates of all the letters she could reach and she noticed something odd. "This guy was sick..."

"What did he do?" Greg asked as he looked up.

"He was two timing these girls...well actually eight timing..."

"What?"

"He was not only writting love letters...he was also some sort of a long distance boyfriend to every single one of them..."

"How can you tell?"

"The same dates on most of the letters he sent out. The postmarking on some of them is on the same day as well..."

"You're kidding..." Greg said as he got up and walked over to her end of the table. Yet again, her hair was up in a bun. He really wanted to see it hang loosely over her shoulers to see how long it really was.

"No..." Adri said as Greg placed his hands on the table, one on either side of her, nearly resting his chin on the top of her head. Adri took in a deep breath that was slightly ragged which surprised Greg. "Don't start," she said for him. "I'm fine, just look," she said as she picked up a letter. "This one he sent out to France on May 25 this year. He also sent out three more that were written a similar manner to the other girls who had replied to his previous letter by that date, meaning the Italian, German and Puerto Rican girls," she finished saying as she showed him all four letters.

"Ok...what does that tell us?"

"It tells us that the guy either had no imagination or he was low on creativity..." Greg laughed at the remark but then Adri cleared her throat to get his attention again. "Anything else?"

"I also noticed that when all of the girls replied at about two to three day intervals, meaning that when he got eight letters, he just sent out identical letters but changed the names..."

"Ok...nothing wierd there..."

"Yet...but look at this notepad Grissom brought here after we left..."

"All I see are bunches of paragraphs in diverse languages."

"Yeah...the languages you don't understand but what I see is a probable premeditated murder...and if I, sorry, we keep reading it, we can nail him for it. But there's one thing..."

"What's that?"

"Apprently there are more pads like these...so it will take us some time to get through these..."

"Well, if you want I can write the translations down as you recite them...that way, we could work faster."

"Hm..." Adri said as she lost herself in her thoughts. Greg took the oportunity to at least smell her hair since he was so close to it. He took a deep breath and could precieve the faint smell of fruits from her hair. He suddenly got an urge to touch her hair and feel it in his hands and as he reached to undo her bun, she moved. "Your suggestion sounds like a plan to me...sit down so we can get right on it." He let out a disapointed sigh and took an empty pad and pen from Adri's hands. "For the Norwegan bits we switch all right?"

"Right...forgot to mention that one..." Greg said while going back to his spot at the table. He looked up and found it hard to keep his eyes off of her.

"Ok...you ready?" Adri asked as she cleared her throat. "I'm going to speak slowly and clearly so don't stress..."

"Perfect," Greg said as he uncapped the pen and got ready.

"I met eight girls today..." Adri began as she read off the paper. "They were so nice to me...they actually liked me for who I am...they never once thought of me as wierd or insecure," Adri said as she paused.

"Got that," Greg said as he looked up. "Keep going," Greg said as he returned his focus on the paper he was writing on. After an odd silence he looked up and Adri was still not speaking, she wasn't even reading. "Adri!" Greg said loudly as he snapped his fingers in front of her face. She looked up, moving her head around a little frightened. "You ok?"

"I swear Sanders..." she began as she regained composure.

"You can't...well shouldn't anyway..." he said as he gave her a five dollar bill.

"What the...?" she asked as she eyed the bill curiously and sighed. "You know I was being sarcastic..."

"Yeah I know...but this should cover for the rest of the night..."

"No, you keep it. Your cash...but I just freaked when I read the next sentence...they are so innocent but that won't be true for long...I guess I just stopped functioning, thinking too much about it..."

"Your choice," Greg said as he placed the bill in his back pocket. "You sure that's everything?" he asked as he got up.

"Yeah...I'm prefectly fine..." Adri said simple.

"I'm gonna go for a while, I need to ask Grissom something..." Greg said as he began to make his way out of the room. "You know, you can trust me with anything...just like I do with you..." Greg said as he left, leaving Adri alone. Adri just sat in her chair, thinking of what he'd said. She wanted to trust him, she wanted to tell him but she was afraid of telling anyone. He'd noticed her already...or at least a problem in her free spirted personality...it was just a fact if she'd let him in or not...she sat there thinking until the smell of coffee interrupted her thoughts. She looked up to meet Greg's eyes and noticed that he was giving her a mug of the brew. "Thought you might like some..." Adri smiled, truly smiled for the first time all day as she took the cup from his hand.

"Thanks," she whispered as she took a sip. He sat down on his chair and they just looked at each other. Brown to brown, trying to read one another. Adri managed a smile as she noticed that Greg was imitating her, and Greg just nodded. "What?"

"That's what I like to see from you..."

"What?" Adri asked as she set the mug down. "I'm trying to uncover a bit more from you by looking into your eyes and you just nodd...care to explain yourself?"

"I like to see you smile...is that wrong?"

"No, in fact it's kind off...wait a minute...why do you like to see me smile?"

"Because I like it..." Greg said simply.

"Oh really?" Adri asked surprised.

"Yep..." he said with a smile as they resumed to look into each other's eyes, Greg not really sure of what he was looking for and Adri just trying to uncover if he was hidding anything from her.

"You two flirting on the job?" asked Warrick as he came in, snapping them out of their trance.

"Nope," Greg said quickly. "We were just giving our eyes a break...we've been reading nonstop these past few days."

"By what? Trying to look into each others souls?" Warrick asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Not really..." Adri said in response. "We were just thinking about something else. Now get out...we've got pads to translate!" Adri said as she got up and began to push Warrick out of the room.

"Look I just want you two to know that you're all we have left now to put this guy in jail...they're even talking pretrial for the weekend," Warrick commented.

"Isn't that a little too soon?" Adri asked.

"Yep...but his laywer is doing everything in her power to give us more headaches...you have to finish those fast..." Warrick said as Adri finally managed to get him out of the room.

Okay...chapter's done...now that yer done reading...why not review? I'd love to recieve more support.

Up next...Caught