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The thing about living in Vegas and looking for a real psychic but not knowing a real one from a fake, is that there are a lot of people in Vegas claiming to be psychic. Each one wanted money to answer any questions, or clammed up when he told them he was with the Vegas Crime Lab. None of them could tell him anything useful; 'it just comes to me' seemed to be the universal answer.
He finally found a seeming legitimate psychic that could tell him something, but didn't know that much about Mediums. She knew that unlike most of the real psychics they tended to be more varied in how they communicated with the dead.
"If you want to know anything about things like that you go to one of two people." She said at last handing Grissom two business cards. "Jon Brendan or Greg Sanders. Jon is the real deal, Greg used to investigate the paranormal. He still does sometimes but not often."
Well that answered one question, and wasn't it surprising to discover he could have gone to one of his own instead of wasting time and money looking. He gave the woman two hundred dollars as a thank you, though she didn't ask for money, and headed for the Crime Lab. If he was lucky he could snag Greg before shift started.
He parked near the door and hurried inside catching the young blond as he signed in.
"Greg can I talk to you?" Grissom asked signing in himself on time and snagged the younger man before he could answer.
"Ahh…sure." Greg said slowly. "What's up Gris?"
Grissom waited until they were in his office with the door shut and locked before answering. "Do you know Jon Brendan?" he asked in way of introducing his line of questions.
"By reputation," Greg said after a long silence. "Why? Did something happen to him?"
Grissom shook his head, "He came here yesterday with a message from Nick."
Greg paused, "Nick didn't Cross?" he asked in surprise.
"Cross?" Grissom repeated confused.
Greg paused again.
"I got your name from a psychic. Claira Matines?" Grissom said as a way to clarify why he was asking his questions.
Greg nodded. "Cross is a shortened way of saying Crossing Over or Crossed Over. Normally when a person dies they Crossover, either to Heaven or Hell. The only people that don't Cross are those that don't know they are dead, those that have another purpose which is usually bad, the truly evil that become something else, or the ones that need to finish something before they can Cross. I would have expected Nick to Cross. What did Jon say?"
"That Nick doesn't blame us, and that he is headed for a better place." Grissom said sitting down in his chair, "So the kid was telling the truth?"
Greg nodded, "From what I know about him he only helps. It would go against his grain to play a joke. I've never actually met him though I don't really investigate any more."
"Why not?" Grissom asked interested.
Greg shrugged. "Tell me, how much credit did you give Jon?"
"I didn't believe him." Grissom admitted.
"How much credit would you have given me?" Greg asked in turn, "I was just a tech, I'm not actually psychic, I just believe. That can go a long way in that community. You can't analyze it, we don't have a science for it yet, we may never. There is even a difference between knowing and believing which is strange I know, but it's true." He shrugged. "Besides, this is more then a full time job, I couldn't do both with one being secret and get enough sleep to be able to work. I'd burn out in two months."
Grissom thought about that. Working at the lab was more then a full time job. Most did nothing but sleep and do the job. Those that had hobbies ended up doing it as part of the job. Greg would never have been able to work at the Lab and investigate the paranormal without it compromising one or both. Not secretly anyway.
"How would you like to investigate something with me? Not official yet, but important anyway." Grissom said finally, maybe now he could get some answers to what was nagging him.
"Ok," Greg said after thinking about it. "What did you have in mind?"
"I want to investigate why Nick didn't Cross, and what it has to do with Mr. Brendan." Grissom said, "I learned something about him that isn't public record while trying to find out if he was telling the truth or not. From what I've been finding out I think Nick not crossing over has more to do with Mr. Brendan then it has to do with unfinished business."
Greg nodded "What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"You know more about the paranormal then I do." Grissom said, "That makes you the expert in this case. I want you to go talk to Mr. Brendan, find out if Nick Crossed after talking to me, and if he didn't find out a possibility on why."
Greg nodded, "Anything I should be aware of before I go?"
"Nothing I can officially tell you," Grissom said, "he has to tell you himself."
"Kay," Greg said and left the room.
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Jon was cleaning the oven with all of the windows open as well as the front door to lessen the fumes. He had music blaring because a soul that had been bothering him for months was around causing trouble. The spirit wasn't ready to Cross and Jon could do nothing for him until he was ready. But that didn't mean the ghost couldn't annoy the crap out of him in the mean time.
Nick was outside getting away from the noise. He had been oddly silent since there talk earlier.
Jon didn't care what the man thought. He couldn't do anything; it was the curse that came with the gift. He would always be susceptible to the nasties on the Other side, though he had taken precautions against anything possessing him that didn't mean they couldn't and wouldn't hurt him. But for all the bad it caused him Jon wouldn't give up the ability for anything.
There was an old saying; once you learned how to fight fires you could never just sit there while a house burned down.
"Hello?" a voice said loudly from the open door way.
Jon turned to find that during his musings Mr. Broker had left to be replaced by another man who happened to be living. Jon got up and pulled off the kitchen gloves to turn down the music. "Can I help you?" he asked curiously he didn't normally get live visitors that didn't call first.
"Jon Brendan?" the blond asked. Jon nodded. "I'm Greg Sanders; I work for the Las Vegas Crime Lab."
Jon blinked, where had he heard that name before? "Oh, I've read about you. You did work in California for a while didn't you?"
Greg blushed a little, "Yeah I did." He said.
"You are a friend of Nick's?" Jon continued turning the music off and kicking the oven door closed.
"Actually I am." Greg said with a nod, "I heard he didn't Cross."
"No he didn't," Jon said suddenly aware the ghost wasn't around, "At least I don't think he did. The last I saw of him he was on the porch."
"Here?" Greg asked interested.
Jon nodded then walked past the man to search the house. Nick appeared with a pleasant smile from the back yard looking happy to have strolled in the small garden planted there. Then his smile deepened when he saw his friend, "Greg," he called then frowned when he realized Greg wouldn't hear or see him.
"He seems to be happy and sad to see you." Jon said to Greg turning to look at the blond.
Greg nodded, "Is he in the room so I can talk to him?" he asked.
Jon nodded, "Go ahead, I'll tell you anything he has to say back."
The blond nodded again. "First off, Nick, know how much I'm disappointed you didn't decide to haunt me," he said seeming comfortable with talking to thin air in his point of view. "Second, know I miss you buddy."
"I miss you too Greg," Jon said for Nick, "I'll haunt you when you learn how to hear and see me."
Greg smiled, "Deal," he said then nodded to Jon. "We all need to talk."
"About what?" Jon asked glancing at the ghost.
"Why hasn't Nick Crossed?" Greg asked.
"Oh that," Jon said enlightened. "I don't know."
"Well…" he hesitated, "Nick do you know?"
"Nope," Nick answered, Jon shook his head.
"From what I can tell, he did Cross, but didn't stay." Jon said folding his arms over his chest. "That really confuses me. Souls don't just do that without reason and they normally know that reason."
Greg nodded in agreement.
"You talked to Mr. Grissom." Jon asked after a long silence.
"Yeah," Greg admitted. "Not about much. Apparently he went investigating and my name came up. He wants to know why Nick didn't cross, and he thinks it involves you."
"Why?" Jon asked curious.
"He didn't tell me." Greg said, "He just told me to investigate since I'm the closest thing to an expert."
Jon shrugged. "Ok," he said confused, "What would any of this have to do with me? I haven't broken the law that I know of."
"Maybe it has nothing to do with the land of the living. But something on the Other Side." Greg pointed out.
Jon paused then looked at Nick. He hadn't been bothered last night had he?
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Black out/ go to commercial.
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A/N: ugg, its a good thing i checked, i almost posted chapter four before three! anyway, thank you to Omo for betaing this chappy! i'll just let everyone ride in suspence for the next chappy so Ha! you know i love you all
Please R&R, even if i dont respond i read them all!
