So we've decided to continue this fic… well, I'm not really sure why. But we keep getting these great ideas, how can we not keep going? So enjoy!

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"So. I take it you had an… interesting night."

Tempeste looked at Lara. "Shut up," she laughed, looking out the window. "The boys are coming."

A minute later the bell rang on the café door, and two rather dejected-looking young men joined them, both with shaggy black hair. They took seats at the booth.

"Why so glum?" Lara asked the one beside her. "Don't tell me Smithy couldn't get us a flight out." She didn't really sound that bothered.

"It's worse," he answered with a thick Scottish accent. "This is where we're working for the next few months."

"Really?" Both Tempeste and Lara looked up in interest. "Gee, that's terrible," Tempeste added somewhat emptily.

"Speak for yourself. I've had bad experiences in Vegas," he said.

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to be on vacation," the other man whined. "I was going to Disneyland!"

They all stared at him.

"With Ben," he muttered.

"Suuuure Gabriel." Lara rolled her eyes. "Hey! I can realize my life-long dream of being a Vegas showgirl!"

The first man snorted. "You wish."

"No Gavin, you wish."

"Well, yeah. But sweetheart, you're a certified genius. There's no way you get off being a stripper."

"Showgirl!"

"Fine, showgirl."

"So where are we working?"

"The Las Vegas Crime Lab. Sounds important, no?"

Lara choked on her drink. "What?"

"Apparently it'll be good for us," Gabriel explained. "Something about seeing how discipline works." He shrugged. "I don't know; I wasn't really paying attention. But we're starting right away."

"Oh." Tempeste looked slightly relieved. "So tomorrow morning then?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding? Like we'd be given a day shift? Please, that would make our lives easy."

Lara took a deep breath. "So… when are we working?" She tried to look calm, though she was inwardly chanting, 'Not the graveyard shift, not the graveyard shift.'

"The graveyard shift," Gavin answered cheerily. Lara groaned. "I know. It's bad enough we're stuck here, but now our nights are shot as well."

"Yeah. That's what's bothering me."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Gabriel finished Tempeste's soda. "Well, I'm off. I'm going to enjoy my last chance at Vegas nightlife if it kills me."

"Yeah." Gavin got to his feet. "I'll come too." He turned back to the girls. "Are you coming?"

"Um… no," Lara said. "We'll hang out here for a while. Catch up with you later."

"Suit yourself." They left.

"Well shit."

"Lara, we can't work the graveyard shift. It just… it won't work!"

"Okay, Temp. Well you can be the one to tell everyone to find us new jobs, because between the two of us we've managed to sleep with half the graveyard shift CSIs."

"Wow." Tempeste grew silent. "You know, when you consider that it was only one night, that actually sounds quite impressive."

"Yeah, I know."

"So what do we do?"

Lara shrugged. "Pretending nothing happened always works for me."

Tempeste gave her an incredulous look. "Are you serious?"

"Well think about it. Who's going to tell? Judging by their reaction, I have a funny feeling that Warrick and Nick aren't going to be spreading it around that they both spent the night…day with you. And Greg may be a dork but even he has some sense. If we work together, he gets to look at me, if he lets on that we shag every once in awhile, one of us gets transferred or fired, and he doesn't get to look at me anymore. It's surprisingly simple."

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"So, are you ready?" Lara asked with a grim smile as she and Tempeste walked down the hallway. They were just steps behind the boys, who were following Ecklie. A moment later they stopped.

"Attention ladies and gentlemen." Ecklie's snide voice rang out, and Lara pulled a face. She hadn't really warmed to him. "We have four new members joining us tonight. Gavin O'Rourke will be replacing Bobby while he's on sick leave. Gabriel Lawrence will be helping Archie as a computer technician. Tempeste Lawrence is a new CSI Level One, and finally Lara Paradis is our new lab technician.

Greg promptly snorted coffee up his nose and began choking.

Ecklie continued as if he hadn't noticed. "I expect you all to treat them respectfully, and try not to scare them off. And Sanders, please stop that horrible noise." He stalked away.

"I'm fine!" Greg called after him. "Thanks for asking!" He coughed a couple more times. Warrick and Nick were staring at Tempeste with shock.

Gabriel, oblivious as ever, walked forward. "Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Gabriel. Mr. Tight-Pants didn't bother introducing you-ow!"

Tempeste smacked his arm again. "Once again Gabriel, you have managed to prove yourself completely inept. Point A, Ecklie is our new head supervisor, and you should learn a bit more about him before you start insulting him. Point B, someone in this room might actually like the uptight asshat, and could report you back to him. They say you're somewhat intelligent, but I have yet to see any shred of evidence! I mean, shit Gabriel, you always leap in head first without checking how deep the water is!"

Gabriel glared at her. "And you just can't stand it when someone does something outside your little perfectly structured world, with all your perfect rules! Well here's a newsflash darling, if you want someone to play inside those rules, you need to let them know what they are, because in all the time I've known you, you never let anyone in."

Greg started coughing again, much more harshly than he had before. With a half-smile, half-terrified look on his face, Warrick slapped the ex-lab rat hard enough to send him reeling into the table.

Almost expanding in anger, Tempeste prepared to let loose against her 6'2 offender, but Lara stepped forward, sliding between the two. "Hello, don't worry this happens all the time. You get used to it—they actually do work really well together, they just communicate with anger. Anyway, why don't you guys introduce yourselves, and we'll keep the children apart." She spoke with faint accent that wasn't quite possible to place. Grinning almost evilly, she shoved Tempeste in the direction of Nick, pushing Gabriel in front of her as she made her way to the table.

"So Laura, right?" Greg questioned, slipping into the seat across from her with a sly wink.

"It's Lara."

Catherine smiled, trying to hide her worry about the sudden appearance of new members of their team. "Like Dr. Zhivago, right?"

Lara grinned at the older CSI. "Yup, that's it. Anyway, like the man said, I'm Lara, this is Gavin," the tall man still leaning against the doorframe waved, "Gabriel is sitting next to me, and Tempeste is the one glaring at Gabby. Don't worry though, she's very nice, extremely level-headed and pretty laid back. Until Gabriel is brought into the equation, that is."

Grissom gestured between the two fuming new comers. "Are you two dating?"

"NO!" The vehement denial came from either side of the table.

"Not if he were the last man on earth."

"And there were no sheep." Gabriel added with something akin to a snarl.

"That's right, you just love the animals, dontcha?"

Warrick looked over at Gavin, still remaining apart from the group surrounding the table. "You know man, feel free to come sit down."

"No thanks." Gavin replied with a grin, surprising everyone else with his thick Scottish accent. "Watching the Tempeste and Gabriel show is much more fun from afar. They're in fine fettle for your introductions. Which, by the way, we haven't quite gotten yet."

Warrick grinned at the laid back man, figuring that they would become pretty good friends. "Warrick Brown, nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Gavin crossed over in a few long strides and shook Warrick's hand. "But seriously, don't judge us from those two. Not to mention that they're both quite nice when they're apart. Lara here just keeps throwing them together in hopes that they'll eventually realize their undying passion, or some such rubbish. The girl likes to play with volatile substances."

Grissom cleared his throat. "As nice as all this is, we still have work to do. Could we step things up a bit? I haven't even given out assignments yet."

Nick raised his hand. "Nick Stokes, level three."

"Catherine Willows, level three."

"Sara Sidle, level three."

"Greg Sanders, level one."

"Gil Grissom, supervisor. Now that that's out of the way, Greg, you'll be staying in the lab tonight, finishing up the analysis from last shift and getting Lara acquainted with everything. For that matter, take Gabriel and Gavin with you, give them a tour, then get them set up." Greg mock-saluted, not even complaining about being stuck inside the lab, considering it meant that he got to spend some more time with Lara. "Nick, Sara and Warrick, you have a B and E on Nottingham. Tempeste, you're on a 419 with Catherine and myself."

The suddenly enlarged team separated, going their separate ways for the time being, several worried about the fireworks that might explode when they were together again.