A/N: Holy Crackerjacks! I'm early, I told you I probably wouldn't be done
until at least Fri. . . . I so kicked ass! Hopefully it's good, cause this
was the hardest chap to write so far!
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Warrick walked into the locker room to find Sara up against her locker and Nick standing way too close to her, they were smiling and Sara said something to him, causing him to laugh slightly. She saw Warrick and quickly put some space between her and Nick. Both of them started to blush slightly. "Hey, what's up? How'd the case go?"
They both nodded but Nick spoke up, "We're stuck, we found a poem by the car, but we have no idea where it came from or who wrote it."
"We're waiting for the backlog in the lab to get sorted through," Sara said as she opened her locker and took out a fresh shirt.
Warrick started to unbutton his when he asked, "Do you have any suspects?"
Nick took off his shirt and threw it into his opened locker; he grabbed his other shirt and slid it on. "No, why are you asking?"
Warrick held up his hands, "Whoa, don't get hostile, Griss put me with you two. I'm done with mine."
Sara smiled as she closed her locker, having changed. "You're on our case, that's good, we need another person. Maybe you've heard of the poem."
"Maybe," Warrick slid his shirt on and started to button it.
Nick closed his and turned to Sara and whispered something; she nodded and left. "So, Nick, why didn't you tell me you're with Sara?"
"I'm not." He had sat astride the bench and seem very interested in the metal.
Warrick sat down opposite form him, "What do you mean?"
"We're together in that, we have sex all the time and we spend time with each other practically every waking moment. But we've never once slept together, or even talked about going on an actual date." He met Warrick's eyes, "I love her, but I'm afraid that she'll reject me."
"Or are you more afraid that she still likes Griss?"
Nick snorted, "That more."
Warrick shook his head, "He has never once showed her that he could harbor feelings for her, or at least in my eyes, he hasn't." He threw up his hands in mock frustration. "Hell, ever since the summer started, Catherine and him have threatened to burn down the building or at least suffocate us in their tension." Nick started laughing. "So, you see, I don't think you got to worry about the boss and Sara, just go for it."
"Maybe it'll knock some sense into Grissom and Cath." Nick said half- heartily.
"Now that's an idea!"
*****
Gil and Catherine walked into the morgue to find Al Robbins, the Grave Shift coroner, listening to the Daytime coroner's music. Catherine turned it off with a grimace, causing Al to look up from the body of Caitlyn Ryes. "Hello Catherine, Gil."
"So, what can you tell me about her, Doc?"
Gil's attention focused on a birthday card on the counter, he pointed to it and said, "By the way, happy birthday Al."
Catherine turned to him and said, "Oh that's right, it is your birthday, happy B-day! How old are you?"
"67."
"Getting' on up there, uh?"
"Yes, Catherine, but lets not forget you're on way to 50," Al smiled as she hit him on the shoulder.
She pointed to Gil, "Yeah well, he'll get there faster."
Gil smirked and Al noticed his attention was on the card, "Oh, your mother sent me that."
Gil opened it, and read the words, 'Love, Sams'. "Sams? I don't remember you calling her that."
"Ah, it's an old nickname that I used before you were born."
Gil nodded and walked over to stand next to Catherine. She looked between the two men, "I didn't know you guys went the far back."
"Yeah, me and Samantha have been friends since around a year and half before he was born. We went to college together." He smiled fondly, and Catherine could have sworn she saw something more than friendship in his eyes. It quickly vanished.
She looked over to Gil, who was not paying attention to them but had all of his attention fixed on Caitlin's clothes. "Gil?" He didn't look up and Catherine had a scary moment, when she flashed back to the year before, when his hearing would go out several times. That's why he had never answered them sometimes; he hadn't known that they had even talked to him. "Gil?"
He grabbed the bag that held the clothes and opened it. He reached in and pulled out a folded piece of paper; Catherine stared at him surprised. "How did we miss that?"
He shrugged, "I don't know, but we would have found it eventually." He said this all while opening it, it was a poem, a poem about suicide. "Do you think it's from the murderer?"
"You bet your ass I do." She, who had been reading over his shoulder, smiled at him.
A few moments later they were positioned around the body of the Ryes woman. "So Doc, when did she die?"
"Around noon, it's a amazing that you even found her this early, since everybody would have been at work."
Gil's head bobbed down to look at the cuts, they bothered him. "An elderly couple heard a disturbance in the apartment below, which happen to be Caitlin's apartment."
He lifted an arm to show the cuts, "Which would explain why the cuts would be pointed outward," Gil looked up at the doctor over his glasses, "this may have still been suicide, but she definitely didn't cut herself, Gil"
*****
Gil was about to walk into the break room when Kaylenn stopped him. "What Kay?"
"Can I be at the meeting? Plus, I'm starving, and you guys are gonna be eating." She whined at him.
"No, you can't be in the meeting," she was about to begin her retort, but he cut her off, "but I don't care if you get some food. When your done, you eat it in my office, and you'll stay there till I drop you off at home in about 45 minutes." He looked at her, "Ok?"
She rolled her eyes slightly and said, "Yeah, it's cool."
He smiled crookedly and led her inside, where everyone was assembled except for Greg. "Where is he?"
Though that question was answered immediately when the person came skidding to a stop in the room, "Sorry, I had to try to finish something for Ecklie, I didn't though. I swear that guy has been driving me to an early grave. It's always 'Greg do this, Greg do that by this amount of time or I'll kill you.'" He saw Kaylenn and smiled at her, "You'd think a man like that would be on Paxil or Prozac, at least Midol."
Kaylenn started laughing, and was thrown into more laughter when he turned to Sara and deadpanned, "Kinda like you Sar."
She chucked a french-fry at him. Everyone started laughing as Greg threw back one; even Gil broke into a smile. He couldn't help but think, 'This is my family,'
Gil and Cath as the dad and mom; meanwhile Brass was the grumpy uncle. Warrick and Nick acted like the twins, different yet the same in rank. Sara was with no doubt, the adopted, former, only child; she could be selfish but then again she sort of looked after the group. And then there was Greg, who was the baby of the family, the goof ball, limelight stealing person.
Gil's eyes traveled to Catherine, and thought of Lindsey, the other baby of the family, because she was as spoiled as she could ever be.
Though when his eyes fell on Kaylenn his heart fell. Where did she fit in? Who was she, besides his niece? The niece he had only seen around five times in her whole life? What role did she play? What role could she ever play?
"Griss?"
Gil looked up to see Greg's hand waving in his face. He batted it away. "Stop it." He glanced around the group and asked, "Ok, Nick, Sara, you know Warrick is working with you right?"
"Yeah, but Griss?" Gil raised an eyebrow towards Sara. "We found something and we have no idea who wrote it, but it seems to be a poem."
Greg, Gil, and Catherine all shared a look, though Catherine started speaking first, "A poem? We found a poem on the body of our victim." She looked at Gil, "You think they're related?"
He shrugged and motioned for Sara to read it. All of them leaned in involuntary, even Kaylenn, since Gil had yet to throw her out.
"Wanted money and hope/ And a dream to carry me forever/ This is all the hope I got left/ Help me to get it together/ Now, can sing or act or dance but I still won't get far/ Unless you help me, please, to be a big star," Sara glanced over at Nick, who was looking at her strangely.
"The girl, Jesse Wise, was trying to get an agent for her career as a singer." Nick said to Gil, who was glancing at the other poem in his hand.
"Oh, Please/ Fate stay with me, and guide me along my way/ There has been so many problems/ So please stay, please, stay/ Fate stay with me, will you help me on my way/ Will you end my troubles/ Will you please stay, please . . ."
Sara looked at the page and said, "Her Uncle has just died and her mother has been diagnosed with cancer; and this has all happened in the last two to three months."
She started to read again, "I don't want to be a queen, no, / Or a princess with all my jewels, oh / If you could guide me/ And you could help me/ But don't go too far, I just want to be a star."
Kaylenn raised her eyes slowly to Sara. She was now seated on the couch and had been half listening and half trying to be invisible so Gil wouldn't throw her out. Greg noticed her eyes, since he had been the only one who had paid any attention to her at all. It wasn't his fault; she just attracted him, like a moth to a flame. His eyes turned to Gil, 'And if I touch the flame I want so badly, I'll get zapped.'
"I'm thinking she was a trusting girl, who just wanted to be loved and wanted in her time of agony, selfish in a way but human non of the less." People sort of jumped at the sound of Warrick's voice since this was the first time he had talked. But Gil nodded at his statement; this poem was starting to mirror the girl's life perfectly, and it was scary . . . And incredibly sick.
"Yes guide me/ Forever guide me/ Will you stay with me and guide me along the way/ If I succeed because of you, fate my friend," Sara looked at them and a tear ran down her cheek, "I'll be so happy . . ."
"And the sad part is that maybe all she wanted now was to die, she didn't fight back." Everyone looked at Kaylenn.
How's chorused around the room. Kaylenn smirked, "You guys leave your files laying around everywhere and I'm naturally curious, but that's not the point. The point is, is that she didn't fight back and that song is all about doing anything to get what you want, and I bet everything that, in her case, it was death." She got up and walked over to the table. "Her life was probably one people would envy up until her Uncle died, and then it began to get ugly . . . Maybe she just couldn't cope."
"So, this guy probably knew that and knew he could get her to let him kill her."
"That might be true Cath, but there's no evidence to lead us down the road," Warrick looked at her and continued, "all we have is a missing knife and that won't tell us very much."
Greg was nodding at Warrick's statement, "Yeah, I haven't finished with all the evidence but I haven't found any to suspect there was another person with her. But if the cases are related, then we got a killer of some sor-" He sat up a bit and was staring at Kaylenn, "You said song, not poem."
"That's because it isn't a poem, it's just written that way, but it is a song."
Catherine waved her hand impatiently, "Well? What song is it?"
" 'Fate Stay With Me' by Alanis Morissette." Kaylenn looked at Gil as if she was waiting for him to do something. A light went off in his eyes, when he figured out what she wanted.
"I tried to kill the pain/ But only brought more/ I lay dying/ And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal/ I'm dying, praying, bleeding, and screaming/ Am I too lost to be saved/ Am I too lost?" Gil read it off the page in a blur, and looked at Kaylenn.
"Keep reading, I know it but I want to see how much he cut out."
He nodded and continued to read it, "My God, my tourniquet/ Return to me salvation/ My God, my tourniquet/ Return to me salvation." He traced his fingers down the page, "There are a lot of 'dot, dot, dot's on it and then he continues."
"My wounds cry for the grave/ My soul cries for deliverance/ Will I be denied Christ/ Tourniquet/ My suicide . . ."
Catherine shook her head, "What the hell am I letting Lindsey listen to?"
"I doubt Lindsey listens to Rock just yet, she'll get into that probably in High School." Kaylenn was looking at Catherine.
"You're right, she likes Hip Hop and Techno."
Kaylenn made a face, "Trust me, High School will change that."
Catherine was about to fire back something, when Gil stepped in, "Kay? What's the song?"
" 'Tourniquet' by Evanescence . . ." She faced Gil and said, "It the best song on that CD of theirs. I bought it for that."
Sara raised an eyebrow, "You bought the CD for a song about suicide?"
"Yeah, the song is awesome and written and sang beautifully, it's a powerful song and I can relate to it . . . Suicide attempts kind of run in the family."
All heads turned slowly toward Gil, who was trying hard not to break under their gaze. "Is there anything missing from the lyrics?" He was desperately trying to change to subject.
The red-head nodded, "Yeah, the whole second verse is missing . . . It was like he didn't even want to hide the possibility that it wasn't a suicide."
"What'd mean by that?"
Kaylenn turned to Warrick and said, "The second verse does talk about that she wants to die, that she wants God to save her."
Nick leaned forward and looked around at everyone. "So do we agree that we're on the same case?" Nods and Yes' were exchanged.
Then Greg noticed someone coming down the hall and the color drained from his face, "Shit! Ecklie's here and I'm not finished with his samples!"
He jumped out of his chair, causing it to fly back into the wall, and proceeded to become a blur of white lab coat as he raced out of the room. No one stopped laughing for a very long time.
****************
~~ Name your price, I would give anything, ~~
~~ I want to start over again, ~~
~~ What do I want? ~~ ~~ I have nothing to say, ~~
~~ What ever it is, I want it today ~~
'New Beginning' by TRAPT (this is my POV of Nick's feelings toward Sara right now)
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A/N: Ok, I hope you liked it, just review and tell me what you think!
****************
Warrick walked into the locker room to find Sara up against her locker and Nick standing way too close to her, they were smiling and Sara said something to him, causing him to laugh slightly. She saw Warrick and quickly put some space between her and Nick. Both of them started to blush slightly. "Hey, what's up? How'd the case go?"
They both nodded but Nick spoke up, "We're stuck, we found a poem by the car, but we have no idea where it came from or who wrote it."
"We're waiting for the backlog in the lab to get sorted through," Sara said as she opened her locker and took out a fresh shirt.
Warrick started to unbutton his when he asked, "Do you have any suspects?"
Nick took off his shirt and threw it into his opened locker; he grabbed his other shirt and slid it on. "No, why are you asking?"
Warrick held up his hands, "Whoa, don't get hostile, Griss put me with you two. I'm done with mine."
Sara smiled as she closed her locker, having changed. "You're on our case, that's good, we need another person. Maybe you've heard of the poem."
"Maybe," Warrick slid his shirt on and started to button it.
Nick closed his and turned to Sara and whispered something; she nodded and left. "So, Nick, why didn't you tell me you're with Sara?"
"I'm not." He had sat astride the bench and seem very interested in the metal.
Warrick sat down opposite form him, "What do you mean?"
"We're together in that, we have sex all the time and we spend time with each other practically every waking moment. But we've never once slept together, or even talked about going on an actual date." He met Warrick's eyes, "I love her, but I'm afraid that she'll reject me."
"Or are you more afraid that she still likes Griss?"
Nick snorted, "That more."
Warrick shook his head, "He has never once showed her that he could harbor feelings for her, or at least in my eyes, he hasn't." He threw up his hands in mock frustration. "Hell, ever since the summer started, Catherine and him have threatened to burn down the building or at least suffocate us in their tension." Nick started laughing. "So, you see, I don't think you got to worry about the boss and Sara, just go for it."
"Maybe it'll knock some sense into Grissom and Cath." Nick said half- heartily.
"Now that's an idea!"
*****
Gil and Catherine walked into the morgue to find Al Robbins, the Grave Shift coroner, listening to the Daytime coroner's music. Catherine turned it off with a grimace, causing Al to look up from the body of Caitlyn Ryes. "Hello Catherine, Gil."
"So, what can you tell me about her, Doc?"
Gil's attention focused on a birthday card on the counter, he pointed to it and said, "By the way, happy birthday Al."
Catherine turned to him and said, "Oh that's right, it is your birthday, happy B-day! How old are you?"
"67."
"Getting' on up there, uh?"
"Yes, Catherine, but lets not forget you're on way to 50," Al smiled as she hit him on the shoulder.
She pointed to Gil, "Yeah well, he'll get there faster."
Gil smirked and Al noticed his attention was on the card, "Oh, your mother sent me that."
Gil opened it, and read the words, 'Love, Sams'. "Sams? I don't remember you calling her that."
"Ah, it's an old nickname that I used before you were born."
Gil nodded and walked over to stand next to Catherine. She looked between the two men, "I didn't know you guys went the far back."
"Yeah, me and Samantha have been friends since around a year and half before he was born. We went to college together." He smiled fondly, and Catherine could have sworn she saw something more than friendship in his eyes. It quickly vanished.
She looked over to Gil, who was not paying attention to them but had all of his attention fixed on Caitlin's clothes. "Gil?" He didn't look up and Catherine had a scary moment, when she flashed back to the year before, when his hearing would go out several times. That's why he had never answered them sometimes; he hadn't known that they had even talked to him. "Gil?"
He grabbed the bag that held the clothes and opened it. He reached in and pulled out a folded piece of paper; Catherine stared at him surprised. "How did we miss that?"
He shrugged, "I don't know, but we would have found it eventually." He said this all while opening it, it was a poem, a poem about suicide. "Do you think it's from the murderer?"
"You bet your ass I do." She, who had been reading over his shoulder, smiled at him.
A few moments later they were positioned around the body of the Ryes woman. "So Doc, when did she die?"
"Around noon, it's a amazing that you even found her this early, since everybody would have been at work."
Gil's head bobbed down to look at the cuts, they bothered him. "An elderly couple heard a disturbance in the apartment below, which happen to be Caitlin's apartment."
He lifted an arm to show the cuts, "Which would explain why the cuts would be pointed outward," Gil looked up at the doctor over his glasses, "this may have still been suicide, but she definitely didn't cut herself, Gil"
*****
Gil was about to walk into the break room when Kaylenn stopped him. "What Kay?"
"Can I be at the meeting? Plus, I'm starving, and you guys are gonna be eating." She whined at him.
"No, you can't be in the meeting," she was about to begin her retort, but he cut her off, "but I don't care if you get some food. When your done, you eat it in my office, and you'll stay there till I drop you off at home in about 45 minutes." He looked at her, "Ok?"
She rolled her eyes slightly and said, "Yeah, it's cool."
He smiled crookedly and led her inside, where everyone was assembled except for Greg. "Where is he?"
Though that question was answered immediately when the person came skidding to a stop in the room, "Sorry, I had to try to finish something for Ecklie, I didn't though. I swear that guy has been driving me to an early grave. It's always 'Greg do this, Greg do that by this amount of time or I'll kill you.'" He saw Kaylenn and smiled at her, "You'd think a man like that would be on Paxil or Prozac, at least Midol."
Kaylenn started laughing, and was thrown into more laughter when he turned to Sara and deadpanned, "Kinda like you Sar."
She chucked a french-fry at him. Everyone started laughing as Greg threw back one; even Gil broke into a smile. He couldn't help but think, 'This is my family,'
Gil and Cath as the dad and mom; meanwhile Brass was the grumpy uncle. Warrick and Nick acted like the twins, different yet the same in rank. Sara was with no doubt, the adopted, former, only child; she could be selfish but then again she sort of looked after the group. And then there was Greg, who was the baby of the family, the goof ball, limelight stealing person.
Gil's eyes traveled to Catherine, and thought of Lindsey, the other baby of the family, because she was as spoiled as she could ever be.
Though when his eyes fell on Kaylenn his heart fell. Where did she fit in? Who was she, besides his niece? The niece he had only seen around five times in her whole life? What role did she play? What role could she ever play?
"Griss?"
Gil looked up to see Greg's hand waving in his face. He batted it away. "Stop it." He glanced around the group and asked, "Ok, Nick, Sara, you know Warrick is working with you right?"
"Yeah, but Griss?" Gil raised an eyebrow towards Sara. "We found something and we have no idea who wrote it, but it seems to be a poem."
Greg, Gil, and Catherine all shared a look, though Catherine started speaking first, "A poem? We found a poem on the body of our victim." She looked at Gil, "You think they're related?"
He shrugged and motioned for Sara to read it. All of them leaned in involuntary, even Kaylenn, since Gil had yet to throw her out.
"Wanted money and hope/ And a dream to carry me forever/ This is all the hope I got left/ Help me to get it together/ Now, can sing or act or dance but I still won't get far/ Unless you help me, please, to be a big star," Sara glanced over at Nick, who was looking at her strangely.
"The girl, Jesse Wise, was trying to get an agent for her career as a singer." Nick said to Gil, who was glancing at the other poem in his hand.
"Oh, Please/ Fate stay with me, and guide me along my way/ There has been so many problems/ So please stay, please, stay/ Fate stay with me, will you help me on my way/ Will you end my troubles/ Will you please stay, please . . ."
Sara looked at the page and said, "Her Uncle has just died and her mother has been diagnosed with cancer; and this has all happened in the last two to three months."
She started to read again, "I don't want to be a queen, no, / Or a princess with all my jewels, oh / If you could guide me/ And you could help me/ But don't go too far, I just want to be a star."
Kaylenn raised her eyes slowly to Sara. She was now seated on the couch and had been half listening and half trying to be invisible so Gil wouldn't throw her out. Greg noticed her eyes, since he had been the only one who had paid any attention to her at all. It wasn't his fault; she just attracted him, like a moth to a flame. His eyes turned to Gil, 'And if I touch the flame I want so badly, I'll get zapped.'
"I'm thinking she was a trusting girl, who just wanted to be loved and wanted in her time of agony, selfish in a way but human non of the less." People sort of jumped at the sound of Warrick's voice since this was the first time he had talked. But Gil nodded at his statement; this poem was starting to mirror the girl's life perfectly, and it was scary . . . And incredibly sick.
"Yes guide me/ Forever guide me/ Will you stay with me and guide me along the way/ If I succeed because of you, fate my friend," Sara looked at them and a tear ran down her cheek, "I'll be so happy . . ."
"And the sad part is that maybe all she wanted now was to die, she didn't fight back." Everyone looked at Kaylenn.
How's chorused around the room. Kaylenn smirked, "You guys leave your files laying around everywhere and I'm naturally curious, but that's not the point. The point is, is that she didn't fight back and that song is all about doing anything to get what you want, and I bet everything that, in her case, it was death." She got up and walked over to the table. "Her life was probably one people would envy up until her Uncle died, and then it began to get ugly . . . Maybe she just couldn't cope."
"So, this guy probably knew that and knew he could get her to let him kill her."
"That might be true Cath, but there's no evidence to lead us down the road," Warrick looked at her and continued, "all we have is a missing knife and that won't tell us very much."
Greg was nodding at Warrick's statement, "Yeah, I haven't finished with all the evidence but I haven't found any to suspect there was another person with her. But if the cases are related, then we got a killer of some sor-" He sat up a bit and was staring at Kaylenn, "You said song, not poem."
"That's because it isn't a poem, it's just written that way, but it is a song."
Catherine waved her hand impatiently, "Well? What song is it?"
" 'Fate Stay With Me' by Alanis Morissette." Kaylenn looked at Gil as if she was waiting for him to do something. A light went off in his eyes, when he figured out what she wanted.
"I tried to kill the pain/ But only brought more/ I lay dying/ And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal/ I'm dying, praying, bleeding, and screaming/ Am I too lost to be saved/ Am I too lost?" Gil read it off the page in a blur, and looked at Kaylenn.
"Keep reading, I know it but I want to see how much he cut out."
He nodded and continued to read it, "My God, my tourniquet/ Return to me salvation/ My God, my tourniquet/ Return to me salvation." He traced his fingers down the page, "There are a lot of 'dot, dot, dot's on it and then he continues."
"My wounds cry for the grave/ My soul cries for deliverance/ Will I be denied Christ/ Tourniquet/ My suicide . . ."
Catherine shook her head, "What the hell am I letting Lindsey listen to?"
"I doubt Lindsey listens to Rock just yet, she'll get into that probably in High School." Kaylenn was looking at Catherine.
"You're right, she likes Hip Hop and Techno."
Kaylenn made a face, "Trust me, High School will change that."
Catherine was about to fire back something, when Gil stepped in, "Kay? What's the song?"
" 'Tourniquet' by Evanescence . . ." She faced Gil and said, "It the best song on that CD of theirs. I bought it for that."
Sara raised an eyebrow, "You bought the CD for a song about suicide?"
"Yeah, the song is awesome and written and sang beautifully, it's a powerful song and I can relate to it . . . Suicide attempts kind of run in the family."
All heads turned slowly toward Gil, who was trying hard not to break under their gaze. "Is there anything missing from the lyrics?" He was desperately trying to change to subject.
The red-head nodded, "Yeah, the whole second verse is missing . . . It was like he didn't even want to hide the possibility that it wasn't a suicide."
"What'd mean by that?"
Kaylenn turned to Warrick and said, "The second verse does talk about that she wants to die, that she wants God to save her."
Nick leaned forward and looked around at everyone. "So do we agree that we're on the same case?" Nods and Yes' were exchanged.
Then Greg noticed someone coming down the hall and the color drained from his face, "Shit! Ecklie's here and I'm not finished with his samples!"
He jumped out of his chair, causing it to fly back into the wall, and proceeded to become a blur of white lab coat as he raced out of the room. No one stopped laughing for a very long time.
****************
~~ Name your price, I would give anything, ~~
~~ I want to start over again, ~~
~~ What do I want? ~~ ~~ I have nothing to say, ~~
~~ What ever it is, I want it today ~~
'New Beginning' by TRAPT (this is my POV of Nick's feelings toward Sara right now)
****************
A/N: Ok, I hope you liked it, just review and tell me what you think!
