DISCLAIMER: Don't own it... No money made... Just for fun and enjoyment.
SUMMARY: Sequel to Displacement. The CSI team and their recently hired coroner Stephanie are back to work solving cases, sharing companionship and generally making their way through the dire world of criminal investigation with humor and friendship... This one will show the development of the relationship between Grissom and Sara and there should be some other surprises down the road as well. Romance/Drama/Angst/Mature Situations
RATING: M for Mature - I'm starting this one out at "M", since we won't be waiting quite so long for the smut this time out ;) Also, there is a sprinkling of language throughout the story.
A/N: Well, it may well be a few days before I get another chance to post a chapter. All depends on if my baby sister actually delivers the newest member of our family. I am on big sister alert right now, so it's just a waiting game. If you get another chapter in the morning, you'll know we're still waiting :D
REVIEWS: I am always looking for ways to improve my writing, and your reviews let me know if I am hitting my mark. Thank you in advance for the time you take to review this story.
Chapter 17
It was Thursday night, and everyone was gathered around the break room table. Almost everyone, because it was Sara's night off. What that meant to the team was that it was also the one day a week they could count on the boss being in a foul mood, no matter what was going on.
Tonight had already started out badly. Nick was still trying to get a cause of death for his dead professor and the detectives had not yet been successful in helping to get some journals from the university, so he was stuck. Greg was still trying to avoid Warrick's wrath. Warrick appeared to be in an even more surly state that normal, following another meeting with his lawyer. And to make matters worse, Catherine had her nose out of joint, because she was feeling left out of the loop, with no one really telling her what was going on (and for someone with her penchant for curiosity, that was practically fatal).
There was only one way it could have been any worse, and when Nick saw Ecklie storm off down the hall with Grissom following right behind him, he knew for certain they truly were in hell that night. Grissom came into the room like a thundercloud and threw a file folder down onto the table with a violent thud. "How in the name of all that is right in the world could you have done eleven thousand dollars worth of damage at the God Damn BODY FARM!?"
Greg suddenly became white as a sheet, and seemed to have shrunk about ten inches. His eyes were as big as dinner plates and he kept his gaze on the folder Grissom had thrown onto the table. "You managed to destroy no fewer than six ongoing experiments, two that spanned nearly a year and will have to be completely started over, costing hundreds of man hours… One thousand dollars in reimbursables, because you also managed to nearly take out Warrick. And another thousand dollars in Worker's Compensation bills so that Warrick and the guy from the farm don't end up dying from some decomposition bacterial or viral agents. AND we've lost ALL privileges at the farm INDEFINITELY!" Grissom had turned about six shades of pissed off as he spoke and when he finally threw down the last sheet of paper he planted his hands firmly on the table top and looked directly into the face of Greg Sanders, "Do you have ANY idea what you have done?" When Greg did not answer, Grissom asked another question, "What in name of Sam Hill would ever make you think ANYTHING at the BODY Farm was ALIVE Sanders?"
Everyone else in the room was trying to remember a time when Grissom had been that mad before and not a single one of them could come up with anything even remotely close. Catherine had only seen him lose his temper three times before: twice because of Eddie, and once it was her own fault. And she never wanted to see him look at her with that expression again as long as she lived. But that, did not even come close to the anger she saw in him at the moment. "Gil… Maybe-…"
"Not now Catherine… Sanders, I want an answer out of you RIGHT NOW. What the hell were thinking?" He had gone a few more shades into it at that point.
Warrick could not take it any longer, "Gris… It's partly my fault." Everyone was shocked to hear Warrick speak up for Greg after the cold shoulder he had been giving the younger man.
Grissom, surprised, turned to regard Warrick. "What?"
"Yeah…" Warrick looked over at Greg and rolled his eyes, because he knew that Grissom would not take it all out on him, and maybe he could save the kid's job by throwing himself on the landmine. This time. "I'd been ridin' him pretty hard with some horror stories about cases, and we were over by the peat bog, and it was still pretty dark out there."
Grissom still had a lot of steam left in him after his dressing down from Ecklie and his conversation with his associate at the Body Farm, so he expended the rest of it with his last tirade. "Fine! Then you can BOTH take the pill for this one. You're both being docked two days' pay, and you'll be giving up eight hours a week in volunteer time at the Body Farm for the next six months. And I don't care if they have you guys scrubbing out fifty five gallon drums of human soap for six months, you will show up like clockwork." He tossed another sheet of paper at Greg and added his last comment, "Ecklie has taken the liberty of revoking your Level One status, so welcome back to probationary training."
He turned and stormed out of the room, but Catherine called out to him before he got too far away, "What about assignments?"
There was no mistaking the bellow that came back in reply, "You deal with it!"
