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:Your response has been fantastic, and my writing is still blazing ahead. So, you can expect a lot more chapters this weekend :D However, the next one might have to wait until after I see X3 :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 read & review this story.
Chapter 31
Jim Brass was in a foul mood. He had planned to spend a quiet weekend to himself out at the lake, but his plans had not worked from the moment he said go. When he got to the rustic fishing cabin, the roof had received the gift of a skylight (thanks to a fallen tree), the fireplace had become home to a rather large nest of squirrels, and from the beer bottles strewn everywhere, he deduced that some of the local youth had chosen his place as their party hangout. He had a half a mind to get one of the CSI's out there to print the place and have half of the high school brought in for questioning, but the place was really not worth the trouble it would have taken.
So, without his favorite rest spot, he settled for camping out in one of the cabins operated by the State Parks Department. The trouble was that it would appear they did not understand the need for an old man to be able to sleep at night, because they stuck him right between two cabins filled with loud and obnoxious college kids. If he had brought his gun, he might have been tempted to use it Friday night. Instead, he did a little fishing in the morning and then packed it in that afternoon when the winds descended on the area and made him draw comparisons to a certain movie with a scowling woman riding a bicycle in the wind. By the time he had reached the lights of Vegas Saturday night the only thing he had on his mind was sleeping in his own bed and not coming back out until Sunday night.
However, there was a serious flaw to his logic. The whole reason he had left for the weekend in the first place was that his house was being fumigated and it would be another twenty four hours before it was safe. He thought about calling Gil and seeing if he could crash there, but then he realized he would have to explain what was happening at his place, and he had a hard time believing that the man who raced cockroaches for fun would be too keen about his killing off a mess of their insect compatriots. He finally decided to just get a room at the hotel down the way from the lab, sleep those precious hours until the middle of the afternoon and then head off for another fun shift with the LVPD.
Those plans were not working out very well. The hotel was full up with lousy conventioneers and after several frustrating hours of trying to sleep, he had given up and filed his grievances with the hotel management. They refunded him his money and he was on his way once again.
Since he was so close to the lab, he figured he would swing by there and see who was around. He also thought he might be able to wrangle an invitation to a friendly couch from another wayward night walker. He had no idea when he walked into the building that the rest of his weekend would actually have been the best part of his horrible experience.
As soon as he climbed out of his car, he found himself standing nearly toe to toe with Warrick Brown. "Hey 'Rick… You got the shift tonight?"
Warrick regarded him with a slightly amused befuddlement, "What the hell are you doin' here?"
"Nice to see you, too." Brass gave him the sneering smile that was his trademark.
"You know what I mean… You were taking a couple days at the lake, weren't you?"
Brass shrugged and held the front door open for Warrick, who was carrying a few evidence boxes. "Yeah, well it would seem the fates had other ideas for me."
Warrick headed straight for the Temporary Evidence Vault with Brass in tow for the whole journey. "That doesn't sound good. Did you at least get a chance to relax at all?"
The older man turned his chin to the side and slightly up to show his discomfort, "Not exactly… That was pretty much an exercise in futility this weekend."
Warrick started logging in his evidence from the three calls he had been out on that night as he and Brass kept talking. "Damn… That's too bad." Then Warrick remembered something and asked, "Your place is still quarantined, isn't it?"
"Yeah…" He fiddled with his ear as he explained, "I thought about giving Gil a holler, but then I would have to cop to murdering a few hundred of his closest friends."
Warrick laughed at Brass' description of his fumigation, "Yeah, that wouldn't go over too good, huh?" As Warrick was logging the last box into the evidence locker he had another thought, "Well, if you don't mind a little couch surfing, you can take the futon in the den over at Steph and Thomas'. I've gotta see if Cath got to her before now, and then head home to keep an eye on her until Thomas gets in tonight. But it'll be quiet, no teenagers, decent beer in the fridge, and I can testify to the comfort level of that futon."
Brass smiled and patted Warrick on the shoulder, "That's the best thing I've heard all weekend."
Warrick laughed, put the evidence log back in its place, and turned to let Brass pass him as he shut off the light and closed the door behind them. He checked the knob to make sure it had lockedm and they started down the hallway. "Hold on… I need to release the weekend guys and grab something from the Break Room." Warrick ducked into the room, and Brass could hear him say a few words to the two guys in there before he came back out with two paper cups of coffee in his hands. He handed one to Brass and then took a drink from his. "Figured we'd need these just to get to the house." Brass smirked at the younger man's logic and the gesture.
As they started down the hallway to the elevator, Warrick pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit redial. Brass could hear a decidedly feminine voice pick up on the other end. "Hey Cath, where're you at?" When they rounded the corner and were standing in front of the elevator, they had their answer.
"When did you get back to the lab?" The blonde haired CSI had a hand on her hip and a slightly haughty expression on her face, as she closed up her phone to regard the two men.
"Just now… My last scene ended up being a bust, but I didn't want to call you until I was officially off the grid." Warrick smiled at Catherine, and tried to hide his embarrassment from his friends.
"Oh well, Lindsey spent the night at a friend's, so I've been up all night getting some stuff done. And it's not like I haven't been worrying about Steph the whole time anyway." Brass was confused by her statement, as the trio stepped onto the elevator.
"Did I miss something?" He asked in all earnestness.
"Oh, just that Thomas is out of town, she's still obsessing over that professor case and, according to Warrick, she's gotten some kind of cold or something." Brass just nodded his head. He knew too well that Catherine was a good friend, and when she worried about you, you had better be prepared to listen to what she was going to say, because she would never let it go. He had been the recipient of that attention before, so he felt a little sorry for the young doctor at the moment.
As the elevator doors opened up, they found the morgue completely dark, except for the scattered emergency lighting system units and the exit signs. Catherine was having a hard time remembering the last time the morgue had been so quiet and dark. It was always a little dark around there, but that was just so they could work with all the equipment and keep the temperatures down. However, this was a completely different kind of dark, and she found that it actually creeped her out a little.
"Yeah, I got the same vibe when I was down here earlier. Just feels weird like this, huh?" Warrick was the one to bring it up. "County Coroner put us on divert for the weekend because of the staffing trouble, and Steph shut everything down to conserve energy and cut down on the noise. She's holed up in her office with the blinds drawn." He crossed the hall, and pushed his way through the doors to the Autopsy Room so they could make their way to Stephanie's office.
As the others came into the room, Warrick flipped on the light switch and remarked to himself that the flicker of the fluorescent lights actually added to the creepy feelings everyone was experiencing. He tried to shake the feeling, knowing Catherine was already keyed up with worry about Stephanie, so he did not need to add to that with his own uneasiness. The trio started walking through the room and he was the first one to reach the closed door to her office. He turned the handle and pushed gently on the door, hoping that Stephanie was still asleep on the couch. Warrick cautiously peeked into the room and saw no one on the couch, so he pushed the door open a little further. When the door stopped short of opening, he realized there was something holding it back. He looked down to find the source of the barrier and his mind shattered into a million fragments.
The clock on the wall showed that it was six in the morning and on the floor, Stephanie laid sprawled, unconscious, bleeding from the head, with an inhaler in one hand and a broken injector pen in the other. The morgue was completely silent.
