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: Betcha didn't see this one coming?

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 38

The figures of yellow clad workers filled every room. They tested every duct and intake in the entire building. Nothing outside the normal trace amounts of air pollutants were found anywhere, but they changed the filters on each and every vent in the place, just to be safe. The morgue had been sealed shut, and the doorway had a clean room entryway put into place. Nick Stokes was getting his suit triple checked by the CSI turned detective, Sofia Curtis.

She was nervously re-securing every seal on his suit, making absolutely certain that nothing was getting into his haz-mat suit. "Okay, since they haven't found anything in the building out of the ordinary, Ecklie is going to re-open it, but this level is in shut down mode." He nodded as she re-did his hood seal for the fourth time as she spoke, "All the bodies have been transported, because it's gonna start getting warm in there, since they shut off the ventilation system to this floor. Got it?"

"Check." Nick nodded his understand, but before she could check the filter on the chest of his suit, yet again, he put a gloved hand on her shoulder, "Just be ready in case I have any questions… I'm gonna need some help from you and Greggo…" He waited for the younger man to respond via the headset inside his suit.

"Ten four, Nicky… Wendy and I are at the terminals, ready to go."

"Alright… I'm goin' in… Fire up those databases, because I'm flyin' blind on this plant stuff, guys." Nick turned away from Sofia and started to make his way into the morgue. However, he was stopped cold by Doc Robbins.

"Hold it, Nick." When Nick turned to regard the voice that had called out to him, he found the doctor already wearing a haz-mat suit.

"Doc, you don-…"

"It's my morgue, and my people… I'm going in there… And you can give me her symptoms while Sofia seals my suit." He turned back to allow another woman to walk up alongside him. "And my wife Judy is going try and remember her botany classes before becoming a pharmaceutical technician… She works for the same company that sponsored Adler's research, so she has access to some info we don't." The woman nodded at the people in the hall and sat down in a chair beside the power outlet to plug in her laptop.

Nick started rattling off everything he had gotten from the hospital, and tried to make sense of it as he spoke, "Ah, airway constriction, coughing, extreme fatigue, restlessness, lungs filling with flui-…"

"Wait, is it fluid, or is it mucus?" The doctor appeared to be on to something.

Nick looked up with a start, "They didn't say… But from Warrick's description, I'd say it's at least starting out as mucus."

The doctor waited for his wife to finish typing in a few things and then she spoke, "There are more than a dozen possibilities, based on his most recent report. Respiratory suppression is common for many of the specimens he had been working with in the field."

Sofia double checked Robbins last seal and the two men headed into the morgue. Nick held his sensor out and used it to scan the room, but nothing was registering, so he nodded and they continued towards the office. With no unusual readings coming from the sensor, they broke the threshold of the office. Both men stood stock still as they gazed upon the scene; the displaced furniture, the debris, the blood. It was all a little unnerving and they had to force themselves to concentrate.

Methodically, they worked through the scene, and once Nick was satisfied there were no airborne agents in the room, he decided to give Sofia the heads up. "Okay, call Ecklie, and let him know that the airborne threat is nil.

"Got it."

Nick looked around and found that the computer was still on, so he moved to get in front of it. "Hey Greg, is Archie around?"

"Just came in to help out… Whaddya need?" Archie's voice came back at him.

"Can you connect into her terminal and let me know when her last entry was made?" Nick decided they might need to create a timeline of events and he figured that might be the easiest way.

"Is it on?"

"Yeah, it's on… But it mighta got bumped when the medics were in here, and I need to know when the last active entry was made."

"No, sweat… Just give me a sec and I'll…" His words stopped, but Nick could make out the sounds of his keystrokes as they madly tapped out a frantic rhythm. "Got it… Last entry was oh five fifty-eight." His voice dropped to a monotone, "'Adler was hiding his actual location, using equations from known botanical laws to alter coordinates. Paranoia is now full-blown. Seemed to be tracing a family of ferns into the southern mountains of Honduras. Group known for respiratory effects. Need specimens to test for properties. Need analysis data of recent specimens for conclusion. Possible histamine source from spores found in most fern groups.' And after that there's a key strike, but no more real entries."

Nick mulled the entries over in his head and as he made the connection between her notes and the evidence, he turned to find the doctor holding up a journal.

"The fern spores are in the journals…"

"The fern spores are in the journals…"

The two men worked fast. They sealed the journal, with it open to the page containing the pressed fern specimen, and then fought their way back out of the morgue to where Mrs. Robbins was frantically searching for answers in her database. "Nancy, here's the entry for the specimen… Is there anything about it in your databanks?"

She looked up at the classification of the species, and the family of ferns that the man had been tracking, and then entered a few more clicks before she raised her head again. "Got it! The spores from this species were thought to have been the source of a specific poison once prevalent in Central America, but thought to have been wiped out by the slash and burn farming techniques being used there. They were thought to have been ground into a powder and then blown into the face of the desired target to promote suffering and or death in that target, depending on the concentration of the spores to the powder. Referred to as, 'The Drowning Death.' Chief symptoms were airway and vascular constriction."

All four looked at each other for a moment, letting the information sink in a little further. However, it was the doctor who spoke first. "Get me to that hospital… NOW!"