Disclaimer: Same as before, enjoy!
Chapter 2
"So, Catherine, what was that whole gigglefest about?"
"Gigglefest? I didn't think you knew how."
"Be nice. And it was not a gigglefest, it was a couple of old friends laughing together. Now one thing, none of us should go in the water in case the material used to mark the car was water soluble."
"But then how are we going to get any of our evidence? If we can't go in the water, we can't collect from the crime scene," said Nick.
"Actually we can, we just have to wait until about 3 this afternoon. The level six that I called is a water excavation specialist. We need to leave that to her until she gives the ok for us to go in."
"Wait a minute. Is this the level six from the newspaper? The one that the district calls Dolphin?" asked Warrick.
"Yes she is. Now please we need to cordon off this area and get those fountains turned off before anymore of the evidence is lost. She gets really pissed when she has to test the fountain flow in order to find her evidence." Catherine waited for them to head off, "Come on guys, move it!"
About four and a half hours later, the three were gathering again when two more SUV's drove up and showed Sara, Greg, and Grissom arriving. They walked towards Catherine and the others.
Grissom reaches them first and asks "So, do you have any idea why we were called in?"
"Actually yes, I do," said Catherine. "We needed a level six and they thought that in order to prevent squashed toes with me and my team they would call in a favor so that we could work with whoever we wanted on this case."
"Ahh, and who is this level six with so much gumption to pull the rank card on Eckley?"
"Wasn't given their name, just their number. They should be arriving soon though. So why don't you guys get suited up for once they get here." All of the guys turn to go except Grissom.
"You sure you don't know who this level six is?"
"Their voice sounded familiar but we have been calling in so many of them recently that that was bound to be the case."
"Alright," he said and then turned around to join the others in getting suited up.
"Sara, I need you to give Grissom plenty of space during this case," said Catherine.
"Why? Isn't it just like other cases that we have seen?"
"Yes…and no. You'll see when the level six gets here, and please just trust me on this." With saying that Catherine walks away towards the parking lot as a white 1959 Fiat Spider drives in through the entrance and parks next to the CSI's SUV's.
A tall slender woman climbs out of the drivers side door and walks towards the front of the vehicle. She lifts the hood and pulls out a metal box much like those the other CSI's are carrying around, except quite a bit bigger. As she walks towards the scene, Catherine sees that she is wearing black heeled shoes, black dress slacks, and a button up cerulean shirt. She is rather feminine looking, but in a no nonsense sort of way. Her hair is in a just above shoulder length bob, honey blonde with much lighter highlights, probably from the sun. She has on no rim glasses that are slightly tinted as if they had been treated to be color changing in the sun. As she gets within a few yards of Catherine she grins from ear to ear and begins walking faster. Catherine steps to the side so that the others won't see the greeting.
The blonde drops her case to the ground and hugs Catherine while picking her up and twirling her around and as she is putting her back on her feet she gives her a kiss on the cheek. Catherine blushes, "I asked you not to do that a long time ago."
"I know, Pussy. But you look so cute when you blush, and it reminds me of past times together."
Catherine clears her throat and says, "We were drunk and in college, and that isn't going to happen ever again, no offense to you or anything, I just prefer men."
"Me too, oddly enough," the blonde added with a cheeky grin. "Now why don't we go see the rest of the team, they should all be changed into their suits by now. And I want to see if torquing Eckley was worth it." They both began walking out from behind the SUV.
"Just go easy on him, Monarch. You know how he is," Catherine said as they were walking.
"Yes, I do and I know that I am no longer willing to wait for him to pull his head out of his ass enough to see what is standing right in front of him."
As they were approaching Grissom had his back facing the direction they were coming from, but Warrick, Nick and Greg were drop-jawed at the two women walking towards them. They had known that Catherine was a dancer but the two women were walking in perfect harmony, same beat and everything. It was almost as if it were a dream, two gorgeous dancers walking towards them…
When they reached the group of guys, the blonde stopped directly behind Grissom while Catherine walked around to Greg, Nick and Warrick. Suddenly, the blonde walked up until she was holding Grissom tight, his back to her front. She leaned up and whispered something into his ear that none of the others heard.
However, after his ear surgery was so successful, Grissom heard every word. She said, "Hello Fish, I've come to collect what you said would be mine." Upon hearing this Grissom's entire face and neck went a blazing red.
The others saw Grissom change colors from normal to red and they understood what sort of comment it was.
As quick as she had hugged him, she released him and walked around until she was standing next to him. "You guys must be Nick and Warrick. Pussy has told me so much about you. And I read about you, sir. You went from DNA to being a level three CSI, congratulations Greg."
"And you are?" asked Nick.
"She's Corella Monarch, level six CSI," said Grissom flatly.
"Thank you, Fish, I can introduce myself you know," she snapped.
"Just do your job, no one needs to know who you are any more than you need to know who they are." After Grissom finished saying this, Corella pulled her arm up as if she were stretching and then in a blur she slugged him right in the eye.
"I told you once to not try and control my life, Gil," she said before she stalked towards the fountain carrying her case. When she got there, she set down her case and began walking around the fountain looking at the crime scene. Once she had circled the fountain back to her case she picked it up and walked around to the opposite side of the fountain to where the car was located. She set down her case and just stood there for some time.
Meanwhile, back with the group. "What the hell, Grissom?" exclaimed Nick. "She was just trying to introduce herself before we had to work with her."
"No, she wasn't." Warrick tried to interrupt. "No. Just do whatever she asks you to do, and let's get her out of town as quick as we can."
"You're still afraid aren't you?" asked Catherine.
"Yes, I am. I'm never in control when she's around. So, can we please get her to leave?" Grissom says as he turns around towards the fountain and sees Monarch standing on the opposite side of the fountain unbuttoning her shirt. All of the guys just stand there slack-jawed. Sara and Catherine begin walking over to Monarch to enquire as to what she is doing.
"Hey, Dolphin!" shouts Catherine. "What you stripping for?"
Monarch turns towards Catherine's voice, looks at them for a bit and then smiles before turning back to her case in which she was digging for something.
As Sara and Catherine approach, they see big beach towel and goggles sitting on the edge of the fountain. They also see that Monarch has on the top to a lavender bikini with deep red roses in a pattern on it. Suddenly Monarch stands up clutching a very large strange camera with what looks like a waistband attached to it. She sets it down on the edge of the fountain and begins unzipping her pants. Sara looks over at the guys and can see that their shirts are wet at the necks from drool. She just shakes her head.
"I need to get in some pictures from the sides and the bottom, if I can," Monarch says. "Once I'm in I'm going to need you to hand me that camera," she says while pointing to it. "And please watch out it's rather heavy and I had to pay for it, the region was trying to be cheap again this year. They should have just cut Conrad Eckley's salary, I mean he isn't doing anything to earn it," she said a little bit louder than normal. Sara turns around to see Eckley walking towards them, he stops when he heard the last comment and spins on his heel and literally runs back towards his car.
"You know, you should be a little nicer to him. He would be your boss if you were stationed here."
"I am already going to be stationed here and the board has done a review of Saint Eckley's performance in the last few months and found it to be severely wanting. So, they have decided to station me here as this district seems to so desperately need a level six that they keep calling us in." By this point the other CSI's have walked around the fountain to join in.
"As well as getting rid of Conrad Eckley's position here, the responsibilities that he has will be transferred to me and I will become head of the lab for the day, night and all future shifts. The director thought that I would be the perfect candidate since I don't ever sleep anymore. I mean all of the doctors have finally given up on me in six different states. That's why I only sleep on holidays and weekends because I have to take such strong sleeping pills that I have to have a fucking day to recover! Now if you ALL don't mind I have a scene to clear and my evidence is washing away with each second I am trying to explain it to you all. Eel, please hand me the camera once I come back up for air. Not before, and be careful it's the one thing of mine that I have never broken." Upon saying this Monarch eases herself into the water and under it. A few seconds later she resurfaces and Sara hands her the camera.
Catherine is standing there flabbergasted, "What did you do to her, Grissom? I have never in my life seen her lose it like that. Or you for that matter! Whatever it is you two need to sort it out."
"Catherine, you don't know all of the details. Just keep from playing in our lives, this works for us…"
"Grissom, this isn't working! She doesn't sleep anymore and you are like a ghost. She still loves you…"
"No one loves me, no one knows me."
"You just have to give us the chance to get to know you and you might find that some of us do love you. For my part if you would stop being such an ass most of the time, I think of you as a brother or as a friend. For the others I can't say but dear god, give her a fighting chance…"
"I asked you to not speak with him about that, Catherine," said the fountain. Monarch emerges from beneath the ledge of the fountain dripping in her lavender bikini. She sets the camera down on the edge of the fountain, grabs her towel, steps out of the fountain, and picking up her case and camera walks off in the direction of her car. When she gets there she puts on a spare set of clothes from her case once she realizes that she left her clothes over with the others. She removes the tape from her camera and sticks it in a case, which she places with the camera in her case. She then shouts, " The car can be removed from the fountain now if you all don't mind doing that. I'll get back to the lab and analyze the tape of the symbols. I should have a preliminary idea of what they are in half an hour. I'll call you then and if it's not too much trouble could you bring my clothes when y'all come back to the lab?" She then drives down the Strip in the direction of the Las Vegas Crime Lab.
