CHAPTER NINE: DID ANYONE ELSE FIND THAT FUNNY?

THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO MICHELE – SORRY WE HAVEN'T SPOKEN IN AGES.

It was safe to say that Warrick and Greg did not appreciate the artwork daubed upon their faces. Looking back on it, Grissom and Sara felt quite guilty about doing it, but it would probably mean that at least there would be no more snoring and clowning around on the minibus.

"What the hell have you got on your face?" Greg asked Warrick when the minibus had made it's last stop before California.

"I ain't got anythin' on my face bro', but what the hell's that on yours?" Warrick retorted. Sanders may have been playing a trick on him, but there was black daubed all over the lab technician's face. "You got glasses and a moustache," Warrick informed Greg.

"So have you," Greg replied. "And more sideburns."

"What the …" Warrick looked around the group. "Who is responsible for this?"

No one replied, they just occupied themselves with looking innocent. Then Greg spotted something. A black marker splodge on Grissom's right hand. "It was you, wasn't it?" He asked Grissom.

"Nope, nothing to do with me," Grissom replied, inwardly cursing.

"Yeah it was, there's the marker pen leak to prove it, on your hand," Greg insisted.

Warrick grabbed the supervisor's hand. "Yep, that looks like black marker to me," he agreed.

"Okay, okay, I did it," Grissom confessed. "But Warrick was snoring, and Greg … well, Greg was being Greg."

"Gotta give Greg credit, though," Sara said. "He figured it out that you did it."

"Wasn't just me," Grissom retorted angrily.

Sara employed soothing tactics. She rubbed Grissom's arm. "Okay, fair enough, I was involved too," she admitted. "But I didn't leave behind any recriminating evidence," she chuckled.

Grissom just seethed. "Who's next on the driving rota?" He muttered angrily.

"Um, I'm not sure," Nick replied.

"I'll go next then," Grissom answered. "Give me a change of scenery. Okay, we got ten minutes here, then we're back on the road." He stalked off, followed quickly by Sara, and Greg and Warrick, who wanted to wash the marks off their faces.

"Hey, Gil, wait up," Sara called.

"No. Unless you need to use the bathroom get back to the minivan," he called over his shoulder.

Sara winced and walked slowly back to the minivan where Brass and Catherine were waiting.

"Why does he get so pissed off like that?" She asked of no one in particular.

"Hey Sara, don't worry. He's been like that for as long as I can remember. Hell, I spoke to his mom, and he was always like this as a child. A way of protecting himself, I suppose," Catherine said, putting her arm around Sara.

"Just because I said he'd done that? Warrick and Greg weren't that bothered, and I accepted responsibility."

"Don't get disheartened," Brass told her. "He gets a little … touchy sometimes." There was something in Brass's voice that suggested that wasn't all that happened.

"He doesn't get violent or anything does he?" Sara tried to sound less worried than she was, but it didn't work.

"Hey, he would never hurt anyone," Catherine told her definitively. "Just give him the cold shoulder for a bit, then he'll wise up and see that he acted unreasonably." Seeing the scepticism on Sara's face, Catherine tried to console her. "Look, all of us, maybe with the exception of Brass, know how to get rid of a dead body. If your strategy doesn't work, I'll get Nicky to help out with the disposal of Grissom."

Sara smiled. "Okay, you've won me over." She looked up. "Here he comes, I'm getting back in." She went round the other side of the minibus and climbed up, moved to her seat and closed her eyes, feigning sleep.

"Where's Sara?" Grissom asked Catherine and Brass.

"Asleep, don't wake her up or you'll you're incur the wrath of Sidle," Catherine warned.

Grissom paid her no notice, and entered the minibus to find Sara 'asleep'.

"Sara," he whispered, but he got no reply. "Sara, it's me. Are you gonna sit at the front with me?" Still no answer. He shrugged, bent over, and kissed her cheek. "Sorry for being a grouch," he whispered in her ear, and turned back to the front where he would be driving on the last leg of the journey.

TBC