Author's note: i'm sorry this took so long...exams and all that...so enjoy
Spoilers: I will generally tell what spoilers the chapters contain. In this Chapter: i dont think there are any spoilers...if there are, i'm sorry.
Summary: When Ecklie chooses Grissom's team to head to a conference in London, the Las Vegas CSI nightshift couldn't be more excited. Then their plane crashes in the sea. Now Grissom, Catherine, Nick, Warrick, Sara, and Greg are stranded on a deserted island and their only way home is to survive.
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI.or the rights to any of the movies listed below.
Surviving the Storm
Chapter Six: Exploring
As if to spite the six castaways, the sun was shinning bright and early the next morning as if the night's storm had never happened. It had rained until about four in the morning and the sun was already hot in the sky at seven. Sara and Nick were in the process of finding a place to store all of this fresh water they had just received. While boiled ocean water quenched their thirst, they all knew that it was not healthy. While they were doing that, Grissom and Catherine were drying out sticks for a fire and Warrick and Greg were trying to set up a stronger shelter.
"Figured out the reason why the last shelter didn't hold," Warrick said, walking around the fallen pile of sticks.
"Direction of the wind?" Greg ventured, clearing a few sticks from the pile.
"No, the branches weren't strong enough on the trees holding the support stick," Warrick explained. He indicated to the branches snapped in half.
"Maybe if we found something to secure it better, the shelter would stand this time," Greg said, throwing some of the smaller twigs into a pile.
"That would be nice," Sara deadpanned, carrying a pot full of fresh water to the shade of a tree. Greg couldn't help but smirk.
"Well at least you got your shower, Sara," he teased. She flipped him off.
"Someone's in a good mood," Warrick said sarcastically.
"It must be all this fresh air," Greg said, smiling as Sara glared at him and went off to help Nick. He sneezed.
"Bless you. You alright, man?" Warrick asked.
"Yeah. I must be allergic to something out here," Greg said shrugging off Warrick's concern.
"If it gets worse, talk to Grissom," Warrick said, proceeding to build a new shelter. Greg nodded and helped pile sticks. Since the plane crash, all of the CSIs had rallied around Grissom as their unofficial leader. He knew a great deal about many of the plants and insect life on the island, and, although he was normally closed-off to the rest of the world, he cared about them.
In almost no time at all, Grissom and Catherine had a small fire going.
"That didn't take half as fast as I thought it would," she remarked. He nodded.
"The sun dried most of the wood. Hungry?" he asked, grabbing a frying pan.
"You cooked last night. It's my turn," she said, holding a hand out for the pan. He looked at her sternly.
"It's no trouble. I actually kind of enjoy it," he shrugged. In truth, cooking was a lot like a science experiment for him. He never quite knew what the results would be. Being able to cook on the island was one reason why he was not going insane. It was just like a science experiment.
"Are you sure?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, so don't worry about it," he assured her as he got to work on a breakfast. It was nothing elaborate. He had a few different fruits, coconuts, and some of the more edible plants on the island. In other words the most he could make was a 'rabbit's breakfast' as Warrick put it. They needed more protein in their diets, he mused. Fish, snails, birds, even insects would suffice.
"So, what's for breakfast, boss?" Nick asked, sitting down with Sara.
"New concoction. Fruit and coconut soup," he replied quietly. Nick made a face.
"What's wrong with that? It could be good," Sara asked, turning to look at him. He looked at her like she was from outer space.
"What's wrong with that, Sara? How about the fact that there's no meat! No bacon and eggs," he said pouting a little. She shook her head.
"I'm a vegetarian, Nick," she said.
"Yeah, I know that, Sara, but unless you have some tofu in your pocket, you're in the same boat as the rest of us," he replied. Catherine and Grissom, both sensing an argument, felt the need to cut in. The last thing they needed was dissention amongst the group.
"Nick, save it, we'll be going exploring and food gathering later. We need more protein in our diets. Who knows, we might come across Catherine's friend in the forest who likes to keep us up all night," Grissom said. Nick nodded and didn't say a word. Sara, about to protest, was cut across by Catherine.
"And we're going to find some other kind of food that is good protein for Sara," she said, looking at the younger woman.
"Thanks," Sara muttered sheepishly.
"Hey, things seem super serious over here," Warrick said, as he and Greg sat down with the rest of them.
"It's not. How's the shelter building going?" Nick asked.
"We have an idea. The lean-to isn't working out too well," Greg said, "So instead, we were thinking of just putting sticks in the sand vertically and then draping the walls with some of those huge tree leaves."
"We'd have some other supports in the walls too," Warrick added.
"What about the roof?" Catherine asked. At this, Greg and Warrick smiled.
"We've actually really thought this through," Warrick said, "We figured we would carve notches into sticks to lie horizontally on each wall. Then we decided that we could put two support beams for the roof, then lay sticks loosely on top, and then cover it with leaves."
"I'm impressed, you guys. You really thought this through. But do you realize how long a project like this could take?" Grissom asked. There was something in his tone that reminded each CSI of when they were new on the job and Grissom would ask them what they would next throughout the whole investigation.
"It could take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending how long and hard we'd work on it. Since it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere anytime soon, I don't see why we couldn't do it," Greg answered promptly. Being the newest criminalist in the lab, he was used to Grissom's questions for rookies. Greg looked at his boss for some confirmation.
"Very true, Greg. If it works, then I don't see why not," Grissom replied. Greg smiled proudly. It wasn't often that they could impress Grissom.
After they ate their breakfast, which tasted mostly of bananas and coconuts, the six of them got started on the shelter. Most of the sticks were around six feet in length and those that varied were cut to be the same. When they took a small break for lunch, they had finished making notches in one long branch to go across one wall and all of the sticks were the same length.
"So when are we going to go exploring, Gris?" Nick asked, eager to have something other than a banana to munch on. Grissom shrugged.
"Whenever you want to go, Nick, go ahead," he said simply.
"I wanna go- go-" Greg sneezed and then continued, "I wanna go exploring too."
"Are you sick, Greg?" Grissom asked, looking at him. Greg shook his head.
"No, no, it was just a sneeze. I'm fine," he quickly amended.
"Are you sure?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine! How many times do I have to say it?" Greg asked, somewhat frustrated. They regarded him with an uneasy look. Then, because he had crossed his arms stubbornly, they moved the conversation along.
"Let's take a break from the shelter," Sara said.
"Sounds good," Warrick agreed. All six of them decided on a walk through the trees and it was a pleasant walk. They joked with each other and when they came across some vines hanging from a few trees, before they could cut them, Nick, Warrick, and Greg had to have a swing. Luckily the only things they bruised when the plant snapped were their egos. They collected the vines, knowing they could be used for something. Even Grissom was enjoying himself. More often then not, he stopped to view some exotic specimen, only to be prodded along by Catherine.
"It's not gonna hurt you, Cath," he said as he view a particularly large beetle.
"I'll agree with you when there is a good distance between me and it," she quipped in response, pushing him ahead. He sighed loudly.
"How come you aren't scared of my bugs at home?" he asked.
"Because they are in glass cages," she answered. He rolled his eyes.
They walked a little further, collecting more fruits and food along the way. Soon they made it to a small clearing or it was more like a part between the trees and a rocky slope. To the right they could see a small stream winding through the trees.
"Do you think that it's fresh water?" Sara asked. Warrick shrugged and bent over to cup a small amount in his hand and brought it to his mouth.
"No salt," he confirmed.
"Don't drink anymore before we boil it," Nick said.
"So now we have two options. We could follow the stream and see where it takes us, or we could climb up the slope," Grissom said.
"Let's go up. We could see the whole island," Warrick suggested. Deciding it was not such a bad idea, they climbed. From the ground it looked doable.
It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked, however, even though it was not very steep. They nearly slipped a couple of times, but finally, breathless, they reached the top. The view was incredible. The other side of the slope was another rocky side, again, not too steep, that gave way to more trees. From this height, they could see all sides of the island, though the sides that the CSIs hadn't came across seemed farther away from the rocky ledge then their camp was. They saw where the river wound around to the ocean. They could see birds flying over the tree tops; some had bright feathers, while others were common gulls.
"I wish I had a shotgun," Greg said longingly. Sara rolled her eyes, but had to agree that a fried piece of meat allured to her like never before.
"Birds have eggs. We could find a nest and raid it," Catherine suggested, "Nicky, we might be one step closer to your bacon and eggs."
With that they carefully climbed down from the slope and followed the river, looking for bird's nests. They saw two, but both proved empty. The third, however, held two white eggs.
"Breakfast!" Nick exclaimed, jumping down from the tree, clutching an egg in each hand.
They continued to follow the river until the came upon a beach.
"Well, that's that," Grissom said.
"We're going back?" Warrick asked.
"Might as well," Grissom agreed. It took them a little over an hour and a half to get back to their camp.
It was around six o'clock and Grissom whipped up a small super after they had all agreed to save the eggs until the following morning. They did a little more work on the shelter until it got dark.
It was a calm night, and no one felt the need to go to bed right at sunset. All six of them sat around the fire, just enjoying each other's company, something that they rarely done when they were at home. Nick even came up with a game to pass the time. He called it 'Movie Connections'. You said two movies and connected them by the actors in them.
"'The Day After Tomorrow' and 'Jaws'," Warrick said, looking expectantly at the others. Everyone was trying to form a connection, but it turned out the only one who figured it out was the only person who hadn't participated thus far. Grissom.
"Lorraine Gary who was in 'Jaws' was also in 'Jaws: The Revenge' with Michael Caine, who was in 'Batman Begins' with Gary Oldman, who was in 'Harry Potter' with David Thewlis, who was in 'Kingdom of Heaven' with Orlando Bloom, who was in…'Ned Kelly' with Heath Ledger, who was in 'Brokeback Mountain' with the son in 'The Day After Tomorrow'," he finished.
"You mean Jake Gyllenhall?" Sara asked. Grissom nodded.
"Nicely done, Gris," Warrick said, impressed.
"Thanks," he shrugged.
"I wasn't under the impression that 'Harry Potter' was in your viewing schedule," Greg said. Grissom shrugged.
"Catherine and Lindsey dragged me to it," he answered. Catherine shook her head.
"Yes, and you had such a terrible time," she said sarcastically.
"Kay, Gris, your turn," Nick said. Grissom looked deep in thought.
"Alright, since we were on the subject of 'Harry Potter', do that and…'Pearl Harbour'," he said finally. It was a lot harder coming up with movies that weren't already connected then to connect them. Catherine laughed.
"Okay. Ben Affleck was in 'Armageddon' with Liv Tyler, who starred in 'Lord of the Rings' with Orlando Bloom, and the rest, you have already connected, Gil," she said triumphantly. He groaned.
"Damn," he said.
"My turn…um…'Overboard' and 'A Walk to Remember'," she said.
"Chick flicks?" Greg complained.
"You got it pal," she said smiling. There was silence, except for the water waves. Finally Sara spoke up.
"Goldie Hawn was in 'The Banger Sisters' with Geoffrey Rush, right?" she asked. Catherine nodded.
"He was in 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with Orlando Bloom, who was in 'Lord of the Rings' with Elijah Wood. And he was in that movie with McCaulay Culkin…'The Good Son', I think it was called…anyways, I saw him in a movie with Mandy Moore, and she was in 'A Walk to Remember'" Sara finished.
"Yeah. You could have got there faster. Goldie Hawn was also in 'The Banger Sisters' with Susan Sarandon, who was in 'Step-mom' with Julia Roberts, who was in 'Erin Brockovich' with the father on 'A Walk to Remember'," Catherine said.
After a few more rounds, they decided to call it quits and cram into the raft once again.
"You know, I think this raft is starting to grow on me," Warrick sighed, causing laughter to flow through the silence of the night.
TBC
AN: me and my friends came up with Movie Connections in Physics class...it helped pass the time when we were supposed to be studying. And yes, I know Marg Helgenberger was in Erin Brockovich as well. lol...u know i was gonna make this a cliffhanger, but i decided that can wait for a later chapter...just to be nice.