Author's notes: And now, I present you with the next installment of Chances. This chapter would have a little of Nick Stokes in the story. But we would not really see him much after this chapter, this is more of an interlude for the rest of the story. Also show cases Morgan's jealousy. Cookie to the one who guesses who is jealous of Nick's closeness to Spencer.
The CSIs and the BAU split into groups to check out the twelve different sites. Grissom was with Hotch and Greg, Gideon was with Catherine and Jim, Morgan was with Warrick and Sara, the last group was Nick, Spencer, Elle and Sofia. JJ stayed behind to look through articles for clues and to run interference with the media.
Each group was to check out four locations and meet up a few hours later. Nick, Spencer, Elle and Sofia had been allotted the sites that were close to the same main drags.
"What do you think?" Nick asked when he and Spencer were looking through the tall shrubs beside the road.
"This is a very public area, and from what I can see, it would have been an area with a lot of witness. But if the UNSUB were to dump the bodies via another route, rather then the most obvious one, I can see how she would have gotten away with it," Spencer answered. Indeed, the shrubs were so tall they acted like a wall, even Spencer, who was far from short, could not see above most of the shrubs.
"That could mean she approached from the desert area instead of the freeway. The rest of the sites on our route could also be accessed in this manner. That would mean that she has an extensive knowledge of the desert, or she explored this area for some time to learn how to navigate the back roads." Nick walked around the dump site, checking for anything the CSIs might have missed on the first walk-through.
The rest of the time was spent in similar activities, but nothing new was found. Nick and Spencer got along well, having realized that they shared many similar quirks. At around seven, they drove back to the crime lab. They met up with the rest of the teams and congregated in the meeting room. JJ had dinner waiting for them when they entered the meeting room. Spencer and Nick tucked themselves into a little corner of the room and ate, the two of them talked animatedly about birds and their migration patterns and anything else that related to ornithology.
They were so involved in their discussion that neither of them realized the interest the rest of the occupants in the room had taken in the both of them. The CSI team had not seen Nick that relaxed and animated in the presence of another person since his incident with Walter Gordon. And after Kelly Gordon ODed in front of him, he became even more withdrawn. The CSIs had mixed feelings, being both happy that Nick seemed to be coming out of his shell again, but at the same time a little upset that Nick's coworkers and close friends had not been the ones to elicit the smile. And one in particular had to stifle the ranging jealousy within, having to repeatedly tell himself that it was his own fault that his friend had been pushed away.
As for Spencer, none of his colleagues had ever seen him smile so much to a stranger before, it had taken almost a year before he had become more open with them and another year before he smiled as much, but now he had a grin plastered on his face and was very animated as he rattled off a series of statistics to his avid listener. Most had very mixed feelings, but one in particular ground his jaw in jealousy, he had to sit on his hands to stop himself from tearing the two apart. Gideon and Grissom just smiled their little mysterious smiles, they had known that this might happen and had paired them together on purpose, knowing that at the moment the two most fragile persons on their team needed outside support.
As the next shift of lab technicians filed in for work, they passed the meeting room. This prompted Grissom to move.
"Alright, everyone gather around. The graveyard shift is starting and I want to finish with our meeting so that we can get things moving." The meeting went on for a few more hours while all off them pored over notes and evidence, testing all the evidence and going through all their information to make sure that everything was in place.
Finally, Grissom sent everyone home as there were no pressing new cases that night and all the CSIs had been on double shift. The two teams were to meet again in the afternoon. The drive to the hotel with the six FBI agents was completed in silence, as all of them were nodding off. After checking in, all of them went to bed immediately, Gideon and Hotch sharing one room, Elle and JJ sharing another room and Morgan and Spencer sharing the last.