DISCLAIMER:Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it.
RATING: T – Teen (language and adult issues)
PAIRINGS: GSR & Yo!Bling pre-established in previous fics of this timeline.
SPOILERS: Sequel to "Displacement" and "Transitions"
SUMMARY: Everything is changing around Nick Stokes. Can he deal with it, and how it will affect him in the end?
A/N: Hopefully I haven't lost everyone with that last chapter. I promise this one is not a geology lesson. LOL However, if you have problems with what some might consider an excessive use of language, you might not like this chapter, or my new OC in general (not that anyone likes her now).
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Chapter 9
08:45 – 2006.12.06
Lost Gringo Mtn. State Rec. Area: UNLV/EPA Desert Erosion Research Site
After what was probably the roughest four and a quarter miles of Nick's life, they finally arrived at the research field site. There was a solid, walled shelter that looked like it was sitting up on a series of milk crates. He imagined it had to be a sweat box for anyone working inside there. He also spotted various weighted tripods throughout the small canyon, on top of which, he assumed, were a series of still and video cameras. Nick noticed a few more of those instrument stations at different points throughout the canyon. All in all, it looked like a fairly high-tech research site.
"Surprised by all the gadgets, Mr. Stokes?" The professor called from the shelter as she reached up to remove the padlock, with a crutch dangling from her left arm.
"A little, I guess… Just seems like you'd be worried about leaving all this stuff lyin' around." He walked around the back of the short-bed and started removing the straps from the equipment as he spoke.
The professor laughed at his suggestion that the equipment would be stolen. "Well, first off, you saw how hard it is to get in here… Plus, the stuff is on twenty-four seven, so they'd be caught on video, since all this stuff transmits straight into the shack and then to a satellite uplink. And then…" She dropped the crutch back down and leaned against it as she pointed up at the structure off in the distance on the east face of the mountain bordering the canyon. Nick noticed that her right hand was covered in jagged scars as she pointed west, and then she said, "That Ranger Lookout Station is pretty visible to the site. Rangers are there quite a bit, plus that's where the radio relay station sits for this area."
Nick realized he had just caught her in a lie, "So, that whole bit about this place being out of reach was something of a stretch?"
Her half of a grin was pinched and she shook her head when she said, "Only when we're onsite… That four and a quarter mile stretch is completely blind. And if something's gonna happen, that's where it'll be."
"Fair enough… So, where do you want this thing?" Nick patted the piece of equipment on the back of the short-bed.
"Just leave it." The professor looked over her shoulder and called to Sandi. "Sandi! Why don't you take them to the site and show them the way up the ridge?"
"Gotcha! Lemme just finish with this thing." Sandi was busy pulling some brush out of the front end of the modified ATV.
"Leave it… I'll get it when I'm done." At the professor's word Sandi stopped and began to stride over to the short-bed with Sara following close behind.
"I left the grips on the fender," Sandi said as she reached the shelter. She stretched her hand up to grab the bar the professor had just unlocked and pulled it out, which caused the whole sidewall to drop to the ground with a horrendous metallic crash. Nick and Sara were both clutching their hearts and ears from the shock, but Sandi and the professor only had their heads turned with a finger in one ear.
Without missing a moment, the professor started up the ramp created by the fallen wall and called over her shoulder to Sandi again. "Just make sure you take the bunny slope up… I don't want any mishaps out here."
Nick grimaced when he saw Dr. Desmaiseaux looking directly at him when she spoke the last line and he had to turn away to hide his frustration. He watched as Sandi grabbed a pack off the back of the short bed and motioned for him and Sara to follow her to the ridge.
Nick trailed behind the other two women as they made their way through the small canyon. He had been shut down twice in the same day by the same woman, and for a guy who prided himself on his charm and chivalry, Nick Stokes was feeling beaten.
When they reached a cut in the slope of the canyon wall Sandi stopped them and asked, "Okay, make sure your shoes are on tight, your packs are balanced and anything you might need on the trek up is in your pockets and not the pack. This trail's not really a trail, so much as a string of footholds along a rock face." Sandi was checking her own boots and pack as she spoke and Sara followed her lead.
Nick took a moment to look up along the cut and then had to ask, "So, this is the bunny slope?"
Sandi laughed at his question and said, "Oh yeah… The only other way up is hanging from a rope and dodging falling rock from the person over you." Sandi moved over to check Sara's pack for balance and then added, "Don't mind, Doc… She's got a lot going on and so a sparkling personality isn't really high on her list of priorities."
Nick looked up from where he had leaned over to re-tie his boots and asked, "Sparkling?"
A broad smirk crossed Sandi's face before she responded, "Okay, so she's a raging bitch most of the time, but it does serve a purpose." The look in Sandi's eyes as she explained further made Nick nervous. "At least she doesn't throw things anymore… I'll take the occasional string of expletives over the sailing of another laptop into the rocks any day."
Sara was not able to contain her own laughter at Sandi's statement. "I sure hope you're kidding."
"Not hardly… I think you can still find pieces of it behind the shelter over there." Sandi continued her casual inspections by checking Nick's pack as he stood up and looked over toward the shelter where Dr. Desmaiseaux was pulling equipment off the short-bed. "Thank God David was able to salvage my hard drive."
"Wait… It was your laptop?" Sara was shocked with the revelation.
"Oh yeah… But in her defense, I was about to replace it because it had gotten so temperamental. And besides, after David spent a whole week working to save the data I had in that hard drive, I knew he was a keeper." Sandi winked at Sara when she added that part, causing the other woman chuckle.
Sandi looked satisfied that everyone was finally ready to make the trek up the canyon wall. She slapped her hands together and said, "Okay, enough mush… You guys ready to go?" She found a pair of anxious expressions and she smiled. "Okay then, one foot in front of the other, single file…" She pulled out a length of rope and tied hand holds in it, handing it to each of them as she walked to the front of the cut trail. "Hold on to this and use the rest of us to counter-balance if you lose your footing."
"Ah, where did you guys find the body?" Nick worried they were forgetting why they were out there.
"I'll stop when we get there… He was wedged into one of the crevices about half way up." Sandi spoke as she made her first steps into the cut.
Sara followed right behind her and Nick pulled up the rear. The footing was tricky and he found himself staring at the ground more than looking ahead, just to make sure he did not trip and take all three of them down with him. He could not imagine that thin as a rail Sara or the lanky Sandi had enough substance to hold him back from falling if it happened. He also did not need another incident for the professor hold against him.
He had been so busy watching his own feet that he failed to notice when the two women came to a stop and he was face to backpack with Sara. "Whoa there, cowboy."
Nick caught himself before he fell backwards and blushed immediately. "God! I'm sorry, Sar."
Sara just turned to him and smiled, which instantly put his fears to rest. Without saying another word to him, she turned her attention back to Sandi and asked, "Which way?"
"Over there on your left, about ten meters… You'll be able to see all the scuffs from the lift basket and all the footprints." Nick's face showed his disappointment and Sandi added, "Sorry, but they were already lifting him out by the time I got here. But, I did make sure Boone took some pictures before they got there. Should be on that disk you got from him."
Sara and Nick walked the ten meters to the body site, made a quick scan of the area, took some reference shots for their scene sketches, and basically came back to the trail with nothing more than they had arrived with that day. It was very disheartening for both of them and Sandi could see it in their expressions as they returned to the trail.
"So, I gotta re-set a seismometer up top on the ridge… You guys want to come up with me and look around?" Nick could tell Sandi was trying to give them anything she could and he had to admit he was curious if they would find anything.
He smiled at the young woman and said, "Yeah, that would be great… Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky." He was glad to have a chance to look around some more, but if Nick was completely honest with himself, he just did not want to go back down into the canyon, alone, with the professor.
They were on their way up the trail once more and Nick continued to focus on his steps, but also on the distance between himself and Sara, so he did not make the same mistake again. The time seemed to get away from him, because before he knew it, they had cleared the trail and were standing atop the ridge enjoying a quick drink of water.
Sandi immediately set to work on her seismometer adjustments as Nick surveyed the ridge and Sara applied some additional sunblock to her face and ears. Nick gave her a sideways grin as he watched her slather on more of the cream.
"Laugh all you want, but I don't tan, and I am not about to be sunburned at my own wedding." Sara continued her work as he laughed outright.
He moved to stand beside her and put a hand on her shoulder when he said, "Don't worry, Sara… I'm sure you'll have already peeled by then."
"Don't even joke about that, Stokes." The glare she shot him only made him laugh again, and he started walking along a groove in the ridge top.
"Joke about what?" Sandi had quickly rejoined them.
"Nothing…" The look Sara shot him told him all he needed to know. "Hey, Sandi… All kidding aside, what's going on out here that's got the Doc all worked up?"
Sandi blew out a sharp and exaggerated breath and then she said, "Where do we start?" It was obviously a rhetorical question, as she began to answer it herself. "Ah, we've got the Dean of Science trying to muscle in on her grant money, the annual progress reports for the federal service, Boone's masters being put on hold because of some bogus departmental political garbage, rehab from the last surgery, running a major research project as a second job, and oh yeah, a dead body in her research area. So, why would she be on edge?"
"Sounds like fun… What kind of surgery?" Nick noticed that Sara was staring at him with a surprised expression, but he had no idea why.
"Nothing major… Doc just has a bad habit of wearing out her spare parts. Woman's got more metal in her than my hybrid. And I wish I was exaggerating." Sandi laughed at her own joke and Sara tried to join her, but she was still giving Nick a look.
"Spare parts?"
"Huh?" Sandi was crouched down and digging through her pack as she answered him. "Oh yeah, Doc's pretty much held together through the grace of Dow Chemical, Alcoa Aluminum and God almighty. Of course, after getting bounced off a semi-truck, she's lucky to even be drawing breath."
"Bounced off a what?" Sara and Nick were both shocked at her offhand remark, but it was Sara who spoke up.
"Ah, Doc was in a pretty nasty motorcycle accident with a semi about ten years ago; before I knew her actually. End of my freshman year I was looking for an internship and my advisor had worked with her before the accident, so he recommended me for her project. Haven't left yet, and she's even my sponsor for my Ph.D. That accident did a number on her in a lot of ways though. I mean, she was always known for being confrontational, but afterwards it was like she lost all patience." Sandi started securing her pack again as she spoke. "I saw it in her field notes, but the best way to see it is the tapes."
Nick was transfixed with the story and felt compelled to know more. "What tapes?"
Sandi shrugged and said, "Research tapes… You deal with a bunch of college punks all the time and you have to spend some time editing out the antics from your research tapes. Before the accident, Doc and her fiancé were the biggest of the pranksters, but afterwards, Doc's sense of humor got really dark."
Sara took another drink and remarked, "I didn't know the Doc was married."
Nick watched as Sandi blanched with Sara's comment. "Ah… Um… The Doc's not married." Sara's gaze shot up to Sandi's and Nick watched as the woman practically whispered her next words. "He ah, he was…he didn't sur-…survive the accident." She shook her head sternly at the pair beside her and said, "And if you value your life, I'd forget all about him."
They both took the warning for the solemn truth and dropped the issue. Nick decided to look around the area again, hoping to get his mind off of the information he was just given. As he cast his gaze toward the trees off in the distance, something caught his attention.
"Ah, Sandi?"
She looked up from her water bottle. "What's up?"
"How much foot traffic does this ridge get?" He was walking slowly towards the item that caught his eye as he spoke, careful not to miss anything along the way.
"God… None really." She looked around the area and watched as Nick stalked off towards the trees. "It's been month's since I was up here, and I think Boone had to reset the weather station system a few weeks ago, but nothing else has been logged since the last time I was up here."
Nick was nearly to the item when Sandi spoke the last words. Bending down to examine the piece of torn material, he failed to realize that Sara was right behind him, until she handed him the camera over his shoulder. He looked back to find her digging for her forceps. "Thanks, Sara."
He clicked off a few shots after dropping the marker down and when he turned back, Sara was reaching for the camera and handing him the forceps, as well as a bindle. He reached out and grabbed the material, holding it up for both of them to see.
"Looks like ripstop material… Like a running suit maybe." Sara was dead on with that analysis.
"Yeah…" He sealed the bindle and started scanning the area further ahead.
Sara beat him to the next piece. "Over here!"
He walked the ten meters over to where she had wondered along a strange looking path on the ground. "More material?"
"No, looks like some plastic, but it's not melted or very degraded at all, so it couldn't have been out here long," she said as she snapped off her reference pictures before she tucked the camera back into the side of her pack and then went for the forceps. As she was digging, Nick walked up beside her and handed them back to her. "Oh, yeah." Her casual smile reminded him just how much he enjoyed working a scene with Sara. They might be competitive, but it had never really been a bad thing, even during that whole promotion nonsense.
Nick looked back down at the ground and tried to make out what it was they were following. "What do you think this is?"
"What?" Sara tried to see what he was referring to, but only found him looking at the ground. "You mean the ground?"
"Yeah, it looks like some kind of trail… See the disturbance in the rock patterns?" He was gesturing at the disheveled rocks and dirt when Sandi came silently up behind them.
"Probably the wash path of your body." Both CSIs nearly jumped out of their skins when she spoke. "Sorry, too much time in the desert." She tapped at the smooth and supple rock hound shoes she was wearing using her opposite foot. "I'm stealthy."
They both shook their heads at the joke, and the three of them began to follow the swath in the dirt to see if they came across anything else. As they were walking, a warm breeze began to waft down from the treeline. Sara and Nick continued their forward march towards the trees and closing the distance quickly, but Sandi stopped and started looking across the sky.
Nick suddenly found something glinting off in the trees and was about to mention it when Sara pointed in the same direction to show that she had seen it as well. Sandi, however, looked preoccupied as she scanned the distant horizon. As the two CSI's were about to inform her of their discovery, a signal flare exploded overhead.
"Crap!" Sandi turned to Nick and Sara with a terrified look on her face. "Whatever you have is all you're gonna get. Make a run for the edge… NOW!"
Sandi took off at a dead run, but Sara and Nick were standing there in confusion until Sara caught the fresh scent of ozone in her nostrils at about the same moment Nick did and they both took off in the direction Sandi had gone.
When they all got to the canyon's edge, Sandi made Nick take the lead and she took up the rear, telling them to stay low and be very careful with their footing. She then added that while speed was important, so was getting them all down there in one, unbruised and unbattered piece.
When they finally got down the slope, Nick was surprised to find out how quickly they made their descent. But then he looked back up at the top of the canyon to find some very angry clouds moving in quick.
His other two companions were calling after him from fifteen meters away to hurry it up and he wisely took their advice. Once they reached the ATVs and the shelter, he realized that all three ATV's had been packed up and were idling as they arrived.
"All right, saddle up and get the hell out of here… The barometer is dancing like a drunken Irishman, so we're in for a good one." The professor took the pack off of Sandi's back with her left hand and tossed it into the shelter.
Nick and Sara strapped on their helmets and tightened up their own packs as they prepared to jump on the ATVs. As they got ready to light out of there, they noticed Sandi and the professor arguing about something.
"You ladies think we can save that for when we get back to the trucks?" Nick thought he was being funny, but the look he got from Dr. Desmaiseaux told him she was not of the same opinion.
"Why don't you just worry about keeping up when you haul ass out of this canyon." Sandi shook her head at Dr. Desmaiseaux's comment and started putting her helmet on as she walked away from the professor.
Nick and Sara exchanged concerned looks as Sandi climbed up on the modified ATV alone and the professor started towards the equipment shelter. "Ah, what's going on?"
"You're getting the hell out of this canyon before the floodgates open up." Her face told him she was not kidding, but he was not able to comprehend what was really happening.
"And you-"
"Can take care of myself until the storm clears… Now get moving."
He simply could not help himself when he exclaimed, "No way!"
Sandi tried to explain, "Nick, it's really not-"
He immediately jumped off the short-bed ATV and ripped his helmet off, cutting her off with, "We all came out here and there's no way I leave anybody behind, so what's the problem?" Looking around at the ATV's he could see that they were carting out a lot more stuff than they came in with, but that was still no excuse in his mind for leaving someone to fight off the elements: certainly not someone in her position.
"That equipment needs to be packed out safely, and I can ride out the storm in the shelter so there's no need for you to get all n-"
"No way I'm leaving you here in that sweat box with a monster storm barreling in." Nick was not about to back down from his position.
Dr. Desmaiseaux's face began to fill with rage as she spoke, "Since when do you have any say in what happens on my fucking site?"
"This is my investigation, so I'm responsible for everyone here and I am not leaving anybody under these circumstances! Especially someone who can't fend for themselves."
The professor's expression sailed straight past rage and right into full blown fury. "Fuck you! I'm better off out here than you any day of the week! Now, get your ass on that ATV and get the hell out of here before you put everyone in danger, you moronic son of a bitch!"
"Cuss me out all you want… I am not leaving you out here." Nick took his back pack off and began to cram some of the things from the short-bed into it until he ran out of room and called for Sara to toss him her pack. She hopped down from her ATV, handed it to him and put his pack on her shoulders.
By the time he had cleared a large section from the short-bed he pulled the tarp off of the gear that it had been covering and laid it out in the back of the ATV to act as a cushion and then walked over to the professor.
He looked over at the professor and said, "Let's go."
"I am perfectly capable of staying out h-"
"Do you have what you need?" He saw she had a bag slung over her shoulder and decided that he was not going to wait for her to answer. "Well, you can come back for anything else."
"GO!" She plopped down onto the edge of the shelter ramp and made her intentions to stay well known.
"Fine… We do this the hard way." He handed Dr. Desmaiseaux her helmet and then leaned over and picked her up, gently putting her over his shoulder and striding over to the ATV with a string of colorful expletives trailing behind him.
"Get your fucking gorilla hands off me you goddamn bastard! I will not be manhandled by a retarded, piece of shit, fuckwitted asshat! Now put me the fuck down!"
Reaching the ATV, he complied with her last request as he carefully dropped her onto the tarp so that she was resting just behind his seat and her legs were sitting next to each other, but slightly hanging off to the side of the bed. He reached down and tucked her feet into the side of the bed and removed his jacket to act as another cushion. She continued to insult his parentage, intelligence and manhood as he secured her to the ATV.
Once he was satisfied that she would not get loose with the straps and cords he had fashioned he jumped back onto the ATV and then turned to her and said, "If you turn to the left a little you can hold on to my worthless piece of horseflesh to keep from bouncing around too much." His last remarks were heard quite clearly by the other two people present, since it had gone out over the radio. They both had to suppress their laughter as they watched the professor putting her own helmet on just as they all peeled out of the site.