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Chapter 6
While Greg called Sara on his cell phone, Nikki took Sandy inside for a reward. Morgan quickly checked the gate which allowed access to Nikki's backyard. It had clearly been forced open, but since it didn't look like the strongest gate, whoever did it probably didn't even need a lot of force to break it open.
Not long after Greg had called, Sara arrived at Nikki's house. She was greeted by an extremely enthusiastic Sandy, who clearly loved having so many visitors over. After Sara had petted the dog with a big smile on her face, she walked into the backyard and greeted Greg and Morgan.
"Thank you so much, I didn't know who else to call!" Greg said with a sigh of relief. Sara nodded. "No problem. I'll bag everything for you and then you can follow me back to CSI."
"And I…" Morgan started, but Sara cut her off: "You were never here. Greg's gonna call you from the lab and then you can come over."
"How?" Morgan asked. "My car is back at my apartment."
"You can take mine," Nikki immediately said. Morgan looked at her. "You sure?"
"Yeah, no probs!" Nikki nodded. "As long as you don't forget what you promised: new plants and a cat alarm…"
Morgan grinned at her. "Deal!"
Like Sara had suggested, Greg followed her back to CSI in his own car. When Morgan arrived at the LVPD headquarters in Nikki's car after he had called her, he was already processing the evidence they had found. He told her what he had done so far: "I've taken DNA samples off of the clothes, they still need to be taken to Henry for processing. I also found a long brown hair on the sweater which I think could be Nikki's, so I need to call her and ask her to come over to give us a DNA sample. Right now, I'm checking to see if there's any fingerprints on the bills. So far, I've already found two partials."
He looked up from the bills at Morgan. "You know what I don't get? The guy works as a CSI in LA, or SID, whatever you call it there. Why did he not wear gloves or anything to hide his prints? They were on the camera, on the bills…"
"I have no idea," Morgan said, shaking her head. She sighed deeply. "What do we do now? When we confront him, he's definitely gonna bring up the fact that we're dating!"
"We'll worry about that later, okay?" Greg said. "Why don't you call Nikki and then get this over to Henry while I check the rest of these bills for prints?"
Morgan nodded. "Okay, I'll call her and then I'll come back to help you with the prints. Henry won't need that long to check for a DNA match, he can check after we've collected Nikki's DNA."
Nikki arrived at CSI nearly an hour later in a taxi. Morgan explained to her what she was going to do, like she always did when she had to take a DNA sample, but Nikki of course already knew that.
"Greg told me about the first time he had to take a DNA sample," she grinned. "Ask him about it when you get the chance, it's quite funny!"
"I will," Morgan promised with a smile. She safely put away the swab she had just used and looked at Nikki. "Would you like me to show you around while I bring this over to DNA?"
"Sure," Nikki nodded. She followed Morgan to the DNA lab, where Henry was working on the samples Greg had collected from the black clothes. When he saw Nikki, he looked up however.
"Hi," he said with a smile. "I didn't know we had any visitors today…"
"Henry, this is Nikki, she's a friend of Greg's and unfortunately a victim in our robbery case," Morgan told him. Henry immediately looked at Nikki with a worried face. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she smiled. Morgan noticed it wasn't one of her usual smiles, but slightly more flirty. She hid a smile on her own face when Nikki took a small step towards Henry. "But it helps to talk about it…"
"You know what, I'll go and see if Greg needs help," Morgan decided. She quickly left the DNA lab before grinning out loud. Greg, who was on his way to Ballistics with the gun they had found, wanted to know why.
"You'll know when you see Nikki and Henry!" Morgan grinned.
"Nikki and Henry?" Greg said, a surprised tone in his voice. "No way!"
Still laughing, they entered the Ballistics lab. Xiomara quickly checked the gun for them and found nothing that surprised them: "Gun is registered to Tim Johnson, the bullet I fired from the gun, is a match to the one you found at the crime scene."
After thanking her, they returned to the DNA lab, where Henry was still talking to Nikki. Greg looked at him. "Do you have anything for us or have you just been trying to get my best friend to go out with you?"
Protectively, he put his arm around Nikki. Henry's face seemed to turn a little whiter. Nikki shook her head and pushed Greg's arm away. "Don't listen to him, Henry, he's just teasing you! But since the subject came up… Sure, I'll go out with you some time! Want me to wait outside while you talk to Greg and Morgan? I won't leave, I promise, at least not until I have your phone number…"
She gave Henry another flirty smile before leaving the DNA lab. Morgan hid another smile on her face, this time because of Henry's red face.
"Henry, results?" Greg asked him, deciding not to comment on Nikki's words.
"Oh, yeah, right!" Henry quickly checked his computer. "The DNA you collected from the clothes is a match to Tim Johnson. The hair you found, is a match to Nikki."
Greg thanked him before he left the DNA lab with Morgan. She looked at him and sighed. "I guess there's no way back now… We need to confront him with what we found… and risk having to tell everyone about our relationship…"
Greg sighed as well. "You're right… Do you think you're ready for it?"
"I don't think I'll ever be ready," she responded. She sighed another time. "Let's just get it over with then… Why don't you tell detective Jenkins what we found while I get the photo album? I'm not sure if I'm ready for that either, but I don't think I have much of a choice anymore…"
She started to walk off, but Greg stopped her by grabbing her arm and forcing her to look at her.
"Someone recently told me that everything's going to be alright," he reminded her. "It is going to be alright, trust me!"
She gave him a little smile. "Thanks…"
Without thinking, she hugged him. When she pulled back, she saw that Hodges had seen their hug. With a look of hurt in his eyes, he walked off.
"Great!" Morgan muttered. "Even more to deal with!"
"Later, okay?" Greg said. "Go and get the photo album, I'll talk to detective Jenkins!"
After informing detective Jenkins about what they had found, Greg and Morgan waited for Tim to be brought to interrogation again. Morgan held the photo album they had collected from his hotel room tightly. Whatever happened, whatever he'd say, she needed to confront him with it, whether or not she felt ready to do it.
Detective Jenkins brought Tim into the interrogation room and sat down opposite of him. He looked at Greg, who had said he wanted to do the talking.
"Tim, we found the clothes you wore during the robbery and your gun," he started. "DNA is a match to you, the gun is registered to you and the bullet we fired from that gun and the one we found at the crime scene are a match. Plus, we found your fingerprints on the bills that were buried in the same backyard you buried the clothes and gun in. We also have you on video surveillance in the casino, dressed in black, hiding your gun in your sleeve, right before the robbery took place. We also know when you left your hotel room on the day of the robbery from your hotel key card. Further, we have your fingerprints on the security camera in the hotel store, but you already knew that of course."
"I explained that!" Tim tried to defend himself.
"With a lie," Greg immediately responded. "You robbed that hotel store, scared a young girl half to death and then hid the evidence in her backyard!"
Tim looked at him with his eyebrows frowned. "Her backyard? I didn't hide anything in her backyard!"
Greg showed him the photos Sara had taken in Nikki's backyard. "Yes, you did. This is where we found the clothes, the gun and the money. It's Nikki's backyard, the girl who was working at the store during the robbery."
"That's not mine, I hid everything in your backyard!" Tim called out. Morgan saw detective Jenkins frown his eyebrows. Greg, who had seen it too but decided to ignore it, shook his head at Tim. "You made a mistake, you miscounted. I live next door to Nikki. You hid the evidence in the wrong backyard!"
Tim looked from the photos back to Greg with his mouth open in amazement. Morgan stepped forward and looked at Tim. "Why did you do it? This isn't something the Tim I used to know would do… But then again I never thought you'd do this!"
She threw the photo album onto the table, feeling a rush of anger going through her body.
"You've been following me for years!" she shouted out. "You've been taking pictures of me everywhere, even here in Vegas! How could you do that?"
Tim stared at the photo album, then looked back at her.
"Because I love you!" he confessed. "I love you, Morgan, I've loved you for years and years! But you never wanted to go out with me… Why not? I'm the right guy for you, don't you see that? I'm the one who should be with you, not him over there!"
He pointed at Greg. Morgan saw detective Jenkins frown for the second time. Quickly, she said: "That doesn't justify what you did! Following me, taking those pictures of me… And robbing a hotel store! What were you thinking? If you'd get caught, you could spend time in jail here in Vegas, nice and close to me?"
"I didn't expect you to find out I did it, okay?" Tim shouted back at her. "I figured if he would find the evidence in his backyard he would either turn it in and get in trouble for having evidence in his backyard or try to get rid of it. He'd hide it from you, you'd get angry and dump him, so I would have you back. That's what I wanted, okay?"
"Did you really expect us not to find any evidence?" Morgan said, shaking her head in surprise. "You've been working at SID for years!"
"I know!" Tim snapped at her. "I just didn't think this through, alright? I saw the two of you together and then…"
He felt the anger build up inside of him when he saw her kissing the other guy. How could she do this to him? She was laughing with him, she had her arms wrapped around him, she even ran her hand through his hair! Didn't she know she was supposed to be with him? When she kissed the other guy again, he turned around. He just couldn't watch it any longer. From his cell phone he called a taxi and went back to his hotel. During the ride, he felt the anger inside of him growing. Morgan belonged to him, not to any other guy! He had to get rid of him, but how?
"Are you gonna stay here all night or what?" the taxi driver asked him. Without realizing it, they had arrived at the Paradise Hotel. Annoyed, Tim threw some bills at him before getting out. He rushed past the hotel store to the elevators, rode it to the sixth floor and threw the door of his room shut. Still angry, he kicked his suitcase down from the chair it had been laying on. When he did, his gun fell out. His gun… He grabbed it, went back downstairs and looked at the security camera just outside of the hotel store. If it was broken, no one would see him robbing the store. No one would know where the evidence was… until it showed up in that other guy's backyard. Smiling, he looked around to make sure there were no witnesses. Only a few more hours and then Morgan wouldn't have her horrible boyfriend anymore. Then she could finally be with him, because he was the only one in the whole word who really loved her.
Morgan turned to detective Jenkins, an ice cold look on her face. "He's all yours, Sir, we're done."
She left the interrogation room with the photo album and walked straight over to her office. Greg followed her, expecting her to start shouting about how he dared to say he loved her. Instead, she looked at him with sad eyes. "I could really use a hug about now…"
"But… we're at work… And… Hodges already saw us…" Greg reminded her. She shrugged her shoulders. "After what Tim said, it doesn't matter anyway. Just hug me!"
He did as she asked. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight until she smiled at him. "Thanks, I really needed that! So, I guess we best get started on our report, right?"
"Don't you think…" he started, but she shook her head. "Let's write our report first of all. The rest can wait."
He nodded, understanding she wanted to put off talking to Russell. "Sure, let's get to work."
Before an hour had passed, Russell found them and ordered them to come over to his office.
"Would you like to tell me what happened?" he asked, sounding everything but friendly. Greg and Morgan quickly looked at each other before they started telling him about the case. Morgan even went back to her office to show him the photo album, including the picture taken outside of Greg's house.
"So, he robbed the store to try and frame Greg, because he had gotten the wrong idea when he saw you two together when you were just discussing something about work outside the office," Russell summarized their story. Surprised, Greg and Morgan looked at each other again. What had he just said?
"Because that's what I can tell the sheriff if she starts asking questions," Russell continued. "Unless of course you two have a different version…"
After looking at each other another time, Morgan said: "No… we don't… Thank you…"
Russell nodded. "Alright, off the record now. I have no problem with you two dating while working together, as long as you keep work and your private life separated. How long has this been going on?"
"Nearly five weeks," Greg confessed reluctantly. Russell nodded again. "I figured, because that's about the same time you guys started working all your cases together. Since I found nothing weird or unusual about your reports or the evidence you processed, I can't say anything bad about you two working together. Make sure I won't have to do so in future!"
"You won't, we promise!" Greg quickly said.
"Around here, we'll be strictly professional!" Morgan promised. She crossed her fingers behind her back, because she knew they would always try to steal a kiss or hug from each other whenever they had the chance.
"One more thing," Russell said, seeing they were trying to leave. "It's your choice whether or not you tell the rest of the team, who will then of course keep everything you say between us, but I do suggest you pay a visit to the under-sheriff."
Morgan sighed. "My Dad…"
She and Greg left Russell's office and slowly started walking down the hallway.
"Alright, let's just do this," Morgan suddenly decided. She grabbed Greg's hand and pulled him along to her father's office. Without knocking, she walked in, looked around if there was no one else there besides her father and blurted out: "Dad, me and Greg have been dating, Russell is fine with us working together and yeah, that means I did lie about that hug you saw. I'm not a little girl anymore, so you can't tell me who I can and cannot date and workwise I guarantee you that our relationship won't get in the way of us doing our jobs."
She stopped to catch her breath and wait for her father's reaction.
"Okay," he just said slowly. "That is quite a story…"
"Just… don't make a big deal about this, okay?" Morgan begged him. "Like I said, Russell's okay with it and…"
Ecklie held up his hand to interrupt her. Unsure, she looked at Greg.
"You're right," her father said. "You're not a little girl, I can't tell you who and who not to date. As under-sheriff I can say I expect to see nothing of all this around here. That means that hug in the interrogation room…"
"Was wrong, I know," Morgan finished his sentence for him. "We're sorry, we both are."
Greg quickly nodded to show Ecklie he agreed with Morgan.
"Alright," Ecklie said. "Thanks for coming to see me. I'll talk to Russell so we can work this all out. Can I just say one last thing? As your father?"
"Sure," Morgan nodded. Ecklie smiled. "For the record, Greg is in the category of men I would allow my little girl to date. I know he'll treat you with respect, won't you, Sanders?"
"Oh, yes, of course, Sir!" Greg quickly said. Ecklie smiled at him. "Good. That's all. You can go now, I'm sure you two can think of a better place to be than at work!"
"Thanks, Dad!" Morgan smiled. She left her father's office together with Greg and looked at him. "Wanna go home? Those reports… and talking to Hodges can wait till tomorrow."
"Definitely!" Greg smiled.
"Why don't you go ahead? I have to do something real quick before we go," she said. Greg nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'll wait for you outside, okay?"
"Thanks!" Morgan smiled before she walked away, back to her office.
About an hour and a half later, they were back at Greg's apartment and getting ready for bed. Morgan leaned towards Greg as he put his watch and cell phone on the nightstand. "I have something for you…"
She handed him the picture of herself in bikini Tim had taken back in LA. "I know that technically it's tampering with evidence, but I figured no one would miss one picture…"
With a smile, Greg looked at her. "Thanks! But, to be honest, I prefer to look at you in real life!"
He put his arms around her and kissed her. Lovingly, she ran her hand through his hair. "You can look at me whenever you like! I love you, Greg…"
Surprised, he looked back at her. "You never said that before!"
She smiled and kissed him. "I know. I wanted to tell you for a while now, but I just never found the right moment. I'm not sure if this is, but I knew I just had to tell you."
He smiled back, kissed her and whispered: "I love you too… No matter how many annoying, stalking ex-colleagues you have, I will always love you!"
After kissing him again, she softly asked: "Wanna tell everybody at work about us or do you want to continue keeping it a secret?"
"Will you make Hodges promise not to get us in trouble?" Greg wanted to know. She nodded with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll talk to him! Hey, maybe I can get that new girl at reception to ask him out! That'll take his mind off of me!"
"Do you think she'll want to go out with him?" Greg hesitated. Morgan nodded with a determined look in her eyes. "Oh, she'll go out with him, trust me!"
Greg laughed at the look in her eyes.
"Alright, then we'll tell everyone tomorrow," he decided. "But right now, I want to forget all about work, about colleagues, ex or not, and just be with you and enjoy the fact that you just told me you love me for the first time!"
"Want me to say it again?" she whispered, pulling him closer. "Because I will, if you want me to… I love you, Greg. I love you, I lo…"
He cut her off by kissing her, which she immediately responded to. Words were just one thing, but a kiss with love and passion was something completely different. And they both knew they would share plenty of those before morning would break.