A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to post. There were two factors in play – first, I've gone through several versions trying to make it right. I think I'm finally pleased with the way it turned out. Second, like any good Harry Potter fan, I spent the last few weeks devoting most of my free time to rereading the first six books of the series in preparation for getting the seventh. Now that I'm finally coming back to my senses after reading that book at breakneck speed, it's definitely time to get this story back in motion!
I hope you like this chapter. Thanks so much for your patience with me, and for reading and reviewing.
I don't own CSI. Situational inspiration and some lines of dialogue have been taken from episode 106, "Who Are You?"
"Are you in the mood for something interesting?" Brass asked, walking into Grissom's office.
"That depends on your definition of 'interesting,'" Grissom replied. "What do you have?"
"A plumber found what appear to be human bones protruding from the foundation of a house," Brass said.
"Okay," Grissom said, leaning forward in his desk chair, "that certainly qualifies as 'interesting.'"
"I knew you'd like it," Brass grinned. "I'm leaving for the scene now. Do you want to come with?"
"I need to find one of my guys to come with me," Grissom said. "I'll meet you there."
"All right," Brass agreed. He grabbed an assignment slip and wrote the details on it. "See you there."
As Brass walked out of his office, Grissom considered his options. Sara and Catherine were in the process of wrapping a case, but he didn't want to interrupt them. Warrick had the night off. He smiled, wondering how Nick would feel about tearing a house apart from the foundation.
"You want me to what?" Nick exclaimed.
"We need all the bricks in this section to come off," Grissom replied. "If you can get started on that, I'll go under the house and make sure we're dealing with a human skeleton."
"Shouldn't we wait until we know it's human before we take the bricks off?"
"Even if it's an animal, the owner will want it gone," Grissom replied. He grinned, and handed Nick a hammer. "Get to work."
"Thanks," Nick said sarcastically.
"Once you have the bricks off, we'll open the foundation," Grissom said. "That way, we can get the bones out."
"Right," Nick said. As difficult as his end of the task was, he had to admit that this was rather exciting. He grinned to think of how jealous Sara would be when she found out how he had spent his evening.
After removing the bricks, leaving the concrete foundation visible, Nick retrieved his kit from the car. He carried it back to the house, which Grissom had crawled under to determine what exactly the plumber had found. Connected by headsets, the two men remained in constant contact.
"Okay, I'm ready up here," Nick said, kneeling down next to the exposed section of foundation.
"Hang on a minute," Grissom replied. He crawled beneath the house, trying to hurry under the pipes to reach his destination. Finally finding the bones, he laid down next to them on his stomach and shone his flashlight on them. "Okay, I'm there."
"Can you confirm it's human?" Nick asked.
Grissom pressed one of the protruding bones down with his finger and watched it bounce back. "Metacarpal … phalanges … no question about it," he said with a hint of a smile.
Breaking the skeleton out of the foundation was a delicate job. It took the entire shift just to free the bones from their concrete grave. By the end of their mission, both Grissom and Nick were dusty, sweaty and exhausted. Grissom rode back to the lab with the body, while Nick drove the SUV they had brought to the scene. They met up again at the morgue, where Grissom had taken the skeleton.
"You've really done a great job tonight, Nicky," Grissom said.
"Thanks," Nick smiled.
"We'll play more with this tomorrow," he promised.
"Tomorrow?" Nick asked. "Aren't we going to get to work?"
"These bones have been waiting for us for years, I'd say," Grissom said. "Another few hours won't make a difference. They'll still be here tomorrow."
"You're sure?" Nick asked hesitantly. Grissom generally had no problem pulling double and triple shifts to get to the bottom of a mystery.
"I'm sure," Grissom replied. He smiled. "This was a cold case until today, Nick. We can wait a bit before warming it up again. We're both exhausted, and I know we're not going to work at our best level right now. Go home and get some rest."
"Right," Nick agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Grissom nodded. "Drive safely."
"You, too."
The next day brought the entire team to work ready to take on new cases. Sara and Catherine had closed their previous case, and Warrick was back from his day off. Knowing that Nick was already working with him on the skeleton, Grissom walked into the lab ready to assign the others new cases.
His heart sank when he saw what awaited him. These were two cases that he would rather avoid.
The first was an officer involved shooting. Grissom's immediate thought was to take it himself. Cases where the police had potentially shot the victims were very tricky, and required a delicate, diplomatic touch. He had handled several before, and knew that he could do it again.
But, this was one case that needed his undivided attention – something that it would not receive, considering a skeleton was waiting for him in the morgue. Of the others on his team, only Sara had handled an OIS before, that one during her time in San Francisco. He had no reservations about giving her this one, but he did not want her to tackle it alone. His impulse was to assign Warrick to work with her. He needed the lessons in patience and prudence that the case would teach.
That left him with his second new case: a rape. He normally wouldn't think twice of assigning it to Catherine. She had worked plenty of rape cases, and had an amazing ability to deal with the victims. The problem was that this victim had accused her ex-husband of rape.
Dropping his head into his hands, Grissom looked at the note written on the paper in front of him.
Accused, Eddie Willows, requests CSI Catherine Willows
"Well, that sounds like a good plan," Grissom muttered.
Deciding to wait to see who had the free time to take the case, he left to meet his team.
They had already gathered in one of the conference rooms when he rushed through the door.
"Okay, I'm late again," he apologized as he walked in.
The complete lack of reaction showed how well his team knew him. Catherine pulled out a pen and notebook to write down case assignments.
"Nick's going to work with me on that unidentified body at Summer Cliff," Grissom said.
"I hear it's just bones," Sara said in awe. "What a rush."
"OIS at the jockey club," Grissom replied, offering her an assignment slip.
"Officer involved shooting," Sara said as she took the paper from her supervisor.
"I'll take a piece of that," Warrick volunteered.
Grissom smiled slightly. Warrick was making his job very easy. "Good, I want you to double up," he said. "Listen, these deals are never easy, so keep me informed, please."
"Will do," Warrick replied.
"I drive," Sara said as they walked out of the conference room.
"Picture that," Warrick said sarcastically, letting the door fall closed behind them.
"So, what do you have for me?" Catherine asked. "I could use a rush."
"Well, this qualifies," Grissom said, sitting down with her. "426 … but, I can't give you the case."
"Because?" Catherine asked.
"Conflict of interest," Grissom said. He decided to beat around the bush. "The alleged rape victim is an exotic dancer."
Catherine sat up straighter, turning to look at him fully. "Because I used to be one, I'll be biased?" she asked, obviously insulted.
"No," Grissom replied. "The suspect's your ex-husband."
Catherine stared at him. Grissom looked right back, until she finally stood up.
"He's asking for you, but you can't take it," he said.
"Just … let me do the prelim."
They looked into each other's eyes for ages. Catherine was silently pleading with him; Grissom felt his firm resolve begin to crack.
"All right," he finally agreed. "Do what you can. But, after the preliminary, you pass it off, okay?"
Catherine didn't reply; she walked out of the room. Grissom watched her go, feeling some misgivings. He hated when Catherine didn't answer him. It generally meant she was about to do the exact opposite of what he had asked.
Nick was already in the morgue when Grissom got there. They worked together to determine that their victim was a female who had died when she was around twenty, and that she had been stabbed to death with an unknown weapon.
"Well," Grissom said at last, "we just need to identify her."
"How on earth are we going to do that?" Nick asked. "No fingerprints … no DNA …"
"We need to get her face out there," Grissom said. "Maybe a hotline …"
"Griss …" Nick said slowly. "What face? She doesn't have one."
"She did, though," Grissom replied. "We'll get a forensic artist in here. We'll have a model of her face made. It won't be perfect, but we should be able to get something close enough that someone will be able to identify her."
Nick nodded. "Do you want me to make some calls?"
"If you don't mind," Grissom said. "I'll get you a list of names." He thought for a minute. "The first one I want you to call is Teri Miller."
"Who's she?"
"The top forensic artist in the United States," Grissom replied. "If she can't help us, no one can."
"Don't you think you went a little easy on Brass?" Warrick asked as he and Sara processed the dead body in the car.
Sara lowered her camera and looked up at him in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"He doesn't want us to investigate this, Sara! He wants us to say that Tyner's story is true without looking any further!"
"Of course, he does," she said. "Warrick, Tyner is one of his guys. If it were one of us accused of shooting a suspect, I'd imagine that Grissom would do the same."
Warrick shook his head. "Grissom would investigate. He'd look for the truth."
"But, he'd be biased in our favor," Sara said evenly. "We have to be careful about this, Warrick. We work with the cops, not against them. If it looks like we're going out of our way to prove that Officer Tyner shot this man, we're going to be in a world of hurt."
"But –"
"If he's dirty, I'm with you one hundred percent," Sara interrupted. "But, let's just make sure that he is a dirty cop before we get too far in."
Warrick raised an eyebrow. "Don't get ahead of the evidence, huh?"
"Right."
He shook his head. "There's no need to channel Grissom, girl."
"Maybe there is," Sara said quietly.
"Griss! Wait up!"
Grissom paused on his journey down the hallway, turning to see Nick behind him. "Come and see this," he said. "I found a way to get our face."
Nick followed him into the garage, stopping in shock at what he saw. "You brought the foundation of the house to our lab?"
"It's a six by three foot section," Grissom said defensively, almost as though unable to believe Nick's disbelief.
After explaining that the dried concrete had preserved an impression of the mystery woman's face, Grissom asked Nick about the house. Nick relayed all the information he had gathered: that the house had been built five years ago, and that the owners had bought it after its construction, which effectively eliminated them as suspects.
"But, there's something else," Nick said, excitement evident in his voice.
"What?" Grissom asked, looking up from the foundation.
"I talked to Teri Miller, and she's agreed to come. She'll be here tomorrow."
Grissom's eyes widened. "Well done, Nicky," he said. He looked back at the foundation. "Our skeleton won't be a 'Jane Doe' much longer."
"I've done some investigating."
"Way to do your job, Sara," Warrick said sarcastically.
"Look, I know that I've been a little less willing to believe that Tyner shot that guy than you'd like, but you made some good points," Sara said. "Why would a suspect lead a cop on a high-speed chase just to shoot himself? Why was Officer Tyner's gun missing a bullet?"
"Why am I stuck in yesterday's conversation?" Warrick asked.
"Why does Tyner have five civilian complaints against him?" Sara shot back.
Warrick's eyes grew round. "Five?" he repeated in shock.
"Yup," Sara said. "Three were for excessive force. He's also been through two IA investigations."
"Wow … you really did go and investigate this."
"It's like I said – if the guy's dirty, he's going down. But, we have to be smart about this, Warrick. We can't go and pick a fight with the cops. We need hard evidence behind us."
"Well, we're missing the hardest piece of all."
"Yeah," Sara sighed. "Doc Robbins didn't find the bullet in the body?"
"Nope."
"Shit," Sara muttered. "Well, we do have enough to question Tyner at this point."
"Does that count as picking a fight?" Warrick asked with a wry smile.
"Shut up," Sara said, smiling back at him. "Let's go call him in for questioning."
Grissom had seen plenty of pictures of Teri Miller in forensic journals, and knew her to be pretty. Even so, he was not prepared for the beautiful woman who walked into his office and complimented the tarantula that was crawling across his hands. Long blond hair, deep blue eyes, red lips, porcelain skin … she was like a princess described in a fairytale. And, her obvious pleasure in letting his spider walk across her own hands didn't hurt.
He was smitten.
Grissom didn't leave Teri's side as she worked to create a face for their Jane Doe. Even if it had not been his case, he would have wanted to be there. He was completely enthralled by two things: learning about the complicated process, and spending time with the beautiful woman who was so willing to teach him.
"Give me your hands," she said, guiding him through the process of creating a clay mold of the partial impression of her face preserved in the concrete.
"Beautiful," he murmured as she put her hands over his to show him how to move the clay.
"She will be," she replied.
"I meant …"
"What?"
"Never mind," he said, flushing slightly. "It was nothing."
She smiled, and looked away.
"Have you been a forensic artist for long?" he asked.
"Nearly ten years," she replied.
"I'm surprised we haven't met before," Grissom comment. "I'm sure we go to plenty of the same seminars."
"Probably," she said rather off-handedly. "I'm usually presenting at seminars, though. I don't get to attend many as a guest."
"I'll have to try to sit in on one of your lectures."
She smiled. "I hope you do. I'm sure you'll find it fascinating."
"I already do," he said softly.
She smiled again. "Let me show you how to make a plaster mold from this partial," she said. "We need to give this woman a whole face."
"I'd like that very much."
It took them most of the day to create the model face for the woman who had met with such a tragic demise. Grissom was pleased that they finished in time for him to get the picture to the networks to broadcast on the evening news. He wanted this woman identified as soon as possible.
Grissom had just come back from meeting with the mother of Faye Green, his newly identified victim, when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open.
"Grissom."
"Hi, Grissom, it's Sara."
"Sara," he said, "what can I do for you?"
"I have some news," she said.
"Okay …"
"Warrick and I are about to launch into full warfare with the PD."
Grissom sat down, thankful that he was in the privacy of his office. "You think the cop shot the victim?"
"It's starting to look that way."
"What is your evidence?"
"Tyner – the cop – has one bullet missing from his gun and five civilian complaints in his jacket, and we have an eyewitness who says he saw him shot the suspect."
"The suspect?"
"The victim was a suspect in another crime."
"Right," Grissom said slowly. "Not to ask the obvious here, but did you match the bullet to the cop's gun?"
"We … um … we haven't found the bullet."
Grissom closed his eyes. "You do need that piece of evidence, Sara."
"I know, I know. But, Griss, it's really starting to mount up against this guy, and you told us to keep you informed …"
"I know," he said. "Thanks for letting me know. Please come and see me when you get back to the lab."
"Right."
"Bye."
Sara closed her phone and turned to Warrick, who was driving. "Grissom wants to see us when we get back."
Warrick nodded. "How did he take the news?"
"He seems a bit incredulous. He said we need to find the bullet."
"Believe me, I wish we had it," Warrick said. "We need to nail this guy."
"Well, it's not in the body or at the crime scene," Sara said.
"Right," Warrick sighed. He glanced at her. "I want to thank you."
"To thank me?" she asked. "Why?"
"For going with me on this one. I think a lot of people would be really reluctant to fight the cops like this. I'm just … I'm glad you're on my side."
"I'm on the truth's side, Warrick," she replied. "Right now, the truth seems to think that Tyner's dirty – and, we're not letting a dirty cop stay on the streets."
"Hey, can you go talk to Griss alone?" Warrick asked as they walked back into the lab. "I really, really need a break."
Sara grinned. "Sure. Go find Nick and play some videogames."
Warrick laughed. "I meant that I have to go to the bathroom, genius."
Sara laughed with him. "Whatever. I'll go chat it up with Grissom."
She walked down the hall to his office and knocked on the open door. He looked up to see her standing in the doorframe.
"Hey," he smiled. "Come in."
"Hi," Sara replied as she sat down across from him. "How's the skeleton?"
"You mean, Faye Green?" he smiled. "She's finally starting to give us some leads."
"That's great," Sara smiled.
Grissom nodded. "So, you want to tell me about your eyewitness?"
Sara sighed. "He's a valet," she said. "He was hanging out in one of the cars in the parking lot and saw it all happen."
"He says that he saw Officer Tyner shoot the victim in the head?"
"Yes."
"For no reason?"
"No reason."
Grissom looked down at his desk for a moment, then back up at her. "I don't know, Sara … I'm not sure that I'd base this whole thing on his testimony."
"I know," Sara said. "But, like I told you, the evidence is starting to pile up against this guy."
"Just don't get ahead of yourself, okay?"
"We won't."
Grissom frowned slightly. "Has Warrick been with you all day?"
"Where else would he be?"
"I told Catherine to give him her case."
Sara frowned. "I don't think she did. Like I said, we've been together all day, and I don't remember him talking to her at all."
Grissom closed his eyes. "That woman will be the death of me," he muttered. "All right, I think we're done here. You and Warrick be careful with this one, okay?"
"We will."
"So, what was Catherine supposed to have you do?"
Warrick shook his head. "She's working some rape charge that Grissom told her to give me," he said. "How did you know?"
"Grissom asked me how you could have possibly been with me all day when you were supposed to do something for her."
"He knew!" Warrick exclaimed. "He came in here and started quizzing me about the case, and he already knew that I hadn't heard anything about it."
Sara smiled. "Looks like."
"Yeah, well, the alleged rapist is Cath's ex," Warrick explained. "If she investigates …"
"Yeah, no good can come of that."
Warrick shook his head again. "They'll figure it out. What did Grissom say about our evidence?"
"That we need to be careful and make sure that we don't get ahead of ourselves."
"Sounds like Grissom."
They left the break room and walked out into the hallway, where they were immediately attacked by Brass, who was enraged over the fact that the DA had filed charges against his cop. Warrick and Sara jumped to the defense of their evidence; Sara pointed out that Tyner's missing bullet was the thing that sealed the case.
"That's you CSIs – always counting bullets."
They turned to see Tyner himself striding toward them.
"What's he doing here?" Warrick asked.
Brass shushed Warrick and stepped forward to lead Tyner away.
Unfortunately, Brass wasn't quick enough. Tyner began shouting all the ways that scientists were inferior to cops; Warrick was more than willing to trade insults. The ensuing screaming match brought Nick, Grissom and Greg out of the lab. By the time they had made it to the hallway, Tyner and Warrick were shoving each other. Grissom jumped in between them, breaking up the fight.
While Nick took Tyner out of the building and Grissom talked to Brass, Sara grabbed Warrick's arm, leading him back to the locker room.
"Well, this is it," she said. "Scientist versus cop." She smiled. "We'll come out on top. Brains versus brawn, you know."
"Damn him!" Warrick yelled, slamming his fist into his locker. "So damn superior! It's guys like him that make me hate cops. They act like they're above the law. They're no better than us."
"No," Sara agreed, "they're not. But, if we don't do our jobs right, what does that say about us? We can't hide behind our latex gloves any more than they should, as you said, hide behind their union reps."
"Exactly."
Sara and Warrick both looked up as Grissom walked into the locker room.
"You need to do your jobs," he said quietly.
"We –"
"But –"
Grissom held up his hand to silence their protests. "I know that you've done your jobs thus far. You've collected evidence. The DA's decision to press charges wasn't yours, and there's nothing you can do about it. But, you need to find that bullet."
"We tried –"
"Then, try harder. It has to be out there somewhere." He turned to leave. "I don't want to hear from you again until you've found it."
The bullet was in the car. Its position told the whole story: the victim had indeed shot himself. Brass was less than pleased to hear the news; he obviously felt that Warrick and Sara had jerked him and Tyner around for nothing.
"Well, that was ridiculous," Sara said as they left the garage. "You know, sometimes I wonder why we even bother trying to be nice to people."
"Sara …"
She stopped with Warrick and turned to look at him. She raised an eyebrow quizzically.
"Do you realize that this is the first case we've worked together?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess it is."
Warrick smiled. "You like honesty, right?"
"I do," she agreed, wondering where he was going with this.
"Well, when you first came here, I wasn't sure about you … I think that had a lot to do with the fact that you were investigating me. But, after this case … Sara, you're a damn good CSI, and we're lucky to have you."
Sara grinned. "You know, I was thinking the same thing about you."
Grissom walked into his office as though in a daze. He still couldn't believe what he had seen, what had nearly happened to Nick …
Searching for a distraction, his eyes fell on the bulletin board shaped like a fish that hung on his way. The ones that got away …
Then, he saw it. Hanging between all the cold cases was a small slip of paper. Grissom stared at his fish board in shock. She had been serious. Teri truly had posted her number on it. He reached up with hands that trembled slightly to take it down.
"Eddie didn't rape that girl."
Grissom shoved the slip of paper bearing Teri's phone number into his pocket and looked at Catherine. "What?"
"She cried rape in a desperate attempt to get money out of him."
"I hope you told her that he's broke."
"She didn't want to believe that any more than I wanted to believe it when I was the exotic dancer who dated him," she said. "I'm sorry that I didn't hand it off when you told me to. You were right. I still have some bizarre feelings for Eddie that I'll never act on because I know that Linds and I are better off without him. Because of that, I could have very easily screwed him over while I tried to help him. Or, maybe even worse, I could have done something to hurt the lab. I'm sorry, Gil."
"Yeah, well, I guess it worked out."
She looked at him closely. "What's wrong with you? You look like hell."
"It's been a rough night."
"You're not going to tell me what happened?"
He sighed. "Let's just say that Office Tyner would be proud of me."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I had to draw my weapon."
Sara and Warrick walked down the hall together, both smiling. They had just logged their final evidence. The DA had rescinded the charges that had been filed against Tyner. Even if Brass wasn't willing to forgive them just yet, they were confident that they had done their jobs.
"Guys!"
Sara and Warrick both looked around as Greg ran toward them.
"Where's the fire, Greggo?" Warrick asked.
"It's Nick!"
"What happened to him?" Warrick asked, dread filling him. Greg looked genuinely upset.
"He and Grissom went to arrest the suspect in their case – and she pulled a gun on Nick!"
"My God," Sara exclaimed. "Is he all right?"
"Yeah … Grissom got her to drop the gun. But, he's pretty shaky."
"Where is he?" Warrick asked.
"In the locker room …"
"Thanks!"
Warrick and Sara took off at a run, skidding to a stop outside the locker room door. Warrick opened it, holding it for Sara to pass before him. Nick was inside, sitting on a bench with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
"Hey, Nicky," she whispered. She sat down next to him. "Rough night?"
"You could say that," he said as Warrick sat down on his other side.
"What happened, Nicky?" Warrick asked.
Nick shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it," he muttered.
"Let's go out for a drink, then," Sara said.
"Yeah," Warrick agreed. "My treat."
"I'm sure you guys have stuff to do … you don't need to baby sit me."
"We have you to go out for a drink with," Warrick said firmly. "That's what we have to do. Come on. We're going."
Warrick and Sara both stood up and looked down expectantly at Nick. He looked up at them as if not sure he could believe what was happening.
"You're sure?"
Sara looked at Warrick for a moment, then back at Nick. "We're sure that we're not about to let you be alone right now. Let's go."
Nick finally stood up and allowed Warrick and Sara to lead him out of the lab. He didn't speak for the longest time, knowing that he'd never be able to find the words to express what he was really feeling: that he was incredibly lucky to have these two people as his friends.