THE FOLLOWING EVENING

...

Greg Sanders stretched and yawned, making his way down the quiet halls of the CSI lab. He passed trace, waved to Henry, Bobby, Mandy and Hodges, and stepped out the front doors of the CSI building.
He nearly ran into Morgan, in her rush, and she came close to spilling the giant yellow file she supported with crossed arms.
"Morgan! Sorry, I didn't see you. You okay?"
"Oh yeah, sorry. Late case files for the Bradley case. Finley needed them in ASAP, and I spent all day sorting through them."
"Be... fore you came to work?" Greg raised an eyebrow at her. "Where you're supposed to do all your work?"
"It was my fault they're late, not like I got much sleep anyway."
"Man, this graveyard shift thing must be a thorn in your paw, huh?"
Morgan shrugged and smiled.
"It's not all bad. The cool kids party when you bad boys go home." She grinned, and Greg chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess you guys are the cool kids now." He sighed. "You know, I almost miss being a lab tech. Long nights, in a quiet lab, doing your work in peace... It was nice."
Morgan rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, you love playing with the big kids." She shoved him gently, supporting the file with her other arm. "Now get home, you worked hard all day, Mr. CSI."
Greg chuckled again and nodded.
"Yeah, I am pretty worked out. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Probably." She said off-handedly, then snapped back. "Oh wait, no, tomorrow's Saturday."
"Yeah?"
"I'm going shooting with the rats. Sorry."
"Aw, harsh blow, Brody." Greg grinned and shook his head. "Well, you guys have fun with that. I'll catch you on Monday."
"Yep, daylight! Later Sanders." Morgan smiled, watching him stride off to the parking lot, then turned and entered CSI.

/

Morgan lugged the file folder through the lobby and back to CSI Finley's office, setting it down on the desk with a definitive CLUNK.
Finn looked up, eyebrows raised and a smile tugging at her lips.
"Is that the Bradley evidence?"
"Yes. Yes it is."
"Woooow." She smiled and stood up. "Were you up all day working on this?"
"Only since like, six." It was midnight now.
"I'm impressed, Morgan. But you didn't have to do all this."
"Please, I wasn't sleeping anyway."
Finn smiled and shook her head.
"Alright Morgan. Take it easy. I'll see you at the end of your shift."
Morgan smiled and walked out of the office, heading to ballistics. She flounced around a corner into the lab, a cheery smile on her face.
"Give me some good news, Bobby."
The tech looked up and cracked a grin when he saw her, and pulled off his noise-cancelling earphones.
"Hey Miss Brody! I've got your results, riiight," He pulled a folder out of a pile on his messy workspace and handed it to her. "Here. .38 special, GSR doesn' match the trace though."
"Of course it doesn't." Morgan rubbed her temples. "Same- rare- calibur, but different gun. Lovely. Thanks anyway, Bobby."
The gun tech looked a little crestfallen, but smiled anyway.
"No problem, Miss Brody."
A vibe of severe irritation encasing her, Morgan stalked back down the hallway of CSI laboratories and into the trace lab.
"Hodges." She snarked, walking around the corner.
"Um, hello to you too, Morgan?" Hodges spun around on his stool, a vial of brown liquid in each hand, safety goggles on. "How was your day? Mine was fantastic. I did this thing called sleeping."
"Sorry. Hi." Morgan uncrossed her arms and slouched. "Long day. Not much sleeping. Aaaas, you apparently know." She raised an eyebrow.
Hodges nodded, standing up to drop the vials into the GCMS. After turning it on, he removed his goggles and gloves, and offered Morgan an office chair.
She plopped down in it.
"Thanks."
Hodges flashed a temporary smile and then returned to his seat on the stool.
"Okay. Morgan. Along with severely increased melatonin levels from the sun going down, low endorphins from sleep deprivation, and a bad attutude-" Morgan shot him a look. Hodges shrugged. "Just being honest! Look- aside from all that... how much do you want to bet that your blood to glucose ratio is extremely low?"
At the very words, Morgan's stomach whined in agreement.
"I hate saying this, but I think you're right. I haven't eaten in hours."
Hodges stood up, smirked, and offered Morgan his arm. She looked at him out of the tops of her eyes, but, reluctantly, took his arm, and the two walked out of the trace lab together.

/

They strode into the break room, arm in arm, and earned a funny look from Henry. They unhooked, and Hodges bent over the minifridge while Morgan carefully examined the vending machine, looking for something that wasn't total shit.
"Hey, Brody." She looked up, and Hodges was holding some tupperware he'd pulled out of the fridge. "Forget that junk, I brought something."
"Oookay, I'll bite." Literally? Morgan grinned at the internalized stupid joke and sat down across from Hodges at the table. "So what'd you bring?"
"Romas, cherry, green, stuffed, and non-GMO." He pulled the tupperware lid off with a flourish, and inside were every kind of tomato Morgan could think to eat.
"What. The hell." She stared for a moment, then looked up at Hodges. "Dude."
He just grinned, grabbed a cherry tomato, and popped it in his mouth.
"Better take your pick before I eat them all."
Slowly, a smile crept onto Morgan's face, and she grabbed a Roma, destroying half of it in one bite.
"Like you could stop me!"