Blue: My apologies for the extremely long wait, but I've got a very busy life that doesn't always include FanFic. And I had trouble figuring out how to finish this chapter. The next few chapters will just kinda skim through the first week, really just focusing on each intern getting out into the field with Grissom so he can see how well they work in the field. So that will, hopefully, come faster.
Soleil's POV
"Fortuna." Andi's smirk widened when Ella flapped her hand dejectedly over her shoulder at us. Her grin was in place even as she turned to face us. "I can't wait to hear about this."
I roll my eyes at Andi's smug look. We all know that, curious as Ella is, she gets easily flustered when everyone in a room looks at her. "Tua molesta et fauta est."
"Ego scire." Andi turned and practically jumped into the print lab when I aimed a kick at her. She paused and leaned back out, gripping the edge of the door. "See ya at lunch, right?"
"Well duh." Max received a death glare for her sarcasm and Andi entered the print lab. Max and I continued to our respective labs for the night and I took a deep breath before stepping into DNA.
The lab tech glanced up briefly as I approached the work surface before returning her focus to the samples she was preparing for testing. "Give me just a moment please." She carefully finished the set, inserted it into the machine and set it running. "There." She peeled off her gloves and dropped them into the trashcan under the table. "I'm Wendy Simms. You must be one of the new interns. Grissom told me that he would be sending one of you over here."
"I'm Soleil Valentine. Nice to meet you. I shook her hand and she gave me a friendly smile.
"Welcome to Vegas."
"Thanks, I think." She noticed my apprehension and leaned in, lowering her voice.
"Don't worry, it's not all casinos and gaudy tourist traps." She hooked her chair with one foot and dropped into it, pointing at a chair behind me. "If it was, there wouldn't be much of city."
"I can't argue with that." I glance around at the glass walls. "Center of the lab. I feel like everyone is going to be staring at me."
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it. So... wait a second. You don't have a badge. Or a lab coat." I blink in surprise and look down at myself then back at Wendy when she groans. "Grissom! He should have taken you to get a lab coat and an ID badge, because of safety and security reasons. I'm guessing he didn't tell anyone to make sure you got all the things you need."
"Nope. He just told us where to go and sent us off."
"I better take you and let Hodges, Mandy and Henry know that they'll need to get you girls your lab stuff." She stood and I followed suit, walking across the hall into trace to see Max and an older man who I assumed was Hodges laughing uproariously.
"...And then see, Nick..." Hodges pauses in his story when we walk in and Max looks up with confusion. "Simms. What brings you over here?"
"Grissom never gave the interns their ID cards or got them lab coats." She rolled her eyes, and I wasn't sure if it was at Grissom or Hodges. "I'm taking Soleil if your intern wants to come as well. I'm about to get Mandy and Henry's too."
"Oh. I hadn't even realized." He turned to Max "You'd better go get a lab coat."
"Ok Hodges." She jumped up and followed us out. "I'm Max."
"Wendy. Nice to meet you. What are the other intern's names?"
"Andi is in prints, and Ella managed to get taken out to a scene." I speak up as we pass straight through DNA and across another hall to the print lab.
"Wow. Grissom never does something like that." She glances at us. "Whoever managed to get him to take you as interns must have a lot of his respect if he's willing to take their interns AND take one of you into the field first night."
"Dr. B said she and Grissom are old friends, and they just kept in touch." Max explains before we all step into the print lab.
"Mandy, I realized Griss never gave the interns their IDs and lab coats. I'm taking these two down if you want me to take your intern?"
"Sure. That would be great. I've got to have these prints done before more start coming in with the CSIs. Days left backlog again."
"Yeah, same in DNA. They're getting really sloppy, too. I found liquids on several worktops when I got in tonight."
"Andi, you coming?" I directed the question at our friend, who was seated at a computer, staring intently at the screen.
"Just a sec." She didn't even glance at us, and Max looked at me. She concentrated hard on what she was doing as she maneuvered the mouse across the screen. She clicked on several things until a victorious smile stretched across her face. "Got it. And it's a perfect match to the suspect's prints." Sh rotated the screen so that we could all see how the partial, smudged print fit exactly over the whole exemplar.
"Great. Now go get a lab coat. You shouldn't even be in here without one on." Mandy waved at us as we finally headed to get the lab coats and ID badges.
"She's been griping about Dayshift being, and I quote: 'A plethora of imbeciles who couldn't tell an eye from a dot,' and giving me a bunch of partial smudges to try and visually match to several possible matches." Andi grinned, "It's pretty cool how the program selects identifying points on the ridges."
"Andi, if you would stop talking for a moment I could introduce you. Andi, this is Wendy, Wendy this is Andi."
"Hey."
"Hi. Welcome to Vegas."
"Thanks." We finally reached our destination and began the process of getting what we needed to have access to the whole lab.
In a surprisingly short time we had our new ID cards, a lab coat, and a locker number with assigned combo lock(if we wanted it) and were headed back to the labs. "Your 'Dr. B' must really know Grissom if she sent pictures of you ahead, and he actually sent the images to be made into your IDs." Wendy looked around at us, now wearing our lab coats. I had Ella's draped over one arm, the ID and lock were held by Andi, who was absentmindedly spinning the face of the lock.
"That's kinda funny, 'cause she's always been pretty disorganized and scatterbrained herself." Max gave a grin and Wendy laughed.
"I can see why they're friends now. Thats almost too funny."
"I'm going to drop my stuff in my locker, anyone else coming?" Andi glanced around, waiting for a response.
"I'll go. We can drop El's stuff in her locker."
"I'll head back to trace, and I'll see you at lunch." Max waved as she and Wendy headed towards their labs and we ducked into the locker room.
"You're planning something. I can tell. You've got that 'This is going to be soooo much fun' look. I'm glad Els not here. The two of you with that look is downright frightening."
Andrea turned and smirked at me. "I'm glad too. 'cause otherwise this wouldn't work." She grabbed the lab coat from my arm, opening up Ella's locker at the same time. She hung the lab coat on the little hook inside the locker and then carefully grabbed an invisible line about halfway down the garment, pulling it up to be on level with the top of the door. The lock and ID badge were placed in the sling she had made, and then she closed the locker door, making sure that her fold was caught between the locker and the locker door, ensuring that the two objects would fall out the minute the door was opened. "Don't say anything."
I rolled my eyes, both of us knowing I wouldn't, simply because it was one of her safer practical jokes, and it would be funny to see Ella jump when the lock came tumbling out of the locker, along with an ID badge. We turned and headed back to the labs and slowly began working the complex machines and helping the techs.
Several Hours later: Andi's POV
"Man, I'm starving. What's for lunch?" Ella walked into the break room where we were sitting, eating the subs we had ordered.
"Here. Catch." I picked up the only still-wrapped sandwich on the table and tossed it to her. "Just like you always get." Soleil snorted into her flatbread sandwich and Max rolled her eyes. We could each get our group's Subway order from memory.
"Thanks." She caught the sandwich and flopped into an open seat beside Soleil, who wrinkled her nose just a bit. Her wet hair swung in dark cords around her face.
"You stink like a sewer." Max spoke from at least three feet away as we backed away from Ella just a bit.
"No, just lake-water with a hint of corpse." She grabbed half of her sandwich and took an enormous bite. "Oh man, this tastes so good right now."
"Did you wash?" She glanced at me.
"Whaddaya think?" She lifted a clump of wet hair from her neck. "'course I did. Can't get the stench out."
"Lemons." Sara Sidle walked into the room, headed straight for the fridge.
"What?" We turned to stare at her as one as she calmly pulled out a container of food and shut the door.
"Lemons. They get the stink out." She sat down next to me and opened her lunch. "Trust me. It might not seem like it, but it actually works. A small bag of lemon halves in the shower and you're good to go."
"Note to self: pick up ginormous bag of lemons." Sara smiled at Max's comment, while we just rolled our eyes.
"Any other tips for us?" Soleil spoke around a bite of sandwich, trying to ignore the smell from Ella, who was now studiously ignoring everyone in favor of her food.
Sara thought for a moment. "Bring some spare clothes. And keep a set of clothes that you can get really dirty in your locker." She paused and munched on a bite of salad. "Keep a small shower kit in your locker too."
"Figured that one out." Ella shook some water droplets from her hair, spattering Soleil and Sara on either side of her, barely missing me.
"Do I have to put up with this?"
"Yep!" I popped the 'p' with a smug smile in response to Sara's unamused question. She wiped the few drops off her face, frowning just a bit.
"Sara. Doc's about to do our autopsy. You want to go, or should I?" Warrick stood in the door, calmly tapping a folder against one palm.
"You get it. I'm starved. I'll try and get down there before he finishes."
"Right. See you down there." He turned and left as quickly as he had come, but not before giving a small smile to us.
"Is he always that gregarious?" I made a face at Ella as she spoke around a mouthful of sandwich.
"No, Greg is the gregarious one." Soleil rolled her eyes at Sara's wordplay, wrapping the second half of her sandwich up to save for later.
"Aww, Sara. I'm hurt." Greg walked in, sending Sara a friendly smile. "I thought you liked talking to me."
Sara grinned as Greg pulled a container of ice cream from the little freezer. "Only when I want to hear wild stories about the most random, irrelevant subjects ever."
"Hey, what I say is relevant. Usually" Greg was moving around the table when he paused and moved back behind Ella, leaning down to stage whisper in her ear. "You stink."
Ella, much to our amusement, managed to not growl at him, instead speaking around clenched teeth. "Tell me something I don't know."
He scurried to sit as far from her as possible, between Max and myself. "We solved the B&E. It wasn't the real deal. Insurance scam, done within three hours."
"Congratulations, Greg. And by-the-way, he used that line to flirt with me once. Or at least tried to."
"I did?" He paused and blinked in concentration, while Sara glared at him. "No, I didn't. I believe what I said was 'You smell like death.' To which you replied, rather testily, 'I know.' And then I told you that a real man wouldn't care."
"And, well, I've got to admit you were right." We glanced between them in confusion. "EMT I ended up going out with."
We continued to stare between them until Greg started. "She and Nick had been working a decomp, and this EMT had been there when they picked it up, and he came by later, but couldn't stand the 'smell of death' on her."
"Because I had been working on 'liquid man's' jacket, so the smell had adhered to my hair. Well, he couldn't take it and left in a hurry, just as Greg was passing by."
"So, me being me, I have to stop and say something, and I back up a step or two, lean towards her and say 'You smell like Death.'"
"And I get rather testy with him for stating the obvious and snap at him. He starts walking again, but turns to say one last thing to me."
"I said, 'You know, a real man wouldn't mind' and just walked away."
"I did end up dating the EMT for a while, but then I found out that a victim in a car crashing through a restaurant was his girlfriend when I went to interview her."
"She dumped him. The bastard."
"Greg." Everyone at the table looked up to see Catherine standing in the doorway. "We have another scene."
Greg sighed. "No lunch for me, then."
"You just finished off a carton of Ben & Jerry's." Soleil looked at him in amusement.
"That wasn't lunch, that was a snack." He grinned and followed Catherine out, dropping the empty container in the trash as he left.
"Boys." I sat back, rolling my eyes at Greg's retreating back. "Bunch of lunatics."
"We're a bunch of lunatics." Ella had finally put her sandwich down and was reaching for Soleil's half-empty cup.
"Yes, but we're..."
"No, we're not." Max interrupted Soleil, who simply waved her hand at Ella as her drink was stolen.
We were interrupted in our debate by Sara's phone going off. She pulled it out and glanced at the screen. "Warrick needs me." She stood and headed for the door. "See ya later."
There was a chorus of 'bye' and 'later' as Sara walked quickly down the hall and out of sight.
"We got lab-coats and ID cards. Your's are in your locker, if you're done stuffing your face." Ella glares at me before re-wrapping half her sandwich and holding out her hand for the sharpie I pass to her. She scribbles her name on the paper and passes the sharpie back before putting the second half of her sandwich into the fridge.
"Right. Coat and Card."
She follows me out and in moments I'm pointing to the rigged locker, and she quickly flicks it open. The lock and her ID card come tumbling out, and Ella yelps, leaping backwards into the bench through the center of the room. She tumbles over it, both hands flying out to slam into the lockers behind her in an attempt to prevent an impact with the floor. The lock comes to a stop under the bench, which is holding Ella's lower legs up, her body suspended by sheer willpower between the lockers and the bench. I'm doubled over snickering, and the glare she sends me sends me into another bout of laughter as she pushes herself onto the bench.
"Ha. Ha. Very funny, I think NOT!"
"So worth it." I turn and leave the room with a smug grin.
"Why do I always end up with the crazy friends?" Her mutter is the last thing I hear from her as I head back to prints.
"Because you're just as crazy as we are." I mutter under my breath and stroll into the lab, where Mandy already has work set aside for me.
"Hey Andi, Grissom suspects all those smudges came from the same person. See if you can get a good print out of all of those."
"Alright." We lapse into silence as we go about our respective tasks, and I can't help but glance through the glass walls now and then at my friends in various other labs. Soleil and the DNA girl, Wendy, are deep into a fairly animated discussion, if Wendy's waving hands are any indication, as they run through samples. Max is clearly trying her hardest to not grin as she and Hodges shoot snarky comments back and forth over their microscopes. Ella is now visible, working with the guy Mandy said was Henry, who appears to be slightly apprehensive about letting her use the chemicals in his lab. He also seems almost scared of her, which is probably a good thing after the attack of the combination lock in the locker room.
I grin, returning all my focus to the smudges in front of me. No doubt, the next 8 weeks are going to be very interesting.
A/N
Andi says "Good Luck" in Latin.
Soleil says: "You are annoying and stupid."
Andi replies: "I know."
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