Volonta forte - it's funny you should suggest that...! Btw, I'm getting the emails sent to you tonight (I'm at work on a different computer at the mo, otherwise I would send them now!

RK9 - Still dizzy ok, Lindsay! You did. Now I've just got to create someone! Oh, and thanks for the cookie!

CharmedMummy - Well, I hadn't even thought about it that way until you brought it up, but now I've rewritten the next chapters, so thanks for the idea!! And thank you!

sparkyCSI - I think the magic of her has worn off now. I think my original love is back. But I'm keeping her for a little while longer!

Alana Xavier1 - you make a good point there! I think the masses are speaking (and the responses are actually surprising me!)

meadow567 - I can't believe you're rereading this! You're mad, lol! It's going to take you ages!! (I'm giving nothing away for Gotham's Heroes!) Nixon is going to be around a little longer - I think I'm seeing where it's going now!

TBD - I've gone from early to late - life just exploded on me! But vote noted!

demolished-soul - he's coming back. I'm just not sure if it's going to be a long term thing!

Aphina - lol, if I was dead, I'd be with Eirik on that one! But as I'm not, I think I can understand Tay. Although, if I knew it was ghosts... (:p)

Swede85 - Hmmm, I think it should involve something sugary - the reward, I mean!

danaaa - Really? Cool! I guess it's a good thing for me that Lindsay is waaay ahead in the votes!

gottaluvcsi - Aw, really? I'm really happy to hear that! Thank you!

daytimedrama - /removes crowbars in the vicinity.../ ok, duely noted!

Spoilers for 3x08, Consequences. Thanks to sparkyCSI for betaing, and CharmedMummy for the suggestion with this chapter!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 127: There's a cold feelin' running up and down my spine

'Hey Don, that call you got earlier?' Taylor had dialled Flack as soon as she had out her jacket on.

'Yeah?'

'What's the chance it involved someone in a,' she frowned into the phone, 'some form of protective suit, with a helmet. And green blood.'

'Green blood? Green Paint?' he offered. 'Paintballer dead in a warehouse?'

Taylor smiled, 'I am so glad it was you with the case. Who else is working it?'

There was a pause. 'Mac.'

Taylor groaned. 'Great.'

'He did let you research for him,' he offered.

'Yeah, but you've just got to that scene, which means he's not going to be anywhere near the Magic Guard Fish, which means I have no chance.'

There was another pause. 'Has anyone told you how weird you are, recently?'

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A while later, Taylor was walking into the warehouse (after being let in by Faith and Bosco – it certainly helped knowing uniformed officers) and joined Danny.

'Evening, Drew,' Danny shouted at her.

Taylor rolled her eyes. 'How was Disturbed?'

Danny shrugged, crouching down besides the body. 'It was different.' He was still shouting.

Taylor stared at him and then the metaphorical light bulb switched on. 'Oh my God,' she laughed. 'She got pit tickets, didn't she?'

Danny looked up at her and glared. 'For the record, I was due a new pair of glasses.'

'What have we got?' Mac asked, joining them, staring at Taylor who was cackling away. 'Who let you in, Taylor?'

'I had a visitor,' she quickly told him, avoiding answering the question.

'Danny?' Mac turned to the CSI.

'Expensive marker, top of the line equipment. We've got a paintball pro here.'

'That explains the green blood,' Taylor muttered, looking at the drying green paint he was splattered with.

'We have a name?' Mac asked Danny, shaking his head at Taylor's comment.

Danny shook his head. 'No wallet, no ID. Gunshot wound to the shoulder.'

Mac crouched down beside him and rolled the body onto his side. 'Bullet's more than likely deformed,' he said, looking intently at the wound. 'Not a good chance it will get us a hit in IBIS.'

'Wound to the chest is a through and through. So we're looking for the bullet.'

'Find him, before it's too late.' The ghost pointed upwards again, before he and Maddy disappeared.

Taylor looked up to where he was pointing. 'You might want to start there,' she shrugged, pointing to a giant balloon soldier.

'It looks like we'll have to perform an autopsy on our wounded soldier.'

Taylor frowned. 'Could someone please explain to me why there's a giant inflatable soldier in here?'

'Macy's day parade,' Flack explained as he joined them.

'But it's June.'

'These things don't just come together over night, you know.'

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The coroner was packing up the body, Hawkes had arrived to cut up the balloon, Mac had disappeared and Flack had gone to knock on the doors of the surrounding apartments, leaving Taylor waiting for the ghost to show itself again. It didn't, and she was feeling slightly uncomfortable in the warehouse, so she stepped outside and found Danny following a paint trail down an alley.

Taylor yawned –it was getting late – and followed Danny.

'Nothing better to do, Drew, than stare at my ass all night?' he asked her, his back to her as he was bent over something on the ground.

'Pretty much,' Taylor shrugged. 'And you know you're still shouting, don't you?'

He looked up. 'Nixon had us under the speakers. I swear I can still feel my chest vibrating,' he added.

'What've you got?'

'Red in the green paint.'

Taylor crouched down beside him. 'Is it blood, or paint?'

Danny shrugged and pulled his kit over, swapped some of the red and dropped some phenophaline on it. He nodded. 'The red in the green paint is definitely blood. But I also found orange paintballs near the body in the warehouse and on the dumpster.'

'So there was another paintball player in the alley?' Taylor asked, looking at the paint splatter. 'That explains a lot. The ghost has been telling me to find someone. The person he was playing? Maybe their friendly little game turned serious and Mr. Green Paint traded his ammo in for the real thing.'

Danny peered at her. 'Mr. Green Paint? Man, I wish Stella wasn't stuck in the lab. She'd be slightly more helpful. If there was someone else here, where did he go? If you just shot someone, why would you run in this direction? There's no way out. You've got a dead end, a locked gate, and this door is locked.'

'Sorry for not being a criminalist,' Taylor shrugged. 'What about a car?'

Danny scanned the alley. 'Seems that the only way in and out for a vehicle is blocked. Paint trail starts there, leads here, and then just stops. I tell you, Tay. This guy got to this spot, and then, poof. He just disappeared.'

'And he what? Was abducted by aliens?'

Danny rolled his eyes.

'Alright, alright,' Taylor held up her hands. 'I get the picture. I'm going home. But don't be surprised if I'm back in ten minutes because I get another visit.'

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She wasn't. She was climbing out of the shower the following morning, wrapping a towel around her, when Maddy and the other ghost reappeared.

'Naked here, Maddy,' she screeched, practically falling backwards into the bathtub.

"I've got the same parts.' Maddy frowned, 'Well, I had the same parts. I still have the same parts – they're just slightly more transparent-'

'Madeline,' Taylor growled through her teeth, 'he hasn't. If I'm naked, no ghost visits.'

'Find him, before it's too late.'

Taylor whipped around to face the ghost. 'Hi, wearing a towel here,' she snapped at him.

'Hey, have some sympathy,' Maddy told her. 'He's just been killed.'

'That doesn't mean he gets to see me naked! Now get out. Let me get dressed. And then maybe I'll listen to whatever Christmas cracker riddle he has for me!'

Two minutes later, Taylor stepped out into her front room, now clad in a pair of denim shorts, a white camisole, and a pair of flip flops, still slightly flushed, to find Maddy and the ghost waiting for her. 'What?' she asked him stonily.

'Find him, before it's too late.' And then he turned into an alien.

'This is punishment, isn't it?'

----------------------------------------------------

Her hair was still wet, and she was still in a bad mood when she arrived at the Crime Lab. Seeing Stella put a smile back on her face, even if she was limping around on crutches. 'Looking good,' she greeted her.

'I think I've got the hang of them. I just need to prove that I can carry a kit, process a scene, and chase a perp on them now,' Stella smiled at her.

'At least you're working in the lab.'

Stella laughed. 'I told Mac, in no uncertain terms, I was not sitting behind a desk for six weeks when I was still perfectly capable of working the Mass Spec. So what brings you here?'

'Aliens,' Taylor told her, shaking her head. 'I have no idea either,' she told Stella, seeing her bewildered expression. 'It started off with a missing paintballer, and now I can offer the explanation he was abducted by aliens.'

Stella laughed. 'Come on. I want to see Mac's face when you tell him that.'

Taylor shook her head. 'Hell is going to freeze over before I tell Mac there are aliens involved. I tell you, first ghosts, then demons, mermaids and aliens.'

'Oh my.'

'Huh?'

This time it was Stella's time to shake her head. 'Never mind.' She led them into the break room where Flack and Mac were talking. 'Our missing paintballer is Cyrus Menlo. And he's currently MIA.'

'We got half the PD looking for him,' Flack informed them, 'but none of his team mates or family have seen him since yesterday.'

Stella frowned. 'His father's adamant that Cyrus wouldn't have done something like this. They were even willing to give us a piece of his clothing. DNA from the ephithelials were a match to the blood found in the green paint in the alley.'

'I think Mr. Menlo doesn't know how competitive his son is,' said Mac.

'You know,' Taylor started, but she was interrupted by Lindsay.

'Hey, the black trace that Sid found on the gunshot wound of Kym Tanaka-'

'-is not gunshot residue,' Mac finished.

Lindsay nodded. 'Adam?'

'He got the same negative results from the trace I collected of the crates at the scene,' Mac confirmed.

Stella looked between the two of them. 'So if it's not GSR?'

'It's black cocaine,' Lindsay responded.

'What on earth is black cocaine?' Taylor asked. 'I mean, since when was cocaine colour coordinated?'

'It's produced by mixing pure cocaine with pherachloride or iron thiocyanate.'

'But why would you want to make different colour cocaine? Or is that the latest craze?' Taylor asked, still confused.

'Those chemicals turn the white cocaine powder to purple or black. It makes them undetectable in field drug tests or by drug sniffing dogs.'

'Oh,' Taylor mouthed.

Stella nodded. 'They usually hide or ship those drugs in printer toner cartridges.'

'Get out of here!' exclaimed Flack. 'You've got to have a master's degree in chemistry just to run drugs these days.'

Mac turned to Lindsay. 'Lindsay, check our narcotics database. Maybe we can trace the origin of the drugs to coke connected to any previous seizures with that chemical make up. Flack; see if you can get us a warrant to search those boxes in the warehouse. I'm thinking our vic walked into a big-money drug buy.'

'He got stiffed,' Flack nodded.

Stella frowned. 'That explains what happened to Kym Tanaka, but where's Cyrus Menlo?'

'I'll see how the search is going,' Flack told her before following Mac out of the room.

Lindsay looked from Stella to Taylor, gave Taylor an icy-cold glare, and also left.

'Whoa, where's my sweater?' Stella asked.

Taylor turned. 'You noticed that too?'

Stella nodded and shifted her weight. 'What did you do?'

Taylor shrugged. 'I don't know. I haven't spoken to her in ages.' She sighed. 'It's probably because she knows I'm here with a ghost. She doesn't approve or believe, and it doesn't look like she ever will.'

'She's got to come around eventually,' Stella told her.

'The temperature in this room dropped just then. I highly doubt it. Maybe I'll go talk to her.' She gave Stella a bright smile and stepped out into the corridor, intent on finding Lindsay. Which was when Maddy and the alien appeared again. 'You're actually serious with the whole alien thing, aren't you?' Taylor frowned.

'I don't control the clues,' Maddy shrugged.

Taylor sighed. 'I know. But don't you want me to find your killer?' she asked the alien.

The alien looked at Maddy.

Taylor joined its stare. 'Something you're not telling me?'

Maddy ran a hand through her fake blonde hair. 'Um, you're too involved.'

'Too involved?' Taylor laughed. 'How on earth do you work that one out? It's not like I killed him.'

Maddy looked down at the floor. 'Never mind. I shouldn't have said that.'

Taylor stared at her. 'You've just given too much away, haven't you?' Her eyebrows burrowed together as she tried to decipher what Maddy had told her. 'You can't be talking about one of the CSIs, can you?'

' Taylor, you should really forget I said anything,' Maddy pleaded with her. 'The last thing you want to do is get involved with that side of the case. Please.'

'Why not?' Taylor demanded. 'The worse that's going to happen is I get banned from the lab.'

'Please Taylor, just drop it.'

'Drop it?' Taylor stared at her. 'The last time I didn't decipher a clue fast enough, someone got hurt, and someone else died.'

Maddy bit her lip. 'If I tell you this, I don't want to get blamed for screwing up your life.'

'Maddy, I'm seeing aliens. My life is already screwed up.'

'Your love life.'

Taylor's eyes grew to the size of saucers. 'You're trying to tell me Don is involved?'

Maddy nodded miserably.

'Don couldn't kill someone!' Taylor told her incredulously.

'I didn't say he did,' Maddy sighed. 'But he was on a bust, and someone else is involved. And it's all going to fall onto Don.'

Taylor felt sick to her stomach. 'Who?'

Maddy opened her mouth, but suddenly vanished, leaving a very confused Taylor standing in the corridor with a very lost looking alien.

Which was when Aiden appeared.

'Where's Maddy?' Taylor demanded. 'What evil spirit has got her?'

'The Powers That Be,' Aiden informed her solemnly.

'The Powers That Be?' Taylor repeated.

'She shouldn't have told you that,' Aiden told her. 'Which means I've got Maddy's job, for now.' She gave the alien a reassuring smile and the pair disappeared before Taylor could ask exactly what was going to happen with Maddy, and what exactly was going on with Flack.

Oh, peaple! I am feeling sooo tired. Freshers Week is about to hit, and it would appear I'm pretty much working 18hour days for the next two and a half weeks! Updating is therefore going to be problematic, but hopefully we'll be back on track soon!

In other news, for all of you in the UK at uni, be warned. The LEA can reassess you after you've finished your degree! They did me, even though I have my degree and everything, and they've taken nearly a grand back which I now owe the Uni!