- SEASON 4 SPOILER WARNING -

WARNING: The next 2 chapters all contain spoilers from 4x03; You Only Die Once. If you don't want any spoilers, don't read until chapter 150 is posted. I will put a "Season 4 Spoiler Warning" at the very top off all the chapters with any reference!!

RK9 - I can't have gone 350,000 words without mentioning her hair color?! Hang on - it's mentioned in the very first sentence! (At least I'm not going mad! lol) I guess I don't mention it much, though. Seymour is pining - I think it might be time for him to go back home.

demolished-soul - (:D) I'm glad that was your reaction - I thought everyone would think it was him instantly! Glad you liked. That's the worst thing about holidays - the homework! I hope you get it all done!

meadow567 - I saw that in my head as I was watching it and I wrote that bit within ten minutes of watching the episode. Devon's been an interesting one, as I can't work out what do to with her which doesn't involve throwing her in front of a bus!

Camilla - Firstly, thank you for reading it, sticking with it, and saying that about Taylor. I constantly consult with my... consultants... to make sure Taylor doesn't become a Mary Sue (although I still think she has her moments!) I haven't seen the clip, but my roommate has an Eddie Izzard boxset thing so I shall consult her - the thing just wouldn't die! lol

sparkyCSI - I had a worse reaction to Taylor when watching Casino Royale, in that I started getting very high pitch in my horror... in the cinema. I love that car, and one day when I'm rich - clearly, not too far in the distant future(!) I shall have one. I would love the diamonds - actually, $200,000 of rocks is a little excessive!

CharmedMummy - It is indeed the model of the Aston Martin - I'm the opposite. My dad is a mechanic by trade and my sundays were spent in the garage. Not that there was ever an Aston Martin in there too, but his love of cars rubbed off. I did make a point of Taylor explaining it, but it ended up in this chapter instead. Flack in a tux... Flack partly in a tux... that's all I need say (:P)

Aphina - I try hard! lol. I don't see either of them as the cheating kind. I loved writing these three chapters - it was fun! And I still can't work out what to do with Devon.

Well, we still have the spoilers from 4x03 - just in case you missed it at the top of this chapter... and the last one! lol. And I of course, love my beta, sparkyCSI!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 148: Oh look, a bad guy!

'Are these yours?' Stella asked with a small smile, holding the pair of strappy sandals and Flack's shirt and undershirt they had managed to lose somewhere between Taylor's car and Taylor's apartment.

Taylor glared at the items. 'I was hoping to lose more than that,' she muttered under her breath.

Taylor leant back against her dresser, pouting. Less than an hour ago, she had been perched against the same counter prepared to… well, it certain wasn't watch Stella hobble around her apartment, still in crutches, as she processed it.

'How's the leg?' she asked.

Stella stopped attacking Taylor's windows with fingerprint dust and looked over. 'You have no idea how much I want this plaster off.'

Taylor shrugged. 'You're talking to she who breaks her wrist all the time.'

Stella chuckled. She looked over at Taylor one more time and put her duster down. 'Alright, I wasn't going to ask – I was going to be polite… but that necklace… those diamonds are real.'

Taylor's hand flew to her throat. 'Over $200,000 worth of real.'

Stella's eyes almost popped out of her head. 'Did Flack sell a kidney?'

Taylor shook her head. 'They belong to Devon Maxford-'

'Marty's girlfriend?' Stella asked, surprised.

Taylor nodded slowly. 'How do you know Devon?'

'Marty called. I've just been out to Devon's place over on 72nd. Same MO. She's a strange one. When I got there, she was on the phone talking to lord knows who, all excited. And then she informed Marty they had just been invited to some exclusive party.'

Taylor nodded, unsurprised. 'She seems alright. There's just not much going on upstairs. Besides, she let me wear her diamonds – and I'm terrified of losing an earring.'

Stella smiled, picking her fingerprint duster back up. 'She seemed harmless. I'm just not sure what Marty sees in her.

Taylor gave her a bright smile. 'Himself?' she offered.

Stella smirked and continued to process Taylor's bedroom, allowing Taylor to return to her thoughts of how at that moment, she would rather have been wearing just the necklace, rather than wondering where Flack had disappeared to in that taxi.

It was a while later before Flack reappeared… still without a shirt.

Stella, who had just about finished, walked over, eyebrows arched. 'You get carried away with ripping the shirt off that you ripped the big "S" off your chest too?'

Flack scowled. 'I was busy before the James Bond wannabe interrupted. Can't say I had the time to grab a shirt.'

'Seriously though,' Taylor all but whined, 'my apartment is ten stories up. You would think a break-in would be pretty tough.'

Stella sighed. 'There aren't any prints. Did you get a description of the car?'

Flack nodded. 'Yep. It was your average super smart spy car. With whatever model comes with the blue fire getaway package.'

'Ok,' Stella muttered.

'It was a DBS,' Taylor shrugged.

'A what?' Stella asked, blinking.

Taylor's mouth dropped open in mock horror. 'Only one of the most beautiful cars ever. An Aston Martin.'

Stella shrugged, whilst Flack stared at her, trying hard to hide the amazement.

'Hello, Casino Royale. It was that car that-'

'They destroyed and you all but cried over?' Flack asked.

Taylor punched his arm. 'I did not cry!'

Stella cleared her throat. 'So, did either one of you get a look at the thief?'

'Oh yeah,' Flack nodded. 'He was medium build, light brown hair, scar on his left cheek.'

Stella cocked her head. 'That's very specific.'

Flack shrugged. 'Guy turned the lights on when he came in.'

'He did?' Stella asked, surprised. 'What kind of thief sneaks into an apartment in the middle of the night and turns on all the lights?'

'The kind that likes to kill the mood,' Taylor muttered under her breath, sulking again, as Flack stepped away to answer his phone. She suddenly froze, spotting something behind Stella. 'You have got to be kidding me!' she exclaimed angrily.

'What?' Stella asked, turning and seeing nothing.

'No, no, no, no, no!' she bellowed, storming over to Maddy and her latest ward. 'There is not a chance in hell!' she cried, readying herself to punch the new ghost.

Which was when Flack reappeared, placing his hands on her shoulders and holding her back. 'Much as I would love to see you take a swing at thin air, I know you probably shouldn't.'

'Do you have any idea who's standing there with Maddy?' Taylor hissed, glaring at the newly dead.

Flack took a breath, hands still clutching tightly to Taylor's tense shoulders. 'I want to say that it's the ghost of the body I've been called out to. But judging from the way you're reacting, I'd have to say it's more of the fact you don't like the color of the walls.'

'Well,' said Taylor, shrugging Flack off her and turning, 'we don't have to worry about finding the person who interrupted us, because he's right there!' she snapped, thrusting her arm in his direction.

Stella looked from Taylor to the "empty" space. 'And what's he telling you?'

'I don't care!' Taylor snapped. 'I'm not helping him. He can go to hell for all I care,' she looked pointedly at the two ghosts. 'Literally.'

'Now, that's not very nice,' Maddy told her, frowning.

'Nice?' Taylor seethed. 'Nice is how I should be-'

'Taylor,' Flack jumped in. 'Let's not go down that route.'

Taylor took a breath, glanced at the four people in front of her and forced a smile. 'Okay, too much information. But still. I'm not helping him. He's a bad guy.'

'You can't decide who the bad guys are in the world,' Stella and Maddy both told her, at the same time.

Taylor blinked – that was a little eerie. She scowled at the dead burglar and then threw her arms in the air with an exclamation sounding something like 'gah!'

'They killed me,' the dead wannabe James Bond told her mournfully.

Taylor turned back to Flack, grabbed his arm and pretty much began dragging him from the room. 'Come on.'

'Where are we going?' he asked her.

'To your crime scene.'

'You don't want to get changed?' Flack asked her, now slightly amused.

'I would, but my bedroom is a crime scene,' she snapped as she stormed out of the door, taking care to remember to pick up her handbag – not caring that it no longer matched the dress she was still wearing. Seconds later, she stormed back in to her apartment and grabbed the sandals Stella had placed on her side. 'I'll see you in a bit,' she told Stella.

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Taylor was still sulking when she ducked under the crime tape, following Flack. 'You supposed to be here?' Flack asked her, somewhat rhetorically.

'I could shout at you from over there if you want?' Taylor snarked at him.

Flack frowned. 'You know, you only look cute when you sulk.'

Taylor ignored him and peered over Hawkes' shoulder at the dead body on the floor. 'That's my ghost,' she declared.

'Excuse me?' Hawkes asked, looking up.

Flack smiled. 'Yep. That's the guy I chased last night.'

Mac, who had been busy examining something on the ground, strode over. 'Did you see anyone else with him?'

Flack shrugged at him. 'There was one more guy, but I couldn't get close enough to get an ID. The car window had some weird tinting.'

Taylor, on the other hand, was suddenly feeling very queasy. She had been watching Hawkes, rather than Flack and Mac, and she visibly paled when he picked up a… her stomach churned.

'Mac,' Hawkes called, interrupting their conversation.

Mac walked over to Hawkes, followed by Flack. 'What have you got?'

Hawkes held the item up – Taylor was still staring it, despite her stomach's objections. 'Scalp,' he declared. 'Check this out. Looks like it could belong to our vic.'

'Oh, it does,' Taylor muttered, drying desperately to keep the bile in her stomach from appearing, like Maddy and the dead burglar (who had started nodding at Hawkes' suggestion of what the foul looking thing in his tweezers could be.) '

Mac crouched down next to the victim and pushed his closed eyes open. 'Redness in the eyes. Could be some sort of chemical irritation.'

'He's got something around his neck,' said Hawkes. He leant over and opened up the cat suit the dead body was wearing to reveal a tuxedo.

'At least he dressed for the occasion,' Flack offered.

Taylor snapped to face him, hands straight on her hips. 'Yes. Because him wearing a tuxedo makes me feel so much better about him breaking in and trying to rob us.'

'Chief Sinclair,' Mac suddenly interrupted them as he spotted the imposing black man making his way to them.

'Gentlemen,' the Chief greeted them, not before giving Taylor a what are you doing here look.

'Sir-' Flack began, but was quickly cut off.

'You're all over the news, Detective Flack. NYPD detective in high speed pursuit.' He turned and glared at Taylor.

'Oh, please,' Taylor muttered. 'If I was going to write an article on it, I think I would do a damn sight better than NYPD in High Speed Pursuit.'

Sinclair glared at her, but continued without commenting. 'I'm getting calls from City Hall-'

This time it was Flack who cut him off. 'Listen, Chief,' her began.

Sinclair silenced him, pointing an accusatory finger at him. 'The NYPD has strict policies against high speed chases-'

'He was driving a taxi,' Taylor pointed out, making no effort to remove the sarcastic tone from her voice. 'There was hardly anything high speed about it.'

Sinclair took a deep breath and turned, facing Taylor. 'You have three seconds to get behind that crime scene tape, or I am having this detective arrest you for wasting police time, tampering with evidence, and I'll even throw in accessory to whatever crime I can get these guys on,' Sinclair told her calmly as he indicated to the dead body on the floor.

'You-'

'-are so right,' Flack finished Taylor's statement before she dug the hole deeper, placed his hands on her shoulders, and steered her back to the crime scene tape. 'Go wait in the lab,' he told her, ignoring the glare she was sending to him.

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Taylor walked into the lab, still unable to remove the scowl that was now feeling plastered on her face. 'Stella, Sheldon,' she greeted the two CSI's. 'Please tell me that you've got something on him?' she asked, jamming her thumb over her shoulder at the ghost she knew was following her.

'I've got nothing. The prints didn't hit anyone in AFIS or missing persons,' Stella told her apologetically. 'Is your ghost not giving you anything useful?'

Taylor raised her eyebrows. 'Useful? It's never useful. And this afternoon's clue of choice is a set of car keys. Probably to that Aston Martin,' she added. 'Which is not useful,' she added, staring pointedly at the dead burglar.

Hawkes held up some slides. 'Maybe these can tell us who he is.'

'What are they?' Taylor asked, peering at them.

'Scales from a butterfly?' asked Stella, who was also peering at them.

Hawkes nodded, placing the slide under the microscope and projecting the image up onto a screen. 'There are at least twenty different species of butterfly on the vic's tux. And what's weird is that these species of butterfly don't group together in nature.'

Taylor nodded. 'What's weirder is that that is from the wing of a peacock butterfly,' she indicated to the screen. 'And they're only found in Europe and Asia.'

'Since when do you know your butterflies?' Stella asked, a little surprised.

Taylor smiled. 'I know that one. I also know that the only place you're going to find them in New York is at the Museum of Natural History, in its conservatory. But I also know that I could have transferred them there myself.'

Stella bit back a grin. 'You know you're starting to think like a criminalist?'

Taylor shrugged. 'I spent my life here,' she told her dryly. 'Something was going to sink in eventually.'

'However,' Hawkes added. 'With the concentration and location of the scales, our vic would have to have been there.'

Stella grinned. 'Let's go to that conservatory.'

'Taylor, are you alright?' Hawkes asked, stopping Taylor as she tried to follow Stella.

Taylor nodded slowly. 'I think it's one of those days where nothing is going to go right.'

Hawkes cocked his head and looked at her. 'Look, you wanna go for a run later, after I get of work? We keep talking about doing it, and we never do.'

Taylor nodded her head, vigorously. 'You know, I think I do. What time will you be done?'

Hawkes shrugged, looking at his watch. 'Let's call it nine.'

'I'll meet you here,' Taylor smiled. 'At least I have my running outfit in my locker still. Anyway, I think it's time I returned these jewels, because I'm not sure how much longer I can keep wearing them before I decided I don't want to part with them.'

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It hit Taylor, as she drove to the upper West Side to return Devon's diamonds, that maybe, the best option would be to help the burglar. And the quicker she did it, the sooner he would go. And then she could have another little chat with Maddy. About ethics. And how helping someone who had broken into one's apartment was not very ethical.

Devon took the jewelry off her and dumped them on her dining table. 'They looked good on you. I like them. But I prefer them in pink.' She smiled brightly. 'Daddy has promised me another set – to take my mind off the awful event that occurred here last night. I'm so glad I had Martin with me. He was so brave.'

Taylor looked over at Marty who was watching the TV, pretending not to listen. 'Really?'

Devon nodded. 'He threatened them with a baseball bat and they flew. Quite literally. Out of the window.'

'Well isn't Martin the brave one,' Taylor asked, smirking at Marty.

'Are you heading back to the lab?' Marty asked loudly, jumping to his feet. 'Devon, I'll see you later.' He grabbed Taylor and ushered her out of Devon's apartment.

'You're not staying to talk?' Taylor asked him, amused for the first time that day.

Marty glared at her. 'No.'

'Conversation not doing it for you?'

'Who said I was dating her for the conversation?'

Taylor rolled her eyes.

'And why are you still in that frock?'

'Because, Martin, our apartment also got broken into last night, and my bedroom, along with my closet, is a crime scene,' she sniped.

Marty looked at her over the roof of her car as she unlocked the door. 'Someone got up on the wrong side of bed.'

Taylor narrowed her eyes. 'Someone didn't go to bed last night,' she informed him, dropping into the car.

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The pair of them walked through the crime lab together in silence until they spotted Mac, Flack and Danny talking. Danny turned, carrying some form of metal in an evidence bag, and headed down the corridor towards them.

'Doctor Pino!' he exclaimed with a wide grin. 'How's that new girlfriend?'

Marty arched an eyebrow at him. 'Keep walking, Messer.'

Danny stopped. 'Seriously, how'd you meet her?'

'Her dad owns the Rams,' Marty responded, ignoring the question.

'So she's got teeth?'

Marty grinned back. 'Wanna see the teeth marks?'

'EW!' Taylor exclaimed, stepping between the two and pushing them away from each other. 'Put the testosterone back in the pants and keep moving,' she told them both. 'That is far more information than I wanted to hear!'

Danny laughed, walking off.

Marty just shrugged at her.

'Don't you have something to be doing?' Taylor asked him.

'What?' he asked. 'Like interfering in a case?'

'No,' Taylor told him with a glare. 'Like buying your girlfriend some flowers.'

'She's not my girlfriend,' Marty started to point out.

Taylor ushered him away. 'Move.'