Chapter 6 – You've got a friend in me
The sound of soft shuffling feet and the polite clearing of a throat dragged Sara's attention away from the slide she'd been studying under the microscope. She looked over to the doorway and saw David Phillips, Doc Robbin's assistant, standing shyly in the doorway. "Oh, hey, Dave, what brings you up from the crypt?"
"Doc Robbins just finished Ryan Murphy's post mortem," Dave replied, holding up the beige folder containing the results, "we found something interesting during the autopsy and thought I'd bring it over myself rather than making you wait for it."
"Come on in, let's take a look," Sara waved her hand at the spare lab stool at the end of the lab bench, and Dave shyly stepped fully into the lab, handing over the results while perching on the stool. Sara flipped open the folder and started to read through the results. "Hmm, visual examination revealed several scars in the process of healing…"
"Based on the tissue samples, Doc thinks the oldest is from around four years ago with the newest around the time of the murder…" Dave interrupted, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks as Sara glanced up from her reading, "um…that's in the supplemental report." Sara gave Dave a brief smile and nod before continuing to read.
"Hold up…you found the tip of a knife near his liver?" Sara looked up over the top of her report, Dave nodding enthusiastically as Sara started rifling through the other reports scattered across the desk.
"Oh, yeah it was coated in scarified tissues so we estimated it's been at least 18 months since he was stabbed, it didn't actually penetrate the liver but was close enough to scar and embed itself to the outside. Not sure if we'll be able to get anything off the metal as it's been inside the body this long, but we sent it over to Trace anyway."
"It directly contradicts the wife's statement that it was a one-off argument that got out of hand…" Sara said, looking excitedly up at Dave as she began scooping all of the reports together in preparation for updating Grissom. "Great work, Dave, you and Doc may have just proved that this was a grievous bodily harm murder rather than the tragic accident the wife was playing it off as. I'll have Grissom inform Brass and we just might get this thing put to bed so that we can get out of here on time for once. Thanks again, Dave."
"Uh, no problem, glad to help…" Dave stuttered, rising from stool and nearly tripping over the foot bar as he followed Sara out of the lab; the pair pausing at the end of the corridor just before they were about to split into different directions.
"Hey, Dave…if we do get this case wrapped up on time, some of us are heading out for Breakfast – why don't you join us?" Dave looked pleased at the invitation, but was somewhat surprised that he'd been asked.
"Um, are you sure?" Dave chanced a wary glance over his shoulder in the direction of the glass fronted labs before leaning a little closer toward Sara and lowering his voice. "Thursday Breakfast…me? I still find Grissom and Brass a little intimidating; not everyone gets the autopsy humour and I have a tendency to overshare whenever I'm nervous…and boy, do those two make me nervous…" Sara gave Dave a consoling smile before patting him gently on the arm.
"I wouldn't throw you to the wolves like that, Dave…I meant just breakfast at the diner with a few of the guys…"
"Oh, well…" Dave's nervous expression brightened and a grin spread over his rounded face, "sure, that'd be nice…I'll check that Doc doesn't need me for anything else and then head back over after shift?"
"See you then," Sara replied, calling back over her shoulder as she headed towards Grissom's office, "I'll page you if we get delayed!"
The Breakfast Club was unusually subdued while they sat around the small table near Grissom's patio; Jim had bounded into the Condo brandishing a Veggie deluxe pizza instead of the meat lovers feast that he usually picked only for the grin to drop off his face when Grissom said that she wouldn't be joining them that morning. Even Robbins had brought along a six pack of the flavoured iced tea that Sara enthused about, having fully expected Sara to be there. Half an hour into the game, the cigars were unlit, the whisky bottle still capped, and no one was really paying attention to the cards held loosely in their hands.
Finally, Jim threw down his cards with a sigh, "sorry guys, I guess I'm just not really in the mood for cards today."
"Or pizza and cigars for that matter," Al Robbins added, quirking an amused brow at the homicide detective who was now patting his pocket and tossing his jacket over his arm. "Where are you off to now?"
"I thought I might as well go home, try and sleep, I don't know…" Jim replied, making Grissom chuckle as he gestured to Robbins as they both got up from the table.
"C'mon, I know where they're meeting for breakfast," Grissom said as he snagged his keys from the counter and started leading the others out of the Condo, "they were waiting for Warrick to finish logging his evidence in, so they probably haven't even ordered yet."
"Jeez, what happened to us, Griss?" Jim groused from the backseat of Grissom's Mercedes as the trio made their way back across town to the diner often frequented by the lab staff. "She's not been in town six months and now it's like we're a football team without their star player. "
"It's a good job you didn't say we were missing a cheerleader," Robbins quipped from the passenger seat, sharing a wry grin with Grissom, "I don't think Sara would like that at all."
"You think I'm looking to be smacked around the head? I ain't that dumb, Al," Jim replied bluntly, "I've been around women enough to know that our cookie's a leader not a follower…you've only got to look at the way the lab rats scurry around whenever she's working lead on a case, even if we didn't have incident triage, they'd all shift her stuff to the top of the pile anyway."
"And that doesn't bother you, Gil?" Robbins asked, turning his head slightly and expecting to see a frown on the shift supervisor's face, only for Grissom to look pleasantly surprised instead. "Gil?"
"Catherine's been in the business a long time, Al, when did you ever seen the techs voluntarily shift her cases to the top of their list? Sara's just got this way about her that has everyone wanting to please her…she never raises her voice or gets angry when the results don't show what she's expecting…"
"And you couldn't be prouder…" Robbins surmised, sitting back in his seat with a chuckle. "She's gonna break a few hearts, I can tell you…Dave's already developing a pretty big crush on her, and Greg practically floats on air whenever she gives him the slightest hint of praise."
"But she comes home to me every night, so that's all that matters," Grissom said with a smug grin, pulling into the diner lot and smiling widely when he happened to catch Sara's attention as she spotted his car. He flashed a quick sign through the window, and felt his heart skip a beat as he saw her nudging the others to move over to a larger table before she waved out of the window, grinning widely.
"Oh, hey, Griss…" Nick looked up from his perusal of the menu and offered the new arrivals a grin, "game get a little stale today? Maybe it's time you invited some new blood, you know stir things up keep it interesting?"
"Yeah, laugh it up hotshot…talk is cheap, I bet you won't be so chatty next week when my full house beats your scrawny pair," Jim tapped Greg on the shoulder and pointed to a chair at end of the table.
"Huh?"
"You're in my seat, bucko…move it." Greg had been basking in his glory at snagging a seat next to Sara, with Dave pressed up against her other side, now his face fell as Jim's pointed stare made it clear that that was a privilege he'd now lost. Warrick and Nick were chuckling to themselves as they watched Greg's downcast figure shuffle over to the bench they were occupying, while Dave voluntarily moved along the opposite bench preparing to leave a gap for either Doc Robbins or Grissom to sit down. To everyone's surprise, Sara shuffled herself and Jim along as well, leaving the space at the end for the two doctors.
"So, Dave, what was it you were saying earlier? You know, about the woman with the extra organs?" After offering a smile of greeting to the new arrivals, Sara turned her head toward Dave, the assistant coroner looking momentarily surprised that she wanted to continue their earlier conversation.
"I don't remember that one…" Robbins pursed his lips before shaking his head. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell."
"Ah, it was when I was working out of L.A.," Dave replied, shifting a little in his seat, slightly uncomfortable at being the focus of everyone's attention. Sara offered him an encouraging smile, prompting him to go on. Sitting up a little in his seat, Dave cleared his throat before continuing. "When we opened her up, we found several additional spleens, they weren't functioning as they weren't in the same blood flow as the parent spleen."
"So, this woman's body just decided to grow another couple of spleens that didn't actually work?" Warrick's eyes narrowed slightly as he shook his head. "Man, that's messed up…"
"What did the pathologist decide was the primary cause?" Grissom asked, leaning forward on his elbows slightly, his interest piqued at the anomaly. "Genetics, maybe?"
"Not this time," he confirmed, leaning forward his face brightening at the chance of a real conversation with his peers when he wasn't just imparting blunt facts about the latest cadaver on the autopsy table, "although one in ten people do have a genetic possibility of spontaneously growing supplemental organs; this was a case of an old event that damaged the spleen, causing the cells to delocalise and grow in another area…"
"One in ten, huh?" Nick mused, quirking an eyebrow across the table at Greg, "think Greggo might spontaneously grow another heart when Sara breaks his when she turns down yet another of his dance club invites?"
"Hey, a man's gotta have dreams…" Greg replied with a nonchalant shrug, "I know it probably won't ever happen, but while I'm breathing, I'm hoping."
"Ah, Greg…. it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live…" Grissom quoted softly, quirking his eyebrow playfully when someone suggested Keats and another Lear. "Albus Dumbledore," he offered with a smile, the team chuckled at the thought of Sara dragging Grissom along to see a kid's movie.
Saying their goodbyes in the parking lot, Sara murmured something near Grissom's ear before jogging over to catch Dave's arm before he could make his way back to the lab. "So, Dave, now that you've had breakfast with the crew, feel up to trying it again…perhaps next Thursday at Grissom's place? Think about it and let me know…"
Getting into the back seat of Grissom's car, Sara nodded at Grissom's brief look. "He'll think about it, Dave doesn't really socialise with anyone outside of work, he was a bit intimidated by you and Jim so I think today was good for him to see everyone just relaxing and having a good time."
"We'll have to pick out a bigger table," Grissom replied, reaching over to pat Sara's hand, letting her know that it was a good step, inviting their home to others.
"Never mind the table, at this rate you're gonna need a bigger house!"