Chapter 17
November
Chapter List
Greg gritted his teeth and tossed another handful of rocks down near the side of the house. Two days now, two freaking days and swing shift was no closer to finding out what had happened to the woman in the bushes. Normally, he wouldn't care that it was taking forever to solve a case, but his son was the one who had found the body and the lack of closure, or rather the lack of killer, frustrated him.
Yesterday, they had called in Sara to help Adrien Donald and Riley Parker, neither of whom were getting anywhere fast. Outside of Grissom, she was the only one on night shift who wasn't associated with finding the body. She had managed to get a hit on something before Greg had left that morning, finally identifying the body as twenty four-year-old Shannon Kirk.
Greg couldn't help thinking on the drive home about her parents. Would they be happy or not to learn about the death of their daughter? The thought hadn't comforted him in the least.
He rolled up the empty bag of landscaping gravel and tucked it away under a full bag. Down on his knees, he opened a new bag when Nick walked around the corner, "Sara nailed it."
Greg looked up at Nick and then down at his watch. It was after noon already, "So?" He asked, standing up.
"Things got out of hand at a masked party she was at. One of those leave yourself behind things? A friend said that Kirk kept telling some guy no before finally giving in and leaving the party with him. That had been around midnight on Wednesday."
"And Dave clocked her for a four a. m. death." Greg said. He rubbed his hands along his face, not particular caring at the dirt that was left behind from the action, "That's somewhat of a relief."
Nick shook his head, "It was the homeowner of that house. Well, more like his angry wife."
Greg, who had been in the process of cleaning up his mess, froze, "Marlene Wilkins killed her?" His voice was no louder then a whisper and it was hoarse from disbelief, "No shit."
"You know her?"
"Yeah, kinda." Greg dropped down onto his ass and rested his elbows on his knees, "Fuck."
Nick kneeled down in front of Greg and ran his hands along the inside of Greg's elbow, "Shit, G, are you serious?"
Greg nodded and let one his hands pick at invisible fuzzies on Nick's t-shirt, "Weren't close or anything, but I've talked to her at a few times at some of the area functions."
Nick tightened the grip on the arms he was holding and decided to change the subject, "How was Elijah last night?"
"A few nightmares, wet the bed once. You were out on scene when he called after the second nightmare."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Greg looked up at Nick. The Texans eyes filled with worry and not just a little bit of sadness. Hating himself for putting part of that look there, Greg raised his hands and ran them through Nick's hair, "I'm sorry. I should have, but you needed to concentrate on that case and worrying over Elijah wasn't going to help you."
Nick frowned, "Greg, you can't just expect me to..."
Greg pressed his fingers to Nick's lips, effectively silencing him, "What would you have done?"
Nick stared at him a moment before sighing and nodding, "All right, but the next time he calls in the middle of the night I want to know." He said after he kissed Greg's fingertips and pulled them away.
"All right, I think that can be arranged."
"Good."
~~
Greg gathered the sheets of papers in front of him and stood with a yawn. It was well into his dinner break, but there had been something bugging him about the fight case. It wouldn't leave him alone until after he figured out the problem. As he started toward the lab door, he paused when he saw Nick talking to Grissom, "Yeah, but it's like the night of the Pifflings out there and I'm on a smash and grab."
Grissom cocked his head and his eyebrow's knitted together slightly, "Pifflings?"
Greg snorted as Nick started to explain the term to Grissom. He remembered that documentary on the Puffins, mainly because Nick and Elijah had shushed him every time he had gone to ask a question.
As he watched, Grissom finally nodded with a look of enlightenment on his face, "Animal Planet." He then turned and started down the hall, leaving a bemused Nick behind.
"How come when you talk about bugs everyone says you're a genius, but when I talk about birds everyone says I watch too much television?" Nick called out.
Grissom paused and looked over his shoulder, "I don't know. Look, the next night of the Pifflings, you get the first dead body."
"Copy that." Nick said and turned around, finally facing Greg, "How long have you been there?"
"Long enough." Greg smirked and stepped into the hallway, "You do watch a lot of TV, come to think of it."
Nick swatted Greg's head with his folder and started walking down the hall, "So say's the man who falls asleep with the TV on in the morning."
Greg stuck out his tongue and followed in the direction Grissom had gone. He had figured his boss was headed towards the layout lab and as he walked in, it was apparent his guess had been right, "We have a problem."
Warrick looked up at him, "Pile it on."
Greg nodded and held up the paper, "Well, in the interests of posterity, I took it upon myself to establish provenance for the killer gloves. I mean, DNA-wise. On my own time, of course, of which I have precious little, so that should count for something." He said, bouncing forward onto his toes slightly.
"Greg, why are you always doing this?" Grissom raised his hands to emphasize the question, his tone one of exasperation.
Greg looked at Grissom, "Because you make me nervous."
He paused and then started talking again when Grissom looked away, "My point is," He handed the sheet to Grissom, "The epithelias found on the surface of the glove, they're not Laroi Steele's. Those aren't the gloves that killed him." He pointed to the table in general as he looked at Grissom once more to see his reaction, which was one of shock, though it was barely visible.
Greg smiled grimly and looked at the other CSI's in the room as Sara let out a sigh and turned to face Warrick. He rocked onto his toes once more and shoved his hands in his pockets before turning and heading out of the layout lab. He went down to the break room where a dish of leftover lasagna was waiting for him.
After heating it up, he went to his lab and dropped down in front of the little used computer. It was mainly used for storage of reports as it wasn't connected to the labs Internet, although a few of the other DNA lab techs did like to play tricks with it. Like the time he made a background that was identical to the one on there already, icons included, and then deleted the real icons.
Marcus, day shifts lab tech, Tanya from swing shift, and Cindy had all thrown fits and filed reports about it being faulty. Greg claimed to have no problems that night. It had been hilarious on his end of it until Marcus talked Archie into taking a look. It went downhill rather quickly after that for him.
After taking a bite of the Italian dish, he clicked on the games tab and brought up spider solitaire, a game he was slowly working on getting better at. He was only up to two suits, but he was getting better.
He was on his third game and just finishing his dinner when the lab phone rang, "Sanders." He said, after picking up the handset.
/daddy?/
A quick glance at the computer's clock showed it to be around four, so his son wasn't just getting up before he got home and wanting to talk to him, "Hey sproglet. Had another nightmare huh?"
/...no, but...i wet bed 'gain./
A knock to the counter behind him had Greg freezing. Although instead of hanging up on his son this time, like he had many moons ago when Nick had walked in while he was chatting with Elijah, he just turned around and met worried eyes, "What time, babe?"
/aunty wayne says two. cant sleep./
"There's someone here who might be able to help with that." Greg said, motioning for Nick to step closer.
/who?/
Greg smiled, "How about I hand the phone over and you can find out?"
/k. luv you, daddy./
"You too, babe." He passed the phone to Nick.
Nick accepted the phone and Greg was glad the look of worry had dissipated while he had listened to Greg talk to Elijah. Nick's, "You want me to sing you a song?" had his eyes widening as they flew to Nick's face. He didn't even know if the Texan could sing. Nick didn't care much for his music and Greg could only tolerate so much country, "Why can't daddy or even Rayne...me huh?"
Nick sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, probably thinking of a song or squaring himself up for some serious ribbing from Greg if he couldn't carry a tune. Not that Greg would actually do that, but he wasn't about to say anything.
"All right...Help me if you can I've got to get, back to the house at pooh corner by one. You'd be surprised, there's so much to be done. Count all the bees in the hive. Chase all the clouds from the sky. Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh..."
Greg relaxed into the chair as the old Kenny Loggins song floated over him. His mom had been a huge Kenny Loggins fan and actually wore out her records when he was younger from over playing them. Even though he liked Winnie-the-Pooh, and despite the fact that Elijah's 'nursery' at his parents had been done up in Winnie-the Pooh décor, it had never once crossed his mind to have Elijah listen to the old song.
The way Nick sounded singing it, however, he figured the Texan had already taken care of that. It was obvious that this was not the first time Nick had sung it and while there was a chance it had been to his nieces and nephews, he was betting Elijah had heard it from him before as well. His lover had a surprisingly smooth voice and Greg began thinking of all things he could do to get his lover to sing again, except the next time it was going to be just for him.
"Love you too, little man...I will. Bye." Nick handed the phone back to Greg and said, "I was told to tell you that Elijah loves you." Greg nodded and placed the phone back on the hook. Nick pulled himself up onto the counter, "Well, at least it was just bed wetting."
"Yeah. It was hard when he called about the nightmare and there wasn't much I could do." Greg sighed and looked up at Nick, "You know, Thanksgiving is in two weeks."
"Yeah." Nick said slowly, wondering where Greg was going with the topic change.
"Just a warning. My parents and grandparents are coming up." Greg paused and bit his lip, "I think we should invite yours."
"We can ask. I don't know if they'll come though. They usually spend it with Liam, Lynn and Tasha." Nick said and jumped down off of the table, "Well, my break is over." He glanced at the computer as he tugged at Greg's hair, his replacement for kisses while they were at work, "Don't have too much fun now."
Greg rolled his eyes and shut the game down, "Of course not."
~~
Nick lowered his book to his chest as Greg, who had been pacing the family room while he talked to his mother, paused, "Early next week? Mom..." Greg made a noise in his throat as he turned to face Nick, "Mom, look, we kinda...no, of course not. We want you here, but..."
Nick sat up and placed a bookmark into the crease of his book before turning his full attention to Greg's conversation with Jan. He was sort of wishing she had called the landline so he could talk to her at the same time, "Greg, just tell her they're going to have to use the aero bed."
Greg covered the mouthpiece and rolled his eyes at whatever his mom was going on about, "I'm trying to, but she's not letting me talk." He uncovered the mouthpiece and all but yelled, "Mom!"
Nick caught his hand and pulled so that Greg dropped down onto his lap. Greg looped an arm over Nick's shoulders and transferred the phone to the ear closest to Nick's, "Mom, are you done?"
/I was just talking Greg./
"I know. Will you just listen for a minute?" When Jan didn't say anything Greg pressed on, "What I've been trying to tell you is that we don't mind you coming early, but we took the bed out of the room you use. You and dad are going to have to use the aero bed."
Jan was silent for a moment/May I ask why?/
Greg dug his fingers into Nick's shoulder and let out a whimper at his mothers tone. Nick snorted in amusement and took the phone out of Greg's hand, "Jan? It's Nick."
/Oh, hi honey. Look, Greg was just explaining to me that Dave and I were going to use the blow up bed. I'm just a little curious as to why./
Nick chuckled at the change in Jan's tone of voice. From calm and irritated to dripping in honey, "We turned that room into my, ah, den. We were going to have you stay in the guest house, but my sister is living there right now until they can afford a place of their own."
He could almost visualize Jan's nod when he heard her earrings dangle against her phone/Yes, Greg's mentioned that. I think it is so sweet that you're helping her out. Dave and I really don't mind taking the aero. Or, even better, we could use Elijah's.../
"Yeah, that might not be such a good idea..." Nick trailed off when Greg started shaking his head wildly. Apparently, there was something Greg hadn't told his mother, "Jan, can we call you back? Our beepers just went off."
/Of course. Tell my son I love him and that I will certainly be talking to him later./
"Sure. Talk to you later." Nick snapped Greg's phone shut and leaned back to look at Greg straight on, "What the hell, G?"
Greg frowned, "I didn't tell her and I can't believe you just lied to my mother like that."
Nick nodded slowly and said, "I'm sorta getting that, G. Why not? And I don't mean about lying to your mother either."
Greg sighed and slid off Nick's lap so he was leaning against the armrest of the couch, "Look, my mom, she's really over protective. The reason I made all those plans to join sports when I came out here to live was because under her roof, I couldn't play anything. If I had told her about what happened to Elijah, she would have been on the first plane out here and she would never leave."
"Well, she's going to want to know why she and your dad can't use Elijah's bed." Nick said as he massaged Greg's calves through his jeans, "Didn't Krista tell her?"
"Yeah, let them in there without saying anything and they're going to wonder why he has plastic under his sheets all of a sudden." Greg dropped his head back, "Could we just tell her that Elijah started wetting the bed without going into details? And no, nana didn't tell her. She doesn't do stuff like that." He lifted his head to look at Nick, "Have you called your parents yet?"
"Uh, no." Nick replied.
"Why not?
Nick shrugged, "Figured I'd let Sammy do it."
"Nick..." Greg pushed himself up onto his elbows, "Just call already. Thanksgiving is just over a week away. If they do say yes, they're going to have to get their tickets as soon as possible."
Nick stared at him for a moment before nodding. He flipped Greg's phone back open and dialed in his mom's office number, figuring with the time she'd be there and not in the main part of the house.
/Hello Greg./ Jillian answered after a few rings.
"Actually, mama, it's Nick. Greg's phone was closer."
/Nick! Oh this is so unexpected. Is something wrong with Elijah?/
"What?" Nick sat up straight and glanced at Greg, who was looking at the ceiling and whistling, "No, no, he's fine."
/Sweetie, he found a body. How can he be fine after that?/
"Greg...told you about that?" Nick asked, feeling confused. Greg wouldn't tell his own mother but had no qualms telling his?
/Well, I sort of pried it out of him. I had called at a bad time, I'm afraid. Elijah was screaming away in the background. I wouldn't let the poor boy go until he told me what was wrong with the baby./
Nick nodded. That was his mother in a nutshell, "Elijah's not a baby."
/I know that. So why are you calling if everything's okay?/
"I can only call if there's a problem? I'll keep that in mind next time."
/Nicholas Daniel Stokes, don't get snippy./
"Sorry mama." Nick said. He didn't feel sorry, but it was the quickest way to get his mom to drop his middle name.
Greg watched the conversation between mother and son go on until Nick apologized for his infraction. Not able to take it anymore, he sat up and held out his hand, "Give me the phone."
Nick looked at him, "What?"
"Give me the phone. Come on."
Greg wiggled his fingers in front of Nick's face until the Texan got fed up and said, "Mama, Greg wants to speak with you." He handed the phone to Greg, "This is ridiculous man. We talk more to each others parents then we do our own."
"Speak for yourself." Greg lifted the phone, "Jillian, what your son has been trying to ask is would you be interested in joining us here in Vegas for Thanksgiving?"
/That's a wonderful idea! I'm afraid Bill and I were at loose ends this year. It's Leslie's parents turn to have them and the kids and Lynn is going to Noah's. It was turning out to be a rather bleak holiday once Tasha announced her ex was taking their kids this year as well./
"Er..." Greg began mentally counting beds as he said, "Tasha's welcome, too." He winced and rubbed his arm when Nick smacked him with the back of his hand. He frowned at his lover who was beginning to glare at him, the cause most likely from him inviting one of his other sisters.
/I'm sure she'd appreciate the invite, but since she's not going to have the kids, she's having a girls night with a few friends at some spa./
"Right. So, you'll come then?"
/Of course. I'm looking up flights and hotels as we speak./
Greg could hear the clacking of the keyboard through the phone, "No, Jillian, no hotels. Sammy said you and Bill are free to stay with them in the guest house."
/Will there be room? Sammy gave me a run down on the house but.../
"There will be room, trust me."
/All right. Let me work on some flights and talk things over with Bill. I'll give you two a call later to verify dates and times. Tell Nick I love him./
"Sounds good and I will. Bye." Greg hung up and leaned against Nick, "Your mother loves you, Nicky-poo."
Nick pushed Greg away from him in mock disgust, trying to hold back his laughter, "Shut up."
Greg chuckled and saluted, "Yes sir."
TBC...
Chapter 18