In The Night
In The Night
Summary: Greg has a tough time with a tough case.
In The Night
"And night bore hateful death, and she bore sleep and dreams. And again murky night bore criticism and painful misery. Also she bore fate and avenging death. Also deadly night bore retribution, and afterwards deceit, affection, old age, and strife." - Paraphrase from Theology
It was one of those rare nights when both Warrick and Greg weren't working. While Warrick was on call, Greg officially had the night off. Warrick stepped out of the shower and walked out of the bathroom toward the bedroom, followed by Greg. He'd barely made it into the bedroom, when he found himself in bed on his back, with Greg straddling him. It was a position they'd been in nearly all day and the reason for their latestt shower. Warrick grinned at his boyfriend. "Haven't you had enough, yet?"
Greg smirked. "Never." He started leaving small kisses and licks down Warrick's chest. The phone rang just as Greg's lips found a hipbone. He felt one of his boyfriend's hands leave his hair.
"Hey, Gris." Warrick received a sharp bite to the hip. They had rules about names that couldn't be said in bed. And with the exception of Archie, who they both agreed was cute, every coworker made the list. Catherine because Greg was jealous. Nick because Warrick was jealous. Sara because 5 times out of 10 she pissed Warrick off. Hodges because 5 times out of 10 Greg wanted to kill him. And Gris because...well he was their boss and that was just kind of gross.
Greg kept moving lower as his boyfriend attempted some semblance of a phone conversation. He trusted Warrick's ability to multi-task. Before he reached his ultimate goal, Greg was pulled up for a peck on the lips. "We have to go."
"Both of us?" Greg's forehead wrinkled in confusion. He almost never got called in on his day off.
Warrick got out of bed and started pulling clothes out their dresser. "Yeah, three bodies in the desert. Gris says everyone's already out on different cases. Ecklie's calling his people in to cover their cases, then they'll be joining us."
XXXXXXXXXX
They made it to the crime scene within 45 minutes. Warrick pulled the Denali off road and parked. They walked a little further and met up with a few local police officers standing around, without a body in sight. "Where's the scene?"
Warrick was about to repeat himself when someone finally stepped forward. "Um...I'll take you."
Greg and Warrick followed the officer for a few minutes before three small burned bodies attached to posts were in front of them. The officer turned around quickly to leave and Warrick watched as Greg started to turn green. "I swear to God if you throw up and contaminate my scene, I'll never work with you again Sanders."
Greg nodded and swallowed around the lump in his throat. He took a deep breath and realized immediately that was a mistake. Suddenly Warrick was at his side, his hand against his back, his voice soothing. "Come on now. Breath through your mouth. It's easier." Greg took a few breaths. "Are you okay now? You know you can sit in the Denali and wait for everyone else to get here."
That suggestion had the expected reaction. Greg glared, his back straightened. "I'm fine."
"Good." Warrick started snapping photographs. Greg moved closer to the bodies to start collecting trace from the posts and the barbed wire used to tie them up. They'd been there for half an hour before the rest of the team started showing up.
The sun was just rising as they finished processing the scene. Dave and Gris worked on removing the bodies from the posts so Dave could bag them. Warrick didn't envy Doc's job, he knew identifying the bodies would be a bitch...the murderer's goal no doubt.
XXXXXXXXXX
They headed back to the lab to start processing evidence. Cath, Sara, and Nick left at the end of their shift. Warrick and Greg stayed behind, it was officially their case. They had just started the long process of going through missing person's files when Doc paged them. He'd found a partially melted I.D. card that must have been in one of the vic's shirt pockets. The name of the school was melted, but Warrick recognized the logo. Brisley Middle School. They couldn't make out the girl's full first name. They dropped it off in AV for Archie to work on and went back to the missing person's database. There was no A. Clark missing from Vegas, which meant the girl had been missing for less than 24 hours or no one had noticed she was gone.
Brisley's school day would be starting soon. Brass and Greg headed there to find A. Clark's full information along with her emergency contacts Brass would break the news to the family sometime that day. They were also hoping to get a list of all the students absent that morning. Brisley was notoriously difficult to deal with. The students were unruly. The administration was constantly changing. Greg was on his seventh cup of coffee since he started his shift and he new he'd be working for at least another two hours just trying to get information out of Brisley's staff.
Brass had gotten Alisha Clark's information and was standing in the school hallway waiting for Greg to finish talking with the attendance lady. The bell rang and kids stormed out of classrooms. Most of the kids ignored him, too engrossed in their very loud discussions, a few cleverly hid the words "pig" and "po-po" in barely-there coughs. Brass watched the kids and one caught his eye. A girl had stopped in the middle of the hallway, her wide blue eyes focused on him. Brass guessed she was a eighth grader. He met her eyes and she looked away. She looked around as if to see if anyone was paying attention to her. It looked like she was going to take a step toward him, but changed her mind. Brass called out to her. "Hey, Miss, can I talk to you?"
There were a few hoots and hollers from the crowd of students hanging out around the lockers. The girl walked up to Brass, pushing dull brown hair behind her ears. Brass looked her over. "What's your name?"
"Brittany Martin."
"Did you have something you wanted to tell me, Brittany?"
She wouldn't look at him, looking down at her feet instead. She shook her head. "Um, no, I don't think so."
Brass pulled out a card and handed it to her. "If you change your mind, call me. Name's Jim Brass." Brass watched the girl walk away, and a few minutes later, Greg stepped out of the attendance office.
"Eighty-four kids missed first period. This is crazy. There's not even five hundred kids in this school."
"Welcome to Brisley."
"They said their first period is always like this and they'd have a better idea of their actual attendance by mid-day. I'm going to go back to the lab and start on these. They said they'll fax us once they get mid-day attendance in."
Brass huffed. "Yeah, good luck with that."
XXXXXXXXXX
Back at the lab, Greg and Warrick started calling all the parents of the absent children. They were about a quarter through the list and getting nowhere when Brass called from the Clark family's home. Apparently Alisha had two best friends. The three girls were inseparable, never went anywhere without each other. Both girls were also missing. All the parents had contacted each other when they found their daughters missing that morning. They assumed the girls had snuck out in the middle of the night.
So they had names to their Jane Does but they still had no idea who had murdered them. Greg and Warrick were going over the trace they had collected at the scene again when Brass called them again. Brittany Martin had information about their case. She was coming into the lab in half an hour with her mother.
By the time Brass got back to the lab. Brittany and Mrs. Martin were sitting in the interrogation room. Brittany had called her mother right after seeing Jim to tell her everything.
Brittany had snuck out with two older kids from the high school that night to check out a concert a little bit out of town. Brittany and Zack had met up at Maria's house. Maria's mother had a job at a casino and was never home during the night. While there, Maria started complaining about an 8th grader that her boyfriend was cheating on her with, Alisha Clark. On the way there they stopped at Alisha's house. Maria told Zack to tell Alisha to meet her boyfriend in the desert off Shannon Road.
Brittany went to the concert with Zack and Maria but she had them drop her off before they went to meet up with Alisha. Brittany had thought the two teenagers were just going to scare Alisha, but when the eighth grader didn't show up to school the next day and she saw cops at her school, she got worried and called her mother to tell her what happened.
Maria and Zack were brought into the lab for interrogation. Warrick watched from behind glass as Brass and Greg started the questioning. He watched as Maria and Zack told their stories without remorse. Maria was sure that Alisha and her friends got what they deserved. Zack had always wanted to do something like that, kill someone, burn someone alive. The kid was sick and probably would get sent to a mental institution. Maria was another story. She planned out a murder and got someone to commit it for her. No matter what her age, a jury probably wouldn't take too kindly to that story.
XXXXXXXXXX
Warrick and Greg finally made it home, and it felt like they hadn't been there in weeks, when in truth it had only been a couple days at most. Greg walked into the bathroom as Warrick sorted through the mail and checked his voicemail messages. Once Warrick was done, he walked into the bedroom and stripped out of his clothes, and met up with Greg in the shower. Greg had his hands against the tiles, head bent under the shower head, too-hot water pelting his shoulders.
Warrick stood behind him and touched his hand to Greg's hip. He reached around Greg with his other hand to turn down the heat. Greg turned around so he was facing his boyfriend. Warrick pushed the hair from Greg's eyes and forehead.
Greg's question was out of the blue. "What did you want to be when you grew up?"
Warrick's smile was easy. "What didn't I want to be?" He reached for the shampoo and squirted some in his hand. "A firefighter, a superhero..." He started washing Greg's hair. "A casino owner, an oil tycoon, a priest, a librarian, pro-baller, a--"
"A priest?"
"Yeah, once I got out of all the stuff I was doing in college, I kind of went to the other extreme. Only lasted for a few weeks."
"Rebel."
Warrick's lathered Greg's hair into a faux-hawk. "Yeah, but music is what I'd be doing if I weren't doing this. If that's what you're asking."
"You ever think of quitting and picking music up full-time?"
Warrick pushed Greg under the water to rinse out the shampoo and shook his head. "Nah. I've found my purpose."
Greg stepped closer to Warrick and shook his head, flinging water everywhere. "I've always wanted to be a scientist, you know? Thought I'd be discovering new elements and curing diseases. Instead I just proved that two fifteen year olds killed three middle-schoolers."
Warrick regarded Greg seriously, resting his hands on his boyfriend's shoulders. "You can't choose them."
Greg shrugged off Warrick's hands and turned away toward shower head. "I know that."
They continued washing in silence. They stepped out of the shower and grabbed towels to dry off as they walked to the bedroom. They dropped the towels before crawling into bed. Warrick was nearly asleep when he heard Greg's soft voice. "How do you deal with this job, I mean, do you just get used to it?"
Warrick's voice was dry. "I learned at a young age to expect the worst from people. Even the best people fuck up, the innocent sin. I stopped believing in good people and bad people a long time ago. We've all got a little of both in us."
Greg kissed the skin he could reach without moving, which happened to be Warrick's rib. He rubbed his hand down Warrick's chest. "Sometimes I wish I was more like you."
"I hope you're never like me. Wouldn't love you half as much." Warrick's fingers slid into Greg's hair. His voice was soft. "You know, when you first became a CSI, I wasn't sure you'd be cut out for it. Me and the others...we all dealt with some pretty shitty situations before we even hit college. I wouldn't go so far as to call you innocent, but you haven't been disappointed as much as the others have." Warrick paused. "You're an amazing CSI Greg. You don't expect the worst like I tend to or hope for the best like Nick does. You're objective like Grissom but still sympathetic, empathetic. You caring about these cases isn't a bad thing."
The room was silent. Warrick looked down. Greg had fallen asleep on him. He sunk deeper into his pillows and made a mental note to compliment Greg when they were both awake.
The End
Next on Deck: A sequel to Vegas Native Rule #1. Will be posted Wednesday.
Summary: Greg has a tough time with a tough case.
In The Night
"And night bore hateful death, and she bore sleep and dreams. And again murky night bore criticism and painful misery. Also she bore fate and avenging death. Also deadly night bore retribution, and afterwards deceit, affection, old age, and strife." - Paraphrase from Theology
It was one of those rare nights when both Warrick and Greg weren't working. While Warrick was on call, Greg officially had the night off. Warrick stepped out of the shower and walked out of the bathroom toward the bedroom, followed by Greg. He'd barely made it into the bedroom, when he found himself in bed on his back, with Greg straddling him. It was a position they'd been in nearly all day and the reason for their latestt shower. Warrick grinned at his boyfriend. "Haven't you had enough, yet?"
Greg smirked. "Never." He started leaving small kisses and licks down Warrick's chest. The phone rang just as Greg's lips found a hipbone. He felt one of his boyfriend's hands leave his hair.
"Hey, Gris." Warrick received a sharp bite to the hip. They had rules about names that couldn't be said in bed. And with the exception of Archie, who they both agreed was cute, every coworker made the list. Catherine because Greg was jealous. Nick because Warrick was jealous. Sara because 5 times out of 10 she pissed Warrick off. Hodges because 5 times out of 10 Greg wanted to kill him. And Gris because...well he was their boss and that was just kind of gross.
Greg kept moving lower as his boyfriend attempted some semblance of a phone conversation. He trusted Warrick's ability to multi-task. Before he reached his ultimate goal, Greg was pulled up for a peck on the lips. "We have to go."
"Both of us?" Greg's forehead wrinkled in confusion. He almost never got called in on his day off.
Warrick got out of bed and started pulling clothes out their dresser. "Yeah, three bodies in the desert. Gris says everyone's already out on different cases. Ecklie's calling his people in to cover their cases, then they'll be joining us."
XXXXXXXXXX
They made it to the crime scene within 45 minutes. Warrick pulled the Denali off road and parked. They walked a little further and met up with a few local police officers standing around, without a body in sight. "Where's the scene?"
Warrick was about to repeat himself when someone finally stepped forward. "Um...I'll take you."
Greg and Warrick followed the officer for a few minutes before three small burned bodies attached to posts were in front of them. The officer turned around quickly to leave and Warrick watched as Greg started to turn green. "I swear to God if you throw up and contaminate my scene, I'll never work with you again Sanders."
Greg nodded and swallowed around the lump in his throat. He took a deep breath and realized immediately that was a mistake. Suddenly Warrick was at his side, his hand against his back, his voice soothing. "Come on now. Breath through your mouth. It's easier." Greg took a few breaths. "Are you okay now? You know you can sit in the Denali and wait for everyone else to get here."
That suggestion had the expected reaction. Greg glared, his back straightened. "I'm fine."
"Good." Warrick started snapping photographs. Greg moved closer to the bodies to start collecting trace from the posts and the barbed wire used to tie them up. They'd been there for half an hour before the rest of the team started showing up.
The sun was just rising as they finished processing the scene. Dave and Gris worked on removing the bodies from the posts so Dave could bag them. Warrick didn't envy Doc's job, he knew identifying the bodies would be a bitch...the murderer's goal no doubt.
XXXXXXXXXX
They headed back to the lab to start processing evidence. Cath, Sara, and Nick left at the end of their shift. Warrick and Greg stayed behind, it was officially their case. They had just started the long process of going through missing person's files when Doc paged them. He'd found a partially melted I.D. card that must have been in one of the vic's shirt pockets. The name of the school was melted, but Warrick recognized the logo. Brisley Middle School. They couldn't make out the girl's full first name. They dropped it off in AV for Archie to work on and went back to the missing person's database. There was no A. Clark missing from Vegas, which meant the girl had been missing for less than 24 hours or no one had noticed she was gone.
Brisley's school day would be starting soon. Brass and Greg headed there to find A. Clark's full information along with her emergency contacts Brass would break the news to the family sometime that day. They were also hoping to get a list of all the students absent that morning. Brisley was notoriously difficult to deal with. The students were unruly. The administration was constantly changing. Greg was on his seventh cup of coffee since he started his shift and he new he'd be working for at least another two hours just trying to get information out of Brisley's staff.
Brass had gotten Alisha Clark's information and was standing in the school hallway waiting for Greg to finish talking with the attendance lady. The bell rang and kids stormed out of classrooms. Most of the kids ignored him, too engrossed in their very loud discussions, a few cleverly hid the words "pig" and "po-po" in barely-there coughs. Brass watched the kids and one caught his eye. A girl had stopped in the middle of the hallway, her wide blue eyes focused on him. Brass guessed she was a eighth grader. He met her eyes and she looked away. She looked around as if to see if anyone was paying attention to her. It looked like she was going to take a step toward him, but changed her mind. Brass called out to her. "Hey, Miss, can I talk to you?"
There were a few hoots and hollers from the crowd of students hanging out around the lockers. The girl walked up to Brass, pushing dull brown hair behind her ears. Brass looked her over. "What's your name?"
"Brittany Martin."
"Did you have something you wanted to tell me, Brittany?"
She wouldn't look at him, looking down at her feet instead. She shook her head. "Um, no, I don't think so."
Brass pulled out a card and handed it to her. "If you change your mind, call me. Name's Jim Brass." Brass watched the girl walk away, and a few minutes later, Greg stepped out of the attendance office.
"Eighty-four kids missed first period. This is crazy. There's not even five hundred kids in this school."
"Welcome to Brisley."
"They said their first period is always like this and they'd have a better idea of their actual attendance by mid-day. I'm going to go back to the lab and start on these. They said they'll fax us once they get mid-day attendance in."
Brass huffed. "Yeah, good luck with that."
XXXXXXXXXX
Back at the lab, Greg and Warrick started calling all the parents of the absent children. They were about a quarter through the list and getting nowhere when Brass called from the Clark family's home. Apparently Alisha had two best friends. The three girls were inseparable, never went anywhere without each other. Both girls were also missing. All the parents had contacted each other when they found their daughters missing that morning. They assumed the girls had snuck out in the middle of the night.
So they had names to their Jane Does but they still had no idea who had murdered them. Greg and Warrick were going over the trace they had collected at the scene again when Brass called them again. Brittany Martin had information about their case. She was coming into the lab in half an hour with her mother.
By the time Brass got back to the lab. Brittany and Mrs. Martin were sitting in the interrogation room. Brittany had called her mother right after seeing Jim to tell her everything.
Brittany had snuck out with two older kids from the high school that night to check out a concert a little bit out of town. Brittany and Zack had met up at Maria's house. Maria's mother had a job at a casino and was never home during the night. While there, Maria started complaining about an 8th grader that her boyfriend was cheating on her with, Alisha Clark. On the way there they stopped at Alisha's house. Maria told Zack to tell Alisha to meet her boyfriend in the desert off Shannon Road.
Brittany went to the concert with Zack and Maria but she had them drop her off before they went to meet up with Alisha. Brittany had thought the two teenagers were just going to scare Alisha, but when the eighth grader didn't show up to school the next day and she saw cops at her school, she got worried and called her mother to tell her what happened.
Maria and Zack were brought into the lab for interrogation. Warrick watched from behind glass as Brass and Greg started the questioning. He watched as Maria and Zack told their stories without remorse. Maria was sure that Alisha and her friends got what they deserved. Zack had always wanted to do something like that, kill someone, burn someone alive. The kid was sick and probably would get sent to a mental institution. Maria was another story. She planned out a murder and got someone to commit it for her. No matter what her age, a jury probably wouldn't take too kindly to that story.
XXXXXXXXXX
Warrick and Greg finally made it home, and it felt like they hadn't been there in weeks, when in truth it had only been a couple days at most. Greg walked into the bathroom as Warrick sorted through the mail and checked his voicemail messages. Once Warrick was done, he walked into the bedroom and stripped out of his clothes, and met up with Greg in the shower. Greg had his hands against the tiles, head bent under the shower head, too-hot water pelting his shoulders.
Warrick stood behind him and touched his hand to Greg's hip. He reached around Greg with his other hand to turn down the heat. Greg turned around so he was facing his boyfriend. Warrick pushed the hair from Greg's eyes and forehead.
Greg's question was out of the blue. "What did you want to be when you grew up?"
Warrick's smile was easy. "What didn't I want to be?" He reached for the shampoo and squirted some in his hand. "A firefighter, a superhero..." He started washing Greg's hair. "A casino owner, an oil tycoon, a priest, a librarian, pro-baller, a--"
"A priest?"
"Yeah, once I got out of all the stuff I was doing in college, I kind of went to the other extreme. Only lasted for a few weeks."
"Rebel."
Warrick's lathered Greg's hair into a faux-hawk. "Yeah, but music is what I'd be doing if I weren't doing this. If that's what you're asking."
"You ever think of quitting and picking music up full-time?"
Warrick pushed Greg under the water to rinse out the shampoo and shook his head. "Nah. I've found my purpose."
Greg stepped closer to Warrick and shook his head, flinging water everywhere. "I've always wanted to be a scientist, you know? Thought I'd be discovering new elements and curing diseases. Instead I just proved that two fifteen year olds killed three middle-schoolers."
Warrick regarded Greg seriously, resting his hands on his boyfriend's shoulders. "You can't choose them."
Greg shrugged off Warrick's hands and turned away toward shower head. "I know that."
They continued washing in silence. They stepped out of the shower and grabbed towels to dry off as they walked to the bedroom. They dropped the towels before crawling into bed. Warrick was nearly asleep when he heard Greg's soft voice. "How do you deal with this job, I mean, do you just get used to it?"
Warrick's voice was dry. "I learned at a young age to expect the worst from people. Even the best people fuck up, the innocent sin. I stopped believing in good people and bad people a long time ago. We've all got a little of both in us."
Greg kissed the skin he could reach without moving, which happened to be Warrick's rib. He rubbed his hand down Warrick's chest. "Sometimes I wish I was more like you."
"I hope you're never like me. Wouldn't love you half as much." Warrick's fingers slid into Greg's hair. His voice was soft. "You know, when you first became a CSI, I wasn't sure you'd be cut out for it. Me and the others...we all dealt with some pretty shitty situations before we even hit college. I wouldn't go so far as to call you innocent, but you haven't been disappointed as much as the others have." Warrick paused. "You're an amazing CSI Greg. You don't expect the worst like I tend to or hope for the best like Nick does. You're objective like Grissom but still sympathetic, empathetic. You caring about these cases isn't a bad thing."
The room was silent. Warrick looked down. Greg had fallen asleep on him. He sunk deeper into his pillows and made a mental note to compliment Greg when they were both awake.
The End
Next on Deck: A sequel to Vegas Native Rule #1. Will be posted Wednesday.