By Definition: Book IV: The Rise of the Triplets

Part III

Wager:

wa·ger : /ˈweɪdʒər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciationwey-jer Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1. something risded or staked on an uncertain event; bet: to place a wager on a soccer match

2. the act of betting

3. the subject or terms of a bet

Source: dictionary . com

“Hey Guys!”

“Griss-Man!”

“Sunshine!”

“Baby Brigade!”

Needless to say out first visit to the lab after their births aroused a bit of a stir.

“First road trip, eh?” Catherine came up close to coo down at the three. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how much they’ve grown! Hey there, Nicole. Oh, look at the yawn! You tired them out.”

I maneuvered the side by side by side stroller into the centre of the room and shot her an exhausted grin. “Yes. They’ve had a little excitement today. We’re trying to be efficient.

We had a late doctor’s appointment for a check up and needed to grab some supplies so we decided to press our luck and check in here. We’re sort of taking advantage of the fact that they’re still getting up every couple of hours. They don’t care if it’s night or day yet and we’re still on nightshift hours.” Now nearly two months old to the day the three little visitors to the lab quickly began to gather an audience. More and more people started to file into the break room to say hello. Had to admit it was pretty cool.

“Ooo…ambitious,” Catherine agreed. “How’s it going so far?”

“Good,” Gil answered. “Really well, actually. It all comes down to careful planning.”

I rolled my eyes at that and lifted Aaron out so that Uncle Nick could have a little one on one. “What our brilliant leader is trying to say is that we saved the lab for last so that if everything fell apart by that time we’d have lots of able hands.” I grinned shamelessly at the mass of faces around me. “Who’s up for diaper duty?”

There were several groans and a few people who backed quickly away but we had a couple of takers. Greg came up and snagged Danielle. “Hi princess. Your uncle Greg will have that diaper changed in no time, right? We’ve got this down.” He mugged at her for a minute and she watched him like he was some newly-discovered alien life form but seemed entertained all the same. “So, no Elsa today?”

“No, sorry Greg. We’re flying solo. It’s her day off. She’s away for the weekend boating with her family. Shall I tell her you asked for her?”

I could see Greg playing the angles on that one. “Yeah, I think tat would be good. Give me a bit of a leg up.”

“Who’s Elsa?” Warrick asked, moving in to tickle Nicole over Catherine’s shoulder.

“Our mother’s aid,” Gil told him, hovering over Nicole.

“The keeper of our sanity,” I put in, passing out diapers and wipes. “Greg’s current crush.”

“Really? Been keeping that close, Greg.”

“Didn’t want the competition, Nick,” he returned.

“Now how is that fair?” Nick complained, “Letting Greg have a running start?”

“Don’t look at me,” Gil said, shaking his head at me when I offered a small tube of diaper cream. “No, she’s good this time, Sar.”

I shrugged, offering the tube of cream to the others. “Just timing, Nick. Greg got lucky with one of his visits and they seemed to hit it off. Oh, which reminds me. Greg?”

“Yes?”

“I have no problem with you dating her…in fact I wish you the best of luck ‘cause I think you’d really would make a cute couple…but man, if you piss her off and cause her to quit you’re on diaper duty until I can find someone every bit as good to replace her.”

“Though the thought of having Greg hanging around our home that much scares the heck out of me, I’ll second that.”

“Oh come on, Griss. You know we’d have fun.” Greg put the finishing touches on Dani’s change and began to slip her back into her onesie. “Oh, speaking of fun, you guys picked a momentous day to visit. It’s really cool that you’re here because I have an announcement. I believe I managed to nail your creeper formula.”

“The print-dust formula? Way to go, Greg!” Nick slapped him on the back. A few of the others chimed in but stopped when someone cleared their throat loudly.

“Sorry to put a damper on things, Greg, but I’m afraid that you’re a day late. I got a working formula yesterday at four thirty-five am so I believe the congratulations should be going to me.”

He smiled smugly, waiting for his share of the praise. It was a little lacking.

I felt sorry for the guy, especially as Greg had had a little help from us and jumped into the breech. “Well, hell, I’m impressed. How long have you been trying?”

“Oh, off and on since I switched to nights. Just a little project to pick at during my down times. I must say, Grissom, just genius. It’s a really tight formula. Very impressive.”

“Thanks, David. I did my best.” Gil’s voice was almost bland; most people in the room couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or sincere. Most people. I knew the difference and gave him a sharp little look.

Why was it whenever men’s egos got dinged a woman had to step in a play referee? “Well, there you go. I guess you edged out Greg.”

“B.S.,” Greg said, letting Mia take Dani for a turn about the room. “If you managed to do that you’d hardly have waited this long to tell me.”

“I got busy,” David told him.

“No way, Hodges. I announced first. It’s mine.”

I exchanged looks with Gil and murmured into his ear. “Wow, dinner and a show. You might want to jump in here.”

“Not on your life,” he returned, grinning. “I refuse to have anything to do with this. Besides, Catherine is acting supervisor for another two weeks. It’s all on her.”

Hodges wasn’t backing down. “I believe the wager detailed who got a working prototype first, not who announced first so I believe the money is mine. You’re out of luck.”

“I am not-“

“You are. The announcement time shouldn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does.”

“But if you’re determined to be that anal about things, I did announce it yesterday.”

“Not to me.”

“No, you were at a scene,” David told him patiently, as if explaining it to one of the babies. “Archie, however, was in his lab. He can verify everything I’ve just said.”

All heads turned to Archie who shuffled his feet and shrugged. “Yeah, sorry Greg. He called me in just after you left. Stuff looks pretty good to me.”

“We’ll let Grissom be the judge of that,” Greg muttered, but began to reach for his wallet. “Fine. Whatever. Everybody ante up.” With the exception of one person, the lab techs and Greg began to form a little circle and money began to emerge from wallets.

“Wait,” Mia said, “what exactly was this bet about?”

“First person with a working version of Grissom’s Red Creeper Fingerprint dust gains two hundred and fifty dollars,” Hodges told her, collecting his winnings.

“Was this open to anyone? Or is this an ‘all guys’ thing?”

Mandy shook her head. “No, I was trying for a while too. I’ve just been wayyyy too busy lately to mess around with it. It’s pretty open-ended. We were all trying for it.”

“Why wasn’t I told, then?” Mia asked.

Hodges chose to answer. “I don’t know. Guess we just didn’t think you’d be interested.”

“Really? That’s very funny, especially considering I figured out that formula months ago.”

“You did what?”

“No way.”

“Come on!”

“Some of us have been trying for years!”

Mia waited until the noise died down and passed Dani back into my arms. “No, see…” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her smartphone. A couple of clicks later and she found the file she was looking for. “Yeah, here it is. November of last year.” There was an eerie silence in the room as she continued, “Lab was slow, I was bored…started messing around…well…I was curious.” Still no response from the techs or Greg. “Look, it’s not like it was that hard. Once I figured out the heating process…it only took me a couple of hours to get it right.”

Hodges was the first one to jump into the breech. “You didn’t announce it.”

“I thought you said it didn’t matter who announced first.” Greg volleyed back, peeking at Mia’s notes. “Yeah, it’s all there.” The group as a whole started forking over money to Mia, including Hodges, and conversation started buzzing around the room again.

Gil leaned into me, “By rights, that money should be yours.”

I shook my head. “I’m good.” Mia’s little coupe had broken the tension in the room completely and the atmosphere had returned to the comfortable, excited level that it had been when we first entered. Some of the crowd began to thin as people headed back to their labs and work stations and babies were slipped back into their stroller seats. “Why don’t you go to your office and check in. I’ll take the first watch and then we can head home.”

“Sounds good. I may be a while.”

I eyed the people left, took in their teasing, their voices and realizing how much I missed being part of that, shrugged. “That’s alright.” I settled into a chair with a perfectly content smile on my face. “I’ll just sit here and enjoy.”

A/N: And you thought Greg was going to win…silly humans!