Irrational thoughts

Irrational thoughts

August 2007

Greg poked his head into the layout room where Sara was working and couldn’t control his excitement. He had heard about the body found at construction site for new Sam Braun casino/hotel Eclipse. This would make a kick ass chapter, he thought if they could id the body. He walked in the room and noticed that Sara had the original plans to the Rampart, not just copies like he had gotten from the library. He couldn’t stay quite anymore.

“Wow! The original plans for the Rampart! Opening day, New Years, 1964...Half of the hotel tower was still under construction but Sam decided to have the party anyways. He had the Midas touch. And help from the boys in Kansas City. This is the ultimate.” Sara looked up at him and shook her head.

“Don't you have work to do?” But this is so much better than work.

“Fill me in.” She sighed and gave him what little she knew and how the body had been found in a construction shaft. Greg thought about what he had been piecing together about mob history during this time and spoke out loud. “I wonder if Gus 'Da Beauty' Finkle. Snitch. Disappeared in '64.”

“ No it couldn’t be. The skull shape is Mongoloid.” Holy shit the Peking Pimp! Greg smiled at Sara, hoping she would get a little excited about the case she had been handed.

“Maybe it's Eddie Chang! The Peking Pimp. Caught Dean at the Sans, went out for eggs, never came back.” Sara reached over and got a photo from the scene of some beaded necklace.

“Did the Peking Pimp ever wear anything like this on his arm?” Only if he was made to at gunpoint.

“Nope. Just French cuffs and platinum blondes.” Sara groaned and started to roll the prints up with her bad hand and was crinkling them, a true crime if Greg had ever seen one. “Whoa, be careful with those, they're like the dead sea scrolls of Las Vegas.” She looked at him deadpan.

“I have to get back to the scene.” He couldn’t resist, he needed to see the scene with his own eyes.

“I'm off the clock, if you need a hand.” Sara gave him a smile and handed him the blueprints.

“Jen know your working off the clock?” Greg shrugged and started rolling up the prints.

“She’ll understand.” Sara looked at him.

“Sure she will. She’ll understand that you’re working off the clock and she taking care of a three month old and working on the clock. How has she not beaten you over the head with a rolling pin yet is beyond me,” joked Sara.

“I told her I was coming in early to help you with this, besides she’s working designing cake shaped like a guitar. I would love to see her paycheck after the Palms and MTV is through putting her through the ringer.”

Jenna had signed a contract with the Palms a year ago to cover their special events and the MTV music awards being held there counted and they seemed to be putting her through the hoops, she had to cancel all other orders for the two days leading up to the event and she was closing for three days afterward so everyone could recover from what was being demanded.

On top of that she was still bring Katie with her to work, but if she needed to talk with an executive from the ‘cirrus’ as she was calling it and Greg was still on shift, Jenna got one of the girls from the kitchen to watch her in another office while she was on call. Greg felt a little guilty about coming in during what should have been time with Jenna and Katie, but he told himself if he could get this book deal maybe they could both take some time off and it would be worth it in the long run.

“That bad huh…how much is going to clear when this done?”

“More than I make in a year.” Sara started laughing.

“I’m telling you if I had had known how much money could be made in cakes,” said Sara.

“Hey she a making an umbrella shaped cake for Rihanna; I like to see you do that,” said Greg.

“I can boil water,” she helped him pick up the crime scene photos and put them back into evidence. “Well let’s get Ronnie and head out.”

“So how do you like your new trainee?” asked Greg.

“I’m getting used to her. She asks a lot of questions, a lot. All the time. Never ending questions,” said Sara looking like she wanted to drink suddenly.

“I asked a lot a questions when I started,” said Greg, since Ronnie came on staff Greg was no longer the ‘baby’ of CSI and he really needed to thank her for that.

“Not like she does. I’m still just getting used to her, she’s very perky and you know me, I’m very anti perk.” Greg patted Sara on the shoulder.

“Than how did you deal with me all those years?”

“You had my DNA results I had to.” They went into the break room where a girl who looked to only be in her early twenties was sitting and reading a forensic journal, she had long dark hair and very tan skin.

“Ronnie, this is Greg Sanders. Greg this is Ronnie Lake.” She stood up and offered Greg a handshake and he noticed that she looked him over before getting up and flashing him a smile.”

“Hi, you’re from nightshift right?” asked Ronnie.

“Yeah.”

“Sara told me you used to work in the DNA lab, was it hard changing from the lab to the field?” asked Ronnie. Greg looked over at Sara who simply poured herself a cup of coffee and shrugged. She was right about the questions.

“It’s been almost three years, so I’m used to the field now.” Ronnie went to say something else when Sara cut her off.

“Greg is coming with us to the scene at the Eclipse, so go see Judy and get a set of keys for a car and get your kit,” said Sara.

“Sure thing,” said Ronnie heading out, but not before she gave Greg another look.

“Wow…was I that perky?” asked Greg and Sara glared at him.

“Don’t you start the question thing and you should let her know that you aren’t available before she asks you out to dinner. Jenna’s understanding will only go so far when it comes to you and cute girls in lab.”

“Jenna’s not the jealous type. She took it well when I told her about our hazmat shower.”

“She knows me and this was before she put on over twenty five pounds, had your baby and got engaged to you. I wouldn’t put it past her to knock Ronnie out if she thought she was hitting on you. Those post pregnancy hormones are dangerous things.” Greg rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be sure to hide all of Jenna’s kitchen tools.” Ronnie came back into the break room and jingled the keys.

“Are we heading out?” Sara took the keys and tossed them to Greg.

“You drive.”

“You’re letting me drive, Does this mean I’m a big kid now?” asked Greg heading to the garage.

“Don’t make me hit you with my good hand,” said Sara.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

They spent nearly two hours at the scene documenting everything at the scene and they brought it back to the lab. Greg was shifting through the mounds of dirt and sorting the rubbish into piles: bones in one pile, the buckskin in another and random trash from over the past thirty years in another.

The timer he had set for the clay to harden went off and he popped the clay mold he had made of the victim’s fist open and studied it. What the hell is this? Ronnie came up behind him and looked at the clay mold.

“Sara told me to document the debris, but I see you beat me too it.”

“Sorry I got carried away, but look at this. It’s the vic’s right hand; he was holding on to something and when they poured the concrete on top of him it made kind of a fossil.” Ronnie looked puzzled and studied the piles of what they had brought back from the site.

“Whatever it is we must have collected it…it’s not a gun.” She looked at Greg wanting him to tell her that she was right or not. It’s kind of cool playing the teacher.

“Nope, we did not find one of those.” They started shifting through the piles.

“Lighter?” she asked holding it up. It was close in shape, but not what they needed. Greg moved some dirt aside and found a container that matched perfectly.

“Hey look at this.” Ronnie looked at what he had found and appeared puzzled by what it was. “It’s film, old 35 mm film used to come in screw top metal cans like these. What ever is on this film it must have been really important to hang on while taking a bullet and falling down a shaft.” Maybe it can still be developed. Ronnie gave him a smile and went to say something, but he was already out the door and headed to the AV lab. Archie eyed him when he came in and wrinkled his nose.

“Just because your sense of smell is almost dead due to dead bodies and diapers doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t smell and you reek of dirt and god knows what.”

“Ha ha! Very funny, I found this with the dead body they found at the old Rampart site. Can it still be processed?” Greg handed the container to Archie who studied it carefully.

“Wow, 35 mm. You know that this film is older than we are?”

“That’s nice so I take it that it can’t be done.”

“It’s going to take some time, since we started switching to digital crime scene photos; they’ve been phasing out the darkroom and the techs who work it. I sort of remember how to develop film. Let me call Laurie the last darkroom tech standing and see if she would be willing to help me out. So go take a shower please and I’ll page you when it’s ready,” said Archie wheeling his chair over to the phone.

“If I didn’t like you so much I would hug you,” said Greg leaving Archie’s lab and heading to locker room to shower.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Greg reached into his locker, pulled out a clean button up shirt and got dressed. They were at a stand still on the case until Archie got his film developed and Wendy finished the DNA on the tooth. He didn’t have anything to do until Grissom gave him another case. He sighed and went to go get his lunch from the break room and some coffee until he could get another assignment.

He opened the fridge and started looking for his lunchbox and got annoyed when he couldn’t find it. Shit I must of forgot it at home and it’s not going to be any good either after sitting out for over six hours. Greg realized that vending machine dinner was going to be the order of the night. He went to dig out a dollar for a cup of noodles when his pager went off. He hoped it was from Archie telling him that the film was done. Instead it was from Judy paging him that he had a visitor out front.

He grinned and headed out to the front. Jenna hadn’t come to see him during his dinner breaks in months and he had kind of missed her coming in to see him. He rounded the corner and spotted Jenna and she had Katie in her car seat sitting on the counter. She looked a little tried and was wearing her hair in a half bun and she was in a pair of loose fitting khakis and an oversized white shirt. She was still in between maternity clothes and her old clothes and was trying to lose the weight she had gained when she had been pregnant. Greg really didn’t see what the issue was with how she looked now, he still thought she was beautiful and couldn’t see her beating up someone for a harmless look over. Judy was leaning over the counter and was talking to Jenna.

“She is too cute. They always look so cute when they are sleeping.” Jenna gave her a tired smile.

“Oh she wasn’t too cute a few hours ago. She was tried and whiny so she was anything but cute.” Greg came up and gave Jenna a hug.

“Hey, I didn’t think I was going to see you tonight. Is that for me?” Jenna handed him a white paper bag.

“I found your lunch on the counter, the apartment now smells like tuna and Gabriel now hates me for throwing out the sandwich. So I hope you enjoy this instead.”

“What is it?” asked Greg.

“Peanut butter and jelly with the crust cut off,” she noticed the frown on his face and laughed. “Its sushi, the new Japanese restaurant next door gave me and a bunch of the girls some free food. I can’t eat the sushi so I hope you enjoy it.” Greg gave her a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“You are the best ever. How’s sunshine?” asked Greg looking down at Katie who was sound asleep in the car seat, thumb in her mouth and a fist full of her own hair in her other hand.

“Cranky, she didn’t want to take her nap this afternoon and I ate something that she didn’t like and she got a tummy ache and I finally got her to sleep right before we got here. Car rides do work I don’t care what anyone says about pollution or the price of gas, it’s worth the twenty minutes of quite I gotten today.” Greg reached into the car seat and stroked Katie’s head.

“So do you think she’ll stay out long enough for you eat the soba noodles in here with me?”

“Possibly, she’s exhausted.” Jenna took a visitor badge from Judy and she picked up the car seat and followed Greg to the break room.

“It’s hard being a baby,” said Greg. Jenna sat Katie down on the table and fell into the chair.

“Whatever,” joked Jenna and she started eating the soba noodles, Greg reached into the bag and pulled out the container of sushi and started dumping soy sauce on it.

“This is so much better than tuna fish sandwich. Thanks.”

“I couldn’t let you starve. Besides I wanted to remind you that I work from home tomorrow and that we’re packing up the last of the stuff to take over to the new house.” Greg took a sip of water and nodded.

“We’re moving next to Nick Stokes…it’s a little weird.”

“Hey it was the nicest house in a semi decent neighborhood that we found in our price range and just think you can go play over at Nick’s house when you get bored.” Greg made a face and went to say something when Ronnie walked in grinning ear to ear.

“Hey Greg I just heard from Archie and…oh hello.” Ronnie looked back and forth between him, Jenna and the car seat on the table.

“Ronnie, this is my fiancée Jenna. Jenna this is Ronnie, Sara is training her on swing shift. I’m helping them on the DB they found at the Eclipse.” Ronnie looked at Greg, her smile dropped slightly but she took Jenna’s hand to shake.

“Hi.”

“Hello.” Ronnie looked into the car seat and smiled.

“Oh she’s adorable and she’s so tiny. What’s her name?”

“Katie,” said Jenna eyeing Ronnie wearily. Ronnie got her ear to ear grin back and she turned to Greg.

“You know while I was in school I used to do summer work as a nanny and if you guys ever need someone to watch her and I’m not on call I would be more than happy too.”

“That’s nice,” said Jenna in a tight voice and Greg noticed a look in her eyes and that her hand a tightened on her chopsticks.

“So what did Archie want?” asked Greg.

“Oh he was able to get that darkroom tech to come in and he said the film should be ready in about an hour.”

“Cool…um I’ll see you in an hour than.” Ronnie smiled and headed out. Jenna gave Greg a look.

“What?” he asked her.

“Nothing.”

“Jenna.”

“It’s nothing.”

“And that is woman talk for ‘I could end up in the doghouse if I don’t consider my next couple of sentences very, very, very carefully.’ So can you tell me what is wrong and what I did to cause the ‘nothing!’” Jenna went to answer when Katie started fussing.

“What is it Katie-monster?” Jenna reached into the car seat and started to calm the baby down. Greg took one of Katie’s hands and smiled at her.

“Oh hi sweetie.” Katie looked up at him and gave him a little sniffle and a pout. “I miss you too, but I think I’m getting off early tonight if this case wraps up. So when I get home daddy will play with you and your mommy is going to tell me why ‘nothing’ makes her get all snippy.” Jenna rolled her eyes and picked up Katie’s car seat.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” Jenna headed out and Greg picked up the remains of their dinner and headed over to A/V to play with Archie until his photos came in.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Greg made is way out to his car and couldn’t help but feel overwhelmingly giddy. They had figured out the pile of bones belonged to a photographer that was going to report about a gaming commissioner on a casino’s pay roll. He made a note to dig a little deeper into the history of Sam’s body guard when he and Lily had dinner next week. He was really looking forward to asking her about Eddie Chang and how he got shipped home in pieces. He put the car into drive and made his way to the apartment, hopefully this would be the last trip of stuff to be moved and they could official start living in their new home by tonight.

He hoped Jenna was in a good mood, he was a little worried about her when she left the lab last night. It wasn’t like her to get so moody with him so quickly. He had a feeling he knew what it is about and he really didn’t understand women. He pulled into the parking lot and headed upstairs. He walked into the apartment and smiled. Jenna was lying on the floor with Katie. She had Katie on her stomach and she was baby talking with her.

“Oh who’s my special baby girl? Are you my special baby…I bet you are? I bet you are.” Jenna started to blow raspberries on the baby’s neck and Katie started to happy scream at her.

“So is this what you do when you work from home?” asked Greg getting down on the floor with them.

“I did the budgets for September and October, pay roll for next week and finished up two designs and faxed everything from the Kinko’s down the street. So suck on that.” Greg took Katie from Jenna and kissed the baby on the top of her head and he put her on his chest. Katie put her head down on his chest and he felt her little hands grab on to his shirt.

“Did you miss daddy? I miss you all the time.” Katie started to coo at him and he smiled at her. “So were you able to convince mommy that she shouldn’t be so moody with daddy? Jenna just groaned and looked at him

“It’s nothing.” Greg put Katie on the floor next to her blanket and toys and he got on top of Jenna and took her hands in his.

“Want to share the nothing?” Jenna went to wiggle away and Greg wouldn’t budge. “Nope I have you pinned and I’m not letting you up till you tell me.”

“You suck, let me up.”

“Nope, share with the class why you were so moody when you left last night.” Jenna gave him a look

“You be moody too if some guy at work was clearly angling to get into my pants in front of you.” It was Greg’s turn to give her a look.

“Ronnie? You think Ronnie was angling to get into my pants?”

“Duh. Now let me up I want to finish packing.”

“I’m not doing that until you tell me what gave you that idea?”

“I don’t know, maybe it was why she sauntered into the break room to find you, maybe it was way she seem just a little sad that you were engaged to cow,” Greg cut her off.

“You’re not a cow. You are a very attractive MILF.”

“Don’t lie to me.

“I’m not lying. Sweetie you are aware that you thinking I would even let Ronnie near my pants is one of the most irrational thoughts you’ve ever had.”

“Greg, she prettier than me, younger than me and her boobs are where they’re supposed to be. She was flirting with you and I’m sure that she was planning on finding a way to lure you back to her apartment and that she bends in ways that only porn stars can.” Greg just looked down at her and frowned.

“Do you remember how you felt when I wouldn’t let you touch my scars because I thought they would turn you off?” Jenna bit her lip, she had a feeling she knew where this was going.

“Yeah.”

“And you told me I was shallow for thinking that and that you found me attractive even with my scars.”

“Yes.”

“You do realize that you were shallow for thinking a few extra pounds and some stretch marks would make me go bed hopping on you?”

“Yeah. But…”

“No buts. You were dumb for thinking that, even for a second. I love you and only you. You are my baby’s mama and the future Mrs. Sanders. Now, I’ll considering letting you up if you admit how silly it was for you to think that.”

“Greg…”

“Nope. We will stay here all day if we have too. When you are ready to fess up to your mistakes I’ll let you up.”

“I’m sorry I’m a dumbass and that I let the cute girl upset me.” Greg kissed her.

“That’s better.” He went to kiss her again when Katie started to scream a little. He had put her on her stomach and now she was prone on her back. Greg looked back at Jenna and made a face.

“When did she start rolling over?”

“This morning, if you get off me I can show you how she does it.” Greg relented and got off her. Jenna grinned and she put Katie back on her stomach. She reached over and grabbed Katie’s key ring.

“Katie-monster look what mommy has?” Katie let out a grin and she pushed herself up a bit and had propped herself up on her elbows and Jenna moved the toy over to Katie’s left side, when Katie went to move she simply rolled over and she let out another surprised shriek. Greg picked her up and sat her in his lap facing him.

“Oh wow…who would have thought that something we beg dogs to do would be so amusing?” Jenna poked him in the side.

“Because she’s a baby and pretty much everything they do is cute and amusing. I’m sorry I was such a hag about you and the new girl.” Katie started to wiggle in his arms and he put her back on her stomach and took the key ring from Jenna.

“So it’s cool that I’m taking Catherine’s mom out to dinner next week than?”

“What?” Katie let out another shriek upon rolling over again and Greg just grinned at her.

“Your mommy is silly…so very silly.”

Episode tie in-Case of the cross dressing carp

It starts off slow but it gets better I swear. Sorry to the Ronnie fans for the mild bashing of her. It was just this chapter I swear.