Stoking The Fire

Chapter Fifteen

Once we had finished documenting the scene, the second team waiting outside moved in and processed what they could of the 'remains' first, so that the coroner could remove them from the building and they could work on the rest of it. Nick and I weren't allowed to handle the scene itself, for some reason, though we would be able to deal with the evidence later if we so chose.

Several hours later, we're in the layout room at the Vegas Lab. I'm sandy-eyed from lack of sleep, and Nick isn't looking much better himself. He had dropped me off at the lab with the evidence to get it checked in, while he had gone to take care of getting us a room. He had napped there, and I had fallen asleep on an out of the way couch. Holding in my yawn, I hunker over my second cup of coffee as I listen to the original CSI's lay out the first crime scene the way they had discovered, and processed it.

Finding that my cup is empty, I hold it up in a quiet 'I need more' gesture. I get a couple nods and head out to the break room. After refilling, I smile and turn, only to nearly smack right into Simmons.

"Hey. I really want to apologize for earlier, I hope you didn't take anything I said too harshly. We just have a thing about giving the rookies shit, I don't know how they handle it in San Diego." He holds out his hand, and I shake it. I manage not to throw up all over his shoes, and even smile a bit.

"Yeah, it's pretty much the same there. No hard feelings Simmons, it's just that four and a half hour drive is a bitch, you know?" I say, as I carefully sip my coffee.

"Sure sure, I totally get it. Say, how long have you known Nick?" I frown a bit, like I'm thinking.

"Oh, about three years or so? I guess? A while." I say, as I shrug noncommittally.

"Really, that's cool. So, is he a great guy or what?" I nod and chuckle, and look at my coffee again. "Hey, um, sorry to cut this short but I am the rookie and I kinda need to get back before I get my butt chewed..."

"Oh yeah sure sure, just let me know if you need anything while you're here, okay? No funny business!"

I nod and smile. "Absolutely will do, Simmons." I take another sip of my coffee, then power walk back to the layout room. Once there, I stand so close to Nick I could practically crawl under his skin. He gives me a brief look, then out of the corner of his eye he watches Simmons swagger slowly by, even as he's reaching out to a photo to point something out. Once he straightens back up, he briefly brushes my back with his hand to let me know he understood something had happened.

I find myself standing there, long after everyone else has gone off to process other stuff, staring at all the photos. I don't know what it is, but something about the original scene just seems off to me. I keep fidgeting with my gun and holster as I stand there. For some reason, it's really irritating my right hip. Nick touches my back briefly, and I jump. He nods down to my gun and frowns.

"I don't know, my hip is just being cranky today. Is there any reason we can't wear the gun at the small of our back?"

"I don't really see why not." He says, after a moment of consideration. "I mean obviously safety first and don't make it a habit, but yeah you should be okay I think." With a sigh of relief, I move the gun and get it settled in the new position, pulling my shirt down over it and getting settled back in. Then, I cross my arms and go back to frowning. He's watching me as I'm combing the photos, and Catherine clearing her throat startles us both.

"So, Doc says once again the parts are indeed human, and once again there's no viable match in the system. The blood on the wall is a match to the remains, but that's all we've got. Also, they didn't find anything new once they reprocessed the scene."

I can hear the defeat and irritation in her voice, and Nick sighs. With her words, I turn back to the original photos. I frown harder, and I shake my head. Nick looks at me, and touches my arm. I jerk and look at him. "Algebra?" he asks softly. I shake my head. "Not yet. I'm missing too much of the equation. I only have 2+2 = scumbag right now." He laughs softly, and Catherine clears her throat again.