CSI Las Vegas one-shots

Merchants of menace

This story will be what I thought the end of merchants of menace (15x14) should have been.

Once the case is solved, to say the lab was tense would be an understatement. The case had brought a lot of old ghosts for the veteran CSI's. There was an hour before the grave shift was over, Russell, Sara, Nick, Greg, Fin and Hodges were sitting in the break room talking about different serial killers they have encountered in Las Vegas over the last fifteen years.

As everyone sits around the lunch table, Nick was the first to break the silence. "you know we've seen a lot of killers over the years here in Vegas." Sara nods along "since I've been, here there have been at least 10" Greg looks between Nick and Sara "you guys remember the judge killer Paul Millender."

Russell, Fin and Morgan were listening to the conversation, none of whom were in Vegas when many of the crimes had happened. Nick looks over at the refrigerator when another serial killer comes to mind " anyone remembers the doctor who was eating people " Nick smiles at the memory of watching Grissom in the interrogation room "oh yeah, it was amazing watching her and Grissom. Face-off during interrogation." Greg nods along.

Sara thinks back to her first case in Vegas after she accepted Grissom's job offer " I remember my first one here in Vegas, the strip strangler. Grissom and I argued because I wanted to use myself as bait, and he wouldn't let me at first." Nick shakes his head, clenching his fist under the table " I wanted to knock that guy's teeth out."

Greg has seen many cases, but his first killer after becoming a CSI will always stick out. " Do you guys remember the blue paint killer? It took us two years and six Victims to arrest him. It was my first serial killer case." Nick, thinking about a slightly more recent case, Nick looks over at Hodges " you guys remember the one who used to pose the victims like real-life artwork" Hodges nods and rolls his eyes " the trace evidence, in that case, was weird, I remember the paint had a ton of added chemicals that I had to do a full break down of each one, by the time I was done I was going cross-eyed.

Sara, taking a sip of her coffee, I will never forget that boy on the bike, the look on his face" Greg sits up in his chair he looks at Sara, Nick, and Hodges excitedly says, "what was that guy's name and the one who wore a skin-tight suit. "The others who are listening along look quite confused at the idea of a killer wearing a leather suit. Sara shrugs her shoulders " I have no clue it was something will and S" the mention of the letter S jogs Nick's memory " um.....Ummm, oh, it was sqweegel." Fin asks " what kind of name is Sqweegel" Hodges answers, " if I remember correctly, one of the victims young daughter called the guy that, and the media ran with it" Hodgens look to Nick, Greg and Sara to confirm they nod in confirmation. Nick adds" I got to say out of all the killers we've seen over the years, that was just weird".

DB asks, " Who was that one who made miniatures of each crime scene." Sara takes another sip of her coffee while sharply inhaling, Sara makes eye contact with Nick, who reaches and squeezes Sara's hand under the table. Nick is the one to answer with Greg and Hodges looking back and forth at Nick and Sara "The miniature killer, Natalie Davis."

The looks between Nick, Greg and Sara do not go unnoticed by DB. He looks up to see the change on Sara's face has gone from reminiscing about past crimes they've solved to a look of anxiety and fear. Sara was still looking at the table bearly loud enough for the group to hear, she whispers " I definitely will not ever forget Natalie Davis.

Looks are exchanged by the team members who did not know the full case history of the miniature killer and its effects on the lab. DB asks, "you ok, Sara?" Of course, DB knew what had caused Sara's change, when DB took over for Catherine. He read the whole team's personal files to get a sense of everyone, so he knew the full extent of the matiture killer case and her abduction of Sara.

Nick can see this is a hard topic for Sara, she has never talked about what happened under the car, so he moves the conversation forward. Sara acknowledges his effort. He just slightly nods his head in acknowledgement, "out of all the killers, we have encountered Nate Haskell has caused the most havoc even after we got him." Sara nods in agreement, thinking back to a conversation between her and Ray about scars from a serial killer.

She says, " he killed what 20 people." Greg cuts in, " close, he killed 18 people, but I gotta say it worked out well for Ray after the disaster that was LA. Ray and Gloria were able to get back together in the end after he got railroaded by IA."

Fin asks "who Ray" Morgan had worked with Ray before, and the whole incident was why Conrad asked DB to come to Vegas in the first place. Nick responds," Ray Langston. He used to work here before you got here." Greg chuckles " other than Ray, I think the only other person in the lab to have more than one serial killer fixate on them is Grissom. '' Sara nods, she can see the question on Finn's face before Fin can voice it " Ray had the misfortune of also having the Dr. Jekyll fixated on him," Greg says, " doctor Jekyll was an odd one. I mean, he would kill his victims then perform surgery on them."

DB glances down at his watch. Then he stands up," well folks, it's time for all of us to head home and get some sleep" turning towards the door and walking out, followed by Hodges, Nick, Fin, Morgan, Sara, then Greg.