happyharper13
Pathologist
Story Summary: "Well, I'm sure you two have an understanding about... um, his dinosaur and your dresses." "Actually, we don't," she replied slowly. "And that's the problem." Greg/Riley UST. Implied GSR and unrequited SaraGreg. Silliness.
For Challenge #8 over at the Fanfiction Critique Group (which everyone should check out; there's a link on my profile page)...
1. Must include the phrase “I just don't know.” Or the phrase “Shake it like a polaroid picture.”
2. Must be between 990 and 9,990 words.
3. May be any rating greater than K+ and less than MA.
4. Must involve a fight. Interpret at will (as always).
5. Must involve a secret. (Optional.)
6. Must include two selected lyrics from the FCG. (Mine are "Evil is a distinctive smell" and "I'm in every kind of trouble").
She stared at it. Glared at it. It stared back. It didn't seem capable of actually glaring. It was too nice. Too innocent. Kind, innocent, friendly and unassuming -- just like its owner.
It didn't look as embarrassed as it ought to have looked.
Then again, stegosauruses probably didn't know very much about dresses, or the humiliations associated with dresses of the particularly pink and frilly persuasion.
She pulled at the fabric.
It wouldn't budge.
"Shit," she spoke aloud. "How am I going to explain this to Greg?"
"Explain what?"
She whirled around, surprised to see Nick in the doorway, holding what looked to be assignment sheets.
"Umm, nothing. Umm --"
"Are you finished with the 406 yet?"
"That's -- uh -- that's actually what I'm working on right now."
Nick nodded. "Isn't that dress from the scene?"
"Yes."
"What's it doing on Greg's dinosaur?"
"I was trying to mimic the circumstances. You know -- run a simulation."
"Oh," Nick said, understanding clearly dawning. "The girl's doll. She said her mom threw her doll at the window."
Riley nodded. "The doll was approximately the same size -- and, strangely enough, build -- as Greg's dinosaur toy. But we couldn't find the doll when we searched. We only found her dress. I wanted to test out whether the doll would actually be able to break through the window and cause the glass fragments that we found at the scene."
"And did it?"
"Yes."
"So the break-in was staged?"
Riley nodded. "The doll was a big enough force to cause the window to shatter, and it was a way to avoid leaving behind DNA or fingerprints of any kind. We went back and interviewed the mother again, and it turns out she'd sold the family jewelry to pay for the new flatscreen. Something about wanting to watch some hot doctors kiss in high definition. We found the remains of the actual doll in the next-door neighbor's dog house. Sadly for little Suzie Mason, it wasn't salvageable."
Nick rolled his eyes. "People these days..." He glanced at the dinosaur again. "But the dinosaur..."
"Was the same size as the doll. I figured it would work to imitate the conditions."
"Yeah, I got that. But the dress?"
"I wanted to see whether it would leave fabric on the window fragments."
Nick nodded. "The dinosaur's still wearing a dress."
"Yeah..." Riley began. "That's kind of the problem..."
Nick sighed. "You used superglue, didn't you?"
Riley grimaced.
"Did you get Greg's permission to use the dinosaur in the first place?"
She shook her head. "He had said that everything in the office -- at least on his side -- was anyone's to use..."
Nick nodded before glancing around the room again -- his eyes focusing in on the dinosaur and then on Riley's guilty form. "Well," he said, hesitantly, biting his lip. "Good luck with that."
His message was clear. I would not want to be you right now.
She could still smell the superglue. Evil had a distinctive smell.
----
"Hey, Riley?"
She turned around to find Catherine staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a very suspicious expression.
An expression somewhere along the lines of 'What trouble have my CSIs gotten up to lately,' 'What trouble has that uppity, newfangled, trouble-prone CSI 2 managed to stir up now,' 'How the heck am I gonna clean up this mess' and, most likely, 'How the heck did said uppity, newfangled, trouble-prone CSI 2 manage to superglue a piece of evidence -- particularly a pink doll's dress found at the scene of the latest burglary -- to Greg's stegosaurus'.
Riley blushed and tilted her head, trying to cover the animal with her head. It was no use. The darn thing was too big.
"Is that Sara's dinosaur?"
Deer in the headlights. She knew that's what she was. She stuttered for a few seconds before replying -- hopefully coherently -- "Sara's?"
Catherine nodded. Her face was harsh. In a condescending, I'm-glad-I'm-not-you way. "She gave it to Greg. As a goodbye gift. I think she got it in Costa Rica. He's had that thing since then. Always kept it somewhere, even when he didn't have space in his locker. I think he talks to it sometimes." Catherine paused -- taking the time to stare wistfully off into space. "It means a lot to Greg. He and Sara were really close."
Riley glanced nervously between the dinosaur and Catherine.
"That dress doesn't seem quite like Sara's style. Or Greg's."
Riley shook her head quickly -- a little too quickly.
"You didn't get his permission, did you?"
Riley didn't respond, but just continued to stare at Catherine.
Catherine raised her eyebrows. "Well, I wouldn't want to be you right now, missy. You're in all kinds of trouble if he finds out."
Riley nodded, still not speaking.
Shit.
She hadn't realized that the doll was actually special to Greg. But she should have been able to guess it. Why else would a grown man hold on to a dinosaur toy -- and at his office, no less? In an otherwise sterile, nondescript office, the dinosaur was the one spark of whimsy, of personality. And Riley had ruined it.
She hadn't even known it was superglue.
She buried her face in her hands. She'd only been there for six months and she'd already found a way to hurt her coworker. She had carelessly taken something of a coworker's, earning her -- no doubt -- the disapproval of Nick and Catherine. And then there was Greg... Sweet, kind, funny Greg. Cute Greg. But that was beside the point. He was the one who had, all along, been the nicest to her. He'd made the biggest effort to help her fit in. In the wake of a close colleague's death -- a close colleague who was regarded as family at the Lab -- he had been the one to reach out to her. To make her feel accepted despite the fact that she was, in many ways, Warrick Brown's replacement.
And now she had broken his favorite toy. His last link to the Lab's past. To Sara Sidle. And probably Grissom too.
She hadn't realized that the bottle had contained superglue.
------------
"What is that?"
She turned around, surprised to see Ray hesitating in front of the office door. His expression was one of genuine, thoughtful curiosity. Maybe he could actually help her with her dilemma.
"Ummm... it's..."
"It's a ouranosaurus." He seemed to be the only person that didn't react to the pink dress. He moved inside the room, apparently to study the curious find more carefully. In a few steps, he was standing next to her -- though at a respectfully cautious distance of about a foot.
"I -- I'm fairly certain it's actually a stegosaurus."
He nodded, though his expression remained suspicious. In her short time working with Ray, Riley was proud to have finally learned to decode his generally judicious facial expressions. In his extensive time as a physician -- which probably consisted of breaking hard news to many persons -- he had developed a very good poker face. Either that or he just had a natural aptitude for exuding calm in a way she had rarely seen before. Still, especially after their wonderful escapade involving being held hostage in a PCP lab, she had learned how to tell when he was hiding genuine concern or suspicion. It was all in the way he bit his lip and looked slightly off to the left.
And now, he, just like everyone else, was suspicious and concerned. And curious. And probably amused. She hadn't decoded Ray's hiding-laughter face yet. Now would probably be a good time to start, Riley decided.
Once she explained the pink-frilly-dress-donning stegosaurus, of course.
Ray cleared his throat. His expression morphed through almost-imperceptable changes in his eyebrows' and lips' position. "I... uh -- I didn't realize you were into costuming. Or, err, dolls. Or dinosaurs."
"I'm not."
He looked up at her, an eyebrow almost raised. Another expression of curiosity, she noted. Ray had a lot of those.
"I'm not into dinosaurs," she repeated. "Or dolls and stuff."
He remained silent, waiting for the explanation.
"It's Greg's."
"Ah," he said, appearing momentarily enlightened. "Is Greg into... umm... pink Victorian dresses --" He seemed to reconsider his question. "Actually, never mind. It's none of my business."
Riley admired his restraint. It was hard not to be curious about a colleague's closet -- or now seemingly not-so-closet -- hobby of dressing up dinosaurs.
But he was an investigator, so he'd probably find out eventually. Plus, she had a feeling that Ray, in all of his judicious objectivity, as well as in his default alliance with Riley as a fellow newcomer, would be the one person who wouldn't give her a hard time.
"Actually, he isn't. I put the dress on it."
"Ah," Ray said, raising his head in an almost-nod. Riley could see the information fitting its way into his understanding of the situation. "And you... --" He seemed to be battling his curiosity once more as he paused, seemingly struggling over the appropriate words once again. This time, he settled for biting his lip and replying simply: "Well, I'm sure you two have an understanding about... um, his dinosaur and your dresses." She could tell that the words hadn't come out quite as he had hoped as he furrowed his brow.
"Actually, we don't," she replied slowly. "And that's the problem."
"Ah. I see." He seemed content to settle for the awkward silence that followed.
"I just don't know what to do," she blurted. "How much trouble am I in?"
"Well..." He replied thoughtfully. He paused again in consideration before continuing deliberately. "It's probably not that important to him -- not that that should negate the significance of vandalizing a coworker's property. Then again, if it was in the process of working on a case, I'm sure he'd understand. And I'm sure you had perfectly good reasons."
"Yeah. But it's still superglued. And I think it does mean a lot to him. He got it from Sara Sidle as a goodbye gift. Or something like that."
"You don't know what kind of relationship Greg and Sara had. It could have been more of a joking gift."
Riley nodded. "I'd say I'm still screwed."
"Well..." Ray was interrupted by his pager. "I'm never gonna get used to these things," he said, looking down at the beeping device.
"Didn't you use them when you worked at a hospital?"
"Yes."
"How long did you work there?"
"Twenty years."
"And you're still not used to pagers?"
He shook his head. "There's just something so... impersonal about them. I'd rather talk to people face-to-face. Resolve problems in person."
Riley nodded. She could see his point. And she knew what she had to do.
"Well, I've gotta get going," she replied. "I've gotta go talk to Greg."
"Good luck with that," he replied with a smile.
She had clearly underestimated his propensity for subtle and insightful hints.
---------
Next half coming soon, or available at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4958828/1/The_Perfect_Kentrosaurus
For Challenge #8 over at the Fanfiction Critique Group (which everyone should check out; there's a link on my profile page)...
1. Must include the phrase “I just don't know.” Or the phrase “Shake it like a polaroid picture.”
2. Must be between 990 and 9,990 words.
3. May be any rating greater than K+ and less than MA.
4. Must involve a fight. Interpret at will (as always).
5. Must involve a secret. (Optional.)
6. Must include two selected lyrics from the FCG. (Mine are "Evil is a distinctive smell" and "I'm in every kind of trouble").
---------
The Perfect Kentrosaurus
The Perfect Kentrosaurus
She stared at it. Glared at it. It stared back. It didn't seem capable of actually glaring. It was too nice. Too innocent. Kind, innocent, friendly and unassuming -- just like its owner.
It didn't look as embarrassed as it ought to have looked.
Then again, stegosauruses probably didn't know very much about dresses, or the humiliations associated with dresses of the particularly pink and frilly persuasion.
She pulled at the fabric.
It wouldn't budge.
"Shit," she spoke aloud. "How am I going to explain this to Greg?"
"Explain what?"
She whirled around, surprised to see Nick in the doorway, holding what looked to be assignment sheets.
"Umm, nothing. Umm --"
"Are you finished with the 406 yet?"
"That's -- uh -- that's actually what I'm working on right now."
Nick nodded. "Isn't that dress from the scene?"
"Yes."
"What's it doing on Greg's dinosaur?"
"I was trying to mimic the circumstances. You know -- run a simulation."
"Oh," Nick said, understanding clearly dawning. "The girl's doll. She said her mom threw her doll at the window."
Riley nodded. "The doll was approximately the same size -- and, strangely enough, build -- as Greg's dinosaur toy. But we couldn't find the doll when we searched. We only found her dress. I wanted to test out whether the doll would actually be able to break through the window and cause the glass fragments that we found at the scene."
"And did it?"
"Yes."
"So the break-in was staged?"
Riley nodded. "The doll was a big enough force to cause the window to shatter, and it was a way to avoid leaving behind DNA or fingerprints of any kind. We went back and interviewed the mother again, and it turns out she'd sold the family jewelry to pay for the new flatscreen. Something about wanting to watch some hot doctors kiss in high definition. We found the remains of the actual doll in the next-door neighbor's dog house. Sadly for little Suzie Mason, it wasn't salvageable."
Nick rolled his eyes. "People these days..." He glanced at the dinosaur again. "But the dinosaur..."
"Was the same size as the doll. I figured it would work to imitate the conditions."
"Yeah, I got that. But the dress?"
"I wanted to see whether it would leave fabric on the window fragments."
Nick nodded. "The dinosaur's still wearing a dress."
"Yeah..." Riley began. "That's kind of the problem..."
Nick sighed. "You used superglue, didn't you?"
Riley grimaced.
"Did you get Greg's permission to use the dinosaur in the first place?"
She shook her head. "He had said that everything in the office -- at least on his side -- was anyone's to use..."
Nick nodded before glancing around the room again -- his eyes focusing in on the dinosaur and then on Riley's guilty form. "Well," he said, hesitantly, biting his lip. "Good luck with that."
His message was clear. I would not want to be you right now.
She could still smell the superglue. Evil had a distinctive smell.
----
"Hey, Riley?"
She turned around to find Catherine staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a very suspicious expression.
An expression somewhere along the lines of 'What trouble have my CSIs gotten up to lately,' 'What trouble has that uppity, newfangled, trouble-prone CSI 2 managed to stir up now,' 'How the heck am I gonna clean up this mess' and, most likely, 'How the heck did said uppity, newfangled, trouble-prone CSI 2 manage to superglue a piece of evidence -- particularly a pink doll's dress found at the scene of the latest burglary -- to Greg's stegosaurus'.
Riley blushed and tilted her head, trying to cover the animal with her head. It was no use. The darn thing was too big.
"Is that Sara's dinosaur?"
Deer in the headlights. She knew that's what she was. She stuttered for a few seconds before replying -- hopefully coherently -- "Sara's?"
Catherine nodded. Her face was harsh. In a condescending, I'm-glad-I'm-not-you way. "She gave it to Greg. As a goodbye gift. I think she got it in Costa Rica. He's had that thing since then. Always kept it somewhere, even when he didn't have space in his locker. I think he talks to it sometimes." Catherine paused -- taking the time to stare wistfully off into space. "It means a lot to Greg. He and Sara were really close."
Riley glanced nervously between the dinosaur and Catherine.
"That dress doesn't seem quite like Sara's style. Or Greg's."
Riley shook her head quickly -- a little too quickly.
"You didn't get his permission, did you?"
Riley didn't respond, but just continued to stare at Catherine.
Catherine raised her eyebrows. "Well, I wouldn't want to be you right now, missy. You're in all kinds of trouble if he finds out."
Riley nodded, still not speaking.
Shit.
She hadn't realized that the doll was actually special to Greg. But she should have been able to guess it. Why else would a grown man hold on to a dinosaur toy -- and at his office, no less? In an otherwise sterile, nondescript office, the dinosaur was the one spark of whimsy, of personality. And Riley had ruined it.
She hadn't even known it was superglue.
She buried her face in her hands. She'd only been there for six months and she'd already found a way to hurt her coworker. She had carelessly taken something of a coworker's, earning her -- no doubt -- the disapproval of Nick and Catherine. And then there was Greg... Sweet, kind, funny Greg. Cute Greg. But that was beside the point. He was the one who had, all along, been the nicest to her. He'd made the biggest effort to help her fit in. In the wake of a close colleague's death -- a close colleague who was regarded as family at the Lab -- he had been the one to reach out to her. To make her feel accepted despite the fact that she was, in many ways, Warrick Brown's replacement.
And now she had broken his favorite toy. His last link to the Lab's past. To Sara Sidle. And probably Grissom too.
She hadn't realized that the bottle had contained superglue.
------------
"What is that?"
She turned around, surprised to see Ray hesitating in front of the office door. His expression was one of genuine, thoughtful curiosity. Maybe he could actually help her with her dilemma.
"Ummm... it's..."
"It's a ouranosaurus." He seemed to be the only person that didn't react to the pink dress. He moved inside the room, apparently to study the curious find more carefully. In a few steps, he was standing next to her -- though at a respectfully cautious distance of about a foot.
"I -- I'm fairly certain it's actually a stegosaurus."
He nodded, though his expression remained suspicious. In her short time working with Ray, Riley was proud to have finally learned to decode his generally judicious facial expressions. In his extensive time as a physician -- which probably consisted of breaking hard news to many persons -- he had developed a very good poker face. Either that or he just had a natural aptitude for exuding calm in a way she had rarely seen before. Still, especially after their wonderful escapade involving being held hostage in a PCP lab, she had learned how to tell when he was hiding genuine concern or suspicion. It was all in the way he bit his lip and looked slightly off to the left.
And now, he, just like everyone else, was suspicious and concerned. And curious. And probably amused. She hadn't decoded Ray's hiding-laughter face yet. Now would probably be a good time to start, Riley decided.
Once she explained the pink-frilly-dress-donning stegosaurus, of course.
Ray cleared his throat. His expression morphed through almost-imperceptable changes in his eyebrows' and lips' position. "I... uh -- I didn't realize you were into costuming. Or, err, dolls. Or dinosaurs."
"I'm not."
He looked up at her, an eyebrow almost raised. Another expression of curiosity, she noted. Ray had a lot of those.
"I'm not into dinosaurs," she repeated. "Or dolls and stuff."
He remained silent, waiting for the explanation.
"It's Greg's."
"Ah," he said, appearing momentarily enlightened. "Is Greg into... umm... pink Victorian dresses --" He seemed to reconsider his question. "Actually, never mind. It's none of my business."
Riley admired his restraint. It was hard not to be curious about a colleague's closet -- or now seemingly not-so-closet -- hobby of dressing up dinosaurs.
But he was an investigator, so he'd probably find out eventually. Plus, she had a feeling that Ray, in all of his judicious objectivity, as well as in his default alliance with Riley as a fellow newcomer, would be the one person who wouldn't give her a hard time.
"Actually, he isn't. I put the dress on it."
"Ah," Ray said, raising his head in an almost-nod. Riley could see the information fitting its way into his understanding of the situation. "And you... --" He seemed to be battling his curiosity once more as he paused, seemingly struggling over the appropriate words once again. This time, he settled for biting his lip and replying simply: "Well, I'm sure you two have an understanding about... um, his dinosaur and your dresses." She could tell that the words hadn't come out quite as he had hoped as he furrowed his brow.
"Actually, we don't," she replied slowly. "And that's the problem."
"Ah. I see." He seemed content to settle for the awkward silence that followed.
"I just don't know what to do," she blurted. "How much trouble am I in?"
"Well..." He replied thoughtfully. He paused again in consideration before continuing deliberately. "It's probably not that important to him -- not that that should negate the significance of vandalizing a coworker's property. Then again, if it was in the process of working on a case, I'm sure he'd understand. And I'm sure you had perfectly good reasons."
"Yeah. But it's still superglued. And I think it does mean a lot to him. He got it from Sara Sidle as a goodbye gift. Or something like that."
"You don't know what kind of relationship Greg and Sara had. It could have been more of a joking gift."
Riley nodded. "I'd say I'm still screwed."
"Well..." Ray was interrupted by his pager. "I'm never gonna get used to these things," he said, looking down at the beeping device.
"Didn't you use them when you worked at a hospital?"
"Yes."
"How long did you work there?"
"Twenty years."
"And you're still not used to pagers?"
He shook his head. "There's just something so... impersonal about them. I'd rather talk to people face-to-face. Resolve problems in person."
Riley nodded. She could see his point. And she knew what she had to do.
"Well, I've gotta get going," she replied. "I've gotta go talk to Greg."
"Good luck with that," he replied with a smile.
She had clearly underestimated his propensity for subtle and insightful hints.
---------
Next half coming soon, or available at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4958828/1/The_Perfect_Kentrosaurus
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My favourite part is when he sticks his head out of the lab and yells "Oh my goodness it's a girl." :lol: And I really liked the Ray and Riley conversation.