Fic: Battlefield (10/11)
Title: Battlefield
Chapter: 10/11
Author: Jedi Princess Clarrisani
Beta: Stalker of Shadows
Additional Helpers: galuxkitty and puppytraining
Fandom: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Pairing(s): Nick/Greg, Grissom/Sara, Warrick/Tina, wishful Catherine/Warrick
Rating: NC-17
Total Word Count: 25, 184
Tag: The storm’s been brewing for some time now.
Summary: With a serial killer on the loose and Greg’s job on the line, Nick finds himself caught up on several battlefields - professional, personal, external and internal…
Disclaimer: Do not own. If I did, you would have found several shots of Nick and Greg in the background creeping out of the supply room after their long bouts of absence…
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Nick groaned at the sharp trill of the phone, glancing around the still darkened room in search of the thing that had yanked him from his sleep. Greg still lay on him, but was now more curled against Nick’s side, at some time having come free. Spotting the phone, Nick reached for it as best he could without moving Greg, closing his fingers around it and hitting receive.
“Stokes.”
“Just me, Nick.” He could hear the smile in Brass’ voice. “I just had a call from the lab. Turns out Marnie Carpenter’s DNA matches our unknown female. I’m on my way to get the warrant now.”
“That’s great news, Jim.” Nick grinned. “I guess we’ll meet you at the boat house.”
Brass told him the address. “I shouldn’t be long, so give me an hour at the least. Bye Nick.”
Nick ended the call, keying in Warrick’s speed dial and waiting. After five rings a sleepy voice answered. “Brown.”
“Just me, Rick. DNA matched and Brass is on his way to get the warrant. We’re meeting at the boat house in roughly an hour.”
“Bout time we had a decent lead.”
“Agreed.” Nick gave him the address and said his goodbyes. Nick hung up and put the phone back, smiling as he heard Greg sigh. “Got our DNA, G.”
“I heard.” Greg lifted his head, smiling. “I think we’re about to break the case, Nicky.”
“I hope so.” Nick kissed him. “After this I want a routine B&E and maybe an accident. Nothing big.”
Greg nodded, stifling a yawn. “An hour til we got to be there?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Greg wrapped his arms around Nick, rolling onto his back and dragging Nick on top of him, grinning. He placed a soft kiss on Nick’s lips. “Your turn.”
* * * *
Warrick glanced at his watch as they approached, Nick knowing they were late. After what Greg had so aptly called ‘his turn’, they had cleaned up with a shower - a shower that had lasted half-an-hour. They had then grabbed a quick snack before driving to the boathouse.
Warrick’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t even wanna know.”
Nick smiled tightly, nodding toward the boathouse. “Been inside yet?”
“Waitin’ for you.” Warrick fell into step beside them. “Tell you one thing - there’s a boat at the pier.”
“Dibs on the boat.” They looked at Greg who shrugged sheepishly. “I like processing boats.”
“Ah-ha.” Nick looked at Warrick. “Guess we get inside.”
The boatshed was fairly basic: room for a boat to be brought in and worked on, double doors for the trailer and tow car. Tools and fishing gear sat around on the shelves, but Nick’s attention went straight to the gun resting on the bench. He pulled on his gloves, making a b-line for it.
“Oh you wouldn’t be that stupid.” Warrick joined him as Nick carefully picked it up, checking that the safety was on. “Leave a murder weapon in plain sight?”
“Maybe they believed no one would come in here,” Brass said, joining them. He swept his torchlight over the ground as Nick bagged the weapon. “No obvious blood.”
“Easy to clean up in here,” Nick pointed out.
Nick and Warrick began searching the room, finding several blood pools but all tested negative to human blood. Fish blood, most likely. A wider search found nothing for them to go with, Nick’s hopes fading as he ducked out onto the pier, making his way to where the boat sat - a boat the Carpenter’s should not be able to afford on their salary.
“Get anything, G?”
A head popped up, those large brown eyes finding him and sending a shiver through Nick. Greg grinned as he stood, a blood tester in hand.
“Positive for human blood.” Greg glanced down. “And there’s a lot of it.”
“GSR?” Warrick asked.
“Positive for that too.” Greg looked up. “Found our crime scene.”
“Finally.” Warrick pulled himself onto the boat, eyes widening as he looked down. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“What?” Nick followed him onto the boat, disbelief washing over him as he cast his gaze over the floor. He set his jaw, shaking his head. “A lot’ is an understatement.”
“I don’t get it.” Brass leaned against the side, looking in. “They took so much care to cover their tracks, then leave the weapon in plain sight and don’t clean up the crime scene?”
“Like you said - maybe they thought no one would find it.” Nick gestured down at the boat. “Can we get this taken back to the lab?”
“You won’t be able to bag it,” Brass said, smirking and pulling his phone from his belt. “I’ll get on it.”
“Thanks, Jim.”
“Now this is a decent lead,” Warrick said with a smile.
“Yeap.” Greg grinned. “Don’t think we have long now. Oh, and I found this.” He picked up a camcorder. “Batteries are flat.”
“We’ll give it to Archie.” Nick sighed, smiling. “Finally.”
* * * *
Four hours later they were back at the lab, the boat sitting on its trailer in the garage. Greg had been reluctant to enter the lab, but it became clear that Ecklie was nowhere to be found. Nick could see the tight set to Greg’s jaw and tenseness to his build as they finished processing the boat, sending numerous samples to DNA to test against their vics.
Nick looked up as Bobby entered the garage. “Have something?”
Bobby nodded, smiling. “Bullets all match the gun you found at the boat house. Jacqui also said to tell you that the prints on the gun are a match to Geoffrey Carpenter.”
“Wife kidnaps them, husband kills them,” Warrick said.
“And used the son as bait,” Greg said, leaning over the edge of the boat to look down at Bobby. “What about Archie?”
“Waiting for you in the A/V lab.” Bobby looked up at him. “Just thought you should know everyone’s on your side. And Jacqui, Archie, Dave, David, Albert and I were wonderin’ if you wanted to go out for a drink after shift. Been a while since we all went.”
“Using me as an excuse, eh?” Greg smiled, shrugging. “Sure, I’ll come. Try and get Dave P plastered again.”
“Arch is bringing his camera.” Bobby grinned. “Meet you after shift.”
Nick smiled tightly as Bobby disappeared out the door, quenching his annoyance. He’d been hoping to have Greg to himself after shift for a repeat of earlier, but he knew that there was no room for jealously. He didn’t want to drive Greg off when they were just beginning.
“So,” Warrick said. “We’ve got solid evidence that Marnie and Geoffrey are involved.”
“Toni’s still up in the air,” Nick finished. He sighed, looking out the door. “To the A/V lab?”
* * * *
They found Archie waiting for them, his eyes automatically falling on Greg as they entered. Greg waved him off, dropping into the seat beside him. Nick moved to stand behind Greg, Warrick behind Archie. Archie waited until they were all settled before smirking.
“You guys got yourselves a twisted one.” Archie keyed up the footage. “Watch.”
Nick leaned over Greg’s shoulder as the home video came up, Nick frowning as Georgalas and Willrock appeared. The footage was from one boat to another, Georgalas and Willrock talking as they fished. As the footage continued they began to argue, the fight continuing as they returned to land. As CSIs and tech watched the fight turned physical, Warrick swearing softly when Willrock snatched up the tyre iron, hitting Georgalas over the head.
The footage continued as Willrock panicked, quickly dragging Georgalas to the boat and proceeding to take the body out, dumping it into the water. The film only stopped when Willrock was back inland and driving away.
“Wow.” Greg looked up at Nick and Warrick. “You guys were right. Willrock killed Georgalas.”
“I think that’s grounds for you to give us back our dough,” Warrick teased.
“So someone on the Carpenter’s boat saw the murder,” Nick said, resting his hands on Greg’s shoulders and staring at the last frame of the video. “Why not turn the tape in to the police?”
“Maybe they figured it was a good idea,” Greg said, “and copied it. And since Willrock killed first…”
“…he was the first to be killed,” Warrick finished. “All we need now is the blood samples we collected to be matched to our vics, and we have Marnie and Geoffrey.”
“Chances are Toni will go free,” Nick pointed out.
“They were using Toni’s car,” Greg pointed out. “Their BMW is in our garage.”
“Toni’s car won’t be much good to us. We’re going to need one of the parents to say he was in on it.” Nick gave Greg’s shoulders a squeeze before stepping back. “Almost time for the triathlon. I’m expecting the Carpenters’ to show up in the next 24 hours.”
“I might go join the watch,” Warrick said. “Got nothing better to do until we find ‘em.”
“I’ll run our findings by Griss.” Nick glanced at his watch. “Gil should be in his office by now. Catch you guys later.”
* * * *
Grissom wasn’t in his office, Nick loitering around as he waited for the supervisor to return. He saw the lab rats come off shift, Greg in their midst as they left the lab. Greg had told him that he had a ride home, so now Nick just had to worry about the case and avoiding Ecklie - the man not seeming to be around.
Looking up, Nick spotted Grissom vanish in his office door, Nick quickly finishing his coffee and rinsing the mug, hurrying after him. He knocked on the door, Gil looking up sharply from a report he was reading and waving him in. Nick smiled, closing the door and moving to drop into a seat.
“How’s the case?”
“Why I’m here.” Nick smirked. “Boat house proved to be our big break and crime scene. We have the murder weapon, means and possible motive, and solid evidence on two suspects. We just need them to be found and brought in.”
“That’s very good, Nick.” Grissom smiled, leaning back in his seat. “I heard you had footage.”
“Of the original murder. Our second vic, who was our original suspect, killed our first vic. One of the Carpenter’s caught it on home video.”
“Now you just need to question them to find out who.”
“That’s right.”
Grissom sighed, a small amount of relief playing across his features. He thought for a moment, pursing his lips before meeting Nick’s eye. “You should know I contacted Atwater about what happened earlier. Conrad is on three days suspension for poor practice and breaches in privacy.”
“I noticed he wasn’t around.” Nick frowned. “So, eh… what’s happening with Greg? That cleared up?”
“In terms of him being forced onto dayshift, yes.” Grissom shook his head. “His evaluation is still a problem. He will need to work and close a significant number of cases in order to reach the recommended standard, and it will take him a little longer to reach CSI 2.”
“I’m sure he’ll accept that.”
“Two more things, Nicky. Firstly, successfully closing your current case will bode well for the three of you, and may go toward mending Greg’s record. Secondly,” Grissom met his eye, “there is the matter of what happened in the garage. Greg and I are going to need to have a long talk about disrespecting superiors.”
“Oh come on.” Nick frowned, leaning back. “Ecklie asked for it.”
“Greg still should not have lost his temper. One other thing.” Grissom looked at him pointedly. “I want you to assure me that yours and Greg’s relationship will not impact on your professionalism.”
“I don’t even want to know how you know.” Nick sighed, nodding. “We’re all professionals. We won’t do a Sara.”
Grissom chuckled, Nick knowing that Grissom knew he was referring to Sara’s frequent attempts of public displays of affection at crime scenes. At one pint she and Gil had kept it strictly out of sight, but things were slowly changing.
“Well,” Gil said, leaning back. “We just need to find a way to get Catherine and Warrick together.”
“Already working on it.” Nick winked at him, standing. “I might head home. Haven’t been there in almost three days.”
“Know the feeling.” Grissom shrugged. “You learn to leave some things at their house. Saves on the extra driving.”
“Noted.” Nick grinned. “Now I’ve just got to wait for PD to find our suspects.”
“I’ll update the Mayor.” Grissom smiled tightly. “Out of your hands at the moment.”
"At least until I get that phone call. See you, Griss.”
TBC...
Almost at the end. Only one chapter to go and then it's all over. And thank you to whomever it was who nominated me for the fic awards! *hugs*