This Vegas Sky Is Tainted

Allowing my body to sink into the old and battered but extremely comfortable sofa that say in the break room was pure bliss. I forced my eyes to stay open as i sat there sipping on my third cup of what was meant to be coffee within the past two hours. I forced the sludge down my throat making a mental note to re-stock graveyard’s secret stash with some good coffee again. As i relaxed more into the sofa my feet and leg’s seemed relieved of the break having not sat down for longer than five minutes in the last eight hours. Don’t get me wrong i loved work and was highly grateful to of been back for 6 month’s now since the last incident but overtime was still a killer. As i felt my eyes start to try and close again i forced them open not giving in to the lack of sleep i was running on.

I was the only one from graveyard in the building so far having had to head into work a couple hours early for a dreaded meeting with Ecklie. I had stood in his office not taking much of what he droned about in, mainly cause i couldn’t stand the guy and his kiss- ass team as it was, let alone when he deprived me of sleep. The meeting had been in some relevance to my fitness after the couple month’s off work and how i felt i was getting on again now. I answered any direct question’s i was given but everything else just did not go into my mind after too much overtime this week.

I was drawn from staring at the blank wall by surprise due to a familiar voice.

“You look how i feel”

I looked up to see Warrick stood there, himself holding a cup of sludge as he wandered further into the break room.

“Cheer’s you look wide awake to me”

“i don’t feel it. Overtime taking it’s toll?”

“You bet, i already want to go back to bed, this sofa is becoming even more tempting as the minutes tick by.”

Warrick let out a slight laugh as he settled beside me, the sofa groaning at the weight of two of us on it’s old frame. I stifled a yawn as i headed to the coffee machine and made a fourth coffee determined to keep myself going for the next 8 hours.

“How many coffee’s you had so far?”

“That’s my fourth, i wish they would take affect already.”

I watched Warrick shake his head at my answer as he sipped on his first coffee of the night. I placed my mug on the floor to allow my coffee to cool letting my head rest back against the cool leather and deciding to let my eyes close momentarily. I must of dozed for a little while though.

The next thing i knew i opened my eyes quickly once a heavy weight landed with some force onto my lap and the whole sofa moved and creaked at the same time. Suddenly wide awake again i groaned to see the culprit was an overly energetic nick sat grinning at me.

“you shall so get your ass kicked later Nicky.”

“Ohh will i. Wonder what exactly your going to do to me,”

“You will see, you know Ecklie prevented me sleeping today.”

“Sorry babe. I had to wake you up though Warrick wanted to let you sleep longer.”

I smiled thanking Warrick for wanting to let me sleep more.

“i did tell you that you looked rough. Thought you may benefit from half hour’s sleep.”

“Cheer’s ‘Rick, let’s see if it worked later on.”

I turned to look back at nick who was still grinning like a Chesire cat as he sat on my lap. We shared a quick kiss hearing Warrick turn the tap on before parting again.

“Can you get your fat ass off me now I’m awake....please?”

I smiled as Nick grumbled a little as he shifted off my legs. Once he had moved i forced myself back onto my feet and grabbed my coffee off the floor. I gulped it down not caring it was now cold knowing the caffeine would defiantly need to be in my system. I stretched a little before moving over to where nick stood beside the table hugging him and explaining i would make it up to him for been grumpy once shift ended. He seemed to perk up a little at this as we parted again Warrick joining us again.

A little while later Grissom stepped into the break room looking awake as always even though i knew he had pulled overtime earlier and no doubt not slept. The rest of the team had by now also gathered into the break room as we awaited our cases for the night. It wasn’t long before cases had been handed out and people slowly disappeared from the break room tog et whatever they needed to start working.

Nick and Warrick had been sent to help Catherine on an apparent homicide, Sara was preparing for court in the morning and Greg and Lottie were continuing a case they had worked overtime for now having gained new evidence that should of been ready in the labs by now. I was instead making my way towards Grissom’s office, which was preferred to Ecklie’s but i would rather of been solving a case than having a another meeting.

When i stepped into the office Grissom was already sat behind his desk the door open. I stepped inside shutting the door behind me before settling into one of the chairs that sat in-front of his desk. He was scanning over his laptop screen his face showing he was again full of thought, a normality for Grissom. If there was one thing that i always wanted to know it was what always kept Grissom’s mind in thought and whether it was always work related.

“I know you ha a meeting with Ecklie earlier but i wanted to do this on more of a friend basis than as your supervisor. I was wondering in honest truth how you were coping with the work load after everything?”

“The work load isn’t a problem at all. What happened is far enough in the past that I’m past it now. I’m grateful to be working full time again you probably heard Nick saying about when i was stuck in the flat how i was going stir-crazy. I think in all honestly if i was sat at home and working part-time my mind would run back to what happened more than i needed to and that’s what would set me back.”

Grissom seemed more than satisfied with my answer as he nodded and smiled. He looked down at his screen once more a look of confusion momentarily present on his face before he looked back up to me.

“Is something up?”

“No, nothing’s wrong just more stuff for me to read through. You can get onto working now. You mind analysing the evidence and results i gathered from that case yesterday and i will meet you at the light table in 15 minutes?”

I nodded and rose from the seat leaving Grissom’s office and heading down the corridor before emptying an evidence box and laying out all of it’s contents. As i started to look through the manila file containing required information i could feel the four cups of coffee finally starting to tack effect. As i looked through the scene photograph’s and compared them to a theory Grissom had jotted down i could see thing’s running how he said. I soon had gloves pulled on as i observed the various pieces of evidence that had been collected and compared result’s in line with suspects.

There was one photo however that didn’t seem to fit to Grissom’s theory and i wondered whether that was why he had asked my opinion on the case. I looked back from evidence to note’s and back to the photo trying to make sense of everything for at least half an hour. Grissom still hadn’t turned up however and i presumed that he had taken a call or was tied up in something else since his present wasn’t here.

After another ten minutes i had headed down to AV settling in beside Archie as he had phoned to inform me he had some casino footage in relation to Grissom’s case. As we went over some of the footage showing a suspect in slow motion my cell phone started to ring in my pocket. My cell ringing made both me and Archie jump our concentration on the footage but i stood and stepped into the corridor to take the call allowing Archie to continue working on the footage.

“Robinson.”

“it’s Grissom, can you head back to my office please i need to speak to you.”

I agreed o would head right down and placed my cell phone away. I popped my head around the door to Archie and let him now i had to disappear but for him to keep running the footage and to phone if he hit anything worth me knowing. I then walked back to Grissom’s office.