In a World They Forgot

You've Got Your Father's Reckless Charm

I dragged my feet through the labs, smelling of vomit and a range of food sauces. My hair was gooey and sticky and my face had pasta sauce and god only knows what else smeared across it. Greg had had a good laugh at me when he saw me and the state I was in. I even had to sit on a plastic sheet in the van I was that badly covered.

"Hodges analyse this." I placed a variety of bags of vomit on his desk, just a little bit smarmy that he had to do it.

"Will do. Oh, and I heard about what happened to your beloved Greggo." He had a huge smirk on his face. I had just handed the man vomit  for crying out loud!

"Bite me." I snarled at him, not in the mood for this pathetic game of cat and mouse.

"Trust me, I'd love too, but that would be breaking lab rules, though, you‘d probably like that." I spun on my heel and glared at him, just wishing I could shove his face into the samples I‘d collected.

"One day Hodges I will--"

"Ah, Miki, there you are. I need a written statement from you about Harrison Bueller’s assault on Greg." Brass poked his head around the lab door. I glanced at Hodges who was pretending to work and then mumbled a response to Brass who left.

“Hm, seems like Bueller was in the right place at the right time.” Hodge’s snapped my last nerve and making sure no one was in shot I walked behind Hodges and repeated the twist that I'd done on Bueller. He yelped in pain and I tightened my grip.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at Hodges?!" I hissed. “What the hell did you do tonight?”

"Do you want Ecklie to know?" He whimpered, trying to remain calm.

I pushed him into the desk winding him "If you ever pull a stunt like that again, you'd better run. Not even Ecklie would be able to save you." I warned him.

"I think you'd better let go of me before I tell Ecklie all about you and Sanders." I could hear the pain in his voice. I reluctantly let him go and stepped back. "We have a deal Romani. I'll let that little...outburst slide, but next time you plan on doing something like that I'll make sure this whole lab knows about your little secret."

"Miks? I thought you were going to take a shower?" Greg's head appeared at the door, confusion in his dark eyes.

"I am. I just had to drop some evidence off here." I said, not once breaking my glare with Hodges.

"Better run along Miki." Hodges said with false sweetness. I glared at him and made my way out of the lab, flying past Greg and almost snapping the door off of its hinges.

I changed into my spare tank top and jeans and tied my hair into a wet bun. Greg was sitting on the bench behind me, studying me whilst he pretended to flip through a case file that we needed to take to Grissom. "You seemed a little angry just before." He stated, looking up at me.

"I was." I answered, knowing that it was pointless to lie about it; my temper had never been the best aspect of who I was, nor was it the easiest to hide.

"Was it because I made you go through the dumpster?" He sounded really guilty and his voice was so meek.

"What? No! No way would I be mad because of that Greg!" I sat down next to him and shook my head reassuringly.

"Then what got you so angry?"

"Hodges just has a way of really irritating me."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing really, just commenting on how bad CSI's are and blah, blah, blah." I lied, rolling my eyes for added effect.

"Want me to go hit him?" Greg smirked even thought I could tell it hurt his lip, which still looked a little tender.

"I can handle him." I said, shrugging it off for show.

"After the way you handled that guy before I can believe it!"

"Well, he wasn't about to damage Greggo on me. It's too late for me to get a refund now."

"And why's that?"

"Because I like you too much." I smiled before kissing his cheek softly.

"What happened to 'after work'?" Greg grinned as I pulled away.

"Good point." I winked and then I got up and skipped out of the locker room ignoring Greg's cries of 'Don't leave it on that'.

Luckily, it was a busy night in Vegas and eyes were on the evidence of crimes, not the evidence of relationships.