Chapter 11

Greg had gone off without Warrick to work, seeing how much the man couldn't really move lest he wanted Danny to wake up so early in the morning. They'll probably be there in a few hours anyway, and he was pretty certain Grissom would count it as a valid excuse for being late as amused he would be when hears about it.

Not to mention, the damning photographic evidence. He'd bet the rest would demand a copy from him at least.

Hopefully, Warrick will have enough time to lecture the kid about running off to a murder scene all by himself was a bad idea... no matter how dangerously cool it sounded. Still a bad idea though.

Going straight to the autopsy room, he finds Sarah standing with Doc. On another table, were the pieces of flesh he assumed to be what was left of the victim's innards.

"Greg, glad you could join us. May I?" Doc turned to woman's face which was contorted in horrified expression.

"So Doc, what killed her?"

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not really certain... you can see from her face how terrified she was, my best guess is that she was well-alive when whatever attacked her ripped open her chest and ate the rest of her insides." He pointed to the scraps of meat on the opposite table. "Those are rest of her intestines, lungs, and few pieces of her oesophagus, the only remains of her internal organs in the upper body."

"God..." Greg was practically speechless.

"Wait, so she was basically eaten to death?" Sarah asked, looking slightly green at the moment.

"I can't really be certain if there were other possibilities, there is very little left of the body I can actually infer from..."

"Woah, what do mean 'whatever'? You think it's an animal attack?" Finally finding his voice, Greg looked a bit sick as well.

"I certainly hope some sort of escaped, violent chimpanzee because there were very clear hand prints on both of her upper arms. Very small, almost like child's size." He lifts one of the arms to show them before picking up a rib. "The teeth that bit through one of the ribs showed some very sharp rows of teeth, I'll send it in for the lab to make an analysis... maybe they can find a match."

"Maybe?"

"... It might be a human, as disturbing as it sounds, but honestly speaking I highly suspect it is human considering the proportion of the hands; there are some eccentric individuals who have modified their teeth into rows of sharp fangs."

"There won't be many though, it's a lead."

LINEBREAK---

"Ummm..." Danny wasn't really sure how to go about his situation.

He'd almost forgotten how nice it was to have a bigger stronger body protectively (alright he admits it!) spooning him. When he was ten, it took him at least three months of sleepwalking back into his parents' room before he finally managed complete independence in his sleep. Now, he might develop that long-lost habit once more. Now that he thought about it, he vaguely recalled someone comfort him in his nightmares last night.

Contentedly snuggling back into the sleeping man's arms (keeping down his embarrassment), he gave himself a moment to think. His dreams/ nightmares were informative, despite their gruesome nature. He guessed it was another new developing ability, giving him information on what he was sensing in Las Vegas. Vengeful spirits who were extremely pissed, the ones whom justice has failed. For some reason, they managed to gain enough spiritual energy to become corporeal.

Thank Clockwork that he had friends like Sam who forced him to read on magic and any related topics to the paranormal.

He'll need to look up on any artefacts that have recently entered the city. Get rid of their power source, then they should return back to their harmless but still vengeful ghostly selves. Hopefully anyway. It was at least a lead. If he was lucky, he might even leave Vegas with his secret identity intact.

LINEBREAK---

"Jessica Hurlock, 35 years old, married to a George Hurlock, currently working as blackjack dealer in different casinos in the area… according to this, her six year old step daughter had been in an accident at home… drowned in a bathtub…" Nick closed the file. "She has nothing to do with the previous murder aside from the fact both cases involved a family member ending up in an accident."

"So we have another gruesome murder with the same teenager as a possible witness and virtually have no idea on how exactly both victims were killed?" Sarah concluded.

"Yup." Greg slouched onto the desk.

"Greg?" Catherine had entered the room, interrupting their discussion.

"Yeah Cath?"

"Have you seen Warrick, he's suppose to be here thirty minutes ago…" she looks suspiciously at the younger man's sudden mischievous grin.

Quickly ruffling through his pockets, Greg reveals a standard digital camera. Everyone in room curiously peered over his shoulder to see what was so important in the device that… The women just went 'aww…' at the image of Greg being hugged by the much smaller Danny. Nick immediately opened his laptop and demanded the memory card while snickering the whole way through. Catherine and Sarah, soon after, demanded Nick to email them the endearing photograph.

"Can we keep him?"

"Don't we already have Warrick?"

"I meant Danny!"

LINEBREAK---

To Warrick's credit, he did manage to slip off the bed without disturbing his charge's sleep… much. Danny did wake up for a split second, showing off his adorably bleary look, before collapsing back into dreamland. Kid was restless in his sleep till he came along, so the older man let the boy sleep in. He, on the other hand, was incredibly late for work, but he couldn't exactly just leave the boy 'home alone', darn Hollywood movie.

He didn't have much choice but to call Grissom and explain his current situation.

Ring ring…

"Hello Warrick, I heard you were having a little family time with our charge?"

"What?"

"Nothing, is Daniel sleeping in?"

"Yeah, kid's been getting nightmares all night till I came, so he's still a bit tired."

"So you'll have to stay with him, I understand."

"Okay, cool, we'll probably be at the labs by noon…"

"By the way, instead of coming by here, just stay there… I'll be coming to get a statement from Danny from the latest case."

"Why here? You could just talk to the kid when we get there…"

"And risk getting caught up in work so he could just sneak away from adult supervision and again, run into another crime scene. I'd rather not. The next time we find him in another scene, he might be hurt or worse, on a one way trip to the morgue."

Warrick shuddered at the thought.

"Alright, keep an eye on the kid 24-7, got it. I'm ordering breakfast and I expect lunch from you at noon."

"Count on it."

As he hung up, he heard a familiar whimpering from the bedroom. He sighed in resignation, before giving in to urge of protectiveness he had developed over Danny. He already chased bad guys away, nightmares wouldn't be too hard, he mused as he wrapped his arms around the slumbering teen.

Points to note: I didn't think they would make Danny as a suspect since he didn't have any direct physical evidence on the two scenes. That and Danny doesn't really fit a profile of a violent serial killer (They have his file). I suppose the lack of physical evidence (such as not having a speck of blood on him despite the scene being, well, bloody) is another point as well.