Title: What's the Big Deal?

Characters: Adam Ross and Haylen Becall

Fandom: CSI:NY

Rating: G

Summary: Referencing episode 6x06 "It Happened to me" Adam is having a hard time adjusting to all his stuff being moved around by the one and only Haylen Becall. Haylen doesn't quite understand what the big deal is. This story is taking creative license to say that Adam has OCD like he hinted at in Party's Over.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Every belongs to CBS

Edited: I apologize if anyone got an alert for this story again. There were just too many mistakes in the original for me to just leave it.

He nervously bit on a nail. She's moving them again. The perfectly laid out test tubes racks used to sit side by side. They used to be carefully lined across his workstation by size. Now they were being moved.

She aligned them in a more compact way on the desk. You could only see the plastic racks, which held about 8 test tubes each, as she lined them to look like books in a bookshelf.

He ran his hand through his hair surreptitiously pulling at it. He couldn't see all the test tubes anymore. What if one was missing at the end? What if he grabbed the wrong size? There was no way to see the labels the way she aligned it. To clean them, you'd have to reach over some to get others and then that would just dirty them all up.

He tapped the desk six times and sighed. Worse, if someone were to hit them they'd all knock down like dominoes. They'd shatter across the floor and who'd be blamed and fired and have to live on the streets, him.

"Can you not do that?" He said in an agitated voice.

"What?" She replied with a confused look on her face.

"Move the test tubes. I like them the other way."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. It was a look commonly given to him as if they were humoring him. It just proved to further agitate him.

"It's a good change. Now there's way more room for both of us to work here. And," She walked over to the bookshelf pulled out three large books, "we can finally move these reference books we're always reaching for right here." She added triumphantly as she dropped very worn and frequently used reference books on the work counter.

He flinched as if the very presence of the books would cause pure chaos. They were now not at the bookshelf anymore which he carefully had aligned in alphabetical order.

He could only imagine that if any other lab tech wanted to find them, they'd find that someone selfishly put them on his desk. They'd probably think he was hoarding them and all further ostracize him. It was no known secret that none of the other lab techs really talked to him. Maybe it was out of jealousy or incredulity of his strangeness.

Adam stared at the books and slid them carefully to the left a few inches away from the test tubes.

Those books could easily crush the glass tubes.

"What if someone else wants those books?"

Haylen just rose an eyebrow at the seemingly weak argument.

"The bookshelf is three feet away from this counter. It's no different if they walk from there to here."

Adam walked to the bookshelf mentally counting the steps and gave Haylen and exasperated look.

"Well, why can't we just walk from the counter to here?"

"Adam, you have the largest workload in the lab and I help you with it. We use these more than the other lab techs." She absentmindedly strummed the pages of the top book.

"Well, books go in the bookshelf. I like them there." Adam said while frowning at the large gaps in the bookshelf.

She huffed in frustration, "You're purposefully making this difficult. No matter what I do you smack it down."

"I don't knock everything down." He said defensively.

"What about when I moved all the pens in your desk into that cup. You spent the next 10 minutes aligning them back in your desk again."

"You had pencils in the cup and I need all the pen colors separate because when I take notes I use different colors to reference different things." He explained just as he did the day before.

"But you can see them just fine in the cup. It's not like I did anything but make them easier to get." She said still giving him a look as if he was crazy.

"Well, I like them aligned in my desk, as is." He said gritting his teeth in frustration.

She hopped on top of the counter and gave Adam a consoling look.

"Adam, I know I'm encroaching on your territory or whatever you men call it, but I work here now. You can't just get mad at every little thing I do. You have to admit that my changes are good changes and not get angry because it's not how you do it. Not everything you do is the best way to do it."

"It's not that. I just don't like stuff moved. I like them where I put them."

"That's ridiculous, like I am going to believe that. I try and do something nice and you're always trying to find something wrong with it." She hopped off the desk with a scowl.

Adam groaned and looked pleadingly at the ceiling. He didn't have a chance to reply as Danny entered the room with plastic bags. He limped across with the telltale clack of his cane.

"Hey Adam, I have some trace that Mac wants you to look at. This stuff is top priority and make your at the top of your game. We need this done ASAP." Danny said dropping them on the counter and Adam nodded with a sullen expression. Danny not noticing went to hobble out the room.

Adam knew he would screw it up if all his stuff was out of place. He needed to concentrate and those books and test tubes were a huge hindrance. He silently picked up the books and put in their correct place in the bookshelf. He then promptly went back to line his racks the right way.

Haylen, completely fed up, slammed his desk causing him to jump. "You know what, get over yourself!"

With that she rushed out of the room only to nearly run into Danny. Danny had stopped walking to witness the outburst and was frowning at her.

"What was that all about?"

Haylen took a deep breath. She was quietly seething. "That jerk over there insists on doing everything his way and puts down everything nice I do for him."

Danny's eyebrows furrowed, "That doesn't sound like Adam."

Adam was the type of guy who wore a horribly, ugly pink sweater that his elderly next door neighbor made for him. He never put down nice thing people did for him and thanked people for the smallest gestures.

"His desk is so disorganized and I try to fix it for him. Over the last few weeks he's been so difficult. His pens, test tubes, beakers, books, papers, folders – everything needs to go his way. It's not like he's the only one who works there." She vented.

Now, it makes sense, Danny thought. He remembered the time he was looking for beer in Adam's fridge and rummaged for a few minutes till he found one. He turned around to see Adam's stricken face. Adam quickly walked to the fridge and rearranged it exactly as it was before.

Danny learned that Adam did not like his stuff moved. It was just another quirk to add to a long list of them.

"Hey, trust me on this, Adam's a nice guy." She rolled her eyes at that but Danny persevered on, "He's just got a few quirks that you just have to get used to."

"Yes, being a completely irrational when some tries to do something nice is a quirk." Haylen said sarcastically but seemed to be calming down.

"No, one of the number one rules you have to know about Adam is, don't. Touch. His. stuff." Danny said in a firm tone.

Haylen paused for a second as if thinking about it, "I'm sure he'll eventually like a woman's touch on the lab." She said stubbornly and walked away.

Danny sighed, "This is not going to end well." He gave Adam a sympathetic look through the glass wall.