Eurydice1980 posted this challenge at Under the Bridge, and I just wub challenges...
|We're in a building with many elevators and of course there is a problem.
People are stuck in their elevators.
In one elevator is Brass with only one other person: A pretty woman, who thinks
he met before, but cannot remember. He is attracted to her and it turns out to
be Lady Heather wearing a ponytail, normal clothes and subtle make-up, No Whip
to be around, looking like a normal person... Feel the awkwardness, hihi!
In another elevator we have Grissom and Sara, feeling very uncomfortable in
each other presence (because it's after Butterflied, don't know what to do
about 'this'), and to make things worse Hodges is stuck with them.
And in the next elevator we've got Nick, who is freaking out.
And Catherine and Warrick are trying to calm him down.|
a/n: As timelines go, this one's variable--one would assume that trouble with elevators would all happen at once, so imagine that each respective group is either 5 minutes or so before or after one another.
Chapter One:
County Courts Building:
What a DAY. They all hated celebrity cases, and today's marathon court testimonies had made it easy to see why. The case had involved an A-list actor whose family had mysteriously been murdered in their hotel room while he was 'out' golfing with the hotel owner. Except that his fingerprints were at the scene, in his daughter's blood, along with those of his so-called alibi. It turned out that the sleazy hotel owner had needed the publicity the crime generated, while the actor hadn't wanted the burden of his children or the prospect of a messy divorce. Of course, proving it was another matter entirely. The top name lawyers that had been hired to protect the heartless man had subpoenaed every single person that had worked on the case, just about. One by one, the attorneys had tried to rip apart their evidence, questioning everything they did. At the end of the day, all any of them wanted to do was sleep. Director Carvallo had arranged a cover crew for all the night shift employees required to testify, explaining to them that a good night's sleep would help their case more than testifying all day, and working all night. Particularly since they weren't all finished in court yet.
Lieutenant Jim Brass was looking forward to a good nights' sleep. So much so, that he got started on it a little early. The 'ding' of an elevator's arrival woke him from his doze, and for a long minute he was confused as to where he was. A quick check of his surroundings told him that he'd fallen asleep in the waiting area outside the courtroom. The court building was several stories high, and the view it accorded of the setting sun was fairly impressive. The doorway was in such a position that he could see a faint reflection of the goings on in the hallway, and he could see Grissom, Hodges, and Sara enter one of the open elevator cars. Brass chuckled. He wasn't sure which of them to feel more sorry for—Grissom, for having to deal with Hodges' inevitable attempt at brown-nosing; Hodges, when Grissom inevitably put him in his place; or Sara, for having to witness both. He took one more look at the breathtaking sunset, and started for the hallway. As sleepy as he was, his bed was imminently preferable to the waiting room's sparse accommodations.
Elevator #4:
Catherine rubbed her arms to warm them. Even with long sleeves, the elevator seemed pretty cold. It had been a long day for her—nearly 30 hours. She'd worked the night before, and hadn't had much time to do more than change into a nice outfit for court after the shift was over. She was glad her sister was able to take care of Lindsay tonight, because she doubted she'd be able to do much of anything but sleep. The thought made her picture her nice warm bed, and she yawned.
Nick yawned. He'd considered watching the football game he'd taped between his college team and Notre Dame, but the thought of a good nights' sleep drove any desire for sports watching to the back burner.
Warrick yawned.
Catherine yawned again.
Nick started to yawn, when Warrick punched his shoulder.
"Quit that! You'll get me started again," the tall CSI complained.
"Me?" Nick protested. "You started it!"
"Oh, I don't think so, Sir Yawns-A-Lot," Warrick teased.
"'Sir'-" Nick was cut off by Catherine before he had to think up a comeback.
"Oh, both of you stop," Catherine said, wearily. "I started it."
"See?" Nick started again, vindicated. "I-what was that?"
"I felt it too," Warrick said.
"It's probably nothing," Catherine assured them, "just a kink in the lifting mechanism."
"We're going down, Cath." Warrick objected.
Elevator #1:
"…and that's why I was able to keep my cool on the stand up there," Hodges was saying. He'd been going on and on about how Grissom's teaching him about the importance of the chain of evidence had been what gave him strength in his testimony today. The only thing keeping Sara sane was the fact that the last time the elevator stopped, the door had opened and the woman waiting had taken one look at Hodges and changed her mind about taking the elevator. At least, that's what Sara assumed had been the reason for her decision.
Sara was impressed with the woman's wisdom.
She wished she'd made the same choice.
Then again, Sara would have taken one look at Grissom and chose to take the stairs. All 19 flights of them. Gladly.
It drove her CRAZY that the man could say those things about her ('they were about me, I know they were about me,' her thoughts screamed at her before she could let that dreadful doubt creep in again) and have it not make one iota of difference in how he treated her. If anything, it had cause him to retreat even farther ('I didn't think that could be possible!' she thought, angrily) than before. Two full weeks had passed, and this very elevator ride was the closest they'd been since that night. Sara sighed, causing Grissom to glance over at her quickly. Grissom had to admit, she looked pretty miserable, but then again--who wouldn't be, with this guy yammering on about how he had 'saved the case'.
Elevator #4:
"We're going down!?" Nick asked in a panic, frantically holding onto the handrails as if clutching them would be the last desperate act of his life.
"Whoa, Nick!" Catherine said, reaching out a hand to steady her friend's shaking shoulders. "It's not as if we're in a plane," she joked, trying to lighten his mood. As she spoke, the elevator paused in its descent, making a very audible sound of distressed metal.
"Plane, elevator--they both have the same result!" Nick said in a high pitched tone, attempting to reach the emergency phone while still grasping the handrail. Warrick noticed his intent, and moved to stand in front of the panel that held the phone, inwardly laughing at Nick's worry. He stopped laughing a minute later when the dizzying sense of having the floor you're standing on drop out from under you made him question whether or not Nick had been right. The odd feeling made him lose his balance, and he fell backwards onto the control panel for the elevator. He felt an awful pain in his back, and then fell forward into Catherine's arms.
Meanwhile, waiting for an elevator:
Brass looked at his watch. He told himself, for the fifth time, that he should have run for the elevator that Grissom, Sara, and (gulp) Hodges had taken, and just dealt with it. Anything was better than having to wait forever for the next elevator. He had almost prepared himself for the ordeal of 19 flights of stairs, when the blessed *ding* told him his ride had finally come. Rushing into the elevator, he nearly ran into an attractive, black haired woman. Brass excused himself politely, and made sure 'Lobby' was pressed.
He felt like he was being watched. Glancing over at the woman, he immediately realized two things. One, she was watching him. Two, she wasn't merely attractive, she was gorgeous! He could feel the heat around his collar as he began to blush, and then realized he'd been staring right back at her. The blush rose, and he nodded at her in way of a greeting, and turned his face away so that she couldn't watch the progress of red marching up his face. Something about her tugged at his senses, and it wasn't just his masculine response to her. She looked familiar.
Elevator #1:
"Whoa," Sara said. The elevator had stopped, but it wasn't the recognizable, slow easing to a stop that she had expected. She could almost feel the car jerk on the pulley strings. Sara shot a look around the tight space, registering that Grissom had felt it too, and Hodges had not. In fact, the odious man was glaring at her as if she'd made up some disturbance in order to shut him up. Little did he know, she would have--if it had been possible.
Hodges opened his mouth to continue his self-centered account of the entire trial proceedings, when a second, more pronounced jerk of movement gave way to a short free-fall. Reflexively, Grissom lunged toward Sara, pinning her between his arms as he held onto the railing that was bolted to the wall. Neither of them cared much about (or even noticed, for that matter) what Hodges was doing.
TBC...
a/n: do tell me if the bold location notifications are annoying, and I'll edit them out.