[CSI AU (Yes, I have an obsession, I know.)]

(Enjoy the 2,000+ words for one shots I've not written in weeks and the multiple parter because there are wayyyyy too many words in this one shot.)

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"And that's why we could rule out suicide and natural causes as the C.O.D," Aphmau reasoned, thumbing the pictures of their current vic. She was showing the arm length of the victim and the obvious differentiation of the bullet that killed the victim and the one left at the crime scene. Garroth could tell from the pictures that those two were ruled out but to a jury, it was a whole different story. They could give you ever fault in the book even if you had the best evidence.

"Good job, Aphmau," Garroth praised, smiling at her for only a second. He looked at the pictures once more, still wondering how such gruesome pictures could be so normal to him. It kept him up at night at how normal this whole ordeal was. There was no happiness to come from his job nowadays. Then, there was Aphmau, joyous as can be in a job that gave no kindness. The way her eyes twinkled with absolute delight, her mouth naturally turned upright at the edges, and the way she spoke of her husband...pure unadulterated delight.

"Thank you, Garroth," she said as Garroth's department issued phone went off. He sighed, realizing that he would have to cut this discussion sooner than expected. Giving Aphmau a sorry look to counter her smug look, he took out the phone looking at the message on it.

From: Sheriff

420 on Elm St and Lord St. REPORT IMMEDIATELY.

Garroth raised a pale eyebrow, the 420 was in the neighborhood in which Aphmau resided with her husband, Aaron, lived. It was a quiet neighborhood unlike the rest of the city which was perfect for a CSI trying to escape the craziness of law enforcement. Aphmau recognized his puzzled expression on his face, the one he always got when one of the people in the lab did something unexpected. "Need me to go with you to that 420?"

"Um...no," Garroth said, pocketing his phone, "I'll get Travis and Katelyn with me. Most likely, they're sucking each others faces off so I'm going to get a two for one deal. Just stay and continue with our vic."

She nodded to signal an okay as Garroth walked out of the meeting room. Garroth couldn't get her into this, especially since it was in her neighborhood. The victim could easily be a neighbor causing her to contract emotion onto the victim. He didn't need that from her when they had a job to do.

"Travis, Katelyn," Garroth called as he walked down the hall seeing the two talking over some coffee. "420 at Elm and Lord St. Let's go."

Katelyn stood up quickly. Her coffee sloshed in her cup, making Travis pay attention to something over than her. "But that's--"

"Yeah, I know. Let's just hope it isn't him."

"It is her house," Travis whispered under his breath, baffled. His fellow CSIs walked with him into the crowd of law enforcement vehicles.

Their case kits slammed against their legs with each stride. The insides banged a bit at the edges of the felt inside. It was normal to hear the clacking but right now, it was like drowned music in the CSIs' ears.

Garroth refused to embrace in the outside world that provided nothing to look at but rather the fine details of what was right in front of him. Travis was stuck in an almost dreamlike state, still trying to register everything. Katelyn...well, she was looking for someone.

"Katelyn," Travis nudged, trying to grab her attention. He did but saw worry and anxiety in Katelyn's powder blue eyes.

"Who called in the 420?" Katelyn asked aloud, completely breaking eye contact with Travis.

"Apparently, the mister," Garroth replied, not even making eye contact with either one of them.

"Then...." Katelyn stopped for a second as if she was still trying to find something. "Celestia should be outside here with him. Aaron knows better than to stay inside the house and that dog loves him."

Garroth gave her a questioning look. He didn't know as much about Aphmau's personal life as Katelyn did. Although, he was sure that their parents dating was something to bond over so really she had every right to. Katelyn spoke up once more, her voice grim this time. "If he is the 420, I'm the one who gets to call Aphmau. No one is allowed to notify her before I do, understand?"

Not wanting to trifle with her sudden belligerent behavior, the two of them decided to be nonplussed to her proposition. Katelyn, numb to her own aggression, went under the yellow tape.

They really didn't need their flashlights on but they did keep it on despite the quite romantic candles all set up. It created an ambience associated with someone trying to impress ones' partner. Katelyn lined her flashlight's light to one of the candles, "I'm guessing Aaron was setting this up for Aphmau. We all know how Aphmau goes on about how Aaron does all these things for her."

"Well, looks like he was interrupted," Garroth added on, shining another light on a couple of unlit candles at the end of the row.

"What you both are missing," Travis said, slipping on some gloves. He walked over to look at what seemed to be a box of matches. In his hand, he shook it with no sounds coming out it. "No disruption at all from an outside source, more like a supply and demand issue."

"Okay, Mr. Know-It-All," Katelyn retorted, "Let's--"

A bark interrupted her sentence. Katelyn's eyes grew wide as she dropped her case kit on the floor and held onto her holster. She ran to where the bark seemed to have come from. The barks continued as both Garroth and Travis ran after her in the dark hallway.

"KATELYN!" Travis yelled at her as they traveled down the halls that seemed to echo with barks.

There seemed to be an opening of the door and the stop of footsteps coming from there. The two men slid down the hall to what seemed to be the master bedroom where the door was open with a dog at the bottom of the bed, barking.

On the bed was Aaron, definitely not breathing with two gun shot wounds to his shirtless torso.

Travis and Garroth just stared at the scene, wondering how the hell were they going to face Aphmau after this. Katelyn seemed to be in her right mind. Her hand inched to her department issued phone, looking for Aphmau's number.

The two men stayed silent when Katelyn placed the phone to her ear. After a few seconds, it sounded like Aphmau picked up the call. A small voice talked through the line saying hello and the common 'what's up' anecdote. Katelyn took one sharp breath before she answered, "Hey Aphmau. I'm at your house. We have a 420. It's Aaron."

"I wasn't there," the suspect pressed against the officer. She had a fire in her eyes, something that Aphmau had recognized when people were being wrongly accused. She had seen many interrogations before up close and personal. But for this case, all she could do was watch from a far. Glass separated them and connected them because all she wanted to do was rip that suspect apart to see if they weren't there when her husband was murdered.

Her fellow CSIs had just found his body hours ago and all she could do in that time was mope. Her dog's DNA was being tested for exclusion in the household for further understanding of the crime enough though she knew there was no way she could've been responsible for what happened to him. Gun shots aren't the work of animals without opposable thumbs.

"I think this is what they called, 'conflict of interest,'" a familiar British voice grew louder as his shoes hit the linoleum. Aphmau could already tell it was her supervisor that was here to either scold or mock her. She wasn't supposed to be here watching the process, it would create bias and create suspicion in the jury's judgement.

Garroth walked up right next to her, noticing her closed arms indicating an aggressive attitude. Her heel was tapping against the floor showing impatience directed towards what seemed to be the suspect in custody. A huff escaped her lips which confirmed the supervisor's observations. "Garroth, what do you need? You should be the last person to be talking to me honestly."

He raised an eyebrow. Aphmau wasn't even turning to him, showing her anger towards him. "And why is that?"

This time, she did turn to him. Her heel stopped tapping, rotating on the stilt-like part of the heel. Her hands fell down to her sides, indicating vulnerability but not openness as seen before with her crossed arms motion. "Why is that? Garroth, you know exactly why. I can't process my own house because of you! THAT WAS MY HUSBAND, GARROTH, NOT SOME JOHN DOE!"

Garroth watched as she went on a rampage, using as many hand gestures as possible to emphasize her point. She moved rapidly, screaming at him. He watched as people looked at her with pity as she yelled at him. Aphmau wasn't any old person who was mad because of the loss of relative; she was a CSI which made her family in this facility. She needed some help to get her head back. "And that's exactly why you're on the case unofficially."

"AND FUTHERMORE--" Aphmau's hands fell from her various hand gestures she was using to win the heated discussion she seemed to be having with Garroth. Her facial features softened, almost in a facial expression conveying desperation. "Y-you're putting me on the case?"

"Unofficially," Garroth smiled, taking out the case folder for this specific case. He extended his arm out to her, waiting for her to take it. Tears piled up in the tear ducts of Aphmau's hazel eyes as she took it, mouthing 'thank you.' "You're always welcome."

She held the case folder in her hand. Her grip on it was firm, not wanting to let it go. Garroth did not predict the next move though. For him, life was a game of chess. Each move was made with every single meticulous motion the other person played. As unfair as the game may be at times, he anticipated nearly every move. But when Aphmau wrapped her arms around him, tears streaming down her face as it rested upon his shoulder.

The chess game had suddenly stopped. Everything was in slow motion. Suddenly, the light dimmed on the chess game. The other side had turned dark on his part. It was such an unexpected move. Garroth took a deep breath and took the next step in the game.

Aphmau slowly unwrapped her arms from him, looking at him with red eyes. "I'll head over to Trace right now and see if they found anything that could be a smoking gun in our investigation. Those guys always seem to be the ones with the weirdest jobs."

"Okay, I'll be at Autopsy. I need to get the official cause of death from Kenmur and I'll report back to you in private. Please don't harass Chad, he's just doing his job," Garroth pleaded Aphmau. She gave him a shrug that said, 'I wouldn't count on it,' and left with the case file in hand. Something he somewhat anticipated.

She was a whole 'nother chess game.

As soon as Aphmau got into Trace, it was incredibly silent. The people who said in the lab and weren't out in the field looked up at her. All of their eyes were directed towards her which made her inwardly shy away from the crowd. It wasn't until the loud mouth and resident 'casanova' came in with Katelyn.

"Are you sure that's what we found on the bed sheets?" Travis asked, almost hoping for Katelyn to change the answer she gave him to a previous question.

"You helped me process the scene, you know what was under that black light," Katelyn retorted, looking through papers full of results, "DNA confirmed that it was a match to Aaron."

The duo seemed to stop right as they were about to bump into Aphmau. "But there was another donor, correct? A female one, I'm guessing."

"With DNA matching to another case in CODIS," Katelyn continue, walking up closer to Aphmau. "It was a match to--"

"A match to who?" Aphmau asked, hands balled into fists. That's when everyone who were originally doing something in the room bowed their heads down. She felt almost on the verge of breaking. She had been in this career long enough to know what they were implying.

"Aphmau, you're not even supposed to be on this case," Katelyn said, hurrying up next to her grieving friend. She couldn't bear to see her future step-sister be like this and this case wasn't going to get any better. Aaron seriously was not racking up any brownie points with the evidence they found.

Aphmau shrugged off Katelyn's hand on her shoulder. With gritted teeth grinding against each other in her mouth, she hissed out words, "I'm fine. Now tell me who the damn match was it in the CODIS."

Katelyn opened he mouth to talk but Travis moved her a bit over, grabbing the papers from her hands. "I've got this, Blueberry," Travis said using his nickname for her making her voice get caught in her throat, "It was a match to a pretty recent case. The suspect was Hyria, you know the old apparent witch who killed her own husband. That was your case so I'm sure you know their daughter, Lucinda."

Flashes of orange suddenly flashed over Aphmau's vision with the most sass that she had ever seen from someone who's mother had just killed her father. The anger bubbled inside of her once more, warming her body with absolute rage. "So, what you are saying is, Aaron slept with Lucinda?"

"It may look like it Aphmau but we don't have all the facts right now--Where on Earth are you going?"

Aphmau didn't answer, instead she stormed down the halls. With the way she was looking at everyone, no one wanted to get in her way.

And it seemed that no one would.

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A/N -HI. IT'S KAT. TODAY IS NOT MY DAY I KNOW BUT I WAS BUSY YESTERDAY AND I REALLY LIKED THIS ONE SHOT. ALSO, IT WAS THE FIRST IDEA I'VE HAD IN WEEKS. Now that my text screaming is over, hi, I'm back to writing once more. Just...yeah.

My new account is katastrophicwreck for all those wondering.

Anyways, THIS WAS BASED OFF THE CSI SERIES IN LAS VEGAS AND ALL CHARACTERS ARE SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT ANOTHER IN PLACE NOT PERSONALITY NECESSARILY. If anyone can figure out at least one, I would be content.

Okay, so I hoped you all enjoyed! Buh-bye!

~Kat