Fandom: CSI/CSI: NY
Title: The Desert in April (10/12)
Author: radrcks
Category: Crossover, drama, suspense, mystery, slash
Spoilers: Everything up through season 5 of CSI and season 1 of CSI: NY.
Rating: R
Pairings: Don Flack/Greg Sanders
Summary: The news that his sister has been hospitalized sends Don Flack to Las Vegas. And what happens in Vegas, may keep him there forever.
Author’s Notes: Basically this is my first attempt at a CSI fic so please let me know what you think. Also I think this is the first appearance of this particular ship. Special thanks to rivensky for not killing my plot bunnies, and for force feeding certain ones when I wanted them to die. Oh yeah, and the veiled threats. ;) Actually this time I owe rivensky big. There wouldn’t have been a chapter 8 if it wasn’t for her. She helped with one scene in particular, and it really mattered because with out the scene I couldn’t have progressed the story.


Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine



The Desert in April

Chapter Ten



Don groggily wandered through Greg’s apartment. He wasn’t surprised that when he finally woke Greg was nowhere to be seen. He still wasn’t sure what was running through Greg’s mind last night after their talk, but he was almost certain having him pass out on the bed wasn’t Greg’s initial plan. Don knew he’d have to come up with some way to make it up to him.

He felt like the sound coming from the television was calling out to him. Reason told him that was where Greg would be. As a result that was where he wanted to be. He still hadn’t quite figured out why he was as close with Greg as he was, all that mattered was that they did indeed have a bond.

There was something so out of place with the sight of Greg sitting in the middle of the couch watching cartoons that Don couldn’t help but smile. It was a huge contrast to the line of work they were in but at the same time it seemed to fit Greg perfectly. “Weren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“‘Good morning,’ to you, too.”

“Sorry, I’m no good in the morning until at least two cups of coffee.”

“I made some a little while ago. The cups are in the cabinet above the coffee maker.”

“Thanks.” After a few minutes in the kitchen Don rejoined Greg in the living room. “You never answered my question. Why aren’t you at work?”

“Evidentially the people I work with consider keeping you out of trouble is a full time job.”

“You’re kidding right?”

“Nope. Basically as long as you’re in Vegas I’m on a paid vacation. But I probably would have taken the time off anyway.”

“Even after last night?”

Greg put the TV on mute and turned is attention to Don. “What about last night?”

“Nothing. I just thought you might have had something else in mind. I’m sure you didn’t want me to fall asleep on you.”

“I was looking at it as you feeling comfortable enough around me to let yourself go. I got the impression that you don’t get to do that enough.”

“I shouldn’t be dumping all this stuff on you.”

“Will you stop? We’re friends. Dump away.”

Don smiled and stared at the TV. “I’m going to pretend you never said that. Okay?”

“I’ll have you know I’m much more charming after you’ve spent the past ten hours working a case with me.”

“Yeah, I can see where you’d be more charming than a corpse. So what’s up with the cartoons?”

“There isn’t really anything else on. It’s either cartoons, the news or infomercials. And trust me, you can only watch the infomercial for that ladder that folds up so many times before you go insane. Do people really need to sit down and watch a 22 minute video about how to use a ladder?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you before.”

“You’d be surprised how often people tell me that.”

“It’s not a bad thing.”

Greg couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll get ready so you can visit Andrea.” Greg began to rise so he could get dressed but Don stopped him.

“Actually I was thinking we could visit her later.”

“You’ve got something better to do?”

“Well, I do need to make last night up to you.”

Greg was intrigued. He wanted to know exactly what Don was talking about, but he didn’t want to be the thing that prevented Don from seeing his sister. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but yeah... that’s not going to happen.”

“You lost me.”

“There isn’t anything we could do now that can’t be done after the visiting hours at the hospital are over. You’re going to be going back home soon and if you don’t spend as much time as you can with Andrea you’ll feel guilty.”

“You must think you’re awfully good at reading me, huh?”

“I’m a pretty good judge of character, and yes I think I know you well enough to know that you’ll feel guilty no matter what you do. I was just hoping that you’d feel less guilty if you spent as much time as you could with your sister.”


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With each visit to the hospital Greg felt less awkward around Andrea. He still hated hospitals but at least he had things to occupy his mind and help pass the time. The way Don acted around Andrea was completely different than how he acted around Greg. He made a mental note to remember to ask Don why he acted differently around different people.

Spending time with Andrea though was a different story. To some extent Greg could understand what she was going through, at least when it came to her being in the hospital. From the little time he spent with her Greg could tell she hated having to just sit back and let other people take care of her. He couldn’t help but wonder if the two of them would have become friends had they met under different circumstances. “Have the doctors said anything new about releasing you?”

“I talked my doctor into letting me out tomorrow so I could spend some time with Don outside of the hospital.”

“That’s good.”

“When are you going to cut the crap and tell me what the hell was really going on?”

Greg couldn’t believe how Don was acting now. So far he hadn’t seen Don do anything but bend over backwards for Andrea. He couldn’t understand why he was being nasty with her now.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What was really going on with you and Phil?”

Andrea suddenly felt very self-conscious as she tugged at the sheets of her bed, covering herself up. “Donny, don’t. Not now.”

“It’s cool, you can talk in front of Greg.”

“I can go hang out in the waiting room, it’s not a big deal.”

Don placed his hand on Greg’s knee to still him. “Stay... please?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Andrea tried her best to ignore the obvious connection Don and Greg had. They appeared to be a lot closer than they were when they last visited her, and she wanted to know why. But she knew that would have to wait until she could get some alone time with her brother. “Do you want the long story, or the abridged version?”

“I want the truth.”

Andrea sighed. She knew she would have to tell her family about the issues she and her husband were having. In the back of her mind she always assumed that there would be an easy way to break the truth to them. She never imagined that anything like what had happened in the past week would ever happen. “There were problems in the marriage. At first we tried to work things out but that really didn’t work out.”

“What kind of problems?” Greg regretted butting in. He still didn’t feel like he had the right to be included in the conversation, but at the same time Don wanted him there.

“Greg.”

“It’s alright Donny. I guess we grew apart. Phil and I had been together since high school, so we never had the chance to grow as individuals. Well that was Phil’s excuse at least.”

“That doesn’t explain how you go from a struggling marriage to him nearly killing you.”

“Earlier this year we decided on a trial separation, one thing lead to another and well....”

“Whoa, that part you can skip.” Don was certain that Andrea threw that in just to see him squirm.

“When I first thought I was pregnant I freaked out. I had no idea how Phil would react, so I decided to wait until I was positive that I was pregnant before I told him. Things were still weird between us though. We were still married, but it was like we had gone back to the ‘dating’ stage in our relationship. So I figured if I put him in a situation where he felt comfortable it wouldn’t seem so much like I was trying to spring it on him. Anyway, he didn’t believe me at first, not until I showed him proof.”

It was hard telling them what happened, but she knew she didn’t have a choice. Andrea still didn’t recall what Phil had done to her, or what happened from the time he attacked her until she woke up in the hospital. The more time she had to think about what happened just before the attack the more of the events she was able to piece together. She wasn’t entirely comfortable telling anyone why he attacked her, and she knew she didn’t have to. She had spent enough time listening to her father and Don to know that if you had enough evidence on the ‘who’ you didn’t necessarily need the ‘why.’

“Phil and I wanted to work things out, but he wanted to take things slow. H-he said I was trying to force him to stay with me. That I was trying to trap him in the marriage.”

Don reached out and gently squeezed Andrea’s leg. “Andy....”

Andrea wiped the tears from her eyes. “Don, I swear to God if the next words out of your mouth are ‘I told you so’ I’ll shove the IV pole down your throat.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“There’s nothing you could have done to fix it. I know you, if you got involved the very best I could hope for would have been for you to call him and say something like ‘fall in love with my sister or I’ll kick your ass.’ The worst case would have been for you to fly out here and actually fight him.”

“Yeah well that happened anyway. If you told me before hand Phil would have ended up being the only one who got his ass kicked.”

Greg was starting to wish that he had opted to leave before Andrea’s big revelation. She had information about the case; there was no way any of them could rightfully keep the information to themselves. And he knew he would look like the bad guy bringing it up. “This isn’t the best time to bring this up, but Andrea’s going to have to tell either Sara or Sofia about that. She has information about the case, she can’t keep it to herself.”

“I know. I would have said something about it earlier but it’s been... a lot to deal with all at once.”

“Andy, if you don’t tell them I’ll have to.”

“I’ll tell them. Don, uhh, what did you tell Ma and Pop?” Andrea wasn’t sure why it had taken so long for her to worry about what their parents knew.

“Nothing. Finding out if you were all right and what happened to you were my only priorities. I guess I’ll tell them that a case brought me to Vegas, and I had some free time so I spent it with you. You have to be the one that tells them the truth. Ma will be mad enough at me when she finds out I knew and didn’t tell them.”


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Nick leaned against the passenger side door of Jim Brass’ car as while he waited for Brass and the uniformed officer to make sure the scene was clear. Earlier in the day Brass had spoken with the owner of the restaurant and arranged him to close down long enough for Nick and him to question the employees who were working the day Phil assaulted Andrea. Nick glanced at his watch impatiently and then took stock of his surroundings. It seemed like a decent enough area, but if there was one thing Nick learned long ago it was that almost anything could seem decent if you don’t look too hard.

Brass came out of the restaurant and walked the short distance between the front of the building and his car. “The owner said he called in the employees who worked the day in question, but there was one he couldn’t get a hold of.” Brass briefly looked down at the notes he had taken. “Kids’ name is Matt Walker, 20 years old, boss says the kid seems like a good guy. He took the job a couple of months ago; everyone says he’s using the job to pay for college. Evidently Matt wants to be a shrink or something.”

“And you think he’s involved?”

“His boss calls him up, tells him to come in because the police have some questions for everyone; think about it for a second. If he didn’t have something to hide he would have shown up.”

“He might not have checked his messages yet.”

“When is it ever that simple Nicky?”

Nick was about to respond but the sudden ringing of his cell phone cut him off. “Stokes.”

“I got the results from the sample you gave me.”

“What was it?”

“Here I am slaving away, working through my lunch hour because you asked me to put a rush on this and all you have to say is ‘what was it?’”

“Get to the point, Hodges.”

“The shirt had traces of acrylonitrile around the cuffs on both sleeves. Now I’m thinking most people don’t stand around and willingly get shot in the head, so if Reynolds was aware of the shooter there would have been a struggle. And if they fought some of the acrylonitrile could have been transferred from the shirt to something the killer was wearing, or even his skin.”

“Well I’m about to speak with the employees, I’ll have more samples for you when I get back.”

“Wonderful.”

Nick tried not to laugh when he heard Hodges grumble over the phone. “I appreciate it man.”

“Hey, you’re looking for a delivery guy right?”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“As long as it’s not the cook, pick me up something to eat. Consider it payback for this little favor I’m doing for you.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”


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Greg had spent the ride back to his apartment in silence as he tried to figure out the best way to ask Don about his abrupt mood swing. It was pretty obvious that the stress of the whole ordeal was starting to wear Don down and it had to be worse than Greg thought for him to start acting hostile around his sister. It was a delicate topic, as much as he wanted to simple ask Don to tell him what was wrong he knew it would wouldn’t be that simple. Ultimately Greg didn’t want to say or do anything that would make Don even more upset than he was. Granted Don had calmed down a lot over the past two days but Greg didn’t feel up to playing Russian Roulette with Don’s mind.

When they arrived at the apartment Greg decided that at the very least he should say something. “At least Andrea’s going to be released before you have to go home. Maybe the two of you can do something you guys normally do together.”

Don sighed as he got out of the car. “Why don’t you just ask me what it is you really want to know?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just pointing out that it might do both of you some good if you got to spend some time with Andrea outside of the hospital.”

“Don’t try to play stupid with me Greg. Neither of us are idiots so do me a favor and stop acting like one.”

Greg tried not to take what Don had just said personally but it was hard. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn’t the way Don normally acted that it was all because of stress, but he had no real way of knowing for sure. For all Greg knew back in New York Don could be worse than he is now, he could be toning it down because he was an in uncomfortable situation. “Okay, that was rude. I’m just worried about you. I know how important your sister is to you so it was a little bit of a shock to see you act with her the way you did today.”

“Look I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, but this isn’t a conversation I want to have in the middle of the parking lot where everyone can hear us. Can we just go to your place and then I’ll answer whatever you want to ask me.”

“Fine.” The walk from the parking lot to his apartment had never seemed as long as it did right now. Greg quickly unlocked his front door and threw his keys and jacket down on the table. He wished he let Don walk in first that way he could push him inside and they could finish their conversation. “So why were you an ass to your sister?”

“She withheld information that involved not one but two cases. Andy knew better than to try something like that but she did it anyway.”

“She’s just been through a major trauma....”

“And she had enough presence of mind not to tell Sara what she knew.”

“No. I don’t buy it for one second.”

“What are you going to psychoanalyze me now?”

“Someone’s got to get you to see what you’re really doing.”

Don couldn’t help but laugh at Greg. It seemed ridiculous that Greg would presume to know him well enough to say he wasn’t being himself. Although Don still didn’t understand why he and Greg had grown as close as they had. “Alright, shoot.”

“Back when Phil and Andrea were dating did he say or do anything that led you to believe that at some point in the future their marriage would take a turn southward and end up physically assaulting her?”

“No.” He felt as if Greg was talking down to him but Don realized that Greg was just trying to look out for his best interests.

“Which means unless you can predict the future you couldn’t have possibly known that any of this would have happened.”

“Get to the point Greg.”

“The point is you’re upset that you didn’t have any way of preventing it from happening. And it hurts more now that you know Andrea and Phil were having problems before he assaulted her. In your mind it would have been better if Phil just snapped and lost it. Now in the back of your brain you’ve got this annoying voice that’s sitting there yelling at you telling you that this had been going on the entire time.”

“Yeah well that’s not the case. Now I can’t even trust her when she talks about what happened between her and that bastard. How do I know she’s not just going to tell me what she thinks I want to hear?”

“You’ll know because it isn’t about you. Think about how hard it must have been for her to tell you what she did today? This is about doing things when she’s ready. All you can do is be there and support her, and she’ll tell you the rest in bits and pieces when she’s comfortable talking about it.”

“But-.”

Greg covered Don’s mouth with his hand to silence him. “‘But’ nothing. No matter how hard you try you know deep down that this isn’t your fault. You’re not responsible for being unable to stop something you didn’t know happened until it was too late.”

Don tried to speak but Greg tightened his lose grasp on Don’s mouth. “From now until the time you go back home you are to consider this a vacation. The last thing Andrea needs is extra stress even if you’re causing it with the best of intentions. So you will be happy, and personable around her and me. You will not attack anyone or cause anymore public brawls and at the very least you will stop beating yourself up over this. As long as I’m around you, you will have a good time even if you have to fake it. And remember as long as you’re in Vegas I’m your shadow, so don’t get any ideas about checking into a hotel or staying with Andrea because wherever you go, I go. Do I make myself clear?”

The only thing Don could do was nod his response.

“Good. Now make with the happy.” Satisfied that he had won Greg let go of his grip on Don.

As soon as Don was free he grabbed Greg by the arms and pushed him against the nearest wall and kissed him. “That happy enough for ya?”

“I don’t know. I guess it depends on what that was for.”

“I figured the only way to shut you up and get you to quit nagging me was to preoccupy your mouth with something.”

“Well if that’s the case you should know I’m feeling quite chatty today.” Greg grinned as he pulled Don into his bedroom and closed the door behind them.


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The questioning process had gone as uneventful as expected. The only employee who had any contact with Andrea and Phil had been the one person who wasn’t at work. That’s how it usually worked though. The person who committed the crime rarely willingly gave up information revolving around the crime in question. Which was fine by Nick. Even though all signs pointed to Matt being the one who had killed Phil, it was hard for Nick to get choked up over the rights of someone who had brutally attacked his wife and nearly killed her and their unborn child.

Nick had to put his personal feelings aside. He couldn’t allow how he felt conflict with how he did his job, or somehow alter his findings. It would have been so simple if the crime scene showed any sign of an altercation, something they could use to prove that Matt only shot Phil in self-defense, but Nick new it was unlikely.

Each person Nick and Brass questioned had brought the usual answers. Everyone said that Matt was a nice kid, friendly, always willing to help anyone out if they had a problem. He always showed up for work early, and was always one of the last ones to leave. If someone called in sick or quit Matt would always jump at the chance to cover their shifts. All of the customers liked him; in fact he was the only employee who never had a customer complain about him. All of the delivery people on staff had assigned sections they delivered to, so the fact that Matt had delivered to the Reynolds’ house every time Andrea or Phil ordered couldn’t be considered out of the ordinary.

Brass had already obtained Matt Walker’s current address and was in the process of arranging officers to head over there and bring him in for questioning. Nick knew the chances of Matt being there were slim. If Matt knew enough to not come into work this particular time he would know enough not to stick around his home and wait to be picked up by the police.

“When was the last time you spoke with Matt?” Nick asked the final employee.

“H-he called me like an hour ago, asked me to cover his shift for him. He’s not in any trouble is he?”

“Right now we just need to ask him some questions. Do you have any idea where he might be now Martin?” Nick had spoken with at least twenty people by this point and if it weren’t for Martin’s nametag staring him in the face he probably wouldn’t have remembered the kids name without having to look down at his notes.

“Well when he asked me to work his shift I thought something was wrong. Matt’s never called off work before. I thought he must-a been sick or something, but he said he had to visit someone in the hospital. I figured it had to have been really serious or he would have just gone to visit them after work right?”


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Andrea was very grateful for the fact that she was going to be released tomorrow, but it didn’t do anything to make the time pass more quickly. If she felt up to it she would have been pacing around from now until tomorrow morning. She wasn’t tired even though she knew she should be. The rest she had gotten over the past couple of days didn’t count because from the information she had received she was ‘asleep’ simply because her body wasn’t well enough to stay awake until now. A knock at the door pulled Andrea away from her thoughts. “Come in.”

“Mrs. Reynolds?”

“Yeah.”

The tall brunette walked into the room and closed the door behind him. He couldn’t look Andrea in the eye, and it was painfully obvious that he was extremely nervous. He had a small brown paper bag in his hand and he placed it on the table next to Andrea’s bed. “When I went to deliver your food you were... you weren’t doing so good. I called 911, but I didn’t stick around. I’m sorry; I was scared. Uhh, anyway I brought you some food. I know they’re feeding you here, but I figured that you must have really wanted what you ordered that day, so I picked some up and I thought I’d drop it by. Maybe you’d still want it, don’t worry it’s fresh.”

Andrea didn’t know how to react now. Matt, the man who had essentially saved her life was sitting across from her, she should be thanking him. But on the other hand he was a suspect in the murder of her husband and if she let him get away he might take off and no one would be able to find him and Don would end up paying the price. “Thanks.”

“Uhh... Mrs. Reynolds... I did something wrong. Bad, real bad.”






Cross posted to nerdswithbadges, detective_flack and csi_slash