fandomhighdorms | Sunday Afternoon

After spending some time poking around the alley behind Luke's, Veronica found herself standing outside of Dr. Grissom's apartment. She hoped that she could obtain his assistance without having to give away too many of her secrets.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on his door.

Inside, Grissom looked up from his laptop, slightly surprised by the knock on his door. He saved the document he was working on and stood up quickly, walking over to the door and opening it just a crack, before seeing Veronica and opening it fully.

"Ms. Mars. Hello," he greeted her with a hint of concern.

"Hi, Dr. Grissom. Sorry to bother you on a Sunday, but, well, I kind of need a favor," she said, not quite meeting his eyes.

Grissom noted both the formality of her tone and her lack of eye contact. He gestured inside the apartment with his free hand.

"Would you like to come in?"

Veronica nodded and waited until they were inside with the door shut before she spoke. "I suppose you heard that Bel was arrested for attacking Allie Cameron," she said, fiddling nervously with a bag in her hands.

"That's one way of putting it." Grissom gestured for her to take a seat at the kitchen island, and moved to pour her a glass of water without asking.

"How are you involved?"

"I don't think he did it," she said, hoping that Grissom had never caught wind of the acrimonious relationship between her and Bel. "So, I went down to the scene of the crime and found this," she told him, holding up the plastic bag. "It's an athame, a magical type of dagger, and I was hoping maybe you could run some tests to prove that it wasn't Bel."

"Veronica," he chided despite himself, his protective nature flaring up. "You went back to a crime scene alone? That's unnecessarily reckless behavior."

He looked inside the bag, focusing on the athame directly. "An athame is used for ritual purposes, not..." he sighed, knowing that line of thought will be fruitless. "I need you to tell me when you found it, and where it has been exactly since it came into your possession."

"I found it about an hour ago," Veronica said, after glancing at her watch. "It was under the dumpster in the alley behind Luke's Diner. I was wearing gloves when I handled it and it's been in the plastic bag since I found it."

"It's been out there for quite a while," he said mostly to himself, suddenly disappearing into the other room for a moment. When he returned he had his kit, and a camera.

"Is there anything that leads you to believe that Bel is not the one responsible for the attack on Allie?"

"Yes," Veronica said confidently, hoping he wouldn't ask her what that was. "But I need to prove it."

"Can you do that without getting yourself killed?" he asked, snapping on a pair of gloves.

Veronica blanched at his words, wondering how much of her history he knew. "That's my plan," she said shakily. "If you'll help me."

"You do realize that there is a possibility this evidence could prove that he was involved, as much as it could potentially exonerate him. I need your word that you'll believe what it tells us, either way."

As much as it seems like a condemnation, it's actually an amazing display of trust in Veronica on many levels from Grissom. He looks at her rather sternly, grabbing the camera.

Veronica actually smiled at that. "Apparently you never heard about my involvement in solving Kitty Pryde's murder last semester," she said. "Don't worry, I will back you whatever the evidence reveals." She was able to confidently say that because based on what Weevil told her about the time of the attack, she knew it was physically impossible that Bel did it, even with his ability to teleport.

It was now Grissom's turn to blanch, as he recalled the circumstances around Kitty Pryde's murder, and how it had been committed by another one of his students that he had trusted and cared for, and given a second chance erroneously. He quickly pushed the corresponding line of thought away. Now was not the time to let his own emotions cloud his judgement.

"I'm going to need a sample of Bel's DNA. There's blood evidence all over this dagger, and if it proves to be human, and not all Allie's," he paused, obviously a little sickened even for him. "I'll check for fingerprints, but it's been back there for days. Unless I can retrieve some from under the trace and blood spatter, they probably won't hold up in court, especially with the... unconventional recovery of the weapon. Can you get a sample from Bel? Blood, saliva?"

"Yeah, sure," Veronica said, not quite as confidently. She was fairly certain Bel was pissed that she hadn't come forward and confessed to being his alibi. But maybe if he realized she was still trying to clear him. "Do you have a collection kit or something?"

Grissom nodded, and reached into the silver box at his side, extracting two kits and handing them to her. He then rather inexplicably pulled out his wallet from his back pocket, and then handed her a dollar.

"I'm officially employed as a consultant by the District of Columbia. I just hired you as my assistant." He gave her a small smile. "I'll come up with the rest of the story of why when I've had more time to create something plausible."

Veronica gave him a weak smile of her own. "I'll head down to the jail now and bring back the sample as soon as I can. Do you want me to stop by the clinic and get one from Allie too?"

Grissom coughed a little. He didn't know quite how to explain why he had already gone to the Clinic and collected evidence, not without exposing a few things he'd rather keep to himself.

"That won't be necessary"

"Okay," Veronica said. "Um, Dr. Grissom? Can we keep this between us?"

"I think that would be best," he replied. "Call me if you have any problems obtaining a sample. It will take me a while to swab this and then clean the sample, nevermind the trace, and not disturbing the prints. It's going to take a few days to run the tests."

Veronica nodded. "Okay, I'll be back with this as soon as I can. Thanks for helping me."

He rubbed at his beard in a nervous fashion as he walked her toward the door. "Veronica... be careful." A low sigh escaped him.

"You can't... you can't give them all peace, even if you manage to find them justice."

"I will," she promised. Then she gave him a sad look. "And I know that. This is so I can find some peace."

Grissom's eyebrow quirked up at that comment, but said nothing. He'd given that speech one too many times, and didn't have the energy today. "I'm going to bring the athame to the Forensics lab," he said as he handed her Sara's old key to his apartment. "If I'm not here, leave the sample and lock up behind you."

"Will do," Veronica said. "Let me know as soon as you find anything."

"Of course. Like I said, it will take a few days, but we need to do this, as much as we can, by the book."

Veronica nodded again and then left.

[ooc: the fact that Veronica stopped by Grissom's room is fine for broadcast. Content of their convo? Not so much. Pre-played via email with

drgrissom. IC interaction not possible, OOC comments okay.]

Sunday Afternoon - Room 146

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