Title: Entanglement
By: lewis771750
Challenge: AU
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, Jerry and the people at CBS would never be quite this twisted:) But it is all just for fun, honest.
Spoilers: none
Words: 522
AN: Sorry to everyone who gets the pun. The science might be good, the technology also belongs in that Bell' Theorem space.

***

The sign outside the room read "Quantum Entanglement and tools to find criminals. Professor Sidle MIT". Pulling a wry face Catherine went into the room, expecting to find it almost empty.

She was pleasantly surprised to see the chairs were more spaced out than usual. Earlier she'd only avoided killing the guy next to her, who'd invaded her personal space, by the skin of her teeth. There would be no excuses this time. However, she was a little put out when she had to give a buccal smear and take a number, writing that number on the bindle the smear was stored in, surely that was DNA?

There was a woman moving around on the stage, tall, brunette and surprisingly attractive. She looked out and smiled at Catherine, which made her face light up. Catherine smiled back, immediately attracted and hoping that the professor's assistant might later find her in the bar for a chat, and possibly something more. As the room filled Catherine and the mystery woman kept their eye contact intermittently. It seemed to Catherine that an electric charge filled the air between them each time their eyes met.

When the room was full, about 5 minutes after the advertised start time the woman went up to the microphone and introduced herself as "˜Professor Sara Sidle' The rest of the talk was a bit of blur, quantum physics not being Catherine's strong point, until it came to a demonstration. The technician who'd taken the smears carried a bin to the front of the auditorium. Sara selected one bindle at random, and a bit like a stage magician showed it to everyone in the room so they could see it had a number but nothing else on it.

"I know you are all in CODIS, so with DNA sequencing I could find out which one of you this came from in 2-3 days, yes?" The audience dutifully nodded. "What if I could use this to tell you where the donor is sitting right now?" The audience murmured disbelievingly, this was the stuff of witchcraft not science.

Sara held up her hand and said, "Let me show you" She took out the smear and put it into an oversized box that looked like it belonged on the set of Star Trek and pressed some buttons. Still standing on the stage she waved the box around a little and then pointed along Catherine's row. Our mystery donor is sitting on this row, 7 metres away. I can't guess distances that well, but if the red-haired lady and the people in front and behind her come here I'll work it out.

Catherine stood up, feeling unexpectedly exposed despite her former career. The men in front and behind her rose, also smiling nervously. As they got to the stage they were directed to spread out a little, and the box was waved again. Inevitably the box pointed out Catherine as the donor ... and she confirmed the number was the same as the one she had been given on entry.

The audience went mad with questions. Before answering them Sara thanked each of her unwilling assistants with a handshake, holding Catherine's just long enough to slip a scrap of paper into her hand. The paper carried her cell-phone number.

Catherine smiled, Sara was interested too!

***