Title: The World At Large
Author: rivensky
Rating: As PG as anything related to CSI can get.
Spoilers: Related to Spark Of Life.

My thoughts are so loud sometimes I wonder if others can hear them. I walk down the halls of this sterile place with a feeling of dread that I didn't use to feel. Words roll around in my head and they are slowly starting to make sense. Maybe she's right.

I didn't use to feel this way about life. I didn't use to wake up and dread going to work. But I didn't use to see the things I do now. Analogies slide around in my head. I had my cake and I wanted to eat it, too. I made my bed, and I had to lie in it now. Life wasn't just test tubes and thermocyclers anymore. It was blood and gore, bullets and knives, flesh and bones.

I stop in the hallway, seeing Hodges busy at work in front of his computer. He looks smug as usual. An idea pops into my head. The way things have been going lately I usually let those kind of ideas go. It never really seems like the time or place. But her words are in my ears again and before I realize it, I'm sneaking a dry erase marker from the DNA lab and heading back down the hall to find Hodges just as I left him.

On the glass I draw little horns above his head. It only works if you're looking at the right angle, but it brings a smile to my face anyway. I draw a spiked tail coming up from behind the desk. I add a thought bubble above his head and write 'Ebay never has the pink tutu I want.' I hear the faint sound of laughter behind me and turn to see Archie and Bobby doubled over. Mia is giving me an incredulous look, but there is laughter in her eyes. I smile at them all and turn back to Hodges. He's unaware of it all.

I cap the marker and toss it back to Mia with a wink. Hands in my coat pockets I head towards the exit, nodding at Sara and Sofia as they pass. Hodges' voice fills the hall. "Sanders!" Maybe it's not as hard as I'm making it out to be.