It Had to be Done, Part II

"Sporky! No, Sporky, heel!"

Sofia Curtis swore as her dog squirmed out of her arms, darting off into traffic. A car honked its horn loudly as Sofia ran down the street, calling the dog desperately.

"I've got him!" A man grabbed Sporky by the collar and led him onto the sidewalk as Sofia ran up, out of breath.

"Thank you so much, sir," she panted gratefully. "I really appreciate-" She did a double-take. "Mr. Gordon!"

"Sofia Curtis," the older man grinned. "As I live and breathe. I haven't seen you in ages. How's life treating you?"

"Pretty well. Except for this damned dog. he's driving me crazy. I think I'm going to have to give him back to the shelter."

He looked thoughtful. "You know, I've actually been wanting another dog. I could take him off your hands, if you'd like."

"Really?" Sofia sighed in relief. "Oh, Mr. Gordon, that would be wonderful."

"You're not a kid anymore, Sofia, call me Walter," he said.

"Walter it is," she said. "Do you still have Hofey?"

"The Dalmatian? No, she died pretty recently," he said sadly. "Actually, I was just on my way to the Plexiglas Coffin store, want to tag along?"

"Sure!"

They fell into pace together, with Sporky trotting at their heels. "Tell me, Walter," Sofia said gently. "How's Kelly doing?"

"Not great," he said, his eyes growing stormy. "She's a lesbian sex slave."

Sofia shook her head. Kelly Gordon had been one of her closest childhood friends. She opened her mouth to respond, but it suddenly started to rain.

"Ugh," Walter grimaced. "I wish I had an umbrella."

"Poncho! Poncho! Get your nice warm poncho here!" A poncho salesman walked by, and both Sofia and Walter bought one.

"I'm telling you," the salesman confided. "These babies are going to catch on. Won't be long at all until everyone is flocking to my cart, screaming for ponchos."

Sofia nodded. "Um, okay then."

They arrived at the Plexiglas Coffin store, where a clerk helped Walter pick out the perfect box.

"It should be able to fit a six-foot, 200 pound man," Walter said earnestly.

"Hmm," the clerk mused. "Then I'd recommend the PL-214. It has holes for air vents, lights, and a mounted camera."

"Perfect."

The clerk rang them up while Walter and Sofia chatted. Walter leaned down to scratch Sporky's ears. "So do your parents still live in Britain?"

"Yes, they do," Sofia responded.

Startled, the clerk looked up. "You're British?"

"Oh, no, I grew up in Britain, Nevada," she laughed.

"Oh, that makes more sense. Because I was gonna say, you don't have a trace of a British accent."

After Walter had paid, they turned to leave. "Well, it's been nice seeing you again," he said.

"Give my best to Kelly," Sofia said softly, patting his arm. "And make sure you let Sporky out in the morning, or he'll have an accident."

"Oh, it's okay, I'm just planning to rip out his internal organs and plant them in a parking lot so I can kidnap a CSI."

She giggled. "You always had the weirdest sense of humor. Have a great day!"

Continuing down the street, she found herself thinking about the night shift. Lately, they'd all been getting along better. She wondered if that coincided with her inexplicable weight gain. Just then, she turned the corner and tripped over a leather bag that was lying in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Are you okay?" A gray-haired gentleman helped her up.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks. Is this your bag?"

He shook his head. "Maybe there's some identification inside."

She unzipped the bag and pulled out stacks of money. "My god. there's got to be a million dollars in here!"

"Oh, you know what? That is my bag," he said quickly. "Yeah, uh, see? It says 'Sam Braun' right here."

Before she could look at where he was pointing, he'd grabbed the bag and fled.

Sofia shrugged and walked up the steps to her apartment, stopping to grab a home decorating magazine out of her mailbox. This new schedule of only coming in to work for two minutes every week had left her with lots of free time, and she'd been renovating her apartment.

After taking a long nap and brushing her hair for a while, she checked her voicemail. "88 new messages, wow!" She skipped to the last message, and her eyes widened in alarm - Nick Stokes had been kidnapped and was buried underground at a nursery!

She hopped in her car and brushed her hair again, then pulled out into traffic. It was easy to find the place, she just followed every police car in Nevada as they raced to save Nick.

When she arrived at the nursery, she tried to get information from the cops. They were radioing back and forth when she heard a faint yell. "Poncho! Poncho!"

Boy, that salesman had been right.

It sounded like Grissom's voice, and she hurried toward the sound. As she ran up to the group, the ambulance pulled away.

"I want my guys back," she heard Grissom say.

Ecklie sighed. "Well, okay, but only if you and Sara become a couple and Sofia gets demoted again."

"Anything for my team," Grissom murmured, grabbing Sara and kissing her passionately.

"Hey!" Sofia objected.

Grissom tried to answer, but Sara was sucking on his face too hard.

The End

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