The hall was quiet. She waited for the right subject to pass by her spot. The weapon of choice was cradled in her arms like a new born babe. This was her day off and no one would be expecting her to show up. She was supposed be out at the movies with friends. She knew that he wouldn't expect her to do something like this, but there comes a time in everyone's life when you just have to do something so totally brazenly off the wall.
The sound of footsteps interrupted her thoughts. The person she had been waiting for walked past. She raised the weapon, took a moment to aim at her target, punched the button, and then ran.
Ten of the twenty rounds hit the intended target causing him to turn around. No one was there, but he spotted a swinging door. Ten of the darts laid innocently upon the ground; the other ten hung not so innocently from his light dark colored sweater. He plucked one off and examined it closely. The foam end yielded nothing and the plastic end had Velcro stuck to it, which had made it possible for it to cling to him.
Holding up the object as he entered the break room he asked, "OK, who's responsible?"
Catherine looked away momentarily from her task and replied, "Wasn't me."
Grissom watched as Catherine used a plastic spoon to scoop out a small mound of chocolate ice cream. She held the spoon vertically above her mouth and watched as the ice cream slowly slid off the spoon into her mouth.
"I know it's a slow night, Cath, but what are you doing?"
"I'm observing the change in the co-efficient of friction of a colloidal mixture of milk and ice in conjunction with the force of gravity as it moves along a slightly conical polymer object," Catherine responded before repeating the "experiment."
"Cath, don't you have anything better to do than eat ice cream in an agonizingly slow way."
"As a matter of fact, no, I don't."
"Want to catch who shot me with these." He turned around to show Catherine the nine other darts. She laughed as she put away the ice cream.
"Where do we start?" she asked as she collected the evidence.
"The darts won't yield anything, so likely suspects is our best avenue."
Catherine examined one of the darts she had collected and smiled. "Not so fast, Gris. These darts have been modified. See?"
She held up one of the darts that had a square patch of Velcro, rather than a circular one. Grissom looked at it and thought of a moment. "I think I know who did it."
"Who?"
"Wait and see." Grissom said smiling. Catherine could only wonder what was going on in his mind, but something had clicked in his brain. She tried to find him, but he had disappeared, leaving her in charge for the night.
The next night Catherine found him in the break room reading a paper. "So what's with the secrecy?"
"I know who fired the gun, but I had to get ready. The culprit is coming in tonight."
"And what makes you so sure that you're right?"
"The evidence fits the theory."
Before Catherine could answer, Sara walked in.
"OK, I thought I had the night off? So where's the big case you needed me for?"
"Right here." Grissom dropped the paper he was reading and aimed the nerf gun in his hand. He quickly fired the five rounds he had and smiled. "You're it."
Grissom stood up and headed toward his office, leaving two shocked women behind. Catherine started laughing as she realized what he thought.
"What's so funny?"
"He was ambushed last night by a twenty round Nerf gun."
"And he thought it was related to the Nerf gun war we had in San Francisco?"
"I guess." Catherine paused as the words sunk in. "What Nerf gun war in San Francisco?"
Judy walked past the break room as Sara filled in the other woman on a battle that had taken place on a University campus between her and night shift supervisor. Judy laughed to herself as she got back to work.