Title: Identification
Spoilers: None
Rating: K
Disclaimer: I actually own CSI. Really? NO.
Beta: GER
Notes: I tried to make this a more realistic kind of story - the one where it involves them solving a murder and not just total GSR fluff. The best of both worlds :) So sit back and enjoy!
Please R&R! :D
Identification
"It's such a pretty day," she whispered to herself as they passed under a wiry arch that read 'Vegas Palm Park' and into a different yet similar world; one filled with lush greenery that wasn't money and bright lights that didn't belong to casinos.
" 'Summer afternoon – summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language.' " He replied, walking by her side.
She was pleasantly surprised; he heard her? "Henry James." She stated, looking around the immensely green park. She had always wondered why green was associated with jealously. 'I bet Grissom would know why…'
"Why are we here again?" This time she spoke loud and clear, her eyes still taking in the sights.
"Heidi Marlowe spent everyday at this park. It might tell us something we didn't know about her," he answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world yet without a hint of smugness.
She always wondered how he did that.
The sunlight was streaming down, assaulting everything in its path with its golden rays. Sara's brown hair was cast molten gold under it, looking like honey.
"Oh. Can you tell me more about Heidi Marlowe? I didn't have enough time to read the case file back at the lab," she asked, voice soft, eyes fixed on him.
"Heidi Marlowe, 28. Engaged to a Josh Locke, 30. Brass checked him out, seems like a pretty decent guy. She works as a junior doctor at Desert Haven Hospital under a Dr. Camden." By the time he was finished, the thought of Sara covered in honey was gone from his mind's eye.
"How was her relationship with her boss?" Such an innocent question, yet her eyes couldn't help but glance at him, taking in his dark hair and confident stride.
"It was good. Brass talked to everyone in her shift, but ironically not to Dr. Camden himself. He was at a conference or something, it doesn't say in this." He replied to the hush of flipped pages.
"How was she found?"
"Housekeeper found her dead in her apartment, apparent suicide, overdose of sleeping pills. Can't rule out suicide, but we're treating this as a homicide."
It was funny how he was thinking about her while they were talking about a dead doctor.
Crossroads now beckoned them, one path leading left, the other right. She couldn't help but glance at him again, he who was smiling.
"Well, you're the most similar to Heidi between the two of us. Which way?" He asked, turning toward her with a soft smile.
She paused and analysed both paths. Both were of similar qualities – brown, straight and lined with more green.
" 'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.' " She muttered, taking the left one.
"Robert Frost." It was his turn to whisper to himself, and his heart was acting up. She was beautiful, smart and well read, so what was stopping him? 'Right, I'm her boss.' He concluded to himself after musing, catching up with her molten gold hair.
"Let's discuss. She was in an extremely stress-inducing job, probably a highly-strung individual with a type A personality, and came here to relax. Something she saw here pushed her over the edge…" she mused, trailing off.
"Sara, we act on what the evidence tells us, not on how we interpret it," he reminded her gently, as he did to everyone one else, walking beside her now.
"What if all the evidence point to one thing, yet in fact mean something else?" she shot back, but just as gently, knowing its dual meaning would be lost on him.
"The evidence never lies." He replied simply, giving her a small smile.
She knew, first-handedly, that this wasn't the case. All those looks. All those little gestures. All those untold feelings. All that denying. The both of them, walking side-by-side, were perfect examples of the evidence lying.
'And our job is to let the evidence speak,' she thought to herself, smirking slightly. 'How ironic.'
Grissom, oblivious to her smirk, glanced around at the people walking. There were many of them; some were reading by trees, others walking their dogs, and of course, couples holding hands. He tilted his head to the side towards Sara. They actually looked like a couple, walking barely a centimeter apart from each other. The identification tags on their clothes that read Las Vegas Crime Lab however, were telling a different story.
He continued to let his eyes wander. The sunlight penetrated everything, but the people around didn't seem to be bathed in gold light like Sara. It just reflected off them, whereas she absorbed the golden glow.
"What's this?" he asked, eyes resting on another arch in front of their path.
She shrugged before walking under it and into the shade. He followed, before realising by the sweet smell, followed by the burst of colour, that they were in a flower garden, complete with benches to sit on and to admire the beauty.
She was aware, very aware, of his presence beside her. Her whole body tingled, sending tiny electrical shots coursing though her. She hated the effect he had on he, but yet her heart yearned for it. She shook her head, trying to dispel the feeling. "I think this is a memory garden," she said, pointing carefully to signs between the flowers.
"Memory garden?"
Her heart leaped as he leaned in for a closer look, catching a whiff of his clean scent. So much for dispelling the feeling.
"You plant something and you get a small area to dedicate a message on. It's this new thing." She explained.
"To my darling Brooke: Twenty years and still going strong. I love you, Reese." He read off one sign. "A little unnecessary, don't you agree?" he asked, turning around to realise she had already disappeared deeper down the path.
"Heidi, I know it's too little too late to say this, but I love you. You're engaged now, to a very lucky man. I have always loved you, and I'm so sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I know I showed all the signs, but I didn't act on it. Goodbye. C.C." she read off another sign and pointed to the rose bush. "It's freshly planted, and that message certainly didn't just sound like a message. It sounded more like a –"
"– Goodbye."
They both stared at the sign. Tears prickled Sara's eyes, and she didn't even know why.
"C.C… Claude Camden. Dr. Camden." He said softly, wheels turning in his mind as he broke the mood. "It was a dayshift case solved yesterday. Dr. Claude Camden committed suicide. Heidi Marlowe must have read it and took her own life…"
Sara stood still, gaze set on the sign. "He loved her, yet he didn't let her know till it was too late. He tells it to her using this –" she gestured angrily to the sign "– and he expected her to live with it?" She remarked, each word growing louder and more emotional.
"Life in unfair Sara, and we have no control over it." He said, gently touching her arm.
"He did have control, Grissom, he had control over her, and they both knew it. I wish people would just be honest with each other, is that so hard? Life itself is not complicated; it's the people that complicate it." she said, not knowing if she was talking to him or to herself.
She felt drained, empty, like an hourglass that had shattered, scattering grains of thought all over the place.
Her eyes were filled, tears threatening to spill, and she turned to walk away. She didn't need him to see her cry, but he reached out and grabbed onto her arm.
"Let's go for a walk," he said, eyes burning with a new flame.
She glared at him with shiny eyes. "The case is closed, Grissom, what else is there for us to do?" Her mind was way too consumed to think straight even though she knew exactly what he meant.
"Sara - let's go for a walk." He tried again, losing the words. He looked into her eyes, trying to tell her what he really meant.
She stared right back into those clear eyes, her mind slowly clearing up. They did what they did best, communicating not with words but with emotions using their eyes, blue in brown, brown in blue.
His eyes pled with hers. "Give me a chance, give us a chance." They begged, piercing into her heart.
She stared right back before reacting without much thought. She leaned in and kissed his lips lightly. 'If that didn't scream yes, I don't know what will,' she thought to herself as she pulled away.
He looked at her, blue eyes wide, before smiling and taking her hand in his. They started to walk down the path, but he stopped abruptly. Without a word, he clipped off her identification tag, before doing the same with his.
She didn't ask him what he was doing, and he didn't need to tell her. He flashed her another quick smile and they walked out from the shade and into the sunlight, not as co-workers, but as something more.
They had solved more than just a case that day.