Title: Pink or Blue
By: Manigault
Rating: R.For language.
Disclaimer: Not mine. These complicated characters belong to CBS, Atlantic- Alliance, and Anthony Zuicker.
Summary: A 'what if' story. You know 'What if our fav CSI's were involved in RST and were not exactly careful'.
Special Thanks: Alison, You Rock. This story probably would not make its way here if not for her encouragement and beta reading.
Warning: Characters may be out of character but I got this idea in my head and felt the urge to explore it.
Sara Sidle bent over the decomposing body and felt her breakfast rushing upwards to her throat. With one hand clutching her stomach and the other one clamped over her mouth she averted her eyes from her startled colleagues and fled to the closest bathroom where she flung the door shut before sprawling over the toilet.
"Shit." She grasped the cold sides of the toilet bowl and heaved into its inner confines. Of all times for her to lose her breakfast. Why now? She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and used the other hand to flush away the evidence. At first she did not hear the soft tap on the door, but she did hear the concerned voice that floated to her through the pinewood.
"You okay in there, Sara?" Nick Stokes asked.
"I'm fine, Nick." Sara leaned over the sink and turned on the cold water. She cupped her hands and filled the palms with the cool liquid, which she held up to her mouth before swishing it around and spitting back into the sink.
Nick stood on the opposite side of the door, exchanging an anxious look with Warrick Brown who had put the camera aside and moved over to the door to stare at the hard wood. "Sara?" Warrick leaned towards the door, his voice soft and curious. "You going to stay in there all night or are you coming out anytime soon?"
The door swung open and both Warrick and Nick jumped back. They stared with a mixture of concern and curiosity at their usually stoic friend and colleague, who looked anything but impassive. Sara stared back at them with a defiant air that was hard to confront as she pushed past them.
"I ate something that didn't agree with me," She said with a sharpness that did not ring true, even to her own ears. "Can we drop it, you guys? We do have a scene to process."
Nick and Warrick exchanged another look, before Nick attempted to make light of the situation. "At least we finished processing the bathroom before you tainted the evidence."
His joke earned a chuckle from Warrick and a glare from Sara, who was busy pulling on a pair of latex gloves. Ignoring their concerned looks they finished with the body and headed back to the crime lab to begin the next step of processing the evidence they had gathered. Walking towards the blood lab, Sara spoke with a determined expression.
"What happened is between us, guys, okay?" She kept her voice low so that it would not carry along the corridors. "I don't want you mentioning this to Catherine or." She grimaced. "Or Grissom." Especially Grissom, she thought to herself.
"Tell me what?"
All three investigators froze in their steps and slowly turned towards that voice. Gil Grissom stared back at them with a 'don't lie to me' look in his eyes, which had settled on Sara's' guilty face. Catherine Willows stood beside him, her own look fastened pointedly on Warrick and Nick. She would get the truth out of those two if Sara failed to confess. Keeping their mouths shut, both men waited for Sara to speak out, weighing why it was bothering her so much.
"I had something for breakfast that did not agree with me and that is that." Sara shrugged it off and let her eyes drift from Grissom to Catherine and then back to him.
"Is that it?" Grissom screwed up his face in a 'so what' expression. "You feel sick and you didn't want me to know?" He observed the dumbfounded look on Nick and Warwick's faces but kept his attention on Sara. "You were afraid that I would send you home? Is that what concerned you? You do feel better now, right?"
"She threw up in the victim's bathroom," Nick pointed out, and then glared at Warrick when he felt his foot sting from a quick step on the top. "What was that for?" He asked, and watched Warrick roll his eyes and give Sara an exasperated look.
"You contaminated the evidence?" Grissom's voice was incredulous. "Please tell me that you didn't do that, Sara."
"I didn't.You can't." Sara stuttered over her anger at Grissom's priorities. He did not care that she had vomited, or that she must look like shit, but as long as the evidence was not contaminated. It was not that she could blame him, it concerned her as well, and if she had contaminated the evidence then she would never have forgiven herself. However, he could have shown more concern for her well-being. Without offering more information, she spun on her heel and stormed away from the surprised faces of her coworkers.
Grissom stared with blank intensity after her retreating back, not sure what had transpired, and not liking it.
"The evidence wasn't contaminated, Grissom, we had processed the bathroom while the police were taking their own pictures." Warrick held up several evidence bags. "I need to get these to Greg." His voice revealed his displeasure in Grissom, knowing how important Sara held his regard, and how upset she must be with him. Nick kicked himself for adding to Sara's embarrassment, and turned away from a baffled Grissom to follow Warrick to the lab.
Grissom stared after them before turning to Catherine. "What did I say? Is it wrong to make sure the evidence is not contaminated? It could make or break the case."
"You are kidding, right?" Catherine stared at her old friend and shook her head. "Do you think that Sara of all people would contaminate the evidence? She would have thrown up in an evidence bag before she did that."
"Maybe she should have," Grissom was thoughtful. "I wonder what didn't agree with her. If she had thrown up in an evidence bag then we could have analyzed the contents and found out what was the culprit."
"Now I know that you are not kidding and I can't." Catherine shook her head again, and walked away from him in the direction Sara had gone.
Grissom reviewed the conversation as he proceeded to the lab to question Greg about the results of the case he and Catherine were handling. He was concerned with the fact that Sara had thrown up on the scene. In fact, for the past few days he had been concerned that she was paler than usual and her appetite had faded. When he had questioned her, she had claimed that fatigue was catching up to her and she would be fine. She was not fine, though, and he determined to figure out what was wrong.
Catherine found Sara in the locker room, pulling clean clothes from her locker with angry movements. Catherine watched her for a few seconds before approaching her with a gentle question.
"This isn't the first time that you have thrown up, is it, Sara."
Sara froze for a second, processing the question. "No, I've thrown up quite a bit in college when I had too much to drink." The sarcasm was not lost on Catherine who decided to be direct with her friend.
"Are you pregnant, Sara?"
Her mouth fell open, and she turned to Catherine in shock, not knowing whether to be offended or distraught.
"Why would you ask me that? People throw up all the time when they have the flu or a bad stomach due to something they ate."
"I heard you retching for the past few days, when you come into work, before you went out on a case. You could have the flu, but you don't do you?"
Sara stared at her in horror. Pregnant? She was an investigator but the thought was only a glimmer in her mind. One that she had pushed out of her mind almost as soon as it had entered. She had her period this month, hadn't she?
"Would you like to talk about it?" Sara shook her head. "That isn't possible. I'm not pregnant." She glanced around the empty locker room as if the walls had ears. "I can't be pregnant. It would ruin everything."
"I think that we should buy a pregnancy test and settle it once and for all." Catherine could not help but wonder who the father was, and who she hoped it was. Sara had been extremely secretive about her relationship and she doubted Warrick and Nick even suspected that she was in one.
"I can't be, Catherine." Sara leaned her forehead against the cool metal of the locker and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "He doesn't want children and I would be a terrible parent."
Taking a deep breath, Catherine touched her friend's shoulder. "Have you discussed the possibility of children, Sara? You have heard him say that he doesn't want them?"
"Not exactly." Sara thought of the times when birth control had come up between them. She was taking the pill and had once asked him if he ever considered a vasectomy.
He had replied in the negative, stating that with the life he led, he had never deemed it to be necessary until now. Did she want him to get one? She was not sure and the subject had not come up in the months that followed. Careless of them both, she knew it was, but then she was on the pill. She knew the risks. He knew them. What would he say if it was true? Moving away from Catherine, she left the locker room and walked slowly towards the break room, forgetting the clothes that were clutched in her hands. She knew Catherine was walking beside her, but she did not speak to her, her mind trying to wrap itself around the possibilities. She paused in the doorway of the break room where Nick and Warrick were playing chess and Grissom. Well, Grissom was scribbling on a piece of paper, a cup of steaming coffee set before him. He looked up when they walked in and his eyes were filled with concern that was not there earlier.
"What cha doing?" Catherine moved over to him and watched as he spread one big hand over the paper and blushed lightly. "Are you working on a poem?" Catherine teased, earning an irritated look.
"I read poetry, Catherine, I don't write it." He waited until she moved over to the coffee pot before he motioned for Sara to join him at the table. It was with much reluctance that she settled in a chair beside him and stared at the paper he pushed towards her. A grocery list? She stared at the list of items-strawberries, blueberries, pancakes. Frowning, she looked back at him with a quirked eyebrow. Breakfast ,Grissom, her eyes questioned. Why was he listing the food she had eaten for breakfast? She darted a look at the counter where Catherine was leaning against the counter, her own eyes holding a list of questions.
"I have to run out for a while, Grissom." Sara stood up with an abruptness that caught Warrick and Nick's attention. "Will you ride with me, Catherine?" It was Catherine that returned to the car with a bag gripped in her hands. Sara had her forehead pressed against the wheel of her Jeep, her stomach growling in protest of her earlier bout of sickness.
"You want to return to the lab or go to my place?" Catherine asked her as she closed the door shut with a bang.
"My place." Sara insisted. There was always the possibility that she was not pregnant and then all of this worry would be unnecessary. She felt her confidence returning as they entered her apartment and she bee lined to the bathroom. It was best to get this over with so that she could concentrate on her work. Catherine watched the door close before she moved to the sofa that was littered with crime books and.She picked up a book on entomology and flipped it open. It was Gil's book, a fact that made her decide to look around for other evidence. A smile flashed over her face as she pulled an object from beneath the sofa cushions. A book could be borrowed, but a tie? She recognized this one as the one she had seen some months ago, on her return from Miami. The door opened as she stuffed the tie back into the cushions. Sara walked out of the kitchen trying to forget that her life lay on a stick on the bathroom counter. Pink she was. Blue she wasn't.
"Would you care for something to drink?" Sara asked Catherine, who looked like she had swallowed a canary.
"If you have orange juice and vodka." Catherine laughed at the uncertain look on Sara's face. "I'll take water."
After handing the water to Catherine, Sara glanced back at the bathroom. What would it be? Why did she let her future hinge on a stick that had no emotion either way?
"I can look if you would like for me too?"
"No." Sara walked into her bathroom and reached for the stick, her eyes closing briefly before she took deep breath.
TBC
(Kidding)
Pink it was. Sara did not know what emotion assaulted her, but it was shock that settled over her features as she held the stick out for Catherine to see. Fear replaced the shock as she looked into Catherine's eyes.
"What do I tell him?"
TBC
By: Manigault
Rating: R.For language.
Disclaimer: Not mine. These complicated characters belong to CBS, Atlantic- Alliance, and Anthony Zuicker.
Summary: A 'what if' story. You know 'What if our fav CSI's were involved in RST and were not exactly careful'.
Special Thanks: Alison, You Rock. This story probably would not make its way here if not for her encouragement and beta reading.
Warning: Characters may be out of character but I got this idea in my head and felt the urge to explore it.
Sara Sidle bent over the decomposing body and felt her breakfast rushing upwards to her throat. With one hand clutching her stomach and the other one clamped over her mouth she averted her eyes from her startled colleagues and fled to the closest bathroom where she flung the door shut before sprawling over the toilet.
"Shit." She grasped the cold sides of the toilet bowl and heaved into its inner confines. Of all times for her to lose her breakfast. Why now? She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and used the other hand to flush away the evidence. At first she did not hear the soft tap on the door, but she did hear the concerned voice that floated to her through the pinewood.
"You okay in there, Sara?" Nick Stokes asked.
"I'm fine, Nick." Sara leaned over the sink and turned on the cold water. She cupped her hands and filled the palms with the cool liquid, which she held up to her mouth before swishing it around and spitting back into the sink.
Nick stood on the opposite side of the door, exchanging an anxious look with Warrick Brown who had put the camera aside and moved over to the door to stare at the hard wood. "Sara?" Warrick leaned towards the door, his voice soft and curious. "You going to stay in there all night or are you coming out anytime soon?"
The door swung open and both Warrick and Nick jumped back. They stared with a mixture of concern and curiosity at their usually stoic friend and colleague, who looked anything but impassive. Sara stared back at them with a defiant air that was hard to confront as she pushed past them.
"I ate something that didn't agree with me," She said with a sharpness that did not ring true, even to her own ears. "Can we drop it, you guys? We do have a scene to process."
Nick and Warrick exchanged another look, before Nick attempted to make light of the situation. "At least we finished processing the bathroom before you tainted the evidence."
His joke earned a chuckle from Warrick and a glare from Sara, who was busy pulling on a pair of latex gloves. Ignoring their concerned looks they finished with the body and headed back to the crime lab to begin the next step of processing the evidence they had gathered. Walking towards the blood lab, Sara spoke with a determined expression.
"What happened is between us, guys, okay?" She kept her voice low so that it would not carry along the corridors. "I don't want you mentioning this to Catherine or." She grimaced. "Or Grissom." Especially Grissom, she thought to herself.
"Tell me what?"
All three investigators froze in their steps and slowly turned towards that voice. Gil Grissom stared back at them with a 'don't lie to me' look in his eyes, which had settled on Sara's' guilty face. Catherine Willows stood beside him, her own look fastened pointedly on Warrick and Nick. She would get the truth out of those two if Sara failed to confess. Keeping their mouths shut, both men waited for Sara to speak out, weighing why it was bothering her so much.
"I had something for breakfast that did not agree with me and that is that." Sara shrugged it off and let her eyes drift from Grissom to Catherine and then back to him.
"Is that it?" Grissom screwed up his face in a 'so what' expression. "You feel sick and you didn't want me to know?" He observed the dumbfounded look on Nick and Warwick's faces but kept his attention on Sara. "You were afraid that I would send you home? Is that what concerned you? You do feel better now, right?"
"She threw up in the victim's bathroom," Nick pointed out, and then glared at Warrick when he felt his foot sting from a quick step on the top. "What was that for?" He asked, and watched Warrick roll his eyes and give Sara an exasperated look.
"You contaminated the evidence?" Grissom's voice was incredulous. "Please tell me that you didn't do that, Sara."
"I didn't.You can't." Sara stuttered over her anger at Grissom's priorities. He did not care that she had vomited, or that she must look like shit, but as long as the evidence was not contaminated. It was not that she could blame him, it concerned her as well, and if she had contaminated the evidence then she would never have forgiven herself. However, he could have shown more concern for her well-being. Without offering more information, she spun on her heel and stormed away from the surprised faces of her coworkers.
Grissom stared with blank intensity after her retreating back, not sure what had transpired, and not liking it.
"The evidence wasn't contaminated, Grissom, we had processed the bathroom while the police were taking their own pictures." Warrick held up several evidence bags. "I need to get these to Greg." His voice revealed his displeasure in Grissom, knowing how important Sara held his regard, and how upset she must be with him. Nick kicked himself for adding to Sara's embarrassment, and turned away from a baffled Grissom to follow Warrick to the lab.
Grissom stared after them before turning to Catherine. "What did I say? Is it wrong to make sure the evidence is not contaminated? It could make or break the case."
"You are kidding, right?" Catherine stared at her old friend and shook her head. "Do you think that Sara of all people would contaminate the evidence? She would have thrown up in an evidence bag before she did that."
"Maybe she should have," Grissom was thoughtful. "I wonder what didn't agree with her. If she had thrown up in an evidence bag then we could have analyzed the contents and found out what was the culprit."
"Now I know that you are not kidding and I can't." Catherine shook her head again, and walked away from him in the direction Sara had gone.
Grissom reviewed the conversation as he proceeded to the lab to question Greg about the results of the case he and Catherine were handling. He was concerned with the fact that Sara had thrown up on the scene. In fact, for the past few days he had been concerned that she was paler than usual and her appetite had faded. When he had questioned her, she had claimed that fatigue was catching up to her and she would be fine. She was not fine, though, and he determined to figure out what was wrong.
Catherine found Sara in the locker room, pulling clean clothes from her locker with angry movements. Catherine watched her for a few seconds before approaching her with a gentle question.
"This isn't the first time that you have thrown up, is it, Sara."
Sara froze for a second, processing the question. "No, I've thrown up quite a bit in college when I had too much to drink." The sarcasm was not lost on Catherine who decided to be direct with her friend.
"Are you pregnant, Sara?"
Her mouth fell open, and she turned to Catherine in shock, not knowing whether to be offended or distraught.
"Why would you ask me that? People throw up all the time when they have the flu or a bad stomach due to something they ate."
"I heard you retching for the past few days, when you come into work, before you went out on a case. You could have the flu, but you don't do you?"
Sara stared at her in horror. Pregnant? She was an investigator but the thought was only a glimmer in her mind. One that she had pushed out of her mind almost as soon as it had entered. She had her period this month, hadn't she?
"Would you like to talk about it?" Sara shook her head. "That isn't possible. I'm not pregnant." She glanced around the empty locker room as if the walls had ears. "I can't be pregnant. It would ruin everything."
"I think that we should buy a pregnancy test and settle it once and for all." Catherine could not help but wonder who the father was, and who she hoped it was. Sara had been extremely secretive about her relationship and she doubted Warrick and Nick even suspected that she was in one.
"I can't be, Catherine." Sara leaned her forehead against the cool metal of the locker and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "He doesn't want children and I would be a terrible parent."
Taking a deep breath, Catherine touched her friend's shoulder. "Have you discussed the possibility of children, Sara? You have heard him say that he doesn't want them?"
"Not exactly." Sara thought of the times when birth control had come up between them. She was taking the pill and had once asked him if he ever considered a vasectomy.
He had replied in the negative, stating that with the life he led, he had never deemed it to be necessary until now. Did she want him to get one? She was not sure and the subject had not come up in the months that followed. Careless of them both, she knew it was, but then she was on the pill. She knew the risks. He knew them. What would he say if it was true? Moving away from Catherine, she left the locker room and walked slowly towards the break room, forgetting the clothes that were clutched in her hands. She knew Catherine was walking beside her, but she did not speak to her, her mind trying to wrap itself around the possibilities. She paused in the doorway of the break room where Nick and Warrick were playing chess and Grissom. Well, Grissom was scribbling on a piece of paper, a cup of steaming coffee set before him. He looked up when they walked in and his eyes were filled with concern that was not there earlier.
"What cha doing?" Catherine moved over to him and watched as he spread one big hand over the paper and blushed lightly. "Are you working on a poem?" Catherine teased, earning an irritated look.
"I read poetry, Catherine, I don't write it." He waited until she moved over to the coffee pot before he motioned for Sara to join him at the table. It was with much reluctance that she settled in a chair beside him and stared at the paper he pushed towards her. A grocery list? She stared at the list of items-strawberries, blueberries, pancakes. Frowning, she looked back at him with a quirked eyebrow. Breakfast ,Grissom, her eyes questioned. Why was he listing the food she had eaten for breakfast? She darted a look at the counter where Catherine was leaning against the counter, her own eyes holding a list of questions.
"I have to run out for a while, Grissom." Sara stood up with an abruptness that caught Warrick and Nick's attention. "Will you ride with me, Catherine?" It was Catherine that returned to the car with a bag gripped in her hands. Sara had her forehead pressed against the wheel of her Jeep, her stomach growling in protest of her earlier bout of sickness.
"You want to return to the lab or go to my place?" Catherine asked her as she closed the door shut with a bang.
"My place." Sara insisted. There was always the possibility that she was not pregnant and then all of this worry would be unnecessary. She felt her confidence returning as they entered her apartment and she bee lined to the bathroom. It was best to get this over with so that she could concentrate on her work. Catherine watched the door close before she moved to the sofa that was littered with crime books and.She picked up a book on entomology and flipped it open. It was Gil's book, a fact that made her decide to look around for other evidence. A smile flashed over her face as she pulled an object from beneath the sofa cushions. A book could be borrowed, but a tie? She recognized this one as the one she had seen some months ago, on her return from Miami. The door opened as she stuffed the tie back into the cushions. Sara walked out of the kitchen trying to forget that her life lay on a stick on the bathroom counter. Pink she was. Blue she wasn't.
"Would you care for something to drink?" Sara asked Catherine, who looked like she had swallowed a canary.
"If you have orange juice and vodka." Catherine laughed at the uncertain look on Sara's face. "I'll take water."
After handing the water to Catherine, Sara glanced back at the bathroom. What would it be? Why did she let her future hinge on a stick that had no emotion either way?
"I can look if you would like for me too?"
"No." Sara walked into her bathroom and reached for the stick, her eyes closing briefly before she took deep breath.
TBC
(Kidding)
Pink it was. Sara did not know what emotion assaulted her, but it was shock that settled over her features as she held the stick out for Catherine to see. Fear replaced the shock as she looked into Catherine's eyes.
"What do I tell him?"
TBC