A/N: Watching House of Hoarders a few days ago, I kept thinking about how I'd have loved for Grissom to have worked that scene – or just pop out from behind one of those storage boxes and arch his brow, or just be there. God, I miss him. Sara did the teaser line, she was good but she was no Grissom. Anyway, when I got to the layout room scene between Nick, Sara and Ray, I got crossed. Ray was okay in the episode and I loved that Sara and Nick butted heads. But I hated that Ray was delivering what I felt were Grissom's lines, especially in that scene, and rather flatly at that.
So, I've kind of reworked that scene a little. For it to work you don't have to have seen the episode but you've got to imagine that Grissom is back working at the lab. This is where the wishful bit comes in. He left to go to Costa Rica to win his girl back. Then they went to Paris, Sara came back and then Grissom. Ray's not here, he's left. I don't know where he's gone. I don't care where he's gone. Sorry Ray. I'm sure Doc Robbins can quite easily dispose of a body.
It's a little different – very different – from my usual stuff and NONE of the dialogue is mine, sadly, everything else is.
At Loggerheads.
"Well," Sara said on entering the layout room, looking rather pleased with herself, "Greg just IDed our jailer." She made eye contact with the two men in the room and set down on the table in front of Nick the copy of the gun shop receipt that Greg had managed to unearth. "Julian Santiago," she went on, "he purchased the handcuffs." She met Nick's gaze dead on. Here's your culprit, Stokes.
Her expression and tone of voice were a little too smug for Nick's liking. "So what?" he retorted coolly, raising both shoulders dismissively. "He also has a permit to carry; he works with juvenile offenders."
Sara shot her colleague a dark, how-dare-you-question-my-judgement-in-front-of-Grissom look before giving a quick sideways glance toward her husband. His eyes firmly on Nick as he spoke, he was doing his best to stay focused on the case and ignore his…colleagues' continuing divergence of opinions.
Undeterred by Sara's glare, Nick continued with his reasoning. "All the hard evidence points to Mrs Santiago."
Grissom narrowed his eyes at Nick. Wow, stop right there cowboy! That's not strictly true."What Nick means," he said, turning toward Sara, "is that there were two sets of prints in the bedroom. There were Alisa's prints and her mother's prints."
He sighed and flicked his gaze between Nick and Sara. He needed to diffuse the situation before their little dispute about the case escalated into full blown war. Truth be told, he was worried about Sara. She hadn't been herself since she'd stepped into that house and met Mrs Santiago. Her empathy for the suspect was commendable and understandable considering her own past. But she was letting it cloud her judgement. His eyes settled once more on his wife and bushed lovingly over her face, full of concern.
Pleased that Grissom agreed with him, Nick continued with his reasoning. "And the scrapings that you collected under Mrs Santiago's nails were a match to the talcum powder and the skin lotion next to the bed so-"
"So that puts Mrs Santiago in the bedroom, not Julian," Grissom finished as diplomatically as possible. You two shouldn't be trying to score points against each other here, he told them with a stern look. You should be working together in order to identify the four boys' killer.
Sara stared at her husband with disbelief. She took a short breath and dropped her gaze, grudgingly backing down from her position. "Okay." What the hell! I know I'm right on this, Grissom. Why do you have to be such a...such an smartass about this? "But," she tried again, "Julian is still our connection to those dead boys and the bedroom. Maybe, Mrs Santiago was being dominated by her son. Maybe she wasn't acting out of free will."
God, Sara, you're like Hank with a bone. Grissom lifted a shoulder as he pondered Sara's argument but before he could voice a carefully-weighted and phrased opinion, Nick piped up with, "What is it about this woman that has got you so blind?"
"What is it about this case that has you acting like such an ass right now?" she retorted levelly. She glanced briefly toward Grissom. Aren't you going to say something?
A shiver ran down Grissom's spine. This went deeper than professional rivalry and a conflict of opinion, even if Sara had vested interest in this. The dark shadows dancing across her eyes didn't bode well. In that one unguarded second, he had glimpsed fear and anger in those brown chocolate orbs, fear and anger that Sara was doing her utmost to keep a lid on. The last time he had seen her so riled up, so emotionally involved in a case was the Kira Dellinger's murder case, and with catastrophic consequences. He had to do something to stop her before she self-destructed again. He wouldn't underestimate the situation and make the same mistake as last time. He couldn't have her walk out on him. God, he couldn't let it get that far.
"Oh, I'm an ass now?"Nick retorted with utter disbelief.
Sara wasn't having any of Nick's arrogant, self-affected attitude. She was on a mission to clear Mrs Santiago's name and she wouldn't let anyone, least of all Nick stop her. "There's a very real possibility," she insisted, "that Julian killed those two boys to keep them away from his sister and he's using his mother and her house to bury the evidence."
Arms folded over his chest in a typical defensive gesture, Nick stared down Sara.
"You're absolutely right," Grissom said with conviction; he needed to do some damage limitation, and now, "There is that possibility." Sara turned her stare from Nick to her husband, eying him with interest. His eyes were smiling at her, his hands twitched by his sides yearning to reach out to her and touch her. He wanted to tell her he knew what was going through her head, that he understood, that it was okay to think that way. He wanted to alleviate her fears, to tell her to hold on, that soon they would be home and they could take all the time in the world to talk about it. He wanted to tell her he loved her, damn ghosts and all, that he was there for her. He wanted to do all these things and he couldn't.
He felt his hand to the collar of his shirt and thought of the one word that he could always rely on. "So…why don't we stick to the evidence that we have. Can we try that?"
"Okay," Nick replied first, making eye contact with Sara.
"Fine," Sara hissed through gritted teeth, as she held Nick's gaze with a darkened one of her own.
Grissom pursed his face knowingly. "So the evidence that we have suggests that Diana Santiago's murder was an accident. We can't prove either suspect committed murder. What we do know is that Mrs Santiago falsely imprisoned Alisa."
"So what do you want to do about it?" Sara said. Her eyes told a different story.
Grissom lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Julian lawyered up so I guess we can take another look at the mother." He regretted his words as soon as he said them.
And right on cue, "All right," Sara said. "I'll talk to her. We've spent some time together. We connected."
That's not a good idea, Sara. For whatever reason, you're far too emotionally involved in this case to see the whole picture. Maybe Nick should do it.
But before he could verbally phrase his reluctance, Nick did his very fine impression of a Texan bull in a china shop. "That's not going to happen," he said, already heading out of the door. "I'll talk to her," he added with an emphatic hand on his chest as he left. Slam dunk, Sidle!
Sara could barely contain her anger and frustration and the dripping sarcasm from her voice. "Good luck with that, Nick."
Grissom cleared his throat. Nick was gone leaving him free to show Sara some emotional support. He pushed up to his feet and began to reach his hand toward her.
"What?" she snapped in her usual defensive/attacking tone.
His hand snapped back to his side and he shrugged. "You know, I've been where you've been Sara, and sometimes I find it's best to take a deep breath and…"
Oh, Grissom. Not now. This isn't about you and me. This is about the case. She turned on her heels and without another word walked out on him.
"…and walk away," he finished lamely, letting out a long, dreary breath.
A/N: This is what Grissom's absence from the show is doing to me. I'm now reduced to watching episodes and substituting Ray's face for Grissom's. And sadly I can't seem to get the voice right. God, how I miss his voice.