Fic Title: Innocence
Author: Moonpattern
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Grissom/Sara
Date: November 2004
Feedback: I'll take feedback
Rating: (R sexual references/violence/mature subjects)
Disclaimer: ("This is not meant to be taken as true, I make no $$$ . . .")
Summary:
Dedications: Thanks to my friends Theresa and Amy for urging me on and the website people for the encouragement.
Prologue:
The graveyard shift has been under stress. Since Ecklie has taken over for Cavallo he has been nothing but trouble for graveyard, especially Grissom. He uses Sophia to investigate Grissom. This puts stress on the crew. They put themselves on the line for Grissom. He would do the same for them.
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"Jesus, Ecklie, Don't you have anything better to do that make my life miserable?" Gil Grissom spat out at Conrad Ecklie.
"Well, Gil, I am running the show now and I do what I feel is necessary!"
"Do you think it is necessary to have an internal investigation done on me, come on Conrad!"
"I think the evidence led me this way, yes!"
"Why do I even bother?" Grissom walked away.
"By the way, Gil, you are on suspension and I want you out of here in fifteen minutes, Sophia is gonna run your shift for a while!"
Grissom never responded, he just walked away grumbling about Conrad, he didn't like him before, now he really didn't like him.
Grissom went to his office and began to pack up a few things. He hadn't been ordered off a case since Strip Strangler. This was different, he was ordered to leave so that they could investigate him, him of all people. He did not tamper with evidence, this much he knew, but if Ecklie wanted him bad enough he would plant it, this Grissom was sure of! He had everything to do, but could do nothing. It would be up to his team, or at least they still were for now. Catherine showed up at the door.
"Whatcha doing Gil?"
"Packing!"
"Why?"
"I just got suspended!"
"You what?"
"I just got suspended, from Ecklie, because of the Garbett case. The "new" evidence they found, not to mention the internal investigation Ecklie has going on."
"Sophia?"
"Yup! She is also your new make-shift supervisor on Ecklie's orders."
"You have got to be joking!"
"Cath, do I look like I am joking?" Catherine looked at him and saw the fear in his eyes, "I have only like ten minutes left before I'm gonna get thrown out!"
"What?"
"Ecklie only gave me fifteen minutes!"
"We will get to the bottom of this, Gil, I promise," If we don't there goes your job, she added silently, "I proved Nick's innocence after the case with Kristi Hopkins, remember that?"
Grissom nodded.
"Well if I could do that on my own, imagine what we could do with all of us working on your case, we are the second best crime lab in the country, and that is because of you and our solve rate, Ecklie can't deny that!"
"No, but he can try! I gotta go Cath, before I am thrown out, you want to brief the rest of them on this situation?"
"I will do that right away!"
"Oh and Cath," he said turning back to look at her, "watch out for Sophia, she is cut from the same grain as Ecklie."
"Don't worry, Gil, we will handle her!"
With that Grissom was gone and Catherine left to find the rest to them to inform them about their "invisible assignment". She figured that if they could solve a case with invisible evidence, this should be a pieced of cake, or she hoped it would be, for his sake.
Catherine paged everybody to meet her in the parking lot. She didn't want anyone to overhear their conversation especially Sophia. They all arrived at nearly the same time with all the same look on their faces, a questioning look.
"So, Cath, what's up?" Sara asked.
"We have a problem! Are you all ready to risk your Asses for a cause?"
"Depends on the cause!" Nick added.
"Grissom!" Catherine added.
"Count me in!" chimed Warrick, it's the least I can do after everything he has done for me over the years.
"Me too!" added Nick.
"You know my answer!" Chimed Sara.
"I am always up for fun!" Stated Greg.
"Ok," began Catherine, "We have a lot to do, and very little time, not to mention we have to tip toe around Sophia!"
"Sophia?" Sara asked, "Where's Grissom?"
"I guess I should start from the beginning!"
They all nodded.
"Ok, this is the problem," Catherine paused, "Grissom has been suspended!"
"What? Why? How?" Sara spat.
"I am getting to it Sara, just Calm down!" added Catherine. "HE got suspended over the Garbett case, they are trying to say he tampered with evidence!"
"Grissom?" Nick questioned.
"Exactly!" Catherine supplemented, "That is why we have to be careful with what we do, Grissom's job is on the line, you know how much Ecklie doesn't like Gil, so you know that he will do as much as he can to ruin his career!"
"You don't think this is a set up, do you?" Asked Greg.
"I am not ruling it out!"
"Ok, Cath, so what is our plan?" Sara asked with concern in her voice.
"Alright, so Sara, I want you and Nick to go back through the old case file, see if something could have been overlooked. Warrick, you and I are gonna test this "new evidence" and see what we can find. Greg, I want you in the lab, I don't want anyone else to handle this, do you understand?"
"Sure, Cath, no problem, without Griss, I probably wouldn't have ever got in the field, I owe him that much!"
They all finished up and headed back in the building, "By the way," Catherine added, "Sophia is our acting supervisor!"
They all growled to themselves as the approached the entrance to the lab.
They had all they could do to pussy-foot around Sophia, she was around every corner.
"CSI Sidle, what are you doing?" Sophia asked looking at Sara.
"Working on a case!" Sara added with a snotty attitude. She was working on this case for Grissom, but that was not for Sophia to find out.
"What case is that?"
"We had a 419 last night, I opened a cold case to review it because the MO was the same."
"Why didn't you ask me first?"
"I never had to before!"
"Well you do now!" Sophia added with arrogance about her. "I don't want to have to investigate you too CSI Sidle!"
"MY name is Sara!" Sara interjected, "And if you don't mind, I am trying to work!"
Sophia got the hint and left to see what the rest of the crew were doing.
"Hey, Sar, did I miss something?" Nick asked as he approached Sara.
"I hate her Nick! I swear, if she stays, I will go!"
Sara and Nick shared a giggle, "So what have you found? Anything?" he asked.
"The evidence was pretty clear cut, Grissom found the guys prints on the wrench and the matchbook. They matched without question, it should have been cut and dry."
"But..."
"Exactly, now there is this new print. It doesn't make sense that after five years this print stands out when you look at it. It is almost like..."
Nick broke in. "Like someone planted it!"
"Are you thinking what I am thinking Nicky?"
"I think so, we had better go tell Cath!"
They left to find Catherine. Her and Warrick retested the evidence with no avail. They didn't find any more evidence.
"Did you try Red Creeper?" Sara asked, "You know, Grissom's concoction!"
"No! Wouldn't that be in his office?" Catherine added.
"Actually I have some in my field kit," Sara told them, "left over from the last bathtub incident, Griss gave it to me!"
"You are holding out on us girl!" Nick added.
"I'll be right back, I'll go get it!" With that Sara left to retrieve the red creeper form her field kit.
"Has Sophia been nosing around you guys?" Nick asked.
"Not really," Catherine added, "I think she knows better, I have been here longer than her and I'm not afraid to use that to my advantage. Has she been around you?"
"She was nosing around Sara, but Sara held her own!"
"Good for her, I think it is good for her to see we mean business."
Sara returned to the lab with a little jar of red powder and passed it to Catherine. Catherine took it and began to place it on the bag to trace for prints. She was nearly finished inspecting the bag with the red powder when she found what she was looking for.
"It is only a partial, but it is better than nothing." She taped it off and took it to Greg. If anyone could use this print to get a match it would be Greg.
"Greg," Catherine said passing him the partial print, "This is off the evidence bag, it is only a partial, but I so hope you can find a match!"
"I'll see what I can do!" he said taking the print, "I will page you when I get a result."
"Ok, Greg Thanks!"
It was not fifteen minutes when their pagers all went off signifying that Greg had a match. They all took off and ran to the lab to find Greg.
"DO you have a match?" Catherine asked.
"Yup!" Greg added soberly, "It is an internal match!"
"Is that a good internal, or a bad internal?" Sara asked.
"Depends on who you ask?" He added.
Sara walked over and grabbed Greg by the shirt, "Ok, Greg, if you were Grissom, would this be a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Settle down Sara, I was getting to it!"
"C'mon Greg, we don't have all day!" Catherine interjected.
"Ok, if you were Griss, you would be happy with my results," Everyone was smiling. "The print on the bag matches to one CSI Sophia!"
"What?" Catherine yelled. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm 99.9 sure, I am good at what I do!"
Sara leaned over and placed a kiss on Greg's cheek and he began to blush. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered, "Thanks!" And left to go call Grissom.
Catherine had plans of her own, she went to find Ecklie and rain on his little Sophia parade. Catherine looked high and low, but couldn't find him, so she decide to call him.
"Ecklie!"
"Its Catherine Willows, we seem to have a problem here. Could you please explain to me how Sophia's prints got on the evidence bag form the Garbett Case?"
"It could be anything Catherine!" HE was increasing his tone.
"Conrad, it has been a closed file for five years, she hasn't been here that long, something is going on here and you better get to the bottom of this before I do. I think you owe Gil and apology!"
Conrad was speechless and hung up the phone. Could Sophia have tampered with the evidence to implicate Grissom? Would Sophia risk her job to do that? Did she just figure she wouldn't get caught?
Sara got no answer when she called Grissom, she had tried his cell, but it was temporarily suspended, so she tried his home number, she got no answer there either so she left and went to his townhouse.
She pulled into the second spot in his parking lot, his truck was still there, and maybe he was just screening the calls? She approached the door, it took a while but he eventually answered the door. He was in a robe with wet hair.
"Oh, you were in the shower?" She asked.
"Yeah, were you the one who called?"
"Yes, we got a lead on this case."
"You do?" You could see the excitement in his voice.
"We think that Sophia is trying to implicate you for this, for some reason, we are unsure of her motives though."
"What does the evidence say, Sara?"
"Her print was on the evidence bag!"
Grissom leaned over and gave Sara a kiss. Sara was shocked and pulled away.
"I'm Sorry, Sara, I didn't mean to do that! I was so happy I wasn't thinking!"
Sara leaned over and kissed him back, "It wasn't a bad thing, and it just surprised me is all!"
Sara looked down at him, "I think you may need to get dressed to go to the lab!"
Grissom turned red with embarrassment and retreated to the bedroom to put some clothes on. What just happened? He thought, was that a dream? No time to worry right now, I need to clear my name!
Back at the lab, Conrad had Sophia in the interrogation room. "Sophia, please tell me you had nothing to do with this?"
"I can't Conrad!"
"So you did this?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"I didn't think I would get caught, honestly. I wanted some of the glory for myself. Every time they mention this lab it is always Gil Grissom this and Gil Grissom that not to mention the Graveyard shift. I just wanted some of the glory!"
Conrad was speechless. "I am disappointed in you Sophia, you do realize that I am going to have to fire you for this, and lay charges?"
"I know, I just didn't think that far ahead!"
The room went silent as Grissom approached. Conrad hung his head in shame.
"Gil, I'm sorry, I owe you an apology."
"Really Conrad, what ever for?"
"I was investigating the wrong person, seems Sophia planted that print there!"
"Really? I guess the dayshift supervisor job is Catherine's now!"
"I guess so!"
With that Conrad left. Grissom was so happy with his team. Grissom had a new lease on life and he thought that he new life needed to include Sara.