Author's Notes: This is a very short little one-shot in response to the Improv Challenge at YTDAW forums, the challenge posted on 7-7-05.
The conditions?
-The first sentence must be Sara frowned as water ran down the wall.
-The last sentence must be "It's Monday," Grissom said with a shrug.
-2k word limit.
CSI: - Evaluation
Sara frowned as water ran down the wall. She watched it serenely glide down scored stone and into the small pond at the base of the fountain. It created nice white noise, she decided. She smiled and turned back to the woman sitting across from her.
"Nice fountain."
"Thank you, but that's not why we're here, Sara," the woman said softly, but with more than a hint of authority in her voice, "We've been here for ten minutes and you've yet to answer my question," the woman paused for a moment, before posing the question once more, "Why do you think you're here, Sara?"
Sara sighed, steeling herself, turning a stern gaze to the woman's eyes, "I'm here," her voice was heavy with displeasure, "Because I'm unstable," she spit out the last word as it were something disgusting.
"Unstable? Why do you choose that word?" The doctor made a note on the clipboard in front of her, looking over her glasses kindly at Sara.
"That's what they say, isn't it?" It was almost a challenge, "That's what they call me. Ecklie. Catherine. I hear them. You know what? They're right."
"And how are you . . . unstable?" The woman asked almost soothingly, "Why do you think they call you that?"
"Because I am," Sara cocked her head, her eyes finding the fountain again as she swallowed hard, more to keep down a growl than a sob, "Because any day I can be just like everyone else . . . but the next day . . . everything's different."
"You're not like everyone else?"
"I guess not," She paused a bit before suppressing a forced laugh; "I'm here, aren't I? And this . . . is where they send crazy people."
"No, not at all," The doctor insisted kind-heartedly, shaking her head slightly, "I'm just here to evaluate you. You're not being committed or anything like that, Sara. I'm just here to talk to you."
"To see if I'm safe," Sara added, not looking away from the fountain.
"What do you mean by that?" The woman continued to sport her non-threatening tone and polite smile.
"You're here to make sure I'm not going to . . . I don't know, rob a bank or kill myself or something. To make sure I'm not a 'risk to the lab,' as Grissom would say," Sara shifted uncomfortably in the chair, not taking her eyes from the fountain.
"Do you feel that you're a- a 'risk to the lab?'"
"No," Sara said quietly, relaxing a bit, turning her gaze slowly to the doctor, "I'm . . . I probably am unstable. I know that. But . . . I suppose I've been like this all my life, haven't I? At least, since I was a kid. I know how to act; I know what to say . . . sometimes I just forget my place."
"And what do you do then? What if you were to, for example, 'forget your place' at a crime scene? Or in court?" She shifted some papers on her clipboard, "I've looked at your employee files, you've had confrontations with others before? Conrad Ecklie and Catherine Willows, I see here—"
"I just . . . I was out of line. I know it, I know I was," Sara insisted, "And I'll probably be fired," she turned back to the fountain, and this time it was the sob she choked down laboriously.
"Sara, I merely evaluate your condition and make recommendations, don't worry about your job right now," The woman insisted, making another note on her paper.
"But that's why I'm here though," She glared daggers at the fountain, "It's not like Conrad Ecklie wants me to be some productive member of society or a good Samaritan, he wants me sane so I can work. If I can't work, I'm out. The only reason I'm here, really, is to decide if I keep my job or not, isn't it?"
The woman made a final note on her paper and smiled softly at Sara, the same expression she'd worn the whole interview. Standing, she extended her hand to Sara, who stood stiffly and shook it, "Thank you, I think this will be enough."
"Yeah," Sara sighed dejectedly, trudging out of the small office and past the receptionist who didn't glance up from her word search as Sara left the suite and retreated to the elevator.
She sighed into the solitude as the elevator began its slow descent from the twelfth floor. She knew it hadn't gone well, she hadn't expected it to. God knows Ecklie seemed to have it in for her anyway, this was just his excuse, wasn't it?
"I suppose I should go pack my things," She half-sobbed to herself as she exited the elevator, "They're probably looking for someone in San Francisco. Weren't they always?"
Sara steeled herself. The weekend had passed since her psych evaluation and she'd not heard back from the lab. They were probably waiting until she came in for shift to break the news. She'd come prepared, equipped with a box to empty her locker into, the spare keys for her lab-issued SUV in pocket. She took a deep breath and walked through the automatic sliding doors at the entrance.
The guard at the desk smiled and nodded, as he usually did, but Sara didn't return the greeting this evening. Head down she walked determinedly to the locker room, the box resting against her hip.
"Sara," Grissom's voice made Sara cringe as her supervisor exited the DNA lab and intercepted her, "I have some bad news."
She slowly moved her eyes up to his, "Yes?"
"Greg needs to stay in the DNA lab today, really big case, so you have to run this 419 yourself," He handed her a file with addresses and police reports, "Have fun."
"You want me to do this?" Sara was perplexed as she thumbed through the file. Why wasn't he firing her?
"Of course," he seemed a bit perplexed, wondering why she wasn't expecting to do her job, "It's Monday," Grissom said with a shrug.
Author's Notes: I regret to say that I've never seen Nesting Dolls all the way through, so I'm not sure just what Sara did when she went off on Catherine and Ecklie, but I just was thinking about it the other day. I kind of wish I could have got in something about how Grissom defended her, but it's not really fitting in.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed it, and review if you have the time.