A Mystery
By Dany
Author's note: I know I'm a little bit late for this topic, but my computer crashed and I couldn't bring this up sooner. This is my way to deal with this whole fiasco and a way of saying: This shouldn't have happened.
Summary: A late reaction to some misunderstandings with the TPTB.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and some of the phrases that were used.
xxxxx
This had to be a joke!
It just had to be. There was no way this letter could be real.
Gil Grissom sat in his office staring at the paper in front of him. He had been doing so for the past hour, and his thoughts had always come back to 'this had to be a joke'.
But it wasn't.
There in black and white stood,
"Supervisor Grissom,
please inform CSI Sidle and CSI Stokes that their employment with the Las Vegas Crime Lab has been terminated.
CSI Sidle's employment was terminated on the grounds of her not returning a letter, which she was asked to sign as a confirmation of her continuing employment since it has come to the management's attention that CSI Sidle has been approached by other labs.
CSI Stokes did not appear at work on July 16th of this year and as a result CSI Brown was left to perform nightshift on his own while you, supervisor Grissom, and senior CSI Willows were both absent with a medical notice and CSI Sidle had her scheduled night off.
Enclosed are the two letters of notice.
Sincerely Director Carvallo"
This could not be for real.
If it was, why hadn't they sent the letters directly to the two CSIs? But if it was a joke, why did this letter have the official signatures?
He didn't know what to do.
He knew he didn't have the necessary supervisor skills, and he certainly didn't need something like this to prove it to him.
This had to be joke.
Because the reasons why they were fired were ridiculous. What king of legal base was there to fire Sara because she didn't return a superfluous letter?
Still, pain shot through him at the thought of Sara leaving. Would she leave now that they gave her the boot or would she fight to get her job back? Had she really been planning to go to another lab? If so, then he knew he had no one to blame but himself. He obviously hadn't learned anything from 'the plant experiment'.
And Nick, dear god, they were ruining his career. Had he really been absent that day without calling in sick? Why didn't he know about this? He could not imagine that Warrick had been alone that night. And that without word having gotten to him.
Jesus, what was he supposed to do?
xxxxx
Night shift had already begun, and the others were wondering where Grissom was. His car was there, but he hadn't shown up yet, and it was already twenty minutes into shift.
Catherine was the chosen one to search for their supervisor. She knocked on his office door, but got no response. The blinds were drawn shut, but she could see light seeping through, so she knocked again. When no one answered she opened the door a crack to see if he was inside. Seeing him sitting behind his desk she entered and was surprised that he didn't seem to notice her.
Her shadow finally alerted him to her presence and he looked up.
"Shift has already started," she commented.
He nodded once and lowered his head again. A piece of paper held his attention. "Cath, could you please send me Nick and Sara?"
Catherine was puzzled at his odd behavior. She could see the assignment slips on his desk. There were at least four of them. But she decided to do as he said since it was clearly important to him. Besides, she could grill him later.
The others back in the break room were just as surprised when Catherine sent the two youngest CSIs on their way.
Again, Grissom didn't look up when they entered, and they wondered where he was off to. A second later their boss lifted his head and stared straight at Sara. "Could you give us a minute please and wait outside? I'll talk to you right after I discussed something with Nick."
Sara looked a bit annoyed at his quick dismissal, but left the two men alone. She stood outside his door and wondered what was going on.
Grissom had seemed very tense. His jaw had been firmly set and his eyes were glazed over as if he was in pain. Sata strained to hear something, anything from the inside, but their volume was to low. There was nothing else to do but wait.
xxxxx
When Nick left his office, Grissom steeled himself for an even harder conversation. Talking to Sara had once been so easy, but now it always seemed like a battle. And that made him feel weak and drained of all strength.
His talk with Nick had somehow cleared things up a bit and he knew now that Nick HAD been at work, only three hours late. Sara had come in that day too since he and Catherine had indeed not been in. He had had the mother of all migraines and Catherine had been at home with Lindsey who had injured herself inline skating.
He had shown Nick the letter, but had not handed it out to him. It was still sealed so the firing was not completely legal yet. He would talk to Carvallo and prove to him that Nick had come to work.
Sara shut the door behind her and he forced his thoughts back from Nick to the present.
"Have a seat," he said gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. "You will need it," he muttered under his breath, hoping Sara wouldn't hear it.
She did, though, and became increasingly worried, although she didn't comment on it. She was waiting for him to proceed.
"Sara, I don't know where to start…" he sighed, pulling off his glasses, tossing them on his desk, "Let me tell you something beforehand. I didn't have any hand in this and I'm seriously trying to rectify this whole situation."
Sara squirmed in her chair. Normally she prided herself in maintaining a stoic exterior and hiding her nervousness in tense situations. Grissom's mood affected her, like it always did, and made it hard for her to sit still.
"Sara, did you get offers from other labs and made that publicly known?"
She was shocked at his bluntness and felt her anger rising. He had no right to ask such a question. Not even as her supervisor.
Grissom must have seen her preparing to give him a tongue lashing so he continued before she could speak. "And was there a letter concerning this matter from the management?"
Where was this going, she wondered. Why was he asking these questions? She decided to push her anger back for the moment and answer him to see where it would lead. "Yes, I did receive offers, and no, I didn't make that known, publicly or otherwise," she avoided telling him what her responses and thoughts were to these offers. Let him stew on that. "Yes, I received a letter from the management." She tried to read his expression and saw that he hadn't known all that.
He nodded slightly as if to confirm his own thoughts and posed another question, "did you follow the directives in this letter?"
"Grissom," her tone showed her annoyance, "what is this all about?"
He sighed again and rubbed over his eyes, a clear sign that something was weighting heavy on his mind. "Sara, did you?"
She looked directly at him, willing him to read beyond her words. "Yes I did." Could he see that she wanted to stay?
Grissom let out the breath he had been holding. His eyes flew to hers as he tried to discover the hidden meaning. When he thought he succeeded, he shied away. He couldn't really imagine that she would consider staying for him. Especially after everything he put her through.
As usual, he struggled to force those thoughts into the back of his mind, choosing to focus on the problem at hand.
"Sara, I got a letter stating that you didn't return the signed letter that was requested. The management took that as an affront and…" Grissom couldn't say it. He didn't want to face the possibility that Sara could be gone.
"What?" Now she sensed where this was going, but this couldn't be true, "this has to be a joke."
She didn't realize she had voiced that thought until Grissom answered. "My thoughts exactly, but apparently the higher-ups have a different opinion."
"I'm fired!" She couldn't believe it. Work was her life. Why would they do this to her? She was a damn good CSI and everyone knew that.
"But I did return that fucking letter although I didn't have to. What do they think they're doing?" Sara was out of her seat now, pacing in front of his desk.
"Sara, I believe you and I will try to resolve this mess. I won't let you go." As he spoke those last words, it was suddenly clear to him that it was the truth. He couldn't let her go. It didn't matter that he never had her or that he had not wanted to get into it so deep. While his mind was busy to keep her at arm's length, his heart had already let her in. And he had never realized it. Sara was in his heart – and she was there to stay.
Just as she had stayed in Vegas when she had had every chance and reason to leave.
xxxxx
At this moment a knock interrupted his thoughts. "Come in." he called and Nick, Warrick and Catherine entered. Grissom nodded in acknowledgement before turning back to Sara. "Is it ok if we work this out together?" he asked unsure how she would feel about sharing something so big with the others.
When Sara nodded, indicating that she didn't mind, he proceeded to tell them everything that happened. Now Sara heard that Nick wasn't faring much better.
Catherine and Warrick were as shocked as the others. This had come totally out of the blue. After the shock wore off, anger took over. No one could understand how this could have happened and what the management could have possibly been thinking. Nothing much, that was for sure.
In the end cooler heads prevailed and a plan was formed to get Nick and Sara back.
Sara's case was pretty much clear-cut, since there really had no legal base for her termination. Some negotiations and a couple of threats regarding publicity should suffice. Nick's firing, on the other hand, would be a bit more difficult to nullify. Still, it should be manageable. Nick was usually very reliable and there was proof that he had been in for work. Admittedly he had been three hours late, but that had been the first time ever and it shouldn't be the reason for him losing his job. And if everything else failed, some more threats regarding Grissom's employment should convince them.
Warrick and Catherine knew they themselves were on shaky ground at the moment, but that didn't stop them from wanting to help their friends.
After a few more arrangements were made they left Grissom's office. As a unit to demonstrate their solidarity the nightshift CSIs went to face the devil.
Two hours later, when they left the "devil's office" all five of them wore smiles on their faces. Sara and Nick had been rehired, or rather their termination had been taken back. It had been an exhausting battle of legal citations and indeed some threats on Grissom's part to achieve their goal. Nick had apologized nine ways to Sunday for this tardiness and promised that it would never happen again. He had explained having worked late the night before and forgotten that the batteries in his alarm clock had been dead. It had been stupid, and he was forgiven.
Sara had not given in so easily. She could not be stopped to tell the director what she thought about his actions. He had had no right to fire her since she had done nothing wrong. And when all was said and done he had actually ground out an apology for her. He had also grudgingly admitted that her letter had turned up, and that made him an even bigger fool. The letter had gotten mixed up with the outgoing mail and had therefore been delayed. The director had probably realized that the letter had not been on the right side of the law anyway.
Nevertheless this whole ordeal had left a bitter aftertaste with the CSI team. No one would forget this night in the near future. They had almost lost two of their friends because of someone wanting to play with the big boys. And there was no telling if it could happen again.
xxxxx
Sara was standing in the parking lot searching for her car keys when she saw Grissom approaching her out of the corner of her eye.
After they had finally emerged from the upper levels they had returned to their nightly routine. Dayshift had been called in to cover for them and hadn't exactly been pleased, but had done it since they owed Grissom the one or other favor.
Still tonight the hours had seemed endless and more like days. Sara was exhausted and had turned down an invitation to celebrate their victory with Nick, Warrick and Catherine, begging for a rain check. She just wanted to get home.
But as she saw Grissom making his way over to her, she began to doubt that that would happen. He probably had another case for her. She really was not in the mood for that and considered some options how she could decline.
"Hey, Sara." She turned to him ready to tell him to call Catherine or Warrick. "I was wondering…" Odd, she thought, he didn't look like Grissom the supervisor. He looked like the man she considered her friend, the man she had fallen for.
"Would you like to have dinner with me?"
Sara saw the fear in his eyes. He was afraid to be 'too late'. How could she tell him that he probably would never be too late?
It was the best if she didn't tell him that at all and just answered, "Yes!"
The end