Author's Note: Hola peoples well this is my first stab (haha) at a C.S.I fanfic and I put 10 times the effort thought and time into this so it should be light years ahead of my other two. Well that's it for now. Here's to hoping that Sara does not die in the season premiere. CHEERS! BTW incase your wondering the name of my story is the same as the season premiere. The squiggly lines indicate the break between what is happening to each character. R&R, ideas and flames welcome.
Chapter One:
Of Dolls and Deserts
Sara. The only person that had ever really given his life meaning. And now she was gone. Lost in a sea of grit and sand. She would never, could never know just how her smiling face had kept him sane through even the most gruesome of cases. The very thought of having to go through life, without her, was like a knife between his ribs.
But no, he couldn't allow himself to think like that. He had to hang onto that last glimmering strand of hope. As long as the doll was still alive, there was still a chance, no matter how slight, that they could find her in time. Find her before it was too late.
Grissom's thoughts were slowly turning against him. His once structured and stable way of thinking was being broken down bit by bit. When he should have been trying to figure out where she was, Gil often found his mind wandering back to Sara. Her looks, her smell, everything he could remember in case the inevitable happened…which it wouldn't. Anything but that.
At the moment he and Greg were roughly a hundred feet above the desert floor, combing every inch for even the slightest shine that would lead to the missing C.S.I. It was a nerve wreaking job, and both he and Greg were at wits end from raising their hopes only to have them shattered into millions of bite sized pieces. Even after several hot and uncomfortable hours of searching and ceaseless noise both C.S.I were still in the dark about Sara's location. Unfortunately due to the declining amount of sunlight and fuel the helicopter would have to land soon, calling a premature ending to their search.
Grissom shook his head, attempting to clear his thoughts, and stared once more into the seemingly endless Nevada desert.
Greg's phone was vibrating weakly in his pocket. Through some unknown miracle he was able to feel it even over the shakiness of the copter.
You have 1 new message
The front read-out on his phone boasted. Without taking his eyes off the ground below, he flipped his phone open, and glanced hurriedly at the name on the screen.
Warrick.
That could only mean bad news. There was less than no chance Natalie would even consider revealing something. He tapped the read button.
The doll is dead
Greg's head began to spin. Sara had just seemed so…so indestructible. She just couldn't be gone. Besides, it was just a doll. Maybe the mechanism making it twitch had given out… Either way he'd probably better tell Grissom.
Greg looked over at his partner. Judging by the look on his face, telling him Sara's doll was dead would be the worst news possible. Greg wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if that particular tid-bit got him thrown out of the helicopter.
It had to be done though; he just hoped he would survive it.
The spiky haired C.S.I took one last long look at the constantly changing scenery before turning towards his partner. Before Greg had the chance to get the older man's attention, Grissom was signaling to the pilot. He had seen the truck. Now how was he supposed to tell him that she night have stopped breathing?
While the helicopter was still almost four feet from the earth Grissom's feet hit the ground. He was so impatient to get Sara back he couldn't even wait for the chopper to land. A very unlikely likely thing for Grissom to do, but he was beyond caring. Personal image meant nothing when lives were at stake.
And there it was. A slightly dusty red truck that was so beaten up it could hardly be recognized for what it was. The earth sucked at Gil's shoes and he dimly noted that he was walking through thick mud, not the gritty soil indigitive of the Nevada desert. More importantly the license plate matched to the letter. This was the truck; the twisted piece of metal that was keeping Sara from him, and slowly killing her. He was close enough now to see her hand lying limply on the damp ground, fingers dug deep into the mud.
Grissom's breath came in short, ragged gasps and he was sweating bullets. By no means was he out of shape but he hadn't realized just how far he'd had to run, and in this infernal heat…
"Oh, Sara." Grissom rubbed his face. He hadn't been expecting this. Her fingernail beds had a blue hue about them a trait common in the asphyxiated. She was d--. No that couldn't be right. She was still alive… she had to be.
Grissom tried experimenting with lifting the truck. He hadn't been very hopeful but it was just as painful when it didn't budge. He began to survey the scene, wondering just how that petite blonde had been able to do so much damage in so little time.
Greg hadn't been nearly as impatient as Grissom and thus had more time to survey the scenery. The damp soft sandy soil slowly mixed with a thicker more mud like ground covering that smelled strongly of rain. Since the temperature was still well over eighty degrees the rain must have fallen fairly recently. This much rain either meant mountains or the apocalypse. He preferred to think it was mountains rather than the end of the world, much less final. Greg looked to either side of him just to confirm his theory of mountains. He was right.
Really he was just trying to distract himself from thinking about Sara. Before he knew it he and the pilot had reached the truck and a very antsy Grissom.
"Took you long enough. You, get over here." He beckoned to the pilot.
"Grissom—" Greg couldn't put it off any longer, Gil had to know. Unfortunately he wasn't listening.
"Help me lift this. Greg, when we get the truck high enough, pull her out." Greg cocked an eyebrow skeptic of how strong Grissom thought he was.
"Won't this destroy evidence?" but he grabbed the hand anyway.
Her hand was shockingly cold, and stiffer than a board. Sara was dead. He tried to stop himself from thinking it. But the more he tried to block it out the more that unwelcome sentence ran through his mind.
The truck was off. Greg yanked at her arm, pulling harder than necessary to the effect of toppling over backwards.
By the time he had gotten back to his feet, Grissom was already kneeling at Sara's face. There was no denying now that that was her. Her brown hair was strewn over her back and the big yellow C.S.I letters contrasted sharply with the navy blue fabric. This was her. And she was dead.
Grissom felt hollow. Nothing mattered anymore—or at least until he brushed the hair out of her face.
Yes, the hair color matched and the uniform was definitely Sara's. It had that same slightly intoxicating floral scent about it. But the face was all wrong. For one thing this girl was far more tanned than Sara had ever been. The bones in her face were more pronounced, and her eyes were brown.
Whoever this woman was she certainly wasn't Sara. The woman he was looking at wasn't Sara. This wasn't her body. She might not be dead… Gil had never been so happy to see a dead body in his life.
He began patting her down, looking for an ID or some other type of identification. It was a small chance, but stranger things had happened.
He paused for a moment, looking up at Greg. What the H-? Greg was sitting on the other side of the Jane Doe looking terribly depressed. He was staring at the ground looking pointedly away from her prone body. All the classic signs of having known the victim. In his relief and near confusion, Grissom had forgotten this woman's almost identical appearance to Sara.
"Did you know her?"
Ah-ha an ID. Grissom looked at the little plastic rectangle, trying not to let the surprise register too much on his features.
"Are you crazy?" Greg was beginning to think this was some kid of weird defense mechanism of Grissom's, but it was hard for him to be empathetic, seeing as how Sara was one of his real friends.
Grissom ignored Greg's question.
He glanced up. "Did Sara ever mention a sister?
gasp here is a hint: I'm not adding anything in (yet) that hasn't been already mentioned in the show. Hmm I'm gonna say I need a minimum of two reviews before the next post. I've already written most of the story so the moment I see the second review in my inbox I will post again
If you want to read an awesome C.S.I story find cause.a.scene "Our Darkest Hour" is my personal favorite but the rest are good too. Living Doll 2 is also good if you like the Sara and Greg pairing.
