Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. The voices in my head say they're mine, but they lie a lot.

A/N: I wrote this story a couple months ago, so keep that in mind. This takes place between No Humans Involved and Who Shot Sherlock. A million thanks yous to Lady Kes and Cybrokat for beta-ing this fic. Any mistakes you find you can blame on me. :)

Some Kind Of Monster

"…Until tomorrow. This is Nancy Grace for Court TV. Walk slow and hurry back, my friend."

Sara angrily turned the TV off and threw the remote across the break room.

"What did that remote ever do to you?" Nick asked as he walked in.

Sara grinned at him sheepishly and replied, "Nothing."

He eyed her suspiciously for a moment and then said, "Let me guess…Court TV?"

Sara begrudgingly answered, "Yes."

"Doesn't Grissom have a rule that you're not allowed to watch Court TV at work? Especially about the Peterson trial? Which, judging by your mood, is probably what you were watching."

Sara let out a frustrated sigh. "That damn guy just gets to me. He's an evil, lying bastard who killed his pregnant wife. They should tie concrete anchors to him and toss him in the bay."

"Tell me how you really feel, Sara," Nick responded with a chuckle. He poured himself a cup of coffee and took a seat at the table across from Sara.

Sara took a sip out of her bottle of water and looked at her watch. "Hey, what are you doing here at this time of day? You're way too early for your shift."

Nick smiled smugly at her. "How early were you for work today? I was mid-shift when you showed up last night."

"I had paperwork to do. And you never answered my question."

Nick ran a hand over his face. "I couldn't sleep. This case we're on is just bugging the hell out of me. I figured I might as well come in and go over the evidence again."

Sara nodded and smiled before changing the subject, "So, how is the shift change going?"

Nick gave her a sad smile. "Well, it's going. I don't like it. I pretty sure Warrick hates it. Catherine just loves being in charge. It's just damn weird taking orders from her. She'll tell me to do something and I'll just shake my head at her, but then I remember she's my boss. It's an adjustment."

"I can't imagine how it must be for you guys," Sara said sympathetically, reaching across the table to lay a hand on top of Nick's. "I miss you guys."

"I miss you guys too. I miss the team. We were all so good together. It's just stupid to break us up. The five of us together…we're the best team of criminalists in the world."

Sara giggled. "You're getting just a tad far fetched there, Nicky." She patted his arm before pulling her hand back.

The sound of someone clearing their throat drew Sara and Nick's attention to the doorway. Grissom stood there leaning against the doorframe, a file in his hands. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Just catching up, boss…uh, Grissom…sorry," Nick replied.

Grissom smirked at Nick. "Technically I still outrank you, so you can still call me boss if you want."

Nick grinned at his former supervisor. "Uh, yeah. I don't think Catherine would like that too much if she heard about it. And you know her, she hears about everything."

"True. Well, I hate to break up your little reunion, but Miss Sidle, Mr. Sanders and I have a date with a dead body in the desert."

"Oooh! A threesome," Sara quipped, while rising from her chair.

Grissom shot her a disapproving look and said, "Meet me in my office in ten minutes." He turned to leave, but then turned back and looked at Nick. "Drop by my office when you have the time, Nick, so we can catch up."

"Sure thing, Griss." Nick watched Grissom's retreating form with a perplexed expression. He turned to Sara and asked, "Was that Gil Grissom?"

Sara shrugged. "I have no idea. It sure as hell looked like him. Didn't act like him though."

"You got that right."

Sara grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair and slipped it on. "I better go round up Greg and get going. It was good to talk to you, Nick."

"Yeah," he sighed. "Give me a call one of these days…maybe we can all get together for a meal or something."

"Will do, Nick. See ya later." She patted him on the shoulder as she walked past him.

Nick looked around the empty break room and felt miserable. It hadn't been too long since the team was split, but he already hated it. What made each of them an exceptional investigator was the support of the others. Not that they needed the help of each other. It was just the fact that you worked with a team you knew you could trust with your life. A team you knew wouldn't screw anything up. The best damn team of criminalists in the world, he thought.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"What do we have, Jim?" Grissom asked as he passed under the crime scene tape, holding it up for Sara and Greg to pass through as well.

"Alyssa Byers, thirteen," Brass began, leading them to the body. "She was reported missing two days ago and found a few hours ago."

"Who found her?" Sara asked.

Brass stopped and turned, pointing to two teenaged boys standing by a patrol car. "Cheech and Chong over there came out here to watch for UFOs and stumbled upon her. Those kids are so stoned it took them five minutes to give us their names."

Grissom turned to look at Sara with a confused expression on his face. "Cheech and Chong?"

"I'll tell you later," Sara said with a laugh.

"I gotta warn ya," Brass said as he resumed his trek to the body. "This isn't the prettiest crime scene. It's really gruesome." He stopped a few feet from the small corpse and looked away with a grimace.

"Oh my God," Sara gasped. She set her kit down and slowly knelt down to look closer at the body.

Grissom set his kit down and turned to look at an unusually quiet Greg. He noticed the young man seemed a few shades paler than his normal color. Concerned, he asked, "You okay, Greg?"

Greg had been in a daze looking at the body, but snapped out of it when he heard his name. "Who could do something like this?" he asked no one in particular.

"If you're not gonna be able to handle this, Greg, I can send you to help Sofia on that burglary."

Greg shook himself in an attempt to focus and in a weak voice replied, "I can handle this." Clearing his throat, he continued in a stronger voice, "Just another crime scene, right?"

Grissom nodded at the young man. "If this becomes too much for you though, I want you to let me know."

"Will do," Greg replied. He pulled on a pair of latex gloves, pulled out his flashlight and began to search the ground around the body.

Grissom watched Greg for a few minutes before kneeling down next to Sara to get a closer look at the body. He had a grimace on his face as he examined the young girl. The body was half naked and the clothes that she did have on were torn and covered in blood. Her head was beaten so severely that her entire face was one big bruise. She had dozens of deep cuts all over her body and one of her hands had been cut off.

"Poor girl," Sara sighed. "This is horrific."

Grissom gently laid a hand on Sara's shoulder. "Are you going to be able to handle this?" he softly asked.

Nodding sadly, Sara answered, "Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be fine." She shrugged his hand off her shoulder and stood. There is no way in hell you're going to send me to work a burglary with Sofia, she thought to herself. She walked over to check on Greg. "You got anything?"

"Nothing yet," Greg replied. He shined his light ahead of him a few feet. "Oh, wait! What is this? I think we got some tire tracks."

Sara smiled at him proudly. "Good find, Greg. Now let's cast them and keep looking."

Grissom watched Sara and Greg interact for a while, feeling like an outsider. He was interrupted from his observation by the arrival of David. Grissom stood and nodded a greeting to the young coroner. "David."

"Hello, sir," David greeted him kindly. David looked at the body and a bleak look passed over his face. "Oh, poor thing," he said quietly.

"What do you think, David?"

Examining the body, David answered, "I won't even guess at the cause of death, but due to the lividity…she was dumped here."

"Time of death?"

"Liver temp says about six hours ago."

Grissom looked at his watch. "Well, that makes it somewhere around one a.m." Grissom scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Thanks, David."

"We'll have her out of here in a few minutes."

"Okay." Grissom walked over to where Sara and Greg were now casting shoe prints. "The scene is yours."

Sara looked disbelievingly at him. "You're leaving?"

"I'm gonna head back in with the body. You two can handle this just fine."

Sara shot him a dirty look as he turned and headed for his Yukon. Shaking her head she returned to her task. She let out a little giggle when she heard Greg sigh, "Alone at last."