Title: Can't Take It
Summary: Snickers. Follow Grissom, Nick, and Sara through a case; one that could ultimately draw two of our favorite CSIs together.
Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did. Maybe for Christmas…..
A/N: This one is pretty long… and the first few chapters focus on the case rather than Nick and Sara, but I think it makes it more real and in the end a better read. So… here we go!
His house was nice. Not huge by any means, but big enough for more than him. Big enough for kids, big enough for maybe even a dog. He smiled, fingering the diamond ring in his pocket. Now all he needed was for Karen to say "Yes". A contented sigh escaped him as he beamed at his reflection in the mirror. Tonight he is convinced will be my lucky night.
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Dinner had gone amazingly well. They cooked together in his kitchen, later to eat on paper plated in the living room, laughing over reruns of Friends. He slipped in a comment about how right this felt, and she agreed, smiling. It did feel comfortable, she'd admitted, and that's when he fished the ring from his pocket. He must have said something right because the next thing he knows she's wrapped her hands around his neck and, tears streaming down her face, kissed her consent. And he was happy. It wasn't until later, when they were cuddled on a plush chair in the living room, that his smile vanished. "What's wrong?" she asked, before she turned around and saw for herself the man with the knife.
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"One DB inside, put up one hell of a fight from the looks of it" Brass rambled as Grissom approached him, kit in hand. "You just missed out only witness. Paramedics took off just now. From what I saw she was banged up pretty badly; in and out of consciousness, probably had a concussion. But I'll leave the official diagnosis to the doctors at the Desert Palm, huh?"
Grissom merely raised an eyebrow before sighing, "Did David check the body yet? Do we have cause of death, or a time frame?"
The two walked inside the house as brass replied. "Not yet, but I wouldn't worry about that now. You've got a pretty extensive crime scene." Grissom stopped at the doorway leading to the living room, and almost surprised expression lingering on his face. The room looked as if a tornado had blown through, and then some. Brass just sighed, "You might want to call in some more of you r people for this one, Gil."
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Sara and Nick arrived together, Nick pulling the car next to the curb and letting out a low whistle. Sara just shook her head. The lawn was crawling with cops, paramedics packing up, nosy neighbors crowding behind yellow crime scene tape… you name it. She turned towards Nick. "Let's go see what Grissom's got for us."
They didn't have to wait long; Grissom met the duo at the door. "Nick, take the perimeter. Find out how the guy got in, how he got out."
"Sure thing, boss" Nick nodded solemnly.
"Sara" Grissom continued, "You're with me inside. On DB and, according to Jim, one witness listed serious condition at the Desert Palms hospital. A lot of blood, a lot of stuff…"
"A lot of evidence." Sara finished, sighing. "Let's go." She and Grissom left Nick, who began to process the front door, to walk further inside the house, stopping in the living room. "Whoah" Sara muttered.
The place was a mess. Blood spatter on the furthest wall, overturned furniture; the pictures handing on the walls were either crooked or torn down. The coffee table near the couch had a corner dripping in plod, and the window looking out to the backyard was shattered.
"I'll start dusting for prints" Sara said, pulling the necessary tools from her kit. "You want to take the blood?" And with that, the two CSIs got to work.
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"Hey, Greggo" Nick grinned, walking into the lab. "Got anything off those prints I lifted from the front door?"
Greg whirled around to face him, "Not yet. Get me the prints of your vic and his hot date for the night…" –here Greg waggled his eyebrows- "and we, well, that is to say I, can start matching the prints up. You've got about eleven clean samples, sot he first step is ruling the vic's prints out. Until you tell me what exactly I'm looking for..."
Nick just shook his head, accepting the manila folder Greg handed to him and looking inside. "No hits on Codis? Man, why do I get the feeling I'll be pulling a double this shift?"
Greg laughed as Nick walked out of the lab to meet up with Grissom and Sara in the break room. He tossed the folder on to the table in front of them. "No hits… Greg can't do anything with the prints until we give him something to compare them to."
Grissom rubbed his temples. "Ok, we'll got o autopsy, get some prints off of our vic. The girl's still in the hospital so we'll have to wait a while on hers. But still, that's two prints down."
"Which only leaves about nine samples" Nick informed his supervisor, taking a sear next to Sara.
Grissom groaned inwardly before Sara asked, "Fine. So what else do we have? Gris and I got two viable blood samples from the wall and the table, probably our vic's, and one from a broken champagne glass we found behind the chair, probably not out vic's." She went on, "Prints and DNA from the glasses, and some trace from the DB; hair strand with skin tag still intact. I also found something on the floor near the table. Some sort of mineral. Looked like diamond, but it was only a fragment. Trace is on it now."
Nick added, "I've got a footprint in the flowerbed outside the broken window, and some trace, looks like some sort of fabric… cotton, maybe, from the broken glass in the window. Also, our perp must've know the vic, like had a key or something. No sign of forced entry on either front or back door."
Grissom got up, and poured himself some coffee. "So if all of our findings are in the lab, there are only two things left to do. I'm going to meet Al in autopsy. You two go down to Desert Palms and see if you can't get a visit with our vic."
Nick grinned at Sara as Grissom exited the room, and beat her to the punch: "I drive."
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To be continued
A/N: Hope you guys like it. I'm sensing quite a few more chapters, and of course, the promised Nick/Sara interaction. Next chapter; Grissom goes to autopsy, Nick and Sara pay Karen a visit, and the first hint of Snickers.