Disclaimer: I don't own CSI as much as I'd like too.
AN: Response to 10-24-05 Unbound challenge where first and last lines are provided. Happy Halloween.
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Grissom struggled with his emotions as he watched the ambulance drive away. He wasn't sure what he should be feeling and wasn't yet prepared to face the lab yet knowing and the teasingjokes that would be coming at his expense. So he closed his eyes remembering how the evening started.
The house lights went down as he joined other regularson stage to begin performing along with the actors on-screen. Lowering his eyes when the rice began flying towards the screen during the wedding scene he wished he had someone to share this with. He thought of Sara and the way she'd laughed. He waited for Brad and Janet's dialogue to end. Straightening his silk smoking jacket he stepped forward, sliding on his reading glasses, to open the book and begin reciting lines he's known for close to thirty years.
'It seemed a fairly ordinary night when Brad Majors and his fiancée Janet Weiss..." He closes the book marking the place and listens to the distant thunder. "It was a night out they were going to remember for a very long time."Grissom participated with the audience at all the familiar parts. Covering his head with a newspaper and squirting water during the storm. Using a pointer to illustrate how to do the Time Wrap and then doing the dance himself. Laughing as the audience shouted familiar lines at the screen. This was the diversion he didn't tell people about, a side of him his colleagues knew nothing about.
They were all prepared for Susan Sarandon's screams. It was the male voice calling out, "Someone call 9-1-1." That raised the house lights and then a woman started screaming hysterically alerting everyone in front of her that there was a problem. Stepping down from the stage he pulled his cell phone out and dialed 911, while trying to keep people from disturbing the evidence.
A woman had been strangled in the dark theatre, the red ligature marks around her throat already vivid against her pale skin. He carefully removed the cord from around the girl's neck. Smiling as she took a shallow breath in and released it. He privately wished he could fade into the background and be just another face in the crowd, but he couldn't. He stayed with the girl and shared what he knew with the first officers on the scene and the EMTs.
"I bet no one saw anything." Brass shook his head, it was always a shame to see what humans could do to each other, but at least this girl would live. Live with the memory of what had been done to her in the theatre. Looking around he spotted Grissom and walked over. "Nice smoking jacket, so what do you think?"
"This is going to be a forensic nightmare." Looking towards the door he was waiting to see which team member was going to be assigned to this call. The girl was still lying on the ground whispering replies to the EMTs. Grissom thanked whatever stroke of luck had been with him so far. Neither paramedic had been Hank Pettigrew. Brass was the Detective assigned the case. Now if he could only get lucky with the CSI assignments he might get through this night without being completely mortified.
"Hey Jim." Sara said with a friendly smile, setting her kit down and pulling out a digital camera. She started taking shots of the scene and of the crowd. "Who removed the cord?"
"I did."
"Griss." She smiled as she noticed the smoking jacket. "With or without gloves."
"Without. There wasn't time to waste."
"I haven't been to Rocky since…." Her voice may have trailed off but her eyes spoke volumes when he looked into them. She hadn't been back since he'd taken her as a virgin to one in California.
"Why?"
"It just never seemed as much fun with other people." He nodded in understanding. He'd found that to be true himself. Watching the Wizard of Oz synched to Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' with another woman had been a bust. "Same with Carmen, tiramisu and dunking oreos in peanut butter." She said quietly as kept documenting the scene. These were things that they'd done in California or shared during those long distance telephone conversations before he'd called her to Las Vegas. "Did you untie the knot?" She asked as she dropped the silky cord into an evidence bag.
"No."
"Hey Jim can you come over here." The pair of men followed her to a quieter corner. "Did our victim ever say this was assault? Say anything about her attacker."
"No."
"I don't think this was an attack. I think our victim is into auto-erotic asphyxiation." Both sets of eyes were fixed on her. "Grissom can I borrow your sash." He pulled the silk belt out of the smoking jacket and handed it to her. Deftly she tied a slip knot and slipped it over her head. Then pulled it tight enough to leave a pink mark on her neck then loosened it. "Does that mark look like our vic's?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"Worked something similar in San Francisco, but we won't know for sure until I finish processing the evidence and we talk to the victim."
Brass nodded, "I'll head to the hospital see what I can get out of Ms. Williams. While you finish up here."
"Good work, Sara."
"Thanks Grissom."
They didn't talk again until she followed him into the trace lab during the next shift. "So I see your theory was proven by her statement." He said finally.
"Yup. Maybe next time you go I could tag along." Sara hadn't told anyone about catching Grissom at the theatre. "I've got my Colombia outfit at home." He was gloving up, but was distracted by his mental image of Sara dressed in garters and lingerie. She laughed softly as the rubber glove flew trough the lab.
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AN: This story is the result of a comment my mom made after we watched the pilot. Quotes from the Rocky Horror Picture show were copied from the godamongdirectors web site.