Title: Bloody Valentine

Author: diabolikal rapture // Britt

Summary: It's Valentine's Day in the crime lab and Sara finds something special (and shocking) in her locker. But who is it from?

Disclaimer: Don't own CSI or anything associated, although George was my Valentine. Whether he knew it or not is another matter...

A/N: Here's an extreme post-Valentine's fic, I know it's July! Just felt the need, nothing overly romantic, but I thought I'd take a stab, and if it ends up sucking I'll blame it on my rusty writing skills. Enjoy, and review! Reviews make me smile // Britt

Bloody Valentine

Part One

Sara yawned as she walked through the eerily quiet corridors of the lab. The journey from her car to the locker room seemed like a cruel reminder of how little sleep she'd had in recent days. She yawned once more as she approached the lockers. It was nothing a cup of Greg's prized coffee couldn't fix. She opened the door and hung her bag from one of the hooks before removing her lab coat from its hanger. As she pulled one sleeve up her arm something caught her attention.

"Oh God!" She dropped the coat to the floor.

The bottom edge of her clean white coat was stained with a deep crimson, a shade of the color she was all too familiar with. She followed the drips down from the edge of the coat to the pool they formed on the floor of the locker, around what appeared to be a white, blood stained sack. She began to reach in before catching herself and pulling on a pair of gloves as a precaution. Who knew what it was, or if it was real.

Slowly she reached into the locker and lifted the pillow case gently, feeling the weight of something within shift slightly with the movement. She cringed. What the hell was it? She held one edge of fabric in each hand and spread the two sides apart, allowing her to see what it was that had made this mess in her locker. She fought the urge to react as she stared down at the bloody organ...someone had left a heart for her in her locker.

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Sara stormed into the room, and she wasn't happy. Greg couldn't help but mutter something about the great mood she was in today, only causing her to shoot daggers in his direction. She looked between Nick and Greg as she seemed to struggle with the words she was about to speak.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" She said to them, her tone more accusing than questioning.

"Wha...?" Nick began to ask when she raised an evidence bag into view. She'd removed it, drained the blood and separated them as different pieces of evidence.

Greg frowned as he was confronted with what appeared to be a heart... He smiled a little and regretted it immediately.

"Do you think this is funny?" She said angrily, sounding more like an angry mother than her usual self.

"Well..." He began, receiving a look from Nick that warned him to be cautious, "...considering the date, it is, kinda, morbidly funny? It is Valentine's after all..." Sara seemed surprised by that piece of information...seems like someone didn't have herself a Valentine, at least, not before now. He couldn't help but see the humorous side of it. A heart in a locker, all on this day. Someone had one strange sense of humor, although considering their workplace, maybe not so strange.

Nick frowned. Greg never learnt. He had remained silent, but couldn't help but wonder what the heart was made of, and why anyone would go for realism when women seemed to be more interested in fluffy and/or fuzzy...or even chocolate. He took the evidence bag from her.

"It's looks real," Nick said as he stared down at the organ. He gently pressed on one of the arteries, causing a small trickle of clotted blood to leak into the bag.

"It's disgusting, and you, you find it funny," she directed at Greg, her now chief suspect in the matter.

Greg put his hands up defensively, "Hey, it wasn't me, I swear."

Sara couldn't help but feel sick as it dawned on her...

"What if it's human?" She stared down at it. It couldn't be human. It was just a joke, someone was playing with her, and they wouldn't do that with a real human heart. The obvious alternative would be that, if it was real flesh and blood, it would be an animal's, but at that moment the thought sickened her almost as much.

"If this is a joke, it is pretty tasteless." Nick considered. They all knew she was a vegetarian. Some kind of heart shaped vegetable would've been the better option here. "But if it wasn't a joke..."

Greg quickly spotted Sara's reaction to this and knew what he had to do. He stood, taking action. "We need to get this tested." The quicker this was sorted out, the quicker he could ease Sara's mind. She was obviously disturbed by this, and he couldn't blame her. A real heart. It wasn't exactly what every woman wanted to receive on Valentine's.

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Sara sat alone as she waited for the results from Greg's tests. Catherine soon joined her, but she took little notice. She was too busy thinking about the whole thing.

Catherine's ears hummed with the latest gossip from around the lab. "So I hear you found a heart in your locker...how romantic. Why is it so hard for men to just buy a bunch of flowers and grab you a box of candy?" Cath said with a grin. When no response came from Sara, she realized that maybe making light of the situation wasn't the best thing to do. "Sara?" Catherine became aware that maybe the gossip queens of the lab hadn't gotten the whole story. "Sara?" She said again.

Sara looked up at her, her head swimming with the possibilities. If this wasn't a joke, if someone wasn't just toying with her…it could be serious.

"Look, I'm sure it's not human. Who would be stupid enough to pull a stunt like that in a crime lab or all places?" Cath offered, trying to cheer her up. "Don't worry about it, okay? It'll be fine...at least you didn't get a bag of candy hearts from your own daughter." She threw a bag of candy onto the table.

Catherine looked up as Grissom entered the room, his head buried in a folder. This told her that he hadn't heard, but then again, he'd never really did listen to any of the lab gossip, otherwise he would've heard about the many theories concerning his straw hat, among other things.

"Did you hear? Sara's got herself an admirer."

Grissom raised an eyebrow as he looked up from the work in his hands. He immediately spotted the candy hearts on the table. Sara had a Valentine? A lump formed in his throat...he felt memories flood back; that familiar feeling, it was unmistakable. So many years ago...her name was Angela; she'd won the junior science fair and his heart all in one day, and shattered it into a million pieces not long after...Valentine's Day…it was not kind.

"I...I found a heart in my locker." Sara said a little shakily. That was a sentence she never thought she'd say. Just like the time she'd mentioned nether stubble...

"A heart?" He questioned, not entirely sure what he was missing. Candy, chocolate, plush?

"A real heart...blood, oozing..." She trailed off.

Catherine watched as Grissom considered this. Sometimes she wondered about him, about his idea of romance. Would he be the kind of person to leave a heart, a real heart, in the locker of the woman he obviously felt for? Morbid Grissom...the scary thing was, she could picture it. Whether or not he'd be so insensitive as to put a piece of flesh inside the locker of a vegetarian was another matter. Catherine nodded to herself. Conclusion reached: Grissom did not put the heart in the locker...But who did?

To be continued...

A bloody heart in a locker...how romantic! At least some guy's remembered Valentine's Day. Part serious, part not so serious. I felt the need to mention the nether stubble. Recently watched that episode, cracks me up every time. Review! Let me know if you liked it, hated it, or had luke warm feelings towards it, and most importantly, if y'all want an ending // Britt