Sierra looks through the microscope frowning at the thread under it. "Shit," she mutters when she can't immediately place it. Sighing she gets out the tools required to analyze it. Rolling her head back and closing her eyes for a second, she final begins the process.
Vaguely she wonders how long she had been here now, looking at her watch it told her twelve hours. She glances over when she hears a noise, one look at Natalia Boa Vista tells her that she's not the only one going on twelve hours.
"Anything?" Natalia asks rubbing her neck.
"I'm working on the fiber," Sierra says, "The good news though is that it's not the same as the blanket the girl was wrapped in."
"Maybe it's our perps." Natalia says and Sierra nods, "Which is why you're running it against the others."
"That's not all, the rope had DNA on it too." Sierra says with a nod, "It had skin cells on it, they are male."
"Which narrows it down to about half the suspect list." Natalia says, "I just don't see how anybody could do that."
Sierra looks sympathetically at her, "I'm afraid that answer may never come."
"Well as long as we find the guy I'm good with it." Natalia says standing up straight, "I should head to DNA and see who's DNA you found."
"Why don't you take a break, sit down for a minute?" Sierra asks, "You've been at this for twelve hours."
"She was thirteen year old girl who just wanted to walk home by herself. And some pervert raped her, then stuck a bottle up her butt, and then, just for good measure raped her again, oh but lets not forget that he strangled her, then stabbed her over fifty times." Natalia's voice rises.
Sierra sighs, "Natalia, listen to me. I know this case is bad, I know okay? I went to the morgue remember?"
"I'm sorry I shouldn't be yelling at you, it's just this case, it's getting under my skin and I don't understand why." Natalia says with a sigh.
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad." Sierra laughs a little when Natalia looks up confused, "Salvador Dali quote."
"What would that…." Natalia's eyes get big, "That's it!"
"What's it?!" Sierra calls after her, "What about your results?"
Natalia turns at the door, "I'll pick them up in just a second."
"Okay then," Sierra says to the now empty room as Natalia has disappeared out the door.
Two hours later Horatio Caine walks through the door, just as Sierra had placed another sample into the analyzer.
"I thought I would come and tell you that we got the guy who killed Joann Newlands." He says looking downward and playing with his sunglasses, "It was her father."
"Her father?" Sierra asks, "Geezs I knew he had anger issues but to kill his daughter in that way…."
"It appears as though he snapped." Horatio says looking up at her, "What exactly did you say to Ms. Boa Vista?"
Sierra frowns, having forgotten the quote, "What?"
"Miss. Boa Vista said that something you said triggered her theory." Horatio explains, "I would like to know what it was."
Sierra laughs and shakes her head, "All I said was 'the only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad'."
"Salvador Dali, I like it" Horatio says with a nod.
"Oh hey, H, hey Sierra, we were all headed out, figured we got an hour before the new year rings in, you guys in?" Wolfe asks poking his head into the room.
"Sure, I just got to clean up here and I'll be ready, where we going?" Sierra asks.
"Ah the Mentan club." Wolfe answers.
"Go on, I'll clean up here." Horatio says with a smile, "Go on." He adds seeing Sierra hesitate.
"Are you sure?" She asks, to which he nods, and she throws the lab coat off, "Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Not for two days at least, I don't want you coming in for two days after this I'm giving everybody I can time off." Horatio says, watching her smile at him as she heads out the door.
Four hours and however many shots, beers, and martinis later….
Wolfe leans in and kisses her, "Happy 2009 again." He slurs his words as his lips make contact.
"You said that already." Sierra giggles and pulls back.
"Well I mean it. Ya know they say that whatever you're doing on new years, you'll do that all year long." Wolfe says with a nod to confirm it.
"Then maybe we should be kissing," Sierra leans in, "Why do I think this is a horrible idea?"
"What's a horrible idea?" Wolfe asks moving to get a better angle.
"This, us getting close." Sierra says moving as well.
"How's this, it's just sex, it means nothing more than we both need this?" Wolfe asks.
It wasn't until Ryan Wolfe was on top of her, entering her that she really came out of the drunken stupor that fogged her mind. And yet oddly enough, it was at this point she realized she was at the point that turning back wasn't an option either. She moaned and clawed at Ryan's back, urging him on. And on he went……
Two days passed rather quickly, with a maze of paying bills, catching up on phone calls and emails, and such. Sierra was happy for the time off, but it was also exhausting. Her mother wanted her home, her father wanted her to be safe, her sisters wanted her to baby sit. But Sierra opted to stay in Miami, because her job was here, and she liked her work. Besides if she went home to Kentucky she'd have to deal one on one with her family. And that was scarier then the perps she helped put behind bars.
So today she grabbed her coffee and headed into work. Climbing out of the elevator, she runs, literally, into Ryan Wolfe.
"Sorry," Wolf says, "I wasn't paying attention."
"No, it's me, I was uh, distracted." Sierra says holding her cell phone up, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." Wolfe says, "I just thank God your coffee is okay, because you get cranky without your coffee and the coffee pot in the break room broke."
"Oh you're so funny," Sierra pretends to be upset and slaps at him.
"So uh, well I mean this isn't weird at all right?" Wolfe asks swallowing hard.
"No, I mean no it's not weird. We were both consenting adults why would this be weird?" Sierra asks her voice rising a little in pitch.
"Right, look I don't regret…" Wolfe says.
"Me either, Ryan." Sierra says softly.
"Uh, I hate to interrupt," Delko says coming up, "But we have a mess in the lab."
"What kind of mess?" Sierra asks turning her attention to Delko.
"The kind a newbie makes," Delko answers leading the way to trace. Once there they see that the printer is spitting out papers, seven samples are laying out opened, which is a contamination issue, and there's one very frazzled new lab tech in the middle.
"Wow, you were not kidding." Sierra mumbles, "Okay, first thing first, put the samples back up. Did any of them touch or anything." The new lab tech shakes her head and uses a shaking hand to put up the samples.
It takes the greater portion of the morning to get the lab under control, but once she does she explains to Dena, the new lab tech, the ins and outs of working in a real crime lab. By the time Horatio shows up in the lab, looking for his samples it's running smoothly and Dena is able to hand them to him.
With the crisis inverted and the samples caught up for the moment, Sierra sits down to think about exactly what it was like to see Wolf again. Pictures of the night they'd shared pass through her minds eye and she's suddenly flushed.
Was it weird to see him today? She wonders. Oddly enough the answer is no. It was not weird to see him, and no she didn't regret their night either.