1. The devil and D.B. Russell

"Hey, how are you?" Sofia took Sara's hand.

"Alive."

"How are Jim and Morgan?"

"Morgan is in hospital, she's going to be all right, was lucky. Jim … Nancy's death was hard, that his daughter killed her, killed her own mother, made everything more complicated. And more sad."

"She also almost killed Morgan."

"Yes, she was willing to kill and killed people so her secret wasn't uncovered."

"How much can you hate your own father and mother when you kill them or want to kill them?" Sofia sighed and regretted the question the second she asked it. Sara's relationship with her own father had been difficult. It wasn't the best idea to ask her such kind of rhetorical question. "Sorry, I didn't mean to … I didn't think of …"

"It's okay. In Ellie's world she had all reasons to hate her parents, they divorced her, the man, who said he was her father, wasn't her father, they lied to her for years. All good reasons to hate your parents, but not to kill them."

"There must be something wrong with her head. Too many drugs."

"She destroyed her own life, killed her mother and ruined the life of her father."

"I have to visit Jim, see how he's holding up. Most people think he's a tough guy, but he isn't. I remember the Bell shooting, we've both been through hell and back and when it was clear, he shot Bell … he was still there for me although he was the one, who needed support. I owe him a lot."

"We all do and we all shouldn't leave him alone. I suppose he's going to say, he wants to be alone, but I don't think he really means it." Sara sipped on the beer, the bartender had placed in front of her a minute ago. It was a hard time for the whole lab.

"I'm glad Morgan will be fine, Ecklie must have been terrified."

"He was. Last year he was shot, now his daughter. The few years Morgan has been in Las Vegas, a lot of happened to her and her family. I wonder if she sometimes thinks, her life would have been better if she had stayed in Los Angeles. Somehow Las Vegas seems to be not a city for a CSI to live long and happily."

"Does that include you? Are you thinking about going back to San Francisco? How was it there?"

"It was okay, I went there for work, not for fun. And no, I have no plans moving back there. It's just, a lot of things happened to the nightshift people."

"True."

"You know, I asked myself if I were this angry with my father if he was still alive. If I wanted him dead."

"Did you find an answer?"

"Not really. He wasn't a nice man, like my mother wasn't a nice mother and yet, we managed to find a relationship, that makes it possible for us to be together without being caught in the past all the time. What I know is, I'd like to find to find it out, but it's not possible and that's what makes me sad the most."

"Once a person is gone, you have no chance to get him or her back, true. That's why you should do and say all the things to somebody, as long as you have the chance. Let me start with something: I'm glad you're back, Sara and I'm enjoying our time together and am grateful, we changed our rocky relationship to this."

"Same here, I'm glad we meet and I like to talk to you about cases - and beyond." Sara smiled and lifted her glass towards the blonde.