Sara was just about to leave the hotel room where she'd been staying for the past week when her cellphone rang. The caller ID indicated it was from Grissom. She sighed.
"Grissom, I'm just about to leave to go see an apartment," Sara said.
"That's great, but how much longer do you think it'll take for you to find somewhere to stay?" he asked.
"Uh, Grissom, I've only been in the city for one week. You've got to give me some time," she replied.
"I know, I know. I'm sorry. It's just that the team is one member short, and most of us are maxed out on overtime for the month. I'm in a jam," he said.
"Okay, uh…maybe after I go see this apartment, I can swing by. No promises, though," she replied.
"Thanks. Hope this apartment hunt pans out. I'll see you later," he said.
He hung up.
Sara sighed. This was the third such call in the past week that she had received from Grissom. She couldn't believe that he didn't understand that it was impossible to just magically find an apartment that she could afford in Las Vegas. There was still the matter of bringing her belongings over from San Francisco and she also needed to get a car. She was thinking of leasing rather than buying at the moment.
The only piece of good news Sara had received was that her apartment in San Francisco had been sold and that she'd gotten exactly the price she was asking for. She checked her watch and saw that she was about to miss the bus. She rushed out of the room and ran the block and a half to the bus stop, but she was too late. Great. Thanks, Grissom, she thought. She'd have to wait twenty minutes for the next one.
XXX
"Sorry I'm late. I missed the bus," Sara explained.
"No worries. I'm here pretty much all day anyways," replied the landlord, smiling.
He showed Sara up to the third floor. Surprisingly, the stairwells seemed generally clean and didn't smell of urine. Some of the apartment buildings she'd looked at earlier still had blood in the stairwells. They reached the third floor, and he directed her to the third door on the right, apartment 303.
"Here it is. Owner moved out a couple days ago. Should be clean and empty," the landlord assured her.
Sara raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised that the landlord hadn't checked the apartment before showing it to her. Luckily, there were no unpleasant surprises.
The apartment was empty, and relatively clean. The walls were painted a stark white, the hardwood floor was in good condition and there was a sliding door leading to a balcony. Sara stepped out onto it. The railing seemed secure, and the balcony was solid. She was already imagining what it would look like with a few plants and a comfortable chair to read in. She nodded, smiled and walked back into the apartment. She considered the size of the living room. It was just big enough for a television, a couch and a couple of bookcases. The apartment had one bedroom and one and a half bathrooms. The kitchen was small, but had more than enough storage space for one person. It was pretty much exactly what she was looking for and the rent was in the right price range.
"This place is perfect for me. I'll take it," Sara said.
"Great! When would you like to move in?" the landlord asked.
"As soon as possible," replied Sara.
XXX
Grissom looked up from his computer screen to see Sara standing in the doorway to his office.
" Hey Sara, I didn't expect you here so soon!"
"I found an apartment. My acquaintance in San Francisco assures me my belongings are packed up and ready to be shipped tomorrow. They should be here in two days, so I'll be moving in to my apartment then . I should be ready to start working in three days, Grissom," she told him.
"That's good news. Now…why are you here?" he asked.
"Uh…well, mostly because you called me three times in the past week, telling me you wanted me to work. I sort of got the impression that you needed my help," she replied.
"Oh…oh, right! I'll find something for you to do," he said.
Sara frowned.
"Why did you want me here so badly if you don't even have a case for me to work on?" Sara asked.
Grissom was spared from answering, because at that moment, a young man with brown hair and a strong build walked into his office. The man didn't notice Sara, as he was looking over some papers.
"Hey, Grissom, can I get a hand with something? I'm sort of swamped with evidence right now," he said.
"This is Nick Stokes. He transferred from Dallas two years ago," Grissom said.
"Hey, you must be Sara Sidle. I've heard a lot about you," Nick said, extending his hand.
Sara shot a sideways glance to Grissom.
"Uh, yeah, that's me. Nice to meet you, Nick," she replied, shaking his hand.
"Nick, brief Sara on your case. Get her to help you process the evidence. If you still need help, come see me," Grissom dictated.
"Will do; Come with me, I'll show you around, Sara," Nick replied, a broad grin lighting up his face.
Sara couldn't help but smile as well. He seemed like a genuinely friendly guy, and she found him kind of cute. His southern drawl definitely worked to his advantage.
"Sure. Where to?" she asked.
"Ballistics," he answered.
She followed him through the lab, taking in the harshly lit halls, the glass walls, the endless counters lined with microscopes, the huge backlit tables full of evidence. It was very different from what she had been used to at the San Francisco lab.
They reached a portion of the lab where Sara could see large tanks of water and a range set up with targets. A tall man with curly brown hair was standing in front of one of the targets, wearing eye and ear protection. He was testing a semi-automatic pistol. A red light indicated that the range was active and warned others not to enter.
"That's Bobby Dawson. Nice guy. A little territorial about his ballistics lab though, so make sure you don't mess things up when we go in." Nick said.
"I'll, uh…keep that in mind. Is that our weapon he's testing?" she asked.
"Yeah. Let's stick around, see if he can get us any information," Nick said.
His pager beeped. He checked it, sighed, and shook his head.
"Apparently Francis Crick wants us in his DNA lab," Nick informed Sara.
"Uh… Nick... sorry to disappoint you, but Francis Crick lives in San Diego, and he's retired,"
"Greg Sanders, our DNA analyst, likes to play games like that, come on, follow me," Nick said.
He led her to yet another lab, where a very young man with spiked hair with bleached tips was writing out the molecular structure of a fairly complex chemical compound on the glass wall.
"Hey Greg, what's up?" asked Nick.
Greg spun around, a wide grin on his face.
"Why hello there; I heard we had a new team member. I'm Greg Sanders," he said in introduction "What's your name, beautiful?"
Sara gave him a mocking smile and shook his outstretched hand.
"Down, boy. I'm Sara Sidle."
Nick cleared his throat.
"So, Greg, why'd you page me?" he asked.
"Oh, I just wanted to meet Sara. I should have your results in a few minutes though," he replied.
Nick rolled his eyes.
"Okay, well, page me whenever you've got the results. Sara, while we're here, why don't I show you the trace lab? It's right across the hall," he said.
"Sure. By the way, Mr. Crick, you're missing a carbon atom. Right there," she said, pointing to his drawing of the compound.
Greg studied it for a moment.
"I knew that. I did. I would've caught that," he said.
Nick and Sara chuckled, and he showed her to the trace lab.
XXX
Once they'd processed all the evidence and had come to a conclusion, they put together their report, and headed over to Grissom's office to present their findings.
When they reached his office, they were surprised to see that he wasn't alone. A pretty, slim woman with pin straight blonde hair was standing behind Grissom, looking over his shoulder at something on the computer. They were both smiling. Sara and Nick looked at each other, puzzled. Grissom looked up from the computer, and turned the monitor so that they could see what was on it. Then he pointed to the woman standing behind him.
"This is Terri Miller. She's one of the best forensic anthropologists in the country,"
"And Canada," added the woman.
"Oh, yes, of course," said Sara. "Your reputation precedes you."
Nick nodded in agreement.
"I've attended a couple of your lectures," he said.
Terri smiled politely, and turned her attention back to the computer screen.
"Dr. Grissom was in need of my expertise. We reconstructed a face, and we're just about to print out a photograph and see if we can identify the victim," she said.
Grissom looked up from the screen again, having realized that there was probably a reason why Sara and Nick were standing in his office at the moment.
"Right, so, how is your case going, Nick? Did Sara help you figure it out?" he asked.
"Yes, we got it. Case closed. We just came by to drop off the report," Nick replied.
He handed over the report; Grissom read it over and nodded.
"Great! Good job, you two. You can clock out early," he said.
"Thanks!" they answered in unison.
They walked out of the office. They were about to split up to go their own way, but Nick called out after Sara, and she stopped to listen to him.
"I was just, uh…wondering if you'd like to go have a few drinks. I know this place where the atmosphere is just great. Besides, I know you don't have a car, I could drop you off afterwards," he offered.
Sara was taken aback by his offer, but she was inclined to accept. Nick was good-looking, nice and pretty funny. Worse came to worse, she'd be having a couple of drinks with a friend.
"Sure. That sounds great, Nick," she answered.
XXX
"Are you already leaving, Terri?" Grissom asked, sounding slightly dejected.
"Not just yet. I leave tomorrow afternoon. Why? Did you need me for something else?"
"No, no, I was actually just wondering if you'd like to go to dinner with me," he replied.
Grissom hadn't dated much lately, but he found that Terri Miller was attractive, smart and very sharp-witted. He'd been thinking about asking her out to dinner for a little while now, and he'd finally worked up the courage to do it.
"That would be nice. Aren't you already seeing someone, though?" she asked.
The look of confusion on Grissom's face was so genuine that Terri couldn't help but chuckle.
"No, I'm not seeing anyone Terri. How did you get that impression?" he asked
"Well, it's just the way that you and your co-worker Catherine interact; you sometimes sound like a bickering married couple," Terri answered.
Grissom had to hold back his laughter.
"No, we're just co-workers. Now, about dinner, where would you like to go?" he asked.
"I think I know a place," she answered.
XXX
Nick dropped Sara off in front of her apartment building at around noon.
"I enjoyed myself, Sara," he told her.
"Yeah, I had fun too," she replied.
In all honesty, though, Sara thought of Nick more as a friend than as a romantic interest. He was nice and funny, but she just didn't really see this becoming anything other than a strong friendship.
"Sara, it's okay. I can tell I'm probably more interested in you than you are in me. You're not hard to read," he said
She blushed a little.
"You're a nice guy Nick—"
"—but maybe a little too nice? I get that a lot," he interrupted.
"It's not a bad thing, Nick," she said, winking.
He gave her a half-smile and she got out of the car. She thanked him for the lift and started walking away when he called out to her again.
"Are you going to need some help moving in tomorrow? It's my day off…"
Sara hesitated for a moment because she really didn't want to lead him on, but she found that it really seemed like a genuine offer from a friend. She finally relented.
"Yes, that would be greatly appreciated," she answered.
She told him at what time he could stop by and he drove off. Sara yawned and decided that she'd had enough excitement for one day.
XXX
Grissom parked at McCarran National Airport. He grabbed Terri Miller's luggage, helped her put it in a cart and accompanied her to the gate.
"Terri, I'm really sorry. Soda water should get that wine right out," Grissom said.
"Gil, it's fine, really. It happens," Terri said, shrugging her shoulders.
In a hurry to answer his cellphone, Grissom had knocked over his glass of red wine onto Terri's new dress. Not only had he ruined his date's outfit but he'd had to interrupt their date to go back to work. Terri had consequently decided to take an earlier flight out to Miami, where her next assignment awaited. She thanked Grissom for dinner, gave him a peck on the cheek, and disappeared through the gate, without looking back.
Grissom's cellphone rang. He sighed, and decided he'd better get back to work. He decided against calling Sara or Nick. Warrick would have to do for now.
Sometimes, Grissom really hated his job.