A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! We're really excited about this chapter, and can't wait to see what you think of it! Enjoy!

I don't own CSI. Some inspiration and dialogue are borrowed from episode 403, "Homebodies."

October 2015

"Okay," Grissom says, hanging up the phone, "Dr. Jennings says she can get Anna in next week for a test. She can only do the preliminary work, though; after that, she'll have to recommend her to a pediatric specialist."

"If it needs to go any further," Sara says.

"Right," Grissom agrees, running his hand through his hair distractedly.

"Gil," Sara says, grabbing both his hands in hers, "I need you to listen to me. There is no guarantee either way right now. Anna could have a hearing problem, but she could also be just fine. So, to assume too much either way is …"

"Irrational," he says, smiling. "I know."

"Just because I'm over being irrational doesn't mean you get to start," Sara says. "I'm on your team now. We're a support system for Anna, and for each other. We need to stick together on this, okay?"

"Okay." He leans down to kiss her. "It always goes better that way, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Sara agrees, kissing him again. "It does."

October 2003

"Hi, guys."

"Hey," Sara said as Grissom walked into the break room, where she and Nick were going over their notes from a case they had been working for over a week. "Where have you been all night?"

"Warrick and I have been working a homicide," Grissom replied. "A woman's mummified body was found in her closet."

"Wait, her own closet?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Grissom said. "A couple of genius kids heard that she had a fortune hidden in her house, but had been out of town for weeks … Long story short, they broke in hoping to rob her, but were caught by PD. When the uniforms searched the house, they found a chair holding a door closed and called us. Warrick and I found the body locked in the closet."

"Talk about skeletons in your closet," Nick said with a grin. Sara laughed.

"We think that the original crime was a home invasion. We think they locked her in the closet so they could rob her, but either forgot to let her out or assumed someone would find her. Unfortunately, she lived alone."

"How long was she in there?" Sara asked.

"We estimate a month."

"Wow." Sara's eyes were round. "Need any help? That sounds really interesting."

"Yeah, we can finish this later," Nick agreed.

"You can certainly finish that later," Grissom said. "But, Warrick and I have this. I need you to take a B and E in Henderson."

Sara and Nick glanced at each other and sighed. Grissom chuckled.

"It's not a punishment. Remember, every case is important."

"Sure," Nick said.

Grissom put the assignment slip down on the table between them. "Have fun."

"Oh, ha, ha," Sara said.

Nick winked at her. "Well, we can always play a car game on the way there."

All this way for a false alarm.

An unsupervised party, teenagers out of control and concerned neighbors all added up to a drive to Henderson to be met at the door by an agitated father who told them they weren't needed. As Sara walked back to their waiting SUV – Nick was busy teasing the uniform who had accompanied them about an upcoming softball game – she thought that it could have been so much worse. While the family had plenty of work to do to clean up after the party, at least no one had been hurt.

Sara sat down behind the wheel and reached up to adjust her rearview mirror. As she did, she caught sight of the daughter who had hosted the party sitting in her backseat. She gasped.

"I need to go to the hospital," the girl said. "Please."

Sara turned around in her seat. "What's wrong?"

"Please," the girl said again.

"What's your name?"

"Susanna."

"Susanna," she repeated. "I'm Sara."

"Yeah, whatever. Can you take me to the hospital or not?"

"Susanna, do your parents know you're here?"

"My parents don't want to know what happened to me. I just … I need an AIDS test and a morning after pill."

Sara suddenly felt cold. "Were you raped?"

Susanna refused to meet her eyes. "Look, it just … things got out of hand. Will you take me?"

"Yeah," Sara said. "Just let me tell my partner where I'm going, okay?"

She nodded.

Glancing at her one more time, Sara got out of the car. Nick was still laughing with the cop.

"Hey, Nick, do you mind if I take off now?"

"You can ride with me," the uniform said at once.

"Thanks, man. What's up, Sara?"

"I don't care what Mr. Kirkwood says, something bad happened in that house," she said. "His daughter is sitting in the back of our SUV, begging me to take her to the hospital."

Nick's eyes darkened with concern. "What happened to her?"

"I think she was raped."

"Oh, no."

"Yeah. So, not to be rude, but it would probably be better if you don't come with me to take her."

"No, you're right. She'll definitely need a woman's touch."

"Yeah," Sara agreed. "So, I'll see you back at the lab?"

"Yeah." He glanced back at the house. "I have a feeling we'll be back."

"Hi, Sara."

Sara stood up as Naomi, a nurse she had worked with on several cases, came toward her in the waiting area. "Hi. Is Susanna ready to go home?"

"She's getting dressed."

Sara nodded. "Is she all right?"

"She was raped," Naomi said quietly.

Sara sighed. "I had a feeling. She said something about a party … I thought maybe date rape …"

"I don't know," Naomi said slowly. "It seems rather violent for that." She handed over the SAE kit she had collected. "I'm sure this will tell you more."

"Thanks," Sara said.

Susanna came down the hall, looking anywhere but Sara's eyes.

"Ready to go home?" Sara asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"Okay. Thanks again, Naomi."

"You're welcome."

Nick was working on evidence from another case when Sara joined him at the lab.

"Hey," he said, looking up from the microscope. "How did it go at the hospital?"

"Susanna Kirkwood was raped," Sara said. "And, not 'I had too much to drink and don't really remember what happened at the party' or 'I was roofied' raped. She was violently physically and sexually assaulted."

Nick exhaled and ran his hand through his hair. "I'll call Brass. We'll get a warrant to search the house."

Nick and Sara split up to search the house. Sara was bagging the contents of the kitchen trashcan when Nick came down the stairs.

"Hey, Sara? I need you to take a look at something."

"Okay. Just let me finish this."

Nick nodded and waited while Sara completed her task. Once she had sealed and labeled her evidence, she followed him up the stairs to the master bedroom.

"I found this table right by the closet door," he said, pointing out a coffee table.

"Okay," Sara said.

"It's chipped. And, if you turn it like this …"

"It got chipped on the doorknob," Sara said. Her eyes widened. "Someone was locked in the closet."

Nick opened the door and shone his flashlight on the inside, illuminating the blood on the door. "And tried really hard to get out."

"You're thinking ...?" Sara prompted.

"I'm thinking the parents were locked in here while the girl was raped on the bed," Nick said. "I've already bagged the sheets."

Sara nodded. "Nick … locking the vic in the closet … Do you think our case could be related to Grissom's?"

"I think there's a very good chance of that," he replied. "We need to find him when we get back to the lab."

Sara and Nick were carrying in bags of evidence when Grissom found them.

"Hey," he said. "I heard your B and E turned out to be more than we thought."

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "The sixteen-year-old daughter was raped. We found evidence that's similar to your mummy case. We think they could be connected."

Grissom's eyebrows shot up. "What did you find?"

"Can we show you?"

He nodded. "I'll get Warrick. We'll meet you in the layout room."

Half an hour later, the four of them were staring at the crime scene photos they had spread out across the table in the layout room.

"I really think we're dealing with the same guys," Nick said. "It's just too strange to discover two cases with these similarities practically within minutes of each other."

"It is strange," Warrick agreed with a bit of skepticism in his voice.

Sara shook her head slightly. It was time to play devil's advocate. "So, how do we know we're dealing with the same suspect?" she asked.

"We don't," Warrick replied.

"Table against the closet door … chair shoved under the knob … It is the same MO," Nick said.

Grissom nodded.

"Any connections between the victims?" Sara asked.

"Well, both were left alive, we think," Grissom said. "I mean, the old lady's death was probably unintentional, and the girl's rape was …"

"Crime of opportunity?" Sara suggested, her stomach turning at the thought.

"You're out to rob somebody's house, why would you do it when they're home?" Warrick asked, changing the subject.

"The difference between burglary and home invasion: infliction of terror," Grissom said.

"Yeah, it would have been terrifying," Nick said, his eyes falling on the pictures of evidence that their trapped victims had attempted to claw their way out of their closet prisons. "Bad guys leave … the fear just stays behind."

"All right," Warrick said. "So, say you're right, and we are looking at the same suspects. How are we going to prove it?"

Sara looked back at the photos. She pulled one closer to her. "Is this … a piece of cake?"

"Yeah," Warrick said. "From what we can tell, our guy took a bite out of it, and left it on the old lady's counter."

"So, you have a bite impression from it?"

"It's setting up," Grissom replied.

"I have photos of a bite mark on Susanna's shoulder," Sara said. "We could compare them. If they match, we're dealing with the same guy."

"Okay," Grissom said. "I'll go finish with the cake. Sara, you isolate details from the bite marks. Nick, Warrick, start comparing the prints you lifted from the scenes."

"You've got it," Nick said.

"And, please, everyone keep everyone else updated. This is one time that we can't afford to forget to give each other every little detail."

Grissom came in with the bite impression as Sara was finishing her task of outlining each tooth in the bite mark on Susanna's shoulder. She shuddered slightly as she looked at the entire picture again for the first time since enlarging it. Thinking of individual tooth marks was easy; thinking of a hideous, painful bite on a teenager's shoulder was not.

Grissom sat down with Sara at the table in the layout room. She spread her work in front of them.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"Once I pulled details, I shrank it back down to a hundred percent," she said, putting her circle model over the photo of the bite to show him the details. "Here's the thing: it looks like the bite came from behind."

"Well, it was probably easier to subdue her in that position," Grissom said.

Sara fell silent, seeing in her mind Susanna being slammed down onto her parents' bed and bitten from behind. How could something so terrible happen to someone so young?

Grissom glanced at her, noting the look on her face. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Sara said in a tone that clearly screamed no.

Grissom chose to believe her words rather than her tone. It was easier that way.

He turned clinical again, putting Sara's detailed transparency over his photo of the cake. He described the alignment of the teeth. They had a match.

Nick and Warrick came in with the news that their partial prints had led to a suspect. Brass was bringing him in for questioning.

Their suspect's bite impression matched the cake and the bite on Susanna's shoulder. His DNA, however, did not match the semen taken from Susanna.

"He's working with a partner?" Sara asked, shaking her head.

"Well, a lot of criminals do," Grissom said.

"I thought we had this one," Sara said. "I thought we'd get justice for Susanna. I thought … we'd be able to make it better for her. To make some of the fear go away."

"We will," Grissom said. "We just need to find Steve Jansen's partner."

"He's not talking, is he?"

"Nope."

She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "We've got to do something, Griss! We can't let these guys get away with doing this to a teenager."

Grissom looked at her for a minute, surprised by the conviction in her voice. He hadn't seen Sara get this worked up over a victim in a long time. "We'll solve this, Sara. We'll find a way."

He didn't know why it happened, but it always did. Every time Sara got too emotionally involved with a victim, Grissom would caution her to keep her distance. He'd tell her not to get too close. Not to care so much.

Yet, even as he told her to back off, he'd push harder. He'd work longer hours, go to greater lengths, do whatever it took to find justice for those same victims.

He knew that what he was doing was obvious. Both Nick and Catherine had commented before that he worked harder to prove Sara's theories than anyone else's – including his own. But, even so, he couldn't make himself stop. He couldn't help it. Sara was hurting, and he had to find a way to make her better.

And, so, he found himself standing outside the Kirkwoods' house, ringing the doorbell. Susanna opened the door, looking at him with nervous apprehension. He could understand why.

"Hi," he said, holding out his ID for her to see. "My name is Gil Grissom; I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab."

"Susanna," Mr. Kirkwood said, appearing from inside the house behind her, "Susanna, I said I'd get it." He took her arm and directed her back into the house. He looked at Grissom. "What do you want?" he asked shortly. "I already told the police, I have nothing more to say."

"I think you do," Grissom said. "And, I need you to speak for someone who can't speak for herself – another victim."

"I don't care about another victim," Mr. Kirkwood said. He glanced over his shoulder; Susanna was hovering behind him, watching their conversation. "Susanna, please."

She disappeared into the house.

"Look, we know two men broke into your house. We have one suspect in custody, but we can't hold him unless you talk to us."

"I can't help you. I'm shutting the door now."

"Mr. Kirkwood, I've done all that I can," Grissom said, wondering if the man realized how much that confession cost him. "I need what you saw."

"Mr. Grissom, do you have a wife? Children?"

"No," Grissom said slowly.

"Then you can't possibly understand how I feel. All I am to you is a folder in a drawer."

"And, if I had a wife and children?"

"You wouldn't be here. I can't help you."

The door slammed in Grissom's face. He stared at it for a moment and sighed.

I've done all I can.

Grissom, Warrick, Nick and Sara were going over the possible suspects who could have been Steve's accomplice when Grissom received the page from Brass. His eyes widened as he read the short message.

"What's up?" Sara asked.

"Brass is putting together a line up," he said. "Susanna wants to ID her rapist."

Sara's eyes widened along with Grissom's. Nick's eyebrows shot up.

"Kelly James," Warrick said, looking at the pictures and notes on the board in front of them. "He's got to be our guy."

Grissom nodded. "I'll tell Brass to get him in the line up."

Grissom and Sara waited with Brass, the DA and the public defender as a uniform brought Susanna to them. She looked terrified as she joined them.

"Hey, Susanna," Sara greeted her.

Grissom looked at the terrified teenager, then at Sara. Understanding, Sara turned from him to Susanna.

"Um, why don't we go hang out until they're ready for us? Get a glass of water or something?"

Susanna nodded and allowed Sara to lead her to the waiting area. They sat down together.

"Do you want some water? Soda?"

Susanna shook her head.

"I'm really glad you decided to come in today," Sara said.

Susanna remained silent. Sara, too, fell silent. She had no idea what to say to comfort this girl.

"You want to hear something stupid?" Susanna asked.

"Sure," Sara said.

"My boyfriend and I have been talking about having sex for a couple of months. I always said no, because I was afraid my parents would find out."

If possible, Sara's heart broke even more for the girl sitting next to her. "You're not the only one to feel that way," she said. "I know I did."

"I guess it doesn't matter now, does it?"

Sara reached out and took her hand. "You're so strong, Susanna. You just need to keep being strong."

Susanna didn't say anything, but she held tightly to Sara's hand.

Brass walked into the waiting area. "We're ready."

Susanna refused to meet his eyes. "Can she come with me?"

"I already cleared it with the public defender."

Sara looked at Susanna and held her eyes as she nodded. "Are you ready?"

Susanna nodded. "Let's do this."

Brass led them to the line up observation room. He explained the process to Susanna while Sara stood behind her, offering silent support.

"Now, remember," he wound up, "you can see them, but they can't see you."

Susanna nodded. "He already knows it's me."

"Susanna, you can do this, I know you can," Sara said.

Susanna shook her head for a moment as she struggled internally. Finally, she nodded. "Okay."

Brass nodded to Sara, and they stepped back.

The line up began. Susanna stood still, shaking slightly as the first three men were called forward. It wasn't until the fourth man – Kelly James – was called that she reacted. She gasped and jumped back, shaking uncontrollably. Her hands clenched around the paper and pen Brass had given her to write down the number of the man who had attacked her.

She froze. She couldn't do it.

Tears spilled down her cheeks as she turned to Sara. "I want my dad," she said.

"Susanna –"

"I want my dad!"

"Okay," Sara said, holding out a placating hand. "Okay. We'll take you to him."

Once she was headed in the right direction, Susanna took off ahead of Sara and Brass. They followed behind and watched as her father took her into his arms. He led her away; Grissom, who had waited with him, looked at them.

"She froze up; she couldn't do it," Brass said in answer to his unasked question.

"Her reaction should be enough," Sara said.

Grissom looked at Brass. "What do you think?"

"Well, we've got enough to hold this Jansen kid, but, the other guy, unless she writes the number down, there's nothing we can do."

"So, that's it?" Sara asked. "We just let him go, and hope he doesn't do the same thing to some other teenager in some other house?"

"Sara …"

She shook her head in disgust. "What's the point of being in law enforcement if we can't enforce the law?"

Still shaking her head, she walked away.

The call came three days later. Susanna had been killed in her own driveway.

Because she had been shot during swing shift, they received the initial call. By the time Grissom arrived at the scene, the swing CSIs were already at work.

Sara was there, too, standing outside the tape, next to Susanna's parents. She stared at the girl's body, her mind swimming with the injustice, the horror of it. She felt Grissom's eyes on her, and looked up to meet his gaze.

The compassion in his eyes was more than she could bear. She picked up her kit, ducked under the tape, and, brushing past him, went back to her car. She climbed inside and sat in silence.

Her intention had been to collect herself and to go back to work. Instead, she felt tears gathering in her eyes. She didn't even try to fight it as they began spilling down her cheeks.

For the first time in a long time, Grissom found himself incapable of burying himself in his work. He spent his entire shift fighting to keep his focus on the evidence. It was difficult when he couldn't stop thinking about Sara.

Finally, finally, their shift ended. He heard her calling good night to Nick and Warrick as she walked out of the lab. She didn't pass his office; he had no idea how she was doing. Her tone gave away nothing of her emotions, and without seeing her, it was impossible to judge.

He spent only a moment in a state of indecision. If he were honest, he had made up his mind hours before. It was only a matter of following through.

He shoved his papers in his bag and pocketed his keys. It was time to leave.

He stood outside Sara's door for nearly a full minute before he knocked. It took her almost as long to answer.

"Grissom," she said in surprise. "What's going on? Do you need me at a scene?"

"No," he said. "I … I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Oh." She opened the door wider, inviting him in. "That's … sweet."

He smiled slightly as he stepped into her apartment. "Are you?" he asked.

"Am I what?"

"Are you okay?"

Sara looked at him, and saw the same compassion in his eyes that had been there at the crime scene – Susanna's crime scene. Once again, it was her undoing. Without warning, tears began to slide down her cheeks. Choking sobs followed a moment later, shaking her frame. Her hands shot up to cover her face.

Grissom had never been socially gifted. In situations such as these, he usually panicked. But, somehow, with Sara, he knew what to do. He closed the space between them and pulled her into a gentle, yet strong, embrace.

Sara slowly moved her hands from her face to his shoulders. She clung to him as she gradually stopped crying, giving in to the feel of his hands stroking her back and her hair, and the sound of the soothing words he whispered into her ear.

Feeling her tears end, Grissom pulled back enough to look at her, but kept his arms wrapped around her.

"Do you feel better?" he asked.

Sara nodded dumbly, unable to take her eyes from his.

Grissom looked into her face, noting the tear tracks on her cheeks. Unable to resist the temptation, he leaned forward and kissed first one cheek, then the other. Sara's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes fluttered closed; he placed gentle kisses on them, as if to kiss away her tears.

After a moment's hesitation, he leaned down to kiss her lips.

It was the softest kiss Sara could ever imagine, barely a whisper of his lips against hers. She wanted desperately to deepen it, yet was afraid to even try. It would break the spell of the moment, it would end everything that he had just begun, and it would be the end of their relationship – professional or otherwise.

Grissom slowly straightened up, but still kept his hands on her hips. He cleared his throat. "Sara, I'm sorry. I … I know it's inappropriate on so many levels, but I just … I really want to kiss you right now."

Sara smiled. "I think you just did."

He smiled and slowly shook his head. "I don't think that counts as a real kiss."

"Well … I'm fully willing to give you permission to give me that real kiss, if you'd like."

He smiled, but shook his head again. "No."

Disappointment flooded through Sara. "No?"

"When we have our first real kiss, I want it to be about us, not about comfort."

Sara's breath caught in her throat again. "You mean … You'd be willing to kiss me again? Another time?"

Grissom cleared his throat again. "I think we've got a lot to talk about. But, for now …" He moved his hand from her hip to take hers, gently squeezing it. "I'd just like for us to be together."

Sara smiled shyly. "I'd like that, too."

October 2015

Sara sits alone in the waiting room, flipping through an old issue of National Geographic without actually seeing it. She knows that they made the right decision. Dr. Jennings was adamant that only one parent could accompany Anna for her hearing tests. Sara knows that it only makes sense for Grissom to go. He has been through the tests before, and can explain things to Anna far better than she can. But, still …

She wants to be the one holding her little girl's hand. She wants to see the look in Grissom's eyes that shows he understands how she feels. She wants to hold his hand while they wait.

She hates to be alone.

"Sara?"

She looks up to see Grissom in the doorway. Anna is in his arms, clutching his neck. "Hey, guys."

"Dr. Jennings is ready to go over the results with us."

Sara gets up to join them. She rubs her hand over Anna's back. "How was it, sweetie?"

"I heard lots of beeps."

Sara smiles. "That's good … right?" She directs this last to her husband.

He shrugs. "We're about to find out."

Grissom and Sara are both nervous wrecks as they walk into Dr. Jennings' office, but she smiles at them. They sit down across her desk from her; Grissom arranges Anna in his lap. Sara reaches for Grissom's hand; he laces his fingers through hers.

"Well," she says, "I'm happy to report that Anna's hearing is just fine."

Grissom and Sara both release their breath in relieved sighs. They look at each other with beaming smiles.

"But, Sara's phone …?" Grissom asks.

"I had a college roommate who needed to have two alarms go off simultaneously to wake her," Dr. Jennings says. "Some people just require more effort and sound to wake up than others. How do you wake her for school in the morning?"

"I pick her up when I'm home," Sara says. She looked at Grissom.

"I shake her ankles."

"She's not used to waking up to sound; that might have something to do with it," Dr. Jennings says. "I'm not saying she's entirely out of the woods. We are talking about a hereditary condition; it could easily present later. But, the important thing is that you're being very vigilant with her. As long as you're watching and careful, I'm sure that, should she have any problems, we'll be able to save her hearing."

Sara turns to Grissom. "You were right to worry. I'm sorry for doubting you."

"Maybe, but I didn't need to treat it quite like I did. I'm sorry for overreacting."

Sara shook her head. "You were right, Griss."

"Well, you weren't wrong."

Dr. Jennings laughs. "If this is how you two apologize, I think your marriage must be very solid."

Grissom smiles into Sara's eyes and tightens his grip on her hand. "It is."

Sara smiles back at him. "Forever."