I've been in Texas for 4 days now and we've been running around having fun instead of writing. Bear with us while we drive Texas insane.

Also many thanks to Kakidoll for the beta. Wish you were here.

Even though we didn't get the 100 reviews we asked for, I was still going to get my pen name tattooed on me. The only thing is, is that I'm a really big genius and didn't realize that there is carbon in the black ink and my skin is wickedly sensitive to metals and basically everything else, so I was advised to never get a tattoo. So, if there are any suggestions…

Chapter 10

"What the fuck were you thinking?"

Everyone was taken back as Grissom approached Charlie.

"I'm sorry, I forgot." Charlie was backing up around the layout table as Grissom continued to stalk him.

Warrick, Nick, and Greg could only watch on as the scene unfolded before them.

Even as Charlie backed away, it was no use. Grissom's hands flew to the collar of his shirt and he was quickly shoved into the glass wall behind him.

"Be glad we're not in a tall building. I would throw your fairy ass out the window just to see if you could fly!"

"Calm down, I said I was sorry."

"Well, if you weren't too busy worrying about sneaking in your latest screw, then maybe Sara wouldn't have been taken by some freak that you've known about for the past few days and mentioned nothing to no one about! So, yeah, I'm a little pissed, if you can't tell."

"Hey, Griss, let's focus on finding Sara." Warrick put a calming hand on Grissom's shoulder and gave a short tug.

He let go of Charlie and walked out doing his best to keep his temper in check.

Nick sighed, "I'll take Greg and we'll print the window frame and check for any other evidence outside that window."

As Warrick nodded, Charlie just stood thinking it was his fault Sara was gone.

After Nick and Greg headed out, Warrick and Charlie continued to dig into Grant Andersen's past, hoping something would pop up to indicate where he had taken Sara.

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She'd fallen asleep a couple of times during their trip. Not something that she'd planned or wanted to do, but something Sara couldn't really help. The ketamine was still in her system and was having a continuing effect on her.

The first two times she'd woken up, the scenery around her still looked familiar. The third time she woke up, it was to Grant shaking her and nothing around them looked like any place that she knew of.

"Where- Grant, where are we?" she groaned.

Ignoring her question, he answered, "I figured you should wake up now or you'll never sleep tonight."

"How long did I sleep for? How long have we been driving?"

"Few hours." He shrugged. "There's a store a couple towns up from here. We'll need to stop there for a few things. Think you can behave?"

"I'll be fine in the car." She smiled.

"I'm sorry? In the car?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Yeah, that's not going to work, Sweetheart." He said with a shake of the head. "I take two steps from the car and you'd already be twenty yards away screaming something about Bigfoot, just to get the attention to say something about me. No way are you staying in the car alone."

She rolled her eyes at his statement and said nothing as they continued down the road.

True to his word, Grant had stopped at a store well into their voyage so they could do some shopping. Since he still wasn't too comfortable with leaving her by herself, regardless of how convincing she tried to be, he cut her remaining restraints and led her into the store with him.

Grant never said anything to her like you hear in the movies. No 'yell and I'll kill you' came from him. She figured it was probably something he assumed to be understood by her. And it was.

Sara held her tongue as they walked through the store, seeing an off duty cop buying paper towels and toothpaste. Grant had her push the cart, saying something about how it looked more proper to the crowd around them.

Sara had already gathered that Grant was more of a classic type of guy. The type of guy where the woman stays home to take care of the house and children, while he goes off to help the economy each day. Grant was the kind of guy where dinner is to be ready everyday when he returns to her and, if it is, he will handle everything else. Doors will be opened for her and chairs pulled out…all if she played her proper role for him.

Well, someone had better bust out Sara Sidle's trophy because she was determined to kick that acting job right in the ass.

"Grant?" she asked, as they turned down another aisle.

"Yeah, Sweetheart?"

"Where'd you say we were going?"

"I already told you. We're going to our new home." He smiled.

Holding back a gag at his sickly sweet grin, Sara said, "Well, yeah, but can I decorate or do I have to deal with plain walls?"

A little shocked at her sudden interest in something other than how to get the hell away from him, it took Grant a minute to answer. "Um…you um, you can paint if you want."

"Really? Well, I like greens. Are greens okay with you?"

"Uh, yeah. It's a cabin…in the woods. Not the biggest place, but its more than enough space for the two of us. You can decide what you'd like to do once you see it."

"Alright." She grinned knowing that Grant was easily duped by a sweet voice and smile. Acting was a heck of a lot easier than she'd thought it would be.

They continued through the store, grabbing things Grant said they would need because he hadn't had the time to stock the cabin before making his move on her. They turned down the isle containing feminine products and Sara just wanted to rip Grant's throat out and beat him with it. She didn't even have to grab anything, he did. Same brand she used and everything.

Freak.

Pushing down the serious urge to throw up, Sara smiled at him in thanks and followed him to the register. Helping to put things on the conveyor belt, Sara took note of the magazines and newspapers around her. Apparently, she'd slept a lot longer than Grant had let on because, according to the papers, they were in 'the best town just this side of the Oregon/Washington border.' Just where the hell was he taking her?

Back in his car, the one with temporary plates and tinted windows, Grant congratulated Sara on her first success in public. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, one that Sara thought was going to cause her skin to fall off, and began to tie her hands back together.

"Grant…don't you think that's unnecessary?" she tried.

"I'm sorry?"

"Well, I did behave in the store like I was supposed too. You have me in your car, Grant, and you'll be driving down the road. I don't really see me going anywhere, do you?"

"Sara, Sweetheart, I hope you forgive me for saying this, but I really don't know that I can fully trust you."

"And why is that? What have I done in our time together to make you think that I'm not trustworthy?"

"Well, constantly looking for ways to escape is a good start." He laughed and kept tying.

She tugged her hands away from him. "Grant, you listen to me. You may think I'm looking, but have I gone anywhere yet? No!"

"Sara, this is for my piece of mind. Stop it." He said with a heavy dose of indignation in his voice.

"Fine, tie me up and I'll just be in pain for the rest of the trip." She sighed, knowing full well that it would work.

"Y-you've been hurting this whole time and you never said anything? Why the hell not?!" he yelled.

Okay. Well, pissing him off wasn't part of the plan.

"The pain isn't that bad, it's more uncomfortable than anything. Don't worry about it. Just tie your little pet up and let's go already." She said, motioning to the road.

The look on his face let Sara know that she had hurt Grant when she said that. He stared at her for a moment, making Sara seriously wonder for a second if he was going to strike her, before he gave her a nod and took the restraints back off her.

He said nothing as they drove off.

Driving down the highway, Sara figured it was more dangerous than productive to turn in her seat and proceed with beating the holy shit out of Grant right then, so she kept her cool and continued to watch the signs.

"There you go again. Studying?" Grant asked with a chuckle a few minutes later.

"Excuse me?"

"You're watching all of the signs pretty intently. Know where we are?"

With a sigh, she answered, "You're either taking me to Silverton or to Gran-"

"Very good, Sweetheart." He cut in with praise.

"Silverton?" at his nod, she asked, "well, what's out there?"

"Home, nothing much other than that, really. It's secluded, but you'll like it. You're a woman that respects nature, and that's a good thing. Like I said, nothing really out there; just work and the cabin."

"Work? What do you do that you could just leave, go to Vegas and watch me for a couple weeks, snatch me up and just return like nothing happened?"

Grant started laughing. "Oh, Sara, that's good. I like that."

"What?"

"A couple weeks? You honestly think I've only been around you for a couple of weeks? No. No, no, that's all wrong. I've been trying to protect you from that man for a very long time now."

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Grissom continued to sit in the semi darkness of his office as he thumbed through his copy of Grant's files. The man had no priors, not even a fucking parking ticket. His brain continued to churn; how could a man with no criminal history suddenly kidnap a person? Then again, what triggers serial killers?

He opened his top desk drawer to retrieve a bottle of pain reliever, but it was under a picture of Sara. God how he wanted to see her, hold her. Statistically, he knew the odds were against him of finding her alive, but he didn't want to think of Sara as someone to give up so easily.

"Hey."

Grissom shut the drawer and looked up to Warrick.

"Nick didn't find anything more at Sara's. The prints were Grant's. He went to Grant's apartment with Brass to search the place for anything that might give us a clue as to where he'd taken her. We've dug as far as we can into his past." Warrick gave him a sympathetic look before leaving him with his thoughts.

Grissom sighed and looked down. Warrick was right. Nothing, they had nothing to go on. In other words, 'they were up shit creek without a paddle.'

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Figuring out that you have someone following you down the street- kinda weird.

Figuring out that you have someone following you home- hey…now, that's just not normal, what's up with that guy?

Figuring out that you have someone following you around while you are at work- seriously now, what the hell is that guy's major malfunction?

Figuring out that you officially have a stalker- what the hell is up with that, you royally whacked freak?

Figuring out that have officially had that stalker for way longer than you have ever realized, that the man has been watching you for God knows how long- that's just really not fucking cool at all, man!

Sara's mind was in complete overdrive now, and had been for the last half an hour. What did Grant mean by what he'd said?

'I've been trying to protect you from that man for a very long time now' obviously means he's been around her for a lot longer than she'd been paying attention, but for how long? A couple more weeks, a couple more months…years now?

Stalkers don't generally wait around that long before they do anything to the stalkee. If Grant had been around her, watching her, seeing all the pain that Grissom had caused her before, then why hadn't he done anything before now?

Why had she never noticed him before? He hadn't really tried to hide himself at the recent scenes. In fact, he was the most obvious thing about the entire scene they'd be at 90 percent of the time and that included the time the killer was still there…and had confessed…seven minutes into the interrogation.

It disgusted her. The thought of being watched already made her skin crawl, but now the thought of meltdowns, relationships, binges, nakedness, depression…everything everyone wishes to keep private, she thought had been kept private by her walls…well, the thought of that all being unknowingly shared with a complete sicko just pissed her off.

So where was he and for how long had he been there?

"How long?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Either ignoring or just not noticing the obvious anger rolling off of her, Grant answered, "How long for what, sweetheart?"

"How god damn long have you been watching me?"

"Oh. Oh, well…I don't really remember now. A while. A long while, actually. Couple years?" he ended with a shrug.

Sara stared at him in complete disbelief. He just let it all roll off his tongue like it was nothing to him.

And it was nothing to him.

Watching Sara, presumably going through her garbage, following her around…it was all normal to him and he saw nothing wrong with it.

"Grant, how can you be so calm about it all?! This isn't normal! You kidnapped me! You stole me!" she screamed.

"For one thing, the yelling…yeah, its not really helping. For another thing, you agreed to come. Sorry if you don't remember, I'll apologize again for that, but you did agree."

"Because you drugged me!"

"Why so caught up on the details? Just focus on the now, Sara. We're going somewhere where you and I can be happy together. Think about it, really think about it. There's no one like your Doctor Grissom to drive you into your drinking fits, no one like that Catherine woman to frump around like she's still a damn stripper. That woman really needs to make up her mind, by the way. Are we a stripper, are we a criminalist? I don't get it." he laughed, trying to lighten the mood…and failing. "Sara," he sighed and took her hand with one of his. "Look, I know that this is going to be a huge transition for you, the scenery, the people, everything is going to be odd, but it will be great. I promise you that."

"Grissom is a damn good man and Catherine never hurt anyone." was all that Sara said to Grant before she began to ignore him the rest of the way.

A few more hours later and Grant was driving down a shoddy gravel driveway that seemed to never end. Once it finally did, it ended at, as Grant had promised, a beautiful cabin completely surrounded by trees. She hadn't seen anything around them for quite a while before they'd turned onto the drive, so an escape would need to be planned to finest detail in order to get out without killing herself in the woods. She might love nature, but nature didn't love her back.

"Sara?" Grant called out.

"Hmm?"

"You were zoning out. Here's the key to the front. Get the door and I'll start getting the bags." He smiled.

A fake smile shot back to him and she obliged.

The cabin was great on the inside. Not the classic outdoorsman type, with giant heads on the wall of the latest kill, but much more like that of a regular home. She sighed, realizing that now he was expecting her to paint the damn walls and decorate like a good little Stepford wife, and moved throughout the home to inspect it further.

He was right; it was just right for them.

Ew, no. Bad thought.

It was just right for two people.

And they were two people. That's all.

Her attention was called to Grant as he stumbled into the cabin with arms full of bags from the store. She really couldn't help but laugh at him as he was carrying way more than one person should. Yeah, he was creepy, but you'd be laughing if you'd seen him too.

"Thanks, I'll go get the rest." He said as she took the last of the bags he had.

She said nothing, just nodded and began putting things away.

By the time things were finally put away in the kitchen by Sara, Grant had everything he'd packed for the two of them clothes-wise, put away in the bedroom. A decently horrific thought came to Sara, as it had never really crossed her mind before, that he was expecting them to share a bed.

She was to be sharing a bed with him.

With Grant.

Her stalker.

The guy that knows about her tampons.

Whee.

"You hungry?" he asked, cutting her from her thoughts.

"Not anymore." She snorted.

"Um, yeah…okay. Well, I am, so…"

Taking the hint, Sara offered to make him something and he gladly accepted. Unfortunately, not having seen any rat poison when she stocked the kitchen, Sara made Grant a sandwich and gave him some chips, telling him that she was too tired to cook any actual food that night.

Giving an understanding kiss to her forehead, Grant thanked her for the food and ate it happily. In his mind, though she had her moments of regress, he and Sara we getting along rather well. The moments were expected to happen and he was honestly surprised that they weren't happening more often than what they were.

"Well, Sweetheart, its kind of late." he said, as he finished with his food.

"Yeah." She answered quietly, taking his plate to the sink.

"Are you going to shower now or in the morning?"

"I think I'll wait till morning."

"Then I'll take one now. No sense in fighting over the hot water." He laughed.

She gave a slight smile though she felt a little sick to her stomach. She wanted to give the man no reason at all to touch her and if he knew she was feeling off, he'd be at her side in an instant.

They both went into the bedroom; Grant grabbed his clothes and headed off for the bathroom. Sara made sure he was in the shower before changing into her clothes as quickly as she could. She climbed into bed, covering herself all the way to her chin, and stayed as close to the edge as was possible without falling off of it.

Twenty or so minutes later, Grant made his way back into the room and threw his clothes into the hamper. He stopped at his side of the bed and smiled down at her. "How are you not hot under all those blankets?"

"I'm freezing." She lied. "I could even go for more blankets. Bigger, heavier blankets."

He climbed into bed and scooted next to her and, though she had nowhere to go, she tried to scoot more away from him.

"Sara, I'm not going to take advantage of you. I'm not that type of a guy."

"An all around good guy?"

"Yes."

"Stalk me, conspire to kill my boyfriend, drug me, tie me up, kidnap me, and drag me out to the middle of nowhere…but you won't fucking rape me in the middle of the night, so you're trustworthy now? Yeah, let's go with that." She snapped.

Grant sighed, "Sara, I don't know what its going to take to make you realize that I've done nothing but things that are to better your situation. Everything that I have done has been to help you."

"Grant, taking me from the people I love should hardly be seen as helpful. Please go over to your own side of our bed before I do something that I guarantee I won't regret."

Grant did as she asked and turned off the lights. In doing so, his small smile was hidden.

She'd called it their bed.

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It was boring- ungodly boring.

It was more boring than listening to Ecklie drone on and on about why it was his parking spot in front of the lab and no one else's.

She'd been laying in bed for well over three hours, wide-awake, listening to Grant sleep. She was studying him.

Mentally categorizing every noise and motion he made while he slept and while he dreamt. Taking note of it all when she'd move in the bed, whether the move be subtle or the move be like that of an elephant in an elevator.

She'd cleared her throat a couple times and he'd let out a snort. He'd be in sort of a half awake type state and she'd still up for long enough to allow him to get fully back to sleep.

Even though she had no clue where they were in Silverton, she at least knew that much. She also knew where Grant had placed the keys to the car.

He let out a good sized snore and she figured her moment was just right. She slid out of bed and out of the bedroom, being as quiet as possible. If Grant wasn't dead by the time Grissom got done with him, she'd have to ask where he got the rugs because they were excellent noise absorbers.

Making her way to the front door, she slid her shoes on and grabbed the keys off the hook, making sure to quiet their jangle.

Unlocking the handle, she tried to open the door but couldn't. Grant had a deadbolt set on it. She wasn't going anywhere…

…through the door.

Putting the keys in her pocket, she hurried to the nearest window. Surprisingly enough, there wasn't a lock set on it. She smiled to herself and began to raise it. When it only raised four inches up before sticking, she got pissed. He'd hammered nails into it so it would go any higher.

She sighed, as a tear ran down her face, and leaned her head against the glass.

"So, is this going to be an every night thing? If it is, I'd like to know. Get my sleep schedule wrapped around it, you know." Grant said, as he made his way into the room.

She slumped down to the floor, crying and said, "Why are you doing this? Why is it me? I never did anything to you, you son of a bitch!"

He mad his way over to her and knelt down, holding one hand out for her to take. "Name calling never really helped anybody. You ready for bed now?"

She nodded and told him she hated him as she took his hand and walked back to the bedroom.

Yeah, he's still really creepy.

Let us know how you feel about the creep factor (and your ideas) when you review. Reviews are important because they stop us from giving this story up.

Absit invidia (it will stop being confusing eventually)