A million possibilities had run through Grissom's mind when Griffin called. A million scenarios, each one a million times worse than the last. The Night Shift Supervisor had broken every traffic law in his haste to get to the PD, because there was something in Griffin's voice that sent a foreboding shiver down his spine. Something terrible had happened to his Sara.
Upon arriving, his eyes had frantically searched for Sara. Grissom's every fibre screamed at him to find her, take her in his arms and never ever let her go.
Finally, finally, Grissom saw her. Sara was standing with her back to him, her shoulder slightly hunched and her arms folded over her chest. At first Grissom breathed out a heavy sigh of relief; she seemed to be in one piece. But his heart stopped cold again when Griffin, who was standing facing Sara, flashed her impossibly dark eyes to Grissom.
Grissom watched as Sara's body stiffened and she slowly turned around. His heart began to pound and his breathing became laboured as his cerulean blue eyes met her chestnut brown ones. Grissom's eyes quickly scanned the bruises that marred Sara's beautiful face. His jaw clenched as he took in the dark bruise below her eye, the cut and the swelling on her upper lip. Grissom's eyes flashed to Sara's again. The wounds infuriated him, how could anyone willing hurt someone as kind and caring and passionate as Sara?
Sara's eyes seemed to beg Grissom to do what he himself was dying to do: take her in his arms and take away all her pain…
"Oh my God. Sara," came a whispered voice from beside Grissom, startling him. Grissom tore his eyes away from Sara's in time to see Nick stride forward and scoop Sara into his strong arms. For a moment, Grissom felt the pang of furious jealousy towards the handsome young Texan, because he could freely do what Grissom was aching to do. Hold Sara.
Sara had her arms wrapped around Nick's neck and her face buried in his shoulder; her feet barely touched the floor. A small breath of air tickled the side of Grissom's face and he inhaled the subtly sweet scent that was Catherine's perfume as she breezed past him followed closely by the tall, lanky frame of Warrick. They all gathered around Sara and took turns embracing her and whispering words of comfort and sympathy.
Grissom was still rooted to the spot a minute later when Griffin turned her dark eyes on him and raised one of her delicate eyebrows. Grissom cleared his throat and approached his team; he arrived just in time to hear Warrick ask Sara, "What the hell happened to you, Girl?"
"That's exactly what I want to know," said a gruff voice behind Grissom. The CSI team turned to see Captain Brass had joined them.
Everyone looked at Sara expectantly. Sara gazed back at them somewhat nervously and glanced back over her shoulder at Griffin. Griffin gave her a small encouraging smile and placed her hand on the small of Sara's back. Sara took a deep breath, nodded her head and closed her eyes. She slowly opened them and straightened her back. Grissom saw new steel light up her eyes.
Sara's eyes grazed Grissom's for a moment before she looked at Brass and said, "I would like to file charges against Hank Pettigrew for assault and battery."
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"Can I get you anything else, Sara?" Brass asked as he placed a cup of coffee on the table in front of Sara.
Sara tore her eyes away from the one way window on the wall and looked at Brass saying, "No thanks, Jim."
"Just try and relax, Sara," said Griffin softly from her place opposite Sara as she placed her hand over Sara's comfortingly.
Sara gave a shaky smile, but she found it difficult to relax, knowing that the rest if the team were behind the two way window in the observation booth.
"Just tell Captain Brass what you told me," encouraged Griffin.
"Whenever you're ready, Sara," said Brass.
Sara glanced once more at the window before she took a deep breath and recounted the events of the previous evening.
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To the outside world it would appear that Grissom was taking the recounting of Sara's abuse remarkably well. But to someone in the know, they would see that Grissom was about ready to tear Hank Pettigrew to shreds. And Grissom wasn't the only one. Warrick and Nick both struggled to contain their rage as Sara told Brass how Hank had punched her and kicked her. But Grissom, the same passive Grissom who hated wearing a gun on his hip, clenched his fists and tried to contain the red haze that was slowly clouding his vision.
"I can't believe that bastard did this to her," growled Nick.
"You and me both," snorted Warrick.
"When Sara showed up at my house," said Griffin after Sara had finished her account of the event. "She wasn't lucid. She had lost a lot of blood from her head wound and the cut on her arm, which I managed to stitch, but the one thing she was adamant about was that she wanted no doctors and no paramedics."
"Why didn't you call one in any way?" Brass asked in an irritated tone, "She obviously wasn't in her right mind; she needed medical help, why didn't you call 911?"
Griffin's dark eyes flashed and she said in a clipped, "Because, Captain, I suspected that Hank Pettigrew, her paramedic ex-boyfriend, had done this to her."
"And how did you know this?" asked Brass in a sarcastic tone.
"Hank and I had an….altercation at the lab yesterday," said Sara, quick to Griffin's defence, "Griffin intervened on my behalf."
"I was worried that if I took her to the hospital that Hank would hear about it and try to cause trouble," said Griffin, "I have medical training and managed bandage her up. I collected all the physical evidence I could, clothes, nail scrapings, fibres."
Griffin pulled out a plastic evidence bag with Sara's bloodied clothes and another bag with various swabs. She placed them on the table and continued, "I didn't conduct an SAE though. I thought Sara had been through enough without me invading her space like that. When she woke up she insisted that it wasn't necessary."
"It isn't," reiterated Sara.
"Still, you should get an SAE kit done, Sara," said Brass.
Sara's dark eyes flashed and she said in a hard tone as she held up her hand and showed the defensive bruising on her knuckles, "I didn't allow the bastard to get that far..."
"That's my girl," said Catherine with a proud smirk and Warrick and Nick both huffed a small chuckle.
"Catherine," said Grissom, addressing his team for the first time, "I want you to document all of Sara's wounds. Warrick, Nick, you go back to Sara's apartment and process it. I will stay here and run the fingernail scrapings and process her clothes."
"What about Griffin?" Nick asked.
"Griffin is going to take Sara to the hospital, along with a protective detail. Sara needs to get checked out," answered Grissom.
"Sara's not going to take that easily, Gil," Catherine pointed out.
"I know," said Grissom tiredly rubbing her neck, "But I'm sure between you and Griffin, you'll be able to convince her."
Catherine inhaled and was about to protest that trying to get Sara to do something she didn't want to was like trying to change the tides of the ocean, but one look from Grissom silenced the blonde.
"You're the boss," Catherine sighed as she exited the observation room.
"Glad you noticed," muttered Grissom.
"What about Pettigrew, boss?" Warrick asked.
"Yeah, Griss," said Nick as he folded his arms over his chest, "If this Hank guy gets wind of this he could be in the wind."
"That's my concern," said a gruff voice from behind Grissom. Grissom turned to see Brass standing behind him.
"I've already sent some uniforms to bring the asshole in for questioning," said Brass, "No one hurts my people and gets away with it."
The four men looked through the window into the interrogation room. Catherine and Griffin seemed to have convinced Sara to go to the hospital, because they were all standing and leaving the room. Sara looked none too happy, but she relaxed some when Griffin lightly brushed her hand against the small of Sara's back, ushering the older CSI out the door...
Wow, I know it's been forever since I last updated, but I hoped you enjoyed it. I know the pace is a little slow, but I want to get this right.
Review?