Disclaimer: It's a new year, and I still don't own CSI, or any of its characters. Everything else is mine.

A/n: First let me say that I am by no means a forensic expert, so forgive me if I get something slightly wrong, but after some research, and after watching the show for six and a half years, I think I got the forensic stuff in this right. Let me know if it sounds right to you. Also, I know this chapter seems short on info, but the next chapter should have more case info. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, you make my day. I want to thank all the folk over at the GSR board, if it weren't for you guys, I would never have thought of writing fanfiction, So Thank You.

Chapter 11


"Okay Dude, I want to see you do it." Nick was saying when Grissom walked into the break room. Looking around the room, he noticed Greg standing against the counter.

"Assuming you don't mean me, what do you want to see Greg do?" Grissom asked as he walked over to the mini fridge, tucked his clipboard under his arm, and took out a soda.

Nick smirked and nodded toward Greg. "Go on, tell him. Tell him of this great plan you've come up with." Nick crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, waiting. Greg's face flushed, and he shrugged.

Looking at Grissom he explained. "See, it's like this. Sara broke it off with Hank, what? Over three years ago, and as far as we can see, she hasn't been dating anyone since. Well, I think it's time she got back out there. My cousin just came into town, he's not as… suave as I am, but I think that he and Sara will hit it off. So I told Jason to meet me here for lunch, and I'm going to invite Sara to go with us. Than Nick here is going to conveniently call me away, so you know, they can get to know each other.

Grissom turned to the sink to rinse off the top of the soda can, thinking that he could go in several directions with his response. Slowly turning back around, he chose what he thought would be the most interesting route. "I think that's a good idea Greg. I'm sure that Sara will appreciate your thoughtfulness." He reached for a paper towel to dry off his can. "When are you going to ask her?"

"When are you going to ask whom what?" Catherine asked as she came into the break room. "For that matter, who's doing the asking?" She walked over and sat down at the table, looking at each of the three men.

"Greggo here is going to set Sara up with his cousin. Grissom seems to think it's a good idea, and was asking Greg when he was going to ask Sara to go with him and his cousin to lunch." Nick supplied. "What are your thoughts on the matter?"

She turned and addressed Grissom. "Well… Firstly, I'm kind of surprised that you Gil, would be for someone interfering in anyone's personal life." Turning back to Greg she said. "I, however; think it's a terrible idea." Greg tried to interrupt, but Catherine wouldn't let him. "Wait, now let me explain. Sara is an intensely private person. Who knows, she may already be seeing someone, I mean after what happened with Hank, she may not want to advertise any relationship that she may have, just in case it doesn't turn out well. Plus, I don't think that she'll appreciate you interfering in her life. But don't let my opinion stop you. I kind of want to find out what'll happen if you do it.

Grissom spoke up. "Well, whatever you do, it will have to be done later. We do actually have some crime scenes to work tonight. Warrick and Sara are still on that strip club homicide. Catherine, how are things going on that B&E?"

Catherine sighed and filled them in. "I'm still waiting on some fingerprint analysis, Mandy's been backed up. There really wasn't much to go on, the surveillance video didn't catch much of anything, you saw that for yourself Gil, to tell you the truth, I don't hold much hope of the fingerprints helping us. This case seems to be going nowhere fast."

Grissom dropped an assignment sheet in front of her. "You may get another chance. Another B&E, two streets away from the one you're working. Looks like the same MO." He nodded towards Greg. "Take Greg with you."

Catherine grabbed the assignment sheet and hopped up. "Come on. I want to get out there as soon as possible."

Greg hurried to catch up. "Wait, where are we going?"

Catherine called out as she headed out the door. "Summerlin."

Turning back to the only person left in the room Grissom continued. "Nick, you and I have a 419 out in Henderson. I'll meet you at the car in…" He looked at his watch. "Let's say twenty minutes. I've got something to do before we leave." Nick nodded.

"That's fine. I want to change into something a little more… shall we say, crime scene friendly." They each headed in separate directions. As Grissom headed down the hall, he pulled out his cell phone, and dialed. "Hey, meet me in my office in five minutes, sooner if you can get there." He hung up without waiting for a reply. Turning down the hallway to his office, he saw that she was already waiting inside, standing beside his desk. He walked in and closed the door, locking it. He'd taken to just leaving the blinds closed so that he wouldn't have to bother with them each time he wanted privacy. "You sure got here fast." He said, dropping his phone onto his desk.

"I was just stopping by to see you before I headed over to see Ronnie in QD. I thought I'd leave you a note." She said indicating the paper she'd been writing on. "What did you want to see me about?" He filled her in on Greg's plan.

"What do you think I should do? I know that Greg only means well, but as you well know, my social life is kind of full right now." She flopped down in a chair.

Teasing her, he answered. "Well, I guess that depends on how happy you are with your social life. I mean, are all your needs being met?"

Getting up, she walked over to him. Putting her arms around his neck, she leaned up and whispered in his ear, "Baby, I've got needs met, I didn't know I had." He encircled her waist with his arms.

Whispering back, he answered. "Well then, I think that you should accept the lunch invitation, or not. It's up to you."

Toying with the hair at his nape, she thought about it, than she remembered. "I couldn't go anyway; Warrick promised me lunch for making me come in so early. That should put off Greg, at least for now." Leaning back to look in his face, she asked. "Now, what are you doing today?"

Looking into her eyes, he almost got lost. "Hmm… Oh, uh… Nick and I have a 419 in Henderson. I don't know what time I'll get back."

'Well than, let me give you a little something to get you through the night." She leaned up and softly traced her tongue along his lips, than sucked his lower lip into her mouth. He took control, deepening the kiss, and for long minutes all they were aware of was the velvety stroke of their tongues, and the sweet taste of desire. Slowly she pulled away, and he slumped against the desk, catching his breath.

Clearing his throat, he managed. "Well, you should probably head on over to QD. I need a few minutes to compose myself before I meet Nick." Smiling she leaned into him and reached behind him and picked up her phone. "You do that." Than she headed over to the door.

Peeking through the blinds to make sure the coast was clear, she turned back to him before she opened the door, whispering. "See you later." She turned, opened the door, and was gone before he could come up with a reply.


Sara entered the Questioned Documents office a mere ten minutes later. She had cooled down during the walk over, and she was ready to tackle the case with vigor. Ronnie was standing by a table across the room. Walking up behind him, she leaned over to see what he was doing. Straightening, she stepped to his side. "Hey, Ronnie." Ronnie jumped, dropping the deck of cards he had been shuffling.

"Geez Sara, You ever hear of knocking?" He gathered up the scattered cards, and stashed them in a drawer under the counter. Taking a deep breath, he turned to her. "I was just practicing my shuffling; some of the guys are coming over tomorrow for our weekly poker game. It's my turn to deal. Now, I assume you're here to see if I was able to recover any of those phone numbers."

Smiling she nodded. "Did you get anything?"

"They don't call me the Ink Wizard for nothing." He smiled and pointed to the table across the lab.

"Who calls you the Ink Wizard?" Sara inquired as she walked over to the table.

Ronnie came up beside her and showed her the pages of the address book. "People… I know." He answered, blushing. "Anyway, luckily, when the numbers were crossed out, a permanent marker was used. This kept the underlying pen impressions intact. Using ESDA, I was able to bring the numbers up. I took the liberty of copying the numbers, so that you wouldn't have to do it. If you want, you can double check that they're correct."

"That's okay, I trust you." Picking up the papers with the copied numbers, she walked toward the door. "See you later… Ink Wizard." Smiling she walked down the hall, it was time to catch up with Warrick to see what he had found.


"So, Wendy was able to pull some DNA from those epithelials. There was no match in CODIS, but it's female DNA. Given the evidence, it's possible he was stabbed with some kind of nail file." Warrick leaned over and grabbed a french fry off of the styrofoam container in front of her. She slapped his hand.

"Hey! Just because you wolfed down your food, doesn't mean you can pilfer from me." Sara reproved. Sliding her food a little closer to her, she continued their conversation. "Sophia has the number that was written under Mae Riley's name in the address book. Hopefully, we'll be able to question her and her sister before the nights up."

Getting up to throw away his own container, he ran through his thoughts out loud. "If the killer was a woman, than we have what? Four suspects that we know of. The girlfriend, Janet Freely, the waitress, Sandy Temple, which would be a reason for her to run, and this excuse about being scared for her life could be a ruse, the ex-girlfriend, Mae Riley, or her sister Sally." He sat back down and leaned back in his chair.

Sara picked up a fry and idly ran it thought some ketchup. "That is if the murder weapon wasn't found at the scene, and taken with the killer. Women throw away nail files all the time, and the vic was killed behind a strip club. Plus, we can only legally get a DNA sample from Sandy Temple. There is no evidence, as of yet, that the other woman were anywhere around when the vic was killed." Watching Warrick eye her food, she pushed it over to him. She'd had enough anyway. "We also don't know who the man was that the vic had had sex with. Did we ever find out how long before death he'd had sex?'

"According to Wendy, less than an hour, so it's likely that the sex was with the man that he met with after Nelson. Ms. Temple did say that he had met with him on several occasions. But… she could be lying. Maybe she had had a relationship with him, and when she saw him with this guy she lost it. Of course, that would work for Ms. Freely also, though we have no evidence that either of them was in that alley." Warrick leaned forward and devoured the rest of her lunch. Sara watched him with a smile.

"Didn't you eat before you came in? If I remember correctly, the reason I had to come in so early was because you had an important breakfast with Tina." Sara watched him shift in his chair, finally getting up and depositing the container in the trash.

"Let's just say that eating wasn't on the agenda. Actually not much talking got done either. Tina got called into work early. I don't know, how can you work out you're problems, when you never have any time to talk them out, and THAT is the major problem?" He sat back down, and shook his head. "I don't know what to do."

Sara reached over and wrapped her hand around his. "'Rick, if you have love and trust, everything else can be worked out, you just have to give it time."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." He brought his other hand up and gave her hand a squeeze. "Anyway, getting back to the case, where do we go next?"

"First, we get a DNA sample from Sandy Temple. If nothing else, we'll be able to determine if the DNA found on the vic is hers." Drawing a note pad closer, she began to write. "Second, we question all the woman from the strip club, try and determine if any of them threw out a nail file, it would have to have been fairly recent, due to the freshness of the epithelials. We could also ask them if they would be willing to give us a DNA sample. It couldn't hurt to ask."

Warrick got up and started pacing. "You know, we could also ask Janet Freely for a sample…" He was interrupted by his phone. Checking the display, he saw that it was Sophia. Flipping it open, he sat back down at the table. Sara overheard him say "Hey Sophia", and wondered why she had called Warrick instead of her, as she had said she would.

Warrick flipped his phone closed, and looked at her. "That was Sophia, Mae and Sally Riley are coming in. She said she tried to call you, but Grissom answered." Frowning, Sara unclipped her phone from her belt, only to see that it wasn't her phone, but Grissom's.

"Huh, they must have gotten mixed up earlier." Thinking fast she improvised a reason. "He let me use his charger to charge my phone; he must have taken mine off, and put his on. When I went by his office, I just grabbed the one on the charger. You know, that reminds me of something." Getting up she headed toward the door. "Why don't you go and talk to the sisters, and I'll get back with you later. I'll also give Gris a call and let him know I have his phone." Not giving Warrick a chance to answer, she exited the room.

Warrick looked after her. He'd run into Nick earlier, and he'd told him of Greg's plan to set Sara up with his cousin. He'd thought it was a crazy idea, but watching her now, he thought that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Sighing, he headed off to continue this long night.


TBC...