Okay, I know everyone is waiting for GSR and Hank's ass kicking, but here is a little filler chapter. It gives some insight into Griffin's mysterious past, and maybe a taste of other characters that may or may not be introduced to this story.

CSICSICSICSICSICSI

Sara was startled from her dreams when a soft hand touched her shoulder and a quiet voice whispered gently, "Sara?"

Sara jumped slightly and sat up straighter in the front seat of Grissom's Mercedes. She had not meant to fall asleep. Sara looked around the darkened car, slightly disoriented before her eyes landed on Griffin's. Sara relaxed as she looked into those dark orbs and Griffin smiled and said, "Sorry, but we're home."

Sara looked out the window, and sure enough they were parked outside Griffin's town house. Sara released the catch on her safety belt as Griffin pulled into the double lock up garage and parked next to her black Jeep Wrangler. As soon as the car stopped Griffin also released her seat belt and got out the car, clicking the remote to close the garage door. Sara followed suit and watched as Griffin hauled a familiar duffel bag out the back seat and slung it over her shoulder.

"This way," said Griffin as she led Sara through the door and into the main house. It was the first time that Sara could actually take in her surroundings. Sara had already taken in the general layout, but now she looked more closely at the finer details. As Griffin walked into the kitchen, Sara was drawn to the bookshelf that took up the whole back wall.

The dark mahogany shelf was lined with such a wide variety of books that it made Sara's head spin. There was mostly fiction, but a lot of the collection was non-fiction. Books on medicine, forensics, mechanics, nuclear physics (Sara was quite impressed with that one as she had studied that at Harvard), law, and, surprisingly, religion.

Books weren't the only thing that dominated the shelf. There were rows upon rows of DVDs. Some of the movies dated back as early as the 1950s and some of them as recent as that year.

But what interested Sara the most were the framed pictures that dotted the shelf. The first one was of a very young Griffin (she could not have been older than fourteen) standing with a man and woman in their late thirties, early forties. The man was dressed in a black coat, jeans and a dress shirt and the woman in a soft lilac dress.

The man wore a smug smirk and his eyes seemed to say, "I know all your secrets, don't bother trying to hide them", whilst the woman, who had her arm around Griffin's shoulders, seemed genuinely happy. Her smile lit up her whole face. Griffin was also smiling, her arms wrapped around the man and the woman's waist, but the smile didn't seem to fully reach her dark eyes.

"The Lightman Group," said Griffin as she joined Sara by the shelf. "Dr Cal Lightman and Dr Gillian Foster."

Sara looked over at her then back at the picture.

"They took me in when I first arrived in America," explained Griffin. "Dr Lightman is what you could call…a human lie detector."

"A human lie detector?" asked Sara with a raised eyebrow.

Griffin chuckled and explained, "Dr Lightman has devoted his life to the science of reading faces. He studied for two decades trying to prove the universality of micro-expressions."

"Micro-expressions?"

"A micro-expression last about a fifth of a second. It's an automatic response your body has to emotions that you are feeling; scorn, disgust, shame, happiness, arousal. If you know how to read these, then it becomes easy to tell when people are bullshitting you."

"That sounds useful…" said Sara as she replaced the picture.

"It is," said Griffin as she folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at Sara.

Moving on to the next picture, Griffin seemed to be slightly older, not much, but enough that the soft roundness of childhood was starting to give way to the sharper curves and angles of womanhood. The next few pictures were obviously taken without Griffin knowing. The first one was of Griffin dressed in gym clothes, her hair was pulled back and her feet bare. She was sparring with another woman, also similarly dressed. The woman appeared to be Israeli and had her fist thrust towards Griffin's chest. Griffin's hands, though, were raised in mid-block, effectively stopping the assault.

"I had only been with the Lightman Group a year when I was recruited by NCIS," said Griffin as she continued with her story, "I wasn't an Agent, but I was training to become one. The Director theorized if NCIS could find young people who show a tremendous amount of potential, train them from a young age, then they could become a new breed of 'super agents'. I was the first one to be introduced to this program.

"Agent Ziva David was responsible for my hand to hand combat training," here Griffin referred to the picture Sara had been looking at.

"Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was responsible for my fire arms training," Griffin pointed to the next picture. Sara looked at the picture Griffin was gesturing to .This time Griffin was with another man. This man was handsome in that classic George Clooney way with startling blue eyes and greying black hair that was cut Marine style. He was dressed in a USMC sweater and faded Levi's. The man Griffin referred to as Gibbs was standing behind Griffin, one hand on her shoulder and his other hand resting lightly on the sniper rifle that was cradled expertly in Griffin's arms. They were both staring off to the left as Griffin peered through the periscope.

Griffin chuckled as she picked up the next picture and said, "I have Abby Schuito to thank for most of my forensic skills, Dr Ducky Mallard for my medical training and Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo for irritating the crap out of me the whole year and a half I was there."

Sara looked down at the photo to see Griffin laughing hysterically, sandwiched between a Goth girl in a lab coat, an elderly man in greenish blue scrubs and an attractive young man standing behind the three of them pulling the most ridiculous face Sara had ever seen. Sara couldn't help but laugh at the scene.

"Oh, wow," she said as she took the picture from Griffin and looked down at it.

"Fortunately, I wasn't the only one he annoyed," said Griffin as she picked up the second to last photo and showed Sara. In this picture Griffin stood in between two women. One was Ziva David, the Israeli from the other picture, and the other was an extremely attractive auburn haired woman with a sophisticated smile and a regal posture.

"Ziva and Special Agent Kate Todd were there to back me up," explained Griffin with a fond smile.

Sara wondered why Griffin had ever left, if she had felt so at home there with this team.

"It looks like you were pretty comfortable there," said Sara.

Griffin shrugged and said with only the tiniest hint of sadness, "We all have to move on eventually."

Sara put the photo back in its original place. As she pondered this reply her eyes grazed over the last photo. This photo was of Griffin and a young man dressed in a Marines uniform. The Marine had his arms wrapped around Griffin and Griffin was leaning her back into his chest as the he kissed her cheek. Sara picked it up and asked, "Who's this?"

There was a moment of hesitation from Griffin before she said, "Ace Keenan. My…boyfriend."

"He's in the Marines?"

Griffin nodded and said, "He's a Medic."

"Where's he based?" Sara asked.

"Iraq. Second tour. He's actually coming home for a few weeks next month," said Griffin.

From her tone, Sara could tell Griffin wasn't as happy as she most likely should have been about this.

"You must be excited to see him, right?" Sara asked.

Griffin shrugged and sighed, "Things are….complicated with Ace."

Sara waited to see if Griffin would elaborate, and at one point it seemed she would, but then she seemed to change her mind and said, "I've put fresh towels in your room along with your bag. Anything that you need toiletry wise you can find in the en-suite bathroom. Anything that you can't find, just let me know, I should have it lying around somewhere."

"Um, thanks," said Sara, half disappointed that Griffin didn't finish explaining about Ace. As Sara walked to her newly appointed room, she felt bad. Obviously there was something not quite right in Griffin's relationship with her boyfriend, something that was bothering her; and Sara wanted to be there for the young girl.

Sara truly liked Griffin. She admired Griffin's tenacity, intelligence, integrity and fierce loyalty. But more importantly, Sara felt a connection with Griffin that she had never felt with anyone else. Not even Grissom. The connection she felt with Griffin was so intense that Sara realised, if Griffin hurt, she hurt.

It was strange and unorthodox, Sara knew, to have these kinds of feelings for someone and for it to be completely unromantic. Yet that is how it was.

As Sara stood beneath the scalding spray of the shower and the water washed all the blood from her hair, she realised something. It had been a long time since she'd had a true friend…

Review?