Chapter 13

It was a nice sleep, despite the aches and the stiffness, and the inability to rotate her neck once she woke up. Still, she'd fallen asleep for the second night in a row to Grissom's warm breath on the back of her neck.

She was awake before him, so she took the opportunity to lie there and savour the feel of Grissom's body wrapped around hers. She wanted to turn and watch him, to witness how the light hit his sleeping form in the morning, to see how his eyes fluttered upon waking. She was too sore though. Trying to move made her wince and as she stiffened, Grissom's hold reflexively tightened on her. Relaxing against his chest, she decided to be content with that feeling and leave the witnessing of how Grissom looked when he awoke to later. It was something she could finally hope to look forward.

After some time, Grissom stirred behind her. She sat up carefully, exiting the back of the Denali, and prepared herself for the day, first dressing in the office and then, starting a pot of coffee. She let Grissom do the same, tidying up the back of the Denali while he took his turn in the office. When she moved back inside, Grissom was on the phone.

He held his hand over the receiver. "Catherine," he whispered.

Sara nodded. She waited for him to hang up and handed him a cup of coffee. "What's up?"

"We've got an ID on our victim. His name is Dale Jensen, seventeen, from Daggett. Catherine said Brass relayed it to the police in Barstow to interview the last people to see the victim alive. They'll be getting statements today."

"Any word on any of our evidence?"

"Some of the prints retrieved are a match to our victim. Partials were found on the broken glass and we got a clean one from the rim of the hatch. There are still a number of prints to account for, unknown, but Mandy was able to determine that some of those prints belonged to at least three other people. She grouped them by person. DNA results are also in off the bottle. There are three contributors, one of them being our vic. The other two contributors came back unknown, but both belong to males."

Sara nodded. "Good. Even if we're stuck, at least we are still getting somewhere."

Grissom sighed. "That's about all we are going to get for awhile. We need that road to open."

Cradling her hot coffee in both hands, Sara took another sip and nodded again over her mug. "So how about we head on down there, bring Officer Henley his morning mug and go watch the progress? Maybe we'll be able to get out of here soon."

Smiling, Grissom gave her a soft nod. "Alright."

They finished off the remainder of fruit they had brought and sipped the last of their coffee. After filling a travel mug for Officer Henley, they headed down the road.

Officer Henley greeted them with a bright smile that belayed none of his fatigue over spending the past couple nights watching over the lonely stretch of road by the washout. "Hey-ya, progress is moving along steadily. Sheriff made some calls and made highways get off to an early start this morning. Said if they didn't get the road filled today, he'd have to airlift in food for everyone and they would get the bill. Sure lit something up under them. Got the crews out before the sun."

Sara chuckled. She handed Officer Henley his coffee and settled next to Grissom, leaning against the hood of the Denali.

Officer Henley stood with them, making small talk as he sipped on his coffee. When he finished, he offered them a polite thank you and headed back over to his patrol car. Sara stood silently, watching the work being done while revelling in the warmth of Grissom's arm against hers.

Grissom placed his hand over hers, causing her to glance up. He stared out over the road crews on the other side of the washout. "I never thought that if I had idle time in this area, I would spend it staring out at a road washout."

"What did you imagine spending your time out here doing?"

Grissom shrugged. "Exploring the landscape. There are some pretty interesting places out here, Echo Canyon, Cathedral Gorge, Ash Spring… You know, Zane Grey used this area in quite a few of his novels. Caliente was one of his favorite writing spots."

Sara smirked. "Is that so?"

He nodded. His fingers curled over her hand. Sara leaned into him slightly, trying to be discreet but unable to resist the temptation altogether. "It would be a great area to hike around, but being workaholics doesn't leave much time, does it?"

Grissom shook his head. "I've always let external things dictate my priorities, work being the primary one."

Sara nodded.

"I don't really want to do that anymore."

Sara glanced back at him, her eyes holding a steady gaze on his profile. He turned and looked at her. "What do you think about coming back to this area for a couple days when we get a shared night off?" he asked, his voice sounding so vulnerable.

Sara turned her hand over and gave his a gentle squeeze. "I think I'd like that."

Grissom smiled softly. "Yeah?"

"As long as we don't come when the weather could cause a flash flood and road washout."

"I think we can manage to avoid that."

"Then, yeah, I'd love to come back here with you."

Several hours later, Officer Henley strolled back over to them and announced that they were about to open the road to them and he was just waiting on the word. Sara and Grissom strolled over to his patrol car and waited with him. A large highway truck drove over the gravel and parked on their side. The truck was followed by a patrol car that Officer Henley said was on the way out to the truck-load silo to take over watch there now that the road was close to reopening for traffic. The patrol car stopped by Officer Henley's unit and the older officer introduced himself to Grissom and Sara before heading out to the silo. Meanwhile, two flaggers got out of the highway truck and began setting out construction signs. One of the two flaggers walked over to the patrol car. "Alright, you folks are good to go."

Officer Henley nodded. He reached into his unit and grabbed his radio, confirming that he could be relieved from his post. With the okay, Sara watched him climb into his patrol car. "Finally get to go home."

"Yeah," he said, his relief coming out with the word.

"Enjoy your rest and your time with your family."

"Yeah, you have a good rest too. It was great to meet you, Sara. You too, Mr. Grissom."

Grissom nodded and led Sara back over to their Denali. "Let's take this evidence into Caliente, drop it off at the Sheriff's substation for transport back to Vegas and then find a diner and grab a good meal."

"That sounds like the perfect idea right about now."

They climbed into the Denali and followed Officer Henley's car over the gravel patch in the road. The Denali dipped down onto the gravel, wheels kicking up rocks and dust and climbing back over the ridge that led again to pavement. They winded their way back to Caliente, reaching the town in the late afternoon. "Civilization," Sara sighed, "or something close to it."

Grissom smirked. "You are sounding a little like Catherine."

Sara swatted his arm. "Hey, after two nights with no shower, sleeping cramped up in the back of the Denali and eating rations, I'm entitled to get excited at the sight of a town."

Grissom's eyes softened. "Yes, I guess you are." He cleared his throat. "We can try be quick at the substation so that we can go eat."

Sara nodded. Grissom pulled into the Sheriff's substation and immediately began the paperwork for transferring evidence. A young patrolman, just getting on duty, took over chain of custody and loaded up the evidence into his unit for immediate transport to Vegas. Grissom and Sara watched him leave and then headed for the town's only diner.

There was no such thing as a veggie burger and no matter what the fare, the vegetable portion was almost non-existent, but as Sara dug into her grilled cheese sandwich and fries, she wasn't sure when she'd had a more satisfying meal.

Across from her, Grissom was nibbling away on his club sandwich and fries and, watching her with amusement as she scarfed down her food. Afterwards, they both ordered some homemade apple pie and discovered where the real treat lie. Sara didn't quite finish hers before her stomach started to ache from eating so much after having so little over the past couple of days. The pie was too good to waste though, so she took the rest of hers to go, to be finished in the morning.

The two criminalists strolled back to their motel and checked into their rooms after apologizing to the clerk about the delay in their arrival. The Sheriff had already explained the situation to the motel and had made sure that the motel held their rooms for them for the next couple of days.

Once she got to her room, Sara immediately headed for the shower. What she really wanted to do was soak in a hot bath all night, but feeling like the sink washing of her hair the night before was not nearly sufficient enough, washing her hair was priority and she didn't want to wash out any remaining cement powder only to soak in it afterwards. After triple washing it and working in double the conditioner she normally would, she finally felt like her hair was clean. She rinsed out the bathtub and immediately filled it with hot water, so she could attempt to soak away some of the stiffness in her muscles.

When the water started to cool, Sara stepped out of the tub. Her hands bore deep wrinkles from being in the water too long, but her muscles felt slightly more relaxed, though the aches had not disappeared, only diminished slightly. Towelling off, Sara put on her last clean pair of cloths and laid down on the double bed.

Keeping her body flat and free of movement, she stared up at the ceiling. She knew she should find somewhere to do her laundry as most of it was covered in a film of cement dust, but she was still too sore and too tired to contemplate moving yet. Instead, she lay still, trying to avoid the aches she'd developed from processing beneath the railcar and sleeping in the cramped up back of the Denali. A soft knock on her door had her gingerly rising from the bed and opening the door to allow Grissom entrance. "Hey Griss," she greeted warmly, taking in his clean figure. He looked and smelled as though he too had just stepped out of the bath. His damp hair curled atop his head and he had on a clean set of clothes.

"Hey, I know you probably just want to lie flat for the next several hours, but I had a thought."

She arched a brow. "Yeah?"

Grissom took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I promised you a massage."

Sara grinned. "Come on in," she said.

Sara watched as Grissom squeezed by her and sat awkwardly on the bed. She closed the motel room door and moved over to him, sitting next to him. Grissom shifted his legs so that Sara sat between them. His hands found her shoulders and began to massage gently.

Sara relaxed into his hands, or at least she attempted too. There were too many knots and whenever Grissom's hands began to work on them, she winced.

"I'm hurting you." He withdrew his hands.

Sara shook her head. "No, it's okay. They are just tight. My bath loosened them, but…"

Grissom nodded behind her. His fingers worked lightly over her back. "I thought about taking you to some of the natural springs around here tonight to see if that could help, but I thought you were probably too tired to want to go anywhere."

Sara closed her eyes and nodded. She was too tired. The hot water from the bath and the disrupted sleeps of the past couple nights had her nearly out before Grissom knocked. Besides, she knew the hot springs were on another road, on the way out to one of the canyons and she wasn't sure she wanted to chance heading out into the middle of nowhere again after just having got back into town. "It was a nice thought, but you were right. I am too tired for that. I'd probably have fallen asleep in the springs."

Grissom withdrew his hands again. "Am I keeping you up?"

Sara turned sideways and looked at him. "No…no. This is nice. I needed this and if I remember our deal, I owe you a massage in return."

Grissom smiled. His index finger turned her head back around and his hands returned to her shoulders, tenderly moving towards her neck. "You need a real one of these when you get back to Vegas."

She turned her head to glance at him. "Massage?"

Grissom nodded.

Sara looked forward again. She closed her eyes and let her head fall forward. "I'll settle for this right now." Grissom continued to work on her, stilling every time she winced before returning to her muscles. When he started to slow, Sara figured he was either getting tired of massaging her or his hands were getting sore. She twisted out of his hands and crawled around behind him. "Your turn," she whispered, bringing her hands up to her shoulders and revelling in the opportunity to feel him under her hands.

His massage never lasted near as long. A few minutes after she began, Grissom stood up, turning to her. "I should go. We should try to get a good night's sleep."

Sara bit her lip and nodded. Grissom glanced at the door and then looked back at her. So quick she could barely process it, his lips swooped in and pecked hers lightly. "Goodnight, Sara."

Sara blinked. "Goodnight." She watched Grissom leave and then lay down on her bed, resuming her study of the ceiling. She was dead tired, but couldn't sleep. Her mind was too busy processing the past few days and she missed Grissom's warmth. After a half hour, she decided she'd memorized enough of the ceiling and crawled under her covers. Fluffing her pillow, Sara tried to get comfortable. Just as she closed her eyes, there was another soft knock on her door.

Grissom stood in the doorway again. He looked slightly hesitant, shifting on his feet before her. "I couldn't sleep," he said.

Sara nodded. She let him in and watched as he lay on the bed opposite hers. Crawling in her own bed, Sara faced him. They began to make small talk and then moved onto the case again, outlining the plan for the next day. They talked until Sara felt herself yawn and her eyes drift shut.

"Griss?"

"Yeah?" he whispered in response.

"I really need to do a load of laundry. All my clothes have a layer of cement dust on them."

"Mine too. We'll quickly do a load tomorrow morning."

Sara nodded softly, though she doubted that Grissom saw it. Opening her eyes to check, she noticed him on top of the covers, nearly asleep as well. Slipping out of her bed, she approached the other bed and tugged the covers from beneath him so that she could tuck him in. Just as she was about to smooth the blankets over him, he lifted the covers in invitation. Smiling, Sara slipped in next to him and cocooned herself in his warmth. His lips pressing softly to her forehead was the last thing she remembered before slipping off into sleep.