Chapter 13: Spread His Shining Claws...
Warnings n Disclaimer in chapter 1
"how doth the little crocodile
improve his shining tail
And pour the water of the Nile
on every golden scale
How cheerfully he seems to grin
and spread his shining claws
And welcomes little fishes in
with gently smiling jaws..."
"How doth the little crocodile..." by Lewis Carroll.
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"Sar-rah. Sar-rah" She was walking in a dark place. What was this dark place, and why was it dark?
"hello? Can you help me?"
"Sar-rah. Sar-rah." she heard it again. "please-who's there?"
"Sar, it's me!" Nicky emerged from the gloom. "It's me!"
His happiness and excitement were contagious, but Sara felt a sense of unease in her stomach. "Nicky, is anybody else here ?"
"Of course, you silly little fishie! You asked us to come!" He gestured to the group of people now standing behind him. "You made us come here!"
"Nicky? Some thing's wrong..."
"Princess, its only wrong if you make it that way." Nicky's voice was high pitched and excitable "what do we play today?"
"NICKY WATCH OUT!" a shadow ran forward, and slit Nicky's throat. The shadow laughed, then moved back into the crowd of people.
"Oh my god, Nick! Somebody do something!"
"Why Sara? What's wrong?" Nicks head jolted around on his neck, then fell off. Sara screamed, but the head had no blood pool. The alligators came for the body, and tore it up with their huge, great jaws.
"oh dear! What do we do now my little fishie?" Grissom was standing beside Greg with a gun. No it wasn't Grissom. It wasn't. Was it?
"Griss?" He shot greg in the stomach. Greg. Her substitute brother, making her laugh with all the dopey things he said to he, and making her feel happy when she was down...that greg.
"NO! GREG!" It was Jayden now, he was slicing Grissoms skin like it was a piece of ham. Sara tried to go to Griss, but she couldn't, Pop's was holding her arms behind her back. "no!No! Let me go!" he pushed her and she fell into her apartment's open door. She looked at the CSI's photographing the bedsheets, and the living room carpet. She could hear them- "there was...there was...what looked an awful lot like semen on both the bathroom and bedroom floor"... "I mean a lot of blood. And uh- Sara's robe was on the living room floor. Covered in blood, I mean."..."So what I'm seeing is...she opens the door to whoever it is... he gets inside somehow, and he attacks her in the living room...she goes for the bookcase...maybe a weapon?"..."a lot of semen in the hall leading to the victims room, which most likely wouldn't have been there if it was consensual. We also found trip wire with our vics epithelial and blood on it."..."I think he strangled the victim before, after, or even during the rape..."-
Sara ran to them. "no I'm fine, I'm okay."
"...trip wire, with our vics epithelial's..."
"No cath it's me! I'm here! I'm not a vic! Look at me, I'm fine!"
As she said this, the alligator burst from the closet, and grabbed her. "C'mon Princess." teeth were shining at her.
"NOOOOOOOO! GRISSOM! HELP!"
He turned to her, alyssa's rotting skull peering at her from his shoulders. "And what do you want me to do? You killed me, you whore."
"NO! ALYSSA I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO! PLEASE!"
Alyssa was shaking Sara's body now, fingers digging into her thin shoulders.
"honey wake up! Sara!"
"PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEEEE!"
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When Grissom first heard the groaning and mumbling in the guest room, he figured Sara must be having a dream, and he let her sleep. However, when the moans turned to frightened whimpers, then to screams, he had rushed through to wake her up. He ran into the spare room, only to hear Sara screaming and apologising to Alyssa, and begging not to be killed. He shook her gently at first, but the screaming only increased in volume, so he shook her harder.
"honey wake up! Sara!"
"PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEEE!"
"Sara, wake up!"
Her eyes snapped open. "Grissom?"
"It was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare."
"I'm fine...I...it was- it was nothing."
"Sara, I thin-"
"No! I'm fine, honestly."
"okay. You're fine." He stood up, ready to leave the room "No! Griss! Stay!"
He turned slowly to face her. "Sorry?"
"Stay with me. I hate...I hate being alone..."
Grissom didn't need her to ask twice, as she gazed at him.
"Fine. Move over."
She shifted over in the bed, as he sat on the side and kicked his shoes off. He then swung his legs up onto the bed, and lie stiffly atop the covers.
He looked at Sara, who currently had her eyes almost shut, and was moving her head about on the pillow. She yawned, then seemed to fall immediately asleep. Grissom could feel his eyes shutting too, he was exhausted after getting very little sleep when Sara was in hospital. I'm just shutting my eyes. I'm not going to sleep. Just shutting my eyes.
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Three hours later, Grissom had to face the facts. He had indeed, shut his eyes, but he had also fallen into a deep sleep. Oops. He could feel a warm weight slung across his legs. Cracking open an eye, he was temporarily blinded by the apple-scented curly hair obscuring his eyes. Brushing it out of the way, he discovered that the warm weight currently resting on his legs, was the very warm, very female Sara Sidle. What appeared to be a semi-naked Sara Sidle. What the hell? He realised he was cradling the back of her head with one hand and her backside with the other, effectively making it impossible for her to move away from him...but she was lying atop of the hand that was absent-mindedly stroking the side of her underwear. So, not fully semi-naked then. And Grissom could now answer the question that Greg Sanders had asked about Sara when he first started out as a lab rat. "leather or lace?" The answer was definitely lace, but Greg would have heart failure on finding out just how his boss came by that information...
Sara snuggled closer into the warm body that was currently making her feel so safe and protected. Wait- a warm BODY? Her heart pounding, she flung herself away from the 'body', and promptly fell from the side of the bed.
"Sara?"
"Jesus, Griss. I think I just had heart failure."
"I think you'll live." he chuckled at her red face as he looked at her sitting on the middle of the thickly carpeted floor. As she stood up, his attention was caught by her long, slim legs. Oh, shit. Good thing he was wearing relatively baggy trousers...
Sara flushed an even deeper red, when she realized she was standing in front of her supervisor in only her knickers. "um-sorry-I'll-I'll just-yeah-uh..." she tailed of as she scrambled around looking for her jeans.
The sight of Sara sticking her butt in the air, looking for her jeans, all the while wearing lace underwear, nearly gave Griss a heart attack. "yeah-uh-I'll go make-some-uh-coffee."
He excused himself, edging out the room in a crablike manner. Sara didn't notice though, she was too busy hunting for her jeans.
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After Grissom left the room, and she had found her jeans, Sara headed straight for the bathroom. She needed a shower. God, she felt rough.
To Sara, the shower was one place that her problems melted away. The sound of water, christ, there was nothing like it to her. Other people may worship at the altar of Fallout boy, amusing sitcoms, or chocolate ice-cream, but when Sara felt like shit, the only thing that really and truly worked, was a shower. Feeling the hot water cascade over her head, she titled the apple-secented hair shampoo into her hand, and shmooshed it through her hair. Smiling, Sara wanted to make the ridiculous fake-orgasm sounds the women in the Herbal Essences advert made. Yep, give Griss a coronary, she could imagine at the scene:
Enter her (dressed in towel) Oh my heavens! Gil!
Investigator: Ma'am at any point in the evening did Mr Grissom seem unwell to you?
Her: Oh, no officer. Only when I wound my naked legs around his torso, then showed him my underwear, then made orgasm sounds in the shower, did he seem slightly unwell...
Investigator (getting heart palpitations): Orgasms in the shower?...
Her: Yes, I was pretending I was on t.v...
Sara smirked to herself again, as she clambered from the shower, and wound herself in a rather fluffy towel. Woah. Back-up. Gil Grissom had fluffy towels? Well, you learnt a new thing every day...
She walked into he room towel-clad, and started to blow-dry her hair...
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Grissom heard the buzz of a hairdryer coming from Sara's room, as he prepared breakfast for them, or rather dinner. Well, early 5:30pm dinner. And it was certainly more than coffee. Doctor Ernie had told him the importance of getting Sara's weight up, and Grissom had taken it upon himself to make sure she gained at least 10 lbs through the next two months. He had already decided she would stay with him that duration, not a moment less. For one thing- well, he was worried for her safety, and for another- well, hell, he just liked her being there...she made his sterile, empty home seem a bit less sterile, a bit less empty...
"woah-Griss." Sara stepped into the kitchen, a look of surprise plastered across her face as she saw all the food he had laid out on the table. "I know they said to fatten me up, but this is kinda ridiculous..."
Two bowls of salad, three of fruit, a plate with bagels, croissants and other breads on it, and a small plate of hard-boiled eggs cut in two, with mayonnaise for dipping. Grissom couldn't expect her to eat it all!
Five minutes into their meal, he noticed that Sara had hoovered up her food. "Hungry much?" he teased her, loving how sparkly her eyes were when she laughed.
"Urgh, you have no idea how disgusting hospital veggie options are." she told him. "when I asked for an orange for breakfast, the nurse brought me a revolting floury apple, which, coincidentally, looked nothing like an orange."
She sat back in her seat. "Omigod, I've put on like twenty pounds from all that food!" Grissom smirked at this blatant exaggeration; sure her stomach was slightly more rounded, but he could still see her hip-bones poking out from under the tank-top she wore.
"Yeah, you're fat now."
"Watch it." she warned him, nudging his leg with hers under the table. They both laughed, neither realising how much they sounded like a very-much-in-love couple.
After five or so minutes, Grissom interrupted the peaceful silence. "Do you want to do something this evening? It's only six, there's still loads of movies on..."
"uhm, sure, its just- I just-"
He understood. Leaning forward he told her. "Honey, you'll be fine. I'll be with you. He'll probably have fled Nevada, if not the U.S, by now."
Sara looked up at him from her previous gazing-spot of the floor. He was surprised by the emotion he saw in her dark brown eyes. "Yeah. Okay. I want to go see a movie."
She jumped up from the table suddenly. "I'm gonna go change. Give me ten minutes."
Grissom didn't need to change his clothes, he was fine in dark jeans and a shirt, so when Sara emerged ten minutes later, to the second, they were ready to go.
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"Your choice. Pick a movie." he said graciously...It was almost as if she was being handed some great honour.
"Why, thank you Griss. If you're sure."
"As long as it's not a rubbish one."
She smirked at his last comment. They had bickered good-naturedly the entire way over in the Tahoe, with Grissom slating Sara's choice of "unnatural pop culture" versus her slating his choice as "the grandaddy movies where they hand out free cups of tea."
They were both standing in the lobby of the movies, Grissoms arm slung unconsciously around Sara's slim shoulders, and her leaning into his side. It was just natural for them to stand like that, neither realised what they were doing. It was almost like, the short amount of time Sara had spent with Grissom after being abducted had intensified, making them feel like they'd been together, in every way, for years.
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"Mom. Mom.MOM!" the 12 year old honeyed blonde girl tugged on her mothers sleeve. "Isn't that Uncle Gil?"
Catherine's gaze followed the direction that her daughters finger was pointed. "Linsey, don't be- omigosh!"
"What?" Nick and Warrick simultaneously turned around to see what Catherine was squealing about.
"Look! Over there! Gil! And Sara! Together! On a date!" They tried to see who she was pointing at, as the lobby surged with people escaping from the dreadful movie they had just finished watching.
"It's OK Cath. The pressure's getting to you. It's OK. We'll find you some professional help soon." Nick told her, solemly, a smile tugging at his lower lips. Linsey giggled, she loved seeing her mom getting teased by Nick. The good looking Texan had stolen the heart of Catherine's pre-teenager without realising.
"Nick shut up. I saw them, I was so sure..."
"Of course." Warrick had joined in. "and now can we go and see the movie?"
"Fine fine." Catherine was a little pissed that they hadn't believed her, but Sara and Griss had seemed to have disappeared from sight. If it really was Sara and Gil. Hmmm...
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Catherine and Lindsey weren't the only ones to notice the charismatic couple. Although one person paid closer attention than most, with more sinister thoughts than most...
Jayden hadn't entered the movies. He had simply followed Sara and 'Griss' all the way there, careful not to be spotted. He had been pissed off when he saw Grissom place his hand absently on Sara's thigh when they were in the car, and he had nearly exploded with fury when Sara's boss had put his arm around her at the movies...and she let him, the filthy slut. He'd teach them well, oh he would definitely teach them well...He put his car into gear, and drove away from the cinema duplex.
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They agreed on Zodiac. Clever enough for Grissom, but still in the region of pop-culture for Sara. Grissom expected her to run out at all the 'traumatic' parts of the movie, but she stayed in, utterly fascinated with the plot line, unlike himself. Where was this stupid story going? Did it even have a point? The leading journalist part in the movie was irritating to him in addition to the pointless plot, as he could hear almost every female in the room suck in a breath every time the young Jake Gyllenhaal stepped on screen.
Even Sara.
Which annoyed him, because Jake was a rubbish actor. Grissoms dislike of him had nothing to do with the young actors fantastic looks, or the fact the young actor was just plain young. Grissom just thought he was a bad actor, was all...
Stepping out into the brightness of the lobby and squinting, Gil and Sara started debating the good and bad points of the movie.
"...and the bit with the phones was so unoriginal..."
"Griss, it wasn't! We have never ever had a case like that before the Zodiac Murderer. He created a new sub-category of killer. Or more do the point, a new subcategory of deviant murder."
"That is blatantly untrue! What about..."
They continued along this vein for quite a while, all the way home, and arrived at the house, Sara tired, and Grissom turned on by the way she expressed herself when she argued...she gestured, pulling her hands close then away from her chest, wriggling in her seat when he said something she totally didn't agree with, eyes sparkling, voice laughing. He felt like he had his old Sara back. The Sara from his lecturing days. He loved that Sara, he just hoped she would stay...
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It was at least 11:30pm when they got home...He wanted to keep normal-ish hours, so Grissom told her that he was going to go jump in the shower, before going to bed, but as he started to make his way from the room, a small voice stopped him.
"Gil, I-"
he whirled around. Sara never, never called him Gil.
"will you sleep with me tonight?" Sara rushed out "its just-its just, I don't get nightmares when you-"
"Of course honey. Of course I will."
She smiled tentatively at him, before picking up a case file from the table, and walking over to the sofa with it, snuggling into the squashy black leather.
Grissom smiled at the back of her head, then padded through to the bathroom.
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He had to do this. Now or never. He had to do it...
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As Sara read on about Desmond Horaddo's 2 year old case, she became so focused, she nearly missed the phone ringing.
"Grissom." she answered the house phone for him.
"Gil Grissom?"
"I'm sorry who may I ask is calling?" Grissom was out the shower, and dressed, currently mouthing 'WHO IS IT?' to Sara.
"Why Princess, it's me."
Grissom watched the colour drain out of Sara's face. "Sar, honey? Is it Nicky? Is it Cath? What? Sara, sweetheart, who is it?"
"Sara, you better not be having other lovers," Jayden hissed poisonously down the phone at her. "you're mine. Why are you at HIS house Sara?"
Grissom saw that she wasn't reacting to him asking for the phone, so he simply reached forward, and plucked it from her hands. "hello? Nicky? Cath? Who is it? Is everything ok?"
"I'd say it wasn't, Gil." The unfamiliar tone puzzled Grissom.
"Sorry, who is it?"
"You're very slow to catch on for a CSI. What do you think you're doing?"
"Excuse me? Who is this, how did you get my number?"
"questions, Questions. I have a question for you Gil."
Gil was so confused, what was up with Sara? Why was she just staring at him?
"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SCREWING MY WHORE? I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU. THEN PRINCESS, I'M GOING TO FUCKING MAKE YOU WISH YOU WERE DEAD, YOU DISGUSTING LITTLE MURDERING SLUT. PRINCESS? WHAT, AREN'T YOU FUCKING LISTENING? I CAN SEE YOU MISSSSS SIDLE."
Sara could hear every word that the psychopath screamed down the phone at Gil, who physically reacted when Jayden screamed he could see her.
"Don't hang it up griss." Sara whispered, and he covered the mouthpiece, as Jayden's apopletic tirade came burbling from the earpiece. "The longer he talk's, the more chance the phone company will have tracing the call."
Grissom nodded to her.
"WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING NODDING AT?" Sara shot a scared look at the window. "THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT PRINCESS, I CAN SEE YOU. YOU LOOK GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT, CSI SIDLE," Sara looked like she was going to vomit. "I LIKE YOU IN LEATHER, PRINCESS, THE JACKET'S NICE." oh god he could really see her. Them.
Grissom hung up the phone, mad Sara stand up, them walked them both to the bedroom, where his gun and cell phone were. Giving Sara the gun, he phoned Brass.
Sara wasn't listening. She felt sick. Why the fuck did he keep invading her privacy like this? Why?
She barely registered being pulled into the kitchen and Grissom firmly pushing down on her shoulders to make her sit on the bench. She looked at him dazed when he put a strong cup of coffee in front of her. "why Griss?"
He felt his heart break for her yet again. She looked so lost and confused. "I'm sorry sweetie-I don't know. Brass said that they're putting a watch on the house as it's obvious this-this person won't leave you alone till he's caught. He will be caught Sar, don't stress please."
"But why?" she still looked so confused, "I mean, is it how I talk? Or my hair? Or my clothes? If I just knew, I could change it, and he would leave me alone..."
"Sweetie-it's not how you do you hair, or how you talk. It's nothing to do with outwards appearance. This man is just evil, Sara, and-"
"BUT WHY" Sara's voice was lividly angry, but her eyes were terrified. "WHY? HOW DO I MAKE IT STOP?"
"Please sweetie, you-"
"WHY? I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND." She stood on her rocking on her heels back and forwards. "PLEASE GRISS, TELL ME WHY" she wasn't crying, but she looked deranged, shrieking the same question every few seconds. Griss saw how pale her skin was, to how dark her eyes had turned. She was collapse any second, if she wasn't careful.
"Am I-am I doing something wrong? Like, when I speak or walk? He said it's my spark. How do I stop it? What's my 'spark?' Griss, what is it?"
Her teeth were chattering now. Grissom was totally clueless about what to do so he just walked over to her, and scooped her into a giant hug. She pushed him away as hard as she could for the first few seconds but he held on, not tight enough to hurt her, but tight enough to let her know she was secure. It actually seemed to work...She stopped breathing shallowly, and she at least felt a little less shaky. He held onto her as her legs gave out, then moved her over to the couch, after making sure every curtain in the room was shut...not that Jayden Bounton would be back tonight with the two squad cars out on parole. This was getting too messy. He looked at Sara, who was some-where between passed out and sleeping mildly on the couch, and decided to move her into his room rather than both of them spending an uncomfortable night on the couch. He vowed not to leave her alone when there was any chance that Bounton Jr. could get her...
They knew more about Bounton Jr. and Snr. than Sara thought. When he had finished reading her diary, Grissom had immediately went and spoken to Brass confidentially. Dragging Bounton Snr's records out, he had found that the foster father had two previous counts of child molestations in different states, previous to Sandra Van Der Woodsen accusing him.
After that, in court his previous records had been held in front of a judge, who had seen fit to put the convicted paedophile away for 15 years...seven had already passed.
Grissom had been so angry at the time...if Bounton had been previously convicted in two other states, why had he been able to foster kids in Nevada? And, in Grissoms opinion, the monster hadn't been put away for nearly enough time.
He had seen abused foster kids...they tended to fall through the cracks in the broken up concrete of social Care...
Sara Sidle had been one of the unlucky ones, she had fallen through the crack, but managed to pull herself out and away from said crack, only to be grasped and pulled back through again...
After pulling up the older Bountons record, he had looked for Annie Bounton. Nothing. Then Jayden Bounton.
There was a lot for Jayden Bounton...
Grissom saw that he had been questioned by a local policeman, after over 20 cats and dogs had gone missing from the neighbourhood, and one woman had told the cop that she had seen Jayden snap a cats neck on more than one occasion.
He had been cleared of rape at just seventeen, but only just cleared...there was no DNA...
He had been put in jail at the age of 18 for 4 counts of larceny. Then he got out on bail, broken the rules set for his bail, and been taken back to Nevada state Pen for a further 2 years without bail.
He had been let out a year previous to Sara arriving at the home.
He had been convicted of rape and battery at the age of thirty, and been in prison for fifteen years.
Two years after release, he had dropped off the map...apparently in Mexico somewhere...
Only, he wasn't...Only he had kidnapped Sara...Only, he was definitely still in Nevada.
Only...he was still terrorising her, stalking them.
Grissom wanted to shoot something, or more to the point, someone...
Even more to the point, he wanted to shoot Jayden Bounton...
OOH! scary malary! i thought it was fluffy when i wrote it, but idk if i still think it is...hmmmmm...very, very interesting...tell me what y'all think! Thanks to all u reviewers n readers, ya'll keep me going! xoxox sugar