A/N – Here you go. Another chapter. I hope you enjoy. Please review. I like to hear feedback, which has been varied and totally cool so far. I like hearing everyone's thoughts, and some of them have actually influenced me a bit.
Disclaimer – Boise State University just lost the Hawaii Bowl. I'm too depressed to care about a disclaimer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Sara looked up from her paperwork, he'd moved further into the room. Sighing, she laid down her pen and rubbed her eyes.
"Please, please, please, just stop dictating to me things that involve our personal relationship," she said. "It's one thing if you direct me when we're at work, because that's work. You are the graveyard supervisor. You have a lot more experience, and often more intuition than the rest of us. I expect you to tell us how to act, think, and sometimes react."
Standing just a foot from her, Grissom laid his forehead to hers, and whispered, "I'm sorry. Again. I didn't think about it. I just tend to want things in a certain way."
"I know," she grimly smiled at him, "but it's not just you and me we're talking about – it's about us. We're a team at home, and sometimes, you just decide on something…"
"It's been just me for a lot of years," he explained. "I've had to learn a lot to be with you."
"I can understand that, honey, because it's been you for so long, I've been on my own, too," she replied.
When his fingers stroked her cheek, she tilted her head up.
"I'll try. Just please do me a favor. Try not to get angry. Maybe you can let me know when I'm being an uncommunicative idiot," he said, capturing her lips with his for a sweet, quick kiss.
"The shades aren't drawn in here," she whispered. "I believe PDAs are forbidden by Ecklie."
"Yeah, well… we're the rule breakers, aren't we?" he chuckled.
"What I don't get is why this has started since people found out about us," Sara replied. "I guess I've been wondering if you need to… control me more to prove something."
"I don't think it has anything to do with people finding out with us," he quietly replied, backing away to walk around the evidence table. As he absent-mindedly looked at the grid for Archie, he added, "It's been since the desert. Natalie. Nearly losing you."
His gaze came up and caught hers, "I can't come that close to losing you again."
On a heavy breath, Sara chuckled, forcing a frown on him.
"Gilbert," she began to approach him, "I am the first to agree with you on that."
Snapping the blinds shut, she wrapped her arms around her husband and laid her cheek on his. "Baby, please put what happened in perspective. It wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to me. You know about me – my life. You've met my mother, and my wonderful step-father and step-sister."
Pulling back, she looked him in the eyes, and continued, "Please don't think you need to protect me from myself. I need us to be a team. I don't mind the help. At times, I really need it, but ask before doing when it comes to my personal welfare, or when it comes to our welfare."
When she kissed him, Grissom wrapped his hand in her hair and deepened it until they both relaxed into one another, and Sara developed a sudden urge to clear off the layout table. Pulling back, she smiled into his neck, as his hand continued to stroke her curls.
"Are we okay?" he asked.
"We were okay before. You were just being an ass," she reminded him, and laughed at that lopsided grin she adored. Running his finger over her lips, he leaned in and whispered, "I'll try really hard to stop being that ass, okay?"
When her stomach suddenly rumbled, Grissom pulled back and kissed her palm before letting her go.
"I brought coffee and bagels," he said.
Meanwhile, in the break room, Brass and Catherine walked in to find Nick and Warrick sitting at the table, and Greg groggily making coffee.
"Where are Griss and Sara?" Brass asked.
"He and Sara are in the layout room," Nick supplied, to get the immediate reply from Catherine, "Is this a good thing or a bad things."
Making a show of leaning over and looking down the hall, Warrick said, "I haven't heard any major screaming. I don't see any blood."
"Ouch," Brass winced, "What happened?"
"I'm not sure, man… but I came in early, thinking to go through some of the photos – get the grunt work done. When I got here, Sara had been here for awhile, and already gotten quite a bit catalogued," Nick supplied.
"Huh. You should have seen the look on Grissom's face when he walked into the layout room awhile ago. I really didn't want to be in there," Warrick added.
Suddenly, the door in question opened, and the two of them came out, with Grissom heading to his office and Sara slowly aiming for the break room. She'd gotten halfway, when her husband came back with a bag and her coffee.
In the break room, Grissom dropped a sack of bagels and cream cheese onto the table and handed Sara the cup.
"Get me caught up," he said, looking at Nick and Greg to take the lead.
From the guilty looks of the crew, she had a strong feeling about what they'd been discussing. Frowning, she took a sip of coffee, and sighed quietly, "We're fine, all right?"
"Let's start at the top, guys. Walk it through," Grissom said.
"We have six bodies. If you look at Nick's chart, they're spread throughout the graveyard, but tend to be in areas with the larger, more ornate headstones. In one cases – I think it's the fifth one, it's near a large statue," Greg began.
Nick took over with, "I've marked out the names within four headstones each victim was found near. Furthermore, I've photographed the various headstones."
Greg looked over to Sara and said, "Please, God, tell me this V/R tool you're looking to develop will allow this process to occur a little faster. Spending that long at a crime scene just about killed me."
Smiling, she nodded, and said gleefully, "That's the idea. All of this would be rendered automatically. It would have taken only hours, regardless of how bright or dark it is outside."
"The scene is currently being held for another twenty four hours. We need to revisit it and make sure we aren't missing anything," Grissom interjected.
Glancing at Catherine, he winced at her glare. Still pissed about the press conference, he determined, but asked anyway, "How did the media take what you passed along?"
"They're still in the dark on a lot of things. We didn't have a lot to go on at the time. And the next press conference is yours, Gil," she stated, her glare indicating that arguing would send him into the dog house.
"Besides the location, we know the victims were killed with a wooden stake-like object," Greg said, trying to keep the image of the vampire slayer out of his head, and failing miserably. Sighing, he added, "Doc will have more for us later. He hasn't gotten through all of the victims yet."
"There's a distinct splatter across the headstones. I'd like to try to recreate where each victim was standing, based on the directionality of it," Warrick interjected.
Catherine threw her ideas in saying, "I'd like to see if there have been any like crimes in other cities. I want to know if anyone has seen anything like this before."
"I want to go back and do a review of the scene when the sun comes up," Sara said, "and I really believe we should all go. Each of us take a body and make sure we got everything to find."
Now mumbling a little, she added, "I was still a little spooked yesterday. I trip of the guy's hand, and having a dead hand grab my foot just freaked me out."
"That's a sound idea," Grissom added, and continued, "Now walk me through the fibers found at the scene."
"I'll drop those off with Hodges," Sara said, "along with the hairs we found on victims two and five."
"I'll work on identification of the victims with Robbins," Catherine said.
Grissom stood and looked around the room. "Well… in the words of Greg's new hero, 'People to see, demons to kill'."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N – One more chapter. The quote at the end is from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. More to come. Eventually. Review and it might arrive more quickly. LOL
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!