AN: Not my favorite chapter but it had to be done to make this work, just know it wasn't easy. so please bear with me. Thanks for the reviews.
Chapter 20: Not Again
By the time she got home tears were starting to come in her eyes thinking of her friend and wondering where he was and hoping that he was ok.
She parked the car in the driveway of the house then turned the vehicle off. She opened the door and stepped out then wiped her tears away just as the front door opened. She looked at Grissom and he said. "DB called and said you might need a little comfort what happened?"
She walks up to him, puts her hand on his cheek and she felt him tense for a second and that made her curious on why but before she could talk he continued. "Amanda came over and asked if Isabella would like to hang out with her for a little while and I said it was ok, it might cheer her up a bit. I did tell her to be cautious though, you know just incase." She nodded in understanding and walked in the house after Grissom moved out-of-the-way.
When she was in the house he shut the door, turned and she was by the coffee table with tears in her eyes again.
He asked while walking up to her. "So what's wrong?"
She took a moment then told him that Thomas was missing and that he was the lead suspect to Mia's murder. When she was done she looked at him and he was giving her a certain look and she knew what he was thinking. She shakes her head and replied. "You seriously don't think that Thomas would do something like that do you?"
"Sara what was the first thing I have ever taught you?"
She doesn't hesitate. "The evidence never lies." His look turned to pointedly, she pulls back from his arms and said. "He didn't do this. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. I know him."
Grissom sighed and replied. "He could have changed and hid it from you, men can do things they don't normally do when they lose the woman they love."
She shakes her head again. "Not Thomas. He had made peace with us ending. I still don't buy he did any of this."
He was getting a little frustrated and blurted out "You are letting your feelings for him cloud your judgment."
She narrows her eyes at him and responded. "Well so are you?"
He looks at her shocked and asked. "What do you mean?"
She crosses her arms over her chest and said. "You know exactly what I mean. You may say your that ok with him but I know a part of you is still jealous and
feels threatened by him." He was about to open his mouth but she continued still mad and not thinking what she was saying. "You want to try to convince me that he is no good so that I would keep him out of our daughter's life and out of mine, for that matter." She stops talking the minute she said that, knowing that what she just said was out of anger and frustration of this whole situation. She didn't really mean it and deep down she knew Grissom was not that kind of man. He respected her judgment on people and who she was friends with. She looked at his pain filled eyes then looked down trying to calm her emotions before she said the wrong thing again then spoke softly but with conviction. "But I am sorry until he is found and I get a chance talk to him I won't believe he had done anything wrong and nothing or nobody is going to change my mind or make me turn my back on him."
Grissom took a minute before anything else was said. He wasn't going to say anything about what he saw in that envelope earlier because he didn't want to believe it but her display right now made him a little suspicious so he asked "What exactly has been going on with you two?"
She lefts her head up and asked. "What do you mean?"
He shakes his head, walks over to the desk opened the top drawer pulled out the yellow manila envelope walked over to the coffee table and said. "Since we have gotten back together." He stops then as he slams the envelope down he said. "How long have you been sleeping with him?" Then he crossed his arms over his chest.
Sara was too shocked at what he said for words to come out right now. She went to the table, picked up the envelope, opened it and pulled out pictures, different ones from the ones she saw yesterday. She gasped as she saw multiples of just her and Thomas in embraces at different times during the day and some in the evening nothing too scandalous but they looked too close to be 'just friend' pictures. She felt dizzy, sick and her heart was pounding.
She closed her eyes and mumbled 'Not again.'
Grissom looked at her with hurt in his eyes and asked. "Not again what?"
She opened her eyes wide then shook her head, she didn't mean to say that loud enough for him to hear. As far as she knew he didn't know about the mess that happened with Basderic four years ago. She looked down and said. "Nothing."
"It's not nothing, what is it?" For the second time that day Grissom's heart was pounding and he was trying to calm down.
Sara took a few moments then looked up at him, she wasn't going to tell him right now because emotions were still to charged but she was the one that promised no secrets so she said. "Ok, just please listen. The night that you ended things was the worst night of my life. I felt off, confused, numb, angry, pretty much every emotion in the book and I did something stupid, thoughtless and so out of character." She tried taking breaths to calm her heart and took a moment to get her bearings back and when she did she told him what she did after his phone call four years ago and about the whole mess with Basderic.
The whole time Grissom's head was spinning, his blood pressure and heart rate was spiking and when she was done he cleared his throat and said sadly. "I don't know what to say. I thought by now we had told each other everything."
She stands up with the pictures in her hand and while walking toward him she goes back to the subject that started all of this. "Grissom you know me, you know how I feel about you. I would never cheat on you."
She was going to continue but he shook his head again walked away from her and said. "I need some air." He needed to get out of there for a while to clear his head. From everything he had just learned to the pictures he just saw it was sending him over the edge and he knew he needed to calm down before they could have a rational conversation and he couldn't do that here or now.
Sara watched him walk to the door and said. "Gil." Her words died on her lips when he looks at her with the most pained eyes she had ever seen, more than when he first came back into her life. He grabbed his keys walked out the door then shuts it behind him, feeling too hurt to even think about what could happen once he walked out.
The tears started to come out of her eyes so she wiped them away then looked down at the pictures again and a second later she suddenly became alert when she noticed the date on them. They all had been altered to make it seem like those embraces happened after Grissom came back into her life, that's why he thought she was seeing him behind his back.
She gasped, ran to the door, opened it and Amanda was standing right there with Isabella in her arms, she looked over Amanda's shoulder and saw that Grissom's vehicle was already gone. She sighed wishing she could explain now but knowing he needed a little time to himself.
Amanda looks at her and asked. "Are you ok?"
Sara nodded, took her daughter and replied. "I'm fine." Then she continued. "Want to come in?" Amanda declined and asked for a rain check and Sara just nodded, kind of thankful that she said no because she had something she needed to do.
After Sara shuts the font door with her foot she sets her daughter down and Isabella asked. "Where's daddy? Is uncle Thomas ok?"
At the sound of her voice Hank came into the room from her bedroom but he could feel the tension in the room from Sara and he had his shoulders low and his tail down but he still had that sparkle in his eye looking at them.
Isabella looked at Hank when she heard the his toenails on the hardwood floor and she smiles. Hank gives her a little lick and a small bark as a greeting, she giggled and started to pet him. Sara knew Isabella was too distracted for her answer so she told her to go to her room. Isabella was going to ask the question again but she sensed this was not a good time so she nodded, turned and walked to her bedroom door but when she realized Hank didn't follow her she turned around and said his name but he still stood close to Sara looking up at her sadly like he knew what has been going on.
Sara looked down, smiled at him and said. "It's ok boy, go with Isabella, daddy will be home soon." But Hank still stood there. Sara petted him then repeated. "Go on now." This time Hank licked her hand then turned and walked back to Isabella then they walked into her room and she shuts the door behind her.
Once the door shut in Isabella's room Sara sighed and walked to the phone and called the prison were Basderic was at and made sure he was tightly secured, she knew the kidnapping and the way the murder happened wasn't his MO but the pictures were and she wanted to be safe rather than sorry. She breathed a sigh of relief when it was reveled that he was completely secured but then when she hung up she was getting more angry by the second because some other bastard was not only trying to take her second chance at happiness away, which she won't let it happen no matter what was against them at the moment, but also taking two people she cared about.
After it started getting darker outside and Grissom still wasn't back she started pacing with worry she would have called his phone but he didn't take it with him, it was laying on the coffee table. She understood his hurt and pain about the whole Basderic mess because she hadn't told him about it and she will deal with that can of worms later. But right now she needed to explain the pictures of her and Thomas and make him see that the date was altered to mess with his mind and make his insecurities flare up. She sighed thinking about his insecurities, it was frustrating at times but she will fight for him and continue to help him work through it, you don't give up just because it gets hard. She won't make the same mistake twice. She had always been a fighter, it may have not seem like that sometimes but she was and now she had more to fight for.
Her musings were interrupted when there was a knock on the door, at the first she thought it could have been Grissom but then she thought that wasn't right because one it was his house and two he had his keys.
She shook her head and walked to the door then took a moment to herself, cleared her throat and opened the door revealing Nick, DB, and was a little surprised to see Brass too. She gives them a little glare still bitter about earlier. "You already kicked me off the case what could you possible do now?"
They share a look then looked back at her and she wasn't liking the look they were giving her then her heart started racing and her throat ran dry but before she could talk DB does first. "Can we talk to you for a minute?"
She nodded and after the three men walked in she shuts the door then looked at them and asked timidly with all trace of the bitterness gone." What's wrong guys?"
They took another moment and Nick spoke. "We had another anonymous call this time it was to go to the park and when we got there Grissom's car was there but there was no Grissom."
Sara's heart stopped at that moment and she shakes her head while putting her hand up to her lips as she walked past them so she was on the other side of the coffee table. They turned to her and before she could talk DB continued. "We found his keys in the door and there was some more hair." He stopped.
Sara shakes her head again and responded. "Don't tell me you think Thomas had anything to do with this too?"
Nick sighed." Sara the evi..."
She cuts him off. "Screw the evidence he didn't commit murder and he didn't kidnap anybody, he wouldn't do that. Somebody is setting him up and took him to make you think that he left town you have to see that." She closes her eyes with all the emotions flowing through her.
She was almost in tears and one of them was about to continue but Nick speaks about something else. "What are these?"
She opened her eyes and saw that Nick was pointing to the pictures and started to pick them up. She cleared her throat and replied. "Somebody sent them to Grissom to make it seem like I was seeing Thomas behind his back and I am guessing it's the same person who is causing this mess."
She stops to try to calm her emotions and DB asked a minute later after thinking about something. "Do you think..."
Sara cuts him off knowing were his mind was going. "No, He had been securely looked up. I thought of the same thing so I called."
They nodded then DB continued. "Right now that leaves Thomas as our only lead." Sara was about to open her mouth but DB continued. "Sara we understand how you are feeling and what you are saying but until we find him and talk to him he is our only suspect. Please understand."
Sara took a moment and then nodded her head not liking it and still believed his innocence but did understand.
The men sighed in relief and DB cleared his throat and said. "In the mean time we will be at the lab and go over everything just in case we missed something." Sara was going to open her mouth but DB talked again. "And when I said 'we' I don't mean you, your still off the case. This is becoming more personal for you as we speak."
"But..." She stops when she saw his face, DB was a cool and collective guy but you didn't want to cross him when he gets mad so she closes her mouth and nods. DB gives her an appreciative smile and replied. "I'll keep in touch." Sara nods again then he turns and walks to the door.
She looked at Nick and he was looking at her, she shook her head and said with emotion. "Nick nothing was going on between me and Thomas again I sw..."
She was cut off when he brings her in a hug and whispered. "I know and I promise that we will find them."
He pulls back and puts his hand on her cheek to wipe her tears away and she replied. "We don't do promises remember?"
He gives her a small smile and said with confidence. "This time I will make an exception."
She gives him a watery smile and nods and after one more hug he turns and walks away to the door with the pictures. DB opened the door then they both walked out of the house. Sara looks at Brass and said with a small smirk. "Haven't you retired?"
He gives her a small smile and said. "I thought I would do one more case, he would have done the same for me."
Sara gives him another watery smile and said. "Thank you Jim."
Jim nods and said. "No problem now stay strong for yourself and that little girl."
Sara nodded again and after another smile and nod he walked out of the house shutting the door behind him.
When the door clicked shut she looked down at her engagement ring and thought. 'Come on Grissom hold on as long as you can we will find you and clear up this misunderstanding please I love you." She walks to the couch sits down and puts her head in her hand and starts to cry, starting to think the case was about her now.
A few minutes later she feels a small hand on her shoulder, she lefts her head and saw her daughter looking at her with a sad face. Sara wipes her tears away then brings her daughter in her arms and they both gave each other comfort. Even though Isabella didn't fully understand what was going on, she just knew her mother was hurting.
AN: Well great now the killer has Grissom. Next chapter: A member of the team comes over to Sara's and talk about their theories of the case and it could be the break that they need to find everybody. You all have been wonderful. Please review.