Disclaimer: See chapter 20.

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25

An hour later, Sara caught Grissom in his office just as he arrived. She entered, closing the door behind her, "We have a problem."

With raised eyebrows he replied, "We do?"

"Yeah. Our clocks are off."

"They are?"

"Yeah. This may be Vegas, but my doctor's office is definitely not open right now!"

He looked at his watch, "Wow. My clock really is off. Okay, so ER?"

"No. I hate the Emergency Room. Besides, I'll be fine until tomorrow. I'll call right after shift and get an early appointment."

"We can still go home now. I don't want you getting any worse."

"Trust me. I'm fine. Let's just work, okay?"

"If you're sure. We'll get this evidence processed and clean up some of our open cases. No second shift!"

With a shrug of her shoulders, "You're the boss."

Well, he hadn't thought that was going to be that easy, "Good. So, let's go hand out assignments." He looked around, as if they were in the hallway, not his closed office to see if anyone was watching, then kissed her firmly on the lips. "I love you. We'll talk about the rest of this later."

"I love you, too."

She followed him into the break room and sat as Catherine asked, "Hey, Sara. Feeling better?"

Playing dumb, "What?"

"Don't even try it! You ran outta here yesterday…or earlier today…whatever! You were headed straight for the bathroom! Are you sick?"

"Oh, that. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm going to the doctor's in the morning. I must have a stomach thing." Well, that was sort of true.

Warrick joked, "Hey, Gris, don't put her with me tonight, okay? I don't want her breathing all her germs all over me!"

"Well, you're on your own tonight, Warrick. Sam Braun is waiting for you at the Rampart. He says one of his quote, girls, unquote was assaulted last night and now she's missing. Says he got a ransom note about an hour ago."

"Solo? On a Braun case?"

Catherine spoke up, "Wait, Gil. This needs more attention than this. I should go with him."

"No, Catherine. You can't be involved. Besides, the girl's already been found. Nick, you get the body. She was killed in a hotel room last night. Sam doesn't know, yet."

"Catherine, you got a rape victim. She's already been transported to Desert Palm. They're sending the kit over. She's been sedated, so why don't you process the scene first, then take her statement later."

"Gil…"

"I don't want to hear it, Catherine. You're not touching this case." She stood and snatched her assignment slip from his hand before storming out of the room. "All right, guys, head out."

On his way out, Nick asked, "What are you two doing?"

"Sara and I came in early and processed a scene. We have some evidence to work. Why? Can't handle this alone?"

"Hey! It's all good!" With that, he walked out, leaving Grissom chuckling.

With a furrowed brow, Warrick asked, "Gris, you sure about this? Maybe I should take the DB."

"Why? Because you think Nick is better with people or because this case is in a casino?"

"Well…"

"Warrick, I trust you. If I didn't, you wouldn't be here."

"Thanks, Gris."

"You're welcome. Speaking of trust, Sara and I are leaving at the end of shift. She has a doctor's appointment and I have some personal business I have to take care of, so I'm trusting you to make sure Catherine stays off this case."

"Got it. Hope you're okay, Sara. See you guys later."