Hope everyone had a merry christmas. I am finally going home for christmas friday. Yeay. Thanks to you who reviewed. I don't want to sound like a shmuck, but when I saw the preview to leaving las vegas, I just wanted to fall to the ground crying. I still can't belive he's going. I mean, he's Grissom for crying out loud. What's CSI without Grissom??
Warrick was a lot calmer than Nick as he explained the situation to Grissom. The more that he reviled to Grissom, the more he saw the anger rise in him.
"Get Catherine and tell her to meet me at the Sheriff's office now!"
And he stormed away. They were both quickly in search of Catherine.
When she finally made it to meet Grissom, he was pacing like a caged tiger. She knew that she shouldn't touch him at this moment but, she needed to calm him down. But before she had to the Sheriff showed up.
Catherine tapped Grissoms shoulder and he stopped to look at Ben.
"Gil, my secretary has filled me in. Don't worry. She'll be out within the hour."
Grissom felt some of his pent up anger go away in the breath that he released. Catherine grabbed his elbow and led him back to his office.
"Gil, go to her."
He made his way through the halls to lockup. Grissom signed his name in and was escorted to the cell Sara was pacing in.
"Sara."
"Grissom. Are you gonna get me out of here?"
"Yes, the Sheriff is clearing this up. You should be released shortly. Warrick told me what happened. Are you sure you are ok?"
"My arm is sore but, yeah I'll be fine."
He reached through the bars and took a hold of her arm to examine it more closely. Sara saw red in his eyes as he looked at the bruise forming on her forearm in the shape of a hand.
"Griss, I'll be fine."
She noticed a guard coming. He opened the door and let her out. Grissom pulled her into warm embrace.
Once home Sara went right to the shower. Even an hour in a jail cell was enough to make her feel as if she had rolled in mud. She stood under the hot spray for what seemed like forever. But as the water began to cool, it forced her out of the water. She wrapped a large towel around her fast cooling body and looked at her bruises in the mirror.
Without bothering to dress Sara went in search of Grissom. And as expected instead of sleeping he was working on the 'Ecklie' case. She stood in the doorway watching him look through paper. It was a good look on him she thought. His glasses perched on the end of his nose as he read. Sara moved to stand behind him, leaned in next to his ear. And without letting her breath hit his neck she said his name a little louder than she had wanted to.
"Grissom!"
He jumped sideways and looked wide eyed at her.
"Did you hear me?"
He thought for a second.
"I did."
"Did you hear what I said?"
"Yes. Yes I did. You said my name."
She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could. She pulled back and looked at him with a big smile.
"Can I get a dog?"
"What? No."
"Fine. Can I help with the case at hand."
"Once again, No."
She moved to straddle him. Grissom inhaled sharply as she put her arms around his neck. Sara had a plan in her mind but the ringing or her cell phone stopped her advances on him. As she moved off him, Grissom groaned at the loss of contact as she went to answer her phone.
He continued his work until he saw her standing in the doorway.
"Sara."
He stood and rushed over to her placing her hands on her bare shoulders.
"Sara. Honey what's wrong?"
"My mother."
"What? Your mother what?"
"She's dead. Apparent heart attack."
He pulled her into him. She didn't cry but he felt her body shake. And why would she cry for the person who killed her father. She pulled away to look at his face.
"That was my brother. He wants me to come home for the funeral. The Department of Corrections is releasing her body tomorrow."
"Sara, if you want to go, you don't need my permission. Take as long as you want."
He kissed her forehead.
"Thanks."
And she walked back to get dressed. Grissom sighed and returned to his desk.
Sara had been gone for three days and sent Grissom an e-mail to let him know that she would be a few days longer to visit with her brother. Grissom had replied back to tell her to take all the time she needed.
He sat back from his desk and was getting ready to go to work when he felt a small vibration at his feet. It took him a second to realize it was the doorbell. Grissom opened the door to see a large crate sitting on the ground and a delivery man holding a clip board.
"I have a delivery for a Sara Sidle."
"I'll sign for it."
Grissom scrawled his signature and looked down at the crate.
"Here's the instructions. Enjoy." And with that he turned and left Grissom standing in his doorway mouth agape.
He noticed an envelope that wasn't addressed and opened it.
'Sara, I hope you have gotten permission from Grissom, cause Warrick, Catherine, Greg and myself pitched in and got you what you wanted. You deserve a friend out side of the lab. Love ya, Nick.'
Grissom looked at the crate and continued to fish through the papers. When he found the 'instructions' he cursed.
"Damn them."
He walked around the front of the crate and kneeled down to look and a set of eyes looking back at him. Grissom shook his head and opened the small door and stepped back letting the black and white dog out. He stood and continued to read though the papers when he noticed the dog was sitting at his feet looking up at him.
"What? I have to go to work. You can come and I'll give you back to Nick."
Grissom went inside and the dog followed staying to his right.
"Stay here."
He went to his bedroom to change then to his study to gather his briefcase and, when he returned to the entryway he noticed the dog had not moved. Glancing through the hand written instructions that came with the dog he noticed that it already had a name.
"Zeke. Is that your name? Zeke?"
The dog wagged his tail and Grissom headed for the door.
"Let's go."
Grissom opened up the back door to the Denali. And Zeke jumped in and laid on the seat. Once at the lab Grissom went straight to the Sheriff's office to leave his evidence against Ecklie. Then he headed to the front desk to collect his messages. He tried to ignore the stares from everyone as they watched him walk through the halls with a dog at his side.
Grissom spent only enough time in his office to leave his things before heading off to hand out assignments. As he stepped out the office door he noticed Ecklie at the far end of the hall eyeing him. He looked back into his office at his briefcase. Surely he wouldn't he thought. Grissom looked down at his feet.
"Stay here."
He walked off leaving Zeke sitting in his doorway.
"Ok. First off. I'm sure Sara will want to thank you for the dog but you have to take him back. I can't have a dog at the house."
"Come on Griss. You have to admit that he's very well behaved."
" Yes, but that's not the point."
Just then they heard barking and they all jumped up to look into the hall. Grissom followed them and looked. He couldn't help but smile when he saw Zeke standing and barking at Ecklie.
As he approached Conrad he could tell that he wasn't just walking by.
"Lay down."
Immediately Zeke dropped.
"Damn it Gil what the hell is this?"
"It's a dog. Did you not know?"
"Funny. Get it out of my lab."
"I can't. So he's only here for today and is going to stay in my office."
"That thing's dangerous. All I did was try to go into your office."
"Well then he did his job."
"The Sheriff will hear about this, and I'll have your ass fired."
"You do that."
Ecklie turned and stormed off. Grissom handed assignments out in the hall and returned to behind his desk to start his paperwork. As he read through files he noticed Zeke raise his head out of the corner of his eye. Grissom looked up to see Catherine standing in the door.
"Is it ok to come in?" she pointed to Zeke.
"Yeah, he's fine. What can I do for you?"
She sat down. "I need to talk to a friend."
Catherine noticed that he was looking down at a file.
"Gil."she nearly yelled at him.
"Hun?"
Catherine sat back shocked.
"What?"
"Did you hear that?"
"Yes, it wasn't very loud. More like a whisper, but I heard it."
TBC