Author's Note: I'd like to thank Crazy Aunt Ella, phnxgrl, and VegasGirl09 for their reviews. VegasGirl09: If Finn had survived on the show, I would imagine that Sara and Russell would be the biggest part of her support system, even without Sara in a wheelchair. There has been another time jump in the story. Finn has gone through the process to return to the lab and has been back for almost two months now. Due to the timeline stretching of my case because of Sara's injury and Finn's recovery, this case is taking place in October, 2016. Enjoy!


Chapter 55

Sara and Greg were in the break room talking about Nick's new job when Russell walked in. "A homicide call just came in and I want you two to take it."

Greg finished off his coffee. "You got it."

Sara and Greg arrived at the crime scene within a half hour of getting the assignment. The body was behind a movie theater and a small crowd had gathered by the tape to try and see what had happened. David was already there kneeling over the victim. Sara rolled under the tape, ignoring the murmurs from the crowd, and looked around at the alley. It was barely wider than a car and had a pole halfway between the walls on either side to prevent cars from coming down this way.

Greg had gone straight over to the assistant coroner. "Hey, David. What do you have for us?"

David looked up. "Vic's name is Jefferson Brown, 29. Three GSWs to the chest. I was just about to take a liver temp." He struck the thermometer in the victim's side. "And we have 93°F. He's been dead less than three hours."

Sara had stopped by a shoe. "Greg, I've got a woman's heel here. We may be looking for a second victim." She photographed it and then bagged the shoe.

Greg shined his light on the victim's fingers. "Looks like he has something under his nails." Greg lifted his hand and sniffed. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Popcorn butter. He came from the theater."

Sara rolled over to them. "I'm guessing he was on a date. Someone killed him and kidnapped her." She held up the evidence bag to show them the heel. "I found shoeprints on the ground by the heel. Do you have any lifts in your kit?"

Greg opened his kit. "Yeah, two. There's more in the SUV." He handed her the lifts and the keys.

"Thanks."

Greg took out his camera and started taking pictures of the victim. Jefferson Brown was an African American male and he was wearing a nice suit and big watch. Greg doubted this was a mugging gone wrong if that watch was still there. David had bagged the wallet already, but Greg could tell it still had all the cash and cards inside. Definitely not a robbery.

"David, did you find any business cards for our vic?"

"Yes, he's an investment broker. Here," David took the bagged card off his clipboard, "I was saving one for you. Left the rest in his wallet."

"Thanks." Greg took a look at the card, then back at the victim. "Hey, what does this look like to you?"

"I would say a mugging gone wrong, except both the wallet and watch are still here. Maybe the girlfriend was the target and they killed him to get him out of the way?" David looked up at Greg for his input.

"I'm liking that. It would explain why the struggle was over there where Sara found the shoe and not over here."

Sara returned and went to work collecting the shoeprints. When Greg came over to get some overall shots of the scene, she handed him the keys and returned to her task. He pocketed the keys and continued taking photos. As Sara was wrapping up the lift collection, Greg filled her in on what they were guessing was the way the murder had occurred.

"Huh." Sara set the filled box on her lap. "Uh, looks like David's ready to move the body."

"Okay. I already got the shots of the victim that I wanted. Did you see anything new?"

Sara shook her head. "No cameras in the alley. I was going to head inside the theater; see if they might have a shot of the woman he was with."

"Okay. I'll finish up here."

Sara asked Officer Mitchell to accompany her. He locked the box of evidence in his cruiser and they went around to the theater entrance. An employee met them at the door and led them to the manager's office, promising that she would be with them shortly.

After just a couple minutes, the manager walked up to them. "Hi, I'm Tracy Falcon. Is this about the body in the alley?"

"It is. I was hoping we could get a copy of your security footage for the night."

"We don't have any cameras in the alley."

Sara nodded. "I understand that. We found popcorn butter on the victim's hands, which tells me he was a customer here. We also have reason to believe he was with someone tonight. We'd like to find out who that was."

Falcon nodded. "Of course. Our security room is upstairs. The elevator is this way."

Falcon led them to the elevator and then to the security room once they were upstairs. Mitch stayed outside and Falcon introduced Sara to the security guard monitoring the cameras. Sara went over what she was looking for with him as well and he rewound the tapes in the lobby and concessions stands to before Brown had paid for his tickets with his credit card.

Sara spotted their victim standing at the ticket window. "There he is."

The guard nodded. "It looks like a woman is with him."

"Can you find a different angle?"

"Not at that location, but you said he had popcorn butter on his hands, so we should find them at the concessions stand."

He switched the camera to the one covering the main concessions stand and cued up the timecode from the previous video. Their victim and his date walked up to the counter and ordered. Sara had the guard pause the playback when they had a nice, clear shot of the potential abduction victim and sent it to Greg so he would have it too.

"Any chance I can get a copy of all the footage you have from tonight?"

The guard nodded. "Yeah, no problem." He got to work copying the footage onto a flash drive for them.

Sara dialed Greg's number. "Hey, Greg. Our victim did go to the theater. I'm getting a copy of the footage now. I'm not sure if the woman I sent you a picture of was his girlfriend though."

"Why's that?"

"There's something off about it. You can tell he's into her, but she doesn't seem to have the same feelings."

"First date maybe?"

"Maybe." She was handed the drive. "Thank you. I've got the footage now. Meet you back at the car?"

"Okay. I'm just about done here. You know, we should head over to the victim's home. Maybe we can figure out the missing woman's information and relation to the deceased there."

Sara had the phone cradled between her shoulder and ear as she headed back to the elevator with Mitch. "That's a good idea. Make the calls to get us in there. I'll see you in five."


Sara and Greg returned to the lab to voucher their collected evidence and then headed down to the morgue to process the body. They worked quietly, each in their own thoughts. Sara collected swabs and scrapings from Brown's hands as well as running a couple swabs on what looked like stains on his clothes. She sat down, looking at his face, and noticed the light glance off something she hadn't seen while standing.

Greg noticed. "You see something?"

"Something on his face. I only saw it when I changed angles."

While Sara moved her chair so she could reach his face, Greg moved the light so he could see it too. "Oh, yeah. Looks like it might be transfer from his attacker."

"Yeah." Sara stood and swabbed the shiny spot on Brown's cheek. "Hodges might have fun with this."

Doc walked in and leaned his crutch against the table. "Are we ready to bag his clothes?"

"Yeah, we're all done here."

Sara sat down again. "I'll hold the bags."

The three of them removed Brown's clothes and bagged them for further processing. Once they were done with that, Greg grabbed the bags, Sara put the box of swabs and containers on her lap, and they went back up to the lab. Greg opened the door to the evidence room and Sara helped him hang up the victim's clothes so they could dry. They vouchered the evidence collected from Brown's body next so that the samples could be given to the right departments for processing. After that was done, Greg headed for the garage to continue working on one of his other cases.

Sara rolled into the shared office and transitioned into her office chair. She put her feet on the footrest and swiveled to face her computer. She was going to work on typing up her reports, but became distracted when she looked down at her legs. It had been over two years since she lost feeling in them. Two years since she'd lost the ability to walk and run and even stand without assistance. She'd been trying. There were exercises she could do to try and teach her muscles to work without her nerves being in control. But nothing was working.

A tear slipped down her cheek. Most days now, she was fine. She's gotten used to being in the wheelchair by now. Life had gotten to a place where her new normal was just that: normal. Everyone else was still nervous about what they said around her or how they act around her. Sara wasn't that fragile. The first few months, sure; that had been hard. The last few months, though? She'd gotten used to the stares and uncomfortable glances from strangers. Common phrases involving walking and running didn't sting the way they once had. Sara looked up at the structure over her desk. Nick had built this so she could move her chair on her own and develop her upper body strength, allowing her to be more independent. She moved her chair so her legs weren't under her desk, put on her workout gloves, and started doing some pull ups.

Finn walked in. "Something on your mind?"

Sara lowered herself back in the office chair. "Why do you say that?"

"Those gloves only come out when you have something on your mind."

Sara took off the gloves and sighed. "I thought I was doing better. Thought I was more adjusted to the chair."

Finn pulled out her own chair. "I'm still having a problem with time. Ever since my coma, I still find myself thinking its February or March, not October. I always have to double check the date before I start filling out a form."

Sara put her bar gloves away. "I think the two year anniversary coming up in a month, realizing it has been that long ago... I think it made me remember just how different my life is now." She put on her wheelchair gloves.

"Well, you haven't let the change stop you. You are still just as great a CSI now as you were before. Maybe some things aren't as easy now, but you've still got it." Finn's phone buzzed. "PD had a missing person report come in a few minutes ago that might be of interest. Want to come?"

Sara transitioned to her wheelchair. "Yeah. Maybe get my head on straight."

Finn stood. "That's the spirit." She waited for Sara to strap herself into the chair. "I'm driving."

"Not funny."

"Sorry."


A/N: When I originally wrote this case, I included a character that would trigger the way Sara feels about her condition. Towards the end of the case, that character no longer fit and I was trying to force them in, so they have been removed. As for Finn, I feel that she would be almost back to herself when she returns to the lab, though an event that reminds her of her attack might still rattle her a bit. Stay tuned!