Las Vegas and San Francisco

Brandy - Looking Glass

Somewhere in Las Vegas, a tired CSI supervisor walked in the Las Vegas lab's breakroom.

"How was your trip?" asked Jim as he settled in the breakroom couch before the start of another shift

"Great." replied Grissom, taking a seat and waiting for the rest of his team. Jim joined him and Gil then continued by saying:

"The lecture went well and I was able to eat some chowder before getting home. What else do you want me to say?"

"Well, it must have been pretty good chowder since you're looking chipper than usual."

"Lay off me, Jim. It was a good conference and I'm glad to be back."

"I'm pretty sure the last part isn't true." he countered

"You should just take my word for it."

"Well, I will and in exchange, you get the B&E in summerland. Take Warrick with you." replied Brass, handing him an assignment slip.

"You got it, boss." answered Gil and he moved himself towards the locker room to look for Warrick.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the CSI supervisor was waiting for his newest criminalist.

"How was the course, Sara?" asked Dave as she entered his office.

"It was great." she replied, keeping it short, but adding a smile.

"You didn't fall asleep on Gil now, did you?" he asked in jest

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked, somewhat nervous. 'Did Gil tell him about their weekend together?'

"During his lecture, you didn't fall asleep? The man could be a bit boring up on a podium." he explained, handing her first ever assignment slip as a CSI.

"He was pretty great actually." she complimented, unconsciously touching the pendant that now hung on her neck.

"Anything special you learned?"

"I realized that I couldn't rely on my first blush." she answered, going on about the double murder Gil explained during the conference.

"Well, I'm glad I sent you to that one because we're off to your first ever scene and you're with me. Break in at a local store near the Marriott." instructed Dave, pointing to the assignment slip he just passed her.

"Let's roll." she remarked, ready for her first ever crime scene as a CSI.

You're not going home yet?" asked Catherine Willows to his colleague.

Gil shifted his attention from the computer screen to Catherine and replied:

"Probably after this email."

"You've been hunched down on the computer more often. You have a 'You've Got Mail' thing going on, Gil?"

"I don't know what you mean, Catherine." he said with a raised eyebrow.

"I definitely know you know what I mean." she countered, pulling up a chair and sitting beside him seeing that he was emailing another CSI from San Francisco about a case.

"I told you, I don't know what you mean. A contact in San Francisco found some bugs in her scene and asked me to take a second look." he explained, pretty relieved that he has yet to reply to Sara's more personal email.

"Her. Hmmm. Sounds pretty intriguing. A girl who plays with bugs too." caught Catherine, probing further as she scanned his email reply.

"Cath-" warned Grissom, giving her a pointed look

Before she could rebut him, her beeper went off and seeing that it was her husband asking where she was, she decided to leave it at that. She stood up and as she started to walk away, she merely said:

"Your timeline is off. Lucky I caught it or your gal Sidle won't be able to solve her case."

"Doug Wilson, this is Sara Sidle." introduced Dave, interrupting Sara's email correspondence.

"Hi! NTSB right?" she asked, standing up from the breakroom desktop and shaking his hand for good measure.

"Yeah." he answered, flashing her a smile.

"Doug needs another pair of hands on his and since you've just finished your maggot infested DB, I was hoping you still have it in you to pull a double." explained Dave, handing her the case file and leaving them both.

"Sure. What do we have?" asked Sara, immediately jumping on the chance to work with the NTSB.

"Crash near the bay earlier. Small chartered flight, a pilot and passenger are both dead. Also, we might have dinner and a drink together once this is solved." explained Doug, adding the last part of his explanation as a way to ask her out.

"Sure. Have you been to the Rusty Nickel yet?" she replied, saving her email to Grissom for another time and logging out.

"You okay?" asked Brass as they clicked their scotch glasses.

They often frequented this bar after a hard case as it did not only serve a good year of scotch, but would also play some of the songs that both men gravitated towards.

"I'll be better tomorrow." was his simple response.

The case was pretty brutal. Pregnant 19 year-old girl killed by her john over a few hundred dollars and they both felt the hit. Though they both knew rationally there was really nothing they could do, how the story unfolded still left a bitter taste they thought the scotch could help ease.

"So will I." replied Brass, joining his silence before saying:

"You know, something's different with you lately."

"What do you mean?" Grissom asked, suddenly interested in the song that enveloped the room.

"Ah. Brandy." sighed Brass

"It's always been a classic." replied Grissom, hoping to divert his friend.

"She loves a man who's not around." Brass repeated, following the song and noticing Gil's slight change of the demeanour.

Gil didn't give anything away, but he sighed. Everyone noticed it and though he knew it's just office fodder at this point, they've all seen him hunched down writing emails after every shift.

"She must be pretty special, Gil? You haven't been the same since San Francisco." opened Brass, ordering them both another round.

"You know these things never work out. Especially with me." slightly remembering her short-lived relationship with Julia Holden who his mother especially liked and Brass met briefly a year ago.

"Maybe it's not about you. It's about the girl. Your mother might have loved Julia, but did you?"

Grissom snorted for good measure and nonchalantly took a sip of his drink. He definitely cared about Julia, but not the way his mother wanted him too. He knew that his mother had hoped that after several years in Las Vegas, he would be open to settling down. Though he definitely felt settled in the desert, he didn't feel the need to settle down yet. He was married to his job and there's always another conference to go to or another crime to solve. Plus, there's the annual entomology conference each year and Julia wanted him to throw away his racing roaches.

Brass jolted him out of his reverie when he said:

"You can always have a weekend off in San Francisco, Gil. It's just a few hours away if you take a plane."

He smiled as he had thought of it many times over. The thought of spending another weekend with Sara always made him grin and though he knew from Dave Sheibaum that Sara's been clocking in more hours than most - just like him - he felt like it would have been an intrusion to their agreement to let their weekend together end as such. Brass then repeated the lyrics of the song to him:

"At night, when the bars close down and Brandy walks to a silent town, and loves a man who's not around, he can still hear him say…"

"I'm beginning to hate this song." sighed Gil and merely sighed when Brass continued:

"...Brandy, you're a fine girl, what a good wife you would be, but my life, my love and my lady is the sea."