Title: Survivor
Author: CSIphile
Disclaimers: Same as always, I don't own em..blah blah blah
Big thanks to everyone who has reviewed thus far, it keeps my muse going!
**He hit me. I can't believe it. He apologized and this morning I had flowers. He was sincere in the apology. It was a one time thing, I am sure it won't happen again.**
Sara is not terribly surprised to read this. Up to now, Kevin had practiced verbal and emotional abuse to break Grace down, make her essentially his slave. He got away with anything "Maybe even murder," Sara thought to herself. While the emotional abuse upset her, when she read that part, when the physical abuse started, the dam broke loose and tears that she had been holding trickled down her cheeks. Looking up briefly, she notices Nick and Greg talking outside the room, they don't seem to notice her. She wipes her eyes and continues reading.
**He did it again. It's been 3 weeks since the first time, I thought it was a freak thing. I thought…nothing, I guess I was wrong again. I am always wrong it seems like. Maybe he was right to punch me, maybe I cant do things right. He's always careful about where he hits me, never anywhere someone would see, and never hard enough to break anything, I am grateful for that. I haven't told anyone, I won't. They will try to convince me to leave, I don't know if I can, I don't know if I can live without him, no that's not it…I am terrified of leaving. I have a hard time keeping this journal, I told him I stopped writing in it, but I can't. If anything happens to me, this is all anyone will have.**
"GODDAMN him." She practically screams, unaware of Nick and now Grissom standing just outside the door. She is furious and is pretty sure her blood pressure is now through the roof. Quickly she slams the book closed, wipes her eyes again, and gets up to walk off the anger that is building inside her.
Both men look at each other first and then enter the lab slowly, knowing an upset Sara is a dangerous Sara. Upon entering, they see her. Sara has gotten up and is pacing back and forth, her hands on her lower back, oblivious to them. Grissom looks over and sees the book lying on the table, now closed for the first time in hours. Suddenly Sara increases the speed in her pacing and starts swearing under her breath. Grissom takes a close look at her and notices the drying tear tracks and that she is fighting back fresh tears as she walks.
"Sara?" He says quietly. She stops her pacing and looks up at him, something unidentifiable in her eyes. "Everything ok?"
"No Grissom. Everything is NOT ok." She responds harshly to him, taking out her anger on the first person she sees, Grissom. "The boyfriend killed her. He threw her out that window and didn't think twice about it, I'm sure." As she is talking, Grissom can sense her agitation increasing. Quickly he turns to Nick and asks him to leave. Nick gives him a dubious look, nods and leaves them alone; he doesn't want to be Grissom at that moment.
"Sara. You can't decide that based on emotion. We have to go by evidence, and right now, all we have is DNA." He says trying to calm her down.
He had never seen her this angry, never, not the Shelton case, not the Adler case. The intensity of her rage was emanating from every pore. He is frightened for her, that this time she wont let her emotions go and will burn out. She seems to be on the verge of losing it.
"I know Grissom, I know to my core that he did it. Gracie was terrified of him. Look, look at this sentence," she says and grabs the discarded journal, quickly flipping to the page she wants and shows him. **If anything happens to me, this is all anyone will have**. He reads and notices the hands that are holding open the book are shaking violently.
"Sara." He says and takes the book away from her, placing it on the table. When he looks at her face again, she has tears brimming her brown eyes. He takes her trembling hands and places them between his steady ones. "Sara, if you think he did it, then I trust you. But you need to make decisions based on facts. Something we can prove. Ok?"
"Grissom, for months he has been terrorizing her emotionally, telling her she wasn't good enough, smart enough, pretty enough. Making her think he was the only person who could ever love her; that she would never find anyone else and had to settle for him. She couldn't escape, and when she tried, when she was finally free, he exacted the kind of control she feared; he killed her. I know he did...I just know it." As she said the last part of the sentence whatever energy she had drained out of her. Grissom felt her forehead come to rest on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. While he wanted to press her about her behavior, at the same time it looked like she had been through enough, and he had a sinking feeling about the answer.
He was enjoying the feel of her soft breath through his t-shirt, but he didn't want someone to come by and see her like this, and he knew Sara wouldn't either.
"Hey" He says and lifts her head. "We have a match on the second female DNA. Hope Masterson."
Blinking quickly to clear the tears, Sara looks at him with a small smile and steps back from him. "Thank you." She says quietly and picks up the results from where he left it on the table.
"Huh, but is that so unusual considering they were in the same sorority?" She asks, getting her emotions into check for the moment.
"Probably not, but you never know." He smiles at her.
"Yeah, you never do. Do you suppose the journal is enough to get a warrant for the boyfriend's DNA?"
"No, probably not. We will have to ask really nice." Looking at the clock he makes a quick decision. "Come on." He says and lightly grabs her upper arm, guiding her out of the lab.
"Uh Grissom, where are we going?" She asks him, confused by his behavior.
"Just go grab your jacket and meet me at the Tahoe will you?" He says exasperated at her.
"Ok." She replies and heads to the locker room.
Grissom finds Nick in the break room getting coffee. "Hey, Sara and I are going to question the boyfriend, be back in a while. Can you write up a warrant for Lashos DNA and see if we can get it cleared?"
"Grissom, its 6 am, do you seriously think he will be up?" Nick says with a laugh.
"We're running an errand first. Hopefully we will have DNA to match to that hair when we get back, if you can get me that warrant."
"Sure. What am I basing the warrant on?" Nick asks, thinking to himself that Grissom is pushing this case for Sara, again.
"Journal entries made by the victim indicating long term abuse." He says and walks out of the station to find Sara standing next to the Tahoe, looking impatient.
"You know, when you say 'meet me at the Tahoe' that kinda implies you will be there first." Grissom smiles at her tone, Sara was returning to herself, if a slightly muted version.
Once they were on the road Sara asks again where they are headed.
"Breakfast. I'm hungry, I'm sure you are too and we have a bit before we can interrogate Kevin." He tells her, his eyes never leaving the road. She says nothing and continues to stare out the window.
Grissom pulls into the small diner that they usually go to as a group and looks at her. She hasn't moved a muscle to get out of the vehicle. She is just staring out the window, looking at nothing in particular. He wonders what has gotten into her, and hopes to get the answer soon.
Twenty minutes later they are seated in a small booth across from each other, both drinking coffee and eating their respective meals. They eat in comfortable silence until Grissom decides to ask the question that has been on his mind for a while. Part of the reason he brought her here is the hope she will be freer with her answer without everyone else around.
"Sara. Why is this case bothering you so much?" He starts slowly.
She carefully considers his question before answering. "I don't like it when women are taken advantage of; especially by their significant others. You trust that person, with your life usually and they take that trust, twist it around and use it against you. To make you passive, to get an ego trip out of destroying who you are… who you were. It angers me, Grissom. You have cases that bother you also, remember the baby?"
Grissom looked at her astonished, not only had she answered him, she had done it without being indigent about it and without him having to pry it out. He had noticed however, her use of the word your instead of their. It made the story more personal. He is now surer than ever that she had first hand knowledge of the subject; that distressed him. He has always seen Sara as strong and independent; he can't picture her letting anyone do that.
Looking down at his watch, he notices that it's time for them to head to the fraternity house and see if they can catch Kevin. He quickly pays the bill and they grab their coats and head to the Tahoe. She doesn't say a word the entire ride, only stares out the window. He is now more concerned then ever.
Arriving at the house, they walk up to the front porch and ring the doorbell. When no one answers, Grissom rings again and knocks. Finally a young kid, barely 20 by Grissom's guess answers the door half dressed.
"Yeah."
"Is Kevin Lasho here? We're from the crime lab." Grissom asks.
"Uhhhhh, I think so. Hang on a sec." He says and invites them in.
Grissom and Sara stand in the large foyer area and wait while the kid looks for their suspect. Finally he comes back.
"He's coming now."
"Thanks," Sara says and for the first time the younger man notices her, and slowly runs his eyes up her body and smiles at her. Sara gives him her best 'back off' look and the smile on the man's face quickly drops. Grissom laughs inside at this exchange. Sara really does know how to take care of herself. Which just serves to confuse him more about how she would get involved with an abuser. A larger man coming down the stairs towards them shakes Grissom from this line of thought.
"Hi, I'm Kevin." He says and shakes both of their hands.
"Kevin, I assume you know why we are here?"
"Gracie." He says quietly. "I can't believe what happened. I heard you guys think it's a homicide."
"Yes we do. When was the last time you were in the victims dorm room?" Grissom asks.
"Never. She usually came here or we met at her sorority house. There was no privacy in her dorm. I didn't like it." He says and smiles at them. Sara instantly doesn't like Kevin and is more certain than ever he was involved.
"Kevin, do you mind giving us a blood sample to compare to a hair we found at the scene?"
"Yeah, I do. Don't you need a warrant for that?" Kevin's friendly demeanor had shifted quickly to the defensive. At that moment Sara's cell phone rings.
"Sidle." She says and walks away from the men. Grissom is watching her as she returns with a huge grin on her face.
"On its way." Is all she says.
"That would be our warrant. Why don't you make yourself comfy?" Grissom responds coolly towards the man who sighs and takes a seat in the living room. Grissom asks him a few more cursory questions when Nick and Brass arrive, warrant in hand to draw blood. Brass hands over the warrant for Lasho to look at, while Sara opens her kit and draws a needle.
"Push up the sleeve on your shirt please and make a fist." Sara tells him. He just glares at her, but complies. With doctor like precision, Sara draws a vial of his blood, marks it and places everything back in her case, locking it shut with authority.
"Thanks." She says sarcastically.
"Hope you know you are looking at the wrong person." He yells at them as they walk out the front door.
"I don't think so." Sara tells him and closes the door behind her, shooting him a look that says she knows what he did.
tbc………………..
Author: CSIphile
Disclaimers: Same as always, I don't own em..blah blah blah
Big thanks to everyone who has reviewed thus far, it keeps my muse going!
**He hit me. I can't believe it. He apologized and this morning I had flowers. He was sincere in the apology. It was a one time thing, I am sure it won't happen again.**
Sara is not terribly surprised to read this. Up to now, Kevin had practiced verbal and emotional abuse to break Grace down, make her essentially his slave. He got away with anything "Maybe even murder," Sara thought to herself. While the emotional abuse upset her, when she read that part, when the physical abuse started, the dam broke loose and tears that she had been holding trickled down her cheeks. Looking up briefly, she notices Nick and Greg talking outside the room, they don't seem to notice her. She wipes her eyes and continues reading.
**He did it again. It's been 3 weeks since the first time, I thought it was a freak thing. I thought…nothing, I guess I was wrong again. I am always wrong it seems like. Maybe he was right to punch me, maybe I cant do things right. He's always careful about where he hits me, never anywhere someone would see, and never hard enough to break anything, I am grateful for that. I haven't told anyone, I won't. They will try to convince me to leave, I don't know if I can, I don't know if I can live without him, no that's not it…I am terrified of leaving. I have a hard time keeping this journal, I told him I stopped writing in it, but I can't. If anything happens to me, this is all anyone will have.**
"GODDAMN him." She practically screams, unaware of Nick and now Grissom standing just outside the door. She is furious and is pretty sure her blood pressure is now through the roof. Quickly she slams the book closed, wipes her eyes again, and gets up to walk off the anger that is building inside her.
Both men look at each other first and then enter the lab slowly, knowing an upset Sara is a dangerous Sara. Upon entering, they see her. Sara has gotten up and is pacing back and forth, her hands on her lower back, oblivious to them. Grissom looks over and sees the book lying on the table, now closed for the first time in hours. Suddenly Sara increases the speed in her pacing and starts swearing under her breath. Grissom takes a close look at her and notices the drying tear tracks and that she is fighting back fresh tears as she walks.
"Sara?" He says quietly. She stops her pacing and looks up at him, something unidentifiable in her eyes. "Everything ok?"
"No Grissom. Everything is NOT ok." She responds harshly to him, taking out her anger on the first person she sees, Grissom. "The boyfriend killed her. He threw her out that window and didn't think twice about it, I'm sure." As she is talking, Grissom can sense her agitation increasing. Quickly he turns to Nick and asks him to leave. Nick gives him a dubious look, nods and leaves them alone; he doesn't want to be Grissom at that moment.
"Sara. You can't decide that based on emotion. We have to go by evidence, and right now, all we have is DNA." He says trying to calm her down.
He had never seen her this angry, never, not the Shelton case, not the Adler case. The intensity of her rage was emanating from every pore. He is frightened for her, that this time she wont let her emotions go and will burn out. She seems to be on the verge of losing it.
"I know Grissom, I know to my core that he did it. Gracie was terrified of him. Look, look at this sentence," she says and grabs the discarded journal, quickly flipping to the page she wants and shows him. **If anything happens to me, this is all anyone will have**. He reads and notices the hands that are holding open the book are shaking violently.
"Sara." He says and takes the book away from her, placing it on the table. When he looks at her face again, she has tears brimming her brown eyes. He takes her trembling hands and places them between his steady ones. "Sara, if you think he did it, then I trust you. But you need to make decisions based on facts. Something we can prove. Ok?"
"Grissom, for months he has been terrorizing her emotionally, telling her she wasn't good enough, smart enough, pretty enough. Making her think he was the only person who could ever love her; that she would never find anyone else and had to settle for him. She couldn't escape, and when she tried, when she was finally free, he exacted the kind of control she feared; he killed her. I know he did...I just know it." As she said the last part of the sentence whatever energy she had drained out of her. Grissom felt her forehead come to rest on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. While he wanted to press her about her behavior, at the same time it looked like she had been through enough, and he had a sinking feeling about the answer.
He was enjoying the feel of her soft breath through his t-shirt, but he didn't want someone to come by and see her like this, and he knew Sara wouldn't either.
"Hey" He says and lifts her head. "We have a match on the second female DNA. Hope Masterson."
Blinking quickly to clear the tears, Sara looks at him with a small smile and steps back from him. "Thank you." She says quietly and picks up the results from where he left it on the table.
"Huh, but is that so unusual considering they were in the same sorority?" She asks, getting her emotions into check for the moment.
"Probably not, but you never know." He smiles at her.
"Yeah, you never do. Do you suppose the journal is enough to get a warrant for the boyfriend's DNA?"
"No, probably not. We will have to ask really nice." Looking at the clock he makes a quick decision. "Come on." He says and lightly grabs her upper arm, guiding her out of the lab.
"Uh Grissom, where are we going?" She asks him, confused by his behavior.
"Just go grab your jacket and meet me at the Tahoe will you?" He says exasperated at her.
"Ok." She replies and heads to the locker room.
Grissom finds Nick in the break room getting coffee. "Hey, Sara and I are going to question the boyfriend, be back in a while. Can you write up a warrant for Lashos DNA and see if we can get it cleared?"
"Grissom, its 6 am, do you seriously think he will be up?" Nick says with a laugh.
"We're running an errand first. Hopefully we will have DNA to match to that hair when we get back, if you can get me that warrant."
"Sure. What am I basing the warrant on?" Nick asks, thinking to himself that Grissom is pushing this case for Sara, again.
"Journal entries made by the victim indicating long term abuse." He says and walks out of the station to find Sara standing next to the Tahoe, looking impatient.
"You know, when you say 'meet me at the Tahoe' that kinda implies you will be there first." Grissom smiles at her tone, Sara was returning to herself, if a slightly muted version.
Once they were on the road Sara asks again where they are headed.
"Breakfast. I'm hungry, I'm sure you are too and we have a bit before we can interrogate Kevin." He tells her, his eyes never leaving the road. She says nothing and continues to stare out the window.
Grissom pulls into the small diner that they usually go to as a group and looks at her. She hasn't moved a muscle to get out of the vehicle. She is just staring out the window, looking at nothing in particular. He wonders what has gotten into her, and hopes to get the answer soon.
Twenty minutes later they are seated in a small booth across from each other, both drinking coffee and eating their respective meals. They eat in comfortable silence until Grissom decides to ask the question that has been on his mind for a while. Part of the reason he brought her here is the hope she will be freer with her answer without everyone else around.
"Sara. Why is this case bothering you so much?" He starts slowly.
She carefully considers his question before answering. "I don't like it when women are taken advantage of; especially by their significant others. You trust that person, with your life usually and they take that trust, twist it around and use it against you. To make you passive, to get an ego trip out of destroying who you are… who you were. It angers me, Grissom. You have cases that bother you also, remember the baby?"
Grissom looked at her astonished, not only had she answered him, she had done it without being indigent about it and without him having to pry it out. He had noticed however, her use of the word your instead of their. It made the story more personal. He is now surer than ever that she had first hand knowledge of the subject; that distressed him. He has always seen Sara as strong and independent; he can't picture her letting anyone do that.
Looking down at his watch, he notices that it's time for them to head to the fraternity house and see if they can catch Kevin. He quickly pays the bill and they grab their coats and head to the Tahoe. She doesn't say a word the entire ride, only stares out the window. He is now more concerned then ever.
Arriving at the house, they walk up to the front porch and ring the doorbell. When no one answers, Grissom rings again and knocks. Finally a young kid, barely 20 by Grissom's guess answers the door half dressed.
"Yeah."
"Is Kevin Lasho here? We're from the crime lab." Grissom asks.
"Uhhhhh, I think so. Hang on a sec." He says and invites them in.
Grissom and Sara stand in the large foyer area and wait while the kid looks for their suspect. Finally he comes back.
"He's coming now."
"Thanks," Sara says and for the first time the younger man notices her, and slowly runs his eyes up her body and smiles at her. Sara gives him her best 'back off' look and the smile on the man's face quickly drops. Grissom laughs inside at this exchange. Sara really does know how to take care of herself. Which just serves to confuse him more about how she would get involved with an abuser. A larger man coming down the stairs towards them shakes Grissom from this line of thought.
"Hi, I'm Kevin." He says and shakes both of their hands.
"Kevin, I assume you know why we are here?"
"Gracie." He says quietly. "I can't believe what happened. I heard you guys think it's a homicide."
"Yes we do. When was the last time you were in the victims dorm room?" Grissom asks.
"Never. She usually came here or we met at her sorority house. There was no privacy in her dorm. I didn't like it." He says and smiles at them. Sara instantly doesn't like Kevin and is more certain than ever he was involved.
"Kevin, do you mind giving us a blood sample to compare to a hair we found at the scene?"
"Yeah, I do. Don't you need a warrant for that?" Kevin's friendly demeanor had shifted quickly to the defensive. At that moment Sara's cell phone rings.
"Sidle." She says and walks away from the men. Grissom is watching her as she returns with a huge grin on her face.
"On its way." Is all she says.
"That would be our warrant. Why don't you make yourself comfy?" Grissom responds coolly towards the man who sighs and takes a seat in the living room. Grissom asks him a few more cursory questions when Nick and Brass arrive, warrant in hand to draw blood. Brass hands over the warrant for Lasho to look at, while Sara opens her kit and draws a needle.
"Push up the sleeve on your shirt please and make a fist." Sara tells him. He just glares at her, but complies. With doctor like precision, Sara draws a vial of his blood, marks it and places everything back in her case, locking it shut with authority.
"Thanks." She says sarcastically.
"Hope you know you are looking at the wrong person." He yells at them as they walk out the front door.
"I don't think so." Sara tells him and closes the door behind her, shooting him a look that says she knows what he did.
tbc………………..