Title: Survivor
Author: csiphile
Disclaimers, ect are on the first chapter.
Notes: Big thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, please keep it up! The muse loves it! I am hoping to have the whole thing posted by the end of the weekend, but RL may intervene so don't flog me if it takes longer. (
On with the show..
Entering the observation room set up next to interrogation, Sara looks at Grace Roberts killer. She knew he did it, she knew with every cell in her body. The problem is they have very little to convict him on, hopefully he will spill something during the interrogation. Sara doesn't even notice when Nick enters the room and stands next to her a few minutes after they start talking to Kevin, who predictably, has his attorney present. Nothing of interest is revealed for the first few minutes when Grissom asks if Kevin knows how one of his hairs got into her dorm.
"I.I don't know. We were together a lot, it was probably on her." He says calmly.
"You were upset with Grace..weren't you? For leaving you that is?" This comes from Brass.
"Of course I was upset, my girlfriend broke up with me. I loved her."
"Were you following her?" Brass continues
"What? No I wasn't." Sara is getting increasingly infuriated with the situation. Kevin is calm as can be, not letting any emotion cross his face. She wants to confront him, see if she can force the issue, but she promised Grissom to stay back.
"Did you hit Grace while you where together?" Grissom asks while holding the journal.
"No, never."
"Then why would she say you did in her journal?"
"I don't know, she lying though, I never touched her." He responds, still without any emotion.
Nick has been watching Sara the whole time, and notices her tense up as they get more into the stormy relationship between the victim and suspect. She looks like a cat about to pounce. Another 30 minutes later, with no more information than what they started with, Brass is forced to release the suspect due to lack of evidence. Sara storms out of the observation room, angry because they cant prove anything and makes her way to the restroom. Standing at the sink, Sara looks in the mirror and sees her reflection in the dirty glass, except what she sees is not the Sara of today, but the Sara from her past. The one with a swollen eye and a split lip. "Dammit" she screams and smacks her palms loudly against the edge of the sink bowl. Taking a few more minutes, Sara calms down enough to at least leave the room, as soon as she opens the door, however, she is greeted by Kevin Lasho walking toward her, talking with his attorney, Grissom and Brass are walking slightly ahead, both with grim expressions on their faces. As Kevin passes her, Sara just gives him a hard stare that crumbles most people, he just smiles at her. As she starts to turn away from the group, before she does something rash, Sara feels a hand on her arm.
"Miss Sidle." Kevin says to get her attention.
Sara quickly pulls her arm out of his grasp. "What?" She responds shortly, just being in the same area as this man is enough to get Sara's blood pressure up.
"I told you I didn't have anything to do with this. Why don't you believe me?"
"Because you're an abuser and a liar, and that's all I need to know."
Kevin advances on her slightly, but Sara doesn't move an inch, she refuses to let this man do to her what he did to Grace, intimidate her. By now the rest of the group has noticed the two of them. Grissom quickly moves past Brass and the lawyer to get as close a view as possible, he didn't trust Lasho any more than Sara did.
"I never abused her." He says and leans into Sara, bringing his face almost even to hers.
"Yea, sure you didn't. Why was she so terrified of you then?" Sara asks and closes the gap between them even more. Grissom is watching and notices this is an offensive maneuver on her part, but doesn't intervene, she can take care of herself.
"I don't know, maybe she was scared of disappointing me. I don't know what to tell you Sara, she was a very weak woman." He says, specifically trying to goad her.
"Excuse me? She left you, I think that was very strong of her. I cant imagine what she did that made you think it was ok to beat her up and break her down." Sara says, trying her best not to let the anger come out in her voice.
"Why don't you just mind your own business. She got whatever she deserved." He says the last part quietly so no one but Sara can hear.
Sara just looks at him, the expression on his face one of superiority, he killed Grace, he knows he is getting away with it and there isn't anything she can do to stop him. That is enough for Sara, without even thinking, she brings her fist around and using all the force she can, punches Kevin Lasho square in the face. The sickening sound of his nose breaking reverberates in the hallway. Grissom watches the whole thing unfold, unable to stop her, he doesn't realize what's happening until her fist connects. One part of Grissom's brain is angry at her for letting her anger take control, but a small part of him is also proud of her, he had wanted to do that since meeting the guy.
Kevin grabs his nose and takes a step back to asses the damage, while Sara just stares at him, her expression never changing. Brass, Grissom are all frozen in place for the moment unsure what to do; shocked at what just happened, while his lawyer attempts to approach, but is stopped by the look on Kevin's face. As Kevin pulls a hand away from his face and notices the blood, he looks at Sara, intense rage on his face.
"You BITCH." He screams at her and closes the gap he made, getting the attention of anyone in the vicinity. "You broke my nose."
"Good." She hisses at him, still not moving an inch. "Pick on someone your own size next time and see what happens."
Suddenly, Kevin lunges at Sara, makes contact with her shoulders and shoves her hard into the wall, causing her head to crack against the drywall. For one instant Sara is scared of him, but puts that away, brings her arms up and pushes his hands off her. By then Grissom and Brass have come to her aid and are pulling Lasho back, Brass holds onto him while Grissom rushes over to be sure Sara is alright, his anger temporarily put on the back burner.
"Sara. You ok?" He asks and gives her a once over with his eyes.
She just nods then slides down the wall to the floor, unable to breathe. Grissom starts telling Brass to call an ambulance but a hand on his chest stops him. Looking at her, Grissom feels helpless and doesn't like it.
"I..I just.got ..the wind..knocked.out of..me." She says and smiles at him.
"Ok, just rest there and catch your breath ok?" He says and grabs her hand in his, wanting to make contact with her, feel her warm skin against his. While nothing serious had happened, Grissom realizes the larger man could have done some serious damage had he wanted to. Sara finally breaks the eye contact that started as soon as he kneeled down next to her, closes her eyes and tilts her head back against the wall, trying to get more air into her lungs. Grissom finally takes the opportunity and turns to the man who is screaming as loud as he can what happened while an on-site medic looks at his nose.
"I want her arrested, do you hear me! She assaulted me!" He yells at Brass who is doing his best to contain the aggravated man.
"Sir, calm down. Can I point out that you also assaulted a police officer, so she could file charges against you, and trust me, yours would be more serious. So, why don't we call it a wash and everyone go home? Huh?" Lasho considers Brass's words and finally nods in agreement. Brass looks at Sara, who is also nodding her agreement.
"Good, then, Mr Lasho I suggest you leave, but don't leave the county. From here on in, Sara you are not allowed within 100 yards of Mr Lasho. That's an order, do you understand?" Sara is obviously not pleased but nods again. "Alright then. I suggest you get to a doctor and have that nose looked at. Goodbye Mr. Lasho." Brass says the mans name with obvious distain.
Throwing a nasty look at Sara, Kevin finally leaves the building, still holding his nose. Grissom is still kneeling next to Sara, watching her as she finally starts to breathe normally.
"She ok?" Brass asks
"Yea, she will be fine, thanks for averting a disaster there Jim, I owe you." He says and gives the older man a smile.
"No problem, I wouldn't want Sara going to prison from something I was thinking about doing myself." He says and pats Grissom on the shoulder as he walks away.
When Grissom turns back to look at Sara, she has finally opened her eyes and is looking at him.
"Hey." He says softly, pushing a lock of her hair off her cheek, Sara shudders a bit at the feather light feel of his fingertips on her skin. "Can you get up?"
"Yea." She says and slowly stands with Grissom helping her up with one hand in hers and the other on her lower back. Both of them oblivious to the people walking around them and watching with fascination. Just as Sara gets to standing, the hall starts to spin and she grabs onto Grissom's arm with her free hand. He instantly realizes what's happening and leads her to a bench.
"Ok, maybe that wasn't a good idea." She says with a smile as he sits next to her and touches the back of her head. Sara instinctively pulls her head away from him, without realizing why and immediately regrets doing it. He lets the action go for now and continues to feel the back of her head, finally finding a small bump near the top.
"You have a small bump. How's your head feel?"
"I have a slight headache, that's about it, nothing major." She says and replaces his hand with hers, feeling the bump and grimacing. "Well that probably wasn't the smartest thing I ever did."
"No kidding, what on earth where you thinking? If it wasn't for Brass your ass would be in jail right now for assault. Dammit Sara, you know better than that!" He is finally letting himself get angry at her.
"Grissom, I know. I'm sorry, I just.I don't know what happened." She says and looks down at the floor.
"Sara, I." He starts but is interrupted by Nick coming down the hall at a quick pace.
"Sara, are you ok?" He asks, not noticing the annoyed look on Grissom's face.
"Yes Nick I'm fine. How did you know?"
"One of the lab techs saw you punch the guy." He says and a sly smile comes across his face." How did it feel to hit him?"
She smiled back at him, "Great. Though I learned my lesson, cause damn my hand hurts now." She says and looks at the hand that broke Kevin Lasho's nose. It was covered in blood, probably his, and appears to be swelling.
"Sara, why didn't you mention that earlier?" Grissom asks, annoyed at her for not saying anything.
"It didn't hurt until just now." She responds with a bit of sarcasm.
"Adrenaline wearing off." Nick helpfully provides and looks more closely.
"Nick, will you please grab Sara an ice pack from the medic and bring it to my office?"
"Sure thing Gris." He says to the older man and turns to Sara "Nice going Tyson, remind me not to piss you off." Nick smiles at them and heads down the hall.
Grissom just stares at Sara, whose head is still down, watching her hand while she moves it around to be sure its not broken. He shakes his head at the woman in front of him, they are the same and yet different. They are both introverted, private people with little in the way of a social life, additionally they are each highly intelligent, which tends to put off most people, especially in Sara's case. But it's the difference that draw him to her. Sara wants justice for the victims and uses her emotions to drive her. Grissom does feel, contrary to an accusation she once made, but holds his emotions in check, knowing what they can do, as witnessed today. But he admits its that fire in her, that seemingly never ending supply of energy that makes him want to be around her. 'Her passion', he thinks to himself, 'that's the word'. Sighing, he touches her shoulder and she turns her head to him.
"Come on, lets get to my office and put some ice on that, before you cant even use it. Your handwriting is bad enough without a swollen hand." He says and smiles at her, letting her know he isn't mad.
"Thanks Grissom." She says and starts walking to his office, his hand on her lower back.
tbc.......
Sara punching people seems to be a theme in my fics, so I am thinking I should do it in every one! Someone aptly named it the Sara Sidle Iron Fist (SSIF) so don't be surprised if you see it again!
Author: csiphile
Disclaimers, ect are on the first chapter.
Notes: Big thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, please keep it up! The muse loves it! I am hoping to have the whole thing posted by the end of the weekend, but RL may intervene so don't flog me if it takes longer. (
On with the show..
Entering the observation room set up next to interrogation, Sara looks at Grace Roberts killer. She knew he did it, she knew with every cell in her body. The problem is they have very little to convict him on, hopefully he will spill something during the interrogation. Sara doesn't even notice when Nick enters the room and stands next to her a few minutes after they start talking to Kevin, who predictably, has his attorney present. Nothing of interest is revealed for the first few minutes when Grissom asks if Kevin knows how one of his hairs got into her dorm.
"I.I don't know. We were together a lot, it was probably on her." He says calmly.
"You were upset with Grace..weren't you? For leaving you that is?" This comes from Brass.
"Of course I was upset, my girlfriend broke up with me. I loved her."
"Were you following her?" Brass continues
"What? No I wasn't." Sara is getting increasingly infuriated with the situation. Kevin is calm as can be, not letting any emotion cross his face. She wants to confront him, see if she can force the issue, but she promised Grissom to stay back.
"Did you hit Grace while you where together?" Grissom asks while holding the journal.
"No, never."
"Then why would she say you did in her journal?"
"I don't know, she lying though, I never touched her." He responds, still without any emotion.
Nick has been watching Sara the whole time, and notices her tense up as they get more into the stormy relationship between the victim and suspect. She looks like a cat about to pounce. Another 30 minutes later, with no more information than what they started with, Brass is forced to release the suspect due to lack of evidence. Sara storms out of the observation room, angry because they cant prove anything and makes her way to the restroom. Standing at the sink, Sara looks in the mirror and sees her reflection in the dirty glass, except what she sees is not the Sara of today, but the Sara from her past. The one with a swollen eye and a split lip. "Dammit" she screams and smacks her palms loudly against the edge of the sink bowl. Taking a few more minutes, Sara calms down enough to at least leave the room, as soon as she opens the door, however, she is greeted by Kevin Lasho walking toward her, talking with his attorney, Grissom and Brass are walking slightly ahead, both with grim expressions on their faces. As Kevin passes her, Sara just gives him a hard stare that crumbles most people, he just smiles at her. As she starts to turn away from the group, before she does something rash, Sara feels a hand on her arm.
"Miss Sidle." Kevin says to get her attention.
Sara quickly pulls her arm out of his grasp. "What?" She responds shortly, just being in the same area as this man is enough to get Sara's blood pressure up.
"I told you I didn't have anything to do with this. Why don't you believe me?"
"Because you're an abuser and a liar, and that's all I need to know."
Kevin advances on her slightly, but Sara doesn't move an inch, she refuses to let this man do to her what he did to Grace, intimidate her. By now the rest of the group has noticed the two of them. Grissom quickly moves past Brass and the lawyer to get as close a view as possible, he didn't trust Lasho any more than Sara did.
"I never abused her." He says and leans into Sara, bringing his face almost even to hers.
"Yea, sure you didn't. Why was she so terrified of you then?" Sara asks and closes the gap between them even more. Grissom is watching and notices this is an offensive maneuver on her part, but doesn't intervene, she can take care of herself.
"I don't know, maybe she was scared of disappointing me. I don't know what to tell you Sara, she was a very weak woman." He says, specifically trying to goad her.
"Excuse me? She left you, I think that was very strong of her. I cant imagine what she did that made you think it was ok to beat her up and break her down." Sara says, trying her best not to let the anger come out in her voice.
"Why don't you just mind your own business. She got whatever she deserved." He says the last part quietly so no one but Sara can hear.
Sara just looks at him, the expression on his face one of superiority, he killed Grace, he knows he is getting away with it and there isn't anything she can do to stop him. That is enough for Sara, without even thinking, she brings her fist around and using all the force she can, punches Kevin Lasho square in the face. The sickening sound of his nose breaking reverberates in the hallway. Grissom watches the whole thing unfold, unable to stop her, he doesn't realize what's happening until her fist connects. One part of Grissom's brain is angry at her for letting her anger take control, but a small part of him is also proud of her, he had wanted to do that since meeting the guy.
Kevin grabs his nose and takes a step back to asses the damage, while Sara just stares at him, her expression never changing. Brass, Grissom are all frozen in place for the moment unsure what to do; shocked at what just happened, while his lawyer attempts to approach, but is stopped by the look on Kevin's face. As Kevin pulls a hand away from his face and notices the blood, he looks at Sara, intense rage on his face.
"You BITCH." He screams at her and closes the gap he made, getting the attention of anyone in the vicinity. "You broke my nose."
"Good." She hisses at him, still not moving an inch. "Pick on someone your own size next time and see what happens."
Suddenly, Kevin lunges at Sara, makes contact with her shoulders and shoves her hard into the wall, causing her head to crack against the drywall. For one instant Sara is scared of him, but puts that away, brings her arms up and pushes his hands off her. By then Grissom and Brass have come to her aid and are pulling Lasho back, Brass holds onto him while Grissom rushes over to be sure Sara is alright, his anger temporarily put on the back burner.
"Sara. You ok?" He asks and gives her a once over with his eyes.
She just nods then slides down the wall to the floor, unable to breathe. Grissom starts telling Brass to call an ambulance but a hand on his chest stops him. Looking at her, Grissom feels helpless and doesn't like it.
"I..I just.got ..the wind..knocked.out of..me." She says and smiles at him.
"Ok, just rest there and catch your breath ok?" He says and grabs her hand in his, wanting to make contact with her, feel her warm skin against his. While nothing serious had happened, Grissom realizes the larger man could have done some serious damage had he wanted to. Sara finally breaks the eye contact that started as soon as he kneeled down next to her, closes her eyes and tilts her head back against the wall, trying to get more air into her lungs. Grissom finally takes the opportunity and turns to the man who is screaming as loud as he can what happened while an on-site medic looks at his nose.
"I want her arrested, do you hear me! She assaulted me!" He yells at Brass who is doing his best to contain the aggravated man.
"Sir, calm down. Can I point out that you also assaulted a police officer, so she could file charges against you, and trust me, yours would be more serious. So, why don't we call it a wash and everyone go home? Huh?" Lasho considers Brass's words and finally nods in agreement. Brass looks at Sara, who is also nodding her agreement.
"Good, then, Mr Lasho I suggest you leave, but don't leave the county. From here on in, Sara you are not allowed within 100 yards of Mr Lasho. That's an order, do you understand?" Sara is obviously not pleased but nods again. "Alright then. I suggest you get to a doctor and have that nose looked at. Goodbye Mr. Lasho." Brass says the mans name with obvious distain.
Throwing a nasty look at Sara, Kevin finally leaves the building, still holding his nose. Grissom is still kneeling next to Sara, watching her as she finally starts to breathe normally.
"She ok?" Brass asks
"Yea, she will be fine, thanks for averting a disaster there Jim, I owe you." He says and gives the older man a smile.
"No problem, I wouldn't want Sara going to prison from something I was thinking about doing myself." He says and pats Grissom on the shoulder as he walks away.
When Grissom turns back to look at Sara, she has finally opened her eyes and is looking at him.
"Hey." He says softly, pushing a lock of her hair off her cheek, Sara shudders a bit at the feather light feel of his fingertips on her skin. "Can you get up?"
"Yea." She says and slowly stands with Grissom helping her up with one hand in hers and the other on her lower back. Both of them oblivious to the people walking around them and watching with fascination. Just as Sara gets to standing, the hall starts to spin and she grabs onto Grissom's arm with her free hand. He instantly realizes what's happening and leads her to a bench.
"Ok, maybe that wasn't a good idea." She says with a smile as he sits next to her and touches the back of her head. Sara instinctively pulls her head away from him, without realizing why and immediately regrets doing it. He lets the action go for now and continues to feel the back of her head, finally finding a small bump near the top.
"You have a small bump. How's your head feel?"
"I have a slight headache, that's about it, nothing major." She says and replaces his hand with hers, feeling the bump and grimacing. "Well that probably wasn't the smartest thing I ever did."
"No kidding, what on earth where you thinking? If it wasn't for Brass your ass would be in jail right now for assault. Dammit Sara, you know better than that!" He is finally letting himself get angry at her.
"Grissom, I know. I'm sorry, I just.I don't know what happened." She says and looks down at the floor.
"Sara, I." He starts but is interrupted by Nick coming down the hall at a quick pace.
"Sara, are you ok?" He asks, not noticing the annoyed look on Grissom's face.
"Yes Nick I'm fine. How did you know?"
"One of the lab techs saw you punch the guy." He says and a sly smile comes across his face." How did it feel to hit him?"
She smiled back at him, "Great. Though I learned my lesson, cause damn my hand hurts now." She says and looks at the hand that broke Kevin Lasho's nose. It was covered in blood, probably his, and appears to be swelling.
"Sara, why didn't you mention that earlier?" Grissom asks, annoyed at her for not saying anything.
"It didn't hurt until just now." She responds with a bit of sarcasm.
"Adrenaline wearing off." Nick helpfully provides and looks more closely.
"Nick, will you please grab Sara an ice pack from the medic and bring it to my office?"
"Sure thing Gris." He says to the older man and turns to Sara "Nice going Tyson, remind me not to piss you off." Nick smiles at them and heads down the hall.
Grissom just stares at Sara, whose head is still down, watching her hand while she moves it around to be sure its not broken. He shakes his head at the woman in front of him, they are the same and yet different. They are both introverted, private people with little in the way of a social life, additionally they are each highly intelligent, which tends to put off most people, especially in Sara's case. But it's the difference that draw him to her. Sara wants justice for the victims and uses her emotions to drive her. Grissom does feel, contrary to an accusation she once made, but holds his emotions in check, knowing what they can do, as witnessed today. But he admits its that fire in her, that seemingly never ending supply of energy that makes him want to be around her. 'Her passion', he thinks to himself, 'that's the word'. Sighing, he touches her shoulder and she turns her head to him.
"Come on, lets get to my office and put some ice on that, before you cant even use it. Your handwriting is bad enough without a swollen hand." He says and smiles at her, letting her know he isn't mad.
"Thanks Grissom." She says and starts walking to his office, his hand on her lower back.
tbc.......
Sara punching people seems to be a theme in my fics, so I am thinking I should do it in every one! Someone aptly named it the Sara Sidle Iron Fist (SSIF) so don't be surprised if you see it again!