Torn
By: Manigault
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to CBS, Atlantic-Alliance, and Anthony Zuiker.
Note: A bit of a change as I finally got around to editing a bit. This story bothered me for a long long time, but I think I cleaned it up a little. Thanks for the reviews everyone!
Grissoms Tahoe
4:00 pm
Grissom clicked off the phone and glanced in the rearview mirror into the back seat where a desolate Marc Thompson stared out of the window at the rushing scenery. He had left a cryptic message with both Catherine and Warrick in the event he or Sara failed to show for their shift. Whatever they discovered out at the site of the first victim he hoped his relationship with Sara withstood the storm that was bound to follow. The location of the crime scene was imprinted on his mind and he had no doubts as he pulled off the Interstate and onto the road less terrain. When the road would yield no more of man's technology, he cut the engine, and then turned to face his passengers.
"I thought that we would find his car out here, but I don't see it." He looked over the seat and spoke directly to Marc. "Your brother may not be here so be thinking of any other places you can while we walk out to the site."
"Grissom." The warning tone in Sara's voice rankled, but he resisted responding verbally and simply gave her a directed look, his eyebrow raised. They had managed to narrowly avoid having their relationship exposed by Gibbes and Ecklie, only to turn around the very next day and have it delivered to their doorstep. He was in no mood to coddle a teenager who- Grissom paused, watching the slumped shoulders of the boy as he walked beside Sara. The teenager who had taken it upon himself to protect Sara from his own brother that he wanted desperately to believe, going so far as to trail him, and then find Sara to possibly warn him of his own suspicions. Grissom felt a tug of some new emotion towards the teen; admiration and gratitude. It was possible that Bryan Thompson would have never approached Sara, but it was not a chance he would dare risk. Sara glanced over towards him, probably gauging his mood, and then smiled when he winked back. They would pull through this together, another foreign emotion for him, and one that felt right. He almost bumped into Sara, as she froze in her tracks, her eyes riveted on the scenic view.
"What is it?"
"I've seen this before, someplace." Sara mused.
"My house." Marc said. "Scott takes a lot of pictures out here and has given us a few of them. We have one in the foyer."
"That's it." Sara continued walking, as Grissom mentally questioned himself. He had seen the picture, but it had not triggered any memories for him of this area. He reassured himself that there were many pictures taken of similar mountains and it was not a flaw that he had missed a glaring piece of evidence.
"Who would guess?" Sara added as if reading his mind.
They arrived at the crime scene within fifteen minutes, each searching the landscape for any sign of Bryan Thompson.
"He isn't here." Sara planted her hands on her hips and squinted into the distance. Grissom walked around the site and recalled the image of Brynna Thompson as he had found her, weeks after her alleged accident.
"There he is!" Marc spotted a figure walk around an outcropping of rock and began to shout. "Scott! Scott, over here!"
Grissom and Sara spun around to stare at the man who was casually strolling towards them, no expression on his face. Grissom reached back for his gun, and he noticed that Sara did the same. "Thompson?" Grissom queried.
The man stared at Marc with bitterness that was staggering to the teen who stumbled backwards and lost his footing.
"Scott?" Marc did not try to stand, but kept his eyes fastened on the man who had always been his friend and brother. "I brought these people to help you. Tell them that you didn't kill anyone and they will listen."
Bryan Thompson allowed his eyes to flicker between Grissom and Sara, taking in their pensive expressions, the guns now drawn and pointed at him.
"I can see that Marc."
Marc swallowed over a lump in his throat and scrambled to his feet, taking a step towards his brother who turned those piercing eyes on him. "My name is Bryan, not Scott, and I didn't kill anyone." Before Marc could release his breath with relief, Bryan continued in a detached voice. "I tried to save them. I did save their children and Byrnna," He turned to Sara. "I saved Byrnna, didn't I? She is alive and will be fine." He nodded at the answer he saw in her eyes, and reacted with anger at the accusation. "I did save her, she will live and her baby is in good hands."
"Do you mean Erin, Byran?" Grissom corrected with restrained emotion. "Erin Monroe was your last victim."
Bryan glared at him with crazed eyes. "I saved my twin, Byrnna, and her baby." He insisted. "I saved them both but nobody will believe me."
"Where is Valerie, Bryan?" Sara tried to maintain her composure, but it was difficult not to jump at him, beating the truth out of him with her fists. She held the gun in her hands and realized something about the same time Grissom did; Bryan Thompson was not scared. He was not afraid of the guns they directed in his direction, or of being caught. The only emotion they detected was anger and that was ebbing away and returning to the bleakness he had exhibited upon their first encounter. "Where is she?" Sara pressed. "Her mom, Erin, misses her so much."
"I miss Byrnna." Bryan said in that detached tone. "I tried to help them." A sane expression returned to his eyes and voice. "I didn't have the proper instruments to operate on Brynna. I couldn't help both her and the baby, but she took that decision from me. I had to get the baby out to save her but it didn't work."
"You kept performing the operation on different women until you perfected it. You planned on stopping when both the mom and the baby survived?" Grissom asked. "What now, Bryan? You may have succeeded in performing a topnotch cesarean section, but I'm not so sure."
This brought the man's attention back to the present, the anger flaring. "Byrnna is alive. I followed her-." He motioned towards Sara with a smirk. "I followed her to the hospital and I discovered the truth that everyone was hiding from me. She is alive and is going to be okay. I don't understand why you wouldn't want me to know that she was okay. I would never harm her."
Sara shook her head in disbelief. "You ripped a baby from her stomach, left her on the side of the road, then took the baby, and you say that you would never harm her?" The incredulity was echoed on Marc's face. Grissom tightened his grip on the trigger, anticipating the anger to boil over, but prayed it wouldn't come to that. He had no desire to shoot anyone, but if the man moved towards Sara, he was not certain that he would not.
"I know that you didn't mean to hurt anyone, Bryan." Grissom kept his voice even, although his head was beginning to pound. "The doctors were impressed with the cesarean section you performed. They told us that it was excellent work only a skilled surgeon could have performed."
"They said that?" Bryan smiled and the crazed look vanished again for a second.
"They thought it was good," Grissom continued, hoping he was making the correct decision. "But there was one problem."
"What was that?" Bryan lost the smile and his eyes turned cold.
"The baby, Bryan." Grissom played his stack of cards. "They say that there is no successful c-section without the healthy baby. It is a given."
"She is fine." Bryan resented the accusation, his jaw clenching. "She is in Texas, with my dad."
Sara felt her head spin with this admission and a surge of hope coursed through her veins. She waited for Grissom to pry more information from this psycho with his brilliant interrogation.
"Where in Texas is that, Bryan?" He heard the distant hum of a chopper and his headache increased. "If they don't see the baby for themselves then they will not believe it. Proof of your excellent surgical skill, Bryan."
Bryan laughed softly, and then said. "I'm not so certain they would believe me anyway." He heard the hum of the chopper as it appeared from the direction of Las Vegas. A flicker of sadness appeared in his eyes, and then vanished. "His address is in my apartment." He looked towards Marc. "With the pictures; you know where they are."
He did not speak anymore as the chopper landed and Brass, Catherine and Warrick climbed off with several police in front of them, their faces registering relief when they found Grissom and Sara intact.
No one moved for a frozen second before Grissom turned to Marc and said with empathy that surprised everyone except Sara. "Why don't you ride back to headquarters with me and Sara, Marc? You can use my phone to call your mom and let her know you are okay."
Crime Lab
7:00 am
"Grissom, you are one lucky bastard you know that don't you?"
Grissom looked up from his paperwork to find Brass standing in his doorway. "Of what do you refer, Jim?"
"That kid, Marc Thompson, claims that he called Sara and asked her to meet him at your place so he could talk. He says that he insisted he would only talk with the two of you together since you were the initial investigators that came out to his home. Ecklie is convinced that you coached him."
"You know me better than that, Jim." Grissom could not hide his relief that Ecklie and Gibbes were thwarted once more by a witness that could have exposed his relationship with Sara.
"I know that you are a lucky man." Brass smiled wider as Sara appeared in the door. "A very lucky man." With that, he left them alone.
"What was that all about?" Sara asked with a puzzled face that made Grissom's own lips curve up at the corners.
"I'll tell you over breakfast."
Sara stared from him, to the doorway that Brass had recently vacated, and then back at him, a warm smile spreading over her face. The reunion between Erin and her baby had left each of them with a new peace that was the beginning of a healing process that Sara could not wait to explore, and breakfast was as good a time as any.
The End.