Title: Chasing Life
Author: Blaze
Summary: One of Sara's old cases won't leave her alone. G/S.
Spoilers: Varied. I'd say a bit of seasons one and two, to be safe.
Rating: I'd say R, for some violence and language. The rating might be high, but better that than too low. G
Disclaimer: Not mine, never have been and never will be. Some characters, however, are not owned by CBS, the producers of CSI and related affiliates, and therefore belong to me. But please don't sue me for borrowing the ones that aren't mine. Any resemblance to songs, other TV shows, people, etc., is unintentional and accidental. Please don't sue me for that either.
Author's Notes: Wow, it's only taken me forever to get this posted, considering I finished it a month ago. Eh. This was the first fic I wrote, keep that in mind if it sucks. And I'd love to say what kind of evil CSI fanfic offense I've commited, but it would spoil the story. Oh, and for those who aren't of the Geek Love persuasion.you might want to back out now. Grissom and Sara, well, it gets pretty serious. Thank you to Devanie, who claimed she liked it and that it doesn't suck. I don't believe you, but.okay. G
Feedback welcome, but nothing mean. And no one likes a bad review, so if you don't like it, keep it to yourself. Thank you.
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"Hey, Grissom," Nick Stokes said in greeting as he walked into the conference-slash-break room. It was the beginning of shift, the team should have been slowly filtering in for assignments, but Gil Grissom was the only other member in the room.
A grunt was his boss's only reply. The salt-and-pepper-haired entomologist was scrutinizing a file, crime scene photos were laid out over the table.
"Sara said you wanted to talk to me?" Nick had run into a fuming Sara Sidle in the locker room, the tall brunette had spit out the request as she had angrily thrown her jacket into her locker. "She said something about you taking her off a case."
"Yeah," Grissom said. "Come take a look at these."
Nick crossed the room to stand at Grissom's side, looking at each photograph in turn, his mind running with possibilities, solutions to the puzzle before him. The crime seemed routine, a murder, female positioned on her back, face turned away. Most of the pictures of her did not show the woman's face or back, although there were shots of her on a steel morgue table.
"I don't get it, Gris, why'd you take Sara off of this?" He knew the instant the words left his mouth there would be repercussions, Grissom did not take people not thinking well. But to his surprise, there was no comment from the man about his statement.
"Look at her face." Grissom slid a picture of the woman's face onto the others. "Who does she remind you of?"
The woman, a brunette, reminded him strongly of Sara, and he said so. "That's why you took her off, right?"
"That's part of it." Another photo was tossed on the table, this of the woman's back, where the killer had carved neatly, 'You're next, S.'
" 'S' as in 'Sara'?"
"There's a letter, too. I didn't let her read it, but she knows what it'll say."
"How?"
"When she was working in San Francisco, there was a case like this. Identical. She worked it-"
"Hey, Grissom, what'd you do to Sara?" Warrick Brown interrupted.
Grissom sighed. "Took her off this case."
Warrick laughed. "You're not dead yet?"
Before he had a chance to answer, Catherine Willows, the other female CSI, walked in, saying, "I don't know what Sara's problem is, but damn, she's angry!"
"Grissom took her off a case," Nick explained.
"Oh, I see," she said, looking over her friend and boss. "You don't have a mark on you. She didn't kick your ass?"
"No," Grissom forced out tightly.
"Huh. I always imagined her beating you up if you took her off a case."
"Well, she didn't."
"I can't believe you think about that!" Warrick teased.
"I don't, I'm just saying-"
The light-hearted teasing was overcome by the tension that came as Sara walked in the room. In an instant, the air grew taut with anger, it was like a storm had rolled over the room. Catherine and Warrick fell silent. With Nick, they turned towards Grissom to see his reaction, which was to look stoically at the brunette. Nick got the feeling there was more to this case than Grissom had told him, something personal, because Sara was looking at their supervisor with fury and hatred in her eyes. He had never seen her look at anyone like that, and he knew, just as Warrick and Catherine were quickly discovering themselves, that this was not just about taking her off the case, that there was something huge that Grissom was keeping from them, that the shit was hitting the fan, and they could do nothing but stand back and watch.
"I thought I told you to go home." Grissom's voice cut through the silence, but his sentence added to the already unbearable tension.
"I'm not going anywhere," she replied, barely holding in her anger. "I'm working. I have a case."
They had locked eyes, had made the others invisible. Her eyes were so furious Nick half expected that their color had changed from brown to red- hot. "Did something new come in?" Grissom asked.
"No, it's old. One that got away." She struggled to sound calm.
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I need the files," she requested tightly.
"I don't have them."
"What are those?" she snapped, pointing at the papers and photos stretched across the table. "Vacation pictures?"
"These are not from your case," he said, stressing 'your.'
Her mouth tightened. "They are from my case, Grissom! I'm working it!"
"This is not your case, Sara!" he roared. "You are not working this case."
"I don't believe you!" she exclaimed. "I've worked this since day one! It's my case!"
"It's my case, Sara. I told you before. You're off the case. End of story."
"You can't just take me off this case, Grissom!"
"I am your supervisor, I can take you off any case I want."
"Not this one, Grissom, not where I'm the only one who knows what this guy's all about!"
"You are not working this case, Sara!" he exploded. "You are not working this case, do you understand?" he repeated, more controlled.
"You son of a bitch, you can't!" She was near tears in rage. "You can't!"
"Don't make me suspend you, Sara, I don't want to do that," he warned.
"Then stop this damn protection kick, Grissom, I'm old enough to take care of myself, if you haven't noticed."
"Do you want to be killed, Sara? You want to spend weeks suffering? Because if you'd like to, he's ready, Sara. 'You're next, S.' He's after you, ready to cut you up, ready to have the time of his life mutilating your stubborn." He could not finish, his own anger clouding his rationale. Taking a deep breath, he stared back into her stormy brown eyes and continued. "He left you a note, telling you exactly what he has planned for you, so forgive me if I don't want him to do all the things he wants to do to you. Forgive me if I'd like to make sure he never comes near you."
"If you want all of that, you have to let me work this case, I know what he's thinking, I know what he'll do next, I know what the evidence means. Please, Grissom," she begged.
He shook his head, closing his eyes. "No."
Her jaw set, narrowed eyes flaring in fury, she replied, "Well, then fuck you, Grissom," and stalked out of the room.
He sat heavily into his chair and watched her go, sighing, then turned to the others. They stood, shocked into silence, and waited for his next words. "Am I wrong?" Grissom asked. "Am I wrong to want to make sure nothing happens to her?"
One by one, Catherine, Warrick, and Nick shook their heads. "I'll go talk to her," Catherine offered.
She found Sara slumped against the locker room wall, gazing blankly at the lockers opposite, her brown hair curled around her face, obscuring some of her features. As Catherine came in, Sara made to jump up, but she settled down when she saw who it was. Catherine sat down on the bench in front of Sara, who turned her head away from the other woman. They sat in silence for a minute, then Catherine spoke. "He's worried about you."
Sara laughed, short and quiet, and asked, "Did he send you after me?"
"No, I came on my own free will."
"Oh, lucky you, you haven't had yours stolen yet," Sara snapped.
"He's worried about you," the older woman repeated. "He's trying to protect you."
"Yeah, well, tell him I don't need it." She turned to meet Catherine's eyes, a rekindled fire in her eyes.
Something in the younger woman's attitude made Catherine snap. "What? You're invincible? Nothing's going to happen because you know how to process this case?"
"Back off, Catherine!"
"Look, I don't know what this case is about, but Grissom is trying to help you, Sara. He's trying to be your friend."
"How is he going to protect me? He's my friend so no one's going to hurt me? He's no more invincible than I am!"
"You're just hurting yourself, Sara. The more you push him away, the more you push us away, the worse it's going to get."
"You can't protect me, none of you can. If you'd seen what he's done to those girls." Her eyes welled up with tears, and she swiped them away quickly. "If you had seen what he did to them, you'd know."
Neither woman spoke as tears made damp tracks down Sara's face, as she let her fear and hurt course down her face, as her crying stopped nearly as suddenly as it began. Sara wiped her face clean with both hands, then murmured, "This never happened, right?"
"What?" Catherine replied with a small smile; she recognized the desire to save face, to appear strong. It was blasphemous to cry in Sara's world, let alone in front of a colleague. "C'mon, let's go. You have to talk to Grissom."
Sara steeled herself quickly, and as she pulled herself up, responded quietly, "Yeah."
Author: Blaze
Summary: One of Sara's old cases won't leave her alone. G/S.
Spoilers: Varied. I'd say a bit of seasons one and two, to be safe.
Rating: I'd say R, for some violence and language. The rating might be high, but better that than too low. G
Disclaimer: Not mine, never have been and never will be. Some characters, however, are not owned by CBS, the producers of CSI and related affiliates, and therefore belong to me. But please don't sue me for borrowing the ones that aren't mine. Any resemblance to songs, other TV shows, people, etc., is unintentional and accidental. Please don't sue me for that either.
Author's Notes: Wow, it's only taken me forever to get this posted, considering I finished it a month ago. Eh. This was the first fic I wrote, keep that in mind if it sucks. And I'd love to say what kind of evil CSI fanfic offense I've commited, but it would spoil the story. Oh, and for those who aren't of the Geek Love persuasion.you might want to back out now. Grissom and Sara, well, it gets pretty serious. Thank you to Devanie, who claimed she liked it and that it doesn't suck. I don't believe you, but.okay. G
Feedback welcome, but nothing mean. And no one likes a bad review, so if you don't like it, keep it to yourself. Thank you.
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"Hey, Grissom," Nick Stokes said in greeting as he walked into the conference-slash-break room. It was the beginning of shift, the team should have been slowly filtering in for assignments, but Gil Grissom was the only other member in the room.
A grunt was his boss's only reply. The salt-and-pepper-haired entomologist was scrutinizing a file, crime scene photos were laid out over the table.
"Sara said you wanted to talk to me?" Nick had run into a fuming Sara Sidle in the locker room, the tall brunette had spit out the request as she had angrily thrown her jacket into her locker. "She said something about you taking her off a case."
"Yeah," Grissom said. "Come take a look at these."
Nick crossed the room to stand at Grissom's side, looking at each photograph in turn, his mind running with possibilities, solutions to the puzzle before him. The crime seemed routine, a murder, female positioned on her back, face turned away. Most of the pictures of her did not show the woman's face or back, although there were shots of her on a steel morgue table.
"I don't get it, Gris, why'd you take Sara off of this?" He knew the instant the words left his mouth there would be repercussions, Grissom did not take people not thinking well. But to his surprise, there was no comment from the man about his statement.
"Look at her face." Grissom slid a picture of the woman's face onto the others. "Who does she remind you of?"
The woman, a brunette, reminded him strongly of Sara, and he said so. "That's why you took her off, right?"
"That's part of it." Another photo was tossed on the table, this of the woman's back, where the killer had carved neatly, 'You're next, S.'
" 'S' as in 'Sara'?"
"There's a letter, too. I didn't let her read it, but she knows what it'll say."
"How?"
"When she was working in San Francisco, there was a case like this. Identical. She worked it-"
"Hey, Grissom, what'd you do to Sara?" Warrick Brown interrupted.
Grissom sighed. "Took her off this case."
Warrick laughed. "You're not dead yet?"
Before he had a chance to answer, Catherine Willows, the other female CSI, walked in, saying, "I don't know what Sara's problem is, but damn, she's angry!"
"Grissom took her off a case," Nick explained.
"Oh, I see," she said, looking over her friend and boss. "You don't have a mark on you. She didn't kick your ass?"
"No," Grissom forced out tightly.
"Huh. I always imagined her beating you up if you took her off a case."
"Well, she didn't."
"I can't believe you think about that!" Warrick teased.
"I don't, I'm just saying-"
The light-hearted teasing was overcome by the tension that came as Sara walked in the room. In an instant, the air grew taut with anger, it was like a storm had rolled over the room. Catherine and Warrick fell silent. With Nick, they turned towards Grissom to see his reaction, which was to look stoically at the brunette. Nick got the feeling there was more to this case than Grissom had told him, something personal, because Sara was looking at their supervisor with fury and hatred in her eyes. He had never seen her look at anyone like that, and he knew, just as Warrick and Catherine were quickly discovering themselves, that this was not just about taking her off the case, that there was something huge that Grissom was keeping from them, that the shit was hitting the fan, and they could do nothing but stand back and watch.
"I thought I told you to go home." Grissom's voice cut through the silence, but his sentence added to the already unbearable tension.
"I'm not going anywhere," she replied, barely holding in her anger. "I'm working. I have a case."
They had locked eyes, had made the others invisible. Her eyes were so furious Nick half expected that their color had changed from brown to red- hot. "Did something new come in?" Grissom asked.
"No, it's old. One that got away." She struggled to sound calm.
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I need the files," she requested tightly.
"I don't have them."
"What are those?" she snapped, pointing at the papers and photos stretched across the table. "Vacation pictures?"
"These are not from your case," he said, stressing 'your.'
Her mouth tightened. "They are from my case, Grissom! I'm working it!"
"This is not your case, Sara!" he roared. "You are not working this case."
"I don't believe you!" she exclaimed. "I've worked this since day one! It's my case!"
"It's my case, Sara. I told you before. You're off the case. End of story."
"You can't just take me off this case, Grissom!"
"I am your supervisor, I can take you off any case I want."
"Not this one, Grissom, not where I'm the only one who knows what this guy's all about!"
"You are not working this case, Sara!" he exploded. "You are not working this case, do you understand?" he repeated, more controlled.
"You son of a bitch, you can't!" She was near tears in rage. "You can't!"
"Don't make me suspend you, Sara, I don't want to do that," he warned.
"Then stop this damn protection kick, Grissom, I'm old enough to take care of myself, if you haven't noticed."
"Do you want to be killed, Sara? You want to spend weeks suffering? Because if you'd like to, he's ready, Sara. 'You're next, S.' He's after you, ready to cut you up, ready to have the time of his life mutilating your stubborn." He could not finish, his own anger clouding his rationale. Taking a deep breath, he stared back into her stormy brown eyes and continued. "He left you a note, telling you exactly what he has planned for you, so forgive me if I don't want him to do all the things he wants to do to you. Forgive me if I'd like to make sure he never comes near you."
"If you want all of that, you have to let me work this case, I know what he's thinking, I know what he'll do next, I know what the evidence means. Please, Grissom," she begged.
He shook his head, closing his eyes. "No."
Her jaw set, narrowed eyes flaring in fury, she replied, "Well, then fuck you, Grissom," and stalked out of the room.
He sat heavily into his chair and watched her go, sighing, then turned to the others. They stood, shocked into silence, and waited for his next words. "Am I wrong?" Grissom asked. "Am I wrong to want to make sure nothing happens to her?"
One by one, Catherine, Warrick, and Nick shook their heads. "I'll go talk to her," Catherine offered.
She found Sara slumped against the locker room wall, gazing blankly at the lockers opposite, her brown hair curled around her face, obscuring some of her features. As Catherine came in, Sara made to jump up, but she settled down when she saw who it was. Catherine sat down on the bench in front of Sara, who turned her head away from the other woman. They sat in silence for a minute, then Catherine spoke. "He's worried about you."
Sara laughed, short and quiet, and asked, "Did he send you after me?"
"No, I came on my own free will."
"Oh, lucky you, you haven't had yours stolen yet," Sara snapped.
"He's worried about you," the older woman repeated. "He's trying to protect you."
"Yeah, well, tell him I don't need it." She turned to meet Catherine's eyes, a rekindled fire in her eyes.
Something in the younger woman's attitude made Catherine snap. "What? You're invincible? Nothing's going to happen because you know how to process this case?"
"Back off, Catherine!"
"Look, I don't know what this case is about, but Grissom is trying to help you, Sara. He's trying to be your friend."
"How is he going to protect me? He's my friend so no one's going to hurt me? He's no more invincible than I am!"
"You're just hurting yourself, Sara. The more you push him away, the more you push us away, the worse it's going to get."
"You can't protect me, none of you can. If you'd seen what he's done to those girls." Her eyes welled up with tears, and she swiped them away quickly. "If you had seen what he did to them, you'd know."
Neither woman spoke as tears made damp tracks down Sara's face, as she let her fear and hurt course down her face, as her crying stopped nearly as suddenly as it began. Sara wiped her face clean with both hands, then murmured, "This never happened, right?"
"What?" Catherine replied with a small smile; she recognized the desire to save face, to appear strong. It was blasphemous to cry in Sara's world, let alone in front of a colleague. "C'mon, let's go. You have to talk to Grissom."
Sara steeled herself quickly, and as she pulled herself up, responded quietly, "Yeah."
