~*~*~*~*~*~

A Little Love

Chapter One

~*~*~*~*~*~

The phone rang for about a minute until the answering machine picked up, there was a pause on the line while the caller decided what to say…"Uh you know how much I hate talking on these things…I, I need to, to see you again. Are you there? Look I'm in town have been for a while now and…I'd really like if we met up, it's been years. We could uh play catch up you know remember old times…I'll call you, okay? See yah little one". The machine beeped signalling the end off the message and the red light began to bleep.

*

"I will bet you twenty bucks that the brother is the killer" Nick Stokes turned around to address his friend Warrick Brown "Come on man".

"No" Warrick said simply, turning into the lounge; Nick sighed and followed him as he sat down on the sofa.

"Why? Because you know I'm right?"

Warrick laughed while Nick looked on feigning a hurt expression, "I just don't want to embarrass you when everyone finds out I was right"

"You're very sure of yourself"

"I know…Because I'm right, and you are wrong", Warrick said with a smirk "Hey Sara" he shouted as his colleague hurried past; she stopped and popped her head into the room.

"What's up?"

"Grissom was looking for you"

She smiled in thanks and began walking back the way she'd come to Grissom's office.

Sara found him at his desk behind a ton of paper work that was piled on his desk, "You wanted to see me" he motioned for her to sit down.

"Take a seat" he must've seen the worried look on her face.

"What's wrong?" she asked a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Oh nothing I just thought you might want to sit down, you've been on your feet all day" he said shrugging.

She couldn't help but look surprised; he'd noticed something, "I didn't know you cared", she said with a slight laugh.

He looked up at her and said calmly "Of course I care" he sat up and began routing around for something, Sara's breath caught in her throat; he didn't notice. "Here we are" he produced the file on the killer from his desk drawer and opened it to the back. "Timothy Andrews boyfriend of Anna Cleaver, 33 years old, was arrested once in '98 for assault was arrested again three years later for threatening behaviour…He held a bartender at knife point…" He paused in his summary "Sara, are you okay?"

She snapped out of her trance and looked up at Grissom she stared at him blankly for a second before realising he was asking her a question "Did you say something?" She asked trying to act as naturally as possible.

"Are –" he began again.

Catherine chose that moment to walk in on their conversation or lack thereof, "I interrupted something, didn't I?" she asked stepping back out of the room. She looked at them both apologetically.

"No we were just discussing the murder" Sara told her with a forced smile she got out of the chair and walked to the door "You were going to tell us something, right?"

"Yeah we got an address for Timothy Clark".

"Then let's go" Sara said cheerfully, she walked into the corridor with Catherine following.

"I'll meet you outside" Grissom said.

The two women nodded and began walking in the direction of the car park "Catherine, have you been telling Grissom to take into account people's feelings again?"

Catherine nodded "Why?"

Sara shrugged "You can tell".

As they were on their way out Abby Peters was on her way in, they bumped into her by the front door, the timid woman stood quietly waiting for someone else to speak first.

"You came here for a reason, didn't you? Sara asked her gently.

Abby nodded still not saying a word.

"Do you have something else to tell us?" Catherine said pressing her for information.

Again Abby nodded after a long wait she finally spoke "About Anna's boyfriend". She looked up in shock when Sara said his name "Yes! How do you know his name?"

"Let's get out of the hallway" Sara said and began leading Abby away "Catherine you go on".

"Are you sure?" The older woman questioned. Sara nodded in answer and turned away.

*

Sara slid the photo across the interrogation table, she didn't know why she kept it, it only brought bad memories, it didn't matter how many good memories where there. The bad always outweighed the good.

"Is that him?"

Abby eye's widened giving Sara her answer. She leaned back against the chair and sighed, "How long have you known him?"

"A couple of month's maybe, maybe three. She brought him round to my place for dinner and introduced us they had potential to be a perfect couple and we hit it off right away he was like…An older brother I could really look up to him. And he adored Anna..."

"But"

"He was supposed to go over to her apartment last night he'd bought this beautiful necklace and we were talking and, and…" Abby hung her head and covered her face with her hands'; she sniffed and tried to hold back tears. "I let it slip that she'd gone on a date a couple of days back and she'd, she'd got really close to this new guy. Timothy said he already knew but I could see he was so mad…He said I'd confirmed his suspicions" her hands were trembling now her voice beginning to break. "I drove him to her place and I watched him go into the building I wanted to go in and tell him to go easy on her cause she did stupid things sometimes, but I drove away. They were the perfect couple after all, right? I figured everything would be okay…She called me that night"

"Before or after the murder?" Sara had to ask but she knew the answer.

"Just before she died…She was so scared I told her I'd be there that she'd be okay…" The room had become deathly silent. "I heard her gasp and I thought maybe she had just drifted unconscious and then I got to her place and she was dead and Timothy was gone!"

"I, I'm so sorry" Sara didn't know whether to comfort her or leave her alone. She finally decided on the latter, she stood up and walked to the door.

"Do you know what this feels like? The pain…the guilt…the helplessness?" Abby asked through teary sobs.

"Yeah I do".

"Will it get any better?" She looked hopeful.

"I guess it's different with everyone" Sara said before turning and leaving the room, closing the door behind her.

*

"Son of a Bitch is gone!" Brass shouted he punched the door in frustration, Grissom walk past him and into the small house.

"Now, now desecrating private property will not help matters…If no one lives here anymore then there's no one to object to us looking around". As if to prove his point he walked through into the living room and began surveying the area, he glanced back at his companions "Let's get moving".

TBC…