Title: Fear
Author: CSIphile/A-Stepf
Disclaimers/Rating: STRONG PG13 for well, lets call it disturbing imagery. I don't own em.
Authors Notes: Yay!! Two chapters, hopefully another soon!
Thanks: Same as before, to Meg and all you fabulous readers.you rock!
She shifts in her seat for the fifth time in under a minute. Waiting is the worst. Mobley told them to come in early and he isn't even here yet. Sara's annoyance grows with every second that passes by and she can tell that her constant moving is starting to get on Grissom's nerves.
"Sara."
"Sorry, sorry. I'm anxious. I just want to know what's going to happen. I.." The door opening interrupts her.
"Sorry. Held up by the mayor." Sitting in his chair, Mobley can be an intimidating force to most people, but he isn't to Gil Grissom. "I spoke with Brass about your.relationship, and Sara's stalker." Grissom looks over as Sara visibly cringes at the word.
"Brian, look. We don't want to make either thing a major issue. I don't know that there is anything in the book specifically prohibiting our personal relationship." He is cut off by Mobley waving a hand in their direction.
"First, Joey Harrington is a major issue. Stalkers are no laughing matter, Gil. Second, I checked on the books and since the criminalistics department is not technically part of the PD, there isn't anything prohibiting a relationship. But let me make this clear, if there is one hint of impropriety, any sign of your personal status at work, then we have a problem and I will be forced to do something. You treat Sara the way you always have. Are we understood?"
"Clear as day," Grissom confirms and Sara nods in agreement.
"Ok, back to work. Get A/V working on that tape. Don't worry about what's on it, it's a non-issue."
"Thank you, Brian," Sara says and smiles at the older man, only receiving a nod in response.
Walking down the hall, Grissom looks at a quiet Sara. He knows what Mobley said about bringing in their personal relationship, but at that second all he wants to do is hug her tightly. They are that much closer to getting Harrington behind bars and now that Mobley knows about them, he feels almost relieved. Approaching the locker room, he stops her with one hand on her wrist.
"Hey. You ok? You're awfully quiet."
"Yeah, fine. I guess I was just expecting to have to argue with him. It seemed too easy."
"I know. But if there isn't a policy, then there isn't. He can't create one now." He smiles at her, receiving back her famous large grin, but the look reminds him of that morning and instantaneously he knows what is wrong. Her spark is gone, that which makes Sara, Sara, has vanished.
Opening the door to follow her, Grissom finds Warrick in the room. Just the person he is looking for. Casting a glance at Sara, he turns to Warrick and shows him the tape.
"Harrington left several messages on this tape for Sara while we were gone. I need you to transcribe them and then bring them to the DA so she can issue a warrant. He violated the judge's orders not to contact her. This is all you do tonight, got it?"
"No problem, man." Looking over at the quiet brunette, Warrick addresses her. "We will get him, Sara."
She nods quietly at him and turns to her locker, placing her bag and coat in it and removing her lab jacket, all but ignoring Grissom. A light hand on her shoulder forces Sara to face him.
"Sara, if you want to take some time off, you can." He knows she will refuse, but he needs to say something to get her talking. Since he came home last night, she has been abnormally quiet, withdrawing into herself.
"I don't want to do that, Gris. Work is all I have that is still normal.well, as normal as this job can be. I am not giving this up too." For one instant he recognizes his Sara, the one from weeks ago before all this started.
"Ok, well then let's get to work." He smiles and holds open the locker room door for her.
Meeting the team in the break room, and after a round of making sure Sara is alright, Grissom hands out assignments. Catherine and Nick work a robbery/homicide and Grissom takes another homicide for himself and Sara.
"Sara, I am going to check on Warrick. Meet me at the Tahoe in fifteen, okay?" Receiving a nod, he heads out to the A/V lab, only to be stopped by Catherine in the hall.
"Gil, are you sure she should be here?" she asks, and for the first time, she notices the dark circles under his eyes, matching the young woman who they are talking about. Catherine could tell the moment Sara walked into the break room that she wasn't herself. The way she carried herself, her body language, was different, like she was only going through the motions of existing, but not actually **living**. The confident stride, the intelligent sparkle only matched by Grissom, was missing. Catherine may not know Sara as well as the others, but she easily recognized this as early symptoms of depression.
"It's all she has, Catherine, I can't ask her to give that up." Looking around and lowering his voice, Grissom confides in his friend. "Sara is gone, Catherine. The Sara I know and love, the one from before this started, hell, the one from last week, is gone. I don't know exactly when it happened and I don't know what to do. She confides in me, but I get the impression she is still hiding something. She is scared, angry, confused.I think she is slipping into depression and she **is** slipping away from me. All I want is to make this go away and I don't know how."
"Just be there for her, Gil. Make sure she knows that, and don't take no for an answer. Stay near her, even if all you can do is hold her hand, she won't feel so alone. Keep an eye on her, Gil; she may need to talk to someone who is a professional."
"Yeah, thanks Catherine. I will, though pulling teeth would be easier than getting Sara to go to a psychiatrist." He smiles at the redhead and walks away, debating if he should risk Sara's fury by ordering her to the department psychologist.
Walking into the A/V lab, Grissom finds a furiously transcribing Warrick. Looking at the younger man, Grissom can see the concern for his colleague etched on his face.
"How's it going?" he asks and Warrick almost jumps out of his seat.
"Jeez man, warn people when you sneak up on them. Fine, the DA asked me to transcribe the worst of the calls for now, so I concentrated on the ones post-break in. Apparently, Brass asked her to push it and she found a judge willing to look at some tonight. I should be done and have warrant in hand before you get back. Have you listened to this yet?"
"Some, not all."
"This guy has problems man, serious ones. He never directly threatens her, only your careers. I can only imagine what Sara is going through."
"Sara is.coping," Grissom states and leaves Warrick to his task.
True to his and the DA's word, when Grissom and Sara return from their scene, Warrick is suiting up to head out with Brass to bring in Harrington for violating the judge's orders.
Waving the warrant in one hand, Warrick looks at both of them in the hall and smiles. "Little bit longer, Sara, and this will be all over."
The brunette only manages a small smile in his direction before Grissom speaks.
"I'm coming with you. Sara, stay here with Nick and Catherine and process the evidence we brought back."
"Yeah I know. As the victim, I can't be near the investigation. I just want to see him brought in, ok?"
"You can do that, from a distance. Do not go near him, understand me?"
"I'm not five, Gris. I understand." She rolls her eyes at him and for another moment that evening the old Sara has retuned. Relief washes through him with the thought of bringing in Harrington. Both himself and Warrick choose to ignore the fact that Harrington could post bail and yet again be out on the street. But at least this time they have grounds for a restraining order, maybe.
"C'mon Gris, we gotta go." Warrick prods him.
"Yeah, I am ready for this to be over with, let's go." Giving Sara a smile, he follows Warrick outside to meet with Brass.
Processing the evidence takes Sara little time, especially considering that Nick has come over to help her. Now he watches her pace the floor of the break room, constantly looking at the clock. They should be just about at Harrington's place, knocking on his door, bringing him in. Watching her making circles, the next time she passes by him, Nick reaches out one hand and captures her wrist.
"Sar, you are giving me a headache. Stop that." He receives a sheepish grin in return.
"Sorry. I am going down by booking to wait. You wanna come?"
"Why are you so anxious to see this guy, Sara? Seems like you would want to stay away from him."
"I just want to see him put away for a while. I'm not dumb, Nick. He may be out again come morning. Hopefully a restraining order will stop him. Are you coming?"
"Yes, Grissom would kill me if I left you alone anyway." He shakes his head and follows her out of the room.
They knock on the door hard, yelling for Harrington to open up. When no noise is heard from inside the small house, Brass gives the signal to break open the door. Shrugging at Warrick and Grissom, his only explanation is, "Sometimes I can bend the rules a bit. This is one of those times."
Once the banging has ceased and the police have entered and searched, finding no sign of Harrington, Warrick and Grissom are finally allowed in, only to be greeted by the madness of a stalker. One wall of the living room is covered in pictures of Sara, some taken before she even knew about him, some very recent. Some of the more recent ones have writing on them and Sara's face crossed out. Glancing through the pictures, Grissom recognizes the outfit she was wearing the night they returned from Sedona. 'He's been watching her every move for weeks,' he thinks and looks over at his colleague, who is also looking at the pictures, astonishment on his face.
"How many?" Warrick asks.
"Ball-parking it? At least 100." His voice is laden with alarm.
"Jeez." Before Warrick can continue, Brass calling Grissom's name from another room gets their attention. Following his voice into a bedroom, the men find another wall similar to the one in the living room. But while all the photos in the living room are of Sara alone, all the pictures in this room are different. Someone was obviously in these photos with her, but whoever it was has been removed. Either the photo is ripped or the person is simply cut around. In some, they can tell who was in the picture with her, and it seems that all the members of the team have been removed, including Catherine. These also have writing on them, the wording, however, is more hostile then on the others.
"Wow, probably another hundred in here. I guess I didn't realize how serious this is." Warrick looks around again and finally settles on Grissom, who has a tight look on his face. He can feel the anger radiating off the older man in waves.
"With this evidence, hopefully we can put him away for a while. Let's get to our jobs."
Working in silence for almost thirty minutes, Grissom almost forgets Warrick is there as he takes photos of the walls before removing the pictures placed there. Slowly working his way from the living room into the spare bedroom, Grissom runs into Warrick in the hall, who is holding what looks like shampoo in one latex-covered hand.
"Do you know what kind of shampoo Sara uses?" he asks quickly, not giving a thought to who he is asking the question. Normally this would be an odd conversation.
"Sure."
"This it?" Holding up the plastic container, Warrick gets his answer when Grissom's face falls.
"Yeah, that's it. Bag it."
"Yup. I am going to head into the master bedroom, ok?" He isn't sure that Grissom should be there; even Warrick doesn't want to go. He is almost sure what he will find on the sheets. The thought is creepy.
"Yeah, let me know what you find."
Warrick breathes a silent sigh of relief and enters the room. Turning on the light, it looks like a normal male bedroom. Bed, dresser, night table, and lamp. Surprisingly, he finds no pictures of Sara in here, but doing a quick scan, he sees something out of place. Walking to the one night stand, he confirms what he thought he saw- a necklace, one he is sure is Sara's. Warrick can remember her wearing it twice before, he's not a trained investigator for nothing. When she'd first worn it, he'd thought the dangling part looked like a small hardware washer. Sighing, he bags the necklace, places it by his kit and grabs the ALS. 'Do they really need to know this? It's not like there was a murder or rape here, how much information do we really need?' he wonders, hooking the machine up. 'All the information, man, all of it. You can't catch someone if you don't understand them fully.'
Turning off the overhead light and switching on the ALS, Warrick slowly runs the machine over the bed sheets, noting where he sees stains. Just as he is finishing, Grissom appears in the doorway, looking disturbed.
"How bad is it?"
"Bad. It's a single man, you expect some..stains. But this is out of control. I cant even begin to count. The ALS always shows something, there is almost no break."
"All right, let's get back to the lab, process and get all this to the DA so they can issue an extended restraining order."
"If they can find him."
"Yeah."
Sara and Nick are passing by the front desk on the way to booking when the receptionist calls Sara's name.
"Sidle. You have a call holding on 3. You want to pick it up here?" she asks and indicates a bank of phones to Sara's right.
"Yeah, sure," she shakily replies, ignoring the look that Nick is giving her.
"Sara, this isn't a good idea," he states as she picks up the receiver, throws him an I-don't-care look, and presses 3.
tbc.......hahahahaha! I am cruel! I said you would regret getting chapter 17!
Author: CSIphile/A-Stepf
Disclaimers/Rating: STRONG PG13 for well, lets call it disturbing imagery. I don't own em.
Authors Notes: Yay!! Two chapters, hopefully another soon!
Thanks: Same as before, to Meg and all you fabulous readers.you rock!
She shifts in her seat for the fifth time in under a minute. Waiting is the worst. Mobley told them to come in early and he isn't even here yet. Sara's annoyance grows with every second that passes by and she can tell that her constant moving is starting to get on Grissom's nerves.
"Sara."
"Sorry, sorry. I'm anxious. I just want to know what's going to happen. I.." The door opening interrupts her.
"Sorry. Held up by the mayor." Sitting in his chair, Mobley can be an intimidating force to most people, but he isn't to Gil Grissom. "I spoke with Brass about your.relationship, and Sara's stalker." Grissom looks over as Sara visibly cringes at the word.
"Brian, look. We don't want to make either thing a major issue. I don't know that there is anything in the book specifically prohibiting our personal relationship." He is cut off by Mobley waving a hand in their direction.
"First, Joey Harrington is a major issue. Stalkers are no laughing matter, Gil. Second, I checked on the books and since the criminalistics department is not technically part of the PD, there isn't anything prohibiting a relationship. But let me make this clear, if there is one hint of impropriety, any sign of your personal status at work, then we have a problem and I will be forced to do something. You treat Sara the way you always have. Are we understood?"
"Clear as day," Grissom confirms and Sara nods in agreement.
"Ok, back to work. Get A/V working on that tape. Don't worry about what's on it, it's a non-issue."
"Thank you, Brian," Sara says and smiles at the older man, only receiving a nod in response.
Walking down the hall, Grissom looks at a quiet Sara. He knows what Mobley said about bringing in their personal relationship, but at that second all he wants to do is hug her tightly. They are that much closer to getting Harrington behind bars and now that Mobley knows about them, he feels almost relieved. Approaching the locker room, he stops her with one hand on her wrist.
"Hey. You ok? You're awfully quiet."
"Yeah, fine. I guess I was just expecting to have to argue with him. It seemed too easy."
"I know. But if there isn't a policy, then there isn't. He can't create one now." He smiles at her, receiving back her famous large grin, but the look reminds him of that morning and instantaneously he knows what is wrong. Her spark is gone, that which makes Sara, Sara, has vanished.
Opening the door to follow her, Grissom finds Warrick in the room. Just the person he is looking for. Casting a glance at Sara, he turns to Warrick and shows him the tape.
"Harrington left several messages on this tape for Sara while we were gone. I need you to transcribe them and then bring them to the DA so she can issue a warrant. He violated the judge's orders not to contact her. This is all you do tonight, got it?"
"No problem, man." Looking over at the quiet brunette, Warrick addresses her. "We will get him, Sara."
She nods quietly at him and turns to her locker, placing her bag and coat in it and removing her lab jacket, all but ignoring Grissom. A light hand on her shoulder forces Sara to face him.
"Sara, if you want to take some time off, you can." He knows she will refuse, but he needs to say something to get her talking. Since he came home last night, she has been abnormally quiet, withdrawing into herself.
"I don't want to do that, Gris. Work is all I have that is still normal.well, as normal as this job can be. I am not giving this up too." For one instant he recognizes his Sara, the one from weeks ago before all this started.
"Ok, well then let's get to work." He smiles and holds open the locker room door for her.
Meeting the team in the break room, and after a round of making sure Sara is alright, Grissom hands out assignments. Catherine and Nick work a robbery/homicide and Grissom takes another homicide for himself and Sara.
"Sara, I am going to check on Warrick. Meet me at the Tahoe in fifteen, okay?" Receiving a nod, he heads out to the A/V lab, only to be stopped by Catherine in the hall.
"Gil, are you sure she should be here?" she asks, and for the first time, she notices the dark circles under his eyes, matching the young woman who they are talking about. Catherine could tell the moment Sara walked into the break room that she wasn't herself. The way she carried herself, her body language, was different, like she was only going through the motions of existing, but not actually **living**. The confident stride, the intelligent sparkle only matched by Grissom, was missing. Catherine may not know Sara as well as the others, but she easily recognized this as early symptoms of depression.
"It's all she has, Catherine, I can't ask her to give that up." Looking around and lowering his voice, Grissom confides in his friend. "Sara is gone, Catherine. The Sara I know and love, the one from before this started, hell, the one from last week, is gone. I don't know exactly when it happened and I don't know what to do. She confides in me, but I get the impression she is still hiding something. She is scared, angry, confused.I think she is slipping into depression and she **is** slipping away from me. All I want is to make this go away and I don't know how."
"Just be there for her, Gil. Make sure she knows that, and don't take no for an answer. Stay near her, even if all you can do is hold her hand, she won't feel so alone. Keep an eye on her, Gil; she may need to talk to someone who is a professional."
"Yeah, thanks Catherine. I will, though pulling teeth would be easier than getting Sara to go to a psychiatrist." He smiles at the redhead and walks away, debating if he should risk Sara's fury by ordering her to the department psychologist.
Walking into the A/V lab, Grissom finds a furiously transcribing Warrick. Looking at the younger man, Grissom can see the concern for his colleague etched on his face.
"How's it going?" he asks and Warrick almost jumps out of his seat.
"Jeez man, warn people when you sneak up on them. Fine, the DA asked me to transcribe the worst of the calls for now, so I concentrated on the ones post-break in. Apparently, Brass asked her to push it and she found a judge willing to look at some tonight. I should be done and have warrant in hand before you get back. Have you listened to this yet?"
"Some, not all."
"This guy has problems man, serious ones. He never directly threatens her, only your careers. I can only imagine what Sara is going through."
"Sara is.coping," Grissom states and leaves Warrick to his task.
True to his and the DA's word, when Grissom and Sara return from their scene, Warrick is suiting up to head out with Brass to bring in Harrington for violating the judge's orders.
Waving the warrant in one hand, Warrick looks at both of them in the hall and smiles. "Little bit longer, Sara, and this will be all over."
The brunette only manages a small smile in his direction before Grissom speaks.
"I'm coming with you. Sara, stay here with Nick and Catherine and process the evidence we brought back."
"Yeah I know. As the victim, I can't be near the investigation. I just want to see him brought in, ok?"
"You can do that, from a distance. Do not go near him, understand me?"
"I'm not five, Gris. I understand." She rolls her eyes at him and for another moment that evening the old Sara has retuned. Relief washes through him with the thought of bringing in Harrington. Both himself and Warrick choose to ignore the fact that Harrington could post bail and yet again be out on the street. But at least this time they have grounds for a restraining order, maybe.
"C'mon Gris, we gotta go." Warrick prods him.
"Yeah, I am ready for this to be over with, let's go." Giving Sara a smile, he follows Warrick outside to meet with Brass.
Processing the evidence takes Sara little time, especially considering that Nick has come over to help her. Now he watches her pace the floor of the break room, constantly looking at the clock. They should be just about at Harrington's place, knocking on his door, bringing him in. Watching her making circles, the next time she passes by him, Nick reaches out one hand and captures her wrist.
"Sar, you are giving me a headache. Stop that." He receives a sheepish grin in return.
"Sorry. I am going down by booking to wait. You wanna come?"
"Why are you so anxious to see this guy, Sara? Seems like you would want to stay away from him."
"I just want to see him put away for a while. I'm not dumb, Nick. He may be out again come morning. Hopefully a restraining order will stop him. Are you coming?"
"Yes, Grissom would kill me if I left you alone anyway." He shakes his head and follows her out of the room.
They knock on the door hard, yelling for Harrington to open up. When no noise is heard from inside the small house, Brass gives the signal to break open the door. Shrugging at Warrick and Grissom, his only explanation is, "Sometimes I can bend the rules a bit. This is one of those times."
Once the banging has ceased and the police have entered and searched, finding no sign of Harrington, Warrick and Grissom are finally allowed in, only to be greeted by the madness of a stalker. One wall of the living room is covered in pictures of Sara, some taken before she even knew about him, some very recent. Some of the more recent ones have writing on them and Sara's face crossed out. Glancing through the pictures, Grissom recognizes the outfit she was wearing the night they returned from Sedona. 'He's been watching her every move for weeks,' he thinks and looks over at his colleague, who is also looking at the pictures, astonishment on his face.
"How many?" Warrick asks.
"Ball-parking it? At least 100." His voice is laden with alarm.
"Jeez." Before Warrick can continue, Brass calling Grissom's name from another room gets their attention. Following his voice into a bedroom, the men find another wall similar to the one in the living room. But while all the photos in the living room are of Sara alone, all the pictures in this room are different. Someone was obviously in these photos with her, but whoever it was has been removed. Either the photo is ripped or the person is simply cut around. In some, they can tell who was in the picture with her, and it seems that all the members of the team have been removed, including Catherine. These also have writing on them, the wording, however, is more hostile then on the others.
"Wow, probably another hundred in here. I guess I didn't realize how serious this is." Warrick looks around again and finally settles on Grissom, who has a tight look on his face. He can feel the anger radiating off the older man in waves.
"With this evidence, hopefully we can put him away for a while. Let's get to our jobs."
Working in silence for almost thirty minutes, Grissom almost forgets Warrick is there as he takes photos of the walls before removing the pictures placed there. Slowly working his way from the living room into the spare bedroom, Grissom runs into Warrick in the hall, who is holding what looks like shampoo in one latex-covered hand.
"Do you know what kind of shampoo Sara uses?" he asks quickly, not giving a thought to who he is asking the question. Normally this would be an odd conversation.
"Sure."
"This it?" Holding up the plastic container, Warrick gets his answer when Grissom's face falls.
"Yeah, that's it. Bag it."
"Yup. I am going to head into the master bedroom, ok?" He isn't sure that Grissom should be there; even Warrick doesn't want to go. He is almost sure what he will find on the sheets. The thought is creepy.
"Yeah, let me know what you find."
Warrick breathes a silent sigh of relief and enters the room. Turning on the light, it looks like a normal male bedroom. Bed, dresser, night table, and lamp. Surprisingly, he finds no pictures of Sara in here, but doing a quick scan, he sees something out of place. Walking to the one night stand, he confirms what he thought he saw- a necklace, one he is sure is Sara's. Warrick can remember her wearing it twice before, he's not a trained investigator for nothing. When she'd first worn it, he'd thought the dangling part looked like a small hardware washer. Sighing, he bags the necklace, places it by his kit and grabs the ALS. 'Do they really need to know this? It's not like there was a murder or rape here, how much information do we really need?' he wonders, hooking the machine up. 'All the information, man, all of it. You can't catch someone if you don't understand them fully.'
Turning off the overhead light and switching on the ALS, Warrick slowly runs the machine over the bed sheets, noting where he sees stains. Just as he is finishing, Grissom appears in the doorway, looking disturbed.
"How bad is it?"
"Bad. It's a single man, you expect some..stains. But this is out of control. I cant even begin to count. The ALS always shows something, there is almost no break."
"All right, let's get back to the lab, process and get all this to the DA so they can issue an extended restraining order."
"If they can find him."
"Yeah."
Sara and Nick are passing by the front desk on the way to booking when the receptionist calls Sara's name.
"Sidle. You have a call holding on 3. You want to pick it up here?" she asks and indicates a bank of phones to Sara's right.
"Yeah, sure," she shakily replies, ignoring the look that Nick is giving her.
"Sara, this isn't a good idea," he states as she picks up the receiver, throws him an I-don't-care look, and presses 3.
tbc.......hahahahaha! I am cruel! I said you would regret getting chapter 17!