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"Well look what the cat dragged in." Greg said coming out of his lad to stand in the hallway. Nick was trying to make it down the hall carrying the ladder all by himself, but it wasn't working too good. He had already smashed into two doors and broke a ceiling tile trying to get the thing inside. Sara had deserted him as soon as they got to the lab because she wanted to take a shower. Nick assumed that she just wanted to smell nice for Grissom.
"Do you want to give me a hand instead of standing there?" Nick puffed as he placed the ladder down on the floor.
"No, I'm enjoying watching you struggle over it." Greg said with a smile, and then disappeared back into his lab. Nick grumbled and then picked the thing back up.
He somehow managed to get the ladder down to the garage where Catherine and Warrick stood. There had fumed the car already, and were lifting some more prints off of the dashboard.
Nick staggered in and placed the ladder on the floor and leaned against it trying to catch his breath.
"I hope you're not compromising anything on that thing." Warrick called to him as he pocked his head out from inside the car.
"Let's just be happy with the fact that I got I down here, okay?" Nick took a deep breath, and then went to go fume the ladder.
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An hour later, Jenny sat in the break room with Warrick. He had given the prints that he had lifted from the car to Jenny, and she took them to Jacki
"Okay, this print, the partial, matched all of the others found on the driver's side of the car. Jacki ran it though CODIS, but nothing kicked out.
"There was only one other set of prints in the car." Jenny said grabbing a sheet out of one of the file folders she had. "This one was run though CODIS too, and it kicked out a name, and it matched that of the ID you found at the scene. Bret Verb, convicted in 1996 for robbing a jewelry store at gunpoint. There was a little information about the robbery, and he had an accomplice, Christian Root, or as she was known back then. On a hunch, I had Jackie cross reference the prints from Christina with the ones recovered from the car, and guess what? They match."
"So, this Bret guy works with the same girl, but she doesn't go by Christina any more?" Warrick questioned looking at the sheet Jenny handed him.
"Nope, Jackie is still searching to match Christina's print to someone from today."
"Okay, so we have this jewelry store robbing team. Do you think they recently robbed one, which is why we found the diamond papers at the scene?" Warrick said as he began to scribble some notes on a spare piece of paper.
"Well, that's what I was thinking, so I checked the web. This may come as a surprise to you, but there hasn't been a robbery at a Jewelry store in Vegas for two years."
Warrick narrowed his eyes, "That doesn't sound right."
"And I thought that too. So now I'm thinking that they aren't being reported." Jenny said pulling another paper out of the file folder. "But I dug a little deeper. I checked with some insurance agencies in the area to see if anyone had filed a claim for any stolen jewelry, and one store has. DiVinci Jewelry's filed a claim for half a million two days ago."
"And you did all of this in an hour?" Warrick asked surprised.
"I've got nothing better to do." Jenny replied with a smile as Nick entered the lab.
"Hey, let me see your papers." He asked sitting down at the table with them. Nick opened the file he was holding and took out a paper. "I pulled this guy, Bert Verb, out on my search too." Nick said comparing the paper. "His fingerprints were on the ladder. I also found another, but no match yet." He said a little depressed.
"So, did the guy, Bret, leaves the car and help move the ladder to where ever it was being moved to? And then why was he shot?"
Before anyone had time to answer, Grissom walked into the break room, followed closely by Sara. The three of them sitting at the table exchanged looks, all thinking the same thing. Were Sara and Grissom together before they made their entrance here? Grissom walked over to the table and sat down with the three of them, while Sara went over to the coffee pot. She came over a moment later, with a cup for her and one for Grissom. Nick was about to open his mouth to make a comment, when Warrick kicked him from under the table and instead, he kept his mouth shut.
"So what do we know?" Grissom posed the question to the CSI sitting at the table.
"The man in the passenger's seat is Bret Verb, and he robbed a jewelry store back in '96 with Christina Root, who we believe was the driver of the car, but she isn't going by than name anymore." Warrick stated, and then Nick jumped in.
"I pulled some of Bret's fingerprints off the ladder, meaning that he helped move it somewhere before he died. There was another set on the ladder also, and Jacki is still running that one thought."
"And," Jenny began, "I found a Jewelry Store that was recently robbed. I believe that the diamond papers from the scene were from that store."
"And I just got a call from Brass." Grissom said taking the folders from the table. "The driver of the other car just came out of surgery and she should be awake in an hour. Nick, Warrick, I want you two to go to the jewelry store and see what you can find there. If you need a warrant for some reason, call Brass. Sara, I want you and Jenny to go to the hospital to talk to this girl." Grissom stated gathering up all of the file folders from the desk.
Sara nearly spit out her coffee. "What?" she stammered, and Grissom looked at her surprised.
"I want you and Jenny to go to the hospital." He repeated again.
Sara stared at him for a moment, as if she was trying to process what he had just told her. "Uh, Okay," she finally said, "But can't Catherine go? I thought we were going to…?"
"We'll talk when you get back Sara." Grissom practically snapped, not answering her question. He then got up and left the room. Sara watched him leave, still puzzled.
"What was that about?" Nick asked when Sara turned her attention back to the three of them sitting at the table.
"Nothing Nick, it's nothing. Come on Jenny." Sara finished the rest of her coffee, and threw the cup in the trash and hurried out of the room.
"Oh, this is going to be a fun car ride." Jenny said sarcastically and rolled her eyes.
"I've never seen Sara question Grissom before." Nick said after Jenny had left the room. "That's not like her at all."
"Something is bothering her." Warrick replied as the two of them made their way out of the crime lab. "And I can only guess what."
"What?" Came Greg's voice from his lab. He darted outside to hear the latest gossip. "Are you two discussing Sara and Gris? Because Grissom just came stomping by here and locked himself in his office."
"He never locks himself in his office." Warrick said looking down the hall in that direction.
"And Sara never questions Grissom." Nick added.
"And I never seem to know what anyone is talking about, so I make up my own stuff! Let's say that Grissom and Sara are having as steamy affair, but she is cheating on him with me!" Greg said sounding hopeful.
"How about you go putter around your lab some more?" Warrick said pushing Greg in that direction.
"Fine, your loss." He said as he disappeared inside.
Nick rolled his eyes and the two of them exchanged glances again. "Well, whatever is going on, it more than likely won't be between just the two of them for too much longer." He said as they walked over to the Tahoe. The two of them got in the car and drove off to the jewelry store.
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Grissom watched Nick and Warrick go from his window. He watched Greg shuffle back into his lab. He had seen Sara go storming off and Jenny trailing behind her. He saw a lot of things from his office.
He sat there contemplating what to do next. He had just broken off his and Sara's breakfast "date" to send her to the hospital, and he could only imagine the earful he would get from her when she came back. Why had he done that? Was he scared that he and Sara would get too close? There were rules about employees seeing each other during working hours, but the times he and Sara had been together they had both been off of work. Going out to breakfast was okay because he had only done it a million times with Catherine, and who would really care anyway? So why had he pushed her away once again?
Maybe he was just scared of committing himself to something he wasn't sure about. He liked to be in the upper position, but with Sara, he never knew where he stood. It was almost as if she was messing with his mind to the point where the only way for him to keep her at bay was to push her away. Grissom knew that sounded stupid, but what could he really do? He couldn't desert everything just so he and Sara could have a relationship, and Sara knew that also. But when it came to this topic, Sara really didn't seem to care about anything pertaining to work.
Grissom rubbed his head in confusion. He had feeling for Sara, and he knew that she had the same ones. So why was he so scared for the two of them to get closer?
"You don't look too good." Catherine commented from his doorway.
"I don't feel too good." Grissom mumbled back.
"You know, I would have gone to the hospital." She said slowly waking into his office and taking a seat.
"I know that."
"So why did you send Sara?" Catherine questioned.
Grissom thought for a moment, "Because."
"You've never answered a question with 'because' Grissom. What is this all about? What is wrong with you and Sara?"
"I don't know." Grissom mumbled again. Catherine stared at him for a few seconds, and then she leaned over in her chair.
"Grissom, you have no idea what you are doing, do you?" she asked. Grissom turned to look at her. "Now, I know you are incapable of making pleasant social interaction, and never in a romantic relationship, but this is Sara we are talking about. She's a delicate person, Grissom, with feelings. That might come as a surprise to you, but it's true."
"Catherine, if you are in here just to make fun of me…" Grissom began, but Catherine cut him off.
"Look, I'm going to put this real simple for even you to understand." Catherine said rolling her eyes a little, "But Sara has not had the best relationships in the world. Let's look at exhibit A: Hank. He was a total slime ball and Sara fell really hard for him. Now I know this time she fell for someone a whole lot better, so let's not prove her wrong, okay?" Grissom stared at her though his glasses.
"Do you follow?" she asked.
"I follow Catherine, but what do you want me to do?"
"It's always what people want you to do isn't it? How about you just sit back and enjoy the ride, Grissom? You might like where it is going to take you." Catherine gave him one more look, and then got up from her chair. "I'm going to…I'm going to go do something." She finally finished even though she wasn't sure what she was going to do yet. "I'll be around if you need me." She said and turned and walked out of the room.
Grissom sat there now trying to figure out what Catherine had just told him. She had said for him to sit back and let everything run its course. The thing is that he was scared about where that course might end up.
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Thanks for the reviews guys. I'm going on vacation so the next chapter won't be posted for about a week, so I suggest watching some CSI reruns on TNN at two in the morning. That's how I get my CSI fix. :-)
*a.l.