Author: KellBell
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the creators and writers of CSI. Nope, they're not mine, not even Nick. I can only dream….hehe
Dealing: Chapter Two
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"So, what is it we are dealing with here?" Nick asked before entering the coroner's room. "You know, what exactly should I expect?"
"Grissom didn't tell you?" Sara looked irritated for a moment.
"He seemed somewhat preoccupied."
"Hmm," Sara bit the inside of her cheek, in thought. A minute of silence passed.
"Uhhh, speaking of preoccupied…," Nick snapped his fingers in front of Sara's face.
"Oh, sorry." She came to. "Homicide. Connie Trevorson. 34. Bank teller. Divorced. Two kids. Found dead in her home by the oldest one last night."
Nick sighed in disgust. He hated homicide cases obviously, but those involving children were the most heart-breaking.
"They live on the east side. Bad neighborhood." Sara spoke in fragments.
Nick held the door open for Sara as they entered the coroner's room.
"Nick. Sara." Robbins nodded as he greeted them. Nick's face cringed as the overwhelming smell of formaldehyde burned his nostrils. The smell was awful. No matter how many times he came into the room, he could never get used to it. He immediately wanted to grab the handkerchief from his pocket to cover his face; however, noticing Sara's unfazed coolness as she entered the room, he cleared his throat and sucked it up.
"Nice to see you decided to join us today." Robbins leaned toward the sheet covered corpse.
"Sorry we're late, Al." Nick apologized.
"Well, let's get on with it." Robbins whipped back the sheet unveiling the dead woman. Sara recognized her from the inspection the previous night with Grissom.
"Take special notice of the neck and chest area." Robbins pointed with plastic gloves. Nick's eyes focused on the cut wound on the woman's neck, the edges of skin stuck out, curling upward.
"Knife….scissors?" Nick asked.
"Either, or. We didn't find a weapon at the scene." Sara answered. "However it appears we are looking at more than one weapon here." Sara pointed out the massive bruise markings on the woman's sunken chest area. The lower bones on the woman's rib cage were definitely broken—shattered as if someone had taken a crowbar to her chest.
"Time of death is somewhere between six and eight P.M. Contusions around the mouth and cheeks indicate a firm group by the killer's hand." Robbins was speaking in monotone. Sara paused as she envisioned the image of the murder, distracting her. Robbins continued. "The weapon to the neck severed the carotid artery as well as other blood vessels which indicate that blood loss was probably the cause of death."
"What did we bag last night?" Nick turned to Sara.
"A few hairs found on the body. Also, a piece of foreign material, possibly from the killer, found on the victim's jacket. Those as well as sample DNA for possible sexual assault have been submitted for laboratory analysis." Sara replied. As Sara looked down at the glazed eyes of the dead woman, she was filled, suddenly, with an intense personal desire to find the jerk that did this. We'll get 'em, she mentally told the corpse. I promise.
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"I hope the kids are alright." Nick mentioned as he and Sara walked through the lab.
"They were taken to their father's after questioning this morning." Sara spoke.
Nick frowned. "That hardly seems like a smart thing to do."
"Brass questioned him last night. He's got an alibi."
"Heh," Nick shook his head. "Don't they all."
Sara was about to comment when her shoes crunched on broken glass beneath her. Images immediately flashed in her head, overwhelming her. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. Nick, noticing her, grabbed her shoulder and held it.
"Sara, what's wrong?"
Sara's breathing became heavy and she instantaneously brought her hand up to her face, massaging the space between her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. As quickly as the images came, they abandoned her, leaving her standing there jilted and perspiring before a group of on looking, concerned employees.
"What happened? Are you all right?" Nick prodded.
Sara, embarrassed, cleared her throat and pushed past the people who were now returning to their work. Unwilling to let Nick see her thrown off any further, she hurried to the locker room to retrieve her belongings so she could head home. Nick, seconds later, entered the room. He stood there staring at Sara in the entranceway as she quickly gathered her things from her locker into a book bag.
"Uh, what just happened out there?" Nick held his hand up, puzzled.
"What do you mean?" Sara busied herself, not allowing her eyes to meet his for fear he would notice the same puzzlement in hers. Why am I allowing so much get to me, Sara wondered. Sure she had a lot on her mind. The explosion, the uncomfortable confrontation with Grissom. Remembering the awkward pass she made at him and his clearly uncomfortable reaction to it, Sara mentally scolded herself. He'd been avoiding her since, and she didn't even want to know what he thought of her right then. Shake it off, Sidle, she thought. But she couldn't.
"Sara…" Nick approached her. Sara stood up straighter, making her body tense. She couldn't allow Nick to see her so on edge. This was a side of her she wouldn't make vulnerable to her co-workers.
"If you are going through something right now….I—I know you were right there in the explosion…" Nick eyes were full of concern. Sara continued to stare straight into her locker. "I'm sure you have a lot going on in your life right now. With the explosion, and now with this new case….I don't know…maybe you should take some time off." As much as he didn't want to get a new partner on the case they were working on, Nick was more concerned with Sara's well-being. He understood she had a lot of pressure on her shoulders right now. The last thing he wanted to do was weigh her down with more unneeded stress. "I would understand…,"
"I'm fine, Nick." She turned to look at him, and glanced away shyly when she saw the confusion in his eyes.
"Well, then what is it? Is it Hank?" Nick searched through reasons for her unusual behavior. Sara almost wanted to laugh at the mention of Hank. She hadn't even given him much thought since their break-up, or rather, her revelation of his girlfriend. Sara's mind trailed as she wondered for a moment if she ever really liked Hank…
"Sara?" Nick couldn't help but want to push further, he wanted to help her.
"It's not Hank." She smiled, grimly.
"You can talk to me," Nick's voice lowered. "Please, I want you to."
Sara looked up at him again and connected eyes with his. It was something in his voice. Something grabbed for her attention, pleading with her. Did he really care that much for her? She wondered. All of a sudden, Sara was overcome with the sensation of wanting to spill everything to Nick. Her nightmares. Her failure with Grissom. Her confusion towards her life, her world. Something about Nick's presence near her, right beside her, connected with hers. Her mind swirled with feelings…confusing emotion.
Someone walked into the room. The moment passed.
Sara noticed the other CSI, making her way to her locker. Dropping something off before clocking in to work, Sara presumed. Sara slammed shut her locker, snapping back to the present.
"I've got to go." She stated matter-of-factly.
Nick's jaw jutted slightly in frustration. Sara pulled her book bag strap over her shoulder and brushed past Nick.
"I'm fine…really." She turned to him once more before heading out of the room altogether. "I'll see you tomorrow!" Nick heard her echo down the hall.
Nick sighed, hand on hip, the other running through his hair. He turned to the other CSI and politely smiled before the woman headed out of the room.
She'll be fine, Nick told himself. Sara's a big girl. She will be able to deal with whatever demons she's facing right now. Stop trying to suffocate her with your help, he reprimanded himself.
And after all, in a world where another human being could slit a women's throat and shatter her ribcage for whatever purpose, there were worse things than Sara closing herself off to him.
And yet, Nick couldn't get Sara off his mind for the rest of the day.
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Author's Note: More to come soon! I've got an entire story line planned for this….so please R/R and let me know what you think. I'm open for comments on improvement! The more people I know are interested…the more I'll write! Thanks!
