Author: KellBell
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: You know the drill: I don't own 'em, they don't own me….never did, never will. They belong to the owners and writers of the show CSI. Got it? Good! Read on!
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Sara sat at her kitchen table, papers sprawled out messily in front of her. Her mind was on Connie Trevorson. She was wondering how she died. Wondering why she died. It was the case Nick and Sara were working on currently. She read through various notes and studied the information taken down from the neighbors' interviews. Sara scribbled sloppy notes of her own as well. She had only been skimming through the folders now for about half an hour. Or so she thought.
"Oh my gosh," Sara muttered when she glanced at the green numbers on her microwave clock. It was 2:38 A.M….nearly two and a half hours since she first sat down to "glance" at the case statistics. She rubbed her eyes, clearly exhausted. Gathering the papers together and stuffing them in various folders, she thought of Nick and his persistence with her earlier that day. Although she was glad she was currently working with him- Nick was a very dedicated CSI- she kind of wished he would lay off the prodding questions. She couldn't even describe what was going on with her lately, how was she going to answer Nick? Although she told herself his concern for her was unneeded, she couldn't help but think of how glad she was that she wasn't working with anyone but him.
Sara retreated to her bed, wondering if she'd be able to sleep, fearing what would happen if she did. Her head lay on a pillow, and she listened to the light tapping of a bug on the outside of her window. Her mind wandered to Grissom. What was I thinking? Sara wondered for the millionth time, as she replayed the images of her asking him out for dinner in her head. Apparently I wasn't, she answered herself, recalling his reaction.
Her mind felt a bit fuzzy, and her eyes burned a little because she was so tired, but she hesitated to force herself to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the explosion again. She even heard it. Before she could help herself, however, she was slowly drifting off…
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Nick drove through the streets of Vegas, destination crime lab. He knew he would be arriving to work earlier than usual, but he felt somewhat anxious to continue working on his case with Sara. He dialed her number on his cell phone while driving. No one answered. He figured she might still be sleeping; she wasn't due at work for a least a few more hours. He decided to call her cell phone to leave her a voicemail, informing her where he'd be.
"Hello?" The voice tinged with the rasp of sleep, and Nick immediately cringed at the thought of waking Sara up.
"Hey," Nick hesitated. "Did I wake you?"
"Not really." Sara cleared her throat.
"Well, I just wanted to let you know I'm going to the lab early today. I'm headed over there right now. I guess you could say I'm actually anxious to pull overtime working on this one." Nick said, referring to their case.
"Good. I'll see you in a minute then." She replied.
"What?" Nick didn't know everything about females, but what he did know was that it didn't take them "a minute" to wake up, shower, and arrive at work.
"I'm there. Well, here…at the lab," Sara clarified.
"Oh." Nick furrowed his brow. "Ok, then. See you in a few." He hung up the phone, confused.
Upon entering the lab, Nick ran into Warrick who was picking up results from processing.
"Hey, man. What you got there?" Nick motioned to the file.
"Positive ID on DNA samples from hotel pool 'suicide.'" Warrick emphasized quotations with his fingers on the last word. "It's not looking a whole lot like suicide anymore. I'm on my way to find Catherine to deliver the news. You got that east side homicide case with Sara, right?"
"Yeah, I'm picking up the results to some of the samples now. You seen her?" Nick asked.
Warrick nodded behind him and Nick stretched his neck to see Sara and Grissom conversing alone down the hall. The light danced off Sara's dark hair as she stood there, nodding her head, while Grissom spoke. Nick squinted, curiosity creeping over him.
"Huh. I wonder what's going on." He muttered, before looking at Warrick, who was pursing his lips together with raised eyebrows. "What?" Nick asked, reacting to Warrick's expression.
"I don't know…I'm not one to believe any of the gossip around here, but there has been some rumors going around lately."
"Rumors? About who?" Nick asked, wondering what he missed.
"About them." Warrick nodded again in their direction.
"Them? Grissom and Sara?" Nick cringed. "What do you mean?"
Warrick held his hands up defensively and began backing out of the processing room. "I don't know, man. It's not like I'd believe it anyway." He spoke before exiting the room entirely.
Sara and Grissom. Sara…….and Grissom, Nick repeated the names together in his head. No way. Nick made a mental note to bring up this topic with Sara later. It could explain a lot of her behavior, lately. Nick tried to make sense out of what he just heard, but immediately dismissed the notion. Sara will clear it up for me later. No need to go thinking ahead of yourself, Nick.
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"I don't know, Nick. He seemed convincing enough to me." Sara spoke immediately after they closed the door behind them to the victim's ex-husband's house.
"You know better than that, Sara." Nick retorted, meeting her stride down the driveway. They both waved to Brass as he backed out of the driveway and drove off. They had come for questioning after receiving the results from the lab earlier that day.
"I just keep thinking about it, you know? Thinking about why he would want to kill his wife. It just doesn't add up."
Nick laughed out loud. "Are you kidding me? Everything adds up. His wife, a week before she was murdered, told him, apparently very clearly, that she was leaving, with his children no less, for another state and never wanted to see him again."
"That doesn't mean anything." They both stopped in front of Nick's Tahoe. Sara continued. "She didn't have sole custody of their children. She wouldn't have gotten away with them without the law stepping in and fighting back. There's obviously no motive there. And you know that."
Nick sardonically chuckled. "Yeah, well his hair was found on her body that night… I don't need any motive. He killed her." He opened the passenger side of his Tahoe for Sara.
"I don't see how hair wouldn't have gotten on her body. He was at the house earlier that day to drop off the kids." Sara spoke as Nick slid into the driver's seat.
"Yeah, earlier that day. The murder happened at night, after she spent the whole day at work." Nick started the engine and backed out of the driveway.
"Well, I'm sure that strands of his hair were on the carpet, Nick. I doubt the babysitter vacuumed the house before the vic arrived home. Because there was a struggle with the victim and the killer, it would only make sense to presume that her husband's hair would somehow find its way from the carpet, where her body ended up, to her clothes."
"Well, no matter what you think, he's still our number one suspect right now after those lab results."
"Yeah, and that's exactly where the real killer wants us. Chasing after the ex. Its just too easy." Sara said.
Stubborn Sara, Nick thought and smiled. "I'm just glad to see the kids are being placed in a protective home." Nick spoke as he recalled their young faces from picture frames hung in the suspect's house. Sara grunted and nodded thoughtfully. She was there to see the look on the children's faces the night of their mother's murder. She was glad to know that they were in good hands right now.
Most of the rest of the ride back to the crime lab was driven by silence. Sara was exhausted, Nick could tell, for she yawned a few times and sighed heavily more than once. She also kept rubbing the bottom of her lip with her forefinger, as if in thought. Nick wondered why this was so distracting to him.
Pulling up to the lab, he figured now would be a good time to bring up what had been pressing his mind earlier that day. He gathered his thoughts, trying to figure out how to ask what he'd been planning to ask her all afternoon.
"So, uh, I saw you talking to Grissom earlier. Was he asking about the case?" Nick tried to converse nonchalantly. Sara sat up straighter in her seat, very alert all of a sudden.
"Um…yeah." Sara lied.
"Oh…" Nick parked the Tahoe and glanced over at a visually disturbed Sara, waiting for her to add to his question. She unbuckled her seat belt and quickly got out of the car.
"What did he have to say?" He pressed.
"Nothing really," She began walking away.
"Did he have anything to add to the case?"
Sara stopped walking and turned to meet Nick's face.
"No, Nick." Her words were choppy. "Just drop it…okay?" Her voice revealed a mixture of sadness and frustration. Sara's eyes moistened as she thought of how Grissom had approached her earlier. He told her that she put him in a really uncomfortable position, and said that he was flattered but that her employment under him needed to be strictly professional. Although she understood how he reacted, she couldn't help but feel humiliated as he spoke to her as if she were a twelve year old with a crush on her school teacher.
"Hey, I didn't do anything here, Sara. I'm just asking questions is all." Nick became defensive after her words. Then he saw her helpless eyes and his demeanor softened. "Listen, I've never thought I'd have to walk on egg shells around you. But if that's how you want it to be, then tell me what I'm saying that's setting you off. I'll steer clear of it altogether, if that's what you want," He reiterated moving closer to her. "Because frankly, I just don't know what it is I'm doing that's making you shut me out. From what I recall, it's never been this hard for either of us to talk to each other." Nick thought of her behavior the past week and the awkward silence that was becoming all too familiar between them lately. "Just don't use me as your punching bag. I know you must be going through something, but don't take it out on me. I don't want to do anything but help." Nick watched Sara kick a rock with her foot, waiting for her to say something….say anything.
"I asked Grissom on a date." Sara blurted out.
Nick's face scrunched together. "What?"
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Author's Note: I just wanted to say a quick thanks to those who have been writing comments on the story. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I never realized how important writing comments were until I wrote a story. So thanks for the encouragement! I love to know what you think. As always, another chapter is in progress! So keep reading and replying!
