TITLE: No More Death, No More Murder

AUTHOR: Micky Fine

DISCLAIMER: All characters from CSI do not belong to me and I am making no profit from this piece of fiction. I created any characters that are not from the show.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry to all of you who have been keeping up with my little fic. My internet went on the fritz and I had absolutely none for a WHOLE WEEK AND A HALF. EEK!!! Thankfully now that it has returned my internet deprivation did not get out of hand (I was THIS close) and I can continue writing for all you wonderful people who just make my day with your reviews (hint, hint). For all of you romantics out there (just like myself), I promise Sara is going to wake up and there will most definitely be some GS. Just be patient.

Reviews always welcome.

Jim Brass sat next to Sara's bed in the chair that had been provided. He was holding her hand, something he never would have done had she been conscious, but the peculiar circumstances somehow seemed to make it permissible. He hadn't spoken to her still form except to tell her he was present. It seemed almost forbidden to speak and disturb the silence, as if Sara were sleeping. He'd always been fond of Sara, for some unknown reason. She'd always been kind and polite to him and had treated him like a human being and he felt obliged to do the same. He squeezed her hand, and feeling slightly guilty he broke the silence.

"I might have to tell them Sara. Depending on how this investigation goes I may have to tell them about what you had me do when you first came to Vegas. I know you never wanted to tell them, but it may become necessary. I promise to only tell them if the investigation heads in that direction, ok?"

There was silence. Preparing to leave, Brass suddenly felt Sara squeeze his hand. Shocked, he stared at her face that was a calm as before. He then surveyed the monitor that monitored Sara's brain activity. There was a huge spike and then it leveled off again.

"I promise I'll only tell them if it's necessary. I promise."

Grissom glanced up as he heard the rustle of clothing. Catherine was leaning against the doorframe of his office.

"Where were you?" she asked.

"Around."

"Really."

There was a pause.

"Have we contacted Sara's parents?" Grissom asked.

"I tried. They're touring Egypt on camels. They went totally authentic. No cell phones."

"Interesting."

"I think it would be a general pain in the ass riding a camel across the desert, but hey who am I to judge?"

"You come to see me for a reason, Catherine?"

"Yeah, I did actually. When we got back here I was going over our conversation with Ashley and something didn't strike me right about her comments about Jake."

"Who?"

"Sara's ex-boyfriend from Harvard. The one she broke up with because it didn't work out so now they're friends. Just the way Ashley didn't say much about the break-up made me curious. So I called her."

"And what did you find out?"

"That Sara and Jake broke up because she felt Jake was getting to clingy. He was constantly trying to be with her and it began to upset her. So they broke up. A little later Sara felt enough time had passed and they went back to being friends."

"Doesn't seem suspicious to me."

"It didn't seem that way to me at first either, but my gut was saying something wasn't right, so I asked Ashley what she meant by 'clingy'."

"And?"

"Jake would call her every hour on the hour. He would show up at the beginning and end of each class. She would go places and he would just show up, even though she hadn't told him where she was going. He tried to get her to only spend time with him."

"Sounds like he was stalking her."

"It sounded like that to me too. And then I thought, well, maybe he never really got over Sara."

"Even if he hasn't, he's in Africa on an anthropological study, remember?"

"That's the thing. I checked with the airlines and customs. Jake Sullivan flew in from Harare, Zimbabwe and landed in Las Vegas, Nevada last week."

"Did I hear you right? Is Jake Sullivan in Vegas?" Brass broke in from behind.

"Yeah, what do you know about him?" Catherine asked.

"More than I really want to. You should sit down."

Catherine sat down in the chair on the other side of Grissom's. They both turned to look at Brass expectantly. He surveyed both their faces, stepped into the room further and began to speak.

"When Sara first came to Vegas I noticed that she seemed a little worried, distracted. I spoke to her about it because I knew that if she was distracted at the wrong moment on a scene she could end up dead."

He paused for a moment realizing how ironic that statement was. Clearing his throat he continued.

"She said she was worried about one of her friends from school. She said he had followed her home to San Francisco. Apparently he had gotten a job there to be close to her. It had spooked her so when the job here came she jumped on it. But now her friend had taken a leave of absence and had followed her to Vegas. She cared about her friend, but she knew his behavior wasn't healthy and she wanted some way to get him back to the real world.  Her friend's name was Jake Sullivan."

Shock registered on both Catherine's and Grissom's faces.

"I helped her get a restraining order, but buried it so no one else would really know about it. A couple weeks later Jake Sullivan went back to San Francisco and they went back to being friends. Sara dropped the restraining order about a month later."

"Was Jake ever violent?" Grissom asked.

"He threatened her several times but never actually did anything."

"Well, maybe he did get violent this time." Catherine said.

"Maybe," Grissom agreed, "let's see if we can track down Jake Sullivan."

"I'm on that." Catherine said, jumping out of her chair and heading out of his office. As she left she nearly collided into Nick and Warrick who were just coming in.

"How did things go at the gym?" Grissom asked.

"We met Sara's workout partner," Warrick said.

"He's an ex-cop who teaches a self-defense course. He met Sara at one of his courses and they became friends. They work out together a couple times a week," Nick added.

"Did he say if anything unusual happened during her workout before she was attacked?" Grissom asked.

"He said Sara was stressed," Warrick stated, "not surprising, seeing she was nearly shot that afternoon."

Grissom nodded.

"He did say that Sara got a call from someone named Ashley. And then she got one that was a hang-up. He said that she said she'd been getting quite a few of those lately," Nick finished.

"Maybe our friend Jake has been checking up on Sara," Brass commented.

"Maybe," Grissom agreed.

They were interrupted by Catherine who rushed into the office.

"Jake Sullivan was staying at the Mirage. He checked out two hours ago. I did learn something interesting though," she finished.

"What's that?" Nick asked curious.

"Our friend Jake is a Texan," she said, looking meaningfully at Nick.

"I guess that means I'm going to interview Sara," Nick said.

"Warrick, go with Nick, we may catch this guy yet," Grissom said.

"Let's hope so," Brass added as the team broke up and headed in different directions.