"Kerrigan Shannon."
Sara felt the color drain from her face. 'This is not happening to me right now,' she thought to herself.
Both Catherine and Greg noticed how pale Sara had become at the mere mention of the name. "Hey Sara? Are you alright?" Greg asked as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Greg's voice brought Sara back from her thoughts. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Can I see the printout, please?"
"Yeah, here you go." He handed her the paper, as she began to read the results, he and Catherine shared a worried glance.
Catherine motioned for Greg to leave, and he turned and walked to his lab without a word. After making sure he was out of earshot, she turned back to Sara. "Hey, you alright?"
Sara looked up from the results to Catherine. "Um, this case is pinned up in Grissom's office. I'll go get it." She moved to step around the blonde, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Sara, you are very good at avoiding personal questions, but this time it's just not going to work." Catherine said as gentle as possible so that she wouldn't scare the brunette away. "What's the Shannon case, I need to be brought up to date on it. Everything about it."
Sara sighed, she knew she couldn't avoid Catherine this time, and actually felt the need to talk to someone about this case, other than Grissom. "Kerrigan Shannon was a nineteen year old girl, found raped and murdered in her college dorm room. Semen present, but not in CODIS. No other physical evidence, and her boyfriend, the prime suspect, had a shaky alibi, but there was no reason to take DNA from him. Closed it, and pinned it up on the fish board."
"And your emotional connection to the case?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.
Another deep sigh, "This one hit me hard, Cath. I broke down after I pinned it up six months ago."
Catherine's eyebrows shot upwards, "Six months? This is the case, the one that Grissom comforted you?"
Sara merely nodded. "I need to go get the original case file from Griss." She walked out, leaving a worried Catherine in her wake.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sara stood in Grissom's doorway, thinking back to a time similar to this, only six months before. She watched him, letting a smile set on her face, before walking in and shutting the door.
He looked up at the sound of the door shutting. He grinned when he realized it was Sara in the office, but was wondering why she was shutting the door. She had never done that any other time she had entered the office. "Hey, what can I do for you?"
Sara's smile faltered as she remembered why she was in there for the first place. "I have to grab a file," she said as she sat down in a chair across from him.
Grissom looked confused, "Which one?"
"The Shannon case." She looked down at her hands.
He swallowed audibly. "Why?"
"DNA from semen found on Tina Maxwell is a match to the unknown sample on Kerrigan Shannon."
"Oh," Grissom watched her carefully. She looked upset. "Sara, are you okay. I mean, you haven't looked at the file in six months, let alone talked about it. Are you sure that you can handle this?"
She looked back up to him and gave him a small smile. "I think I'll be fine. It's just that it came back up as a surprise. I haven't thought about it the past couple of months too much because I had better things to think about. I mean, I didn't want to dwell on this unsolved case, and while yes it was in the back of my mind all the time, I had you to distract me." There was a full blown grin on her face now. Leaning over the desk she gave him a small kiss on the cheek, and whispered in his ear, "Thank you for being my diversion."
"You're welcome."
Sara pulled back and walked over to the board. The happiness she just felt faded fast when she saw the file. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, and when Grissom saw this, he walked over to her, and put his hand son her shoulders. She barely spoke, "I can do this."
"I know you can."
She reached up and pulled the file down, and opened it up, looking straight into the blue eyes of Kerrigan Shannon. Sara closed her eyes at the sight, and memories came flooding back to her. One lone tear made its way down her cheek.
Grissom saw the saline drop, and brushed it away quickly. "Honey, are you positive you can handle this?"
She opened her eyes and looked up to him. After a deep breath and a moment spent collecting herself, she answered him, "I'm positive. And I also have Catherine working with me. She knows what's going on. Two smart women are always better than one." She smiled at the memory of her and her coworker's first meeting.
"Okay, well you better get moving. She might wonder what we're up to in here. And we definitely don't need that kind of gossip going around the lab." Grissom smirked.
Sara started laughing, "Griss, I'm sure they've figured out that we're sleeping together. I mean, we are getting married."
"Yeah, but we don't do anything on CSI time. That's what I'm worried about."
"Everyone knows better. Catherine knows exactly why I'm in here, and if the boys even thought about spreading any kind of rumor, I'd kick their ass."
"Right after I fired them." Grissom smiled.
"Aww, you wouldn't fire them, just ream them a new one and the send them on their way." She gave a little laugh, and gave pulled him into an embrace. "I've got to get going. Love you."
"I love you too. Be careful today."
"I always am." She pulled away and walked out of his office, Shannon file in hand, feeling more confident about this case than ever.