Title: On the Other Side
Disclaimer: Don't own it. That's all up to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer and the gang. And I must say, they are doing a great job.
Sara smiled at Catherine and Nick as she stepped into the break room. They nodded back to her, then resumed their conversation over whether they would be able to decapitate a cheating spouse. Sara shook her head at them, still smiling as she opened the small fridge to stow her Pepsi.
She recoiled her hand quickly, seeing a jar of maggots sitting on a shelf. She sighed, slamming the fridge shut. "I thought Grissom was going to take those out yesterday."
Catherine looked up briefly. "Oh, he didn't work last night."
Sara arched an eyebrow. "Really? He actually spends a day away from the lab?"
Nick shook his head. "He takes off every once in a while, Sara. You know that."
She sighed in reply, then turned and grabbed the offending jar from the fridge. She then quickly walked into Grissom's office, not even bothering to knock before going in. He wasn't there, and the lights were still off.
She frowned, then made her way to the mini-fridge behind his desk. She opened it, shoved the maggot jar inside, then shut the door. She was straightening up again when the lights suddenly flipped on, almost blinding her. She whirled around quickly.
Grissom was leaning against the doorjamb, his fingers still on the light switch. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he studied the scene. "Sara," he said, the tone of his voice betraying his amusement, "what are you doing in my office? Alone…In the dark…" His eyebrows rose as a smile broke loose.
She crossed her arms across her chest, resisting the urge to return his smile. "Bringing you your maggots," she said, pointing to the fridge. "The rest of us don't appreciate them sitting next to our lunch."
His eyes widened slightly. "Oh!" he exclaimed, quickly going over to the fridge. He squatted down and pulled out the jar.
Sara frowned. "New snack?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer. She leaned over his shoulder, pretending to be interesting in the bugs.
"Nah," he said, looking over his shoulder, his face inches from hers. "I prefer grasshoppers." Sara grimaced, but Grissom chose not comment on it. "Actually, these little guys were part of an experiment. I wanted to know how the maggots would react to a drastic change in temperature."
"Such as, if a decomposing body were transferred. Say…into a freezer or climate controlled truck?"
Grissome grinned. "Exactly." His gaze went back to his jar for a moment before he put them back into the fridge. He pulled out another jar, opened it, then offered it to Sara.
She frowned. "What is…was it?"
He shrugged. "Chocolate covered grasshoppers." He smiled, then popped one into his own mouth, demonstrating that they were edible.
Sara half grimaced, half smiled as she tentatively grabbed one. She stared at it for a moment before putting it into her mouth.
Grissom smiled at her, his eyes alight. "See, they're not that bad."
She shrugged, returning his smile. "Yeah, but they're not great." She met his eyes, and the happiness and content she saw in them surprised her. Never before had Grissom seemed so happy. Despite all the times Sara had accused Grissom of not feeling human emotions, he always carried his own burdens. Burdens that haunted his eyes. And for now, they seemed to have disappeared.
He cocked his head to the side slightly. "What?" he asked softly.
Sara tore her eyes from his reluctantly, secret wishing for nothing more than to explore their blue depths. "Nothing," she said, moving away from him to give him room to stand. He turned to the door, grabbing papers with one hand and putting the other on her back gently. "Come on. I need to hand out assignments so we can get to work."
All of the CSI's met in the break room a few minutes later. Grissom was reclined comfortably in his usual seat at the head of the table, smiling gently to himself. Catherine and Nick had yet to finish their cheating spouse discussion, and Sara was busy preparing coffee.
Warrick stepped inside, glancing at Grissom before joining Sara. "Grissom's looking kinda happy. What did he get, a double homicide with lots of bugs?"
Sara shrugged, pouring coffee into two cups. "I don't know. He was off yesterday; maybe it was good for him." She shrugged again before grabbing both cups of coffee and heading towards the table. She set one in front of Grissom before taking her own seat.
He looked up at her in surprise. "Oh, thank you." He gave her a small smiled, then waited for Warrick to sit. He shuffled through the papers for a moment. "Ok guys." He handed one paper to Nick. "Man found in the park. No witnesses, just a bullet in the head."
Nick grinned sarcastically. "Oh joy."
Grissom gave him a look, then handed Warrick a paper. "Hit and run."
Warrick nodded. "Alright."
"Sara, Catherine, and I have a DB in a hotel room. Just came in."
Sara nodded, then grabbed the paper. "A so-far unidentified elderly woman's body found in the Lucky Eight hotel. Appears to be a homicide." She looked up at Grissom. "Oh joy," she said, mimicking Nick.
Moments later, the CSI's were all on their way to their crime scenes. Catherine opted to take her own vehicle, just in case someone needed to run back to the lab, leaving Grissom and Sara stuck in the same truck. It was an awkward silence at first, and finally Sara could take it no more.
"So…have a nice day off?"
Grissom glanced at her briefly. "That's not really your business, but yes, I did."
Sara grinned. "Get a hot date or something?" she asked, though secretly she hoped he would say no.
Grissom laughed to himself. "Not even close."
"Oh come on. What's the big secret? Or did you just go spend a wonderful day at the body farm?"
Grissom rolled his eyes. "For your information, I haven't been there in a while."
"Well…" Sara leaned closer to him in her seat, staring at him for some kind of reaction.
He fought to keep a smiled at bay, but it showed anyway. He laughed, then playfully shoved her back into her seat. She smiled, actually liking this change in Grissom. Whatever had happened had made him more open, playful. It was almost as if the discomfort that surrounded them since she'd asked him out had disappated.
She held up her hands. "Ok, you keep your secrets, like you always do. But whatever it was that you did, you should do it more often. I like this Grissom."
He cocked an eyebrow and glanced at her. "This Grissom?"
"Yeah, you know, playful, happy, nice. Sure beats the bossy, moody Grissom we usually get."
He shook his head. "I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that." He put the car in park, and Sara saw that they had reached the hotel. He glanced at her. "Let's go do our job."
She smiled, then unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out of the car. He followed suit, and the two of them made their way up to a police officer standing by the tape.
"Hey! Wait up!" someone shouted. They turned to see Catherine rushing towards them, her kit in hand.
"Late, Catherine?" Grissom teased.
"Not even close."
He shook his head, then turned to the officer. "What do we have?"
"Old woman found dead in her room. Stab wounds to the chest. The manager called it in, said he heard a commotion from the room last night, then got concerned when the lady missed her check-out time."
"This woman have a name?"
"We're getting that now, but you can go ahead and go in there."
Grissom nodded, then turned and beckoned to Catherine and Sara. He stepped under the tape and made his way into the hotel room. It was a one of the very small rooms, with only a couch, TV, bed, and bathroom. The body lay on the floor between the bathroom and the bed, her face turned away from the CSI's. Grissom turned on his flashlight, then kneeled down to peer at the woman's face.
Catherine was checking out the bloody walls when she turned back to the body, noticing that Grissom seemed to have frozen. She stepped up beside him, seeing a look of horror on his now-pale face. "Gris?" she asked, concerned for her friend.
"Oh my god…" he managed to say, then he stood and rushed out of the room. Seconds later, Catherine could hear him gagging outside, thowing up onto the pavement.
She frowned. That was something that Grissom never did. Something was very wrong. She leaned over to see the woman's face.
Sara stepped up close to her, staring after Grissom, torn between going to help him and seeing what had caused his reaction. She stared down at the body. It was just an old woman, probably in her seventies or eighties, nothing Grissom hadn't seen many times before. "What's wrong with Gris?" she asked Catherine, who also seemed to have frozen.
Catherine slowly turned to her, a tear running down her face. "His mother…That's his mother."
A/N: DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE CHAPTER!
Ok, so far, from the episodes I've seen, they haven't mentioned whether Gris's mother is already dead or what. But if you guys know any real information about her, besides the fact that she was deaf, let me know. I try to make my stories as accurate as possible.
TBC