A/N: Here is another promised chapter. I'm glad to see reviews by those that haven't read this before. Thank you for taking the time to review.
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16 hours later
The bright sunshine glared off the Pacific Ocean as the plane made its final approach. When it landed, Grissom, Catherine, Nick and Warrick, made their way into the small airport to gather their luggage.
Taking a cab, they got to the hotel where the conference was being held and where their rooms were waiting for them. Even though they had gone home early from their shift to pack and rest, all four of them had only accomplished the former.
Catherine had taken the liberty of getting them a four-bedroom suite on the tenth floor of the hotel. They walked in to their suite after getting checked in, and seemed to get their second wind, or maybe it was their fourth or fifth. Nick and Warrick almost raced to get to the bedrooms located where they wanted. Grissom and Catherine just stared after the two. If someone who didn't know them all better saw them, they'd think they'd looked like parents wishing they hadn't brought their children with them on vacation.
Later that evening about nine o'clock, after a long session of coaxing Grissom, they decided to go down to the outside lounge, located about a hundred yards up from the beach. They'd read in one of the hotel brochures that there would be live music and dancing, and that even some of the hotel management performed with the band. They thought it might be a good way to kick off their week.
When they stepped outside, they were taken a little aback at the temperature. In Vegas, the temperature would have dropped enough to make it a bit chilly, but here it hadn't seemed to change.
It was quickly agreed upon that, with Grissom just having had surgery on his hearing, they would sit toward the back, away from the music -so that they could still hear each other talk. The place was packed, and everyone was in a swinging good mood. They chose a table where it was a little darker than the rest of the place and just behind a short trellis bordering off the room. They were still able to see the stage but the throng of people was located closer to the stage area and dance floor. A waitress came and took their orders.
After having sat at the table for only about fifteen minutes, the lead singer of the band announced that every night, members of the management would perform a song or two. "Tonight, we have the privilege of hearing from our boss, Mr. Jarod O'Connell. For those of you who don't know him, he is the Hotel owner." Applause ensued as Jarod took the stage.
Catherine noticed he was a very handsome man wearing a white, billowy shirt with matching white slacks. Her mind conjured up a vision of meeting him on a beach, sun setting in the distance and… she took a deep breath as the vision became very intense.
The band started playing an old seventies song called "Reunited" which was normally a duet but only Jarod appeared on stage to sing. As he began the song, he scanned the audience as if in search of someone. When he reached the part that a female would normally sing, the group heard a beautiful voice break in to sing the next part of the duet. They saw off to the right of the stage, a tall blonde, dressed in a white form fitting full-length dress with a slit up her left leg to the middle of her thigh. She wasn't wearing any shoes or sandals but sported an anklet on her left ankle. Her hair was pulled back behind her ear with loose waves framing the rest of her face along with a beautiful orange Tiger Lilly tucked in her left ear.
Jarod turned around and looked at her with a huge smile on his face. He held out his hand to her as she approached. Accepting his hand, Jarod helped her onto the stage without either of them missing a beat. Now that she was in the beam of the stage lights the Vegas group could saw who it was and they remained transfixed by the two on stage.
Jarod, holding her hand, pulled Sara closer so that the length of her body was now pressing up against his side and while still holding her hand he shifted his arm along with hers behind her back. It was a very romantic gesture, almost possessive.
Catherine glanced over at Grissom who watched the two intently and she saw a look in his eyes she didn't like. He didn't appear to be angry or even surprised, just - sorrowful.
Jarod and Sara finished their song then he turned and hugged her. "Let me introduce to you, my special and dearest friend, Miss Sara Sidle. As some of you know, she arrived here a few months ago and has been filling in as our Public Relations Liaison. Everyone give her a warm welcome back from her trip."
The audience clapped and whistled then enthusiastically began to request another song from the pair. This time they sang a rendition of "Guilty," but they stood apart and moved around the stage to the song as if acting out the lyrics. After they finished, and the crowd applauded once again, they stepped off the stage hand in hand and walked toward the back of the room to an occupied table situated against the trellis where the Vegas group was located but were not seen by Sara or Jarod.
There were already two gentlemen occupying the table and as Jarod and Sara approached, the two men stood and greeted Sara with a kiss and hug.
"Hi, baby girl, you look wonderful tonight. It's good to have you back." Matt Calhoun could be quite the charmer when he wanted to. "How was Delaware?" He held out a chair for her and then pushed it back in as she sat down.
"Oh, no, not you too? You've been hanging around Jarod too much. Calling me baby girl…" Sara laughed heartily. "Delaware was shall we say Delaware. Remind me next time to never go there again." Everyone grimaced at that statement. "Oh and I saw Greg in D.C. and he said to tell you guys hello."
"How's he doing?" Jarod asked with a glint in his eye.
Sara smiled and almost started laughing. "He's changed. Grown up is how I would describe it. He um… cut his hair, like yours Matt, kind of a long crew cut. He looks really good. Very business like, professional."
"Well, it's good to hear he's liking it there." Matt grinned but his expression turned sober almost instantly, as if he had something on his mind.
"You know, you and Jarod always sound better and better the more you're on stage. Thinking about going professional?" Jackson Haisley looked at Sara with his head tilted slightly and a smile on his face.
"Not even close, Haisley. But I was beginning to wonder with the way your mood is tonight, Jarod, if you weren't going to keep me up there for awhile…" She stood up, capturing their attention. "Say, I usually stay a little longer than this but I think I'm going to head down to the beach for a walk. Jarod, want to join me?" Taking his hand in hers, she gently tugged on it to get him to go with.
"Actually, you can't go yet…we have a little surprise for you." He tugged on her hand this time and made her sit back down. Matt pulled out a black portfolio and handed it to her. She loved surprises and the grins they all held on their faces prompted a smile to creep up her face.
The group watched intently and listened closely to the conversation. With his hearing now repaired, Grissom was able to catch every word. The only problem they had was seeing them clearly. The trellis and foliage covering it blocked their view.
She opened the portfolio and slowly started reading the official looking document. She put her hand up to her mouth, which had started quivering slightly; then she looked up at the three men who were watching her closely. She tried unsuccessfully to choke back the tears that started to run down her face, and quietly asked, "Have you sent this out?"
Jackson spoke first but somewhat timidly. "Yeah…the LVPD should have received it by now since it was sent by special courier. Your friends in Vegas should be finding out right about now that you didn't do it."
"Thank you." She barely choked it out, trying to regain her composure. "I don't know what I would have done without you two… and you too Jarod. God, when I saw that van sitting outside my apartment that day I couldn't believe it. Oh…I need to call Greg and tell him…"
"He already knows, Sara. I called him today and told him myself." Matt looked at her with so much compassion that she started crying a little harder. "Sara, I… we thought you'd be happy about this. What's wrong? You can go back now and see them; they'll understand."
"No!" Both Jarod and Sara said simultaneously as their eyes met and shifted.
"She can't go back." Jarod stated simply. "We still don't know who set her up. We have the proof that she didn't do it but whoever did isn't going to give up. They worked too hard to make sure she couldn't be proven innocent."
"But…"
"No, Matt, I can't go back and even if we do figure out who it is, how am I supposed to face him… face them." She started crying again and placed her head on her arm on top of the table. After what seemed an eternity, she lifted back up and looked at Matt. "Matt, you were there; you saw what happened. I had my gun pointing right at him. How could he not feel betrayed by that? I could read it in his eyes. I can't just go there and show up for work like nothing happened -and besides, when I got arrested that was an automatic termination.
Her voice changed, dripping with sarcasm, "I can just see it now, Hi, everyone, yeah I'm back and oh by the way, sorry to have that gun pointing at your face Grissom. I hope you can forgive me. Hmmm, don't think that's going to go over very well." To all present, the way she made it sound was over the top, but the meaning wasn't lost on them. "They're investigators. They're going to want to know where I've been and how the evidence to prove me innocent got to them. I can't tell them any of it because if I do, it will blow your covers."
Feeling a bit defeated, Matt softly caressed Sara's arm in comfort. "I'm sorry… I didn't consider that." He and Jackson had done a lot of hard work to figure out what had happened and now it seemed that what they were hoping the resolution would be, wasn't to be.
Sara now stood up again, leaving the portfolio sitting on the table, and turned to Jarod. "I'm going down to the beach. Give me a few minutes and then come join me, okay? And guys, thank you again for this. Even if I can't go back, at the least he… they'll know." She slowly made her way to the edge of the lounge, took the two steps up leading out, and headed down the path to the beach.
"Don't get us wrong, Sara would like to go back and I really would like to see her get her life back, but right now it isn't feasible. Besides, I think her being here is doing her some good. She isn't as stressed out as she was in Vegas. She's been performing way above what was expected in our operations, and is back to the level she was when we escaped from the Centre," Jarod tried to alleviate their regret but at the same time trying to help them understand that this topic of her going back was to be pushed far in the background –for now. Sara needed to concentrate on finding the person that was setting her up and he didn't want her to be distracted.
While Jarod had intended a different understanding for Matt and Jackson, the group behind the trellis heard the word escape and became completely confused.
"Speaking of which, Jarod, what exactly was her training at the Centre? She seems to- I don't know- have this hardness to her demeanor that you don't. I mean she does get pretty emotional at times, but when she's performing in an operation, she's… well, she doesn't get distracted. She's not just a pretender, is she? There's more to it than that, isn't there?" Matt's questions opened up a topic of conversation that no one ever seemed to want to discuss. But, if they were going to find who was behind this, he felt they needed to know.
Jarod sat there silently and looked off toward the beach at Sara, contemplating just what he could tell Matt and Jackson without divulging too much. His decision could very well cause problems with Sara's trust in him. She didn't like being discussed or having her life tampered with.
"No, Sara is not just a pretender. She's been trained to be… well... she's an assassin. That's why she couldn't help but do what she did at the airstrip when she stopped Dr. Grissom and Ms. Willows. Do you realize if they had made one small move, they'd be dead? She has no choice in her actions when she is put in that position. It's like instinct. She would have killed them without a blink of an eye. She had more to protect than just herself."
Matt leaned in a little bit more toward the table and looked down toward his feet as he asked, "What made her that way, Jarod? What was her training?"
"I don't know how much I should tell you guys. I don't even know all of it. I started watching some of the discs that I came across when we closed the Centre. Some were of her and Mr. Raines, training. I couldn't watch more than one. It reminded me of a snuff film. She was only eight years old in that one." He stared off toward the beach and remembered as he watched Sara. He took a deep breath then continued, "I remember being able to hear her through the vents, screaming…over and over, and sometimes I can still hear it in my dreams. I can only imagine what was happening and what she now still goes through."
Jarod closed his eyes, and when he reopened them he looked at Matt and Jackson. "There was one time, I was twenty and she must have been just turning nine. Sydney told me recently that it was about that time that the usual punishment Mr. Raines used on her wasn't having an effect anymore, so he came up with something new. When she would disagree with him or choose not to perform some task, he would have her hauled to the lower portion of the Centre. I followed one time and watched them make their way down to the boiler room. It wasn't until days later that I got up the courage to go down there and look at where they had put her."
He shuddered as he continued his story. "I found a twelve-foot hole with about three feet of water in it, and the walls were covered in bugs. There were so many that it made the walls look like they were moving. He would drag her to it, kicking and screaming and pleading No, not the bugs, please, no, not the bugs over and over. They would drop her in and she would just scream more and more. Then they would add another bucket of the bugs on top of her, meaning of course that most of them would end up directly on her. They would put the top back on and lock it, leaving her in there for hours. The next day she'd either be covered in welts and scratches all over her from trying to keep them off or she'd be out cold, unconscious from the poison. They would get embedded in her clothes and hair and even in her ears. She'd sometimes be sick for days after an incident, and then later, after she recovered, she wouldn't talk, much less move. If Mr. Raines wanted her to jump off of a cliff, she wouldn't have hesitated. Months would go by and then she'd start feeling her independence again and back in she would go. It went on for years like that."
Matt and Jackson looked at each other. They each understood what Jarod hadn't told them.
Jarod continued, "One night, Eddie, Alex and I decided to try our escape and we wanted to include Sara. I approached her but she just gave me a sad smile and said no and then walked away. I found out later that she escaped the same night that we did, but went alone and in a different direction. Eddie and I got away but Alex never made it with us. Sara told me recently that she knew there was no way we could have all made it out together, so she did it on her own."
"How is it that she has such a hatred or even fear of bugs and yet could work at a crime lab? Aren't different kinds of insects included in investigations by criminalists?" Jackson asked.
"Well, that would be where her Pretender training would come into play, mind over matter. Besides, she's had twelve years to work on it. She told me the first time she met her Dr. Grissom at a lecture in Harvard - it was four years after we escaped and right before we met up with her - she picked up a jar of some bugs he had displayed and handed it to him. She said she had to really control herself from shaking."
"Jarod... do you think there is more between her and Dr. Grissom then what she let's on?" Jackson asked.
"Probably, but only she and he know what it is, and she's not going to spill. I have my own opinions in that matter but not ones I care to share. It would only be speculation." Jarod started to chuckle as he said, "It's kind of funny in a way, because Dr. Grissom is an Entomologist. I'm sure that is probably something that attracted her to him. She has the need to conquer her fears and what better way."
Matt looked toward Sara on the beach then asked Jarod, "Okay, here's one, why doesn't she sleep? She seems to go for extended periods without much sleep and…"
Jarod raised his hand to forestall Matt. "One word- vulnerable... She's vulnerable when she sleeps. Mr. Raines," He hesitated and shook his head before he continued. "More than once made sure she understood that." He stood up, stepped around his chair. "I'm going down to join her. I'll come back when she goes inside."
Matt and Jackson sat there quietly and watched the two join up on the beach. Jarod walked up behind Sara and put his arms around her as she leaned back into him. It seemed so intimate, and yet they both knew that the two on the beach were nothing more than brother and sister, one comforting the other.
The group watched the two on the beach as well. They sat in stunned silence, and glanced at each other having heard the most astounding and far-fetched story, and yet here were these people living it. No one was ready to say or do anything.
"You know, I have a theory." Jackson leaned over the table a little more. "Whoever set Sara up to take that fall is probably someone from both of their pasts, leading back to the Centre."
"I was just thinking the same thing, and I think that's why Jarod has stepped up security surrounding her. He positioned some of his team in the trees facing the beach and in other areas in the building to keep an eye on her. It's not like she can't take care of herself, but if he thinks it's someone from the Centre or even, God forbid, the Triumvirate, he doesn't want to risk the chance of them being able to capture her or even him for that matter." Matt stood up and started to walk away and then turned back. "Do you want anything? I'm going to get another drink."
Jackson grimaced. "Yeah, I need another after that conversation. Make it a Bourbon straight."
