Here's an interesting what-if, post-Butterflied. The story picks up later in the day, after the final scene.

Title: Butterflied Redux

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. Period. Please don't sue me.

Archiving: Just let me know.

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Sara was at her desk in the small cubbyhole she called an office. It's just another day at the office, Sara. Just another day of processing evidence, working in the lab, and going about the job of putting criminals behind jail.

She sighed. Who are you kidding? No it isn't, Sara. Not after what you heard.

It had been several hours ago, but to Sara it was as vivid as if it had happened moments before. The scene played over and over again in her head.

"We have a big decision to make, right? Because we have to risk everything we've worked for in order to have her. I couldn't do it..." Grissom had said. The words still stung.

What did he mean? I don't really know. Do you really know Grissom anymore? Who does? Does even Grissom himself know the meaning of what he said?

There were plenty of questions, but answers were not forthcoming. She just shook her head.

Warrick walked in, grabbing some paperwork from his desk. "Hey Sar, you ready for assignments?"

"Huh?" Sara had been staring at the ceiling, seemingly in her own world. Warrick's words had abruptly brought her back to the real world.

"You know, assignments? Grissom? Break room?"

"I know, I know, just – give me a sec, will you?"

Warrick nodded. "See you in the break room."

Sara gave him a faint smile. "Okay." Files in hand, Warrick stepped out, leaving Sara to compose herself.

It won't change anything, right? I mean, Grissom's been distant lately, so I won't have to deal with this.

For now, anyway.

Sara rose from her chair and headed for the break room. Inside, she found Warrick idly waiting. Seating herself across him, she waited for Catherine and Grissom to come in and today's work to begin.

She was somewhat surprised when Catherine entered, with Grissom nowhere to be seen. Looking at Warrick, she noted he was surprised as well.

"Uh, Cath, what's going on? Where's Grissom?" Warrick asked.

Taking the chair at the head of the table – Grissom's usual place – Catherine explained the situation. "Personnel found out about the triple shift Grissom pulled. They weren't too happy, and they wanted him to take a day of paid leave."

Warrick continued the questioning. "Then what happened?"

"Grissom told them to get lost. Personnel told the director, and he called in Brass and Grissom. He pretty much ordered Gil to do what he was told – so he's off today."

"And you're in charge." This came from Sara.

"Yeah... why?" Catherine looked over at her.

"Nothing... no problem at all."

Catherine was dubious, but there was nothing else she could do. She began handing out the assignments – there were three cases and three CSIs, so everyone would have to work solo. Within half an hour, everyone was motoring away from the lab, heading for their respective crime scenes.

---

Sara had been assigned to a case of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. Beyond that, she didn't know much. Her SUV entered the parking garage, climbing up two levels before she came across the crime scene.

A silver Lexus had been closed off with crime scene tape. The driver's-side door was open, but no other doors were.

Sara lifted the tape and got the attention of Sergeant O'Riley. He quickly explained the situation to her. A parking attendant had noticed the idling car. Approaching it, she had noticed that the driver was slumped across the steering wheel. 911 had been called and an ambulance sent to the scene. The paramedics had arrived, but it was clear they had nothing to do: the victim was already dead before the call had been made.

Setting her kit down, Sara pulled out a flashlight and began looking around. Seeing nothing suspicious, she moved towards the open door and looked directly at the driver.

Sara's blood ran cold when she realized who the driver was.

It was Vincent Lurie.

---

Catherine had just finished processing her crime scene when her cell phone rang. She answered it.

"Willows."

"Catherine? It's Sara. Aren't you and Grissom the lead CSIs on the Marlin case?"

"What does that have to do with your carbon monoxide poisoning?"

"I've IDed the victim as Vincent Lurie." The statement, delivered in a matter-of-fact tone, caught Catherine's full attention.

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive. ID found on the passenger seat belongs to the doctor and matches to the vic."

"Anything else?"

"Found an envelope, sealed. No stamp, but it was addressed to Brass and Grissom." Sara looked over her shoulder, to where David was supervising the removal of the body. "Listen, I've got a scene to process. I'll call you back later." She hung up.

Catherine leaned against her Denali and banged her head on the door. Oh boy. This is not good. Can I pull the case from her? I can't do that – and I'd need a reason why. I don't have one.

She just shook her head as she opened the door. When Grissom comes back I am going to be so dead.

---

Sara entered the morgue slightly out of breath. She looked over at Doc Robbins, who had a wry grin on his face.

"Sorry I'm late, Doc, it's been a busy night today."

He smiled. "I understand. David is preparing two other bodies for autopsy."

Sara looked over at the body of Vincent Lurie, lying on the cold metal table. "What's the body telling you?"

"Nothing grossly out of the ordinary. For a man of his age, Doctor Lurie is, or was, in excellent health."

"Cause of death?"

"Skin tone is consistent with the preliminary finding. Tox report just got in," handing Sara a folder, "which confirms it. Doctor Lurie died of carbon monoxide poisoning."

"I don't get it. He's got access to almost every poison known to man. Why kill yourself in a car with the engine idling?"

"Why not? He would have been unconscious long before the gas killed him. If you're going to kill yourself, might as well do it without pain." He looked down at the body before him. "Perhaps in death, he was looking for the peace he hadn't found in life."

Sara's gaze turned from the body to Doc Robbins, surprised he would say such a thing. "Yeah." She paused. "Page me if anything else comes back?"

"Doubtful, but I will."

"Thanks Doc."

---

Catherine was in a layout room, the envelope in hand. Her case had been a simple one, and she had agreed to help Sara with her case.

She also had a somewhat ulterior motive. While Catherine didn't know what exactly Grissom had said to Lurie, Brass had implied it was personal. He had refused to go any further. Whatever it was, if he finds out Sara is involved that deeply in the case, he'll tear me a new hole. It was a simple case of self-protection.

Catherine carefully opened the envelope. She set it aside, so Jacqui, the fingerprint tech, could look for prints on it. She pulled out the piece of paper inside, unfolding it so she could read it.

Inside was a neatly printed letter on the letterhead of Desert Palm. She read it slowly, taking in the full meaning of the printed words.

After about ten minutes, she finally bagged the latter. It was both a confession and a suicide note. She closed her eyes and let out a breath. She wasn't sure what to do next. Tell Sara? Not unless I want to deal with an upset Grissom. Not tell her? That's withholding evidence. Can't do that either.

Delay, she decided, was her only option. She took both the envelope and the letter, dropping the former off for fingerprinting. The letter would go to Ronnie, the document tech, for more processing. It was a document, after all.

Catherine, however, had to make sure it would stay out of Sara's hands. Ronnie could be convinced to hold up the analysis – at least until Grissom got back. With luck, there might even be some other case that could jump the queue.

---

In the garage, Sara wiped her eyebrow. She had spent the better part of two hours processing the car – with rather little to show for it. Apart from some prints on the steering wheel, there was nothing to be found.

Sara was just discarding her gloves and coveralls when Catherine sauntered in. "Find anything?" she asked.

Sara shook her head. "No. Nothing unusual about it, it's just a nice car driven by a rich doctor. What was that in the letter, anyway?"

Catherine didn't lie, but didn't tell her the full truth. "Suicide note and confession. We did have the right guy. Ronnie should be done with it next shift.."

"What's taking them so long?"

"Well, swing shift dumped a big load of shredded documents from a drug bust on 'em. It'll take them a while to work through it."

Sara nodded and took a glance at the clock on the wall. "Let me just do some paperwork and I'll head off. Thanks." With that, Catherine was soon left alone in the garage.

---

The next shift, as Grissom came to work, Catherine was trailing him closely, filling him in on the previous day's events. As they entered his office, she realized she now had to tell him about Sara's case.

"And Sara? What was her case?" He asked as he sat down to start disposing of the accumulated paperwork on his desk.

There was some hesitation in her voice. "Uh... carbon monoxide poisoning. Looks like a suicide, nothing suspicious. There was a suicide note in the passenger's seat."

"ID on the victim?" Grissom went on.

"Yeah, Gil..." That caught Grissom's attention. When Catherine used his first name, it was important. "It was Vincent Lurie."

The pen in his right hand froze. He looked up at her. "Our Vincent Lurie? As in the Vincent Lurie of the Marlin case?"

Catherine blankly nodded.

A look of annoyance appeared on his face. "Why didn't you pull Sara off the case?"

"Hey, you know things aren't exactly good between the two of us. She would have grown claws if I tried."

"Okay. Is that the casefile?" Grissom gestured to a folder Catherine had been carrying.

"Oh, yes. Here." She put it on top of his desk. "And... Lurie left a suicide note."

Grissom opened the folder and saw the report. Among other things, it had the text of the note. He read it over quickly and looked at Catherine, who was doing her best to avoid his eyes.

"Has Sara seen this?"

"No, not yet. I wasn't sure if... you wanted her to."

Grissom let out a small sigh. "It's her case. She has to." He gave Catherine a look that told her: we're done here. She was soon gone from the room, leaving Grissom alone with his thoughts.

---

In her cubbyhole, Sara was going over her cases. She had fallen a bit behind on her paperwork, and Grissom had made her stay in the lab to catch up.

She opened the file Catherine had left for her at the start of shift. It was the analysis of the note found inside Doctor Lurie's car.

Sara idly wondered why Catherine hadn't showed her the report before. Shrugging it off, she began reading it.

Fifteen minutes later, she set the folder down. Rubbing her forehead with her fingers, she tried to stop the headache that threatened to hit her like a speeding train.

Just when I thought I could get past this case and get back to normal, the note comes in. As if I didn't need a reminder that the older Vincent Lurie was in a relationship with Debbie Marlin, who could well be my twin.

It's sad, isn't it? For the better part of a year, I think Grissom is ignoring me, culminating in him saying no to my invitation for dinner. Of course, silly little me gets upset at him, thinking he must be an idiot. It's only much later that I realize why he seemed to be ignoring me – his hearing was going bad. If only I knew.

That's the whole story between us, isn't it? If only I knew, if only he knew... neither of us seems to know the full story. We've both been so stupid. We keep making decisions without all the available information – a recipe for disaster.

If only either one of us knew better, neither of us would be in this sad, sad situation we're in right now.

Well, right now I'm the one who knows better. I know how he feels. He doesn't know how I feel. This doesn't have to be another might-have-been.

Grissom's words several months ago echoed in her mind. "I don't know what do about this." Now, it was her turn not to know what to do next. She had to do something, that was sure. What that would be, though, she didn't know.

---

Grissom sat back in his desk and tried to ease the pain in his back. He had spent several long hours in his chair, doing paperwork. I'm not thirty anymore, I can't keep on going forever like I used to. Why did I even accept the promotion to Supervisor? I'm a scientist, not an administrator.

His thoughts were interrupted by knocks on the door. "Come in," he said.

Sara entered the room, the Lurie file in her hand. "I'm done with the case Catherine gave me. Pretty much open and shut, really." She handed over the file to her supervisor.

Her entry had somewhat unsettled Grissom, "Yeah, uh.... Sara, could you have one of the interns come in here and take these off my desk?" he asked, gesturing to a pile of finished files.

"Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll have someone sent over." She moved towards the exit, and just before she could exit Grissom called her out. "Sara ..." she turned to face him, keeping one hand on the door. "Thanks," he said.

Sara had a faint smile. "No problem." She turned, then closed the door behind her as she looked for an available intern.

As soon as he was alone, Grissom opened the report Sara had gave him and quickly began checking if Catherine had left anything out. Finding nothing, he soon came to the last page, where only his signature awaited the report from becoming the official opinion of the department.

He was about to sign it, but stopped when he noticed there was a Post-It note where he was supposed to sign. Grissom pulled it off to read more closely, and gasped as he read the note:

Things aren't too late, Gil. 8 AM, out in the parking lot.

S.S.

He recognized the crisp handwriting of the note as Sara's.

What could she possibly mean? 'Things aren't too late'? It doesn't make sense... then it hit him. She must have heard me questioning Laurie. Oh.

At least she knows the truth now... should I meet her? I don't know anymore. He looked up at the wall clock. There were only fifteen minutes before eight.

Outside, Sara rested her back against her SUV. She had her sunglasses on, both to protect against the rising Vegas sun and to hide her eyes.

The note had been an impulsive act on her part, and she wasn't sure how he'd react. She didn't know if Grissom would come out here or not. Even now, she was asking herself what her plan was.

Just as Sara's watch hit eight, she saw Grissom walking out to the lot, his eyes covered by sunglasses as well. His eyes were searching the lot for Sara's figure; when he came to it he began walking over to her. He eventually reached Sara, who was still leaning on her vehicle.

"You're here." Sara paused. "I wasn't sure if you'd come."

"Sara... I still don't know what I'm going to do with... this."

"You're here, though. So you want to do something."

Grissom nodded. After a pause, he went on. "I'm not good at this."

"At what, Grissom?"

"Emotions. Relationships. Other people." There was a hint of sadness in his voice. "Now what?"

"A distant relative of mine owns a diner near Lake Mead. How about we talk over breakfast?"

"About what, Sara?"

"Everything, Grissom. Everything." Her voice became just a touch shaky as she turned to face Grissom directly. "First step in any relationship is trust. The only way we can... trust each other is if we actually start talking with each other."

Sara took a step forward, entering Grissom's personal space. "Can we do that? Please?"

He nodded, and his lips twitched into a small smile. "Yeah, I think we can do that."

Sara finally, and fully, smiled. "Good. You ready to go?"

"You lead and I follow. For now, anyway." He began to move towards his own truck, which was located on the other side of Sara's. Just as he was about to turn behind Sara's Denali, Sara called out to him. "Grissom!"

He turned at the sound of her voice. She went on. "Thank you."

Grissom's face brightened at her words. Wordlessly, he nodded and went on to his own vehicle.

As Sara turned her key, she looked over to her right. Grissom was there, in the truck next to hers, waiting for her to drive out of her parking slot. He was waiting for her to lead him to the diner she had told him about.

Maybe I'm leading him to more than just the diner. Grissom just needed a big push and now he's got it. Maybe this will actually work.

Grissom noticed that Sara was looking at him, and gave her a smile.

She couldn't help but respond in kind. No, not maybe. It will work.

---

THE END