Thanks to everyone for the kind reviews. You managed to persuade me to
continue with this story. Hope it lives up to expectations!
Love in the Dark-Chapter 2
The door closed with a loud bang that alerted Sara and Grissom to the fact that they were now alone. Although they had been alone in the closet together this felt so much more real now that they could see.
Using the power of sight she had just regained, Sara immediately locked eyes on anything she could that wasn't Grissom. She walked over to the jars on the shelf and analysed them even though she wasn't entirely sure what she was looking at.
The thought of seeing him now terrified her. She felt as if she had made a drunken confession to him that she now wanted to take back. But that would mean having to talk to him, having to look at him and seeing that he didn't want her.
But he tried to kiss me, she remembered. But maybe it was because of the bizarre situation that they were in. Her thoughts were whizzing so wildly around her head that she almost forgot that Grissom was in the room. Even though she couldn't see him however she could definitely feel his eyes on her.
Grissom had been staring at her back ever since she anxiously moved away from his side when Catherine left the room. His hands were buried deep into his pockets in apprehension. He was willing her to turn around so that he could look at her properly for the first time since leaving the closet, but it wasn't working.
Whilst waiting to look at her face it struck him as odd that she was now trying so hard to concentrate on anything other than him. Hadn't she wanted to kiss him a few minutes ago? It now seemed that she didn't even want to be alone with him.
He needed to resolve this tension though because he so badly wanted to kiss her.
As if reading his thoughts, she turned around to face him, but didn't dare glance at his expressive blue pools. "Look Grissom, I'm sorry about what happened back there. I didn't mean for anything like that, I feel so stupid."
Had Sara looked at him whilst talking then she would have seen his face fall into a frown as he became perplexed. For an instant, he felt like backing down from the feelings that Sara stirred in him but then he decided this had been going on for too long. He was tired of this dance. As exciting as it was to flirt outrageously with her, he wanted to pursue it further.
"So you didn't want to kiss me in the closet then?" His eyebrows raised as his voice rose at the end of the question.
Sara remained silent contemplating how to answer the question. Would she risk telling him the truth that she wanted it more then anything, or would she lie to save face?
When he didn't get his answer, Grissom walked towards Sara who now seemed to be as backed as far away from him as the office wall would allow. "I need an answer Sara, before I do something I might regret."
He was getting closer and closer to her with each small step he took. "Because if you don't want to kiss me then you might not like what's about to happen."
Her body was inadvertently backing up further and she didn't know why. They obviously wanted the same thing but for some inexplicable reason Sara didn't want this right now, not here anyway.
He was about two feet away from her now and she could see the dark swirling in his eyes ,when she risked having a look, that indicated he meant what he was about to do. She realised it was a mistake when she looked up as the emotion she saw froze her to the spot and she let down her defences.
She accepted the fact that Grissom was about to kiss her and for real this time. He knew it was her and she knew it was him and there was no dark to hide their feelings.
His face was inches away from hers and she could feel the static coming from the enticing lips that would soon be connected to hers. He leant closer to her lips and hovered there for a second before asking the question a final time. "Do you want to kis...?" He didn't have a chance to finish his query as Sara had chosen to answer him without words. She remembered someone telling her once (or was it twice?) that talk was cheap after all.
Just as he was about to wrap his arms around her, there was a knock on his office door. Sara immediately pulled away from her supervisor's warm form and turned back to the intriguing jars on the shelf. Grissom went back to his desk and shouted for whoever it was to come in.
Brass opened the door and stood under the threshold. "There's been another college party murder, Gil. Same M.O as before."
Grissom motioned him to come in as he absorbed the information. Brass scanned the office and didn't seem surprised by Sara's presence in the room, when he turned back to Gil he saw the orange powder that still adorned his face. "I heard she slugged you. Way to work on your people skills."
Both Sara and Grissom had forgotten about the act of violence she had committed. Out of concern, she turned around to view the damage.
Grissom glared at Brass. "I have people skills but I only generally meet dead people." Brass laughed gently at Grissom's statement but soon turned serious again to discuss the case. "Another party at the same campus and another dead student, are you ready to go there?"
Grissom glanced at Sara to gauge her reaction. Realising he had to leave she excused herself from the room. "Oh, I have to see Greg about some D.N.A, so I'll bring you up to date later." And so she left the room trying to comprehend the night's events so far.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Brass and Grissom found themselves at an almost identical crime scene to the one a couple of hours before. The closet used this time was upstairs however which gave the criminalists a bigger search area than before. The young, male victim was standing in the same position as the previous one and he also had bright, pink lipstick smeared over his face.
Catherine was already at the scene waiting for Grissom and Brass. She had been dusting the inside of the closet and had come up with nothing. Grissom approached her as Brass found an officer at the scene to talk to. As Grissom neared Catherine she rose to address him. "There's nothing here. Our suspect is good at covering their tracks."
"They always make a mistake Catherine and it's our job to find it. Two murders in one night means they are rushing, they probably got sloppy. Keep looking." Grissom sounded optimistic that the evidence would be there as Brass came back towards him.
"Kid over there..." He pointed towards a young guy with blond, spiky hair stood looking very nervous. "...he's the one who organised the party. Name's Lewis Anderson. Says he didn't know anything was wrong until he went to check on his friend."
Grissom stared at the youth intently, trying to get as much information from his body language as he could. Satisfied, he had read him sufficiently, he advanced to ask some questions. Brass followed.
The boy was anxious and also visibly drunk but he was the only witness they had. All the other party members had vanished as soon as the body was found.
"Hi, I'm Gil Grissom, with the Las Vegas crime lab and I just wanted to ask you some questions about the party." The youth nodded for Grissom to proceed. "Do you know who was in the closet with your friend?"
"If I knew then you guys wouldn't have to be here." He said with a disrespectful tone that Grissom chose to ignore.
Grissom tried again. "Would anyone know?" Lewis just shrugged.
"Have you got a list of everyone who came to the party? Brass interjected as he became irritated.
Chuckling to himself, Lewis replied. "Hey, we don't exactly take role call man."
Grissom, certain that he had all the information that he was going to get from the youth, left Brass talking to him as he went back to see Catherine.
"Got anything?" He didn't hold out much hope seeing as he hadn't given her much time to look.
"No, nothing." She stood to face him properly. "How about you? Make any progress?" Her insinuation was lost on him.
"The kid's too drunk to give us any reliable evidence."
"I didn't mean the kid. Did you patch things up with Sara? That was quite a show you put on in the lab earlier." The concern was evident in her eyes.
"We're working it out. It might have been useful though had I known that I would be working on the reconstruction with Sara."
"I just thought it was for the best."
"I know what you thought." He muttered but loud enough for Catherine to hear.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Grissom and Catherine had finished up at the crime scene and were getting ready for their second autopsy of the shift back at the lab.
Having been told earlier by Doc Robbins that the first victim died by being poisoned, they expected much the same results second time around.
Sure enough, as soon as they entered the autopsy room, Doc was ready to give them a cause of death. "What's pink, deadly and smells of bubblegum?" Doc asked straight faced whilst pointing at the body.
"My daughter when she's had too much sugar?" Catherine quipped.
"Maybe, but I'm talking about the lipstick found on the vics lips." It contained a small dose of poison, enough to kill though and it did kill both of our college boys tonight."
Grissom thanked the good doctor before leaving the room with Catherine. Once out in the corridor they speculated about the case.
"Looks as though we have a rarity-a female serial killer." Catherine opined as Grissom thought.
"That's a big assumption Catherine. For one, just because lipstick is used it doesn't rule out men."
"Are you trying to make a confession here Gil, I know you enjoy your fingerprint powder but lipstick as well?" She thought a little light teasing was needed and was pleased to see his cheeks flush. "I knew the red creeper wasn't just for the fingerprints" She added and pointed to his increasingly reddening face.
Composing himself, he continued. "Secondly, there could be multiple suspects. There is no evidence to indicate that the perpetrator is a lone female serial killer."
She shot back at him immediately. "There is just no evidence. That's our problem."
His sullen appearance said it all as he realised that the case was going nowhere. And what depressed him even more was the fact that he wanted to see Sara again. He wasn't happy with the way they were interrupted earlier. He was getting somewhere with the beautiful enigma that was Sara. He feared that given too much time to think about what happened in the closet and then in the office, she would back away from him completely and his chance would be lost.
His momentary lapse into his thoughts meant that he had failed to notice that Catherine was no longer by his side. Accustomed to his tendency to drift off every now and then she left at the first sign of his daydream and was heading for the break room.
He quickly caught up with her as she entered the door and was surprised to see Sara and Nick in there. Staring at Sara suddenly made the blood coarse through his veins so fast he thought he would have to sit down. He collected his thoughts and turned to Nick. "I thought you would be at the Jewellers all night."
Realising his boss thought they were slacking off, Nick brought him up to speed. "Turns out the blood found at the scene was from an employee who just happened to know every detail of the security system. And he found out that information from the store manager who needed to pay off some gambling debts."
"Inside job?" Grissom questioned.
"All for the insurance. We just wrapped it up and thought we'd grab a coffee in celebration. Isn't that right Sara?"
All eyes whipped around to Sara who was taking a long sip from the coffee cup. "Yeah, figured I needed something strong, hot and full bodied."
Nick and Catherine took her comments at face value while Grissom understood the suggestive undertones of her words.
She was playing with his emotions and she knew exactly what she was doing. The smirk that had accompanied her words when Nick and Catherine had looked away had persuaded Grissom that she wasn't backing off anytime soon.
She had spent a lot of time thinking about kissing Grissom and definitely wanted to do it again. But it was all about finding the right place and the right time. For now she was content to tease and flirt with Grissom until he couldn't take it anymore.
He thought about his next words carefully. "It's nearly end of shift so just catch up on any documentation and tomorrow night I will definitely need you." He said it so plain faced that the other C.S.I's would have thought nothing of his statement but to Sara it meant a whole lot more. He needed her.
Nick was the first to react to Grissom. "Is your college killer case not going too well then?"
"We've got a whole lot of nothing. So the more people we have helping, the quicker we can get the killer." Catherine replied solemnly.
"Just as long as I don't get stuck in a closet again, I'll be fine." Sara said pointedly whilst staring at Grissom. "I think we all know where that would lead."
Again her innuendo was lost on Nick and Catherine. They figured that she meant Grissom would end up getting another slap if they were put in another closet together. But she, in fact, meant quite the opposite. They were still trying to act cold towards each other when Catherine was around.
During the exchange among his colleagues, Grissom hadn't been able to string any thoughts together. The covert flirtation that was occurring in the break room had messed up his brain. Sara had such an intelligent way with words that Grissom had always admired. She could match wits with him anytime and he loved that quality. He just hoped that he could get over his brain malfunction soon so that he could talk to her some time later.
For now though he had work to do. "I'm going to finish up some paper work, see you guys later." He left the office hoping that Sara would take the hint to follow him there. But she didn't.
TBC
Love in the Dark-Chapter 2
The door closed with a loud bang that alerted Sara and Grissom to the fact that they were now alone. Although they had been alone in the closet together this felt so much more real now that they could see.
Using the power of sight she had just regained, Sara immediately locked eyes on anything she could that wasn't Grissom. She walked over to the jars on the shelf and analysed them even though she wasn't entirely sure what she was looking at.
The thought of seeing him now terrified her. She felt as if she had made a drunken confession to him that she now wanted to take back. But that would mean having to talk to him, having to look at him and seeing that he didn't want her.
But he tried to kiss me, she remembered. But maybe it was because of the bizarre situation that they were in. Her thoughts were whizzing so wildly around her head that she almost forgot that Grissom was in the room. Even though she couldn't see him however she could definitely feel his eyes on her.
Grissom had been staring at her back ever since she anxiously moved away from his side when Catherine left the room. His hands were buried deep into his pockets in apprehension. He was willing her to turn around so that he could look at her properly for the first time since leaving the closet, but it wasn't working.
Whilst waiting to look at her face it struck him as odd that she was now trying so hard to concentrate on anything other than him. Hadn't she wanted to kiss him a few minutes ago? It now seemed that she didn't even want to be alone with him.
He needed to resolve this tension though because he so badly wanted to kiss her.
As if reading his thoughts, she turned around to face him, but didn't dare glance at his expressive blue pools. "Look Grissom, I'm sorry about what happened back there. I didn't mean for anything like that, I feel so stupid."
Had Sara looked at him whilst talking then she would have seen his face fall into a frown as he became perplexed. For an instant, he felt like backing down from the feelings that Sara stirred in him but then he decided this had been going on for too long. He was tired of this dance. As exciting as it was to flirt outrageously with her, he wanted to pursue it further.
"So you didn't want to kiss me in the closet then?" His eyebrows raised as his voice rose at the end of the question.
Sara remained silent contemplating how to answer the question. Would she risk telling him the truth that she wanted it more then anything, or would she lie to save face?
When he didn't get his answer, Grissom walked towards Sara who now seemed to be as backed as far away from him as the office wall would allow. "I need an answer Sara, before I do something I might regret."
He was getting closer and closer to her with each small step he took. "Because if you don't want to kiss me then you might not like what's about to happen."
Her body was inadvertently backing up further and she didn't know why. They obviously wanted the same thing but for some inexplicable reason Sara didn't want this right now, not here anyway.
He was about two feet away from her now and she could see the dark swirling in his eyes ,when she risked having a look, that indicated he meant what he was about to do. She realised it was a mistake when she looked up as the emotion she saw froze her to the spot and she let down her defences.
She accepted the fact that Grissom was about to kiss her and for real this time. He knew it was her and she knew it was him and there was no dark to hide their feelings.
His face was inches away from hers and she could feel the static coming from the enticing lips that would soon be connected to hers. He leant closer to her lips and hovered there for a second before asking the question a final time. "Do you want to kis...?" He didn't have a chance to finish his query as Sara had chosen to answer him without words. She remembered someone telling her once (or was it twice?) that talk was cheap after all.
Just as he was about to wrap his arms around her, there was a knock on his office door. Sara immediately pulled away from her supervisor's warm form and turned back to the intriguing jars on the shelf. Grissom went back to his desk and shouted for whoever it was to come in.
Brass opened the door and stood under the threshold. "There's been another college party murder, Gil. Same M.O as before."
Grissom motioned him to come in as he absorbed the information. Brass scanned the office and didn't seem surprised by Sara's presence in the room, when he turned back to Gil he saw the orange powder that still adorned his face. "I heard she slugged you. Way to work on your people skills."
Both Sara and Grissom had forgotten about the act of violence she had committed. Out of concern, she turned around to view the damage.
Grissom glared at Brass. "I have people skills but I only generally meet dead people." Brass laughed gently at Grissom's statement but soon turned serious again to discuss the case. "Another party at the same campus and another dead student, are you ready to go there?"
Grissom glanced at Sara to gauge her reaction. Realising he had to leave she excused herself from the room. "Oh, I have to see Greg about some D.N.A, so I'll bring you up to date later." And so she left the room trying to comprehend the night's events so far.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Brass and Grissom found themselves at an almost identical crime scene to the one a couple of hours before. The closet used this time was upstairs however which gave the criminalists a bigger search area than before. The young, male victim was standing in the same position as the previous one and he also had bright, pink lipstick smeared over his face.
Catherine was already at the scene waiting for Grissom and Brass. She had been dusting the inside of the closet and had come up with nothing. Grissom approached her as Brass found an officer at the scene to talk to. As Grissom neared Catherine she rose to address him. "There's nothing here. Our suspect is good at covering their tracks."
"They always make a mistake Catherine and it's our job to find it. Two murders in one night means they are rushing, they probably got sloppy. Keep looking." Grissom sounded optimistic that the evidence would be there as Brass came back towards him.
"Kid over there..." He pointed towards a young guy with blond, spiky hair stood looking very nervous. "...he's the one who organised the party. Name's Lewis Anderson. Says he didn't know anything was wrong until he went to check on his friend."
Grissom stared at the youth intently, trying to get as much information from his body language as he could. Satisfied, he had read him sufficiently, he advanced to ask some questions. Brass followed.
The boy was anxious and also visibly drunk but he was the only witness they had. All the other party members had vanished as soon as the body was found.
"Hi, I'm Gil Grissom, with the Las Vegas crime lab and I just wanted to ask you some questions about the party." The youth nodded for Grissom to proceed. "Do you know who was in the closet with your friend?"
"If I knew then you guys wouldn't have to be here." He said with a disrespectful tone that Grissom chose to ignore.
Grissom tried again. "Would anyone know?" Lewis just shrugged.
"Have you got a list of everyone who came to the party? Brass interjected as he became irritated.
Chuckling to himself, Lewis replied. "Hey, we don't exactly take role call man."
Grissom, certain that he had all the information that he was going to get from the youth, left Brass talking to him as he went back to see Catherine.
"Got anything?" He didn't hold out much hope seeing as he hadn't given her much time to look.
"No, nothing." She stood to face him properly. "How about you? Make any progress?" Her insinuation was lost on him.
"The kid's too drunk to give us any reliable evidence."
"I didn't mean the kid. Did you patch things up with Sara? That was quite a show you put on in the lab earlier." The concern was evident in her eyes.
"We're working it out. It might have been useful though had I known that I would be working on the reconstruction with Sara."
"I just thought it was for the best."
"I know what you thought." He muttered but loud enough for Catherine to hear.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Grissom and Catherine had finished up at the crime scene and were getting ready for their second autopsy of the shift back at the lab.
Having been told earlier by Doc Robbins that the first victim died by being poisoned, they expected much the same results second time around.
Sure enough, as soon as they entered the autopsy room, Doc was ready to give them a cause of death. "What's pink, deadly and smells of bubblegum?" Doc asked straight faced whilst pointing at the body.
"My daughter when she's had too much sugar?" Catherine quipped.
"Maybe, but I'm talking about the lipstick found on the vics lips." It contained a small dose of poison, enough to kill though and it did kill both of our college boys tonight."
Grissom thanked the good doctor before leaving the room with Catherine. Once out in the corridor they speculated about the case.
"Looks as though we have a rarity-a female serial killer." Catherine opined as Grissom thought.
"That's a big assumption Catherine. For one, just because lipstick is used it doesn't rule out men."
"Are you trying to make a confession here Gil, I know you enjoy your fingerprint powder but lipstick as well?" She thought a little light teasing was needed and was pleased to see his cheeks flush. "I knew the red creeper wasn't just for the fingerprints" She added and pointed to his increasingly reddening face.
Composing himself, he continued. "Secondly, there could be multiple suspects. There is no evidence to indicate that the perpetrator is a lone female serial killer."
She shot back at him immediately. "There is just no evidence. That's our problem."
His sullen appearance said it all as he realised that the case was going nowhere. And what depressed him even more was the fact that he wanted to see Sara again. He wasn't happy with the way they were interrupted earlier. He was getting somewhere with the beautiful enigma that was Sara. He feared that given too much time to think about what happened in the closet and then in the office, she would back away from him completely and his chance would be lost.
His momentary lapse into his thoughts meant that he had failed to notice that Catherine was no longer by his side. Accustomed to his tendency to drift off every now and then she left at the first sign of his daydream and was heading for the break room.
He quickly caught up with her as she entered the door and was surprised to see Sara and Nick in there. Staring at Sara suddenly made the blood coarse through his veins so fast he thought he would have to sit down. He collected his thoughts and turned to Nick. "I thought you would be at the Jewellers all night."
Realising his boss thought they were slacking off, Nick brought him up to speed. "Turns out the blood found at the scene was from an employee who just happened to know every detail of the security system. And he found out that information from the store manager who needed to pay off some gambling debts."
"Inside job?" Grissom questioned.
"All for the insurance. We just wrapped it up and thought we'd grab a coffee in celebration. Isn't that right Sara?"
All eyes whipped around to Sara who was taking a long sip from the coffee cup. "Yeah, figured I needed something strong, hot and full bodied."
Nick and Catherine took her comments at face value while Grissom understood the suggestive undertones of her words.
She was playing with his emotions and she knew exactly what she was doing. The smirk that had accompanied her words when Nick and Catherine had looked away had persuaded Grissom that she wasn't backing off anytime soon.
She had spent a lot of time thinking about kissing Grissom and definitely wanted to do it again. But it was all about finding the right place and the right time. For now she was content to tease and flirt with Grissom until he couldn't take it anymore.
He thought about his next words carefully. "It's nearly end of shift so just catch up on any documentation and tomorrow night I will definitely need you." He said it so plain faced that the other C.S.I's would have thought nothing of his statement but to Sara it meant a whole lot more. He needed her.
Nick was the first to react to Grissom. "Is your college killer case not going too well then?"
"We've got a whole lot of nothing. So the more people we have helping, the quicker we can get the killer." Catherine replied solemnly.
"Just as long as I don't get stuck in a closet again, I'll be fine." Sara said pointedly whilst staring at Grissom. "I think we all know where that would lead."
Again her innuendo was lost on Nick and Catherine. They figured that she meant Grissom would end up getting another slap if they were put in another closet together. But she, in fact, meant quite the opposite. They were still trying to act cold towards each other when Catherine was around.
During the exchange among his colleagues, Grissom hadn't been able to string any thoughts together. The covert flirtation that was occurring in the break room had messed up his brain. Sara had such an intelligent way with words that Grissom had always admired. She could match wits with him anytime and he loved that quality. He just hoped that he could get over his brain malfunction soon so that he could talk to her some time later.
For now though he had work to do. "I'm going to finish up some paper work, see you guys later." He left the office hoping that Sara would take the hint to follow him there. But she didn't.
TBC