A/N: As always, I do not own any part of CSI.

Chapter 2: "Wasted Time"

Grissom stood in the doorway to the morgue, unnoticed for the moment, watching Sara with Al Robbins. She was bent over the body of Madelyn Beal, camera fixed on the marks on her wrists as Robbins measured the finger impressions on her neck. This was Sara in deep concentration mode, her brow furrowed as she lined up the camera just so. This, Grissom could admit to himself, was Sara at her most beautiful. Jeremy Beal's laments about wasted time rang in his ears as his eyes lingered on her. With his gaze fixed, Grissom missed Doc Robbins as he glanced at him, missed the knowing look that passed over the older man's face.

Robbins let the moment pass, and when Griss' eyes lifted from Sara's bent form, he called out a greeting. "You're just in time, Gil. We've got pictures, measurements of the injuries; I'm just about to start the internal exam."

Grissom nodded, "Prints?"

It was Sara who answered with a slow shake of her head, "No. He wiped her neck clean. Maybe with the scarf we found at the scene, or maybe with the bed sheets. They're all with Jaqui and Warrick, but…"

He nodded as he slid his arms into the set of scrubs, "Getting prints off fabric is difficult, at best."

"Yeah," Sara shrugged, her breath coming out in a soft whoosh. "But…the scarf is silk. Fragile enough to give us a shot. And you know Warrick."

"Mr. 'I can get prints off air'? Yeah. So…what do we have, Albert?"

As Sara and David had suspected, Madelyn Beal had died of asphyxia due to strangulation. Otherwise, she'd been in perfect health. The victim's x-rays showed no injuries, either current or healed. Sara and Grissom both had sighed with relief when the rape kit came back negative. Sara's eyes had flown to Madelyn Beal's face, while Grissom's had sought out Sara.

Robbins watched Grissom for a moment, and then cleared his throat. "The only thing probative we've got is an approximate measurement of the perp's hands." He glanced at the pair of investigators, eyes moving from one to the other before settling on the woman. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged, "It happens. I'm going to go check on Warrick and the prints."

"Sara…"

She turned back at the sound of Grissom's voice, "Yeah?"

"We'll get him."

"Sure." Her lips lifted in a quick smile before she turned away and stepped out of the morgue.

"Gil?" Robbins shook his head as he stepped closer to the other man, "How long are you going to let this go on?"

Grissom stiffened at the question, blowing out a long breath. His eyes met the doctor's briefly, but his only answer was a shrug, before he followed Sara out of the door.

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The best Warrick had managed was a partial print, and even that had no matches in AFIS…so far. By the end of the next shift, he and Sara had done all they could with the evidence they had. DNA was still with Greg, and one or two fibers Sara had collected were with Trace. Grissom had reassigned Warrick to another case, and though he and Sara were still on the Beal murder, they had to take on new cases as well.

Grissom held the door open for Sara as they returned from their home invasion. She laughed as they walked in, bringing a grin to his face. "What?"

"Grissom, did you ever see that show 'America's Dumbest Criminals'?"

Brow creasing suddenly, Grissom watched Sara for a moment, "You're kidding me?"

"No, really." She laughed, holding up her hands, "Honestly. There is such a show. And I think our perps would make great headliners for the next episode."

For a moment, Grissom was torn between answering Sara's laugh with one of his own, and commenting on his ever-present worry about the state of the world as measured by television programming. He wisely chose the first option. "I don't know Sara, I feel a little cheated. All our skills amount to nothing when the perp leaves his school ID behind."

She was still grinning when Greg came up to them, lab printout in his hands. "Sara, Gris…I got a match on the DNA from the Beal case."

"Great!" Grissom thought Sara's face might split open when her grin intensified as she reached for the results. "Who is it?"

Greg paused before handing the paper to her, "No name. A match. To a cold case. It was yours, Sara. Andrea Barber."

The smile drained from Sara's face as she took the paper in her hands. "Dammit!" She turned to look at Grissom for a moment, and then rushed off down the hall. Grissom watched the scene unfold, feeling his own mood deflate at the glare Sara had thrown him.

"Sara! Wait!"

She didn't even turn around, "I don't have time for this right now, Grissom."

He stared after her, until she disappeared around a corner. "What was that all about, Greg?"

The young man looked at Grissom for a moment before shaking his head. "You don't remember Andrea Barber? Her homicide is the one you took Sara off last year, to work the Lyford case."

Grissom stared down the empty corridor, where Sara had just disappeared, echoing her own statement from moments before. "Dammit."

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Grissom shuffled through his messages as he entered the lab the next night, already blinking his eyes against a headache. The press was still howling about the botched 911 call, and this evening's papers had been even more damning. Someone had leaked the link between the Barber case of a year ago, to the Beal case and the headlines had been scathing. Gil hadn't even bothered with the stories themselves. Both Cavallo and Atwater had left messages demanding explanations.

Catherine caught up with him before he was halfway to his office. "You should really give her another case you know, or better yet, send her home; she's been pouring over these two for two straight shifts." Catherine's long legs easily kept up with his rapid stride. At his blank look the blonde sighed, "Sara! Griss. She's hasn't left the lab since this morning. She's been pouring over the evidence from the Barber case for twelve hours. This isn't good for her, and you know it."

When he still didn't answer her, Catherine stopped, her eyes locking on his. "It's time, Gil."

That had done the trick, as Cath had known it would. Say something enigmatic and the King of Inscrutable Comments would have to defend his crown. Grissom stopped as well, his breath hovering on a sigh. "Time for what, Catherine?"

"To pull your head back out of that microscope, Gil." Her tone was softer than before, "Before you know it, you'll have used up all your chances."

"I already have, Cath…"

"She's still here, isn't she?" Catherine reached out and took Grissom's arm, "Do something about this…whatever it is between you…while you still have time. And before it's too late for her, too."

Grissom didn't have to ask her to clarify her final statement, his memory of Sara sitting slumped in a chair in the police station reminded him all too clearly what 'too late' for Sara might look like. He handed Catherine the night's assignment slips and the rest of his messages, "Take care of these, will you?" He didn't wait for her response before he strode toward the lab where Sara had been working when he left that morning.

TBC