Chapter 5

Grissom tore his eyes away from the news report. "Look, Jim, I'm on my way. I should be there..."

Brass cut him off, "No."

"No?"

"I said no Gil. I don't need you down here. The best thing you can do is stay at CSI and I'll call you when we have any information."

Grissom scoffed at Brass' so called suggestion," If you think for one second that I'm gonna sit here and twiddle my thumbs while Sara's in danger, then you've got another thing coming."

"Gil..."

"No Jim. I'm on my way. I've already wasted too much time." If Brass only knew how true that statement was.. Brass was getting ready to say something when Grissom hung up on him.

The next call he placed was to Catherine. It rang once." I know Gil, I'm waiting for my sister to get here to watch Lindsey."

"Thank you Catherine."

"How...how is she?" she asked with fear tinged in her voice.

"I don't know but I'm going down there to find out."

"I'll be there shortly. Gil..."Catherine paused, "Are you okay?"

"No...no I'm not." Grissom hung up the phone and then called Nick. It rang six times. "Hello." came a tired voice.

"Nick, I need you to come back to the lab"

"Oh man, I just got to sleep." Nick semi-whined.

"Nick, turn on your TV to Channel 12." Grissom could hear Nick fumbling around for the remote and then he heard the noise from the TV.

Nick gasped into the phone, "I'm on my way." And hung up before anything else could be said. As Grissom was getting ready to call Warrick, he appeared in front of his office door.

"So when are we leaving?" he asked.

"We?" Grissom asked as he shut his phone and grabbed his keys.

"Yes, we. You're not going to the scene alone."

"Warrick, really, I think..."

Warrick held up a hand to stop him. "Griss, whether you realize it or not, Sara's apart of this team. That means we're all concerned about her." Some more than others he thought to himself. "And as a team we look out for each other. WE are going so you can look after Sara and I can look after you."

"Warrick..." he tried again.

"Griss, we've all wondered what exactly it is you feel for Sara. I don't have to wonder anymore. The look on you face says it all"

"That transparent, huh?"

Warrick nodded. "Now let's go. By the way," Warrick said as he snatched the keys out of Grissoms hands, "I'm driving. Gotta make sure you get there in one piece. Sara would have my ass if I let something happen to you."

Grissom smiled at the mention of Sara's name and both men headed out to Grissoms Tahoe.

Outside the bank Brass was watching the video monitor. The tech had just gotten it up and Brass was watching intently. He saw Sara walk in and place the bag on the counter. Then he saw one of the suspects push her back to where the other hostages were. Thank god Grissom wasn't here to see that. If that little shove made my blood boil, I can imagine what Grissom would have done. I'm gonna have to handcuff him to something as soon as he walks in. He could faintly hear what was being said inside the bank. "Everybody shut the hell up!"

Inside the bank Sara had just gotten through putting the food on the counter before she was shoved back to the others. She had to bite her tongue not to smart off and say you're welcome.

"Hey, Johnny, is there a TV in this place?" Mark asked.

"Why?"

"I don't know, I was just going to see what they were saying about us."

"Good idea. Hey you, "Johnny shouted pointing to the bank manager, "You got a TV in this place?"

"Yes, in the break room." he said his voice shaking.

"Mark, take this nice gentleman here and have him show you where it's at and bring it back in here. Hey Moose. You want some of this food?"

Moose. Fit him, Sara thought. Out of all of them he was the biggest of the 3. Sara watched him as he walked over to the food and realized just how big he really was. He was so quiet earlier that she had almost forgotten he was there. I bet no one picked on him in high school. Sara thought of some other nicknames for Moose. Tree trunk. Bear. Semi-Truck. She only hoped it was true what they said. The bigger they are the harder they fall.

Mark came back with the bank manager and had him set up the TV.

"We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with some breaking news. There is a hostage situation in downtown Las Vegas. Let's go to our reporter out in the field, Jorja Fox."

Brass was still watching what was going on inside when he heard it. "If you don't let us into that goddamn van, I swear that not only will I have your badge but I will shove it so far...."

"Gil'" Brass said more calmly than he felt," It's okay officer, you can let CSI's Grissom and Brown pass." The officer nodded his head and stepped aside.

If Warrick thought Grissom was a meek man, then that display certainly proved him wrong. There was no doubt in his mind that Grissom meant every word he said.

"All right, Jim, what we got?" Grissom said as soon as he entered the van.

"Not much right now, our guys are getting ready to eat and they just asked the manager to bring out a TV."

"Where's Sara?" Grissom asked, immediately looking for her on the monitor. Brass didn't need to point her out. Grissom found her.

"So how's this gonna go down? Are we going to let SWAT go in, guns blazing? We gonna talk them down to see if they'll give themselves up. What are we going to do?"

Brass raised his voice just a notch," First thing WE are gonna do is calm down and be quiet to see if we can hear what they're saying. They don't realize yet they're being watched. Second thing WE are gonna do is wait until they've finished eating before trying to contact them again." Jim saw the look of horror on Grissoms face and continued, "They told us they would talk to me after they had eaten.

That somewhat satisfied Grissom. He was getting ready to say something when they heard the TV inside the bank come on.

"That's right Brian. This is Jorja Fox with KTV-12. As most of our viewers already know, we are on the scene of a very intense hostage standoff."

"That's right baby. We got the whole town talking about us." Mark bragged.

All 3 men proceeded to take off their masks so they could eat. Sara took mental notes of the characteristics of each man and filed them away just in case they weren't caught. She looked up at the cameras and silently said, you guys getting all this.

"This is better than being on Cops!" Mark laughed.

Just then a picture flashed on the screen. Wait a minute, Sara thought, What the hell are they doing with a picture of me! It was Sara's CSI ID picture. God, they would have to show that one. Hair frizzy, no smile, no makeup. Just put that in a chapter of my book. Chapter 3, how to make yourself look available by looking desperate.

"Brian, we've found out that the woman hostage, seen here in this earlier footage, has been identified as Criminal Investigator Sara Sidle. Now, Ms. Sidle is currently a CSI Level 3 with the LVPD Crime Lab."

Everything else that the reporter said went in one of Sara's ears and out the other. Sara realized that the 3 men had stopped eating and were now looking at her.

Oh this is just freaking great

TBC