Disclaimer: I still don't own CSI or any of the characters from the show. If I did, this would be on TV and not on the internet.
Help Me
Chapter 9
Grissom stood in front of his CSIs to make an announcement, "I know I have been on edge lately and that has probably put some of you guys on edge too, and I apologize for it. I need a vacation, I haven't had one...well I don't remember the last time I took one."
"Never," Catherine muttered to Nick who was sitting next to her.
"Doesn't surprise me," Nick whispered back.
"Are you sure you're feeling all right Grissom?" Greg asked.
"Yes I'm fine, why?" Grissom furrowed his eyebrows.
"I just thought you must be feeling sick if you're considering taking time off work," Greg snickered, "you do practically live here!"
Grissom shot him an un-amused glance, "Anyway, I am taking a week off to help relieve the stress around here. Catherine, you're in charge of the shift while I'm gone. Someone from dayshift has volunteered to move to our shift for a week, they are overstaffed right now."
"When is Sara coming back?" Warrick piped up.
"I don't know. She's taking another week at least to rest. I told her not to rush herself back to work," Grissom explained.
"So we'll be without you and Sara for a week?" Catherine asked skeptically.
"You guys will be fine, Cath, I know you can run this place and the fill-in from dayshift is more than capable of helping you out," Grissom said with a tone of finality, "my vacation time is not up for debate. I'm the supervisor, I have plenty of vacation time coming to me, I am going to take it."
"Where will you be going?" Greg asked.
"I'm not telling you. The last thing I need is for the lab calling me every day when I'm gone. I will take my pager and cell phone, but those are strictly for emergencies," Grissom gave them a firm stare.
"I'll make sure they are too busy to think of bothering you," Catherine smiled at the crew.
"I'm sure you will," Grissom smirked at his more-than-able replacement.
"It's going to be weird with you gone for a whole week. For as long as I have been here, you haven't wanted to take time off. The only 'vacations' you took were forced because you work too much," Warrick said.
"Okay, time to get to work. The Raspy Robber struck again, twice tonight. Catherine, Warrick you guys have a small restaurant on the strip. Greg, you're with me at a gas station about a block from here. Nicky, you're going solo tonight, a missing person case," Grissom handed out the assignments.
"This is getting old, I hope we can catch this guy. We're up to what, twelve robberies now in a span of a couple weeks?" Warrick sighed.
"The problem is the guy isn't leaving us much to go on. He always seems to know where the security cameras are and manages to avoid them. He wears gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. He knows what he's doing," Catherine shook her head.
"Just keep your patience, one day he will make a mistake," Grissom assured them, "let's head out guys."
The CSIs crowded out of the lab and headed off to their separate crime scenes of the night. Greg and Grissom spent their short drive in silence. When they arrived at the scene, they were met by Jim Brass.
"It's definitely him again," Brass greeted the CSIs.
"Where's the store clerk?" Grissom asked.
"Right over here," Brass lead them to a frightened man.
"I'm Gil Grissom, Vegas Crime Lab," Grissom introduced himself, "can I ask you some questions?"
"Yes sir," the man replied.
"Did you see the robber's face?" Grissom pulled out a notebook to write answers in.
"Not very well sir," the man said, "he had a hood pulled down over his face."
"Can you describe what you did see of him to me?" Grissom questioned.
"He was a little taller than you, heavyset. Appeared to be in his forties, I'd guess. His beard was starting to go gray," the clerk described, "he was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans."
"Very good, and his voice?" Grissom asked.
"Raspy sir," the clerk said.
"Sounds like the Raspy Robber all right," Grissom shook his head, "thank you sir."
"Is that all you needed?" the clerk asked.
"Wait, what did he take?" Grissom inquired.
"He made me empty out the cash register, fortunately I'd just taken most of the cash back to the safe, so he didn't make off with much," the clerk seemed almost proud of himself.
"And what was your name?" Grissom asked.
"Jack Rains," the clerk supplied.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Rains," Grissom flipped his notepad shut, "Greg, time to go look for evidence. I'll take the surveillance video."
Early the next morning, a quiet knock came on Sara's door. She smiled as she opened the door to Grissom.
"Hey," she greeted him.
"Ready to go?" he asked.
"Yep," Sara showed him her suitcase.
"That's it, just one suitcase?" Grissom raised eyebrows.
"Yeah," Sara answered slightly confused, "why?"
"I don't know, I was under the impression that women never traveled lightly I guess," Grissom laughed.
"Guess I'm not like most women then, am I?" Sara handed him the suitcase and pulled the door to her apartment shut.
"Oh you are much better than the average woman," Grissom gave her a genuine smile.
"I'm still not used to you saying things like that," Sara blushed. They had gone out to dinner a couple times in the week before they left for their vacation.
"It's true Sara," Grissom smiled as he loaded her suitcase into his SUV.
"I guess it just seems weird to me that after all this time, we are actually in a relationship together," Sara tried to explain.
"It's okay, I understand what you mean. The idea of there being an 'us' will take some time to adjust to," Grissom said.
"Yes. I'm glad you want to take this slowly too," Sara slid into the passenger's seat.
"I don't know how slow you can consider going away together for a week," Grissom teased.
"It's not like we're staying in the same room though," Sara shot back.
They were going to stay in a small cabin in a Colorado mountain town. As it was early fall, they would be in for quite the treat as far as the changing leaves. The cabin was on the edge of a crystal clear lake and there was a peak visible in the distance that was usually capped with snow in the fall months. Grissom had found it in a travel brochure. Both of them decided it would be a peaceful place to spend a week. There were a few other cabins around, but tourism was in a lull at the time. It was between the summer hikers, mountain bikers, and campers and the winter skiers. The week should prove to be very restful for them.
Grissom parked his vehicle in long term parking at the airport. They began the rather lengthy process of going through airport security. Eventually they made it to their flight and they sat, Sara next to the window and Grissom next to her. Grissom was pretty tired from having worked the night before and closed his eyes once they were in the air, wanting to catch a little bit of sleep. Before he was completely out of it, he felt a sudden weight on his shoulder. His eyes popped open and he smiled at Sara's head resting on his shoulder, her brown hair spilling over his shoulder. He grabbed her hand and laced his fingers with hers. Then he closed his eyes again and fell asleep.
"Attention passengers we will be landing at Denver International Airport in approximately 15 minutes, please make sure your seats are in the upright position and your seatbelts are fastened," Grissom vaguely heard over the intercom. (A/N: believe it or not, I've never flown so I don't know realistically what kind of announcements are made)
Sara turned to him, "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up on your own."
Grissom yawned, "That was a fast flight. I think it helped that I slept the whole time."
"You said you have a rental car reserved for us at the airport?" Sara asked.
"Yeah. And it's supposed to be several hours drive to the cabin," Grissom replied.
"That should be fun," Sara rolled her eyes, "a plane ride and then several more hours in a car."
"It was either that or spend a lot of money on a charter plane to a closer airport," Grissom explained.
"I'll just be glad when we get to the cabin, I want to go for a hike and look at the trees. The leaves are supposed to be beautiful this time of year," Sara said.
"There's a hiking trail that leads right from the lake through the mountains for a couple miles. The woman at the office of the little resort said that it is the best trail to view the leaves," Grissom told her.
"We're going there first," Sara said excitedly.
"I hope you'll let us get our suitcases in the cabin first," Grissom teased.
"I might," Sara laughed, "I'm sorry, it's just that I've never seen the Rocky Mountains in the fall."
A/N: They are staying at a fictional resort. I live in Colorado though, and you're supposed to write what you know, so I had them come here. I live really close to the mountains and I'm sure places similar to the one they are going to exist. If you've never seen the Rocky Mountains in the fall, you are missing out!