Grissom was interrupted from his sleep when a cell phone rang around two in the afternoon. "Grissom," he answered.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm trying to get in touch with Sara Sidle," the doctor spoke.

Great, this is Sara's cell phone. Grissom realized that Sara wasn't laying in the bed next to him. Where is Sara anyway? "This is her fiance Gil Grissom. Can I help you?"

"Can you ask her to come down to my office before five today?"

"Sure."

"Thank you," the doctor hung up.

Grissom closed Sara's cell phone and glanced around the room. Well, she's not in here. Grissom pulled himself out of bed and stretched before wandering around the house to find Sara. He didn't have to search far, for she was stretched out on the couch, face down, in the living room. Grissom walked over to the couch and ran a hand up and down her back. "Honey," he spoke, "wake up."

Sara moaned and turned over onto her back. "What?" Sara mumbled.

"Why are you out here?" he questioned.

"I could sleep, then I couldn't, so I came out here for a little while."

Sara sat up on the couch so Grissom could sit next to her. Grissom draped an arm across her back and kissed her cheek. "You were thinking, weren't you?"

Sara sighed. "Yeah. Everything is just so hard to process, I don't know what to believe anymore."

"You can believe that I am here for you," Grissom spoke, lightly kissing her lips.

Sara wrapped both of her arms around him and snuggled into his side. "I do," she whispered.

"Yeah, we'll be saying that soon enough," Grissom joked.

Sara smiled, thinking of what still needed to be done to plan the wedding. Grissom reached over and ran his hand through her hair. "Your doctor called," Grissom stated, "she would like to see you down at her office before five."

"What time is it now?"

"Two."

"Well, I'd like to go now then, hopefully I can make it back to work by tonight."

"Sara, you don't have to go back yet," Grissom tried to convince her.

"Gil, I feel a lot better, and I would like to help get all of this straightened out."

Sara's statement reminded Grissom that he still didn't know about the status of the mayor. He reached over, grabbed the remote, and turned the television on. "We have notice that the mayor will be speaking in about five minutes," the television reported.

"Well, I guess he still didn't resign yet," Grissom stated.

"Everything in politics takes forever," Sara replied.

The two watched and waited for the mayor to appear on the screen. After a few minutes, the mayor appeared to address the people. "I have recently learned that my campaign advisor, Eric Miller, has been involved in a plot that killed the sheriff and a member of the crime lab. All of this had been done without my knowledge, but I fear his actions have tainted my administration. Instead of leaving the people of Las Vegas with uncertainty, I will be stepping down from my position as mayor. I feel that it is very unfortunate that I am leaving in this manner, but this is the best thing for the people."

The mayor was escorted away from city hall, and the news program directed its attention to the various people who were still trying to explain what was going on. Grissom turned the television off and sat silently for a minute. "He's stepping down so he can pin the whole thing on his employees and get away with a slap on the wrist," Grissom stated, angered that the system worked in that manner.

"We don't have anything to directly connect him to any of the crimes," Sara reasoned.

"I am aware of that. We don't have enough evidence to say that Eric Miller killed the two of them either. We haven't even found the body of the man that replaced Ecklie yet. There are still a lot of things that need to be investigated. We need to go have a nice long chat with Mr. Miller and see if he'll give up more information now that the mayor has implicated him in the whole thing."

"Yeah. I'm going to go to the doctor's office, and I'll meet you at work I guess."

"No, we are going to go," Grissom said, kissing the top of her head, "you come first honey. I want to be there to see what the doctor has to say too."

"Okay," Sara spoke, getting up from the couch, "I'm going to take a quick shower and change so I'll be ready to go."

"Alright, I'll jump in after you. I'm going to call Cath and see what's going on."

Sara nodded and disappeared into the bedroom. Grissom picked up the house phone and dialed Catherine's cell phone. "Willows," Catherine stated.

"Were you able to get anything more out of the mayor?" Grissom asked.

"No. Did you see what happened?"

"I saw the mayor resign."

"He pinned the whole thing on that one guy. There's no way in hell that the mayor wasn't involved somehow!" Catherine shouted, frustrated.

"Catherine, you find the evidence, and we might be able to make a case. Right now we don't have anything connecting the mayor to any of the crimes."

"We're still waiting on that DNA that Greg is running."

"You can't rush that, it's two weeks, no matter what. Right now we have to work with what we have, the two men in custody."

"Yeah, Brass is on his way back to start questioning him. He wanted to wait until you got back. How is Sara? Can you come back in?"

"Sara's okay. We need to go to her doctor's office briefly, but then we're both coming back to the lab."

"You're both coming? Gil, is that a good idea?"

Grissom sighed. "She seems a lot better Cath, and I'd rather she be at work where I can watch her than stuck at home by herself. She can help us out too."

"Alright. I'll tell Brass to hold off until you get here. I'm going to send the guys home for a little while to get some sleep, they're practically dead on their feet."

"How about you Cath?"

"I'm okay for a while longer at least. I'm going to go back to the funeral home and ask them a few more questions."

"Okay, I'll see you in a little while."

Grissom hung up the phone and waited for Sara to get out of the shower. When they both were cleaned up and changed, they left for the doctor's office.

Grissom and Sara were seated inside of the doctor's office, waiting for her to enter and explain the results of the test. Sara started to tap her foot with nervousness, and Grissom laid a hand on her knee. "Honey, calm down," Grissom spoke, "don't get yourself all worked up."

Sara took a deep breath and stopped tapping. The doctor came into the room a few minutes later and sat behind her desk. "You must be Mr. Grissom," the doctor spoke, extending her hand, "nice to meet you."

Grissom nodded and shook the woman's hand. "Sara, I got your x-ray results back, and you do indeed have a peptic ulcer. I would like to start you on a triple therapy immediately."

"How does that work?" Sara asked.

"I am going to give you a prescription for two antibiotics and an acid suppressor. You're going to have to take these medications each day for two weeks. However, the schedule for taking these medications can be quite confusing, you can end up having to take twenty pills a day, and you could experience side effects."

Sara's eyes widened at the prospect of having to remember to take twenty pills a day. "What kind of side effects?" Sara questioned.

"Nausea, dizziness, headache. However, after the two weeks, you will be ulcer free."

Sara nodded, deciding that she could deal with all of the problems as long as she didn't have to deal with the pain of an ulcer any longer. The doctor wrote her out a few prescriptions and directions as to when to take the pills, and handed them to Sara. "Now," the doctor stated, "let's take a look at your wrist and see if you can go without that brace."

Grissom pushed his chair back and away from Sara so the doctor could grab her rolling stool and sit in front of her. The doctor removed Sara's brace and looked at her wrist. "Well, the swelling has gone down a lot. How is the pain?"

"It doesn't hurt very much. It's just been bothering me a little bit."

"Okay, let's check your range of motion."

After the doctor conducted a few tests, she retrieved an elastic bandage from the cabinet and started wrapping Sara's wrist. "I want you to keep this on while you are working," the doctor spoke, "and when you get home, put heat on your wrist, then ice, that should help make it feel better. I want you to perform a few simple exercises each day to keep your wrist in motion. You shouldn't need physical therapy as long as your wrist doesn't freeze up on you."

Sara nodded. "I think I can manage that."

"If the pain doesn't disappear within a few weeks, and you don't regain full range of motion, you should come back in. Otherwise, I'll take a look at it again when I reevaluate your ulcer."

Sara nodded, and allowed the doctor to lead them out of her office. Grissom wrapped his arm around Sara and led her out to the car. "Let's go get that prescription filled, and then we'll go back to the lab."

"Okay," Sara agreed.

They drove to the pharmacy and made their way to the lab.

"Was there a wake for Mr. Ecklie?" Catherine asked the funeral director.

"No," he spoke, "Mr. Ecklie didn't have any family. His last wishes were carried out per his will, and he was buried at the cemetery."

"So no one came to the funeral home at all?" Catherine clarified.

"No one. We prepared his body for burial and brought the casket to the cemetery."

"Was there ever a time where the body was left alone?"

"Yes, the casket was placed in the back room overnight. The next morning I nailed the casket shut and one of my staff transported it to the cemetery."

"Would he have realized that the coffin was much lighter?"

"We never pick up the caskets, they are put on tables and rolled everywhere."

"Is there a security system here?"

"No. The place gets locked up, and we've never had any trouble with break-ins or intruders."

"So someone walked in, took a body out of one of your coffins, and you never noticed?" Catherine accused.

"You don't have evidence that it happened here."

"No, we don't yet, but your business is sure going to go down when people find out that a body was taken from your funeral home. I would suggest investing in a good security system."

Catherine, disgusted with the funeral director's attitude, got up to leave. "The crime lab will be contacting you if we have any more questions," Catherine stated, "I'll see myself out."

Catherine left the funeral home and headed back to the lab.

Before Grissom went to meet Brass, he and Sara talked in his office. "Please remember to take your medication Sara, it's important that everything be done just right. You'll be busy, but try and watch the time."

"I know Griss, I'll be extra careful to try and take the medication at the right time."

"What are you going to work on?"

"I'm going to see if the money is still in Mr. Lancaster's account. I want to check the backgrounds on the mayor's employees also."

"Okay, I'll be with Brass if you need me."

The two parted ways to get to work.

"Mr. Miller, have you heard the new developments from the mayor?" Brass asked.

"Yes, my attorney informed me."

"Where is your attorney now?"

"I dismissed him. I'm sure as hell not going down for this whole thing, and I don't need to hide behind a paper pusher."

"Okay then. Would you like to tell us about everything that happened regarding the murders of the sheriff and Mr. Ecklie?"

"The mayor addressed a few people about an operation to try and make sure the sheriff didn't beat him in the election."

"Why would he think the sheriff could beat him?"

"The sheriff dug up information about some things that the sheriff was doing while in office."

"Like?"

"The mayor liked to partake in extramarital activities. One of his partners managed to tape the event, and the sheriff retrieved the tape. If it had been released to the media, it would have ruined his career."

"So the mayor decided to have him killed instead?"

"No, that wasn't the original plan. Someone was supposed to go in and pose as the sheriff, and we were supposed to keep the sheriff in hiding. After some decisions had been made so his career was destroyed, the sheriff was to be released."

"What happened?"

"They started to realize that they wouldn't be able to release the sheriff. He had ripped one of their masks off. If he had been released, he could have reported everything."

"Who is they?"

"The mayor and the people he appointed to run the entire operation."

"Do you know who they are?"

"No. I was only in charge of paying the doubles. The idea was that one person would only know so much information in case someone was caught."

"What did they do to the sheriff?"

"All I know is that they killed him about a week after they took him."

"Did you have anything to do with his death?"

"No, I took no part in it."

"What can you tell me about what happened with Mr. Ecklie?"

"It was quite obvious that Ecklie realized something was up. They decided to send in someone to pose as him."

"Who?"

"I have no idea."

"Did you pay him too?"

"Yes, another dead drop."

"What happened to the actual Ecklie?"

"The replacement was to dispose of him in the same manner as the sheriff."

"Which was?"

"I don't know. He was supposed to take care of it and report back to them when it was taken care of."

"How about when they found out that their replacement was dead?"

"One of them called me and instructed me to take care of the matter."

"What did you do?"

"It was easy enough to break into the funeral home, for there wasn't a security system. The coffin wasn't nailed shut yet, so all I had to do was open it up and take the body out."

"What did you do with the body?"

"I was to take it to a dead drop of sorts. There was a freezer installed in a back alleyway just for that purpose."

"Where is it?"

After taking the directions, Brass dispatched officers to the scene. Currently their only lead, time was of the essence.

While Catherine was on her way back to the lab, she got paged to the address for the alley, and she turned her car around and started to head for the location. When she arrived on scene, police cars were everywhere, and she could see Brass and Grissom standing in the back of the alley. She got out of her car, showed her id to an officer, and ducked under the crime scene tape. "What's going on?" Catherine asked Brass once she finally got to where Grissom and Brass were standing.

"Eric Miller led us to this alley. We get here and we find one of the mayor's advisors digging around in this freezer. We took him into custody, and now the scene is yours. I've got guys talking to the people in these apartments to see if they've seen anything odd going on around here," Brass stated.

"Gil, what do you want me to do?" Catherine asked.

"Take the perimeter, I'll take the freezer," Grissom instructed.

They both started processing their respective areas, determined to find any evidence there was.

Sara managed to discover that all of the money that Mr. Lancaster was paid was still in his account, and there had been no unusual activity. She also found evidence that a few other employees were receiving payments similar to Mr. Lancaster's. She took note of everything she found, wanting to be able to give Grissom the information when he got back into the lab.

Although Sara was taking her medication as ordered while she was working, she began to feel the side effects, and nausea gripped her again. She had to go to the break room every hour to take the prescribed pills. She took a few deep breaths and tried to continue with her work. I sure hope Grissom finds something so we can get this case over with.

After Grissom and Catherine finished processing the scene around eleven o'clock that night, they returned to the lab with plenty of new evidence to process. It was only when they encountered an empty lab that Catherine realized she had sent all of the guys home. "I'll call everyone back in," she spoke, "we're going to need all hands on deck."

Grissom took all of the evidence from her and went to check it in. When he was finished, he returned to his office to put all of his thoughts regarding the case in order. Fifteen minutes later, Sara walked into his office. "Gil, can I talk to you for a minute?" Sara asked, her voice sounding weak.

Grissom looked up and rose from his chair when he realized Sara didn't look so good. Grissom barely got to Sara's side when her face went white and her legs gave out. He managed to catch her and lead her over to the couch. He helped her put her head between her knees and ran his hand soothingly across her back. "Gil, I'm so dizzy," Sara managed to say.

"Have you had any other side effects?" he asked.

"Yeah, I've been really nauseous too."

"Why don't you lay down for a little while?" Grissom suggested.

"I've got information to tell you first," Sara stated, slowly sitting up.

"What?" he asked.

"I found transactions similar to Mr. Lancaster's among some of the other employees. Mr. Miller and a Jason Taylor were both depositing large checks on a weekly basis."

"Well, we just came back from a scene where we caught one of the mayor's employees digging around in a freezer."

"The bodies were frozen," Sara stated.

"I know. We got a lot of evidence and just brought it back to the lab. We're waiting for the guys to come back in to start processing."

"Okay."

Grissom picked her legs up and positioned her so she would be more comfortable on the couch. "How's that?" Grissom asked.

"Much better," Sara stated.

"Where's your medication?"

"Break room."

"I'm going to get it for you, I'll be right back."

Grissom left and returned a few minutes later with the medication and a bottle of water. "I'll turn the lights off and close the door," Grissom stated, "I'll get everyone to leave you alone for a while."

"Thanks Gil," Sara squeezed his hand and allowed him to leave.

I am so lucky to have him.

"Where's the fire?" Greg asked when he entered the break room where Catherine was sitting.

"We've got lots of evidence that needs to be processed," Catherine informed him, "you get the DNA stuff, and when Warrick and Nick get here, they'll be on print detail."

"What did you find out?"

"We found a freezer in a back alley and gathered samples from inside of it. We've also got another suspect."

Greg nodded and left the break room to start processing the DNA.

When Warrick and Nick entered the break room, Catherine updated them and asked them to start processing the fingerprints. "How's Sara?" Nick asked.

"She's around. Apparently, she has an ulcer, and the stress isn't helping any."

"Oh, poor girl," Warrick said.

Grissom entered the break room and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Griss, where's Sara?" Nick asked.

"She's in my office sleeping right now. I'd appreciate it if you'd let her get some rest."

"Is she okay?" Catherine asked.

"It's just side effects of the medication," Grissom stated, "she's got to take something like twenty pills."

"Wow," Nick stated.

"Yeah," Grissom said, "if we really need her for something, I'll go wake her up, but otherwise, I'd like to let her rest for a little while."

"Okay, we'll take note," Warrick stated.

Nick and Warrick left the room and headed for the trace lab. "Cath, you've got to be exhausted. Why don't you try to get some sleep?" Grissom asked.

"Gil, it's almost Christmas Eve. I'd rather stay here now and get some stuff done so I can go home to Lindsey than have to stay here tomorrow."

"I'll make sure you get home to Lindsey. However, you've slept less than the rest of us, and you'll lose your effectiveness. Go get some rest, and I'll get you when we need help."

"Okay," Catherine sighed, "I'm going to take over the break room again. Call me when you get anything."

"Will do. I'm heading to sit in on the interrogation with our latest suspect."

Catherine nodded and Grissom left the break room to head for the interrogation room.