Damn. Grissom is a really hard character to write. Seriously. This took forever.
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Letting Catherine walk off in search of Ecklie was a cop out, and Grissom damned well knew it.
He knew the right thing to do; stop her and firmly insist that her intervention was unnecessary and unwelcome. That he was capable of handling the situation himself. But for some entirely inexplicable reason, one that defied all logic, he just let her go. The previous hour's events had left him feeling worn down, raw with frustration. Catherine, it seemed, had arrived at precisely the right moment to guarantee his inaction. She always did have impeccable timing.
It was rare for Grissom to feel stumped; throughout his life he'd maintained a naturally unflappable cool. But then Sara had come along. Suddenly, shockingly, she was deep under his skin. He was usually an eloquent man; he recited apropos poetry at crime scenes and quoted famous philosophers to suspects in the interrogation room. But when Sara's eyes flashed in that certain way, all he could do was furrow his brow, mouth agape and mind a blank slate. Afterward he knew he should have said something, anything. But she always seemed to walk away before he could get a word, right or not, in edgewise. When she'd thrown down her badge, he'd had one of those moments. Sitting deflated, holding her badge, he'd hoped she just needed some time to cool off. It had been half an hour, but a part of him still expected Sara to appear. She couldn't possibly be serious about quitting. This job was everything to her.
With a sigh Grissom mentally shifted gears, stood, and pocketed Sara's badge. He walked belated but determined after Catherine. She wasn't in her new office; with a sense of foreboding, he continued toward Ecklie's. Grissom stopped short when he saw the closed door. A glance through partly open mini blinds confirmed his fears; he could barely make out Catherine, seated across from Ecklie. They appeared to be deep in conversation. Grissom ground his teeth and stood for a long, torn moment, deliberating. He couldn't believe he'd allowed this. But he still didn't have any desire to speak to Ecklie, and an interruption might convince the man that Grissom had sent Catherine to do his dirty work. Grissom finally decided just to leave them. He honestly didn't think that Ecklie would talk to Catherine about Sara. Even if she did somehow get him to open up, Grissom seriously doubted that anything she said could make a difference. As he well knew, talking to Ecklie was like trying to get through to a brick wall. An obnoxious, megalomaniacal brick wall.
Instead, Grissom headed back to the evidence room and picked up where he and Sara had left off, labeling fibers from the scene of a double murder. This was the constant in his life. Evidence, needing to be processed, needing him. This felt normal, entirely within his expertise and ability to deal with. He settled into a smooth, familiar scientific groove; the calm order of rational processes always put his mind straight. Grissom got to work carefully separating and bagging individual fibers. Working on his own, it took twice as long. When he was finally done, Grissom stared blankly down at the fibers, each in their own small bag. They were neatly labeled, half in Sara's handwriting, half in his.
Oddly enough, it was the simple sight of Sara's writing on the evidence bags that brought it all home for him. He knew with sudden, clearheaded certainty that she wasn't coming back.
Grissom let out a slow breath and glanced around the quiet, empty evidence room. The space that Sara had filled suddenly seemed immense; a strange void was left in its place. For the first time, Grissom seriously considered the possibility of never working a case with Sara again; her absence in the lab, at every crime scene. The thought was more disturbing than he wanted to admit. Working with Sara was invigorating. When she was around, things seemed sharper, more in focus. Thoughts flowed between them like water; she was always right there on the same page, ready with a suggestion or a different point of view. With Sara on the scene, things often just made more sense. And of course there was the other side of the coin, which Grissom generally avoided thinking about. He wasn't given to frivolities, but something about Sara always made him pause and take notice. Other people simply collected evidence; when Sara worked, she make it seem like art. It was unsettling to think that he might never again see the graceful shape of her body when she was deep in concentration; the calm fluid way she worked, that triumphant half-smile when she was onto something. Sara's smile, directed at him like he was the only thing she could see.
Grissom grimaced. He knew what he had to do; he should have done it the moment that Sara walked out of his office. He would file a formal report with HR about Ecklie's actions. If they wouldn't listen, he would go to the director. Of course, Ecklie had a lot of connections in the lab; it always astounded Grissom how many people blindly put their faith in him. He knew that his complaint would probably, at best, come across as petulant and childish. At worst it could possibly open an entire inquiry into Ecklie's reasoning, which would drag his relationship with Sara into the eye of office gossip. But it was the right thing to do. Once he had filed the report, he would find Sara and figure out what to say to her. He couldn't do much about the transfer, but he might be able to convince her to come back to CSI. Seeing Sara in passing during overlap in shifts, Grissom decided, was better than not seeing her at all.
He was walking toward the door of the evidence room when Ecklie materialized, an expression of intense displeasure on his face.Grissom stopped short, resisting the urge to simply give Ecklie a wide berth and continue on his way. "Grissom," Ecklie said grimly by way of greeting. He was blocking the doorway. Grissom didn't reply. Anger spiked heated through him, and he set his jaw deprecatingly. What now?
Ecklie paused for a long difficult moment. Finally, reluctantly, he spoke, looking as though he was choking on every word. "I'm here to tell you that I've had a change of heart. It's clear that Sara strongly objects to being transferred, so I've decided to allow her to stay on the night shift. Both of you should consider our earlier discussion a friendly warning to watch your behavior while in the lab. I'd appreciate it if you would let Sara know."
For the second time that day, Grissom stared in pure speechless shock at Ecklie. Had Catherine done this? If so, what on earth had she said? Grissom couldn't even guess; his concentration wouldn't stay on Catherine. One thought filled his mind; Sara wasn't being transferred. Sara would be staying on his shift. If he could talk her into staying.
"Of course, there is the matter of the comments that Sara made toward me…" Ecklie reclaimed his peevish look. "As her supervisor, I'm sure you'll see that she does the right thing."
Grissom's surprised relief evaporated. All the anger he'd been nursing, all the confused upset over Sara culminated into a flow of perfectly crystal clear disdain. "Ecklie," Grissom said, "I've had enough of this game. It ends now." He charged ahead without giving Ecklie a chance to reply. "You know I need Sara on my shift, and we both know it's the right choice to leave her there. I don't know what brought about your 'change of heart,' and frankly, I don't care. I'm only going to say this to you once."
Grissom made his voice forceful and sharp. "Leave my people alone and stay out of the affairs of my shift. We do our jobs and we do them well. Night shift has the highest conviction rate in the department. We all worked very well before you were Assistant Director, and we will continue to do so." He paused to see what effect his words were having; Ecklie remained stonily silent. Grissom continued in a low, dangerous tone. "If you ever instigate anything like this again, Conrad, I swear to you, I will do everything in my power to see that you are brought before the director. Believe it or not, you're not the only one with pull in this lab. I know you won't apologize for what you said, but you shouldn't expect anything from Sara, either. She's the best CSI on my shift and she has more integrity than you could ever know."
Grissom walked past Ecklie toward the door, but then stopped for a moment, considering, and turned to deliver a final coup de grace. "Let me tell you something about the 'right thing,' as you put it," he remarked. "If you don't treat your people with dignity and respect for their privacy, you'll alienate them all to the point that they won't want to work in this lab. And that'll be a damned shame, because we need the good personnel we have around here. I intend to file a report with the HR department concerning what happened here today. They should know that if you continue on this path, you're going to lose us some of the best CSIs in the business. This isn't the way you manage people, Conrad, and the sooner you learn that, the better off we'll all be."
Grissom left the perpetually silent and pissed-looking Ecklie behind him. He had more important things to attend to.