Chapter 34

Sara kissed Jim's face so many times that Grissom cleared his throat loudly and glared at his old friend.

"Cookie lay off. Griss is one of the only men in the world that I am actually afraid of."

Sara clasped both of his hands and pulled him to the kitchen table. "I didn't know they would let in any non-federal people except Miami CSI."

Jim opened his took out his wallet flashed a gold badge.

Sara read the card. "James Lincoln Brass, Liaison Agent for Federal Task Forces."

"You're a fed Jim?"

Jim Brass looked at his watch. "As of two hours ago yes I am."

"You quit your job?"

James looked at his two friends. Sara's hand was clasped tightly in Grissom's. They both watched as his jovial expression turned sour. "It was sorta blackmail. Either I became a fed or I might not see you guys ever again. I talked it over with Lil and she said I had no choice so here I am."

Sara spoke quietly. "We are not going back to Vegas are we Brass?"

"Cookie I can't answer that question but it's looking unlikely."

Grissom watched Sara's face becoming stony and resolved. She had her son to think of. She was going to try and make the best of the situation.

"Cookie now's the time you start making demands. You tell them where you want to go. You tell them where you want Jules to grow up. We've got leverage."

"What leverage?"

"The closest thing we have to Boer is Grissom. He's the only one that can come close to thinking like this guy."

Sara frowned and studied the side of Gil's face. "What about Jiles?"

"It's true that Jiles is a genius but other than that he and this guy have so little in common. Boer sees his life as some hard luck saga even though it really isn't. He thinks he's had it tough."

"So how does that make me like him?"

"It doesn't but you have to admit that your life is not very conventional. Your logic is not like everyone else's. You haven't had an easy life but something in you allowed you to see most of the good in what should have been pretty tough. Your mom lost her hearing as an adult, your dad left before you were out of knee pants, you had to work your way through undergrad and grad school. I need for you to go back to that moment when you made a conscious decision to. Boer had a similar moment, only his was exactly the opposite. He had so much to be grateful for, he was rich, he was good looking, and he was brilliant. Maybe one day a kid calls him a half bread at his fancy smancy boarding school or maybe some little blond girl wouldn't go out with him cause he was half Black, whatever, that little thing created this monster where as your moment created a guy that Cookie would actually chose to breed with. What was it Gris?"

Sara felt the familiar butterflies tango in her belly at Grissom's next words.

"It was Sara."