Chapter Four – Leave it alone
Back home Sara grabbed her bag and checked it. She always kept a duffle with clothing prepared for sudden road trips. Some Tee's, tanks, chinos and simple underwear. She packed a second pair of boots and her – what she called for her own fun – vanity case. It only contained a toothbrush and toothpaste, shower gel, perfume and a hairbrush. What else would a woman not reaching for male company, need? Although certain men would tell her wrong, she did not feel very attractive. She looked in the mirror and stroke away a strand of her brunette hair. Sara gave herself a sarcastic grim, showing her the gap between her perfectly white teeth.
I do not hate myself anymore she thought slightly bemused, the counselling sessions did their good. I just started having fun with hating other people. What a big change and opportunity. There are a lot of people around which can be hated. Sara got into it. I already started with kiss-ass Ecklie and Catherine-the-bitch. Perhaps some day I will be ready to hate everybody in the lab. Well, probably not Greg, he's cute and if I would not have been too much and too long involved with my feelings in a certain other emotionally fucking unavailable person, it could have worked out between them, even though Greg was about four years younger. But did age ever matter to her?
Grissom! Would she ever be able to hate Grissom? She felt pity for his demotion and could not understand that he seem to have accepted Ecklie's rearrangement. He never fights, she growls angrily, throwing the duffle on the floor. Not with me, not with Conrad and never with Catherine. Does he even care about what has happened to him?
But if he is not angry, Sara asked herself, why am I? Just because, she answered her mind. Just because you have been, you are and you probably will always feelings for that man. It may have started as a crush when they first met on one of his seminars. She managed to avoid thinking of him when she worked as a CSI in San Francisco but, oh yes, she still remembered her heart missing the beat, the weirdness in her stomach and the fuzzy feeling in her mind when Grissom called her to Vegas. And she stayed because of him.
A brief knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. That would be Grissom, she concluded, grabbed her bag and opened the door. He cocked his head as if being startled and asked with a rasp voice: "Hi, Sara! You ready to hit the road?"
It looked almost familiar to have him standing here outside her apartment again, waiting for her. She could get used to it. If it at least would have been only once that he wouldn't be here out of pure professionalism. She murmured. "What did you just say?" Grissom looked at her. He couldn't have understood what she said, could he? He picked up her kit, non responsive.
She locked the door twice and followed him to his SUV. Gris opened the trunk and they put both her items next to his. After she entered the car Grissom had already buckled up, turned the key and revved up the engine while turning out of the parking lot. With screeching tyres they hit the road.
"Probably some kind of a man's outlet", Sara pondered. Before she could say another word Grissom just shut her up.
"Sar", he cleared his throat, "Sara, I really prefer not to discuss things that happened in the Lab right know. Please understand that I, uh, I need to adjust to that situation. I must admit that I did not foresee this explicit scenario."
"It probably hit us all by surprise, Gris. Except for Catherine", Sara added. "You ok with driving or shall I drive?" She carefully proposed after they nearly got hit by a truck.
"No, I'm fine. I'm still capable. I'll drive. Sorry, I've got to concentrate on the traffic now!"
He took the next driveway to 93 highway north and geared up. Sara gave him a side glance. Grissom looked very ill-humoured. His eyes were narrowed, his knuckles were white with the grip on the wheel. She tried to make herself comfortable and not to start worrying too much about Gris' feelings and his abilities to drive safely.
"Can we at least start talking the case, Gris? What do we know?"
"Alright, then! We have two male dead bodies covered in mud after a recent landslide. The local Sheriff called us in. He is, hm, kind of a friend, I think. At the end we were, I guess. Something like it. At least I got my stolen kit back and did not have to file a report on that." He put a half-smile on his face leaving Sara startled not quite understanding what he was talking about.
"Some time ago I had to work with him on a boy who was decapitated." Grissom explained. "A dog found a severed head. The Sheriff had it sent it to Vegas for autopsy and requested forensic support on the case. We found the rest of the body in the mountains, solved the case, it was a crime of passion. But at the end the case hit somehow very close to the Sheriff's home. During investigation my forensic kit was stolen, but I got it back."
"Well back to our case here, the bodies haven't been ID'ed yet, so we do not know much. COD of one is gun shot in the head, the second COD is still unknown. I told him not to move or touch anything the potential crime scene until we've arrived. Sheriff Brooks also called in an environmental geologist, a professor Philip Louis Solder from Nevada State Geological Survey, to investigate cause of the landslide. I guess we will meet him on site then."
He seemed a bit more relaxed now and Sara decided to calm down a bit by herself. She yawned and stretched her legs. "You mind if I take a quick nap?" She asked. "I am confused and tired and you do not want to talk anyway", she started explaining herself.
"No, go ahead. Make it so. Everything will be just fine."
"You said that once to often, Grissom." Sara mumbled, already half asleep. "I don't believe you."
Grissom quickly turned his head to look at her but did not continue. He watched her moving her body in a slightly more comfortable position. Gris handed her his jacked from the backseat and laid it over her. "There", he said. "In case you're getting cold. I would prefer to turn the AC colder, so that I do not get tired, ok?"
But no answer. Sara was already in slumber. That was fast, Grissom thought, she might be well exhausted. The same for me here, but he knew that with all the things turning around in his mind, there would be no way, he would find sleep easily in the next couple of days. With a deep sigh he forced himself back to concentrate on the road. Traffic was low and counting on the courtesy of his colleagues of Nevada State Police he accelerated beyond speed limit.