A/N: I hope everyone is enjoying this so far! I know I am. The reviews have been absolutely encouraging—keep them coming! This is my first fanfic, and it's nice to know that people like what they are seeing!
Sara walked into the locker room and put her stuff down on the bench. When she got her locker open, she was surprised to see something sitting on the top shelf. Looking around, she pulled it out. Seeing no one around, she dared to look down. It was an envelope with her name on it. Sara was written in lovely calligraphy, and there was a beautiful hand-drawn border of roses and ivy going around the edges of the envelope. She ran her fingers across the object in her hands. 'What on earth could this be?' she asked herself. From the feel of it, it was very expensive parchment. Swallowing nervously, she lifted the flap and pulled out the card. More thick, luxurious parchment. An identical border of roses and ivy ran around the perimeter of the card. In the middle was a message in the same fine calligraphy:
Dearest Sara,
Tomorrow at 11 am, your presence is requested at
the Center for Sports Medicine on University Boulevard.
Go to the front desk and ask for Amy.
She will give you further instructions.
Sara was dumbfounded. She had no idea what to make of the cryptic message, but the investigator in her was dying to find out what was going on. She glanced down at the card one more time. It was a really beautiful creation. She tucked it gently into her bag, put her things in her locker, and headed to the break room for assignments.
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It was all Grissom could do to suppress a grin when a very distracted-looking Sara Sidle entered the break room. He quickly resumed looking at the papers in his hand. He didn't want her to suspect anything. Not yet. He could tell that her curiosity was aroused by his card, though. He surreptitiously glanced up again. Sara was sitting on the couch rubbing her legs absently. They were sore. Grissom smiled with satisfaction. He had seen her massaging her legs quite often lately, and hadn't really thought anything of it until after he saw her dancing. As he had lain in bed that morning, it had suddenly dawned on him that soreness from ballet was the reason for it. He thought about the plan he had put in motion, and his heart sped up with anticipation. He struggled not to smile as he handed out assignments.
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It was all Sara could do to keep her mind on her work that night. She was thankful, for once, to have an open-and-shut case that required more paperwork than anything. Normally, she hated the mind-numbing maze of paperwork that was apparently a required accompaniment of all crimes committed in Clark County (who knew it took so much paperwork to drop dead?), but tonight it offered her a reprieve. Sitting in the layout room with her paperwork, she kept pondering her mysterious message. The Center for Sports Medicine? She was familiar with the facility. It was a huge, gleaming, modern building that housed the best orthopedic specialists and physical therapists in Nevada. They specialized in, duh, sports injuries. She knew that they were the official care providers of UNLV's many sports teams. What could possibly be waiting for her there? She was a pretty religious jogger, but other than the occasional shin splints, she certainly didn't have any problems resulting from running. And even if she did, who would know about it? Better yet, who would know about it, then decide to make an appointment for her, leaving a cryptic message written in beautiful calligraphy on expensive paper in her locker? Sara shook her head. This made no sense.
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Grissom sneaked a peak in at Sara as he passed the layout room. He had purposely assigned Sara to the one case that Brass said looked like it was pretty much open-and-shut. He wanted to give her time to think about the surprise waiting for her the next day. As he glanced in the room, he noticed her staring off into space. Grinning, he kept up his pace as he headed toward his office. He was loving every minute of this.
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At the end of shift, Sara stuck her head in Grissom's office. "Hey," she said. He looked up from behind the small mountain of files on his desk.
"Hey," he replied. "What's up?"
"Just wanted to let you know I'm leaving."
"Oh. Ok. Hey, I'm sorry about the boring case. Maybe you'll get something better tonight." He smiled apologetically.
"No, no, it's okay. I kind of needed the mental break. It was kind of nice, actually. But don't get any ideas!" she added hastily as he smirked. "I wouldn't want to make a habit of having cases like that every night!"
Grissom laughed. "If you say so, Sara," he said, still smiling. "I'll see you tonight." With that, she turned and left, and Grissom relished the thought of the attention she was going to have lavished on her that day.