Disclaimer: Still not mine, though I'm working on it.

A/N: Beta-ed again by LibraryLady61. I couldn't have done it without you.

Summary: She looked at him as if not understanding what happened to her, raising a hand to stop her blood from oozing. Will Brass' nightmare come true? A little one on Brass and Sara friendship.

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Come on, you know them probably better than I do.


CHAPTER SIX

He had this dream once a while. The age of the girl varied as they were growing older, as she was growing older, but the nightmare always ended as bad as it could get. The girl died.

Jim Brass was sitting in his office, feet on the table, laid back in his chair to relax a while. He had already interviewed and checked the alibis of several dozen of men fitting that profile Sam Starck laid out for them. Zip. He was exhausted and tired and felt some headache coming up. Jim massaged his temples und closed his eyes.

Just a couple of minutes, he thought before he went into slumber.

He hadn't seen or spoken to Ellie for a long while but in his dreams she visited him often. In his fantasy that father-daughter bonding was perfect, they talked, they laughed and had fun. But this vision never lasted long. While seizing the moment of love and understanding, lingering in her warm smile, a smile that Ellie never ever showed him in real life, he already felt it coming. Again. Jim shifted in his sleep, mumbling her name. In slow motion he had to witness her dying. A loud bang. Then her head jerked back and a gun shot wound appeared on her right temple. She looked at him as if not understanding what happened to her, raising a hand to stop her blood from oozing. She showed him the bloody hand, her eyes in accusation now. He held her in his arms. It's all your fault, Jim she mouthed before she faded away.

Jim Brass woke up startled. That dream was more intense than every one he had before. He poured himself a glass of water, then noticed that somebody was watching him standing in the door frame. It was Sara.

He turned himself away from her. His face was wet and he didn't necessarily want to show her how upset he was. Impatiently he pulled out a tissue and wiped away cold sweat and tears with a furtive gesture.

When he felt self contained again he looked at her and asked in a coarse voice "What is it, Sidle? Bringing a news flash on the case?"

Sara closed the door behind her and came closer. She glanced at him with that brown eyes of hers but didn't say a word. Just stood in front of him, her arms crossed.

Brass was taken aback. He wasn't used to getting too much attention, especially not from Sara. Even worse that she caught him in one of his weak moments.

"Ok, what do you want?" he asked bluntly.

"Jim Brass, you can't scare me away with your bad ass cop style." Sara touched his arm gently but he pulled away and went back to his chair, plunging down exhausted, resting his face in his hand.

"That dream of yours, you've had it several times, right? Like when we were driving. Worried about Ellie, hm? Yeah, family blood is a strong bond." Sara tried to put him at ease.

"It's not that we are that close, Sara. We are not even family." The words got out before he could stop them.

"Wanna talk about it?" Sara asked, and took a seat on the table in front of him dangling her legs.

"I better not." Brass prompted with a sigh.

"It's not that I'm going anywhere." Sara smiled at him waiting for him to open up.

Jim hemmed and hawed but finally spoke. "No one knows, Sara. Well, except Warrick found out, while analysing our DNA case related a while ago. Ellie isn't my kid. My wife cheated on me, while I was too busy kicking department butts and building my career. When she got pregnant our marriage was already going south, but this partly being my fault and stuff I decided to raise Ellie as my own child. And I love her with all my heart, even knowing that she hates me back, for getting divorced and leaving her alone."

"Does Ellie know?" Sara wanted to know.

"I'm not sure. You know my ex-wife and I we agreed to hold it under cover, but when life's getting in the way … Ellie can be a real pain in the ass, she's the head butting kinda girl and well, if going gets tough, one might say things you regret later. I dunno to be honest."

"I'm so sorry, Jim." Jim closed his eyes and sighed, he had the urgent wish to freeze this very moment indulged in Sara's calm presence.

"Why don't you simply call her, Jim. Just to make sure she's alright." Sara said.

"I do not even have her cell phone number." He shrugged.

"Hell, Brass. You're a detective. You gotta find out." Sara pulled him out of his chair. "Otherwise I'm kicking your butt, my friend."

Jim gave her a short hug. "Thanks, gal. You're doing me good."

"Yeah, being in counselling for a while had obviously turned me into a kind of a good Samaritan. If I don't watch it I'm going become a shrink myself these days."

"Well, I definitely like it, um, you, what you're doing to me." Jim spluttered. "Not that I didn't like you before…um…I mean, what I'm trying to say, I have seen how well you've developed after… well, thanks." He blushed slightly.

"I'm just paying my debts here, Jim. You were looking out for me, I'm going to look out for you once a while, I guess. That's what friends do, right?"

"Yeah. Good to have you. As a friend, I mean." Jim said seriously looking at her.

Sara met the gaze of his dark eyes trying to read between the lines. More out of an impulse she put a hand on his bristly cheek and gently stroke it.

"Hey, Jim. Bet you never had a female best friend before, huh? I mean the Harry and Sally kinda stuff?" She tried a joke slightly confused by the underlying message he seemed trying to send her.

"Well, never worked for me long that way." Jim Brass said eye-ing her. "I mean something's always coming in the way, I guess. I'm not a priest. Must be my good looks, you know! Moreover I can have deep thoughts, I'm empathic, I even can talk emotions." He smirked.

"Yeah, I get the picture, Jim. You certainly have everything to please a woman, especially when you grow that scruff." Sara grinned, glad to have Jim pulled out of is dark mood.

"Glad you finally noticed." Jim retorted. They burst into laughter, releasing the stress of the past couple of hours when Grissom came in.

"Missed the punch line?" Gil asked quizzically.

"Every so often you do, Gil." Jim answered with a mischief grin on his face, reminding that precious little moment he was allowed to share with Sara Sidle.

"Gotta make a call. Get lost, guys, will you?" Brass continued with a wink to Sara asking them to leave his office.

"What was that all about?" Gil wanted to know.

"Trying to tie some loose ends, I guess. It concerned something you don't have, Grissom, personal stuff." Sara said simply, leaving Grissom dumbstruck.


Warrick got paged by Hodges. In fact, both blood samples showed traces of a strong and effective narcotic.

"The ones you only get on prescription. So you might wanna look who has access to it." Hodges suggested.

"Yeah, we gotta immediately cross check that with our guys. Perhaps we can narrow down the search further, good job, David."

"I know, Warrick." Hodges said cocky.

"Did you also finish the analysis on the unknown particles we've found in the cars and on my badge?"

"Working on in." Hodges answered.

"Not good enough, Hodges. Move your ass back to the lab. Grissom is not going to wait any longer."

Warrick met the profiler to report the newest findings.

"Intriguing." Sam Starck said. "I'm still on that theory that we are looking for a contract consultant. If he has access to prescription drugs he might be either working for a lab or hospital. Maybe he's even a doctor himself. If so, we can narrow down the search again…" She started hitting data into the laptop and pressed enter.

The computer started processing the new data and came back with 52 hits. 17 of them were already interviewed and had been cleared. She took the printout and went to see Vega, when Hodges ran into Warrick.

"I got it." He said. "Silvery antifriction alloys composed of tin with small amounts of copper and antimony, it's Babbitt metal, also called white metal, an alloy used to provide the bearing surface in a plain bearing."

"Ok?" Warrick didn't have a clue what Hodges was talking about.

"Used most likely in engineering, mining or automotive industry." Hodges explained.

Warrick turned around without another word and paged the others.

They met in the break room where he briefed them on the material.

"There's not much automotive industry in the area, so we might wanna have a look at mining and engineering companies." Grissom said.

When Sam connected several databases and entered the parameters only seven hits came back.

"Ok, Vega." Catherine stated, "You better bring 'em in a.s.a.p. Nick, you and I are going to browse the Yellow Pages and phone some companies to find out about contracted consultants working in that specific area."

"Warrick, Sara, you're going to attend the interviews with Brass and Vega. Greg and I continue processing the other evidence we found in the cars." Grissom said. "Let's divide and conquer."

"What am I supposed to do, Gil?" Sam Starck asked.

Grissom shrugged. "Well, your job is mostly done, I guess. But keep monitoring the interrogations from the other side of the glass. Perhaps you can find out more by watching them."

"Right. Boss." She smiled. "I'll do that. Glad to be kept in the loop." Sam added with a smirk. Grissom furrowed his brow but as always he wasn't quick at repartee and so left without further comment.


Ellie's cell went off. She didn't recall the number on the display but curious as she was she picked up.

"Brad. If it's you, I'm going to rip your balls off." She shouted without introduction.

"Hi, Ellie." A low voice answered.

"Oh!" She said weirdly confused. "Long time no call, dad." She said acidly accentuating the last word.

"You ok? Where are you?"

"It's not that this would be anything of your business, don't you think, mister?" Ellie prompted.

"Guess we gotta have a chat about something here?" Jim guessed.

"You think so?"

"Where can I find you?"

"I'm driving down to Vegas actually. Some nice guy picked me up. I just have to think about how I'm going to pay him back that favour." Ellie Brass said meaningful and winked at her driver who smiled back.

"You're hitchhiking? Ellie you know that I would have paid the flight to Vegas. You should have simply asked me. Listen Ellie. There is a dangerous man around, killing young and beautiful women, like you." Jim Brass really sounded concerned now. "Just a sec. Hold on, will you?" he asked and Ellie heard muffled conversation in the background.

"Beautiful, huh? Obviously my parents have given me some good genes. Not that you were much involved in that, James." Ellie hit him hard with her words.

Brass swallowed hard upon that comment but didn't let himself down. He could only imagine how she must feel with this life long betrayal.

"No matter what, Ellie. I love you and always will." Jim said. "Please just get out of that car and wait. I'll send a uniform to pick you up. I want you to be safe and sound."

"You give a damn shit about me." Ellie scoffed in despise. "Now at least I can understand why you left. You don't have anything to do with me. We are not even family. So why care at all?" She was near tears by now.

"Ellie." Jim Brass pleaded.

"Fuck you, Jerk. You asshole of a father." She cried. Then the line went dead.