Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of the characters but doesn't stop a girl for wishing
A/N So poor Grissom I'm going to put him through the ringer in this story, I have a few more chapters up my sleeve so this story will continue, please r&r it would give a newbie some much needed feedback. Oh and if you can't guess the italics is the dream/ thing scenes
A face, a face white with fear, her eyes burning into his, so much pain in those eyes.
Grissom woke with a start heart pounding in his chest, hair matted to his forehead and sweat dripping from his brow. That woman, who was she?, the image of the frightened woman was still fresh in his mind, the image, the fear she felt had plagued his sleep over the last three nights. He rolled over and looked at the clock and sighed he'd only been asleep an hour, oh well there was no way he could sleep again now. He got up and padded his way to the bathroom his reflection in the full length mirror near the bathroom door startled him, obvious bags under his eyes and dry sweat plastered his hair to his scalp.
"Nothing a shower can't fix" he muttered to himself. Flicking on the switch in the bathroom his eyes fixated on the sink where he saw Sara's spare toothbrush nicely aligned by his, a smile graced his lips as he remembered asking her to start spending the day at his place, she had never really left after that first day, in fact when she got back from San Francisco he wanted her to move in permanently, the pure thought of this made his brain forget about the terrible dreams as he thought about the future.
He was two hours early for shift but this was nothing new, so no strange looks were cast his way as he walked down the corridor to his office. He had a stack of paperwork to do anyway, which would keep him busy until shift started. Dreams long forgotten he plunged into the mound that threatened to take over his desk.
The next time he raised his head he saw a strawberry blonde pop her head through the door.
"Are we having the night off or are you going to hand out assignments tonight?" Catherine asked as she brought the rest of her body through the door.
"I'll be right there just give me a second to wake my legs up from their paperwork induced slumber" Grissom replied with a wirery smile as he started to get up from the desk.
"I'll get the troops ready" Catherine's commented as she escaped back through the door. By the time Grissom got to the break room Nick and Warrick were already seated with Catherine getting herself a cup of coffee.
"Ok, Warrick I want you to continue on with your B&E from last night, Catherine, Nick you're with me we have a 419 out in the desert Brass is already there, Nick I want you to be primary on this as Catherine or I may get called away to another case seeing how were short until Sara gets back, ok that's about it, we'll take two cars, I'll meet you there" with that Grissom got up and left.
"See you later War, have fun" Nick teased as he and Catherine left the break room.
The scene looked like any other desert crime scene, heat pumping down from the sun's rays, dirt everywhere, not a person insight except the hand full of law enforcement officers crowding the scene. It was obvious before they even got to touch the body that this was the secondary crime scene for starters the woman was dressed in a stunning black dress that no woman would ever wear to the desert. Secondly there was no visible sign of blood around the body suggesting this was a pure and simple dumping. Nick was first to the body while Catherine took perimeter photos. Looking down at the body he could tell that she was no more that 35, pretty and hadn't deserved to die. He knew he shouldn't bring his own feelings into cases but sometimes it was hard when you could just tell it was unjust what had happened. Oh well time to start on processing the body.
Nick was halfway through processing when he felt a presence beside him, looking sideways he saw Grissom's shoes.
"She hasn't been here long there doesn't seem to be any bugs and her skins not that dry" Nick looked up as he said this to try and get confirmation from Grissom that this was in fact true, he knew he was a good CSI and that his theory was in fact correct but it didn't hurt not to have his boss to agree with his ideas. But no sound came from Grissom's mouth, he just stood there his jaw set, face as white as anything just staring, but he wasn't staring at Nick but at the face of the body. Nick was astounded at all the crime scene's he'd been at with Grissom he'd never seen him like this, he looked for lack of a better word, frightened.
"Did you know her?" Nick asked hoping the answer wasn't going to be yes. Grissom turned his head and looked down at Nick then blinked as if he was coming out of a dream.
"I'm going to go help Catherine" was all Grissom choked out as he turned and walked off. After the scene was processed it was time to get back to the lab, loading up the vehicle Nick was desperate to ask Catherine if she had felt anything was off with Grissom after seeing the corpse.
"I didn't notice anything was off, maybe he looks a bit tired but I put that down to Sara being away I figured he was missing her" she replied to Nicks questioning as she placed her kit into the Tahoe
"It was more than that Cath , I've never seem him look so frightened, so uncontrolled at a crime scene, normally he'd bend down and help me examine the body but it was like this one was something he couldn't cope with."
"Well hopefully he'll deal with whatever it is, because at the moment we have little or no evidence and we'll need all the hands we can get" Catherine commented as she jumped into the passenger of the SUV.
Grissom slammed his hand into the steering wheel sending a sharp pain through his arm. "Damn, Damn" was all he could get out as he focused on what had just happened. How could it have been the girl out of his dreams the one with the burning eyes how was it possible he didn't even know her. He'd made himself look like a fool in front of Nick, he almost collapsed at the sight of the body, good one Grissom, now he'll be going around telling Cath and Warrick how there emotionless leader almost fainted at the sight of the dead. No, he needed to find out who this woman was and how she died he needed to stay objective, emotions or dreams for that matter should never stand in the way of the evidence.
"Ok, Grissom you're on finding out the identity of the victim, Cath, you can deal with the physical evidence and I'll help you when I've finished finding out how she died with Doc Robbins." Nick had given Grissom finding out the identity because he was worried he wouldn't be able to handle seeing the body again, plus if any other cases came up Grissom could handle an identity search much easier than if he was halfway thorough processing physical evidence. Grissom was relieved at being given the identity search as it was what he needed to find out the most about this victim even if it was to put his mind at rest that he didn't know this person.
Three hours later Grissom's eyes were burning, still nothing on afis or missing persons data base. Taking off his glasses he could feel the lack of sleep catch up on him, he needed to go for a walk. He somehow found himself planted outside the morgue staring at the door, he was about to reach for the handle when he heard Nick come out of the processing room to his right.
"I was looking for you, ID search is going slow" Grissom lied.
"Oh well I've been with Cath for the last hour processing the vics clothes we've just finished, come in and we'll discuss what we know so far" Nick replied as he turned back into the room. After he joined them in the processing room Nick started with his conclusions so far
"Ok so far we have the fact that she was dressed in a pretty expensive dress made of silk so if we find the primary crime scene we hopefully will link fibers to the dress. No bugs, skin was not too dry so Doc reckons she was only out in the desert for maybe a couple of hours or so before she was found, she was killed by three stab wounds to the chest then dressed afterwards. Funny thing is the killer waited long enough for the bleeding to stop then washed the body before putting on the dress on. No shoe marks near the body suggesting the perp covered his tracks as he left. No ID on the vic yet, so the next step is to trace the dress, but it's already an hour after shift ended so I suggest we all go home and pick this up tomorrow night"
Catherine nodded in agreement and added "I have to get Linds away to school anyway in half an hour" With this they all left, both Nick and Catherine headed towards the locker room while Grissom headed to his office, as he passed the Computer room he saw the computer he'd been working at, it wouldn't hurt if he put in another hour or so looking through the missing person files, besides he wasn't looking forward to going home to an empty bed and possible nightmares he thought as he sat himself in the chair once more.