"Violence is the last refuge of incompetent."

Isaac Asimov

"So you are actually taking a vacation?" Greg Sanders said with shock as he was sitting in the break room waiting for assignments to be handed out.

"It's not a vacation, I've used up all my OT weeks ago and Grissom threatened to make me take the whole week off if I tried to work during Memorial Day weekend. So after shift I'm off until Monday night." Sara Sidle groaned.

"So that means you'll be gone, what? Friday during the day, all night, all Saturday and all Sunday, and won't be in till Monday night? Have you ever taken that much time off?" Greg asked sarcastically, but pretty sure that it was true.

"Well, yeah, other than being suspended." Sara quipped. Greg just nodded remembering Sara's suspension earlier that year for telling off Catherine Willows and Conrad Ecklie. Greg knew that was still as sore subject, so he didn't push it.

Gil Grissom walked into the break room. It seems so empty since his graveyard shift had been split into two. He lost Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, and Warrick Brown to a newly created swing shift. However, he knew that with Catherine as their supervisor the swing shift were in good hands. His graveyard shift now consisted of Sara Sidle, newly appointed CSI Greg Sanders, and an import from day shift, Sophia Curtis. The beginning had been a little rough, but he felt the team was finally beginning to mesh.

"Sophia, you've got a decomp in Henderson. Bring lemons." Grissom announced. "Greg and Sara, you're with me, we have a 419 at a Bed and Breakfast near Lake Mead. You two go ahead and get started I have to feed my cockroaches, and I'll meet up with you." And with that Grissom walked out of the break room.

"See you guys!" Sophia announced trying to avoid the scowl that was on Sara's face. After she had left, Sara leaned over to Greg and grumbled.

"Why does she get to go solo? I out rank her, and she just errr…"

"Calm down, think of it this way, you get to work with me, the coolest guy ever, and you won't be smelling like a DB for the next 12 hours." Greg smirked. He knew Sara didn't care for Sophia, but was also very competitive and always wanted to be the best. Sara gave Greg a smirk lifting her mood a bit, as the two headed out to Sara's Denali.

The trip to the Bed and Breakfast was uneventful. Sara was in better spirits once they got outside of the strip. Greg and Sara began their usual banter between each other. Greg had really appreciated how Sara had taken him under her wing since he had been promoted to a CSI level one. Sara had been exceedingly impressed by how the once quirky lab rat had matured into a quality CSI, and truly begun to enjoy their budding friendship, especially since the team had been broken up.

As the two pulled into the dirt driveway of the Sara took a sharp breath and got very quiet. Greg noticed but wasn't sure if Sara was just preparing herself for the job or if was something else.

"Hey, didn't you say your parents owned a Bed and Breakfast?" Greg asked innocently.

"Yeah, sort of." Sara quickly replied and got out of the SUV before Greg could ask any more questions. Grabbing her kit she made her way to the detective leaning on an unmarked cop car. Greg quickly followed.

"Hey Brass, what do we got?" Sara asked the detective.

"Hey Sara, hey Greg, where's the third musketeer?" Brass smiled.

"He's feeding his cockroach." Greg replied, nodding a greeting at Brass.

"Well guys, we've got a nasty one. Andrew Motts, bludgeoned to death with a knife by his wife Abigale Motts. Lots of blood. Mrs. Motts is pretty banged up herself, the paramedics took her to the hospital along with one of my officers. She's already admitted that she did it, but seemed delusional. They're gonna set up a psych exam after she gets her injuries checked out." Brass stated. He started to slow down when he noticed the color draining out of Sara's face. He knew she was adamant when it came to abuse cases, but this one seem to already be hitting her hard and they had just begun. "Hey Sara, you ok?" Brass asked bringing Sara out of her trance. Sara just nodded and stared at the ground. "Well, there's also another problem. There's a kid, Sadie Mott, 5 years old. No one's seen her and with the house is huge and being in the middle of the woods, she could be anywhere. I've got my men searching the outer parameter, but we're banking on the child being somewhere in the house because it was the girl that called 911. When the first officer showed up she was nowhere to be found." With that, Brass led the two CSI's into the house.

The house was enormous. A large foyer on the right lead into the kitchen where Sara and Greg could see Doc Robbins standing over a white male in his late thirties. The air was so thick with the smell of copper and iron it could almost be tasted. Greg couldn't help but notice Sara's solemn expression. She was usually the last person to be bothered by the stench and sight of death, but there was something about this scene that was making an obvious impression on Sara. "Sara, Greg," Doc Robbins nodded, "Meet Andrew Motts. He bled out via numerous stabbing wounds. TOD was about ninety minuets ago." Greg and Sara just nodded as Grissom walked through the door and joined the two standing over the body.

"I'll start with the body, Sara will you start upstairs, and Greg work on the other rooms on the first floor. Remember there may be a young child, possibly alive, around. Be observant." Grissom stated.

"Hey Griss, isn't that what you pay us for?" Greg smirked while taking off to the other first floor rooms before Grissom could glare at him.

Sara started up the grand staircase trying to shake the images flooding her brain. Not the images of the current case, but of one so similar. One that hit a little too close to home. She shook the images out of her head and entered the first room. It was beautifully decorated with art and oak furniture. Obviously a guest room but seemed not to have been occupied in a long time. It was clean an organized, but a layer of dust was evident on the top of the bureau, cedar chest, and vanity. Nothing look like it had been disturbed, Sara began to take pictures. The next two rooms were in similar states, as well as the communal bathroom. Down the hall a slight ways she found another bathroom and two more guest rooms. She entered the last guest room to find it set up just as the others had been. But somehow, this room had a different feel to it. The others had felt so empty, yet this one had some life to it. Sara noticed the dust on the vanity had been disturbed; she took more pictures and began to fingerprint the vanity. She could hear the murmurs of the officers downstairs and outside looking for the child. She was so young; Sara thought for a moment, that at least she had been older. And with that thought, the memories flooded black, and she struggled to swallow the bile that rose in her throat. After taking a moment to calm down, and being thankful she was alone in the room, she went back to fingerprinting the vanity. She finished quickly, finding a few useable fingerprints. She turned to face the bed with an elegant cedar chest at the foot, as she turned she swore she saw the lid of the cedar chest move. She called out, "Sadie? Are you in here?" Carefully, Sara stood at the edge of the cedar chest and quickly lifted the lid. Shining her flashlight into the chest she a staggering sight.

"I FOUND HER!" Sara shouted, quickly followed by a heard of elephants tromping up the stairs. The little girl looked at Sara with fear etched across her face. Sara was awful with kids, but unfortunately knew what the little girl was feeling. Sara crouched down to the edge of the chest and looked into the little girl's big brown eyes and said in almost a whisper, "It's gonna be ok."

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