Disclaimer/Author's Note – See Chapter One.

Chapter Seven - Commonality

Red and blue lights pierced the gloom of the desert, as the early morning light began to creep across the sand. Grissom and Sara pulled up in their Tahoe beside Nick, Catherine and Warrick, who were standing back, letting David do his thing.

'What have we got?' Grissom asked as he and Sara reached their colleagues.

'Young couple, Jessica Reynolds and Mark Lewis. Went missing three nights ago, 48 hours after our first couple.'

'Every other day,' Grissom mused quietly to himself.

'Beg you're pardon?' Catherine asked.

'It's Tuesday morning, right? The first couple went missing last Wednesday, but weren't found until Saturday night. We found Haley Michaels and Jason Clements on Sunday night; just hours after they were last seen. This couple went missing second, three nights ago – Friday night. Wednesday, Friday, Sunday… it's a pattern. We're just finding the bodies out of order.'

Sara's admiring look at his logic was quickly replaced by one of worry. 'Which means, if they follow their pattern, they'll strike again tonight.'

'Let's not let that happen. Warrick, did you enhance the image of the two suspects from the night Clive and Mary disappeared?'

'Yeah,' Warrick replied. 'I couldn't get a good picture of the guy, but the girl is as clear as a bell.'

'Take it to this address,' Grissom told him, handing him a slip of paper with George Matthews' address written on it. 'And show it to our kidnap victim. The sooner we tie that incident to these murders, the better chance we have of working out the pattern. And ask him where he and his girlfriend were before they drove to the desert.'

'On it,' Warrick nodded and walked briskly to his SUV.

'Nick, you take the perimeter,' Grissom started to mobilise the rest of his troops. 'Check the road, check the sand. Anything the perps might have left behind. Sara, overall locator shots and close-ups. Take pictures of everything. Catherine. You and I will take the bodies.'

Catherine nodded her head towards the young girl that lay just a few feet from where they stood. 'I'll take the girlfriend.'

'Let's get the scene processed and get back to the lab,' Grissom said. 'We need to work out the pattern, and we're against the clock.'

Evidence had been turned in to Trace and DNA, the bodies had been transported to the morgue, and Sara had laid out all the crime scene photos and case notes on the large table in the layout room. Seven cases in all, one kidnapping, and six double murders – three they had yet to prove was the work of their serials, but Sara knew. She felt it in her gut. These crimes were the work of the same homicidal couple.

The rest of the team were still completing their own tasks, before they would come here to work through all the evidence together. As far as she knew, Grissom and Catherine were looking in on the autopsies. She was taking a few moments to herself in the break room, pouring herself a cup of coffee, when a rap on the door drew her attention.

"Sara Sidle?" the man asked.

"That's me," she replied, her attention now drawn to the official looking letter in his hand. A subpoena.

She barely heard a word he said next, but took the proffered clip board from him and signed her name in a daze. She knew, before she even opened the envelope, what it was in regard to. She muttered a 'thank you' to the court official and sat down at the table with the letter as he left.

Fingers trembling slightly, she withdrew the stiff, official piece of paper and unfolded it.

She was still staring at it when Grissom entered several minutes later. The look on her face, as she continued to stare blindly at the paper in front of her, sent his protective streak into overdrive.

'Sara?' he asked hesitantly, not wanting to startle her as she looked so far away.

Slowly, she looked up. 'Hey,' she attempted a smile.

Moving towards her quickly, he settled into the chair next to her and reached out, placing a comforting hand on her arm. 'What's wrong, honey?' he asked her.

Not trusting herself to speak, she handed him the subpoena, which he read in seconds. He nodded his head, understanding.

'I spoke to the DA yesterday. Jill… they've decided she's ready to stand trial. Her injuries… she's healing well apparently.'

Grissom was careful to refer to her injuries in a detached manner, trying desperately to ignore the fact that he had caused the bullet wound to Jill's shoulder, when she had kidnapped Sara and threatened to kill her. Grissom had never opened fire on anyone before, had only drawn his gun once before to aim it at a suspect – again in defence of one of his CSIs. But this time, he acknowledged somewhere deep inside himself, it was different. If Jill had hurt Sara, he knew he would have had no hesitation in making the kill shot. And that unsettled him more than he would admit.

'Are you okay?' he asked her, instantly closing his eyes in disgust with himself for the stupidity of the question. Of course she wasn't all right.

'I'm… I thought I'd dealt with it and moved on, but…' Sara faltered, still unable to put her fears into words.

'It's okay. It takes time,' Grissom told her, his voice full of tenderness. 'Are you still having the nightmares?'

'Some. Not as many as before,' she said, finally looking at him. 'Grissom, I…'

They were interrupted by the irritating bleat of his cell phone.

'Damn. Sorry,' he apologised before flipping the phone open and answering it. 'Grissom.'

He listened.

'Mr. Mayor, I understand that, but this is an ongoing investigation and…'

He rolled his eyes in frustration as the Mayor obviously cut him off.

'We are following several possible leads… No, I do not believe the fact of whose daughter she is has anything to do with Haley Michael's death… there's no evidence to support that… No, we've ruled Stacey Marks out of our enquiries,' he said, referring to the girl who had threatened Haley a week before her death.

Again he lapsed into frustrated silence as the Mayor continued to talk.

'Look, Mr Mayor, I'm currently dealing with at least three double homicides at the hand of the same perpetrators. I can't tell you anything else until I know more myself. I have a meeting to get to, so if you'll excuse me,' he said, ending the call before the Mayor could protest.

'Politics,' Sara observed, somewhat amused.

Grissom rubbed his hands over his face. 'I swear, Sara, one of these days this political crap is going to drive me out of here.'

Sara shook her head in disbelief. 'That's never going to happen,' she told him.

'So where were we?' he asked, getting back to their earlier conversation. 'You were about to say something?'

Any mirth that had been present on her face suddenly left, and she lowered her eyes to the table, avoiding his gaze. 'It was… nothing.'

'Sara,' he said, slipping one hand under her chin and tilting her face upwards. Still she wouldn't meet his eyes. 'Talk to me.'

'I just… you're going to have to testify too, aren't you?'

'Of course. But…'

'Not just about the… murder,' she began, unable to say Hank Pettigrew's name. 'But about the night she… about the shooting…'

Grissom let out a small sigh of understanding. 'So that's what's wrong,' he said.

'I'm so sorry I put you in that position…' Sara started to say, but Grissom cut her off.

'No. I'm not letting you do that,' he told her firmly.

Shocked by his stern tone, her eyes finally met his. 'Wh…what?'

'I'm not going to let you start beating yourself up over what happened, Sara,' he told her in the same firm voice. 'It was not your fault.'

Tears swam in her eyes, as she struggled to believe his words. Seeing the pain in her eyes, he moved his hand from her face and slipped it around her shoulders, pulling her into a comforting embrace.

'It's going to be alright, Sara,' he told her, his voice soft and tender once more. 'I promise.'

His arms felt so warm and secure, Sara felt herself melt into them. She had been trying to fool herself for the past few weeks that she was fine, that her experience with Jill hadn't affected her. She had spent her entire adult life, not to mention a large part of her childhood, convinced that she should always appear self-sufficient and confident, that she should never be weak enough to need someone to lean on. Now, in Grissom's arms, she started to reconsider that outlook.

Sara suddenly realised where the were – in the middle of the layout room at work – not the most appropriate setting to be found in the boss's arms. Reluctantly, she pulled away and gave him a brave smile.

'This probably isn't the best place…' she said quietly.

Unwilling to stop touching her just yet, Grissom settled for placing his hand on her arm. This is how they were still sitting when Catherine, Warrick and Nick entered the room. The gesture didn't escape any of their attention. However, Nick was the first to notice that Sara looked upset.

'Sara… you okay?' he said, concern creeping into his Texan drawl.

She attempted another brave smile and gestured towards the subpoena that now lay on the table in front of her. 'It's just… Jill's trial date's been set. I'm okay… it's just…' she faltered.

Nick gave her a supportive smile. 'Yeah. If you need me…'

'I know,' she told him, rewarding his kindness with a stronger smile. 'Thanks.'

Grissom finally tore his eyes away from Sara and reluctantly removed his hand from her arm. 'Let's get started, shall we?'

'Greg's not here yet,' Catherine observed. 'Aren't we waiting for him?'

'He's rushing the DNA on our new case,' Grissom told her. 'He says he's quicker than Mia. But apparently I'm not to get any funny ideas about giving him his old job back. So, what do we have so far?'

'Well, I got us our confirmation. Our murder suspects were also kidnappers,' Warrick told her. 'Just got back from interviewing George Matthews and he was positive. This was the girl that kidnapped him.'

'Good work, Warrick,' Grissom said. 'How about where he and his girlfriend were before they drove out to the desert?'

'They were at a movie. Just off the strip.'

'How are you coming with tying in the other three murders?' Nick asked Sara.

'We don't have any DNA or trace to confirm it,' Sara told them. 'But it's them. Same MO – young couples, desert, mutilation.'

'Okay, lets go over everything we have so far,' Grissom suggested. 'Seven couples that we know of. Abducted while parked in the desert. Driven somewhere even more secluded. According to our survivor, they were then tormented, threatened. His attackers got bored and let them go. In the six other cases, the couples were shot, then mutilated post-mortem.'

'Except Haley Michaels,' Catherine cut in. 'She put up a fight – killer stabbed her repeatedly.'

'Change of MO brought about by a loss of control?' Grissom suggested. 'Killer wasn't expecting her to fight back. Forced him or her to change the mode of death.'

'I'm voting for 'her' in Haley's case,' Sara said. 'DNA under her nails came back XX. She was fighting with the girl – presumably Lana Tyler.'

'Makes sense,' Grissom agreed. 'In the kidnap case, Lana controlled the girl while her boyfriend controlled George.'

At that point in the meeting, Bobby Dawson entered the room holding a report which he handed to Sara.

'I ran the comparison you asked for,' he told her, including Grissom and the rest of the CSI in his brief address. 'Perfect match.'

'Bobby, you are the best,' Sara told him sincerely. He smiled and returned to his domain of guns and ammo.

'Confirmation?' Grissom asked her.

'Yeah,' Sara replied, looking through the report. 'The same gun was used in all of the murders.'

'Okay, so our suspects grab these kids in the desert. Murder them…' Nick sought to get his bearings. 'But they only cut the hearts out of these last three victims…'

'Evolving MO,' Grissom suggested. 'Escalation.'

'It was the next step for them, Nick,' Sara told him. 'The three previous couples had… parts cut from them. No internal organs, but they took fingers, toes, uh … etc…'

Nick's eyes were wide as he got Sara's meaning. 'I could have gone a long while without knowing that,' he told her, his face contorted in disgust.

'How did we not know about these other cases before?' Warrick wanted to know.

'Two of the couples were found just outside Clark County,' Grissom told him. 'Not our jurisdiction. And the other case… it was Day-shift's.'

'Figures,' Nick grunted.

'How did Ecklie miss a connection like that?'

The look on Grissom's face answered that question. He was saved having to say anything disrespectful but deserved about his inept colleague by the arrival of Greg.

'Okay, my genius has come through once more. In record time, I might add,' Greg announced. 'DNA collected on the latest case is a match for the first two cases.'

'Great,' Catherine said as the young CSI took a seat at the table. 'But it doesn't get us any closer to finding them. We need to find the commonality. Where were these kids when the suspects spotted them?'

They went round and round the table, trying to make a connection that would lead them to the suspects, and getting no further.

'This is crazy,' Nick blew out, frustrated. 'We have a ton of evidence. Why isn't it getting us anywhere?'

Grissom didn't answer. He was watching Sara, a hint of tenderness softening his face. She hadn't spoken in several minutes, but was bent over the table; several evidence envelops spread out in front of her like a desk of cards. Her brow was knit with concentration.

'Sara? You still with us?' Grissom asked her.

'Hmm?' she replied, not lifting her head, a strange, knowing smile playing on her lips. 'Nick? What do teenagers do these days?'

Nick's surprise matched the rest of his colleagues' at the bizarre and unexpected nature of the question. 'What?'

'Teenagers? When they're on dates. Where do they go?' she persisted.

'Jeez, Sara. Has it been so long you don't remember?' Nick joked.

Sara finally looked up from the table with a look that wiped the smile off Nick's face. He held up his hands in surrender.

'Um…okay,' he thought about it. 'Bowling? The fun park? The movies?'

Sara smiled, obviously having heard the answer she'd expected. 'Exactly,' she replied.

The rest of the table still looked confused.

'Clive Johnson and Mary Gibson, before they went into the desert, went to see a movie. At the Playhouse. Warrick? Where did you say George Matthews and his girlfriend went the night they were abducted?'

'The Playhouse. Just off the strip,' Warrick replied with a grin, catching on.

'Val Hunt and Mark Holmes, one of the couples found in the desert just outside Clark County, also went on a double date to the Playhouse the night they were killed,' Sara went on.

Grissom was rummaging through the case files on the table. 'I saw something… in Ecklie's case. Rhonda Farrell had a movie ticket stub in her pocket.' He found the piece of evidence he was looking for. 'For the Playhouse. The night she was killed.'

'We found our commonality,' Catherine said. 'I would bet a month's salary that the rest of the couples were at the same movie theatre.'

'Makes sense,' Warrick reasoned. 'Place like that? Ideal hunting ground. Place is coming down with teenaged couples. Especially since they installed those double seats in all the theatres…'

'Ah, the love seats,' Greg said in a wistful voice. 'Many a date has become putty in my hand there…'

Ignoring him, Grissom turned to Sara. 'Call Brass. He's going to want to put a squad of undercover officers down there tonight.'

'On it,' Sara told him, getting up and heading for the door. She was almost across the threshold when his voice stopped her.

'Good work, Sara.'

She turned and flashed him her brightest smile. 'Thanks.' She hurried off to make the call.

Grissom turned back to the rest of his team, and was about to continue the meeting when he was interrupted by an unwelcome voice.

'Got a minute?' Ecklie asked.

'Not really, Conrad,' Grissom replied. 'I'm kind of in the middle of a meeting.'

'Well your presence is required at another one,' was the unctuous reply. 'Director Cavallo wants a word. Something about your attitude towards the Mayor.'

TBC.