Disclaimer: still not the owner of CSI.

Brass cracked his knuckles menacingly, just for show, and paused for a moment to watch his prey sweat. This time he had him. This guy was gonna sing for him like a love struck canary. I have got to give up on these sad clichés. I'm getting worse than Gil here. He was brought back to interrogation room mid-smirk by the next words out of the suspect's mouth.

"Alright…I …I may have…seen her."

"I KNEW it!" Brass congratulated himself before continuing in harsh tones. "And…!"

At that exact moment, when Brass had finally worked his way past this guy's cover, a guard burst into the room and broke the suspect off mid-sentence. Nearly an hour of Brass's work was undone in an instant. He was not pleased.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!" he screamed at the intruding guard. "Are you completely out of your mind? I've been in here for a goddamn hour!"

The guard winced slightly at the outburst but was not deterred from his reason for being there. His fear of Gil Grissom was only slightly higher than that of Jim Brass, no way was he going back to him and saying he couldn't do as he was asked.

"I'm sorry sir, but you're needed in the break room. I was told it is highly urgent."

Brass was surprised enough to momentarily forget about his rage at being interrupted. What could have possibly been so important, in the break room of all places, that he had to be interrupted in such a crucial case? He decided it was worth investigating anyway and followed the shaken guard out of the room.

"Don't move." He growled at the suspect as he left. There was an audible sigh out of the man left alone in the interrogation room.

Gil Grissom glanced again at his watch. He shook his wrist slightly, his watch clanging along with the motion, and checked it again. It wasn't his watch, he finally concluded. Time itself didn't seem to be behaving properly. He could have sworn that far more than three minutes had passed since the stranger sitting before him had made such an outstanding claim. The guard he sent to retrieve the detective had only been gone a few moments when the girl decided she'd had enough of the silence.

"Do you know my dad or not?" The bite in the girl's voice took Grissom by surprise. It had been a long time since anyone had had enough nerve to address him as rudely as this girl had decided to. He wasn't quite sure how to respond, but things were beginning to come together in his mind and he decided to play the game as the girl laid it out for him.

"And if I do?" Grissom answered her carefully, without any commitment.

"Typical male," was the girl's only response. She continued to stare blankly at the wall behind Grissom, who was facing the door.

"Alright, I do know him." Grissom decided to give in, if only to satisfy his own curiosity. "And he's never mentioned anything about a daughter to me!"

Ellie chuckled slightly. She wasn't at all surprised by the news that her father was not one to brag about his daughter back home. Her years on the streets had hardened her against such feelings as pain and regret, but she had seen something of them in the eyes of the investigator who stood across from her trying to solve the puzzle before him. She could see how badly he wanted to figure out the situation before him. She'd met his kind before, though they never lasted long, the type of person that had to be in control or they fell apart. It was time for her to have a little fun.

"No?" she began playing the man across from her. "Never?" She schooled her features to mimic a mood of complete despair, she waited a moment for the tears to reach her eyes, and then looked up to Grissom with a look she knew no man could face without melting.

Grissom was suddenly ashamed of himself. He had tried playing this girl's game and now she was hurt. She looked like she'd been though a lot and he'd only managed to add to her emotional load. What if Jim was just keeping his private life private? What if this girl had been through something terrible?

Ellie chanced a look up to Grissom's face and immediately knew she had him. His face was no longer harsh or uncaring, I knew it was only an act but was, on the contrary, full of concern for her well being. Now was her time to strike.

"Oh well maybe it's because I'm the spawn of the marriage he betrayed with the local whore…"

Grissom was shaken not only by the words now issuing out of the girl's mouth but also by her sudden change in form. Where mere seconds before there had sat a broken and bruised girl, he was now sitting across from a hardened and unyielding adolescent that refused to take orders from anyone.

"Or maybe, he hasn't mentioned me…because for the past four years I've been turning tricks and smoking crack! That might be it. Yes I can see why daddy wouldn't want to brag about his own little offspring, the whore!"

Grissom was glued to his chair, the shock registering on his face plainly for Ellie to see. Unfortunately his misfortune in this encounter had further to go; for now the teenage girl was standing up, and moving towards him. Before he could think of how to react he found himself with a girl in his lap, squirming provocatively.

"And it's looks like I got here just in time." The words emanating from the girl's mouth were little more than a moan. "You look tight as hell, I know you, and how you want. You need a little whore don't you big boy?" The moan was accompanied by a slight chuckle.

Grissom's horror at the situation had completely immobilized him. It wasn't until he felt a tingling sensation in his groin that the full severity of the situation rushed to him, at the same time that most the blood rushed, unfortunately, away from his brain. "No!" he thought to himself. "I will not lose control. I cannot give her control of me!" And mustering his strength (both of body and will) he pushed the girl away from him and stood up.

With a rude awakening Ellie found herself on the floor, having been forcibly removed from her previous perch. She was completely shocked to discover that she had no control over this man, that he would not be diverted by her, it had been a long time since that had happened to her.

"Fine, go to hell then!" She started screaming at Grissom without fully realizing why she was doing it but it made her feel slightly less out of place and so she continued, "I CAME HERE FOR YOUR HELP AND YOU'RE USELESS YOU STUPID ASS!" and so on until she was in danger of making herself hoarse.

Brass was steaming towards the break room when he heard a noise that made him stop dead in his tracks. A woman had begun screaming. "No, not a woman," he thought "a little girl! My little…" No that was impossible, his daughter wanted nothing to do with him, the last time he'd seen her she'd made that quite clear. He wondered dully whether she'd received his last care package, which of course led to wonderings of how and why his sweet little princess had gotten to the position she was in.

While he'd stopped for his momentary backwards glance, Brass had also stopped walking towards the break room. He snapped out of it to find the woman's screams were still continuing and so he set off at a jog to ascertain what exactly was going on. When he reached the door he was forced to stop dead in his tracks once again.

The screams stopped when Ellie saw her father walk into the room.

"Daddy!" she shrieked in what could also be conceived as happiness if not for the deadened echo behind her words. And she ran to embrace him, wrapping her slender bony arms around his neck. Brass spotted the familiar signs of scarring on the inside of her elbows.

Grissom could do nothing but stare. He shared a look with Brass but couldn't think of what to say. He was at a complete loss for words…for the first time he could remember.

Haha…wish I could see the look on Brass's face! But then I guess that's the joy of the written word, you can see it for yourself in whatever way you prefer! Please please review (it help's me continue I swear!). In response toa question in a previous review, I planned this story to take place early in the season, shortly after Brass was replaced by Grissom and put back on homicide. Though I am an avid follower of CSI now (have been for the past couple of seasons) I didn't watch as closely during the earlier seasons so I'm sorry if the timeline doesn't seem to fit perfectly. Thanx so much for the review. Keepthem coming and I'll keep on writing.