Chapter 21

Arriving back at his office, Grissom closed the door and walked around his desk. "Sorry for making you wait Sophia."

"No problem. Just got here myself."

Settling into his chair, he lifted one case folder and dropped it on his right. Picking up a plain brown folder that was beneath, Grissom flipped it open with one hand as he replaced his glasses. He glanced silently over the tops to see Sophia sitting up straight in a visitors chair, her legs crossed and her hands resting in her lap.

Returning his eyes to the single slip of paper in the folder he held in his hand, he slipped off his glasses and rubbed at the corner of his left eye. "I have been updated on your cases of recent and your behaviour is something to be desired-"

Sophia bristled. "What is this about?"

Grissom placed his glasses on the desk and closed the folder. "A complaint has been formed due to your hostile behaviour in a recent interview."

"This isn't about Sara is it? Surely-" Sophia interrupted with a mocking laugh.

Ignoring and continuing, he pushed back his chair and folded his hands in his lap. "There were witnesses. I'm afraid I have to abide by the rules and pass on this complaint to the director. I can't get involved. I'm sorry."

Scoffing, Sophia stood. "I'm sure you can't."

Raising an eyebrow, he stared at her. "Sit down please. I am not finished." Once she had retaken her seat, he continued. "Thank you. This is a serious matter. You do not, no matter what happens, insult or single out interviewees or suspects. No matter what the seriousness of the case. Innocent until proven guilty. No evidence that you had in your possession even warranted for an interview-"

"That's ridiculous. Her name was at the crime scene-!" Sophia's outburst didn't seem to phase him.

"A calling card from a professor to her student is no motive for murder. You know that Sophia. If you asked any of those students, they would have an exact calling card. You follow the evidence that is collected and you follow it."

"I did that. And it led me to Miss Sidle." She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "And I wasn't the only one following the evidence. Greg and Brass are working this case with me. Why aren't they in here?"

Sighing and reaching for his glasses, Grissom stood and walked to one of the filing cabernets. "The reason they are not here is because I have already spoken to them and I have an account of what happened. It's in the report I submitted before shift."

"And you only just asked for my point of view? Now?" She asked, agitated.

Grissom turned to her with a confused look. "No. Sophia, I'm not handling the complaint. I'm merely collecting together statements from all parties and passing them on to the proper hands. I chose not to get directly involved, which meant I wasn't to talk to you on this matter until you are called to the director, or the person in charge of this review. I'm sorry."

"Right." She stood and angrily matched towards the door.

Clearing his throat, Grissom closed the filing cabernet drawer loudly. "Sophia. I'm not finished."

Stopping with the door in hand, she looked over her shoulder and glared at her supervisor. "I am."

"You will sit down Miss Curtis before I write you up for insubordination." He snapped. Rarely was he able to pull out all his supervisory cards, but she was pushing her luck with her unprofessional attitude. Sitting down behind his desk once more, Grissom opened the file he had in his hand. Without waiting for Sophia to take her seat, he pushed on, wanting to get this over with.

"As much as I am against this disciplinary palaver, I'm afraid I have no choice but to flag your file and push for this complaint to be dealt with quickly." Pulling out a few forms that were looking aged, Grissom looked up. "This isn't the first complaint you have gotten since becoming a CSI, Sophia. If there is a personal problem you have with the job, I suggest you tell me, work it out or make an appointment with a PEAP counsellor."

Standing behind the chair she had vacate, she gripped the back with her hands. "Ok. You want to know my problem? The only problem I have is your attitude towards Sara Sidle. She is the suspect in a murder case and you are protecting her for some God knows reason." She spat with anger at the thought of Gil Grissom pawing over Sara.

Seeing the picture a lot clearer now Sophia was talking, he was a little uncomfortable. He hadn't really played my thought on why Sophia was acting the way she was. It still didn't answer the fact that she has complaints from before she was even put on his shift or moved to Vegas. It was a little puzzling, but the clear picture of her singling out Sara didn't put her on his good side. Sure, he and Sara had things to sort out, but it was no business of Sophia's or anyone else's.

"And if the evidence leads in her direction, I'll pull her in for more questioning. That's what I do. It's my job. If you have a complaint about 'that' then write me up. I don't give a damn." She breathed heavily with anger.

Grissom sighed and tapped his fountain pen on the folder. "Ok, this is how I see this turning out." He calmly sat his pen down and leaned forward, fixing her with a nonnegotiable stare. "If you can't find a suspect by the end of the week, you put the case to bed. If you hassle another citizen of this city with no cause, I'll have you fired. I don't like political bullshit, so I don't want to see you in my office again for anything but work related means. I will not have any of my CSIs out on a personal vendetta. Stop this at once or find yourself on suspension for a week. If you do not get yourself together 'Miss Curtis', I will not have you working for me until you can show you can work in this department with the respect for your fellow co-workers and those of the Las Vegas public. Do I make myself clear?"

Not liking the dressing down, Sophia nodded. "Crystal."

"Good. Now get back to work and expect a call from the directors secretary to finalise an appointment on this matter." Dismissing her by turning his back to her, Grissom grabbed his recent Entomology text book and settled back to read. Now he was tense and on edge from having found out exactly why Sophia was practically fighting with Sara.

She was jealous. And she was fighting over him for his attention.

Staring at the centre of the steering column, Sara's brow was furrowed in a deep frown. For the life of her she couldn't understand what possessed her to kiss him.

Hands hanging by the fingertips on the bottom of the steering wheel, Sara's shoulders and back began to ache. After all the progress she had been making with keeping a distance and telling him to stop showing PDA's, she went and messed everything up by kissing him.

She had controlled the moment entirely, and that was what confused her the most. There wasn't anything wrong with her… She hoped. Her psychiatrist had mentioned something about flinching or becoming uncomfortable with being touched, but this was different. It was like she didn't give him a chance to touch her. She had grappled onto his shirt and hadn't let go. That had to piss him off at least a little bit.

Sara blinked and looked up as a car light caught her attention and glinted off her eyes, causing her to close them briefly. Pushing back to ease the ache in her spine, she glanced at the digital clock on the dash and sighed.

She had been sitting outside her home for the last twenty minutes, completely confused by her behaviour. Maybe it was something about Grissom that made her act that particular way. It wouldn't be the first time she acted out of character around him, but then again, that was a long time ago. Her behaviour of recent was to ward him off and not get involved with anything involving her. He didn't need the gossip or the bad reputation.

Yup, hanging out with the person responsible for his girlfriends death isn't a good thing when you're a supervisor and a well respected CSI and Entomologist. She wouldn't do his career any good if she was around. It had almost caused havoc on various occasions in the past and she wasn't going to willingly and knowingly submit him to it now or in the future.

The quicker they talk out, or whatever, the real emotions behind the unspoken topic, the better it would be for all. At least he would still get a life to live and at least she would be able to do some good to make up for what she had done. Though she was no Christian, Sara felt highly responsible and largely guilty for the explosion. She just had to make sure Grissom didn't feel either.

Close to the end of the nightshift, Grissom was still sitting in his office, alternating between paperwork, a cold case and reading a text book. Though he had a case, he still needed to complete other administrative things. Though the cold case and the text book was just for distraction while he waited on DNA and Trace.

Just about to close up his book and think about closing up shop, a knock on the office door alerted him to Jim Brass looking through the glass of the door, waiting for an invite.

Nodding and waving the detective, and old friend, into the room, Grissom closed his book and sat up. "What can I do for you Jim?"

"I have some leads on the 'frat kids' case." Brass settled into the same seat Sophia had vacated earlier.

"I guessed as much." Grissom folded his hands on the desk and waited for the detective to continue.

Looking around the office for a moment, he focused his eyes on Grissom, a curious question on his lips and a personal question in his head. "Have you spoken to Sophia?"

Grissom raised an eyebrow. "I have."

"Good." Brass nodded, uncertain. "I just spoke to her. Giving her the heads up for the case and she was rather cool towards me. Just thought it might have something to do with Sara's complaint."

"I'd prefer if you kept that to yourself. No names. A complaint isn't public knowledge. Not in this case."

"I guess so. I'm just worried about Sara."

"We all are." Grissom looked off and away, thinking back to earlier. Shaking his head to focus, he looked back at the man sitting across from him. "So? What have you got?"

Brass tugged at his suit jacket and fished his hand in the inner pocket, pulling out his notebook. "I got Greg to do some background checks on the dead kids and there frat pals. Most were involved with drugs. All minor, nothing major. Selling and partaking in marijuana. The usual. That didn't really pick up anything."

"Kids these days." Grissom shook his head, sighing.

"Yeah. Well, the one thing that did draw me in was the hazing. Greg spoke to Nick." Brass smiled. "Apparently Greg couldn't relate to a lot of the frat hazing. Apparently he flunked out on a few occasions."

A brief smirk appeared on Grissom's face. "What did Nick have to say?"

"That he and Sara worked a case a few years ago. Even though he was a Jock in school, he remembers what frat guys are doing these days. The case him and Sara had was an accident, turn murder. Anyway," He continued. "I spoke to some of the kids and they said that they were all pretty desperate to get in. Fratting is a big thing apparently."

Sitting back in his chair, Grissom nodded. "It's the whole 'being accepted into the popular group' aspect. As strange is it sounds, kids are still looking for acceptance and getting the opposite in a majority of cases."

"Yeah, some die." Brass sighed bluntly. "I'm sort of glad Ellie wasn't into the college girl frat thing. I don't think I'd cope with what I'm seeing in schools these days."

Grissom looked at his friend. "Ellie's a good kid. She can look after herself. She knows you're only a phone call away if she needs any help."

Brass snorted, making himself comfortable. "You really think she'd call her old man?"

"I can honestly say that Ellie is everything her father is."

Chuckling at him, Brass shook his head in amusement. "It's so obvious you don't have children Gil. I think I'd be worried if you did."

Grissom nodded to show his agreement, but was wondering on the inside what it would be like to be a father, but then again, his thoughts threw him through a loop and his current dilemma with Sara and an unsaid issue, was ever present in his mind.

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that Sara doesn't seem to be linked with the case. A few of the frat lads are talking and have given us reason to suspect drug abuse in a frat initiation stunt. Doc still hasn't gotten the Tox back. I was wondering…" He looked at him with a pleading look.

"I'll see what I can do to push that along. I'll do it myself if it hasn't moved from the pile of debris that is the Toxology lab."

"Thanks." Brass smiled, pushing himself up. "I'll head back out. It's gonna be a long day. I need to head home for a fresh shirt, but I'll be on the streets asking more questions when you get those results."

Grissom reached for the telephone as he spoke. "I'll page you."

Greg stopped in the doorway to the Tox Lab and nervously smoothed down his court tie and jacket. "Um… Hey Griss." He entered the room and stuff his hands into his pockets. "You got a minute?"

"Is it about a case?" Grissom inquired as he tapped in some numbers on the Mass Spec.

"No no… Well, not really." Greg stammered. "It's about Sara."

His index finger hesitated pressing the 'Enter' button. "What about Sara?"

"Well," Greg murmured. "I'm not comfortable with the idea of Sara as a suspect… and thought I'd…"

Grissom made sure the Mass Spec was running and the samples on the counter were secure before turning and giving the young CSI his full attention. "Brass came to me earlier about the case you're working on."

Surprised that he had seen the detective, Greg nodded jerkily. "Anything?"

"Some leads. He'll probably page you when he has something concrete."

"So? Sara's been excluded?" Greg asked in a hopeful voice.

Grissom nodded. "Yes. I haven't spoken to her, as it isn't my case, but you can call her if you want. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you."

"Yeah. We missed out on lunch the other day." He sighed with a happy smile. "I feel better knowing she hasn't got that stuff to worry about. She's no murderer." Realising a moment later what he had said, Greg instantly found himself opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish.

Grissom frowned. "What's wrong?"

Unsure on what to say, Greg fumbled. "Oh Jeez. I'm so sorry Grissom. I didn't mean that."

Grissom finally registered the unease and the reason behind it. "Are you saying that I think Sara is a murderer?"

Shaking his head furiously, Greg back-pedalled. "God no."

"You really think-" He cut himself off, suddenly understanding what was going on. Breaking from his thoughts, he looked up. "Greg." Pausing, Grissom turned as the Mass Spec beeped. He turned and pressed a button before turning back and ushering the young CSI out of the lab so he could lock the door.

"Honestly Griss, I never meant to say all that." Greg was almost distraught.

Grissom started for his office, making sure Greg followed him. "Lets just get this out of the way so I can get home."

"Uh, ok."