Chapter 12

Grissom forced himself to relax by trying to indulge in a crossword. Usually he did his work in pen but with the way his mind has been strained lately he worked in pencil.

"Five letter word to hurt or injured by maltreatment." Grissom's head began to ache as the answer came to his mind. "Abuse." Grissom slammed the crossword down on the table in anger. He took several pain relievers as he sat and stared at the wall in silence.

"What is Nick doing with her this long?" Grissom's jealousy finally got to him once more as he got up from the sofa and began to pace the floor. Flashes of Nick on top of Sara making love to her turned his stomach upside down.

"No they're like siblings not lovers…But I have been wrong about things before." Grissom's cell phone knocked him back to reality. His eyes bulged at the name on the screen.

"Grissom." He answered with a sigh.

"Grissom what the hell is going on?" Catherine demanded.

"What do you mean Catherine?" Grissom honestly had no idea what Catherine was referring to.

"Like you don't know. Sara has bruises on her wrists I hear? How the hell did they get there Gil? I know you have anger problems I'm the only one who knows, but…Jesus, you take it out on Sara out of all people?" The silence which hung in the air between the two colleagues did not refute Catherine's anger. "Answer me NOW Gil or I'm calling Culpepper."

"I don't know what happened Cath and that's the truth. One minute she's talking about our relationship and the next I'm on top of her. All I remember is her crying and…" Grissom was immediately cut off.

"What did you do?" Catherine demanded. "You out of all people know about Sara's past! You just had to make her remember huh? Did you have sex with her?"

"I don't think that's none of your business Catherine and frankly I don't feel like talking right now." Grissom yelled into the phone before turning it off.

"Sara told everyone?" Grissom began to clench his fist before hitting the living room wall. A noise from outside made him jump. Nick's car pulled into the driveway, and he could see Sara whisper something into his ear before climbing out of the vehicle. The gesture fueled Grissom's jealousy. Sara wasn't even able to turn her keys into the lock before Grissom opened the door and grabbed her inside.

"Who the hell did you tell Sara?" Grissom demanded.

"What?" Sara immediately began to tremble as she saw the same rage fill Grissom's eyes as last night.

"Stop fucking lying to me Sara." He grabbed her shoulders and looked at her straight in the eye. "Who else knows besides Catherine? Does your new boyfriend know?"

"Nick figured it out for himself." Sara began to tremble once more as she realized she couldn't escape.

"Yeah right, of course. Nicky Stokes can figure anything out."

"Grissom let me go." Sara started to struggle harder from Grissom's grasp.

"Fine whatever you say." Grissom threw Sara forcibly to the ground just as Nick banged open the door.

"Grissom! What the hell are you doing?" Nick ran over to Sara who was still trembling on the ground.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing Nick." Grissom replied as he watched Nick pull Sara closer. Envy filled his veins.

"Get the hell away from me!" Sara shouted as Grissom approached closer.

"Yeah right and leave you two alone I suppose? Fine. I'm guessing you're staying Nick."

"You better believe it." Nick retorted.

"Alright, just so you know she loves to be kissed on her neck." Grissom stated before walking into his bedroom and slamming the door in fury.

"You alright Sara?" Nick continued to comfort Sara as her trembles slowly diminished.

"No." Sara stroked her arm where Grissom had grabbed her minutes ago.

"Yeah well don't worry I'm staying with you the entire night. Where do you sleep?" Sara pointed to the room across from Grissom's.

"Uh huh. We'll be locking the doors tonight, he can't get in. Tomorrow I'm calling Culpepper about this. There's no way you can continue this mission with the way things are going. Grissom needs help Sara. He's let his anger control him, he doesn't know where it stops and where it begins."

"My father was like that I guess it runs in the family to pick the abusive boyfriend huh?" Sara somberly stated as she got up from the ground with Nick's aid.

"Sara, no one would have thought Grissom was capable of this something triggered his anger." Nick led Sara to the bedroom.

"Yeah it was me."

"No one is at fault but Grissom. You can't blame yourself for everything." Nick guided Sara into the bedroom and closed the door and locked it behind him. Grissom was well aware of what was going on as he looked through the lock hole in his bedroom. He contemplated on going over to the room and knocking on the door but his logical side finally kicked in.

"Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." Grissom's quote he remembered from an American hierarchiologist Dr. Laurence J. Peter was able to calm his nerves. He couldn't understand where his logical side had ventured off to these past days but he was comforted to know it had returned.

In the middle of the night Grissom just couldn't take it anymore. He leapt off of his bed and quietly opened his door.

"I have to know what is going on in there my sanity depends on it." Grissom slowly walked down the hall and made his way to Sara's bedroom. He forced one of his eyes to look inside the keyhole to see if the two CSI's were in fact just sleeping. His eyes grew wide as he saw Nick wrap his arm around Sara protectively. She looked up at him and smiled before kissing him on his forehead. The action disgusted Grissom to the highest degree.

"I think I've seen enough." Grissom thought as he made his way back to his room.

"Can't sleep?" Nick asked.

"No I'm just glad you're here with me, it's nice to have an older brother taking care of me." Sara smiled as Nick started to laugh.

"Yeah I guess I've always thought about us as siblings, I mean at first I had the hots for you." Nick blushed as Sara playfully smacked his arm.

"Really? Like I hadn't noticed!" Sara rolled her eyes.

"You know Sara, now's the time to talk about anything you want to get off your chest. I'm not going anywhere."

"I guess I'm just suffering from a broken heart more then anything Nicky." Sara sighed as she remembered the first night Grissom and her shared together in their "home".

"Yeah but you can't stay with him Sara, not when he's like this." Nick said seriously.

"Nick do you think he still loves me?" Nick closed his eyes to her question.

"Sara ever since I first saw you two together I knew you were meant for each other, I thought Grissom would protect your from danger not become the danger. So I don't know anymore." Nick held Sara's hand as she began to cry.

"I still do Nick, no matter how many times he tries to hurt me I still love him. It won't go away." Sara sobbed as several tears landed on her pillow.

"Yeah love is a funny thing…But think of it this way, do you want to love a man who gets turned on by hurting you?" Nick asked.

"No It's not like that Nick. He becomes a different person when I talk about his father. It's like all the repressed memories are consuming his thoughts, it's as if every time when he becomes the slightest bit angry his father's personality takes over."

"Then he needs help Sara, we have to tell someone." Nick urged.

"No I'm not risking his career because he had a bad childhood. What if the same thing were to happen to me? No, we'll get him help after we catch the killer and no one will know about this. We have to keep this confidential or else it could hurt his career." Sara was determined to not give up on Grissom. He went through pain as a child just like she did and she was not about to give up on him just yet. Sara will just have to make sure she keeps Grissom from getting angry.