Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to CSI or it's affiliates. I am merely a fan whose would like to take already established characters into a story of my own rendering.

Note: Hi all, thanks for being so patient. With moving and life changes and work and no internet connection for a while, I haven't had much time to write. But things are starting to calm down now so hopefully I'll be writing more now. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy. :)

Burn

Chapter 9

"Oh yeah, I'm good." Sara smiled brightly at the computer screen. She'd found a match to the fingerprint. After a few hours of staring at the monitor with only popcorn and a good deal of patience for friends, her aching neck and back didn't seem so bothersome at the moment.

Hearing her small victory, Nick, who had been passing by to check on her progress, walked into the small lab room. She found his gaze and smiled a bright smug smile that told him she'd had a small break.

"You look happy."

"Tire and happy. But we'll focus on happy."

Nick smiled. "Got a match."

"I did. Problem though is that the fingerprint from the candle is from a guy named Marcus Shelby. He has no prior record and his prints are on file because of his gaming card from the Tangiers. He works as a dealer."

"OK, so since we're not allowed to interrogate anyone, I'll pass the info to Warrick and Sophia." The bitterness in Nick's voice was mutually felt by Sara, who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we still have plenty of evidence to process too."

Nick nodded, "Not to mention Grissom and Catherine ought to be bringing more from Mary Hawthorne's home."

"Gotta love lab work." Sara paused, creases forming on her forehead. "Poor Greg. Not quite a year as a full CSI and already stuck back in the lab."

"Well why don't we brighten his day and give the little lab rat some company?"

"Yeah, maybe he and Mia have found something interesting." Sara got up from her seat and cracked her back, much to Nick's horror.

"Now Sara, didn't your mother ever teach you not to crack your bones?"

Sara's happy mood faded for an instant. "She didn't teach me much of anything actually."

No sooner had she said those words did the shadow that crossed her face disappear and she placed a hand on Nick's broad shoulder, "Ready?"

Realizing that not only did he have no idea what Sara had meant just now in regards to her mother, but that she also didn't want to talk about it, it nodded and placing his hand on the small of her back, led her out the door and to the DNA lab.

"After you."

In the DNA lab, Mia and Greg worked silently, each taking a different project to work on. With Mia working on the matches from the first crime scene and Greg working on the second, there was little time to do anything but analyze each and every matchstick.

After his fiftieth match, Greg started to understand what hell must be like. Trying not to let himself be bothered by the fact that he still had several more matches to go (not to mention various other DNA that needed to be processed), he decided to take a quick break.

"Hey Mia, I'm going for some coffee, you want some?"

Mia looked up from her work. She was already on sixty-seven. "Blue Hawaii?"

"Blue Hawaii."

"Make some and I'll join you after I finish this one."

"Good deal. See you in a minute." Greg said taking some reports of the first matchsticks that had already been worked on as well as reports for other DNA that had also been processed, Nick started walking to the break room.

Laying the reports on the small round table, Greg walked over to the coffee pot and worked quickly to make a brew of his famous coffee before anyone else smelled it. Blue Hawaii may not be the most expensive coffee in the world, but it definitely was quite popular around the lab.

One the brew was complete, Greg poured two cups of the aroma-filled goodness into two mugs, allowing time for Mia's to cool a bit before she drank it. Sitting his own cup down next to him, Greg began to compare the matchstick DNA with that of the rest of the DNA that had been processed thus far.

Both DNA from matchsticks from both cases matched so far. As expected.

DNA from sheets taken from both crime scenes matched to matchsticks. Expected.

DNA not matching any of the suspects thus far. Not really unexpected, but understandable.

Greg took a sip of his coffee. Wanting to savor the flavor, he allowed it to mesh in his mouth for a moment before swallowing. Looking closer at the control DNA from match number one from crime scene number one, Greg nearly choked on his coffee before tightly swallowing the brew.

The DNA was female.

The serial killer was female.

"Oh. Grissom. Gotta call Grissom."

Mia walked in the break room to find Greg quickly making his way to his feet and scrambling for his cell phone. "Greg, what's up? You look like you have a spider on you."

"Female." Greg said while dialing his boss' phone number. "The killer is a female. Everything matches from both crime scenes."

In disbelief, Mia snatched a report from the table. All alleles consistent with a female donor.

"What is this woman doing to these woman. Mia started to look through the rest of the reports for anything else while Greg waited for Grissom to pick up his phone.

"Grissom."

"Grissom, it's Greg. Mia and I have some preliminary reports back from the DNA and you're never going to guess what we've found so far."

"Amuse me."

"Our DNA donor is female. Our killer is female. Skin follicles left on the matches from the mouths of the victims. Also consistent with DNA vaginal contributions on sheets."

"Greg, are you telling me a woman raped and killed other women?"

"That's the way it's looking so far Griss. We've still got a long way to go though, but I thought you might want to know what we've got so far."

"We've got more."

Greg turned around to look at Mia, who was holding up a report for Greg to see. "We also have an unknown male donor. Semen on the sheets."

"Do we have a match for any of the victim's vaginal secretions."

"Yeah. We've got a team."

"Grisson, did you hear any of that."

"Every word Greg. Good work to both of you. Now get final confirmation of your findings and we'll have more to go on."

"That's not going to be until we have all DNA processed."

"I know. But we're definitively heading in the right direction. Thank you Greg."

"No problem."

Greg hung up the phone and looked at Mia. "Want more overtime?"

"Good thing I'm single." Mia said with a sigh.

Greg gave a wicked smile. "You know, I'm single too."

"Not a chance Greg."

"A chance for what?" Nick's Texas twang announced his and Sara's entrance to the break room.

"Sara smiled at Greg when she walked in. Greg's heart skipped a beat for a moment. He knew he had no chance with his beautiful coworker, but he couldn't help himself. Regaining his composure, he just smiled. "Why a chance for me to ever get out of the lab and back out in the field after what we just discovered."

"And what was that?" Nick asked.

"That we have what appears to be a male and female serial team." Greg looked triumphant through his weary eyes.

"Well, that helps a bit. We've been looking for you. Sara got a match from the fingerprint off the candle. Belongs to a guy named Marcus Shelby. He might be the male match."

"But who's the female match?" Mia asked.

"Well, Sara and I have a lot of evidence still to process. We might find something for both of you to analyze. Not that you need any more of course." Nick's words started to fade as looked around the room. "Where's Sara?"

"Over here." Came Sara's voice. The room was amused at the sight of a frazzled Sara, who was trying to nurse her wounds from a coffee spill.

Mia giggled. Nick smiled in the way he always smiled for Sara. Greg looked flustered.

"Sara! That was my Blue Hawaii!"

"Well, if I wasn't so tired, it would be part of my digestive system right now."

"OK kids, enough show." Nick said taking Sara by the arm. "We'll get you cleaned up and get your change of clothes from you locker, then get back to work. We're looking for a lady now."

"Yeah Dad, heard that."

"See y'all later." Nick and Sara waved as they headed for the locker room.

Mia picked up the reports from the table and looked at Greg. "Guess our break's over."

"Yeah, looks like that's our last break until this case is solved." Greg relied while looking in the cupboard above the coffeepot. With a frown on his face, Greg produced an empty container. "And the last of the coffee too."