Leah's Story

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with CSI except a few pieces of merchandise.

Spoilers: None

Rating: T (pg-13)

Summary: Sara's brother & sister-in-law are found murdered while their daughter is missing. Small case file, GSR.

Chapter 1

When Sara arrived at work one night, she thought it was going to be a normal shift, and not the horror scene that unfolded. The main assignment was a double murder in a hotel room, while a child is missing. When she started to leave to work the case, Grissom grabbed her arm to stop her.

"I'm sorry Sara, but I can't let you work this case."

"Why not?" She snapped back. "It's not as if it's one of those domestic cases that you so conveniently keep me away from recently, is it? So what's so special about this one?"

He sighed, trying to find the best way to break the news, "The, er, victims' names are David and Angela Sidle." As he spoke, he could see the color drain from her face. "I'm so sorry Sara."

She tried to hold back the tears, but was struggling, so she excused herself and ran to the bathroom. 'I can't let him see me like this again,' she thought, 'Grissom has seen me break down too many times recently; I need to hold it together. If he finds out the truth, I don't know how I'm going to explain.'

When she finally returned to the break room, she found out that Grissom had already left to process the scene along with Greg. She was left with a robbery case in a local convenience store.

Sara found it hard to concentrate while processing to store, as her mind kept traveling back to what Grissom was doing, and where Leah was. She fingerprinted the counter, but there were too many to distinguish which ones belonged to the culprits.

As she was finishing up, she noticed some blood on the floor near the broken window. "Mrs. Deane," She asked the owner, "do you know if the robbers cut themselves while trying to get in or out at all?"

"No, not that I know of, why?" Mrs. Deane replied while trying to shove her hand deep into her pocket. The gesture did not go unnoticed by the CSI.

"I'm gonna have to take a sample of your DNA, to check if this is yours or the robbers. Is that OK?"

The woman nodded, "you'll probably find out that it's mine anyway, since I cut myself there last week when putting some of the cans on the shelf. I'm getting a bit clumsy in my old age you see."

"That may be so, but this blood in only a few hours old. Can I look at your hands please?" When the woman refused, Sara started to get frustrated, "either you show me your hand now, or I ring to get a court order, it's your choice."

Mrs. Deane thought about it for a moment, before sighing and putting her hands in front of Sara. "Fine then, have it your way!"

"I sincerely hope that you didn't do this yourself." Noticing the look on the woman's face, Sara continued. "You do know that this is a criminal offence, making a false claim & wasting police time."

"Sorry, I just needed the money from the insurance company; I didn't think all this was going to happen. I swear, I never meant any harm." Sara could tell that the woman was being honest, and so decided to be kind her.

"I will let you off this time, but please next time, try a different way to get more money – one that's legal." She nodded and left the store.

As she was walking back to her Tahoe, Sara opened her cell phone and speed dialed Grissom. Upon reaching voicemail for the second time, she decided to give up and head back to the lab.

A/N: If anyone would like to beta, then I would be grateful!

Please review (& be kind :D)