Brass hung up the phone after relaying the latest developments of the case to him. Someone had seen a young girl leave the hotel crying only 10 minutes before the bodies were found. The description of the girl matched Leah. She was said to have been heading through the park right opposite the hotel. Brass and Grissom made their way along the path that lead through the center of the park towards the wooded area behind it.


As they approached, they heard rustling noises coming from between the trees. At first, Jim Brass put it down to some homeless guy living in the woods. They had met enough of that type in the years they have served the county. On closer inspection they could hear faint sniffling noises, almost as if someone was crying.

Grissom had brought his torch from his toolkit, and shone the beam through the branches. It landed on a young girl. She had curly brown hair that was messed up, and had blue eyes, just like his. She looked around 13-14, although she could have been anywhere from 12-16. Her clothes looked like they had been worn for a while, and been dirtied by the soil from the trees. This girl definitely matched the description of Leah. She had a slight familiarity about her – 'definitely a Sidle' he thought. She also reminded him of someone else, although he couldn't quite put his finger on who.

"Leah?" He asked quietly, not wanting to disturb her, even though he had just shone his torchlight in her eye. She nodded in agreement not trusting her voice. "My name's Grissom and this is Captain Jim Brass, from the Las Vegas Police Department. Could you come with us for a while?"


Slowly she got up from her seated position against a tree, and followed the two men out of the park. When they reached the open area of park with its own streetlights, Grissom noticed some spots of blood on the back of Leah's T-shirt.

Greg was on his way with Sara, since Brass had called him on their way back from the woods to give him an update and Sara had insisted to accompanying him.

"Leah," Grissom called. When she looked up at him, he continued, "I want you to go with Greg Sanders when he gets here, and he will need all the clothes that you're wearing now."

She nodded, "what am I going to wear then?" She asked.

He smiled, 'she definitely is a Sidle.' "A paramedic will come in a moment and check you over, and will find some clean clothes for you to wear." She nodded again. Within moments, a paramedic had arrived and scooped her off into the ambulance to check her over.


A few moments later, she returned, changed into a plain white T-shirt and pants. At that moment, Greg arrived with Sara, and had barely stopped the tahoe before she had exited it and ran after Leah.

"Please don't scare us like that again. Ok?" She asked the frightened young girl, no nodded again in acknowledgement. Until then, Sara had managed to hold back any tears that threatened to fall, and Leah thought she had shed all those that she could, but upon seeing each other, they both cried into each other's arms over the loss of a brother and father.

Grissom had to resist the urge to put his arms around both of them, and try to release them of some of the pain.


A/N: Aww GSR moments coming up real soon! Just a couple more chapters. Please R&R:D

Thanks to Sidle Chick for reviewing and offering to beta. Just send me an e-mail (it's on my profile page) if you're still interested.