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Grissom was extremely worried. How was he supposed to break off the ties he'd formed with the rest of his team without completely eliminating them from his life? He thought about the predicament he found himself in on the way to Nick's house. Sitting in the front seat of Catherine's Tahoe he didn't even realize how unusually quiet the ride was. If he hadn't had so much on his mind he would have realized that both Catherine and Warrick's lips were moving, though no sounds seemed to be issuing from their mouths.
Grissom decided very quickly that it would be much easier to estrange his 'family' if he were less concerned with his feelings. Still getting used to the new realization that he cared more for the feelings of his coworkers than for his own, Grissom had to think hard about what would hurt them the least. He was forced to the conclusion that he was in fact being exceptionally selfish; it wasn't his family's feelings he was trying to spare, it was his own. He was the one that wanted to leave CSI with his family intact, but he'd already decided that he would have to break those bonds and misconceptions before he left, to spare their feelings once he was gone. If he were truly not thinking of himself before the others, he would have to break the bonds in the quickest way possible. It made no difference for the rest of team how he did it, either way he was going to be gone in a couple weeks, at least this way he would get to break the attachment face-to-face.
Finally resolved to a course of action, Grissom pulled out of his musing as the Catherine pulled the vehicle to a stop outside Nick's front door. Grissom had certainly seen a lot of that front door tonight. He and Warrick moved towards the back to open the hatch and retrieve their kits. It was then that Grissom realized that he wasn't hearing properly. When he slammed his door shut, there was no slam. He looked over the roof at Warrick and could see him yelling something, but Grissom couldn't hear the words. Calm down he told himself to fight against the panic that threatened to overtake him you know how to handle this. Instantly, Grissom switched into lip-read mode and focused hard on Warrick's lips. After a couple of seconds of this scrutiny he made out the formation of the words, "What, do I have something on my face?" Grissom quickly answered in the negative and moved to lift his kit out of the back, Warrick right beside him.
Kit in hand, Grissom started walking towards Nick's house. He was worried about his hearing. This made two deaf spells in as many days; less if you were counting hours and not passes of midnight. How generous had the doctor's estimate been? Could he go completely deaf at any moment? Grissom shuddered at the thought but it did provide him with more resolve for the task ahead of him. With no idea which shift may be his last, there was no time for procrastination.
Suddenly Catherine's scream broke Grissom's silence. He and Warrick rushed to her side and were horrified by the sight that greeted them. There on the carpet in front of his couch lay Nick, unconscious, and as Warrick thought, appeared near death. All three ran towards Nick but it was Catherine who reached him first. She knelt down next to him and, from this vantage point; she was instantly relieved by the reassurance that Nick was in fact alive. It appeared that their friend was merely asleep. Catherine could hear Nick mumbling in his sleep and it was soon also obvious to her that he was having a nightmare. His words were incoherent but she did manage to catch a couple of fragments of what Nick was saying while he slept. "No … Don't… … Don't Leave."
With more than a vague suspicion of what Nick was experiencing in his dream world, Catherine quickly began nudging Nick to wake him up, gently at first then with more force, until he jerked awake to see Warrick and Grissom standing over him and Catherine kneeling at his side. His surprise showed clearly on his face.
"I fell asleep." Nick stated. It was not intended as a question but there was a certain amount of disbelief in his voice. He couldn't believe he'd let his guard down after everything that'd happened to him that night.
Grissom, convinced that Nick was okay, bent down to examine the pills that had scattered a fair distance across Nick's living room floor. He saw that the prescription was in fact Alprazolam. "How many of these did you take?" He questioned Nick, who was now standing and watching the three CSI's who'd come back to his house.
"None." Nick answered, "really!" he continued after seeing the look of surprised disbelief on the faces of everyone there. "Okay, listen, when you guys left I couldn't fall asleep so I took one sedative to help me snooze. The pills were out in my car and when I came back into my house I found the note on my pillow. Well then I wasn't sleeping so I thought about taking one of those," Nick gestured towards the pill in Grissom's hand, "to help me calm down but I remembered that I'd already taken the sedative so I didn't. I didn't even realize I was still holding them…I can't believe I fell asleep."
Grissom had accepted Nick's explanation while he was still half way through it and was now more concerned with finding out how these notes were gaining entry to his house. He started looking around, but he was already fairly certain they hadn't missed anything on the first sweep.
"How long were you outside Nick," Catherine, already to the assumption that they weren't likely to find anything in the house, decided to question Nick instead.
"I don't know for sure," Nick answered. "No more than five minutes."
"Is that enough time for someone to have gotten into your house, left the note, and gotten back out?"
"I…I guess so. But I don't know how they could've. I even locked the door behind me."
"There could be some other way to get. Besides the front door I mean." Warrick was trying to solve the puzzle like the rest of the team, but of course he hadn't been present during the first investigation.
"There isn't, we tore this place apart and found nothing."
The conversation wasn't making Nick feel any better and, having had less than twenty minutes sleep in the past day, the sedative was taking a very noticeable effect. He tried to stifle a yawn, but was not very successful. Catherine saw it and immediately took action.
"Nick, why don't you go over to Warrick's place and get some sleep," she suggested with a glance at Warrick who was already nodding in agreement.
"Yeah," Nick decided, sounding only slightly defeated, "I could use some sleep."
Warrick volunteered to drive Nick to his place and return to the lab once he was asleep. Catherine agreed. It was clear that there was little to be done at Nick's house and she couldn't see any point in having three CSI's wasting their time. Warrick would be more use at the lab and in all likelihood; she and Grissom would probably beat him there.
With Nick and Warrick gone, Catherine headed towards Nick's bedroom to retrieve the note from his pillow. She held it in her gloved hands and stared at it. She dully wondered whether the person leaving them had some kind of supernatural powers. She chuckled slightly at the thought of passing that theory past Grissom. She could imagine the scientist's expression when she explained that perhaps superman had perhaps found some motive to bother them, but even before she'd had the thought she stopped believing that it could even be possible. So, with a sigh, she walked out of Nick's house and back into her black SUV, where Grissom was already waiting in the passenger's seat.
As she started the car Catherine heard a sigh from Grissom's side of the vehicle. She decided she'd better try to start up a conversation.
"So," she tried, "you were awfully quiet on the way down here."
"Ya," Grissom grunted. He had no desire to discuss the reasoning behind his silence. It was time for him to try to put his decision into action; he had to start breaking the bonds.
"Do you have any theories about who this creep is?"
"No Cath, I don't know any better than you do." This is it Grissom thought to himself before continuing. "I don't think I'll be able to bail you out this time."
What he'd said didn't immediately register to Catherine. Here sitting beside her was her best friend, there was no way he would say something as hurtful and not to mention false, as what he'd just uttered. "What did you say?" She asked, just to be sure.
"I said it looks like you're on you own this time around boss."
"Grissom, what are you talking about? We're a team!" Catherine just couldn't understand where this was coming from. Was this some kind of retaliation for when she'd lost her temper the last time they'd spoken?
Grissom didn't seem interested in what Catherine had to say. He was looking out his window and appeared to be ignoring her completely. Catherine was still blown away but she wasn't willing to drop the subject.
"Look, Grissom, I'm sorry for the way I acted before…at Nick's house. I was out of line. I'm sorry if I, I don't know…hurt you, in any way." Catherine took her eyes from the road whenever it was safe and turned her head to try to look at Grissom. She thought if she could let him know that she was sincere, he might be able to lighten up a little. She was wrong. Grissom turned his head to look her in the eye and said the most un-Grissom words Catherine had ever heard out of his mouth.
"Don't flatter yourself."
Catherine's pity was quickly turning to anger. How dare he address her like that? She was his boss now after all, that position demanded some respect! Sick of trying to understand what went on in his head, Catherine let Grissom be and the remainder of their journey passed in silence. When they arrived at the lab, Catherine stormed out of the vehicle and into the building without a glance at Grissom.
Grissom sighed and slowly exited the vehicle after Catherine. What he'd just done had hurt a lot more than he thought it would. He knew that he was going to be having a very hard time over the next little while but it was, well if not the best way, the quickest way to stop his teammates from looking up to him. He had no choice, if he wanted to keep from hurting them more than he had to; Grissom was going to have to become a complete ass. Well, he thought dully as he entered the lab I suppose I'll just be supporting the status for some people.
By the time Warrick returned from his house after making sure Nick was comfortable and near sleep the rest of team was assembled around a large table comparing their progress. He walked into the room and took a seat at the table. Greg was giving his report on the analysis of the first note.
"Okay," he started, "I dusted the thing, no prints so our suspect is wearing gloves. Also it was printed out but there was no distinguishing marks on the paper that might help us determine what printer it came out of. All and all, big waste of time on the note front."
Everyone assembled could see that Greg was trying to joke around and lighten the mood a little, but he wasn't even bringing a grin to his own face. The fact that the note had given them nothing was a blow to each of them. It had been the first real piece of evidence they'd found that might have gotten them closer to a killer and now they had nothing. Catherine could see the looks on the faces of her team that told her they were beginning to give up on the case. She knew she couldn't let that happen.
"So the note's a bust; we're going to get this guy, we just have to think. What do we have? First we have the ants and the SEMTEX found at the original crime scene leading us to believe it was staged to be similar to Nick's, plus a hair belonging to Kelly Gordon. Then we have the note Nick found on his floor saying 'take this with you', Warrick found the flower at the scene after the second look and now we have a second note. So, what does this tell us?"
Sara began analyzing what they had. "Well, the notes support the theory that someone is doing all this just to get to us. And that someone had to at least have had contact with Kelly Gordon or he wouldn't have known what to put on the first note. The message on the second note tells us this person is watching us, or at least wants us to think so."
"And the flower?" Warrick enquired.
"No idea." Sara admitted.
"It seems clear by now that the signs we have are all pointing to Kelly Gordon." Catherine decided, "does Brass still have her in custody?"
It turned out that Kelly Gordon had been released back to prison. Catherine was forced to admit that, given her level of compliance, it would be almost useless to drag her back in for questioning and so instead she assigned Greg and Grissom to look over the prison's files and determine whether there was anything there that could be helpful. The entire team was surprised by the decision; it wasn't like Catherine to assign Grissom a job as tedious as this. But, of course, none of them had any knowledge of what had transpired between them on their way to the lab. Catherine was so angry with Grissom she wasn't sure she wanted him on her team any longer.
Greg and Grissom started gathering all the files they could on Kelly Gordon while the rest of team headed to the break room for a much-deserved break. It was Greg who decided to break the silence between them in the small room where they were sitting sorting through folders of reports.
"So you got stuck here with me hey? That's kind of weird isn't it?"
Grissom looked slowly at his friend. He knew that Greg looked up to him and what he was getting ready to do was killing him but Greg had presented him with an opening and he knew he should probably take it.
"Yeah well," he said with a sigh, "everyone gets stuck with you once in a while, I couldn't run forever."
Needless to say Greg was fairly surprised by the words. He looked up to Grissom's face to search for some clue that he was being sarcastic but found nothing. This just doesn't add up, he thought but Grissom wasn't done yet.
"I mean, is it just me or do I always end up babysitting the rookies…you'd think Catherine wouldn't want to waste my talents looking over your shoulder for your inevitable screw ups!"
Greg was past disbelief now. There was something seriously wrong. Was Grissom sick? Had something happened to him in the past day that would result in a complete personality switch? There was nothing he could say so he just dropped his head and continued reading the visitor report for the prison over the past few weeks. He was highlighting the visitors of Kelly Gordon, of which there weren't many, when he began noticing the recurrence of one name in particular. He was about to lift his head and tell Grissom what he'd found, but was surprised to find that Grissom had left his seat across from him. He saw him heading down the hallway towards the break room and followed close behind him.
"Jonah Mikler." Grissom said as he dropped the folder he was holding onto the break room table. Greg was horrified to find that Grissom was telling the team all about the name HE'D just found. But there was no way for him to try to set the score straight with everyone listening to Grissom's report. Greg was forced to drop the issue entirely and he listened to the rest of what Grissom had to say.
"Over the past three weeks Kelly had only 5 visitors, 4 of them were from this guy. He never saw her before a month ago and suddenly they're spending upwards of an hour together. I think we may want to talk to this guy." Warrick and Sara smiled at Grissom but Catherine's face displayed neither joy nor relief at the news. Grissom turned back towards Greg and with a wicked grin (which of course appeared merely friendly to every one else present) said, "Why don't you look this guy up Greggo?" and added in a whisper that no one else could hear, "you know, make yourself useful!"
With that Grissom walked into the break room to join the rest of the team as Greg stared blankly at him before turning and walking quickly away from the man he had once looked up to.
Hi everyone, I am so very sorry it took so long to get this chapter out but I feel like I'm kind of treading into dangerous territory here and I don't want to screw this up. Please review and let me know how it's going! Thanks so much to everyone who's taken the time to review already! I'll try to update as quickly as I can.