Chapter 14

Sara had just come on shift and was walking down the hall when she noticed Grissom's office light was on. She peered in.

"Grissom?" she questioned.

He looked up from his desk, "Hey Sara."

"Alex doing better," it was more of a statement then a question. She knew Alex must be doing better or he wouldn't be here.

He nodded. "Have you found anything out?"

"That's actually why I stopped by when I saw your light on. I found out some very interesting things about our friend Special Agent Thompson."

Grissom cocked one eyebrow. He was all ears.

"Turns out, there is bad blood between Alex and Thompson. He was her superior back in Virginia when she was on an undercover assignment. That is where she met Martin. Thompson felt he was integral to their operation and told her in no uncertain terms to get Martin to trust her by any means necessary."

Grissom knew already he didn't like where this was going to go.

Sara continued, "Alex didn't like Martin but tried to play along until one night it got to be too much for her and she broke up with him. As the story goes, Martin got pissed and did what any heartbroken guy would, he picked up another girl."

Grissom was getting a little impatient. "Is there a point to this?"

"I'm getting to that," Sara replied. "The girl he picked up was Thompson's daughter. Thompson found out and the next thing you know there's a rape allegation. Of course, it was never proven, but Thompson kept ill will towards Alex. Some believe that Thompson is the one who tipped off Martin about Alex."

Grissom furrowed his brow in anger. "Was it proven?"

Sara shook her head. "I know you know some of the rest of this. Martin became obsessed and killed Alex's grandmother. Alex, it seems, blamed Thompson for her grandmother's death and asked to be transferred. She specifically asked for Vegas a month or so later, while her transfer paperwork was being processed.

"Martin got off due to an alibi, which everyone thought was lying and then went on a killing spree, evidently for practice."

"I know most of that," Grissom said.

"But," Sara intoned, "I bet you don't know this, Thompson knew that Martin had been in Vegas for three weeks before he grabbed Alex, but never told her. He wanted to be the one to catch him. Apparently, he was using her as bait—without her or the Bureau's knowledge—to draw him out. And get this, Thompson's not even stationed in Vegas. He was here for a conference and when the whole thing hit the fan, he just sort of took over the investigation. The Bureau let him because of his history with Martin. And now, they are starting to question Thompson's motives."

"Are they handling the situation?" Grissom inquired.

"It's hard to say," she responded. "He's been MIA since you guys found Alex. Apparently, he wasn't counting on you guys finding her alive. He must be afraid of what Martin might have told her."

Grissom cocked his head in a questioning look.

"I know, it's strange," she answered.

There was a knock at the door. It was Greg.

"Gris," Greg popped his head in. "Is Alex doing better?"

"She came out of the coma earlier today," Grissom responded.

"Do you think she's up for a visitor?" he asked.

"Actually," Grissom replied, "She asked for people to wait a couple days. She was still really tired and didn't feel like entertaining quite yet."

"Got it," Greg said and popped back out.

Sara scrunched her face. "You're ok with that?" She asked Grissom.

He shrugged. "They're adults. Besides, she could do worse."

"Already has," Sara replied.

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Greg walked down the hall to the lab after popping in to Grissom's office. He, as well as the other CSIs, had a backlog of evidence to process since it was a slow night. But his thoughts were anywhere but on the evidence.

He was relieved to hear that Alex had woken up. His concentration had been lacking since they found her. He hoped his focus would return now that she was out of danger.

Before she was taken, he was contemplating reconnecting with her. Now, he knew he had to. Every day that went by, he became more and more aware of how little time each of us were really given. He was beginning to understand Warrick's reasons for his impromptu nuptials. He knew that if he didn't take the chance now, he might never be given another. All that was left for him to do was ask her and hope she still wanted him.