xXx
Grissom tapped his steering wheel with his pen. The sound muted as though he was under water. Usually it didn't last this long. He frowned waiting for his eardrums to focus. He didn't need this, not today.
Fox Trail hadn't annoyed him as much as she –irked- him. He knew the woman was hiding something. But he couldn't go on a hunch. She was also one of those people that Grissom knew was smarter than he was.
One thing could be said about above average intellects, they knew each other.
The tapping came back with a clarity that made him jump. Miss Trail was not the only reason that Grissom was so jumpy. He didn't exactly enjoy the idea of Sara talking to Lady Heather.
…the worst part of that was that he didn't know WHY it bothered him.
With a heavy sigh and ears now working, Grissom opened the door of his SUV and started back into CSI.
xXx
In her line of work, Sarah had learned early on that throwing herself into her work was often the only way she could banish the unpleasant, oft-times nightmarish things she encountered day to day to the far corners of her mind. Which was why, upon returning to HQ after her meeting with Lady Heather, she had gone immediately to the lab to begin sorting through the evidence accumulated. What she hadn't counted on, however, was the fact that Lady Heather was much, much harder to stop thinking about than she'd thought. Every word the woman had said was still reverberating around her skull, and it dismayed her, for rather than hating the woman as she'd originally hoped and planned to, she found her –for lack of a better word – intriguing.
Trying and failing miserably to pretend she'd been unaffected by the dominatrix, Sarah donned her labcoat and headed for the morgue, where Dr. Robbins was examining the DB's brought in from the murder scene only a couple hours ago. If anything could clear her head and make her focus entirely on the task at hand, it would be staring at the corpses of those brutally murdered, those whose killer could only be brought to justice by what she did. She had just rounded a corner and passed Trace, where she caught a glimpse of Greg with his head bent low over a microscope when a voice that reminded her how very messy her life had become called out her name.
Trying to suppress the irrational irritation that rose in her, trying to pretend she was unaffected by him, she schooled her face into an expression of pleasant disinterest and turned to face him. "Yes, Griss?"
"Glad you're here." He didn't sound it. "Brass just brought in our friend the bouncer."
Before Sara could question, Nick rolled his eyes and Warrick beamed. "Told you."
"And I bet he's overjoyed to be here," Sarah said dryly as they all began to walk as one in the direction of the interrogation room. Usually the brotherly banter put a smile on her face, but that was before Lady Heather had the gall to invade her thoughts. "What are you guys talking about?" She snapped.
Nick, predictably looked at her as though she'd hit him, big puppy dog eyes wide. Griss blinked quickly from behind his wire frames. She tried not to imagine Lady Heather looking at those blue eyes. Warrick cleared his throat then, where Grissom's eyes were blue and Nick's reminded her of a rather abused puppy, Warrick's had always been sharp, exotic, one could say. "He seems to have had quite an involved relationship."
Sarah took a deep, inaudible breath, tried to calm her nerves which were humming with irritability and apprehension, and when she spoke she gave herself points for the fact she wasn't screaming like she wanted to be. "Oh? With who?"
Warrick and Nick shared a relaxed, joking look and a laugh before Nick answered for them. "Hector."
Grissom raised an eyebrow, face moving in thought. "So… he…"
"Our Bouncer's definitely big enough to do that amount of damage." Warrick offered, it seemed as though he and Nick were ready to take the case to court and be done with it.
Sara didn't like the feeling that information gave her. She wasn't as happy as she should have been.
"So … that's it?" She asked, and though she tried she couldn't keep the sharp edge from her tone. She added quickly as all eyes fell on her, "It just seems … rather convenient that everything wraps up that quickly."
"Nick should go in and talk to him with Cat." Warrick snickered. At Nick's expression he raised a finger like a chastising older sibling. "Ahh ahh, you're the pretty one, go in there and distract."
"And why Catherine?" Grissom asked, as usual, missing the humor entirely.
"She's scary." Nick responded as though it was obvious.
Sarah had to agree on that. When it came to no nonsense hard asses, Catherine was Queen. Normally when Sarah was left out of the process of interrogation on a case she was working it irritated her, but this time she didn't really care. She wanted to watch it proceed, however, and so as Nick left in order to find Catherine, Sarah opted to head for the interrogation room anyways. Hoping Grissom would forget why he'd called her name to begin with, she made it about ten steps when he caught up with her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"How'd it go with Lady Heather?" He asked her. With a thin, tight smile that she hoped passed as friendly, Sarah stepped back so that his hand fell away.
"It was fine. She's agreed to meet with us again if we have more questions."
It was predicable, so… so damned GRISSOM that he not react to her form of response. His hand fell naturally to his side and he did nothing to make the contact appear as something he hadn't done. "She's always been very agreeable, but she's got this way of seeing you too closely."
"Really?" Sarah said breezily, watching him closely. "I hadn't noticed."
He was silent for a moment, eyes behind his lenses intent. Then he blinked, offered her a small smile, and said, "I guess maybe it's just me."
"It must be," Sarah said. "Anyway, I want to get down to the interrogation room. I'd like to watch it all pan out. Was there anything else you needed?"
"Well, I wanted to compare notes on this case, depending on what happens with the bouncer. Maybe we should go make sure Warrick isn't enjoying himself too much. Between Cat and the bouncer…" He cracked a questioning smile, as though logically he knew that he had cracked a joke, but he was unsure as to if it was really funny.
How could he be so like a little child and such a good leader? God why was she so fixated? Despite herself, she had smiled at this attempt at humor. "Alright," she acquiesced, knowing she would regret it later. "Let's go."
xXx