Chapter 2!

Same disclaimer as the others- Want them, don't have them, Just gonna borrow them.

Grissom returned to the lab and gave his evidence to Greg. Then he went to his office to try to finish some of his paperwork. He'd worry about getting back on Sara's good side later.

He emerged about 3 hours later when Greg paged him with the lab results. The hair and skin cells were male- outside donor- both were the same man. A man names Chase Gregory. Current residence: San Francisco, California. He thanked Greg and went to find Sara. He hoped the news would put her in a better mood. He'd heard from Greg and Archie that she was on somewhat of a warpath.

Grissom read down the rap sheet and found that this guy was not new to the system; Assault on girlfriend in '94, rape of girlfriend in '95, prison for 5 years, another assault on a bartender in 2001 and a drunk and disorderly in 2002. He was put back in prison in 2002 for attempted rape and just got out 3 months ago.

Sara was still in the layout room when he found her. She had all the neighbors' interviews, hotel room layout, lab results and other evidence surrounding her. She didn't even look up when Grissom came in. She knew he was there, she'd heard his bow-legged, unmistakable gait from down the hall. For a moment, she almost forgot she was mad at him. But she remembered before he arrived in the layout room and replaced her slight smile with a blank mask in the blink of and eye.

Grissom knew he was in trouble when Sara ignored him. He thought he may be able to avoid an actual apology if the new evidence cajoled her into a better mood.

"We have a suspect" he said as a way of greeting.

Sara just looked up at him for a moment, blinked, then returned her attention to her evidence. Grissom braced his arms on the table next to Sara and brought himself into her personal space, in order to get her attention. It worked. He noticed her gulp and the attempt to avert her gaze to anywhere but him. Grissom smiled. As much as he knew it was wrong to do that, it was the easy way to get Sara's focus on him, and it ALWAYS worked.

"He's a 34 year old from San Francisco, both the hair and the sin were a match to him. We should have no problem getting a warrant for him. He's been escalating since '94, and has 2 prison visits under his belt. Got out of the first sentence in half the time for good behavior -go figure. Then he got sent back. Oh well-"

Grissom stopped talking for a moment and noticed Sara was staring at him with her eyebrow arched in an accusatory way/

"What?" he asked

Sara just looked at him pointedly and said

"Hair? Skin cells?"

"Oh, yeah, I found them in the bathroom. The hair was a foot and a half from the tub, Shortish blonde. The skin cells came from underneath the victim's right hand fingernails. I would have told you but you'd already left the scene when I finished."

"And you didn't feel it was important enough to page me? Or at least tell me when you got back to the lab? You could have saved me 2 damn hours of pointless work trying to organize the neighbors' stories. Evidence trumps the witnesses, remember? God, Grissom, what does it take to get a little consideration from you?"

Sara grabbed up almost all of the papers in front of her and dumped them unceremoniously into the trash. She sat back down with a large sigh and glared at Grissom.

"So did you solve the case while I was wasting my time completely in here or do we still have some work to do?" she spat

Grissom fought back a flinch at her tone. He had to distract her quickly or seriously run the risk of leaving the room without a head.

"Like I was saying, we have a suspect from the hair and skin- we have enough for a warrant, Brass is on it now so let's go pick him up."

"Fine, let's go." Sara said

She stood quickly and followed Grissom out of the room.

"So who is this guy anyway?" Sara asked as they were walking down the hallway

"His name is Chase Gregory, lives in San Franciso but apparently he s in town for the week- convenient huh?... Sara?"

Grissom looked up to see that Sara was not beside him anymore. He looked back and saw her way back down the hall, frozen, very pale and looking more than a little scared.

"Sara, are you alright? What's wrong?" Grissom asked worriedly, moving quickly towards her.

"What did you say the name was?" she asked shakily

"Gregory, Chase Gregory. Why?"

"He's supposed to be in jail for 6 more months at least.... He, he,... he can't be here, he's not-"

At that point Sara turned sheet white and Grissom lunged forward to catch her as her knees bucked and she fainted.

Grissom was really scared now. He picked Sara up in his arms and very carefully carried her for the few steps to the break room. Luckily no one saw them. He set her down carefully on the couch and balled up his jacket to put under her head. He moved quickly to the sink and soaked a hand towel in cold water. He knelt next to the couch and gently wiped her forehead and neck with the cloth, all the while quietly whispering her name and soft comforts trying to rouse her.

Sara's eyes slowly fluttered open and she looked around, trying to assess where she was. She felt very embarrassed. She'd never fainted before in her life, why did she now?

"Ooooh, my God." Sara groaned as the past few moments flashed back. She sat up slowly and Grissom gave her a small cup of water. She sipped the water but kept her eyes closed, trying to forget what happened

"Sara?"

Nothing.

"Sara? Sara? Honey you're scaring me, who is Chase Gregory, do you know-"

"DON'T- say his name, Grissom, don't say it. He should still be in jail- why is he out?"

"Good behavior, I was telling you before. Sara why did you faint? Do you know him? Who is he?"

Sara opened her eyes and looked at the cup in her shaking hands. As she looked into Grissom's eyes painfully, a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"He's the man that raped me."

TBC

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Ok that's it for right now. Oh come on now- you all had to know THAT was gonna happen. Like I said before, it's cliché but it makes for decent stories.

Again, I'm sorry for the short chapters but I have to fit this stuff in between the choice times for freshman college classes.

R&R PEEPS!