Author's Notes

I haven't written any fiction for quite a while, and I've never written a CSI fic before, so I hope this is okay! It started when I read another fic on this site where the idea of Sara as an acting supervisor was mentioned, and this storyline came to mind...

I haven't actually seen much of season 5, so if I get anything wrong over the course of this story (e.g. Sophia's character) then I'm sorry! And by the way, I actually quite like Ecklie, I just needed him to be a pain in the neck for the sake of this story…

Disclaimer

I don't own CSI. What a surprise that must be.

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"It was an abuse of power, Grissom."

"Conrad--"

"No. You've done it once too many times, Gil. You're a supervisor; your job is to supervise your subordinates, not to force them into participating in your experiments. Do you know what could happen if you picked the wrong person? They could sue us. The lab would be fighting a law suit, the media would be all over it, and you would lose your job."

"Look, Ecklie..."

"No, Grissom. You're not behaving like a supervisor should, so for the next few weeks, you're not going to be one."

"You're suspending me?" Grissom was startled, which was strange, because the news wasn't really that surprising when he thought about it. "Ecklie, the nightshift is already short-staffed--"

"I'm not suspending you. I'm temporarily demoting you."

Grissom blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I'm temporarily removing you from your job as a supervisor. Your assistance as a CSI is, however, still needed. Unfortunately."

Grissom looked down as he processed this. He kind of thought he'd prefer the suspension. He wasn't keen on taking orders, and beyond that, he was definitely not keen on being the subject of office gossip. Which, he certainly would be.

"...so you're going to bring in someone from another shift to supervise?" He wasn't sure whether he'd prefer someone from swing shift - they had all previously been under his supervision on the night shift - or from days, where he didn't really know many people.

"They're short-staffed enough as it is... three of the day shift are away at the moment, including the supervisor. It's going to have to be someone from your own team."

This was a shock. Ecklie was going to temporarily promote one of his own CSI's, over his head? One of his own subordinates? That was bad... for so many reasons. He felt the fury rise up inside him, but forced himself to keep calm, at least on the outside. "Sophia has the experience," he noted, trying (so far successfully) to avoid hitting the man sitting opposite him.

Ecklie frowned. He had, in fact, been thinking the exact same thing. But Grissom had suggested her, and he was not in the mood to give Gil Grissom anything he asked for. That, of course, left only one option.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Ms Sidle," he lied, smoothly. "She's already become something of a mentor to young Greg, correct?"

"Correct," Grissom answered, but his mouth had suddenly seemed to go dry. It was only a few months since Ecklie had suspended Sara for being insubordinate; why was he now promoting her, even temporarily? He forced himself to think positively about this; it would be good for her career, a good experience for her. Why am I any more upset about this than I would have been if it were Sophia?

"Good. Then until further notice, Sara Sidle is nightshift supervisor. And you're dismissed."

Grissom left, still struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

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"Ms Sidle?"

Sara looked round, coffee pot in hand. "Yes?"

"Mr Ecklie would like to speak to you in his office."

Sara blinked, wondering what she'd done wrong this time. Maybe he was going to tell her off because she'd come in so long before the start of her shift, she'd been doing a lot of overtime recently. "Um, okay... thanks." The receptionist left, and Sara reluctantly put down the coffee and followed after her. She passed Grissom's office on the way, and saw him sitting there, his head on his hands, elbows on the table. What's up with him?

She entered Ecklie's office with some trepidation, mixed with a lot of annoyance. She exited, a few minutes later, and leaned against the wall for support, wondering if by any chance she was asleep and the previous few minutes had just been a dream. Grissom demoted? How? And how much of a jerk is Ecklie, to give me his job? For a second, she considered how good this could be for her career, and then roughly pushed those thoughts away. This isn't exactly how I wanted to advance.

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"Hey."

Grissom looked up from his chair to see Sara standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame and looking at him with some concern. She had spoken softly, and he knew from her expression, and the tight way in which she was standing, that Ecklie had already talked to her.

"Hi." He glanced around the room. "I guess this is yours, for a while."

"I don't want it." Sara paused, searching for words. "This isn't how I… not like this."

"I know, Sara. I'm not blaming you." He forced himself to his feet, located a box at the back of his office, and began shoving his things into it.

"Griss, I..." she broke off, as Catherine floated into the office.

"Grissom, do you have a -" she stopped, seeing the faces of the people around her, and the box sitting on the desk. "What's going on?"

"Ecklie." Sara's tone was flat, hard.

"What? Grissom - what? He hasn't fired you?" Catherine's voice conveyed well her thoughts of what she would do to Conrad Ecklie if that in fact turned out to be the case.

"Temporarily demoted." The words sounded strange to Grissom, the first time he had said them aloud.

"It's kind of like suspension, only he still has to work, and gets paid less for a few weeks rather than nothing for a few days."

Catherine stared. "Griss... what did you do?"

Knowing that Grissom wasn't likely to answer her, Sara did so instead. "He did another of his experiments on a staff member. Solved the case, but..." She didn't need to end the sentence.

Catherine sent her thoughts back to other such 'experiments' Grissom had performed in the past. Greg had been decidedly unimpressed with the one concerning his feet, and Warrick had complained of shoulder pain for a couple of days after being dragged across a room by his arm, first by Sara, and then by a secretary. "Yeah. So, Gil, you're, what, a normal CSI now? For how long?"

"Ecklie didn't say."

"Who's taking over night shift?

"That would be me." Sara lifted her hand slightly,

"You?" Catherine was unable to contain her shock. Ordinarily, Sara would have protested such outrage - she could more than handle the work - but today, in this situation, she found herself agreeing.

"Then... you're transferring out of nightshift?"

Grissom shook his head. "No."

"Great. The Wonder That Is Ecklie strikes again."

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Grissom could feel all the eyes on him as he walked down the corridor to the break room. Obviously, it hadn't taken long for the gossip rivers to start flowing. The one good thing about that was that he wasn't going to have to explain why Sara was the one giving the assignments.

The night shift was about to start, and Sophia and Greg were already at the table, waiting for the other two members of the team. As Grissom entered, he saw the sympathetic looks in their eyes, but to his surprise and relief, neither one said anything to him about his situation, choosing instead to simply be nice to him - which in Greg's case meant pouring him a cup of his own expensive coffee brand, and in Sophia's meant pulling out a chair for him to sit in.

Sara came in a minute or two later, looking distinctly stressed. Apparently she'd had a lot to do in the course of the past couple of hours; unsurprising, having been shoved pretty much instantly into a job she had no experience with. And Grissom was sure she would have been the target of some gossip herself; perhaps not a river, but at least a fairly wide stream.

She accepted the coffee cup Greg offered her, and took a few sips without sitting down, glancing around the room, her eyes finally meeting Grissom's. After a minute or so she seemed to decide that she might as well get it over with, and placed her cup down on the table.

"Sophia - you've got a DB in the suburbs; police think it's probably a suicide but you need to check it out." She passed a slip of paper with the address on over to the other woman, and then turned to the two men. "We have a double homicide. College student and his brother, both found dead in his dorm room." She passed the address over to Grissom, and hesitated, obviously about to say something. When she finally did speak, however, she simply told them she'd meet them in the car park in fifteen minutes, and then she turned and left.

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"Grissom, 'bout time you got here. We've got two dead kids and--"

"Brass, you need to speak to Sara."

Jim blinked. "What about?"

"The case. She's acting supervisor."

"What?"

"We swapped jobs for a while." Sara's tone was heavy on the sarcasm. Brass looked at her, but she just stared back at him, making it clear that she was not in the mood for explanations at present. "You were saying about the kids..." she pressed him.

"Yeah... right. College freshman Michael Ruley comes back home from a weekend with his parents, finds his roommate and roommate's sixteen-year-old brother lying face down on the carpet. Afraid you'll have some cross-contamination; guy puked all over the place."

Sara nodded and, hesitating slightly, turned to Greg. "Greg, you're working outside the room. Hallways, stairs, perimeter of the building... anywhere there could be evidence. Don't forget the dumpster." Greg nodded and took off down the hall, while Sara and Grissom entered the room, pulling on latex gloves as they did so.

"Sara, hi," said David, looking up from where he was bent over one of the bodies. "I heard you were..."

"Yeah," said Sara, not really wanting him to finish his sentence.

He nodded and rose, gesturing towards the two bodies. "They died probably around midday yesterday. Younger brother was shot in the head, probably died instantly. Older one got it in the chest; bled out."

"Okay." Sara and Grissom, by an unspoken arrangement, each took one of the bodies, and crouched down to see what evidence the killer had left behind.

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Author's Notes (2)

I have the next couple of scenes planned out in my head, but that's about it, so I would appreciate suggestions, or hints of what you'd like to see! In particular, I have yet to work out what exactly Grissom did, so some ideas would be wonderful... I also welcome constructive criticism, of course. Thanks for reading…