Author's Notes

Sorry for the month-long wait between updates; I had a little bit of writer's block, and got back in the mood by writing a couple of other CSI stories. I've been very amused reading the different reactions to my A/N at the end of the last chapter… Ecklie seems to be one of those characters that people either hate, or love-to-hate.

Thank you to my dad for providing me with a bit of inspiration for the events of this chapter.

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Having no new evidence in the double they had been working on, both Sara and Sofia had moved onto new cases. Graveyard was swamped once again, and any further cases that came in would probably have to be given to somebody on-call from dayshift.

Brass came over to where Sara was loading evidence into her car, waiting until she straightened up before speaking.

"How's it going?"

She shook her head. "I found plenty of fingerprints, and a few hairs that look like they must have come from the killer… just need to get them back to the lab and hope the databases bring up a suspect."

He lifted his eyebrows. "I wasn't talking about the case."

"Oh." She paused. "I have to write Nick, Greg and some lab techs up for insubordination."

If possible, the eyebrows seemed to go even higher. "I'm not going to ask what for." He looked at her with something akin to sympathy in his eyes. "And Grissom?"

"What about him?"

"How are you getting along since his demotion?"

"Okay, mostly." She sighed. "At least I get to give this job back to him at some point."

"Not planning on applying for a permanent supervisory position, then."

"I'm really not. Not in this lab."

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"Working overtime?"

Sara looked up as Ecklie entered the layout room. "Not for that much longer. Just going over some of this evidence."

He nodded, and picked up one of the crime scene photographs lying spread out on the large table. At first he was merely being curious, but as he looked at the young face on the picture, the colour seemed to drain from his face. Sara tried to get his attention but he was frozen in place.

"Ecklie?" No response. She reached out her hand, touching him on the arm. "Ecklie. Do you know him?"

At last he turned to her, and managed to say in a weak voice, "He's my nephew."

She drew in a quick breath, then sighed. "I'm sorry." She touched him again in a gesture of comfort. She had seen the expression on other people's faces many times, the shock of realising a relative had been murdered, but it seemed completely alien on his. "Can you… can you give me his name please? We don't have an ID."

"Robert Hickson. He's my sister's son. I - I don't even know him that well, but…"

"Can you give me his address?" she asked compassionately. "And your sister's, so I can contact her?"

"I think… I'll contact her. I have his address somewhere at home." He reached out, lifting the other pictures, desperately trying to find answers from the evidence laid out in front of him.

"Ecklie." She grabbed his arm, pulling it away from the desk. "You can't touch these. You're emotionally involved. Any evidence you touched would be compromised."

"I have to… I have to find who killed him."

"That's my job, Ecklie. Yours is to be there for your sister." He ignored her, reaching again for the evidence on the table, and she decided she'd need more than sympathy to get through to him. "Ecklie!"

He stopped, stared at her. "Sara -"

"Ecklie, this is graveyard's case. Either you let me handle it or you reinstate Grissom and let him do it." Her voice softened. "Please, Ecklie. Go to your sister. Tell her, help her through it. She'll need to identify the body. Let me do this."

At last he nodded, gazing sadly one last time at the photograph in front of him before leaving the room.

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With the body having been identified, and the personal relationship of the victim to the lab's assistant director, Sara ended up doing far more overtime than she had planned. She finally managed to go home for around three hours of sleep and a meal before having to come back to the lab for her next shift.

She sighed as she saw the figure standing just inside her office. "What are you doing here, Ecklie?"

"I was hoping…"

She closed her eyes for a second. "The DNA results haven't even come back yet, Ecklie. And even if they had, I couldn't tell you the result. I'm sorry, but you really should go home. Take a few days off. You shouldn't be in the lab for the moment."

"I know, I just…" He looked so utterly helpless – so unlike the normal Conrad Ecklie – that she felt compelled to put her hand on his arm, offering tactile comfort for the second time.

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Outside in the corridor, Grissom watched as Sara reached out to Ecklie, unable to hear what was being said. The sight stirred up feelings inside him; an uncontrollable jealousy, combined with disbelief. This was Ecklie for Pete's sake, Sara couldn't possibly have feelings for him. Could she?

As Ecklie turned to leave the office, Grissom exited the hall quickly, joining Greg and Sofia in the break room. Sara came in a couple of minutes later to hand out the assignments. Grissom said nothing to her as he passed her a cup of coffee - too preoccupied with his uncertainty over her earlier action, and far too upset at the possibility that his fears were based in reality.

His silence was broken however when he was told that he was being pulled off the homicide that he had been working the previous night with Sofia, and joining Sara on hers. He protested loudly, his hurt and anger at her from earlier influencing his words to the extent that he forgot about the other two occupants of the room.

Sara stared at him in disbelief. Was this really Grissom acting this way? She interrupted him by speaking his name, the deadly tone of her voice stopping him mid-sentence.

Having been quickly brought back to his senses, he obeyed instantly when she ordered him to her office. He waited for her in there, closing his eyes as he remembered his uncharacteristic display of temper.

She entered a couple of minutes later, having sent the other two members of the team off to work on their respective assignments. She had given them strict instructions to not tell anyone of what had happened, but doubted that it had really been necessary – neither Greg nor Sofia would willingly spread any information that would make Grissom look bad.

"You want to tell me what that was about?"

To his credit, he looked shamefaced. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said any of that. I undercut your authority."

"Want to tell me why?"

Looking at her, he understood that this wasn't really a question so much as an order, and was ironically reminded of when the circumstances had been reversed, with him asking why she had blown up at Ecklie. He thought she had probably had more justification at the time than he did now.

"I'm sorry, I… I've just been stressed the last few days…"

"Oh, come on." Sara shook her head. "Gil Grissom doesn't lose his temper in front of other people just because he's stressed."

Realising that she wasn't going to accept a rationalisation any more than he had, he lowered his head. "I suppose I was… jealous."

"Jealous." Her tone was incredulous.

"Yes, I…" From somewhere, he managed to find the courage to spit it out. "I saw you in here with Ecklie, a few minutes ago, and I…"

She stared at him. "You're jealous of me and Ecklie?"

His silence was confirmation enough.

"His nephew's been murdered, Grissom. I was trying to comfort him. That's why I pulled you off your case; so you could help me find his nephew's killer."

The feelings that ran through him were mixed, and powerful. Relief, mostly, along with pain, a lot of happiness, and some self-hatred at the realisation that he had been stupid and condemned her for something she hadn't done (and would have been perfectly allowed to do if she had). He managed a weak "Oh," and lifted his eyes to hers, unable to contain his joy.

She stared at him for a moment longer, then shook her head. "I don't know what to make of that, Grissom. I'm not even sure you have the right to feel jealousy, it's not like you've ever laid a claim to me. And you've done plenty of flirting with Sofia."

His eyes widened. "Sofia…"

Her head shook again. "I think we need to continue this conversation later, Grissom. But right now, we have work to do."