DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'CSI'. They're not my property.
Note: This story was never intended to go further than the first part, but seeing the requests, some additions were decided to be made. Happy to see that you enjoyed it.
Her tongue slipped quite easily into his mouth, allowing a distraction which lasted long enough for her to wrap her arms around his waist; a satisfied smile on her face, followed by a few giggles, and a gentle stroke on her left thigh by his hand.
Sara folded her arms and tilted her head. "Does this look like someone's been kidnapped against her will to you?" she asked.
Nick smiled. "No, it doesn't. Either that or she's a damn good actress," he said and glanced at Sara.
Sara fast-forwarded the surveillance tape from the motel's reception office. The young woman's partner had left just before the owner of the hotel returned. "He didn't want to be seen… his face at least."
"Yeah."
"So the first victim pays for the room. The manager never gets a look of the guy… Where's the other woman?"
"In the car maybe?"
"Did the victims know each other?"
"Not as far as the statements go…" Nick picked up some documents and began going through them.
"Jessica… her… she pays for one room. How did he get the other one?"
"Maybe Brittany was friendly enough with our suspect to as well."
"No, there were barely any defensive wounds on Brittany, but plenty on Jessica."
"Maybe those two planned Brittany's kidnapping but something went wrong, a fight for a better share of the money and so on… that ended up with Jessica being found stabbed to death cuffed to the bathroom door handle."
"It's plausible." Sara nodded.
When the viewing of the tape had finished, Nick looked over at Sara. "I'm gonna check the parking lot again, just to be sure."
"Ok."
"Sara… I was meaning to ask you something."
Sara was waiting for this. "Sure, what?"
"What were you and Grissom doing in that motel room?"
Sara looked back at him. She appeared puzzled but tried to mask her lack of surprise to such a question.
"Two days ago?"
"Oh, that. Processing the crime scene," she simply replied.
"Really."
"Yes, really." She paused. "You don't seem to believe me."
"It's just that… if you were processing the scene that had already been finished by me and Warrick… I think Grissom would've asked me come in, don't you think?"
"Didn't you go over the room of the serial killer couple that time with Grissom?"
"That was different."
"How so?"
"Wasn't fully processed. Also, Grissom said fifteen minutes… What took you half an hour in there?"
"You actually timed us?"
"I should've."
"Why are you so interested about this all of a sudden?"
"You go into a motel room already processed, the door's closed, takes you more than fifteen or so minutes to come out…" he shook his head and lifted his hands. "Isn't that supposed to trigger curiosity?"
Sara's eyebrow raised itself as she stared at her colleague doubtfully. "Are you sure you didn't undergo a sex change before you joined the lab?"
Nick smiled. "What?"
"Because you sound like an old maid who has nothing else to do but ask questions about things which shouldn't concern her."
"So, we're going with the 'it's none of your business' reply?"
"Not necessarily. But if you want to see some of the love bites from then, I'll be happy to show you," she teased.
"I'm just saying, gossip starts easily around here."
"Huh, doesn't it everywhere?"
"Not with you two," he said and returned his eyes to the papers in his hands.
"What do you mean?"
"You know, rumors come and go." Readying himself to leave, he was stopped with a gentle hold of his arm instead.
"Could you be more precise?"
"You and Grissom." Seeing her slightly puzzled expression, Nick sighed. "Oh, come on, Sara. You haven't heard those?"
"No, didn't know there were any… not that I'm particularly interested in them…"
"Ok, then." Another attempt of exiting the room was interrupted by Sara's voice.
"Hey… What kinds of rumors?"
"The most popular ones?" He smirked. "Doctors and nurses," Nick said and finally walked away.
Sara stood there motionless except for the twitch of her left lip and a couple of blinks. This was surprising and unpleasant to know; last thing which Sara needed had been for an empty-headed rumor to fly around of her sleeping with the boss. Given her somewhat strange relationship with Grissom, this did not register well with her at all. They had never shown signs of anything resembling such physical interaction. Why would others build rumors like that? Sara shook her head and sighed. People that gossip about other people have truly no room for their own life it seems.
Grissom had finished with a report when Sara walked into his office. "Hey," he heard her call him. He looked up at her. The blue top and black jeans didn't fail to emphasize her delightfully youthful appearance, allowing Grissom to unwillingly admit to himself that he enjoyed seeing her in this way. "Hey, Sara."
"What's up?" Sara asked after she had received a paged message from him.
He looked down at his papers. "Found out our suspect has been to the Shimmer strip club recently."
"Want me to check it out?
"Yeah. We're going."
"We?"
He looked up at her. "Yes."
"Oh… ok."
"Something wrong?"
"No." She paused. She felt curious. "Heard any of the rumors about us?"
"Your predictions came true then."
"Yes, who's fault's that I wonder."
"You could've declined my offer, Sara."
"You could've made it less conspicuous."
Grissom smirked.
"Apparently the closed door sparked a few gossip fires out there."
"Like what?" Not much curiosity was shown in that question.
"Like the dirty category?"
"Oh, I see." He tilted his head slightly and slowly stood up. He began tiding the smaller stacks of paper as he spoke. "People need a distraction from their own empty lives when they start gossiping about others," he replied and left his desk. Grissom did not appear bothered or curious about that piece of news at all. He treated it instead like worthless information not valuable of attention or even a discussion.
Sara sighed quietly. "That's what I thought also," she agreed. Sara noticed his dismissal of the subject, and had she dared to probe into it regardless of that dismissal, it would not only make it uncomfortable even further, but it would open doors to subjects that were not ready to be discussed just yet. She soon noticed her supervisor stop in front of her. There was some expectancy on his face. "What?" she asked.
"Are we going?"
Of course, what else could have he been waiting for? "Oh, yeah. Sorry." Sara quickly turned around and gradually walked out.
While witnessing her exit, a wayward curl shaped his lips. As much as the news was surprising to him and even uncomfortable – reminding him just once again of the never-ending and pitiful curiosity of other human beings about the personal lives of others – it was also slightly amusing seeing Sara's reaction to it and to his apparent "dismissal" of the subject.
One day those rumors might not be rumors any more after all.
