Title: Race Among the Ruins
Author: Cropper
Pairing: GSR
Rating: Mature for Profanity
Disclaimer: Sadly, the characters herein are not mine. I promise to play nice and return them when I am done.
A/N: Thank you, csipal, ligaras and the Beta to be Named Later. You all are the greatest.
Summary: Too little sleep and too much sleet.
Chapter Three
"Hey! Has anyone heard from Grissom?"
Sara's inquiry was met with stony silence. Catherine and Warrick knowingly rolled their eyes at each other and returned to their work.
"Cat?" Sara persisted.
Catherine looked up from the layout table and blew her hair out of her eyes in exasperation. "What, am I his keeper now?" she snapped. "You're the one that has been all Tammy Talksalot with him lately. I haven't talked to him since I told him to get his ass out of bed and back down here. He's a grown man, Sara. He'll be here when he gets here."
'MEOW,' thought Sara as she forcefully swallowed back a sarcastic retort. The kitty Cat was a lioness on the prowl. Nerves were frayed, tempers on edge and everyone, including herself, would be better served if she just ignored Catherine's slightly superior tone and refused to engage in a pissing contest with the older woman. Sara could not help but wonder if part of Cat's general snarkiness was due to the fact that she was starting to feel guilty about making Grissom return when the man had probably only slept roughly six out of the last sixty plus hours.
Sara's brows crinkled in thought as she considered out loud, "That was what, ten, twelve hours ago?"
"Yeah, something like that," Warrick chimed in tiredly.
Warrick and Catherine were trying to reconstruct the shooting while Sara was mapping the victims based on blood spatter and foot prints. Nick and Greg, currently out on a deli run, were awaiting ballistics comparisons to try to pinpoint what shot was fired from where and by whom.
"Still, he should be back by now," Sara mused. "I think I'm going to call him and find out where he is. He so should not be missing out on all this fun," she said with a smirk.
Sara punched her speed dial, missing the knowing look exchanged by her coworkers, and was surprised when she received an instant patch to Grissom's prerecorded "leave your name" blah, blah, blah greeting.
"That's odd. He's not answering."
"What do you mean, he's not answering," Catherine asked, looking up from her task once again. "He always picks up even if he is still asleep."
"His phone isn't even on. It just goes straight to voice mail," Sara worriedly exclaimed.
Catherine thought a minute before saying, "well, maybe he hit a rest stop or something to catch a quick nap."
"Or, maybe he had to pull of to grab a coffee and heed the call of nature," Warrick supplied helpfully. "Why don't you try his pager?"
Sara looked doubtfully at Warrick but punched in the pager number before trying his cell again. She redialed, and redialed, and redialed. "Come on, Grissom," she growled to herself. "Turn on your damn phone."
To Be Continued...