BINDINGS

Chapter 2?
Rating/Spoilers/etc.: See chapter one.

Sara frowned down upon the pages laid out in front of her, each drawing depicting a more horrifying scene than the last. Each page of the comic had been copied, laid side-by-side on an evidence table for her further examination and analysis. She now glanced back and forth between one picture, and the notes she was scrawling on a pad of paper.

'FEAR BASED': As she scrawled this blindly, her eyes soaked in a disturbing image of a man threatening a woman. She shook her head at the dehumanization of it all.

'DOMINANT': In the next drawing, a close-up on a woman's face was shown, her eyes shut as if to avoid watching any torture that was being done or about to be done to her.

'DISASSOCIATIVE': The third drawing depicted a woman walking down a street alone, half-naked and beaten, as if the artist gave no thought to the well-being of this woman he was sketching.

She continued to glance from picture to picture, occasionally scrawling words or phrases to define the different drawings; but found her attention slowly being drawn to two male voices just outside the door, two equally familiar and equally valued, discussing semantics of their current case.

The first voice belonged to her supervisor. "So, our killer was driving around in Mathers' old van."

The second belonged to her colleague--that Southern drawl was quite hard to mistake--one of her closest friends and the closest she'd had to a significant other for almost two years. "I don't think these guys are an original and a copycat. They were partners."

Silence reigned momentarily, before she could almost physically feel her supervisor nodding in response. His tone then changed, enquiring with a hint of worry lacing his rich tenor, "Have you heard from Catherine at all?"

"No boss, not since I saw her coming out of autopsy with Robbins. Why?"

"She should've been back by now," she heard Grissom murmur apprehensively.

Sara then felt her brunette counterpart shrug, and she smiled, her mind's eye perfectly envisioning the perplexed look on Nick's features, wondering what to say to placate their supervisor. "Relax, Grissom, I'm sure she'll be back soon."

Grissom then muttered something in response, something that skirted just along the edges of Sara's hearing, before the two men parted ways… the charming Texan heading somewhere toward DNA while Grissom's footsteps approached the evidence room she was now occupying.

"Sara…" His head poked around the corner before the rest of his body followed, and she suppressed a smile, feigning surprise to see him.

"Grissom, hey!" she greeted, and drew his attention to the drawings laid out in front of her. "I've been taking a look at these dr--"

"Why don't you come down to the WLVU campus with me to check out some of those newly-installed railings," he broke in, stress hugging his boyish but aging features.

She paused, a bit taken aback by his blatant brushing off of her findings. When the meaning behind this sudden suggestion sank in, she nodded slowly, knowing that the whereabouts of the strawberry-blonde was at the forefront of his thoughts.

Sara had once fancied Grissom for herself, had thought that perhaps he'd felt something for her as well. Over the summer though, after an embarrassing narrow escape from a DUI, she'd learned differently. Though he didn't outwardly admit to anything, she realized where his affections lay. And though this notion had itched at her several times over her five years in Vegas, she'd pushed it to the back of her mind, believing that he felt something more for her than friendship.

Grissom was in love with Catherine. So deeply in love that when the slightest thing was wrong with her or going wrong in her life, all thoughts of work were pushed aside. And this was a man who was a workaholic. Sara realized over the summer she'd never be able to compete with whatever he and Catherine had, and had slowly resolved to get over him, focusing her attention elsewhere… namely on the tall, charming Texan she'd flirted with for five years.

At times like this, though, where his devotion to the strawberry-blonde was so intense that it was nearly blinding… it hurt Sara. Pangs of jealousy knocked her square in the chest, but she pushed it all away, knowing he needed indulgence now. However silly his reasons for going to the campus were, she knew he needed to see Catherine to be able to focus on work again. "Sure Grissom, I can go with you," she responded softly.

He nodded once, his cerulean eyes practically sparkling their thanks at her, before he turned on his heel and exited the room, calling to her over his shoulder to meet him at the Denali. She smiled.

"So basically we need to pay close attention to the cement," Grissom instructed her as they meandered down one of the many paths at WLVU. "The railing Catherine and I found earlier had fresh cement, meaning he's not only painting these railings, he's installing them."

Sara nodded, quickening her stride a bit to match his, knowing he needed to flip into 'supervisor' mode in order to properly mask his worry over Catherine. "Okay." She nodded toward a blue-painted railing as they passed it. "I'll check this one out."

"Good." Sara watched briefly as Grissom reached into the pocket of his forensics vest, pulling out his cellular phone. "I'm going to call Catherine and have her meet us here."

"Okay, Grissom." She hadn't meant it to sound so... sympathetic. It had somehow seeped through. From the look on her boss' face, however, he hadn't noticed a thing. He was already busy pressing the speed dial button that would connect him with Catherine... then pacing as he waited for her to answer.

A cell phone loudly ringing drew both criminalists' attention, both looking around with furrowed brows for the source of the ring. When Sara's sable eyes settled on the nearby water fountain, she reached a hand out blindly to her supervisor, just barely swiping his arm. "Grissom..."

He turned to glance at her questioningly, still holding the phone to his ear, before following her gaze. He walked toward the small cell phone lying against the fountain, bending down to retrieve it and seeing his own number flashing back at him from the ID screen. His heart began to beat tachycardic in his chest as he slowly closed his own phone. There was no need for it now. Catherine wouldn't be answering.

TBC