Title: Last Chance - Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Wish I owned them. Because then I could make them dance... DANCE... mwahahaha! But I don't. So no infringement intended.

Authors notes: Updates are coming quick, even if they are short. Because I had it all written out before hand. Well most of it. So anyways. Once again all mistakes are mine and only mine. Well, mine and my spell and grammar checker. So please forgive me. This is where we start wondering what goes on in my head...sorry. Please R&R. Even if you feel like flaming me. All feedback is positive to me! Thanks for reading!

Four hours and not enough evidence later, a weary Sara climbed into Grissom's Tahoe. He followed behind her shortly. "Griss - it's been almost 12 hours - and we've got squat . . . " she sighed wearily, "You think Maddie's even alive?" She referred to Madelaine Fina, the daughter.

Grissom's voice was unusually soft, "If she's not, I can't imagine the hell she's going through." Then he glanced over at her, and for the split second his gaze collided with hers she knew - HE knew. Then he looked away again and her pulse kicked up a notch. It wasn't fair to have this conversation in a moving car where she couldn't make a clean getaway.

"Griss . . . " she started.

"Sara, we need to talk . . . " he interrupted her. "I think it's about time - but not now, ok? Let's find this girl first."

"Yeah Griss, ok . . . " She closed her eyes and laid her head against the soft leather of the car seat. She barely heard him as the sound of the engine lulled her into a state of only half awareness. "I'm sorry."

It was no more than a whisper and she wasn't even 100 percent sure she was meant to hear it. And against her best intentions and the gnawing at her heart, she kept her eyes closed and head back. There would be time for that later. There would always be time to forgive him - and she wasn't sure she could right now anyway.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Sara concentrated on the hum of the engine and the next thing she knew Grissom was touching her shoulder and the vehicle had stopped moving. She opened her eyes, embarrassed that she'd fallen asleep. Somehow in her frantic act too not look tired, Grissom caught her eyes with his and this time he held it. God, she couldn't remember the last time eye contact had been held for this long. But hell if she was gonna be the one to break it.

After what seemed like an hour, Grissom tore his eyes away and Sara remembered to breathe. She exhaled with such a rush; she was sure he must have heard it. But he didn't look her way again.

She opened her door and got out quickly. Shift was over in an hour, but she wasn't leaving. Technically she should and she could - she'd done what was needed of her. She just had to log in the evidence and go home, but she knew better. The case would just wind up following her home anyway. She wouldn't sleep a decent sleep until they found the missing child one way or another. This could quite possibly be her last case, and she really wanted a good outcome - but already she was expecting the worst.

Half a day had gone by since little Maddyhad beentaken. And since both parents were dead - it probably wasn't ransom - and if it wasn't ransom the suspect was after - god, Grissom was right - if that girl was still alive she was probably going through a living hell.

Sara walked into the lab in almost a haze. She logged into her evidence and went to work with what little they had.

An hour later, her phone rang - "Sara"

"Hey, I might have something for you"

Sara hung up the phone and practically dashed to DNA, where she almost collided with Warrick.

"Hey girl, take it easy, we're both after the same thing here."

Sara smiled in spite of herself. "Sorry Warrick, Jessie, the new DNA guy, says he's got something on the double murder."

"Yeah Sara, why else would I be hanging around the DNA lab?"

"Oh, right, it's your case too . . . "

Sometimes it was easy for her to forget that something wasn't just her problem. Even after six years here and her work before that in San Francisco - she still caught herself thinking it was her against the world.

Warrick just smiled at her and followed her through the door. "Jessie, what have we got?"

"It's more like what you haven't got. NONE of this blood is human, not one of fifty swabs"

"Fifty?" Warrick asked, "That's a little higher than usual . . . "

Jessie smiled, "With two bodies and that much blood, I guess Dr. Grissom wanted to be thorough."

"Obviously . . . " Warrick muttered sarcastically.

"It's a high profile case Warrick. There's going to be a lot of scrutiny from the media. He just didn't want to miss anything." She couldn't believe she was defending him . . . again. She hadn't done that in forever. Granted, usually he didn't need defending but lately when he did, she just let it slide. Everyone screwed up sometimes, even Grissom. She just knew he was right this time - - There had been a lot of blood, and had there been a chance even a drop had been the killers . . . she glanced at Warrick. He was looking at her with one eye brow raised.

She turned back to Jessie, "So - the next obvious question - not human, what is it?"

"Not my department - I sent the samples to trace."

"And you paged us both for that?"

"Um, no, Doc Robbins found four foreign hairs, male DNA, during the post. One on the female, three on the male. Identical to one another, follicular tags on one."

"Why didn't you tell us that first?" Sara almost exploded.

"We don't have any hits from CODIS and the lack of human blood at the bloodiest crime scene this year seemed at bit more relevant . . . "

Sara sighed. "Well, at least now if we find a suspect we have something to compare it to."

Warrick's pager went off then, interrupting Sara's near apology. He made a quick call and sighed as he closed the phone. "The blood's Canine . . . "

Sara shuddered. That much blood didn't come from one animal - maybe two - or three. She rubbed her forehead. "Just like the hearts. . . ."

To Be Continued...