DISCLAIMER:Don't Own it. No Money Made... Just for fun and enjoyment.

A/N: This one has a littlebit of everything in it... Hope you like it.

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Chapter 36

She was still fuming at Grissom for tearing her away from the press conference, but Sara knew that they needed to get back to the lab to get a good look at the body before the autopsy started. However, she was not ready to let him know she had forgiven him, just yet. She wanted him to stew in frustration for a while longer. Lord knows, he's done it to me often enough.

Sara continued looking out the window of the SUV, trying hard not to look into his pleading eyes. She realized after her conversation with Stephanie, the night before, that she needed to finally put all of this animosity to bed and move on with her life. And her life was in Las Vegas, with her friends and the people who had become her family.

Her family; what a strange concept that was for Sara. Nick and Warrick were definitely her brothers, though she was not sure if they were her twins or older brothers, since they seemed to switch positions depending on the situation. Greg was, without a doubt, her bratty little brother. For her, Brass was more than a big brother, but slightly less than a father figure, so she decided he was the kindly uncle that dispensed jokes, wisdom, and kept a shoulder handy, in case you needed it. And although her relationship with Catherine had been tenuous, at best, in their past, she still felt a connection with her that was not quite friendship, but certainly bordered on that bossy big sister kind of vibe. That left her with the biggest piece of the dysfunctional family puzzle; where does Grissom fit into the family?

Sara knew, without a moment's hesitation, that Grissom belonged in her life, she just did not know where anymore. He had been her teacher and mentor, and he had been her friend. But that was where the clarity ended for Sara. She always hoped, for a very long time, that they would become more than friends. It was apparent to Sara that it was no longer possible to keep that hope alive. So, why am I having so much trouble letting it go?

Sara did not have any more time to find an answer for that question, because the SUV came to a stop in the parking lot at the lab, signaling the time to get back to business. When she sensed no movement from the driver's seat, she hazarded a glance over that way and found Grissom gripping the steering wheel tightly, hanging his head down. She opened her mouth to say something, but for a change, he beat her to it, "Sara, I'm sorry. I overstepped my bounds. I have no excuse, but I am sorry."

It took a moment for her to register that her mouth was still open after hearing those pained words coming from such a proud man. She could instantly tell that he was truly sorry for having taken charge at the end of her press conference, and Sara suspected she knew the real reason behind it; Grissom hated not being in control. She long believed that his greatest fear was a total loss of control, and tonight he had been given a small glimpse of it, and it probably had him a little freaked out. For something like that, Sara would always forgive him his fault. "It's okay…" Grissom turned with a deeply grateful expression on his face and Sara found that she, too, was losing control. "But you owe me." Sara tried to stop those last words from coming out, as well as the crooked smile playing on her face. She did not know what it was in her nature that forced her to flirt with the man like that, but she never seemed to be able to control it.

The corners of Grissom's mouth turned up, and his eyes twinkled with delight, "Thanks. I'm sure you'll find some way to collect."

Sara quickly got out of the car and tried to hide her surprise at what she believed may have been a suggestive remark from Grissom. How the hell is that possible? Are you losing your grip, Sidle? Grissom could not possibly be flirting with her. Not now. She fought the notion, deciding instead that the two had simply returned to a happier time, when they could both be comfortable with each other, without the veil of tension they had been living with for some time now. Grissom would not be the kind of person who would ever cheat, she knew that deep down in her heart. Sara chalked the whole thing up to wishful thinking on her part. Chalk… Damn my mind!

She walked the rest of the way into the lab without saying a word, hoping to make all of the other thoughts vanish from her mind. When they got inside, Grissom spoke, breaking her away from the shields once more, "How about I get all this 'evidence' logged, so you can get down to Autopsy?"

Sara responded with great speed, hoping it did not make her sound too nervous, "Yeah, that would be great. See you down there." Down there… With her. Sara instantly chided herself for thinking such a thing. Stephanie was not the bad guy in this mess, and Sara actually liked the young doctor. She kept reminding herself that this was the first day of her new life, and it was time to stop dwelling on the old one. She was going to put it all behind her, if it was the last thing she did. And as she pushed through the doors of Autopsy to find Stephanie and Catherine chattering about something, she realized it just might be the last thing.

"Hey, Ladies." Sara called out to them, to make sure they knew she had entered the room.

"Oh, hi Sara… We're just waiting for David to finish prepping the body right now." Stephanie waved her over to join them.

She sat down on the stool Catherine slid over for her, and found the two women with cryptic smiles on their faces. "Okay, so what's the joke?"

Catherine gave her a sideways glance and said, "No joke, I was just giving Steph the lowdown on some of the goings on around here."

"That could be dangerous." There were never truer words spoken, and Sara was wary of just where this discussion would go.

Stephanie's face told Sara that she was about let the genie out the bottle, "So, did you really have to take a shower with Greg?"

The air actually left Sara's lungs with the question. "Wha-What?"

"Yeah, so it was a DeCon shower, but still… Did you, ya know, see anything?" The two conspirators burst out laughing that time.

"Oh man… I've had nightmares about discussions like these." Sara covered her face and shook her head trying to hide the blush burning on her cheeks.

"Oh, c'mon, Sara… You gotta spill." Catherine once again reminded Sara that she truly was a feline creature, with the expression on her face at that moment.

"I can't believe I'm doing this, but yes." The two women howled in delight, and Sara had to admit it was an entertaining way to pass the time.

"As the only eye witness to the crime, can you confirm or deny the rumors?" Sara could swear that Catherine was the younger of the three women with the way she was goading on the base nature of the conversation.

Sara tucked her chin down, and looked at the women through the top of her eyes, with a slight grimace on her face before answering, "Neither… It was exaggerated, but not that much." The howls increased and were only silenced by the arrival of David to the room, when they immediately shushed themselves, and pretended to be doing nothing.

David wheeled the body in, and was about to transfer it to the exam table, when he spoke, "According my fiancé, his last girlfriend claimed that no matter the size, he wasn't very good with it." And the howling resumed with great vigor and found David blushing wildly.

"Nice one, David!" Stephanie got up and slapped him on the back for a gesture of congratulations, "We'll make a proper smart ass out of you yet."

"If you only heard the things I keep to myself." With that, Stephanie was laughing again.

"Don't worry… Between me and Sandy, we'll get you whipped into shape soon enough." Stephanie looked at the condition of the body before she returned her attention to David, "Hey, what about those new drain trap filters?"

"Oh, I almost forgot." He handed an evidence jar of unknown material to Sara, wrapped the lip with red evidence tape and signed it with the date. "Here's the rest of your trace." He turned back to the doctor, "I love those new filters. I didn't have to handle the stuff at all, just popped it out and put it in the jar. Where on earth did you find those?"

Stephanie chuckled, "Found? No. Sold? Yes… You should be able to get those from our regular supplier sometime in the next six months." She was going through her instruments then, as though she was not saying anything monumental, "Just make sure you don't dump the O-Rings, and let me know when you start to run short before they offer them from Baxter." She was already engrossed in preparing for her autopsy, and did not notice the stunned faces of those around her.

Catherine decided that she could not let the question go unasked, "Wait, so you MADE those filters and sold the design?"

Stephanie finally looked up from her task, "What? Oh, no, I just sold the Pacific and Mountain Region production rights to Baxter Medical Supply. I still hold the patent." She turned back to her preparations and started gloving up for the exam, leaving the others to stand with their mouths agape.

That was what Grissom found as he entered the room, "Leaving them speechless once again?"

Stephanie popped her head up and looked through her safety glasses, "What?" She looked around at the others in the room and discovered what he was referring to and laughed, "Well, yeah I guess… What did I say?"

Catherine shook her head, hoping it would clear the fog, "Gil, did you know Stephanie has a patent on some filters for the prep table?"

Grissom reached over and grabbed three gowns for himself and the other two women, handing one to each of them as he responded in a nonchalant tone, "Of course, who do you think recommended a good patent attorney?" He turned his attention over to Stephanie, who had continued her work unimpeded by the incredulity of the others in the room, "Did you ever get the production rights sorted out?"

Without moving her focus away from the body before her, Stephanie responded in a monotone, "Yeah, but Tony is still working on the Atlantic and Midwest Regions, and he said something about some trade law complications with the Canadian manufacturer and the American ones, so I'm still waiting to hear back on those. But I just let Tony deal with that headache. Since he only works for a percentage, I know he's gonna do the right thing."

Grissom nodded, "That's why I recommended him. Those other guys with their retainers and fees are only interested in themselves. A good patent attorney is your salvation, especially when it isn't your primary focus. What's that discoloration around mouth?"

His last comment broke the trance in which both Catherine and Sara had been in, and they quickly strapped on their gowns and leaned in to get a better view. "I was just going to comment on that, but let me check-." She reached in and turned up the lips to see the underside, "Yep, bruising. Looks like she may have bit down on her lips, or had it done to her."

Sara gave her a puzzled expression, "I don't get it?"

"Oh come on, Sara… You've never had someone get hold of your lip in a, um, passionate moment?" Sara blushed and looked away momentarily, "Anyway, some people get off on the whole biting thing. I saw a lot of weird stuff at the LA County Coroners, but mostly because my branch was in the same jurisdiction as these two 'houses.' So, we ended up having to do a lot of bite impressions for the PD."

Catherine's interest was piqued, "'Houses?'"

"Yeah, you know, they're mostly these warehouse buildings where people run fetish clubs. I hear it's a fairly lucrative business. Low overhead, contract workers at most, and the owner/operator takes at least fifty percent off the top for their fee." Stephanie looked around the room and found a mass of faces in different states of being: Sara was shocked, Catherine was amused, David was intrigued and Gil actually looked embarrassed. The last one really confused Stephanie, because she had always considered her uncle to be one of the most open minded men she knew. There's gotta be a story to that one. I wonder who I should ask about it? "Anyway… From the preliminary, I'd say this young woman was having one heck of a night."

That phrase snapped Sara out of her stupor, "What? Like a date?"

"Would have been one hell of a date, if you ask me… No, what I'm saying is that she shows all the signs of a serious night of passion. We found what appeared to be massage oil on her skin, lubricant in the lower orifices, and I believe trace will reveal that the substance we discovered between her toes was saliva."

Sara was confused, "Then, what was the COD?"

"Well, we did discover some blood inside the mouth. Catherine took swabs of all the usual suspects, and that was when we noticed the blood inside her mouth. First glance, looked like her tongue was bitten." Stephanie moved for the head and started the process of opening the mouth. "Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, although we found no semen, we're pretty sure there was evidence of a condom, and so I have initially ruled out foreign object penetration. And also, on the prelim, I'm going out on a limb and say this was consensual."

Grissom was a little shocked at that one, "Are you sure? I mean, that just seems odd considering the girl is dead."

"I don't know what to tell you about that part, but the clock says it all on the sex part. It was all textbook, lunch hour variety sex." Stephanie opened the mouth fully and then turned around to pick up an instrument with which to retrieve the tongue.

"Lunch Hour?" Catherine was confused by the phrase.

Sara responded, "She's referring to the vaginal clock, Cath."

"OH! Sorry, just not used to that verbiage." Catherine felt a little silly by her question, but was quickly relieved when David responded.

"You should have seen me the first time she asked me to 'douche the DB.'" They all had a quick laugh over the comment and David's attempt at humor.

"Hey… I'm young, and it's not my fault you people are stuck in the mud."

Grissom interjected, "I resemble that remark."

"Only when you want to." Stephanie winked at him, and Sara felt the bile rising in her stomach. And this time, it had nothing to do with the dead body on the table before them. "Okay," The coroner quickly changed the timber of her voice, "This is interesting."

They all leaned in to get a better view. "What is that?" Catherine had her nose crinkled up as she looked at the protruding and disfigured tongue of the body on the table.

"Well, I'll tell you one thing it's not… It's no love bite. This tongue has been mutilated." She looked over at David, "David, call up to Wendy and make sure she rushes that tox, please.?"

David nodded his head and moved straight for the phone. "Hello, Wendy?... Yeah, it's David down in the morgue… Fine, thank you… Dr. MacInnerney wanted me to ask you to expedite that tox report for the Levinsky case… Okay… Thank you, Wendy… Goodbye." David hung up the phone and turned back to the people at the table, "She says she's working on it right now, and there was no semen, but positive for lubricant and spermicide, and a second vaginal contribution."

His last comment got everyone in the room to look up, and straight at him, but Sara was the first one to speak, "WHAT?"

David's face immediately lost all color and he stammered out the words again, "Positive for lu-."

"The last part, David." Sara sounded almost angry.

"There was a second vaginal contribution?"

Sara ripped off her gown and gloves and took out her phone, "I better let Brass know… He's got another suspect to track down."