Disclaimer: Alas not mine in any way, shape or form.
Spoilers: Small spoilers to Season 6 eps that have aired specifically regarding Sofia Curtis.
AN: Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but it took a couple of tries before it was just right. Next one should be up in a couple days.
Sara tried not to think about what was happening, to not remember the cases she'd worked in San Francisco, but couldn't. It was like her brain wasn't listening and so was showing her snapshots from every bridge jumper and drowning victim she'd ever seen.
The water was getting higher. Sara wished she could ignore it, but the cold water was soaking through her jeans making the skin underneath cold and clammy. It was hard not to give into the desperation as the water continued to rise with alarming speed.
"I thought when I left Frisco I was done seeing cold water drowning. We'd have jumpers off the Golden Gate, if the dive didn't kill them, then the water and environmental temp might. I always hated those calls, but at least its clear water, no fishes or bugs."
Sara wondered how much longer she had and how Nick had managed to hang on until the team found him. Given herself a mental shake, Sara tried to get a grip on her emotions knowing that her attitude could be a factor in her survival. 'Think positive Sara. The team is working on getting you home.' She'd seen each of them at their finest and worst, they were her family and she trusted them with her life. Thinking about the team seemed to help, so she imagined what each of them was doing.
She could imagine Catherine bent over evidence determined to find something. Warrick intensely focused as he processed evidence. Nicky and Brass both wearing their determined expressions as they interviewed witnesses. Greg would be back in the DNA lab, because he didn't trust any other tech to run it properly. While Grissom, would be sitting somewhere reviewing what the team had found and trying to piece the puzzle together.
The yellow legal pad was covered with notes Gil Grissom had jotted down as he tried to make sense of the leads and evidence the team had gathered combined with Sara's conversation with her captor. He'd moved from the AV Lab to the break room, waiting for the others to return and report back on the leads they were following. He'd had a couple of large pizzas delivered so they could eat while they talked. He knew from past experience that neglecting the body's needs wouldn't help the case.
Sofia sat down in the chair to his left. "How you holding up?" She hadn't been part of Nick's disappearance so had no way of gauging how he was holding up comparatively, but based on her time on the night shift she knew this case was getting his A game especially since it was a member of his team missing.
"I'll be better when we get her back." Grissom wished Sofia would take the hint and let him focus on Sara's case. The nagging feeling that he'd overlooked some vital clue was gnawing at him. It felt like once he found it everything else would come together so they could find Sara. He just wanted to be left alone so he could review the case again to see if he really was any closer to the answer.
Sofia nodded. "If you need anything let me know, okay?"
"Thanks." His phone rang.
"I need to see if I need to take this." She smiled not surprised that he was screening his calls. She remembered being forced by the Sheriff to deliver a message to him at a crime scene when he was ignoring Conrad's calls. Grissom wasn't any more pleased to be interrupted by his cell phone than he had been by Sofia. He was close, he could feel it. He just needed everyone to leave him alone so it would reveal itself.
Glancing at the caller id he blinked as his brain tried to comprehend what the display was showing him. He was getting a call from Sara's cell phone. Flipping open his phone he answered trying to catch it before it switched over to voice mail. "Sara?" Standing up quickly, he ignored Sofia and the yellow pad falling to the floor as he rushed from the room nearly running as he headed back down the hall to the AV Lab.
Sofia blinked once when she heard Grissom answer his phone, then pulled out her own phone to call Jim as she followed her former supervisor down the hall. "Jim. Grissom just got a call from Sara's phone. Yeah, I'll let you know what he turns up."
The electronic voice on the other end of the phone was laughing in Grissom's ear. "Afraid not Dr. Grissom. Sara's still rather indisposed.'
Grissom stepped into the AV Lab. He didn't notice Sofia had followed him or that she had stopped at the doorway. She stood there allowing herself a moment to get accustomed to the horror of Sara's confinement and re-establish some professional distance. Jim had told her about Sara being trapped in a flooding cell, but seeing it was totally different.
Watching the younger CSI and knowing her co-workers were suffering just as much made the Detective both sad and angry. She knew the team was still reeling from Nick's experience and everything that had happened since. Sofia wasn't close to Sara, mostly because they hadn't had a chance to get to know one another before Sofia left the lab, but she still felt the shared bond of law enforcement personnel. Sara was one of their own and they had to do whatever it took to bring her home safe and sound.
With his hand over the receiver Grissom got Archie's attention. "See if you can get a GPS lock or a trace on Sara's cell." Nodding the young Asian man started keying quickly to access the data requested. Grissom returned his attention to the cell listening carefully. Straining to catch any background noise. Grateful that neither Sofia nor Archie was making any unnecessary noise. His experience had taught him that clues could be picked out if you listened well enough. He debated putting the call on speaker phone, but didn't want to risk not hearing something. "You have Sara's phone."
"Yes. I wanted a chance to check in on you and didn't think you'd take just any call?"
"Well I'm listening and you have my attention."
"Funny that's all Sara ever wanted."
"What do you know about Sara?"
"Quite a bit actually. You see I had to anticipate her reactions in my plans. Her writing was very informative full of interesting insights and tidbits about you, your team and her life. I like her use of color in decorating don't you?" Grissom filed that piece of information away, but didn't respond to the taunts, instead waiting for the voice to continue. Silence was an old interrogation technique, which could be used quite effectively to get the other person to reveal more than they intended. He just hoped that by applying various techniques he could get the criminal to share the information that would save Sara. "When I came across her journals it was like being given a direct link to divine inspiration. She became my muse."
"I can't imagine that."
"No I guess you couldn't, but she was. Her journals were quite helpful and the inspiration for my plans. Reading the descriptions of her nightmares and deepest, darkest fears inspired me to bring them to life. She really is a delightful combination of scientific rationality and womanly sensitivity."
"Sara is special." Grissom agreed, changing tactics again hoping to trip this guy up.
"Do you remember the case where the kidnapped wife was buried in a crate in the desert by her boyfriend?"
"Yes, it was one we got during her first year in Vegas."
"Yes. Then there was the body you processed that was covered with fire ants."
"I remember." He recalled the young man with Downs Syndrome's skeleton acting as a colony for the fire ants.
"It's interesting how the mind works. Did you know Sara's mind combined elements from both cases that gave her nightmares for the longest time?"
Grissom closed his eyes remembering the long ago conversation about Sara's empathy. It hadn't concerned him then, but now looking back on it, he was worried she'd said she heard the victim's screams outside of work and not just when she slept. "I knew she had trouble sleeping, but she hasn't mentioned nightmares in a long time."
"Typical Sara being strong and silent, writing it down instead of sharing with another human being." The line was silent for a moment. "You know it was her moving descriptions of what it would feel like being trapped under ground, unable to escape, being bitten by the fire ants and all the time knowing that her air supply would run out before you could find her that inspired the idea for the coffin at the Nursery."
"I didn't know." Grissom watched as Archie worked his magic and the cell phone was triangulated, Sofia was already contacting dispatch getting a couple of patrol cars headed to the area.
The voice on the other end sighed, "It's too bad he grabbed Mr. Stokes, I was rather looking forward to seeing Sara's reaction to waking up in her own nightmare."
Grissom gripped the counter to keep himself steady. Since that night he'd had nightmares of each of the team, including Sara being trapped instead of Nick. His stomach rolled from nausea at the idea that her captor had been looking forward to her reaction to that situation.
"The web cam was also inspired by her too. You should read her perspective of watching you while Adam Trent held that shive to her throat. Which emotions she thought she saw flickering across your face. I wonder if her memory of it matches your perspective."
Silence again for a couple of heart beats. "Even with that mad man whispering in her ear talking about raping and killing her, her focus was you instead of on what was happening to her. Does it feel the same watching her on the screen as it did watching her through the locked glass room?"
"No it's worse."
"I wish I could stay and hear more. Does Archie have her location yet? I hope so. It would be such a shame if Sara's faith in his skill and yours was unfounded."
The click was loud in his ear and followed by the dial tone. "Archie what you got?"
"Looks like she's about twenty minutes from here." He wrote down the GPS coordinates, then pulled out the map and circled the location on it.
"I'll drive." Sofia offered taking the map and pulling out her keys.
With lights and sirens running, Sofia drove slightly faster than was probably safe trying to make the twenty minute drive as fast as possible. Pulling up as close to the spot Archie had indicated as she could, she turned off the ignition. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way."
Grissom nodded as he got out. Sara's cell phone was here. This Nursery was the last place he'd expected to come back too, but Archie had double checked his results while they waited for Brass to bring the owner. The owner had given his permission for them to search.
While Brass asked him some questions Grissom picked up his case. Walking next to Sofia as both Detective and CSI shined their flashlights looking for any sign of disturbance. Warrick and Greg would be flying over the site in a chopper in a couple of minutes using a scanner to search for thermal activity beneath the surface.
"Grissom look." Sofia's light shone on Sara's cell phone resting on top of the fire ant hill.
"Let's check the perimeter maybe he left us footprints or some other evidence." Sofia nodded slipping easily from Detective mode back into the criminalist mind frame. She was focused on the ground, but could hear the chopper over head.
"Grissom, Curtis can you hear us?" Warrick's voice crackled over the radio.
"Go ahead."
"We've gone over the site three times; we've got a total of eight heat signatures."
Sofia's ponytail bobbed as she nodded. "That accounts for me, Brass, Grissom, the owner and four patrolmen."
"Looks like she's not there."
"Yeah, we found her cell and we're checking for trace now."
"Damn it. This guy's screwing around with us." She'd never seen an angry Grissom and had to admit it wasn't something she'd really expected. In all the cases they'd worked together she had always admired his ability to maintain his detached professionalism. "Guys head back to the lab. I'll collect whatever is here and see you back there."
He didn't need to check his pulse to know it was well over 95 and the thought reminded him of Sara. Her voice had been soft when she asked about the walk around the block. He remembered the soft brush of her hand on his cheek, the loose curls framing her face. This time he took her advice and stepped away from Sofia and the officers.
Walking around, the light from his flashlight skimming the ground in front of him. He stopped walking when the white light focused on the bright russet orange fiber. The fiber was out of place in the landscape of the Nursery. It was close enough to the ant hill that it might have been left at the same time. Dropping the fiber into a bindle he felt renewed as he started sweeping the area again, because sometimes the smallest piece of evidence was the biggest clue.
