A/N: Sorry again for not updating that quickly. Thanks to all of those who have continued to read and review this. Reviews make me so happy! Also, thanks to my beta Camilla Sandman.
Even though the door to Grissom's office was open, Greg knocked before he entered in order to get his attention. After hearing the knock Gil lifted his head and looked at Greg. "What can I do for you, Greg?"
"I wanted to give you an update on our case," Greg said, taking a seat in front of the desk. "And I wanted to tell you that I have a personal relationship with the victim."
"How well do you know her?" Grissom asked.
"Alex used to live next door to my family when I was younger. She was my sister's best friend, but I haven't seen or heard from her in over ten years," Greg explained. "She went to live with her aunt after her parents were killed when she was ten and I haven't seen her since."
"All right. I don't want you to handle or process any more evidence from this case. I don't want your involvement to compromise anything," Grissom said.
"I figured you were going to say that, but I thought I should tell you anyway."
"Where is Alex now?"
"She's in the break room. Nick and Sara are getting ready to take her statement," Greg told him, standing up. "I told Alex I'd be there before they start so I'm going to get going."
"Keep me updated and remember Greg, hands off on this one."
"Will do, boss," he replied before leaving Grissom's office and heading to the break room.
When Greg got there, he saw Alex sitting at the table across from Nick and Sara, with the recorder sitting between them. Greg walked over to sit next to Alex.
"Are you sure you're ready to do this?" he asked gently.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Alex replied.
"We're waiting for Brass to get here before we get started," Nick said.
Sensing the tension in the room, and trying to lighten the mood, Sara said, "Nick was trying to get some dirt on you from when you were younger, Greg, but Alex wouldn't give up much."
"Yeah. All she would tell me was how protective you were of her," Nick added, grinning slightly.
"He did keep an eye out for Emily and me but he could be a pain too," Alex said, looking over at Greg. "Like when Em and I would be watching a movie you'd have your music blaring and wouldn't turn it down. Most of the time we had to get your parents to tell you to turn the volume down."
"When Greg worked in the DNA lab, he'd always be blasting music. It drove our boss- that's Gil Grissom, nuts," Sara said.
"Sometimes he was so into it that when we went to talk to him we'd catch him dancing and he didn't notice us until a few moments after we turned the music off," Nick recalled, making Alex smile. He looked toward the door and saw Brass come in. "Hey, Brass."
They all looked up at the captain. "We have everything ready to go. We were waiting for you before getting started," Sara said.
"You must be Alexandra," Brass said, looking at Alex as he took a seat at the end of the table. "I'm detective Jim Brass."
"Yeah, I'm Alex," Alex replied, looking past Brass to see Warrick entering the room. She tensed up again, feeling anxious with so many people in the room.
"Sorry to interrupt," Warrick apologized, walking over to the coffee pot. "I'm just here to get some coffee and then I'll be out of your way."
"It's all right Warrick. We didn't start yet," Sara told him.
"How's Cath doing?" Nick asked. "She seemed a little worked up before."
"She's fine," Warrick replied, casually pouring two cups of coffee. He didn't want to elaborate as he noticed Alex looked nervous, and he didn't want to reveal to the others anything Catherine didn't want them to know.
"I'll see you guys later," he added before heading out again.
After Warrick left Brass said, "All right. How about we get started now? Alex, at anytime if you want to stop, all you have to do is tell us and we can take a break. We're going to be recording what you say just for our own use, okay? Do you have any questions?"
"Yeah, um…" Alex started, hesitating slightly. Greg put his arm around her, and giving him a grateful smile, she continued. "What exactly do you want to know?"
"You can tell us anything you remember from last night," Brass said, pushing the record button.
"How much detail do I have to go into?" she asked, looking down at the table.
"As much as you feel comfortable with," Greg told her. "The more you tell us, the more it will help us to catch who did this."
"Where should I start from?" she asked.
"Why don't you tell us from before anything happened," Sara replied.
"All right. I was standing in the kitchen with my parents. I was telling them how my finals went when we heard something crash through the window in the living room. We all ran in there to see what happened." Alex paused, taking in a deep breath. "There was a man pointing his gun at us. He said if we screamed or tried to run away, he'd shoot us. He made us all go to my parents' room. He kept telling us not to try anything and if we did, he'd shoot us. When we got to the room he locked the door behind us. He told my mom to sit on the bed and all of us not to say a word."
"Can you tell us what he was wearing?" Brass asked, carefully trying to guide her to elaborate on details that could be helpful to catching the guy.
"He was wearing black pants, gray sneakers, a black shirt, and latex gloves," Alex said, her voice trembling as she spoke.
"What happened next?" Nick asked.
"He…He… He told my dad to sit down on the chair next to the bed and he told me to sit on the floor. He tied my dad's hands behind the back of the chair and each of his feet to a leg of the chair. Then he came over and tied my arms behind me and my legs together," she said, pausing again before continuing. "He threw my mom down on the bed and started to take off her cloths. She was struggling against him. My… My dad yelled at him to stop. He got off the bed and yelled at us saying if any of us said another word he would kill us all. He took a scarf and tied it around my dad's mouth. He… He..."
Breaking down and crying, Alex turned and looked at Greg. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him, holding her until she regained some composure.
"Do you need a break, Alex?" he asked as she withdrew slightly.
"No. I'll be fine. I want to get this over with," Alex replied, sitting back in her chair and wiping her eyes with a tissue Greg handed her.
"Take your time and whenever you're ready you can continue," Greg told her.
"I'm ready," Alex said taking a deep breath. "After he tied the scarf around my dad's mouth, he came over and did the same to me. He went back over to the bed and got on top of my mom. I … I couldn't watch so I turned my head away. It sounded like he raped my mom. I think she was fighting him the whole time. I heard her gagging and gasping for a breath, so I looked up and saw that he had his hands around her throat. When she stopped moving he pulled out a knife from his back pocket. He raised his arm with the knife and brought it down. I … I … There was so much blood. He got up and walked over to my dad and slit his throat. More blood. So much..."
"Alex, you can..." Greg started, but she interrupted him.
"No! I'm going to finish now," Alex shouted, her voice shaky and raw. She hesitated for a moment, but went on with the last of her strength. "He flipped the knife shut and put it back in his pocket. I remember thinking the blood would stain his pocket. He looked over at me and told me it was my turn. I was so scared. I… I couldn't move. He came over and untied my hands and feet but left to scarf in my mouth. He grabbed my arm, pulled me up and threw me on the bed next to my mom. When…When I saw her lying there like that… and all the blood, I knew I couldn't give up. I knew I'd be dead unless I fought. I started to kick and hit him. At first it seemed like I was just making him angrier, but I must have finally caught him off balance because he fell off the bed. I didn't check to see if he hit his head or anything. I just got up and ran. I don't remember anything after that until that moment when you found me in the woods."
Alex looked over at Nick and Sara. "You did great, Alex," Sara reassured her.
"This is going to help us a lot," Brass added, turning the recorder off.
"I… I have to go," Alex said, suddenly standing up and moving toward the door, almost clawing for the door handle.
"Alex, wait!" Greg called out after her, but too late. She was already out of the room and was making her way down the hall.
Greg looked at Nick and Sara, hesitating until Nick urged him, "Go after her!"
Greg left the room, but Alex had vanished, presumably heading out. He didn't want to wait for the slow elevator so he ran down the stairs and out the front doors of the building. He looked around, but Alex was nowhere in sight. He let out a frustrated sigh and turned to head back inside.
When he got back up, he saw Grissom, Catherine, and Warrick had joined the others. "Did you catch her?" Sara asked, looking concerned.
"No. She was gone before I got out there," Greg explained. "I didn't see where she went."
"Did you get her contact information?" Grissom asked.
"No."
"Do you have any idea where she might go?" Nick asked.
"Not really. I barely got to talk to her before she gave her statement," Greg replied.
"She gave her full statement, right?" Catherine asked.
"Yes, but we still need to find her. I don't think she should be alone right now," Greg said, looking as concerned as he felt.
"Yeah," Sara agreed. "But we don't have any ways of contacting her. We're going to have to wait until she turns up again."
"Wait a minute," Nick said, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket. "I almost forgot. Alex gave me this when she first got here. She wanted me to give it to Sara in case Sara wanted to call."
Greg took the offered paper from Nick and gave it a thoughtful look. "If we can trace this number, hopefully we can get an address and find Alex."
"Greg and Sara, you work on that," Grissom told them.
"Since there is nothing else for us to do right now and our shift is over, why don't we go home?" Nick suggested. "I'm sure Greg and Sara will call us if they find anything."
"That sounds good to me," Warrick said, looking at Catherine.
"Yeah, sounds good to me too, but make sure you call me as soon as you get any news about Alex," Catherine said, her voice full of concern.
"Don't worry, Cath. You know they'll call us as soon as they know anything. They know we're all worried about her," Warrick reassured her.
"I know, it's just…" Catherine started.
"It's what?" Nick asked, curious as to what was causing her to act the way she had since their encounter in the hallway.
"Oh, it's... I'm worried about her as Warrick said, as we all are," Catherine said, her voice now calmer. She hoped no one could tell how concerned she really was about Alex's whereabouts and state of mind. She didn't want to tell anyone else yet about her possible relation to Alex.
"All right," Nick replied, not fully buying her explanation, but Catherine could get emotional about cases and perhaps this was another example.
"I'm going to run the number now," Greg said, turning to leave. "Are you coming, Sara?"
"Yeah, bye guys. Hopefully I'll be calling you soon to let you know where Alex is," Sara said and following Greg.
"I'm leaving now. I'll see you both tomorrow," Nick told Catherine and Warrick before heading to the locker room to get his bag.
"Hey Greg," Sara said, watching Greg sitting down in front of the computer. "Why don't you get started? I'll be right back, just gotta do one thing."
"All right."
Smiling, she walked out of the room and headed to the locker room. She hoped Nick was still there. As she pushed the door open she saw he was indeed there, sitting on the bench in front of his locker.
He looked up at her when he heard her enter. "Hey, Sara. I thought you were going to help Greg look for that address."
"I'm going to, but I wanted to give you a proper goodbye," she said, walking over to him.
"Oh really?" he asked, standing up to face her and closing his locker door. "What did you have in mind?"
"Nothing special," she replied, trying to hold back a smile as she leaned back against the row of lockers.
"But I thought you said you wanted to say goodbye?" he said, moving so close to her their faces were nearly touching.
"I do," she said, her voice barely a whisper.
"Then why don't..." Nick started, but he was cut off by Sara's lips covering his.
It was a full minute before they broke apart, neither speaking for a moment. Without really being aware of it, he'd lifted his hands up on either side of Sara, effectively pinning her between him and the lockers. She didn't seem to mind, judging by the look on her face, and neither did he. After a deep, steadying breath, he broke the silence. "That was... Nice."
"Yeah, but I better get going before someone comes looking for me and finds us like this," she replied.
"You're right... But I think we have time for one more," he said, giving her a seductive smile.
"I was thinking the same thing," she almost purred, sliding her arms up his back.
"Good," he told her, embracing her and pulling her as close as he could. She smiled up at him as he leaned down to capture her lips again.
Both of them were so caught up in the moment they didn't hear Warrick come into the room. As soon as he noticed the pair, he tried to slip out without disturbing, but ended up tripping over something on the floor. Out of balance, he had to catch himself by leaning on a locker. The two broke apart as soon as they heard the noise. Noticing it was Warrick, they quickly stepped away from each other, looking guilty.
Warrick stifled a laugh as he noticed their flustered appearance. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything. I forgot something in my locker."
"It's all right. I have to get back to work anyway," Sara said, quickly moving towards the door.
"Call me when your shift is over?" Nick called after her.
As she reached the doorway she turned back to face him with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, I will."
After Sara left the room and the door closed behind her, Warrick turned to Nick. "So, Sara's the one that caused your good mood earlier?"
"Yes," Nick replied, wanting to give away anything more than the already obvious.
"So what caused you to finally make your move on her?"
"We went out for breakfast together when we got off work yesterday and then we went back to her place after. We ended up watching some TV and falling asleep on the couch."
"That's all?" Warrick asked, sensing there was more to the story.
"Yeah, that's it," Nick replied, not wanting to spill everything. He was pretty sure Sara would want some details kept private.
Warrick only gave a disbelieving stare as he got the shirt he forgot out of his locker and they both walked out of the building. When they reached the parking lot, they said their goodbyes and headed for their individual cars.
As Warrick approached his SUV, he noticed Catherine leaning back against it with her arms crossed. When she noticed him, she dropped her arms to her side and stood up straight. "What's up, Cath?" he asked, wondering why she was waiting for him.
"I was thinking that while we wait to hear from Greg and Sara, and keep my mind off it, we could finish what we started in my office," she whispered into his ear as she leaned against him.
"That sounds like a good plan to me," he replied, looking down at her. "Your place or mine?"
"Yours. It's closer," she told him, and his gaze never left her as she walked around the front of the SUV and climbed into the passenger seat.