Chapter Thirteen

Brass clasped his hands in front of him as he watched Sara's sleeping shape. Catching her like this, when she was free from whatever worries that always plagued her conscious self, was a pleasant surprise. Her face had an innocent, almost child-like quality.

He reached out and brushed away a single strand of dark hair from her brow. She evoked in him the feelings he had once had for Ellie. A strong urge to protect his child, and at the same time a crippling helplessness on seeing her sad, was all too familiar.

He still remembered the day when she had entered his office and asked for a personal favor.

>>

Brass looked up on hearing the knock on his door. He was slightly surprised to find Sara standing there.

"Sara."

"Brass, can I have a word with you?"

"Yeah, sure." He put his pen down and motioned for her to come in. He waited for her to comfortably settle herself before asking, "So, is it about the Jones' case?"

"No." She shook her head. "It's not about work. It's something more personal."

Brass raised his eyebrows questioningly. Sara coming to him for a personal reason was a first.

"It's something about me and Catherine." Sara shifted uneasily.

"You have come to me for relationship advice?" He could almost laugh at the irony. "If you have trouble in paradise, I'm the last person to help you. My own success in that department has been negligible."

"No, it's nothing like that." She quickly smiled to assure him. "We are doing fine… great."

"Oh." He was curious now.

"It's more like a request for you."

"I'm listening."

"Catherine and I… we, um, are planning to get married."

He was so stunned that it took a moment for him to be able to speak.

"Wow." He managed to say. "That is amazing news. I'll say… about time.'

Sara smiled, "Thanks. I just hope others will share your enthusiasm."

"You kidding?" He chuckled. "They are going to be ecstatic. So…" He paused. "What do you want me to do?"

"I don't have a father." Sara looked away. "He died when I was a kid."

"I'm sorry to hear that." He said sincerely.

"Yeah, well, he wasn't a very good man." She gave a wry smile. "But, anyways, I needed someone to give me away. Catherine has Sam and I…" She hesitated.

Brass understood where she was going with this. He covered her hands with his own. "You have me."

Sara blinked. "Are you sure about this? I mean… I don't want to impose…"

"Impose?" He let out an incredulous laughter. "Of course, you are not imposing. Besides, I can't think of anyone else who would look as good walking you down the aisles."

She grinned. "You bet."

"Sara." He met her eyes, strangely dark as his own. "I'm glad you gave me this honor. With Ellie, I've long since given up hope of seeing her as a bride."

Sara squeezed his fingers. "I should thank you. I've never known a real father. But if I ever got to choose one, it would have been someone like you."

>>

Brass wiped the corner of his eye. Sara, Nick and Greg – He was fiercely caring of the young bunch in the lab. He was also admittedly closer to them than he had ever been to Ellie. Many would say that it was the lack of Ellie in his life that caused him to cling on to these three as replacements. But he knew better. They were his family in ways his own family had never been.

And now his family was going through such a major tragedy… and he was unable to do anything about it.

"Brass?" Sara's eyelids fluttered open.

"Hey." He weakly smiled. "How are you feeling?"

She propped herself up with an effort. "Are you babysitting me?"

"Of sorts."

Sara gave him a feeble smile. "Thanks Dad."

"Hey Sara." He looked into her eyes. "If there is anything you need, we are all here for you."

She nodded. "But it's not me I'm concerned about. I need to talk to Lindsay."


Grissom inwardly groaned when he saw Sam Braun waiting by his office. The man looked as smug as ever, if only slightly angry.

"Mr. Grissom." Sam crossed his bulky arms against each other. "What are you and your men doing to find the culprit?"

"Sam, you know as well as I do that none of the CSIs will rest until we find the person responsible." Grissom curtly said.

"No, you see I'm not sure I know that." Sam twisted his lips.

"Then I'm afraid I cannot offer you any other reassurance. Now if you'll excuse me."

"Listen young man, whoever did this to my daughter will pay. I'm not entirely confident in your department's ability and I don't give a damn either ways. But I want you to promise me that none of your boys are going to bother my people while they are doing a little investigating of their own."

Grissom didn't know whether he should be horrified or plain furious at the man's lack of scruples. "If your people are caught doing anything illegal, then they'll be charged regardless of who or what they were doing it for. The casualty count has risen to eight, Sam. You seek justice for your daughter. And I need to answer to eight families. Not to mention, one of them being exceptionally close to me. So don't come here and tell me that my department is doing nothing."

An expression, which Grissom found quite undecipherable, crossed Sam's face before he straightened his clothes and walked away without another word. Grissom was saved from pondering over Sam's odd behavior by his pager beeping .

He went directly to the lab where Nick was waiting for him. He wasn't surprised to find one of dayshift's CSIs there with his guy. What concerned him was that both of them had the look of someone who was anticipating a serious disaster.

"You paged 9-1-1, Nick." He briefly met Janet Simmons' eyes.

"We traced the tire shreds we got along with the explosives." Nick explained. Grissom didn't miss the tinge of unease in his voice.

"And?"

"The rubber had microscopic markings on them. I tracked it back to a car rental company on the West Coast. They order spare tires in bulk and use them for their cars. They mark their tires with serial numbers and record them down."

"Well, that's good." Grissom's morose face perceptibly brightened. "Did you call the company?"

"Yes. According to their records, they rented it to a Courtney Andrews three days ago. I had Greg run the DNA of the flesh we found in the car. He got a match in CODIS."

"Courtney Andrews' DNA is on file?"

Nick nodded. "She was arrested for fraud and shoplifting in LA ten years ago."

"But now she's dead. Who wanted her dead?"

"There's something else, though." Janet interjected, ignoring the glare Nick threw her way. "Courtney rented the car with her debit card. We tracked all purchases made with that account. She had bought 75g of nitroglycerine and some lead styphnate and lead azide."

"Common materials used in making bombs." Grissom's brow furrowed.

"The account's a joint account. She holds one half of the ownership."

"And the other half?"

She glanced uncertainly at her computer and back at Grissom. "The other half is in the name of Sara Sidle."

"You must have made some mistake. Run it again!" Grissom bellowed.

Nick and Janet shared a somber look. "There's no mistake, Gris. We ran it a couple of times. I even called the bank and the manager confirmed that the account was jointly started by Sara along with Courtney Andrews."

"Though, this woman, Courtney has been arrested on charges of fraud. Maybe she somehow forged Sara's identity." Janet tried to sound optimistic.

"How could she have done that?" Grissom murmured wearily. "And if she really did forge Sara's identity, why would she open a joint account in her name? It would easily trace back to her."

Nick sighed. "I guess the only thing we can do right now is ask Sara about this woman."

At that instant, the computer beeped in announcement. Nick and Janet bent over the screen to read.

"What's wrong?" Grissom asked. Judging by the distinct pallor on their faces, he knew that whatever they had read wasn't good news.

Nick was rendered so speechless that Janet had to take over for him. "We just received records of all property registered in Courtney Andrews' name. The principle owner is Sara."

"So, maybe they are good friends." Grissom reasoned, though he could see how that fact would complicate the case.

"Not exactly." Janet swallowed. "According to the state of California, Courtney and Sara have been in a domestic partnership for a year."

"What?" Grissom doubled with the impact of the shock. Nick rubbed his forehead; distress was written all over him.

Janet looked from one man to the other and felt acutely sorry for them. This was the last thing they needed after their tragic loss. But evidence was impersonal and right then it was pointing to a raw fact, heedless of the catastrophe it would cause.

"I think Sara Sidle has just become a suspect… with a very strong motive." Janet whispered, giving voice to the realization that both Grissom and Nick had come to.


Gosh, don't I just love torturing Sara? She's a fun person to toy with... (and that sounded better in my head)

There is one thing though. I'm not sure whether California has legislated civil unions, marriage or domestic partnership for same-sex couples. Different sites on the internet give different information, with different terms. So, I just settled for domestic partnership. But if any Californian or law expert is reading this, maybe he/she could shed some light on it? Thanks for the reviews:)