Chapter Five – Breaking The Rules

The rhythm of her life changed once again, but this one contained her two favourite people in the whole world and she found herself so happy. It took a huge period of adjustment for them all, as Grissom got used to Amelia and Sara reshaped her life to fit him back in it, determined to make their relationship work. She didn't think she could handle the pain of losing him again. She never took anything they did for granted now, each hug, quick or lingering kiss was appreciated and she found it incredibly sexy to see him looking after Amelia, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It felt a bit odd being the one having to teach Grissom about looking after Amelia. She had to show him how to change diapers, feed, dress and bathe her. It was odd.

Thanks to the return of their relationship, work became a much happier place. The rest of the team were able to finally relax and get back to the smooth rhythm that they usually worked in. All was right with the world again. Thanks to the hard work of her team, the murders that had halted Jaime's case were gone and Sara was able to push it forward again, sending Greg to do what he could to identify the fibres that they had found. She also decided to examine Jaime's husband, Robert a little closer, he could hold the answers to what really happened.

Sara noted thee blue pick-up in the drive as she knocked on the door, which swung open almost instantly. Robert looked very different from what Sara saw a couple of months earlier. His face seemed longer and pinched and he had lost a huge amount of weight, his tan fading back to the pale white skin.

"Can I help you?"

Sara showed him her ID and watched a frown deepen his features.

"What do you want now? I have done nothing wrong and didn't kill Jaime."

"I knew Jaime too Robert. We went to college together. I want to ask you a few questions about your lives together."

Robert studied her for a second before his shoulders relaxed and he opened the door wider, allowing her to enter his home. Sara settled herself on the funky raspberry sofa and accepted the soda that Robert offered her.

"You and Jaime had a rather violent relationship didn't you?"

"Yeah but we were getting help. Going to marriage counselling and anger management classes. I loved her, I really did."

Sara did nothing to indicate that she understood, because she didn't. She could never quite understand why woman stayed in violent relationships, why they disrespected themselves so much.

"Before she died, was there anything different about her behaviour?"

"She was desperate to get out of Vegas, which struck me as odd because she had always wanted to live here. She was the one who insisted we stay here just after we got married."

"So why did she want to leave?"

"She never really told me. The day she died was the day that I had agreed to leave with her. I did know that she had travelled a lot when she was pregnant. She kept all the stubs; I went through them when she died. She had been from one side of the country to the other before settling here."

Robert moved around Sara and pulled open a huge box, revealing a large pile of notebooks.

"But then again, she was a meticulous planner for every part of her life. You're welcome to these if you want."

Sara nodded as she moved from her seat to the floor in front of the box, her curiosity getting the better of her. She really should take them into work and look at them but her hands had already gotten lost in the notebooks and all doubts fled from her mind. The first few books were old and Sara recognised them from when they were at school together and there were ones that even went back as far as her childhood. Then she hit pay dirt. It was the notebook that dated her life a year before Amelia was conceived. It was neat and tidy for the first few months then the writing became more erratic before stopping altogether in September.

"Robert, do you know what happened in September?"

She held up the notebook and the blank pages that spoke volumes more then any written word could. He shook his head, a frown on his face.

"No idea. She never stopped writing in her notebooks before. That's odd."

Sara nodded in return as she continued to slick through the pages, catching a photo that fell softly into her lap. It was a group of maybe a hundred, each man wearing a long white robe, the woman sitting quietly, heads down in grey robes. It didn't take much to spot Jaime sitting amongst them, her head up, smiling widely at the camera. Sara put the picture back into the box and stood, farewelling Robert as she headed out the door, driving like a bat out of hell back to the lab. Whatever that picture was, it was the link they needed to find Jaime's killer.

When she had arrived back at the lab she gave the picture to Archie to process and enhance while she herself went into one of the evidence rooms and began going over the diaries with a fine toothcomb. None of the other diaries had any sort of red flags except what seemed to be the last one that Jaime had written in. It took several hours of reading before she was confident enough in her presumption and even then she was careful to catalogue everything and page Catherine to come and check out the evidence she had gathered.

"So what happened to her that year before Amelia was born?"

Sara watched as Catherine flicked through the diaries with studied ease, her face still creased from the nap that Sara had woken her from.

"I don't know. But I found a picture in the pages and I gave it to Archie to process and enhance for me."

"How long ago?"

"About two hours."

"Lets go see Archie, shall we?"

Catherine led the way to the computer lab, her hands landing on the young Asian's tech's shoulders as she gave him a quick smile.

"What you got for us Archie?"

"Hey Cath. I managed to get quite a good enhancement from that picture you gave me Sara. It doesn't hold any good news at all."

Archie pushed a button and the picture popped onto the screen, the faces bigger then they were in the original. Archie guided the mouse to the man who appeared to be the front man of the clothed group, clicking on him as a large police record came up next to him.

"Jonathon Collins."

Sara frowned as Catherine swore under her breath.

"What? Who is he?"

Archie spoke first, his eyes still on the screen.

"We're dealt with him before. He's a cult leader for something called The Messengers. He's managed to escape charges of bigamy, incest, statutory rape and child endangerment."

"How the hell odes he get away with that?"

"You ever heard of Rodney Higgins?"

"He's his lawyer?"

Rodney Higgins was also someone that they had had dealings with before. He was slimy and terribly good at his job, getting criminals that didn't deserve to be in normal society back onto the streets. Sara hated the guy, always had.

"Yup. It also doesn't help that Collins moves around a lot and slips through the grasp of most courts."

"Was he in Las Vegas about eighteen months ago?"

"Yup. He's been here ever since."

Sara let her eyes go back to the picture, searching the faces of the other people in the photo, the young girls and older woman all looking unhappy.

"So these people choose to live like this? In such a controlled fashion?"

Catherine's gaze followed Sara's.

"Yeah. Sad isn't it?"

"So what was Jaime doing there? She looks happy enough"

Catherine shrugged and opened her mouth to answer when Sara realised something with a sudden drop in her stomach.

"Oh my god, I know who he is"

"Who?"

Collins. He's Amelia's dad. I recognise his name from her birth certificate."

Sara felt a surge of panic hit her hard. If Collins did indeed kill Jaime like she suspected, then he had tried to get Amelia, knew about her existence.

"He knows about Amelia."

Sara groped in her pocket for her phone and without any explanation, called home and told Grissom to bring Amelia down to the office. She needed to have her near her, so she could protect her in a way that had left Jaime open and exposed. He had to know about Amelia. Sara was snapped out of her thoughts by Greg bursting into the room, a piece of paper clutched in his hand, a wide smile on his flushed face.

"Yak. South African Long Hired Yak to be more precise."

"Yak? What are you talking about?"

"The fibres from the crime scene are a yak wool and cotton mix. Very rare. And only one person has a standing order for that combination in the USA."

"Jonathon Collins."

Greg's shoulders sagged as Catherine stole his thunder right from under him.

"Hey, what did you do that for? I was pulling 24-hour days to get this done and you go and steal my fun."

Catherine gave him a small smile as she patted him on the shoulder.

"Sorry Greggo. I'll let you get the news in next time. Sara are you ok?"

Sara had taken to pacing the floor, the puzzle slowly slipping into place. She was running from Collins. He had wanted Amelia and Jaime had run away with her. Left the commune for unknown reasons and Collin's had gone after her.

"He was the one that had chased her around the country. He wanted Amelia."

"We don't know that for sure yet Sara."

"We don't have too, the pieces fit without him having to tell us anything. She was running from him, to stop him getting Amelia."

Nothing Catherine said convinced her otherwise and Sara set about trying to figure a way of making this man fall into a trap of his own. He was going to pay for what he did to Jaime and Amelia.

Grissom arrived a little while later and Sara felt a surge of relief when she saw Amelia safe and sound, sleeping against his chest. She kissed them both and pointed Grissom to the direction of the computer room when he pushed her for an explanation. She took Amelia and all her bags into the break room where Nick was pouring over a large stack of paperwork.

"Hey Nicky, can you hold Amelia for me? She's due for a bottle and I need to heat it."

"Sure, anything to give me a break from this stack of work. She's gotten big."

Nick gave a mock groan as Sara shifted Amelia into his arms and settled himself deeper into the sofa.

"All she seems to do these days of eat, poop and grow. She's going to be talking soon. According to those baby books anyway. She can crawl a little way all on her own except she usually loses her balance and ends up face first on the carpet."

It was with perfect timing that the microwave beeped the end of the bottle heating the moment that Amelia began to wake and demand her midafternoon bottle, her normally calm face screwing up as she screamed her displeasure with the bottle less situation. Sara handed the Nick the bottle after testing the temperature on her wrist and watched as Nick rearranged Amelia on his knees, his feet resting on the table. He then gave Amelia the bottle and she instantly stopped crying, her large calm eyes focusing on Nick instead, watching his movements.

"Ah a girl who knows exactly what she wants. You gotta admire that."

Sara sat down beside them, her hand finding Amelia's smaller one, taking comfort in the warm skin.

"We think we know who killed Jaime."

"Who?"

"Jonathon Collin's. But you'll never guess what else we found out."

"What?"

"He's Amelia's father."

Nick let out a low whistle and he glanced at Sara.

"Are you ok? You look kind of sick."

"This guy has a lawyer that has gotten him off some terribly serious charges. I'm scared that he might just decide he wants Amelia and I don't want to lose her. Her and Grissom are my world."

Nick shifted a little in his seat and pulled Sara into a hug, her head coming to rest on his chest.

"We won't let him take little Amelia away. I'm pretty sure he'll have to get through Grissom first."

Sara nodded against his chest as she began to cry. Her life had changed an awful lot since she had adopted Amelia but she would not change a thing about her journey. She had learnt so much about herself and her strengths. She had rearranged her priorities and had put being a mother ahead of everything and she had almost lost Grissom because of it. Now she had the two most important people to her under the same roof and she would rather spend the rest of her days busy and tired then unhappy. She needed them both.

When she had composed herself and Nick had reassured her that he was fine babysitting Amelia, she headed back to the computer room. Grissom was pacing, exactly as Sara had earlier, his fists clenched at his sides, his face pinched. When he spotted Sara, he walked over to her, his voice urgent.

"He's not getting Amelia. He's not taking out daughter away."

Sara felt a small smile start on her face, despite the situation.

"Our daughter, huh?"

"Yes. Our daughter. He's not getting his perverted hands on her. I'll kill him if he tries."

The smile left Sara's face as she took in the new Grissom before her. He meant his words; she could tell by the way he stood so straight, the determined glint flashing in his eyes. He really was willing to kill him if he tried to hurt Amelia.

"We need to go and see The Messenger's commune. Talk to them, find out what they knew about Jaime."