Irrefutable chapter seven

By: Manigault

Thanks for reading this story and thank very much to everyone who has reviewed!

This will most likely be the last chapter for several days. Hopefully next week it will continue.

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Returning to the lab, Sara made her way to the locker room and hoped that nobody would follow. For the past four hours she had been the recipient of confused and worried looks from both Warrick and Nick who had given up asking her if she was okay after she had snapped back at both of them on multiple occasions. She felt bad about being short with them, but it took all of her willpower not to break down and confess everything. She needed someone she could confide in and her confidant was not answering his phone. Despite the warning from some lunatic, she had tried to get through to him several times to no avail.

The past year and a half had been so perfect. It wasn't that they were afraid of everyone finding out about them, but it was something that they wanted to keep private. Sara wouldn't even say that it added to the excitement of being together, but she had to admit, it gave her a secret pleasure to know that he was hers and nobody else was privy to that.

She was startled out of her reverie when her phone rang in the otherwise silent room. Eager, she snatched it off of her hip and stared at the id. Private number. Angry now she pushed the button and snapped.

"Who is this?"

The laughter that wove its way through her phone was eerily chilling and she almost dropped it as the sound echoed in her ear. "Miss Sidle. Didn't anyone ever teach you how to answer a phone properly? Ahhh, no. Your role models weren't very proper, were they Sara?"

Blood drained from Sara's face as she processed what this maniac was implying. "You know nothing about my childhood," she said angrily. "Where is Grissom? I promise that if you hurt him I will hunt you down and find you if it's the last thing I do."

Silence met her on the other end of the phone. After several drawn out seconds dragged past, the person spoke, the angry undercurrents reaching through the line to send shivers down her spine.

"Don't threaten me, Sara, or you will be the one to regret it. I know all about you. I know what makes you tick and what turns you on. I also know what turns Gil Grissom on and his trip to LA may prove to much for his self control."

Sara tried to process what this person was insinuating and felt another rush of anger. "Grissom is over what ever fascination he had with Lady Heather. I know that for a fact. Are you working for her? Is that what this is about?"

"You flatter your boyfriend and you give that bitch too much credit. He won't talk to you. I've made sure of that."

He disconnected before Sara could demand he explain. Fear gripped its way around her heart and mind as the implications sunk in that this madman could very possibly have hurt Grissom. Why else would he say he had made sure of the fact that Grissom would not talk with her again. She tried to reach Grissom again and clutched the phone in frustration when his voice mail picked up.

"Sara? What's going on?"

Nick stepped further into the room when Sara didn't answer and she nearly jumped out of her skin when he reached forward and touched her shoulder.

"Nick! Shit! Why are you sneaking up on me?" Sara glared at her friend and felt a stab of shame that she was reacting so angrily, but she was out of her mind with worry about Grissom.

"Sorry, I didn't intend to scare you Sara," Nick looked chagrined and started to back up towards the locker room door, but not before saying gently. "You know that you can talk to me or Warrick if you need to Sar. You can trust us with whatever has you on edge."

Her face softened as she nodded that she understood. Pushing back the tears that were threatening, she bit her lip to keep from spilling out everything to Nick. Was she crazy to keep this to herself? She needed to talk with someone and suddenly she knew who that was.

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"Hey, Jim, you got a minute?" Sara stood outside of his office and tried to keep the anxiety out of her voice. It must have slipped through, however, as Brass stood abruptly from his chair and motioned her inside.

"What's the problem, kiddo?" Brass had seen Sara upset many times over the years, but never had he seen her radiate so much fear. "Close the door behind you."

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Grissom gripped the steering wheel so tightly, his knuckles had turned white and the joints were beginning to ache. He had to keep his focus on the road and not give into the urge to dial the one number that would lead him to Sara's voice. The lunatic had forbade him to speak to Sara and insisted that if he tried to contact her then she would be harmed. He didn't know that she wouldn't be and refused to take the chance. She kept trying to reach him and he couldn't press that one button that would connect him with her.

"Relax, Gil, I'm sure that your lover will be fine."

Grissom glanced over at Heather and shook his head. "You can't know that," he snapped. "I don't know who this madman is or where he is. I don't know if there are more than one of them. I keep feeling like this whole thing is some nightmare that I'll wake up from any minute."

"It's a shared nightmare," Heather said sadly. She studied Grissom's profile for a minute before asking him the question that had been on her mind since seeing him with Sara. "How long have you known Sara Sidle?"

He didn't want to talk about Sara with Heather, but the road stretched out in front of them and his desire to call her was almost more than he could stand so he said briskly. "Over ten years," he wasn't planning to say anything more, but then he couldn't help himself. "I was teaching a seminar in San Fransisco on forensic entomology. Sara was a new criminologist who attended my lecture. She was a brillant student and asked the most intellectual questions of any student I've every had." His face softened as he recalled the first meeting of Sara Sidle.

He was watching the students file into the auditorium and sizing them up with astute eyes. Some were there because they had to be, some because they had nothing better to do, others because they were geniunely interested in the lecture. He noticed her straight away--pretty brunette with the lanky frame and inquistive eyes. She took a seat in the front row and looked eagerly towards the podium where he stood. Their eyes met and Grissom had to shake away the feeling of familiarity as he shifted his notes and cleared his throat.

She waited until after the first lecture was complete before approaching him with questions. She was working a current case that involved the victim being found with maggots covering his body. He suggested they leave the auditorium and grab a bite to eat while he explained the cycle of the maggots. The conversation had drifted from the case to other topics as they munched on seafood.

A probing voice brought him back to the present and Grissom shifted in his seat as he focused again on the road while asking Heather to repeat her question.

"How long have you and Sara been intimate?"

The question startled him and he swerved off the road before correcting his mistake and straightening out the wheel. "That's personal."

"I would say more than a year by the level of comfort you display, but then you have known one another for many years." Heather recalled the easiness that she witnessed earlier that day.

"Over a year and a half," Grissom said at last, and added almost begrudingly. "I finally got my shit together and moved forward with our relationship. Satisfied?"

"Not really," Heather said with a sigh. "You've been in love with Sara for years. When we met you were in love with her?" She didn't wait for him to answer before continuing, "For some reason you denied yourself from being with her, and you flirted openly with me."

"I was her supervisor." Grissom said defensively.

"And now you aren't?"

Grissom couldn't deny the fact that he was still her supervisor but that somehow it didn't mean the same as it had years ago. The only thing that had really altered was his own mind set and the reality that what was most important to him was to love and be loved. It sounded trite, but it was real to him. There was no way he would confess that to Heather.

"You are still her supervisor!" Heather said with amusement. "That's interesting."

"We've changed," Grissom said, and then amended, "I've changed."

"Tell me how you've changed, Gil? What makes you different today than you were, say, four years ago?"

"You are the one that reads people, Heather, you tell me." The ire in Grissom's voice could not be kept in check. He was irritated.

"I don't read people like I used to," Heather replied.

Grissom glanced over towards her side of the car and found that she was staring out of the side window and he could only see the back of her head.

"I'm sorry about Chloe," Grissom told her as the image of her daughter ran through his mind and he shook it away.

The silence stretched for several miles as neither one of them spoke. Heather broke the silence.

"Do you and Sara plan on having children?"

"Excuse me?" Grissom asked in disbelief.

"Children. Do you plan on ever having any together?" Heather studied his incredulous expression and smiled slightly. "It's not a trick question. Sara appears to be in her thirties and your not getting any younger. It certaintly made my life better."

"And then when you lost her, you lost part of yourself, didn't you?" Grissom questioned with sudden insight into her behavior after the discovery of her daughter. "I think that for Sara and me to have a child together we would have to sacrifice part of ourselves that we're not willing to part with. Selfish. Maybe. I don't know."

"You decided the risk isn't worth it?" Heather asked. "You both agreed not to have children because of what could happen?"

"We have each other and that's all that we need," Grissom gripped the wheel and wondered if they would still have that when this was over. "The idea of a child isn't something that either of us want." The fact is they had discussed it once and both agreed they didn't want children. That was the extent of the conversation and it had not disturbed him that Sara wouldn't discuss the decision in detail. When he mentioned obtaining a vasectomy she had shaken her head and asked him to wait. She was on the pill and that was sufficient. She didn't want him to have surgery. He hadn't given it any more thought until this minute.

"The fact that Chloe has a son out there, a part of herself, it gives me something to hold on to." Heather admitted.

Grissom spent years trying to gain the courage to break through his own reserves and fears in order to allow himself to become involved with Sara, leaving little time for the concept of having a child with her. Now the idea gave him pause. What would a child of theirs be like? Intelligent, no doubt. Inquistive, definitely. Brown eyes, probably, as genetically the color was dominant. Brunette, also probable.

"It's intriguing, isn't it Gil?"

The question brought his thoughts to an abrupt halt. For a few minutes he had become caught up in a fantasy, albeit a new one, and for Heather of all people to have witnessed this was unacceptable.

Heather recognized his wistfullness and it gave her a degree of sadness. She often felt as though Gil Grissom would have been a wonderful lover and possibly more, but there had always been something holding him back. Then she met the reason he was holding back, in the form of Sara Sidle.

"You have time to have it all with Sara. Although you think that you are satisfied with her alone, someday you may find that one of you, or both, will want more and it will be impossible to recapture the years."

Grissom heard regret in her voice. He wanted to assure her that she couldn't have done anything to have helped Chloe or her child, but he didn't know that. He spotted an exit coming up and a sign indicating that there was a gas station and decided it was a good time to change the subject.

"We're sitting on empty," Grissom nodded towards the exit they were approaching. "It's a good time to stretch our legs and refuel."

Pulling into the only gas station off of the exit, Grissom noticed a lone payphone in the corner of the parking lot. Dare he risk it? Shooting a look over to Heather as he climbed from the car, he asked simply.

"Would you mind grabbing a water for me while I pump the gas?" He wondered if she would be angry with his request, but she nodded and moved off towards the small gas station. Setting the pump to run continuosly into the fuel tank he walked briskly over to the pay phone while pulling out some change.

He was taking a chance and hoped that it wasn't a mistake. Dialing a familiar number he waited two rings before the phone was answered.

"Brass."

"Jim, I need a favor."

TBC