Title: Returning Home

Author: Elizabeth Kelly

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: CSI, its plot and characters, belong to CBS Worldwide Inc., and Alliance Atlantis Productions.

Summary: GSR - What if something you thought was lost forever, returned home?

Chapter Seven

Catherine's mind was still buzzing with the new twist to the Sara-Grissom saga, when she re-entered the layout room. Warrick, Greg, Nick and Special Agent Andrew Charlton, stopped talking the moment she entered the room.

"Where did you run off to?" Nick asked.

"I went to worn Grissom and Sara about the press," she said, sitting down on the chair next to Warrick.

"Oh, did they slip out the back?" Greg asked in an excited tone.

"No, they left before I got to them."

"Oh," Nick, Warrick and Greg mumbled at the same time.

"Hey, Cath, are you alright?" Warrick asked, concerned about the detachment in her voice. Catherine nodded, and then turned towards the agent.

"Are they married?" she asked him, her voice deadly serious. Nick, Greg and Warrick threw each other questioning glances.

Andrew took in Catherine's expression, a bizarre mixture of hurt and disbelief; instantly he knew exactly shat she was talking about.

"Ms Willows, I think now would be the best time to concentrate on finding Maddie. I'm sure you have many questions, however, I am not the person to ask, nor is this the right time." Catherine accepted his excuse with a nod, and remembering her place, turned to face the CSI's.

"We have the Bakersfield police checking out the gas station, but I doubt there will be much to find. We are just going to have to wait. In the mean time, let's catch up on everything the FBI knows about this case," she said turning to Andrew.

"Thank you Catherine, this is everything we have about the kidnapping, from San Francisco," Agent Charlton said pointing to a stack of three boxes, alongside two more stacks of three boxes. "Witness reports, evidence logs, the whole lot. Sheriff Atwater tells me that you believe you have the prime suspect."

"Yeah, a Timothy Isaacs. His wife and two daughters were blown up in a…"

"Church bombing," Agent Charlton finished. Catherine nodded.

"How did you know?" Greg asked.

"Isaacs was one of two people that we suspected of being the Playtime Snatcher. Teachers had seen him hanging around the school, in the days leading up to the kidnapping. One eye-witness saw him at the scene. Of course the teachers thought it was suspicious, his daughters were dead, no reason for him to be at the school."

"Was he questioned?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, but his alibi was that he was at home, alone. We couldn't prove otherwise. We got a search warrant for his house, and not a trace of evidence that linked the girls to his house. We searched his car, his computer, and his office, nothing. We talked to his brother, his neighbours and colleagues, all of them said the same thing, he was a model citizen. He was religious, he was kind, and he was devastated by the loss of his wife and two girls. He had no record, no history of violence, no history of mental problems, he seemed completely normal."

"You said two people?" Warrick questioned.

"Yeah, the other guy was our main suspect. Bryan Fellows, a paedophile that live five blocks from the school. His main interest was girls aged between five and ten. A real creep, he denied taking them. We searched his place with much the same results as when we searched Isaacs, nothing. We got him on possession and distribution of child pornography though. Made me feel better, knowing a disgusting pervert like him was locked away in a jail cell."

Catherine's face had paled, making her look ghostly white. When Agent Charlton saw this, he decided to change the subject. "What made you suspect Isaacs?"

"We questioned Emily when she came in and she said that he had given both her and Madeleine false names, Abigail and Rebekah Isaacs. It was Greggo here that thought that maybe the names weren't as false as we first thought." Nick pointed at Greg, indicating that he should continue.

"I ran a search through the computer and the names Abigail and Rebekah Isaacs came up in relation to the church bombings. It got me thinking that he had taken the girls thinking that they weren't Emily Guthrie and Madeleine Grissom at all but his daughters Abigail and Rebekah." Agent Charlton looked impressed.

"Well done, you should come train at Quantico, we could use someone like you." Greg smiled a huge smile. Nick shook his head and swiped Greg on the back of the head.

"Excuse me, sir, but we don't say things like that to Greg. It gives him a big head." The group laughed, easing a bit of the tension that had been floating in the room.

"Please, call me Andrew," Agent Charlton insisted.

"I just wish we knew where he was going; it's frustrating just sitting around waiting!" Catherine thumped her hand on the table.

"I might know someone who could tell us where he might be," Agent Charlton suggested.

"Who?" Nick asked.

"Robert Isaacs, Timothy's brother."

Grissom watched as Sara's chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Her face was angelic when she slept; no worry lines, no frown. It displayed none of the pain that she had been through. She looked as young and beautiful as she did fourteen years ago.

He had arrived early to his lecture that evening, wanting to make sure that everything was set up right, and was surprised to see someone in there so early. He walked to the front of the room and watched the young woman with fascination. Her head was bent over a book, and she was furiously scribbling away. He continued to watch her as he set up. She gave no indication that she had seen him enter the room.

"Damn," her voice was filled with frustration.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asked. Her head shot up to look at him.

"Ah, yeah, I didn't know anyone else was in here," she nervously tucked her hair behind her ears.

"I noticed that you were in deep concentration. What are you working on? A cure for cancer?" he teased lightly. She smiled.

"Close, my quantum physics assignment." Grissom raised his eyebrows.

"A Physics major, very interesting. Are you here for the Forensics Lecture?"

"Yeah, I'm just trying to keep my options open for the moment. I'm not sure what I want to do yet."

"Sounds very sensible."

"Is there a lot of physics in forensics?" she asked curiously.

"Of course," he replied and fell into an easy conversation with the young woman as they talked about science and forensics and even her quantum physics paper. Their conversation was only interrupted by the sounds of students entering the room.

"That's my cue. It was good talking to you…" he trailed off when he realised that he didn't even know her name.

"Sara, Sara Sidle," she held out her hand and he shook it.

"Sara, that's a beautiful name. Gil Grissom," he introduced himself before turning and heading back to the front of the room.

It was hard to believe everything that had happened since that fateful day. Grissom was struggling to keep his eyes open, the past few hours had drained both of them.

Grissom got up off the chair and crawled into the bed next to her. Pulling her closely to him, he smiled when she subconsciously wriggled around to find the perfect spot. When she did she sighed softly in her sleep. His last conscious thought, before he fell into a deep sleep, was just how perfectly she fitted in his arms.

"Robert! Open up!" Andrew shouted banging his fist on the door for the fourth time, looking round to see Brass with his gun drawn, and Catherine standing not too far in the distance.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," they heard the muffled reply through the door. Andrew's grip on the gun strapped to his side, loosened, though only slightly. He heard a series of clicks before the door opened.

Robert Isaacs was about six foot tall, his dark hair sprinkled with grey. His eyes were droopy and tired; he looked to be ten years older than his thirty-five years.

"Who in God's name is banging on my door at four o'clock in the morning?" Looking up at the people on his doorstep, his face changed from one of annoyance, to one of recognition.

"Agent Charlton, how've you been?" his tone icy.

"Better and yourself?" Andrew's replied bitterly.

"I've seen better days. You know my wife left me after you came round, asking all those questions about Timmy."

"Really, I'm sorry to hear that," Andrew replied, not sounding very sorry at all.

"Well, I assume this isn't a social call," he trailed off.

"Do you know where your brother is?" Catherine asked, stepping forwards towards the door.

"I haven't seen or heard from him in years," Robert said leaning against the doorframe.

"Not even since he's been in Vegas?" Andrew questioned.

"He's here?" Robert asked standing up straighter.

"Yeah, hiding the two girls you told me that he would never have taken," Andrew answered.

"Timothy wouldn't have taken them. He is the good brother, the one with the successful computer company. I'm the one stuck working tables at the Tangiers, since my restaurant went under. No thanks to you guys coming round accusing my brother of kidnapping."

"Robert, he did kidnap the girls. We have one of them, she ran away. He still has the other, and we don't know what he's going to do to her. So, I need you to tell me what you know."

"I don't know anything except that he wouldn't hurt the girl," Robert said defensively.

"We found blood in her bedroom, at the apartment he was using," Brass spoke up from his spot just in front of Catherine. Robert looked at him wide eyed.

"He said he hadn't hurt them," he muttered.

"When?" Andrew asked.

"What?"

"When did he say that he hadn't hurt them?" Robert sighed.

"He called me a week ago. I asked him if the girls were okay. He said that they were fine. I asked him, if he had hurt them. He said that he hadn't."

"How long have you known that he's had them?" Catherine interrupted. Robert looked at her before dropping his eyes to the ground.

"He called me, about six months after he took the girls. He started telling me about all the things that he had been doing with Abigail and Rebekah. I told him that they were dead. He didn't believe me. I flew out to see him a week later. I recognised the girls, as the ones that went missing."

"So, you've known for four and a half years?" Catherine yelled.

"He's my brother, I couldn't just turn him in." Catherine shook her head in disbelief. "Besides, he was taking really good care of them, treating them as if they really were Abby and Becky."

"Where is he now?" Andrew asked through clenched teeth.

"I don't know."

Andrew suddenly raced forward pinning Robert to the door his fore arm against Robert's throat.

"You son of a -, stop lying to me, you've been lying to me for five years. Tell me where he is taking her." Robert gulped; sweat breaking out across his forehead.

"I'm telling you I really don't know, honest to God," he said his eyes wide with fear. "But, the last time I talked to him he did talk a lot about going home. I always assumed he meant San Francisco." Andrew stayed were he was for a few more moments, before moving away.

"Cuff him," he muttered to Brass.

"What? Why!" Robert spluttered, holding his neck.

"Impeding a federal investigation," Andrew turned back to face Robert. "And if anything happens to her, you can bet your ass that I will nail you for co-conspiracy."

A/N: Sorry about taking a while to update. Thank you for all the reviews! Part of the next chapter is written, but I am going away for the Easter weekend, so I will hopefully have it done by the time I get back. Happy Easter!