SLOW BURN

~ Chapter 25 ~

A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long between chapters. My mother was ill for quite some time and the pace of that illness really sped up about five months ago so, as her primary carer, I had to prioritize and writing fanfiction invariably took a back seat. Mum lost her battle almost eight weeks ago now and it's taken a while for me to get back in the groove but, with SylvieT's very much appreciated assistance, I think I'm ready to make a start again. Thank you for your patience.

"All right, my friend, what socks are we going with today?"

"Spidey!"

"Okay then, Spiderman it is." Pulling a pair of bright red and blue socks out of the drawer, Grissom moved across to the closet. "And Mommy said your black desert boots so..."

Bending quickly, he snatched them up then sucked in his breath as the room instantly started spinning around him. He reached out, grabbing hold of the edge of the tallboy as his vision blurred and narrowed alarmingly. He could hear Ben's voice but it seemed to be coming from a distance and, try as he might, he couldn't quite make out what his son was saying.

Leaning back against the doorjamb, he closed his eyes, thankful that that simple action at least lessened the dizziness, and relaxing as much as he could against the hard timber pressing into his spine, he tried to will this latest attack away.

For the most part he'd managed to mask the symptoms, putting the nausea he'd experienced all of yesterday down to the hotdog from the afternoon before and ensuring Sara was well out of earshot on the handful of occasions that he'd been unable to keep the meagre contents of his stomach where it belonged. He'd almost passed out twice before, once when he'd stood up too quickly in the bedroom and once following a particularly violent bout of vomiting that had forced him from his knees in front of the toilet bowl to lying flat out on the cool tiled floor of the bathroom. With Ben playing happily on his swing set and Sara looking on from the comfort of a patio lounger, he'd had the house to himself and, after lying still for a full five minutes, had cautiously got back to his feet and cleaned up before she'd even had a chance to question his absence.

Warily opening his eyes, he was pleased to see that everything was now still and back in focus and, after drawing in a deep breath of air, he looked down at the small hand tugging determinedly at his pant leg.

"Daddy?"

Worried eyes looked up at him and, quickly pasting on a smile, Grissom hurried to reassure his son.

"It's okay, bud; there's nothing wrong, I promise." Taking hold of Ben's hand, he crossed to the bed and sat down before lifting the toddler up onto his lap. "Come on, let's finish getting you ready."

"Gil?"

The unexpected voice from the doorway momentarily startled him and, thankful that his wife hadn't appeared a minute earlier, Grissom looked up from his task with a wide smile.

"What's up?"

"You haven't seen my pendant, have you?" Dressed in the navy blue linen maternity pants and blue and white swirl-patterned tunic top that Catherine had insisted she buy, Sara looked more than ready for an afternoon garden wedding. "I've been searching for it for the past ten minutes and I can't find it anywhere."

"The emerald one we gave you?" Pulling the first sock over his son's foot, Grissom frowned and shook his head. "I can't say that I have; it was in your bedside drawer, wasn't it?"

"I thought so," Sara shrugged. "But I've looked through it three times already and it definitely isn't there."

"Lock box? Gun safe?" Grissom's smile immediately transformed into a teasing grin. "Some random bag in the back of the freezer maybe?"

"Hey," Sara patted her belly. "I know this kid's playing havoc with my memory at the moment but I'm not that bad!" She paused and frowned. "Am I?"

"I found my car keys in the vegetable crisper the other day, honey and I'm one hundred percent certain that it wasn't me that put them there." He chuckled at the expression on his wife's face. "It's okay, it's all a normal part of pregnancy remember, like searching for your sunglasses only to discover they've been on the top of your head the whole time."

"Yeah, well I'm pretty sure I'd have found them sooner if somebody had actually pointed that out to me instead of sitting there sniggering." Sara narrowed her eyes at him before glancing at her watch. "Greg will be here to pick us up in ten minutes; what if I can't find it?"

"Then you'll pick something else to put on and I'll look for the pendant when you've gone." Tying the last of Ben's shoelaces, he slipped the little boy off his knees and onto the floor. "Jim and I are under strict instructions not to arrive at the house until ten minutes before the ceremony so I'll have him help me check all the usual spots while we're waiting; if nothing else, it'll keep him busy and, hopefully, settle his nerves."

"Good luck with that, he's been wandering around fidgeting with anything he can get his hands on since he got here." She nodded towards Ben. "And teasing a certain two-year-old." Suddenly self-conscious, Sara ran her hands down the front of her new outfit. "How do I look?"

"You look amazing." Pushing to his feet, Grissom leaned in and pressed a light kiss to her lips. "But, then again, you always do." Reaching out to the top of the drawers, he grabbed the brush that sat there and held it out to their son. "Take this to Jim and ask him to brush your hair, okay bud?" He handed the brush over. "And tell him no more teasing or Mommy's going to ban him from this house too; you got that?"

The little boy's face was a picture of concentration as he nodded his understanding. "I tell Chim."

"Good man, off you go." Both watched him leave the room and run towards the far end of the house before Grissom turned back with a chuckle. "He's nearly got that J sound down and Chim is certainly an improvement on Dim."

"Yeah," Sara grinned, "it is." Both eyebrows rose in question. "You remembered to take the car seat out of the Explorer, didn't you?

"It's waiting by the front door and it will take me all of two minutes to fit it into Greg's car."

"Good, that's good." Looking at him closely, Sara frowned. "You look pale again."

"I'm fine, just a little tired, that's all." Grissom quickly shrugged off her concern. "It's been a busy couple of days."

"Did you eat this morning?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know you barely touched anything yesterday thanks to that bad hot dog but I don't remember seeing you with anything today either."

"No, not yet," he shook his head. "I wasn't really hungry before but I'll have something before I leave, I can't take my meds on an empty stomach."

"Well just make sure you do." Cupping his cheek, Sara locked eyes with him. "You'd tell me if anything was wrong, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would," he told her as he flinched inwardly at the lie. "Now, you better get moving if you want to be ready for Greg."

"I feel kind of sorry for leaving you with Jim."

"It's only forty minutes or so and before we start to look for your pendant, I'll break open the bottle of single malt that's sitting in my office and see if I can get him to relax a little."

"About the pendant…" Sara took a deep breath. "Do you think there's any chance that Ben's 'big man' was actually he-"

"No one was here, Sara." Offering her a reassuring smile, Grissom pulled her into a hug. "We went over all this and there's absolutely no evidence that anyone other than you and Ben were here." Loosening his hold slightly, he gazed lovingly into her eyes. "I tell you what, if Jim and I don't find it before we leave, you and I will spend tomorrow pulling this place apart room by room until it turns up and it will turn up, honey; it's around here somewhere, I'm sure of that."

"It better be." Buoyed by his confidence, Sara smiled knowingly. "Because I saw the credit card statement that you tried to hide so I know exactly how much you spent on that thing."

"Then I'm sure you also know that it's well insured which is another reason not to worry." Hearing an excited shriek coming from the living room followed by a hearty laugh, Grissom rolled his eyes. "He's winding that kid up again."

"Yep." Leaning into him again, Sara sighed. "I think the sooner we put a little distance between the two of them the better." She chuckled as she realized what she'd said. "You know, I bet we're going to be saying that exact same thing almost daily in the not too distant future."

"For the next sixteen years at least." Grissom agreed before letting her go. "So, come on, the sooner we get this wedding over and done with, the sooner we might get a little normalcy around here."

"Normalcy?" Moving backwards towards the door, Sara smiled sarcastically. "What's that?"

"Don't ask me, honey." At the sound of a particularly high-pitched squeal emanating from the other end of the house, Grissom shrugged. "I think it's fair to say that my life has been anything but normal since that boy of ours was born."

"Uh-oh, here we go."

"What?" With his fingers tightening even further around the steering wheel, Greg quickly surveyed the immediate surroundings for any sign of trouble. "What, Sara? What am I supposed to be seeing?"

Thanks to the number of cases they'd shared over the years, he was more than used to driving Gil Grissom's wife around town but this was the first time he'd ever had the man's son in his car and Greg's stress levels were at an all-time high.

"You'll find out." Raising her closed fist, Sara straightened each finger one at a time as she started to count. "One, two, three, fo-"

"Doggie!"

The screech from the back seat was extraordinarily loud in the confines of the Honda Pilot and Sara grinned as her friend visibly flinched at the sound.

"Mommy, lookit!"

Turning in her seat, she watched her son strain against the straps of his car seat as he pointed towards the window.

"Doggie, Mommy! Lookit doggie!"

"I see it, baby; that looks like a nice doggie, doesn't it?"

With the car continuing onward the dog and its owner were quickly out of sight and Sara kept her amused grin to herself as she watched her son's face morph into an almost sullen pout.

"Want doggie."

"I know sweetheart and you'll get one someday, I promise."

"That time, huh?" Greg asked with a grin as she turned back to face the front.

"It's been that time for a while and he's not alone, his father wants one too but I'm determined to put it off a little while longer. The last thing I need to contend with now is a toddler, a newborn and a puppy."

"Sensible mommy." Greg commented as he swung the car wide around a moving van parked awkwardly on Reunion Drive. "So…" He glanced quickly at his passenger before returning his attention to the road ahead. "You got stuck with Brass this morning because…?"

"Because he's one big ball of nervous energy and Helen couldn't take it anymore." Sara chuckled. "Apparently, he's been driving her nuts since they got up this morning so she called Grissom and told him it was now part of the best man's duty to remove the groom from her presence before she murdered him."

"Fair enough," Greg nodded. "It's kind of hard to imagine he was that bad though."

"Bad enough that I decided to call you and ask for a ride rather than hang around at home and travel over with them as we'd planned." She jerked her thumb towards the back seat. "Someone was being teased to within an inch of his life and was starting to play up so I figured better safe than sorry." Both eyebrows rose in question. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, of course not." Carefully making a right onto Anthem Parkway, Greg shook his head. "I was going to swing by and pick up Lindsey anyway, you're not all that far out of the way."

"Lindsey?" Sara frowned. "I thought she was going with her mother."

"She was," he confirmed with a nod. "But Catherine got called into a meeting at the lab this morning and, since Lindsey's car is currently sitting in a mechanic's workshop minus it's transmission, she decided to call me for a ride." He chuckled. "I always wanted to know what it would be like to be a cab driver, now I do."

"I wonder what the meeting's about." Sara pondered. "Lindsey didn't say anything?"

"Nothing specific, apparently it's some kind of computer issue or something." Greg shrugged as he slowed the car for the turn onto Pecos Ridge. "I can't say I've noticed any problems with the system though."

"It's got to be about those locked files or, at least, I hope it is; as soon as I get access to those I can sign off on that year and start on the next."

"The cold cases?" Greg frowned. "Who on earth would want to lock those?"

"Beats me." Sara shrugged. "And it beat Catherine too which is why she handed it over to the experts; we both tried to access them but none of the usual passwords would work."

"Well that's weird."

"You're telling me." Shifting slightly, Sara checked once again on Ben. "So, no luck getting a date? I'm kind of surprised you didn't ask Morgan."

"You know," Greg shrugged nonchalantly, "I really don't want to muddy those waters any more than I have to; we both came to the conclusion that nothing was going to happen so I think it's better that we just keep it all on a friends-only level."

"Well, you could have asked her as a friend." Satisfied that her son was fine, Sara turned back round. "It's Jim's wedding, Greg, not a life-long commitment." She cocked her head as she studied her friend's profile. "Although, if you had bought her, I'd probably feel really bad about introducing you to Kaylee so perhaps it's for the best."

"Kaylee?" Greg frowned. "That's Helen's daughter, isn't it?"

"Yep, she arrived yesterday from Arkansas; thirty-one, light brown hair, green eyes and very pretty." Glancing across, Sara smiled at the obvious interest on her friend's face. "She's a grade schoolteacher and looking to move to Vegas so she can be closer to her mom."

"Might be worth a look," Greg deliberately downplayed his interest. "I mean, she'll be no Sara Sidle, I'm sure, but-"

"Isn't it time you took me down off that pedestal?" She rolled her eyes. "I fall far short of perfect, you know, even Grissom will tell you that."

"I know, it's just…" he shrugged. "I still have this fantasy that, maybe, if things had been different-"

"Never would have happened, Greg; truth be told, I came to Vegas for one reason and one reason only and it may have taken a while for that reason to finally open his eyes and see what he was missing out on but he got there eventually."

"Which reminds me…" He glanced across almost apprehensively. "I really need to apologize for the other day; if I'd known showing you those photos was going to upset you so much that you-"

"You didn't upset me." Sara cut in with a quick and easy smile. "It's something that had to be done; after all, it'd be pretty hard to solve crimes if we couldn't show possibly identifying photographs to our victims. I just hope that Grissom didn't give you too hard of a time over it when he called."

"He's protecting you, that's his job but no, he didn't give me a hard time; he simply told me what had happened after I'd left and requested that we make sure that he's around when we need to speak to you again." Greg pointed up ahead to a smallish apartment complex on the left. "That's where she lives, right?"

"Yeah, and I think she's made things easy for you too; that looks like her waiting by the curb."

Guiding the Honda in against the sidewalk, Greg had barely pulled to a stop before Lindsey was clambering into the back seat.

"Hi guys." She shot a wide smile at Ben as she pulled the car door closed. "Hey little cutie." Settling herself on the seat, she reached across and poked Ben in the tummy. "How are you today?"

"Good," Ben chuckled happily at the attention. "Go see Chim and Nelen."

"Well, that's a coincidence." Slipping the seatbelt over her shoulder, Lindsey quickly clipped it home. "That's what I'm doing too."

Facing forward, she caught Greg's eye in the rearview mirror. "Thanks for the ride; I spoke to Mom a little while ago and she's hoping to make it to the wedding but," she shrugged lightly, "she didn't sound all that optimistic to me."

"I guess they're making headway then," Sara commented. "Assuming this is I.T. that we're talking about, they wouldn't stick around on a weekend unless they were onto something."

"I'm not sure who it is, all I know is she's going to be in one hell of a mood if she doesn't get to, at least, make an appearance at the reception." Lindsey pushed an errant strand of hair from her face as her eyebrows arced in question. "So, did either of you see the news this morning?"

"Something interesting?"

"Yeah, do you remember a guy named Toby Arcane? He was like the must-see name in town about fifteen or so years ago."

"Rings a bell." Greg's forehead wrinkled in concentration as he struggled to remember more. "He was an illusionist, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, that's him." Lindsey nodded her agreement. "His posters were everywhere and getting tickets to his show was almost impossible." She shook her head. "Especially for me, I was dying to go and see him but Mom refused to take me, she thought I was too young."

"God, I feel old!" Sara quipped under her breath, her mouth twisting up into a grin as Greg smothered a chuckle.

"He wound up with a drug habit, didn't he?" Greg asked as he slowed for a red light. "And ended up leaving Vegas because no one would hire him." He huffed a quick laugh. "Don't tell me he's trying to make a comeback."

"Not exactly." Lindsey leaned forward as far as her seatbelt would allow her. "Apparently, he went missing after one of his shows in Shreveport over a week ago and they pulled his body out of a lake in Texas yesterday afternoon." She looked over at Ben as if to ensure he wasn't hearing what she said. "According to the report, a fisherman wound up snagging his hook on a large canvas sack and when he opened it up, there was Arcane, his hands cuffed behind him and lead weights tied to both ankles. The reporter said the set up was all part of one of his old tricks that he'd been talking about reviving, so they seem to think he'd gone out there to rehearse it."

"Alone?" Greg shook his head. "Impossible; at the very least he'd need help to secure the sack, you couldn't do that yourself if you were handcuffed and he'd have to have someone waiting nearby just in case it all went wrong." The light turned green and he slowly accelerated. "Besides, I'm sure there's plenty of lakes in Louisiana so, if you're just going to practice something, why would you drive all the way to Texas to do it?"

"I don't know but no one from his support team is owning up to it." Lindsey countered. "And from what they said on the news, they all seem to have pretty solid alibis for the night he disappeared."

"Wasn't he a suspect in a case at one time, Sara?"

Realizing that his front seat passenger hadn't said a word during the exchange Greg turned only to find her staring out of the side window.

"Sara?"

She didn't react and, reaching across, he lightly touched her arm, a gesture that made her instantly jerk backwards in her seat.

"Whoa!" Shocked by the reaction, Greg flicked the indicator on and quickly swung the Honda out of the flow of traffic and into a vacant parking space. "You okay?" Turning the car off, he swiveled in his seat to face her fully. "Sara? You alright?"

"What?" Sara blinked quickly and then looked at him. "Of course, I'm alright." She looked around, clearly perplexed. "Why have we stopped?"

"Because you just scared the crap out of me." Greg exhaled heavily. "Jeez Sara, don't do that again."

"Do what?" She looked from Greg to Lindsey and back again. "What did I do?"

"You zoned out again." Greg made it sound like an accusation. "Just like the other day at your place. Lindsey was telling us about the news report she heard, I asked you a question about it and when you didn't answer-"

"I was daydreaming." Sara assured them. "Well, at least I thought I was." She patted her belly affectionately. "I may have nodded off for a couple of minutes though; thanks to this one, that's been happening a lot lately." Reaching out, she rubbed Greg's arm. "I'm sorry I gave you a fright. What was the question you asked?"

"Um…" It took Greg a moment to get his nerves back under control. "The dead guy in Texas, Toby Arcane, he was a suspect in a case here, wasn't he?"

"I don't know; I don't think so," she shrugged and offered him a somewhat baffled smile. "I've never heard the name before."

"Sure you have," Greg insisted. "The case involved another illusionist too; the whole thing started off with a missing person and ended up with the guy burning his own kid to death and making it look like it was him that died." He thought for a moment then shook his head. "I can't remember the other guy's name but Grissom was the lead on it and Warrick and…" he turned to look at her, "you, I'm sure it was you; the three of you worked it together." He nodded his head. "Yeah, I remember it now and you were definitely on that case; you've got to remember him, Sara."

"No, I don't!" Her voice took on a decidedly chilly tone, one that neither Greg nor Lindsey had heard her use before, as she turned in her seat and stared at the roadway up ahead. "I've never heard of the man, I've never met the man and I was never on a case that involved him in any way, shape or form. I don't know about your memory, Greg but there's absolutely nothing wrong with mine so can we drop the subject now." She cocked her chin towards the passing traffic as she adjusted the seatbelt so it sat more comfortably below her swollen stomach. "Now, let's go, I do not want to get to this wedding late."

A/N2: As always, thanks for the beta, SylvieT