Chapter XV

The Ex

She had almost forgotten, but everything that had been buried so deep for so long came back in an instant. It was strait out of the past, like a bad movie flash back. Everything slowed down for just a minute and Sara found herself falling back through time. The overwhelming buzz that made her higher brain functions go haywire. The sweet tang of honey on her tongue. The light, sweet hints of cinnamon and sandalwood. The silky smooth press of lips against her own. When Sara pried her eyes back open, she was staring into painfully familiar blue eyes. Far more shaken than she'd like to admit, Sara stepped back, took a deep breath, tried to bring the spinning world back into focus and coughed to clear her suddenly tight and parched throat.

"Alex."

The name, two short syllables, left a cloying bittersweet aftertaste in Sara's mouth.

Alexandra Dupree had been one of the things Sara had left behind her in San Francisco. Left without looking back, it had been a quick, cold parting. Now, when her life was a chaotic mess, Alex walked right back into it. Typical. The other woman had always had a tremendous sense of timing. Of course, in Sara's opinion, any time this side of the Apocalypse would have been too soon to see her ex lover again. Was it so horribly wrong to wish your ex into a deep black, nameless void that they could never escape, or at least a Guatemalan prison?

Sara's gaze fell to Sofia, still silently standing beside her. She blinked three times and realized that while time had slowed down for her, it had really only been seconds. A part of her still-rebooting frontal lobe registered the fact that it was polite to make introductions.

"Sofia, this is Alex Dupree, an old -"

Never one to be quiet when she could be heard, Alex flashed one of her trademark smiles and smoothly interrupted Sara, "Lover. It's nice to meet you"

Alex's blue eyes darted to the badge displayed on Sofia's belt, "Inspector."

Sara scrubbed her palms over her face, which only made it redder and pinched the bridge on her straight nose between her thumb and forefinger.

Alex glossed over Sara's mortification and smiled at her. Sofia only got a quick once over and, apparently, found unworthy of her attention. "Had I known you'd run off to Vegas, Sahara," Alex let her sunglasses dangle off the end of her finger and winked seductively, "I would have visitedSin City sooner."

Sara stepped back again and everyone, even Catherine, who was still a few steps away, saw the shutters drop hard and fast in her eyes and her face go blank and hard, like a piece of stone that the sculptor had yet to chisel. "And if I'd known you were here, I would have brought the SWAT Team."

Alex laughed; it was a throaty chuckle that ensnared the libido of more than one person there, whether they were willing or not.

Sara didn't even flinch, "We're here on LVPD business, Miss Dupree and since I know you don't have anything to contribute, we'll be leaving."

Alex smiled again, "All work and no play, huh? Sara, I can see that much has not changed." She tossed her hair and looked Sara up and down, slowly, her champagne colored eyes taking everything in, "No not much has changed at all."

Sara recoiled as if she'd been slapped but quickly recovered, "You'd be surprised."

Catherine chose that exact moment to strut into the conversation. "Sidle, what the hell is going on over here?" For a moment, everyone's attention shifted from the two ex lovers to Catherine and that, mused Sofia, pleased the supervisor to no end. Catching Sara Sidle in an uncomfortable position probably pleased her even more. "I was under the impression that we were working here, Sara, not looking for a date to the Spring Formal." It seemed like Catherine's less than friendly attitude relaxed Sara more then it made things worse. Of course, since Catherine's bitchy attitude was the rule and not the exception it was probably nice to have something normal as a ground.

Sara turned to Catherine and gave her a tight smile. "I was just leaving."

The tension in the air was so thick it would have given a machete pause. "You're the Alex Dupree!" His quick announcement was loud, as though he'd just had an amazing epiphany.

Catherine was somewhat less then amused. "Okay, so now we all know each other."

Greg's jaw was still slack. "But you're… she's Alex Dupree, the lioness of the catwalk, the face that enchanted millions."

"Greg. Shut it." Sara's words were forced through clenched teeth and neither Sofia nor Catherine could ever remember the brunette being so harsh with the former lab rat.

The spiky haired CSI's voice trailed off and he looked hurt.

Alex, on the other hand, laughed again. "Temper, temper, Sahara."

Sofia could see Catherine's light brow shoot up while she mouthed a silent 'Sahara?'

Sara blew out an impatient breath. "Well then, we - Detective Curtis and I - will be on our way, then. Thank you, Alex, for embarrassing me in front of my colleges, again, and I hope I never see you again, ever."

Sofia cleared her throat, "O-kay, it was nice meeting you, Miss Dupree." She looked over at Sara and jerked her head, "We have to go." She pulled Sara along, putting her hand on the small of the other woman's back to guide her away.

The three remaining people watched them go. Greg's jaw was still hanging wide open, Catherine had her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes sparked dangerously. Alex looked cool and collected and a little bit intrigued.

Sara and Sofia walked and didn't look back until they were around a corner and several hundred yards away. When Sofia was sure they were out of range, she stopped. Sara was a private person and she definitely didn't appreciate public displays. As the woman was currently slumped against the brick wall of one of the university's buildings, Sofia would bet she wasn't as composed as she had appeared earlier.

Sara had shoved her sunglasses onto the top of her head to reveal that her eyes were closed. She concentrated on the rough brick wall at her back and the breeze ruffling through her hair. They were tactile, solid, and real. She knew Sofia was looking at her, wondering, judging.

"Please don't."

Sara opened her eyes and looked at Sofia, "It's an extremely long story. We've been over for years and she just decided to do that. God."

Sofia only shrugged and help up her hands in mock surrender. "Trust me, I have enough of my own bad ex stories to last a life time."

Sara forced a chuckle, "Just give me a minute to regroup and we can go talk to these T.A.N. Girls."

Sofia nodded and fished in her pocket for a toothpick only to find empty wrappers and less than a dollars worth of spare change. She found a quarter and ran it through her fingers while they stood there. "So I do have one question."

Sara gave her a look that would reduce glass to sand. "Sahara?"

Sofia grinned quickly, "C'mon, tell me she was high when she gave you that nickname."

Sara laughed, a real laugh. "Well I am a child of the seventies, so pot cannot be discounted from the process, but it is my given name."

Sofia blinked, "Are you serious? Sahara Sidle? Wow."

Sara straightened up, "Sahara Sun Sidle, which is a mouthful."

Sofia arched a brow, "It's exotic."

Sara pushed off the wall completely, "It's eccentric, which is why I stopped answering to it an extremely long time ago."

They were walking again, shoulder to shoulder; they'd fallen into pace with each other without thinking about it. "Well, all that aside, Sahara," That earned her a glare, "We need to go find those mini-feminists."

Sara grinned, slid her sunglasses back on and Sofia could tell that despite what had just transpired, the woman was back in control of herself and ready to do the job.

The student center was a bustling mass of scarlet tee shirts, thick books, and Ipod cords. There was eclectic aroma coming from the cafeteria's hit and miss food offerings and someone somewhere had ESPN on. There were meeting rooms here and there and wall mounted flat screens flashed advertisements for local businesses, school events, the weather, and an update on the Rebels football schedule.

Sara looked around, her eyes quickly taking everything in. "The flyer said the meetings are held every day in the Conference Room C-wherever the hell that is."

Finding the conference room had taken a few more minutes than it probably should have, but they did find it with only one moment of weakness outside of the university coffee-shop. Much like the S.N.N.O.W meeting, this meeting in UNLV's Student Center's Conference Room C was marked by a multitude of young women.

They came in all shapes, creeds and styles. There were tall, athletic blondes that could probably trace their heritages straight back to Sweden. There were curvy girls that had enough metal pierced through their faces to make a small statue. There were older women, adult students who probably acted as advisers and girls who were obviously freshmen students.

Sara took three photos: a blown up copy of Erica Green and Dedrick Marsh's university issued Ids. She had also brought one of Stewart Finnigan's mug-shots. They intended to show them around. Sara knew that Marsh's picture would be met with scorn and Finnigans would, logically speaking, not be recognized at all. She was really interested in Erica Green. Who had her friends been, did they know where she could have gotten her hands on a device, who else had them?

Usually when dealing with big groups, they would split up and work from each end and meet in the middle.

Sofia, though, had firmly rejected that idea. "I am way out of my element. Last time I went to one of these things with you, I ended up being hit on and lectured about how brilliant you are."

They moved around the room, looking around for whoever was in charge. "Hey! Don't knock Professor Blake, she was more than just my adviser. She looked out for all of the odd-ducks that came through her office. Helped us pick classes, told us who and what to avoid. She was down to earth and didn't kiss up to the Kennedy types. She even kept her house open to us. She lived right off of campus and told us she'd rather have a bunch of drunken co-eds crashing in her den than have us wandering around campus and town. I can't count the times I woke up on her couch completely confused."

Sofia narrowly dodged a girl with bright pink hair. "I had one of those too, except it was my coach and any time she caught us drunk or hung over she'd run us until we puked and then we'd run some more."

Sara smiled, "Ah, college life."

The girl in charge, or at least the girl who appeared to be in charge, had short, choppy black hair that spiked around her face and a nose ring. "I'm sorry, you missed the lecture and the Q and A, but I think someone recorded it. I can get you a copy if you'd like. Which station are you with?"

The girl had obviously jumped to the wrong conclusion and Sofia unclipped her badge from her belt and held it out for the girl to see. "We're from the Police Station, I'm Detective Sofia Curtis and this is Sara Sidle from the Crime Lab. We have a few questions for you."

The girl looked from one of them to the other. "Okay, I'm Kera Hiene, what's going on? Is this about Erica?"

Both women nodded and the girl put the stack of pamphlets she'd been holding on a table. "Anything I can do to help. Erica was practically family."

Due to the sensitive nature of the discussion, Sara and Sofia had decided to move to one of the smaller conference rooms on the first floor to interview Kera and some of the other girls. Passing back by the coffee shop was completely incidental. Sara sipped her heavily caffeinated brew and looked across the table at Kera, their last interview of the day.

"When did Erica start coming to your meetings?"

Kera was the University's T.A.N. President and, apparently, an active protester. "Um, a few months ago, I'd have to check my attendance logs. She was great. Really started to get serious about the cause."

Sofia nodded and slid the picture of the late Stewart Finnigan across the small table. "Did you ever see him hanging around her, or the school maybe? Could he have been an ex boyfriend or someone who was a little too interested?"

The raven haired young woman shrugged, "He doesn't look familiar and he's definitely not her boyfriend past or present. Is he the one who-who raped her?"

Slightly perturbed by the efficiency of the university grape vine, Sofia nodded stiffly. "Are you sure you didn't see him?"

The girl shook her head again, "He's dead too, right?"

Again, Sofia nodded and frowned when she heard what Kendra had to say next. "Well, if he raped her, he deserved to die."

Sara shrugged uncomfortably, "That's neither here nor there. What we would like to know is if you have ever seen this." She slid a fourth picture across the table. It was the cross-sectioned device that they had removed from Erica's body.

Kera looked from the picture to the investigators. "What the hell is that?"

Author's Note: If you're wondering where the idea for Alex Dupree came from, look way back at 'Angels of Vegas'. While the stories aren't connected in any way, the idea of an ex for Sara was too good to let go.