Ok so this part doesn't come with a song because quite frankly I couldn't find anything that fit. This was just an idea in my head of how I'd like to see it happen on the show. You'll see what I mean as you read. Enjoy…
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Wouldn't you.
Sara was just finishing of a hot cup of Greg's special blend coffee when Catherine breezed into the break room with the night's assignments. Nick and Warrick immediately shut off the Playstation game they were currently competing on and joined Sara and Greg at the table.
"Ok guys, looks like a busy one. Nick, Greg, DB at the Tropicana. Warrick, you and I are on a sexual assault in Henderson."
Sara secretly breathed a sigh of relief that Catherine had not passed that case to her. Normally she'd have been furious to be passed over, not wanting to appear weak to her work mates. But Grissom's absence was taking its toll on her and the thought of returning home to an empty bed, with no one there to tell her it would all be alright, made her think twice.
"Sara, you got a suspicious circs at the Tempest."
They each took their assignment slips and headed out, Nick and Greg arguing over who was going to be the one to crack the case, while the rest of the team rolled their eyes.
Sara pulled the Denali over when she reached the scene and was thankful when she noticed that Brass was the detective on the case. Over the last three weeks, he'd been like her guardian angel, looking after her at scenes and stopping by the townhouse occasionally to check on her or just keep her company. He was the only one who knew about the relationship between her and Grissom.
Grissom had apparently let him in on the secret a few days before he left, saying that he wanted someone there who knew what was going on so that they could look after Sara while he was gone. Brass had been his first thought.
For starters he was Grissom's closest friend, aside from Catherine and although the two women had been getting on better lately, he hadn't felt totally comfortable leaving her to look after Sara. He trusted Brass with his life.
Then there was Brass and Sara's relationship, which had become something akin to a father daughter bond. Grissom knew without a doubt that he was the one to turn to. And Sara would have to remind herself to thank him for that.
She smiled at Brass as she approached.
"Hey doll." He greeted her with a wink.
"Hey Jim, what's the scoop?"
"Victim's name is Norman Waters. Security at the hotel were doing their evening rounds when they found him like this."
He gestured to the body, which was splayed across the concrete at an impossible angle.
"Any witnesses?" she asked, shaking off the feeling of déjà vu that was washing over her. She wasn't sure why, but something about the case felt familiar.
Brass shook his head. "Not to the actual event. But a couple in the room next door to the vic's said they heard arguing a couple of hours ago. Two male voices screaming obscenities at each other."
"No visual description then?"
"Nope. We're pulling surveillance tapes to see if we can catch a view of this guy leaving the room."
After he had assured he that he would page her when they'd gotten hold of the tapes, she left him to it and approached the body. David was just finishing up, and stood to greet her.
"All yours Sara. Lividity and liver temp suggest he's been dead just over an hour, no more than two."
"Thanks David."
As she got closer she noticed fresh wounds on the victim's hands and pieces of what looked like shattered, brown glass scattered across the ground. Frowning slightly, she photographed the scene and quickly got to work.
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An hour later, after processing the scene and the hotel room, and finding no evidence of another person being anywhere near the victim Sara trudged into the morgue, hoping that Doc Robbins could give her something to work with.
"Hey Doc, please tell me you have something useful to tell me?"
He shook his head and smiled apologetically. "Nothing you probably didn't already know. COD was massive internal bleeding consisted with a high impact fall. Surprisingly, he actually survived the initial impact. His room was what…four flights up?"
"Five." She smirked when he narrowed his eyes at her correction. "What about the wounds on his left hand? Defensive wounds?"
"Doubt it. His fingers were all broken in several places which means his hand was probably clenched in a fist when he first hit the ground. Like he was holding something. I found shards of glass inside the wounds."
She nodded, expecting the answer. "We found shards of the same glass scattered around the body at the scene."
"Probably from a beer bottle. The guy's blood alcohol level was point zero four."
"Wow! He was smashed, excuse the pun." She shared a smirk with the pathologist before being distracted by a buzzing at her hip. "That's Brass with the security tapes. Gotta run. Thanks Doc."
She met Brass in the A/V lab where Archie was just queuing up the tape. She explained what the Doc had told her about the victims injuries and the glass they found.
"Ok wait…that doesn't make sense. Two scenarios here. One, the guy jumps…why would he hold on to his beer bottle? Two, the guy's pushed… again why would he hold on to his beer bottle?"
Archie spoke up from where he was seated watching the tape. "Check it out."
Three sets of eyes turned to the screen to see a tall man storming out of one of the hotel rooms in a rage, slamming the door behind them.
Sara was the first one to say what they were all thinking. "That's the wrong room. It's on the other side of the witnesses' room. This guy wasn't pushed."
"Ok… but again I repeat, if you're about to jump off of a balcony fifty feet up in the air, why would you hold on to your beer bottle."
Realisation dawned on Sara in that moment. "You wouldn't."
"Wait, so if the guy wasn't pushed, and he didn't jump…" Suddenly the pieces fell together and Brass caught up with what Sara was already thinking. "He fell."
Sara nodded and talked it out for the benefit of the detective and A/V technician. "It's the most simple answer. So simple that we overlooked it. Guy goes out on the town, gets steaming drunk, return's to his hotel room with a bottle of beer. It's night time in Vegas, if you wanted to kick back with a bottle of beer in your hotel room, where would you go?"
"The balcony." Archie provided.
"Exactly. I found a key card on the opposite side of the railing. At first I figured it had fallen out of his pocket as he went over but maybe he dropped it. He reaches over in a drunken haze to grab it, leans to far and the rest as they say is history." She smiled proudly at having cracked the case so quickly. There was still more than half the shift to go.
After filling the report, Sara headed to Grissom's office to drop it on the desk for Catherine to sign. As she was about to turn and leave she realised what it was about the case that had seemed so familiar. Her mind flashed back several years, to a sunny Vegas day, when she had showed up to a scene to find Grissom and Nick having great fun throwing plastic dummies off the roof of a hotel.
Her smile widened as she thought about that day. The first day she'd arrived in Vegas. She'd been through a lot since she got here and on a number of occasions she'd come extremely close to leaving. Now she couldn't be happier that she hadn't.
"Norman fell." She whispered to herself.
"Wouldn't you if you were married to Mrs Roper?"
She froze. It couldn't be. He wasn't due back for another week. But there was no mistaking that voice.
She was unable to suppress the grin on her face as she repeated his words from long ago. "I don't even have to turn around. Gil Grissom."
When she turned, brown eyes met blue and his face held a grin that matched the intensity she was sure hers held.
Setting his kit on the floor Grissom swung the office door shut and turned the key in the lock. "That's me."