Title: No Words, chapter 3

Time: After "Homebodies"

Sara stood in the driveway of the Kirkwood family, a few steps away from where Angela Kirkwood lay dead in a pool of blood. Angela had been the victim of a rape. There wasn't enough evidence to arrest her perpetrators. Sara had been frustrated at CSI's inability to gather sufficient evidence and eyewitness testimony. The girl's ordeal struck a chord with Sara, and now she was dead. Heartbroken, Sara walked over to the Denali and climbed in the back seat to shut out the crime scene and just cry. "Let Grissom process the scene," she thought to herself as the tears rolled down her face.

Back at the lab, Grissom pulled her aside. "You got yourself too emotionally involved in this case," Grissom cautioned.

"Well then it's probably good I sat in the car instead of gathering evidence," Sara retorted. "Not that it's going to do any good."

"We've got enough to arrest him for murder," Grissom said.

"Too bad we didn't have enough to arrest him for rape, before the girl had to die," Sara snapped.

"That's the nature of this job sometimes, Sara. You have to go where the evidence leads you, and sometimes you have to stop when it doesn't," Grissom said.

Sara couldn't think of a response, she just left Grissom in a huff and headed for the breakroom, fighting back tears. She sat down at the table, buried her head in her arms, and sobbed. Greg walked in and saw Sara crying, walked over to her and sat next to her.

"Sara, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Everything, everything with this job," Sara said, lifting her head. "What good is the work we do if we can't save or protect anyone?"

"You're talking about the Kirkwood case, the rape victim who was just murdered?" Greg asked. Sara nodded. Greg took Sara's hands in his. "Sara, your job isn't to save and protect–that's the police's job. Your job is to gather and process the evidence."

"But we can't even do that right. Isn't that part of saving and protecting?" Sara asked tearfully.

"Sara, you've been at this a long time. You know that you can't win every case. Sometimes the bad guys win unfortunately," Greg said softly.

"They're not supposed to," Sara sulked.

"I know, but sometimes they do. That doesn't make you any less of a good guy. You're just a good guy who had a bad day. You'll get him this time around," Greg smiled.

"It just seems like too little, too late," Sara said.

"You gave your all, Sara. You even gave a piece of your heart, which is risky. You did what you could. Stop beating up on yourself," Greg said. He cupped her chin, turning her face to look into her eyes. "The best thing you can do for Angela now is to concentrate on getting this guy for her murder."

"Well, I'm off the case because I got too emotionally involved," Sara said, looking away.

"Then trust Grissom and the others to do their jobs. They'll get him this time. And you'll get the next bad guy," Greg smiled.

"You think so?" Sara smiled back.

"I know so," Greg said, standing up and taking her hands. "C'mere," he said pulling her up and taking her into a warm, gentle hug.

"Thanks, Greg," Sara said, laying her head on his shoulder and letting his comforting warmth surround her.

"Anytime," Greg whispered, burying his face in her strawberry-scented hair.