Hey guys, thanks for the kind reviews on the last chapter. It wasn't the greatest was it? Anyway, don't forget about the GSR song challenge. Closes on the 7th June. I've already picked one and put it in the maybe pile. I've thought of the special purpose of the songs and you'll find out what it is in the last few chaps.
Warning: This chapter deals with child abuse.
Sara was sat it the break room on her break eating a BLT sandwich when Catherine walked in and took a soda from the fridge. She gave Sara an odd look before turning and walking to the door.
"Catherine? Could we talk for a minute?" Sara called before the blonde woman could escape.
"Sure." She faked a smile and sat down at the table in the chair nearest the door and furthest away from Sara. "You got some new info on the case?"
"No it's not that, I just think we got off on the wrong foot earlier and I wanted to apologise if I seemed a little…well bitchy. I'm only here for a few days at the most and I don't want to hold the record for making the most enemies in the quickest time." She held out her hand for Catherine to shake. "Can we start over? I'm Sara Sidle of the San Francisco Crime Lab, CSI II."
Catherine gave Sara another odd look, but finally relented. She was just being territorial with the new girl. "Sorry, I'm Catherine Willows, CSI III." She shook Sara's hand and smiled at her. "So I hear Grissom pulled you in from Frisco to do an internal investigation on Warrick? How's it coming?" she asked.
"Well I can't really comment on anything, but I'm gonna need to interview the rest of the team about him. Who is the rest of the team by the way? Griss, failed to mention it when we got up." Sara said nonchalantly.
Catherine raised an eyebrow at "when we got up" but decided to ignore it for the moment. "Well, there's me, Warrick, Nick Stokes, average sized Texan, and Greg Sanders although he works in DNA, not in the field. That's basically 'The Graveyard Shift'."
Sara stood up and threw the remnants of her BLT in the trash can. "Thanks Catherine, I'll go talk to them, get this over with."
"Uh, I'm afraid it'll have to wait. Greg's off with the Flu and Nick's at a scene in the mountains so he might not get back today." Sara sat back down and sighed. "You can still interview me though. But maybe we should wait till our case is closed. Anyway, what about you? Where are you staying? There aren't many motels near the building apart from the casinos."
"Oh, I'm staying with Grissom. He said it didn't seem fair that I'd been brought out here because of him and then had to pay for a roof over my head so he's letting me stay in his spare room."
"You're staying with Grissom?" Catherine asked as if what Sara had was in different language. "Man, he's never let me stay over."
They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Catherine spoke again. "Listen, don't take this the wrong way, but don't start something with Grissom, ok?"
"Excuse me?"
"Don't start a relationship with him. He's still getting over his last relationship. Ass hole." Catherine muttered.
"Why? What happened in his last relationship?" Sara inquired. She had no intention in chasing after Grissom while she was here. What would be the point? He'd said it himself, he'd never come back to Frisco.
"Well," Catherine looked around to make sure they were alone. "about two years ago he met this girl in San Francisco while he was doing a lecture on Forensics." Sara's stomach knotted. Did he mean her? Catherine noticed Sara stiffen and furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you ok?" Sara nodded. "Anyway, they spent one magical night together and then Grissom got called back to Vegas for a family matter. He said it hurt him so bad to leave her. He even told me," Catherine's voice lowered to a whisper. "he said he thought she was 'The One'!" Sara, who had been taking a gulp of soda, spat it back out before she choked on it. "Are you sure you're ok?"
Coughing, Sara nodded and stood up. She composed herself and grabbed her bag. "Well Catherine, it was nice meeting you properly this time, but my shift's over and I need to get Grissom to pick me up so I'll see you tomorrow." and with that she left.
Once outside the building Sara pulled out her cell and called Grissom.
"Grissom."
"Hey Griss, it's me."
"Hey, you ready to come home?"
Sara smiled at his choice of words. "Yeah, how are your arms?"
"Well the incessant throbbing has subsided and they're just a bit tender. Have you had anything to eat?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, well I'll be there in about twenty minutes depending on the miracle that is Vegas Traffic at rush hour."
"Ok, bye." She flipped her cell shut and sat on a low wall at the entrance of the car park.
Grissom arrived half an hour later and Sara hopped into the passenger seat.
"So how was you're day dear?" Grissom asked jokingly.
"It was ok. Marginally better than my first day at school. I had a bit of a territory dispute with Catherine Willows and couldn't talk to anyone about Warrick Brown because they weren't there." Sara replied, staring out of the window.
"They weren't there? I leave Catherine in charge for one day and the whole lab disappears?"
"Well I talked to Warrick and Catherine but Nick Stokes is in the mountains and Greg Sanders is sick. Have you heard about Holly?"
Grissom sighed "Yeah, Brass called me. He's the supervisor…well he was, I guess I am now."
Sara put a hand on his forearm "I'm sorry Griss. Can I do anything to help?"
They had pulled into Grissom's driveway and he shut off the engine. "The only thing you can do is to make sure that report gets to the board as soon as possible. It'll bring some sort of closure to us all, especially to Holly's family." And they got out of the car.
Stepping into Grissom's house, Sara flopped down onto the couch and groaned. Grissom sat next to her and looked at her.
"Are you tired?" he asked her.
"Yeah, but also hungry." She mumbled and got up to peer into the fridge.
"Why didn't you say that when I asked you when I picked you up? We could have got something on the way home."
"Because, Mr. Investigator, I wasn't hungry when you asked me, otherwise I would have said "Yes" when first you asked." She rummaged around, pulled out a fruit salad and settled back down next to Grissom on the sofa. Grissom was staring at Sara while she ate the fruit. "You wan some?" she asked when she caught him staring.
He shook his head. "No. I would like to know what you meant this morning when you said you had things that I needed to know before you left again. And what you meant by the hitting comment on your first day of school."
Sara sighed, placed the fruit salad on the coffee table in front of the couch and turned to Grissom. "Ok. I suppose I should start at the beginning. I was brought up in a home where beatings where considered odd if not done more than twice a day. It used to just be my mom and brother that got the worst from my dad." Sara took a shaky breath and Grissom held her hand.
"You don't have to tell me Sara if it's upsetting you too much. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable." Grissom said, stroking her knuckles with his thumb.
"I need to tell you Griss, it involves you as well. Anyway, basically my dad was a drunk. He used to come home from work and go straight to a bar for a good few hours, then come home, beat my mom for something stupid like not opening the door for him or turning the T.V. on for him. Then he would drink some more so that when my brother and I came home from school he would have an empty bottle to beat my brother with. That was the norm until I got to about 10 and my brother left home to join the marines. He got a lucky escape. When he left, there was only me and my mom. I soon found out what it was like for my brother. Before, all dad used to do to me was shout so loud my ears would ring, but he didn't start the beatings until my brother left. That's why my mom wanted me out of the house." Sara wiped away a tear and let out a small laugh. "It got to the point where both my mom and I were on first name terms with all the staff at the A&E. no one ever did anything about it though. Dad would make up the most lame excuses for all the injuries, but no one ever did anything." Sara wiped away another tear and Grissom put an arm around her.
"I'm so sorry Sara." Grissom whispered as Sara started to sob into his shoulder. "I wish I could have been there to protect you. I don't want to sound insensitive, but how do I fit into all this?"
Sara straightened up and wiped her face. "Well, when I was 13 I started menstruating. The day that I started, we didn't have any…uh…supplies, so mom had to go to the store and get some. She never had any money because dad always spent it or never gave her any and she didn't work, so she took about $2 from his wallet when he was asleep and went to the store. When she got back she woke dad. He saw the shopping bag in her hands and started beating on her. I was hiding under the kitchen table but after a few minutes dad dragged me out. Mom had told him that she had bought that stuff for me, so he started beating on me, badly. He was continuously punching my stomach and pelvis. Mom just stood and watched. When he'd finished, he just went back to the sofa and fell asleep. I remember lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of menstruated blood. Mom took me to the hospital, again, and they told me that I had massive damage to my womb and fallopian tubes and a fractured pelvis. When they cleaned me up, they said that I could probably never have kids because of the amount of damage and scarring. Being 13, it didn't really bother me that I couldn't have kids, but as I got older I realised how much it upset me." Sara got up from the sofa and walked to the window. "So, two years ago, when I found out I was pregnant, even though it wasn't planned and I thought I'd never see the father again, it was the single most happiest moment of my life."
"You have a child?" Grissom asked her, walking to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. "Wait…two years ago? That's when we…is it…Sara, am I a father?"
Ooh, I'm as evil as the writers for CSI aren't I? Leaving it at a cliff-hanger. Mwah ha ha! I'm sorry if Sara's back story was a bit vague, but I'm a bit touchy when it comes to abuse so I didn't want to go too far into it and I know some people don't like it either. If you didn't like this chapter, I wouldn't read the next one.