Chapter 2

The next week was Sara's first real time on the job. She had a yearning to prove herself, not only for the sake of having earned this job, but to prove to Grissom that he had made the right choice. This was an abduction case. Kidnapping so to speak. She spent all week situating her apartment, belongings, and reading forensic journals to learn as much as she could before her first day. This was it.

She wasn't ready.

There was no way that she was going to be able to work as a criminalist yet. She didn't know enough. She didn't have any real training. She only worked in the coroner's office. She was going to work in the second best lab in the country and she didn't even hold a degree in the subject.

She would just have to call Grissom and tell him that she needed another week or so to prepare. He picked up after two rings.

"Grissom."

"Hey. It's Sara. I was just thinking that I need more time to prepare before I start. I don't think I'm really ready yet--"

"Sara, we need you tonight."

"Grissom, I have a whole stack of journals to read, at least two or three books, not to mention all those boxes of case studies that you brought over."

"Sara, that is the kind of thing you do little by little. You aren't expected to come knowing all that yet."

"I'm just not ready, Griss. I need more time."

"Sara, I hand picked you to work here. If I didn't think you were capable, I wouldn't have asked you. Besides, I am going to place you with me tonight, so it will only be me seeing what you do, no one else. I'll see you in a few."

"Kay."

He hung up the phone without another word. She sat there, phone still in her hand, even more nervous now because he would be right there the whole time. But he had said that he chose her.

Her heart flickered again resonating with the little flutter of hope. He chose her. He hand picked her.

She left for work.

When she got there she ran into Nick who told her that they were driving to a kidnapping across town. Grissom had told them to process the house. Nick took samples and was in the middle of collecting trace fibers when Grissom came in.

"Hey, Griss. I'm just finishing up here."

"Good, take those to the lab, along with this tape. I'll stay here with Sara."

Nick soon left, Grissom was eager to try Sara's skills at imagining the circumstances of the crime. He knew she was nervous because she kept using textbook terminology. Cursory glance. Point of disturbance. Basic evaluation of the scene. She needed to see past those things.

He glanced at the floor. Something was out of place.

"Excuse me. Is my evaluation interrupting you?"

"Huh? No, no, no. I barely heard you."

"Glad I have a healthy ego. Find something interesting?"

"Dirt."

"You're so technical, I can hardly keep up."

"Well, sorry, out of context, it's just dirt." He stood up and walked out of the French doors out onto the patio. Sara followed.

"Did you just slap on some bad cologne?"

"No. I never wear it, it interferes with the job."

"It's almost sweet."

Grissom picked up a handkerchief and both of the CSIs smelled it from a distance.

"Can't be chloroform."

"Halothane, maybe."

"I'll get it up to GC Mass Spec."

"Looks like a professional job, I think you said?" Grissom smiled at Sara. "Care to amend your evaluation?" He was almost flirting with her. She just smiled. "I mean, if the guys forgets the rag he used to knock her out with, he can't be much of a pro."

"I, uh, keep trying to be your star pupil." Sara looked at the ground in obvious embarrassment.

"Sara, that was a seminar. This is real," Grissom lightly chided.

Sara spent the rest of the time canvasing the house in a blur. She knew she hadn't been ready, and now she had made an ass out of herself in front of him.

She was determined to make up for the mistake, but first they had to find this woman. The longer she was left missing, the more likely it was that she was dead. She was waiting for the AV lab to finish processing the tape, when the husband decided that he was going to pay the ransom.

Grissom had asked Sara to meet him in one of the layout rooms. He explained that the dirt they found had interesting properties, namely gold and arsenic. From this, they extrapolated three possible mine locations which could be possible locations for where the wife was being kept. The immediately called search and rescue to order up a chopper.

Grissom got to use his new heat sensing equipment and which impressed Sara. It was not understood by anyone but her and Grissom that she was intended to get the rest of her CSI education under his tutelage. This was one of those times.

Suddenly he saw it.

"What was that?" There was a small light green figure on the darker green LCD.

"Where?"

"Go back!" He was straining to see any anomaly. "There!" Grissom said again, looking at the screen. "Turn around!"

The chopper banked and hovered where Grissom directed him.

"My god, she's below the surface!" He contorted his face with understanding.

"OK!! Let's take her down! Now!" Sara was yelling over the blades.

They landed and yelled for the victim. Suddenly they heard a scream and began to dig in the ground. Soon the rest of S&R arrived to help dig. Grissom finally reached the crate lid and used a pick axe to pry it open. Inside, they found a dirty, but healthy woman, weak from fatigue, hunger, and panic. Grissom, abandoning all protocol, stepped into the box to lift her out.

He still had the presence of mind to collect the tape. "Sara, get me something to cut this tape!"

When the victim had been taken by the S&R crews, Sara stood, dumbfounded and heartbroken. Her vision of mankind just got that much darker. She shook her head at the ground. Grissom noticed her at this point and said, "You ok?" He instinctively put his hand in her hair.

"It never ceases to amaze me what people do to each other." He didn't know it, but she was close to tears. She knew that she would break in front of Grissom if she stayed there, so she continued with her work.

At almost the same time, the man trying to collect the ransom was caught.

Sara and Grissom went to the lab and then Grissom left for the hospital. They needed to collect evidence and interview the victim. Sara stayed at the lab.

Grissom interviewed the woman. She wasn't very helpful but Grissom asked for a blood sample, just the same. They shortly got the guy and Sara had two things to process: a crate and a car.

The crate yielded prints. The car broke the case.

She liked cars for three reasons. One, you didn't have to talk to them. No threats. No lying. No glares across the interrogation table. Second, if you take it apart, you can put it back together. Easy. It wasn't like trying to fix something that was broken when you found it. Last, there were all sorts of places that evidence could be left. Nooks and crannies that could hold hair, blood, fibers, dirt. It was like a veritable treasure trove of evidence.

She went to work. While looking it over, she noticed something odd. She opened the medical file again. Her eyes flitted between the passenger seat of the truck and the medical report. She walked out to find Grissom, determined to impress him this time.

"Hey Griss. Come tape me up?" She wanted this to sound a little dirty.

He followed her to the room after saying a few words to Catherine and Sara handed him the tape. His eyebrows went up a bit as she offered her hands to him, outstretched. She had thought about this, though in a slightly different context, many times. His hand took hers while the other wrapped the tape around her wrists. He was careful not to wrap it too hard.

"So you found laura's hairs here, passenger side, front seat," Grissom started.

"Right, not in the back, which made me ask, what kind of kidnapper leaves a woman bound and unconscious in the front seat? The back of my arm isn't touching the sheep skin, see?"

"Yeah, so."

"But there is sheep skin fibers on the back of Laura's sleeve. That tells us Laura sat back like a normal person would. Cut me Mick." Grissom cut the tape and they smiled again at each other. Sara placed her arms at her sides and said, "Like this."

"So she wasn't bound at all?"

"Correct, but would a kidnapper risk putting an unconscious woman in the front seat even unbound. Answers usually in the question, you taught me that. So, was she unconscious? We found halothane on the patio. Halothane knocks you out—if you take it.

"So, you're saying she never inhaled the halothane."

"Proof would be in the blood. Halothane stays in the system up to 48 hours."

"How pleased am I that I got a sample of her blood. So you can go check at the lab see how it turned out."

"Dammit! I wanted to carry the ball over the line." She wanted to really impress him. She also wanted to take him right there. It had been more than a little arousing when he had taped her up and leaned in so closely.

"I know." Before Grissom knew it, he was staring at an empty truck seat, thinking of Sara. Brass interrupted his musings.

The rest of the case went well enough. They convicted both the "kidnapper" and the "kidnapped." They concluded that the Mrs. Had been involved. They watched her being carted off and Nick turned to Sara and Grissom a short while later, "Wanna go grab some food?"

They both assented and left for a breakfast place. When they got there, a waitress asked the usual, "Smoking or non?"

Nick and Grissom replied "non," at the same time that Sara replied, "smoking."

They all stopped and looked at each other. "What? I'll sit in non. I didn't know it was an issue." Sara was staring back at the two who cast accusatory looks at her.

"I didn't know you smoked." Grissom was clearly surprised. Nick listened hard, they all knew that Sara and Grissom had a history, but no one knew how much of one.

"Started about a year ago. Trying to quit."

"Smoking seriously impairs your olfactory sense," Grissom chided.

"Talk to Catherine about it, too then. She's also trying to quit."

"No way! Cath?" Nick was astonished this time.

"Yes way. We're both using niccorette." Sara was walking toward their booth, now and getting a little defensive. "We're both trying to stop. What is the big deal?"

"It doesn't help you do your job"

"It isn't good for you."

Grissom and Nick both answered at the same time.

She decided to ignore Grissom's remark. "I'm quitting, Nick. It's no big deal."

"I still can't believe I didn't know that you smoked," Grissom ruminated as he picked up his menu.

"There are lots of things you don't know about me, Grissom."