Disclaimer: I do not own in any capacity any part of CSI or the characters much to my dismay. If I did, Grissom would be shacking up with Sara every night. I do admit to having an active imagination…
The Real Estate Giveaway
Chapter 17
The sun was beginning to warm the horizon when Sara pulled her vehicle into the parking lot of the main CSI building. She was bone tired after working a case that had her climbing across boulders in the desert just outside city limits to process two deceased college students who may have accidentally overdosed.
All she had left to do on this day was deliver the evidence to the lab and sign out. She was daydreaming about the long, hot bath she was going to take when she got home. Home to Grissom.
She walked into headquarters with seven small bags and her kit in tow, and after dropping off samples, headed by the message center to check her box. It had a few things in it, but nothing urgent.
"Sara, hey." She turned and caught sight of Hodges and wish she'd hadn't responded to her name. Yuck, what a way to end an evening.
"What's your slant on the shindig that's happening Saturday?"
"Shindig? What shindig?"
"You didn't get an invitation?"
"To what?" Annoyance was beginning to show in her voice.
"To the little dinner at Roosevelts on Saturday. Don't tell me you didn't get one."
"Oh, I'm not going." She turned and headed to the door, a hint of smile creeping onto her lip.
"WHAT? Not going? Aren't you curious? What if it's something the sheriff is having or Ecklie?"
She stopped and slowly turned to face him, catching a glimpse of Grissom entering the hall. "You know, I have difficulty going to something that is so cloaked in secrecy. Especially if it might be thrown by Ecklie."
Hodges' face registered disbelief. "Grissom, you must do something with Sara. She's threatening to blow off the dinner on Saturday."
"Sara," Grissom looked at her mischievously, "is this true?"
"I….. uh, well yeah?" She was a bit confused.
"Aren't you the least bit curious as to what the party is for?"
"No, not really. I assume that someone is planning to run for something and wants our support, so it's a butter-up party." She decided that two could play this game and flashed a face of defiance.
Grissom stood perfectly still, and then rubbed his chin as if in thought. Hodges asked, "Are you going, Dr. Grissom?"
"Most likely – but not for the same reasons that you are. You are going because you want to try and fit in and be seen. I think I'll go just to see who is going to run for what office and wants our support – sort of a fact-finding mission. You never know who is going to be preparing the budgets."
Sara struggled to keep a straight face – she knew for a fact that he would strictly avoid the place if he suspected what he had just laid out. She turned to leave and mummered, "Well, if you can stomach it, I guess I'll have to go too. But for now, I'm going home." She flipped her hair and headed for the door.
Hodges smiled as if he'd accomplished a mission of getting Sara in trouble, then walked away. And so did Grissom. He never knew what to expect out of Sara, but he knew where to find her.