Behind The Scenes

By: supercsi4

Chapter 17 – Bang-Bang

SARA:

Warrick and I were in the living room of the Cutler residence after Grissom and Doc Robbins had left. I was looking at the blood-spattered wedding photo on the counter. The longer I'm with Grissom, the more I can see myself actually getting married one day. I turn to look at Warrick, already a married man and ask, "Was it the happiest day of your life?"

"Me and Tina? Happened so fast. Time will tell. Why don't you take a look at this phone here and tell me what you think."

Later I was working in the layout room with various photos spread out on the table in front of me when Doc Robbins walked in. "Hey, Sara, you're working the office shooting, right?"

"Yeah, and the dead wife," I respond as he hands me a file folder.

"Autopsy reports on the two DB's. Grissom wanted them ASAP, and I was in the neighborhood."

"Thanks. I'll pass them along." I pick up the folder and look through it. Why would he assume I'd see Grissom? Does he suspect something? We should just go public and get it over with, so I can stop stressing out about hiding our relationship. Everyone is going to find out sooner or later and I'm beginning to think that sooner would be a better idea.

Later, Grissom and I were reexamining Willie Cutler's bloody shirt. I swabbed the edge of the shirt while Grissom watched me test the sample and explain the results, "Sodium rhodizonate is negative. No lead in the tear. No bullet."

"So, Willie tried to make it look like he was shot. Grabs a ball point pin, drags it across his ribs." He looks down and notices something on the shirt sleeve.

"Did I miss something?" I ask, because it's impossible that I missed something and what's worse is that Grissom found it with me standing right next to him.

"Don't know. We'll find out." That's all he says before leaving the room. I hate when he does that, leads me on, teases me, I'll get him back.

GRISSOM:

Jim, Warrick, Doc Robbins, David and I were in the living room of the Cutler residence at our crime scene. Brass begins to introduce us to the victim. "Janice Cutler. Shot in the mouth…Single boy's the only smart one."

Doc responds to Brass's comment with, "Judy and I deal with our marital problems a little differently…counseling, separate vacations once a year…She's never pulled a gun on me yet." I wonder if Sara would ever pull a gun on me. I mean, she was pretty close that one time I ruined all her white t-shirts when I threw, accidentally threw, my red t-shirt into the laundry with them. Or that time I snuck up on her in the bedroom when I came home from work early and hadn't realized she was still wearing her gun. Or—.

"I got a shell casing. Nine millimeter." Warrick snaps me out of my moment of reminiscing. Then I notice the blood-spattered wedding photo on the counter. For a second I see Sara and I stand there at our wedding. The more I'm with Sara, the more I feel I want to get married. "Where's the husband?" I ask.

"Well, there was no car in the garage. We can broadcast out for him," Brass answered.

"There's no other signs of disturbance in here. What about the rest of the house...How many domestics have you seen where someone got shot in the face and nothing else was disturbed?" I'm trying to process all this.

"What are you thinking?" Warrick asks me.

"That you married people take things too personally," I answer, silently hoping that someday I will be one of those "married people."

Later on, back at the lab in the morgue with Doc Robbins, he unfortunately bought up the topic of marriage once again, asking me, "Gil…have you ever even been close to getting married?" You have no idea Doc. You have no idea. I've never even been in love until Sara came into my life.

"Once…" I begin, "…when I was younger. Her name was Nicole Daley. I asked her to marry me. We were classmates. She liked bugs, too. I gave her my grandmother's ring, but my mother made me get it back…Second grade." Sara likes bugs too, but more so because of me. And we weren't classmates, but I was her teacher. And my grandmother's ring…she'll get it one day and I won't take it back.

Later, Sara and I were reexamining Willie Cutler's bloody shirt. Sara swabbed the edge of the shirt while I watch her test the sample and reveal the results, "Sodium rhodizonate is negative. No lead in the tear. No bullet."

"So, Willie tried to make it look like he was shot. Grabs a ball point pin, drags it across his ribs." I looked down and noticed the blood on the shirt sleeve.

"Did I miss something?" Sara asks, she's always worried about impressing me or disappointing me, which is impossible.

I love leading her on, teasing her, and she hates it, "Don't know. We'll find out."

I left Sara and went to the DNA lab to test the shirt. I cut a piece of material off of the shirt sleeve the placed it onto a slide. One of our lab techs, Wendy, walked in. "Well, hey. What are you doing?"

"Serology." Please don't make me explain it to you, I thought.

"Serology? Now, I read about that in my history of forensic science classes. So, what exactly is it you're trying to do?" Was she flirting with me? Is she really that interested?

"Lattes crust method for determining blood type."

"You know, for you, I clear the decks. I mean, I can just rush your samples through DNA." Ok, that's a little flirty, hello, I am your boss.

"I need it faster than DNA. And I don't need a full profile anyway, just ABO type."

"You mind if I stick around and watch?" Yes I do.

"Don't you have something better to do?"

"Yeah, I do, but some guy's using my lab." I drop a few drops of liquid onto the slide of material.

"Okay, now as I recall, the reagents have to be fresh. Right? So, where did you get those?"

"I keep some in my fridge for emergencies." So I've revealed my secret, are we done?

"You got anything else in there? Bottle of tequila, perhaps? Severed head?"

"I don't keep tequila." Around Sara at least. I put my sample into the machine and wait to retrieve the results.