Behind The Scenes
By: supercsi4
Chapter 38 – The Good, The Bad, & The Dominatrix
SARA:
Wow, when I woke up yesterday morning I would have never guessed that I'd be investigating the attempted murder of a dominatrix named Lady Heather, ok, let me rephrase that because hello, this is Las Vegas. When I woke up yesterday morning I would have never guessed that I'd be investigating the attempted murder of one of Grissom's friends, named Lady Heather, who is a dominatrix.
The infamous Lady Heather, oh how I remembered all the rumors that swirled around the lab in the past about Grissom and Lady Heather. He had come clean with me once after we had been dating, and explained that nothing had ever happened between them. He said that they were just friends and he didn't want to talk about it anymore. And I completely trust him because let's face it, he can't hide anything from me anyways.
So Catherine and I were sent out to investigate the crime scene after Heather was found, tied up and gagged and then taken to the hospital. I figured Grissom wouldn't want to be at the crime scene with me, because I'd surely ask him lots of questions. Plus, I assumed he'd want to be at the hospital with her.
We were in this old western saloon type of family theme park where we assumed Heather was there to meet up with some guy. I was snapping photos of broken bottles on the counter, while Catherine examined the piano.
"This is a family theme park. I'm assuming they don't actually serve alcohol here. Must have brought their own," I picked up one of the bottles, "Single malt, twelve years old."
"S & M is a rich man's sport. Kind of like hockey…a lot of equipment." She should know.
"How much do you think a night like this would cost?"
"Heather told me, five years ago, she was clearing 20 grand a week," Holy crap! "And that was before her website."
"What is she like?" I know I'm pushing it, but I need some answers that Grissom won't give me.
"Beautiful…" Great, "smart, intense…" Wonderful, "charming. The only woman I've ever seen rattle Grissom. I mean, he kind of liked that forensic anthropologist, Terry Miller. Remember her?" Oh god, why did I even start this conversation.
"Yeah."
"But she wasn't enough of a challenge for him." Ha, but I know I am. "Heather, on the other hand…uninhibited and can beat him at mental chess." Um, so can I. "They had chemistry. And he is a scientist." Um, so am I. "I have no proof and I know he'd never tell me, but I'm certain they spent the night together. Wonder which one wore the chaps." Ok, this discussion is well past over.
"Lots of…coins and toothpicks. They don't sweep under here." Whoa, I'm stuttering and now blushing.
"I mean, more power to him, really, to find somebody outside of work 'cause you start fishing from the company pier, and you're asking for trouble." God please stop. I'm sorry I asked. Please take it all back.
"I got a shot glass. Looks like there's some lipstick around the rim."
"My fantasy does not include costumes, or pain…and certainly not sawdust…You?" If only I could tell you.
With that I said I'd be outside inspecting the perimeter of the building. Back at the lab, you wouldn't even believe what Catherine made me do next. Now, I'm not gonna lie, there's been plenty of rumors about me and Grissom passed around the lab also, especially back when I first asked him out and he turned me down, or even way back when I first joined the team, a lot of people assumed we had a steamy history. So even with Catherine knowing all that, she sent me to the hospital to do the collection of evidence and examination of Heather, a woman she assumes also has a steamy history with Grissom.
I walked thru that hospital so incredibly slow and approached her room door with immense caution. I told myself I could do it, but I just had so many questions, I wondered if she knew about me or about Grissom and me. Oh god here it goes.
I knocked on the door and walked in. Thank you god, Jim was also in there too.
"Hi. I'm with the Crime Lab. Sara Sidle." I walked into the room and put my kit down on the table trying to control the shaking of my hands. "I'm here to collect your clothes and trace evidence from your body."
"Can I say no?" she asked me.
"Why would you want to? Did the nurse forget to collect an SAE kit?"
"Not necessary."
"You don't want help, that's okay by me. Just don't waste my time. I've got a lot of cases on my desk that need my attention. So when you come out of your haze, give me a call," Jim explained to Heather because he didn't really like her either. And then he left the room. Oh shit.
"I don't respond well to men who judge me based solely on my profession." Heather said to me.
"I get that a lot, too," I smiled. I was trying to bond a little with her to get her to cooperate. "Law enforcement."
"May I move your hair?" Has Grissom asked her that before?
She nodded and I reached out and gently moved Heather's hair aside to expose the bruises on her neck. She closed her eyes as I snapped a few photos.
She slowly opened her eyes and said, "Grissom."
What?!?! I turned around to see Grissom with a very worried expression on his face. I didn't know if he was more worried making sure Heather was ok, or that his girlfriend and dominatrix friend we together in the same room.
"I'll be done in a minute." That's all I said. We all stayed silent, I finished my work and left the room so Grissom could talk to Heather.
Back at the lab I was trying to stay busy to keep my mind off Grissom and Heather. I was examining two fibers under the microscope when Grissom walked in. I could sense he was coming before he even walked in and I stiffened up.
"Any results on Heather Kessler?" How can he stand there and say "Heather Kessler," like it's just another victim. You know if he had just said, "Heather" I probably would have known who he was talking about.
"So far, all the prints come back to her. Player piano, whiskey bottle, shot glass. There was some lipstick around the rim. I haven't had a chance to test it. You think it's her shade?" You would know.
"Heather's not supposed to drink because of her diabetes, which could explain the hypoglycemia and shock." Hmm.
"Catherine found a pair of men's underwear in the toilet. Any evidence on them would have been washed away, but she also found seminal fluid in a tissue on the floor nearby."
"She was sexually assaulted?"
"She refused an SAE kit, so we'll never know. There were no defensive wounds, no skin or rope fibers under her nails. At first blush, I figured he might have ambushed her, except that I noted three separate strangulation attempts on her neck…She had time to fight back."
"This makes no sense. She's very strong. And tough as nails. Why didn't she fight?" Don't get jealous, don't get jealous.
Last night, Grissom didn't come home. He told me he would be staying with Heather for the night to make sure she was ok. Oh man was I beyond pissed. I will also be the first to tell you that I can get extremely jealous and then my stubborn self gets a bad temper and nothing good ever comes of that.
Catherine and Brass went out the Heather's house early this morning and guess who they bumped into…Grissom. Who conveniently verified her alibi for last night.
Back at work, I heard that Catherine tried scolding Grissom for his involved in this case. I mean he has yelled at her several times for letting her personal life spill into cases and then he goes and spends the night with our prime suspect. Let me rephrase, he goes and stays the night in a completely platonic manner, with our prime suspect.
After their little discussion, Grissom came to find me in the lab so I could fill him in.
"We may have a suspect." I told him.
"I'm the only one Heather trusts." Oh, now he's gonna try to explain it to me, not before he spends all night with a dominatrix, but after, at work, he wants to try and explain it to his girlfriend of two years.
"I get it." I will not argue with him here because knowing me I'll slap him, oh and um knowing him now, he might like it.
"Sara…"
"Yeah?" Oh, I know he's racking his brain to find something to say that will make me understand, but it seemed like he just couldn't find it. "It's fine. Do what you need to do." And with that I leave the room very, very angry.
After work, we drove home together in silence. I went inside, changed my clothes, got Bruno and said I was going for a walk. I must have walked around for two hours before I was calm enough to talk to Grissom. But when I walked into the house and saw him, all the anger came back. Above all, I was more angry about the unknown…what might have happened between them that I didn't know about or if he still had feelings for her or if there was something he could find with her and not me. I was going to sit down and talk to him, but instead I turned and went for a hot shower.
And for the first time ever in our relationship, Grissom took the first step to initiate an inevitable confrontation. He jumped off the couch and caught me by the arm and said we needed to talk. I said nothing and pulled away from him. But he grabbed me again, he was pissing me off more and more, yet actually starting to turn me on with his dominance.
"Grissom I swear to god, you better get off of me before I kick your ass."
"No, I'm not letting go of you until we talk."
"Why all of a sudden have you grown a pair and you want to try to push me around and tell me what to do…hmm…I wonder who you could have learned such a dominant behavior from." I threw that into his face as the tears started down mine and he let me go. I practically ran to the shower and cried into the hot water. I finally got out and laid down in bed.
Seconds later I felt the bed move and Grissom climbed in behind to me. He wrapped his arms around me and I didn't fight it. If he wanted to talk then he could do it now.
"You know we said we'd never go to bed angry, so I can't let you go to sleep…Sara, I love you more then I can ever show you and I want you to know the complete truth." Great here it comes. "I never ever slept with Heather or Terry or anyone else since you came to Las Vegas." Holy crap. "I kissed Heather once and then she said, "Do you want to sleep with me?" and then it was over. Anything I was feeling at that moment was completely erased when I heard your words come out of her mouth. I just couldn't go thru with it when I was in love with you. I pulled away and we both realized our relationship would never go past that point. We grew into great friends. I have told her all about you and she knows how much I love you…how much I will always love you."
When he finished, I rolled over to face him. I told him I forgave him, that I was sorry for being the way I am, I told him how much I loved him and that if anything he had just told me was a lie, then I'd kill him.
GRISSOM:
Wow, the last two days have been unbelievable exhausting. Not only was Heather almost killed, but she also got to meet Sara and nothing good became of that. Sara and I entered into possibly our biggest fight ever.
I had sent Catherine out with Sara to investigate the crime scene where Heather had been tied up and gagged, and not in the good way. She was on her way to the hospital and my girlfriend was investigating her attempted murder.
At first I figured sending Catherine out with Sara as opposed to me, would help me to avoid all those imminent questions about Lady Heather, but Catherine and her big mouth did more harm and I probably would have. Catherine said that she and Sara had been discussing me and Heather's relationship at the crime scene and Catherine said that Heather was beautiful, smart, intense, and charming. The only woman she's ever seen rattle me. She even brought up Terry Miller and to top it all off, she went and gave Sara her opinion that Heather and I did indeed spend the night together. Oh man, there's gonna be some major damage control to do.
Then, just when I think it can't get much worse, Catherine sent Sara to the hospital to examine Heather. As soon as I heard, I raced over there to try and stop whatever the two of them would create in a tiny little hospital room.
Heather knew all about Sara, she could tell after we had started dating there was something different about me. She said I looked happy and content and she knew it was because of a woman, so I told her all about Sara. She also wanted to meet Sara, but I drew the line there because I knew it was not a good idea. How would that lunch go? Heather, this is my girlfriend, who I am secretly dating, and Sara, this is my friend Lady Heather, a dominatrix who's been connected to several of our cases now.
I walked in to the hospital room in a panic. I should have been more worried about the wellbeing of Heather, but truthfully, I was more worried about the wellbeing of myself after Sara and Heather met.
"Grissom." Heather said softly as I walked into the room, causing Sara to turn around and give me a look that I couldn't read, but it still scared me.
"I'll be done in a minute." Sara said so calmly, so serial murderery. She finished up and left the room without another word and I took a seat next to Heather's bed.
"Are you here in a professional capacity?" she asked me.
"Does it make a difference?"
"Maybe not to you. I feel exposed. The last time you saw me…"
"You had just lost your daughter."
"That's not all I lost that night."
"If a client did this, and left you to die, why are you protecting him?"
"I'm not."
"Tell me the truth." Then she started having trouble breathing. "Did they check your glucose level when you came in?" I tried asking her before she passed out. I called for a nurse and told her that Heather was diabetic and that she was probably going into shock. The doctors came in and got her back awake, but she still really had me worried.
Heather needed to rest, so I headed back to the lab and unfortunately I had to find Sara for some results. I found her in the lab looking into a microscope.
"Any results on Heather Kessler?" I asked her.
"So far, all the prints come back to her. Player piano, whiskey bottle, shot glass. There was some lipstick around the rim. I haven't had a chance to test it. You think it's her shade?" Oh no.
"Heather's not supposed to drink because of her diabetes, which could explain the hypoglycemia and shock."
"Catherine found a pair of men's underwear in the toilet. Any evidence on them would have been washed away, but she also found seminal fluid in a tissue on the floor nearby."
"She was sexually assaulted?"
"She refused an SAE kit, so we'll never know. There were no defensive wounds, no skin or rope fibers under her nails. At first blush, I figured he might have ambushed her, except that I noted three separate strangulation attempts on her neck…She had time to fight back."
"This makes no sense. She's very strong. And tough as nails. Why didn't she fight?"
I left Sara without another word. I was worried about Heather and maybe I wasn't thinking from the point of view of a jealous current girlfriend, but when am I ever thinking how I should be when it comes to Sara and my relationship?
I called Sara and told her I'd be staying over at Heather's for the night to make sure she was ok. I knew Sara wouldn't be happy and I knew there'd be hell to pay when I saw her the next morning at work, but if something were to happen to Heather when I could have been there to help her, I'd never forgive myself.
Heather and I ate a nice dinner and we caught up on each other's lives. I told her more about Sara and how we had just made it to our two year anniversary. She told me all about her granddaughter, Alison, who she never gets to see since her daughter died. She went to sleep early, still exhausted from the hospital, and I fell asleep on the couch.
In the morning, we were eating breakfast when there was a knock at the door. Heather got up to answer it while I more so hid in the kitchen. I heard Catherine and Jim's voices asking her where she had been last night, which must only mean they now believe she's a suspect.
Heather said, "I was here."
"Can anyone verify that? Preferably someone not on the payroll." Jim asked her.
I stepped into the room, trying to remain calm, while holding my coffee cup, and said, "She was here…with me."
I left Heather's with Jim and headed to work. Alone in my office with Catherine, she decided to start in on me.
"You were there all night. Want to explain why? Look, I know that you don't go home and cuddle your insects every single night, but why would you go there knowing that we're in the middle of an investigation? And now she's a prime suspect with you as her alibi."
"It was a social call, that's all."
"So, when your personal life gets tangled up in a case, that's off limits?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that a little hypocritical?"
"Apparently so."
"You know I'd slap you, but I think you'd enjoy it too much."
"Look, I went to Heather's on a hunch. There's something not right with her."
"Your timing sucked."
"What's this? So now you're building your own?" She was referring to my miniature.
"Yeah. Keeps my hands busy." Especially when Sara's not home. Speaking of Sara, I better go find her. So I walked over into the lab so she could fill me in on the case and so that I can possibly gauge just how mad she really was.
"We may have a suspect." Oh, she's really mad.
"I'm the only one Heather trusts."
"I get it." Oh, she's really, really mad.
"Sara…"
"Yeah?" I have nothing to say right now that will make her understand all this. I can't explain it to her now at work, so as usual, I say nothing. "Do what you need to do," she said to me and then left the room. Oh, she's off the charts mad.
Once we have the case complete, Sara is still writing up some reports so I sneak away to Heather's. I had convinced Jerome Kessler, grandfather of Alison, and Heather's ex-husband, to let Heather see her. So I had picked them up and drove them over to Heather's house.
"Leave me alone. I didn't ask you to save me." She said to me after answering to door. Man I can't win with anyone today.
"I know. What am I supposed to do? I'm your friend. Besides, there's someone I want you to meet." I grab her hand and pull her outside to meet Jerome walking toward her with Alison. She was beyond excited, I could tell from the tears in her eyes. So I left her to enjoy the reunion and I headed back to the lab to pick up Sara and try to fix things.
We drove home in silence, but the air in the car was ready to explode from the angry tension between us. Once inside our house, I thought she's just blow up and let everything out and we'd fight and get it all over with, but instead she went into the bedroom, changed her clothes, got Bruno and said she was going for a walk. I figured she needed to cool off, so that would give me a little more time to figure out what to say to her. She was gone for two hours and when she walked in, she took a deep breath like she was ready to talk, but then turned around to walk away.
I jumped off the couch to grab her by the arm, "Come on Sara talk to me, yell at me, scream at me, but I just can't stand this silence anymore." But again she said nothing and jerked her arm away from me. I grabbed her again, this time harder, I didn't know where these feelings were coming from, but if we weren't about to explode into a fight, I'd just push her up against that wall and--
"Grissom I swear to god, you better get off of me before I kick your ass."
"No, I'm not letting go of you until we talk."
"Why all of a sudden have you grown a pair and you want to try to push me around and tell me what to do…hmm…I wonder who you could have learned such a dominant behavior from." She spit that into my face as I noticed the tears start down her face and I had to let her go. I had never made Sara cry and been the reason why she was so mad that she cried in front of me. This was very bad.
She went in and took a shower while I waited until she came out and laid down in bed. I immediately climbed in behind her and wrapped my arms around her. She may kill me, but I will die if I have to see her cry like that again. She didn't move, so I began my long speech I had been preparing.
"You know we said we'd never go to bed angry, so I can't let you go to sleep…Sara, I love you more then I can ever show you and I want you to know the complete truth. I never ever slept with Heather or Terry or anyone else since you came to Las Vegas. I kissed Heather once and then she said, "Do you want to sleep with me?" and then it was over. Anything I was feeling at that moment was completely erased when I heard your words come out of her mouth. I just couldn't go thru with it when I was in love with you. I pulled away and we both realized our relationship would never go past that point. We grew into great friends. I have told her all about you and she knows how much I love you…how much I will always love you."
I finished and took a deep breath, waiting for her reaction. She rolled over to face me and smiled. Thank the god above. She forgave me, told me she was sorry for how she acted when I know she was just being Sara. Then she told me how much she loved me and if anything I had just said to her was a lie, then she'd kill me.