A/N: Hello All! Thanks for reading and leaving reviews/following ect. Always appreciated. Nice to know people are reading it (whether you hate it or not). Like I said in the description updates will come every couple of weeks. I am in full dissertation mode finally, teaching two statistics courses (weird being a graduate student teaching other graduate students), prepping a course on violence for the fall semester, and my fields job market is in full swing!

Chapter 1: The Unforgiven

Some time before the prologue

The scene was one that would haunt everyone. Those with loved ones would go home after work and hug their loved ones and linger a few minutes longer than usual when checking on their children. All would likely dream of the scene or at least think of it while they tried to sleep. For a few sleep would not come because all I would do is think about the horrible violence perpetrated upon the innocent victims. If it were not for the little girl and young man, it would have just been another scene, more people who meant an unfortunate end. The family was executed, but not before they were tortured. The mother, teenage male, and little girl all appeared to have signs of sexual assault, at least from what could be observed of the burnt corpses.

Sara shook the sad thoughts from her head, she was here to collect evidence. She had to emotionally detach from the situation or else she could miss something important. Standing up, she made eye contact with Grissom, and she once again wondered how he stayed so detach from scenes like these. He looked almost bored, definitely not affected by the horrors before them. He was Gruesome Grissom, the ice man, emotionless, whatever it was how was this possible. Was he that detached from life? Yes. She knew the answer to that question. After hearing his confession of caring for her, but refusing to take the risk. He was completely detached, stunted, and she knew the best she could do was to stay away from him.

"Everything ok?" Grissom asked bagging some evidence having noticed Sara was staring at him now.

"Yes." Sara responded.

Grissom studied Sara for a few more seconds, worried that this case may be too much for her. Maybe he should have assigned someone else, but he wanted her here. He wanted her near, just not too near. She reminded him that good things could happen in life, not to him, but they could happen to others. He was a man devoted to his trade, and no one nor anything could get in the way of him and his work. Passion was a limited resource, and his work took up all his passion. Of course, he knew he was wrong in his thinking, but we all tell ourselves lies to get through the long dark days.

The two CSI's continued to collect evidence around the bodies. It took them endless hours to finally clear the scene enough to allow for the removal of the bodies.

"Looks like we are in for a double." Sara said watching David moving the little girl out of the room.

"Probably" Grissom replied sounding exhausted already.

"You ok?" Sara asked noting the exhaustion in his face, and hoped maybe it was some sort of feeling. Maybe he could feel things, like normal humans. She hoped, it gave her hope that maybe one day he would decide she was worth the risk. Not that these were her thoughts right now, at least not her conscious thoughts. The scene before her took most of her conscious thoughts.

"Yes." Grissom responded his had reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. It was an unconscious gesture he often did when a migraine threatened to appear. Luckily Sara did not know the tale tell sign and Catherine was nowhere around to call him on it. He felt the pressure building in his frontal lobe. The warning sign that a migraine was building, there were also the halo's appearing around objects. Sara was literally glowing with a halo around her, and he knew this was a sign of one of his migraines coming on. Not just any migraine, the halos meant it was likely going to be a debilitating migraine. In a few hours the pain would become almost unbearable. Of course, his medicine was at home, and he had to clear the scene before he could even think about going home to his cool dark townhouse.

"What do you think they used to burn the bodies?" Grissom asked already having formed the answer, but interested in Sara's opinion. Mostly he said it so she would stop looking at him, it made him uncomfortable. It was as if she was studying him, looking for something, and the look of disappointment she tried to hide told him she did not find what she wanted.

"You said they? You think there was more than one perpetrator?" Sara asked ignoring Grissom's question.

"Yes. Dealing with four people, even two children, is too much for one person. Especially, trying to move them from wherever they picked them up at. Plus there are multiple sets of boot prints from what I can tell." Grissom pointed towards the older males body where he had scene boot prints in the blood of the older male.

"The perpetrator could have picked them up one at a time, and the boot prints may be the same. They are not overly different looking." Sara said playing devils advocate because she was pretty sure Grissom was correct, but he would have done the same to her.

"Possible, but Brass already checked and there were no missing persons called in. With a little girl being gone or even the teenage son, someone would have been looking for them. And the treads appear to be different enough to conclude multiple boot prints. The sizes are about the same though."

"Not if the girl was picked up last with the mom."

"Possible." Grissom said, "But even once they got the family here, they still had to control them. Only one chair, and the husband is tied down to that chair. It's possible they handcuffed them to the something in here, but even than the torture would have any parent trying to rip their own arms off to save their child. Someone would have had to stop the father and mother."

Sara agreed. "The burns, blow torch?" Sara finally added shivering at the thought. The arms and torso had severe burns on all four of the bodies. The mother, girl, and son were completely naked, while the father still had his pants on.

"I agree given the level of burn. Dr Robbins can confirm." Grissom said closing his eyes as the pain started to ratchet up another notch. He just needed to make it through processing this scene and logging the evidence in back at the lab. He could rest for a bit in his office, in the cool dark, until he had to go to the autopsies.

Brass walked into the room frowning at the scene, he hated cases like this. "Please tell me you have something that will lead us directly to whoever did this to them?"

"Not yet." Grissom said.

"Please find something. The Sheriff is already sniffing around, the vultures are already outside with their cameras. Running theory they have is some serial killer who targets middle class families."

Grissom shook his head, "Unlikely."

"Why is that?" Sara asked wondering how Grissom already knew. He always said to follow the evidence, but there was no evidence to negate the reporters theories.

"I think this was a professional job." Grissom said, "They wanted something from the Mr. Howard (the husband), and he refused to tell them. So they tortured the little girl, the boy, and than Mrs Howard. Based on the body temperatures that is the order the died in. Than they tortured Mr. Howard."

"Jesus." Brass said, not because he was surprised by Grissom's assessment, just at the idea that anyone could not talk after having seen the barbaric acts of torture used against their children and wife. He would have told whoever whatever they wanted to know the moment they showed up with his family, and if he didn't have the answer he would have made it up.

"The rest of the team is due in a bit. There was another bank robbery across town that had a couple of casualties." Grissom said, "As soon as they are done processing the scene they are coming here to help."

"Good." Brass said, "The Sheriff is going to want all hands on deck to get this solved as soon as possible."

The team worked through the night and most of the next day processing the scene and the Howard's home. It was noon when the bodies were finally moved from the scene, and all of the evidence had been collected.

Grissom was worse for ware, the nausea had set in and the pain in his frontal lobe was increasing with each passing hour. As he walked out of the cool damp building the pain almost took his breath away, the sun blinding him as it was at its brightest of the day. Of course his sunglasses were in the SUV because when he entered the scene the night before he had not seen a need for them.

Having come to the scene with Grissom and being one of the last CSI on the scene with Grissom Sara would have to ride with him back to the lab to log the evidence.

"Do you mind if I drive?" Sara asked noticing the weariness in Grissom's movements. She knew something was wrong with the supervisor, he was in pain or exhausted, his face did not give him away. What gave him away were the little tics, the pinching the bridge of his nose, the way he moved a bit slower than usual. To anyone on the street he would look like someone who just finished a long shift, to Sara, who had studied his every movement during her time in Vegas, she knew it mean something was wrong. Exhaustion was likely, this was his second double of the week. In the past four days the man had spent more time on scene or in the lab than he did at home. Sara knew because she had been by his side for most of the past 96 hours. At most she had spent 8 of those hours at home, and they were not 8 hours in a row more like an hour to change clothes, another 3 hours to sleep in between doubles.

"Yes I do mind if you drive." Grissom snapped from the pain. He did not like letting someone else drive it was a control thing. Plus if he did not engage his mind he was afraid the pain would eat him alive sitting in the car.

"Okay." Sara said noting the anger in his voice. If he crashed and killed them she was going to be even more pissed at him.

They drove back to the lab in silence, Sara occasional snuck a glance over at Grissom and could see that he was just exhausted. It was not like the bug man actually felt anything for anyone other than his bugs.

Back at the lab Grissom and Sara continued to work as they logged the evidenced and got it to the correct people for further inspection. Greg's music could be heard, as per usual, and Grissom really wanted to go over and smash the radio the music was not something he preferred to listen to, and the guitar made his head ache.

What I felt, what I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never be, never see,
Won' see what might have been
What I felt, what I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never free never me
So I dub the unforgiven

Sara refused to speak to Grissom unless she absolutely had to, upset with him for being so cold and unattached. Upset or jealous? She pondered as she processed a plastic bag they had picked up at the scene. Upset, for sure. If given the choice she would rather suffer through the aguish and pain that came with her feeling something for the victims of the horrific crimes they came across, instead of being hollow and uncaring.

Grissom stopped working. He had noticed Sara's attitude aimed towards him, and as far as he knew, for once, he had not done anything. At this point he was annoyed by her and the pain in his head, but he had to keep it together just a bit longer.

"What is wrong?" Grissom asked trying to hide the face he was annoyed by her attitude, it came through despite the attempt.

"Nothing." Sara snapped back part of her pattern of responding to his questions or comments with short simple answers since they had gotten back to the lab.

"Why don't you go home? What is this our second double this week?" Grissom said coming to the conclusion Sara was likely as exhausted as he was, and it was better that at least one of them got rest.

"I'm fine. I want to finish processing and attend the autopsies."

"You do not have to do that." Grissom said softly flinching when Sara snapped her response back to him.

"I know. But I thought someone who cared for more than just solving the case to get the Sheriff off their back should be there."

He wanted to protest and say he had cared for more than getting the Sheriff off his back, but he was too tired and in too much pain to fight with her right now. The rise in blood pressure that accompanied the anger only made his migraine worse.

"Can you finish here?" He asked deciding to avoid the fight that would eventually end in Sara's suspension if he let this continue.

"Yes." Sara said still angry at Grissom.

"I'm going to go start on the paperwork in my office until Dr. Robbins calls for the autopsies. I'll come get you." Grissom left the room knowing it was the best move for all involved to avoid the eventual fight that would occur between them.

In the safety of his office he left the lights off and moved over to the couch. Laying down he put his hand over his eyes to block out more of the light. The room was cool thanks to the air conditioning. He soon found himself sound asleep on the couch, pain forgotten in his sleep. It was his phone buzzing in his pocket that woke him from his slumber. Sitting up he groaned as the pain came back, god he hated migraines. He sighed and answered the phone trying to push the pain and exhaustion from his voice, "Grissom."

"We are ready whenever you are." Doc Robbins said as a greeting.

"Be down in a minute." Grissom said hanging up the phone and dragging his exhausted body off the couch.

He found Sara sitting in the break room having finished all of the evidence.

"Dr. Robbins is ready for us." Grissom said hoping the fight between them was over or at least on pause until a later time. He made a mental note to assign her to work with someone else tomorrow so he would not have to deal with her moods.

"Greg offered some of his good coffee if you would like a cup?" Sara said before finishing her cup in one swallow.

"No thanks." Grissom said knowing the caffeine from the coffee would only make his migraine worse. He had learned that the hard way after someone had suggested it as a remedy. What the idiot and the idiot that is Grissom did not know was caffeine only helps a migraine if it is caused, in part, by not having enough caffeine when one is accustomed to drinking large amounts of caffeine.

"Let's go than." She wanted to apologize for being angry with him without a good reason, but decided better of it. Instead she vowed to keep to her original plan, Grissom was her boss nothing more and she would remember to treat and think of him that way. He made it clear he wanted nothing more from her, time after time.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Song is Metallica's from their black album.