Grissom walked into the break room to see Sara and Greg asleep on the
sofa, he smacked at them with the case file he was holding.
"Sara?
Greg?" he almost yelled.
"What? Where's the fire?" Greg mumbled.
"You guys are off shift now, go home. I need you back here for one AM for Graveyard shift, I'm sorry guys I need you back here," Grissom softened, he could see the exhaustion in both of their eyes. Sara and Greg walked over to the locker room and pulled their stuff out of their lockers.
"Thank God shift is finally over," Greg sighed, his head in his hands.
"How are you holding up?" Sara put her arm around him softly.
"I'm okay. There is no point in going to bed for four hours, I'll be too restless," He sighed softly.
"So lets get dinner," Sara smiled.
"Yeah. Sounds good. Did you ever want to have that talk? Or is it all still too raw?" Greg asked, he knew that she had been assaulted, but she refused to talk about it. She was such a private person; he knew if she opened up her emotions again, she could fall apart.
"I-I want to talk," Sara whispered. They left the crime lab and walked into the darkness. They stopped in front of the park. Greg embraced her, and kissed her gently on the cheek. All of a sudden Greg ran off. Sara saw he was racing to reach the swings. What a big kid she thought. She began to run after him, and then she tripped. Greg turned and ran back to see if she was okay. He held out a hand to pull her up and she pulled him down. She got up and sprinted to the swings.
"I win," she smiled smugly when Greg finally reached her, out of breath and indeed energy.
"Only because you cheated!" he mock-glared at her then sat on the swing next to her.
"So why did you want to come here?" Greg asked.
"When you asked me if I wanted to talk, I thought about all the other times we talked here. I guess I feel safe here with you," She sighed, softly. Greg put his hands to Sara's face.
"I'm so sorry, I should have been there, I would have protected you," Greg sighed, a lump in his throat.
"I'm not sure if I'm ready to remember yet Greg," She whispered. She turned to walk away, removing her hand from Greg's, a grip neither had realized they had kept. Greg whispered a faint apology, and walked away, his hands in his pockets. Sara ran after him, taking his hand once more.
"Can we still get dinner?" Sara smiled sweetly.
"Sure, hey can I class this as a date?" Greg laughed.
"Dream on!" Sara replied, before nuzzling into his neck, as he rested his chin on her head and held her close. They walked hand in hand and stopped outside Harry Ramsden's for something to eat. They ordered coffee and retired to an enclosed booth. They chatted until their food arrived, and even then the conversation didn't run dry.
"So are we ever going to end up together?" Greg smiled, a glint in his eye. Sara smiled back and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. She whispered into his ear, making him shiver;
"We'll see," She pulled back to find his hand on hers. They left their money and left the restaurant.
"We have two hours until we're back on shift, what are we going to do?" Sara asked.
"We could go and do some overtime?" Greg laughed at Sara's evil glare. "Or we could go back to my place and try to get two hours' sleep?" He added.
"Lets just go to my car, it's parked on site so we won't have to go far for work," Sara reasoned. She sighed, the exhaustion was draining her. They walked the few blocks back to the crime lab, and climbed into Sara's car. They both settled into the back seat in hope of a small amount of sleep. Greg put his arms around Sara and was out for the count more or less immediately.
The slept soundly for a while, until a piercing cry pervaded the air, they jumped up. Sara realized it was her car alarm, and then she screamed as she saw Grissom's face pressed up against the window.
"Grissom! Don't do that!" Sara gasped, her breathing laboured from the sudden fright.
"Damn it Grissom!" Greg interjected.
"Sorry," Grissom smiled gleefully, "you're back on shift now guys," he laughed. They walked into the crime lab and clocked back on for graveyard shift. They walked down the corridors to Brass' office, to see if they had any more to build their case. They reached the office and knocked, the captain welcomed them in and bid them to sit down.
"Hey any info on Mr Dawson?" Sara asked.
"Got an address on him; 72 Sand Creek Road, LV Nevada. Your vic lived there too, and we have located his care. It was outside a motel on 1-15," he replied, a smug look on his face.
"Well if the fluid in the syringe is Tetrodetoxin, we can obtain a warrant to search his office and possibly his home?" Sara hinted, Greg nodded in agreement.
"If you find something probative at the Sea World facility, you could probably get into his home too," Brass responded.
"Yeah. We better go get our Tox report, see if we can tie this to Dawson," Sara said, slightly brighter after sleep. They left Brass to get on with his work and they walked to the Toxicology Department, where Henry was poring over a microscope.
"Hey Henry, do you have some results for us?" Greg asked the technician.
"I sure do, a very rare poison called Tetrodetoxin. Only found in Puffer fish and Blue Ringed Octopi. I don't know if that helps you any," the tech looked around nervously, he was clearly uncomfortable with his present company. Most of the techs were nervous around their subordinates.
"It does very much, thank you Henry," Sara smiled and the lab tech eased up a little. They left Henry with his microscope and headed towards the morgue. Doctor Robbins didn't have a body on his table currently and was reading the paper.
"Hey Doc, can we see Kelsey McIvers' body again please?" She smiled pleasantly.
"Sure, anything in particular you're looking for?" he asked pulling the body out from its drawer.
"Well we know the vic died from Tetrodetoxin, we just want to find out how the lethal dose was administered. What would the Tetrodetoxin have done to her? Is there no antidote?" Sara asked thoughtfully, as she scanned the body for puncture marks from a syringe or needle.
"There is no known antidote for Tetrodetoxin poisoning. Well initially, symptoms occur approximately 30 minutes after being stung. They become woozy, delirious, have severe headaches, nausea and diarrhoea. Then it would hit the respiratory system, closing the wind pipe and ultimately causes cardiac arrhythmias and may proceed in complete respiratory failure and cardiovascular collapse. She would have been dead within the hour. It only takes 8mg of Tetrodetoxin to kill a person of 70kg." He replied, gravely.
"What a way to go," Sara replied solemnly. Doctor Robbins nodded in mutual agreement, as did Greg.
"Small puncture wounds on her wrist, did you get that in the report Doc?" Sara enquired.
"Yeah, here's the report, it would be consistent with a syringe or needle," Doc Robbins replied, handing Sara his report.
Sara and Greg were walking down the hall when Grissom stopped them.
"The results of the semen from your vic? You'll have to get a DNA sample from Dawson, came up unknown in CODIS." He said, handing Sara the envelope.
"Yeah that's if we ever find the guy, has the Amazing Zephyr escaped prison and put him in that box? We have an address but his car was found off I-15, we are going around in circles here, don't you have anything to add?" Sara said, desperately.
"No, this is your case, I'm off shift," He smiled and walked away down the corridor.
"I hate it when he does that," Greg frowned then laughed at Sara's angry expression.
"Lets get this evidence into context and see if we can solve the damn case," Sara growled, although not entirely serious.
"Sounds like a plan, lets go back to Brass, he can get us that warrant now," Greg smiled.
Sara returned the smile "Yeah," she sighed, "He's disappeared without a trace,"