Grissom opened his briefcase and balanced it on one of the many mounds of cascading paperwork. He frowned as he heard someone laughing as another pile of work went tumbling to the floor. Sara walked into the room and sat down in the chair in front of Grissom's desk.

"Having fun?" She smiled, Grissom frowned and replied flatly; "Oh yes indeed I am," Sara laughed again.

"What is it that you want Sara?" Grissom frowned again, picking up the discarded pages from many reports he should have read but hadn't bothered with. He could feel Sara staring at him, intently, though why he could not tell. He wanted to say something to her, but he knew she would probably lose her temper; he wasn't sure how he was going to approach the subject. Sara could see the turmoil in his furrowed brow and walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What's the matter?" She said, softly.

"Nothing of importance I wouldn't think," He replied, in the same soft tone.

"Come on, it can't be so bad that you can't talk about it," She was pressuring him, she knew that but she wanted to find out what was getting to her friend so much. Grissom sighed, and closed his eyes;

"Okay. I don't know how serious this relationship with Greg is Sara…but I was wondering if it's not all that serious…if we could have dinner sometime?"

Grissom opened one eye and looked at Sara's shocked face. Sara stood there stunned for a minute before she could reply; "Wow…Grissom, I…Greg and I are….yeah it's serious I love him more than anything I can't do this, he's my life, I won't leave him…" She whispered, she didn't want to hurt Grissom it's the last thing in the world she wanted.

"Well maybe we could be like that. I think so, I know so, let's give it a try Sara, just one dinner," Grissom didn't want to plead outright but his eyes gave him away all the same.

"I'll go to dinner with you," Grissom's face lit up, "as your friend and your colleague, but that's all Grissom I'm sorry," She sighed, she felt awful but what could she do? She knew that Greg was the one for her; no one else could even come close.

"Is there no way you would consider it?" he asked, earnestly.

"Grissom…it's way too late…." Grissom laughed suddenly, surprising Sara,

"Oh my God…I just heard what I just said, I'm so stupid! God! I'm sorry, can…can you just forget we had this conversation?" Grissom laughed, nervously. Sara smiled;

"Sure, and it's okay, you're not stupid, let's just forget about it okay?" She kissed him on the cheek and turned to walk away. She turned back to look at him;

"And Grissom?" She paused awaiting his acknowledgement of her voice, he looked up at her from the paperwork he was trying to micro-manage, "If you had asked six months earlier…I'd have said yes…" She half smiled and walked out the door and straight into Greg consequently, who was waiting for her with a small smile playing on his face.

"So I heard that whole conversation…" Greg was trying not to smile.

"Oh you did huh? Well you heard me say no and that I loved you right? I don't want to be with him, no matter what Greg I want you," Sara knew she was talking way too fast, but she had to make sure he wasn't worried about her being unfaithful.

"Hey, hey I know that, don't worry," he smiled and kissed her, "It makes me feel good that someone I admire wants to go out with a girl I'm seeing, it's great," he laughed and Sara rolled her eyes before kissing him again.

Grissom walked out of his office with a sheet of paper in his hand, which illustrated the new cases he had for his team. He practically crashed into Greg and Sara who were a hair's breadth from his office as it was. He looked a little shell-shocked, then he regained his composure and handed them their assignment.

"Sara, Greg, you're going to McKinley High School, a girl has been found in the music room, with no apparent injuries except a small laceration to her ankle, that's all I know until you guys get there. Find out what happened, talk to the Principal, see if he can elaborate on the student in question, maybe he could get you a list of friends, relatives we need to talk with, now go," Grissom dismissed them in a way that showed how uncomfortable he was with his present company. Greg was grinning widely, with Sara trying to quiet down the laughter she could not suppress. Grissom shouted back down the corridor at them;

"Have you seen Cath, Nick, Warrick or Sofia??"

He got a "no" in perfect unison and the pair strolled out to the Tahoe, where they picked up their kits and discussed the case they had just been handed.

"Another high school? That's the third high school case in a month!!" Sara sighed.

"I know, what is happening to our schools? My school was just fine. Yeah there was rough and tumble, playground fights, bitchy girl fighting, but never anything to this degree," Greg replied, sharing his girlfriend's earnest sigh. They climbed into the Tahoe, with Greg driving this time around as Sara settled in the passenger seat, looking exhausted once more.

"Do you know where to go Sara?" Greg asked, softly, he was clearly subdued compared to his usual bubbly self.

"Yes, it's my old High School," She replied matter-of-factly.

"Wow, I didn't know that's where you went," He replied.

"Yeah, some of my old tutors are probably still there," Sara retorted nostalgically. They drove in silence the rest of the way, apart from Sara directing Greg to the school. They arrived in due course and they climbed out of the Tahoe, Greg locking it behind him.

Sara looked up at the long-standing building, the moss and ivy had climbed and entwined every fissure of the brick-work. She heard herself in her mind running around the playground, Greg shocked her back to reality, shaking her gently.

"Sara, this is Mr Stevens, he's the Principle here and he has already provided us with a list of Cassie's friends, her parents and known school bullies.

"Oh, yes, Mr Stevens-" He interrupted her, "Please call me Paul,"

"Okay, Paul, my name is Sara Sidle, this is my colleague Greg Sanders, we are from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. What can you tell us about the victim?" She replied, still a little lost in her own world.

"Cassie Blackmoore, she was only 18, a senior here. One of our best students by far, always at the top of her class, but don't be mistaken, no one disliked her. She was immensely popular, that's why this list of her friends is so long, she loved everyone, and they loved her. It's such a shame, such a pretty girl too, I couldn't even hazard a guess as to who would have done such a horrible thing to such a beautiful girl. She had such a bright future ahead of her, she was a talented musician, actor, dancer, singer, writer, she was good at most things, and she liked all of her subjects, even if she was failing it didn't matter. She never was seen without a smile on her face, such a shame," Paul finished, clearly shaken by the tragic loss of one of the school's most valued students.

"Hang on…" Greg began,
"What?" Sara replied, puzzled.

"What was Sofia's maiden name?" Greg asked,

"What does this have to do with this Greg?" Sara frowned. Greg picked up his cell and dialled Sofia's number. Sofia answered promptly;

Curtis

"Sofia, it's Greg, listen what was your maiden name before you got married?"

Blackmoore, why?

"Don't you have a daughter too?"

Greg turned away from the others so they could not hear;

"Does she have your maiden name or your married name?"

Sofia, we will meet you here.

"What's up Greg?" Sara asked, still in the dark.

"I was right. Sofia's maiden name was Blackmoore, she has a daughter aged 18," He sighed,

"Wh-what was her name?" Sara whispered. Greg could not raise his voice above a whisper either;

"Cassie…"

Cath and Nick jumped out of their Denali, and rushed over to the scene, where Greg and Sara greeted them. They were still shaken by the realisation that the girl in the music room was in fact the daughter of their colleague and their friend.

"We got the call from Grissom, red alert," Nick spoke softly, given the circumstances.

"Yeah, Sofia's on her way over here now, she's pretty upset," Sara replied, sharing her colleague's soft tone. Just then they heard a female voice cry out above the silence which was permeating the air around them. She was crying out for her daughter, pleading with Captain Brass to take her to him. It was Sofia, she was inconsolable, even when she was told that she could see her daughter soon, she couldn't stop crying uncontrollably. Catherine ran over to her, pulling her into her arms and stroking her hair softly;

"Sofia I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry," she didn't know what to say to calm her, what could she say? She knew that to lose a child was the hardest thing a parent could go through. She tried not to think about that being Lindsey. She knew that she too would be inconsolable if she found out her daughter was gone. She shuddered as she remembered the night when Lindsey had been kidnapped, she had been so lucky. Sofia sobbed into Catherine's shoulder, whilst her colleagues looked on in absolute dismay.

"We had better go inside, assess the scene," Greg uttered to Sara and Nick. Catherine who over-heard this exclaimed; "No! Not yet. I'm the primary on this case and I say when we go in," she checked herself, realising the tone of her voice getting out of control.

"Cath we have to act now. The scene is going cold, we have to collect any evidence which may perish if we leave it too long," Nick replied, softly, seeing the crestfallen face of her colleague. "I know this is hard, but we have to remember…this is a job. I know that it involves someone we care about, but at the end of the day…we have to do our job. We can't put off the work because it's upsetting. Sofa will not be working on this case-"Sofia shot Nick a look of desperation which melted into fury. "I want this case." She whispered.

"Sofia you can't, I know this is so hard and so painful for-" She interjected once more; "No you don't! Did you lose a child?? NO! You don't have a child to lose; you can't see that I want this case because whoever did this has to pay. They have to pay the price for taking away…my girl…my precious daughter…" She trailed off; even her cries were silenced as she fell into Catherine's arms. Cath sat her down and pulled her close before she spoke again; "Go inside, work the scene, collect what you need then leave," She spoke carefully to Sara and Greg, who nodded, then promptly picked up their kits and went inside.

They wandered down the corridors, Sara looking all around, remembering her time at the school some twenty-five years ago. She smiled slightly, as she saw her painting on the wall from the sixth grade. They entered the small music room and were surprised. There was nothing out of place; the only slight disturbance was the USA flag that usually hung from the ceiling was placed over the body.

"Any prints or DNA we find on the scene we can analyse in the mobile lab, Cath and Nick drove it here," Sara said to her colleague, abstractedly.

"Sure thing, I just hope these murders stop, it's hard seeing young people go so soon, it's just not fair," Greg replied, with a sigh. He pulled on a latex glove and knelt down next to the body. He pulled off the flag and bagged it for analysis later on. "Small laceration on her ankle, looks like it's unrelated, shaving accident perhaps?" He swabbed the wound to get her DNA.

"She looks just like Sofia…" Sara sighed, softly and closed her eyes, remembering the young girl who looked like her. The one who was murdered in her apartment, the one with a fixation for butterflies. She shook her head and bent down next to Greg. The pole that the flag had been attacked to was lying on the floor next to Cassie's body. Sara lifted a print from the pole and took the long metal spike to be analysed in the lab. The scene was immaculately spotless, leaving the CSI's with very little to go on. Greg picked up the necklace from by Cassie's side and sealed it into a bag, for analysis. They left the music room and bumped into Al and David on the way out;

"Such a shame isn't it?" The doctor uttered. Sara and Greg nodded;

"She's ready to be taken to the morgue," Sara replied, gravely.

They opened up the mobile lab and Greg pulled out the DNA sample he had taken from Cassie. He ran it through the machine and there was no match. At present they had nothing but Sofia's DNA to compare it to so it was in all honesty, useless. He compared it with Sofia's DNA and as expected, there were seven alleles in common; she was Sofia's natural daughter. Sara began running the print from the pole into the system. She left the screen whilst she studied the DNA result Greg handed to her. Just then the AFIS screen pinged; they had a match. Sara's blood ran cold when she looked at the screen. "That can't be right…" She whispered. Greg looked up and his face paled. "No…" He croaked. The name of the person who had appeared on the screen was the least viable suspect, but all the same, the facts remained; the fingerprint belonged to Sofia Curtis…