Chapter 7

The night shift was about to start, when Grissom walked into the break room they all sat around the table, he sat down and started handing out assignments, Nick looked around wondering, where Sara was, he was pretty sure it wasn't her night off.

"Aren't we going to wait for Sara?" Nick asked.

Grissom looked at him; "No, she isn't coming in tonight!"

Greg had had a weird feeling all day. Ever since he split up with Sara on the parking lot after last night's shift, and suddenly it hit him hard what was wrong. His gaze locked with Grissom's, "she is gone, isn't she?" He asked with sadness in his eyes.

Grissom nodded, "I'm sorry Greg!"

"So am I," Greg said, "but I'm not surprised, she wasn't happy here, anymore."

Warrick was chocked, "but she didn't say goodbye?"

"No she didn't, Sara don't do goodbyes," Greg said, "You have never heard her said anything, but later."

"But she didn't say later either" Nick said, a bit breathless.

Greg's voice was almost a whisper now, "maybe there isn't a later?"

"Greg, for now, she is only on leave, so at least, there is still hope that she is coming back," Grissom said. "Well, we better get back to work; unfortunately, crime didn't leave Vegas too."

Sofia and Brass went into the police department together, talking, when a voice called out for Sofia.

Sofia turned her attention, to the woman behind the front desk, "what's up Jennifer?"

"I have a letter for you," Jennifer answered.

The blonde went over to the desk and pick up the letter, she recognizing the handwriting, instantly. Sofia's face went pale!

Brass had been standing watching Sofia; he went over by her side. Looking down on the letter, he also recognized the handwriting. He had suspected, something was going on between the two of them, but hadn't known for sure, until now. It was nothing visible, but still… something had change since their trip to Frisco.

He had a pretty good idea of what it was and what the problem might could be, but he truly had believed, that they would figuring it out. But with this letter, he wasn't so sure, anymore!

Brass laid his hand on the blonde's arm, "Sofia, are you alright?" he asked.

Have it come to this now? That we can't even talk to each other, anymore? I know I was out of line, in the Grant case! I shouldn't have threatened her, to report her to Grissom, but why now? It's been two weeks!

Sofia looked at Brass, "yeah, I'm okay! I'm just surprised, to get a letter from her," the blonde said. "We had a kind of angry exchange on the Grant case. Well, guess I had, but I thought we were past that, maybe we're not!"

"Yeah, she always knows how to tingle one's temper," Brass smiled.

He was so hoping that Curtis was right about the letter. But this little voice back in his head kept telling him, that the letter would be about something totally different, possibly, because he knew Sara better than most. So he decided to keep an extra eye, on the Detective.

"We better get to work; see you later," he said, on his way to his office.

Knowing, that the detective would sit down and read the letter when she got to her office, Brass made sure he was sitting so he could see her from his own office.

Sofia went into her office and sat down; she opened the letter, and slowly took out the paper inside, and started reading.

Sofia

When you read this, I'll be on my way; I have decided to leave Vegas. First of all, I will like to apologize, for the way; things have been between us, after we got back from Frisco. I never meant for that to happen, but it did, and for that, I am truly sorry.

I don't know, where I'm going, I just know, that I have to go. I need to get a life! I'm just so tired, -tired of, who I have become, -tired of, only having work, in my life, -tired of, not having fun, as I used to, but most of all, -I'm tired of, being alone.

I want someone to share my live with, -someone, who will hold me in my darkest hours, and someone, I can hold in hers!

I want someone, to hold my hand, and share all the good moments, in life with,

I guess I want someone, to love, and someone, to love me!

For a long time, I hoped that it would be you I could share all those things with.

I know your feelings towards me, are so much more, than friendly, but something are oblivious holding you back!

I'm not blaming you for that, I know, I'm not an easy person to be around, guess, it just hurts, that you don't trust me enough, to tell me that!

But with all that being said, I truly wish you all the happiness, in the world, I hope you one day, goner find, what it is, you are looking for.

I don't know, if I ever goner come back, to Vegas!

But know this! You will always, have a special place in my heart, and I will never forget you. Be safe

Sara

When Sofia laid down the letter Brass' heart broke. He had never seen his detective looking so devastated, her face had gone from pale to ash grey, her eyes were wet but she was fighting for the tears not to fall. Brass got up and went to her, he bent down to her and said in a low voice, "Sofia please comes with me," she looked at him but didn't move. He tried again, "Sofia please come with me, you need to get out of here, I'll take you home, or we can go somewhere for coffee."

"Coffee will be fine," she finally said, she stood and folded up the letter, and put it in her back pocket.

Brass led her out of the building and to his car. None of them spoke again, before they were seeded in the diner, with a cup of coffee in front of them.

Brass looked at the young detective, "Sofia I don't know what the letter said and I'm not going to ask, but if you want to talk I'll be here to listen, night or day it doesn't matter."

Sofia gave him a little smile, "thanks Jim, but there really isn't what much to talk about, Sara have left Vegas end of story!"

"Well, I'm not an Investigator for nothing, and I think there's a little more to the story than that. Did she say why she was leaving?" he asked.

Sofia looked at Brass frowning, "you don't seem particularly surprised by the fact that she has left, did you know she was leaving?"

"No, I didn't, but your right I'm not surprised, I think for a while now, she has been giving small signs that she was giving up on her life here. But as much, as I like to talk about Sara, she's not the one who worries me right now" he replied softly.

"I know Jim, but I don't know what to tell you, guess, I just didn't expect her to leave."

"Why not, what should make her stay in Vegas? Is there anything here that she can't find anywhere else?" Brass knew he was on a limb here.

Sofia thought about that for awhile, before her eyes met with Brass', "Her job, I know she loves her job and her coworkers, they are both her friends and family, and you, I know she like you very much, I think it's a lot to leave behind."

"Yeah maybe it is, but the things you just mentioned, is not something she can't go out and find somewhere else, I think it's going to take something more than that for her to stay!" Brass gave her a small, half smile and then went back to staring at his bagel.

Sofia knew, what he was getting at, but she just couldn't deal with it right now. She was so confused by her own feelings! She couldn't have a life with Sara, but at the same time, she didn't want a life without. It had been her own choice, not to engage in a relationship with the brunette.

So why does Sara's disappearance, hurt like hell? Shouldn't it be easier not to want her, if she wasn't around?

Sofia sighed. "Jim, I don't know what to say, it's just too complicated!"

Brass was a smart man, so he knew when to stop pushing. "I know sweetie, just remember, sooner or later you goner have to deal with, or it will end up eating you alive. So whenever you're ready, I'm here to listen."

"Thanks Jim, that really means a lot. So do you think we can go back to work, so I can get my mind on something else?"

Brass stood and throw some bills on the table, "yeah, I think we can do that," he laughed, "come on; let's go catch some bad guys!"

Nine hours after leaving Vegas, Sara was now driving south down Lombard st., North Beach, San Francisco. When she reached the end of the road where it meets Montgomery st., she stopped and looked at the big building in front of her, "home sweet home," she said. She put the bike in gear and rolled in to the parking lot and killed the engine.

Sara got off of the bike, took her helmet off, and looked around; everything, looked like she remembered it. Some of the trees had grown bigger, and some of the herbaceous border was new, but except for that ever thing was as it used to be.

Well, it wasn't as if, there could be made a lot of modifications without her permission, since she owned fifteen of the apartments in the building. Brian also owned fifteen, and his dad's investment company owned the last fifteen in this wing. Another investment company owned the other wing.

It was a fifteen floors building with two, -three or four apartments, on each floor, depending on how big the flat was. As years had gone by, it had turned out to be quite a good investment her and Brian had made.

Brain's dad was the one, who had got them into investment in the first place. He and Brian's granddad had their own investment firm. The first time, Sara and Brian had made an investment; it had been from a tip from Brian's granddad, he had heard of this little new company, who was owned by a guy, called Bill Gates, who was making IT for computers.

From the day, Sara had started at Harvard; to the day she had finished at Berkley she had received full scholarship. But that had never prevented her, from working at least to jobs, plus being a tutor for other students, and on school vacations, she had often worked three jobs.

And since, she almost never used any money, and she on top of that, had inherited some money after her dad, Sara had managed to save close to 80.000$. So when she and Brian had invested, in Microsoft, Sara had put in almost everything she owned, Brian had done the same against his granddads advice, who thought it was too much, but they had been lucky and earned quite a fortune.

But instead of just having the money in the bank, Brian's dad had suggested to invest in the property market. Brian's dad had shown them some different buildings, but it hadn't been before they saw this one, they had decided to go for it. Both had felt in love with this place at once.

The building had been quite cheap, so they had put down all the cash to purchase the building. The construction of the house outside was strong and wall-established; it was all the apartments who needed work, so they had basically taking one apartment at the time. It took four years to renovate the entire building, mostly because back then neither of them was sure, if they wanted to be house owner for the rest of their life's. So every apartment was rebuild after the regulations for a condo, mainly out of two reasons, the first one was, that if one of them ever needed money, they could simply changes the papers on one or two of the apartments and sell them. The other reason was, that by selling the whole place, one condo at the time, would earn them much more, than selling to a new rental owner. But for now, Brian and Sara's apartments, was the only two that was written down as condos.

Over the years, the North Beach region, had become very popular place to live, the house prices had skyrocket especially in this area. The smallest, one bedroom apartments, who were about 750 Sq. Ft., would easy sell, for around 430.000$.

Every apartment came with, a balcony, and free access to an outdoor BBQ area, a garden, and an outdoor swimming pool, in the basement was a laundry room, a sauna, a fitness/aerobic room. The area was also under a twenty-four hour protection from a private security firm.

Sara could see the light was on in Brian's condo, he had chosen to live on the ground floor, because he wanted the private garden that came with the flat. Sara thought about going inside and say hello, but she was tired after the long drive. All she wanted was a long hot bath, and since Brian didn't know exactly when she was arriving, she decided it could wait.

Sara went inside and walked over to the elevator. She had chosen totally opposite of Brian! She had wanted the top floor abode because of the view, and because it was the only level with only one apartment, which had suited her just fine since she was a very private person. It was by far, the biggest flat in the building, almost 3000 Sq. Ft. it could easy have been rebuild into two apartments. But even, as Sara didn't need all that space, she had refused; she loved having the top floor to herself.

The elevator came to a stop and Sara stepped out to the corridor and walked to her front door, she opened it and entered the hall. A small two-seat sofa was standing up against the wall, Sara went over and put her bags down; she sat down and started taking her booths off.

The flat was all painted in Navajo White. Beside the sofa was a little table, a double closet to outdoors things stood up against another wall, and two big green plants was standing on the floor. One of the doors went into the extra toilet and the other to the living room.

When Sara had left she had hired a cleaning lady, Mona. She had come in once a week to water the plants and airing the place, and whatever she felt was needed. Twice a year, a professionally cleaning company had come in and cleaned the condo from top to bottom. Sara had talked with Mona a week ago, and asked her to call them, so right now the place was sparkling.

Sara went into the living room; it was kind of the centre of the abode, and was quite a big room. Over by the fireplace was a three-piece suit, two three-seat couch's, and a relax chair, all in Wheat colored leather. The room had four big floor to ceiling glass-wall windows, two on each side, and two glass-doors that lead out to the terrace. On the other side of the living room was the TV section, it was two Sandy Brown three-seat couch's, and in between was a white coffee table with a framed glass-plates with a drawer underneath, Sara had filled the drawer with beach sand and sea-shells, just for fun. On the wall, was hanging a 50`` flat-screen TV, a TiVo and a DVD player. The room was also filled with a lot of flowers and green plants.

Sara had chosen not to put any doors in the living room except out to the hall, so the living room kind of melted together with the two hallways. Sara went down the hallway to her left, and entered the kitchen; well, it was a kitchen and dining room in one.

There was a long kitchen table with the sink and the stove in it, which made it possible for people to sit around the table talking to whoever was cooking. Against one of the walls, was another table with a sink, over and under cupboards, a big fridge and a freezer with built-in ice maker, all kept in stainless steel! In the middle of the room was a long white dining table with eight chairs, there was also two white display cabinets with glass-doors. This room also had two floor to ceiling glass-wall windows, and a glass-door leading out to the terrace.

The next room down the hallway, was a larder, and with no windows to keep it dark, since it along with food also was used to store win. On the end of the hallway was the laundry room, and Mona also used it to her cleaning things.

Opposite the larder room, was a small guest room; one of the walls was painted in Slate Blue. There was a queen size bed, a wardrobe, a little table with a TV on, two armrest chairs, with a small coffee table between them. A door led into a bathroom with a shower.

Opposite the kitchen was Sara's office, this room also came with two floor to ceiling glass-wall windows, and a door outside, the rest of the walls, was covert with floor to ceiling shelves filled with all kinds of books. By one of the windows, was a relax chair with a small coffee table standing beside, there was also a big Mahoney desk with a computer on top, and a brown leather desk chair. On one of the walls, was a 42`` flat screen TV, and some green plants was standing around the room.

Sara took out a bottle of water and went back to the living room and down the other hallway towards the bathroom. The door to her right lead into the room, her friends called the 'party room'.

This room was painted in Light Steel Blue; at the end of the room was a home-bar that contained almost everything, six bar-stoles standing along the bar, after that came some free space, which people used as a dance floor. In the middle of the room was a big three ways couch with eighteen seats and a big coffee table in the middle. Further down was a pool table, and at the end stood a pinball machine. A shelf was hanging on one of the walls with quite a big stereo equipment, a loud speaker was hanging in every corner, lights in different colors, were hanging all around the room. This room had three floor to ceiling glass-wall windows, and a glass-door to the outside area.

Opposite the party room was another guest room, one of the walls in that room was painted in Salmon. It also had a queen size bed, a two-seat couch, a chair and a little coffee table, there was a double wardrobe and a 32`` flat screen TV was hanging on the wall. There was a glass-door, leading out to the terrace. This room also came with a bathroom, but it both had a shower and a bathtub.

After that room was the master bedroom, Sara had chosen to paint this room Medium Orchid, because it was a dark but warm color. A King size bed was standing against the wall, it was an elevation bed, it was adjustable to the neck, back and feet, and of course to a sitting or lying position, and all the adjustments could be saved. From the ceiling a 42`` flat screen TV could be lowered down. A Navajo white rocking chair was standing in the corner. This room came with two floors to ceiling glass-wall windows, and a door out to the terrace. In front of one of the windows, were standing two Navajo White chairs and a little table.

At the opposite end of the bed, was a door leading into a dressing room. Sara found it pretty funny, having a room like that; she didn't even have enough clothing to fill half the room. Another door was leading into the master bathroom; it was also the last room to enter, from the hallway.

This room was painted in Bisque and Coral, and it was quite a room, there were six skylight windows, all could be open and closed with a remote control. In the middle of the room, was a two-person white Jacuzzi with a Wenge wood border, it was 6"3 foot long and 3"7 wide, and could contain a bit more, than 97 gallons of water. The fittings and display panel was made in stainless steel, there was a built-in TV and underwater lightning. It had two chessmen of nozzles to massage shoulder/back and hip/legs, and the best part, it was self-cleansing. In the corner was a two-person shower cabinet, well, it was actually called a Jacuzzi shower-temple. In four minutes, it could turn into a steam bath. There was two built-in seats, sitting you could get you're scalp, neck, shoulder and back massaged, standing your whole body. - At a normal shower, you use about 5,2 gallons of water a minute. - But in this shower, you could make a little adjustment, turn the knob, and you would be standing under a waterfall, which meant 44,8 gallons of water a minute. There was a built-in Hi Fi stereo, and the fittings in here were also in stainless steel. A backless bench was standing up against the wall, there was a cabinet under the sink, and a large mirror above, a double closet filled with towels was standing up against another wall. The whole condo came with under floor heating and wood floors.

Sara entered the bathroom and started to fill the tub, she went into the dressing room to find some sleeping clothes. She got undressed and lowered herself in to the hot water; soon she could feel her muscles slowly starting to relax. When she finally got her herself out of the tub, she could really feel how tired she was, so she went straight to bed and was sleeping the minute her head hit the pillow.

Tbc…