Title: Wuthering Souls

Disclaimers: Sadly, I do not own anything or anybody related to CSI.

A/N: Thank you so much for the awesome and wonderful reviews. You are amazing!

Chapter Two

2 March 2001 at 2 am, Amarna, Egypt

Unexpectedly a strong earthquake measuring magnitude 5.9 shook Amarna, the city that had been called Akhetaten many millenniums ago. Since the ancient city had been described as the Aten's by the King Akhenaten, the residents in our days wholeheartedly believed that every tremor that shook the sands under their feet had to be the manifestation of the great God's trample.

Egyptians had to face many destructive earthquakes through their history but this recent one meant more than just a natural catastrophe for some special people.

When the throne had passed to Tutankhamen after his father's death, the young king had chosen Memphis as his main base. His illogical action had been welcomed by many speculative rulers but also had astonished the people. This new king had not reminded the people of King Akhenaten. This child king had been new indeed. Some had been suspicious because they had not understood his decisions. It had been as if Tutankhamen had received a new personality but no one had dared to question the being of a pharaoh. And King Tutankhamen had been the pharaoh.

Although almost all of the residents of Akhetaten had abandoned the city, a handful of priests had stayed there. They had kept believing in the only god, Aten and worshipping the old king, Akhenaten. These few priests had suspected that something dark and vileness must have happened to the new king so they had made an oath that they would restore the original glow of the great kingdom.

In the next few years, they had renamed the city in order to erase their existence. So Amarna had been established. The city was isolated and far enough from the Nile to avoid flooding, and no one had ever built on top of it. The city remained untouched for the posterity. This was how the descendants of the old priesthood were living between the walls of a small temple in Amarna. These noble men kept the ancient rituals and beliefs in hopes they once could see the old values again.

Even though the temple was constructed out of mud-bricks, it was very solid and resistant. Even these hard tremors had failed to inflict significant damage. After the short period of shaking, a middle-aged priest left his shelter and rushed to the High Priest. He was not just over-excited; the man was almost on the edge of hysteria. Before Priest Fadil entered the room to greet the older and most respectful follower of Akhenaten, he had fallen onto his knee to perform the movement of 'henu', the nicest pose in the ritual dance of praise.

"Sire! Sire! You have to come and see…you…you…have to…it's happening, sire! It's happening…again!"

"I know. Aten let me see it today. Maybe this time…at last…"

"Follow me, sire. I'll show you."

Priest Fadil led the High Priest of Akhetaten slowly back to the shrine that revealed the bright fresco that depicted the royal family. The King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti were holding hands and were facing their only son, Tutankhaten.

"Oh, dear Aten!" the High Priest said dumbfounded. "Here is the evidence we've been looking for!"

The fresco was broken into two pieces due to the energy released during the earthquakes. There was a huge gap between the figure of Tutankhaten and the royal family. The heir had got separated from his family.

"Now the time came, centuries of doubt and enormity will vanish…the crystal was in someone's hands again…now, we just have to find it and…"

"And break its magic…"

"And turn back time to cure our history and then the world will be perfect again."

"Just as Aten and our fathers always wanted."

"Tell the others to come without delay!"

CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR- CSI-GSR

1 March 2001 at 1 pm, Las Vegas, the USA

About 7,000 miles away from Amarna, Grissom was sleeping like a baby; however, his rest was interrupted many times by strange and sometimes disturbing images. Whenever a scary scene had woken him up, he had wiped his sweaty forehead, taken some deep breaths then closed his eyes tight and fallen into sleep again hoping for a calmer slumber. Now, he was dreaming one more time but this one was really terrifying for Grissom. In his dream he was running as if he was running for his life but the faster he tried to get away, the slower it seemed he could move. He heard somebody calling him or perhaps screaming a name Grissom knew well but it was all chaotic. The voice seemed to get closer so he tried to run faster but he failed again. And then Grissom woke for a second, he rolled onto his side then pushed his face into the pillow. As soon as he sensed Sara's scent on his pillow, he calmed down right away and subconsciously sank back into his dream. He was still rushing when a hand touched his shoulder from behind.

He wanted to protect himself so he threw a rock toward the faceless threat but it missed its target and landed with a hard thud on the concrete. However, it was only a dream, a loud noise of the landing rock really woke him up completely. This time, Grissom did not want to come back to sleep. He never realized, though, that he had indeed thrown something away while he had been sleeping. The mighty quartz crystal rolled under the drawers hitting the wall. This was in fact that had woken Grissom from his fearsome dream.

"Hell, I need a diversion…" and in the darkness of the room, he laughed. "Don't think Sara for a minute that you win…dreams or not, you need a diversion more than I do."

He sat up in the bed and smelled the bed-linen that reminded him so much of Sara. He smelled it again and immediately, he felt that his blood started to boil. It happened all the time when he heard her name, heard her voice or just heard the slightest thing to do with her…his pulse rate jumped and he went all goosy…then – of course - started to freak out.

"Ok, stop this! It's pretty much inappropriate."

Grissom got out of bed and tapped the floor in order to find his slippers but somehow, they were out of "leg-distance".

"Why is it so dark here? I…I don't remember closing the bedroom drapes…"

He tried to palpate his mobile on the night table right next to his bed to make some light but instead of pushing one of its buttons, he turned on the radio.

"Ah, come on now!"

He let the radio on, at least there was some noise in the house. Grissom headed for the bathroom but on his way out of this room, he bumped into almost everything. Now he was swearing loudly. He made sure that his eyes were open, for a crazy moment, he feared that he went blind as he could not see his own hands in the dark even though they were literally an inch from his face.

In a few minutes that seemed an eternity, Grissom reached the door and finally found the switch. The sudden light in the room revealed its interior but at the same time blinded the man. He covered his eyes with his hands and turned to enter the bathroom.

Grissom had no idea what was waiting for him in that tiny room. After switching on the light, the first thing that he saw was the toilet. A woman surely would look into the mirror first, but a man? Never! For some time, he was just standing there perplexedly. It was not his.

"It's not mine."

Now, he looked around. Foreign bath curtain, foreign tiles…

"These are definitely not mine," he stammered.

….and that beloved face.

Grissom almost fainted at the sight of the reflection in the mirror. He even turned back to see Sara behind him.

"What? Sara?"

He left the bathroom to find the woman who evidently was playing with him. Why did she disappear? And why was he in her home? What had happened? He was sure that he had gone home after work; he sure as hell would remember visiting Sara…

"Sara? Stop this! It's not funny…now…"

When he got no answer, he returned to the bedroom, sat onto the bed and tried to figure out how he had got here.

.

And now, let's hear the news around the world.

A strong earthquake near Cairo toppled buildings and caused deadly stampedes of panicked residents. The Government said 120 people were killed, and at least 3,300 people hurt.

The quake, described as the strongest ever recorded near the Egyptian capital, struck at 2 am local time and lasted 20 seconds. It registered 5.9 on the Richter scale, a gauge of the energy released by an earthquake as measured by ground motion.

The quake was centered in Amarna, about 170 miles southeast of Cairo, several miles from the pyramids and the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. The Information Minister, Safwat el-Sherif, said major monuments survived the quake intact.

.

"Poor guys," Grissom pondered. "Sara!" he called again and like earlier, he received no answer this time either, he went back to her bathroom.

The sound of Grissom's scream tore through the silence. It was filled with fear. Did he lose his sanity? He closed his eyes but just as quickly opened them again to see his reflection in the mirror.

"You're Sara…I'm Sara? No! What the hell? Oh my god!"

He leaned closer to touch the mirror and the person it showed followed his movements. Grissom backed off.

"It can't be…no, it must be some freaking dream…I gotta wake up…"

He tried not to look around in Sara's apartment; he believed that it would be disrespectful. Not that sleeping in her bed would be less "intimate". The agitated man climbed into the bed and wrapped his body tight with her blanket. Her scent did not help him calming down at all.

"Ok. Close your eyes, and sleep…S-L-E-E-P!"

Grissom did his best to fall asleep but it was a mission impossible. After one or two minutes, he got up and went to open the drapes and then the window. He needed fresh air.

He began checking his pulse while keeping an eye on the clock on the wall. He calculated his heart rate while was breathing loudly. He feared that he was going to black out. The man leaned against the window frame.

"102. Damn it! Now I know that I'm about to panic."

Grissom leaned over the sill and breathed deeply to calm himself. Grissom was a scientist and what had happened to him seemed so unbelievable that even he could not explain it and this shook his confidence. Probably he would never admit it to anyone but he was on the edge of crying so he covered his face with his hands.

"Jesus! My face became so soft…hell, it's not my face!"

Curiosity took over his earlier fear. If her skin was so soft on her face…Did he have the right to check her skin elsewhere?

"Her neck? Just her neck…no lower…"

And yes, the skin on her neck was even softer, literally velvety. Grissom could not help but slide his hand lower. He tried to explain his courage with the dream theory. If it was a dream…which evidently must be – he argued – then he would never have another chance to feel her…shapes. Very slowly he touched the breasts.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sara! I didn't mean to…um…I touched them by accident," his face turned into deep purple.

As nothing had happened, no one had slapped him in the face, he touched them again, with a little more confidence.

"Hey, lonely baby! Having fun? Go on!" a guy from a window of the opposite apartment block whistled and shouted.

Grissom had never felt more humiliated than he was feeling now. With light speed, he disappeared from the open window. What had he been thinking? It was Sara's body. He could not do such a thing like touching it. It felt like harassment.

"Gilbert! You're an adult man, a serious supervisor…in Sara's body…now, I'm officially insane."

He started pacing the room. He had to cook out something and soon because as he looked at the clock, in two hours, Sara and he had to be at work. And this was the moment when another problem arose.

"If I'm here," he laughed but his laughter lacked any humor, "Where is my body? And is it Sara who lives in it?"

He thought of calling Sara but then he imagined the conversation.

"Hi!" First problem: How to call her? Sara or Grissom. But he was in her home, in her body… So if he indeed went nuts and he only imagined that he was in Sara's body, he could not call the body of Grissom Sara. Problem solved. So again:

"Hi Grissom!" Second problem: if it was not a sick dream…and Sara lived in his body miles away from here, then Sara must think the same…so she must think she went crazy, too and she probably was not going to reveal her real personality if he call her and name her Grissom because she would think there was no problem with me just with her. Too complicated. Who was who and who knew what?

Telephone was a no-no. Then what? Grissom was so nervous and agitated that he started sweating profoundly. He looked at the clock and saw that they still had one and a half hours until work. He decided to visit himself…Sara.

Sara was always fresh and smelled amazing. He looked at his new body and freaked out. He had to have a shower before leaving…and shower meant…

TBC