May 2007

"Miniature killer?"

"Not sure yet. This doll was found here, but there's not miniature to go with it. It wasn't positioned like the body."

"Maybe the killer needed to make it later."

"We can't rule anything out." Grissom looked at Sara, "It's all yours my dear." She smiled as he exited the scene.

"Grissom, First name Natalie was specific enough for DHS to release the records. Her name is Natalie Davis. They're sending over her records now." Sophia could hear a strange relief on the other side of the line.

Grissom and Sophia walked up to a home they now know Natalie had been in as a foster child, other than Dell's home. The lawn was covered in toys and running children. They walked through the house as the followed the mother, kids running and weaving around them. Grissom couldn't help but picture Sara there as a little girl, was this what is was like for her? He wondered.

"After a few dozen kids you get good at knowing which ones are damaged and which ones are broken. Natalie was broken."

Grissom and Catherine found her Biological father. They made their way to the casino where he performed his ventriloquist act. They watched as he sang his act, Little Bisque Doll.

"Okay.. We're in a David Lynch movie." Catherine said slightly horrified after witnessing the act.

Once he wrapped up, the two CSIs made their way to speak with him over by the bar.

"Yeah. That was my other daughter. Natalie was 6 and Chloe was 4 when my wife passed away."

"What happened?"

The man then moved to let his doll tell the story of how Natalie killed her younger sister.

"Had the girls been fighting" Catherine questioned.

"How did Natalie deal?" Grissom questioned.

"I don't know. It was hard on both of us. I tried for a while but I just couldn't handle it. I had to give her up."

Natalie reported for work that night at the lab. She rolled her maintenance cart to Grissom's office and entered. There, she saw the miniature he had been creating in his spare time. Almost complete she noted. She retrieved a cardboard box from her cart and placed it carefully on Grissom's desk.

Slowly and methodically she unpacked the miniature. She turned the motor on and exited the office, closing the door behind her.

She clocked out and made her way to the garage and laid in wait.

Sara rode the elevator up to fourth floor of the parking garage as her phone rang.

"Hello Gilbert" She smiled and listened as he told her of the miniature killer's identity, Natalie Davis, "Alright, I'll be right there. Meet you at the lab."

She opened the trunk of her car and placed her kit inside.

"Sara."

Sara quickly turned to see a woman standing there behind her. Electricity suddenly ran through her veins. She fell to the floor hard.

Grissom returned from the casino and entered his office. A horrified look etched over his features as he saw something perched on his desk. A miniature of an upturned car. He took a closer look and grabbed a tissue to pick up the car. Underneath was a doll, its hand moving. It was a girl with brown hair and it was wearing a department issued CSI bullet proof vest.

His heart stopped, his vision went blurry and he could feel a noisy heat fill his ears. "Sara." escaped his lips in a whisper.

Grissom whipped out his phone and quickly dialed her number. It rang through with no answer. He tired again. Same result.

He sped out of his office toward reception, giving her phone another dial. "Come on Sara."

"Gil."

"Brass?"

"We found her car in the garage... it looks like an abduction."

Grissom closed his phone and approached Judy. "Who was in my office while I was gone?"

"No one. Just some girl from Janitorial. She emptied the trash, vacuumed. That's all."

Nick held a magnifying glass to the miniature.

"Doll's still alive. That means Sara's still alive." Greg's voice shook slightly.

"Generic stretch of desert? She could be anywhere in a four state radius." Nick wasn't as optimistic.

Grissom entered, "Her name is Natalie Davis and she works for our janitorial service."

"Here? In the lab?" Catherine was horrified.

"For over a month."

Grissom, "She has no home phone and no drivers license."

"Okay I've got it." Greg interjected, "A 2007 red Mustang. Totaled outside the Trip Wire Bar six weeks ago. Lead CSI on the case... Sara Sidle."

"Pull up the case photos."

Grissom watched the screen intently as Greg did as he was asked. He remembered that case. He remembered slowly caressing Sara's arm as he took the camera from her. He remembered the warning look she gave him as he did it, the warning look she always gave him when he was being to affectionate at work. He looked closer at the photo. There she was in the crowd.

"Oh my god. She was at the crime scene." Grissom voice had softened as he looked up at his team.

Nick, "So she salvages the car and somehow gets it out to the desert? Grabs Sara and puts her under it."

Grissom's hand moved to his moth. He could feel stinging tears behind his eyes.

Warrick, "I don't get it. What does Sara have to do with bleach?"

Catherine, "I don't know. This just feels different."

"It is different" Grissom stared out into nothing as he spoke absent mindedly. The relization of what was happening finally started to sync in. His heart constricted, "This girl holds me responsible for the death of Ernie Dell. I took away the only person she ever loved. So she's going to do the same to me."

Catherine, Nick, Warrick and Greg all looked up with furrowed brows and he continued his statement, "It's not about some obsession with bleach. Or some dead sister. Or the doll." He looked at Catherine, realization seeping into his eyes, "Not your little bisque doll."

He hurried back to his office leaving the team alone in the layout room and found what he was looking for online. A username on the miniature forum, NOTURLITTLEBISQUEDOLL.

"This is Grissom. I need an attorney generals waiver."

Warrick and Nick picked her up and transported her back to the lab.

"I'd like to talk to her alone." Brass hesitantly agreed.

"I'm so impressed by the way you embrace your passion." He purposefully but on a soothing voice, You'd make a great CSI. This last one was brilliant. You studied our crime scene so well. Tracking the car all the way to the junk yard and then towing it out to the desert where you knew we wouldn't find it. And then, the way you killed Sara." He couldn't even think about the words that had just come out of his mouth. He needed to push forward.

Natalie shook her head. "I didn't kill her."

"You didn't?"

She shook her head again. She watched as relief washed over his features. "This is about her isn't it!? Her, her, her. It's always about her. It's always about her." She started to sing the little bisque doll song over and over again.

She was slipping away, "Natalie. Please tell me where Sara is." Natalie was gone and Grissom lost his patience. "Natalie!" He Screamed and shook her. "Tell me where Sara is!?" He then felt Brass' hands on his shoulders.

"Gil, come on." He lead him out of the interrogation room. "We're going to find her." Grissom stared right through him and he wasn't quite sure if he could hear him.

Grissom was in a fog. wake up he coaxed his mind but nothing would change. This wasn't a dream. This wasn't going away.

"Gil." Catherine approached the two men. "Just spoke to the security guard at the mall parking garage. Apparently she's there a couple nights a week."

"Yeah. She likes the veggie place downstairs."

"He said she was there tonight."

"Yeah around seven."

"What else do you know, Gil."

Grissom furrowed his brow and walked off.

"Cut him a break." Brass spoke to Catherine once Grissom was gone.

"You knew. Didn't you? About He and Sara?"

Brass nodded, "I told you it was closer than you think."

Catherine shook her head, "I would have never guessed." She paused as squinted her eyes as the detective, "How long have you known?"

He shrugged, "A year or so. But I don't now how long its been going on for."

The rain started to pile up under the car. Its foaming top layer splashing hard against her face. She fought to breath, to keep her head above the water. But her arm was trapped making it harder and harder as the water continued to rise. She gasped for air.

She closed her eyes and pictured Grissom's face. Letting it calm her. Letting it giver her courage. She flashed open her eyes and yanked at her trapped arm hard. Screaming in pain as she worked to free it. It's just a matter of physics she kept telling herself.

"Grissom."

"Gil. The tow truck guy says icebox canyon. S and R are headed out there now. Get your guys."

Grissom road along with Nick to the coordinates the helicopter relayed over the radio having spotted the car.

He leapt out of the car before it came to a full stop and ran to the flipped over mustang. It was filled with sand.

"Sara!" He screamed. But she wasn't there. Nick dug at the sand, assuming it got there from the flooding rain water. He lifted her CSI vest from the sand. Grissom looked over horrified.

"Catherine! I've got shoe prints."

"She got out from under that car. Okay everyone listen up! We're searching on foot!"

Grissom whipped out his binoculars to search the stretch of desert. The two followed the foot prints for miles. They continued to walk along. Finding little towers of rocks as they went. Proof that Sara was of sound mind.

"Gil..."

He couldn't look at her. He just kept walking and looking ahead. "I can't live without her." his voice was so small and absent of emotion.

"We'll find her Gil."

Grissom took another look through his binoculars. He lowered them, "Oh no..." He started sprinting. She followed.

A body. He knelt beside it and started to dig at the sand and flip it over.

"Its not her." Catherine said but he could barely hear her. The realization that she might not actually surrive this became real.

"Where is she Catherine? It's 110 degrees she's been out here all day. Without water. She's disoriented. She's dehydrated."

"She's a survivor."

Grissom nodded but the look etched on his face was breaking Catherine's heart. He looked hopeless.

Meanwhile, Nick and Sophia sped along through stretches of desert to try and cover more land.

"Wait. Go that way! Go that way!" Sophia pulled the car around like she was told.

"SARA!" Nick screamed as he sprinted to her.

"We found her!" Sophia radioed in, "She's alive. We need a medic now."

Nick poured water over her to cool down her body temperature as they waited for the medical helicopter to arrive. Just a few minutes after the medics showed up, Catherine's car skidded to a halt nearby. Grissom leapt out of the car and sprinted to them.

He knelt next to her and watched helplessly as the paramedics worked on her.

Catherine, "How is she?"

"She's not responding," A paramedic answered. Grissom went numb. He couldn't breath. He quickly wiped away tears from his eyes as they lifted her on the stretcher.

"Move over. I"m going with her." Grissom hoped into the helicopter and felt as it lifted off. He reached for her delicate hand and cupped it in his. It felt lifeless.

Catherine and Nick stood together as they watched the helicopter fly up. She put her hand on Nick.

"Good work."

He nodded silently. "Should we meet them at the hospital?"

"Yeah. Let's do that."

He stared at her face. Open your eyes. He pleaded internally.

Her eyes fluttered open slowly. The first thing she saw was his name tag. Then she lifted up to his face, his eyes, his soft smile. And just as quickly her eyes closed again.

He could feel his heart beat start again. She was going to be okay.