AN: Posting a day early since I won't be home tomorrow… hope nobody minds!

Since I got questions about this both here and on AO3 (not sure if it was the same reader as they were a guest here), I figured I would address the issue of the rating. As I said in an author's note on chapter 9, I decided to change the rating to M since there will be mature content in later chapters, but it's going to take a little time to get the relationship to that point!

Ok, now that that's out of the way – let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to CSI

Chapter 19

Sara and Greg finally make it back to the lab an hour before the end of shift, just in time to get all of the evidence they collected logged in and make the run through of the night's cases.

"So, Mrs. Sheldon turned up at around four in the morning," Catherine starts. "Apparently, she was pissed at her cheating husband, which, you know, I can relate. She left the ransom note as a… mean joke, I guess, before checking into the Bellagio with a friend and turning her phone off. Someone finally got a hold of the friend and alerted them to half of Las Vegas' finest looking for her. So that was almost five hours wasted."

"But nobody was actually kidnapped, so bonus," Sara notes. "And you didn't have to deal with a billionaire who thinks money should give him the right to do whatever he wants."

"Did you manage to get rid of him?" Grissom asks and she sighs.

"The pit boss lured him away with promises of free chips eventually, so we could finally work in peace. Fingerprints on the door and the lockpicking kit match the guy in the hospital – he was already in the system for a number of burglaries. And he's going to make it, by the way, barring any unforeseen complications, of course. The bullet at the scene is an initial match to the security guard's issued sidearm, which was missing one bullet, we're just waiting for Ballistics to confirm, and the blood on it is in DNA. All details match the guard's statement as well, and the surveillance tapes confirm his story. The burglar was kneeling by the door, trying to pick the lock. When the security guard spotted him, he yelled out, the burglar turned around, the lockpicking equipment in his hand, the guard took it for a knife and fired once. I don't know how he mistook a lock pick for a knife, but that's the jury's problem. I'd say we've done what we can for now, just waiting for the evidence to be processed, but we'll probably want to talk to the burglar when he's awake, the doctor said he should be this afternoon."

"Good job. And that means our case is the only one not practically solved yet," he concludes, putting a few of the crime scene photos on the table for everyone to see. "Vickie Nowak, twenty-three. Manual strangulation, T.O.D. around eight last night. Signs of sexual activity in the hours before death, though nothing to indicate it was forced."

"The table was set for two," Nick takes over the narration. "Candles burned down, some leftover food on the plates and an empty bottle of wine in the kitchen. According to her parents, she had a boyfriend of about a year and a half, Logan Carlton, twenty-seven. He's not at home and isn't answering his cell phone, we've put out an APB for him and his vehicle."

"So, you're thinking date gone wrong?" Sara asks.

"Or someone else came by after the boyfriend left," Nick says with a shrug. "Or while he was there. We found no signs of a struggle except for the bed where the victim was found, but the suspect might have had a gun, forced him out of there and killed him somewhere else before going back for Vickie. There might be a jealous ex in the picture, we'll know more when we've found the boyfriend and talked to her friends. She was supposed to work the evening shift at the Luxor, so I'll start there tonight."

"All fingerprints have been analyzed, about half came back to the vic. We've also identified what we believe are some of her friends – three girls from the Luxor. The rest of the prints are from several unknown persons. We found a used condom in the bathroom, the semen matches epithelials from underneath the vic's fingernails, though that doesn't necessarily mean it's the killer's," Grissom continues. "No hits in the system, but we'll compare both the fingerprints and DNA to the boyfriend and any other suspects that might turn up. Neighbors claim they didn't hear anything, but it's not like we expected anything else. It's not the best neighborhood, even if someone did hear something, they might not want to talk to the police. We have a warrant with the victim's cell phone provider for her call logs, hopefully that'll come in during the day. Vic's computer is being analyzed, as well as her cell phone."

"So not much to do until the results are in and the call logs arrive," Warrick concludes. "Or the boyfriend turns up, whatever happens first."

"Exactly," Grissom agrees. "So, let's call it a day. We'll pick up when shift starts tonight, unless something unexpected happens before then."

Chairs scrape against the floor as everyone gets up, and as the others file out of the room, Sara leans over the table to study the photos.

"What're you thinking?" Grissom asks, rounding the table to join her.

"Nothing, yet," she replies absentmindedly, eyes scanning the photos. "Just trying to get an idea of the crime scene."

He leans down, moves the photos around a little. "Kitchenette, living area, bed alcove, bathroom. She was found on the bed, wearing underwear and a nightgown." She lets out a snort, making him glance over at her. "What?"

"That's not a nightgown, Griss," she tells him with a smirk. "It's a negligée."

He frowns at the photos, then at her. "There's a difference?"

"Just trust me on this."

For a moment, she thinks he might actually ask her to explain the difference, but then he returns his focus to the photos.

"Anything jump out at you?"

"I think I might be leaning towards the 'someone came by after the boyfriend left' theory," she muses, picking up the photo of the victim. "This doesn't look like a redressing to me."

"So, she got dressed herself? Why does that mean a third person?"

"If the boyfriend was staying, why did she get dressed again?" she reasons. "Why not just stay in bed?"

"Maybe she couldn't sleep naked," he suggests. "Some people can't."

"Speaking from experience?" Sara asks, smiling when the tips of his ears turn slightly pink.

"I hardly think that's relevant to the case," he says, voice steady. "And there could be several reasons. T.O.D. was around eight, that's not very late. Maybe they got up to watch TV. Maybe they started arguing and she felt vulnerable. There are other possibilities aside from another person at the scene."

"True," she concedes, gathering up the photos and putting them back in the folder. "Well, I'm heading out. Do you want to get Shelby from daycare today, or hold off on that until you've got her room set up?"

"She doesn't really need her own room for just a few hours," he replies. "If she needs to take a nap, she can do that in my bed. So, if you don't mind, I'd love to get her."

"If I minded, I wouldn't have asked," she tells him, only a little exasperated. "I'll tell them you're picking her up. What time? They usually have lunch at noon and then naps after, so probably not before two."

"Three? I need to pick up a car seat first."

"OK, I'll let them know. Do you need help with the car seat?"

"If you just let me know what kind you have, I should be able to figure it out on my own."

"I have no idea what it's called, but if you walk me to my car, we can have a look at it."

He gathers up the case files from the table. "I just need to drop these off in my office. I'll meet you in the locker room."

Nick pauses for a moment outside the break room, looking back at the pair leaning over the table.

"You coming, Nicky?" Catherine calls, and he shakes his head as he catches up to her.

"So, we're all agreed it's only a matter of time before that happens, right?" he says, lowering his voice a little and nodding back towards the room they just left. "Again, I guess I should say. I still haven't quite wrapped my head around that."

Catherine snorts. "I told Sara I gave it a month. And that was last weekend."

"You think?" He considers for a moment. "They're both pretty stubborn."

"You want to put your money where your mouth is?" she asks as they enter the locker room.

Nick opens his locker and hangs up his vest as he ponders the question. "You know Sara will kill us if she finds out, right?" he finally says.

Catherine smirks. "So she won't."

"Why is Sara going to kill you?" Greg asks.

"Catherine's trying to get me to bet on how long it'll take her and Grissom to get together," he explains. "She's saying less than a month, but I think longer."

"Why would he want to?" Warrick pipes in.

Catherine slams her locker shut and turns on Warrick, eyes flashing. "You're going to have to get over this, Rick, and quickly," she says flatly. "What happened between Gil and Sara has nothing to do with your relationship with Tina, so stop projecting."

It looks like Warrick's about to say something, but Nick beats him to it. "She's right, Warrick. Grissom and I talked today, while we were out on our case. He's not holding any grudges. If anything, he blames himself. So, you really don't need to hold 'em for him."

Warrick considers for a moment, then shrugs, slamming his own locker shut. "Whatever."

The locker room is empty when Sara reaches it, and she shrugs out of her vest, hanging it up in her new locker and grabbing her bag instead. She puts her gun in the lock box, the holster on top.

First shift done, and everything went smoothly. She's grateful for the moment in the break room just now, relieved that she and Grissom still work together as well as they used to. She was hoping they would, especially with how in sync they've been over the past week, but it's still nice to have it confirmed.

She thought she might have gone too far with her comment about sleeping naked, but he didn't call her out on it, and she files that away for the future.

In San Francisco, the inside of her locker door was basically a timeline of Shelby's life, and this new locker feels empty without all the photos. Luckily, she anticipated as much and packed the photos from her old locker away to put back up in her new one, so she opens her bag and finds the envelope and some Blu Tack.

She's just stuck the final photo to the locker door when there's a sound behind her, and she looks over her shoulder to find Grissom watching her.

"Hey, I'm just about done," she tells him, and he nods, taking a couple of steps closer, and she realizes he's not looking at her but at the photos.

She's arranged them chronologically, from top left to bottom right, and he raises one hand, running a finger over the first photo – a smiling Jill with Shelby in her arms, barely visible between the tightly wrapped hospital blanket and little hat.

"Is that from when she was born?" he asks, voice almost reverent.

"Yeah, she's a few hours old there."

The conversation brings her back to that day, to the multitude of feelings crashing over her when she held her daughter for the first time. The guilt that he wasn't there.

"And that's Jill, right?" His voice brings her back to the present. "I vaguely remember her from back when we met."

"That's her, yeah. We were friends before I left the first time, though not that close, but when I came back, she sort of took on a… big-sister role, I guess." Sara shrugs. "To be honest, she's been a lifesaver more times than I can count, I don't know what I would have done without her."

"I'm glad you had someone you could rely on," he says, eyes jumping between the pictures.

"You know what I just realized?" she asks, and he glances at her. "We never did get around to looking at the photos I promised, did we?"

Grissom frowns. "I guess we didn't, no. I definitely want to see them, but I suppose it took a bit of a backseat when I met Shelby and was able to actually spend time with her."

"Well, why don't you bring her back to Catherine's tonight and then you can stay for dinner? We can have a look at them after Shelby's asleep? If you bring everything you need for shift tonight, you won't have to go home in between either."

He smiles at her. "That sounds good."