This story already feels a little OOC, but I shall persevere nonetheless. There won't be as much actual crime scenes outside of the main story because - my ADD brain can't focus to write them properly and sensibly. So the story is mostly focused on Gil, Holly, and Sara :) Fluff and angst to come.

"Gil!" Grissom, seated at his desk, jumped, startled, as Catherine's voice stabbed into his rambling thoughts. The sounds around him faded from silence back into chaotic reality. "Do you want to go get breakfast? First shift took over everything and we are good to go."

Gil looked around his office for a moment, trying to get his bearings, still slightly disconcerted. How long he had been sitting there he could not tell. "Uh, no, Catherine, thank you. You guys go ahead. I - have an errand to run. Need to check out something."

"Something related to a case?" Catherine asked quizzically, studying him with those mothering eyes. He half smiled, knowing he could never get anything past her. He was the supervisor, but she was very nearly his equal. "Nothing case related, just need to check on something. Is Sara still here?"

"Right here, Gris," the dark haired investigator announced, poking her head around the doorway. "What can I do for you? Breakfast is calling pretty loudly though, I have to warn you. It's been a long night, my stomach is empty, and the rare chance to have an easily solved crime calls for an immediate breakfast celebration. No double shifts today and I need some pancakes."

A small smile quirked up the corner of his lips. "Well, everyone did great last night. I just have to check out something, so you guys go ahead. If you wouldn't mind going with me instead, Sara, I may need your help on that something."

Catherine's eyebrow raised in question. "She goes but not us?"

"Like I said, Catherine, not related to a case. Just a personal matter, nothing the crime lab needs to help with. Sara is welcome to go with you guys, but I need her female finesse."

"Ah. Well, if you need us too, you will find us at Omelet House. I need a waffle in my future. No butter, and all the syrup."

"Handy information, good to know," he called after her, then turned his attention to Sara. "Hey."

"Hey yourself. What's up, you've got that look in your eye."

A playfully offended frown crossed the supervisor's face. "What look?"

Sara sighed and sat down at his desk opposite him, resting her elbows on the table, steepling her fingers under her chin. "Oh, you've got that 'I've found a lost puppy and mom, can I please bring it home' face going on. Okay, so, what is it. Who are you wanting to rescue?"

"It's not really as simple as all that. And there are no puppies involved."

"Well that's a relief. Hank is enough to handle."

"Hey, Hank's a good dog."

"So he is. But that still doesn't explain the look."

"You know, Sara, it's just that there are so many people hurting, and no one ever really notices until they end up at the wrong end of an ME's scalpel. You've seen it yourself. Someone going through hell, trying to get through it, then the abuse reaches a boiling point and someone ends up on the cold slab, usually not the abuser."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Sara sat back and smiled, crossing her arms. "So, who is she?"

He furrowed his brow in confusion and shook his head in confusion. "She?"

Sara nodded wisely. "Only women or children in distress get you this riled up, and you mentioned abuse and abusers, so most likely a she, and she is young or a child."

Gil huffed and rubbed his face with a broad hand, proud of her deductions. "Sometimes I am really glad I married you."

"Mm, really? So. Go on. Who is she?"

He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, mirroring her steepled fingers and thoughtful posture. "Her name is Holly, that's all I know." He shrugged. "Redhead, freckled kid, wears combat boots. She said that she was being stalked by someone yesterday evening when I was in line at the roller coaster. She rode the front with me. She said she works at Excalibur, had just got a job there."

"The swimming park?"

"Yes, said she is a lifeguard there."

"And this has you troubled...why?"

Gil sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Something about the way she acted bothers me." He met Sara's eyes and she saw the rough concern in them. "She said I was safe."

Sara's eyebrow quirked upward and she nodded. "Definitely abused then. What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to run some information through the DOC database for anyone whose wife is dead and has a daughter that is a high school teen or so, and was recently incarcerated."

"Ah, very specific parameters," Sara nodded, rising to make her way to the door. "Making my job easy." Gil stood as well, following her toward the door.

"Also, check for anyone in there with those parameters and a history of sexual assault. She mentioned she was afraid of men."

Sara nodded. "That's why she said you were safe. She knows somehow that you wouldn't hurt her. Sounds like a story we hear quite often. I will see what I can do. But," she added, turning back toward Grissom, and finding him right behind her. Her playful banter halted at the close proximity and the instant feelings it sent racing through her body. "What is in it for me..."

Gil Grissom's eyes narrowed, and he took her pointing finger in his hand and kissed it, gently, lingering over the slim knuckle. His breath brushed warmly across her skin and he gazed unwaveringly into her brown eyes.

Sara nodded quickly. "That's good enough for me," she breathed, trying to control her ragged breathing. The effect his steady blue eyes had on her was what had eventually drawn them together. His touch, so light it could preserve a butterfly, and yet firm enough to take down a criminal, was all it took to send her over the edge, and they hadn't the time today. She swallowed hard, trying to focus on the floor beneath her feet.

"Your heart is racing," he observed, his fingers drifting to her wrist, his voice low and protective. "There a reason for that?"

"Gil, you know you give me all kinds of reasons," she breathed again. He smiled faintly and leaned closer, kissing her gently.

"Name one," he murmured against her lips, his hands settling carefully around her ribs. She took a step back, landing against the closed door, with nowhere else to go but under his touch.

"You're - protective. When I'm with you, whether in the field or in bed, you make me feel safe, and secure," she replied softly, still trying to control her breathing, and he frowned down at her.

"That's - what Holly said too."

"Mm, should I be worried about this Holly?" Sara questioned playfully leaning into his chest.

"You know better than that," he chuckled warmly, squeezing her hips playfully. "Now go, grasshopper, computer, now."

"I like it when a man takes charge," Sara smirked, and turned, shoving open the door and stepping out of the office into the main hallway where other people still milled about working on last minute reports and shift change updates.

Gil stood there in the office for a moment, getting his own breathing and emotions under control. Sara stirred something in him that he had never felt with anyone else. She was intelligent, brave, and incredibly efficient, while also being feminine, and gentle. It was the perfect combination, and he found himself wishing the world could just take a break from all of its evil and horrors, and give him just a few hours to take his wife home and show her how much she meant to him.

"Well, from what I can tell, all of the parameters you gave me seem to point to a David Meyers, in DOC for sexual assault, sexual battery, battery, and exploitation of a minor."

Gil leaned over her shoulder to frown at the computer screen. "Not 'seem' to point. Need a match. The record is for exploitation?"

"Yes," Sarah murmured, scrolling through the list of cases. "Looks like he tried to pimp out his daughter to another man in exchange for a gambling debt. She was 15 at the time, turned 16 the following month."

"What year was that?"

"This year. He was arrested eight months ago and is currently incarcerated, 25 year stint ahead of him."

"That can't be right, Sara, this kid is young, but she didn't act like a minor. At least she didn't look like one."

"Makeup, self preservation, premature aging due to assault, there could be reasons reasons for that, Gil. We've seen that before, especially in children that have been abused. Ages them really quickly sometimes."

"Sara, if she's a minor, then she is literally a child out there alone. She is a child, out there with all of those bars and casinos and people on the street, just waiting to get their hands on something that innocent..."

"Gil," Sara interrupted him, as his voice was getting more agitated with each word, looking up into his blue eyes, and she smiled. "Getting too involved, aren't you. There hasn't been a crime committed here that we know of, except for these and he is in jail for them. It's not something we can professionally do anything about."

He sighed, resting his chin on top of her head and studying the computer screen. "Well, unprofessionally, I am going to go talk to her. Somehow, we have to find someone that can look after this girl. She's just a child. And we know what will happen to her if she is out there for too long. She will be seeing Doctor Robbins."

"Gil, that's all well and good, but what if she doesn't want our help?"

"Our help?" He smirked at her.

"Well, I am assuming you didn't bring me into this just to advise you, and have you go off being a hero by yourself. Besides, we are a team aren't we?"

"Of course we are." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "I definitely need you on this one, honey. She may need a woman's convincing. Sara, I just can't sit here and do nothing and just be okay with it until she shows up on our autopsy table. And legally, unless she is emancipated, she can't be out there on her own anyway."

Sara reached back and turned off the computer and stood, stepping into his waiting embrace. "Well, let's go then, shall we. Time to go save your lost puppy."

"What if she doesn't want to see you?" Sara asked, following Gil toward the entrance to the Excalibur swim park. "She left suddenly, so maybe she felt that she didn't need your protection anymore."

"I don't know what to think," Gil replied. "I just hope I didn't do or say anything to frighten her. She left my jacket too, stepped on it as she was leaving. Must have been in quite a hurry to leave while I was busy on the phone."

"Maybe so." Sara stepped up to the manager's desk and smiled. "Good morning, we need to talk to Holly. She's a lifeguard here?"

She spoke to the manager for a moment, then walked over to where Gil was studying the other side of the room. "Okay, so the manager says she is here in training today, it's her first day, so we can talk to her, but we can't stop her work as she is on the clock." Gil rolled his eyes and she nodded. "My reaction exactly. Pool is this way."

They stepped out into the sunshine, the smell of chlorine hitting their senses immediately. There were two lifeguard stations around the turquoise water, covered by large umbrellas. An older woman was up in one of them, fanning herself with a brochure, and the other station was empty. A few kids were splashing with their grandparents in the shallow end, but otherwise, there was no one else around.

"Hey," Sara called up to the lifeguard. "We are looking for a girl named Holly. Supposed to be out here in training. Have you seen her?"

"Holly?" the lady called back, never taking her eyes off the pool. "She was here earlier, training with Adam, but she got a phone call and went out that side gate over there. She hasn't been back."

"How long ago was that," Grissom asked, concern evident on both CSI's faces.

"About a half hour."

"And Adam went too?" Gil's voice was harsh and Sarah smiled slightly. Protective dad mode had been engaged.

"No. He waited for her. But his shift ended about twenty minutes ago so he left. She was supposed to take over. Left me out here by myself. Going to be a fun one to explain to my boss if something happens out here, but that's why we have cameras."

"Cameras?" Gil and Sara chorused. The lifeguard waved a hand toward the building, and the CSI's could see small cameras nestled in several corners of the facade.

"Too bad we can't ask to see those," Sara muttered, walking around the pool.

"If something goes the slightest bit wrong, I am making a case out of this and asking for a warrant," Gil huffed, following her.

"Okay, thank you." Sarah waved at the lifeguard, and turned to Grissom. "So, do you think we should get the police involved? A minor, out here on her own. Anything could happen."

"That anything is exactly what I am trying to prevent," Gil replied, his voice strained. "But if we can't find her, I am going to talk to Brass. We need to get boots on the ground and find her."

"Are you going to report her missing?"

"Gil considered for a moment, then nodded. "If it comes to that. I will find out where she is staying from the manager. Let's look back here where she was supposed to have been. It isn't like her to not come back to her new job. She said swimming was her roller coasters."

Sara nodded in understanding. "Ah, another one like you."

Gil frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You both have unusual outlets. Actually, I take that back. Hers is normal for a 16 year old kid. Yours is unusual."

The taller man grabbed her arm and swung her to face him, his grip firm but gentle. "Unusual?"

"Look, Gil, let's just find the kid, okay? I can't handle any more heartfelt stares right now, you have me already..." Her voice trailed off and she pulled away, walking around the last side of the pool to get to the gate, shaking her head.

"Hot and bothered?" He called after her, pursing his lips in mirth at her frustration.

"Hot, yes, it's 97 out here right now. Bothered, oh yes. You keep getting distracted. Hey Gil, is that blood?"

Sara stopped, pointing to a crimson trickle on the stone just barely visibly through the gate. Gil studied where she was pointing then grunted, "Damn."

They both ran toward the gate, pausing to carefully open it without leaving fingerprints, and ran into what appeared to be an alleyway between the buildings. Only a dented dumpster and trash occupied the narrow space. The blood trickle traveled for a few feet then smeared on the ground, as if whomever had been bleeding had fallen in the trickled blood. "Holly!" Gil called out, his worried eyes darting over the surface of the ground for any sign of her. "Holly, it's Grissom. If you are here, I just want to talk to you. I brought my wife Sara for you to meet. Thought we could ride some roller coasters later, get some lunch. Holly?"

Instinct kicked in, and while Sara called for the CSI team, Gil took a few cautious steps, careful to circle the scene. There was nothing he hated more than people traipsing through a crime scene carelessly.

Something in the shadow of the dumpster caught his eye and he knelt, trying to get a better look.

It was a cell phone, and the caller ID was lit up, showing she had tried to call someone. And as he studied the number, barely hearing Sara come up behind him, it finally clicked.

She had tried to call him.