Sara and Grissom walked the perimeter of the home of Brewski, looking for signs of disturbance which is exactly what Sara came across when she called Grissom over to her.
"Gil. Look." She spoke as she knelt down at the freshly disturbed soil, a rectangle spanning a few feet in either direction.
"Argiope Trifasciata." He spoke as he knelt down and shined his flashlight on an intricate spider web near the disturbed soil. "It takes about three weeks for an abandoned Garden Spider's egg sack to get this big."
"Then the ground here wasn't dug up to plant this bush. What kind of person kills a dog and plant's it in the owner's driveway." She moved to kneel next to him. The answer was in the question, and she was pleased when he took the bait with his next words.
"The kind that doesn't want to draw attention, maybe?"
"Hmmm. You don't have to say I was right." A smug, all-knowing smile adorned her lips as she shot him a look.
"You always are, dear." He spoke without looking her way.
"Mmhmm. We're going to need a shovel."
"And…" He spoke as he refocused on the spider before them, "Maybe we should bring our friend here back to the lab as well. Someone disturbing the area by its nest could have caused it to take a bite. Maybe there's a piece of our suspect within her."
She shot him a look.
"What?" He asked innocently.
"The likelihood of that is minimal. Just be honest, you want to bring it back to show Aurora."
He flashed a boyish grin her way, "Both things can be true."
A little while later Grissom and Sara transported the deceased canine and the soil they collected from the grave back to the morgue to perform a necropsy. Upon entering, they found Max and Hugo beginning an autopsy of their own.
"What is that!?" Grissom asked with glee as he watched Max turn on a light spectrometer.
"I can ask the same thing." She watched as he and Sara rolled the dog in on a gurney.
"This? This is a dead dog."
"German Shepard named Brewski. He needs to be necropsied for the David Hodges case."
"Possibly." Grissom interjected. "For now it's an unrelated matter."
"Well Brewski has to get in line because we have a dead person in front of him and we're about to do some alternate light photography."
"Did you build this yourself?" Grissom's geek was showing.
"I did. Actually with Hugo's help."
"Oh right! You're Doc Robbin's protégé, I hear you paint! So with that, you must be able to detect deeper sub-dermal bruising. That's inspired."
Sara bit back a smile watching her husband so easily fall back in line to the boyish wonder he had for this job when she'd first met him.
"It's a step up from that old black light." Max cut in and turned the lights off.
"She was murdered the night before her wedding." Max spoke for Grissom and Sara's edification. "There's an S&M component but we're unsure if its relevant to the murder or just a part of their lifestyle." She pulled the file and scanned it, "Nate Kestler was the groom. He's up next." She nodded toward the body behind them.
"I'm sorry, did you say Kessler?" Sara shot a look Grissom's way.
"Kestler, with a T. You know them?"
"No." Grissom shook his head. The couple exchanged a knowing look, one that was swollen with a lengthy conversation, all without saying a word. A moment that was not unnoticed by the pair standing on the other side of the body.
"Anyway…" Max continued, "Take a look at this shoe print on her arm…"
Grissom and Sara stood side by side in a layout room sifting through the remains of Brewski when Grissom lifted the dog's collar. Name tag dangling.
"I miss Hank." He spoke out of the blue, "Best dog I ever had."
"Yeah. Me too." She responded fondly, thinking now about the dog they shared for that brief period of time. "You keep in touch with Peter at all?"
He shook his head, "No. He returned from the army just after you uh.. you know.."
"After I left… Vegas…" She paused with the hesitation of truth, "and you." She smiled very sadly, lifting her head just slightly to turn her gaze his way.
"And then when he told me Hank passed away, that's the last time I spoke with Peter."
There was a silence between them now. Arisen from slight awkwardness of having acknowledged aloud a particularly painful vertex of their relationship.
"Do you remember when I was home for those few weeks recovering" She didn't need to specify, he knew immediately she was talking about her time after being kidnaped, "You had to drag him from my side to get him to go for a walk."
He nodded fondly, "And when I did finally get him outside, he would do his business and bolt right back in."
"I wonder if the kids are ever going to nag us for a dog." She spoke while printing Brewski's tags, lifting a partial.
"I'd prefer they nag us for a tarantula. Didn't they find Stevie after I left?"
She laughed now, erasing any hint of lingering sadness in the air, "Yes. When I came back originally, while you were in Paris teaching. Nick found him in a vent down the hall from your old office. He must have survived yeas in there."
"Resilient guy." He smiled thinking of the other best pet he ever had.
"You know," She began, a smile already being pushed away through pursed lips as she thought about the statement ahead, "When I first heard of Hank's name, I thought it was very peculiar. Before, of course, I realized he wasn't named by you."
"You didn't really think I thought about that EMT enough to do something like that…"
"Just for a moment." She walked a little closer to him, leaning into his space a bit as she observed a thread he had just picked up with tweezers, "Could be from the suspect. I doubt Brewski was a sweater-wearing type of dog."
He nodded in agreement, bagging the small thread in an equally small manilla envelope.
"There's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever who just entered the shelter in Santa Monica."
He looked up with a curious squint in his eye before his boyish grin washed over his face, "You weren't wondering when the kids would start nagging for a dog." He accused with amusement, "You were fishing to see if you could."
She shrugged, "Breed has a strong affinity for water, great swimmers, adaptable, typically kid friendly."
"You want to reach out to your contact to see if he's still there?"
"They're holding him for us until we're able to get back." She smiled, walking back to her side of the layout table to sift through more evidence.
"And if I had said no?"
"Are you?"
"No." He returned his attention to the envelope, writing on it's label and cataloging the evidence. "What's his name?"
"Oh, that's the best part."
He raised his left eyebrow high, waiting for her to enlighten him.
"Sherlock."
"Darling," He smiled in a way that lit up his whole face, "You buried the lead."
Sara stocked the field kit that she'd been given on loan from the lab. Placing swabs, tweezers, vials and tubes, evidence bags both paper and plastic. Grissom handed her two jars of print powder and watched as she placed it into the kit. Then, Grissom picked up the bag of latex gloves and placed them in the kit.
"I just like the gloves where I like the gloves." She spoke as she grabbed the bag of gloves and moved them from the right side of the kit to the left.
"I thought we were sharing."
"We are. But I'm the one with the credentials so technically, it's my equipment."
He smiled in recognition of her territorial side and rather than place the next item in the kit, he handed it to her.
"You still think I'm being too hard on Hodges."
"I do." She shook her head, "He was on our team for so long, Gil. You know him. You know he wouldn't do this."
"I only know two things…"
"Yes, I know, me and doubt. Well I'm still mad at you and doubt."
"No you're not. You know how I know?" She looked up at him in confusion, "You put the gloves back where I like them." His brows danced up in amusement.
She glanced back at the kit to see she'd done exactly that. In playful spite she snatched them up again and moved them back to her preferred location.
"My mother is coming by with the kids soon. She has a seminar to attend at Gilbert College. But I secured another babysitter for the interim."
"Oh yeah? Who's that?" She spoke as she closed the metal kit.
"Am I interrupting anything here?"
Sara's head snapped up at the sound of the thick southern drawl, "Nick!?"
She rushed to him and hugged him tightly.
"Hey." He spoke while hugging her and rocking her back and forth in his arms. He gave Grissom a smile and a head nod.
"My god, Nick." She spoke when she finally let him go, "What are you doing here?"
"There are several cases up for appeal right now that need the original investigators to testify. Max didn't mention it yet? You have one too."
"Which one is that?"
"2012, flight crash just off the strip."
"Oh." She spoke a bit monotone. She remembered that case alright. For several reasons. After wrapping it, she was surprised to see Grissom standing in the lot outside the building. It would end up being their last time together before getting divorced. And, that case brought around an old friend—
"Looks like a fun little love fest in here."
"Doug." She smiled with bafflement, "Hi." He moved in and hugged her, but upon seeing the look that washed over Grissom's face, he kept it brief.
"Dr. Grissom." He stuck out his hand.
"Doug. Good to see you again."
"You know, I thought I heard you two split up…" He began hesitantly but quickly observed the wedding bands on each of their hands. His eyes took Sara in. Scanning her. Amazed that decade after decade she still looked amazing. He was surprised at how the rush of feelings came back each time he saw her.
"Dad! Look!" Aurora had come barreling in, pushing past all the tall legs of grownups until she reached her father. "Look!" She said again as she held up her hand.
Grissom knelt down to get eye level with her to observe what she was showing him within her grasp, "It's a jumping spider! See!"
Grissom grabbed a magnifying glass from the kit and held it up to the critter crawling over the back of her hand. "Indeed. A Salticidae."
"Salticidae." She repeated slowly.
"Dad has a spider for you too." Sara interjected, reminding Grissom of the garden spider he'd collected from the scene for this very reason.
"Oh that's right! Come I'll show you!" Grissom held out his hand for his daughter to take and the two walked out of the room in search of the next spider.
"That's uh? She's uh? You guys have a kid?"
"Two." Nick answered for her. "Max's office is just around the corner if you want to check in with her."
Sara smiled and nodded, encouraging Doug to do just that. Once he left the room Nick turned his attention back to Sara.
"How do we feel about the bug affinity?"
She shrugged through an amused smile, "My only rule is not in the house."
"And how often is that rule broken?"
"Daily." She confessed through a sigh. She watched as Betty, holding Warrick, walked down the hallway toward Grissom.
Nick and Sara walked down the hall to join Grissom in a layout room with his mother and the kids. Aurora and Warrick sat atop the lit table, feet dangling, as Grissom revealed the garden spider to them. Oohs and Ahhs emanating from their tiny mouths as he began to tell them all about garden spiders.
"Betty, hi." Sara signed as she approached her mother-in-law, taking her hand warmly in hers to greet her. "Thank you again for your help this week. The case is anything but straight forward."
"Glad I happen to be in town." She smiled and nodded before waving at Nick. "You two are almost done?"
"It's not looking that way." She shook her head, "No."
"Do you think this is the best way to bring up your children? Bouncing around from sea to sea, some time here and some time there. When's the last time they slept in their own beds?"
"They're doing great." Sara tried. But she knew it was a futile attempt. It didn't matter what Sara was doing, in her relationship with Betty's son or in her parenting to Betty's grandchildren. There was no winning. And after all these years, Sara had finally learned better than to engage with the fleeting remarks.
Betty looked at her watch, "I need to get going. I'll see you tonight."
"See you tonight." She smiled softly.
"Bye, mom. Thanks." Grissom signed quickly before returning his attention back to the children and the spider lecture he was in the middle of giving them.
"Grissom mentioned you need to go debrief Max on something for the Hodges case, so I can take over here." Nick spoke to Sara, both had their eyes on Grissom as he animatedly described the life of a garden spider.
"It's wild seeing him like this." Nick added as the pair stood shoulder to shoulder, "Even with Aurora already being six, I'm still not used to this side of him."
Sara breathed out a warm smile, "I know what you mean. Especially these last few days, being back in the lab together. Working side-by-side. It really brought me back. And then suddenly, these two pop in and I'm reminded of the life we have now."
Nick put an arm around her shoulders, "I'm really glad this worked out the way it did, Sara. I'm happy you two figured it out."
"Took us long enough, hu?" He gave her shoulders a slight squeeze, then walked a few feet forward.
"Alright rascals. Who wants to go tour the DNA lab?"
Aurora's hand shot up high causing Warrick to do the same. He was always trying to keep up with his big sister in every way.
He shot a look toward Sara and Grissom before they were able to leave the room, "She's you Sara."
"Except her eyes, those are Gil's." Sara smiled sweetly, taking in her daughter's appearance. Long brown hair, blue eyes and growing like a weed.
Nick laughed, "No." He spoke shaking his head, "She's vying for Grissom's attention with intelligence. That's all you."
The light of registration flickered on Grissom's features as he watched his wife purse back a smile, begrudgingly acknowledging the truth to Nick's words.
As they walked down the hall to Max's office, Grissom's fingers found their way to his wife's hand, touching her gently before taking her hand in his and giving it a light squeeze. She looked at him.
"I'm very happy." He said softly, taking her gaze in and watching a small smile tug at the corners of her lips.
"I love you too." She squeezed his hand back as they turned the corner into Max's office.