A/N: Thanks for joining along for this journey! Can you believe we are in the CSI:Vegas years now? Here's where we'll deviate a quite a bit from the original story that was written to better align with the updated screen time these characters had.

Thanks for all the reviews thus far. Enjoy!


Later that evening Sara and Grissom made their way to the Eclipse. Catherine secured a suite for Brass there, and for Grissom and Sara now too.

"Mama!" Warrick squealed as he ran to her, pushing past Aurora and Betty and nuzzling his face into Sara's legs.

"Hey bug!" She lifted Warrick up and gave him a big squeeze of a hug. Aurora arrived at her mother's side as well now, looking up at her.

"Hi, Mommy."

"Hey honeybee." She put Warrick down and knelt to be eye level with her children. "You two have fun with grandma?" She asked and signed as she gave Betty a small wave. The kids nodded. Sara watched as Grissom joined his mother on the couch, the pair signing quickly with ease. Something Sara still found a little difficult after all these years.

"Well…" She looked between her children, "We have one hour before bedtime. What do we want to do?"

Aurora walked to her backpack, sitting on the floor by the couch and rummaged through it until she returned with a book in hand.

"What's this?" Sara asked as she took the book from her daughter.

"We went to a bookstore with Grandma! Look what we got!"

Sara looked over the book and smiled. Buggy Buddies.

"You want to read this?" Warrick and Aurora nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, why don't we take a bath and get ready for bed, then we can snuggle and read."

A short while later Sara laid in bed with her two freshly bathed children who were wearing matching pjs, clad in a firefly pattern. A child on either side rested their head on her as she opened the book.

"Buggy Buddies." She began. "In the tall, tall grass, where the flowers bloom and bloom, live a world of bugs with plenty of room. Creepy bugs and crawly bugs. Bugs that fly and and bugs and slide. Bugs that are buzzy and bugs that are fuzzy…"

By the time she reached the last page, she could hear the small even breathing of the children who had fully drifted off to sleep. Carefully, she removed herself from the bed so as not to wake them, turned off the light and exited the room, closing the door behind her. The suite Catherine had secured had two bedrooms, a large living area, and a bar cove that flowed as a room of its own.

She poured two neat glasses of single malt scotch whiskey and joined him in the living area where he was reviewing the files the team had uncovered in the storage unit that supposedly belonged to Hodges.

"Thought you could use something to take the edge off there. How's it looking?" She placed the scotch glass next to his computer and sat down across from him.

"The lab reports and sign offs all look authentic. Hodges worked every one of the cases you found in the storage unit."

"Everything in there looked so staged." She stated as she placed the children's book on the table. "You see what your mother bought them?"

Grissom picked up the book and flipped through it, a smile creeping onto his face. "Apparently she was trying to convince them to get a book about fairies."

"Oh Aurora would never have that." Sara laughed.

"Exactly how they ended up with this. But these Apis are not drawn to scale and seem to have fewer legs than they should." He noted as he examined the illustrations. Then, placed the book back down.

"You should let the publisher know." She laughed at him and swiveled the computer so she could get a look at the evidence he was reviewing. "Brass said he'll stop by, his room is just down the hall."

Grissom nodded and took a small sip of the scotch.

"You know we're never going to figure out what happened with guest privileges and digitized files. We need access to hard evidence, original copies. Hodges did not fake evidence, Gil. Someone just made it look like he did."

Grissom sat back, bringing his hands together as he looked at his wife. "Well, science will tell us if how things look is how they actually are." He said in a feeble attempt to quell her emotional reaction, as just as it may be.

"Problem is, that storage unit is filled with a mountain of bad evidence."

"In the end, darling, the truth emerges."

"12 cases found in the storage unit. One of which gives insight to why Brass may have been targeted."

"Brass is just the beginning. That's what the note said?"

She nodded.

"Have you looked at the twelve cases?" He spoke hesitantly, worry laced in his voice.

"Yeah, There was the Chase case, with the bridesmaids and the mob hit; Tom Havaford the murderous movie star."

"Both are cases where evidence handling and chain of custody came under scrutiny."

"True." She confirmed, "What?" She asked for a moment as she watched him lost in thought. "What are you thinking?"

He laughed a little through a long pause and shrug before answering, "I am remembering when Gerard exposed me to the fact that you were dating that EMT."

She smiled as she looked down with slight bashfulness.

"Hank. Yeah. That was… awkward."

He smiled, "yeah…"

She looked at the computer and rattled off the remaining 10 cases that were found in the storage locker, finally ending on, "Natalie Davis."

"Not just any Natalie Davis case, Sara." He looked at her sternly, knowing she was attempting to wash over that fact.

"Whoever is behind this would have no idea you or I would come back to town. The fact that it happens to be my kidnapping, doesn't feel relevant."

"Unless they did expect you to come back. To help Brass, or to attend his funeral." He reached over and clicked open one of the twelve files. "If this is staged, and Hodges is being framed, I'm curious as to why these 12 specific cases were left. Including your kidnapping."

"You think it's a message?"

"Why would Hodges be actively reviewing these cases? They were found on the work bench, not away in a file or a bin. They're mostly old cases from when I was his supervisor. Only a few of them are within the last five years."

"So Natalie Davis, you think that's a message for…us?"

"I don't know." He breathed out, "But it does concern me."

She stood upon hearing a soft knock on the hotel room door.

"Hey Jim." She stepped aside and let him walk in.

"Brass." Grissom stood and shook his old friend's hand, placing his left hand on his shoulder as he did so. "It's good to see you."

"Wish I could say the same." He joked as they walked to the couch and sat down.

"Where are the kids?"

"Asleep." Grissom answered, nodding his head toward the closed door. "How are you?"

"Oh, you know. Never better. Thanks for coming in, Grissom. You see Hodges yet?"

"He's maintaining his innocence."

"You believe him?"

"Oh, you know my stance on human testimony. I side with the robots. If he's telling the truth, the science will prove it."

"Yeah. Your wife has other thoughts."

"I heard that." She called over to them. "Hodges did not do this." She reiterated when she joined to them.

"You should have detail on the kids while they're not with with you."

Sara shot a furrowed expression between Brass and Grissom, "What are you talking about."

"If someone is after you." Brass offered.

She squared her eyes on Grissom who put up his hands in innocence. "I didn't say a word."

"Of all the Natalie Davis cases. There were five murder cases that could have been in that unit. But it was your kidnapping in that pile. Best to be safe, Sara." He urged. "I already called Max."

"Brass…" She shook her head.

"I think he has a point, Sara." Grissom spoke up through a shrugged shoulder.

She through up her hands in resignation, indicating she knew she lost the battle. Then decided to move the topic along, "Did you know he got married?" She asked brass.

He shook his head, "I really don't keep up much with the old gang. Mostly just you, Sara. Catherine from time to time. She's a grandmother now."

"So you don't know about Greg then?"

"What about him?"

"That Morgan is pregnant with their second."

"That boy is a father?" Brass laughed.

"And Hodges is about to be. We need to figure this out for him."

"And we will." Grissom interjected, "We will follow the ev—"

"Evidence yes, I know." She said with some resentment, "Gil, what if you knew you may miss Aurora's birth."

"We will follow the evidence. That's all we can do right now." He doubled down.

"Alright team." Brass stood, "I'm going to get some rest. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Alright, Jim. Goodnight." Grissom spoke as he walked him to the door, closing it behind him.

"I'm having a hard time figuring out where you stand on this." She looked at him a bit sternly as he walked back toward her. She was already beginning to get washed up.

"You think I'm being too hard on Hodges."

"I couldn't really tell who's side you were on."

"I don't take sides. And I only have two teammates, dear. You and doubt."

"Well, I'm mad at you and doubt right now." She spoke after she was done brushing her teeth. She slid into bed with a case file that she brought back from the lab.

"I'm just happy that the team handling this is day shift. I'm not sure I'm built for grave anymore." He got into bed beside her.

"It is nice to be back isn't it?"

He simply shrugged.

"If for nothing else but for this." She pulled a paper out of the folder and held it out for him to take.

He shook his head looking at it.

"C'mon. Look at that face." She smiled, looking back at the paper in her hand. It was a print out of his original ID card that they had come across in the lab earlier.

He shot her a look.

"I fell in love with that face." Her voice lowered a tad.

His left eyebrow raised high as he locked onto her eyes.

"Mrs. Grissom. Are you hitting on me?"

"What is the evidence telling you?" She slid her foot over his leg.


The next morning Grissom and Sara went to Hodges' home to look for signs of breaking and entering. And after their lengthy look around they reconvened with Hodge's and his wife in their kitchen.

"It means we don't have a satisfactory answer for how your stuff got in that storage unit."

"I guess you don't believe me then." Hodges spoke with his own disbelief lacing his tone. The hurt evident.

"Hodges. Belief needs to be disrooted from science. You know that. When you're lost at sea you can only navigate by fixed points. What you know is true north. Not what you'd like to believe." He spoke sternly. His eyes darted around before he decided he needed some air. "Excuse me." He walked off and out the front door.

Hodges turned back toward Sara, "I know what I believe… His compass is way off." He shook his head, the emotion bubbling up. "I once revered that man."

"You know how he gets. He won't bend the process for anyone." She tried, but she was fuming too. She exited and rushed out of the house after him, finding him just across the street.

"Gil!" She called out as she walked briskly out of the house and down the walkway to the street. "Gil. If you don't want to trust Hodges, that's fine. But can you trust me on this." Her voice was stern and pointed, "I was in that storage unit. You were not. How many times do I have to say that Hodges was framed."

"Sara." He spoke to cut her off, his attention still squarely ahead of him, not turning around as she spoke or approached him.

"You and I both know what if feels like when as scene is staged." She lowered her voice a touch once she was standing side-by-side with him.

"Sara." He whispered to underline his request that she listen to him, "Look."

Sara caught sight of what he had been fixated on.

"A beloved guard dog that lives next door to Hodges goes missing the same week…"

"Brewski." She spoke, taking in the flyer. She regeared her mind away from the irritation she'd felt toward him just moments earlier. The pair started to walk around the perimeter of the house, taking observing for any signs of disturbance.