Appearances

by Amy Jo

Disclaimer: "The Division", "CSI: Crime Scene Investigators," "Birds of Prey," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," the characters, and situations depicted are respectively the property of Lifetime Television, Kedzie Productions, Viacom Productions, and Paramount [The Division]; Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Alliance Atlantis, and CBS Productions [CSI: Crime Scene Investigators]; Tollin/Robbins, DC Comics, and Time/Warner via the WB [Birds of Prey]; and Wolf Films, Universal Network Television, and NBC [Law & Order: SVU]. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. This site is in no way affiliated with "The Division", "CSI: Crime Scene Investigators," "Birds of Prey," "Law & Order: SVU," Lifetime Television, CBS, the WB, NBC, or any representatives of the actors.

[Please do not fold, spindle, or mutilate. Thank you. Shatterpath]

Author's Disclaimer: CBS, Jerry Bruckheimer, and a lot of folks that aren't me own the rights to the show and characters. I just put them in my own universe. I don't make any money from this, so don't sue.

Sequel to: Bad Thoughts.

Title: Appearances
Author: Amy Jo
Pairing: C/S
Rating: Why don't we go with NC-17 and R. Adult themes, language and sexual situations.
Feedback: Gratefully accepted at js1n2001@yahoo.com
Distribution/Archive: Just ask.
Summary: A series of odd murders gets the attention of CSI workers. Catherine and Sara work through the beginning of their relationship. Takes place after Bad Thoughts, so you might want to consider reading that story as well. *shameless plug*

At the end of yet another long shift at CSI Sara patiently waits outside the building for Catherine. They had just wrapped up a particularly odd case. All is not as it appears. Or at least, it wasn’t on their case. Happy family, requisite three children; the picture of Americana. Except that the family was beyond messed up. Both parents led alternative lifestyles and it cost the mother her life. All because her son couldn’t handle it.

Sara feels a rush of adrenaline when she works a case. The rush intensifies when she gets on the right track and solves the case. That rush has led to many sleepless nights, and many nights in the company of lovers she otherwise would never have taken. The adrenaline isn’t really an aphrodisiac; it’s just that Sara knows that sometimes the buildup of sexual frustration and the adrenaline can be eased with a night, most often in her case a morning, of good sex.

Once upon a time Sara would be the first one in and the last one out. She had once used her work to distract her from her lack of a personal life. The few feeble attempts she made at lasting relationships never seemed to work out. Her lovers had all told her she got too involved in her work and that at the end of the day, Sara knew they were right. At first, it was an attempt to prove herself to her new unit. Then it turned in to a way to avoid things she didn’t want to deal with. Mainly her growing attraction to a coworker.

She knows that it’s against all the rules to have an office romance. Romance. Like she wanted flowers and candy. No , she wanted endless nights of hot sex. A release. A diversion. Then things changed. And she started to want the flowers and candy too. She felt more like the courtier, though. She wanted to sweep Catherine off of her feet and treat her like the goddess Sara believed she was.

Everyone thought Sara had a thing for Grissom. And truth be told, she did. As in past tense. They had known each other for years and were friends before she moved to Vegas. Well, as much as one can be friends with Grissom. But when he called her to Vegas, things changed. Working with him she realized that her crush was just that. She made a few attempts to see if it could be more, but Grissom never went for it. Always the professional, never really the friend.

Sara also knew that a few of the guys had small crushes on her. Greg would become flustered every time she was near and he was practically drooling on a few occasions. Sara teased him, but made it clear that they would not end up as a couple. He took it pretty well and now they are friends. David, the assistant coroner, seemed to harbor a crush for Sara as well. Sara doesn’t know what happened with that, but everything seems to be pretty normal and he seems to have gotten over it.

The one thing she never figured out was Catherine. How could she be so aware about Greg and David and never notice Catherine? She’s a trained investigator and she didn’t figure it out. Not until just yesterday. Not until Catherine kissed her. It was brief and fleeting, but it opened Sara’s eyes.

And now she waits outside the CSI offices for Catherine to join her for breakfast. The case is wrapped up and Sara is buzzed. There is a small bite mark on her shoulder that feels a little sore, but every time Sara thinks about how it got there, she can’t help but smile and then the pain seems to go away. She wonders if Catherine’s knows that she left this little mark on Sara. I’ll just have to tease her about that later, Sara thinks to herself.

Sara watches as Catherine exists the CSI building. Grissom is just a step behind her, and they seem to be chatting about something or another. Sara watches the pair intently and notices as Grissom apparently says something funny and Catherine lightly touches his arm as she laughs at his joke. Sara remains focused on Catherine and barely realizes that the pair is now less than ten feet from her. Grissom seems to be saying something to her.

“Huh?” Sara looks at him confused. She had been so lost in Catherine that she barely noticed his presence.

“Sara, are you all right?” Grissom asks with genuine concern in his voice. “You’ve been distracted lately and right now you looked kind of spacey. Is everything okay?”

“Oh. Yeah. I was just thinking of some things I needed to do after breakfast this morning.” Sara replied locking eyes with Catherine, who blushed a little.

Grissom is an expert investigator, but his people skills are lacking and he doesn’t notice the interaction between the two women. “Well, as long as everything is all right. I’ll see you ladies tonight then. Have a good time at breakfast.”

Sara snapped her head in Grissom’s direction when he said that. Catherine wouldn’t have told him, would she? I mean I know it will come up eventually, but I was hoping not so soon. Sara realizes that Catherine didn’t say anything when she looks at her. Catherine’s eyes tell a different story. Sara remembers to ask about that later.

Grissom walks away and when he is almost to his car, Catherine asks Sara for a ride.

“What about your car? I mean are you sure you want to leave it here? And have everyone know we left together?” Sara looks a little flustered at Catherine’s question. This was still the beginning of their relationship and neither wanted to expose it to their coworkers just yet. They both wanted some time together before they figured out how to tell everyone how their relationship had changed. A small way to keep eyes off of them had been to take separate cars to and from work.

“Well, since I already told Grissom that we would be having breakfast together, I’m pretty sure it will be okay. It was either tell him I had plans or listen to another lecture on his bugs.” Catherine just smiles at Sara as she explains.

Sara simply nods and opens the door to her car for Catherine. As they drive off toward Sara’s place, Sara notices Catherine’s hand creeping up her thigh. Dangerously close to just where she wants it to be. Her heart beats faster and her temperature rises. Catherine, however, looks as calm and collected as always. They chat about work and how their case went when Sara pulls into a parking lot at a small café.

“Where are we?” Catherine asks. She pouts a little and sticks out her lower lip. “I thought we were going to your place for breakfast.”

Sara doesn’t respond. Instead she covers Catherine’s wandering hand with her own and leans over and kisses Catherine deep. When she pulls away she is breathless with want. Catherine is resistant to stopping the kiss and attempts to pull Sara back in. “Later.” Sara says, the lust evident in her husky voice. “First I think we should grab breakfast.” With that Sara removes Catherine’s hand from her leg and cuts the engine to her car.

Disappointment is written all over Catherine’s face as they walk into the diner. Sara slides into a booth and Catherine sits opposite her. An aging waitress walks over to the table and glances at Catherine first. When she looks at Sara, a grin spreads across her face.

“Sara, honey. It’s so good to see you.” She turns her head and yells to the kitchen, “Ed, Sara’s here. Get started on her breakfast would you?” She returns her attention to Sara and simply asks “Usual right?”

Sara just smiles and nods her head.

The waitress turns to Catherine and says “So what’ll be this morning, hon?” Catherine can’t help but notice the cliché in it all. Old time café with old time waitresses and kitchen you can see behind the bar where the cash register is. She sees an old man in kitchen preparing what she assumes is Sara’s breakfast. She also notices that there are no menus on the table.

“Got a menu?” Catherine asks.

“Nah. But we got whatever you want so you just think about it a minute. Can I get you a drink maybe?” Catherine asks for water and the waitress walks away.

“Okay. So what’s up with this pace? You have a usual?” Catherine questions Sara.

“Yeah. We’re only about two blocks from my place and I come here a lot for breakfast. Sherrie there insists I eat a healthy breakfast every time I come in and she never lets me order anything else. It’s easier to go with the flow. By the way, she’s right they have about anything you could ask for. Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits. Ah, here she comes again.”

Sherrie returns to the table with Catherine’s water and a glass of milk for Sara. “Have you decided yet?”

“Um, well….” Catherine clearly doesn’t have an answer.

“Sherrie, she’s had a long night and it’s not over yet. So something energizing please. How about the biscuits and gravy?”

“Coming right up.”

“Energizing, huh? And just what do I need an energizing breakfast for?” Catherine asked with a smile on her face.

“Just some things I need to do after breakfast.” Sara tells her, reaching across the table to grab Catherine’s hand. “Some unfinished business from work.” Her fingers trace circles on the back of Catherine’s hand and the light touch is half ticklish half sensual. They sit like this until Sherrie comes back with their breakfast.

Catherine notices that Sara usual is blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit salad and more milk. They break their contact and start on their breakfast. Catherine’s plate is a generous serving of biscuits and gravy. Much more than she would be able to eat. Sherrie sees Catherine’s eyes widen a little when she looks at her food and explains, “Ed thought you could use some extra. He thinks you’re too skinny.” Sherrie just smiles and Catherine can see Ed, who is now reading the morning paper, smiling a nearly toothless grin at her.

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Plus, if I know Sara here, she has quite the morning planned for you if she says you need an energizing breakfast. I’ll bring a carton you can take some of it home in.” Sherrie walked off towards the kitchen.

“How much do these people know about you?” Catherine says as she blushes at Sherrie’s comment.

“Only that I never come in with men, and that I don’t eat meat. We’ll I don’t eat much meat. Sherrie there got me back on track by slipping some bacon or sausage on my plate. Tells me it’s good for me. And I don’t argue with her, it takes too much energy. Energy best spent on other things. Sherrie is pretty observant and has probably picked up on a couple of things on her own over the past few years.” Sara explained while drenching her pancakes with the house specialty apple syrup.

One thing is for sure, Sherrie and Ed knew how to make a great breakfast. When Sherrie first put a plate of blueberry pancakes and apple syrup in front of her, Sara nearly kissed her when she finished eating. It wasn’t a combination she would have put together, but it tasted great.

Catherine must be enjoying her breakfast too, Sara thought. She seems to be making small sounds of appreciation every now and then. It’s really pretty sexy. I think I need help. How can everything she does suddenly be a turn-on? Sara tries to stop the thoughts running through her head and finish her breakfast. She can’t help but notice that Sherrie is standing behind the counter watching the two of them with a big goofy grin on her face.

As they finish eating, Sherrie returns to their table with the promised carton for Catherine’s remaining food. She’s still grinning and Sara can’t resist telling her to just spit it out. She’s been here enough times to know that Sherrie has something on her mind.

“Sherrie, you want to tell me why you’re grinning like mad?”

“No, I don’t.”

“C’mon Sherrie. Don’t make me haul you in,” Sara said laughing. It was a joke they had going. Sherrie could be outspoken, but sometimes she just would not admit what was on her mind. Every time Sara really wanted to know, she just joked about having Sherrie arrested.

Sherrie laughed with her and caved in. “Okay dear. No reason to get rough. Save that for your friend here.” At this Catherine blushed a deep red. “I was just wondering if this was the one.”

“The one what?” Sara asked, though she was pretty sure she knew what Sherrie was getting to.

“You know what I mean. The one from work. The one you wish all those other girls had been. The one you’ve been madly in love with since you moved here.” Sherrie’s grin got bigger when she noticed both Sara and Catherine’s embarrassment.

“Oh. That’s what you mean. Well, when you put it that way, yes.” Sara slipped Sherrie a twenty for their breakfast and slid out of the booth. Catherine was still looking shocked and Sara couldn’t help but notice how cute she was like that. “Come on Cat, let’s get out of here before Sherrie reveals any more of my secrets.”

Sherrie walked away from the table laughing and Sara grabbed Catherine’s hand and headed out of the café. Sara was tempted to leave her car in the lot and walk home, as she had done many times before. On the other hand, if they took the car it might save her a minute or two, and she’d have Catherine in her arms that much faster. Car it is.

Part 2

The drive to Sara’s place was indeed short, and the whole time Catherine still looked embarrassed at what the waitress had said. Sara wasn’t too pleased with Sherrie for pulling that trick, but she’d deal with that later. Right now it was time to get Catherine up to her apartment.

Sara led the way upstairs and Catherine followed all the while watching Sara as she moved up the stairs. Maybe I did need that energizing breakfast, Catherine thought to herself. Sara unlocked the door and led Catherine inside the apartment. Catherine noticed elements of work here at Sara’s place. Forensic journals, gun magazines, a police scanner. The girl never quits working, she thought.

Sara set her keys on the table by the door and noticed Catherine giving her place a look over. It’s a damn good thing I cleaned up earlier. I knew she’d take a look around the first time she came here. “So, you want the ten cent tour?” Sara said with a smile.

“Sure.” Catherine returned the grin. “But I think I can pretty much see everything from here.”

“Ah not everything. See if you walk down this hallway here,” Sara lightly pulled Catherine along with her down the only hallway in her apartment, “you find the bedroom, the bathroom, and the laundry space.”

Sara opened the door to both the bathroom and the bedroom. “There’s not much to the place, I know, but its home.”

“Looks to me like it has all the essentials a person needs. Kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. All a girl really needs.” As Catherine said this she grabbed Sara’s hand and pulled her into the bedroom. Sara was surprised at the move and on reflex almost resisted. But as her brain processed the room she was headed towards, she gave up all thought of resistance.

Catherine pulled a willing Sara into her arms and kissed her. Her hands roamed up and down Sara’s back finally settling on her hips. With both hands, she pulled Sara closer to her. Sara, meanwhile, wrapped both of her hands in Catherine’s hair, gently massaging Catherine’s scalp while making sure Catherine wouldn’t be able to pull away from their kiss.

They stood like that for many minutes, enjoying the feel of each other through their kiss. Catherine moved her hand from cupping Sara’s ass to pulling her shirt out of her slacks. Soon both of Catherine’s hands were under Sara’s shirt and her touch was electric. Catherine gently rubbed the skin on Sara’s back sliding her hands closer and closer to the clasp of Sara’s bra, eliciting soft moans from Sara. Catherine’s hands reached their destination and after Sara’s bra was unhooked, Catherine stretched out her hands across Sara’s back and her thumbs just barely brushed against the side of Sara’s breasts. Sara groaned in response and broke their intense kiss.

“God, but you’re good at that.” Sara bent her head and placed tiny kisses along Catherine’s neck as she whispered. “I could kiss you all night.” Sara paused to gently suck on at the dip in Catherine’s neck where the skin and muscle meet the top of the sternum. Catherine let out a slight moan at the pressure on the sensitive skin and it only caused Sara to suck a little harder.

Sara slowly began unbuttoning Catherine’s blouse. She could remember having done this very same thing just a few hours ago. Now, however, she could take her time. And she had every intention of doing just that. With every button she undid, Sara moved her lips across Catherine’s body. From her neck she moved across Catherine’s shoulders and back to her neck. Up and down her neck, she flicked her tongue across Catherine’s ear and was delighted to hear Catherine immediately suck in her breath in a hiss of pleasure.

Catherine worked her hands around to Sara’s chest. Her fingers dug under the material of Sara’s now loose bra and lightly played with Sara’s hardened nipples. Sara moaned her approval into Catherine’s ear sending bolts of desire straight down Catherine’s spine. Sara opened Catherine’s blouse and gently lowered it off of Catherine’s shoulders. Catherine’s hands were still inside Sara’s shirt and Sara had to pull back and remove them. She instantly missed the touch. Sara slipped Catherine’s blouse the rest of the way down her arms and her bra followed.

Catherine reached out to Sara and Sara knew what she wanted and quickly removed her own top and bra. Standing here, topless in front of Catherine, Sara felt a surge of desire as she saw the pure lust in Catherine’s eyes as they looked her over. Knowing how bad Catherine wanted her fueled her fire. Sara bent down and kneeled on the floor in front of Catherine. She steadied Catherine’s arms on her shoulders and picked up Catherine’s feet one by one to remove her shoes. As far as Sara was concerned, every part of Catherine was gorgeous, and her feet were no exception. How can one person be so perfect?

Sara, still on her knees, inched closer to Catherine and reached up to remove her slacks. She unbuttoned Catherine’s slacks and unzipped them almost agonizingly slowly. Catherine’s hands were absently playing in Sara’s hair as Sara hooked her thumbs inside Catherine’s slacks and slid her hands around to Catherine’s ass. She pulled Catherine’s slacks slowly down her backside letting her hands touch every inch of the satin covered muscles. Catherine steadied herself as Sara once again lifted her legs one at a time to remove her slacks completely.

Catherine stood before Sara clad only in her sexy red satin bikini panties. The tip of her nose was mere centimeters away from Catherine’s heat. The scent of her arousal was slowly driving Sara wild. Without removing the panties, Sara brushed her lips across Catherine’s mound feeling the wetness. Catherine’s hands dug into Sara’s hair in an attempt to keep her balance. She was getting seriously weak in the knees.

Sara leaned forward and tongued Catherine’s bellybutton, hooking her thumbs in Catherine’s panties like she had done with her slacks. Focusing her attention on Catherine’s abdomen, Sara kissed and licked Catherine’s skin as she slowly pulled the satin panties just below Catherine’s ass. Sara’s hands fondled the round globes as her mouth placed kisses through the newly exposed curls.

Catherine’s hands were practically shoving Sara’s head closer to her wetness. Sara held on tight to Catherine’s body and let her tongue search out Catherine’s hardened clit. The red panties were only halfway down her thighs, and Sara left them there, to keep Catherine’s legs from being able to move too far apart. Sara flicked her tongue across Catherine’s clit and increased her hold on Catherine, pulling her close. Catherine was still standing, with only Sara as her support while Sara continued her assault on the tight bundle of nerves.

Sara’s lips sucked on the nub and Catherine screamed out in orgasm as Sara sucked Catherine’s clit into her mouth and her tongue flicked across it one more time. Sara held onto Catherine, whose legs were shaking and silently hoped Catherine hadn’t managed to scalp her with the force she pulling on Sara’s hair. Sara slipped Catherine’s panties all the way down her legs and helped Catherine step out of them.

She stood and moved the two of them to the bed, where she let Catherine lay down and catch her breath for a minute. “Jesus Sara, that was…Oh God.” Catherine’s words were interrupted when Sara slipped two fingers inside Catherine’s very wet sex. Sara gently rotated her fingers to find that secret and elusive spot while the rest of her crawled up the bed. With her fingers moving at a slow pace inside Catherine, Sara’s mouth attacked Catherine’s breasts licking and sucking on her hard nipples.

“Oh god, oh god, oh Sara,” Catherine screamed as she came a second time. Sara slowed the movement of her fingers even more, still enjoying the feel of Catherine as her orgasm pulsated through her.

Catherine pulled Sara into a tight embrace and kissed her leisurely. When they parted Sara lips were slightly swollen from their kiss. Catherine traced her fingers along the edge of Sara’s swollen lips and the brief touch sent goose bumps down Sara’s whole body. Catherine continued the light touch and let her fingers lightly trace down Sara’s neck. Sara was lightly humming her approval of the delicate touch.

“Sara?” Catherine whispered to her.

“Hmm?” Sara seemed distracted by Catherine’s light touch which was slowly moving towards her breast.

“Well. It’s just. Wow.” Catherine was having some trouble putting to word just how fantastic she felt. “Okay. That was absolutely amazing.”

“But…” Sara could tell that Catherine had more on her mind.

“But,” Catherine said as she leaned over and placed her lips on Sara’s neck, “You are still wearing clothes. And I guarantee this next part will be a lot more fun if you’re naked.” Catherine’s hand was roaming down Sara’s stomach toward her pants.

“Hmm. More fun?” Sara asked as she pulled away from Catherine and stood at the edge of the bed. Sara had decided to make a little show out of this for Catherine. She turned and left Catherine with only a view of her backside. She turned her head back to Catherine and asked, “Promise?”

Sara unbuttoned her pants and slid them just far enough down to expose the top of her underwear. Seductively she bent over just a bit revealing a black thong as she slid the pants down her legs. At first Catherine wasn’t sure what Sara was up to. But she practically growled in animal hunger as she watched Sara slip out of her pants. Catherine moved to edge of the bed and placed her hands on Sara’s thighs. She lightly rubbed her hands up and down Sara’s legs and whispered up to her, “Oh yeah. I promise.”

Sara nearly jumped out her skin when she felt Catherine’s lips on her ass. Catherine was lightly kissing every piece of skin that wasn’t covered. And Sara thought it might have been the most erotic thing she ever felt. Catherine’s fingers slipped into the edges of Sara’s underwear and gently pulled them off Sara. Catherine stood and wrapped her arms around Sara’s waist. She nuzzled the back of Sara’s neck and placed kisses along her shoulders. She stopped abruptly when she reached a nasty red mark and its surrounding bruise.

“Sara?” Catherine said concern rising in her voice. “What is this?”

Sara turned around in Catherine’s arms and looked directly into her eyes. She could tell that Catherine had no memory of how the mark got there. “Hmmm. Well, you remember at work today when you pulled me into your office?” Catherine merely nodded. “And things kind of got carried away and we ended up having sex against your desk?” Catherine’s face flushed at the memory. “Well, you kind of bit down on my shoulder when you came.” Sara’s face had a big grin on it. She remembered well and the lasting mark didn’t bother her one bit. It was kind of like a constant reminder of the passion she, and she alone, had inspired in Catherine.

“God Sara. I’m sorry.’ Catherine almost looked embarrassed at what she had done.

Sara leaned forward and, remembering an old trick, traced her tongue along Catherine’s ear. “It’s okay baby. It doesn’t hurt. Much.” She whispered in Catherine’s ear. Sara pulled back and leaned in to kiss Catherine, as she let her hands roam across Catherine’s back and down to her ass. She pulled away and grinned at Catherine. “Besides, I think you promised me more fun.”

Sara pushed their bodies together and Catherine offered no resistance and the two of them fell onto the bed. Catherine soon reversed their positions so that Sara was pinned to the bed beneath her. Catherine kissed Sara and felt Sara’s hands pulling her closer. Sara held Catherine close as her hands roamed freely across her back. Catherine continued to kiss Sara as her hand searched out Sara’s center.

Catherine slid her fingers up and down Sara’s outer folds. Sara wanted more contact and thrust her hips upward. Catherine giggled into their kiss and pulled her lips away from Sara. She continued lightly stroking Sara’s mound, but was not yet willing to give in to Sara’s need. Catherine reveled in the feel of Sara’s skin against her lips. She pressed her tongue against one of Sara’s hardened nipples and Sara’s back arched pushing more of her breast into Catherine as Sara groaned low in frustration. Catherine was teasing her and as much as she enjoyed it, she wanted release.

Catherine continued her teasing, only occasionally slipping a finger or two inside Sara. Each time, Sara would moan in delight and Catherine would remove her fingers again. “Catherine please? C’mon. I want you. Please.” Catherine knew that was it. Once Sara begged, Catherine wouldn’t be able to deny her. She slipped two fingers inside Sara and began moving them in earnest.

Sara came, screaming Catherine’s name when Catherine once again placed her lips on Sara’s aching nipple. Catherine gently removed her fingers and placed a light kiss on Sara’s lips before curling up next to Sara, waiting for her to return to her senses. She absently stroked the skin on Sara’s stomach.

Sara couldn’t decide if she liked the gentle touch, or if it tickled her too much to let Catherine continue. In the end, she decided that Catherine would need to stop. She grabbed Catherine’s hand and asked, “Why is it that when we have sex, it ends with you tickling my stomach?” Sara rolled on her side so that Catherine could see that she was teasing her.

“You know what? I’m not really sure. I think its two things really. One, I love touching you.”

Sara waited for the second reason, and when it wasn’t forthcoming, she prodded, “And?”

“And you’re dam sexy wearing nothing but a smile.” Catherine grinned wildly noticing Sara’s slight embarrassment.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, really. I mean look at you. All tone and definition. Tight muscles, slightly tanned skin. I never would have guessed you looked this fantastic underneath all those clothes. Better than in my dreams.” Catherine admits. “It’s no wonder all the guys at work have the hots for you.” Catherine kidded.

“And here I thought it was my sparkling personality.” Sara kidded right back. She enjoyed these slight moments of honest humor.

“Maybe. But I think most of them just lust after you. Like Greg. He can hardly contain the drool when you’re around.” Catherine mimicked Greg’s slack-jawed appreciation of Sara’s form.

“You know something? I like it a hell of a lot more when you look at me like that.” Sara said as she leaned in for a kiss. Minutes later when they separate Sara is breathing hard and she feels her body flush with heat.

She knows the two of them really need to get some sleep. Catherine needs to pick up Lindsey after school today and before she can do that Sara needs to take Catherine back to CSI to get her car. Sleep is definitely something the two of them should be thinking about. As Catherine pushes Sara onto her back and climbs on top of her, Sara knows that sleep is a long way off.

Part 3

Catherine woke up in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar blanket covering her very nude body. For a second she wondered just where it was that she had fallen asleep. She rolled over and found herself face-to-face with Sara Sidle. Suddenly clarity returned to Catherine and she remembered not only where she was, but how she ended up there. She couldn’t decide which she liked better. Being here in Sara’s bed, or the memory of the things she had done here.

Catherine glanced at the bedside clock and realized that it was time to go. She had less than a half-hour to get to Lindsey’s school. If she hurried she’d be able to make it. She tried to get out of the bed without waking up Sara, and was not successful. Catherine was barely one step away from the bed when Sara looked at her groggily and asked, “What time is it?”

“Time for me to pick up Lindsey. I’ve got to hurry, I have less than a half-hour to get dressed and get to her school.” Catherine leaned in kissed Sara lightly on the cheek before she stepped away to find her clothes.

“Hang on, I’ll take you,” Sara said as she rolled lazily out of bed. Catherine had started pulling on her clothes but stopped immediately when Sara got out of bed. Sara stood and stretched her taller frame, accentuating every inch of skin. Sara looked at Catherine and smiled.

“See something you like? You seem to be staring,” Sara kidded.

“God yes. I like everything I see. And I don’t mind staring. In fact, I think I’m allowed, being your girlfriend and all. But, for future reference, next time I only have a half-hour to be somewhere, you need to stay in bed.” Catherine resumed putting on the rest of her clothes, wishing she didn’t have to pick up Lindsey. Sara’s naked form was making it harder for her to agree to leave.

“Tempted to stay?” Sara prolonged her teasing. Knowing that they really did have to leave she grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt to put on.

“Hell yes. I’ve told you before, and I’ll say it again, you have a fantastic body. The more I see it the more I like it. And right now, that’s not good. I really do have to go.” Catherine had a mild look of desperate irritation on her face. She obviously wanted to stay.

“Well, if you need to go, then I suggest we leave soon, or we’ll be late.” Sara said, practically bouncing out of the room with energy. Within minutes the pair was downstairs and in Sara’s Jeep. Catherine didn’t even know Sara owned a Jeep. She had always seen Sara driving a car.

“How many cars do you own?” Catherine asked out of curiosity.

“Uh, three. This, a classic ‘Vette and the dumpy little coupe I drive to work.” Sara took off out of the parking lot at what amounted to amazing speed. Catherine was beginning to wonder if she should’ve just called a cab. It might have been safer.

“Why so many?” Catherine figured if she could keep a conversation gong, she might not focus on the fact that they were headed towards Lindsey’s school at freeway speed, when they should only be doing 45.

“Well, this one’s for fun. I mean with the desert and mountains and everything, this just seemed a natural purchase when I moved to Vegas. I have a ’57 black and white Corvette convertible with red leather interior. I always told myself when I had enough money, I’d buy one ‘cause it’s a seriously hot car. I’ve wanted one since I was old enough to know what a car was. I’m not sure why I still own the Monte Carlo, other than the fact that I’ve had it forever and it still works.”

“So what’s with the NASCAR speed here? You think we’re going to be that late?” Catherine grins nervously at Sara.

“Shit. Sorry,” Sara says as she slows down and Catherine’s sigh of relief is audible. “I don’t’ think we’ll be late, I just have this bad habit of driving fast. Sorry.”

Sara’s driving got them to Lindsey’s school with plenty of time to spare. Lindsey seemed really happy to see Sara again and the three of them talked about typical grade school gossip all the way back to Catherine’s.

“Hey, I’ll pick you up before shift, okay?” Sara asked as Catherine and Lindsey got out of the Jeep. Lindsey headed up toward the house, and Catherine walked over to Sara’s door.

“Yeah, thanks for breakfast,” Catherine said with a sly grin.

“Hey, don’t’ forget, you’ve got some leftovers at my place. So now you have to come back sometime.” Sara kidded with Catherine.

Catherine leaned in for a quick kiss and said, “Who can resist an invitation like that?”

Sara waited until the two were safely inside and then headed back home. She figured she might be able to catch an extra couple hours of sleep and then quick work out at the gym before she needed to pick up Catherine.

Sara and Catherine were only slightly early for shift that night. Grissom noticed they came in together, but hardly paid any attention, after all he did know that they had gone out together that morning. Sara, as usual went straight for the coffee, and Catherine headed off to her office to catch up on the paperwork waiting on her desk. Catherine had the following day off and was hoping to finish up the more menial tasks of her job so that she would not have to come in on her off time, or worse take some of it home, to finish up.

Sara was idly chatting with Warrick in the break room when Grissom came in with the assignments. Nick and Catherine got sent off to a burglary gone bad, Grissom had a stabbing, and Sara and Warrick got assigned a 419 at the Bellagio. Grissom knew that there was still tension between Sara and Warrick and he occasionally put them together on a case as a way to try to have the two of them work out their problems.

Sara finished her coffee and headed out the door with Warrick. Warrick drove the Tahoe to the casino, and Sara couldn’t help but notice that maybe he had some NASCAR tendencies as well. What should’ve taken them about fifteen minutes only took five. O’Riley was waiting for them when they got to room 213.

“Welcome to the Bellagio.” O’Riley said with a smile. “Just so you know, you’re probably not going to like what you see in there.”

To give O’Riley credit, he was right. Sara did not like what she saw when she entered the room. The room itself was a mess. Bedding and furniture strewn everywhere. Someone had even tossed around the stupid little complimentary toiletries. More disturbing was the dead body centered on the white sheets of the bed.

The victim was completely nude but the body position was what struck Sara. The victim was awkwardly trussed up, kind of like you would see a cow at a rodeo, except this was a more disturbing sight. The victims arms and legs were trussed behind her back. Her knees were bent and her arms pulled back to make the position almost physically impossible. Even more odd was the fact that the rope used to tie the victims arms and legs was also wrapped around her neck and tied like a noose. Sara instantly knew from the victim’s restraints that this woman suffered a lot before she died.

Warrick seemed upset by what he saw as well. Sara could only tell by the grimace on his face and the way she saw anger flash through his eyes. After initially looking over the scene, Warrick and Sara split up. Warrick went off with O’Riley to check on possible witnesses and hotel staff that may know anything and Sara was left to process the room.

Not long after Sara began collecting evidence, David from the coroner’s office showed up to remove the body. Sara made certain that she removed the rope tying up the victim. She wanted to preserve the knots in the rope. Sara thoroughly examined every inch of the hotel room and when she was finished, it was hours later. Someone had definitely wanted to make sure the room looked as if it had been ransacked.

Warrick returned to the room as Sara was finishing up. As eager as Sara was to find out if he had learned anything, she had some news of her own to share with him.

“Hey Warrick. You remember how this room looked when we got here right?” Sara had actually removed enough evidence to make the room look cleaner than when they had originally arrived.

“Yeah, it was a total mess. Why?” Warrick wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion.

“Because there isn’t a single fingerprint in here. Lots of fibers, a few epithelials, but not one print.”

“Odd,” is all that Warrick says. His eyes scan the room for anything that Sara may have missed. Sara knows he does this not to imply that she missed anything, but because he has not spent as much time at the scene and has fresh eyes. But she still can’t help but be irritated with the way he does this.

“Odd. You’re right about that. The place clearly looks ransacked and there aren’t any fingerprints anywhere. I know all it could mean was he wore gloves, but I’ve got a distinctly uneasy feeling about this. I mean, this is a hotel. There should be prints from the cleaning staff or something.”

Warrick, with his usual coolness toward Sara simply asks, “You got everything here? Ready to go?”

Sara ponders that someday she will have to talk with Warrick about why it seems they can’t get along, but she realizes that today is not the day. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

Back at the lab Sara hides in a lab room documenting all the evidence and making sure everything is appropriately marked and tagged. She knows Warrick is busily writing reports on whatever conversations he had at the casino, and she is grateful that he volunteered for that task. Sara hates the paperwork part of the job, and nothing generates more paperwork than interviews.

Part 4

Sara heads toward the DNA lab to give Greg the epithelials that she had found and swings into the break room for another cup of coffee. Catherine sits quietly reviewing paperwork at the table. Sara pauses at the doorway, feeling her heart rate increase at the mere sight of Catherine. Sara realizes with sudden clarity that she has somehow found herself standing right behind Catherine.

Catherine hadn’t noticed Sara entrance to the break room and nearly jumps out of her skin when she feels a pair of hands on her shoulders. She relaxes when she tilts her head up to see Sara smiling a toothy grin at her. Sara’s hands move of their own accord and began lightly massaging Catherine’s shoulders.

“You look stressed,” Sara comments, gently kneading Catherine’s shoulders, easing the stress away.

“Just finishing some paperwork. I want to get it finished before the end of shift today, so I don’t have to come in tomorrow,” Catherine explains. Under Sara’s strong hands, her muscles are loosening up and she is slowly turning into putty. Catherine gave a slight moan of appreciation, “Dear god, that feels good.”

Sara eased the pressure of her fingers and smiled at Catherine’s reaction. Sara heard Catherine’s light moan and decided that she needed to pull back before she got carried away. They were, after all, at work. Sara returned her hands to Catherine’s shoulders and gave them one last squeeze before walking towards the coffee machine.

“Tease,” Catherine muttered under her breath.

“You say something Cat?” Sara asked with a sly grin.

“I said thanks.”

“Uh-huh,” Sara said as she sipped on her coffee. “Sounded more like tease, but I’ll take the thanks anyway.” Sara chuckled as Catherine’s face blushed. “So why aren’t you doing your paperwork in the relative quiet of your office?”

“I can’t seem to concentrate in my office,” Catherine says with a sly grin.

Sara smiles as she figures out the meaning behind the words. She can’t resist teasing just a little. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Oh, no. I think you’ve helped enough.”

“Well, don’t say I never offered. So have you got big plans for your day off?”

“Nah. Just quality time with Lindsey. Sometimes it feels like I rarely get to see her.” There was a note of sadness in Catherine’s voice. Sara knew how demanding her job was, and knew that it was much harder on Catherine. Catherine had Lindsey to take care of, and though she was a great mother, Sara knew Catherine wished she could spend more time with her daughter.

“I need to go find Warrick. Call me okay?” Sara said as she finished up her coffee and headed out the door. Sara left Catherine and her paperwork and wandered off to find Warrick and see if he was done with those interviews yet.

Sara found Warrick just outside Grissom’s office. “Got a sec?” Sara asked.

“Yeah sure.”

“I was wondering if you had those interview reports finished. Figured we could swap stories before I headed down to talk with Doc.”

“Reports are on your desk if you want to read them. Most of it boils down to no one seeing anything unusual. Room was registered to a Jeff Ahmer. No wife or other party listed, so the vic is probably someone he picked up while in town. The credit card he used is from a bank in Milwaukee, I’ve already called them to have them notify us of any new purchases. No witnesses, no one remembers Mr. Ahmer or the vic.”

“I couldn’t find any form of ID in the room, I’m guessing the perp took it with him. I gave Greg the epithelials, and the rope is bagged and in the lab with Nick. He and Catherine finished up their burglary and he agreed to check into the knots on the rope. I get the distinct feeling that this is going to be a difficult nut to crack. I need to speak with Doc and read those reports.”

“Let me know what Doc says, I’ll check on Nick.” Warrick says as he walks off toward the lab rooms.

Sara heads down to the morgue to find Doc. As usual, he is ready with her vic and it almost seems like he was waiting on her to come in. “Hey Doc.”

“Ah. Sara. I was hoping you’d come by. I suppose you want to know all about this young lady here,” Doc said pointing at the lady on the table.

“Sure do. What interesting tidbits have you got for me?” Sara asked as she walked to the opposite side of the table.

“Sara, you manage to get all the funky ones. External bruising around the ankles, wrists, and neck. Definitely ligature marks. You already know that though. Signs of struggle, but no defensive wounds.”

Sara looks at Doc, confused. “A struggle, but no defensive wounds?”

“None. Not in the traditional way. No skin under the nails, no evident bruising on her hands, or arms. But she struggled quite a bit in the ropes she was tied up in. The marks are deep enough, and there is enough rope burn to tell me that this was no ordinary tying up. She was violently struggling to get out of her restraints.

“I sent DNA samples up to Greg. She had sex within hours of her death. And you guys got to her pretty quick, so there should be something to that. Tox screen isn’t back yet, but I’ll have it for you at the end of shift. I had David print her and he took the print card to Warrick. Twenty bucks says she was a prostitute. Lots of old healed abrasions in the vaginal area, pretty common when I come across working girls.”

“Doc, you know I don’t make bets with you. You’re always right.” Sara kidded with Al. She knew the light humor eased both her and Doc. Sometimes a little laugh makes it easier to discuss the horrible things they see everyday.

“And I was hoping to earn easy money today. Damn.” Doc laughed with her for a minute and turned serious again. “Moving on. Both shoulders are dislocated and she broke her wrists. Cause of death was asphyxiation. Most likely due to strangulation caused by the rope around her neck. I haven’t opened her up yet, so all of this is preliminary. I’ll have a report on your desk in a couple hours.”

“C’mon doc. I’m off in a couple hours. You really going to give me your report right at the end of shift? What if I had plans?” Sara feels safe kidding along these lines, because nearly everyone knows that her job is her life and no one knows that she now has a life and that there’s a possibility that she will have plans later.

“Sara. I know you don’t have plans. You’ll be here looking over evidence and reading reports until you think you’ve got it all figured out. And by the time you’re finished, you’ll go home and change clothes and be back for more.”

“How do you know I don’t have plans? I could have a hot date or something just waiting for me to get off work. All kidding aside, if you could hurry on that report, I’d appreciate it.” Sara was grinning at Doc and trying her best to convince him to rush the report.

“You know, I know a lot more about what goes on upstairs than you people give me credit for. Just ask Catherine sometime.” Doc said with a smile as Sara headed back upstairs.

Sara immersed herself in paperwork when she returned upstairs. She had plenty of interview reports to read, and the original police report on the finding of the body was ready and waiting for her. Sara had felt a certain uneasiness about this case before she read the paperwork, but now she felt decidedly bad about this one. Someone was playing games with the CSI’s and she was quite surprised that Warrick hadn’t picked up on it.

By the time Sara looked at the clock again, it was time to go. She decided to talk with Warrick before work later that night. Warrick was never really one to stick around after shift and he was probably already out of the building. Sara still hadn’t seen Doc or his final report and was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten it to her like he said he would, but she knew most of what was likely to be in it in the first place. She also knew that it would be waiting for her when she returned.

Part 5

Sara was right. She was the last of her shift to leave. She was slightly disappointed that Catherine had left without saying goodbye, but she figured that Catherine wanted to get home as much as she did. She made a mental note to call Catherine sometime that day and see how she was doing.

Sara left the CSI building and found a note stuck under her windshield. ‘Call my mobile when you get home. Cat’ Sara drove home wondering what it was that Catherine wanted. When she got home she decided to wait and call Catherine after she ate and showered.

She dialed the numbers hoping that Catherine wasn’t sleeping yet. The phone barely rang once before she heard Catherine pick it up and say, “Hey, sexy about time you called.”

“Sexy? You know, I kinda like it when you call me that. Boosts my ego.” Sara said with a big grin. “And I’ve only been home long enough to eat and shower, so don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“Who said I was wearing panties?” Was Catherine’s only reply.

“Oh,” Sara whispered into the phone. She couldn’t tell if Catherine was just playing with her or if she was being serious, but it didn’t really matter anyway. As soon as Catherine said the words, Sara mind was immediately filled with images that made her whole body burn. She can hear Catherine giggling on the other end of the phone. “What you think that was funny?”

“It was meant to be. It seems to have had a different effect though. Not that I’m complaining about that either, it just makes me wish I was there instead of here.” Catherine’s voice had lowered and Sara could tell now that she was not joking.

“Then why aren’t you here?” Sara asked. She did miss Catherine. Someday she was going to have to sit down and figure out how Catherine became such a big part of her life in such a little amount of time.

“Oh, I wish I could be. But I promised Lindsey we’d spend the day together. Besides, you’ve got to work tonight and if I were to come over, you wouldn’t get any sleep.”

“Jesus.” Sara was now pretty certain she wouldn’t be sleeping anyway. Or, if she did sleep, the dreams would be vivid and all too real and she would just wake up needing Catherine more than she already did. “Cat? Why did you want me to call?”

“Just wanted to hear your voice. I didn’t see you much at work, and I didn’t get a chance to say goodnight. I just miss you and was hoping to talk to you before Lindsey came home from Nancy’s.” Catherine was speaking softly. Sara could hear the real emotions behind the words. She was elated that Catherine just wanted to hear her voice. She misses me, Sara thought to herself. The change of subject helped Sara regain control.

“You know, you could really spoil a girl saying things like that. She might start to think you’re a romantic or something,” Sara kids with Catherine, attempting to get her thoughts to return to safe ground.

“Who says I’m not a romantic? I could be, you never know.” Catherine is kidding as well, but Sara notices the tone in her voice also shows a slight irritation.

“Okay, so you’re a romantic. I like romantics,” Sara said trying to step away from the topic. “So listen, I’ve got to go. I mean, I need to get some sleep and get some other things done before work. I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay?”

“Alright. Sleep well,” Catherine sounded sleepy as well. She was tempted to say something more, maybe tell Sara she loved her, but she thought maybe that might be a bit much. It wasn’t at all like Catherine to want to talk with someone just to hear their voice. But she felt distinctly lonely this morning after having spent the past two mornings with Sara.

Many hours later Sara was getting ready for work and her thoughts had safely returned to the case she was working. She needed to get a minute with Grissom when she went in tonight. She wanted to explain to him what it was about this case that made her uneasy.

She made sure to get to work a little bit earlier than usual, and she grabbed a cup of coffee and headed off to her office. There she found Doc Robbins’ report on top of the field interview reports that she had read yesterday. As she expected, Doc was right on with his prelims. Doc was almost always right when Sara asked him for a preliminary heads-up on cause of death. His report didn’t reveal anything new. Sara reread the FI’s to brush up her memory and unfortunately the information hadn’t magically changed overnight and she was still uneasy about what she read.

Sara knew that Grissom was also habitually early for work and she headed into his office to see if she could talk with him. She found him feeding the many insects and bugs that lived in his office.

“Gris? Got a sec?” She inquired after it appeared he hadn’t noticed her arrival.

“Sure Sara. What do you need?” Grissom was still busily feeding his ‘pets.’

“Just thought I’d talk about that case you handed Warrick and I yesterday. I don’t like it. Something is off.” Sara took a seat at his desk even though he gave no indication for her to sit, or that he was going to sit himself.

“What is off?”

“Well besides the odd position the body was found in, I think someone out there is playing games with us.”

“Tell me about the body.” Grissom was close to his desk now, and Sara thought he might actually be close to finished with his bugs.

“Well she was found with her arms and legs tied together behind her back with the rope extending to her neck and tied off like a noose. Unusual. Doc reports states the C.O.D. was asphyxiation by way of strangulation. Which makes sense because of the noose. But he also details that he thinks she essentially killed herself. Ruled it murder, but she basically strangled herself in an attempt to get out of the ropes she was tied in. Every inch she moved pulled the ropes tighter and tighter.”

“You’ve got pictures of her body at the hotel? When you get them, I’d like to see them.”

“Good,” Sara knew that if Grissom got involved, not only would their chances of closing this case soon increase, but that meant he was taking her uneasiness seriously.

“What else is it that’s bothering you?”

“Well, for starters, the evidence is scant. There were no were no fingerprints at the scene. The room was tossed like a burglar hit, but no prints. Not a single one. None from the victim, not even anything from housekeeping. This guy was careful. Not careful enough, but careful. We got epithelials and fibers, but he went over every inch of that room to clean up prints.”

“Well if he left other evidence behind then we still have a means to catch him. Fingerprints aren’t everything Sara.”

“I know that Grissom. And I also know that we will catch him. But come on, how many times have you worked a scene in a hotel? And how many of those times has the room been clean of prints?” Sara was pretty sure she knew the answer to this one. The only time she could remember not lifting a print in a hotel room was the Milander case. She watched as Grissom’s face changed from passive supervisor interest to an inquisitive interest. She knew she had him hooked on helping her figure this one out.

“What else?”

“Warrick did the field interviews. Nothing of any interest came up until he spoke with the hotel staff. The desk clerk says the gentlemen who booked the room, room 213 by the way, was a Jeff D. Ahmer. Want me to spell that for you?” Sara kidded when she saw Grissom’s brow furrow at the name.

“You’re kidding right?”

“No. And he even used a credit card from a Milwaukee bank. Clerk says he specially requested room 213. Wouldn’t take any other. I think this case is going to only get worse. I mean how many times do you think someone gets a room and registers as Jeffrey Dahmer? This guy’s playing a joke on us, and I don’t like it.”

“Have you talked with Warrick about this?” Grissom asks, even though he knows the answer will be no.

“Not yet. He was gone by the time I put it all together this morning, and I came in early to talk to you. I haven’t even seen him yet.” Sara admits. She knows that she should have talked with Warrick before turning to Grissom, but she really needed to discuss this with someone and Grissom was the only night shift CSI around.

“Where are the other reports? I think the three of us need to sit down and talk about this one.”

“I’ve got Doc’s report, and Warricks FI’s. DNA and toxicology aren’t back yet. I haven’t had a chance to do the fiber analysis yet, and we managed to get Nick to help us on the rope. He might have something, but I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Go to Greg and get what he has available for you, grab the reports off of your desk and tell Warrick to do the same. Meet me in conference one in about twenty minutes.” Grissom said as he started to head out the door.

Sara headed back into her office and nearly ran over Greg, who was just coming out of her office.

“Greg, just the man I needed to see,” Sara said with a smile. “I need any reports you’ve got on the lady from the hotel room. DNA, toxicology, hopefully a hit from AFIS, all of it.”

“No problem. Give me about five minutes,” Greg said as he started to walk away.

“Oh, and Greg?”

“Yeah?”

“If you weren’t dropping off those reports, then what were you doing in my office?” Sara looks and Greg and notices that he has blushed slightly.

“Um. Delivery.”

“Delivery? Greg what are you talking about?” Sara asks as she turns away from him and heads into her office. There on her desk was bouquet of flowers. Six red and six yellow roses, tastefully arranged in a crystal vase. They were beautiful. Sara blushed immediately. Sara knew that the flowers were from Catherine, but she was not willing to share that with Greg.

“Well, I came in and there was a delivery guy standing at the front desk and he was trying to find you. I told him I’d sign and then I brought those in here. Who are they from?” Greg was hovering just outside Sara’s office door. Sara grabbed the card from the flowers and walked over to the door, which she promptly shut in Greg’s face.

‘I am a romantic –C’

This was new to her. No one had sent her flowers to work before. She got the occasional bouquet at home, but no one had ever bothered to send them to work. Sara was worried about what Greg would say to everyone else, but nothing could get the grin off of her face.

Part 6

Catherine checked the clock. Just after midnight. She was almost expecting a call from Sara chewing her out for sending the flowers. Since she hadn’t received that phone call, she assumed that she would hear about it later.

Catherine couldn’t resist the urge to send the flowers. She knew that Sara would see them and blush, but also that it would make her smile. For the first time in her life, she was tempted to go in to work on her day off. If only to see the look on Sara’s face, it would be worth it. But she stayed at home and patiently waited for the clock to tell her that it was time for the rest of the gang to be off work. At least then she knew she’d get a call from Sara.

Sara headed off to the lab to find Greg. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing him, but she needed the reports for her meeting with Warrick and Grissom. She walked into the lab to find Greg waiting for her.

“So who were the flowers from?” Greg was not giving up. Everyone knew that Sara wasn’t seeing Hank anymore, and Greg hoped that Hank wasn’t making a second attempt. Sara was too good for him.

“I’m not telling Greg. Now give me my reports.” Sara’s tone was stern and her eyes showed complete seriousness. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to get rid of the stupid grin on her face.

“Now now. I’ll give the reports as soon as you give up the mystery guy.” Greg really was trying, and he looked genuinely concerned, but Sara wasn’t ready to reveal her mystery romance to anyone in the office. And she especially didn’t want to tell anyone until after she and Catherine talked more about it.

“There s no mystery guy Greg,” Sara said. Nope. No mystery guy. Beautiful, charismatic, down right sexy lady, but no guy. No way I’m telling Greg that.

“Either give the reports to me now, or take them to conference one in about ten minutes and explain to Grissom why you wouldn’t just hand them over.” Sara was one step from actually putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the tech. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Alright, alright, alright,” Greg backed down. “DNA, toxicology, and AFIS did find a hit for you.”

“Thank you Greg,” Sara said as turned to leave the room.

Sara found Warrick already headed into conference room one, where Grissom appeared to be waiting. She hoped that Warrick wasn’t upset about Sara speaking with Grissom first. Warrick sometimes had a tendency to be territorial about his cases and Sara didn’t want to upset him, especially considering they weren’t exactly the best of friends anyway.

Sara tossed her reports onto the center of the table and sat across the table from Grissom. Warrick chose a seat a few down from Sara also facing Grissom. Sara could tell Grissom was still mulling over what she had told him earlier. His brow was slightly furrowed and his eyes were narrowed in concentration.

The AFIS report revealed that the victim was Sandra Stewart and that she was indeed a prostitute. So far, Doc was one up on the rest of the team, he had predicted that she was a prostitute the evening before. Sandra had been arresting a few times for petty offenses, including a shoplifting charge when she was 19. Being now 34, and no arrests in the past three years, it was assumed that she had somewhat reformed and that her criminal past did not relate to her murder. Grissom told Sara and Warrick to check into her friends and acquaintances to see if she was in any kind of trouble with anyone; a bad breakup, a pimp, or anything.

The toxicology report detailed the considerable amount of drugs found in her system. Ativan, Percocet, along with a healthy dose of illegal drugs including cocaine. The amounts of cocaine in her system would have been enough to at least dull the pain, but combined with the amount of Percocet Sandra ingested, it was unlikely that she felt anything at the time of her death.

The DNA report from Greg revealed little. Most of the samples taken from the room belonged to the victim with two exceptions. A hair and one of the epithelials that Sara collected were not a match to the victim. They came from the same donor, most likely the suspect since everything else in the room was so clean.

Warrick revealed that the rope was standard, buy it at your local Home Depot, polypropylene rope. The only thing of any significance about the rope itself was that the areas that had contact with the victim’s skin had salve on them. Greg was running the tests necessary to determine the brand of salve, but that particular report wasn’t ready.

Gil listened with interest as everything was laid out for him. Sara once again explained the eerie alias that the murderer used. When Warrick looked confused at the significance of the room number and the credit card, Sara patiently explained that Jeffrey Dahmer lived in Milwaukee in an apartment numbered 213.

“So this guy just pulled a twisted practical joke on us,” Warrick looked close to disgusted. He had processed many scenes, and interviewed an enormous amount of people, but he had never come across anything like this before.

“Yeah. Kind of sounds like it,” Sara said. “I really think he’s going to do this again. As far as I can tell, I think his reference to Jeffrey Dahmer was a hint that there would be more than one victim.”

Grissom finally spoke up for the first time. “I think you’re right Sara. I’m not sure what exactly he means by referencing Dahmer, since this is absolutely nothing like the crimes Dahmer committed, but you’re right, I think he will be claiming more victims before we get him. Sara, I want you to stay here and get that fiber analysis done, and wait on Greg to give you the mass spec and gas chromatograph. Warrick and I are going to head to a new scene at the Luxor. Nick is out on his own tonight on a hit-and-run.”

Sara was reluctant to stay in the lab with Greg, knowing full well he probably wouldn’t shut up about those flowers. I’ll kill Catherine for this, Sara thought silently. On the other hand, going with Grissom to the new scene meant she would be doing the field interviews, and she had just about as much people skills as Grissom. At least at the lab she was in her element. Now if only she could find a way to hide from Greg.

Sara gathered the reports up from the middle of the table as Grissom and Warrick headed out. She hardly even noticed that Warrick had hung back and was waiting for her to look up from the table. When she did, she looked at Warrick confused.

“Need something Warrick?” Sara asked. It came out a lot cooler than she had intended, but she was pretty sure he didn’t notice. Sara had tried in the past to make more of an effort to be friends with Warrick, she not only wanted to be his friend, but she also knew that he and Catherine were pretty close. Throughout the past couple of years, she had learned that he was a difficult person to get to know. Especially if you recommend that he get fired from his job for not following protocol.

“That smile, it suits you.” Warrick said cryptically before he left the conference room. Sara stood at the edge of the table trying to wrap her mind around what Warrick had said. Not so much the words, but the meaning behind them. He seemed to be warming up to Sara finally.

Sara headed back into her office to put the reports back on her desk and catch one last look at the flowers sitting on her desk. Sara walked out of her office all smiles. She had Catherine, flowers, and Warrick was actually being friendly. It was going to be a good day.

Sara headed into her favorite lab room and sat down at a microscope to analyze the few fibers from the crime scene. Not much time had passed when she heard her cell phone ringing. One look at the caller ID and Sara knew the good day she was having was about to go to shit.

“Sidle.”

“Sara, it’s Grissom,” Yeah, like I didn’t know that, Sara thought to herself. “Our theory on your killer was right on. Our vic here at the Luxor is his second, and I need you to get to O’Riley at the MGM for his third.”

“Wait a minute. He’s accelerating pretty fast. Are you sure that the vic at the MGM is related to this?” Sara was alarmed. It is not common for serial killers to become this active so fast. She was hoping that Grissom was wrong.

“O’Riley confirmed it. He was there for the first one, so it’s a pretty safe bet that he’s right. Tell Greg we’ve got priority evidence coming in tonight. If he’s moving this fast, he’ll have made some mistakes and I’m not taking the chance that he’ll move faster.”

Sara heard the phone go dead and knew that Grissom was on to something at that hotel room. Sara sealed the evidence up and headed off to the lab to find Greg. She found him hiding under stacks of evidence from other cases.

“Greg-o,” Sara said, intentionally changing her voice to reflect cheerfulness she was definitely not feeling.

“Sara, I know that tone of voice. You want something from me. You’re going to have to make it worth my while. I’m a bit backed up here.” Greg was smiling broadly at her before ducking his eyes back down to the microscope in front of him.

“I need you to check these fibers, run them through the databases and tell me what’s the what. Then I need you to put all this other stuff,” Sara swept her arms across the piles of evidence, “on the back burner. We’ve got priority evidence coming in tonight and we need it taken care of promptly. Oh, and if you get the chance I need the results from the mass spec on that salve.”

“I don’t know Sara,” Greg toyed with her, “I’ve got all kinds of people breathing down my neck to get the rest of this done. What makes you more important than them?” Sara knew full well that Greg would do what she asked and she didn’t have time to piss around playing games. “I’m more important for two reasons. One, Grissom will fire your ass if you don’t do what I tell you. This order comes from him, not me. And two, if you’re extra nice and maybe get someone to help, I’ll show you the card that came with the flowers.”

Sara knew she had Greg in the palm of her hand, but it was still fun to watch his eyes widen when he figured out what she was saying.

“So, you’re saying that if I get your evidence done before these others, then I get to find out who the mystery man is?” Greg looked intrigued, and more than that, Sara could already tell he had taken the bait.

“I promise I’ll let you see the card,” Sara knew that the card didn’t have Catherine’s full name on it, only the letter ‘C’, and it would take Greg forever to figure it out, if he ever did. “Oh, and I’m taking some of that vanilla roast coffee with me on the way out.”

“Deal.” And Sara was out the door before Greg even got the word out of his mouth.

Sara tried not to drive too fast, remembering Catherine mocking her for driving like she was in NASCAR, but she still made it to the MGM in record time. She could feel the adrenaline buzz, not to mention the coffee, running through her veins. She was only a few hours into her shift, but she knew that by the time she was done processing this scene, it would be well past time quitting time.

Sara got to the room to find O’Riley and another miscellaneous patrolman at the scene. Sara had once tried to make it a point to remember the officers at the scenes, but soon discovered that there were just way too many of them and they all looked so much alike after a while.

“You got something for me?” Sara asked O’Riley.

“Déjà vu Sara. Seems like only yesterday were standing outside a similar hotel room.” O’Riley moved to open the hotel door, “Oh wait. It was.” His tone was completely sour.

Inside was another ‘tossed’ room. Everything that wasn’t nailed down was strewn across the room and there was yet another awkwardly bound woman on the center of the bed. Sara snapped some pictures of the entrance and lugged her cases into the room.

“Anybody move anything?” Sara asked O’Riley as she moved about the room taking more pictures.

“No. Neighbors heard something this time, called the front desk. They sent someone up to check it out and he hightailed it out of the room as soon as he saw she wasn’t breathing anymore. Kid’s scared shitless now, probably quit his job by morning. Policy is to call an ambulance, and the EMT’s arrived to find her as she is now. They didn’t touch anything, but I’ve got an officer tracking them down to take a report. I don’t like the idea of two of these popping up in two days.”

Sara looked over at O’Riley, who was hovering at the door. She thought for sure Grissom would have told him that the vic at the Luxor matched the MO as well. “Three.”

O’Riley looked confused. “Three?”

“Yeah. Three. As in three victims in two days. Grissom and Warrick are at the Luxor with Brass on number two. I need you to pull some favors okay?” Sara heard O’Riley cursing under his breath.

“Anything.” Sara picked up the nervous tone in his voice and realized that though she didn’t really know O’Riley all that well, she knew enough to figure out that something about this case had him really upset. No cop likes to know that they are facing a serial.

“I need some uniforms to do the FI’s here. I’m on my own and I want to get this evidence back to the lab as soon as I can, but I can’t rush the work, I don’t want to make any mistakes. Have the officer at the door check in with the folks that called downstairs. Then have him interview the kid. If you can, I need someone else to interview any hotel staff that came in or out of this room in the past two days. I want to know everything.”

“Fuck. Okay. You’ll get everything by the time you leave. Where’s the rest of your crew?” Sara had never heard O’Riley curse out loud before. O’Riley was not looking forward to putting uniforms on the interviews. He knew as well as Sara that people open up more to the CSI’s because they’re not in uniform. They don’t look like the investigators that they are, they look more like everyday people. Some people don’t like to be interviewed by cops, it usually makes them shut up fast.

Sara watched O’Riley turn away and talk to the officer at the door. O’Riley then went one way, and the officer another. Sara returned to her work in the room, knowing she was in for a long night.

Part 7

Sara went meticulously through the scene. The coroner had come and gone hours ago. Sara found precious little evidence at the scene that would mean anything later. The perp was starting to get sloppy. There wasn't much evidence, but what she did find should be useful. Hairs with skintags, more epithelials, and this time a partial print from the faucet in the bathroom. She hoped Grissom had better luck with his scene.

Sara exited the hotel into the early morning hours of another hot day in Vegas. Today was supposed to be her day off she realized. She knew that it wasn't likely to happen. Her shift had technically ended about an hour ago, and she had yet to return to the lab with her samples. She hoped Greg would keep up his end of the deal and she would return to the lab to find all the evidence from yesterday and whatever Grissom had given him had been run.

At the lab, Sara couldn't find Greg and so she dropped the evidence off in his lab and headed into the break area for a much needed caffeine fix. Sara noticed that Greg had brewed yet another pot of that wonderful vanilla roast. Sara snagged the last cup and headed off to her office.

One step into her office and she knew she should have just stayed in the relative quiet of the break room. Sara found all the reports she was looking for sitting on her desk. She couldn't help but think, great, more reading. Well, at least Greg did what I asked him to. Sara buried her nose in the reports and discovered little that was useful. Mostly more of the same on the evidence that came in. The victim at the Luxor was another prostitute. No big surprise there. It seemed to Sara that nearly half of the victims lately were of this occupation. There were DNA and toxicology reports ready on the woman, whose name was Gina Shepherd. Gina had massive amounts of cocaine and Percocet in her system. The pattern was developing.

Greg had apparently also finished the mass spec on the salve. Common, drug store first aid salve. No help there.

Sara was still immersed in the reports when she heard a voice calling out her name. She looked up to see Grissom at the door.

"Sara?" Grissom questioned for the third time.

"Yeah boss?" Sara said as she turned towards him.

"Did you get your evidence to Greg?" All business, even when shift is supposed to be over, and neither of them are actually supposed to be working right now.

"Yeah. I just wanted to read these reports and then I was going to find a microscope and help him out. But he does seem to have gotten a lot done for you."

"Yeah he did. Whatever you told him sure worked. He even managed to find a new trace lab tech from upstairs and got her to help him. He practically worked in record time. And he didn't fool around like usual, all business." Grissom said with a smile.

"Greg? Serious?" Sara asked incredulously.

"Yeah. I couldn't believe it either. I gave Warrick a couple hours off, and when he comes back, I expect you to take a few as well. I can't have you two being too tired. I need everyone on top of their game for this. Catherine and Nick will be coming in early to help out. I'm not sure what this guy's up to, but I know he's getting sloppier with each kill and that we'll get him soon." Grissom explained before walking out of Sara's office.

Sara walked in the opposite direction to find the microscope that she would sit at for the next few hours as she examined the fibers from the scenes. She examined the fibers and entered the individual information in the crime lab's database for comparison. Sara finished entering the information and headed off to the break room to grab a fresh caffeine fix.

The coffeepot in the break room was still empty so Sara settled for a can of soda. She headed back into her office to catch up on the paperwork that was rapidly overtaking her desk. Sara grumbled in dissatisfaction realizing that if she didn't spend some quality time over the next few days doing paperwork, she would soon find herself deskbound with no chance of getting into the field. Two cans of soda and three hours later, Sara heard a knock at her door.

"Sara? Gris says it's time for you take off. You've got four hours to get back. I suggest getting some sleep. It looks to be a long night." And with that Warrick was off to his own office.

Sara realized that she barely made a dent in the paperwork, but she needed to get away from the office, so she headed home. She was tempted to take the flowers home with her, but decided against it. If she left them here, they would be a small reminder of a beautiful thing while she was stuck in the dreary confines of her office. And for that, she would put up with endless amounts of teasing from Greg.

What seemed like minutes later, Sara was once again pulling her car into the lot at the CSI building. Rested and refreshed, she hoped this case would be wrapped up soon. She never used to have a problem when one shift suddenly turned into a double, or worse, but she now had someone to spend her off time with, and she desperately wanted to do just that.

She walked into the lab and was immediately greeted by Greg. He seemed too happy to be at work. But he was back to his goofy self apparently. He practically skipped down the halls with Sara.

“Greg? You didn’t happen to dip into the illegal substances samples did you? You seem pretty chipper.” Sara smiled at the tech.

“Nope. Definitely not,” he was acting like a hyper two year old. “Just wanted you to know that I finished all the work that you told me too, and I did some extra work for Grissom. I’ve got reports ready for the team and everyone’s waiting in the break room.”

“So why the happy mood? Sounds to me like you probably worked you ass off and should be in need of sleep. You’re way too hyper to have been working since yesterday.” Sara said still smiling. She knew what Greg was all excited about. But it was too much fun to act like she had forgotten their deal.

“C’mon. Give.” Greg said sticking his hand out.

“Give what?”

“You know what I’m talking about. The card. You told me if I was a good little worker I’d get to read the card.” Greg was close to throwing a child’s fit. Sara enjoyed every minute of it.

“Okay, okay. Give me a second, I’ll go to my office and grab it for you.” Sara ducked into her office and grabbed the card, surprised that Greg hadn’t already snuck in and read it while she was out. On her way to the break room, she handed the card to Greg. He silently read what was on the card and looked up at Sara.

“Damn it. You tricked me. You said I’d get to find out who the mystery man was. All that work for nothing.” Greg huffed.

“Not for nothing, Greg. I said you’d get to read the card, which you did,” Sara was grinning from ear to ear.

“But he didn’t put his name on the card. I want to know who he is.”

“Greg, you want to do the field work with the rest of the team. Here’s your first chance to put the clues together and figure it out.” Sara grabbed the card from Greg and left him standing in the hall as she headed to the break room to meet with the rest of the team.

Sara walked into the break room and noticed first thing that Catherine’s attention shifted briefly from Grissom to her. No one else noticed the look that passed between the two. Sara’s body was tingling with sensation, just from being near Catherine. Once again, she was transformed into a hormone driven teenager as her eyes took in the subtly sexy outfit that Catherine is wearing. Sara is tempted to turn and walk back out of the room to get her body back in check. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed Catherine. And it had really only been two days.

That pesky smile wouldn’t go away and Sara was certain that this would be something she would have to work on. She was definitely not known around the office as a happy person. And if Greg had already picked up on it, and now that he knew about the flowers, she was certain Greg would bug everyone in sight until he figured out who was making her so happy.

Grissom was apparently briefing Catherine and Nick on the case. Neither looked particularly happy to have been called in. On the table in front of Catherine was a small stack of newspapers. On the top newspaper Sara could read a headline that proclaimed “Three Prostitutes Found Murdered in Area Hotels”. Sara reached over Catherine’s shoulder to grab the top paper. No one in the room noticed that her hand brushed against Catherine as she pulled back or that Sara had leaned in close enough to Catherine to whisper a quiet hello in her ear.

For a room full of trained investigators, they all sometimes had the ability to miss the obvious with their attention easily distracted by the evidence Grissom was discussing. Sara silently thought to herself that it was definitely a good thing that when they worked in the field, everyone was quite a bit more focused. It was a bit amazing that the team worked so well and so hard at solving some of the most difficult cases, when they couldn’t even pick up on some of the most obvious clues.

Sara read the article in the paper wondering where they got their information. At this point, only two of the victims were known prostitutes, and the article went on to explain that the victims had been found in a way that resembled suicide, with a noose around their necks, but was classified as murder. Well, at least they got the murder part right.

Sara finished the article, happy to see it was relatively small. The paper underneath the one she had chosen also seemed to have a relatively small article relating to the murders. At least the press didn’t seem all that interested. Once the press got wind of things, everything seemed to move forward too fast. The Sheriff’s office would push the team too hard and too fast to wrap things up. Sara knew, much to her dislike, that these things took time. There was no room for error and all the pushing from Mobley just opened the gap. For the time being, it seemed they were free from the influence of the Sheriff.

Grissom finished his miniature dissertation to the team and a quiet buzz filled the room as everyone began talking about what the next steps were. Sara was happy to have the whole team on this because she knew the more people they had, the sooner the case would be solved. And seeing as how she had basically been forced to give up her one day off this week, she was more than happy to have the extra help.

Sara grabbed a bottle of water from the tiny fridge and headed off to her office. She wanted to put her flowers in fresh water before she got started on what looked to be a long night. She had her back to the door and didn’t notice as Catherine slipped in the room. She only heard the soft click of the door as Catherine closed it behind her.

“Hey.” Was all that Catherine said.

“Hey yourself,” Sara replied as she turned to face Catherine.

“So you got the flowers, huh?” Catherine was quickly discovering she was bad at this kind of small talk. All she wanted was to sweep Sara into her arms and plant a long, lingering kiss on her lips.

“Yes. Thank you, but I think you should know,” Sara said as she stepped closer to Catherine, “that Greg is person who signed for them and brought them into my office. So he has been relentlessly attempting to figure out who the mystery man in my life is.” Sara pulled Catherine into her arms.

“Ah.” Catherine melted into Sara’s embrace. “What did you tell him?”

“At first, only that there wasn’t a mystery man.” Sara leaned down and placed tiny kisses on Catherine’s cheek. “And then, when I needed him to be a good boy and run all the lab tests, I told him he could read the card.” Sara’s kisses had moved down Catherine’s neck and she was kissing her way back up towards Catherine’s ear. A spot she knew Catherine loved.

“You did what?” Catherine tried to sound upset, but her voice was shaking and her words came out barely above a whisper. Sara began sucking and nibbling on Catherine’s ear.

“I missed you, you know? I haven’t seen you in so long. Just seeing you in the break room was enough to make me want you.” Sara’s breath against her ear was sending shivers down Catherine’s spine. “I let Greg read the card. It’s not like your name was on it or anything.” Sara said, remembering that Catherine had asked her a question.

Catherine may have been about to object to what Sara was saying, but before any words could form, Sara’s lips were on hers and she lost the ability to think. Sara’s hands lazily ran up and down Catherine’s back feeling the softness of the silky fabric as it moved against Catherine’s even softer skin. Sara’s moan vibrates through the two of them.

What seems like minutes later, Sara pulls back. Her breath is ragged and Catherine sees the fire burning in her eyes. Catherine knows that look. It is the look that Sara gets when all the world has faded away and the only thing left is Catherine and Sara and their mutual hunger for each other. It is the look Sara gets when she wants to hear Catherine scream in pleasure.

Sara tries to control her breathing. Slow deep breaths. She wants Catherine too much right now. Stolen minutes on the floor of her office will not diminish her need. Sara felt the way Catherine’s body responded to her. Catherine wanted her, and if the heat building between the two of them was any indication, Catherine wanted her badly. Sara fights a losing battle with her control and just as she pulls Catherine to her again, her ears ring with the shrill beeping of her pager. Cursing under her breath, seconds later Sara hears Catherine’s pager go off as well.

Part 8

Sara remains in her office after Catherine leaves, silently trying to pull herself together. Never before had she felt such a strong emotional pull toward another person. Never before had she wanted someone so badly. Two days apart and she was ready to ravage Catherine on sight. Sara realized she was definitely going to have to learn better control. If it wasn’t for her pager, she would have taken Catherine right there. As if on cue, her pager beeped at her again. She collected her thoughts and headed off towards Grissom’s office.

Just inside Grissom’s office, Catherine too is waiting. Sara double-checked the number on her pager, and sure enough, it was Grissom’s office phone number. But where was he? Sara turned to Catherine to ask when she saw Grissom’s head pop up from behind his desk.

“Sorry ladies. I lost my black widow. You haven’t seen her have you?” Grissom asked in complete seriousness. Sara was now giggling. Who would have thought Grissom would lose a spider? He’s the bug man. Thoughts like these made Sara giggle just a little more as Catherine stood next to her with a look of shock on her face.

“You didn’t call us in her to help you look for a spider did you?” Catherine questioned with mock indignation. “Because I think our talents are best used elsewhere.”

Sara smiled at the thought of Catherine’s many talents. She couldn’t seem to get sex off of her brain and was just trying to focus her energy on not letting it show outwardly too much. Sara had had months of practice in acting as if her attraction to Catherine didn’t exist and now she was trying her best to remember how she did it.

“Of course not, but watch your step please. I actually paged you to tell you to get to Cesar’s. Victim number four was found a little over an hour ago. Warrick and Nick are on their way the Excalibur with number five.” Grissom ducked back under his desk, and stood up a second later triumphant. His black widow was safely encased in his coffee cup. The only thing Sara could think was ‘Eww’.

“Okay.” Sara said to Grissom. She turned to Catherine, “But only if I get to drive.”

Catherine smiled and walked out of Grissom’s office with Sara. “Oh no. I want to make it to Cesar’s alive. I drive.”

Sara caved easily. She agreed to let Catherine drive, but diverted the two of them to Greg’s lab before they left.

“Greg?” Sara questioned, trying to get his attention from the magazine he had his nose buried in. She tried again when he didn’t respond. “Greg?”

Greg’s eyes peered over the top of the magazine and he mumbled, “I’m not talking to you.”

Sara couldn’t believe he was still acting like a child. After all, she had delivered her end of the deal. Just because it didn’t help him figure it out was not her problem. “Aw. C’mon Greg. I’m going to need help tonight. We’ve got two more cases and we’re going to need you.” Sara was playing on Greg’s need to feel important around the lab. Usually this trick worked. If he couldn’t be out in the field with the team, he needed to know he was still important.

“Nope. Not going to work. I’m still mad at you.” Greg moped.

“Greg, c’mon. We’ve got to get going on this. Don’t be mad at Sara.” Catherine intervened on Sara’s behalf.

“But I want to be mad at her. She won’t tell me who the mystery man is that is sending her flowers. I thought we were good friends.”

“Okay. Tell you what. Stop being mad at Sara, do the work that comes in on priority, and I’ll tell you who the mystery man is.” Catherine tried to deal with Greg.

“You know? Sara how does she know?” Greg was apparently done being mad at Sara, as he had now dropped his magazine and was staring intently at Sara.

“Well, I had to tell someone,” Sara told him. “Besides, I told her days ago, so it’s not like I told her to make you jealous or anything. Forgive me?” Sara pleaded. She knew that Greg would forgive her. But now she had to worry about what Catherine was going to tell him. They still hadn’t talked about telling the team yet.

“You know I do,” Greg said with a big grin. “Now, if you expect me to run tests, you’d better get your scene processed. And Catherine, I’m going to hold you to that deal. I fully expect to know the source of those flowers when I’m finished working.”

Sara and Catherine headed out of the lab and towards the parking lot. Sara was still a little in shock that Catherine had so easily agreed to tell Greg that it was her who had sent the flowers. Catherine slid into the driver’s seat of the Tahoe and Sara settled herself in the passenger seat.

“Are you really going to tell Greg?” Sara asked as they pulled away from the lab.

“Of course. I mean, I did make a deal. Besides,” Catherine reached over and grabbed Sara’s hand, “If you keep trying to make out with me at work, they’re bound to find out someday.” Catherine grinned widely at Sara.

“Hey now. That was you who came into my office today. I can’t help it that you’re irresistible.” Sara scoots closer to Catherine, thankful that the Tahoe has lots of interior space.

“That’s not fair. All I wanted to know was if you got the flowers. I figured you’d call and be irate or something, but I hadn’t heard from you all day.” Catherine finds Sara’s closeness to her distracting.

Sara inches closer and closer. She only stops moving when she is close enough to practically be on top of Catherine. Sara says a small prayer for big trucks and bench seats. Without them she would still be on her own side of the truck.

“Right.” Sara slips her hand onto Catherine’s thigh. “Have I thanked you for the flowers?” Sara’s fingers traced small circles up Catherine’s thigh.

Catherine gripped the steering wheel hard, she could barely focus with the distraction Sara’s hand was causing. “Yes, you did. As a matter of fact, I remember a rather heated thank you involving your tongue in my mouth.” Catherine was trying to focus her attention on anything other than the simmering heat between her legs.

Sara’s thumb reaches the apex of Catherine’s thigh and brushes lightly against the heat underneath the fabric. Catherine nearly jumps out of her seat and quickly grabs hold of Sara’s wandering hand. “Sara, please. I’m trying to drive here. Later.”

The death grip that Catherine has on her errant hand shows Sara that Catherine is completely serious, but Sara can hear from the tone of her voice that her actions are having the desired effect. “See. Irresistible. I can’t even be left alone with you. But I promise to behave, for now.” Sara flashes a gap-toothed grin at Catherine and literally moments later they pull up in front of Cesar’s Palace.

Sara, having established a pattern with these crime scenes, processes the room while Catherine does the FI’s. Sara is secretly happy that she has already run two similar scenes because it means that even though Catherine out-ranks her, Catherine will let her run the scene and she can blissfully avoid the interviews.

Catherine was more than willing to do the interviews. She knew that she could have made Sara do the interviews, and knowing how much Sara hated them she was really tempted to punish Sara for her behavior in the Tahoe. But then that would have meant that Catherine was basically alone with her thoughts. Sharing a room with a dead body isn’t always conducive to conversation. And being alone with the thoughts running through her head, which involved Sara and nakedness, would definitely have distracted her enough that running the scene would have taken way too much time.

Catherine returns just more than two hours later, having interviewed everyone she could think of who would have come in contact with the room. She was not surprised to learn that no one remembered anything, or saw anything unusual. Most cases were built and prosecuted on evidence because the human memory is easily influenced and often faulty. As Grissom was found of saying ‘the evidence never lies’ and as irritating as that little witticism had become over the years, Catherine knew it was true. When they finally nailed this guy to the wall, they would have all the evidence they needed to permanently remove him from society.

Sara was finishing up as well. The coroner had taken away the body nearly a half-hour ago, and she was packing things up when Catherine walked to the door.

“All set?” Catherine asked leaning on the door frame.

“Sure you don’t want to stay? Maybe grab a room?” Sara’s mind was running on one-track tonight, and she enjoyed watching Catherine blush at the thought. “Kidding. I was kidding. Yeah, let’s get out of here. I have about enough of these scenes as I can take.”

“Few too many, huh?” Catherine asked as she helped Sara finish putting the equipment away.

“One is too many. This is the third that I’ve processed. I hope we get this guy soon. Evidence looks pretty good for this one. Couple of prints, more epthelials, not much to go on, but at least it’s solid.” Sara and Catherine had made their way down to the Tahoe.

“Catherine?” Sara asked as they loaded the back of the Tahoe with evidence and equipment.

“Yeah?”

“Can I have the keys? I’d like to drive back. I promise I’ll be good.” Sara smiled at Catherine.

“Oh no you don’t. We talked about this remember? Something about you driving to fast. Remember that?” Catherine’s tone was serious, but Sara could see the laughter in her eyes.

“Okay. If you insist.” Sara said heading for the passenger side of the Tahoe. “But I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to keep my hands to myself.” The smile on her face only got bigger as she watched Catherine blush.

“Well, if that’s the case then maybe you’d better drive.” Catherine tossed the keys at Sara over the hood of the truck. “Let’s go.”

The pair returned to the lab to find Nick and Warrick already turning evidence over to Greg. Catherine and Warrick immediately started talking about the field interviews to see what they had in common. Sara and Nick both headed towards another lab to help with fiber analysis and hopefully get this going somewhere. With the two of them working together, entering the information in the CSI database took less than half the time it did normally.

“Sara?” Nick queried as he peered through the microscope in front of him.

“Yeah Nick?” Sara was across the room patiently waiting for the computer to finish printing its comparisons on the fibers. She was hoping that the computer would be able to come up with something, anything to help them close this. So far the only matches they got on the fibers were form the previous victims. Which is all well and good, but it doesn’t help explain where the fibers originated.

“What did you do to Greg to get him to work? Grissom tells me he was all business yesterday, and today he seems the same. He’s not kidding around, and he’s virtually running around the lab to give people the reports they were asking for. Grissom’s says it’s you we have to thank. So fess up. What’s the trick?”

Sara pondered even responding to the question. Sara had always been so lost in her own world that she never really noticed how much her coworkers seemed to gossip. To her, it didn’t matter what she had to do to get Greg to work, just that it got done. But now everyone seemed to want to know. And if she told them, it only invited talk of her personal life, which was something she definitely wasn’t comfortable with.

She waited until Nick looked up from his microscope. “Actually all I did was make a deal. Traded information, you know.” She was hoping that Nick wouldn’t take it any further, but was not too surprised when he questioned further.

“So what did you trade? You didn’t agree to go out with him did you? He’s had a thing for you since you got here.” Nick actually looked worried that Sara may have agreed to a date with Greg.

Sara smiled at Nick. “No. Definitely not that. Information only.” Sara was hoping not to have to elaborate and was actually pleased when the computer beeped at her indicating the comparisons were finished. Sara grabbed the report and skimmed over everything she already knew. Almost hidden at the bottom was a glaring oversight that Sara wondered how she had missed in the previous printouts.

Part 9

Grissom had commandeered Conference Room One for the night shift to lay out their reports. Sara hurried in and grabbed the other fiber analysis reports to see if the same facts were on them. Sure enough, right at the bottom of each report were the words Sara had wanted, but hoped not to find.

Sara dropped the report n the table and headed to the break room for coffee. She had decided she really needed the caffeine if she was going to sit at that table for the next few hours digesting all the reports in order put this case together. She knew Greg was hard at work when she smelled the faint aroma of expensive raspberry coffee. She grabbed a tall cup and added sugar until it tasted as luxurious as it smelled.

Back in the conference room, Sara buried lost herself in the reports. She almost couldn’t believe the whole crew had worked this and no one put it together. One of the hardest things for her to believe was that she missed it. She had done the fiber analyses on almost all of the cases. And she was good at it too. But she had missed this one. And it really pissed her off.

The fiber reports were detailed and explained everything she needed to know. Natural fibers, cotton. The fibers were fairly common, but the distinction was in the color. The dyes used to make the color were in fact only used by about twelve manufacturers. Three of which had warehouses in the Vegas area. Sara had a hard time understanding why this was not all figured sooner. Even the computer had spit out the stats on the fibers on each report, and no one had put it together.

The fibers were not worn down like you would see from average wear and tear on clothes. The fibers were precisely cut at each end, indicating to Sara that the came from the manufacturer itself. The killer probably worked at one of the three factories and didn’t even realize that he was carrying these fibers out of work with him.

Pushing the fiber reports to the side, Sara looked around the table for the victim files. The files on the table were all jumbled and tossed around with no sense of order. Sara fought the urge to separate them all into neat little piles before she continued. She reasoned that she would just organize them while she worked.

The victim files revealed that four of the five victims were prostitutes. The remaining victim was the fourth killed and was, as far as Sara could tell, a housewife. Alicia Walker. She had been arrested in her late teens for a DUI, but other than that, no history of any criminal activity. Compared to the other victims, she was the ‘odd man out.’ Sara kept this file apart from the others as her mind started to put the pieces together.

Toxicology reports all indicated massive amounts of Percocet as well as the occasional illegal drug. Cocaine seemed to be the drug of choice, but ecstasy showed up in minute doses in two of the prostitutes. Mrs. Walker had only Percocet in her system. No illegal drugs, not even an aspirin. Once again separating her from the pack.

Sara frantically searched the stacks of reports for the fingerprint report on the print from the bathroom of MGM. Sara had hoped that it would produce something useful. No dice. The partial was enough for comparison, but the person the print belonged to wasn’t in any of the systems. Sara had a good idea who the print belonged to.

Sara glanced at her watch and realized that quite a bit of time had slipped away. When she came in for her shift, it was 10:30 p.m. The time on her watch told her it was just after 9:00 a.m. Sara bristled at the thought of having worked for basically two straight days, and she knew she wouldn’t go home until she finished this.

Before leaving the conference room, Sara made sure she organized all the files on the table. She did not want to leave them in such disarray. It would be so much easier to point out everything to the rest of the team if she could find everything easily. Sara headed down the hallways until she found Brass. She was lucky enough to have found him in his office.

“Brass?” She asked from the doorway.

“Yeah.” Came the gruff response. Sara absently wondered if maybe this case was getting to Brass as well. He seemed to be especially irritated today.

“Brass, what would you do if I told you I could wrap up this pesky little serial killer by dinner?” Sara tried to lighten his mood.

“I would probably say I’ll buy you that dinner,” Brass said with a small smirk as he looked up from his desk.

“You’re on. Nothing too fancy though, how about the café at the Palm? A light salad, maybe a glass of wine?”

“You get nothing if you don’t start telling me details.” Brass said, his tone telling Sara that the time to joke was over.

“Okay then. Well, I’m going to need warrants and a suspect brought in.”

“Who?” Back to irritated. Of course, he was the one who had to do all the paperwork to get the warrants, so it was understandable. “You’ve got all the evidence I need for the warrants right?”

“Absolutely Brass. Besides, the guy I want is the husband of one of the victims, so you might be able to get him in here on that alone. But if he doesn’t want to play along, I’ve got enough for you. The name is James Walker. Married to victim number four, Alicia Walker.”

“Okay. I’ll send some boys. You really think you got this all wrapped up with a pretty bow for me?” Brass’ mood had lightened slightly since Sara gave him a name.

“Sure do. Just bring me the guy.” Sara said as she walked out of his office. Now all she had to do was find Grissom. And she did find him. Talking with Greg in the lab.

“So you’re making deals to get the work done?” Grissom looked sternly at Greg.

Greg looked nervous. “Yeah, but you’re missing the big point.”

“And the point is….” Grissom let his sentence trail off.

“That I’m getting the work done. I mean, I would do it anyway, because it’s my job but…”Greg was completely flustered. He was doing the work, he didn’t see why Grissom really cared about his motivation.

“But I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.” Sara said as she walked up to Greg.

“Do I want to know?” Grissom asked.

“Probably, but I’m not telling.” Sara smiled at Grissom.

“Will it affect your work, or his?” Grissom asked in resignation.

“No.” Sara told him honestly. At least so far her new relationship hadn’t affected her work and the only thing it had done to Greg’s work was to get him to work faster.

“You’ll tell me eventually right?” Grissom figured he would need to know whatever it was someday, since Sara had as much as admitted it.

“Yeah. But in the meantime, I need to talk to you about this case. I just had Brass get to work on getting me some warrants and to have our suspect brought in.” Sara was still smiling. She hoped if they got this case wrapped up at a decent hour, Grissom might remember that she had worked through her day off and let her go home when it was finished.

“We have a suspect?” Grissom questioned.

“We do now. Husband of victim four. Should be on his way in here within the hour.”

“You going to explain?” Grissom said as he watched Sara leaving the room.

Sara stopped, turned toward Grissom and said, “Nope. But the answers are there in the reports if you want to read them. I need to head downstairs for a bit.”

Grissom walked off toward the conference room and Sara headed downstairs, where she would be able to grab a change of clothes from the locker room and shower quickly before she had to return to work. She was suddenly glad she kept a few easy changes of clothes at work.

Sara returned upstairs less than twenty minutes later in tight-fitting blue jeans and a black tank top. Her first stop, predictably, was the coffee maker. Freshly showered, and freshly caffeinated, she sat at the table in the break room with the newspaper. She was barely two pages in when felt the presence of another person in the break room. She turned and saw Greg standing nervously at the door.

“You okay Greg? You’re looking kind of nervous.” Sara asked, after she set down the newspaper.

“Have you seen Catherine?” He asked with a smile. Sara knew just what he was after as soon as he asked. He had apparently finished all of is work and was looking for the payoff. Sara wondered if the day would ever come when she would be able to get Greg to do what she asked, without bargaining for it.

“Nope. Have you tried looking for her?” Sara asked sarcastically.

“I haven’t been able to find her,” Greg said as he walked further into the room. “She’s not hanging around in any of the labs, or the conference rooms.” Greg sat down at the table with Sara.

“Did you try her office?” More sarcasm from Sara. She was having a good time with this, but the lack of sleep form the past two days was certainly catching up with her.

“Yeah, she’s not there either. But Grissom tells me she’s still working, and should be around here somewhere. So. You want to tell me, or should I just try looking harder?”

“Greg, I would love to tell you, I just don’t know where she is. You know, one of the tricks that works for me is actually paging the person you’re looking for.” Sara smiled at Greg as she got up to leave the break room. “If you find her, call me before she tells you anything. I want to be there.”

Sara headed back toward her office. She just wanted a few minutes alone before she had to work more. Sara opened the door to her office trying to remember if she had closed it in the first place, and saw Catherine sitting behind her desk. Well, Sara thought, that explains why I didn’t remember closing the door.

“Hey, you know Greg’s looking for you?” Sara asked as she closed the door behind her.

“Yeah. That’s why I’m in here. I’m pretty sure he won’t be looking for me in your office.”

“And here I was thinking you were in my office waiting for me,” Sara said with smirk as she crossed her office and stood leaning against the desk, next to where Catherine sat. “You’re not chickening out are you? Greg will be so pissed.”

“No. Not chickening out. I just haven’t thought about the best way to tell him. You know he’ll freak out.” Catherine’s hand gently stroked the back of Sara’s legs, which were hidden from view of the door by Sara’s desk. “When did you change? I like these jeans.”

“I changed downstairs just a couple minutes ago. Catherine?” Sara asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Catherine mumbled quietly, as she watched Sara’s legs begin to shake slightly. Catherine got out of the chair and stood in front of Sara.

“We really can’t do this here,” Sara said quietly even though she realized that in another few minutes they probably would be doing this here.

Catherine moved and trapped Sara against the desk. “Why not?” She asked as she brought her arms up to Sara hips and lowered her lips to Sara’s neck.

Sara let out a low growl in response to the feel of Catherine against her. “Work.” She said even as she wrapped her arms around Catherine.

“So. Have you already forgotten that we’ve done this at work?” Catherine inched her hands under Sara’s tank top. “Please?”

Sara had never in her life imagined that someone as beautiful as Catherine would be begging for sex, much less begging her. But Catherine kept mumbling please into Sara’s ear as her hands worked farther up Sara’s shirt. The last of her resolve was nearly gone as Catherine continued to move against her.

“Jesus Cat.” Sara whispered as she felt Catherine’s thumb brush against her nipples. Catherine let her hands remain on Sara’s breasts as she kissed, licked, and sucked at the skin on Sara’s neck. Sara pulled together the last remaining pieces of her self-control and forcefully grabbed Catherine’s hips, pushing her away slightly. She held Catherine at arm’s length until she could get her breathing back under control.

“Okay. Couple things. One, we’re still at work and I’m expecting Brass to page me anytime now with a warrant for our suspect’s house. Two, Greg is looking for you.” Sara tried her best to be serious, but she could tell Catherine was only barely paying attention. “But maybe you can help me.”

Catherine looked into Sara’s eyes and saw the determination behind them. Much as she wanted to bend Sara over the desk and take her right now, one look into her eyes told Catherine it just wasn’t going to happen. At least, not right now. “How?”

“Convince Grissom to let the three of us, you, me and Greg, off after we get an arrest on this case. We’ll take Greg out, tell him about us away from here. Then we’ll ditch him and go home and finish what you’re so intent on starting here.”

“No chance of finishing this now?” Catherine knew the answer would be no, but it never hurt to try.

“No. We’ve both got too much work to do.” Sara smiled at Catherine, knowing that Catherine would agree. “But once we get home, I’ve got to warn you, I’m not stopping until we both pass out from pleasure.” Sara watched as Catherine blushed a deep red.

Part 10

Catherine had barely whispered her okay to Sara’s plans before the phone on Sara's desk rang. Sara left one hand on Catherine’s hip as she leaned across her desk to answer the phone.

“Sidle.” She said as she straightened up, once again facing Catherine.

Catherine couldn’t tell who was on the other end of the phone, but Sara seemed excited to hear the news. “Yeah. Okay. I can be there in fifteen minutes. Thanks.” Sara hung up the phone and scribbled something on a piece of paper before returning to Catherine.

“See, we would have gotten interrupted anyway. But, as incentive…” Sara left her sentence unfinished as she pulled Catherine to her for a searing kiss. Sara pulled away leaving Catherine flushed and breathless.

Sara straightened up and pushed Catherine lightly away from her. “I’ve got to get to the suspect’s house. Don’t forget to talk to Grissom.” With a light kiss on Catherine’s cheek, Sara was gone.

Catherine remained in Sara’s office long enough to catch her breath and calm down. Catherine headed down the hall and found Grissom in the conference room reviewing all the files.

“Grissom? I need a favor.” Catherine said as she walked in the door. “I need a big favor, actually.” Catherine said as she realized that she would essentially be asking for the night off for half of the graveyard shift.

Grissom removed his glasses and stared at Catherine. He noted right away that she seemed nervous, and he knew that what ever she was about to ask for was important to her. He had never seen her this nervous before. “Yeah?”

“Well, I was wondering if maybe, when we finish up this case, maybe you could let Sara, Greg and I take off. I mean Sara and Greg have both been on for two days, and I’ve been here only a little less than that. I’m sure you and Warrick and Nick can handle everything.” Catherine looked a little flustered. She had no idea what she would say if Grissom really asked why she wanted the three of them off. She couldn’t lie to him. But right now, the truth wasn’t a good option either.

“Yeah.” Catherine stared at Grissom, shocked at how easily he had given in to her request. “But I’m going to need you and Greg back tomorrow. Sara worked through her day off this week, so she won’t have to come back in. Where is Sara now?”

“Brass called. She’s on her way to the suspect’s house. She kind of took over this one huh? I mean I didn’t even know we had a suspect and she’s already headed over to his place. Did she tell you what’s going on?” Catherine asked.

“No. All she said was that it was all right here in the files, and I’m beginning to think she was right. Of the five victims, only one stands out in anyway. She was not a prostitute like the others, she was a housewife. She also did not have any illegal drugs in her system, only the Percocet. The fiber reports detail that the fibers were clean-cut, not part of clothes, but basically debris from the manufacturer. Only three manufacturers in the Las Vegas area use the chemical dye solution found on the fibers. And the husband of our housewife happens to work at one of the manufacturers. It’s all alarmingly simple.”

“Oh.” Was all that Catherine said. It did seem to be overly simple. “So what took so long in putting it all together then?”

“I think we all focused on our aspects of the case. Plus the housewife, Mrs. Alicia Walker, was the fourth victim.”

“Ah.” Catherine’s pager beeped letting her know that Greg was still looking for her. She left Grissom in the conference room and headed off towards Greg’s lab.

“You paged?” She asked as she entered.

“Catherine, just the lovely lady I was looking for.” Greg grinned like he was holding back some big secret. Catherine silently wondered if he would forget the deal. “You went out on that B&E earlier right?” “Yeah Greg. Just because were chasing down a serial doesn’t mean the rest of Vegas suddenly quits killing each other. What have you got for me?” Catherine tried to think about what she would have given Greg to run for her. There was no evidence at the scene to contradict the story of the homeowner, the only mystery was who the dead body was.

“I ID’d your victim. Two time loser for residential burglary. His prints came through on AFIS just a minute ago.” Greg handed the computer print-out to Catherine and she turned to leave to room.

“Oh Catherine?” Greg called to her before she was completely out the door.

“Yeah.” I guess he didn’t forget, Catherine thought to herself.

“So when are you going to tell me? C’mon I’ve been good.” Greg had somehow instantly reverted to childhood. He looked like a child begging for his favorite toy.

“After work Greg, I promise. I cut a deal with Grissom. You, Sara, and I will all get the rest of the day off after Sara gets an arrest on the serial. She wanted to be there, so I figured we could all head out for a night on the town, get you all liquored up and then I’d tell you.” And hopefully you’ll be so far gone by then that when you wake up in the morning, you’ll forget everything. But Catherine didn’t dare say that part out loud.

“Fun. Sara agreed to this? Going out with me and getting drunk. I just might change her mind about this mystery guy. I can be really charming when I’m not at work.” Greg kidded.

“Well, Sara went of to our suspect’s house to gather evidence so she doesn’t know about the drinking part yet. But I seriously doubt you could change her mind. From what I can tell she’s head over heels in love.” With me. Catherine felt a surge of happiness knowing that Sara did love her.

Catherine left Greg in the lab to continue his work and she went to her office to get some of her own work done.

Sara’s pager beeped just as she was pulling into the CSI lot. She checked the number on her pager: Brass. Probably wants to let me know Mr. Walker is in interrogation. He’ll just have to wait. Sara thought as she grabbed the evidence from the back of the Tahoe and headed inside.

Once inside she found Greg in the lab. “Greg-o. I’ve got more work for you.” She set an evidence bag in front of him. “I need a chemical analysis on this as soon as you can Greg. Then compare it to what we’ve already got.”

Greg finally shifted his attention to Sara. “Salve? Sara c’mon. I’m so much more talented than this. Besides, what do you think I can tell you that you haven’t already figured out?”

“C’mon Greg. Just a chemical analysis and compare it to the swabs we have from the victims. I know it will give you a generic make-up, but just do it. The more we get against this guy, the better my chances are of making it out of this building sometime this week.” Sara’s frustration started to show.

“Okay. No problem. But just remember, we’re going out tonight, and I fully expect you to buy me beer for all this work.” Greg continued to kid even as he began prepping the evidence.

“No chance. Buy your own. Besides haven’t we made enough deals already?” Sara said as she left the lab.

Sara found Catherine in her office. “Catherine?”

“Yeah?” Catherine responded instantly to hearing her name, but didn’t look up from her paperwork.

“Can you help me out?” Sara asked from the doorway.

Catherine looked up and saw Sara fidgeting at the doorway. “Anything you need.” Catherine replied with a grin.

“Good. I need help with some evidence. I haven’t had lunch, or breakfast for that matter, and Brass paged me a couple minutes ago. You think you can check tool marks for me? I found similar polypropylene rope at the suspect’s house and I need to see if the cut ends match, and then see if any of the cutting tools I brought back from his place match the marks on the ends of the rope. Plus you know, the faster I get things done, the faster I get out of here.”

“Sounds OK to me. I needed a break from the paperwork anyway. You know, when I started this job there wasn’t nearly as much paper-pushing going on. Now I feel like Grissom with all the forms I have to fill out.” Sara chuckled at Catherine’s distaste for paperwork because she felt exactly the same way.

“Thanks. I’m going to go see if Brass can give me a few minutes before we start questioning Mr. Walker. I’d really like to get some food in me.” Sara headed down the hall to find Brass.

Sara wandered down to the interview rooms and found Brass sitting across the table from a smiling, middle-aged white male with dark hair that was peppered with gray. Sara couldn’t see anything in his appearance that would indicate that he had ruthlessly killed five women, but she felt in her gut that he was their guy.

“Brass? Got a second?” She asked as she opened the door. Brass nodded his head and followed her into the hall.

“Yeah?” He didn’t sound as irritated as he had this morning, so Sara figured she might be able to convince him to give her some more time.

“Think we can let him stew in there for a little bit? I’d really like to grab something for lunch real quick. Plus I pulled some favors and I’ve got the evidence from his place running right now.”

“Sure. He seems comfortable enough. But try to hurry, would you? I’d like to get this over with.” Brass headed back into the interview room as Sara headed down the hall to see what was left in the break room for her to snack on.

Sara knew that she should have grabbed something to eat before coming back to the office. The only thing left in the break room was the remnants of someone’s birthday cake and a single can of soda. Sara made a mental note to eat a big dinner when she left. Sara lingered in the break room longer than was necessary, but she figured no one would miss her for a little while. She tried to catch up on the news only to discover that some had absconded with half of the newspaper.

Giving up, Sara decided to return to her work. With any luck she would be done a in just a couple of hours. Early enough to have a late lunch and eat some real food. She headed down to the interview room and was almost there when Greg rounded a corner and called out her name. Sara stopped and waited for Greg to catch up with her.

“Chemical analysis on the salve. Composition matches the swabs from all the victims. It’s not unique, but it will be one more nail in the guy’s coffin.”

“Thanks Greg.” Sara took the report and headed into the interview room.

Sara tossed the lab report to Brass and calmly sat next to him. Brass reviewed the papers, his facial expressions making it seem as if whatever was in the file was more damaging than it really was. It was a game he played, and played well. Mr. Walker appeared as calm as ever, but his eyes rapidly moved back and forth between Sara and Brass.

“He knows his rights?” Sara asked, even though technically this wasn’t a police interrogation. Brass had counted on Sara getting enough to have James Walker arrested, and so had already read him his rights, and had him sign off on them.

“Yeah. I keep telling to get an attorney, but he doesn’t seem to want one. I thought about calling the Public Defender’s office to see if they have someone available. But then I figured if he wants to bury himself, we’ll let him.” Brass said with a smirk.

“Good. Mr. Walker, do you know why we brought you in?” Sara asked as she looked directly at the suspect.

“Yeah. My wife was murdered. And you seem to think I’m somehow involved.” Mr. Walker crossed his arms in front of his chest and did his best to look annoyed.

“Actually, we know you were involved.” Sara said. In reality there was nothing concrete yet to prove his involvement, but Sara didn’t want him to know that. She hoped Catherine was able to come up with something on the tool marks.

“See, your wife was murdered in quite a strange way. And so were four other women.” James showed no sign of shock, or any other emotion as Sara began to explain the details. “But your wife, see, she was the only one to stand out in any kind of way. She was not a prostitute like the others. She didn’t take illegal drugs like the others.”

“What’s all this got to do with me?” He didn’t seem nervous, but Sara could tell he was itching to get out the building.

“See, we not only investigate the crime scene and the death, but we also investigate the lives of the victims. Often, it helps us learn more about the killer. Your wife wasn’t happy was she?” Sara tried switching tracks and started talking about his wife instead of the mostly circumstantial evidence.

“Are married people ever happy?” James joked bitterly.

“Did you know she was seeing a therapist?” Sara asked. She had found Alicia’s day planner at the Walker residence. Mrs. Walker was also planning on seeing a divorce attorney. The appointment would have been two days from today.

“Yeah. She started going to therapy a few years back when her father died. She had some real problems dealing with the old man’s death.” Sara wondered how he could be so cold hearted. There was absolutely no emotion in his voice or mannerisms at all.

Catherine opened the door to the interview room and slipped her report under Sara’s arm before she retreated out the door again. Sara stopped her questioning long enough to pick out the important parts. Match. On both the cut ends of the rope, and a pair of kitchen shears from Mr. Walker’s residence.

Sara slid the report to Brass and watched as a slow smile crept across his face. Now that she had something concrete, Sara skipped the basics.

“Why did you kill her?” Mr. Walker had no way of knowing what was in the report and he didn’t really seem to care.

“Mostly because I didn’t like her.” Sara was shocked he admitted to killing his wife so easily. She was also taken aback by the fact that he was still not showing any emotion at all, as if he hadn’t killed five people, including his wife. He looked more like a person accused of killing a fly. The look in his eyes was cold and dead.

“What do you mean mostly?” Sara hated to admit it, but she was fascinated by his cold demeanor. He killed five women, probably stayed at the hotel rooms to watch them die, and he was acting as if he had done absolutely nothing wrong. “And what about the other four? Why’d you kill them?”

“Because I could.” His stone-face answer sent chills through Sara’s body. “And because you weren’t supposed to figure it out. Alicia was supposed to be just another victim. You weren’t supposed to figure it out.” He didn’t look angry or upset that he had killed his wife or four other people, just upset that he got caught.

Sara began thinking that that beer Greg was talking about was a good idea. “Brass...” Sara started to ask Brass to have Mr. Walker arrested, but Brass was already moving. For a second time, Mr. Walker was read his rights. Brass left with Mr. Walker and headed towards booking.

Sara headed down the hall toward Grissom’s office to fill him on the arrest. And hopefully after she talked with him she would be able to get out of here. She desperately needed to remember what the outside world was like.

Grissom was once again playing with his insects. Sara told him about her search at the Walker residence, how she had found the rope, the kitchen shears, and everything else. He seemed please to hear the Mr. Walker admitted to the murders.

“He didn’t even sound remorseful. Or like he cared at all.” Sara shivered when she remembered the cold, unfeeling look in his eyes.

“True psychopaths don’t care. Most spend their entire lives making the world believe they care, but in reality, it’s all just an act.” Grissom said thoughtfully.

“Well, most of the case will be circumstantial. The only solid evidence is the rope, the shears, and his little confession. But it’s good enough to put him away.” Sara said as she turned to leave.

“Sara? Don’t let it get to you too much, and have a good time tonight.” Were Grissom’s parting words.

Sara was excited to finally be able to leave. She wasn’t really satisfied with the way case ended, she really wished they had more to go on, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Sara found Catherine and Greg lounging in the break room.

“What took you so long?” Greg asked. “Catherine and I have just been discussing the best places to hit the town tonight. What do you think?”

“Someplace where I can get something to eat and drink. That’s all that matters to me. The only thing I’ve had to eat in the past twelve hours is leftover birthday cake. Let’s go.” Sara said.

Catherine drove the trio out to a restaurant where Sara could order some food, and Greg was busy acting like he didn’t really want to know about Sara’s mystery man. Both Catherine and Sara wondered how long he would continue before just blabbering on about it. After all, it was the only thing they could get him to talk about for the past two days.

Greg waited until they left the restaurant and ended up at a bar. Catherine’s plan to get him wasted was off to a good start as she started doing shooters with him. They started with a Three Wise Men and Heineken chasers.

Sara was amazed at the amount of liquor Catherine could drink. Greg seemed seriously out of it by the time he remembered their deal, and Catherine, cool as ever, looked like she hadn’t even begun drinking.

“So, Catherine. You ever going to tell me who stole my Sara’s heart?” Greg’s words were a little slurred, and as Sara looked at him, she could see him swaying slightly in his seat. Sara hadn’t had nearly as much to drink as she had originally intended, but at least one of them needed to remain mostly sober.

“Greg, it’s cute that you think my heart was yours, but I got to tell you, it never was,” Sara told him. If he hadn’t been drunk, the look on his face might have been broken-hearted, but his scrunched up face just simply looked funny in the dark of the bar. Sara tried her best not to laugh at him.

“I know, I know. But a guy can dream can’t he?” Greg took another swig of his beer and hailed the waitress for another round. “Buy you another if you finally tell me.” He suggested.

Catherine had been relatively quiet during the exchange, but apparently decided that now was the time to let Greg in on their relationship. Catherine slowly got up from the chair she was sitting at and moved so that she was standing next to Sara. She nudged Sara’s chair until Sara stood up.

Sara looked at Catherine, completely confused. Catherine stared back at her with intense fire burning in her eyes. Sara had a vague idea of what was going to be coming her way, one hell of a heated kiss. That look in Catherine’s eyes only meant one thing.

Catherine simply reached around Sara and moved the chair. She then put her hands on Sara’s shoulders and sat her back down. Catherine followed Sara into the chair, wrapping her legs around its back. Catherine settled herself into Sara’s lap and leaned forward and kissed Sara. Sara kissed back with just as much desire. She didn’t really care that Greg was sitting across the table from them, and she completely forgot about him when Catherine slipped her hands under Sara’s shirt.

Greg sat across the table slowly putting everything together. When the two finally separated, Greg stared at them in shock. Catherine made no effort to move from her position in Sara’s lap.

“So, uh…” Greg stammered. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. Even he could tell, drunk or not, that that was definitely not the first kiss the two had shared. Sara turned her head and smiled widely at Greg. “You two um…”

Catherine leaned forward and began nipping at the skin on Sara’s neck. She didn’t care what Greg thought, this was the first time in days she had been able to kiss her girlfriend without the fear of getting caught in the workplace. All she wanted was Sara.

Sara tried to focus on Greg, though Catherine was doing a very good job at distracting her. “Yeah. The card, it said C. You know…”

Greg put it together. “Catherine. Wow. I mean… I’m not sure what I mean.” He flagged down the waitress for more alcohol as he watched Sara and Catherine while they continued kissing. “A man sure can dream…” He said quietly to himself.

Epilogue

Catherine had decided to get the most out the moment. Ever since she straddled and kissed Sara in front of Greg, she had been teasing Sara to the breaking point. She would lick, suck, and kiss Sara’s neck until she felt Sara squirm in satisfaction underneath her and then she would stop, and resume drinking.

Once, she got carried away and didn’t stop until she heard Greg coughing loudly. He was either trying to get her attention, or he choked on his beer. Realizing that Sara’s hands were under her shirt, lightly teasing her nipples, Catherine figured he probably choked on his beer. Either way, it was her cue to back off. At least for a little while.

Last call came and Sara, still mostly sober, wondered exactly how it was that a bar in Vegas had a last call. Most of the bars that Sara went to in Vegas didn’t close, and there was no need for last call in a place that doesn’t close. Catherine was still curled in her lap, and Greg had sobered up after Catherine climbed into Sara’s lap. Sure, he drank more, but the shock had pretty much killed his buzz.

Sara made sure Greg got a cab and was headed home before turning her attention back to Catherine. Catherine casually leaned up against the side of the building and looked as if she were waiting for Sara to return. Sara walked over to Catherine and leaned in close.

“Promise not to do that again. Please?” Sara whispered into Catherine’s ear as she stepped closer to the older woman.

Catherine played innocent. “Promise not to do what again?” Catherine had to bite her lip to keep from calling out Sara’s name as Sara once again put her hands underneath Catherine’s shirt. Catherine squirmed, trapped between the building and Sara’s masterful hands.

“Promise not to tease me so much and make me so hot for you when I can’t touch you.” Sara breathed into Catherine’s ear as her hands slid further up Catherine’s shirt, reaching a silk bra. “Promise not to make me want you so bad in a bar, with Greg sitting right there.”

“Oh.” Catherine nearly stopped breathing when Sara’s hands managed to work their way underneath her bra, and Sara’s lips firmly attached to her neck. Sara’s fingertips brushed across Catherine’s hard nipples and Sara had managed to work a thigh between Catherine’s legs.

Sara pushed her leg harder into Catherine and moved her lips back up Catherine’s neck toward her ear. Sara gently bit down on Catherine’s ear and tugged softly with her teeth. Catherine was breathing hard and squeezing Sara tight in her arms.

“Promise?” Sara said as she pulled away from Catherine and let her hand slide down Catherine’s torso until they settled comfortably on her hips. Catherine gave a small cry as Sara pulled away. The tension between the two of them was almost palpable.

After she controlled her breathing, Catherine responded. “Okay. Promise. But it was fun. And you should have seen the look on Greg’s face.”

“I’m not sure I want to know.” Sara said as she lightly tugged Catherine toward the car. “I’ll drive. Keys?” Sara knew that Catherine had had too much to drink to be completely sober, and so she asked for her keys to take her home.

The drive to Catherine’s place was relatively quiet, as Catherine had discovered a great way to tease Sara more; she placed a hand on Sara’s thigh and scrunched as close to Sara as she could get in order to place her lips on Sara’s neck. Sara had a difficult time concentrating, but fortunately for her the drive was short.

Once inside, Sara let loose all of her pent up desire. The door was barely shut behind them before Sara had Catherine wrapped up in her arms, kissing her with a fierce determination. Sara’s hands quickly shed Catherine’s clothes and the pair shuffled together, lips still connected, toward the couch.

Sara stopped their movement as soon as Catherine was fully undressed. Her desire to have Catherine, to take her, was unrelenting and Sara gave in to that need.

(Later)

By the time Mr. Walker’s arraignment was scheduled two weeks later, Sara had a copy of a fully-signed confession on her desk. Sara decided to read the confession before leaving work for the night. She grabbed a small cup of coffee, Catherine was trying to convince her to cut down, and settled in her office to read the confession.

It was kind of like a game, you see. Did you know that on any corner in Vegas for simply $100 you can get a valid birth certificate and Social Security card in whatever name you choose? From there all you need is a trip to the DMV and you can get a driver’s license. With a valid driver’s license and social security card you can whatever you want really, including new credit cards. A whole new life for only $100. It really is amazing.

With my new name I managed to get injured, on purpose of course. My doctor was very friendly and willing to write a prescription for Percocet for me. I didn’t really need it, and I didn’t use it. Not then anyway. But I refilled my prescription regularly so that I had plenty on-hand.

I warned you with the first one I killed. I chose a new name that would stick out for you. Jeff D. Ahmer. I laughed for a good long time at that one. It had nothing to do with him, or his crimes, just a name that you would recognize and know that I would be back.

I slipped the pain killer to her when I met her at happy hour. It didn’t take much convincing to get her up to the room with me. She looked really beautiful all trussed up on the bed. She actually believed when I tied her up and told her it was just a fantasy of mine. Stupid whore. She kinda freaked when I slipped the noose around her neck, but soon after the drugs kicked in and she passed out. Guess maybe I gave her too much. Oops. Learned from that mistake.

While she was conveniently passed out, I used this as an opportunity to stop by the gift shop down in the lobby and pick up some first aid salve. Couldn’t have my new friend get rope burns. She was still out when I returned to the room. I left her wrists and ankles tightly bound, but loosened the noose around her neck and applied the slave. It made the rope slippery and when she woke later and struggled against her bonds, it took a delightfully long time for her die.

See, the way the rope is works is this: I tie up their ankles and wrists. Then I fashion a noose and slip it around their neck. Every time their arms and legs even twitch, the rope on the noose is pulled tighter. The salve makes the rope slippery, and as it slides along their neck, they struggle more. It’s a slow process, but entertaining, nonetheless.

Holy Jesus, Sara thought. This guy is fucked up. Her coffee was long gone and contemplated another cup as she continued reading, chilled by the words written.

I wasn’t completely sure how to walk away from the room without leaving hints of my presence behind. So I tried to wipe down what I had touched, and then just made a hell of a mess hoping to disturb anything that might give me away. I wanted to stay in the hotel and be around when the cops showed up, but this was the first one, and I was too nervous.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that I actually enjoyed watching that woman suffer. And no, it was not sexual enjoyment, it was just plain, simple, enjoyment. It put a smile on my face. Having realized that I did enjoy this, I decided there would be no harm in killing a few more.

My ultimate goal was to watch as my wife struggled for own life, while the struggle itself was what killed her. It’s a feeling of immense power to watch the suffering. Under all the pain killers they could not feel the pain, and it only caused them to struggle more. They were convinced by their numbness that if they could only apply more pressure, they might be freed of their bonds.

I watched from the gambling floors of the Luxor and Cesar’s as the cops came and interviewed hotel and casino staff. Everyone looked so clueless. The staff looked bewildered and the police officers were showing obvious signs of fatigue and stress. I knew it was me that caused these reactions. It was almost as gratifying as watching the life slip away from my wife.

Now she put up quite a struggle. See, it’s not like I could convince her that I had some weird sexual fantasy. She knew me too well to fall for that. Instead, I just had to load her up on Percocet and wait until she’d had enough to pass out. When she woke up, even in her drug induced state, she caught on real quick. She noticed that every time she moved, so did the rope around her neck. For hours she tried not to struggle. Only when the pain of her position infected her joints did she fight back.

And what a struggle! She jerked and twitched on that bed like a fish out of water. She fought for about twenty minutes before she passed out again. I wanted to stay with her and see if she woke up again. I wanted to see if she would fight harder. But I’m a busy man, and I had a business engagement to get to.

The confession continued to detail the five murders. Sara stopped reading as she began to come to the conclusion that Mr. Walker really was a true psychopath. The confession was a transcript of his own recorded words to Brass. Emotions are hard to put into the written word, especially in confessions. But as Sara read this particular confession, she could tell that he showed no signs of remorse for his actions, or even that he cared in the least. He seemed very pleased with himself, but so was so uncaring that it almost scared Sara.

Sara heard a knock at her door and looked up from her desk. Catherine leaned against the door frame. Sara could see that Catherine was ready to go home, she looked frazzled and tired. Not to mention the fact that she had worn Sara’s favorite shirt, which had crept up just little to reveal a small patch of skin.

“Catherine, hi.” Sara said as she stood up and moved from behind her desk. Catherine stepped into Sara’s office and stopped just inches in front of Sara.

Sara lightly placed her hands on Catherine’s hips and let her thumbs play with skin just under Catherine’s top. Catherine’s breath hitched and her skin instantly warmed at Sara’s light touch. Catherine leaned forward and whispered into Sara’s ear, “Ready to go home?”

Sara shivered as Catherine’s breath washed over her ear. She unconsciously dug her fingers into Catherine’s hips and pulled her closer. Sara leaned forward into Catherine and rested her head on Catherine’s shoulder. “Hmm. Yeah. Your place?” Sara couldn’t resist the urge to kiss the side of Catherine’s neck.

“Yours.” Catherine surprised Sara. “It’s closer.”