Title: Appearances Author: Amy aka Lady Julieanne, sometimes Amy Jo Pairing: C/S Rating: For safety's sake we'll go with R/ Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own the rights to the show or the characters. Feedback: Please? Pretty Please? C'mon I'm begging here... js1n2001@y... Distribution/Archiving: Just ask. I like to know where my work goes. Summary: A string of strange murders causes the whole night shift to pull extra shifts to try to catch the killer. A/N: Okay so I've been working on a dissolution appeal for the past four days. It's like twenty pages of pure legal terminoolgy and utter crap. I haven't been able to write a single word of this story since I put up the last part. This section took like an hour to write, i was so hyped to get back to it. For those of you paying attention, this particular story is heavy on plot. I'm testing the waters to see if I really am any good at writing. I will, however, promise an adult-orientedepilogue. That is, if you're good to me. ************************************************************************* 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 sweetener 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. Not only had she worked through that shift, but after getting just a few hours off, she had apparently worked straight trough another shift. 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. **************************************************************** That's all for now. But more will come as soon as I get finished with my pesky work.