Las Vegas never sleeps and neither crimes. The CSI's were facing another crime, a special one.  The two shifts were working together due to a very important case, the death of a middle age woman who was found lying on the roof of her house. It’s name was Marisa Clark, a Las Vegas judge. The teams were called early to solve it, to find the murderer.

The day was hell. Temperature raised up to 150 degrees. At the crime scene, the CSI's were about to begin  their work.

"Warrick, you and Catherine are going to take the perimeter", Grissom said reading a small piece off paper he had in his hands.

Sara longed Grissom to ask her to work with him...but he didn’t.

"Nick, search for evidence in the house and see if Brass can inform you about the vic. You will take Sara". Nick nodded.

However Sara didn't seemed very satisfied with his order. She felt as being hold back, not being given good use of her qualities. So she answered back, "Don’t you need my help? I think Nick can go on his own".

Without even glancing at her Grissom continued."That’s ok. I’ve got Sofia".

She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She had been replaced ... by Sofia. She was hurt. If she had had any hope for the relationship with Grissom, now it was gone. This was the crucial moment when she realized she had to let him go and move on. She didn't want to, but had to.

"Oh...fine. I’ll go with Nick then".

Grissom went on not realizing the meaning of her response. He was too naive and never good with people or feelings. "Greg, I've just had a call from Ecklie telling me we need more personnel at the lab. So for this time you'll return to your old days. I need you to go to the lab.

At first Greg gave a dissapointed look. However he suddenly felt needed and changed his attitud to the cool, funny, usual Greg."As you order chief! But only this case, right?

"Yes, then you'll return to the field".

Everyone headed to do their tasks. Nick and Sara took some samples from a blue substance found on the rail of the stairs which lead to the roof and also came across a stained fingerprint. They sent the substance to trace. With nothing to do, they went to the breakroom. There they would meet  Brass who had the information about the corpse.

Sara’s mind wasn’t in the case, she was thinking of her future.

"Sara, are you all right? You seem a little distracted", Nick said finding Sara in a meditation state.
Sara came round from her state and replied, "No I’m not,...I need a date".

"What?"
"It has been centuries since I last dated someone."

"And what about that guy I saw you talking with yesterday?"

"Tom?", surprised.

"Yes."

"He is an old friend I bump into. He was working in San Francisco with me",  not very interested in the  topic.

"Well, friend or not,  I think he was interested in you."

Sara stopped and thought. She analyzed the situation. Nick was right. He was a good person, smart and interesting. And looking back, in the old times they had had good times together. However, he wasn’t her type. He wasn’t a hard catch. Like Grissom.

Nick, trying to catch her attention waved his hand in front of Sara's face. "Sara?"

"..sorry....." she said without any possibility to respond his statement as Brass entered the room. Nick was already getting a little anxious "Finally you are here!"

Brass gave Nick a glance." Too much traffic....as..you seem a little anxious I will go directly to the point..and fill you in... Aged 49, single, lived alone in her house...she drives a  blue Mercedes...bla..bla..bla...That’s the most important. I will leave you the file".

"Thanks!", Sara said.

"My job".

Meanwhile, Grissom and Sofia were back in the Lab with doctor Robbins. They were all wearing blue scrubs and latex globes, ready to scan the body.
"Hey Doc, what do you have for us?" Grissom said.
"I didn't find any sign of struggle but I can tell you the cause of death. A hit in the back of the head with some working tool, may be a hammer. The hit caused the rupture of some veins..causing an aneurysm."

Sofia raised an eyebrow."That’s why there wasn’t any sign of struggle..she was hit by surprise"

"How long has she been dead?"

"Around three to four hours"

Catherine and Warrick entered the autopsy room holding  a hammer stored in a plastic bag. "Hey..Grissom...we found a hammer in the yard".
".. and it’s got blood on it" Warrick added.

"Good job! Have it analized."

After working with Gil for so many years, Catherine knew her former boss very well. "Already done. The blood matches our body. There was also a fingerprint but we ran it through AFIS and found no match."

"Warrick, join the group, were are meeting in the breakroom", Grissom ordered.

"Ok".

After meeting with Brass,Sara searched for the fingerprint in AFIS.

Nick was walking down the hall and he saw Sara in front of the computer. She was holding her chin with her hand, and her arm was resting on the desk. "Hey....do you have me any good news?"

"Actually yes, the fingerprint at the stairs has a  match, Drew Stevens, ex-convict."

"Great!"

"He was charged with murder..and guess by who..."

"Marisa Clark"

"Yes"

"We have the motive."

Warrick interrupted the conversation. "Hey  guys, we’ve got a meeting...Grissom has called us."

"Just on time....we have a suspect." Nick told him.

"Let’s tell Grissom then".

With no time to waste, they headed for the breakroom, where Grissom, Catherine and Sofia were already.They arrived and shared the information.

"Here we are" Warrick said opening the glass door.

"We have a suspect".

"Drew Stevens, ex-convict who happened to be judged by our victim".

Grissom rewarded his CSI's with his approval."Nice job... Sara, you will go with detective Varnan to meet the suspect. Bring it to the station to interrogate him. Warrick you will stay at the lab and you will analize the  rest of the evidence with Catherine and Nick. I will return to the crime scene with Sofia to look for more evidence in order to incriminate the suspect.

Everyone went on to do their duty. Sara met with Detective Varnan at Drew Steven's house.

"Hey Sara!" Varnan said.

"Hey!"

Det. Vernan knocked on the door and a tall man opened it. They explained the situation in which he was and he gladly agreed to go to the station.
When interrogating him, the investigation had once again returned to the begining. Drew Stevens had been the day of the crime 200 km away in a town, where he had been invited by some friend. He even showed them the bus ticket, indicating the hour and date of his departure. Furthermore, he explained that Mrs Clark had contracted him to fix her pipeline as he was a plumber.

"Do you realize she was the judge who put you in jail?", Sara asked
"Yes I do, and she was right, I did a terrible thing. Now I have changed and she knew that, that’s why she offer me the job."
"Did you know anybody who could have harmed Mrs Clark?"

"Not that I know of . She didn’t have many friends".

"Well sir, thank you for your cooperation, you may leave now".

Surprised by this turn in the investigation, Sara called Grissom.

"Grissom", he answered.
"It’s Sara, we interrogated our suspect but he had a good alibi. He wasn’t the one who commited the crime. You need to find other evidence, we must have missed something".

"Ok...Come here to help me and Sofia with it".

"I’ll be there in half an hour. Bye".

When Sara hanged up, to her surprise, Det. Vernan asked her out. Something she hadn't foreseen and had never imagined of. It had never crossed her mind.

"Sara, I was wondering if you would like to grab a bite sometime, maybe now?"

"Well...Grissom has asked me to go over there" ,Sara said. But soon she became aware that this  was a great opportunity to get over Grissom so she continued "..but you can pick me up there in two hours, during my lunch break".

"That’s great! I’ll be there then".

"Ok"

She left.That had been strange. She had a good relationship with him but totaly professional. She was surprised. She knew that he was good looking and nice. And she enjoyed being with him. But that was all.
When she got to the crime scene she saw Brass and two policemen with him. She headed to the roof, Grissom and Sofia were there.

"Any luck yet?" Sara asked

Grissom turned, surprised by her fast arrived."We’ve got another partial print".

"That’s something".

"But not enough", Sofia added.

 During the whole time, Sara saw the interaction between Grissom and Sofia. He didn’t even talk to her. He was always next to the blonde woman. They both had similar minds and she was attractive. There was something in her that intrigued Grissom. It seemed as if he were interested in her; in a way Sara didn’t know. She just hoped he felt fascination for her way of working rather than love, though both things would hurt her. But she had to stop thinking about him...and she did. She concentrated in her work and manage to find a hair, not consistent with the victim’s one. A potencial suspect.

"hey..I ‘ve got a hair".

"Wonderful...", Sofia claimed

"Thanks".
"I’ll go to the car and update Brass about it ", Grissom said
"Fine".

So Grissom got out of the roof, walked down the stairs and went outside. There he found Brass He filled him in.

"Brass...we found  a new piece of evidence, now you can fill Ecklie in..."

"Finaly, he was just starting to be real pain in the ass, I'll make the call"

Brass dialed the number. Grissom heard the engine of a car, he turned. Det. Varnan had arrived.

"Det. Varnan..is everything ok, what are you doing here?"
"Everything is fine, I just came to pick Sara up".
"Sara..?"
"Yes..we are having lunch,..can you call her? Varnan asked
 

Grissom was speechless. "Varnan and Sara..what's all that about", he said to himself. He felt a lot of anger. He didn’t know this feeling. He had never felt like that before. He didn’t know if he was jealous or if he was just mad at himself for not doing anything about his feelings for Sara, which he had denied as that was what he thought best. So with this anger he screamed her name,"Saraa!".

Sara raised her head and she saw down. There they were standing: Grissom  and  Det. Varnan. She thought it was better to go down fast. After a minute, she was down there with the two of them.

"Hey!", she greeted him.

"Hey!"

While walking to his car she said, "Grissom, I’ll take my lunch break. I’ll be back in an hour".
"(not thinking clearly, rather than impulse) I don’t think it’s a good idea right now, we don’t have enough evidence and we are running out of time. I need your help".

 At the same time Vernan opened Sara the door and as she got into it she said"

"I thought you had Sofia, didn't you?

Grissom stood. Vernan closed the door and got inside. He turned on the engine and drove away.
Grisson stood there without reaction, watching as the car vanished in the distance.

 To be continued...