Sources
Chapter 1
Greg's fingers drummed against the table top with impatience. Catherine, Warrick, and Nick ignored him as they waited for Grissom to arrive with their assignments.
But Sara found herself oddly drawn to the rhythm. She stared at Greg's fingers, which were leaving prints on the surface with each beat, overlapping in a pattern she was sure a little dusting would reveal.
Most people go through life thinking that the only piece of themselves they're leaving is the effect they have on the people they know. CSI's know better. Fingerprints are everywhere; as are hairs, shedded skin cells, bodily fluids, shoeprints, clothes fibers. It's little wonder that most CSI's are fastidiously neat. They know that even a clean room is filled with millions of pieces of their existence.
Strangely, Sara had always taken comfort in that aspect of forensics. It proved that part of her wasn't standing still. While she was stuck night after night in what felt like a five-year running loop, the fingerprints she'd left on dollar bills were somewhere in Maine, maybe paying for new snowshoes. Her Coke can had been recycled into a Dr. Pepper can in Georgia. When she stood outside and brushed her hair, the wind carried some errant strands to Mexico, or San Francisco.
Her heart ached, thinking of the life she'd led before coming to Las Vegas. She remembered the thrill she'd felt at the prospect of working alongside Gil Grissom, learning from him, maybe even seeing where their mutual attraction would lead. In retrospect, she mused, she should have left her heart in San Francisco. Bringing it to Vegas hadn't done her any good.
Grissom walked in, and the team straightened up in anticipation.
"Okay, here's what we've got. Catherine, Warrick and Sara, you'll join me at the Bellagio. Two DB's, possible murder-suicide. Nick and Greg, burglary at Sun's Jewelers."
Greg's shoulders slumped. "Another smash-and-grab? I've already done three, Grissom. Let Catherine go with Nick! Catherine likes jewelry! I'll work the DB's." He reached for Catherine's case file, which she deftly pulled out of his reach.
Grissom gave Greg a stern look. "This is the fourth burglary at Sun's in the past two months. I need you and Nick to compare the evidence at the other crime scenes, see if you find any similarities."
Grissom's eyes twinkled a little as he added, "Pick up some earrings for Cath while you're there." Greg looked at Catherine's wide grin and shrugged in concession. Even a smash-and-grab beat the drudgery of lab work.
The team filed past Grissom, engrossed in their files. All except Sara, who was still seated, staring at the table. Grissom frowned.
"Sara?"
"Hmm?" She broke out of her reverie, drawing her eyes up to his. Her haunted look disturbed him.
"What's wrong?"
Sara smiled at him ruefully. "Just thinking about. you know. the marks we leave." Grissom's eyes narrowed, and she shook her head. Stupid, Sara, she chided herself. She rose from the table and followed her coworkers down the hall. Grissom stood at the doorway, wondering what he had missed this time.