In A Song: Point of No Return

Point of No Return part 18

Sara woke and stretched, wincing at the movement. A smile crossed her face when she recalled the events against the hotel room wall that lead to her discomfort. Grissom shifted beside her and grinned when he saw her smile. “Why Ms. Sidle, I do believe you look like a cat that are the canary.”

Sara chuckled and snuggled against him. “I think any woman would after a night like that. Gil I swear you could make me come just kissing me.”

Grissom smirked at her. “Oh really? I just might have to run some experiments on that.” He leaned over and kissed her, teasing her lips with his tongue until she parted them and allowed him to deepen the kiss. He pulled her closer to him and his hands trailed down her body. Sara got lost in the sensations running through her when she felt his hand slip between her thighs, causing her to jump back a little and gasp. Grissom stopped and looked up, immediately starting to feel guilty about her obvious pain. “Oh Honey I’m sorry.”

Sara placed her hand on his hip when he tried to roll away from her. “Now don’t start the guilt trip again. I’m fine. I told you last night I was sore and it would be worse this morning. I’ll take a warm bath and I’ll be fine. But I don’t think I’m up for another round with Moby just yet.”

Grissom groaned and buried his face in her neck. “You’re not going to let that name drop are you?”

Sara smiled. “Nope. Hey it’s appropriate, and one of my favorite books.”

Sara began to get up and hesitated when she felt the ache between her thighs. Grissom pushed her back down and got up himself. “Just relax here for a bit. I’ll get your bath ready.” He retreated to the bathroom before she could protest and was back a few minutes later, scooping her into his arms and carrying her to a steaming tub. Grissom sat her down on the edge of the tub and flipped the switch to start the whirlpool jets.

Sara slipped into the steamy water and sighed. She startled a bit when she felt Grissom behind her at the edge of the tub, but she relaxed completely when he started massaging her shoulders. “You missed your calling as a masseur.” Grissom chuckled and worked his way up her long neck. “That could be. But then I wouldn’t have met you.”

Grissom knew that they would have to deal with their friends and the fallout from the party later. But for right now he took great pleasure in pampering Sara and treating her like the precious gift that she was.
*************

Catherine looked at him and smiled. “You knew it would work all along didn’t you?” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her hips against him. “Of course. The attraction was obvious. Just like us.” Catherine wrapped her arms around him and pulled him toward the bedroom. “So how did a cut-throat politician turn out to be such a romantic?”

Sheriff McKeen smiled as he tucked her hair behind her ear. “Now why do people think politicians are heartless? Me, I’m just a teddy bear.”

Catherine wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately. If anyone knew of their involvement, she was sure the rumor mill would be working overtime. But for the moment it didn’t matter.
***********

Michelle Ecklie broke the kiss and sat back on her heels. She lightly raked her nails down the bare chest beneath her and watched her lover’s appreciative response. His hand on her hip stopped her as she moved to position him at her entrance. “Don’t worry. I’m on the pill.”

Nick grinned up at her. “That’s not what I was thinking. I was just thinking your uncle is going to kill me.”

Michelle laughed and tossed her dark hair back. “My uncle is a wuss. Besides he knows how active I am in animal conservation.”

Nick looked puzzled. “Animal conservation?”

Michelle positioned him at her entrance and slid onto his aching shaft as she grinned at him. “Oh yes. Save a horse. Ride a cowboy.”
*******************

(Several weeks later)

Conrad Ecklie walked through the lab and watched the staff. Everyone seemed to be more relaxed since Michelle took over as Assistant Director. He had to admit that the changes she implemented had been a good thing. In the month she had been running the lab everything had gone smoothly. Even the drama at the costume party hadn’t caused any problems for the lab or the staff. After a month of watching Grissom and Sidle interact, he finally had everything he needed.

**************
Michelle looked through the file her uncle handed her and shook her head. “Well I can see something has to be done about this. Wouldn’t you agree sheriff?” She passed the file over to the sheriff and he nodded in agreement. “Absolutely. We can’t tolerate these kinds of actions from the staff here. I’ll get the paperwork drawn up. Michelle, you get Dr. Grissom and Ms. Sidle to a meeting as soon as possible. It’s best we take care of this right away before word gets around town and the lab becomes a laugh stock.”

Catherine saw Ecklie leaving Michelle’s office with a smug look on his face and began to worry. Any time Conrad Ecklie looked smug, someone was in for a hard time. She just hoped it wasn’t anyone on the nightshift. As she passed by the open office door the new sheriff called out to her. “Catherine. Have you seen Eric recently?”

Part of the fallout from the costume party had been that her relationship with Under-sheriff Eric McKeen had become public knowledge. “Well you’re his boss, Brad. Don’t you keep track of your staff?”

Sheriff Brad Tomsley smiled. He knew the staff still didn’t trust him since he took over, especially since McKeen had been in line for the sheriff’s job when he took it. He had heard many terrible things about the lab, how it was run, and the staff when he took the job. But to date, all of the talk had been unfounded. “I was just asking. I thought maybe you knew where he was so I could save myself the trouble of paging him.” He used his cell phone to page the Under-sheriff. “Catherine I hope you realize that I’m not the bad guy you think I am.”

Catherine smirked and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and Conrad Ecklie looked to be in a good mood when he walked out of here and I find you two in here after he left. Somehow the idea of you three in the same room and Conrad being in a good mood does not sit well.”
**************

Grissom poked his head into the layout room to ask Sara something when he stopped and needed to catch his breath. The sight of Sara always took his breath away but this was worse. She was wearing black jeans and a light blue top, and she was leaning over the layout table. As she leaned forward her top crept up revealing a bit of skin across her lower back; that same place where Grissom had kissed and launched her into a mind- blowing orgasm just the day before. To anyone else it was innocent, but to Grissom it was a tease. Before he could recover and ask his question, he received a page to the conference room. Moments after he silenced his page, Sara’s went off as well. She read the message and started for the door. “Hey I didn’t see you there.”

Grissom smiled. “I had something to ask you, then I got paged to the conference room.”

Sara stopped in mid-stride. “The conference room? That’s where I just got paged to.”

Grissom’s smile was replaced with a puzzled expression as he wondered why they were both paged to the conference room. He didn’t have long to wonder as they turned the corner and saw Conrad Ecklie, the sheriff, and Michelle Ecklie already seated at the table waiting on their arrival. Michelle looked up at him and smiled.

“Dr. Grissom. Ms. Sidle. I’m sorry to pull you away from your cases, but a situation has been brought to my attention and I thought it best to deal with it right away.”

Sheriff Tomsley opened the files lying on the table in front of Sara and Grissom. “As you can see, we have a situation regarding conduct by the staff of this lab. This is a serious situation so we want it handled as quickly as possible, preferably before word of this sort of activity gets around and hurts the lab’s credibility.”

Sara’s eyes grew wide as she saw the contents of the file in front of her. There were photographs of her with Grissom shopping and walking around Vegas. There were detailed lists of days and times outlining their activities. There were photographs that looked like they were taken with a telephoto lens of the two of them inside Grissom’s townhouse. Grissom leaned over and whispered in her ear, drawing her attention to the left side of the file that held a memo detailing the sheriff’s recommendations for action.

Grissom finally looked up from the file and spoke. “Do you think this is wise under the circumstances?”

Sheriff Tomsley nodded. “I’ve weighed all the options and this is the best course of action. You can see why we can’t tolerate this sort of behavior from our lab staff. If word of this gets out, credibility will be destroyed. But if it’s dealt with appropriately, then the whole thing will be written off as a staffing problem that was dealt with. Now if the two of you will sign where it’s marked, we can be done with it.”

Sara looked over at Grissom and noticed his smirk as he reached for his pen. Ecklie’s smug look broke into a smile as he saw Grissom sign the papers, and he practically laughed when Sara signed as well. When he saw the sheriff take the files and check to be sure everything was signed in the right places he couldn’t contain his enthusiasm any longer. “Finally the biggest pain in the ass in the lab is gone.”

Michelle Ecklie lowered her head and bit her lip to contain her laughter. Brad Tomsley looked over at Conrad and smiled. “For once Conrad I’ll have to agree with you.” He waived an officer who was outside the door in. “Officer would you please escort Mr. Ecklie down to booking. Conrad Ecklie, it is my duty to inform you that you are under arrest for stalking.”

Michelle Ecklie looked at her uncle and shook her head. “And of course you know that any member of the lab who is charged with a crime is immediately terminated. No exceptions.”

The officer led Conrad away while reading him his rights while Sara sat stunned by the whole thing. “Did that just happen, or am I having a really weird dream?”

Michelle laughed. “No it happened. I’m sorry you guys had to be the bait, but we knew if we gave my uncle enough rope, he’d hang himself. So to speak.”

Brad reached over and took Michelle’s hand. “And you played it beautifully, my dear.” Michelle smiled. “I told you I knew how to handle him.”

Sara looked at the other woman and was now getting annoyed. “Just what the hell is going on and why do you have photos of us off-duty?”

Michelle leaned back and smiled at Grissom. “I see you were able to keep things secret even from her. Well I guess there’s no harm in filling you in now. Brad here has been trying to get Conrad out of the lab since he took over, but because of the way things were worded by his predecessor, he couldn’t do it. So when he was at a conference in New York…..”

*************
New York City, 6 months earlier

Brad Tomsley walked into the law conference with a lot on his mind. He was the new sheriff for Clark County, Nevada and the whole department was a mess. The previous sheriff resigned after the fiasco with a CSI being buried alive and his office handled the situation poorly. The Under-sheriff should have been promoted to the position, but was passed over and the job was dropped in Brad’s lap. Now he had the Under-sheriff upset with him, a department in chaos, a crime lab still reeling from one of their own being kidnapped, and he had no idea how to fix any of it.

Michelle sat at the bar sipping her soda and thinking. She had hoped to be able to use this conference to network and scope out job possibilities, but so far she hadn’t had any luck. Being the Assistant Director of New York Central was a nice job, but she wanted more. Just for once she wanted to be able to do better than her know-it-all, pain in the ass uncle Conrad. Her uncle had been the thorn in the family’s side for years and had humiliated her father more than once. Saying she despised him was an understatement. She glanced at the man who sat down beside her and was immediately struck by his electric blue eyes. He glanced over at her and smiled when he saw her ID tag.

“So you’re the kid who runs the New York lab?”

Michelle smiled at him. “Yeah that’s me. So level the playing field and tell me who you are.”

Brad sighed and ordered a double bourbon. “I’m the sheriff for Clark County.”

“Somehow you don’t sound happy about that.”

Brad shook his head. “Not at the moment I’m not. My crime lab staff is recovering from turmoil, my department is in chaos since my predecessor left suddenly, and I have an AD in the lab who is such a moron he broke up the best team we have because he doesn’t like the supervisor.”

“That sounds like an AD who should be a former AD.”

Brad sipped his drink and looked at her. “I wish. But the idiot who had this office before me put some provisions in Ecklie’s contract so I can’t just get rid of him.”

Michelle choked on her soda. “Ecklie? Don’t tell me your AD is Conrad Ecklie.”

“Yeah. You know him?”

Michelle cringed. “Unfortunately he’s my uncle. You don’t have to tell me what a pain in the ass he is, I know first hand. So you’re sheriff of THAT Clark County. Well so much for making an impression.”

Brad smiled. “Well you’re reputation in the New York lab speaks for itself, so you don’t need to make an impression on anyone.”

The two talked for hours and before the conference was over, they had formulated a plan to rid them both of the bane that plagued them.
**********

Michelle looked at Sara and smiled. “So that was it. I knew him well enough to know what it would take to push him over the edge, and Dr. Grissom was just the ticket. When I first mentioned the policy change, I saw his reaction. It didn’t take a CSI to realize whoever he was dating was someone from the lab. I heard enough rumors to start to figure out who it was.”

Sara looked over at Grissom dumfounded. “And you knew what was going on?”

“I knew part of it, but not everything. The day she cornered me after shift she filled me in on some of it. She suspected the mystery woman was someone from the lab and knew what it would take to push Conrad’s buttons.”
******

Grissom’s office, 1 month earlier

“So Grissom, what do you think of my little changes in policy?”

“I think the staff will appreciate less paperwork. I know I certainly will.”

“And what about the other? Do you think that will cause a problem with your staff doing their jobs?”

Grissom felt his anger rise at the implication. “My staff members are professionals. There isn’t any policy that would change that.”

Michelle smiled. “Hey I’m just asking. You know these people better than I do. Speaking of which, if anyone on your shift does start dating someone in the office, I need you to let me know. The sheriff is behind me on this, but there are quite a few people in administration who aren’t. I need to know so I can run interference.”

Grissom looked shocked. “Interference? Or are you just trying to find out who you can make trouble for?”

“Look I know you don’t have any reason to trust me, but can you just cut me a little slack here? I’m not the bad guy. You seem awfully defensive. Is there something bothering you?”

Grissom shot her an angry look, “Well considering you popped in here as shift was ending, I was about to leave, and had plans this morning, you might say that.”

“I’m sorry for keeping you, but this really can’t wait. First of all I owe you an apology for the way I acted in the break room. I can honestly tell you that it has nothing to do with you. That little performance was for my uncle’s benefit. It would seem that anything to do with you irritates him and that’s my ultimate goal.”

“So you’re playing games with me just to piss him off?”

“Well that’s not the only reason. I was brought in specifically to correct the problems he created in the lab and to get him out of here. Unfortunately the way his contract reads, it will take something extreme to get him out. So I’m here to push all his buttons so he goes to that extreme.”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“You are his biggest button. He’s been looking for a way to get you out of the lab for a while now, and he was hoping that forcing you to take Sidle to that conference was going to do it. He would love to get rid of her too, so either one of you quitting would have been progress for him. But you both stayed, so he’s frustrated. He is convinced that you and Sidle have something going on and he was hoping to be able to use that to push you out. So you can see why my policy change irritated him so much. Grissom let me be perfectly honest with you. I heard a lot of rumors about you when I got here, and quite of few of them speculate about you and Sidle. When I first mentioned the policy change at your place, it was obvious you were worried. The evidence doesn’t lie. Whoever your mystery woman is, she works in this lab. I don’t care who it is. It’s none of my business. But I do know one thing. If you’re happy, he wont be and he’ll do whatever it takes to make you as unhappy as he is.”

Grissom knew she had a point. After all, that had been Ecklie’s MO for years. The man seemed to revel in other people’s misery. “So what are you suggesting?”

Michelle smiled. “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m telling you straight out that Ecklie will be out to get you and make you miserable. What I want is for you to do nothing. Don’t do anything that would let him think you know he’s up to something. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary. And now that the interoffice dating policy is changed, feel free to let your mystery woman’s identity out of the bag. If you’re so inclined that is. I don’t have to tell you what Conrad’s reaction to you in a relationship that he had a chance to stop would be. “

Grissom shook his head. He knew full well what the reaction would be, and a nuclear blast would be more subtle.

Michelle turned as she reached the door to his office. “Oh and keep this under your hat. The fewer people who know what’s going on the better. I just felt the need to give you a heads up because I know he’ll be coming for you.”
*************

Sara rolled her eyes. “So that’s what the whole costume party thing was about. It wasn’t just about taking our relationship pubic, you wanted to rub it in Ecklie’s face.”

Grissom smiled at her. “The biggest thing about that party was taking our relationship public. That was always the goal. Irritating Ecklie in the process was just a bonus.”

“So what happens now?”

Brad picked up the files and started for the door. “Now we all go back to work. I have some papers I have to finish to finalize Conrad’s termination, he’ll be arraigned on stalking charges later today. As far as anything else goes, it’s business as usual around here.”

Michelle followed the sheriff out as Sara stopped Grissom. “But what about us?”

Grissom brushed her hair away from her face. “Well I don’t think that qualifies as business as usual, because things will definitely be changing. Honey I passed the point of no return before we left for that conference in Pittsburgh. You’re not getting rid of me just because we’re rid of Conrad Ecklie.”

Catherine looked into the conference room and cleared her throat. “Hey I hate to break this up but Griss we’ve got a body with bugs across town. I’ll meet you outside.”

Grissom watched Catherine walk away and looked back at Sara. “So much for hoping that without Ecklie things could be normal.”

He turned to walk away and was pulled back into a lingering kiss. When Sara pulled back she looked at him with an evil glint in her eye and smiled. “Normal is overrated. I kind of like us just the way we are. Go have fun with your bugs. I’ll see you after shift.”

Grissom watched her disappear down the hall before he turned to go meet Catherine. He saw Brass and Warrick grinning at him and sighed. It was going to be a long shift, but it didn’t matter. Sara would be waiting for him, and together they could do anything.

END